10 50 763 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1083d6d498234d7874c406ae540dc203.pdf 47e2fdd7c39c9fd2079a1811941768a0 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 113 13) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 14) Vladimir Nosek, p. 309. 15) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 16) Dr. Mojmir Otruba and Dr. Zdenek Pe~at, ed., Th e Linden Tre es - An Anthology of Czech and Slov ak L i terature 1890-1960 (Prague, 1962) , p . 316. 17) Dr. E. .Zatko, " Slovenska duchovna tvorba" in Slov enska r epublika 1939-1945, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1949, pp. 202-210. F . Vnuk, " Sedemnast' neurodn ych rokov slovenskej li teratury" , in L i t erarny Almanach 1966, Middletown, Pa., 1965, pp. 19-28. 18) "Slovak Literature," p. 195. 19) F . Vnuk, "A Poet in Exile," Slovakia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-148. 20) Dr. Mojmir Otruba, p. 21. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ha rkins, William E. Czech and Slovak L i terature. New York, 1950. Nosek, Vladimir. The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak H istory, Music, and L i terature. London, 1926. Otruba, Mojmir, and Zdenek Pefat, ed. The Linden Tree- A n Anthology of Czech and Slovak L i terature 1890-1960. Prague, 1962. " Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1966. Seton-Watson, R. W. arranger.Slov akia Then And Now. Prague, 1931. Vnuk, F . "A Poet in Exile, " Slov akia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-152. J\1atica Slovenska ( Second Prize Award) In the year 1963, Matica Slovenska, the cultural institution of the Slovaks, celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At this time, the citizens of the entire CzechoSlovak Republic recalled the history of the Slovak national and social fight for their very existence and for a cultural revolution. "Matica Slovenska" is the name of a central and highest Slovak Institute of culture, literature, art and science. "Matica Slovenska" means "Slovak Mother," the word "Matica" being an endearing as well as dignified form for mother. It was founded in the city of Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia. The Matica elected as its firs t President a distinguished Slovak leader, Bishop Stefan �114 SLOVAKIA Moyses of Banska Bystrica. Lutheran Bishop Karol Kuzmany was elected Vice President. The Matica commenced the comprehensive activities in the sphere of educationissuing books, school publications and newspapers, providing support for students and giving prizes for literary and scientific works. The Emperor Francis Joseph himself gave a donation to this fund, while the foundation of its resources was laid by gifts from the broad masses of the Slovak people. During the years 1863 to 1875, the Matica represented the culmination of the Slovak cultural effort and united all elements of the nation, irrespective of religious influence or political conviction. The years 1875 to 1918, on the other hand, marked a period of silence, for the Matica was prohibited by the Hungarian government and its property was entirely confiscated. It was not until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918 that its activities could be renewed. It is of interest that at the very outset of their national "reawakening" at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Slovaks had their literary societies, and at the Lyceum in the city of Bratislava (now Capitol of Slovakia), they had a society for scientific research. The activities of these organizations, however, were limited to a small number of educated persons. There was a definite call for a popular academy. For that reason the Matica Slovenska, a Slovak Institute of Arts and Sciences, was found . Before 1870, the Slovaks had a large number of elementary schools and three higher schools. These schools were founded and maintained with the funds provided for by the broad masses of the Slovak people. After 1870, there commenced among the Magyars a system of forcible alienation of all the non-Magyars from their own particular nationalities. The most oppressive period was the era of the government under Count Koloman Tisza (1875-1890), when the non-Magyar races were deprived of all their national, linguistic, and cultural rights. Even their national institutions were destroyed. Thus, in the year 1875, the Magyar government closed the three Slovak higher schools and by a decision of the Cabinet Council all the activities of Matica �SLOVAKIA 115 Slovenska were prohibited once and for all. In destroying the Matica and confiscating its property, the Magyar government perpetrated one of the most barbarous acts, and one which has done them the most injury in the eyes of public opinion in Europe. Even a well known Hungarian publicist, Ladislaus Domokos, wrote many years ago that there was no ground whatever for the dissolution of the Matica Slovenska when he stated that "Poor and starving Slovak peasants built up the funds of the Matica Slovensk:i mite by mite-and this considerable sum of more than one hundred thousand florin was taken from them by the Hungarian State in an entirely arbitrary way." Count Tisza, however, insisted that "a Slovak nation does not exist" and threatened to crush all these who would say otherwise. In 1914, the World War started, which spelled death to tyrants and freedom to the oppressed nations. In 1918 the Slovaks were liberated mainly through the efforts of the American Slovaks. One of the first steps taken by the liberated Slovaks was to restore the activities of the Matica Slovenska, which was done on the first of January, 1919. Hviezdoslav, one of the great poets in the history of Slovak literature, was chosen as the first President of the resurrected Matica. The Matica Slovenska erected in Turciansky Svaty Martin a building in which over 300,000 Slovak books were gathered. It issued a series of Slovak classics, a large bibliography of Slovak literature, a register of folklore , tales, customs, and libraries of books for school children and youth in general. The Institute collected antiques and specimens of peasant art, made ethnographical researches on a broad scale, even employing a film titled "Zem Spieva" ("The Earth Sings"), for this purpose. It has also gathered over 40,000 folksongs. Of the seven sections of the Matica, the Language Section is the one which accomplished the most work, carrying out researches about the Slovak dialects and working on the compilation of an etymological dictionary of the Slovak language. The Matica thus pro• vided a wealth of material for the learned and scientific societies and universities. The activities of the Matica in the sphere of popular �116 SLOVAKIA education were just as comprehensive. Its headquarters and branches arranged thousands of lectures, entertainments, and celebrations; giving numerous courses and about five thousand amateur theatrical performances every year. It has founded or helped to keep up local libraries in more than 3,500 towns and parishes. In all these activities, the Matica has always maintained friendly relations with other countries, particularly with the United States, where over one million Slovaks reside. Thus, Matica Slovenska has passed from its foundation in 1863 through a complicated evolution. It was the only state cultural association of the Slovaks in the years of national and social oppression which later evolved into a scientific and cultural institution and expanded widely its activity. After 1945, with the new divisions of tasks in Slovak national science and culture, Matica ceased to be an association and became a state scientific institution which was charged with the function of the national library and bibliographic institute. Although the history of the Matica Slovenska and especially its activity since 1945 was misinterpreted, the Matica Slovenska will always be remembered for the progressive task which it has played in the Slovak history. Joseph S. Kos t Our C_vrilo-)Iethodiau 1-Ieritagc ( Third Prize Award) "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us O Lord" unites the Slovak's love of God and his love of the Slovak nation. This Cyrilo-Methodian invocation reflects the accomplishments of Saints Cyril and Methodius that have affected Slovak life from its beginnings in Slovak Great Moravia in the ninth century to the present twentieth century. The missionary endeavors of the Holy Brothers were significant not only in promoting the Catholic faith among Slovak forefathers; equally important were their accomplishments on behalf of the cultural and political � SLOVAKIA 113 13) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 14) Vladimir Nosek, p. 309. 15) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 16) Dr. Mojmir Otruba and Dr. Zdenek Pe~at, ed., Th e Linden Tre es - An Anthology of Czech and Slov ak L i terature 1890-1960 (Prague, 1962) , p . 316. 17) Dr. E. .Zatko, " Slovenska duchovna tvorba" in Slov enska r epublika 1939-1945, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1949, pp. 202-210. F . Vnuk, " Sedemnast' neurodn ych rokov slovenskej li teratury" , in L i t erarny Almanach 1966, Middletown, Pa., 1965, pp. 19-28. 18) "Slovak Literature," p. 195. 19) F . Vnuk, "A Poet in Exile," Slovakia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-148. 20) Dr. Mojmir Otruba, p. 21. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ha rkins, William E. Czech and Slovak L i terature. New York, 1950. Nosek, Vladimir. The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak H istory, Music, and L i terature. London, 1926. Otruba, Mojmir, and Zdenek Pefat, ed. The Linden Tree- A n Anthology of Czech and Slovak L i terature 1890-1960. Prague, 1962. " Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1966. Seton-Watson, R. W. arranger.Slov akia Then And Now. Prague, 1931. Vnuk, F . "A Poet in Exile, " Slov akia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-152. J\1atica Slovenska ( Second Prize Award) In the year 1963, Matica Slovenska, the cultural institution of the Slovaks, celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At this time, the citizens of the entire CzechoSlovak Republic recalled the history of the Slovak national and social fight for their very existence and for a cultural revolution. "Matica Slovenska" is the name of a central and highest Slovak Institute of culture, literature, art and science. "Matica Slovenska" means "Slovak Mother," the word "Matica" being an endearing as well as dignified form for mother. It was founded in the city of Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia. The Matica elected as its firs t President a distinguished Slovak leader, Bishop Stefan �114 SLOVAKIA Moyses of Banska Bystrica. Lutheran Bishop Karol Kuzmany was elected Vice President. The Matica commenced the comprehensive activities in the sphere of educationissuing books, school publications and newspapers, providing support for students and giving prizes for literary and scientific works. The Emperor Francis Joseph himself gave a donation to this fund, while the foundation of its resources was laid by gifts from the broad masses of the Slovak people. During the years 1863 to 1875, the Matica represented the culmination of the Slovak cultural effort and united all elements of the nation, irrespective of religious influence or political conviction. The years 1875 to 1918, on the other hand, marked a period of silence, for the Matica was prohibited by the Hungarian government and its property was entirely confiscated. It was not until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918 that its activities could be renewed. It is of interest that at the very outset of their national "reawakening" at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Slovaks had their literary societies, and at the Lyceum in the city of Bratislava (now Capitol of Slovakia), they had a society for scientific research. The activities of these organizations, however, were limited to a small number of educated persons. There was a definite call for a popular academy. For that reason the Matica Slovenska, a Slovak Institute of Arts and Sciences, was found . Before 1870, the Slovaks had a large number of elementary schools and three higher schools. These schools were founded and maintained with the funds provided for by the broad masses of the Slovak people. After 1870, there commenced among the Magyars a system of forcible alienation of all the non-Magyars from their own particular nationalities. The most oppressive period was the era of the government under Count Koloman Tisza (1875-1890), when the non-Magyar races were deprived of all their national, linguistic, and cultural rights. Even their national institutions were destroyed. Thus, in the year 1875, the Magyar government closed the three Slovak higher schools and by a decision of the Cabinet Council all the activities of Matica �SLOVAKIA 115 Slovenska were prohibited once and for all. In destroying the Matica and confiscating its property, the Magyar government perpetrated one of the most barbarous acts, and one which has done them the most injury in the eyes of public opinion in Europe. Even a well known Hungarian publicist, Ladislaus Domokos, wrote many years ago that there was no ground whatever for the dissolution of the Matica Slovenska when he stated that "Poor and starving Slovak peasants built up the funds of the Matica Slovensk:i mite by mite-and this considerable sum of more than one hundred thousand florin was taken from them by the Hungarian State in an entirely arbitrary way." Count Tisza, however, insisted that "a Slovak nation does not exist" and threatened to crush all these who would say otherwise. In 1914, the World War started, which spelled death to tyrants and freedom to the oppressed nations. In 1918 the Slovaks were liberated mainly through the efforts of the American Slovaks. One of the first steps taken by the liberated Slovaks was to restore the activities of the Matica Slovenska, which was done on the first of January, 1919. Hviezdoslav, one of the great poets in the history of Slovak literature, was chosen as the first President of the resurrected Matica. The Matica Slovenska erected in Turciansky Svaty Martin a building in which over 300,000 Slovak books were gathered. It issued a series of Slovak classics, a large bibliography of Slovak literature, a register of folklore , tales, customs, and libraries of books for school children and youth in general. The Institute collected antiques and specimens of peasant art, made ethnographical researches on a broad scale, even employing a film titled "Zem Spieva" ("The Earth Sings"), for this purpose. It has also gathered over 40,000 folksongs. Of the seven sections of the Matica, the Language Section is the one which accomplished the most work, carrying out researches about the Slovak dialects and working on the compilation of an etymological dictionary of the Slovak language. The Matica thus pro• vided a wealth of material for the learned and scientific societies and universities. The activities of the Matica in the sphere of popular �116 SLOVAKIA education were just as comprehensive. Its headquarters and branches arranged thousands of lectures, entertainments, and celebrations; giving numerous courses and about five thousand amateur theatrical performances every year. It has founded or helped to keep up local libraries in more than 3,500 towns and parishes. In all these activities, the Matica has always maintained friendly relations with other countries, particularly with the United States, where over one million Slovaks reside. Thus, Matica Slovenska has passed from its foundation in 1863 through a complicated evolution. It was the only state cultural association of the Slovaks in the years of national and social oppression which later evolved into a scientific and cultural institution and expanded widely its activity. After 1945, with the new divisions of tasks in Slovak national science and culture, Matica ceased to be an association and became a state scientific institution which was charged with the function of the national library and bibliographic institute. Although the history of the Matica Slovenska and especially its activity since 1945 was misinterpreted, the Matica Slovenska will always be remembered for the progressive task which it has played in the Slovak history. Joseph S. Kos t Our C_vrilo-)Iethodiau 1-Ieritagc ( Third Prize Award) "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us O Lord" unites the Slovak's love of God and his love of the Slovak nation. This Cyrilo-Methodian invocation reflects the accomplishments of Saints Cyril and Methodius that have affected Slovak life from its beginnings in Slovak Great Moravia in the ninth century to the present twentieth century. The missionary endeavors of the Holy Brothers were significant not only in promoting the Catholic faith among Slovak forefathers; equally important were their accomplishments on behalf of the cultural and political � 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 SLOVAKIA 113 13) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 14) Vladimir Nosek, p. 309. 15) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 16) Dr. Mojmir Otruba and Dr. Zdenek Pe~at, ed., Th e Linden Tre es - An Anthology of Czech and Slov ak L i terature 1890-1960 (Prague, 1962) , p . 316. 17) Dr. E. .Zatko, " Slovenska duchovna tvorba" in Slov enska r epublika 1939-1945, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1949, pp. 202-210. F . Vnuk, " Sedemnast' neurodn ych rokov slovenskej li teratury" , in L i t erarny Almanach 1966, Middletown, Pa., 1965, pp. 19-28. 18) "Slovak Literature," p. 195. 19) F . Vnuk, "A Poet in Exile," Slovakia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-148. 20) Dr. Mojmir Otruba, p. 21. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ha rkins, William E. Czech and Slovak L i terature. New York, 1950. Nosek, Vladimir. The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak H istory, Music, and L i terature. London, 1926. Otruba, Mojmir, and Zdenek Pefat, ed. The Linden Tree- A n Anthology of Czech and Slovak L i terature 1890-1960. Prague, 1962. " Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1966. Seton-Watson, R. W. arranger.Slov akia Then And Now. Prague, 1931. Vnuk, F . "A Poet in Exile, " Slov akia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-152. J\1atica Slovenska ( Second Prize Award) In the year 1963, Matica Slovenska, the cultural institution of the Slovaks, celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At this time, the citizens of the entire CzechoSlovak Republic recalled the history of the Slovak national and social fight for their very existence and for a cultural revolution. "Matica Slovenska" is the name of a central and highest Slovak Institute of culture, literature, art and science. "Matica Slovenska" means "Slovak Mother," the word "Matica" being an endearing as well as dignified form for mother. It was founded in the city of Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia. The Matica elected as its firs t President a distinguished Slovak leader, Bishop Stefan 114 SLOVAKIA Moyses of Banska Bystrica. Lutheran Bishop Karol Kuzmany was elected Vice President. The Matica commenced the comprehensive activities in the sphere of educationissuing books, school publications and newspapers, providing support for students and giving prizes for literary and scientific works. The Emperor Francis Joseph himself gave a donation to this fund, while the foundation of its resources was laid by gifts from the broad masses of the Slovak people. During the years 1863 to 1875, the Matica represented the culmination of the Slovak cultural effort and united all elements of the nation, irrespective of religious influence or political conviction. The years 1875 to 1918, on the other hand, marked a period of silence, for the Matica was prohibited by the Hungarian government and its property was entirely confiscated. It was not until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918 that its activities could be renewed. It is of interest that at the very outset of their national "reawakening" at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Slovaks had their literary societies, and at the Lyceum in the city of Bratislava (now Capitol of Slovakia), they had a society for scientific research. The activities of these organizations, however, were limited to a small number of educated persons. There was a definite call for a popular academy. For that reason the Matica Slovenska, a Slovak Institute of Arts and Sciences, was found . Before 1870, the Slovaks had a large number of elementary schools and three higher schools. These schools were founded and maintained with the funds provided for by the broad masses of the Slovak people. After 1870, there commenced among the Magyars a system of forcible alienation of all the non-Magyars from their own particular nationalities. The most oppressive period was the era of the government under Count Koloman Tisza (1875-1890), when the non-Magyar races were deprived of all their national, linguistic, and cultural rights. Even their national institutions were destroyed. Thus, in the year 1875, the Magyar government closed the three Slovak higher schools and by a decision of the Cabinet Council all the activities of Matica SLOVAKIA 115 Slovenska were prohibited once and for all. In destroying the Matica and confiscating its property, the Magyar government perpetrated one of the most barbarous acts, and one which has done them the most injury in the eyes of public opinion in Europe. Even a well known Hungarian publicist, Ladislaus Domokos, wrote many years ago that there was no ground whatever for the dissolution of the Matica Slovenska when he stated that "Poor and starving Slovak peasants built up the funds of the Matica Slovensk:i mite by mite-and this considerable sum of more than one hundred thousand florin was taken from them by the Hungarian State in an entirely arbitrary way." Count Tisza, however, insisted that "a Slovak nation does not exist" and threatened to crush all these who would say otherwise. In 1914, the World War started, which spelled death to tyrants and freedom to the oppressed nations. In 1918 the Slovaks were liberated mainly through the efforts of the American Slovaks. One of the first steps taken by the liberated Slovaks was to restore the activities of the Matica Slovenska, which was done on the first of January, 1919. Hviezdoslav, one of the great poets in the history of Slovak literature, was chosen as the first President of the resurrected Matica. The Matica Slovenska erected in Turciansky Svaty Martin a building in which over 300,000 Slovak books were gathered. It issued a series of Slovak classics, a large bibliography of Slovak literature, a register of folklore , tales, customs, and libraries of books for school children and youth in general. The Institute collected antiques and specimens of peasant art, made ethnographical researches on a broad scale, even employing a film titled "Zem Spieva" ("The Earth Sings"), for this purpose. It has also gathered over 40,000 folksongs. Of the seven sections of the Matica, the Language Section is the one which accomplished the most work, carrying out researches about the Slovak dialects and working on the compilation of an etymological dictionary of the Slovak language. The Matica thus pro• vided a wealth of material for the learned and scientific societies and universities. The activities of the Matica in the sphere of popular 116 SLOVAKIA education were just as comprehensive. Its headquarters and branches arranged thousands of lectures, entertainments, and celebrations; giving numerous courses and about five thousand amateur theatrical performances every year. It has founded or helped to keep up local libraries in more than 3,500 towns and parishes. In all these activities, the Matica has always maintained friendly relations with other countries, particularly with the United States, where over one million Slovaks reside. Thus, Matica Slovenska has passed from its foundation in 1863 through a complicated evolution. It was the only state cultural association of the Slovaks in the years of national and social oppression which later evolved into a scientific and cultural institution and expanded widely its activity. After 1945, with the new divisions of tasks in Slovak national science and culture, Matica ceased to be an association and became a state scientific institution which was charged with the function of the national library and bibliographic institute. Although the history of the Matica Slovenska and especially its activity since 1945 was misinterpreted, the Matica Slovenska will always be remembered for the progressive task which it has played in the Slovak history. Joseph S. Kos t Our C_vrilo-)Iethodiau 1-Ieritagc ( Third Prize Award) "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us O Lord" unites the Slovak's love of God and his love of the Slovak nation. This Cyrilo-Methodian invocation reflects the accomplishments of Saints Cyril and Methodius that have affected Slovak life from its beginnings in Slovak Great Moravia in the ninth century to the present twentieth century. The missionary endeavors of the Holy Brothers were significant not only in promoting the Catholic faith among Slovak forefathers; equally important were their accomplishments on behalf of the cultural and political  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 Matica Slovenská Description An account of the resource Joseph S. Kost Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 113-116 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kost, Joseph S. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/fee02645415ed7d6f3abc8cd471655d1.pdf a5f128b4d915d9e05afc54e1fe2aaa38 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 105 Winning Essays-Slovak League Scholarship Awards Karen Ann S y z d e k : The Developm e nt of Slovak Literature It has been said that the literary activitv of a country is dependent upon the economic stability, educational opportunity, political liberty and intellectual capability of its people. 1 For centuries, the oppressive rule of the Magyars had so deprived the Slovaks of the first three factors that their literature was given no chance to grow. The artistic ability of the people of Slovakia was expressed mainly in their folk songs and dances, folk poetry, sagas and ballads, but did not often reach a more formal levely until about 1650. Finally, with the coming of the Baroque period, the University of Trnava became a source of Slovak Catholic literature. The works which came from this university were written in the native Slovak and in Latin. One of the professors, a Jesuit priest, Martin Szentivanyi ( 16331705) was the author of 65 works including an encyclopedia, Curiosiora et Selectoria Variarum Scientiarum Miscellanea (1686-1702 ) and Dissertationes (1689 ) 2 Political issues became very much a part of Slovak literature with the work of Jan Baltazar Magin ( 1682-1735) who wrote a defense of Slovaks and of their rights. Another literary defender of his country was Alexander Macsay (d. 1721) who battled for the Slovak language in Panes Primitiarium (1718 ) . Also a milestone in Slovakia's literary history was the appearance of the first Slovak novel Rene Mlddenca Prihody a Skusenosti (1783 ) written by Jozef Ignac Bajza (1755-1836) .3 With the beginning of the age of Enlightenment, there was an upsurge of national consciousness in Slovakia. As the people became aware of their linguistic and racial individuality they sought to eliminate the variance between the language of books and the vernacular. One of the main proponents of this movement was Anton Bernolak ( 1762- �106 SLOVAKIA 1813) who codified the Slovak language in his linguistic works Dissertatio Philologico-Critic a de Litteris Slavorum and Orthographia (1787), Grammatica Slavica (1790), Etymologia Vocum Slavicarum (1791) and in a dictionary published posthumously (1825). Bernolak also began several societies which encouraged work in the field of Slovak literature. 4 Bernolak's advocation of Slovak as a literary language was opposed by the Protestant writers, including Jan Kollar (1793-1852) and Pavel Jozef safarik 0795-1861) . Although these two men used Czech in all of their writings, they contributed much to the literary activity in Slovakia. Jan Kollar was the forerunner of all of Slovakia's poets. His enthusiasm in Sldva's Daughter inspired the Slavs in their fight for nationalism and for their language. He was also a supporter of pan-Slavism because he mistakenly believed that since the Slovaks were so few in number, they could best achieve their independence through an understanding with the other Slavic people. Kollar's pride in his native country is apparent in many of his poems and he often expressed the belief that the past had belonged to the Romans, the present to the Teutons and the future to the Slavs. He hoped to see the Slavic nations living in peaceful but self-ruling cooperation.5 The work of Pavel Jozef safarik is of a more permanent value than that of Kollar, however. safarik was a poet and scientist who dealt with the theme of Slav Antiquities, the history of Slav literature and the origins of the Slavs.6 He encouraged the Slovaks to develope a literary style of their own in order to increase their national pride and to create a national literature. For exactly these reasons, I.:udovit sttir (1815-1856) founded the modern Slovak literary language. The use of Slovak in literature, stur believed, would unite the people in a struggle against the Magyars, and also bring education to the common people, who spoke only Slovak. sttir was not involved only with the beginning of the standard Slovak literary language but also worked to organize all aspects of Slovak national life in accordance with enlightened humanism. 7 In 1845 stur began to publish the first Slovak language �SLOVAKIA 107 periodical, Slovenskje Ndrodnje Novini. The publication of $tur's work Ndrecia Slovenskuo a Potreba Pisanja V Tomto Ndreci 0846) together with Nduka Reci Slovenskej (1846) caused the final acceptance of Slovak as the literary language by all Slovak intellectuals. In 1849 $tur succeeded in having Slovak recognized as the language to be used in secondary schools.8 Writing at the same time as $tur was Jan Holly (1785-1849) whose Slovak hexameters about Svatopluk, Cyril and Methodius, and Slavdom made him a beloved and famous poet. He was also the greatest follower of Bernolak's literary school. A more versatile writer who lived in this period was Miloslav Hurban (1817-1888). He wrote for the magazine Nitra. He also wrote botn lyric poetry and prose and his most famous work is a historical story from the fourteenth century entitled Olejkdr and a story of his own time called Slovak Pupils. 9 A. Sladkovic (1820-1872), was another talented Slovak poet who wrote lyric-epics and displayed the influence of the Russian author Puskin and of the English Byron. He wrote a poem entitled Marina which is pan-Slavistic and a religious allegory. An epic poem founded on local tradition is Detvan which speaks of the soul of the Slovak nation. His work is sentimental and romantic, but contains enough realism to counterbalance these traits. 10 Janka Kral' (1822-1876) and Jan Botto (1829-1881 ) wrote ballads and romances and in their works display the character of the Slovak peasants. Many nature descriptions also can be found in their writings. Kral' wrote in the style of the romantics; his poems are melancholy. The source of Botto's most popular wor:kl was the Slovak ballad about Janosik. His verse is harmonious and descriptive, but plaintive. A poet very similar to Kral' and Botto is Samo Chalupka (1812-1883 ) , but his epic poems from ancient Slav history have a style which is much more terse and less romantic.0 1 The careers of all of these writers were aided by a halt in the Magyar persecutions. The freedom given to the Slovak authors enabled them to be more productive. At this time (1860) the first Slovak novels appeared. �108 SLOVAKIA Janko Kalincak (1822-1871) for example, wrote both historical stories and also realistic stories from contemporary Slovak life. His story Restoration is typical of his style and is about Magyar elections. The influence of Byron and of Polish literature can be found in his work. 12 In 1863 the Emperor allowed the Slovaks to form a scientific and literary organization, the Matica Slovenska, which was headed by Bishop Moyses. This organization published collections of proverbs and folk-songs, and also novels, scientific books, and poems. It was a vital center for Slovak intellectual activity. But soon new persecutions began and the literary progress of the Slovaks was impeded by the Magyars. Magyar was declared as the only state language and Slovak leaders who protested were imprisoned. All Slovak Journals and Societies, including the Matica, were suppressed . The only publications which survived the end of the nineteenth century and which maintained the national spirit were the N<irodnie Noviny and Slovenske Pohl'ady. The Slovenslce Pohl'ady soon attracted a new generation of writers. In 1881 one of the editors was Svetozar Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916 ). In the magazine he published the works of the Russian realists, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Turgenev. The writings of these authors had a profound effect upon the Slovaks. Previous to this time the age of national romanticism had prevaded in Slovak literature_ Now the younger writers were coming under the influence of the Russian realists and soon put an end to the era of pseudo-romantic mannerisms. A new interest in the subjective experience of the artist arose ; his own individuality was most important and he expressed boldly his view of life. Besides starting the realist movement as editor of the Slovenslce Pohl'ady, Vajansky also wrote prose and poetry which belonged to the new age of realism. His work shows the influence of the Russians, yet he maintains some measure of conservativism and like stur his writings show his great pride in his Slovak nationality. The best of his books is Tatry a More. His prose works dealt with the political and social life of the Slovak intelligentsia. 13 Two other realists who helped, this type of literature gain in victory in Slovakia were Pavel Orszagh-Hviezdoslav �SLOVAKIA 109 (1849-1922) and Martin Kukucin (1860-1927). Hviezdoslav can be considered the greatest Slovak poet up to the early twentieth century. His works were influenced by Sladkovic and Kollar. His poems display his rich imagination, his sensitivity and his patriotism. He wrote lyrics and also epics, the greatest of which is H djnikova zena. This epic gives valuable descriptions of nature and also of the Slovak culture, traditions and religion. He often wrote with a Biblical theme . Although his form was that of a skilled and sophisticated poet, the soul which he displayed in his works remained that of a simple Slovak peasant. This is what makes his work so valuable: he reveals the spirit of the Slovak people to the world.14 Kukucin also wrote of the lives of the peasants but with an even greater realism and less sentimentality. His novel Dom v Strdni is good and is typical of his work. In general, he is more progressive than Vajansky. 15 About 1900, several more publications began which were supported entirely by younger writers. In these the students expressed quite radical beliefs and again a new type of literature was begun. The progressive realism of Kukucin was abandoned by the new generation of writers and critical realism became the new literary style. As the name implies, the new style of writing observed the political, social and moral world "objectively" , reported the faults that were seen, and demanded improvement. This literary school included writers like B . Slancikova 0867-1951) , L. Nadasi-Jege 0866-1940), T. G. Tajovsky 0874-1940 ) , J. Jesensky (1874-1945) and others. The leading poet of the Slovak Modernist is Ivan Krasko (1886-1958 ) . He was a lyrist and impressionist who wrote symbolically. He mourned the slavery of the Slovaks, and the effects which it had upon them. Although he wrote of the sadness and despair which he saw, the most lasting influence which he had upon his nation was to give it hope. Krasko influenced several generations of poets. He not only expressed the national life of Slovakia, but also all aspects of the life of modern man.16 The advent of World War I brought a temporary halt to the production of Slovak literature. Immediately after the war there was also a silence; the older writers were involved in organizing the political activities of the new �110 SLOVAKIA Czecho-Slovak Republic, and the younger writers had not developed their talents to any great extent. But finally in 1922 the publications Slovenske Pohl'ady and Prudy began again. The young writers grouped around these magazines and soom were publishing highly polished works in them which greatly contributed to Slovak literature. Hviezdoslav, the greatest Slovak poet died in 1921. But very soon after his death Slovak literature was teeming literary names, both old and new. In addition to the established writers who were reaching their artistic maturity (M. Razus, I. Grebac-Orlov, J. Jesensky, J. GregorTajovsky, T. Milkin, V. Roy etc.) the most significant event was the appearance of young authors who were soon to change the character and tempo of the Slovak literary life. They include such well known names as J . Smrek, v . Beniak, A. zarnov, E . B. Lukac, T. J . Gaspar, J. Niznansky, L. Novomesky, S . Krcmery, J . c. Hronsky, M. Urban, J. Ponican, J . Branecky, G. Va.mos, etc. These young writers were cosmopolitan in outlook, no longer satisfied with the events in their native village or even in Bratislava or Prague, but keenly following the artistic development in Paris, London, Rome, Berlin and Moscow . They formed artistic school and literary groups eagerly trying to catch up with the rest of the intellectual world. But in spite of this absorbing attention they paid to the world outside the Slovak writers were acutely aware of the wrongs and injustices to which their nation was exposed in the Czech-dominated Czecho-Slovakia. Many of them warningly lifted their voices of protest against this unequal partnership (e.g. A. zarnov, M . Razus, I. GrebacOrlov, J. C. Hronsky ) and demanded a more just and equitable deal for their nation. Stresses and strains, both internal and external, led in 1938-39 to gradual disappearance of Czecho-Slovakia and out of its ruins grew an independent Slovakia. Slovak writers almost without exception warmly greeted this dawn of a new epoch. The duration of the Slovak state ( 19391945 ) was, indeed, a golden age of Slovak literature. 17 The Slovak Writers Association numbered abou 400 members and their literary output in 1939-45 amounted to some 1,000 books of verse, novels and drama. Far more important �SLOVAKIA 111 than this quantity was the quality of their work which reached unsurpassed heights. This brief essay permits only a few names to be mentioned from an extensive catalogue of literary personalities. The most successful writers of novel and short stories were: J . C. Hronsky, M. Urban, M. Figuli, s. Rysura, D. Chrobak, L. Ondrejov, P . H . Jurina, s. Graf. Valentin Beniak, A. zarnov, K . Strmen, J. Kostra, R. Dilong, J . Haranta, J. Silan, J. Smrek, V. Reisel excelled as poets. The best known playwrights were I. Stodola and J . BarcIvan. The revolutionary changes which took place in Slovak politics after World War II were paralleled by equally drastic changes in the literature. The Communist occupation of Slovakia stopped the publication of the works of all those authors who were Catholic and who would not compromise their ideals and beliefs and take up the cause of the proletariat. The trend of Slovak literature changed but the best of the Slovak writers, Urban, Hronsky, Gaspar, Smrek, Lukac, and Beniak were not involved in the new trend. Many of these authors sought exile in other countries where they would be permitted to write and publish without government oppression or restriction. Some of the Slovak authors who are now living and writing in countries other than their native land are Karol Strmen (1921- ) who translated the New Testament into Slovak ( 1954), Milos K. Mlynarovic ( 1887-) who it the oldest living Slovak poet, Marian ziar, ~udo Besenovsky, Gorazd Zvonicky, Jan Okal' and Marusa Juskova.18 Msgr. Milos K. Mlynarovic, who is now living in the United States is a mature and productive writer who has authored books of poetry, n~vels, and religious writings. The main themes of his work are God, Church and the Slovak nation. In this sense Mlynarovic is a traditional poet since these have been the predominant themes of Slovak writers since the mid-1800's. His first book of verse was entitled Sldvia (1919) . After its publication, several prose works were written by him. The second book of poetry, showing the influence of Krasko, was Veliky Boh Malych ( 1934). In 1948 a volume entitled Boha Hl'adam �SLOVAKIA 112 was published in Slovakia and with optimism in man, provided a great Slovak literature which dwelt upon ing of war. Two other volumes of then are Testament Krdl'a Sfdc, prayer, and Dejiny Srdca. 19 its theme of hope and contrast to the native the horror and sufferverse published since meditative poems of All of these authors and countless other Slovak writers not mentioned have contributed greatly to the culture of the world and to the artistic development of their country. In the light of objective examination they have certainly represented their native land well. It has been said that "The Slovak literature of the present .. . wants to express its basic raison d'etre and its great mission among the people-the propagation of love of life, love of man, active desire for freedom, respect for the work of the people and faith in their future." 20 It can only be hoped that someday Slovakia will be given its complete freedom so that the achievement of these noble goals may be carried out, and the authors now in exile may return to their native land to achieve further progress in Slovakia's literary world. ( First Prize Award) FOOTNOTES 1) Vavro Srobar, "Cultural Progress in Slovakia," Slovakia Then And Now (Prague, 1931), 107. 2) "Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIII (New York, 1966) , 293. 3) "Slovak Literature," 293. 4) William E. Harkins, Czech and Slovak Literature (New York, 1950), 30. 5) Vladimir Nosek, The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak History, Music, and Literature (London, 1926), 142. 6) Vladimir Nosek, p. 144. 7) William E. Harkins, p. 32. 8) "Slovak Literature," p. 292. 9) Vladimir Nosek, p. 304. 10) Vladimir Nosek, p. 305. 11) Vladimir Nosek, p. 305. 12) Vladimir Nosek, p. 306. �SLOVAKIA 113 13) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 14) Vladimir Nosek, p. 309. 15) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 16) Dr. Mojmir Otruba and Dr. Zdenek Pe~at, ed., Th e Linden Tre es - An Anthology of Czech and Slov ak L i terature 1890-1960 (Prague, 1962) , p . 316. 17) Dr. E. .Zatko, " Slovenska duchovna tvorba" in Slov enska r epublika 1939-1945, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1949, pp. 202-210. F . Vnuk, " Sedemnast' neurodn ych rokov slovenskej li teratury" , in L i t erarny Almanach 1966, Middletown, Pa., 1965, pp. 19-28. 18) "Slovak Literature," p. 195. 19) F . Vnuk, "A Poet in Exile," Slovakia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-148. 20) Dr. Mojmir Otruba, p. 21. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ha rkins, William E. Czech and Slovak L i terature. New York, 1950. Nosek, Vladimir. The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak H istory, Music, and L i terature. London, 1926. Otruba, Mojmir, and Zdenek Pefat, ed. The Linden Tree- A n Anthology of Czech and Slovak L i terature 1890-1960. Prague, 1962. " Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1966. Seton-Watson, R. W. arranger.Slov akia Then And Now. Prague, 1931. Vnuk, F . "A Poet in Exile, " Slov akia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-152. J\1atica Slovenska ( Second Prize Award) In the year 1963, Matica Slovenska, the cultural institution of the Slovaks, celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At this time, the citizens of the entire CzechoSlovak Republic recalled the history of the Slovak national and social fight for their very existence and for a cultural revolution. "Matica Slovenska" is the name of a central and highest Slovak Institute of culture, literature, art and science. "Matica Slovenska" means "Slovak Mother," the word "Matica" being an endearing as well as dignified form for mother. It was founded in the city of Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia. The Matica elected as its firs t President a distinguished Slovak leader, Bishop Stefan � SLOVAKIA 105 Winning Essays-Slovak League Scholarship Awards Karen Ann S y z d e k : The Developm e nt of Slovak Literature It has been said that the literary activitv of a country is dependent upon the economic stability, educational opportunity, political liberty and intellectual capability of its people. 1 For centuries, the oppressive rule of the Magyars had so deprived the Slovaks of the first three factors that their literature was given no chance to grow. The artistic ability of the people of Slovakia was expressed mainly in their folk songs and dances, folk poetry, sagas and ballads, but did not often reach a more formal levely until about 1650. Finally, with the coming of the Baroque period, the University of Trnava became a source of Slovak Catholic literature. The works which came from this university were written in the native Slovak and in Latin. One of the professors, a Jesuit priest, Martin Szentivanyi ( 16331705) was the author of 65 works including an encyclopedia, Curiosiora et Selectoria Variarum Scientiarum Miscellanea (1686-1702 ) and Dissertationes (1689 ) 2 Political issues became very much a part of Slovak literature with the work of Jan Baltazar Magin ( 1682-1735) who wrote a defense of Slovaks and of their rights. Another literary defender of his country was Alexander Macsay (d. 1721) who battled for the Slovak language in Panes Primitiarium (1718 ) . Also a milestone in Slovakia's literary history was the appearance of the first Slovak novel Rene Mlddenca Prihody a Skusenosti (1783 ) written by Jozef Ignac Bajza (1755-1836) .3 With the beginning of the age of Enlightenment, there was an upsurge of national consciousness in Slovakia. As the people became aware of their linguistic and racial individuality they sought to eliminate the variance between the language of books and the vernacular. One of the main proponents of this movement was Anton Bernolak ( 1762- �106 SLOVAKIA 1813) who codified the Slovak language in his linguistic works Dissertatio Philologico-Critic a de Litteris Slavorum and Orthographia (1787), Grammatica Slavica (1790), Etymologia Vocum Slavicarum (1791) and in a dictionary published posthumously (1825). Bernolak also began several societies which encouraged work in the field of Slovak literature. 4 Bernolak's advocation of Slovak as a literary language was opposed by the Protestant writers, including Jan Kollar (1793-1852) and Pavel Jozef safarik 0795-1861) . Although these two men used Czech in all of their writings, they contributed much to the literary activity in Slovakia. Jan Kollar was the forerunner of all of Slovakia's poets. His enthusiasm in Sldva's Daughter inspired the Slavs in their fight for nationalism and for their language. He was also a supporter of pan-Slavism because he mistakenly believed that since the Slovaks were so few in number, they could best achieve their independence through an understanding with the other Slavic people. Kollar's pride in his native country is apparent in many of his poems and he often expressed the belief that the past had belonged to the Romans, the present to the Teutons and the future to the Slavs. He hoped to see the Slavic nations living in peaceful but self-ruling cooperation.5 The work of Pavel Jozef safarik is of a more permanent value than that of Kollar, however. safarik was a poet and scientist who dealt with the theme of Slav Antiquities, the history of Slav literature and the origins of the Slavs.6 He encouraged the Slovaks to develope a literary style of their own in order to increase their national pride and to create a national literature. For exactly these reasons, I.:udovit sttir (1815-1856) founded the modern Slovak literary language. The use of Slovak in literature, stur believed, would unite the people in a struggle against the Magyars, and also bring education to the common people, who spoke only Slovak. sttir was not involved only with the beginning of the standard Slovak literary language but also worked to organize all aspects of Slovak national life in accordance with enlightened humanism. 7 In 1845 stur began to publish the first Slovak language �SLOVAKIA 107 periodical, Slovenskje Ndrodnje Novini. The publication of $tur's work Ndrecia Slovenskuo a Potreba Pisanja V Tomto Ndreci 0846) together with Nduka Reci Slovenskej (1846) caused the final acceptance of Slovak as the literary language by all Slovak intellectuals. In 1849 $tur succeeded in having Slovak recognized as the language to be used in secondary schools.8 Writing at the same time as $tur was Jan Holly (1785-1849) whose Slovak hexameters about Svatopluk, Cyril and Methodius, and Slavdom made him a beloved and famous poet. He was also the greatest follower of Bernolak's literary school. A more versatile writer who lived in this period was Miloslav Hurban (1817-1888). He wrote for the magazine Nitra. He also wrote botn lyric poetry and prose and his most famous work is a historical story from the fourteenth century entitled Olejkdr and a story of his own time called Slovak Pupils. 9 A. Sladkovic (1820-1872), was another talented Slovak poet who wrote lyric-epics and displayed the influence of the Russian author Puskin and of the English Byron. He wrote a poem entitled Marina which is pan-Slavistic and a religious allegory. An epic poem founded on local tradition is Detvan which speaks of the soul of the Slovak nation. His work is sentimental and romantic, but contains enough realism to counterbalance these traits. 10 Janka Kral' (1822-1876) and Jan Botto (1829-1881 ) wrote ballads and romances and in their works display the character of the Slovak peasants. Many nature descriptions also can be found in their writings. Kral' wrote in the style of the romantics; his poems are melancholy. The source of Botto's most popular wor:kl was the Slovak ballad about Janosik. His verse is harmonious and descriptive, but plaintive. A poet very similar to Kral' and Botto is Samo Chalupka (1812-1883 ) , but his epic poems from ancient Slav history have a style which is much more terse and less romantic.0 1 The careers of all of these writers were aided by a halt in the Magyar persecutions. The freedom given to the Slovak authors enabled them to be more productive. At this time (1860) the first Slovak novels appeared. �108 SLOVAKIA Janko Kalincak (1822-1871) for example, wrote both historical stories and also realistic stories from contemporary Slovak life. His story Restoration is typical of his style and is about Magyar elections. The influence of Byron and of Polish literature can be found in his work. 12 In 1863 the Emperor allowed the Slovaks to form a scientific and literary organization, the Matica Slovenska, which was headed by Bishop Moyses. This organization published collections of proverbs and folk-songs, and also novels, scientific books, and poems. It was a vital center for Slovak intellectual activity. But soon new persecutions began and the literary progress of the Slovaks was impeded by the Magyars. Magyar was declared as the only state language and Slovak leaders who protested were imprisoned. All Slovak Journals and Societies, including the Matica, were suppressed . The only publications which survived the end of the nineteenth century and which maintained the national spirit were the N<irodnie Noviny and Slovenske Pohl'ady. The Slovenslce Pohl'ady soon attracted a new generation of writers. In 1881 one of the editors was Svetozar Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916 ). In the magazine he published the works of the Russian realists, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Turgenev. The writings of these authors had a profound effect upon the Slovaks. Previous to this time the age of national romanticism had prevaded in Slovak literature_ Now the younger writers were coming under the influence of the Russian realists and soon put an end to the era of pseudo-romantic mannerisms. A new interest in the subjective experience of the artist arose ; his own individuality was most important and he expressed boldly his view of life. Besides starting the realist movement as editor of the Slovenslce Pohl'ady, Vajansky also wrote prose and poetry which belonged to the new age of realism. His work shows the influence of the Russians, yet he maintains some measure of conservativism and like stur his writings show his great pride in his Slovak nationality. The best of his books is Tatry a More. His prose works dealt with the political and social life of the Slovak intelligentsia. 13 Two other realists who helped, this type of literature gain in victory in Slovakia were Pavel Orszagh-Hviezdoslav �SLOVAKIA 109 (1849-1922) and Martin Kukucin (1860-1927). Hviezdoslav can be considered the greatest Slovak poet up to the early twentieth century. His works were influenced by Sladkovic and Kollar. His poems display his rich imagination, his sensitivity and his patriotism. He wrote lyrics and also epics, the greatest of which is H djnikova zena. This epic gives valuable descriptions of nature and also of the Slovak culture, traditions and religion. He often wrote with a Biblical theme . Although his form was that of a skilled and sophisticated poet, the soul which he displayed in his works remained that of a simple Slovak peasant. This is what makes his work so valuable: he reveals the spirit of the Slovak people to the world.14 Kukucin also wrote of the lives of the peasants but with an even greater realism and less sentimentality. His novel Dom v Strdni is good and is typical of his work. In general, he is more progressive than Vajansky. 15 About 1900, several more publications began which were supported entirely by younger writers. In these the students expressed quite radical beliefs and again a new type of literature was begun. The progressive realism of Kukucin was abandoned by the new generation of writers and critical realism became the new literary style. As the name implies, the new style of writing observed the political, social and moral world "objectively" , reported the faults that were seen, and demanded improvement. This literary school included writers like B . Slancikova 0867-1951) , L. Nadasi-Jege 0866-1940), T. G. Tajovsky 0874-1940 ) , J. Jesensky (1874-1945) and others. The leading poet of the Slovak Modernist is Ivan Krasko (1886-1958 ) . He was a lyrist and impressionist who wrote symbolically. He mourned the slavery of the Slovaks, and the effects which it had upon them. Although he wrote of the sadness and despair which he saw, the most lasting influence which he had upon his nation was to give it hope. Krasko influenced several generations of poets. He not only expressed the national life of Slovakia, but also all aspects of the life of modern man.16 The advent of World War I brought a temporary halt to the production of Slovak literature. Immediately after the war there was also a silence; the older writers were involved in organizing the political activities of the new �110 SLOVAKIA Czecho-Slovak Republic, and the younger writers had not developed their talents to any great extent. But finally in 1922 the publications Slovenske Pohl'ady and Prudy began again. The young writers grouped around these magazines and soom were publishing highly polished works in them which greatly contributed to Slovak literature. Hviezdoslav, the greatest Slovak poet died in 1921. But very soon after his death Slovak literature was teeming literary names, both old and new. In addition to the established writers who were reaching their artistic maturity (M. Razus, I. Grebac-Orlov, J. Jesensky, J. GregorTajovsky, T. Milkin, V. Roy etc.) the most significant event was the appearance of young authors who were soon to change the character and tempo of the Slovak literary life. They include such well known names as J . Smrek, v . Beniak, A. zarnov, E . B. Lukac, T. J . Gaspar, J. Niznansky, L. Novomesky, S . Krcmery, J . c. Hronsky, M. Urban, J. Ponican, J . Branecky, G. Va.mos, etc. These young writers were cosmopolitan in outlook, no longer satisfied with the events in their native village or even in Bratislava or Prague, but keenly following the artistic development in Paris, London, Rome, Berlin and Moscow . They formed artistic school and literary groups eagerly trying to catch up with the rest of the intellectual world. But in spite of this absorbing attention they paid to the world outside the Slovak writers were acutely aware of the wrongs and injustices to which their nation was exposed in the Czech-dominated Czecho-Slovakia. Many of them warningly lifted their voices of protest against this unequal partnership (e.g. A. zarnov, M . Razus, I. GrebacOrlov, J. C. Hronsky ) and demanded a more just and equitable deal for their nation. Stresses and strains, both internal and external, led in 1938-39 to gradual disappearance of Czecho-Slovakia and out of its ruins grew an independent Slovakia. Slovak writers almost without exception warmly greeted this dawn of a new epoch. The duration of the Slovak state ( 19391945 ) was, indeed, a golden age of Slovak literature. 17 The Slovak Writers Association numbered abou 400 members and their literary output in 1939-45 amounted to some 1,000 books of verse, novels and drama. Far more important �SLOVAKIA 111 than this quantity was the quality of their work which reached unsurpassed heights. This brief essay permits only a few names to be mentioned from an extensive catalogue of literary personalities. The most successful writers of novel and short stories were: J . C. Hronsky, M. Urban, M. Figuli, s. Rysura, D. Chrobak, L. Ondrejov, P . H . Jurina, s. Graf. Valentin Beniak, A. zarnov, K . Strmen, J. Kostra, R. Dilong, J . Haranta, J. Silan, J. Smrek, V. Reisel excelled as poets. The best known playwrights were I. Stodola and J . BarcIvan. The revolutionary changes which took place in Slovak politics after World War II were paralleled by equally drastic changes in the literature. The Communist occupation of Slovakia stopped the publication of the works of all those authors who were Catholic and who would not compromise their ideals and beliefs and take up the cause of the proletariat. The trend of Slovak literature changed but the best of the Slovak writers, Urban, Hronsky, Gaspar, Smrek, Lukac, and Beniak were not involved in the new trend. Many of these authors sought exile in other countries where they would be permitted to write and publish without government oppression or restriction. Some of the Slovak authors who are now living and writing in countries other than their native land are Karol Strmen (1921- ) who translated the New Testament into Slovak ( 1954), Milos K. Mlynarovic ( 1887-) who it the oldest living Slovak poet, Marian ziar, ~udo Besenovsky, Gorazd Zvonicky, Jan Okal' and Marusa Juskova.18 Msgr. Milos K. Mlynarovic, who is now living in the United States is a mature and productive writer who has authored books of poetry, n~vels, and religious writings. The main themes of his work are God, Church and the Slovak nation. In this sense Mlynarovic is a traditional poet since these have been the predominant themes of Slovak writers since the mid-1800's. His first book of verse was entitled Sldvia (1919) . After its publication, several prose works were written by him. The second book of poetry, showing the influence of Krasko, was Veliky Boh Malych ( 1934). In 1948 a volume entitled Boha Hl'adam �SLOVAKIA 112 was published in Slovakia and with optimism in man, provided a great Slovak literature which dwelt upon ing of war. Two other volumes of then are Testament Krdl'a Sfdc, prayer, and Dejiny Srdca. 19 its theme of hope and contrast to the native the horror and sufferverse published since meditative poems of All of these authors and countless other Slovak writers not mentioned have contributed greatly to the culture of the world and to the artistic development of their country. In the light of objective examination they have certainly represented their native land well. It has been said that "The Slovak literature of the present .. . wants to express its basic raison d'etre and its great mission among the people-the propagation of love of life, love of man, active desire for freedom, respect for the work of the people and faith in their future." 20 It can only be hoped that someday Slovakia will be given its complete freedom so that the achievement of these noble goals may be carried out, and the authors now in exile may return to their native land to achieve further progress in Slovakia's literary world. ( First Prize Award) FOOTNOTES 1) Vavro Srobar, "Cultural Progress in Slovakia," Slovakia Then And Now (Prague, 1931), 107. 2) "Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIII (New York, 1966) , 293. 3) "Slovak Literature," 293. 4) William E. Harkins, Czech and Slovak Literature (New York, 1950), 30. 5) Vladimir Nosek, The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak History, Music, and Literature (London, 1926), 142. 6) Vladimir Nosek, p. 144. 7) William E. Harkins, p. 32. 8) "Slovak Literature," p. 292. 9) Vladimir Nosek, p. 304. 10) Vladimir Nosek, p. 305. 11) Vladimir Nosek, p. 305. 12) Vladimir Nosek, p. 306. �SLOVAKIA 113 13) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 14) Vladimir Nosek, p. 309. 15) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 16) Dr. Mojmir Otruba and Dr. Zdenek Pe~at, ed., Th e Linden Tre es - An Anthology of Czech and Slov ak L i terature 1890-1960 (Prague, 1962) , p . 316. 17) Dr. E. .Zatko, " Slovenska duchovna tvorba" in Slov enska r epublika 1939-1945, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1949, pp. 202-210. F . Vnuk, " Sedemnast' neurodn ych rokov slovenskej li teratury" , in L i t erarny Almanach 1966, Middletown, Pa., 1965, pp. 19-28. 18) "Slovak Literature," p. 195. 19) F . Vnuk, "A Poet in Exile," Slovakia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-148. 20) Dr. Mojmir Otruba, p. 21. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ha rkins, William E. Czech and Slovak L i terature. New York, 1950. Nosek, Vladimir. The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak H istory, Music, and L i terature. London, 1926. Otruba, Mojmir, and Zdenek Pefat, ed. The Linden Tree- A n Anthology of Czech and Slovak L i terature 1890-1960. Prague, 1962. " Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1966. Seton-Watson, R. W. arranger.Slov akia Then And Now. Prague, 1931. Vnuk, F . "A Poet in Exile, " Slov akia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-152. J\1atica Slovenska ( Second Prize Award) In the year 1963, Matica Slovenska, the cultural institution of the Slovaks, celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At this time, the citizens of the entire CzechoSlovak Republic recalled the history of the Slovak national and social fight for their very existence and for a cultural revolution. "Matica Slovenska" is the name of a central and highest Slovak Institute of culture, literature, art and science. "Matica Slovenska" means "Slovak Mother," the word "Matica" being an endearing as well as dignified form for mother. It was founded in the city of Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia. The Matica elected as its firs t President a distinguished Slovak leader, Bishop Stefan � 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 SLOVAKIA 105 Winning Essays-Slovak League Scholarship Awards Karen Ann S y z d e k : The Developm e nt of Slovak Literature It has been said that the literary activitv of a country is dependent upon the economic stability, educational opportunity, political liberty and intellectual capability of its people. 1 For centuries, the oppressive rule of the Magyars had so deprived the Slovaks of the first three factors that their literature was given no chance to grow. The artistic ability of the people of Slovakia was expressed mainly in their folk songs and dances, folk poetry, sagas and ballads, but did not often reach a more formal levely until about 1650. Finally, with the coming of the Baroque period, the University of Trnava became a source of Slovak Catholic literature. The works which came from this university were written in the native Slovak and in Latin. One of the professors, a Jesuit priest, Martin Szentivanyi ( 16331705) was the author of 65 works including an encyclopedia, Curiosiora et Selectoria Variarum Scientiarum Miscellanea (1686-1702 ) and Dissertationes (1689 ) 2 Political issues became very much a part of Slovak literature with the work of Jan Baltazar Magin ( 1682-1735) who wrote a defense of Slovaks and of their rights. Another literary defender of his country was Alexander Macsay (d. 1721) who battled for the Slovak language in Panes Primitiarium (1718 ) . Also a milestone in Slovakia's literary history was the appearance of the first Slovak novel Rene Mlddenca Prihody a Skusenosti (1783 ) written by Jozef Ignac Bajza (1755-1836) .3 With the beginning of the age of Enlightenment, there was an upsurge of national consciousness in Slovakia. As the people became aware of their linguistic and racial individuality they sought to eliminate the variance between the language of books and the vernacular. One of the main proponents of this movement was Anton Bernolak ( 1762- 106 SLOVAKIA 1813) who codified the Slovak language in his linguistic works Dissertatio Philologico-Critic a de Litteris Slavorum and Orthographia (1787), Grammatica Slavica (1790), Etymologia Vocum Slavicarum (1791) and in a dictionary published posthumously (1825). Bernolak also began several societies which encouraged work in the field of Slovak literature. 4 Bernolak's advocation of Slovak as a literary language was opposed by the Protestant writers, including Jan Kollar (1793-1852) and Pavel Jozef safarik 0795-1861) . Although these two men used Czech in all of their writings, they contributed much to the literary activity in Slovakia. Jan Kollar was the forerunner of all of Slovakia's poets. His enthusiasm in Sldva's Daughter inspired the Slavs in their fight for nationalism and for their language. He was also a supporter of pan-Slavism because he mistakenly believed that since the Slovaks were so few in number, they could best achieve their independence through an understanding with the other Slavic people. Kollar's pride in his native country is apparent in many of his poems and he often expressed the belief that the past had belonged to the Romans, the present to the Teutons and the future to the Slavs. He hoped to see the Slavic nations living in peaceful but self-ruling cooperation.5 The work of Pavel Jozef safarik is of a more permanent value than that of Kollar, however. safarik was a poet and scientist who dealt with the theme of Slav Antiquities, the history of Slav literature and the origins of the Slavs.6 He encouraged the Slovaks to develope a literary style of their own in order to increase their national pride and to create a national literature. For exactly these reasons, I.:udovit sttir (1815-1856) founded the modern Slovak literary language. The use of Slovak in literature, stur believed, would unite the people in a struggle against the Magyars, and also bring education to the common people, who spoke only Slovak. sttir was not involved only with the beginning of the standard Slovak literary language but also worked to organize all aspects of Slovak national life in accordance with enlightened humanism. 7 In 1845 stur began to publish the first Slovak language SLOVAKIA 107 periodical, Slovenskje Ndrodnje Novini. The publication of $tur's work Ndrecia Slovenskuo a Potreba Pisanja V Tomto Ndreci 0846) together with Nduka Reci Slovenskej (1846) caused the final acceptance of Slovak as the literary language by all Slovak intellectuals. In 1849 $tur succeeded in having Slovak recognized as the language to be used in secondary schools.8 Writing at the same time as $tur was Jan Holly (1785-1849) whose Slovak hexameters about Svatopluk, Cyril and Methodius, and Slavdom made him a beloved and famous poet. He was also the greatest follower of Bernolak's literary school. A more versatile writer who lived in this period was Miloslav Hurban (1817-1888). He wrote for the magazine Nitra. He also wrote botn lyric poetry and prose and his most famous work is a historical story from the fourteenth century entitled Olejkdr and a story of his own time called Slovak Pupils. 9 A. Sladkovic (1820-1872), was another talented Slovak poet who wrote lyric-epics and displayed the influence of the Russian author Puskin and of the English Byron. He wrote a poem entitled Marina which is pan-Slavistic and a religious allegory. An epic poem founded on local tradition is Detvan which speaks of the soul of the Slovak nation. His work is sentimental and romantic, but contains enough realism to counterbalance these traits. 10 Janka Kral' (1822-1876) and Jan Botto (1829-1881 ) wrote ballads and romances and in their works display the character of the Slovak peasants. Many nature descriptions also can be found in their writings. Kral' wrote in the style of the romantics; his poems are melancholy. The source of Botto's most popular wor:kl was the Slovak ballad about Janosik. His verse is harmonious and descriptive, but plaintive. A poet very similar to Kral' and Botto is Samo Chalupka (1812-1883 ) , but his epic poems from ancient Slav history have a style which is much more terse and less romantic.0 1 The careers of all of these writers were aided by a halt in the Magyar persecutions. The freedom given to the Slovak authors enabled them to be more productive. At this time (1860) the first Slovak novels appeared. 108 SLOVAKIA Janko Kalincak (1822-1871) for example, wrote both historical stories and also realistic stories from contemporary Slovak life. His story Restoration is typical of his style and is about Magyar elections. The influence of Byron and of Polish literature can be found in his work. 12 In 1863 the Emperor allowed the Slovaks to form a scientific and literary organization, the Matica Slovenska, which was headed by Bishop Moyses. This organization published collections of proverbs and folk-songs, and also novels, scientific books, and poems. It was a vital center for Slovak intellectual activity. But soon new persecutions began and the literary progress of the Slovaks was impeded by the Magyars. Magyar was declared as the only state language and Slovak leaders who protested were imprisoned. All Slovak Journals and Societies, including the Matica, were suppressed . The only publications which survived the end of the nineteenth century and which maintained the national spirit were the N<irodnie Noviny and Slovenske Pohl'ady. The Slovenslce Pohl'ady soon attracted a new generation of writers. In 1881 one of the editors was Svetozar Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916 ). In the magazine he published the works of the Russian realists, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Turgenev. The writings of these authors had a profound effect upon the Slovaks. Previous to this time the age of national romanticism had prevaded in Slovak literature_ Now the younger writers were coming under the influence of the Russian realists and soon put an end to the era of pseudo-romantic mannerisms. A new interest in the subjective experience of the artist arose ; his own individuality was most important and he expressed boldly his view of life. Besides starting the realist movement as editor of the Slovenslce Pohl'ady, Vajansky also wrote prose and poetry which belonged to the new age of realism. His work shows the influence of the Russians, yet he maintains some measure of conservativism and like stur his writings show his great pride in his Slovak nationality. The best of his books is Tatry a More. His prose works dealt with the political and social life of the Slovak intelligentsia. 13 Two other realists who helped, this type of literature gain in victory in Slovakia were Pavel Orszagh-Hviezdoslav SLOVAKIA 109 (1849-1922) and Martin Kukucin (1860-1927). Hviezdoslav can be considered the greatest Slovak poet up to the early twentieth century. His works were influenced by Sladkovic and Kollar. His poems display his rich imagination, his sensitivity and his patriotism. He wrote lyrics and also epics, the greatest of which is H djnikova zena. This epic gives valuable descriptions of nature and also of the Slovak culture, traditions and religion. He often wrote with a Biblical theme . Although his form was that of a skilled and sophisticated poet, the soul which he displayed in his works remained that of a simple Slovak peasant. This is what makes his work so valuable: he reveals the spirit of the Slovak people to the world.14 Kukucin also wrote of the lives of the peasants but with an even greater realism and less sentimentality. His novel Dom v Strdni is good and is typical of his work. In general, he is more progressive than Vajansky. 15 About 1900, several more publications began which were supported entirely by younger writers. In these the students expressed quite radical beliefs and again a new type of literature was begun. The progressive realism of Kukucin was abandoned by the new generation of writers and critical realism became the new literary style. As the name implies, the new style of writing observed the political, social and moral world "objectively" , reported the faults that were seen, and demanded improvement. This literary school included writers like B . Slancikova 0867-1951) , L. Nadasi-Jege 0866-1940), T. G. Tajovsky 0874-1940 ) , J. Jesensky (1874-1945) and others. The leading poet of the Slovak Modernist is Ivan Krasko (1886-1958 ) . He was a lyrist and impressionist who wrote symbolically. He mourned the slavery of the Slovaks, and the effects which it had upon them. Although he wrote of the sadness and despair which he saw, the most lasting influence which he had upon his nation was to give it hope. Krasko influenced several generations of poets. He not only expressed the national life of Slovakia, but also all aspects of the life of modern man.16 The advent of World War I brought a temporary halt to the production of Slovak literature. Immediately after the war there was also a silence; the older writers were involved in organizing the political activities of the new 110 SLOVAKIA Czecho-Slovak Republic, and the younger writers had not developed their talents to any great extent. But finally in 1922 the publications Slovenske Pohl'ady and Prudy began again. The young writers grouped around these magazines and soom were publishing highly polished works in them which greatly contributed to Slovak literature. Hviezdoslav, the greatest Slovak poet died in 1921. But very soon after his death Slovak literature was teeming literary names, both old and new. In addition to the established writers who were reaching their artistic maturity (M. Razus, I. Grebac-Orlov, J. Jesensky, J. GregorTajovsky, T. Milkin, V. Roy etc.) the most significant event was the appearance of young authors who were soon to change the character and tempo of the Slovak literary life. They include such well known names as J . Smrek, v . Beniak, A. zarnov, E . B. Lukac, T. J . Gaspar, J. Niznansky, L. Novomesky, S . Krcmery, J . c. Hronsky, M. Urban, J. Ponican, J . Branecky, G. Va.mos, etc. These young writers were cosmopolitan in outlook, no longer satisfied with the events in their native village or even in Bratislava or Prague, but keenly following the artistic development in Paris, London, Rome, Berlin and Moscow . They formed artistic school and literary groups eagerly trying to catch up with the rest of the intellectual world. But in spite of this absorbing attention they paid to the world outside the Slovak writers were acutely aware of the wrongs and injustices to which their nation was exposed in the Czech-dominated Czecho-Slovakia. Many of them warningly lifted their voices of protest against this unequal partnership (e.g. A. zarnov, M . Razus, I. GrebacOrlov, J. C. Hronsky ) and demanded a more just and equitable deal for their nation. Stresses and strains, both internal and external, led in 1938-39 to gradual disappearance of Czecho-Slovakia and out of its ruins grew an independent Slovakia. Slovak writers almost without exception warmly greeted this dawn of a new epoch. The duration of the Slovak state ( 19391945 ) was, indeed, a golden age of Slovak literature. 17 The Slovak Writers Association numbered abou 400 members and their literary output in 1939-45 amounted to some 1,000 books of verse, novels and drama. Far more important SLOVAKIA 111 than this quantity was the quality of their work which reached unsurpassed heights. This brief essay permits only a few names to be mentioned from an extensive catalogue of literary personalities. The most successful writers of novel and short stories were: J . C. Hronsky, M. Urban, M. Figuli, s. Rysura, D. Chrobak, L. Ondrejov, P . H . Jurina, s. Graf. Valentin Beniak, A. zarnov, K . Strmen, J. Kostra, R. Dilong, J . Haranta, J. Silan, J. Smrek, V. Reisel excelled as poets. The best known playwrights were I. Stodola and J . BarcIvan. The revolutionary changes which took place in Slovak politics after World War II were paralleled by equally drastic changes in the literature. The Communist occupation of Slovakia stopped the publication of the works of all those authors who were Catholic and who would not compromise their ideals and beliefs and take up the cause of the proletariat. The trend of Slovak literature changed but the best of the Slovak writers, Urban, Hronsky, Gaspar, Smrek, Lukac, and Beniak were not involved in the new trend. Many of these authors sought exile in other countries where they would be permitted to write and publish without government oppression or restriction. Some of the Slovak authors who are now living and writing in countries other than their native land are Karol Strmen (1921- ) who translated the New Testament into Slovak ( 1954), Milos K. Mlynarovic ( 1887-) who it the oldest living Slovak poet, Marian ziar, ~udo Besenovsky, Gorazd Zvonicky, Jan Okal' and Marusa Juskova.18 Msgr. Milos K. Mlynarovic, who is now living in the United States is a mature and productive writer who has authored books of poetry, n~vels, and religious writings. The main themes of his work are God, Church and the Slovak nation. In this sense Mlynarovic is a traditional poet since these have been the predominant themes of Slovak writers since the mid-1800's. His first book of verse was entitled Sldvia (1919) . After its publication, several prose works were written by him. The second book of poetry, showing the influence of Krasko, was Veliky Boh Malych ( 1934). In 1948 a volume entitled Boha Hl'adam SLOVAKIA 112 was published in Slovakia and with optimism in man, provided a great Slovak literature which dwelt upon ing of war. Two other volumes of then are Testament Krdl'a Sfdc, prayer, and Dejiny Srdca. 19 its theme of hope and contrast to the native the horror and sufferverse published since meditative poems of All of these authors and countless other Slovak writers not mentioned have contributed greatly to the culture of the world and to the artistic development of their country. In the light of objective examination they have certainly represented their native land well. It has been said that "The Slovak literature of the present .. . wants to express its basic raison d'etre and its great mission among the people-the propagation of love of life, love of man, active desire for freedom, respect for the work of the people and faith in their future." 20 It can only be hoped that someday Slovakia will be given its complete freedom so that the achievement of these noble goals may be carried out, and the authors now in exile may return to their native land to achieve further progress in Slovakia's literary world. ( First Prize Award) FOOTNOTES 1) Vavro Srobar, "Cultural Progress in Slovakia," Slovakia Then And Now (Prague, 1931), 107. 2) "Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIII (New York, 1966) , 293. 3) "Slovak Literature," 293. 4) William E. Harkins, Czech and Slovak Literature (New York, 1950), 30. 5) Vladimir Nosek, The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak History, Music, and Literature (London, 1926), 142. 6) Vladimir Nosek, p. 144. 7) William E. Harkins, p. 32. 8) "Slovak Literature," p. 292. 9) Vladimir Nosek, p. 304. 10) Vladimir Nosek, p. 305. 11) Vladimir Nosek, p. 305. 12) Vladimir Nosek, p. 306. SLOVAKIA 113 13) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 14) Vladimir Nosek, p. 309. 15) Vladimir Nosek, p. 310. 16) Dr. Mojmir Otruba and Dr. Zdenek Pe~at, ed., Th e Linden Tre es - An Anthology of Czech and Slov ak L i terature 1890-1960 (Prague, 1962) , p . 316. 17) Dr. E. .Zatko, " Slovenska duchovna tvorba" in Slov enska r epublika 1939-1945, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1949, pp. 202-210. F . Vnuk, " Sedemnast' neurodn ych rokov slovenskej li teratury" , in L i t erarny Almanach 1966, Middletown, Pa., 1965, pp. 19-28. 18) "Slovak Literature," p. 195. 19) F . Vnuk, "A Poet in Exile," Slovakia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-148. 20) Dr. Mojmir Otruba, p. 21. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ha rkins, William E. Czech and Slovak L i terature. New York, 1950. Nosek, Vladimir. The Spirit of Bohemia: A Survey of Czechoslovak H istory, Music, and L i terature. London, 1926. Otruba, Mojmir, and Zdenek Pefat, ed. The Linden Tree- A n Anthology of Czech and Slovak L i terature 1890-1960. Prague, 1962. " Slovak Literature," New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1966. Seton-Watson, R. W. arranger.Slov akia Then And Now. Prague, 1931. Vnuk, F . "A Poet in Exile, " Slov akia, XVII, no. 40 (1967), 144-152. J\1atica Slovenska ( Second Prize Award) In the year 1963, Matica Slovenska, the cultural institution of the Slovaks, celebrated its hundredth anniversary. At this time, the citizens of the entire CzechoSlovak Republic recalled the history of the Slovak national and social fight for their very existence and for a cultural revolution. "Matica Slovenska" is the name of a central and highest Slovak Institute of culture, literature, art and science. "Matica Slovenska" means "Slovak Mother," the word "Matica" being an endearing as well as dignified form for mother. It was founded in the city of Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia. The Matica elected as its firs t President a distinguished Slovak leader, Bishop Stefan  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 Development of Slovak Literature Description An account of the resource Karen Ann Syzdek Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 105-113 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Syzdek, Karen Ann Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9fb5dee5b865bf5c0596256b4d8b6877.pdf 1f753216e874a382a1ed9ac6419dbe6d PDF Text Text 94 SLOVAKIA Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Marian Jankovsky Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak communist politician whose name swept around the globe like a comet and found a place among nominees for the Nobel Prize described his efforts, his political program, with the expression: To show the human face of Communism. This slogan which suddenly magnetized other European nations under communistic imperialism, sounded an alarm within Kremlin walls. Moscow's anger found expression in the occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia on the night of August 21, 1968. Armed occupation was at the same time an answer to Dubcek and other reformers and it served notice to the rest of the world that Communism does not have a human face. Dubcek was not the only one nor the first to undertake social reforms in such a way as to preserve the dignity of man. Perhaps even Lenin himself and even Engels, the teacher of Marx had entertained such ideas at the beginning of their career. And history records similar attempts in the eighteenth century and in earlier times. All of them, however, reached a cul de sac situation, when they directed the attempt to reform society without violence into utopian channels-to something fictitious and unrealizable. Since this need, this cry to preserve man's dignity is ageless and man himself is unable to find the approach and the means of attaining it, God himself came to man's aid: He sent to earth his Son who dispelled this hopelessness and announced a gospel and principles under which a society of brothers, of friends, could be realized. Man had experienced frustrations and found himself on erroneous paths since he chose to act alone-to disregard God, to oppose God and to defy God in his effort to found a social order on norms that would provide respect for the dignity of man. Though in certain instances these aspirations were sincere and honorable, they either remained on the utopian plane or degenerated into coarse violence primarily because they denied the fundamental nature of man which is �SLOVAKIA 95 theocentric. It is the nature of a man to tend toward God with his heart and mind just as it is natural for a child to direct affections toward his parents. It is a law of origin; of the created and the Creator; of Cause and effect. Many modern-day reformers returned to Plato; they drew instruction from the teachings of Thomas More, but in the final resolution, they cloaked all these concepts in the Marx-Lenin and Stalin-Brezhnev realities and imposed on them the most brutish form to which a social philosophy could ever degenerate. From the spiritual standpoint, this happened because Lenin-Bolshevik Communism was established on dogmas of a single category: the denial of God and of all that is supernatural. And if man: is not to have God's image, there remains for him nothing else only the face of the enemy of God whose name is Satan. Politically, this inhuman face of bolshevism assumed its form from the fact that bolshevism is founded, perpetuated, and disseminated solely by force and methods of open-or what is more base--disguised violence. Lenin the ideologist became a cruel avenger when, after unsuccessful attempts at murder at the gallows, executions with bullets, imprisonments and deportations to Siberia, he initiated the liquidation of adversaries both real and suspected. And bloody hands that were bloodied were never again washed clean. Stalin, the most tyrannical exponent of bolshevism, revealed in a conversation with Churchill that the number of victims whom he had physically liquidated exceeded millions. History which one day, please God, will see light, records twenty million persons executed, shot, tortured to death with hunger and beatings during Stalin's day. Modern sociology and philosophy habitually labels as fascism the evils and political errors of some regimes of this century. Assuredly, every type of fascism is evil because it is based upon violence and denies the human and supernatural rights of the men and nations which it subjugates. Communism zealously over-reacts in dealing with fascist propaganda. Every regime, each person whom Communism set out to destroy, it first accused of fascism . And here lies the great irony of hypocritical baseness, for such denouncing of the evils of fascism was simply a convenient device by which communistic bolshevism tried to �96 SLOVAKIA avert the attention of the world away from the evil of which it was itself guilty. And we know that this kind of political trickery of diverting attention sometimes serves the communists well. As a matter of fact, however, the truth is that long before there was a black (Mussolinist) or brown (Hitlerist) fascism, there already existed a red or Kremlin fascism . Long before some European countries resorted to concentration camps and began to liquidate political opponents, Soviet Russia already had a well-tested tradition of such procedures. And so it is evident that both with its ideology and its program, and principally with its despotic methods, Communism lost all right to be called a progressive movement, a social program. It is, on the contrary, in every aspect reactionary, abusive, and dangerous to nations. It is the deformation of the human face of man to whom it promised paradise on earth and delivered him hell. Under the following headings we wish to point our several features of this inhuman face of Communism in general, as well as with specific references to Slovakia. We choose primarily issues on which Communism counted most heavily and in which it failed deplorably. Communism disavowed, maligned, and betrayed these ideals and values: a) the ideal of the personal freedom of man and the freedom of nations; b) the ideal of work upon which it stamped a bold seal of slavery; c) the ideal of society (family, town, state) which it yoked with laws of violence and dictatorship; d ) the ideal of the dignity of man who did not become the subject of its program, but rather its tool; e ) and finally, Communism disavowed its own political ideals: the struggle against imperialism, inasmuch as it is itself hard-grained imperialism; the struggle against exploitation, since it is itself a most cruel exploiter; the ideal of coexistence, which it crushes always and everywhere with its notorious "veto," "njet". MAN IS CREATED FOR FREEDOM Freedom ranks very high on the scale of values. God who ordained laws for man, who defined for him and �SLOVAKIA 97 illumined paths to perfection, who permitted his Son to shed blood on the wood of the cross for the redemption of humanity, left to man such a degree of freedom that even He himself respects it. Man's freedom was the communist regime's first target. No tyrannical power, no regime of fear and violence could survive if men were permitted their freedom. Today the whole world can judge to what an extent freedom is being suppressed in the Soviet Union. This it can learn from the scattered articles, rallies, demonstrations, and testimonies which some Soviet people themselves, communists at that, felt compelled to give or were able to release either in hiding or in some brief period of political moderation, when there was an exchange of political sides; e. g. after Kruschev came into power. Pasternak, Kuznecov, Solzhenicyn, Ehrenburg, and others revealed in their writings at least part of the picture of the absurd non-freedom prevalent in Soviet Russia. The nations of central Europe caught in the misfortune of being "liberated" by the Soviet regime all too soon experienced the burden of non-liberty in all areas of public and private life. An elaborate spy-system covered and controlled every aspect of living. There was spying in schools, in churches, among afficials, in cafes, on the street, in factories, and even in prison cells where the regime planted its agents as ostensibly sympathetic fellow-prisoners in order ·to draw from those in jail information that they could not obtain otherwise. In Slovakia the communist regim e was not content with creating a universal atmosphere of fear and distrust but everywhere in public life it especially resorted to a persistent and unmerciful use of tactics of power--display and coercion. It introduced numerous clauses in schools of higher learning, and in departments of theology it . assumed the prerogative of deciding who may and who may not pursue studies. It filled positions in government and public life as well as in agricultural departments not on the basis of professional merit and competence but rather according to their degree of party loyalty and their proficiency in informing. Highly educated qualified people �98 - -- SLOVAKIA - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- were given assignments as store-keepers; tailors were appointed school principals. The communist regime restricted or completely forbade change of residence; it ordered Slovaks to move to Bohemian borderline territory and in this way effected massive and enforced denationalization. Agents of the regime had the authority to awaken anyone at anytime during the night for investigation. An interminable circulation of cadre forms held people in continual check. Peasants were stripped of freedom when farm cooperatives were established in many areas with the help of the police force. Compulsory quotas of produce were imposed upon them regardless whether they raised these products or not, regardless of their ability to supply them or not. If they failed to meet the quota, farmers lost their property and were often evicted from their homes. By assigning commissioners to seminaries, to theology faculties, to bishops' offices, to church societies and the press, and by organizing a so-called peace-movement of the Catholic clergy which was communist devised, the party usurped control of the Church subsequent to its liquidation of convents and imprisonment of many priests, of bishops, and Catholic laymen. Naturally, while this curtailment of freedom afflicted oppoments of communistic ideology most seriously, it also served to hold in check the members of the Party who had only one choice: either absolute obedience or expulsion and social degradation or perhaps-not infrequently-imprisonment. The execution of Clementis, the imprisonment and torture of Husak, Lobl, Holdos, Viest and thousands of other communists shows that bolshevism does not tolerate freedom even on behalf of its most faithful adherents. It knows how to crush anyone who dares to exercise free choice. And so, by its despotic reaction toward freedom, Communism proves that as a tyrant, it does not deserve freedom of any kind; that it is in theory and practise superlatively reactionary, anti-human, and inhuman. MAN IS CREATED FOR WORK God himself works. The creation and preservation of the world is the result of work, understood in the divine �SLOVAKIA 99 sense. Jesus Christ spent his maturing years working, and he blessed work. Man himself by his vocation and purpose in life is so constituted that work helps him to develope; in work he creates values; in work he manifests his freedom. Communism wove a significant web of symbolism around work and even formulated an official greeting intended to bestow honor on work. In essence, however , it all degenerated into profanity and mere hypocritical expression. Those who best succeeded in avoiding work were the loudest in shouting "Honor to work! "-laborers, farmers, and often representatives from anti-social circles -persons now transformed into public officials and officious functionaries . In reality work became odious when people had to be forced into it, when the regime paid it poor wages or rather exploited it to such an extent that most of the profits poured into hands that did not labor. Consequently, work was performed carelessly, lazily, superficially, unreliably. Much was said about work each morning before a construction job or in the factory in the so-called tenminute warm-ups that usually lasted up to an hour. Poet5 composed odes to work and were honored for them by government awards. But work itself became more and more burdensome. If, therefore, slave labor was some kind of communist ideal, for communism did bring it to that concept, then the era of slavery should have to be considered the pinnacle of civilization. As a result of communist conditioning, work in Slovakia appeared in two forms: on the one hand labor was overplayed to the populace; on the other, people were driven to work. This was all that Communism was capable of doing with an otherwise priceless value. Finally, the fact that in a communist state living standards among the populace--principally in the working class- by comparison with workers' standards in the free democratic worlct declined by steady stages confirms the devaluation 0f work by bolshevism and its hypocritical attitude toward it. Because if during the previous Republic- to offer at least one illustration-the inhabitants of one town annually hauled to the public market 400 wagonloads of grain and �100 SLOVAKIA during the peak of the great cooperative movement a town's inhabitants were forced to buy their supply of flour and milk, what is the only inference to be made? That there was no production; that work, which is also generative force of prosperity, lost its economic effectiveness. MAN IS CREATED FOR SOCIETY Psychologically man is constituted to tend toward companionship. He establishes families and is in his element within a family group. Common interests draw him toward smaller and larger societies; he forms nations and states, and he endows all his interrelationship with neighbors with a friendly spirit. Here too, in the area of familial ties, Communism has failed even as a philosophical and sociological system. It brought into social relationships hatred, mistrust, suspicion, and intolerance. All too familiar are examples like these: communist teachers persuaded or induced children to denounce their parents-to report when they meet, to what radio programs they listen, with whom they correspond, what contacts they have with persons in a foreign country, the nature of conversations and discussions in the home. Like procedures were directed to offices, among teachers, in schools, at work, in factories. In the Soviet Union where this type of upbringing prevailed for fifty years it was bound to yield its pernicious fruit, for even the family circle was affected by the Party program. In her novel Dva veky the writer Golubkovova presents instances of the alienation of couples and the estrangement of parents from their children because the tyranny of Party ideology penetrates into the innermost circles of family life and compels primacy for Party interests over the needs and interests of family living and even over conjugal love. Social life in Slovakia, marked by traditionally recognized trust and friendship, was forced under this system of informing to retreat into the core of the family circle. And even there, the people carefully scrutinize and observe whom they may be entertaining at table. If someone strange �SLOVAKIA 101 came to visit, or if there was a guest before whom they knew they ought to be silent, the entire conversation shifted to trivial matters. Finally, the extensive system of listening in on conversations which was installed in restaurants, offices, and business establishments as well as the presence of a vast network of informers inevitably caused people to resort to whispering, to prefer silence in the company of unknown persons. Confidence and friendship were being lost--these necessary values on which is built friendship and tolerance. And so instead of idealized collectivism which Communism so greatly stressed, there developed a society of individuals locked within themselves or narrowed to only the relationships cultivated in a private family. Even good friends began to suspect one another if their conversation happened to reach the ears of the state police even though they themselves were not guilty of transmitting the information which may have been picked up by the hearing devices that seemed to be omnipresent, even in private dwellings . A person living in a democratic free world can hardly imagine such diabolical inventions. But such it was and is, and its father is bolshevism. THE CENTRAL POINT OF ALL PROGRESS IS MAN Every advance in science, civilization, hygiene, and economy relates to man and his welfare. Families as well as nations and states are social institutions designed to enable every good to reach man who is worthy of every effort and endeavor. Communism repudiated even this worth of man, making him not the object but the instrument of its own politics. This was done first of all by denying man the right of free choice. Man was not permitted to decide for himself his prospects for education and schooling, type of work, place of work, place of residence--all this he had to accept on orders from the Communist party. And so it was that people could not choose a profession, either according to personal preference or inherent talent but had to be satisfied with whatever official ordained. Reflecting on the fact that such unwise management caused great cultural and economic loss to society, one must also �102 SLOVAKIA deplore the dichotomy effected by such decisions and the personal liberty of man and his human dignity. Specific mention must be made at this point of judicial r eprisals, investigations under inhuman conditions-beatings and torture to compel confessions of guilt-imprisonments during inquest lasting even beyond a year and this without court decision, false accusations and the like. If the almost 80-year old bishop Jan Vojtassak on orders from a sub-intelligent prison guard had to make a given number of knee-bends in jail, this was not the fruit only of the stupidity of the guard but the harvesting of the r egime which approved and countenanced such methods, delighted in them, and with them bullied the people. Communism failed to appreciate even its own members. It valued them only in so far as they were statistical numbers. Before the idol of the communist divinity every human value had to prostrate. That was in itself deplorable and outrageous, but in relation to the dictatorship of despotic bolshevism it was also unbelievably hopeless and painful. IDEALS Communism raised for itself a number of ideals with which it hoped to justify its existence. For example, the unification of nations, avowed opposition to exploitation, the fight against colonialism and imperialism, a program for the common welfare, and the idea of peace. Not a single one of these ideals fructified under Communism. E x p l o i t a t i o n. Even though the matter of opposition to exploitation became one of the basic principles of the communist program, it is ironic that there is perhaps no other regime that so exploits people, especially the working class, as does the communist system. It is well known that the earnings of workmen in Slovakia, compared with wages paid in other countries, were so low that they did not even satisfy the living minimum of families. It was impossible to conceive that a wife and children could subsist on the father 's pay. In every family the wife too had to seek employment; this meant a rush in early �SLOVAKIA 103 morning to bring the children to the nursery, and after work returning for them, cooking dinner, doing household chores, etc. Every person was exploited; and if ever woman was a slave, it was definitely in the communist state. The exploitation of workers was all the worse since they had no right to call a strike or to use any other fonn of protest for manifesting personal dissatisfaction or making known their demands. Strikes were constitutionally outlawed. Even the farmer was exploited, since profits from his labors were distributed among several middlemen before his produce reached the consumer. For a kilo of fruit of which the consumer paid about five crowns on the warket, the producer received one crown. The remainder became the shared profit of the business machine, organizations of various sorts, the state taxes, etc. Exploited too was the apparatus of officialdom, especially teachers who, by comparison, received the lowest of wages, even less than laborers and many other less qualified employees. Communism greatly harmed the concept of the unification of nations by sowing hatred, and by creating an insurmountable barrier with its two-world-comm unistic and capitalistic-prop aganda; it lowered an iron curtain. The struggle against colonialism and imperialism was communism's theoretically powerful weapon in an age marked with the liberalizing of colonialized nations. On the other hand, however, Communism defamed this very idea when it formed the Soviet Union by means of imperialist wars and pressures, especially after World War II when it structured the entire communist empire by resorting to armed force, invasions, and the occupation of territories which it forcibly seized as its own. The question of well-being or prosperity in communistic regimes is so illusory, that today communist powers are embarassed to speak of it publicly, As long as it was possible to do so, communism placed the guilt for economic failure on its previous regimes, on reactions within the state itself, on crop failure. However, when the economic �104 SLOVAKIA slump reached such proportions that it was impossible to hide it any longer, the regime stopped explaining and simply gave orders, constantly repeating its frequently initiated but seldom completed 5-year plan and its competitions with capitalistic nations which it consecutively lost. And finally, the idea of peace which was such a convincing cloak for the whole international politicking of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries: Peace by communistic thinking meant nothing else but exclusive communistic world government. Not only examples of brutal aggressiveness in Hungary, in Czecho-Slovakia, in the endless conflicts disturbing the Russo-Chinese border, but the entire content of activities within the organization which Communism called "peaceful" and stand evidently, and remain a priori in direct conflict with the fundamentals of peace. The regime, which evokes insecurity and fear, which tramples underfoot the basic rights of man, which disrespects the principles of personal and national freedom, which enslaves man, cannot seriously speak of peace. And so it seems, that it is in this area that the communist regime has most seriously wounded the dignity of man. And today, this cloud hangs over Slovakia. A nation, which knew how to survive for over a thousand years under numerous forms of oppression, today unceasingly resists and will continue to resist this yoke because the spirit simply cannot tolerate submission to the violence of brutal materialism. Therefore, as oil rises to the surface, so this spirit will also rise and celebrate its triumph of extraordinary patience and interior strength drawn from the infinity of God. (Translated by Sister M. Raymund Horvath, SS.C.M.) THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies AtJxiliary, the "VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak culb1rai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festi vals, social evenings, etc. our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vcielky" in every large Slovak community. � 94 SLOVAKIA Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Marian Jankovsky Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak communist politician whose name swept around the globe like a comet and found a place among nominees for the Nobel Prize described his efforts, his political program, with the expression: To show the human face of Communism. This slogan which suddenly magnetized other European nations under communistic imperialism, sounded an alarm within Kremlin walls. Moscow's anger found expression in the occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia on the night of August 21, 1968. Armed occupation was at the same time an answer to Dubcek and other reformers and it served notice to the rest of the world that Communism does not have a human face. Dubcek was not the only one nor the first to undertake social reforms in such a way as to preserve the dignity of man. Perhaps even Lenin himself and even Engels, the teacher of Marx had entertained such ideas at the beginning of their career. And history records similar attempts in the eighteenth century and in earlier times. All of them, however, reached a cul de sac situation, when they directed the attempt to reform society without violence into utopian channels-to something fictitious and unrealizable. Since this need, this cry to preserve man's dignity is ageless and man himself is unable to find the approach and the means of attaining it, God himself came to man's aid: He sent to earth his Son who dispelled this hopelessness and announced a gospel and principles under which a society of brothers, of friends, could be realized. Man had experienced frustrations and found himself on erroneous paths since he chose to act alone-to disregard God, to oppose God and to defy God in his effort to found a social order on norms that would provide respect for the dignity of man. Though in certain instances these aspirations were sincere and honorable, they either remained on the utopian plane or degenerated into coarse violence primarily because they denied the fundamental nature of man which is �SLOVAKIA 95 theocentric. It is the nature of a man to tend toward God with his heart and mind just as it is natural for a child to direct affections toward his parents. It is a law of origin; of the created and the Creator; of Cause and effect. Many modern-day reformers returned to Plato; they drew instruction from the teachings of Thomas More, but in the final resolution, they cloaked all these concepts in the Marx-Lenin and Stalin-Brezhnev realities and imposed on them the most brutish form to which a social philosophy could ever degenerate. From the spiritual standpoint, this happened because Lenin-Bolshevik Communism was established on dogmas of a single category: the denial of God and of all that is supernatural. And if man: is not to have God's image, there remains for him nothing else only the face of the enemy of God whose name is Satan. Politically, this inhuman face of bolshevism assumed its form from the fact that bolshevism is founded, perpetuated, and disseminated solely by force and methods of open-or what is more base--disguised violence. Lenin the ideologist became a cruel avenger when, after unsuccessful attempts at murder at the gallows, executions with bullets, imprisonments and deportations to Siberia, he initiated the liquidation of adversaries both real and suspected. And bloody hands that were bloodied were never again washed clean. Stalin, the most tyrannical exponent of bolshevism, revealed in a conversation with Churchill that the number of victims whom he had physically liquidated exceeded millions. History which one day, please God, will see light, records twenty million persons executed, shot, tortured to death with hunger and beatings during Stalin's day. Modern sociology and philosophy habitually labels as fascism the evils and political errors of some regimes of this century. Assuredly, every type of fascism is evil because it is based upon violence and denies the human and supernatural rights of the men and nations which it subjugates. Communism zealously over-reacts in dealing with fascist propaganda. Every regime, each person whom Communism set out to destroy, it first accused of fascism . And here lies the great irony of hypocritical baseness, for such denouncing of the evils of fascism was simply a convenient device by which communistic bolshevism tried to �96 SLOVAKIA avert the attention of the world away from the evil of which it was itself guilty. And we know that this kind of political trickery of diverting attention sometimes serves the communists well. As a matter of fact, however, the truth is that long before there was a black (Mussolinist) or brown (Hitlerist) fascism, there already existed a red or Kremlin fascism . Long before some European countries resorted to concentration camps and began to liquidate political opponents, Soviet Russia already had a well-tested tradition of such procedures. And so it is evident that both with its ideology and its program, and principally with its despotic methods, Communism lost all right to be called a progressive movement, a social program. It is, on the contrary, in every aspect reactionary, abusive, and dangerous to nations. It is the deformation of the human face of man to whom it promised paradise on earth and delivered him hell. Under the following headings we wish to point our several features of this inhuman face of Communism in general, as well as with specific references to Slovakia. We choose primarily issues on which Communism counted most heavily and in which it failed deplorably. Communism disavowed, maligned, and betrayed these ideals and values: a) the ideal of the personal freedom of man and the freedom of nations; b) the ideal of work upon which it stamped a bold seal of slavery; c) the ideal of society (family, town, state) which it yoked with laws of violence and dictatorship; d ) the ideal of the dignity of man who did not become the subject of its program, but rather its tool; e ) and finally, Communism disavowed its own political ideals: the struggle against imperialism, inasmuch as it is itself hard-grained imperialism; the struggle against exploitation, since it is itself a most cruel exploiter; the ideal of coexistence, which it crushes always and everywhere with its notorious "veto," "njet". MAN IS CREATED FOR FREEDOM Freedom ranks very high on the scale of values. God who ordained laws for man, who defined for him and �SLOVAKIA 97 illumined paths to perfection, who permitted his Son to shed blood on the wood of the cross for the redemption of humanity, left to man such a degree of freedom that even He himself respects it. Man's freedom was the communist regime's first target. No tyrannical power, no regime of fear and violence could survive if men were permitted their freedom. Today the whole world can judge to what an extent freedom is being suppressed in the Soviet Union. This it can learn from the scattered articles, rallies, demonstrations, and testimonies which some Soviet people themselves, communists at that, felt compelled to give or were able to release either in hiding or in some brief period of political moderation, when there was an exchange of political sides; e. g. after Kruschev came into power. Pasternak, Kuznecov, Solzhenicyn, Ehrenburg, and others revealed in their writings at least part of the picture of the absurd non-freedom prevalent in Soviet Russia. The nations of central Europe caught in the misfortune of being "liberated" by the Soviet regime all too soon experienced the burden of non-liberty in all areas of public and private life. An elaborate spy-system covered and controlled every aspect of living. There was spying in schools, in churches, among afficials, in cafes, on the street, in factories, and even in prison cells where the regime planted its agents as ostensibly sympathetic fellow-prisoners in order ·to draw from those in jail information that they could not obtain otherwise. In Slovakia the communist regim e was not content with creating a universal atmosphere of fear and distrust but everywhere in public life it especially resorted to a persistent and unmerciful use of tactics of power--display and coercion. It introduced numerous clauses in schools of higher learning, and in departments of theology it . assumed the prerogative of deciding who may and who may not pursue studies. It filled positions in government and public life as well as in agricultural departments not on the basis of professional merit and competence but rather according to their degree of party loyalty and their proficiency in informing. Highly educated qualified people �98 - -- SLOVAKIA - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- were given assignments as store-keepers; tailors were appointed school principals. The communist regime restricted or completely forbade change of residence; it ordered Slovaks to move to Bohemian borderline territory and in this way effected massive and enforced denationalization. Agents of the regime had the authority to awaken anyone at anytime during the night for investigation. An interminable circulation of cadre forms held people in continual check. Peasants were stripped of freedom when farm cooperatives were established in many areas with the help of the police force. Compulsory quotas of produce were imposed upon them regardless whether they raised these products or not, regardless of their ability to supply them or not. If they failed to meet the quota, farmers lost their property and were often evicted from their homes. By assigning commissioners to seminaries, to theology faculties, to bishops' offices, to church societies and the press, and by organizing a so-called peace-movement of the Catholic clergy which was communist devised, the party usurped control of the Church subsequent to its liquidation of convents and imprisonment of many priests, of bishops, and Catholic laymen. Naturally, while this curtailment of freedom afflicted oppoments of communistic ideology most seriously, it also served to hold in check the members of the Party who had only one choice: either absolute obedience or expulsion and social degradation or perhaps-not infrequently-imprisonment. The execution of Clementis, the imprisonment and torture of Husak, Lobl, Holdos, Viest and thousands of other communists shows that bolshevism does not tolerate freedom even on behalf of its most faithful adherents. It knows how to crush anyone who dares to exercise free choice. And so, by its despotic reaction toward freedom, Communism proves that as a tyrant, it does not deserve freedom of any kind; that it is in theory and practise superlatively reactionary, anti-human, and inhuman. MAN IS CREATED FOR WORK God himself works. The creation and preservation of the world is the result of work, understood in the divine �SLOVAKIA 99 sense. Jesus Christ spent his maturing years working, and he blessed work. Man himself by his vocation and purpose in life is so constituted that work helps him to develope; in work he creates values; in work he manifests his freedom. Communism wove a significant web of symbolism around work and even formulated an official greeting intended to bestow honor on work. In essence, however , it all degenerated into profanity and mere hypocritical expression. Those who best succeeded in avoiding work were the loudest in shouting "Honor to work! "-laborers, farmers, and often representatives from anti-social circles -persons now transformed into public officials and officious functionaries . In reality work became odious when people had to be forced into it, when the regime paid it poor wages or rather exploited it to such an extent that most of the profits poured into hands that did not labor. Consequently, work was performed carelessly, lazily, superficially, unreliably. Much was said about work each morning before a construction job or in the factory in the so-called tenminute warm-ups that usually lasted up to an hour. Poet5 composed odes to work and were honored for them by government awards. But work itself became more and more burdensome. If, therefore, slave labor was some kind of communist ideal, for communism did bring it to that concept, then the era of slavery should have to be considered the pinnacle of civilization. As a result of communist conditioning, work in Slovakia appeared in two forms: on the one hand labor was overplayed to the populace; on the other, people were driven to work. This was all that Communism was capable of doing with an otherwise priceless value. Finally, the fact that in a communist state living standards among the populace--principally in the working class- by comparison with workers' standards in the free democratic worlct declined by steady stages confirms the devaluation 0f work by bolshevism and its hypocritical attitude toward it. Because if during the previous Republic- to offer at least one illustration-the inhabitants of one town annually hauled to the public market 400 wagonloads of grain and �100 SLOVAKIA during the peak of the great cooperative movement a town's inhabitants were forced to buy their supply of flour and milk, what is the only inference to be made? That there was no production; that work, which is also generative force of prosperity, lost its economic effectiveness. MAN IS CREATED FOR SOCIETY Psychologically man is constituted to tend toward companionship. He establishes families and is in his element within a family group. Common interests draw him toward smaller and larger societies; he forms nations and states, and he endows all his interrelationship with neighbors with a friendly spirit. Here too, in the area of familial ties, Communism has failed even as a philosophical and sociological system. It brought into social relationships hatred, mistrust, suspicion, and intolerance. All too familiar are examples like these: communist teachers persuaded or induced children to denounce their parents-to report when they meet, to what radio programs they listen, with whom they correspond, what contacts they have with persons in a foreign country, the nature of conversations and discussions in the home. Like procedures were directed to offices, among teachers, in schools, at work, in factories. In the Soviet Union where this type of upbringing prevailed for fifty years it was bound to yield its pernicious fruit, for even the family circle was affected by the Party program. In her novel Dva veky the writer Golubkovova presents instances of the alienation of couples and the estrangement of parents from their children because the tyranny of Party ideology penetrates into the innermost circles of family life and compels primacy for Party interests over the needs and interests of family living and even over conjugal love. Social life in Slovakia, marked by traditionally recognized trust and friendship, was forced under this system of informing to retreat into the core of the family circle. And even there, the people carefully scrutinize and observe whom they may be entertaining at table. If someone strange �SLOVAKIA 101 came to visit, or if there was a guest before whom they knew they ought to be silent, the entire conversation shifted to trivial matters. Finally, the extensive system of listening in on conversations which was installed in restaurants, offices, and business establishments as well as the presence of a vast network of informers inevitably caused people to resort to whispering, to prefer silence in the company of unknown persons. Confidence and friendship were being lost--these necessary values on which is built friendship and tolerance. And so instead of idealized collectivism which Communism so greatly stressed, there developed a society of individuals locked within themselves or narrowed to only the relationships cultivated in a private family. Even good friends began to suspect one another if their conversation happened to reach the ears of the state police even though they themselves were not guilty of transmitting the information which may have been picked up by the hearing devices that seemed to be omnipresent, even in private dwellings . A person living in a democratic free world can hardly imagine such diabolical inventions. But such it was and is, and its father is bolshevism. THE CENTRAL POINT OF ALL PROGRESS IS MAN Every advance in science, civilization, hygiene, and economy relates to man and his welfare. Families as well as nations and states are social institutions designed to enable every good to reach man who is worthy of every effort and endeavor. Communism repudiated even this worth of man, making him not the object but the instrument of its own politics. This was done first of all by denying man the right of free choice. Man was not permitted to decide for himself his prospects for education and schooling, type of work, place of work, place of residence--all this he had to accept on orders from the Communist party. And so it was that people could not choose a profession, either according to personal preference or inherent talent but had to be satisfied with whatever official ordained. Reflecting on the fact that such unwise management caused great cultural and economic loss to society, one must also �102 SLOVAKIA deplore the dichotomy effected by such decisions and the personal liberty of man and his human dignity. Specific mention must be made at this point of judicial r eprisals, investigations under inhuman conditions-beatings and torture to compel confessions of guilt-imprisonments during inquest lasting even beyond a year and this without court decision, false accusations and the like. If the almost 80-year old bishop Jan Vojtassak on orders from a sub-intelligent prison guard had to make a given number of knee-bends in jail, this was not the fruit only of the stupidity of the guard but the harvesting of the r egime which approved and countenanced such methods, delighted in them, and with them bullied the people. Communism failed to appreciate even its own members. It valued them only in so far as they were statistical numbers. Before the idol of the communist divinity every human value had to prostrate. That was in itself deplorable and outrageous, but in relation to the dictatorship of despotic bolshevism it was also unbelievably hopeless and painful. IDEALS Communism raised for itself a number of ideals with which it hoped to justify its existence. For example, the unification of nations, avowed opposition to exploitation, the fight against colonialism and imperialism, a program for the common welfare, and the idea of peace. Not a single one of these ideals fructified under Communism. E x p l o i t a t i o n. Even though the matter of opposition to exploitation became one of the basic principles of the communist program, it is ironic that there is perhaps no other regime that so exploits people, especially the working class, as does the communist system. It is well known that the earnings of workmen in Slovakia, compared with wages paid in other countries, were so low that they did not even satisfy the living minimum of families. It was impossible to conceive that a wife and children could subsist on the father 's pay. In every family the wife too had to seek employment; this meant a rush in early �SLOVAKIA 103 morning to bring the children to the nursery, and after work returning for them, cooking dinner, doing household chores, etc. Every person was exploited; and if ever woman was a slave, it was definitely in the communist state. The exploitation of workers was all the worse since they had no right to call a strike or to use any other fonn of protest for manifesting personal dissatisfaction or making known their demands. Strikes were constitutionally outlawed. Even the farmer was exploited, since profits from his labors were distributed among several middlemen before his produce reached the consumer. For a kilo of fruit of which the consumer paid about five crowns on the warket, the producer received one crown. The remainder became the shared profit of the business machine, organizations of various sorts, the state taxes, etc. Exploited too was the apparatus of officialdom, especially teachers who, by comparison, received the lowest of wages, even less than laborers and many other less qualified employees. Communism greatly harmed the concept of the unification of nations by sowing hatred, and by creating an insurmountable barrier with its two-world-comm unistic and capitalistic-prop aganda; it lowered an iron curtain. The struggle against colonialism and imperialism was communism's theoretically powerful weapon in an age marked with the liberalizing of colonialized nations. On the other hand, however, Communism defamed this very idea when it formed the Soviet Union by means of imperialist wars and pressures, especially after World War II when it structured the entire communist empire by resorting to armed force, invasions, and the occupation of territories which it forcibly seized as its own. The question of well-being or prosperity in communistic regimes is so illusory, that today communist powers are embarassed to speak of it publicly, As long as it was possible to do so, communism placed the guilt for economic failure on its previous regimes, on reactions within the state itself, on crop failure. However, when the economic �104 SLOVAKIA slump reached such proportions that it was impossible to hide it any longer, the regime stopped explaining and simply gave orders, constantly repeating its frequently initiated but seldom completed 5-year plan and its competitions with capitalistic nations which it consecutively lost. And finally, the idea of peace which was such a convincing cloak for the whole international politicking of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries: Peace by communistic thinking meant nothing else but exclusive communistic world government. Not only examples of brutal aggressiveness in Hungary, in Czecho-Slovakia, in the endless conflicts disturbing the Russo-Chinese border, but the entire content of activities within the organization which Communism called "peaceful" and stand evidently, and remain a priori in direct conflict with the fundamentals of peace. The regime, which evokes insecurity and fear, which tramples underfoot the basic rights of man, which disrespects the principles of personal and national freedom, which enslaves man, cannot seriously speak of peace. And so it seems, that it is in this area that the communist regime has most seriously wounded the dignity of man. And today, this cloud hangs over Slovakia. A nation, which knew how to survive for over a thousand years under numerous forms of oppression, today unceasingly resists and will continue to resist this yoke because the spirit simply cannot tolerate submission to the violence of brutal materialism. Therefore, as oil rises to the surface, so this spirit will also rise and celebrate its triumph of extraordinary patience and interior strength drawn from the infinity of God. (Translated by Sister M. Raymund Horvath, SS.C.M.) THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies AtJxiliary, the "VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak culb1rai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festi vals, social evenings, etc. our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vcielky" 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 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 94 SLOVAKIA Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Marian Jankovsky Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak communist politician whose name swept around the globe like a comet and found a place among nominees for the Nobel Prize described his efforts, his political program, with the expression: To show the human face of Communism. This slogan which suddenly magnetized other European nations under communistic imperialism, sounded an alarm within Kremlin walls. Moscow's anger found expression in the occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia on the night of August 21, 1968. Armed occupation was at the same time an answer to Dubcek and other reformers and it served notice to the rest of the world that Communism does not have a human face. Dubcek was not the only one nor the first to undertake social reforms in such a way as to preserve the dignity of man. Perhaps even Lenin himself and even Engels, the teacher of Marx had entertained such ideas at the beginning of their career. And history records similar attempts in the eighteenth century and in earlier times. All of them, however, reached a cul de sac situation, when they directed the attempt to reform society without violence into utopian channels-to something fictitious and unrealizable. Since this need, this cry to preserve man's dignity is ageless and man himself is unable to find the approach and the means of attaining it, God himself came to man's aid: He sent to earth his Son who dispelled this hopelessness and announced a gospel and principles under which a society of brothers, of friends, could be realized. Man had experienced frustrations and found himself on erroneous paths since he chose to act alone-to disregard God, to oppose God and to defy God in his effort to found a social order on norms that would provide respect for the dignity of man. Though in certain instances these aspirations were sincere and honorable, they either remained on the utopian plane or degenerated into coarse violence primarily because they denied the fundamental nature of man which is SLOVAKIA 95 theocentric. It is the nature of a man to tend toward God with his heart and mind just as it is natural for a child to direct affections toward his parents. It is a law of origin; of the created and the Creator; of Cause and effect. Many modern-day reformers returned to Plato; they drew instruction from the teachings of Thomas More, but in the final resolution, they cloaked all these concepts in the Marx-Lenin and Stalin-Brezhnev realities and imposed on them the most brutish form to which a social philosophy could ever degenerate. From the spiritual standpoint, this happened because Lenin-Bolshevik Communism was established on dogmas of a single category: the denial of God and of all that is supernatural. And if man: is not to have God's image, there remains for him nothing else only the face of the enemy of God whose name is Satan. Politically, this inhuman face of bolshevism assumed its form from the fact that bolshevism is founded, perpetuated, and disseminated solely by force and methods of open-or what is more base--disguised violence. Lenin the ideologist became a cruel avenger when, after unsuccessful attempts at murder at the gallows, executions with bullets, imprisonments and deportations to Siberia, he initiated the liquidation of adversaries both real and suspected. And bloody hands that were bloodied were never again washed clean. Stalin, the most tyrannical exponent of bolshevism, revealed in a conversation with Churchill that the number of victims whom he had physically liquidated exceeded millions. History which one day, please God, will see light, records twenty million persons executed, shot, tortured to death with hunger and beatings during Stalin's day. Modern sociology and philosophy habitually labels as fascism the evils and political errors of some regimes of this century. Assuredly, every type of fascism is evil because it is based upon violence and denies the human and supernatural rights of the men and nations which it subjugates. Communism zealously over-reacts in dealing with fascist propaganda. Every regime, each person whom Communism set out to destroy, it first accused of fascism . And here lies the great irony of hypocritical baseness, for such denouncing of the evils of fascism was simply a convenient device by which communistic bolshevism tried to 96 SLOVAKIA avert the attention of the world away from the evil of which it was itself guilty. And we know that this kind of political trickery of diverting attention sometimes serves the communists well. As a matter of fact, however, the truth is that long before there was a black (Mussolinist) or brown (Hitlerist) fascism, there already existed a red or Kremlin fascism . Long before some European countries resorted to concentration camps and began to liquidate political opponents, Soviet Russia already had a well-tested tradition of such procedures. And so it is evident that both with its ideology and its program, and principally with its despotic methods, Communism lost all right to be called a progressive movement, a social program. It is, on the contrary, in every aspect reactionary, abusive, and dangerous to nations. It is the deformation of the human face of man to whom it promised paradise on earth and delivered him hell. Under the following headings we wish to point our several features of this inhuman face of Communism in general, as well as with specific references to Slovakia. We choose primarily issues on which Communism counted most heavily and in which it failed deplorably. Communism disavowed, maligned, and betrayed these ideals and values: a) the ideal of the personal freedom of man and the freedom of nations; b) the ideal of work upon which it stamped a bold seal of slavery; c) the ideal of society (family, town, state) which it yoked with laws of violence and dictatorship; d ) the ideal of the dignity of man who did not become the subject of its program, but rather its tool; e ) and finally, Communism disavowed its own political ideals: the struggle against imperialism, inasmuch as it is itself hard-grained imperialism; the struggle against exploitation, since it is itself a most cruel exploiter; the ideal of coexistence, which it crushes always and everywhere with its notorious "veto," "njet". MAN IS CREATED FOR FREEDOM Freedom ranks very high on the scale of values. God who ordained laws for man, who defined for him and SLOVAKIA 97 illumined paths to perfection, who permitted his Son to shed blood on the wood of the cross for the redemption of humanity, left to man such a degree of freedom that even He himself respects it. Man's freedom was the communist regime's first target. No tyrannical power, no regime of fear and violence could survive if men were permitted their freedom. Today the whole world can judge to what an extent freedom is being suppressed in the Soviet Union. This it can learn from the scattered articles, rallies, demonstrations, and testimonies which some Soviet people themselves, communists at that, felt compelled to give or were able to release either in hiding or in some brief period of political moderation, when there was an exchange of political sides; e. g. after Kruschev came into power. Pasternak, Kuznecov, Solzhenicyn, Ehrenburg, and others revealed in their writings at least part of the picture of the absurd non-freedom prevalent in Soviet Russia. The nations of central Europe caught in the misfortune of being "liberated" by the Soviet regime all too soon experienced the burden of non-liberty in all areas of public and private life. An elaborate spy-system covered and controlled every aspect of living. There was spying in schools, in churches, among afficials, in cafes, on the street, in factories, and even in prison cells where the regime planted its agents as ostensibly sympathetic fellow-prisoners in order ·to draw from those in jail information that they could not obtain otherwise. In Slovakia the communist regim e was not content with creating a universal atmosphere of fear and distrust but everywhere in public life it especially resorted to a persistent and unmerciful use of tactics of power--display and coercion. It introduced numerous clauses in schools of higher learning, and in departments of theology it . assumed the prerogative of deciding who may and who may not pursue studies. It filled positions in government and public life as well as in agricultural departments not on the basis of professional merit and competence but rather according to their degree of party loyalty and their proficiency in informing. Highly educated qualified people 98 - -- SLOVAKIA - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- were given assignments as store-keepers; tailors were appointed school principals. The communist regime restricted or completely forbade change of residence; it ordered Slovaks to move to Bohemian borderline territory and in this way effected massive and enforced denationalization. Agents of the regime had the authority to awaken anyone at anytime during the night for investigation. An interminable circulation of cadre forms held people in continual check. Peasants were stripped of freedom when farm cooperatives were established in many areas with the help of the police force. Compulsory quotas of produce were imposed upon them regardless whether they raised these products or not, regardless of their ability to supply them or not. If they failed to meet the quota, farmers lost their property and were often evicted from their homes. By assigning commissioners to seminaries, to theology faculties, to bishops' offices, to church societies and the press, and by organizing a so-called peace-movement of the Catholic clergy which was communist devised, the party usurped control of the Church subsequent to its liquidation of convents and imprisonment of many priests, of bishops, and Catholic laymen. Naturally, while this curtailment of freedom afflicted oppoments of communistic ideology most seriously, it also served to hold in check the members of the Party who had only one choice: either absolute obedience or expulsion and social degradation or perhaps-not infrequently-imprisonment. The execution of Clementis, the imprisonment and torture of Husak, Lobl, Holdos, Viest and thousands of other communists shows that bolshevism does not tolerate freedom even on behalf of its most faithful adherents. It knows how to crush anyone who dares to exercise free choice. And so, by its despotic reaction toward freedom, Communism proves that as a tyrant, it does not deserve freedom of any kind; that it is in theory and practise superlatively reactionary, anti-human, and inhuman. MAN IS CREATED FOR WORK God himself works. The creation and preservation of the world is the result of work, understood in the divine SLOVAKIA 99 sense. Jesus Christ spent his maturing years working, and he blessed work. Man himself by his vocation and purpose in life is so constituted that work helps him to develope; in work he creates values; in work he manifests his freedom. Communism wove a significant web of symbolism around work and even formulated an official greeting intended to bestow honor on work. In essence, however , it all degenerated into profanity and mere hypocritical expression. Those who best succeeded in avoiding work were the loudest in shouting "Honor to work! "-laborers, farmers, and often representatives from anti-social circles -persons now transformed into public officials and officious functionaries . In reality work became odious when people had to be forced into it, when the regime paid it poor wages or rather exploited it to such an extent that most of the profits poured into hands that did not labor. Consequently, work was performed carelessly, lazily, superficially, unreliably. Much was said about work each morning before a construction job or in the factory in the so-called tenminute warm-ups that usually lasted up to an hour. Poet5 composed odes to work and were honored for them by government awards. But work itself became more and more burdensome. If, therefore, slave labor was some kind of communist ideal, for communism did bring it to that concept, then the era of slavery should have to be considered the pinnacle of civilization. As a result of communist conditioning, work in Slovakia appeared in two forms: on the one hand labor was overplayed to the populace; on the other, people were driven to work. This was all that Communism was capable of doing with an otherwise priceless value. Finally, the fact that in a communist state living standards among the populace--principally in the working class- by comparison with workers' standards in the free democratic worlct declined by steady stages confirms the devaluation 0f work by bolshevism and its hypocritical attitude toward it. Because if during the previous Republic- to offer at least one illustration-the inhabitants of one town annually hauled to the public market 400 wagonloads of grain and 100 SLOVAKIA during the peak of the great cooperative movement a town's inhabitants were forced to buy their supply of flour and milk, what is the only inference to be made? That there was no production; that work, which is also generative force of prosperity, lost its economic effectiveness. MAN IS CREATED FOR SOCIETY Psychologically man is constituted to tend toward companionship. He establishes families and is in his element within a family group. Common interests draw him toward smaller and larger societies; he forms nations and states, and he endows all his interrelationship with neighbors with a friendly spirit. Here too, in the area of familial ties, Communism has failed even as a philosophical and sociological system. It brought into social relationships hatred, mistrust, suspicion, and intolerance. All too familiar are examples like these: communist teachers persuaded or induced children to denounce their parents-to report when they meet, to what radio programs they listen, with whom they correspond, what contacts they have with persons in a foreign country, the nature of conversations and discussions in the home. Like procedures were directed to offices, among teachers, in schools, at work, in factories. In the Soviet Union where this type of upbringing prevailed for fifty years it was bound to yield its pernicious fruit, for even the family circle was affected by the Party program. In her novel Dva veky the writer Golubkovova presents instances of the alienation of couples and the estrangement of parents from their children because the tyranny of Party ideology penetrates into the innermost circles of family life and compels primacy for Party interests over the needs and interests of family living and even over conjugal love. Social life in Slovakia, marked by traditionally recognized trust and friendship, was forced under this system of informing to retreat into the core of the family circle. And even there, the people carefully scrutinize and observe whom they may be entertaining at table. If someone strange SLOVAKIA 101 came to visit, or if there was a guest before whom they knew they ought to be silent, the entire conversation shifted to trivial matters. Finally, the extensive system of listening in on conversations which was installed in restaurants, offices, and business establishments as well as the presence of a vast network of informers inevitably caused people to resort to whispering, to prefer silence in the company of unknown persons. Confidence and friendship were being lost--these necessary values on which is built friendship and tolerance. And so instead of idealized collectivism which Communism so greatly stressed, there developed a society of individuals locked within themselves or narrowed to only the relationships cultivated in a private family. Even good friends began to suspect one another if their conversation happened to reach the ears of the state police even though they themselves were not guilty of transmitting the information which may have been picked up by the hearing devices that seemed to be omnipresent, even in private dwellings . A person living in a democratic free world can hardly imagine such diabolical inventions. But such it was and is, and its father is bolshevism. THE CENTRAL POINT OF ALL PROGRESS IS MAN Every advance in science, civilization, hygiene, and economy relates to man and his welfare. Families as well as nations and states are social institutions designed to enable every good to reach man who is worthy of every effort and endeavor. Communism repudiated even this worth of man, making him not the object but the instrument of its own politics. This was done first of all by denying man the right of free choice. Man was not permitted to decide for himself his prospects for education and schooling, type of work, place of work, place of residence--all this he had to accept on orders from the Communist party. And so it was that people could not choose a profession, either according to personal preference or inherent talent but had to be satisfied with whatever official ordained. Reflecting on the fact that such unwise management caused great cultural and economic loss to society, one must also 102 SLOVAKIA deplore the dichotomy effected by such decisions and the personal liberty of man and his human dignity. Specific mention must be made at this point of judicial r eprisals, investigations under inhuman conditions-beatings and torture to compel confessions of guilt-imprisonments during inquest lasting even beyond a year and this without court decision, false accusations and the like. If the almost 80-year old bishop Jan Vojtassak on orders from a sub-intelligent prison guard had to make a given number of knee-bends in jail, this was not the fruit only of the stupidity of the guard but the harvesting of the r egime which approved and countenanced such methods, delighted in them, and with them bullied the people. Communism failed to appreciate even its own members. It valued them only in so far as they were statistical numbers. Before the idol of the communist divinity every human value had to prostrate. That was in itself deplorable and outrageous, but in relation to the dictatorship of despotic bolshevism it was also unbelievably hopeless and painful. IDEALS Communism raised for itself a number of ideals with which it hoped to justify its existence. For example, the unification of nations, avowed opposition to exploitation, the fight against colonialism and imperialism, a program for the common welfare, and the idea of peace. Not a single one of these ideals fructified under Communism. E x p l o i t a t i o n. Even though the matter of opposition to exploitation became one of the basic principles of the communist program, it is ironic that there is perhaps no other regime that so exploits people, especially the working class, as does the communist system. It is well known that the earnings of workmen in Slovakia, compared with wages paid in other countries, were so low that they did not even satisfy the living minimum of families. It was impossible to conceive that a wife and children could subsist on the father 's pay. In every family the wife too had to seek employment; this meant a rush in early SLOVAKIA 103 morning to bring the children to the nursery, and after work returning for them, cooking dinner, doing household chores, etc. Every person was exploited; and if ever woman was a slave, it was definitely in the communist state. The exploitation of workers was all the worse since they had no right to call a strike or to use any other fonn of protest for manifesting personal dissatisfaction or making known their demands. Strikes were constitutionally outlawed. Even the farmer was exploited, since profits from his labors were distributed among several middlemen before his produce reached the consumer. For a kilo of fruit of which the consumer paid about five crowns on the warket, the producer received one crown. The remainder became the shared profit of the business machine, organizations of various sorts, the state taxes, etc. Exploited too was the apparatus of officialdom, especially teachers who, by comparison, received the lowest of wages, even less than laborers and many other less qualified employees. Communism greatly harmed the concept of the unification of nations by sowing hatred, and by creating an insurmountable barrier with its two-world-comm unistic and capitalistic-prop aganda; it lowered an iron curtain. The struggle against colonialism and imperialism was communism's theoretically powerful weapon in an age marked with the liberalizing of colonialized nations. On the other hand, however, Communism defamed this very idea when it formed the Soviet Union by means of imperialist wars and pressures, especially after World War II when it structured the entire communist empire by resorting to armed force, invasions, and the occupation of territories which it forcibly seized as its own. The question of well-being or prosperity in communistic regimes is so illusory, that today communist powers are embarassed to speak of it publicly, As long as it was possible to do so, communism placed the guilt for economic failure on its previous regimes, on reactions within the state itself, on crop failure. However, when the economic 104 SLOVAKIA slump reached such proportions that it was impossible to hide it any longer, the regime stopped explaining and simply gave orders, constantly repeating its frequently initiated but seldom completed 5-year plan and its competitions with capitalistic nations which it consecutively lost. And finally, the idea of peace which was such a convincing cloak for the whole international politicking of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries: Peace by communistic thinking meant nothing else but exclusive communistic world government. Not only examples of brutal aggressiveness in Hungary, in Czecho-Slovakia, in the endless conflicts disturbing the Russo-Chinese border, but the entire content of activities within the organization which Communism called "peaceful" and stand evidently, and remain a priori in direct conflict with the fundamentals of peace. The regime, which evokes insecurity and fear, which tramples underfoot the basic rights of man, which disrespects the principles of personal and national freedom, which enslaves man, cannot seriously speak of peace. And so it seems, that it is in this area that the communist regime has most seriously wounded the dignity of man. And today, this cloud hangs over Slovakia. A nation, which knew how to survive for over a thousand years under numerous forms of oppression, today unceasingly resists and will continue to resist this yoke because the spirit simply cannot tolerate submission to the violence of brutal materialism. Therefore, as oil rises to the surface, so this spirit will also rise and celebrate its triumph of extraordinary patience and interior strength drawn from the infinity of God. (Translated by Sister M. Raymund Horvath, SS.C.M.) THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies AtJxiliary, the "VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak culb1rai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festi vals, social evenings, etc. our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vcielky" 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 Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Description An account of the resource Marián Jankovský Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 94-104 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jankovský, Marián Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name 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/1a60c191bc48ddd3af6567bc8637a46b.pdf eba3c243c04a4bfaecf93a40bc0bed0b PDF Text Text 76 SLOVAKIA Ruzena Svobodova's "Fcuilletons ou Slovakia" Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M. C. L., J. D. After the proclamation of Czecho-Slovakia's independence in 1918, disputes arose between Czechs and Slovaks as to the nature of their political and cultural relations in the new state. While the Slovaks thought of partnership, brotherhood and family harmony, the Czechs, having lostafter the defeat of Germany-their Schweik inferiority complex, swung over to the other extreme: the complex of greatness. The Czecho-Slovakia of the Peace Treaties was imposed as "Czechoslovakia" on foreign countries, academies and encyclopedias, and was ruled as Great Czechia by the Prague Government. T. G. Masaryk, E. Benes, and nearly all Czech intellectuals considered Slovakia as a territorial acquisition of the Kingdom of Bohemia, as a generous gift made by the Allied and Associated Powers to the Czechs for their resistance against the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation during the Hussite wars, as a historical reparation of their defeat in the Battle at the White Mountain, 1620, and finally as an endurance prime for having withstood the onslaughts of Pan-Germanism in the 19th century. Among few Czech intellectuals and literary figures who sharply disagreed with the official Great Czechia concept of the new state, there was a lady, novelist and short story writer, Ruzena Svobodova (1868-1920). She had been informed on the problem of Slovakia by Milan Rastislav Stefanik (1880-1919) already during his studies at Charles University in Prague, i. e., before 1904. At that time her house in the capital of Bohemia was a meeting place for a literary and social group which was to play an important role in the Czecho-Slovak political rapprochement. F. X. salda, a prominent literary historian at Prague University, was there a frequent guest. Svobodova and salda became close friends of Stefanik. They visited with him in France as he was working as an astronomer at the Observatory of Meudon, near Paris. �SLOVAKIA 77 At the beginning of World War I, Stefanik enlisted in the French Army and reached the grade of General. At the end of the war, besides T. G. Masaryk and E. Benes, he is the only Slovak in the triumvirate of Czecho-Slovakia's liberators. He will become its first Minister of War. On May 4, 1919 the airplane, by which General Stefanik was returning from Italy to his native soil, was shot down by a Czech artillery unit stationed at Bratislava. Ruzena Svobodova must have been shaken by grief at such a horrible news, and particularly at the Government's suspicious refusal to publish all the facts of this accident. Thereafter, she travelled across Slovakia to pay-as it were-her last respect to Stefanik, and also to get acquainted with his homeland and its people. She then wrote a series of feuilletons dealing with several aspects of Slovak life and particularly with errors of the Czech official policy committed in Slovakia. They remained unpublished in her desk long after she died in 1920. No Czech magazine would accepted to give publicity to facts so shocking, while no Slovak periodical would have been allowed to do so without being victimized by the censor of the "democratic" regime represented by T . G. Masaryk and E. Benes. In 1930 it came to a Kulturkampf in Matica Slovenska, the Slovak Institute of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1863 in Turciansky Sv. Martin. According to official Czech designs aiming at cultural and linguistic assimilation of Slovakia, several important positions in that institution had been held by Czechs, among whom Frantisek Hermansky and Vaclav Vazny. How these Great Czechia promoters, hidden in the garb of professional linguists, had become leading officials in that old institution consecrated to national culture and language, may be a mystery for those who are not familiar with the devious methods of Benes' power politics. It was their purpose to gradually narrow the existing gap between the Czech and Slovak languages in bringing the Slovak vocabulatry< and style closer to the Czech. Their tendency was to find however, a definite opposition in the group of Slovak linguists: Jan Mihal, Anton Janosik, Henrik Bartek, Jozef Martinka, etc., led by the Director of the Matica, Prof. Jozef Skultety. This conflict produced an explosive cultural atmosphere and troubled considerably Czecho-Slovak political relations. �78 SLOVAKIA At that time, Stefan Krcmery, a renown Slovak poet, was editor in chief of Slovenske Pohl'ady, a literary review, founded in 1846. Trying to avoid personal polemics and decided to cast some light on the behavior of Czech officials in Slovakia, he thought the feuilletons of Ruzena Svobodova would serve very well his purpose. He prepared them for publication in Vol. 46 of Slovenske Pohl'ady, No. 5-8, 1930. From the repetition of certain issues it is evident that R. Svobodova did not intend to have them published at the same time. Krcmery, however, to give them a cumulative meaning, did do just so, or rather, he had the intention to do so. No sooner had that summer issue of Slovenske Pohl'ady left the presses of the Printing Corporation in Turciansky Sv. Martin, than the censor confiscated the whole edition. Those essays of Ruzena Svobodova apparently were menacing nothing less than the unity and the reason of the state. Since then, they have not been reprinted either in Czech or in Slovak. As we bring them here in an English translation, we would like hereby to honor the courage, friendship, honesty and perspicacity of Ruzena Svobodova, all these virtues displayed at the time, when nearly all the Czechs, following the example of T. G. Masaryk and E. Benes, were drunk of the Great Czechia dream and treated Slovakia as a conquerred territory. THE SOUL OF THE SLOVAK NATION We are confronted with the soul of a different nation. Have we ever been faced with a greater mystery? How shall we enter the temple which is not ours? Could it be otherwise than highest respect as it fits when approaching a different psyche, even though it may be a brother's psyche? Is it possible to penetrate with enough tenderness, enough respect, enough care a distinct soul or its spiritual temple, the greatest of its constructions? Only a man whose wiring with the mysterious soul of the world had been broken could have entirely lost or never accquired respect for human soul. For every human being is as meaningful as History itself; each soul is ankered in eternity; each one is determined by thousands of previous generations. �SLOVAKIA 79 We shouldn't have lightheartily thought of the soul of that nation, i. e., of something which is infinitely more complicated than the soul of an individual. We entered Slovakia as parvenus engrossed by our self-importance, without that respect, without that humility. We had believ-ed to bring salvation to the Slovaks and we had dispensed with the attention we owed to the mystery of their unknown and complicated reality. We do not know Slovakia, we do not know the soul of our sister. We have offended it. Therefore, it has closed itself for us. We have entered there as conquerors and a number of our people lacking delicacy call Slovakia a colony, an occupied territory, and tell it into the face of the Slovaks. Out of a series of psychological errors, this one is felt by the Slovaks as the most outrageous. "We had expected brothers, say the Slovaks, but instead there came rulers." Those Czechs of crude and domineering manners have sinned against the spirit; they have sinned by arrogance and contempt. They are guilty and cannot be excused. The selection of Czech public servants for Slovakia should have been better and more careful. People should have been sent there so noble as not to touch even the dust on a butterfly's wings. The Government should have sent there spiritual observers. A manual should have been written and without its message no one should ever have entered this land. It should have contained a gospel of love, respect and tenderness; a message that would not hurt, that would teach how to approach another people without prejudice: a sort of Decalogue of noble principles. Those who were privileged enough to be sent to Slovakia and have sinned there, must straighten out their attitude, correct their behavior, must learn to confront the unexplored soul of the Slovak nation with deference. They must abandon their messianistic slogans. Otherwise they should be revoked. The only important task is to win the love of the Slovaks. This may be difficult for someone who does not have the highest philosophical culture and is unable to keep silent. No there is work over there for a special type of men: for reserved wise men without self-conceit �80 SLOVAKIA and egotism; for those who can keep their mouth shut. Neither people nor man of noble mind are garrulous . Garrulousnes s is the symton of half-educatio n. There are many unbearable people, unable to evolve, who impose their cheap opinions upon their fellow-men be it in religion, culture or politics; who believe in their intellectual superiority; who are convinced that there is nothing above them, for they have achieved the top of their escension. And should circumstance s enhance their belief of bein apostles, woe to those to whom they preach their sad "self-evident truths". Slovakia has been invaded by a number of such people. Uninstructed and unable to learn, they met the soul of that nation, they intruded in it without tact and with false conviction that it was their task to lift up that soul to their own level. False prophets and preachers lacking modesty and introspection , do you realize what kind of people are you dealing with? Can you imagine what is the spiritual key-board of that nation, a key-board on which sound as the highest tone the limitless greatness of Milan R. stefanik's spirit, and as its most natural tone the song of an innocent girl of Zvolen? Can you imagine the spiritual depth of a nation whose soul smiles in suffering and which hides its cristal-line purity behind humor? If you approach the soul of that nation with humbleness, respect and faith, what depth you will discover, what clarity of mind, what wealth! The closer the contact we have with it, the more purified we become. If you meet the soul of that nation with humility, the old Slovakia will reward you with her mysterious beauty, accumulated throughout centuries. To get acquainted with her, to perceive her multiple facets, to stand in rapture before her, must become for us joy. I have never seen a more majestic spectacle. EDUCATED SLOVAKS The human nature of educated Slovaks has so-to-say a key-board by some scales wider than ours. Each one of them displays the sophisticatio n of a Parisian and the naturalness of a shepherd. They are closer to wordly life �SLOVAKIA 81 on a higher level, while they are closer to nature. They are nearer to culture and at the same time to the people. Even though they may be hunters used to strolling through woods, and during hunting periods to staying in huts, they have an external elegance. They speak foreign languages while they enjoy singing the shepherds's songs of their kinsmen, nostalgical calling on their fellow-men from the top of one mountain to another. They live with a music which stems from the mysterious noise of a lonely forest, from the desire to meet people around a stone fireplace burning day and night . They know how to be exhuberant in their merriments, to drink champagne, to enjoy themselves, to break into group singing. They also can spend the whole evening in talking their poetry. They know by heart many pieces of it. And whenever one of them touches a chord, it will resound in another. They recite Sladkovic, Hviezdoslav, Razus . Whenever our performing artists go to Slovakia, they should not think they go to a village. Only real masters, not those of second category, shall venture to go there. The Slovak intelligentsia had seen in Budapest worldfamous artists, an internationally renowned and highly selected art. They will judge our performers by these criteria. Pretentious dilettantes are wrong if they think they go to Asia and behave accordingly. There, they will be scrutinized more severely than they are used to be in our own land and cannot than do harm to our cause. The resentment that prevails now in Slovakia on our behalf will find no complacency' for our dilettantism, and if there is anyone who may help our cause there, it can be only someone able to fascinate the Slovaks and make them overcome their feelings . THE SLOVAK PEOPLE The Slovak is not sentimental; he is tough and does not want to be pitied. He is full of humour, shining with smile. By his witty answers he always puts a fence around himself, thus keeping you at a distance and preventing you from getting at him. �82 SLOVAKIA In a village we spoke at a house corner under the roof shelter with a young woman, mother of seven children. On her arms, she kept her youngest baby, just 6 months. The latter was dressed in a minuscule shirt. She talks and smiles and women and children from the neighborhood, gathered around her, smile at everything they say. There is with me a young lady who would like to have children. I tell it to that young Slovak woman proposing jokingly: "Couldn't you give this youngest baby of yours to her?" The not say answers we shall Slovak woman does not betray her feeling, does she will never give up her baby. Smiling, she she will do it with pleasure and adds: "Yes, and soon have another one!" I look into her bright, full, and healthy face under a white coif. Her smile had spread contagion in that Sunday crowd. Even if she had thirty children, she still would not accept to be pitied. Nobody in Slovakia, either collectively or individually, wants to be pitied. And this inborn pride serves as psychological explanation of many qualities, alleged sensitivities and attitudes difficult to understand. Nor want the Slovaks to be pitied for the Magyar domination. The people is comparatively uninhibited, and not only in the Vah valley. This is not bad. They are a highly intelligent, vivid, smart, humorous and gay people. Their conscience is like a clean sheet of paper. Be careful as you are trying to write on it. You have to approach them with the purest mind. In this respect, God has been more gracious to me than I deserve. He has given me the opportunity to get acquainted there with the souls, the most beautiful souls I have ever met. Long ago, very long ago, He had granted me the privilege of meeting Milan Rastislav Stefanik. He had allowed me to look into his soul that was reflecting dolor, love, despair, tenderness and generosity. As if provided with a magic key, I approached through his soul the soul of his nation, I opened it and gazed into �SLOVAKIA 83 its folds. I do not say I have penetrated inside. I do not affirm I know it; I perhaps shall never reach that point. Whatever I have been allowed to see is enough for me to spend the rest of my life in light and joy. I have watched a people closely related in their minds, united by the juices and delicacies of life, by their homeland, forests, and rivers, by their kinship and friendliness. Over there, in Slovakia, overwhelmed by noble beings, the soul gets calmed and touched with humility. I do not pretend to know much about Slovakia. I ignore whether I shall ever be able to learn more. Yet, I have well known the soul of one of its greatest sons, the . soul of Milan, as they simply call there the dead General Stefanik. His soul had displayed the biggest variety of facets of all the persons I have ever got in contact with in my life. It resounded with vigor and tenderness. It radiated limitless love and strict justice. It was clear, simple, like a child's; it was smiling and innocent. It belonged at the same time to a ruler and to a servant. It was religious and wordly, believing and respectful, inventive and quick-minded. I don't dare to assert I am a specialist on Slovakia: but I have found there the individual components of Milan's soul, the soul which has become for me the key to the soul of his whole nation. There is no genius whose soul would not represent to a high degree all the best qualities with which his nation is endowed, and there is no nation in which it would be impossible to discover the embryo, a sleeping embryo, of its genius' soul. We enter a village and stop in front of the church. The villagers gather around our driver and ask who we are. "They are Americans", answers the driver, thereafter presenting his appologies: "I simply could not tell them you are Czechs, for nobody here likes Czechs." When I was speaking with educated city ladies, and after having realized that in towns there was the same mood as in villages, I felt hurt and told them: �84 SLOVAKIA "We, too, had suffered from hunger for five years during the war and after. And should it be necessary to suffer for two years more in order to share our destiny with you, we would accept that ordeal. Such is our love for you. Why then do you not like us? Whenever we speak about Slovakia, we do it with tears in our eyes. Why do you not love us?" A young girl gave me a thousand-fold answer, she and her group . And if I had to state the contents of that conversation in some short precepts, they would run like this : "You should leave us to live and die in our own way. Do not impose yourselves upon us. Do not overpower us. Do not take from us and our people what we worship and love. Do not offend our feelings. Do not send here third rate officials. Bring here what we are lacking in exchange for our own services." And upon her anwer, I could not do otherwise than lower my head and realize why they do not like us: Well, simply because we have been doing just the oposite. Yes, we have lost any sympathy and the feeling toward Czechs there is nearing the point of hatred. The Slovak intelligentsia is fed up with Czech excesses. inconsistenci es, chaos in jurisdiction, overlookings, in one word, with Czech imperialism. They are tired from tactlessness and arrogance. What they have received is not what they had expected. That someone is responsible for it, it can hardly be denied. And every day passing by without straightening out committed faults cannot but multiply their consequences . The first error consists in that we tried to approach the mysterious soul of that nation with our mechanical concept of life, that we made efforts to force upon them cheap enlightenmen t as a remedy. There may be two sister-nations here; there may be closely related languages; there even may be the same Slav trunk. Yet, how many distinctions! A cliff in the Germanic sea, the Czech lands had throughout centuries been washed up by its waves, while Slovakia is a bridge eastwards. After a period of independ- �SLOVAKIA 85 ence we had lived under the German yoke, while the Slovaks had, nearly during the entire span of their active history, been politically tight up with the Magyars, i. e., a people who have distinct traditions, and whose political and cultural development differs in content and level; with a people-in one word-who are marked by a particular mentality. Since Slovakia was for us a land prohibited, we had been on all sides separated from the Slav race. The Slovaks, instead, had benefited largely by a direct contact with the Slav world, have been, in fact, united with it, and represent its continuation, something like the tail of a multi-colored East-Slav rainbow. What instruction and education should have been given to those Czechs who went to that noble, spiritually richer and brighter land of Slovakia which in this respect towers high above us? What tests of selection should have been applied in order to choose best from among us to be assigned there and pay their respects to the sacred mystery of that country reflecting a shy, non spoiled, creative soul? What should we have done to increase our joy, our own and Slovakia's happiness? For the time being, besides very few good Czechs, there are many pretentious individuals in the military as well as among the various officials who had trampled down a number of serious personalities, institutions and accomplishments. Those Czechs have thereby inflicted considerable damages to Slovakia. As we go around, we hear constantly of an endless series of such sad and regrettable cases. Slovak men tell me about the injustices committed on them by Czechs. A Slovak lady, good looking and of slender stature, listens to them. She evidently suffers that I have to hear those indictments against my nation, and she accasionally interrupts that conversation with polite words. Her husband explains what had been done by soldiers. A group of them entered a restaurant where a highly artistic picture of Empress Maria Theresa was hanging from the wall. They took that picture down, cut it into pieces and caused the private owner a damage amounting to several thousand crowns. �SLOVAKIA 86 The Slovak lady comments: "Perhaps the picture seemed offending to them; but they should have asked the owner to put it away. It was a private object of high value and they should never have cut it into pieces. This is not the question of substance, but of form" - says politely that lady as if she were trying to excuse the malfeasors. Her husband continues: "A soldier enters an inn and orders a sandwich. The innkeeper asks four crowns for it. The soldier refuses to pay protesting against the price. He was right to do so. The innkeeper defends himself: 'The County Administrator had fixed that price!' The soldier, however, does not know what the powers of a County Administrator are. He ignores entirely local conditions. He aggressively adds: 'That Administrator of yours, he is a Magyar sympathiser just as you are!' The County Administrator, a Slovak patriot, is just passing by and learns about the incident. He then addresses himself to the Captain asking for investigation. The Captain, however, rejects his request and takes the soldier under protection. Soldiers had done many ugly things in Slovakia; but you will perhaps say it was a consequence of five year war demoralization. This, of course, may be an explanation; but it is no excuse. Another example : A lower official was sent as mills supervisor to a county in Eastern Slovakia. Instead of taking care of his assignment, that man started spying on every step of the County Administrator and every word of the County Counsel. He went so far as to organize a personal boycott against them. He ran to the Post Office, announced that emergency measures had been taken against the County Administrator and his Counsel, and insisted their telephone connection be cut off. A never heard of, but a real, case! As he was being interrogated, he said: "That's our nature, of us Czechs. We think we must control everybody!" By the investigation of the performance of this supervisor �SLOVAKIA 87 it was proven that he had misappropriated a carload of flour and was keeping two bags of it in his household. A higher official in Prague was sending his organization agent to Slovakia with these words: "He is too rude for Prague; therefore I am sending him to Slovakia." A higher official who ignores what Slovakia is, ignores what her soul is, is then assigning there an executive of whom he knows in advance that the latter lacks the ability of matching that soul. Only those people shall be sent to Slovakia who realize that they will be guests in their brother's family, who will not desecrate, not even by the twinkle of their eyelids, the sanctity of that family; men who have faith, are tolerant and tactful; persons of limitless soul which embraces everything, understands all; those !Who, when confronted with a noble feeling would stand with respect without starting polemics. WHAT ARE OUR SINS Why did our people go to Slovakia? Idealists went there from love, pragmatists with expectations of higher profits. There is still a comperative lack of intelligentsia in Slovakia. It will take one or two generations to fill out this gap. Therefore, to go there, to help them in offices and schools, seems to be quite plausible. What are the principles of this aid? That is a big question! Chaos in this respect is what the Slovaks are strongly complaining about. Administrative offices are being organized. For hiring there must be an alternative requirement: either professionnal qualification or talent and experience. The boss who hires petitioners does not have himself professional qualification. The Slovaks think then that experience should be enough. Lower positions are to be filled out, positions of foresters, for instance. A prominent Slovak politician says: "Forests are state-owned and under the Hungarian regime foresters had been our great enemies. The people live from forestry and foresters had fostered Magyarization. �88 SLOVAKIA Do fill out those positions with reliable people. Put there veteran legionnaires!" He sent to the respective office some Slovak legionnaires who had faught with the American Army and would have been glad to stay in their homeland. Their applications were rejected for lack of qualification. "Well", said the politician, "here there is nothing to be done." The County is subdivided into four forest circuits. In the four Forest Administrative offices there had been an Engineer in Forestry, all of them men about fifty . Above these four engineers, there had been a Head-Administrator, also with higher technical education. The Head died. One of the four engineers, a Slovak and good specialist, came up with the application to succeed. Yet, to the surprise of everybody, a 30-year old Czech with only a secondary education in Forestry, was appointed. Next day, all four Forrest Office administrators resigned and refused to serve under a younger and unqualified man. The prominent politician commented: "If it was possible to disregard qualification requirements in the case of the Head of the County Forest Office, it certainly will be easier to do the same with foresters." As he had learned that 12 positions were open, he advised some veteran legionnaires to petition. The Office rejected them for lack of qualification. It hired instead Czechs, letting Slovak legionnaires return to America. Normally, Czechs are supposed to help, if there is no Slovak candidate. Yet, it is unwise to impose an unqualified public servant, if they have their own candidate. Not only that! It is offending. The above mentioned case is Hersek's. Under the Hungarian regime, no county official could be appointed without the County Administrator's consent. Public Law specialist say that County autonomy has never berm more perfect than at the time of Hungary. And now, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the following happens: �SLOVAKIA 89 A man lives in the County. He is an attorney, a Jew, an old Magyar sympathizer, an agent of the Hungarian Government, dangerous to the Czecho-Slovak State, a person whose hands are not clean. Everybody there would think it twice before shaking hands with this individual. He has been under observation in his residence. He does not have permission even to leave for another county, because the County Administrator intends to put him into confinment. And this man appears in the County Administrator's Office and shows him triumphantly his appointment from Prague as organizer and supervisor of the whole liquor industry in Slovakia. Consequently, a man has been appointed of whom the high Czech authority had never been informed. He has been appointed so-to-say behind the back and against the will of the County Administrator. What channel must have been left open to this man, and what means he must have used to conquer a moral and economic power position in Slovakia? All his antecedents must have been disregarded from the beginning until the end. What is the real power of a Slovak County Administrator, when a simple soldier, protected by his Captain, can throw into his face the accusation of being a Magyar sympathizer, and when an outspoken traitor to the nation can sarcastically parade his appointment decree from Prague before the Administrator's eyes? Do you think there are reasons in Slovakia to like Czechs? Out of the people who for longtime had been under foreign yoke, there are no good statesmen. They sin by reckless speed and narrowmindedness. They construct anywhere, even on sands. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects. � 76 SLOVAKIA Ruzena Svobodova's "Fcuilletons ou Slovakia" Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M. C. L., J. D. After the proclamation of Czecho-Slovakia's independence in 1918, disputes arose between Czechs and Slovaks as to the nature of their political and cultural relations in the new state. While the Slovaks thought of partnership, brotherhood and family harmony, the Czechs, having lostafter the defeat of Germany-their Schweik inferiority complex, swung over to the other extreme: the complex of greatness. The Czecho-Slovakia of the Peace Treaties was imposed as "Czechoslovakia" on foreign countries, academies and encyclopedias, and was ruled as Great Czechia by the Prague Government. T. G. Masaryk, E. Benes, and nearly all Czech intellectuals considered Slovakia as a territorial acquisition of the Kingdom of Bohemia, as a generous gift made by the Allied and Associated Powers to the Czechs for their resistance against the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation during the Hussite wars, as a historical reparation of their defeat in the Battle at the White Mountain, 1620, and finally as an endurance prime for having withstood the onslaughts of Pan-Germanism in the 19th century. Among few Czech intellectuals and literary figures who sharply disagreed with the official Great Czechia concept of the new state, there was a lady, novelist and short story writer, Ruzena Svobodova (1868-1920). She had been informed on the problem of Slovakia by Milan Rastislav Stefanik (1880-1919) already during his studies at Charles University in Prague, i. e., before 1904. At that time her house in the capital of Bohemia was a meeting place for a literary and social group which was to play an important role in the Czecho-Slovak political rapprochement. F. X. salda, a prominent literary historian at Prague University, was there a frequent guest. Svobodova and salda became close friends of Stefanik. They visited with him in France as he was working as an astronomer at the Observatory of Meudon, near Paris. �SLOVAKIA 77 At the beginning of World War I, Stefanik enlisted in the French Army and reached the grade of General. At the end of the war, besides T. G. Masaryk and E. Benes, he is the only Slovak in the triumvirate of Czecho-Slovakia's liberators. He will become its first Minister of War. On May 4, 1919 the airplane, by which General Stefanik was returning from Italy to his native soil, was shot down by a Czech artillery unit stationed at Bratislava. Ruzena Svobodova must have been shaken by grief at such a horrible news, and particularly at the Government's suspicious refusal to publish all the facts of this accident. Thereafter, she travelled across Slovakia to pay-as it were-her last respect to Stefanik, and also to get acquainted with his homeland and its people. She then wrote a series of feuilletons dealing with several aspects of Slovak life and particularly with errors of the Czech official policy committed in Slovakia. They remained unpublished in her desk long after she died in 1920. No Czech magazine would accepted to give publicity to facts so shocking, while no Slovak periodical would have been allowed to do so without being victimized by the censor of the "democratic" regime represented by T . G. Masaryk and E. Benes. In 1930 it came to a Kulturkampf in Matica Slovenska, the Slovak Institute of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1863 in Turciansky Sv. Martin. According to official Czech designs aiming at cultural and linguistic assimilation of Slovakia, several important positions in that institution had been held by Czechs, among whom Frantisek Hermansky and Vaclav Vazny. How these Great Czechia promoters, hidden in the garb of professional linguists, had become leading officials in that old institution consecrated to national culture and language, may be a mystery for those who are not familiar with the devious methods of Benes' power politics. It was their purpose to gradually narrow the existing gap between the Czech and Slovak languages in bringing the Slovak vocabulatry< and style closer to the Czech. Their tendency was to find however, a definite opposition in the group of Slovak linguists: Jan Mihal, Anton Janosik, Henrik Bartek, Jozef Martinka, etc., led by the Director of the Matica, Prof. Jozef Skultety. This conflict produced an explosive cultural atmosphere and troubled considerably Czecho-Slovak political relations. �78 SLOVAKIA At that time, Stefan Krcmery, a renown Slovak poet, was editor in chief of Slovenske Pohl'ady, a literary review, founded in 1846. Trying to avoid personal polemics and decided to cast some light on the behavior of Czech officials in Slovakia, he thought the feuilletons of Ruzena Svobodova would serve very well his purpose. He prepared them for publication in Vol. 46 of Slovenske Pohl'ady, No. 5-8, 1930. From the repetition of certain issues it is evident that R. Svobodova did not intend to have them published at the same time. Krcmery, however, to give them a cumulative meaning, did do just so, or rather, he had the intention to do so. No sooner had that summer issue of Slovenske Pohl'ady left the presses of the Printing Corporation in Turciansky Sv. Martin, than the censor confiscated the whole edition. Those essays of Ruzena Svobodova apparently were menacing nothing less than the unity and the reason of the state. Since then, they have not been reprinted either in Czech or in Slovak. As we bring them here in an English translation, we would like hereby to honor the courage, friendship, honesty and perspicacity of Ruzena Svobodova, all these virtues displayed at the time, when nearly all the Czechs, following the example of T. G. Masaryk and E. Benes, were drunk of the Great Czechia dream and treated Slovakia as a conquerred territory. THE SOUL OF THE SLOVAK NATION We are confronted with the soul of a different nation. Have we ever been faced with a greater mystery? How shall we enter the temple which is not ours? Could it be otherwise than highest respect as it fits when approaching a different psyche, even though it may be a brother's psyche? Is it possible to penetrate with enough tenderness, enough respect, enough care a distinct soul or its spiritual temple, the greatest of its constructions? Only a man whose wiring with the mysterious soul of the world had been broken could have entirely lost or never accquired respect for human soul. For every human being is as meaningful as History itself; each soul is ankered in eternity; each one is determined by thousands of previous generations. �SLOVAKIA 79 We shouldn't have lightheartily thought of the soul of that nation, i. e., of something which is infinitely more complicated than the soul of an individual. We entered Slovakia as parvenus engrossed by our self-importance, without that respect, without that humility. We had believ-ed to bring salvation to the Slovaks and we had dispensed with the attention we owed to the mystery of their unknown and complicated reality. We do not know Slovakia, we do not know the soul of our sister. We have offended it. Therefore, it has closed itself for us. We have entered there as conquerors and a number of our people lacking delicacy call Slovakia a colony, an occupied territory, and tell it into the face of the Slovaks. Out of a series of psychological errors, this one is felt by the Slovaks as the most outrageous. "We had expected brothers, say the Slovaks, but instead there came rulers." Those Czechs of crude and domineering manners have sinned against the spirit; they have sinned by arrogance and contempt. They are guilty and cannot be excused. The selection of Czech public servants for Slovakia should have been better and more careful. People should have been sent there so noble as not to touch even the dust on a butterfly's wings. The Government should have sent there spiritual observers. A manual should have been written and without its message no one should ever have entered this land. It should have contained a gospel of love, respect and tenderness; a message that would not hurt, that would teach how to approach another people without prejudice: a sort of Decalogue of noble principles. Those who were privileged enough to be sent to Slovakia and have sinned there, must straighten out their attitude, correct their behavior, must learn to confront the unexplored soul of the Slovak nation with deference. They must abandon their messianistic slogans. Otherwise they should be revoked. The only important task is to win the love of the Slovaks. This may be difficult for someone who does not have the highest philosophical culture and is unable to keep silent. No there is work over there for a special type of men: for reserved wise men without self-conceit �80 SLOVAKIA and egotism; for those who can keep their mouth shut. Neither people nor man of noble mind are garrulous . Garrulousnes s is the symton of half-educatio n. There are many unbearable people, unable to evolve, who impose their cheap opinions upon their fellow-men be it in religion, culture or politics; who believe in their intellectual superiority; who are convinced that there is nothing above them, for they have achieved the top of their escension. And should circumstance s enhance their belief of bein apostles, woe to those to whom they preach their sad "self-evident truths". Slovakia has been invaded by a number of such people. Uninstructed and unable to learn, they met the soul of that nation, they intruded in it without tact and with false conviction that it was their task to lift up that soul to their own level. False prophets and preachers lacking modesty and introspection , do you realize what kind of people are you dealing with? Can you imagine what is the spiritual key-board of that nation, a key-board on which sound as the highest tone the limitless greatness of Milan R. stefanik's spirit, and as its most natural tone the song of an innocent girl of Zvolen? Can you imagine the spiritual depth of a nation whose soul smiles in suffering and which hides its cristal-line purity behind humor? If you approach the soul of that nation with humbleness, respect and faith, what depth you will discover, what clarity of mind, what wealth! The closer the contact we have with it, the more purified we become. If you meet the soul of that nation with humility, the old Slovakia will reward you with her mysterious beauty, accumulated throughout centuries. To get acquainted with her, to perceive her multiple facets, to stand in rapture before her, must become for us joy. I have never seen a more majestic spectacle. EDUCATED SLOVAKS The human nature of educated Slovaks has so-to-say a key-board by some scales wider than ours. Each one of them displays the sophisticatio n of a Parisian and the naturalness of a shepherd. They are closer to wordly life �SLOVAKIA 81 on a higher level, while they are closer to nature. They are nearer to culture and at the same time to the people. Even though they may be hunters used to strolling through woods, and during hunting periods to staying in huts, they have an external elegance. They speak foreign languages while they enjoy singing the shepherds's songs of their kinsmen, nostalgical calling on their fellow-men from the top of one mountain to another. They live with a music which stems from the mysterious noise of a lonely forest, from the desire to meet people around a stone fireplace burning day and night . They know how to be exhuberant in their merriments, to drink champagne, to enjoy themselves, to break into group singing. They also can spend the whole evening in talking their poetry. They know by heart many pieces of it. And whenever one of them touches a chord, it will resound in another. They recite Sladkovic, Hviezdoslav, Razus . Whenever our performing artists go to Slovakia, they should not think they go to a village. Only real masters, not those of second category, shall venture to go there. The Slovak intelligentsia had seen in Budapest worldfamous artists, an internationally renowned and highly selected art. They will judge our performers by these criteria. Pretentious dilettantes are wrong if they think they go to Asia and behave accordingly. There, they will be scrutinized more severely than they are used to be in our own land and cannot than do harm to our cause. The resentment that prevails now in Slovakia on our behalf will find no complacency' for our dilettantism, and if there is anyone who may help our cause there, it can be only someone able to fascinate the Slovaks and make them overcome their feelings . THE SLOVAK PEOPLE The Slovak is not sentimental; he is tough and does not want to be pitied. He is full of humour, shining with smile. By his witty answers he always puts a fence around himself, thus keeping you at a distance and preventing you from getting at him. �82 SLOVAKIA In a village we spoke at a house corner under the roof shelter with a young woman, mother of seven children. On her arms, she kept her youngest baby, just 6 months. The latter was dressed in a minuscule shirt. She talks and smiles and women and children from the neighborhood, gathered around her, smile at everything they say. There is with me a young lady who would like to have children. I tell it to that young Slovak woman proposing jokingly: "Couldn't you give this youngest baby of yours to her?" The not say answers we shall Slovak woman does not betray her feeling, does she will never give up her baby. Smiling, she she will do it with pleasure and adds: "Yes, and soon have another one!" I look into her bright, full, and healthy face under a white coif. Her smile had spread contagion in that Sunday crowd. Even if she had thirty children, she still would not accept to be pitied. Nobody in Slovakia, either collectively or individually, wants to be pitied. And this inborn pride serves as psychological explanation of many qualities, alleged sensitivities and attitudes difficult to understand. Nor want the Slovaks to be pitied for the Magyar domination. The people is comparatively uninhibited, and not only in the Vah valley. This is not bad. They are a highly intelligent, vivid, smart, humorous and gay people. Their conscience is like a clean sheet of paper. Be careful as you are trying to write on it. You have to approach them with the purest mind. In this respect, God has been more gracious to me than I deserve. He has given me the opportunity to get acquainted there with the souls, the most beautiful souls I have ever met. Long ago, very long ago, He had granted me the privilege of meeting Milan Rastislav Stefanik. He had allowed me to look into his soul that was reflecting dolor, love, despair, tenderness and generosity. As if provided with a magic key, I approached through his soul the soul of his nation, I opened it and gazed into �SLOVAKIA 83 its folds. I do not say I have penetrated inside. I do not affirm I know it; I perhaps shall never reach that point. Whatever I have been allowed to see is enough for me to spend the rest of my life in light and joy. I have watched a people closely related in their minds, united by the juices and delicacies of life, by their homeland, forests, and rivers, by their kinship and friendliness. Over there, in Slovakia, overwhelmed by noble beings, the soul gets calmed and touched with humility. I do not pretend to know much about Slovakia. I ignore whether I shall ever be able to learn more. Yet, I have well known the soul of one of its greatest sons, the . soul of Milan, as they simply call there the dead General Stefanik. His soul had displayed the biggest variety of facets of all the persons I have ever got in contact with in my life. It resounded with vigor and tenderness. It radiated limitless love and strict justice. It was clear, simple, like a child's; it was smiling and innocent. It belonged at the same time to a ruler and to a servant. It was religious and wordly, believing and respectful, inventive and quick-minded. I don't dare to assert I am a specialist on Slovakia: but I have found there the individual components of Milan's soul, the soul which has become for me the key to the soul of his whole nation. There is no genius whose soul would not represent to a high degree all the best qualities with which his nation is endowed, and there is no nation in which it would be impossible to discover the embryo, a sleeping embryo, of its genius' soul. We enter a village and stop in front of the church. The villagers gather around our driver and ask who we are. "They are Americans", answers the driver, thereafter presenting his appologies: "I simply could not tell them you are Czechs, for nobody here likes Czechs." When I was speaking with educated city ladies, and after having realized that in towns there was the same mood as in villages, I felt hurt and told them: �84 SLOVAKIA "We, too, had suffered from hunger for five years during the war and after. And should it be necessary to suffer for two years more in order to share our destiny with you, we would accept that ordeal. Such is our love for you. Why then do you not like us? Whenever we speak about Slovakia, we do it with tears in our eyes. Why do you not love us?" A young girl gave me a thousand-fold answer, she and her group . And if I had to state the contents of that conversation in some short precepts, they would run like this : "You should leave us to live and die in our own way. Do not impose yourselves upon us. Do not overpower us. Do not take from us and our people what we worship and love. Do not offend our feelings. Do not send here third rate officials. Bring here what we are lacking in exchange for our own services." And upon her anwer, I could not do otherwise than lower my head and realize why they do not like us: Well, simply because we have been doing just the oposite. Yes, we have lost any sympathy and the feeling toward Czechs there is nearing the point of hatred. The Slovak intelligentsia is fed up with Czech excesses. inconsistenci es, chaos in jurisdiction, overlookings, in one word, with Czech imperialism. They are tired from tactlessness and arrogance. What they have received is not what they had expected. That someone is responsible for it, it can hardly be denied. And every day passing by without straightening out committed faults cannot but multiply their consequences . The first error consists in that we tried to approach the mysterious soul of that nation with our mechanical concept of life, that we made efforts to force upon them cheap enlightenmen t as a remedy. There may be two sister-nations here; there may be closely related languages; there even may be the same Slav trunk. Yet, how many distinctions! A cliff in the Germanic sea, the Czech lands had throughout centuries been washed up by its waves, while Slovakia is a bridge eastwards. After a period of independ- �SLOVAKIA 85 ence we had lived under the German yoke, while the Slovaks had, nearly during the entire span of their active history, been politically tight up with the Magyars, i. e., a people who have distinct traditions, and whose political and cultural development differs in content and level; with a people-in one word-who are marked by a particular mentality. Since Slovakia was for us a land prohibited, we had been on all sides separated from the Slav race. The Slovaks, instead, had benefited largely by a direct contact with the Slav world, have been, in fact, united with it, and represent its continuation, something like the tail of a multi-colored East-Slav rainbow. What instruction and education should have been given to those Czechs who went to that noble, spiritually richer and brighter land of Slovakia which in this respect towers high above us? What tests of selection should have been applied in order to choose best from among us to be assigned there and pay their respects to the sacred mystery of that country reflecting a shy, non spoiled, creative soul? What should we have done to increase our joy, our own and Slovakia's happiness? For the time being, besides very few good Czechs, there are many pretentious individuals in the military as well as among the various officials who had trampled down a number of serious personalities, institutions and accomplishments. Those Czechs have thereby inflicted considerable damages to Slovakia. As we go around, we hear constantly of an endless series of such sad and regrettable cases. Slovak men tell me about the injustices committed on them by Czechs. A Slovak lady, good looking and of slender stature, listens to them. She evidently suffers that I have to hear those indictments against my nation, and she accasionally interrupts that conversation with polite words. Her husband explains what had been done by soldiers. A group of them entered a restaurant where a highly artistic picture of Empress Maria Theresa was hanging from the wall. They took that picture down, cut it into pieces and caused the private owner a damage amounting to several thousand crowns. �SLOVAKIA 86 The Slovak lady comments: "Perhaps the picture seemed offending to them; but they should have asked the owner to put it away. It was a private object of high value and they should never have cut it into pieces. This is not the question of substance, but of form" - says politely that lady as if she were trying to excuse the malfeasors. Her husband continues: "A soldier enters an inn and orders a sandwich. The innkeeper asks four crowns for it. The soldier refuses to pay protesting against the price. He was right to do so. The innkeeper defends himself: 'The County Administrator had fixed that price!' The soldier, however, does not know what the powers of a County Administrator are. He ignores entirely local conditions. He aggressively adds: 'That Administrator of yours, he is a Magyar sympathiser just as you are!' The County Administrator, a Slovak patriot, is just passing by and learns about the incident. He then addresses himself to the Captain asking for investigation. The Captain, however, rejects his request and takes the soldier under protection. Soldiers had done many ugly things in Slovakia; but you will perhaps say it was a consequence of five year war demoralization. This, of course, may be an explanation; but it is no excuse. Another example : A lower official was sent as mills supervisor to a county in Eastern Slovakia. Instead of taking care of his assignment, that man started spying on every step of the County Administrator and every word of the County Counsel. He went so far as to organize a personal boycott against them. He ran to the Post Office, announced that emergency measures had been taken against the County Administrator and his Counsel, and insisted their telephone connection be cut off. A never heard of, but a real, case! As he was being interrogated, he said: "That's our nature, of us Czechs. We think we must control everybody!" By the investigation of the performance of this supervisor �SLOVAKIA 87 it was proven that he had misappropriated a carload of flour and was keeping two bags of it in his household. A higher official in Prague was sending his organization agent to Slovakia with these words: "He is too rude for Prague; therefore I am sending him to Slovakia." A higher official who ignores what Slovakia is, ignores what her soul is, is then assigning there an executive of whom he knows in advance that the latter lacks the ability of matching that soul. Only those people shall be sent to Slovakia who realize that they will be guests in their brother's family, who will not desecrate, not even by the twinkle of their eyelids, the sanctity of that family; men who have faith, are tolerant and tactful; persons of limitless soul which embraces everything, understands all; those !Who, when confronted with a noble feeling would stand with respect without starting polemics. WHAT ARE OUR SINS Why did our people go to Slovakia? Idealists went there from love, pragmatists with expectations of higher profits. There is still a comperative lack of intelligentsia in Slovakia. It will take one or two generations to fill out this gap. Therefore, to go there, to help them in offices and schools, seems to be quite plausible. What are the principles of this aid? That is a big question! Chaos in this respect is what the Slovaks are strongly complaining about. Administrative offices are being organized. For hiring there must be an alternative requirement: either professionnal qualification or talent and experience. The boss who hires petitioners does not have himself professional qualification. The Slovaks think then that experience should be enough. Lower positions are to be filled out, positions of foresters, for instance. A prominent Slovak politician says: "Forests are state-owned and under the Hungarian regime foresters had been our great enemies. The people live from forestry and foresters had fostered Magyarization. �88 SLOVAKIA Do fill out those positions with reliable people. Put there veteran legionnaires!" He sent to the respective office some Slovak legionnaires who had faught with the American Army and would have been glad to stay in their homeland. Their applications were rejected for lack of qualification. "Well", said the politician, "here there is nothing to be done." The County is subdivided into four forest circuits. In the four Forest Administrative offices there had been an Engineer in Forestry, all of them men about fifty . Above these four engineers, there had been a Head-Administrator, also with higher technical education. The Head died. One of the four engineers, a Slovak and good specialist, came up with the application to succeed. Yet, to the surprise of everybody, a 30-year old Czech with only a secondary education in Forestry, was appointed. Next day, all four Forrest Office administrators resigned and refused to serve under a younger and unqualified man. The prominent politician commented: "If it was possible to disregard qualification requirements in the case of the Head of the County Forest Office, it certainly will be easier to do the same with foresters." As he had learned that 12 positions were open, he advised some veteran legionnaires to petition. The Office rejected them for lack of qualification. It hired instead Czechs, letting Slovak legionnaires return to America. Normally, Czechs are supposed to help, if there is no Slovak candidate. Yet, it is unwise to impose an unqualified public servant, if they have their own candidate. Not only that! It is offending. The above mentioned case is Hersek's. Under the Hungarian regime, no county official could be appointed without the County Administrator's consent. Public Law specialist say that County autonomy has never berm more perfect than at the time of Hungary. And now, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the following happens: �SLOVAKIA 89 A man lives in the County. He is an attorney, a Jew, an old Magyar sympathizer, an agent of the Hungarian Government, dangerous to the Czecho-Slovak State, a person whose hands are not clean. Everybody there would think it twice before shaking hands with this individual. He has been under observation in his residence. He does not have permission even to leave for another county, because the County Administrator intends to put him into confinment. And this man appears in the County Administrator's Office and shows him triumphantly his appointment from Prague as organizer and supervisor of the whole liquor industry in Slovakia. Consequently, a man has been appointed of whom the high Czech authority had never been informed. He has been appointed so-to-say behind the back and against the will of the County Administrator. What channel must have been left open to this man, and what means he must have used to conquer a moral and economic power position in Slovakia? All his antecedents must have been disregarded from the beginning until the end. What is the real power of a Slovak County Administrator, when a simple soldier, protected by his Captain, can throw into his face the accusation of being a Magyar sympathizer, and when an outspoken traitor to the nation can sarcastically parade his appointment decree from Prague before the Administrator's eyes? Do you think there are reasons in Slovakia to like Czechs? Out of the people who for longtime had been under foreign yoke, there are no good statesmen. They sin by reckless speed and narrowmindedness. They construct anywhere, even on sands. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects. � 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 76 SLOVAKIA Ruzena Svobodova's "Fcuilletons ou Slovakia" Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M. C. L., J. D. After the proclamation of Czecho-Slovakia's independence in 1918, disputes arose between Czechs and Slovaks as to the nature of their political and cultural relations in the new state. While the Slovaks thought of partnership, brotherhood and family harmony, the Czechs, having lostafter the defeat of Germany-their Schweik inferiority complex, swung over to the other extreme: the complex of greatness. The Czecho-Slovakia of the Peace Treaties was imposed as "Czechoslovakia" on foreign countries, academies and encyclopedias, and was ruled as Great Czechia by the Prague Government. T. G. Masaryk, E. Benes, and nearly all Czech intellectuals considered Slovakia as a territorial acquisition of the Kingdom of Bohemia, as a generous gift made by the Allied and Associated Powers to the Czechs for their resistance against the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation during the Hussite wars, as a historical reparation of their defeat in the Battle at the White Mountain, 1620, and finally as an endurance prime for having withstood the onslaughts of Pan-Germanism in the 19th century. Among few Czech intellectuals and literary figures who sharply disagreed with the official Great Czechia concept of the new state, there was a lady, novelist and short story writer, Ruzena Svobodova (1868-1920). She had been informed on the problem of Slovakia by Milan Rastislav Stefanik (1880-1919) already during his studies at Charles University in Prague, i. e., before 1904. At that time her house in the capital of Bohemia was a meeting place for a literary and social group which was to play an important role in the Czecho-Slovak political rapprochement. F. X. salda, a prominent literary historian at Prague University, was there a frequent guest. Svobodova and salda became close friends of Stefanik. They visited with him in France as he was working as an astronomer at the Observatory of Meudon, near Paris. SLOVAKIA 77 At the beginning of World War I, Stefanik enlisted in the French Army and reached the grade of General. At the end of the war, besides T. G. Masaryk and E. Benes, he is the only Slovak in the triumvirate of Czecho-Slovakia's liberators. He will become its first Minister of War. On May 4, 1919 the airplane, by which General Stefanik was returning from Italy to his native soil, was shot down by a Czech artillery unit stationed at Bratislava. Ruzena Svobodova must have been shaken by grief at such a horrible news, and particularly at the Government's suspicious refusal to publish all the facts of this accident. Thereafter, she travelled across Slovakia to pay-as it were-her last respect to Stefanik, and also to get acquainted with his homeland and its people. She then wrote a series of feuilletons dealing with several aspects of Slovak life and particularly with errors of the Czech official policy committed in Slovakia. They remained unpublished in her desk long after she died in 1920. No Czech magazine would accepted to give publicity to facts so shocking, while no Slovak periodical would have been allowed to do so without being victimized by the censor of the "democratic" regime represented by T . G. Masaryk and E. Benes. In 1930 it came to a Kulturkampf in Matica Slovenska, the Slovak Institute of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1863 in Turciansky Sv. Martin. According to official Czech designs aiming at cultural and linguistic assimilation of Slovakia, several important positions in that institution had been held by Czechs, among whom Frantisek Hermansky and Vaclav Vazny. How these Great Czechia promoters, hidden in the garb of professional linguists, had become leading officials in that old institution consecrated to national culture and language, may be a mystery for those who are not familiar with the devious methods of Benes' power politics. It was their purpose to gradually narrow the existing gap between the Czech and Slovak languages in bringing the Slovak vocabulatry< and style closer to the Czech. Their tendency was to find however, a definite opposition in the group of Slovak linguists: Jan Mihal, Anton Janosik, Henrik Bartek, Jozef Martinka, etc., led by the Director of the Matica, Prof. Jozef Skultety. This conflict produced an explosive cultural atmosphere and troubled considerably Czecho-Slovak political relations. 78 SLOVAKIA At that time, Stefan Krcmery, a renown Slovak poet, was editor in chief of Slovenske Pohl'ady, a literary review, founded in 1846. Trying to avoid personal polemics and decided to cast some light on the behavior of Czech officials in Slovakia, he thought the feuilletons of Ruzena Svobodova would serve very well his purpose. He prepared them for publication in Vol. 46 of Slovenske Pohl'ady, No. 5-8, 1930. From the repetition of certain issues it is evident that R. Svobodova did not intend to have them published at the same time. Krcmery, however, to give them a cumulative meaning, did do just so, or rather, he had the intention to do so. No sooner had that summer issue of Slovenske Pohl'ady left the presses of the Printing Corporation in Turciansky Sv. Martin, than the censor confiscated the whole edition. Those essays of Ruzena Svobodova apparently were menacing nothing less than the unity and the reason of the state. Since then, they have not been reprinted either in Czech or in Slovak. As we bring them here in an English translation, we would like hereby to honor the courage, friendship, honesty and perspicacity of Ruzena Svobodova, all these virtues displayed at the time, when nearly all the Czechs, following the example of T. G. Masaryk and E. Benes, were drunk of the Great Czechia dream and treated Slovakia as a conquerred territory. THE SOUL OF THE SLOVAK NATION We are confronted with the soul of a different nation. Have we ever been faced with a greater mystery? How shall we enter the temple which is not ours? Could it be otherwise than highest respect as it fits when approaching a different psyche, even though it may be a brother's psyche? Is it possible to penetrate with enough tenderness, enough respect, enough care a distinct soul or its spiritual temple, the greatest of its constructions? Only a man whose wiring with the mysterious soul of the world had been broken could have entirely lost or never accquired respect for human soul. For every human being is as meaningful as History itself; each soul is ankered in eternity; each one is determined by thousands of previous generations. SLOVAKIA 79 We shouldn't have lightheartily thought of the soul of that nation, i. e., of something which is infinitely more complicated than the soul of an individual. We entered Slovakia as parvenus engrossed by our self-importance, without that respect, without that humility. We had believ-ed to bring salvation to the Slovaks and we had dispensed with the attention we owed to the mystery of their unknown and complicated reality. We do not know Slovakia, we do not know the soul of our sister. We have offended it. Therefore, it has closed itself for us. We have entered there as conquerors and a number of our people lacking delicacy call Slovakia a colony, an occupied territory, and tell it into the face of the Slovaks. Out of a series of psychological errors, this one is felt by the Slovaks as the most outrageous. "We had expected brothers, say the Slovaks, but instead there came rulers." Those Czechs of crude and domineering manners have sinned against the spirit; they have sinned by arrogance and contempt. They are guilty and cannot be excused. The selection of Czech public servants for Slovakia should have been better and more careful. People should have been sent there so noble as not to touch even the dust on a butterfly's wings. The Government should have sent there spiritual observers. A manual should have been written and without its message no one should ever have entered this land. It should have contained a gospel of love, respect and tenderness; a message that would not hurt, that would teach how to approach another people without prejudice: a sort of Decalogue of noble principles. Those who were privileged enough to be sent to Slovakia and have sinned there, must straighten out their attitude, correct their behavior, must learn to confront the unexplored soul of the Slovak nation with deference. They must abandon their messianistic slogans. Otherwise they should be revoked. The only important task is to win the love of the Slovaks. This may be difficult for someone who does not have the highest philosophical culture and is unable to keep silent. No there is work over there for a special type of men: for reserved wise men without self-conceit 80 SLOVAKIA and egotism; for those who can keep their mouth shut. Neither people nor man of noble mind are garrulous . Garrulousnes s is the symton of half-educatio n. There are many unbearable people, unable to evolve, who impose their cheap opinions upon their fellow-men be it in religion, culture or politics; who believe in their intellectual superiority; who are convinced that there is nothing above them, for they have achieved the top of their escension. And should circumstance s enhance their belief of bein apostles, woe to those to whom they preach their sad "self-evident truths". Slovakia has been invaded by a number of such people. Uninstructed and unable to learn, they met the soul of that nation, they intruded in it without tact and with false conviction that it was their task to lift up that soul to their own level. False prophets and preachers lacking modesty and introspection , do you realize what kind of people are you dealing with? Can you imagine what is the spiritual key-board of that nation, a key-board on which sound as the highest tone the limitless greatness of Milan R. stefanik's spirit, and as its most natural tone the song of an innocent girl of Zvolen? Can you imagine the spiritual depth of a nation whose soul smiles in suffering and which hides its cristal-line purity behind humor? If you approach the soul of that nation with humbleness, respect and faith, what depth you will discover, what clarity of mind, what wealth! The closer the contact we have with it, the more purified we become. If you meet the soul of that nation with humility, the old Slovakia will reward you with her mysterious beauty, accumulated throughout centuries. To get acquainted with her, to perceive her multiple facets, to stand in rapture before her, must become for us joy. I have never seen a more majestic spectacle. EDUCATED SLOVAKS The human nature of educated Slovaks has so-to-say a key-board by some scales wider than ours. Each one of them displays the sophisticatio n of a Parisian and the naturalness of a shepherd. They are closer to wordly life SLOVAKIA 81 on a higher level, while they are closer to nature. They are nearer to culture and at the same time to the people. Even though they may be hunters used to strolling through woods, and during hunting periods to staying in huts, they have an external elegance. They speak foreign languages while they enjoy singing the shepherds's songs of their kinsmen, nostalgical calling on their fellow-men from the top of one mountain to another. They live with a music which stems from the mysterious noise of a lonely forest, from the desire to meet people around a stone fireplace burning day and night . They know how to be exhuberant in their merriments, to drink champagne, to enjoy themselves, to break into group singing. They also can spend the whole evening in talking their poetry. They know by heart many pieces of it. And whenever one of them touches a chord, it will resound in another. They recite Sladkovic, Hviezdoslav, Razus . Whenever our performing artists go to Slovakia, they should not think they go to a village. Only real masters, not those of second category, shall venture to go there. The Slovak intelligentsia had seen in Budapest worldfamous artists, an internationally renowned and highly selected art. They will judge our performers by these criteria. Pretentious dilettantes are wrong if they think they go to Asia and behave accordingly. There, they will be scrutinized more severely than they are used to be in our own land and cannot than do harm to our cause. The resentment that prevails now in Slovakia on our behalf will find no complacency' for our dilettantism, and if there is anyone who may help our cause there, it can be only someone able to fascinate the Slovaks and make them overcome their feelings . THE SLOVAK PEOPLE The Slovak is not sentimental; he is tough and does not want to be pitied. He is full of humour, shining with smile. By his witty answers he always puts a fence around himself, thus keeping you at a distance and preventing you from getting at him. 82 SLOVAKIA In a village we spoke at a house corner under the roof shelter with a young woman, mother of seven children. On her arms, she kept her youngest baby, just 6 months. The latter was dressed in a minuscule shirt. She talks and smiles and women and children from the neighborhood, gathered around her, smile at everything they say. There is with me a young lady who would like to have children. I tell it to that young Slovak woman proposing jokingly: "Couldn't you give this youngest baby of yours to her?" The not say answers we shall Slovak woman does not betray her feeling, does she will never give up her baby. Smiling, she she will do it with pleasure and adds: "Yes, and soon have another one!" I look into her bright, full, and healthy face under a white coif. Her smile had spread contagion in that Sunday crowd. Even if she had thirty children, she still would not accept to be pitied. Nobody in Slovakia, either collectively or individually, wants to be pitied. And this inborn pride serves as psychological explanation of many qualities, alleged sensitivities and attitudes difficult to understand. Nor want the Slovaks to be pitied for the Magyar domination. The people is comparatively uninhibited, and not only in the Vah valley. This is not bad. They are a highly intelligent, vivid, smart, humorous and gay people. Their conscience is like a clean sheet of paper. Be careful as you are trying to write on it. You have to approach them with the purest mind. In this respect, God has been more gracious to me than I deserve. He has given me the opportunity to get acquainted there with the souls, the most beautiful souls I have ever met. Long ago, very long ago, He had granted me the privilege of meeting Milan Rastislav Stefanik. He had allowed me to look into his soul that was reflecting dolor, love, despair, tenderness and generosity. As if provided with a magic key, I approached through his soul the soul of his nation, I opened it and gazed into SLOVAKIA 83 its folds. I do not say I have penetrated inside. I do not affirm I know it; I perhaps shall never reach that point. Whatever I have been allowed to see is enough for me to spend the rest of my life in light and joy. I have watched a people closely related in their minds, united by the juices and delicacies of life, by their homeland, forests, and rivers, by their kinship and friendliness. Over there, in Slovakia, overwhelmed by noble beings, the soul gets calmed and touched with humility. I do not pretend to know much about Slovakia. I ignore whether I shall ever be able to learn more. Yet, I have well known the soul of one of its greatest sons, the . soul of Milan, as they simply call there the dead General Stefanik. His soul had displayed the biggest variety of facets of all the persons I have ever got in contact with in my life. It resounded with vigor and tenderness. It radiated limitless love and strict justice. It was clear, simple, like a child's; it was smiling and innocent. It belonged at the same time to a ruler and to a servant. It was religious and wordly, believing and respectful, inventive and quick-minded. I don't dare to assert I am a specialist on Slovakia: but I have found there the individual components of Milan's soul, the soul which has become for me the key to the soul of his whole nation. There is no genius whose soul would not represent to a high degree all the best qualities with which his nation is endowed, and there is no nation in which it would be impossible to discover the embryo, a sleeping embryo, of its genius' soul. We enter a village and stop in front of the church. The villagers gather around our driver and ask who we are. "They are Americans", answers the driver, thereafter presenting his appologies: "I simply could not tell them you are Czechs, for nobody here likes Czechs." When I was speaking with educated city ladies, and after having realized that in towns there was the same mood as in villages, I felt hurt and told them: 84 SLOVAKIA "We, too, had suffered from hunger for five years during the war and after. And should it be necessary to suffer for two years more in order to share our destiny with you, we would accept that ordeal. Such is our love for you. Why then do you not like us? Whenever we speak about Slovakia, we do it with tears in our eyes. Why do you not love us?" A young girl gave me a thousand-fold answer, she and her group . And if I had to state the contents of that conversation in some short precepts, they would run like this : "You should leave us to live and die in our own way. Do not impose yourselves upon us. Do not overpower us. Do not take from us and our people what we worship and love. Do not offend our feelings. Do not send here third rate officials. Bring here what we are lacking in exchange for our own services." And upon her anwer, I could not do otherwise than lower my head and realize why they do not like us: Well, simply because we have been doing just the oposite. Yes, we have lost any sympathy and the feeling toward Czechs there is nearing the point of hatred. The Slovak intelligentsia is fed up with Czech excesses. inconsistenci es, chaos in jurisdiction, overlookings, in one word, with Czech imperialism. They are tired from tactlessness and arrogance. What they have received is not what they had expected. That someone is responsible for it, it can hardly be denied. And every day passing by without straightening out committed faults cannot but multiply their consequences . The first error consists in that we tried to approach the mysterious soul of that nation with our mechanical concept of life, that we made efforts to force upon them cheap enlightenmen t as a remedy. There may be two sister-nations here; there may be closely related languages; there even may be the same Slav trunk. Yet, how many distinctions! A cliff in the Germanic sea, the Czech lands had throughout centuries been washed up by its waves, while Slovakia is a bridge eastwards. After a period of independ- SLOVAKIA 85 ence we had lived under the German yoke, while the Slovaks had, nearly during the entire span of their active history, been politically tight up with the Magyars, i. e., a people who have distinct traditions, and whose political and cultural development differs in content and level; with a people-in one word-who are marked by a particular mentality. Since Slovakia was for us a land prohibited, we had been on all sides separated from the Slav race. The Slovaks, instead, had benefited largely by a direct contact with the Slav world, have been, in fact, united with it, and represent its continuation, something like the tail of a multi-colored East-Slav rainbow. What instruction and education should have been given to those Czechs who went to that noble, spiritually richer and brighter land of Slovakia which in this respect towers high above us? What tests of selection should have been applied in order to choose best from among us to be assigned there and pay their respects to the sacred mystery of that country reflecting a shy, non spoiled, creative soul? What should we have done to increase our joy, our own and Slovakia's happiness? For the time being, besides very few good Czechs, there are many pretentious individuals in the military as well as among the various officials who had trampled down a number of serious personalities, institutions and accomplishments. Those Czechs have thereby inflicted considerable damages to Slovakia. As we go around, we hear constantly of an endless series of such sad and regrettable cases. Slovak men tell me about the injustices committed on them by Czechs. A Slovak lady, good looking and of slender stature, listens to them. She evidently suffers that I have to hear those indictments against my nation, and she accasionally interrupts that conversation with polite words. Her husband explains what had been done by soldiers. A group of them entered a restaurant where a highly artistic picture of Empress Maria Theresa was hanging from the wall. They took that picture down, cut it into pieces and caused the private owner a damage amounting to several thousand crowns. SLOVAKIA 86 The Slovak lady comments: "Perhaps the picture seemed offending to them; but they should have asked the owner to put it away. It was a private object of high value and they should never have cut it into pieces. This is not the question of substance, but of form" - says politely that lady as if she were trying to excuse the malfeasors. Her husband continues: "A soldier enters an inn and orders a sandwich. The innkeeper asks four crowns for it. The soldier refuses to pay protesting against the price. He was right to do so. The innkeeper defends himself: 'The County Administrator had fixed that price!' The soldier, however, does not know what the powers of a County Administrator are. He ignores entirely local conditions. He aggressively adds: 'That Administrator of yours, he is a Magyar sympathiser just as you are!' The County Administrator, a Slovak patriot, is just passing by and learns about the incident. He then addresses himself to the Captain asking for investigation. The Captain, however, rejects his request and takes the soldier under protection. Soldiers had done many ugly things in Slovakia; but you will perhaps say it was a consequence of five year war demoralization. This, of course, may be an explanation; but it is no excuse. Another example : A lower official was sent as mills supervisor to a county in Eastern Slovakia. Instead of taking care of his assignment, that man started spying on every step of the County Administrator and every word of the County Counsel. He went so far as to organize a personal boycott against them. He ran to the Post Office, announced that emergency measures had been taken against the County Administrator and his Counsel, and insisted their telephone connection be cut off. A never heard of, but a real, case! As he was being interrogated, he said: "That's our nature, of us Czechs. We think we must control everybody!" By the investigation of the performance of this supervisor SLOVAKIA 87 it was proven that he had misappropriated a carload of flour and was keeping two bags of it in his household. A higher official in Prague was sending his organization agent to Slovakia with these words: "He is too rude for Prague; therefore I am sending him to Slovakia." A higher official who ignores what Slovakia is, ignores what her soul is, is then assigning there an executive of whom he knows in advance that the latter lacks the ability of matching that soul. Only those people shall be sent to Slovakia who realize that they will be guests in their brother's family, who will not desecrate, not even by the twinkle of their eyelids, the sanctity of that family; men who have faith, are tolerant and tactful; persons of limitless soul which embraces everything, understands all; those !Who, when confronted with a noble feeling would stand with respect without starting polemics. WHAT ARE OUR SINS Why did our people go to Slovakia? Idealists went there from love, pragmatists with expectations of higher profits. There is still a comperative lack of intelligentsia in Slovakia. It will take one or two generations to fill out this gap. Therefore, to go there, to help them in offices and schools, seems to be quite plausible. What are the principles of this aid? That is a big question! Chaos in this respect is what the Slovaks are strongly complaining about. Administrative offices are being organized. For hiring there must be an alternative requirement: either professionnal qualification or talent and experience. The boss who hires petitioners does not have himself professional qualification. The Slovaks think then that experience should be enough. Lower positions are to be filled out, positions of foresters, for instance. A prominent Slovak politician says: "Forests are state-owned and under the Hungarian regime foresters had been our great enemies. The people live from forestry and foresters had fostered Magyarization. 88 SLOVAKIA Do fill out those positions with reliable people. Put there veteran legionnaires!" He sent to the respective office some Slovak legionnaires who had faught with the American Army and would have been glad to stay in their homeland. Their applications were rejected for lack of qualification. "Well", said the politician, "here there is nothing to be done." The County is subdivided into four forest circuits. In the four Forest Administrative offices there had been an Engineer in Forestry, all of them men about fifty . Above these four engineers, there had been a Head-Administrator, also with higher technical education. The Head died. One of the four engineers, a Slovak and good specialist, came up with the application to succeed. Yet, to the surprise of everybody, a 30-year old Czech with only a secondary education in Forestry, was appointed. Next day, all four Forrest Office administrators resigned and refused to serve under a younger and unqualified man. The prominent politician commented: "If it was possible to disregard qualification requirements in the case of the Head of the County Forest Office, it certainly will be easier to do the same with foresters." As he had learned that 12 positions were open, he advised some veteran legionnaires to petition. The Office rejected them for lack of qualification. It hired instead Czechs, letting Slovak legionnaires return to America. Normally, Czechs are supposed to help, if there is no Slovak candidate. Yet, it is unwise to impose an unqualified public servant, if they have their own candidate. Not only that! It is offending. The above mentioned case is Hersek's. Under the Hungarian regime, no county official could be appointed without the County Administrator's consent. Public Law specialist say that County autonomy has never berm more perfect than at the time of Hungary. And now, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the following happens: SLOVAKIA 89 A man lives in the County. He is an attorney, a Jew, an old Magyar sympathizer, an agent of the Hungarian Government, dangerous to the Czecho-Slovak State, a person whose hands are not clean. Everybody there would think it twice before shaking hands with this individual. He has been under observation in his residence. He does not have permission even to leave for another county, because the County Administrator intends to put him into confinment. And this man appears in the County Administrator's Office and shows him triumphantly his appointment from Prague as organizer and supervisor of the whole liquor industry in Slovakia. Consequently, a man has been appointed of whom the high Czech authority had never been informed. He has been appointed so-to-say behind the back and against the will of the County Administrator. What channel must have been left open to this man, and what means he must have used to conquer a moral and economic power position in Slovakia? All his antecedents must have been disregarded from the beginning until the end. What is the real power of a Slovak County Administrator, when a simple soldier, protected by his Captain, can throw into his face the accusation of being a Magyar sympathizer, and when an outspoken traitor to the nation can sarcastically parade his appointment decree from Prague before the Administrator's eyes? Do you think there are reasons in Slovakia to like Czechs? Out of the people who for longtime had been under foreign yoke, there are no good statesmen. They sin by reckless speed and narrowmindedness. They construct anywhere, even on sands. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects.  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 Ružena Svobodová's "Feuilletons on Slovakia" Description An account of the resource Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L., J.D. Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 76-89 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mikuš, Joseph A., 1909-2005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/acbca4aeaa05e6bb55a55bf2bfdc621d.pdf 7d140315605c3634d449e1a8dba15357 PDF Text Text 70 SLOVAKIA Dr. Francis I-Irusovsky - the Man (1903 -1956) Francis Hrusovsky was eminently a historian. He could have distinguished himself by a career at the University of Bratislav;i even under the tutelage of the Czech professor Chaloupecky. Chaloupecky realized that this young collegian's views were radically opposed to his own outlook but he entertained high esteem for the youth. It was a regard which Hrusovsky merited because of his consistent gravity, his critical acumen, and his broad knowledge . But on completing his university training, Hrusovsky decided on a different course in life. There happened to be a vacancy for the headmasteship at the Catholic Slovak high school or gymnazium at Klastor pod Znievom and Hrusovsky chose to make application for this post. It was not considered an enviable position by reason of the fact that the institution was yoked with financial difficulties and very often the first of the month found the administration really straitened about meeting the payroll. Moreover, the school faced an expansion program wn.ich complicated financial matters to an even greater degree. Nevertheless, Hrusovsky did not decide on the assured security and prestige of a university chair in preference to this position which was less rewarding in material values. He became the school's principal and he made of it the intellectual center: which Bishop Stefan l.VIoyses, its founder , had hoped that it would become. This particular gymnazium was the only institution which bore upon its facade the inscription SLOVAK GYMNAZIUM (SLOVENSKE GYMNAZIUM ); all other similar schools were inscribed as being "CZECHO-SLOVAK". It is n et clear just how this detail escaped the notice of the civic authorities at the time, but the point is that Dr. Hrusovsky was singularly proud of such a d istinctive designation on his school. And it was, in reality, the only true SLOVAK gymnazium, not merely in name, but also in spirit and purpose. It was my privilege to come here often. And each visit �71 SLOVAKIA proved to be a refreshing experience. Perhaps there had never yet bee.a as demanding a headmaster as was Hrusovsky, but certainly there never yet was one who had been so universally loved and respected. "Pan direktor" - that was his title, and it was a designation or an appellation by which we understand without question and immediately that the reference was to Dr. Hrusovsky and to him alone . The greatest penalty meted out to an unhappy offender was to hear from pdn direktor no word about the transgression. Once I happened to be in his school office with him when a student approached with an explanation and apology. "Did I say anything to you?" said pdn direktor to the offender in a tone of voice which betrayed no warmth. "Well, that's just it, pan direktor; that's the point. You said not a word," the student complained. Even here in these circumstances of our emigration, his students often sought out their pan direktor. They confidently referred to him for counsel and always parted from him strengthened and imbued with resolution. Hrusovsky never recommended unconsiderate or rash and merely contentious conflict; he did encourage vigorous effort and he endorsed even justified force that was deliberate and purposeful. * * -l(· Hrusovsky was one of the most highly regarded members of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic ( 19381946 ) . We happened to serve together on various committees. I learned that he looked even upon present-day problems with the disposition of a serious historian, and it was especially at our committee sessions that a comparison of the past with the present helped to resolve our difficulties and to ease our task. HP was not given to frequent expression in Parliament but when he did speak, he delivered a speech that left a lasting impression. Although he was able to speak without prolonged preparation, he always took pains to prepare his parliamentary addresses with care. Every sentence, every word was selected for a specific purpose and a particular significance. These addresses are of. such merit that one day they will be embodied in handbooks of public speaking as classic creations. The thought-content as well as the delivery and all that was connected with these �SLOVAKIA 72 addresses was thoroughly studied and weighed, and it took on a classic aspect. I believe that I derogate from no one's merits of fame when I judg·e that Hrusovsky was one of the best speakers of the Slovak nation within the past century. Frequently Hrusovsky was also the speaker of the day in villages and towns celebrating this or that occasion. Very many people must recall these celebrations with a deep sense of appreciation of his gifts. * * * * * * One of the interests of Dr. Hrusovsky's special predilection was the Slovak Institute of Arts and Sciences (Matica slovenska) . As chairman of various science departments and as secretary of the history department of the Slovak Inst.i tute of Arts and Sciences, he contributed a great deal to the organization of scientific pursuits and undertakings in Slovakia. His was no mean responsibility. He had accomplished very much, he had a great deal of work in progress and even in the very last evening of his life he had discussed several long-standing plans which he helped to realize in some future day that would grant a happy return to the homeland. A certain Slovak political leader who was engaged in conversation with Dr. Hrusovsky remarked that at this point it was quite beyond him even to imagine a return to his former calling, absorbed as he had become with national politics. Dr. Hrusovsky observed, "With me it is quite the contrary. What I can most readily imagine and what would give me the greatest satisfaction right at this moment would be to return to the teaching field back in a gymnazium." It was most natural and logical that on the death of Karol Sidor. Hrusovsky should succeed to the presidency of the Slovak National Council Abroad. Never at home, and much less in exile, did he aspire to public office. In response to the insistence of his friends and colleagues, however, he finally yielded to this extent that he agreed to undertake whatever responsibilities the members of the SNCA: should decide to entrust to him. He conoeived of this office as a service to the nation. Two days before his death we were occupied in discussion �SLOVAKIA 73 until midnight. When he became engrossed in the subject of Slovakia, his eyes shone brilliantly. He said that evening, and he repeated it with emphasis several times, that when our nation attains its freedom and independence, not one of us may presume pretensions to a privileged position at home. Ours is only the duty here in a new land, which affords us liberty and the opportunity to live unshackled by that terror which dominates all life at home, to devote ourselves to work for our nation. This it one of the most important comictions which each one of us must grasp. Anyone who would arrogate to himself special advantages or favors at home in return for his labor in exile is not welcome in our midst. On the other hand, he continued, qualified and deserving individuals will be fully appreciated at home in due time; they will be in demand, and there need be no apprehensions that any worthy individual will receive less than his due. It behooves us all to be reasonable, non-extremist, and to do our utmost in behalf of the Slovak cause in extra-territorial circumstances. This is the spirit in which Dr. Hrusovsky dedicated himself to his nation throughout his whole life. * * * This column would be incomplete were I to omit recollections from Rome in the years 1945-1947. Those were trying times. We lived in constant danger of being overtaken and apprehended and committed to our foes. Terrific pressure was being put on Italian officialdom but Italian authorities, won to sympathy especially by contacts which Karol Sidor had established with them, withstood and resisted this pressure successfully. Rome captured Hrusovsky heart. Day after day he frequented the Vatican library and he devoted himself particularly to a study of the earliest relationships between the Vatican and Slovakia. His finished work on this subject was published. When it was not a jaunt to the library that he planned, we went out together, tramping the streets of Rome, touring its boulevards and market places, and visiting its shrines and churches. Hrusovsky had so intimate a know- �SLOVA KIA 74 ledge of ancien t Roman villages and countr y sites that when he began to relate what happen ed in this or that locality , or how a place had disting uished itself, his listene r lost all contac t with time and becam e wholly unawa re that planes roared in the sky, that trolley s jangled in the streets , that cars raced by. Lost in the spell of Hrusov sky's words, one re-lived the glory of ancien t days. Before one's eyes the Roman Empir e same to life again. Hrusov sky had a rare genius for creatin g this kind of atmosp here . It was this type of histori cal presen tation that also held the key to his eminen t succes s as a classro om lecture r. Just as in Rome he made Roman history live before our eyes, so did he regale his studen ts in Slovak ia with Slovak history . Just as Jan Holly over a hundre d years ago captiva ted and instruc ted the followe rs of stur, so did Hrusov sky inspire and educat e his high school studen ts in the gymna zium. It was in this manne r, too, that he held audien ces spellbo und when he deliver ed occasio nal addres ses at the various celebra tions in Slovak villages and towns. That was his life; that was his life's work : to conjur e an authen tic image of the true greatne ss and the true glory of the distant past, to bridge the gap betwee n the presen t and the past and then to forecas t and build a more prospe rous Slovak future. * * * * * * There is a very large numbe r of Hrusov sky's addres ses and articles in which he develo ped the subjec t of Slovak stateho od. There have been many oppone nts to Slovak ia's aspirat ions to stateho od but not one of them has been able to foil or to refute the iron logic of Hrusov sky's argum ents in its favor. In the past, the works of the most popula r Slovak writers were publish ed in edition s runnin g to several hundre d copies. Never yet, howev er, did any Slovak book win such ready and such wide-s pread popula rity as did Hrusov sky's SLOVAK HISTO RY. It was the first comple te survey of our Slovak histori cal record. Prepar ed as it was by Dr. Hrusov sky the first Slovak histori an of learnin g and of note, it presen ted to the Slovak nation a continu ous reel of absorb ing scenes from its past. We were all agree- �75 SLOVAKIA ably surprised when edition upon edition of his work was exhausted so that by 1945 when Hrusovsky was leaving Slovakia, over one hundred thousand copies of this book were in the hands of the Slovak people. This volume of Hrusovsky's HISTORY found its way even into homes where formerly hardly another book had been brought besides the prayer book and an infrequent almanac or annual. Hrusovsky's book was written in a style which had been so often recommended to us by Karol Sidor who repeatedly reminded us to write clearly, simply, so that even our unschooled parents in remote hamlets would have no difficulty in following and understanding what we wrote. That was its stylistic merit. In content, this HISTORY is prepared with so scholarly an approach-with restraint, with fairmindedness, with an objective outlook -that it serves as a substantial refreshment for both the educated classes and for the less privileged. With this Yolume, which the new regime proscribed Hrusovsky turned in Slovak national life so deep 1945, in and so broad a furrow that no foreign usurpers can succeed in leveling it even in the course of years of effort. Even today reports from home reveal that this is the book which is still the most widely read Slovak work and the most frequently S()ught book in the black markets where, alas, an enormous number of Slovak writings are listed. * * * In the early of 1945 it was rumored that Communist partisans captured and executed Hrusovsky. Thank God, it was not so. The partisans were defeated; they retreated and Hrusovsky returned home. His first visit took him to Brestovany to see his mother. It is understandable that she embraced him warmly and held him close to her heart. Shortly after the exaltation of their meeting, however, she bravely reminded him, "For a great cause, it is a worthy thing even to die, my son. And Slovak statehood is a great cause." Dr. Hrusovsky often repeated these words and commented, "Our peasant mothers embody much of the heroism of ancient Rome's noble matrons." K. Culen � 70 SLOVAKIA Dr. Francis I-Irusovsky - the Man (1903 -1956) Francis Hrusovsky was eminently a historian. He could have distinguished himself by a career at the University of Bratislav;i even under the tutelage of the Czech professor Chaloupecky. Chaloupecky realized that this young collegian's views were radically opposed to his own outlook but he entertained high esteem for the youth. It was a regard which Hrusovsky merited because of his consistent gravity, his critical acumen, and his broad knowledge . But on completing his university training, Hrusovsky decided on a different course in life. There happened to be a vacancy for the headmasteship at the Catholic Slovak high school or gymnazium at Klastor pod Znievom and Hrusovsky chose to make application for this post. It was not considered an enviable position by reason of the fact that the institution was yoked with financial difficulties and very often the first of the month found the administration really straitened about meeting the payroll. Moreover, the school faced an expansion program wn.ich complicated financial matters to an even greater degree. Nevertheless, Hrusovsky did not decide on the assured security and prestige of a university chair in preference to this position which was less rewarding in material values. He became the school's principal and he made of it the intellectual center: which Bishop Stefan l.VIoyses, its founder , had hoped that it would become. This particular gymnazium was the only institution which bore upon its facade the inscription SLOVAK GYMNAZIUM (SLOVENSKE GYMNAZIUM ); all other similar schools were inscribed as being "CZECHO-SLOVAK". It is n et clear just how this detail escaped the notice of the civic authorities at the time, but the point is that Dr. Hrusovsky was singularly proud of such a d istinctive designation on his school. And it was, in reality, the only true SLOVAK gymnazium, not merely in name, but also in spirit and purpose. It was my privilege to come here often. And each visit �71 SLOVAKIA proved to be a refreshing experience. Perhaps there had never yet bee.a as demanding a headmaster as was Hrusovsky, but certainly there never yet was one who had been so universally loved and respected. "Pan direktor" - that was his title, and it was a designation or an appellation by which we understand without question and immediately that the reference was to Dr. Hrusovsky and to him alone . The greatest penalty meted out to an unhappy offender was to hear from pdn direktor no word about the transgression. Once I happened to be in his school office with him when a student approached with an explanation and apology. "Did I say anything to you?" said pdn direktor to the offender in a tone of voice which betrayed no warmth. "Well, that's just it, pan direktor; that's the point. You said not a word," the student complained. Even here in these circumstances of our emigration, his students often sought out their pan direktor. They confidently referred to him for counsel and always parted from him strengthened and imbued with resolution. Hrusovsky never recommended unconsiderate or rash and merely contentious conflict; he did encourage vigorous effort and he endorsed even justified force that was deliberate and purposeful. * * -l(· Hrusovsky was one of the most highly regarded members of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic ( 19381946 ) . We happened to serve together on various committees. I learned that he looked even upon present-day problems with the disposition of a serious historian, and it was especially at our committee sessions that a comparison of the past with the present helped to resolve our difficulties and to ease our task. HP was not given to frequent expression in Parliament but when he did speak, he delivered a speech that left a lasting impression. Although he was able to speak without prolonged preparation, he always took pains to prepare his parliamentary addresses with care. Every sentence, every word was selected for a specific purpose and a particular significance. These addresses are of. such merit that one day they will be embodied in handbooks of public speaking as classic creations. The thought-content as well as the delivery and all that was connected with these �SLOVAKIA 72 addresses was thoroughly studied and weighed, and it took on a classic aspect. I believe that I derogate from no one's merits of fame when I judg·e that Hrusovsky was one of the best speakers of the Slovak nation within the past century. Frequently Hrusovsky was also the speaker of the day in villages and towns celebrating this or that occasion. Very many people must recall these celebrations with a deep sense of appreciation of his gifts. * * * * * * One of the interests of Dr. Hrusovsky's special predilection was the Slovak Institute of Arts and Sciences (Matica slovenska) . As chairman of various science departments and as secretary of the history department of the Slovak Inst.i tute of Arts and Sciences, he contributed a great deal to the organization of scientific pursuits and undertakings in Slovakia. His was no mean responsibility. He had accomplished very much, he had a great deal of work in progress and even in the very last evening of his life he had discussed several long-standing plans which he helped to realize in some future day that would grant a happy return to the homeland. A certain Slovak political leader who was engaged in conversation with Dr. Hrusovsky remarked that at this point it was quite beyond him even to imagine a return to his former calling, absorbed as he had become with national politics. Dr. Hrusovsky observed, "With me it is quite the contrary. What I can most readily imagine and what would give me the greatest satisfaction right at this moment would be to return to the teaching field back in a gymnazium." It was most natural and logical that on the death of Karol Sidor. Hrusovsky should succeed to the presidency of the Slovak National Council Abroad. Never at home, and much less in exile, did he aspire to public office. In response to the insistence of his friends and colleagues, however, he finally yielded to this extent that he agreed to undertake whatever responsibilities the members of the SNCA: should decide to entrust to him. He conoeived of this office as a service to the nation. Two days before his death we were occupied in discussion �SLOVAKIA 73 until midnight. When he became engrossed in the subject of Slovakia, his eyes shone brilliantly. He said that evening, and he repeated it with emphasis several times, that when our nation attains its freedom and independence, not one of us may presume pretensions to a privileged position at home. Ours is only the duty here in a new land, which affords us liberty and the opportunity to live unshackled by that terror which dominates all life at home, to devote ourselves to work for our nation. This it one of the most important comictions which each one of us must grasp. Anyone who would arrogate to himself special advantages or favors at home in return for his labor in exile is not welcome in our midst. On the other hand, he continued, qualified and deserving individuals will be fully appreciated at home in due time; they will be in demand, and there need be no apprehensions that any worthy individual will receive less than his due. It behooves us all to be reasonable, non-extremist, and to do our utmost in behalf of the Slovak cause in extra-territorial circumstances. This is the spirit in which Dr. Hrusovsky dedicated himself to his nation throughout his whole life. * * * This column would be incomplete were I to omit recollections from Rome in the years 1945-1947. Those were trying times. We lived in constant danger of being overtaken and apprehended and committed to our foes. Terrific pressure was being put on Italian officialdom but Italian authorities, won to sympathy especially by contacts which Karol Sidor had established with them, withstood and resisted this pressure successfully. Rome captured Hrusovsky heart. Day after day he frequented the Vatican library and he devoted himself particularly to a study of the earliest relationships between the Vatican and Slovakia. His finished work on this subject was published. When it was not a jaunt to the library that he planned, we went out together, tramping the streets of Rome, touring its boulevards and market places, and visiting its shrines and churches. Hrusovsky had so intimate a know- �SLOVA KIA 74 ledge of ancien t Roman villages and countr y sites that when he began to relate what happen ed in this or that locality , or how a place had disting uished itself, his listene r lost all contac t with time and becam e wholly unawa re that planes roared in the sky, that trolley s jangled in the streets , that cars raced by. Lost in the spell of Hrusov sky's words, one re-lived the glory of ancien t days. Before one's eyes the Roman Empir e same to life again. Hrusov sky had a rare genius for creatin g this kind of atmosp here . It was this type of histori cal presen tation that also held the key to his eminen t succes s as a classro om lecture r. Just as in Rome he made Roman history live before our eyes, so did he regale his studen ts in Slovak ia with Slovak history . Just as Jan Holly over a hundre d years ago captiva ted and instruc ted the followe rs of stur, so did Hrusov sky inspire and educat e his high school studen ts in the gymna zium. It was in this manne r, too, that he held audien ces spellbo und when he deliver ed occasio nal addres ses at the various celebra tions in Slovak villages and towns. That was his life; that was his life's work : to conjur e an authen tic image of the true greatne ss and the true glory of the distant past, to bridge the gap betwee n the presen t and the past and then to forecas t and build a more prospe rous Slovak future. * * * * * * There is a very large numbe r of Hrusov sky's addres ses and articles in which he develo ped the subjec t of Slovak stateho od. There have been many oppone nts to Slovak ia's aspirat ions to stateho od but not one of them has been able to foil or to refute the iron logic of Hrusov sky's argum ents in its favor. In the past, the works of the most popula r Slovak writers were publish ed in edition s runnin g to several hundre d copies. Never yet, howev er, did any Slovak book win such ready and such wide-s pread popula rity as did Hrusov sky's SLOVAK HISTO RY. It was the first comple te survey of our Slovak histori cal record. Prepar ed as it was by Dr. Hrusov sky the first Slovak histori an of learnin g and of note, it presen ted to the Slovak nation a continu ous reel of absorb ing scenes from its past. We were all agree- �75 SLOVAKIA ably surprised when edition upon edition of his work was exhausted so that by 1945 when Hrusovsky was leaving Slovakia, over one hundred thousand copies of this book were in the hands of the Slovak people. This volume of Hrusovsky's HISTORY found its way even into homes where formerly hardly another book had been brought besides the prayer book and an infrequent almanac or annual. Hrusovsky's book was written in a style which had been so often recommended to us by Karol Sidor who repeatedly reminded us to write clearly, simply, so that even our unschooled parents in remote hamlets would have no difficulty in following and understanding what we wrote. That was its stylistic merit. In content, this HISTORY is prepared with so scholarly an approach-with restraint, with fairmindedness, with an objective outlook -that it serves as a substantial refreshment for both the educated classes and for the less privileged. With this Yolume, which the new regime proscribed Hrusovsky turned in Slovak national life so deep 1945, in and so broad a furrow that no foreign usurpers can succeed in leveling it even in the course of years of effort. Even today reports from home reveal that this is the book which is still the most widely read Slovak work and the most frequently S()ught book in the black markets where, alas, an enormous number of Slovak writings are listed. * * * In the early of 1945 it was rumored that Communist partisans captured and executed Hrusovsky. Thank God, it was not so. The partisans were defeated; they retreated and Hrusovsky returned home. His first visit took him to Brestovany to see his mother. It is understandable that she embraced him warmly and held him close to her heart. Shortly after the exaltation of their meeting, however, she bravely reminded him, "For a great cause, it is a worthy thing even to die, my son. And Slovak statehood is a great cause." Dr. Hrusovsky often repeated these words and commented, "Our peasant mothers embody much of the heroism of ancient Rome's noble matrons." K. Culen � 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 70 SLOVAKIA Dr. Francis I-Irusovsky - the Man (1903 -1956) Francis Hrusovsky was eminently a historian. He could have distinguished himself by a career at the University of Bratislav;i even under the tutelage of the Czech professor Chaloupecky. Chaloupecky realized that this young collegian's views were radically opposed to his own outlook but he entertained high esteem for the youth. It was a regard which Hrusovsky merited because of his consistent gravity, his critical acumen, and his broad knowledge . But on completing his university training, Hrusovsky decided on a different course in life. There happened to be a vacancy for the headmasteship at the Catholic Slovak high school or gymnazium at Klastor pod Znievom and Hrusovsky chose to make application for this post. It was not considered an enviable position by reason of the fact that the institution was yoked with financial difficulties and very often the first of the month found the administration really straitened about meeting the payroll. Moreover, the school faced an expansion program wn.ich complicated financial matters to an even greater degree. Nevertheless, Hrusovsky did not decide on the assured security and prestige of a university chair in preference to this position which was less rewarding in material values. He became the school's principal and he made of it the intellectual center: which Bishop Stefan l.VIoyses, its founder , had hoped that it would become. This particular gymnazium was the only institution which bore upon its facade the inscription SLOVAK GYMNAZIUM (SLOVENSKE GYMNAZIUM ); all other similar schools were inscribed as being "CZECHO-SLOVAK". It is n et clear just how this detail escaped the notice of the civic authorities at the time, but the point is that Dr. Hrusovsky was singularly proud of such a d istinctive designation on his school. And it was, in reality, the only true SLOVAK gymnazium, not merely in name, but also in spirit and purpose. It was my privilege to come here often. And each visit 71 SLOVAKIA proved to be a refreshing experience. Perhaps there had never yet bee.a as demanding a headmaster as was Hrusovsky, but certainly there never yet was one who had been so universally loved and respected. "Pan direktor" - that was his title, and it was a designation or an appellation by which we understand without question and immediately that the reference was to Dr. Hrusovsky and to him alone . The greatest penalty meted out to an unhappy offender was to hear from pdn direktor no word about the transgression. Once I happened to be in his school office with him when a student approached with an explanation and apology. "Did I say anything to you?" said pdn direktor to the offender in a tone of voice which betrayed no warmth. "Well, that's just it, pan direktor; that's the point. You said not a word," the student complained. Even here in these circumstances of our emigration, his students often sought out their pan direktor. They confidently referred to him for counsel and always parted from him strengthened and imbued with resolution. Hrusovsky never recommended unconsiderate or rash and merely contentious conflict; he did encourage vigorous effort and he endorsed even justified force that was deliberate and purposeful. * * -l(· Hrusovsky was one of the most highly regarded members of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic ( 19381946 ) . We happened to serve together on various committees. I learned that he looked even upon present-day problems with the disposition of a serious historian, and it was especially at our committee sessions that a comparison of the past with the present helped to resolve our difficulties and to ease our task. HP was not given to frequent expression in Parliament but when he did speak, he delivered a speech that left a lasting impression. Although he was able to speak without prolonged preparation, he always took pains to prepare his parliamentary addresses with care. Every sentence, every word was selected for a specific purpose and a particular significance. These addresses are of. such merit that one day they will be embodied in handbooks of public speaking as classic creations. The thought-content as well as the delivery and all that was connected with these SLOVAKIA 72 addresses was thoroughly studied and weighed, and it took on a classic aspect. I believe that I derogate from no one's merits of fame when I judg·e that Hrusovsky was one of the best speakers of the Slovak nation within the past century. Frequently Hrusovsky was also the speaker of the day in villages and towns celebrating this or that occasion. Very many people must recall these celebrations with a deep sense of appreciation of his gifts. * * * * * * One of the interests of Dr. Hrusovsky's special predilection was the Slovak Institute of Arts and Sciences (Matica slovenska) . As chairman of various science departments and as secretary of the history department of the Slovak Inst.i tute of Arts and Sciences, he contributed a great deal to the organization of scientific pursuits and undertakings in Slovakia. His was no mean responsibility. He had accomplished very much, he had a great deal of work in progress and even in the very last evening of his life he had discussed several long-standing plans which he helped to realize in some future day that would grant a happy return to the homeland. A certain Slovak political leader who was engaged in conversation with Dr. Hrusovsky remarked that at this point it was quite beyond him even to imagine a return to his former calling, absorbed as he had become with national politics. Dr. Hrusovsky observed, "With me it is quite the contrary. What I can most readily imagine and what would give me the greatest satisfaction right at this moment would be to return to the teaching field back in a gymnazium." It was most natural and logical that on the death of Karol Sidor. Hrusovsky should succeed to the presidency of the Slovak National Council Abroad. Never at home, and much less in exile, did he aspire to public office. In response to the insistence of his friends and colleagues, however, he finally yielded to this extent that he agreed to undertake whatever responsibilities the members of the SNCA: should decide to entrust to him. He conoeived of this office as a service to the nation. Two days before his death we were occupied in discussion SLOVAKIA 73 until midnight. When he became engrossed in the subject of Slovakia, his eyes shone brilliantly. He said that evening, and he repeated it with emphasis several times, that when our nation attains its freedom and independence, not one of us may presume pretensions to a privileged position at home. Ours is only the duty here in a new land, which affords us liberty and the opportunity to live unshackled by that terror which dominates all life at home, to devote ourselves to work for our nation. This it one of the most important comictions which each one of us must grasp. Anyone who would arrogate to himself special advantages or favors at home in return for his labor in exile is not welcome in our midst. On the other hand, he continued, qualified and deserving individuals will be fully appreciated at home in due time; they will be in demand, and there need be no apprehensions that any worthy individual will receive less than his due. It behooves us all to be reasonable, non-extremist, and to do our utmost in behalf of the Slovak cause in extra-territorial circumstances. This is the spirit in which Dr. Hrusovsky dedicated himself to his nation throughout his whole life. * * * This column would be incomplete were I to omit recollections from Rome in the years 1945-1947. Those were trying times. We lived in constant danger of being overtaken and apprehended and committed to our foes. Terrific pressure was being put on Italian officialdom but Italian authorities, won to sympathy especially by contacts which Karol Sidor had established with them, withstood and resisted this pressure successfully. Rome captured Hrusovsky heart. Day after day he frequented the Vatican library and he devoted himself particularly to a study of the earliest relationships between the Vatican and Slovakia. His finished work on this subject was published. When it was not a jaunt to the library that he planned, we went out together, tramping the streets of Rome, touring its boulevards and market places, and visiting its shrines and churches. Hrusovsky had so intimate a know- SLOVA KIA 74 ledge of ancien t Roman villages and countr y sites that when he began to relate what happen ed in this or that locality , or how a place had disting uished itself, his listene r lost all contac t with time and becam e wholly unawa re that planes roared in the sky, that trolley s jangled in the streets , that cars raced by. Lost in the spell of Hrusov sky's words, one re-lived the glory of ancien t days. Before one's eyes the Roman Empir e same to life again. Hrusov sky had a rare genius for creatin g this kind of atmosp here . It was this type of histori cal presen tation that also held the key to his eminen t succes s as a classro om lecture r. Just as in Rome he made Roman history live before our eyes, so did he regale his studen ts in Slovak ia with Slovak history . Just as Jan Holly over a hundre d years ago captiva ted and instruc ted the followe rs of stur, so did Hrusov sky inspire and educat e his high school studen ts in the gymna zium. It was in this manne r, too, that he held audien ces spellbo und when he deliver ed occasio nal addres ses at the various celebra tions in Slovak villages and towns. That was his life; that was his life's work : to conjur e an authen tic image of the true greatne ss and the true glory of the distant past, to bridge the gap betwee n the presen t and the past and then to forecas t and build a more prospe rous Slovak future. * * * * * * There is a very large numbe r of Hrusov sky's addres ses and articles in which he develo ped the subjec t of Slovak stateho od. There have been many oppone nts to Slovak ia's aspirat ions to stateho od but not one of them has been able to foil or to refute the iron logic of Hrusov sky's argum ents in its favor. In the past, the works of the most popula r Slovak writers were publish ed in edition s runnin g to several hundre d copies. Never yet, howev er, did any Slovak book win such ready and such wide-s pread popula rity as did Hrusov sky's SLOVAK HISTO RY. It was the first comple te survey of our Slovak histori cal record. Prepar ed as it was by Dr. Hrusov sky the first Slovak histori an of learnin g and of note, it presen ted to the Slovak nation a continu ous reel of absorb ing scenes from its past. We were all agree- 75 SLOVAKIA ably surprised when edition upon edition of his work was exhausted so that by 1945 when Hrusovsky was leaving Slovakia, over one hundred thousand copies of this book were in the hands of the Slovak people. This volume of Hrusovsky's HISTORY found its way even into homes where formerly hardly another book had been brought besides the prayer book and an infrequent almanac or annual. Hrusovsky's book was written in a style which had been so often recommended to us by Karol Sidor who repeatedly reminded us to write clearly, simply, so that even our unschooled parents in remote hamlets would have no difficulty in following and understanding what we wrote. That was its stylistic merit. In content, this HISTORY is prepared with so scholarly an approach-with restraint, with fairmindedness, with an objective outlook -that it serves as a substantial refreshment for both the educated classes and for the less privileged. With this Yolume, which the new regime proscribed Hrusovsky turned in Slovak national life so deep 1945, in and so broad a furrow that no foreign usurpers can succeed in leveling it even in the course of years of effort. Even today reports from home reveal that this is the book which is still the most widely read Slovak work and the most frequently S()ught book in the black markets where, alas, an enormous number of Slovak writings are listed. * * * In the early of 1945 it was rumored that Communist partisans captured and executed Hrusovsky. Thank God, it was not so. The partisans were defeated; they retreated and Hrusovsky returned home. His first visit took him to Brestovany to see his mother. It is understandable that she embraced him warmly and held him close to her heart. Shortly after the exaltation of their meeting, however, she bravely reminded him, "For a great cause, it is a worthy thing even to die, my son. And Slovak statehood is a great cause." Dr. Hrusovsky often repeated these words and commented, "Our peasant mothers embody much of the heroism of ancient Rome's noble matrons." K. Culen  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 Dr. Francis Hrušovský - the Man (1903-1956) Description An account of the resource K. Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 70-75 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Čulen, Konštantín, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c82024079e9200a0c0b1bb4ef5bacd72.pdf b18c0b2cecdd2bf798957cdab955d55d PDF Text Text 42 SLOVAKIA This Is Slovakia By Francis Hrusovsk'J}, Ph.D. SEPARATIO N FROM HUNGARY The Austro-Hung arian Monarchy was built on a shaky foundation. It may have survived in a less extended territory, had it grasped in time its historical mission in this ethnically disunited region of Central Europe. Hungary could have weathered the approaching historical holocaust if it had put into practice the spirit of justice and equality. But neither the Austrian Emperor nor the Hungarian King, neither the Government of Vienna nor of Budapest, reckoned with the given realities: they did not know how to rightly evaluate the strength of the new historical trends, nor did they forsee the direction of future developments . Hence they permitted themselves to be led by policies which could only lead to the disintegration of the entire Monarchy and to the fall of Hungary. Because of the national policy of Hungary, which curtailed the growth of Slovak national life in all of its phases. the Slovaks were not sufficiently prepared for the role which awaited them. When the World War broke out in 1914, under the emergency provisions of the Government any kind of Slovak political movement was unthinkable. The fate of countries and of nations is not always determined by their strength, but as much by circumstances which arise without their doing. This proved to be true not only of Austra-Hunga ry, which was shaken to its foundations by World War I, but also of the various nations which had gradually become aware that the time had come to take an account of the past and be concerned only about their own future fate, regardless of the interests of the Monarchy. At the beginning of the war, the Slovaks had no thought of separating from Hungary, much less could they have expressed such a thought aloud. But when the War was nearing its end and it was more and more evident that Austria-Hung ary could not escape defeat, the leaders of �SLOVAKIA 43 the Slovaks saw that the military defeat of the Hapsburg Monarchy would furnish them the opportunity for attaining the goals they were not able to achieve in Hungary. Slovak patriots met for a secret conference in Turciansky Sv. Martin on May 24, 1918, where Andrej Hlinka plainly stated: "The thousand-year marriage with the Magyars has not panned out. We must be divorced." 1 The Slovaks took a stand for the right of selfdetermination of the Slovak nation and decided that at an opportune time they would sever all ties between Slovakia and Hungary and enter a new State composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Russia. The Czecho-Slovak National Council (Ceskoslovenska narodna rada ), founded in Paris in 1916, worked abroad for the disolution of Austria-Aungary and the formation of a new Czecho-Slovak State. At the head of the CzechoSlovak National Council was professor Thomas G. Masaryk, and its outstanding member was the distinguished Slovak scholar, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who possessed unusual diplomatic talents and attained the rank of General in the French Army. Slovaks living abroad morally and materially supported the activity of the Czecho-Slovak National Council and in large numbers joined the CzechoSlovak Legion which fought on the side of the Allies against Austria-Hungary The Slovaks were convinced that if Slovakia would tear away from Hungary, it would enjoy all the conditions of a free national existence in a joint Czecho-Slovak State. The Czecho-Slovak National Council was most effectively supported by the Slovaks who were living in America and who always lllad a lively interest in the destiny of the Slovak nation in the Old World. Under the leadership of the Slovak League of America, which was organized already in 1907, they frequently raised their voice in defense of the Slovak nation in Hungary, and as free citizens of a democratic country they protested against the injustices which their native brothers in Slovakia had to suffer. Later, in the years of World War I , they stood in the first ranks of the battle for the liberation of Slovakia. It is to their credit not only that they made large financial sacrifices for the cause of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, but also that they insisted on having beforehand �44 SLOVAKIA a clear presentation and firm guaranties as to the relationship between the Slovak and Czech nations in the proposed joint State. Representatives of the Slovak League in America discussed this serious question with delegates of the Czech National Federation in Cleveland as early as 1915, and came to the conclusion that the future Czecho-Slovakia would be a federal union of states with complete autonomy for Slovakia. Subsequently, on May 30, 1918, representatives of the Slovak League met with representatives of Czech organizations and with the President of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, T. G. Masaryk, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drew up an agreement which guaranteed political and cultural autonomy to Slovakia in the new State. This agreement was designed by T . G. Masaryk and later signed by him as president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. 2 Only vague reports of this foreign action penetrated Slovakia, and the agreements which testify to the wise foresight of the American Slovaks were not even known there. Nevertheless, everything that could be undertaken in Slovakia during the War for the benefit of Slovakia's future was basically in harmony with what was being done independently overseas. In the meantime, events at the front indicated that the defeat of Austria-Hungary was inescapable. Emperor Charles published a manifesto on October 16, 1918, in which he promised a reconstruction of the Monarchy on a new basis, but it was already too late. The President of the Hungarian Government, Count Stephen Tisza, on the 17th of October, attempted to justify the Budapest policy of Magyarization, reluctant to see that it was just this policy that brought Hungary to inevitable disintegration and certain collapse. In the Hungarian Parliament, on October 19, the Slovak delegate, Dr. Ferdis Juriga, announced in the face of a stormy protest of Magyar members that neither the Hungarian Parliament nor the Hungarian Government had the right any longer to decide the future destiny of the Slovak nation, because the Slovaks would decide their own future on the basis of their right of self-determination. The Slovaks, unaware of what had happened in Prague on October 28, met on October 30, 1918, in Turciansky Sv. �SLOVAKIA 45 Martin, where, chiefly under the influence of Andrej Hlinka, they organized a Slovak National Council and in a separate declaration proclaimed that the Slovaks once and for all Hrere separating themselves from Hungary and were of their own accord joining the Czecho-Slovak State.3 The new Czecho-Slovak State was born on the ruins of the Hapsburg Monarchy, which, having lost the war, was not able to defend its own existence and escape catastrophe. There was nothing left to do but define the boundaries of the new State (especially the Slovak-Hungarian border ), establish its international position, and construct its internal administration on a basis that would insure its ability to live. The most important condition for the healthy internal development of the Czecho-Slovak State was deciding the position Slovakia would occupy in the new State. The separation of the Slovaks from the Magyars and from Hungary was for the Slovak& not only painless, but joyful, as was the separation of the thirteen American colonies from England. " SLAVES UNTIL NOW - NEVER AGAIN!" Martin Razus (1888-1937)-a leading Slovak poet whose writings gave voice to the pains, longings, and hopes of his people, and whom the Slovaks called the "conscience of the Slovak nation"-welcomed the dawn of the new Slovak day with a poem, the refrain of which reads: "Slaves we have been till now, slaves we shall be no longer!" These words, mirrored the sentiment that prevailed throughout Slovakia in the first years of its new status. The Slovaks had reasons enough, at the end of the bloody war, to welcome the Czecho-Slovak Republic with open joy and sincere hopes. They had fought on all fronts, and had used every means, to bring about the formation of this new State. They had a right therefore to see in the Czecho-Slovak Republic a state they could consider their own. Slovakia experienced a period of genuine joy mostly because it had extricated itself from the union with old Hungary where it had striven in vain for equal rights. The Magyar language was removed from offices, schools, and all public life, and with its disappearance went all traces of Magyar domination. Slavonic traditions, which �46 SLOVAKIA had remained alive in Slovakia, prevented the Slovaks from being disappointed in their Slavonic brotherhood, a subject frequently discussed at the inception of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Slovak people entered their new existence as a nation composed of large groups of Slovaks who had never estranged themselves from their origin nor allowed themselves to be misled by foreign ideologies, had preserved their language, their national traditions and all the marks of their national character. The democratic spirit which promted the laws of the new State gave assurance that the Slovak people would no longer serve foreign masters, but would concentrate on the development of their own life in order to regain as quickly as possible what they had lost in the past through no fault of their own. Aristocratic titles, together with their corresponding historical privileges, wer e abolished. A federal Land Commission was set up to expropriate for a fair price land held by big non-Slovak landowners and distribute it to the small Slovak farmers , who had always been the strong core of the Slovak nation. It was anticipated, with good reason, that the industry, that would develop in the western part of the new State would be supplemented by the farm and forest economy of Slovakia, a balance that could be achieved only by means of such a union with the Czech lands. It was also to be expected that under the influence of new social laws the living standard of the working people would be raised. The Constitution, approved on February 29, 1920, guaranteed civil equality and political rights to all citizens, thus giving the Slovaks the privilege of influencing the affairs of government. A great deal of pain was caused in Slovak life by the schools which had been used as an instrument of denationalization. This injustice was corrected by the retention of Magyar schools only in those parts of Slovakia where was a Magyar population. New high schools and technical schools were established where there had been none before. In Bratislava, which had become the capital of Slovakia, a new university was founded in 1919 with three faculties. Besides other cultural organizations, the National Slovak Theatre came into being. In every city and village of Slovakia, public libraries were established and plays �SLOVAKIA 47 were presented, with the result that vigorous cultural activity spread throughout the country. In Turciansky Sv. Martin, the Matica Slovenska was reopened, to provide Slovakia with the new products of Slovak literature. In Slovakia there was a revival of old Slovak political parties whose activity was restricted under the Hungarian regime and completely stopped during the war. In addition, new political parties were organized, so that Slovaks could participate in politics according to their convictions. The desire for a new, free, and full national life was discernible everywhere, and the program for providing this kind of life from day to day. The relationship between the Slovak and Czech people, however, was dimmed from the very beginning of their union, and as it continued it became streadily worse. The Czechs and the Slovaks, throughout their long history, had never lived together in a joint state. Each went their own way and developed under a different set of conditions. When these two Slavic nations now got together under the roof of a common state and began to knew each other better, it appeared that for all their lingual similarity there was a great difference between them. Slovakia is a country Christian from its foundations, 80 % Catholic, its deep, living religious traditions permeating the nature of the Slovak and his entire life. 4 The Czechs, as the result of a different historical development, had a different attitude toward religious questions, and when, after the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, they came to Slovakia, they approached the religious convictions of the Slovaks tactlessly, thereby creating antagonism in Slovakia. Between the Slovak and Czech nations a crevice of distrust began to form . This fissure deepened when the Czechs in Slovakia acted as though they were in a backward country. Many of them had the idea--even when there was no basis for it:r--that their role was to bring culture and progress to Slovakia. This condescending attitude offended the Slovaks, who in turn began to ridicule Czech "progressiveness." Under the pretext that the Slovaks did not have sufficient trained personnel to occupy various official posi- �48 SLOVAKIA tions, multitudes of Czechs who had previously lived in various parts of Austria and for whom there was no room in Bohemia, moved into Slovakia. The Slovaks were grateful to the Czechs for the assistance Slovakia certainly needed in the first years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. But the thousands upon thousands of Czechs who came into Slovakia were completely superfluous. The Slovaks began to look upon them as intruders who were taking away their jobs and bread. While the flood of Czechs was pouring into Slovakia, Slovaks left their homeland in great numbers and moved to all parts of the world. But the most important reason why the early enthusiasms of the Slovaks ended in rapid and complete disillusionment was that the Czechs were trying to build the Czecho-Slovak Republic on the same kind of foundation the Magyars had laid for the creation of a united great Hungary. The very opening words of the Czecho-Slovak Constitution speak of the "Czechoslovak nation"-which in fact never existed. The Czechs ever more openly proclaimed the idea of Czechoslovak national oneness. Since they themselves had no intention of giving up their Czech nationality; desiring to remain a Czech nation also in the future, this alleged Czechoslovak national oneness was simply a way of leading tha Slovaks into a national unity with the Czechs. Even though admitting its euphony, they spoke of the Slovak language as a dialect of the Czech tongue, a vestige that would gradually disappear from literature. Because there was indeed no Czechoslovak language, references were made to the temporary bilinguism of the Czechoslovak nation, or of two aspects of one language. The Slovaks, who had waged such a long, costly, and exhausting struggle in Hungary "for our Slovak language" and considered their language as one expression of their national individuality, were disturbed by such a development because they saw in it the design of Czechization. Slovak literature, from the Czech point of view, was merely an echo of Czech literature, and all Slovak culture just a part of Czech cultural life. They predicted that the Slovaks would gradually �SLOVAKIA 49 merge with the Czechs in the unified State, that they themselves recognized the advantage of such a development, and that this unity would be the most secure foundation for the Czecho-Slovak Republic which would then stand as a strong bulwark against the pressure of their German neighbor. Czech policy, based on such assumptions, led to complete centralization which ignored the interests of Slovakia. This Czech policy aroused vigorous opposition in Slovakia. If the words of the poet Martin Razus meant that the Slovaks had been slaves in Hungary and that this slavery had ended once and for all, they soon took on the new meaning that the Slovaks did not care to be--nor would they be--slaves in the Czecho-Slovak Republic either. The Magyars had used a political ideology to justify their dealings with the Slovaks, though actually they were concerned only for their own safety. The lifeless fiction of Czechoslovak national oneness had a similar meaning. The Czechs are surrounded on three sides by the Germans, and they are exposed to the influence of this great neighbor. When the Czecho-Slovak Republic came into being, they thought Slovakia would become not only their colony but also a country which when gradually assimilated would strengthen their position over against the Germans. But the Slovaks, who had not been willing to perish in Hungary, were unwilling to sacrifice their national individuality even for the protection of the Czechs. Suicide can be committed only by a nation uninformed, cudutrally undeveloped, and unconcerned about its future, a nation which does not understand why it should care about its honor or its right to exist. Because it had endured so many historical trials, had lost so much of its own blood, and was unable to develop its national life under the trying conditions of its past, the Slovak nation grew weary of having its energies continually drained and finally longed to be a nation really free. For this very reason it recognized the danger it faced in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, and with all the determination of a self-conscious nation took a stand for the defense of its honor and its right to the kind of life every nation deserves. �50 SLOVAKIA UNDER THE LEADERS HIP OF ANDREJ HLINKA In the first years of the Czecho-Slo vak Republic Slovakia had a sort of governmen t, headed by a special minister with full authority for the administra tion of Slovakia as a member of the Prague Governmen t. This administra tion had its headquarte rs in Bratislava, consisted of several cabinet members, and exercised powers of jurisdictio n for a brief period. But in the end it was subject to the Central Governme nt in Prague which handled the admi.Ristra tion of the new State as part of a pattern of complete centralizat ion. Czech policy with all its attempts at centralizat ion was challenged by Andrej Hlinka, who had revived the Slovak People's Party (Slovenska :r.udova Strana) and had evoked a strong opposition movement in Slovakia. Andrej Hlinka saw the danger threatening Slovakia, and therefore tried to get the Paris Peace Conference to define the position of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slo vak Republic. For this he was imprisoned in the year 1919. Only upon his election to the Prague Parliamen t on April 18, 1920 was he released.5 The Slovak People's Party gained twelve seats in the election and, under the leadership of its chairman, Andrej Hlinka, began a relentless struggle for the rights of the Slovak nation in accordance with the Pittsburgh Agreement which had become the pattern of Slovak policy. This campaign had to be directed not only against the Prague Governme nt, but also against all the Czech political parties which, as servants of Prague centralism , had spread their nets also in Slovakia. Andrej Hlinka organized his party, set up its press, traveled throughou t Slovakia, and speaking at mass meetings, awakened in the Slovak people a strong national consciousn ess, an interest in political life, and courage to defend all their rights. These gatherings were often very stormy; neverthele ss the Slovak people followed Andrej Hlinka and saw in him their political leader. The inconsider ate actions of Czechs in Slovakia continued and strengthen ed the spirit of opposition in large groups of Slovak people against everything that came from Bohemia. In the years 1922-1926, when the Prague Governme nt was sending multitudes of Czechs into Slovakia to break Slovak �SLOVAKIA 51 resistance to its policy of centralization, 250,000 Slovaks emigrated from Slovakia, forced to look for work in foreign lands. The Prague Government resorted to every means in order to discredit Andrej Hlinka and to frustrate the activity of the Slovak People's Party, but its attempts merely served to widen the breach between the Slovaks and the Czechs. The Slovak People's Party, in its campaign for the sanctioning of Slovak autonomy, desired the fulfilment of what Slovakia had been guaranteed in the Pittsburgh Agreement. The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic T . G. Masaryk, who had designed and signed that Agreement himself, brushed aside the petitions of the Slovak People's Party with the excuse that the Pittsburgh Agreement is just an interesting document from the period of rebellion against Austria-Hungary, having no binding value . He claimed that the Slovak gained more in the Czecho-Slovak Republic than they were promised in the Pittsburgh Agreement. The Slovaks would not recognize this devaluation of the Pittsburgh Agreement, and the American Slovaks, who were following carefully the progress of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slovak State, in their Message of the American Slovaks to the Old World encouraged their native brothers to pursue relentlessly the struggle for Slovak autonomy. Andrej Hlinka stood staunchly behind the autonomy platform of the Slovak People's Party, and that was the reason why it grew in numbers and in strength. In the elections of 1925 it won twenty-three seats in the Prague Parliament and became the largest political party in Slovakia, with the right to speak as the only authorized representative of the political will of the Slovak nation. When not even the Czechs could continue to close their eyes to the numerical strength and steadily increasing importance to the Slovak People's Party any longer, they tried to win it to the side of the Government. After lengthy deliberations, the Slovak People's Party sent its representatives to the Prague Government to see if they might achieve autonomy by this method. According to this policy, it sought changes in the affairs of the Government that would assure Slovakia a standing as a separate administration unit. In 1927 the Prague Parliament passed �52 SLOVAKIA a law dividing the territory of Czecho-Slovakia into four administrative regions. Beginning January 1, 1928, Slovakia was to become one of these units. Slovakia was empowered to elect its own provincial representatives, forming a provincial assembly for the management of the economic, transportation, social, health and cultural needs of Slovakia. The Czechs felt that by this concession they were satisfying all the demands of Slovakia. However, the Slovaks saw in this reform only "the first ray of Slovak autonomy." The provincial assembly had no legislative powers, one-third of its members were named by the Prague Government, and its jurisdiction was limited. Still, it was a step forward, and it bolstered the hope in Slovakia that gradually the entire autonomistic program set forth in the Pittsburgh Agreement would be realized. The Slovaks were not oposed to the Czecho-Slovak Republic, of which they wanted their own State to be a member. In fact, they believed that, despite all the hardships which hampered the realization of their political program, they would eventually reach their goal. Nor were they against the Czech nation as such; but they resolutely rejected the myth of Czechoslovak national oneness and ever more boldly resisted the Czech imperialism which persisted even after the reorganization of the Government. Relations between the Slovaks and Czechs did not improve ; rather, the centralism of Prague became pronounced that the conditions for harmonious cohabitation between these two nations grew steadily worse. The elections of 1929 again proved the firm position of the Slovak People's Party and its abiding determination to defend the rights of the Slovak nation. It withdrew from the Government and, as on opposition Party, submitted to the Prague Parliament several proposals for the sanctioning of Slovak autonomy. The Prague Parliament rejected all these motions. It was evident that the fight would have to go to the finish. The first requirement for the attainment of Slovak autonomy was unity of all Slovaks. The Czechs had always been able to find means to thwart the unification of the Slovaks. Now the Slovaks had to discover something that would unite them and lead them toward a common goal. The Slovak People's Party, led by Andrej Hlinka, was �SLOVAKIA 53 predominantly Catholic. The Slovak National Party (Slovenska Narodna Strana), headed by Martin Razus, had a majority of Lutheran members.6 These two political parties, fighting for the autonomy of Slovakia, came to an agreement on a united precedure in 1932, and in a joint resolution expressed their mutual determination not to surrender Slovak rights even thought it might cost the disintegration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. This resolve of the Slovak nation was further stiffened and given a mighty manifestation when, from August 13-15, 1933, the Slovaks gathered in Nitra, the ancient headquars of the Slovak princes, to celebrate the 1100th anniversary of the dedication of the first Christian church in Slovakia. At this occasion the Slovak people not only reminded themselves of their antiquity and the rich traditions of their Christian culture, but at the same time emphasized their right to a free national existence in a great demonstration. More than 100,000 Slovaks assembled at the historic site of glorious Slovak antiquity to express their unquenchable longing for a free Slovak future. As the Prague Government did not understand Slovakia, so did not comprehend what took place in Nitra. It saw in the events in Nitra simply a demonstration against the Government. This prompted the seizure of the Slovak People's Party's press, the trial of its editor-in-chief Karol Sidor, an investigation of Slovak students and other steps which evoked a new storm of apposition in Slovakia. The premier of the Prague Government, Jan Malypetr, himself issued a separate manifesto in which he stressed that the Czechs contributed to the support of Slovakia and that Slovakia was ungrateful for this magnanimity. To give this speech as much publicity as possible in Slovakia, he had it printed on large placards and posted in all Slovak cities and villages. This tactless and-for a premier of a government-undignified act deeply offended every Slovak, because no one in Slovakia believed that Slovakia was dependent on the Czechs for a subsidy. Equally as politically indescreet and mistaken in statesmanship was the procedure of Dr. Eduard Benes who, as foreign minister of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, in December of 1933 spoke in several Slovak cities on the �54 SLOVAKIA "Idea of Czechoslovak National Unity from the Viewpoint of International Policy." The Slovaks were to keep silent about their grievances and their rights because Prague supported Slovakia. They were to disavow their national independence without a struggle and betray themselves in order to strengthen the international position of the State in which they were not able to arouse justice and reform. Instead of being misled and bowing to the Prague Government at this suggestion, the Slovaks advanced tow~rd their goal. They were unwilling to surrender their rights even for the survival of the Czecho-Slovak Republic which at this very hour had got itself into a really dangerous situation. Adolf Hitler and his National-Socialist Party had come to power in neighboring Germany. The Slovaks were correct in assuming that this tense international situation would force the Czechs to fulfill the Slovak demands in order to strengthen the Czecho-Slovak Republic for the possible outbreak of new dangers. The Slovaks did not wish to cause internal difficulties in the CzechoSlovak Republic and, even at this time, they had the good will to come to an agreement with the Czechs and to defend their joint State with their united strength. When T . G. Masaryk resigned from the office of President on December 14, 1935, representatives of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, at the election of the new president on December 18, voted for Dr. Eduard Benes who prior to the election had promised to see that the Slovak demands would be fulfilled. Dr. Benes made the promise, but it turned out that there was no one to fulfill it. For the first time in the history of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, a Slovak, Dr. Milan Hodza, became premier of the Government and also Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was a politician of rich experience and wide vision but involved in his own political conceptions and indecisive especially concerning the Slovak question. At the time, even had he wanted to settle the standing of Slovakia, he could not devote himself to the question because he was obliged to center all his attention on the demands of the Sudeten Germans. The integrity and existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was seriously threatened and the position of �SLOVAKIA 55 Slovakia was left unsolved after twenty years of the Czecho-Slovak State. In 1938 the situation of the Czecho-Slovak Republic became even worse. On March 12 Hitler occupied and linked Austria to Germany. The Sudeten Germans presented their demands again, but the Prague Government had no answer to give that would satisfy both the Germans and the interests of the Czecho-Slovak State. The international situation grew more and more acute, and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, preparing to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, was experiencing moments of deep unrest and worrisome uncertainty. Even under these circumstances the Slovaks, who for twenty years had striven for autonomy and for twenty years had not been able to achieve their goal, were peacefully preparing to commemorate in a grand way the twentieth anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement. On Pentecost Sunday, the 5th of June, 120,000 Slovaks gathered in Bratislava to declare most emphatically that they would never give up their rights. At this occasian a delegation of the Slovak League of America was present together with its president, Dr. Peter P. Hletko, who brought along the original of the Pittsburgh Pact. The American Slovaks represented by the Slovak League wished to certify by their presence at this commemoration that they stood on the same platform they had accepted twenty years earlier. The throngs of Slovaks who welcomed the delegation of the Slovak League of America in the capital of Slovakia were not fanatic masses, but the self-conscious Slovak nation, politically trained and exemplarily led by Andrej Hlinka, giving notice for the last time and in a very resolute-yet in every respect honorable-manner, that it would under no pressure give up the struggle for its rights to a free life. In Bratislava, for the last time, Andrej Hlinka himself appeared before the crowd of faithful fellow fighters to receive the homage of his people before his death. The Prague Government, even with the Slovak Dr. Milan Hodza at its helm, failed to understand the true meaning of this historical event and the very next day arranged a demonstration in Bratislava advocating the idea of Czechoslovak national oneness in opposition to �56 SLOVA KIA Slovak autono my. This blund ering step was the climax of all the mistak es made by the Pragu e Gover nment in its absur d policy conce rning Slovak ia. Andre j Hlink a died Augus t 16, 1938. The Slovak nation stood at his grave resolu tely determ ined to finish its great strugg le witho ut regard for the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic. The mome nt had come when the Slovak nation had to be conce rned only aboutl its own destin y. VIA AUTO NOMY TO THE SLOV AK STATE The positi on of the Slovak s in the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic preven ted them from determ ining even their own destin y. Much less were they able to steer the course of intern al affairs in this State. Least of all were they able to influe nce the foreig n policy direct ed by Dr. Eduar d Benes . Hence the Slovak s bore no respon sibilit y either for the develo pment of the intern al life or the intern ationa l standi ng of the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic and could not be blame d for the situati on into which the State got itself. Small nation s are not creato rs of intern ationa l situations. Often they are merely helple ss figurin es on the great chessb oard of intern ationa l politic s, which is the game of large nation s. Furthe rmore , the small nation witho ut to a gover nment of its own it not given an oppor tunity l ationa active ly interv ene in the appea semen t of an intern 1918 situati on. The Slovak s were in sucl\ a positi on from to 1938. If great nation s assum e the right to create intern ationa l situat ions in which they utilize small nation s for the realiza tion of their power plans, a small and enslav ed nation canno t be blame d if for its own protec tion it utilize s an oppor tunity offere d by the wave of histor ical events . It is eviden ce of the Slovak nation 's politic al matur ity that it knew how to grasp such an histor ical oppor tunity , not neglec ting to use it for the attain ment of a goal it coul not achiev e by its own power . The Slovak s grew tired of vainly repeat ing their justifi ed deman ds when there was no one to fulfill them. They were theref ore determ ined and prepa red to take what was rightfu lly theirs. Imme diatel y after the Bratis lava manif estatio n the Slovak People 's Party presen ted to the Pragu e Parlia ment �SLOVA KIA 57 a new nation for a law provid ing Slovak ia with autono my. At the time, Czech o-Slov akia found itself in the midst of a seriou s intern al crisis and was shake n to the found ations by strong outwa rd pressu re. With the threat of war hangin g in the air, the Pragu e Gover nment , heade d since Septem ber 23, 1938 by Gener al Syrovy , procla imed total mobili zation , a necess ity hasten ed still more by the intern al chaos in the Czech o-Slov ak Repub lic. The issue did not lead to war, howev er, becau se the Czech o-Slov ak Gover nment, on the advice of the Allies, acctep ted the condit ions dictate d by Germa ny accord ing to which the Germa n Army was to occup y the territo ries of Czech o-Slov akia that were popul ated by Germa ns. Nor was the Pragu e Gover nment able to reject the ultima tum of Poland deman ding that the Polish -occup ied territo ry of Silesia be joined to Poland . These circum stance s left the Slovak s no choice but to look out for thems elves. After length y and fruitle ss concultati ons with repres entativ es of the Pragu e regime , the Slovak People 's Party, led by Dr. Jozef Tiso after the death of Andre j Hlink a, had to take the fate of Slovak ia into its own hands . On Octob er 5th Dr. Eduar d Benes resign ed as Presid ent of the Repub lic, and on the 6th of Octob er the Execu tive Comm ittee of the Slovak People 's Party met in Zilina and sugge sted that all power in Slovak ia be taken over by the Slovak s by right of self-de termin ation. This resolu tion of the Slovak People 's Party was acctep ted and approv ed in all its parts also by delega tes of all the remain ing non-le ftist Slovak partie s. In the rapid succes sion of storm y events , the Slovak nation had to stakei out its future alone in order to preven t others from makin g the decisi ons contra ry to its intere sts. All these politic al partie s agreed also to join with the Slovak People 's Party to form a single party: The Slovak Nation al Unity Party (Stran a sloven skej narod nej jednot y). The Pragu e Gover nment, alway s deaf to Slovak previous deman ds, recogn ized this unanim ous decisi on of the Slovak politic al partie s. Slovak ia obtain ed its autono mous govern ment with Dr. Jozef Tiso at its head as prime minist er. Later, on Novem ber 19, 1938, the Pragu e Parliament passed a consti tution al law for the govern ment of autono mous Slovak ia. In order that Slovak ia might be �58 SLOVAKIA properly represented also in the Central Government in Prague, Karol Sidor was made the vice-presiden t of that body. In addition, Slovakia had its own delegates in the ministries of foreign affairs, national defense and finance . The Slovak nation had just attained this goal when confronted by a catastrophe similar to that which was it the Bohemian lands. The southern section of visited had by Magyars, was claimed by the Magyars, inhabited Slovakia have liked to occupy all of Slovakia. fact in would who had to work out a new boundary government The Slovak 7 Discussions were based on government. Magyar with the of the population. The nationality the of the statistics 1930 census, whereas the of statistics the Magyars rejected taken during the statistics, 1910 the the Slovaks regarded setting of the The unjust. as period of Magyarizatio n, court impartial an to left new boundary was therefore Germany and Italy of of arbitration. The foreign ministers rendered a decision on November 2, 1938, which the Slovaks considered to be unfair. By it Hungary received and occupied cities and areas in southern Slovakia that were entirely or predominantl y Slovak. This decision resulted in many economic and commercial hardships for Slovakia because the new boundary severed railroads and roads, and a number of Slovak valleys, open toward the south, lost their connection with the territory of Slovakia. Even these injustices and hardships failed to shatter the spirit of the Slovak nation. The Slovak Government, by exerting all its energy endeavored to organize the administratio n of Slovakia in a way that would prove its ability to exist as an entity. It was anxious above all to see all Slovaks lay a strong foundation for the future of Slovakia by means of firm national unity and faithful cooperation. According to the declaration of Slovak autonomy, elections for seats in Parliament were held as early as December 18, 1938. Members of the Slovak Parliament became the representativ es not only of the Slovak People's Party, but also of the remaining political parties which now formed the Slovak National Unity Party as the result of the zilina agreement. In the Slovak Parliament national minorities also had their representativ es. A month later, January 18, 1939, the legislative assembly of autonomous �SLOVAKIA 59 Slovakia was opened in a festive manner and began its activity. It soon appeared that the form and amount of selfgovernmen t which Slovakia possessed could not supply all the needs of Slovak national life. In its twenty-yea r struggle for its rights, the Slovak nation had reached a level of maturity, and had set its heart on a measure of freedom, for which autonomy was too small a frame. Not even the Czechs were satisfied with the autonomou s status of Slovakia. They found it hard to give up the rule of Slovakia even though responsibl e persons in the Prague Governme nt repeatedly complaine d that the Czechs were obliged to subsidize Slovakia. The Slovak nation felt that it was capable of taking over the administra tion of its country entirely, while the central departmen ts in Prague often proceeded as though there were no declaration of Slovak autonomy in existence. Fresh disagreeme nts and dissension s arose between the Slovaks and Czechs, and the situation in autonomou s Slovakia continued to be vague and confused. The situation was made worse by the intrusion of outside influences. This confusion, aggravated by the rapacity of its neighbors, could have had catastrophic consequen ces for the fate of Slovakia. The Slovaks longed for the peaceful growth of their own life, and the orn: condition necessary for such a life was the national independen ce of Slovakia. The Slovak nation, having come so far along the road of its historical evolution, was prepared and determined to take this step also, because it was convinced that it had a right not only to autonomy, but also to its own independen t state. And this step was the only refuge for Slovakia against the storm threatening it in the tense internation al situation. " FAITHFUL TO OURSELV ES FORWARD IN HARMONY ! " As a result of the constantly increasing demands of Germany, the situatjon which developed in Central Europe was very confused and perturbed at the beginning of March, 1939. It was clear, however, that the Czecho-Slo vak Republic had arrived at the edge of an abyss. The Slovaks did not feel duty-bound to hurl themselves into that gorge. �60 SLOVAKIA Rather, the Slovaks looked for an escape that would lead them to safety. In Bratislava representatives of Germany sought out Karol Sidor, whom they considered the most popular political leader in Slovakia, and urged him to declare the independent State of Slovakia over the radio. Dr. Jozef Tiso was invited to Berlin for a discussion with Adolf Hitler and his minister of foreign affairs, von Ribbentrop. They both informed the president of the Slovak government of the danger confronting Slovakia and demanded his decision at once. Neither Karol Sidor nor Dr. Jozef Tiso complied with this urgent demand because they considered any decisions regarding the future legal status of Slovakia to be the right and duty of the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava. The Slovak Parliament, elected according to the decree of Slovak autonomy, was called into session by the president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Dr. Emil Ha.cha, and on March 14, 1939, it declared Slovakia an independent and self-governing state by unanimous resolution. The presidium of the Parliament appointed the administration of independent Slovakia, with Dr. Jozef Tiso at his head, and the Slovak Government then took over all power in Slovakia into its own hands. Even though the international situation, during which Slovakia's declaration of independence was made, influenced the rapid succession of events in Slovakia, the Slovak Parliament-as the legal and authorized interpreter of the Slovak nation's will-did only what the Slovak nation had a right to do. Conscious of this right, the Slovak nation accepted the decision of the Slovak Parliament as the natural result of historical development not only with enthusiastic agreement and sincere joy, but also with a determination to bear the entire burden of responsibility for its own destiny and to prove that it was mature and ready for national independence. The proclamation of autonomous Slovakia as an independent state marked the end of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Even so, the Czecho-Slovak Republic would not have been able to survive the hurricane of events. Its fall would have been Slovakia's downfall also, and the Slovak nation would have been left to the mercy of its neighbors. The decisive action of the Slovak Parliament placed before �SLOVAKIA 61 Slovakia's neighbors a ready reality, and the government of the neighboring states took this reality into consideration and respected it. The independent State of Slovakia was recognized either de iure or de facto by the following states: Belgium, ( de facto ), Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Equador, Estonia, Finland, France ( de facto ), Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Manchuria, Poland, Siam, Soviet Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Vatican State and Yugoslavia, 27 nations in all. These states included great powers and small countries, neutrals as well as belligerents in the Second World War. Not even the allies of the former Czecho-Slovak Republic hesitated to recognize the national independence of Slovakia. Some of these nations established and maintained diplomatic and commercial relations with Slovakia, whereas others were not able to do so because they were obstructed by the War. The Slovak State did not solicit the protection of its German neighbor, but when the German Government itself came with the proposal of a defense pact, the Slovak Government, for various reasons, could not reject such an offer. True, this treaty restricted the sovereignty of the Slovak State to a certain extent, but on the other hand it assured the safety of Slovakia not only against the nation which frequently advanced its historical claims to Slovak lands, but also against Germany itself. Although the Slovaks had in the past claimed the right to a free life, the nations who were deciding the fate of Slovakia rejected these petitions, and, despite other proofs, kept insisting that Slovakia because of its small size could not maintain itself as a separate and independent political unit since it was not supposed to be economically selfsustaining. Therefore, they concluded, it would be to the advantage of Slovakia to be in a union with another state, and it was intimated that the Slovaks should be thankful if someone would be willing magnanimously to support them. From the very beginning of its life as an independent state, Slovakia strove to disprove this false legend of economic dependence. And it controverted it in such a way at every step that these arguments against Slovak independ- �62 SLOVAKIA ence completely disappeared. As soon as its autonomy was proclaimed, the Slovak Government floated a loan for the economic revival of Slovakia, and the Slovak people themselves in a short time subscribed an amount necessary to cover this need. In a similar manner a gold standard was created for the Slovak Republic, to which the Slovaks sacrificed their valuables. The mint at Kremnica which had coined Hungarian currency for 600 years, for the first time in its history began to mint money with the seal of the Slovak State. It was discovered that Slovakia had enough varied raw materials which it could work, and that Slovak industry could increase its production to the point where it could export its products. Slovakia concluded trade agreements with many European countries, and the foreign trade of the Slovak Republic was highly active. The Slovak "koruna" (crown) won a reputation as the "Tatra Dollar," and its steady value was the best proof of the settled economy of the Slovak State. The Slovak Parliament, as early as July 21, 1939. approved the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, thereby establishing a strong foundation of legal procedure and the future development of Slovak national life. 8 On October 26, 1939, Dr. Jozef Tiso was unanimously elected the first president of the Slovak Republic and was recognized by the Slovak nation as the successor of the 9th-century Slovak princes. His motto: "Faithful to Ourselves-Forward in Harmony!" succinctly expressed not only the principles he practiced in his own high office, but also the program of Slovak statehood. The Slovak nation, particularly during those tempestuous days, took careful note of all the advantages and disadvantages obtaining from its position at the historical crossroads of Central Europe. The generation: which lived to see liberty on the soil of the ancient Slovak fatherland wanted to forget the injustices of the past and sincerely to establish friendly relation with all the nations with which it would come into contact. It wished to stand not only on the free land of its ancestors, but also on the spiritual foundation of its own life, to retrieve in unity with all Slovaks what the Slovak nation had lost through no fault of its own, and to prepare a peaceful and prosperous future for generations to come. �SLOVAKIA 63 It was along this road that Dr. Jozef Tiso led the Slovak nation as president of the Slovak Republic. As the Slovak nation was laying the foundations of its State and was taking its first steps on the road of a free life, the storm of war began to spread over Central Europe. Its flames grew and engulfed more and more countries. But the hurricane of war, moving from the west to the east, passed over Slovakia without damage. During the first years of the War, when the German armies penetrated through Poland and were headed for Moscow, reaching the Volga River and the foothills of the Caucasus, Slovakia remained in a sort of vacuum, free to develop in every respect without interference. Especially the cultural life of Slovakia blossomed at this time. In the Slovak University, the Technical Institute, the School of Commerce and Business, the Slovak National Library, the Slovak Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in its other older and newer cultural institutions the Slovak nation discovered media of growth such as it had never known in the past. The number of books increased daily, new radio stations were built, and the production of cultural and documentary films was initiated. Unusual cultural activity flourished throughout Slovakia with many Slovak villages erecting cultural buildings as agencies for their own progress. Slovakia grew because the creative abilities of the Slovak nation were not being exhausted in the defense of natural rights, now guaranteed by political independence and its own national administration. The Slovak Republic, emerging during the twilight of the great War, was beclouded by a crucial question: How would the War end, and what kind of fate awaited this small yet so promisingly developing State? The Slovak nation was determined to defend its national independence as the only real basis for its national liberty, and so it exerted itself to have the Slovak Republic remain on the map of postwar Europe. It had a right to believe that it could preserve its liberty and national independence, but it knew from its own experience the bitter truth that if the others decided the fate of a nation, the rights of a nation are seldom considered. The only desire of the Slovak nation at this time was the Slovak Republic be rid of the outward pressure which limited its sovereignty �64 SLOVAKIA and influenced its decisions. When a turn of events came in the War, and military danger began to approach from the East, the Slovak nation began to fear for its future . These fears grew as the Slovak nation realized that it did not have the strength to repel this threatening calamity. Besides this, it was aware of designs being made against the Slovak Republic in foreign countries.9 It was reasonable to presume that, because of the Soviet army's superior force, the hard-pressed German army would not retreat through the mountainous territory of Slovakia. In the north, the Soviet army advanced from the Carpathians through Poland, and in the south, through Hungary; and it could be sudmised that Slovakia would not become a battleground. It could expect to be spared at least the destruction of war. These suppositions, however, were not fulfilled, because the agents of Moscowwi th the help of Communist partisans, landed in the Slovak mountains by Soviet aircraft, organized an uprising in Slovakia in August, 1944, and produced a chaos which confused a portion of the native population. 10 This entire action had no political significance because it had no influence on the fate of Slovakia. From a military viewpoint the uprising was foolish, and it collapsed in a shameful manner. But from an economic point of view, the uprising caused greater damage than had been suffered by the country for centuries. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives for no reason, railroads, tunnels and bridges were arbitrarily destroyed, and many villages were reduced to ashes. With the blood that was needlessly spilled and the smoke which hung over the ruins perished not only the national independence of Slovakia, but also the liberty of the "liberated" Slovak nation. On the heels of the Soviet army's divisions and their unspeakable atrocities, from Moscow to desolated Slovakia came Dr. Eduard Benes with the government of a resurrected Czecho-Slovak Republic. After five years of existence in its own state the Slovak nation arrived, against its own will and contrary to all the principles of natural and self-determining rights, at a position in which it did not care to live at any price, with nothing but slavery staring it in the facp �SLOVAKIA 65 BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN The Slovak Republic was a small state. It emerged in unusually restless times and grew under very complicated conditions. In view of these circumstances, it could not become an ideal or complete state. Large, ancient, and mighty nations have their faults and weaknesses, too . The Slovak Republic cannot be condemned for the imperfection connected with its infancy nor for the errors it made, which in more than one case were simply the result of outside influences. It is an incontrovertible historical fact that the Slovak nation, in all of i~ more than one-thousand year history, never had such liberty, such rights, so much employment, such a measure of material welfare, such conditions for spiritual growth and cultural progress, or so much joy in living, as it had in the years of the Slovak Republic. The Slovak nation was contented with its State, despite its deficiencies, and it did not long for any other kind of state, including the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Slovak Republic conclusively refuted all the arguments against Slovak national independenqe. Every Slovak could see for himself that Slovakia, utilizing the industriousness of its people, is large enough and wealthy enough to provide all the economic conditions needed for indep8ndent national life . . The Slovak nation, during its five-year history of political independence, passed with remarkable success its test in the art of creating a government, and it deserved to be recognized as an independent and equal member in the family of free nations. By its experience as a Slovak republic, it is qualified to decide all questions pertaining to its own life, and is prepared to use its strength for the common welfare of the nations of Central Europe. One Slovak generation tasted the sweet fruit of liberty for which so many generations of the Slovak nation had fervently yearned, and therefore Slovaks will never again be satisfied with the bitter bread of slave labor. All this the Slovak nation learned in its own state. But all this was noted also by Dr. Eruard Benes, who observed the development of Slovak life abroad during �66 SLOVAKIA the war and in the spring of 1945, accompanied by Soviet bayonets, set foot on the blood-stained soil of Slovakia. The restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was one of the g1·eat inter-national mistakes. The revival of this State not only could not draw the Slovaks and Czechs closer to each other, but, on the contrary, relations between the Slovaks and Czechs became extremely cold as a direct result of this forced cohabitation in a joint state. The so-called Kosice Agreement of April 5, 1945, which recognized in the Slovaks the distinctive marks of a nation and promised. them complete equality with the Czechs, was not a cure for the wound which Slovakia suffered by the loss of its national independence, nor could it serve as a basis for a satisfying cohabitation of these two nations within one state. This sort of solution of Slovak-Czech relations would have had a meaning when the Slovaks were seeking autonomy in the spirit of the Pittsburgh Pact. The declaration at Kosice and the promises of Klement Gottwald had no power of attraction after the violent destruction of the Slovak Republic. The national independence of Slovakia was trampled by the Soviet army, which was followed by the Government and President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The restored Czecho-Slovak Republic was alien to the Slovaks not only because it could in no way replace the Slovak State, but also because it brought Slovakia under the control of Moscow through the administration at Prague. Slovakia, even while silenced by the presence of the Soviet army, in no way concealed either its irreconcilable opposition to the situation in which it found itself or its desire for its own national independence. Dr. Eduard Benes, as president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, was determined to crack this opposition of Slovakia at any cost and by any means, and to strangle in the Slovak nation every longing for independence. If Dr. Eduard Benes, by his personal propaganda, enjoyed the reputation abroad of a great democrat and farsighted statesman, he now himself tore off this mask and showed himself to be a ruthless tyrant far removed from democracy and wise foresight. He saw in the Communist people's democracy a new, higher and more advanced form of democracy, and �SLOVAKIA 67 as president of the restored Czecho-Slovak Republic he approved and confirmed all the violence committed by the Prague Government and its Bratislava agencies in the. name of the people's democracy. The Slovak nation now became a victim of revenge because it had its own state during the War. Criminal status was given not only to those who served in the Slovak Republic and had not redeemed their "crime" by the sin of treason, but also to those who disagreed with the new order. The executor of this people's democratic justice was the so-called "National Court" in Bratislava and the chain so-called "People's Courts" all over Slovakia . Since it was impossible to bring before the Court the entire "liberated" nation to condemn it , it was necessary to condemn hundreds and thousands of decent Slovaks in order that all Slovakia might be terrified silenced and coerced into slavish obedience. The " National Court" of Bratislava also condemned to death the president of the Slovak Republic Dr. Jozef Tiso, and the Czecho-Slovak Government together with its president saw to it that this judgment was carried out on April 18 , 1947. The execution of the President of the Slovak Republic evoked deep horror throughout Slovakia and at the same time extinguished the last spark of hope that Slovak~ and Czechs could live together in a common state. The gallows on which Dr. Jozef Tiso died a martyr's death stands above the chasm which once and for all obliterated any form of Czecho-Slovak state.11 Slovakia did not permit itself to be broken in its opposition to the Czecho-Slovak Republic nor to the Communistic people's democracy either by the murder of Dr. Jozef Tiso or by subsequent forcible measures. The Slovak nation is enduring the same wrongs, injustices and pains that are being suffered by all the other nations behind the Iron Curtain. The spirit and form of the Communist people's democracy are foreign, repulsive and unacceptable to the Slovak nation. With persistent and remarkable consistency, the Slovaks are rejecting everything that the Government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic as a servant of Moscow is �68 SLOVAKIA forcing upon them. And they are defending with heroic courage everything that feeds and strengthens their own life. 12 From the very dawn of its history, Slovakia has belonged to Western Europe, and for twelve centuries of its past it has lived in unity with the Christian civilization of the Western world. During this long historical evolution the Slovak nation has achieved a stature, spiritual character and moral tradition that cannot be reconciled with the godless materialism of Communist doctrine or with the un-Christian methods of the people's democracy. Even though its beautiful land serves as a huge prison behind the Iron Curtain, the Slovak nation has not lost, but continues to confess fearlessly, its faith in God as the source of its strength and hope. Deprived as it is of everything, it still does not surrender its claim to a free life in its own state, but insists on an independent position in the great family of equal nations in Europe. Could youf as a free citizen of a democratic country, say that the Slovak nation does not deserve freedom? Or that it want more than it has a right to expect? FOOTNOTES 1) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1934, p . 308. 2) In addition to many articles, Konstantin culen has written a separate two-volume study on American Slovaks: Dejiny Slov<ikov v Amerike (A History of Slovaks in America), Vols. I and II, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1942. The cultural life of American Slovaks is described in his book Slovaci v Amerike (Slovaks in America), Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia, 1938. Several articles are devoted to the intervention of the Slovak League in America in the political conditions of Slovakia in the book Slovensk<i Liga v Amerike styridsat'rocnri (Fortieth Anniversary of the Slovak League in America), Scranton, Pa., 1947. These questions are dealt in detail also by Karol Sidor in the book Slovrici v zahranicnom odboji ( Slovaks in the Resistance Movement Abroad), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1928. A separate book on the Pittsburgh Agreement was written by Konstantin culen, Pittsburghskd dohoda (The Pittsburgh Agreement), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1937. 3 ) Martin Greco, Martinsk<i deklar<icia (The St. Martin Declaration) , Bratislava, Slovakia, 1939. �SLOVAKIA 69 4) According to the 1930 census there were 3,329,793 inhabitants in 5) 6) 7) 8) Slovakia. Of this number, 2,284,355 were Roman Catholics, 213,725 Greek Catholics, 555,900 Protestants, 9,079 of the Orthodox faith . Only 16,890 were counted as not adhering to any religion: they were Czechs. The activity of Andrej Hlinka and the role of the Slovak People's Party are told in detail by Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1934. The Slovak National Party was numerically small, gaining only one delegate in the election, but it numbered among its members many of the Lutheran intelligentsia. The cession of Slovakia southern lands to Hungary was decided already between the Prague Government and the administration of Hungary. The government of autonomous Slovakia was confronted by this prepared situation, and Dr. Jozef Tiso, who had led these conferences, was actually a delegate of the Central Government of Prague. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was prepared by the vicepresident of Parliament and the chairman of the constitutional committee, Dr. Karol Mederly, who published it in an a separate brochure with a comprehensive introduction, Ostava Slovenslcej republilcy a jej zakladne smernice (The Constitution of the Slovak Republic and Its Basic Principles), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1939. 9) Plots against the independent statehood of Slovakia were led abroad by Dr. Eduard Benes who had resigned from the office of president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, had recognized Dr. Emil Hacha as his successor and then once again claimed the office of president. His faithful co-worker was the Slovak Communist, Dr. Vladimir Clementis. 10) The Soviet aircraft landed in Slovakia Slovak soldiers who had been captured by the Soviets and were obHged to join the so-called Czechoslovak Brigade in Russia. This entire brigade dispersed because the Slovak troops who had seen conditions in Soviet Russia with their own eyes did not wish to fight against the Slovak Republic, but fled to their homes at the first opportunity. 11) The entire address spoken by Dr. Jozef Tiso in Bratislava before his sentence has been published by the Slovak Catholic Sokol in a book entitled Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (Dr. Jozef Tiso, in His own Words), Slovak Catholic Sokol, Passaic, N. J., 1952, edited by Dr. Jozef Pauco. 12) Much valuable information regarding the resistance of the Slovaks against Communism may be found in the booklet by Dr. Jozef :Mikus, The Thee Slovak Bishops, Slovak Catholic Federation of America, Passaic, N. J. 1953. � 42 SLOVAKIA This Is Slovakia By Francis Hrusovsk'J}, Ph.D. SEPARATIO N FROM HUNGARY The Austro-Hung arian Monarchy was built on a shaky foundation. It may have survived in a less extended territory, had it grasped in time its historical mission in this ethnically disunited region of Central Europe. Hungary could have weathered the approaching historical holocaust if it had put into practice the spirit of justice and equality. But neither the Austrian Emperor nor the Hungarian King, neither the Government of Vienna nor of Budapest, reckoned with the given realities: they did not know how to rightly evaluate the strength of the new historical trends, nor did they forsee the direction of future developments . Hence they permitted themselves to be led by policies which could only lead to the disintegration of the entire Monarchy and to the fall of Hungary. Because of the national policy of Hungary, which curtailed the growth of Slovak national life in all of its phases. the Slovaks were not sufficiently prepared for the role which awaited them. When the World War broke out in 1914, under the emergency provisions of the Government any kind of Slovak political movement was unthinkable. The fate of countries and of nations is not always determined by their strength, but as much by circumstances which arise without their doing. This proved to be true not only of Austra-Hunga ry, which was shaken to its foundations by World War I, but also of the various nations which had gradually become aware that the time had come to take an account of the past and be concerned only about their own future fate, regardless of the interests of the Monarchy. At the beginning of the war, the Slovaks had no thought of separating from Hungary, much less could they have expressed such a thought aloud. But when the War was nearing its end and it was more and more evident that Austria-Hung ary could not escape defeat, the leaders of �SLOVAKIA 43 the Slovaks saw that the military defeat of the Hapsburg Monarchy would furnish them the opportunity for attaining the goals they were not able to achieve in Hungary. Slovak patriots met for a secret conference in Turciansky Sv. Martin on May 24, 1918, where Andrej Hlinka plainly stated: "The thousand-year marriage with the Magyars has not panned out. We must be divorced." 1 The Slovaks took a stand for the right of selfdetermination of the Slovak nation and decided that at an opportune time they would sever all ties between Slovakia and Hungary and enter a new State composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Russia. The Czecho-Slovak National Council (Ceskoslovenska narodna rada ), founded in Paris in 1916, worked abroad for the disolution of Austria-Aungary and the formation of a new Czecho-Slovak State. At the head of the CzechoSlovak National Council was professor Thomas G. Masaryk, and its outstanding member was the distinguished Slovak scholar, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who possessed unusual diplomatic talents and attained the rank of General in the French Army. Slovaks living abroad morally and materially supported the activity of the Czecho-Slovak National Council and in large numbers joined the CzechoSlovak Legion which fought on the side of the Allies against Austria-Hungary The Slovaks were convinced that if Slovakia would tear away from Hungary, it would enjoy all the conditions of a free national existence in a joint Czecho-Slovak State. The Czecho-Slovak National Council was most effectively supported by the Slovaks who were living in America and who always lllad a lively interest in the destiny of the Slovak nation in the Old World. Under the leadership of the Slovak League of America, which was organized already in 1907, they frequently raised their voice in defense of the Slovak nation in Hungary, and as free citizens of a democratic country they protested against the injustices which their native brothers in Slovakia had to suffer. Later, in the years of World War I , they stood in the first ranks of the battle for the liberation of Slovakia. It is to their credit not only that they made large financial sacrifices for the cause of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, but also that they insisted on having beforehand �44 SLOVAKIA a clear presentation and firm guaranties as to the relationship between the Slovak and Czech nations in the proposed joint State. Representatives of the Slovak League in America discussed this serious question with delegates of the Czech National Federation in Cleveland as early as 1915, and came to the conclusion that the future Czecho-Slovakia would be a federal union of states with complete autonomy for Slovakia. Subsequently, on May 30, 1918, representatives of the Slovak League met with representatives of Czech organizations and with the President of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, T. G. Masaryk, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drew up an agreement which guaranteed political and cultural autonomy to Slovakia in the new State. This agreement was designed by T . G. Masaryk and later signed by him as president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. 2 Only vague reports of this foreign action penetrated Slovakia, and the agreements which testify to the wise foresight of the American Slovaks were not even known there. Nevertheless, everything that could be undertaken in Slovakia during the War for the benefit of Slovakia's future was basically in harmony with what was being done independently overseas. In the meantime, events at the front indicated that the defeat of Austria-Hungary was inescapable. Emperor Charles published a manifesto on October 16, 1918, in which he promised a reconstruction of the Monarchy on a new basis, but it was already too late. The President of the Hungarian Government, Count Stephen Tisza, on the 17th of October, attempted to justify the Budapest policy of Magyarization, reluctant to see that it was just this policy that brought Hungary to inevitable disintegration and certain collapse. In the Hungarian Parliament, on October 19, the Slovak delegate, Dr. Ferdis Juriga, announced in the face of a stormy protest of Magyar members that neither the Hungarian Parliament nor the Hungarian Government had the right any longer to decide the future destiny of the Slovak nation, because the Slovaks would decide their own future on the basis of their right of self-determination. The Slovaks, unaware of what had happened in Prague on October 28, met on October 30, 1918, in Turciansky Sv. �SLOVAKIA 45 Martin, where, chiefly under the influence of Andrej Hlinka, they organized a Slovak National Council and in a separate declaration proclaimed that the Slovaks once and for all Hrere separating themselves from Hungary and were of their own accord joining the Czecho-Slovak State.3 The new Czecho-Slovak State was born on the ruins of the Hapsburg Monarchy, which, having lost the war, was not able to defend its own existence and escape catastrophe. There was nothing left to do but define the boundaries of the new State (especially the Slovak-Hungarian border ), establish its international position, and construct its internal administration on a basis that would insure its ability to live. The most important condition for the healthy internal development of the Czecho-Slovak State was deciding the position Slovakia would occupy in the new State. The separation of the Slovaks from the Magyars and from Hungary was for the Slovak& not only painless, but joyful, as was the separation of the thirteen American colonies from England. " SLAVES UNTIL NOW - NEVER AGAIN!" Martin Razus (1888-1937)-a leading Slovak poet whose writings gave voice to the pains, longings, and hopes of his people, and whom the Slovaks called the "conscience of the Slovak nation"-welcomed the dawn of the new Slovak day with a poem, the refrain of which reads: "Slaves we have been till now, slaves we shall be no longer!" These words, mirrored the sentiment that prevailed throughout Slovakia in the first years of its new status. The Slovaks had reasons enough, at the end of the bloody war, to welcome the Czecho-Slovak Republic with open joy and sincere hopes. They had fought on all fronts, and had used every means, to bring about the formation of this new State. They had a right therefore to see in the Czecho-Slovak Republic a state they could consider their own. Slovakia experienced a period of genuine joy mostly because it had extricated itself from the union with old Hungary where it had striven in vain for equal rights. The Magyar language was removed from offices, schools, and all public life, and with its disappearance went all traces of Magyar domination. Slavonic traditions, which �46 SLOVAKIA had remained alive in Slovakia, prevented the Slovaks from being disappointed in their Slavonic brotherhood, a subject frequently discussed at the inception of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Slovak people entered their new existence as a nation composed of large groups of Slovaks who had never estranged themselves from their origin nor allowed themselves to be misled by foreign ideologies, had preserved their language, their national traditions and all the marks of their national character. The democratic spirit which promted the laws of the new State gave assurance that the Slovak people would no longer serve foreign masters, but would concentrate on the development of their own life in order to regain as quickly as possible what they had lost in the past through no fault of their own. Aristocratic titles, together with their corresponding historical privileges, wer e abolished. A federal Land Commission was set up to expropriate for a fair price land held by big non-Slovak landowners and distribute it to the small Slovak farmers , who had always been the strong core of the Slovak nation. It was anticipated, with good reason, that the industry, that would develop in the western part of the new State would be supplemented by the farm and forest economy of Slovakia, a balance that could be achieved only by means of such a union with the Czech lands. It was also to be expected that under the influence of new social laws the living standard of the working people would be raised. The Constitution, approved on February 29, 1920, guaranteed civil equality and political rights to all citizens, thus giving the Slovaks the privilege of influencing the affairs of government. A great deal of pain was caused in Slovak life by the schools which had been used as an instrument of denationalization. This injustice was corrected by the retention of Magyar schools only in those parts of Slovakia where was a Magyar population. New high schools and technical schools were established where there had been none before. In Bratislava, which had become the capital of Slovakia, a new university was founded in 1919 with three faculties. Besides other cultural organizations, the National Slovak Theatre came into being. In every city and village of Slovakia, public libraries were established and plays �SLOVAKIA 47 were presented, with the result that vigorous cultural activity spread throughout the country. In Turciansky Sv. Martin, the Matica Slovenska was reopened, to provide Slovakia with the new products of Slovak literature. In Slovakia there was a revival of old Slovak political parties whose activity was restricted under the Hungarian regime and completely stopped during the war. In addition, new political parties were organized, so that Slovaks could participate in politics according to their convictions. The desire for a new, free, and full national life was discernible everywhere, and the program for providing this kind of life from day to day. The relationship between the Slovak and Czech people, however, was dimmed from the very beginning of their union, and as it continued it became streadily worse. The Czechs and the Slovaks, throughout their long history, had never lived together in a joint state. Each went their own way and developed under a different set of conditions. When these two Slavic nations now got together under the roof of a common state and began to knew each other better, it appeared that for all their lingual similarity there was a great difference between them. Slovakia is a country Christian from its foundations, 80 % Catholic, its deep, living religious traditions permeating the nature of the Slovak and his entire life. 4 The Czechs, as the result of a different historical development, had a different attitude toward religious questions, and when, after the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, they came to Slovakia, they approached the religious convictions of the Slovaks tactlessly, thereby creating antagonism in Slovakia. Between the Slovak and Czech nations a crevice of distrust began to form . This fissure deepened when the Czechs in Slovakia acted as though they were in a backward country. Many of them had the idea--even when there was no basis for it:r--that their role was to bring culture and progress to Slovakia. This condescending attitude offended the Slovaks, who in turn began to ridicule Czech "progressiveness." Under the pretext that the Slovaks did not have sufficient trained personnel to occupy various official posi- �48 SLOVAKIA tions, multitudes of Czechs who had previously lived in various parts of Austria and for whom there was no room in Bohemia, moved into Slovakia. The Slovaks were grateful to the Czechs for the assistance Slovakia certainly needed in the first years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. But the thousands upon thousands of Czechs who came into Slovakia were completely superfluous. The Slovaks began to look upon them as intruders who were taking away their jobs and bread. While the flood of Czechs was pouring into Slovakia, Slovaks left their homeland in great numbers and moved to all parts of the world. But the most important reason why the early enthusiasms of the Slovaks ended in rapid and complete disillusionment was that the Czechs were trying to build the Czecho-Slovak Republic on the same kind of foundation the Magyars had laid for the creation of a united great Hungary. The very opening words of the Czecho-Slovak Constitution speak of the "Czechoslovak nation"-which in fact never existed. The Czechs ever more openly proclaimed the idea of Czechoslovak national oneness. Since they themselves had no intention of giving up their Czech nationality; desiring to remain a Czech nation also in the future, this alleged Czechoslovak national oneness was simply a way of leading tha Slovaks into a national unity with the Czechs. Even though admitting its euphony, they spoke of the Slovak language as a dialect of the Czech tongue, a vestige that would gradually disappear from literature. Because there was indeed no Czechoslovak language, references were made to the temporary bilinguism of the Czechoslovak nation, or of two aspects of one language. The Slovaks, who had waged such a long, costly, and exhausting struggle in Hungary "for our Slovak language" and considered their language as one expression of their national individuality, were disturbed by such a development because they saw in it the design of Czechization. Slovak literature, from the Czech point of view, was merely an echo of Czech literature, and all Slovak culture just a part of Czech cultural life. They predicted that the Slovaks would gradually �SLOVAKIA 49 merge with the Czechs in the unified State, that they themselves recognized the advantage of such a development, and that this unity would be the most secure foundation for the Czecho-Slovak Republic which would then stand as a strong bulwark against the pressure of their German neighbor. Czech policy, based on such assumptions, led to complete centralization which ignored the interests of Slovakia. This Czech policy aroused vigorous opposition in Slovakia. If the words of the poet Martin Razus meant that the Slovaks had been slaves in Hungary and that this slavery had ended once and for all, they soon took on the new meaning that the Slovaks did not care to be--nor would they be--slaves in the Czecho-Slovak Republic either. The Magyars had used a political ideology to justify their dealings with the Slovaks, though actually they were concerned only for their own safety. The lifeless fiction of Czechoslovak national oneness had a similar meaning. The Czechs are surrounded on three sides by the Germans, and they are exposed to the influence of this great neighbor. When the Czecho-Slovak Republic came into being, they thought Slovakia would become not only their colony but also a country which when gradually assimilated would strengthen their position over against the Germans. But the Slovaks, who had not been willing to perish in Hungary, were unwilling to sacrifice their national individuality even for the protection of the Czechs. Suicide can be committed only by a nation uninformed, cudutrally undeveloped, and unconcerned about its future, a nation which does not understand why it should care about its honor or its right to exist. Because it had endured so many historical trials, had lost so much of its own blood, and was unable to develop its national life under the trying conditions of its past, the Slovak nation grew weary of having its energies continually drained and finally longed to be a nation really free. For this very reason it recognized the danger it faced in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, and with all the determination of a self-conscious nation took a stand for the defense of its honor and its right to the kind of life every nation deserves. �50 SLOVAKIA UNDER THE LEADERS HIP OF ANDREJ HLINKA In the first years of the Czecho-Slo vak Republic Slovakia had a sort of governmen t, headed by a special minister with full authority for the administra tion of Slovakia as a member of the Prague Governmen t. This administra tion had its headquarte rs in Bratislava, consisted of several cabinet members, and exercised powers of jurisdictio n for a brief period. But in the end it was subject to the Central Governme nt in Prague which handled the admi.Ristra tion of the new State as part of a pattern of complete centralizat ion. Czech policy with all its attempts at centralizat ion was challenged by Andrej Hlinka, who had revived the Slovak People's Party (Slovenska :r.udova Strana) and had evoked a strong opposition movement in Slovakia. Andrej Hlinka saw the danger threatening Slovakia, and therefore tried to get the Paris Peace Conference to define the position of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slo vak Republic. For this he was imprisoned in the year 1919. Only upon his election to the Prague Parliamen t on April 18, 1920 was he released.5 The Slovak People's Party gained twelve seats in the election and, under the leadership of its chairman, Andrej Hlinka, began a relentless struggle for the rights of the Slovak nation in accordance with the Pittsburgh Agreement which had become the pattern of Slovak policy. This campaign had to be directed not only against the Prague Governme nt, but also against all the Czech political parties which, as servants of Prague centralism , had spread their nets also in Slovakia. Andrej Hlinka organized his party, set up its press, traveled throughou t Slovakia, and speaking at mass meetings, awakened in the Slovak people a strong national consciousn ess, an interest in political life, and courage to defend all their rights. These gatherings were often very stormy; neverthele ss the Slovak people followed Andrej Hlinka and saw in him their political leader. The inconsider ate actions of Czechs in Slovakia continued and strengthen ed the spirit of opposition in large groups of Slovak people against everything that came from Bohemia. In the years 1922-1926, when the Prague Governme nt was sending multitudes of Czechs into Slovakia to break Slovak �SLOVAKIA 51 resistance to its policy of centralization, 250,000 Slovaks emigrated from Slovakia, forced to look for work in foreign lands. The Prague Government resorted to every means in order to discredit Andrej Hlinka and to frustrate the activity of the Slovak People's Party, but its attempts merely served to widen the breach between the Slovaks and the Czechs. The Slovak People's Party, in its campaign for the sanctioning of Slovak autonomy, desired the fulfilment of what Slovakia had been guaranteed in the Pittsburgh Agreement. The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic T . G. Masaryk, who had designed and signed that Agreement himself, brushed aside the petitions of the Slovak People's Party with the excuse that the Pittsburgh Agreement is just an interesting document from the period of rebellion against Austria-Hungary, having no binding value . He claimed that the Slovak gained more in the Czecho-Slovak Republic than they were promised in the Pittsburgh Agreement. The Slovaks would not recognize this devaluation of the Pittsburgh Agreement, and the American Slovaks, who were following carefully the progress of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slovak State, in their Message of the American Slovaks to the Old World encouraged their native brothers to pursue relentlessly the struggle for Slovak autonomy. Andrej Hlinka stood staunchly behind the autonomy platform of the Slovak People's Party, and that was the reason why it grew in numbers and in strength. In the elections of 1925 it won twenty-three seats in the Prague Parliament and became the largest political party in Slovakia, with the right to speak as the only authorized representative of the political will of the Slovak nation. When not even the Czechs could continue to close their eyes to the numerical strength and steadily increasing importance to the Slovak People's Party any longer, they tried to win it to the side of the Government. After lengthy deliberations, the Slovak People's Party sent its representatives to the Prague Government to see if they might achieve autonomy by this method. According to this policy, it sought changes in the affairs of the Government that would assure Slovakia a standing as a separate administration unit. In 1927 the Prague Parliament passed �52 SLOVAKIA a law dividing the territory of Czecho-Slovakia into four administrative regions. Beginning January 1, 1928, Slovakia was to become one of these units. Slovakia was empowered to elect its own provincial representatives, forming a provincial assembly for the management of the economic, transportation, social, health and cultural needs of Slovakia. The Czechs felt that by this concession they were satisfying all the demands of Slovakia. However, the Slovaks saw in this reform only "the first ray of Slovak autonomy." The provincial assembly had no legislative powers, one-third of its members were named by the Prague Government, and its jurisdiction was limited. Still, it was a step forward, and it bolstered the hope in Slovakia that gradually the entire autonomistic program set forth in the Pittsburgh Agreement would be realized. The Slovaks were not oposed to the Czecho-Slovak Republic, of which they wanted their own State to be a member. In fact, they believed that, despite all the hardships which hampered the realization of their political program, they would eventually reach their goal. Nor were they against the Czech nation as such; but they resolutely rejected the myth of Czechoslovak national oneness and ever more boldly resisted the Czech imperialism which persisted even after the reorganization of the Government. Relations between the Slovaks and Czechs did not improve ; rather, the centralism of Prague became pronounced that the conditions for harmonious cohabitation between these two nations grew steadily worse. The elections of 1929 again proved the firm position of the Slovak People's Party and its abiding determination to defend the rights of the Slovak nation. It withdrew from the Government and, as on opposition Party, submitted to the Prague Parliament several proposals for the sanctioning of Slovak autonomy. The Prague Parliament rejected all these motions. It was evident that the fight would have to go to the finish. The first requirement for the attainment of Slovak autonomy was unity of all Slovaks. The Czechs had always been able to find means to thwart the unification of the Slovaks. Now the Slovaks had to discover something that would unite them and lead them toward a common goal. The Slovak People's Party, led by Andrej Hlinka, was �SLOVAKIA 53 predominantly Catholic. The Slovak National Party (Slovenska Narodna Strana), headed by Martin Razus, had a majority of Lutheran members.6 These two political parties, fighting for the autonomy of Slovakia, came to an agreement on a united precedure in 1932, and in a joint resolution expressed their mutual determination not to surrender Slovak rights even thought it might cost the disintegration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. This resolve of the Slovak nation was further stiffened and given a mighty manifestation when, from August 13-15, 1933, the Slovaks gathered in Nitra, the ancient headquars of the Slovak princes, to celebrate the 1100th anniversary of the dedication of the first Christian church in Slovakia. At this occasion the Slovak people not only reminded themselves of their antiquity and the rich traditions of their Christian culture, but at the same time emphasized their right to a free national existence in a great demonstration. More than 100,000 Slovaks assembled at the historic site of glorious Slovak antiquity to express their unquenchable longing for a free Slovak future. As the Prague Government did not understand Slovakia, so did not comprehend what took place in Nitra. It saw in the events in Nitra simply a demonstration against the Government. This prompted the seizure of the Slovak People's Party's press, the trial of its editor-in-chief Karol Sidor, an investigation of Slovak students and other steps which evoked a new storm of apposition in Slovakia. The premier of the Prague Government, Jan Malypetr, himself issued a separate manifesto in which he stressed that the Czechs contributed to the support of Slovakia and that Slovakia was ungrateful for this magnanimity. To give this speech as much publicity as possible in Slovakia, he had it printed on large placards and posted in all Slovak cities and villages. This tactless and-for a premier of a government-undignified act deeply offended every Slovak, because no one in Slovakia believed that Slovakia was dependent on the Czechs for a subsidy. Equally as politically indescreet and mistaken in statesmanship was the procedure of Dr. Eduard Benes who, as foreign minister of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, in December of 1933 spoke in several Slovak cities on the �54 SLOVAKIA "Idea of Czechoslovak National Unity from the Viewpoint of International Policy." The Slovaks were to keep silent about their grievances and their rights because Prague supported Slovakia. They were to disavow their national independence without a struggle and betray themselves in order to strengthen the international position of the State in which they were not able to arouse justice and reform. Instead of being misled and bowing to the Prague Government at this suggestion, the Slovaks advanced tow~rd their goal. They were unwilling to surrender their rights even for the survival of the Czecho-Slovak Republic which at this very hour had got itself into a really dangerous situation. Adolf Hitler and his National-Socialist Party had come to power in neighboring Germany. The Slovaks were correct in assuming that this tense international situation would force the Czechs to fulfill the Slovak demands in order to strengthen the Czecho-Slovak Republic for the possible outbreak of new dangers. The Slovaks did not wish to cause internal difficulties in the CzechoSlovak Republic and, even at this time, they had the good will to come to an agreement with the Czechs and to defend their joint State with their united strength. When T . G. Masaryk resigned from the office of President on December 14, 1935, representatives of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, at the election of the new president on December 18, voted for Dr. Eduard Benes who prior to the election had promised to see that the Slovak demands would be fulfilled. Dr. Benes made the promise, but it turned out that there was no one to fulfill it. For the first time in the history of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, a Slovak, Dr. Milan Hodza, became premier of the Government and also Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was a politician of rich experience and wide vision but involved in his own political conceptions and indecisive especially concerning the Slovak question. At the time, even had he wanted to settle the standing of Slovakia, he could not devote himself to the question because he was obliged to center all his attention on the demands of the Sudeten Germans. The integrity and existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was seriously threatened and the position of �SLOVAKIA 55 Slovakia was left unsolved after twenty years of the Czecho-Slovak State. In 1938 the situation of the Czecho-Slovak Republic became even worse. On March 12 Hitler occupied and linked Austria to Germany. The Sudeten Germans presented their demands again, but the Prague Government had no answer to give that would satisfy both the Germans and the interests of the Czecho-Slovak State. The international situation grew more and more acute, and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, preparing to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, was experiencing moments of deep unrest and worrisome uncertainty. Even under these circumstances the Slovaks, who for twenty years had striven for autonomy and for twenty years had not been able to achieve their goal, were peacefully preparing to commemorate in a grand way the twentieth anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement. On Pentecost Sunday, the 5th of June, 120,000 Slovaks gathered in Bratislava to declare most emphatically that they would never give up their rights. At this occasian a delegation of the Slovak League of America was present together with its president, Dr. Peter P. Hletko, who brought along the original of the Pittsburgh Pact. The American Slovaks represented by the Slovak League wished to certify by their presence at this commemoration that they stood on the same platform they had accepted twenty years earlier. The throngs of Slovaks who welcomed the delegation of the Slovak League of America in the capital of Slovakia were not fanatic masses, but the self-conscious Slovak nation, politically trained and exemplarily led by Andrej Hlinka, giving notice for the last time and in a very resolute-yet in every respect honorable-manner, that it would under no pressure give up the struggle for its rights to a free life. In Bratislava, for the last time, Andrej Hlinka himself appeared before the crowd of faithful fellow fighters to receive the homage of his people before his death. The Prague Government, even with the Slovak Dr. Milan Hodza at its helm, failed to understand the true meaning of this historical event and the very next day arranged a demonstration in Bratislava advocating the idea of Czechoslovak national oneness in opposition to �56 SLOVA KIA Slovak autono my. This blund ering step was the climax of all the mistak es made by the Pragu e Gover nment in its absur d policy conce rning Slovak ia. Andre j Hlink a died Augus t 16, 1938. The Slovak nation stood at his grave resolu tely determ ined to finish its great strugg le witho ut regard for the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic. The mome nt had come when the Slovak nation had to be conce rned only aboutl its own destin y. VIA AUTO NOMY TO THE SLOV AK STATE The positi on of the Slovak s in the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic preven ted them from determ ining even their own destin y. Much less were they able to steer the course of intern al affairs in this State. Least of all were they able to influe nce the foreig n policy direct ed by Dr. Eduar d Benes . Hence the Slovak s bore no respon sibilit y either for the develo pment of the intern al life or the intern ationa l standi ng of the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic and could not be blame d for the situati on into which the State got itself. Small nation s are not creato rs of intern ationa l situations. Often they are merely helple ss figurin es on the great chessb oard of intern ationa l politic s, which is the game of large nation s. Furthe rmore , the small nation witho ut to a gover nment of its own it not given an oppor tunity l ationa active ly interv ene in the appea semen t of an intern 1918 situati on. The Slovak s were in sucl\ a positi on from to 1938. If great nation s assum e the right to create intern ationa l situat ions in which they utilize small nation s for the realiza tion of their power plans, a small and enslav ed nation canno t be blame d if for its own protec tion it utilize s an oppor tunity offere d by the wave of histor ical events . It is eviden ce of the Slovak nation 's politic al matur ity that it knew how to grasp such an histor ical oppor tunity , not neglec ting to use it for the attain ment of a goal it coul not achiev e by its own power . The Slovak s grew tired of vainly repeat ing their justifi ed deman ds when there was no one to fulfill them. They were theref ore determ ined and prepa red to take what was rightfu lly theirs. Imme diatel y after the Bratis lava manif estatio n the Slovak People 's Party presen ted to the Pragu e Parlia ment �SLOVA KIA 57 a new nation for a law provid ing Slovak ia with autono my. At the time, Czech o-Slov akia found itself in the midst of a seriou s intern al crisis and was shake n to the found ations by strong outwa rd pressu re. With the threat of war hangin g in the air, the Pragu e Gover nment , heade d since Septem ber 23, 1938 by Gener al Syrovy , procla imed total mobili zation , a necess ity hasten ed still more by the intern al chaos in the Czech o-Slov ak Repub lic. The issue did not lead to war, howev er, becau se the Czech o-Slov ak Gover nment, on the advice of the Allies, acctep ted the condit ions dictate d by Germa ny accord ing to which the Germa n Army was to occup y the territo ries of Czech o-Slov akia that were popul ated by Germa ns. Nor was the Pragu e Gover nment able to reject the ultima tum of Poland deman ding that the Polish -occup ied territo ry of Silesia be joined to Poland . These circum stance s left the Slovak s no choice but to look out for thems elves. After length y and fruitle ss concultati ons with repres entativ es of the Pragu e regime , the Slovak People 's Party, led by Dr. Jozef Tiso after the death of Andre j Hlink a, had to take the fate of Slovak ia into its own hands . On Octob er 5th Dr. Eduar d Benes resign ed as Presid ent of the Repub lic, and on the 6th of Octob er the Execu tive Comm ittee of the Slovak People 's Party met in Zilina and sugge sted that all power in Slovak ia be taken over by the Slovak s by right of self-de termin ation. This resolu tion of the Slovak People 's Party was acctep ted and approv ed in all its parts also by delega tes of all the remain ing non-le ftist Slovak partie s. In the rapid succes sion of storm y events , the Slovak nation had to stakei out its future alone in order to preven t others from makin g the decisi ons contra ry to its intere sts. All these politic al partie s agreed also to join with the Slovak People 's Party to form a single party: The Slovak Nation al Unity Party (Stran a sloven skej narod nej jednot y). The Pragu e Gover nment, alway s deaf to Slovak previous deman ds, recogn ized this unanim ous decisi on of the Slovak politic al partie s. Slovak ia obtain ed its autono mous govern ment with Dr. Jozef Tiso at its head as prime minist er. Later, on Novem ber 19, 1938, the Pragu e Parliament passed a consti tution al law for the govern ment of autono mous Slovak ia. In order that Slovak ia might be �58 SLOVAKIA properly represented also in the Central Government in Prague, Karol Sidor was made the vice-presiden t of that body. In addition, Slovakia had its own delegates in the ministries of foreign affairs, national defense and finance . The Slovak nation had just attained this goal when confronted by a catastrophe similar to that which was it the Bohemian lands. The southern section of visited had by Magyars, was claimed by the Magyars, inhabited Slovakia have liked to occupy all of Slovakia. fact in would who had to work out a new boundary government The Slovak 7 Discussions were based on government. Magyar with the of the population. The nationality the of the statistics 1930 census, whereas the of statistics the Magyars rejected taken during the statistics, 1910 the the Slovaks regarded setting of the The unjust. as period of Magyarizatio n, court impartial an to left new boundary was therefore Germany and Italy of of arbitration. The foreign ministers rendered a decision on November 2, 1938, which the Slovaks considered to be unfair. By it Hungary received and occupied cities and areas in southern Slovakia that were entirely or predominantl y Slovak. This decision resulted in many economic and commercial hardships for Slovakia because the new boundary severed railroads and roads, and a number of Slovak valleys, open toward the south, lost their connection with the territory of Slovakia. Even these injustices and hardships failed to shatter the spirit of the Slovak nation. The Slovak Government, by exerting all its energy endeavored to organize the administratio n of Slovakia in a way that would prove its ability to exist as an entity. It was anxious above all to see all Slovaks lay a strong foundation for the future of Slovakia by means of firm national unity and faithful cooperation. According to the declaration of Slovak autonomy, elections for seats in Parliament were held as early as December 18, 1938. Members of the Slovak Parliament became the representativ es not only of the Slovak People's Party, but also of the remaining political parties which now formed the Slovak National Unity Party as the result of the zilina agreement. In the Slovak Parliament national minorities also had their representativ es. A month later, January 18, 1939, the legislative assembly of autonomous �SLOVAKIA 59 Slovakia was opened in a festive manner and began its activity. It soon appeared that the form and amount of selfgovernmen t which Slovakia possessed could not supply all the needs of Slovak national life. In its twenty-yea r struggle for its rights, the Slovak nation had reached a level of maturity, and had set its heart on a measure of freedom, for which autonomy was too small a frame. Not even the Czechs were satisfied with the autonomou s status of Slovakia. They found it hard to give up the rule of Slovakia even though responsibl e persons in the Prague Governme nt repeatedly complaine d that the Czechs were obliged to subsidize Slovakia. The Slovak nation felt that it was capable of taking over the administra tion of its country entirely, while the central departmen ts in Prague often proceeded as though there were no declaration of Slovak autonomy in existence. Fresh disagreeme nts and dissension s arose between the Slovaks and Czechs, and the situation in autonomou s Slovakia continued to be vague and confused. The situation was made worse by the intrusion of outside influences. This confusion, aggravated by the rapacity of its neighbors, could have had catastrophic consequen ces for the fate of Slovakia. The Slovaks longed for the peaceful growth of their own life, and the orn: condition necessary for such a life was the national independen ce of Slovakia. The Slovak nation, having come so far along the road of its historical evolution, was prepared and determined to take this step also, because it was convinced that it had a right not only to autonomy, but also to its own independen t state. And this step was the only refuge for Slovakia against the storm threatening it in the tense internation al situation. " FAITHFUL TO OURSELV ES FORWARD IN HARMONY ! " As a result of the constantly increasing demands of Germany, the situatjon which developed in Central Europe was very confused and perturbed at the beginning of March, 1939. It was clear, however, that the Czecho-Slo vak Republic had arrived at the edge of an abyss. The Slovaks did not feel duty-bound to hurl themselves into that gorge. �60 SLOVAKIA Rather, the Slovaks looked for an escape that would lead them to safety. In Bratislava representatives of Germany sought out Karol Sidor, whom they considered the most popular political leader in Slovakia, and urged him to declare the independent State of Slovakia over the radio. Dr. Jozef Tiso was invited to Berlin for a discussion with Adolf Hitler and his minister of foreign affairs, von Ribbentrop. They both informed the president of the Slovak government of the danger confronting Slovakia and demanded his decision at once. Neither Karol Sidor nor Dr. Jozef Tiso complied with this urgent demand because they considered any decisions regarding the future legal status of Slovakia to be the right and duty of the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava. The Slovak Parliament, elected according to the decree of Slovak autonomy, was called into session by the president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Dr. Emil Ha.cha, and on March 14, 1939, it declared Slovakia an independent and self-governing state by unanimous resolution. The presidium of the Parliament appointed the administration of independent Slovakia, with Dr. Jozef Tiso at his head, and the Slovak Government then took over all power in Slovakia into its own hands. Even though the international situation, during which Slovakia's declaration of independence was made, influenced the rapid succession of events in Slovakia, the Slovak Parliament-as the legal and authorized interpreter of the Slovak nation's will-did only what the Slovak nation had a right to do. Conscious of this right, the Slovak nation accepted the decision of the Slovak Parliament as the natural result of historical development not only with enthusiastic agreement and sincere joy, but also with a determination to bear the entire burden of responsibility for its own destiny and to prove that it was mature and ready for national independence. The proclamation of autonomous Slovakia as an independent state marked the end of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Even so, the Czecho-Slovak Republic would not have been able to survive the hurricane of events. Its fall would have been Slovakia's downfall also, and the Slovak nation would have been left to the mercy of its neighbors. The decisive action of the Slovak Parliament placed before �SLOVAKIA 61 Slovakia's neighbors a ready reality, and the government of the neighboring states took this reality into consideration and respected it. The independent State of Slovakia was recognized either de iure or de facto by the following states: Belgium, ( de facto ), Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Equador, Estonia, Finland, France ( de facto ), Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Manchuria, Poland, Siam, Soviet Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Vatican State and Yugoslavia, 27 nations in all. These states included great powers and small countries, neutrals as well as belligerents in the Second World War. Not even the allies of the former Czecho-Slovak Republic hesitated to recognize the national independence of Slovakia. Some of these nations established and maintained diplomatic and commercial relations with Slovakia, whereas others were not able to do so because they were obstructed by the War. The Slovak State did not solicit the protection of its German neighbor, but when the German Government itself came with the proposal of a defense pact, the Slovak Government, for various reasons, could not reject such an offer. True, this treaty restricted the sovereignty of the Slovak State to a certain extent, but on the other hand it assured the safety of Slovakia not only against the nation which frequently advanced its historical claims to Slovak lands, but also against Germany itself. Although the Slovaks had in the past claimed the right to a free life, the nations who were deciding the fate of Slovakia rejected these petitions, and, despite other proofs, kept insisting that Slovakia because of its small size could not maintain itself as a separate and independent political unit since it was not supposed to be economically selfsustaining. Therefore, they concluded, it would be to the advantage of Slovakia to be in a union with another state, and it was intimated that the Slovaks should be thankful if someone would be willing magnanimously to support them. From the very beginning of its life as an independent state, Slovakia strove to disprove this false legend of economic dependence. And it controverted it in such a way at every step that these arguments against Slovak independ- �62 SLOVAKIA ence completely disappeared. As soon as its autonomy was proclaimed, the Slovak Government floated a loan for the economic revival of Slovakia, and the Slovak people themselves in a short time subscribed an amount necessary to cover this need. In a similar manner a gold standard was created for the Slovak Republic, to which the Slovaks sacrificed their valuables. The mint at Kremnica which had coined Hungarian currency for 600 years, for the first time in its history began to mint money with the seal of the Slovak State. It was discovered that Slovakia had enough varied raw materials which it could work, and that Slovak industry could increase its production to the point where it could export its products. Slovakia concluded trade agreements with many European countries, and the foreign trade of the Slovak Republic was highly active. The Slovak "koruna" (crown) won a reputation as the "Tatra Dollar," and its steady value was the best proof of the settled economy of the Slovak State. The Slovak Parliament, as early as July 21, 1939. approved the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, thereby establishing a strong foundation of legal procedure and the future development of Slovak national life. 8 On October 26, 1939, Dr. Jozef Tiso was unanimously elected the first president of the Slovak Republic and was recognized by the Slovak nation as the successor of the 9th-century Slovak princes. His motto: "Faithful to Ourselves-Forward in Harmony!" succinctly expressed not only the principles he practiced in his own high office, but also the program of Slovak statehood. The Slovak nation, particularly during those tempestuous days, took careful note of all the advantages and disadvantages obtaining from its position at the historical crossroads of Central Europe. The generation: which lived to see liberty on the soil of the ancient Slovak fatherland wanted to forget the injustices of the past and sincerely to establish friendly relation with all the nations with which it would come into contact. It wished to stand not only on the free land of its ancestors, but also on the spiritual foundation of its own life, to retrieve in unity with all Slovaks what the Slovak nation had lost through no fault of its own, and to prepare a peaceful and prosperous future for generations to come. �SLOVAKIA 63 It was along this road that Dr. Jozef Tiso led the Slovak nation as president of the Slovak Republic. As the Slovak nation was laying the foundations of its State and was taking its first steps on the road of a free life, the storm of war began to spread over Central Europe. Its flames grew and engulfed more and more countries. But the hurricane of war, moving from the west to the east, passed over Slovakia without damage. During the first years of the War, when the German armies penetrated through Poland and were headed for Moscow, reaching the Volga River and the foothills of the Caucasus, Slovakia remained in a sort of vacuum, free to develop in every respect without interference. Especially the cultural life of Slovakia blossomed at this time. In the Slovak University, the Technical Institute, the School of Commerce and Business, the Slovak National Library, the Slovak Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in its other older and newer cultural institutions the Slovak nation discovered media of growth such as it had never known in the past. The number of books increased daily, new radio stations were built, and the production of cultural and documentary films was initiated. Unusual cultural activity flourished throughout Slovakia with many Slovak villages erecting cultural buildings as agencies for their own progress. Slovakia grew because the creative abilities of the Slovak nation were not being exhausted in the defense of natural rights, now guaranteed by political independence and its own national administration. The Slovak Republic, emerging during the twilight of the great War, was beclouded by a crucial question: How would the War end, and what kind of fate awaited this small yet so promisingly developing State? The Slovak nation was determined to defend its national independence as the only real basis for its national liberty, and so it exerted itself to have the Slovak Republic remain on the map of postwar Europe. It had a right to believe that it could preserve its liberty and national independence, but it knew from its own experience the bitter truth that if the others decided the fate of a nation, the rights of a nation are seldom considered. The only desire of the Slovak nation at this time was the Slovak Republic be rid of the outward pressure which limited its sovereignty �64 SLOVAKIA and influenced its decisions. When a turn of events came in the War, and military danger began to approach from the East, the Slovak nation began to fear for its future . These fears grew as the Slovak nation realized that it did not have the strength to repel this threatening calamity. Besides this, it was aware of designs being made against the Slovak Republic in foreign countries.9 It was reasonable to presume that, because of the Soviet army's superior force, the hard-pressed German army would not retreat through the mountainous territory of Slovakia. In the north, the Soviet army advanced from the Carpathians through Poland, and in the south, through Hungary; and it could be sudmised that Slovakia would not become a battleground. It could expect to be spared at least the destruction of war. These suppositions, however, were not fulfilled, because the agents of Moscowwi th the help of Communist partisans, landed in the Slovak mountains by Soviet aircraft, organized an uprising in Slovakia in August, 1944, and produced a chaos which confused a portion of the native population. 10 This entire action had no political significance because it had no influence on the fate of Slovakia. From a military viewpoint the uprising was foolish, and it collapsed in a shameful manner. But from an economic point of view, the uprising caused greater damage than had been suffered by the country for centuries. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives for no reason, railroads, tunnels and bridges were arbitrarily destroyed, and many villages were reduced to ashes. With the blood that was needlessly spilled and the smoke which hung over the ruins perished not only the national independence of Slovakia, but also the liberty of the "liberated" Slovak nation. On the heels of the Soviet army's divisions and their unspeakable atrocities, from Moscow to desolated Slovakia came Dr. Eduard Benes with the government of a resurrected Czecho-Slovak Republic. After five years of existence in its own state the Slovak nation arrived, against its own will and contrary to all the principles of natural and self-determining rights, at a position in which it did not care to live at any price, with nothing but slavery staring it in the facp �SLOVAKIA 65 BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN The Slovak Republic was a small state. It emerged in unusually restless times and grew under very complicated conditions. In view of these circumstances, it could not become an ideal or complete state. Large, ancient, and mighty nations have their faults and weaknesses, too . The Slovak Republic cannot be condemned for the imperfection connected with its infancy nor for the errors it made, which in more than one case were simply the result of outside influences. It is an incontrovertible historical fact that the Slovak nation, in all of i~ more than one-thousand year history, never had such liberty, such rights, so much employment, such a measure of material welfare, such conditions for spiritual growth and cultural progress, or so much joy in living, as it had in the years of the Slovak Republic. The Slovak nation was contented with its State, despite its deficiencies, and it did not long for any other kind of state, including the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Slovak Republic conclusively refuted all the arguments against Slovak national independenqe. Every Slovak could see for himself that Slovakia, utilizing the industriousness of its people, is large enough and wealthy enough to provide all the economic conditions needed for indep8ndent national life . . The Slovak nation, during its five-year history of political independence, passed with remarkable success its test in the art of creating a government, and it deserved to be recognized as an independent and equal member in the family of free nations. By its experience as a Slovak republic, it is qualified to decide all questions pertaining to its own life, and is prepared to use its strength for the common welfare of the nations of Central Europe. One Slovak generation tasted the sweet fruit of liberty for which so many generations of the Slovak nation had fervently yearned, and therefore Slovaks will never again be satisfied with the bitter bread of slave labor. All this the Slovak nation learned in its own state. But all this was noted also by Dr. Eruard Benes, who observed the development of Slovak life abroad during �66 SLOVAKIA the war and in the spring of 1945, accompanied by Soviet bayonets, set foot on the blood-stained soil of Slovakia. The restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was one of the g1·eat inter-national mistakes. The revival of this State not only could not draw the Slovaks and Czechs closer to each other, but, on the contrary, relations between the Slovaks and Czechs became extremely cold as a direct result of this forced cohabitation in a joint state. The so-called Kosice Agreement of April 5, 1945, which recognized in the Slovaks the distinctive marks of a nation and promised. them complete equality with the Czechs, was not a cure for the wound which Slovakia suffered by the loss of its national independence, nor could it serve as a basis for a satisfying cohabitation of these two nations within one state. This sort of solution of Slovak-Czech relations would have had a meaning when the Slovaks were seeking autonomy in the spirit of the Pittsburgh Pact. The declaration at Kosice and the promises of Klement Gottwald had no power of attraction after the violent destruction of the Slovak Republic. The national independence of Slovakia was trampled by the Soviet army, which was followed by the Government and President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The restored Czecho-Slovak Republic was alien to the Slovaks not only because it could in no way replace the Slovak State, but also because it brought Slovakia under the control of Moscow through the administration at Prague. Slovakia, even while silenced by the presence of the Soviet army, in no way concealed either its irreconcilable opposition to the situation in which it found itself or its desire for its own national independence. Dr. Eduard Benes, as president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, was determined to crack this opposition of Slovakia at any cost and by any means, and to strangle in the Slovak nation every longing for independence. If Dr. Eduard Benes, by his personal propaganda, enjoyed the reputation abroad of a great democrat and farsighted statesman, he now himself tore off this mask and showed himself to be a ruthless tyrant far removed from democracy and wise foresight. He saw in the Communist people's democracy a new, higher and more advanced form of democracy, and �SLOVAKIA 67 as president of the restored Czecho-Slovak Republic he approved and confirmed all the violence committed by the Prague Government and its Bratislava agencies in the. name of the people's democracy. The Slovak nation now became a victim of revenge because it had its own state during the War. Criminal status was given not only to those who served in the Slovak Republic and had not redeemed their "crime" by the sin of treason, but also to those who disagreed with the new order. The executor of this people's democratic justice was the so-called "National Court" in Bratislava and the chain so-called "People's Courts" all over Slovakia . Since it was impossible to bring before the Court the entire "liberated" nation to condemn it , it was necessary to condemn hundreds and thousands of decent Slovaks in order that all Slovakia might be terrified silenced and coerced into slavish obedience. The " National Court" of Bratislava also condemned to death the president of the Slovak Republic Dr. Jozef Tiso, and the Czecho-Slovak Government together with its president saw to it that this judgment was carried out on April 18 , 1947. The execution of the President of the Slovak Republic evoked deep horror throughout Slovakia and at the same time extinguished the last spark of hope that Slovak~ and Czechs could live together in a common state. The gallows on which Dr. Jozef Tiso died a martyr's death stands above the chasm which once and for all obliterated any form of Czecho-Slovak state.11 Slovakia did not permit itself to be broken in its opposition to the Czecho-Slovak Republic nor to the Communistic people's democracy either by the murder of Dr. Jozef Tiso or by subsequent forcible measures. The Slovak nation is enduring the same wrongs, injustices and pains that are being suffered by all the other nations behind the Iron Curtain. The spirit and form of the Communist people's democracy are foreign, repulsive and unacceptable to the Slovak nation. With persistent and remarkable consistency, the Slovaks are rejecting everything that the Government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic as a servant of Moscow is �68 SLOVAKIA forcing upon them. And they are defending with heroic courage everything that feeds and strengthens their own life. 12 From the very dawn of its history, Slovakia has belonged to Western Europe, and for twelve centuries of its past it has lived in unity with the Christian civilization of the Western world. During this long historical evolution the Slovak nation has achieved a stature, spiritual character and moral tradition that cannot be reconciled with the godless materialism of Communist doctrine or with the un-Christian methods of the people's democracy. Even though its beautiful land serves as a huge prison behind the Iron Curtain, the Slovak nation has not lost, but continues to confess fearlessly, its faith in God as the source of its strength and hope. Deprived as it is of everything, it still does not surrender its claim to a free life in its own state, but insists on an independent position in the great family of equal nations in Europe. Could youf as a free citizen of a democratic country, say that the Slovak nation does not deserve freedom? Or that it want more than it has a right to expect? FOOTNOTES 1) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1934, p . 308. 2) In addition to many articles, Konstantin culen has written a separate two-volume study on American Slovaks: Dejiny Slov<ikov v Amerike (A History of Slovaks in America), Vols. I and II, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1942. The cultural life of American Slovaks is described in his book Slovaci v Amerike (Slovaks in America), Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia, 1938. Several articles are devoted to the intervention of the Slovak League in America in the political conditions of Slovakia in the book Slovensk<i Liga v Amerike styridsat'rocnri (Fortieth Anniversary of the Slovak League in America), Scranton, Pa., 1947. These questions are dealt in detail also by Karol Sidor in the book Slovrici v zahranicnom odboji ( Slovaks in the Resistance Movement Abroad), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1928. A separate book on the Pittsburgh Agreement was written by Konstantin culen, Pittsburghskd dohoda (The Pittsburgh Agreement), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1937. 3 ) Martin Greco, Martinsk<i deklar<icia (The St. Martin Declaration) , Bratislava, Slovakia, 1939. �SLOVAKIA 69 4) According to the 1930 census there were 3,329,793 inhabitants in 5) 6) 7) 8) Slovakia. Of this number, 2,284,355 were Roman Catholics, 213,725 Greek Catholics, 555,900 Protestants, 9,079 of the Orthodox faith . Only 16,890 were counted as not adhering to any religion: they were Czechs. The activity of Andrej Hlinka and the role of the Slovak People's Party are told in detail by Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1934. The Slovak National Party was numerically small, gaining only one delegate in the election, but it numbered among its members many of the Lutheran intelligentsia. The cession of Slovakia southern lands to Hungary was decided already between the Prague Government and the administration of Hungary. The government of autonomous Slovakia was confronted by this prepared situation, and Dr. Jozef Tiso, who had led these conferences, was actually a delegate of the Central Government of Prague. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was prepared by the vicepresident of Parliament and the chairman of the constitutional committee, Dr. Karol Mederly, who published it in an a separate brochure with a comprehensive introduction, Ostava Slovenslcej republilcy a jej zakladne smernice (The Constitution of the Slovak Republic and Its Basic Principles), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1939. 9) Plots against the independent statehood of Slovakia were led abroad by Dr. Eduard Benes who had resigned from the office of president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, had recognized Dr. Emil Hacha as his successor and then once again claimed the office of president. His faithful co-worker was the Slovak Communist, Dr. Vladimir Clementis. 10) The Soviet aircraft landed in Slovakia Slovak soldiers who had been captured by the Soviets and were obHged to join the so-called Czechoslovak Brigade in Russia. This entire brigade dispersed because the Slovak troops who had seen conditions in Soviet Russia with their own eyes did not wish to fight against the Slovak Republic, but fled to their homes at the first opportunity. 11) The entire address spoken by Dr. Jozef Tiso in Bratislava before his sentence has been published by the Slovak Catholic Sokol in a book entitled Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (Dr. Jozef Tiso, in His own Words), Slovak Catholic Sokol, Passaic, N. J., 1952, edited by Dr. Jozef Pauco. 12) Much valuable information regarding the resistance of the Slovaks against Communism may be found in the booklet by Dr. Jozef :Mikus, The Thee Slovak Bishops, Slovak Catholic Federation of America, Passaic, N. J. 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 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 42 SLOVAKIA This Is Slovakia By Francis Hrusovsk'J}, Ph.D. SEPARATIO N FROM HUNGARY The Austro-Hung arian Monarchy was built on a shaky foundation. It may have survived in a less extended territory, had it grasped in time its historical mission in this ethnically disunited region of Central Europe. Hungary could have weathered the approaching historical holocaust if it had put into practice the spirit of justice and equality. But neither the Austrian Emperor nor the Hungarian King, neither the Government of Vienna nor of Budapest, reckoned with the given realities: they did not know how to rightly evaluate the strength of the new historical trends, nor did they forsee the direction of future developments . Hence they permitted themselves to be led by policies which could only lead to the disintegration of the entire Monarchy and to the fall of Hungary. Because of the national policy of Hungary, which curtailed the growth of Slovak national life in all of its phases. the Slovaks were not sufficiently prepared for the role which awaited them. When the World War broke out in 1914, under the emergency provisions of the Government any kind of Slovak political movement was unthinkable. The fate of countries and of nations is not always determined by their strength, but as much by circumstances which arise without their doing. This proved to be true not only of Austra-Hunga ry, which was shaken to its foundations by World War I, but also of the various nations which had gradually become aware that the time had come to take an account of the past and be concerned only about their own future fate, regardless of the interests of the Monarchy. At the beginning of the war, the Slovaks had no thought of separating from Hungary, much less could they have expressed such a thought aloud. But when the War was nearing its end and it was more and more evident that Austria-Hung ary could not escape defeat, the leaders of SLOVAKIA 43 the Slovaks saw that the military defeat of the Hapsburg Monarchy would furnish them the opportunity for attaining the goals they were not able to achieve in Hungary. Slovak patriots met for a secret conference in Turciansky Sv. Martin on May 24, 1918, where Andrej Hlinka plainly stated: "The thousand-year marriage with the Magyars has not panned out. We must be divorced." 1 The Slovaks took a stand for the right of selfdetermination of the Slovak nation and decided that at an opportune time they would sever all ties between Slovakia and Hungary and enter a new State composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Russia. The Czecho-Slovak National Council (Ceskoslovenska narodna rada ), founded in Paris in 1916, worked abroad for the disolution of Austria-Aungary and the formation of a new Czecho-Slovak State. At the head of the CzechoSlovak National Council was professor Thomas G. Masaryk, and its outstanding member was the distinguished Slovak scholar, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who possessed unusual diplomatic talents and attained the rank of General in the French Army. Slovaks living abroad morally and materially supported the activity of the Czecho-Slovak National Council and in large numbers joined the CzechoSlovak Legion which fought on the side of the Allies against Austria-Hungary The Slovaks were convinced that if Slovakia would tear away from Hungary, it would enjoy all the conditions of a free national existence in a joint Czecho-Slovak State. The Czecho-Slovak National Council was most effectively supported by the Slovaks who were living in America and who always lllad a lively interest in the destiny of the Slovak nation in the Old World. Under the leadership of the Slovak League of America, which was organized already in 1907, they frequently raised their voice in defense of the Slovak nation in Hungary, and as free citizens of a democratic country they protested against the injustices which their native brothers in Slovakia had to suffer. Later, in the years of World War I , they stood in the first ranks of the battle for the liberation of Slovakia. It is to their credit not only that they made large financial sacrifices for the cause of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, but also that they insisted on having beforehand 44 SLOVAKIA a clear presentation and firm guaranties as to the relationship between the Slovak and Czech nations in the proposed joint State. Representatives of the Slovak League in America discussed this serious question with delegates of the Czech National Federation in Cleveland as early as 1915, and came to the conclusion that the future Czecho-Slovakia would be a federal union of states with complete autonomy for Slovakia. Subsequently, on May 30, 1918, representatives of the Slovak League met with representatives of Czech organizations and with the President of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, T. G. Masaryk, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drew up an agreement which guaranteed political and cultural autonomy to Slovakia in the new State. This agreement was designed by T . G. Masaryk and later signed by him as president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. 2 Only vague reports of this foreign action penetrated Slovakia, and the agreements which testify to the wise foresight of the American Slovaks were not even known there. Nevertheless, everything that could be undertaken in Slovakia during the War for the benefit of Slovakia's future was basically in harmony with what was being done independently overseas. In the meantime, events at the front indicated that the defeat of Austria-Hungary was inescapable. Emperor Charles published a manifesto on October 16, 1918, in which he promised a reconstruction of the Monarchy on a new basis, but it was already too late. The President of the Hungarian Government, Count Stephen Tisza, on the 17th of October, attempted to justify the Budapest policy of Magyarization, reluctant to see that it was just this policy that brought Hungary to inevitable disintegration and certain collapse. In the Hungarian Parliament, on October 19, the Slovak delegate, Dr. Ferdis Juriga, announced in the face of a stormy protest of Magyar members that neither the Hungarian Parliament nor the Hungarian Government had the right any longer to decide the future destiny of the Slovak nation, because the Slovaks would decide their own future on the basis of their right of self-determination. The Slovaks, unaware of what had happened in Prague on October 28, met on October 30, 1918, in Turciansky Sv. SLOVAKIA 45 Martin, where, chiefly under the influence of Andrej Hlinka, they organized a Slovak National Council and in a separate declaration proclaimed that the Slovaks once and for all Hrere separating themselves from Hungary and were of their own accord joining the Czecho-Slovak State.3 The new Czecho-Slovak State was born on the ruins of the Hapsburg Monarchy, which, having lost the war, was not able to defend its own existence and escape catastrophe. There was nothing left to do but define the boundaries of the new State (especially the Slovak-Hungarian border ), establish its international position, and construct its internal administration on a basis that would insure its ability to live. The most important condition for the healthy internal development of the Czecho-Slovak State was deciding the position Slovakia would occupy in the new State. The separation of the Slovaks from the Magyars and from Hungary was for the Slovak& not only painless, but joyful, as was the separation of the thirteen American colonies from England. " SLAVES UNTIL NOW - NEVER AGAIN!" Martin Razus (1888-1937)-a leading Slovak poet whose writings gave voice to the pains, longings, and hopes of his people, and whom the Slovaks called the "conscience of the Slovak nation"-welcomed the dawn of the new Slovak day with a poem, the refrain of which reads: "Slaves we have been till now, slaves we shall be no longer!" These words, mirrored the sentiment that prevailed throughout Slovakia in the first years of its new status. The Slovaks had reasons enough, at the end of the bloody war, to welcome the Czecho-Slovak Republic with open joy and sincere hopes. They had fought on all fronts, and had used every means, to bring about the formation of this new State. They had a right therefore to see in the Czecho-Slovak Republic a state they could consider their own. Slovakia experienced a period of genuine joy mostly because it had extricated itself from the union with old Hungary where it had striven in vain for equal rights. The Magyar language was removed from offices, schools, and all public life, and with its disappearance went all traces of Magyar domination. Slavonic traditions, which 46 SLOVAKIA had remained alive in Slovakia, prevented the Slovaks from being disappointed in their Slavonic brotherhood, a subject frequently discussed at the inception of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Slovak people entered their new existence as a nation composed of large groups of Slovaks who had never estranged themselves from their origin nor allowed themselves to be misled by foreign ideologies, had preserved their language, their national traditions and all the marks of their national character. The democratic spirit which promted the laws of the new State gave assurance that the Slovak people would no longer serve foreign masters, but would concentrate on the development of their own life in order to regain as quickly as possible what they had lost in the past through no fault of their own. Aristocratic titles, together with their corresponding historical privileges, wer e abolished. A federal Land Commission was set up to expropriate for a fair price land held by big non-Slovak landowners and distribute it to the small Slovak farmers , who had always been the strong core of the Slovak nation. It was anticipated, with good reason, that the industry, that would develop in the western part of the new State would be supplemented by the farm and forest economy of Slovakia, a balance that could be achieved only by means of such a union with the Czech lands. It was also to be expected that under the influence of new social laws the living standard of the working people would be raised. The Constitution, approved on February 29, 1920, guaranteed civil equality and political rights to all citizens, thus giving the Slovaks the privilege of influencing the affairs of government. A great deal of pain was caused in Slovak life by the schools which had been used as an instrument of denationalization. This injustice was corrected by the retention of Magyar schools only in those parts of Slovakia where was a Magyar population. New high schools and technical schools were established where there had been none before. In Bratislava, which had become the capital of Slovakia, a new university was founded in 1919 with three faculties. Besides other cultural organizations, the National Slovak Theatre came into being. In every city and village of Slovakia, public libraries were established and plays SLOVAKIA 47 were presented, with the result that vigorous cultural activity spread throughout the country. In Turciansky Sv. Martin, the Matica Slovenska was reopened, to provide Slovakia with the new products of Slovak literature. In Slovakia there was a revival of old Slovak political parties whose activity was restricted under the Hungarian regime and completely stopped during the war. In addition, new political parties were organized, so that Slovaks could participate in politics according to their convictions. The desire for a new, free, and full national life was discernible everywhere, and the program for providing this kind of life from day to day. The relationship between the Slovak and Czech people, however, was dimmed from the very beginning of their union, and as it continued it became streadily worse. The Czechs and the Slovaks, throughout their long history, had never lived together in a joint state. Each went their own way and developed under a different set of conditions. When these two Slavic nations now got together under the roof of a common state and began to knew each other better, it appeared that for all their lingual similarity there was a great difference between them. Slovakia is a country Christian from its foundations, 80 % Catholic, its deep, living religious traditions permeating the nature of the Slovak and his entire life. 4 The Czechs, as the result of a different historical development, had a different attitude toward religious questions, and when, after the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, they came to Slovakia, they approached the religious convictions of the Slovaks tactlessly, thereby creating antagonism in Slovakia. Between the Slovak and Czech nations a crevice of distrust began to form . This fissure deepened when the Czechs in Slovakia acted as though they were in a backward country. Many of them had the idea--even when there was no basis for it:r--that their role was to bring culture and progress to Slovakia. This condescending attitude offended the Slovaks, who in turn began to ridicule Czech "progressiveness." Under the pretext that the Slovaks did not have sufficient trained personnel to occupy various official posi- 48 SLOVAKIA tions, multitudes of Czechs who had previously lived in various parts of Austria and for whom there was no room in Bohemia, moved into Slovakia. The Slovaks were grateful to the Czechs for the assistance Slovakia certainly needed in the first years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. But the thousands upon thousands of Czechs who came into Slovakia were completely superfluous. The Slovaks began to look upon them as intruders who were taking away their jobs and bread. While the flood of Czechs was pouring into Slovakia, Slovaks left their homeland in great numbers and moved to all parts of the world. But the most important reason why the early enthusiasms of the Slovaks ended in rapid and complete disillusionment was that the Czechs were trying to build the Czecho-Slovak Republic on the same kind of foundation the Magyars had laid for the creation of a united great Hungary. The very opening words of the Czecho-Slovak Constitution speak of the "Czechoslovak nation"-which in fact never existed. The Czechs ever more openly proclaimed the idea of Czechoslovak national oneness. Since they themselves had no intention of giving up their Czech nationality; desiring to remain a Czech nation also in the future, this alleged Czechoslovak national oneness was simply a way of leading tha Slovaks into a national unity with the Czechs. Even though admitting its euphony, they spoke of the Slovak language as a dialect of the Czech tongue, a vestige that would gradually disappear from literature. Because there was indeed no Czechoslovak language, references were made to the temporary bilinguism of the Czechoslovak nation, or of two aspects of one language. The Slovaks, who had waged such a long, costly, and exhausting struggle in Hungary "for our Slovak language" and considered their language as one expression of their national individuality, were disturbed by such a development because they saw in it the design of Czechization. Slovak literature, from the Czech point of view, was merely an echo of Czech literature, and all Slovak culture just a part of Czech cultural life. They predicted that the Slovaks would gradually SLOVAKIA 49 merge with the Czechs in the unified State, that they themselves recognized the advantage of such a development, and that this unity would be the most secure foundation for the Czecho-Slovak Republic which would then stand as a strong bulwark against the pressure of their German neighbor. Czech policy, based on such assumptions, led to complete centralization which ignored the interests of Slovakia. This Czech policy aroused vigorous opposition in Slovakia. If the words of the poet Martin Razus meant that the Slovaks had been slaves in Hungary and that this slavery had ended once and for all, they soon took on the new meaning that the Slovaks did not care to be--nor would they be--slaves in the Czecho-Slovak Republic either. The Magyars had used a political ideology to justify their dealings with the Slovaks, though actually they were concerned only for their own safety. The lifeless fiction of Czechoslovak national oneness had a similar meaning. The Czechs are surrounded on three sides by the Germans, and they are exposed to the influence of this great neighbor. When the Czecho-Slovak Republic came into being, they thought Slovakia would become not only their colony but also a country which when gradually assimilated would strengthen their position over against the Germans. But the Slovaks, who had not been willing to perish in Hungary, were unwilling to sacrifice their national individuality even for the protection of the Czechs. Suicide can be committed only by a nation uninformed, cudutrally undeveloped, and unconcerned about its future, a nation which does not understand why it should care about its honor or its right to exist. Because it had endured so many historical trials, had lost so much of its own blood, and was unable to develop its national life under the trying conditions of its past, the Slovak nation grew weary of having its energies continually drained and finally longed to be a nation really free. For this very reason it recognized the danger it faced in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, and with all the determination of a self-conscious nation took a stand for the defense of its honor and its right to the kind of life every nation deserves. 50 SLOVAKIA UNDER THE LEADERS HIP OF ANDREJ HLINKA In the first years of the Czecho-Slo vak Republic Slovakia had a sort of governmen t, headed by a special minister with full authority for the administra tion of Slovakia as a member of the Prague Governmen t. This administra tion had its headquarte rs in Bratislava, consisted of several cabinet members, and exercised powers of jurisdictio n for a brief period. But in the end it was subject to the Central Governme nt in Prague which handled the admi.Ristra tion of the new State as part of a pattern of complete centralizat ion. Czech policy with all its attempts at centralizat ion was challenged by Andrej Hlinka, who had revived the Slovak People's Party (Slovenska :r.udova Strana) and had evoked a strong opposition movement in Slovakia. Andrej Hlinka saw the danger threatening Slovakia, and therefore tried to get the Paris Peace Conference to define the position of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slo vak Republic. For this he was imprisoned in the year 1919. Only upon his election to the Prague Parliamen t on April 18, 1920 was he released.5 The Slovak People's Party gained twelve seats in the election and, under the leadership of its chairman, Andrej Hlinka, began a relentless struggle for the rights of the Slovak nation in accordance with the Pittsburgh Agreement which had become the pattern of Slovak policy. This campaign had to be directed not only against the Prague Governme nt, but also against all the Czech political parties which, as servants of Prague centralism , had spread their nets also in Slovakia. Andrej Hlinka organized his party, set up its press, traveled throughou t Slovakia, and speaking at mass meetings, awakened in the Slovak people a strong national consciousn ess, an interest in political life, and courage to defend all their rights. These gatherings were often very stormy; neverthele ss the Slovak people followed Andrej Hlinka and saw in him their political leader. The inconsider ate actions of Czechs in Slovakia continued and strengthen ed the spirit of opposition in large groups of Slovak people against everything that came from Bohemia. In the years 1922-1926, when the Prague Governme nt was sending multitudes of Czechs into Slovakia to break Slovak SLOVAKIA 51 resistance to its policy of centralization, 250,000 Slovaks emigrated from Slovakia, forced to look for work in foreign lands. The Prague Government resorted to every means in order to discredit Andrej Hlinka and to frustrate the activity of the Slovak People's Party, but its attempts merely served to widen the breach between the Slovaks and the Czechs. The Slovak People's Party, in its campaign for the sanctioning of Slovak autonomy, desired the fulfilment of what Slovakia had been guaranteed in the Pittsburgh Agreement. The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic T . G. Masaryk, who had designed and signed that Agreement himself, brushed aside the petitions of the Slovak People's Party with the excuse that the Pittsburgh Agreement is just an interesting document from the period of rebellion against Austria-Hungary, having no binding value . He claimed that the Slovak gained more in the Czecho-Slovak Republic than they were promised in the Pittsburgh Agreement. The Slovaks would not recognize this devaluation of the Pittsburgh Agreement, and the American Slovaks, who were following carefully the progress of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slovak State, in their Message of the American Slovaks to the Old World encouraged their native brothers to pursue relentlessly the struggle for Slovak autonomy. Andrej Hlinka stood staunchly behind the autonomy platform of the Slovak People's Party, and that was the reason why it grew in numbers and in strength. In the elections of 1925 it won twenty-three seats in the Prague Parliament and became the largest political party in Slovakia, with the right to speak as the only authorized representative of the political will of the Slovak nation. When not even the Czechs could continue to close their eyes to the numerical strength and steadily increasing importance to the Slovak People's Party any longer, they tried to win it to the side of the Government. After lengthy deliberations, the Slovak People's Party sent its representatives to the Prague Government to see if they might achieve autonomy by this method. According to this policy, it sought changes in the affairs of the Government that would assure Slovakia a standing as a separate administration unit. In 1927 the Prague Parliament passed 52 SLOVAKIA a law dividing the territory of Czecho-Slovakia into four administrative regions. Beginning January 1, 1928, Slovakia was to become one of these units. Slovakia was empowered to elect its own provincial representatives, forming a provincial assembly for the management of the economic, transportation, social, health and cultural needs of Slovakia. The Czechs felt that by this concession they were satisfying all the demands of Slovakia. However, the Slovaks saw in this reform only "the first ray of Slovak autonomy." The provincial assembly had no legislative powers, one-third of its members were named by the Prague Government, and its jurisdiction was limited. Still, it was a step forward, and it bolstered the hope in Slovakia that gradually the entire autonomistic program set forth in the Pittsburgh Agreement would be realized. The Slovaks were not oposed to the Czecho-Slovak Republic, of which they wanted their own State to be a member. In fact, they believed that, despite all the hardships which hampered the realization of their political program, they would eventually reach their goal. Nor were they against the Czech nation as such; but they resolutely rejected the myth of Czechoslovak national oneness and ever more boldly resisted the Czech imperialism which persisted even after the reorganization of the Government. Relations between the Slovaks and Czechs did not improve ; rather, the centralism of Prague became pronounced that the conditions for harmonious cohabitation between these two nations grew steadily worse. The elections of 1929 again proved the firm position of the Slovak People's Party and its abiding determination to defend the rights of the Slovak nation. It withdrew from the Government and, as on opposition Party, submitted to the Prague Parliament several proposals for the sanctioning of Slovak autonomy. The Prague Parliament rejected all these motions. It was evident that the fight would have to go to the finish. The first requirement for the attainment of Slovak autonomy was unity of all Slovaks. The Czechs had always been able to find means to thwart the unification of the Slovaks. Now the Slovaks had to discover something that would unite them and lead them toward a common goal. The Slovak People's Party, led by Andrej Hlinka, was SLOVAKIA 53 predominantly Catholic. The Slovak National Party (Slovenska Narodna Strana), headed by Martin Razus, had a majority of Lutheran members.6 These two political parties, fighting for the autonomy of Slovakia, came to an agreement on a united precedure in 1932, and in a joint resolution expressed their mutual determination not to surrender Slovak rights even thought it might cost the disintegration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. This resolve of the Slovak nation was further stiffened and given a mighty manifestation when, from August 13-15, 1933, the Slovaks gathered in Nitra, the ancient headquars of the Slovak princes, to celebrate the 1100th anniversary of the dedication of the first Christian church in Slovakia. At this occasion the Slovak people not only reminded themselves of their antiquity and the rich traditions of their Christian culture, but at the same time emphasized their right to a free national existence in a great demonstration. More than 100,000 Slovaks assembled at the historic site of glorious Slovak antiquity to express their unquenchable longing for a free Slovak future. As the Prague Government did not understand Slovakia, so did not comprehend what took place in Nitra. It saw in the events in Nitra simply a demonstration against the Government. This prompted the seizure of the Slovak People's Party's press, the trial of its editor-in-chief Karol Sidor, an investigation of Slovak students and other steps which evoked a new storm of apposition in Slovakia. The premier of the Prague Government, Jan Malypetr, himself issued a separate manifesto in which he stressed that the Czechs contributed to the support of Slovakia and that Slovakia was ungrateful for this magnanimity. To give this speech as much publicity as possible in Slovakia, he had it printed on large placards and posted in all Slovak cities and villages. This tactless and-for a premier of a government-undignified act deeply offended every Slovak, because no one in Slovakia believed that Slovakia was dependent on the Czechs for a subsidy. Equally as politically indescreet and mistaken in statesmanship was the procedure of Dr. Eduard Benes who, as foreign minister of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, in December of 1933 spoke in several Slovak cities on the 54 SLOVAKIA "Idea of Czechoslovak National Unity from the Viewpoint of International Policy." The Slovaks were to keep silent about their grievances and their rights because Prague supported Slovakia. They were to disavow their national independence without a struggle and betray themselves in order to strengthen the international position of the State in which they were not able to arouse justice and reform. Instead of being misled and bowing to the Prague Government at this suggestion, the Slovaks advanced tow~rd their goal. They were unwilling to surrender their rights even for the survival of the Czecho-Slovak Republic which at this very hour had got itself into a really dangerous situation. Adolf Hitler and his National-Socialist Party had come to power in neighboring Germany. The Slovaks were correct in assuming that this tense international situation would force the Czechs to fulfill the Slovak demands in order to strengthen the Czecho-Slovak Republic for the possible outbreak of new dangers. The Slovaks did not wish to cause internal difficulties in the CzechoSlovak Republic and, even at this time, they had the good will to come to an agreement with the Czechs and to defend their joint State with their united strength. When T . G. Masaryk resigned from the office of President on December 14, 1935, representatives of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, at the election of the new president on December 18, voted for Dr. Eduard Benes who prior to the election had promised to see that the Slovak demands would be fulfilled. Dr. Benes made the promise, but it turned out that there was no one to fulfill it. For the first time in the history of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, a Slovak, Dr. Milan Hodza, became premier of the Government and also Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was a politician of rich experience and wide vision but involved in his own political conceptions and indecisive especially concerning the Slovak question. At the time, even had he wanted to settle the standing of Slovakia, he could not devote himself to the question because he was obliged to center all his attention on the demands of the Sudeten Germans. The integrity and existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was seriously threatened and the position of SLOVAKIA 55 Slovakia was left unsolved after twenty years of the Czecho-Slovak State. In 1938 the situation of the Czecho-Slovak Republic became even worse. On March 12 Hitler occupied and linked Austria to Germany. The Sudeten Germans presented their demands again, but the Prague Government had no answer to give that would satisfy both the Germans and the interests of the Czecho-Slovak State. The international situation grew more and more acute, and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, preparing to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, was experiencing moments of deep unrest and worrisome uncertainty. Even under these circumstances the Slovaks, who for twenty years had striven for autonomy and for twenty years had not been able to achieve their goal, were peacefully preparing to commemorate in a grand way the twentieth anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement. On Pentecost Sunday, the 5th of June, 120,000 Slovaks gathered in Bratislava to declare most emphatically that they would never give up their rights. At this occasian a delegation of the Slovak League of America was present together with its president, Dr. Peter P. Hletko, who brought along the original of the Pittsburgh Pact. The American Slovaks represented by the Slovak League wished to certify by their presence at this commemoration that they stood on the same platform they had accepted twenty years earlier. The throngs of Slovaks who welcomed the delegation of the Slovak League of America in the capital of Slovakia were not fanatic masses, but the self-conscious Slovak nation, politically trained and exemplarily led by Andrej Hlinka, giving notice for the last time and in a very resolute-yet in every respect honorable-manner, that it would under no pressure give up the struggle for its rights to a free life. In Bratislava, for the last time, Andrej Hlinka himself appeared before the crowd of faithful fellow fighters to receive the homage of his people before his death. The Prague Government, even with the Slovak Dr. Milan Hodza at its helm, failed to understand the true meaning of this historical event and the very next day arranged a demonstration in Bratislava advocating the idea of Czechoslovak national oneness in opposition to 56 SLOVA KIA Slovak autono my. This blund ering step was the climax of all the mistak es made by the Pragu e Gover nment in its absur d policy conce rning Slovak ia. Andre j Hlink a died Augus t 16, 1938. The Slovak nation stood at his grave resolu tely determ ined to finish its great strugg le witho ut regard for the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic. The mome nt had come when the Slovak nation had to be conce rned only aboutl its own destin y. VIA AUTO NOMY TO THE SLOV AK STATE The positi on of the Slovak s in the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic preven ted them from determ ining even their own destin y. Much less were they able to steer the course of intern al affairs in this State. Least of all were they able to influe nce the foreig n policy direct ed by Dr. Eduar d Benes . Hence the Slovak s bore no respon sibilit y either for the develo pment of the intern al life or the intern ationa l standi ng of the Czecho-Slovak Repub lic and could not be blame d for the situati on into which the State got itself. Small nation s are not creato rs of intern ationa l situations. Often they are merely helple ss figurin es on the great chessb oard of intern ationa l politic s, which is the game of large nation s. Furthe rmore , the small nation witho ut to a gover nment of its own it not given an oppor tunity l ationa active ly interv ene in the appea semen t of an intern 1918 situati on. The Slovak s were in sucl\ a positi on from to 1938. If great nation s assum e the right to create intern ationa l situat ions in which they utilize small nation s for the realiza tion of their power plans, a small and enslav ed nation canno t be blame d if for its own protec tion it utilize s an oppor tunity offere d by the wave of histor ical events . It is eviden ce of the Slovak nation 's politic al matur ity that it knew how to grasp such an histor ical oppor tunity , not neglec ting to use it for the attain ment of a goal it coul not achiev e by its own power . The Slovak s grew tired of vainly repeat ing their justifi ed deman ds when there was no one to fulfill them. They were theref ore determ ined and prepa red to take what was rightfu lly theirs. Imme diatel y after the Bratis lava manif estatio n the Slovak People 's Party presen ted to the Pragu e Parlia ment SLOVA KIA 57 a new nation for a law provid ing Slovak ia with autono my. At the time, Czech o-Slov akia found itself in the midst of a seriou s intern al crisis and was shake n to the found ations by strong outwa rd pressu re. With the threat of war hangin g in the air, the Pragu e Gover nment , heade d since Septem ber 23, 1938 by Gener al Syrovy , procla imed total mobili zation , a necess ity hasten ed still more by the intern al chaos in the Czech o-Slov ak Repub lic. The issue did not lead to war, howev er, becau se the Czech o-Slov ak Gover nment, on the advice of the Allies, acctep ted the condit ions dictate d by Germa ny accord ing to which the Germa n Army was to occup y the territo ries of Czech o-Slov akia that were popul ated by Germa ns. Nor was the Pragu e Gover nment able to reject the ultima tum of Poland deman ding that the Polish -occup ied territo ry of Silesia be joined to Poland . These circum stance s left the Slovak s no choice but to look out for thems elves. After length y and fruitle ss concultati ons with repres entativ es of the Pragu e regime , the Slovak People 's Party, led by Dr. Jozef Tiso after the death of Andre j Hlink a, had to take the fate of Slovak ia into its own hands . On Octob er 5th Dr. Eduar d Benes resign ed as Presid ent of the Repub lic, and on the 6th of Octob er the Execu tive Comm ittee of the Slovak People 's Party met in Zilina and sugge sted that all power in Slovak ia be taken over by the Slovak s by right of self-de termin ation. This resolu tion of the Slovak People 's Party was acctep ted and approv ed in all its parts also by delega tes of all the remain ing non-le ftist Slovak partie s. In the rapid succes sion of storm y events , the Slovak nation had to stakei out its future alone in order to preven t others from makin g the decisi ons contra ry to its intere sts. All these politic al partie s agreed also to join with the Slovak People 's Party to form a single party: The Slovak Nation al Unity Party (Stran a sloven skej narod nej jednot y). The Pragu e Gover nment, alway s deaf to Slovak previous deman ds, recogn ized this unanim ous decisi on of the Slovak politic al partie s. Slovak ia obtain ed its autono mous govern ment with Dr. Jozef Tiso at its head as prime minist er. Later, on Novem ber 19, 1938, the Pragu e Parliament passed a consti tution al law for the govern ment of autono mous Slovak ia. In order that Slovak ia might be 58 SLOVAKIA properly represented also in the Central Government in Prague, Karol Sidor was made the vice-presiden t of that body. In addition, Slovakia had its own delegates in the ministries of foreign affairs, national defense and finance . The Slovak nation had just attained this goal when confronted by a catastrophe similar to that which was it the Bohemian lands. The southern section of visited had by Magyars, was claimed by the Magyars, inhabited Slovakia have liked to occupy all of Slovakia. fact in would who had to work out a new boundary government The Slovak 7 Discussions were based on government. Magyar with the of the population. The nationality the of the statistics 1930 census, whereas the of statistics the Magyars rejected taken during the statistics, 1910 the the Slovaks regarded setting of the The unjust. as period of Magyarizatio n, court impartial an to left new boundary was therefore Germany and Italy of of arbitration. The foreign ministers rendered a decision on November 2, 1938, which the Slovaks considered to be unfair. By it Hungary received and occupied cities and areas in southern Slovakia that were entirely or predominantl y Slovak. This decision resulted in many economic and commercial hardships for Slovakia because the new boundary severed railroads and roads, and a number of Slovak valleys, open toward the south, lost their connection with the territory of Slovakia. Even these injustices and hardships failed to shatter the spirit of the Slovak nation. The Slovak Government, by exerting all its energy endeavored to organize the administratio n of Slovakia in a way that would prove its ability to exist as an entity. It was anxious above all to see all Slovaks lay a strong foundation for the future of Slovakia by means of firm national unity and faithful cooperation. According to the declaration of Slovak autonomy, elections for seats in Parliament were held as early as December 18, 1938. Members of the Slovak Parliament became the representativ es not only of the Slovak People's Party, but also of the remaining political parties which now formed the Slovak National Unity Party as the result of the zilina agreement. In the Slovak Parliament national minorities also had their representativ es. A month later, January 18, 1939, the legislative assembly of autonomous SLOVAKIA 59 Slovakia was opened in a festive manner and began its activity. It soon appeared that the form and amount of selfgovernmen t which Slovakia possessed could not supply all the needs of Slovak national life. In its twenty-yea r struggle for its rights, the Slovak nation had reached a level of maturity, and had set its heart on a measure of freedom, for which autonomy was too small a frame. Not even the Czechs were satisfied with the autonomou s status of Slovakia. They found it hard to give up the rule of Slovakia even though responsibl e persons in the Prague Governme nt repeatedly complaine d that the Czechs were obliged to subsidize Slovakia. The Slovak nation felt that it was capable of taking over the administra tion of its country entirely, while the central departmen ts in Prague often proceeded as though there were no declaration of Slovak autonomy in existence. Fresh disagreeme nts and dissension s arose between the Slovaks and Czechs, and the situation in autonomou s Slovakia continued to be vague and confused. The situation was made worse by the intrusion of outside influences. This confusion, aggravated by the rapacity of its neighbors, could have had catastrophic consequen ces for the fate of Slovakia. The Slovaks longed for the peaceful growth of their own life, and the orn: condition necessary for such a life was the national independen ce of Slovakia. The Slovak nation, having come so far along the road of its historical evolution, was prepared and determined to take this step also, because it was convinced that it had a right not only to autonomy, but also to its own independen t state. And this step was the only refuge for Slovakia against the storm threatening it in the tense internation al situation. " FAITHFUL TO OURSELV ES FORWARD IN HARMONY ! " As a result of the constantly increasing demands of Germany, the situatjon which developed in Central Europe was very confused and perturbed at the beginning of March, 1939. It was clear, however, that the Czecho-Slo vak Republic had arrived at the edge of an abyss. The Slovaks did not feel duty-bound to hurl themselves into that gorge. 60 SLOVAKIA Rather, the Slovaks looked for an escape that would lead them to safety. In Bratislava representatives of Germany sought out Karol Sidor, whom they considered the most popular political leader in Slovakia, and urged him to declare the independent State of Slovakia over the radio. Dr. Jozef Tiso was invited to Berlin for a discussion with Adolf Hitler and his minister of foreign affairs, von Ribbentrop. They both informed the president of the Slovak government of the danger confronting Slovakia and demanded his decision at once. Neither Karol Sidor nor Dr. Jozef Tiso complied with this urgent demand because they considered any decisions regarding the future legal status of Slovakia to be the right and duty of the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava. The Slovak Parliament, elected according to the decree of Slovak autonomy, was called into session by the president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Dr. Emil Ha.cha, and on March 14, 1939, it declared Slovakia an independent and self-governing state by unanimous resolution. The presidium of the Parliament appointed the administration of independent Slovakia, with Dr. Jozef Tiso at his head, and the Slovak Government then took over all power in Slovakia into its own hands. Even though the international situation, during which Slovakia's declaration of independence was made, influenced the rapid succession of events in Slovakia, the Slovak Parliament-as the legal and authorized interpreter of the Slovak nation's will-did only what the Slovak nation had a right to do. Conscious of this right, the Slovak nation accepted the decision of the Slovak Parliament as the natural result of historical development not only with enthusiastic agreement and sincere joy, but also with a determination to bear the entire burden of responsibility for its own destiny and to prove that it was mature and ready for national independence. The proclamation of autonomous Slovakia as an independent state marked the end of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Even so, the Czecho-Slovak Republic would not have been able to survive the hurricane of events. Its fall would have been Slovakia's downfall also, and the Slovak nation would have been left to the mercy of its neighbors. The decisive action of the Slovak Parliament placed before SLOVAKIA 61 Slovakia's neighbors a ready reality, and the government of the neighboring states took this reality into consideration and respected it. The independent State of Slovakia was recognized either de iure or de facto by the following states: Belgium, ( de facto ), Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Equador, Estonia, Finland, France ( de facto ), Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Manchuria, Poland, Siam, Soviet Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Vatican State and Yugoslavia, 27 nations in all. These states included great powers and small countries, neutrals as well as belligerents in the Second World War. Not even the allies of the former Czecho-Slovak Republic hesitated to recognize the national independence of Slovakia. Some of these nations established and maintained diplomatic and commercial relations with Slovakia, whereas others were not able to do so because they were obstructed by the War. The Slovak State did not solicit the protection of its German neighbor, but when the German Government itself came with the proposal of a defense pact, the Slovak Government, for various reasons, could not reject such an offer. True, this treaty restricted the sovereignty of the Slovak State to a certain extent, but on the other hand it assured the safety of Slovakia not only against the nation which frequently advanced its historical claims to Slovak lands, but also against Germany itself. Although the Slovaks had in the past claimed the right to a free life, the nations who were deciding the fate of Slovakia rejected these petitions, and, despite other proofs, kept insisting that Slovakia because of its small size could not maintain itself as a separate and independent political unit since it was not supposed to be economically selfsustaining. Therefore, they concluded, it would be to the advantage of Slovakia to be in a union with another state, and it was intimated that the Slovaks should be thankful if someone would be willing magnanimously to support them. From the very beginning of its life as an independent state, Slovakia strove to disprove this false legend of economic dependence. And it controverted it in such a way at every step that these arguments against Slovak independ- 62 SLOVAKIA ence completely disappeared. As soon as its autonomy was proclaimed, the Slovak Government floated a loan for the economic revival of Slovakia, and the Slovak people themselves in a short time subscribed an amount necessary to cover this need. In a similar manner a gold standard was created for the Slovak Republic, to which the Slovaks sacrificed their valuables. The mint at Kremnica which had coined Hungarian currency for 600 years, for the first time in its history began to mint money with the seal of the Slovak State. It was discovered that Slovakia had enough varied raw materials which it could work, and that Slovak industry could increase its production to the point where it could export its products. Slovakia concluded trade agreements with many European countries, and the foreign trade of the Slovak Republic was highly active. The Slovak "koruna" (crown) won a reputation as the "Tatra Dollar," and its steady value was the best proof of the settled economy of the Slovak State. The Slovak Parliament, as early as July 21, 1939. approved the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, thereby establishing a strong foundation of legal procedure and the future development of Slovak national life. 8 On October 26, 1939, Dr. Jozef Tiso was unanimously elected the first president of the Slovak Republic and was recognized by the Slovak nation as the successor of the 9th-century Slovak princes. His motto: "Faithful to Ourselves-Forward in Harmony!" succinctly expressed not only the principles he practiced in his own high office, but also the program of Slovak statehood. The Slovak nation, particularly during those tempestuous days, took careful note of all the advantages and disadvantages obtaining from its position at the historical crossroads of Central Europe. The generation: which lived to see liberty on the soil of the ancient Slovak fatherland wanted to forget the injustices of the past and sincerely to establish friendly relation with all the nations with which it would come into contact. It wished to stand not only on the free land of its ancestors, but also on the spiritual foundation of its own life, to retrieve in unity with all Slovaks what the Slovak nation had lost through no fault of its own, and to prepare a peaceful and prosperous future for generations to come. SLOVAKIA 63 It was along this road that Dr. Jozef Tiso led the Slovak nation as president of the Slovak Republic. As the Slovak nation was laying the foundations of its State and was taking its first steps on the road of a free life, the storm of war began to spread over Central Europe. Its flames grew and engulfed more and more countries. But the hurricane of war, moving from the west to the east, passed over Slovakia without damage. During the first years of the War, when the German armies penetrated through Poland and were headed for Moscow, reaching the Volga River and the foothills of the Caucasus, Slovakia remained in a sort of vacuum, free to develop in every respect without interference. Especially the cultural life of Slovakia blossomed at this time. In the Slovak University, the Technical Institute, the School of Commerce and Business, the Slovak National Library, the Slovak Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in its other older and newer cultural institutions the Slovak nation discovered media of growth such as it had never known in the past. The number of books increased daily, new radio stations were built, and the production of cultural and documentary films was initiated. Unusual cultural activity flourished throughout Slovakia with many Slovak villages erecting cultural buildings as agencies for their own progress. Slovakia grew because the creative abilities of the Slovak nation were not being exhausted in the defense of natural rights, now guaranteed by political independence and its own national administration. The Slovak Republic, emerging during the twilight of the great War, was beclouded by a crucial question: How would the War end, and what kind of fate awaited this small yet so promisingly developing State? The Slovak nation was determined to defend its national independence as the only real basis for its national liberty, and so it exerted itself to have the Slovak Republic remain on the map of postwar Europe. It had a right to believe that it could preserve its liberty and national independence, but it knew from its own experience the bitter truth that if the others decided the fate of a nation, the rights of a nation are seldom considered. The only desire of the Slovak nation at this time was the Slovak Republic be rid of the outward pressure which limited its sovereignty 64 SLOVAKIA and influenced its decisions. When a turn of events came in the War, and military danger began to approach from the East, the Slovak nation began to fear for its future . These fears grew as the Slovak nation realized that it did not have the strength to repel this threatening calamity. Besides this, it was aware of designs being made against the Slovak Republic in foreign countries.9 It was reasonable to presume that, because of the Soviet army's superior force, the hard-pressed German army would not retreat through the mountainous territory of Slovakia. In the north, the Soviet army advanced from the Carpathians through Poland, and in the south, through Hungary; and it could be sudmised that Slovakia would not become a battleground. It could expect to be spared at least the destruction of war. These suppositions, however, were not fulfilled, because the agents of Moscowwi th the help of Communist partisans, landed in the Slovak mountains by Soviet aircraft, organized an uprising in Slovakia in August, 1944, and produced a chaos which confused a portion of the native population. 10 This entire action had no political significance because it had no influence on the fate of Slovakia. From a military viewpoint the uprising was foolish, and it collapsed in a shameful manner. But from an economic point of view, the uprising caused greater damage than had been suffered by the country for centuries. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives for no reason, railroads, tunnels and bridges were arbitrarily destroyed, and many villages were reduced to ashes. With the blood that was needlessly spilled and the smoke which hung over the ruins perished not only the national independence of Slovakia, but also the liberty of the "liberated" Slovak nation. On the heels of the Soviet army's divisions and their unspeakable atrocities, from Moscow to desolated Slovakia came Dr. Eduard Benes with the government of a resurrected Czecho-Slovak Republic. After five years of existence in its own state the Slovak nation arrived, against its own will and contrary to all the principles of natural and self-determining rights, at a position in which it did not care to live at any price, with nothing but slavery staring it in the facp SLOVAKIA 65 BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN The Slovak Republic was a small state. It emerged in unusually restless times and grew under very complicated conditions. In view of these circumstances, it could not become an ideal or complete state. Large, ancient, and mighty nations have their faults and weaknesses, too . The Slovak Republic cannot be condemned for the imperfection connected with its infancy nor for the errors it made, which in more than one case were simply the result of outside influences. It is an incontrovertible historical fact that the Slovak nation, in all of i~ more than one-thousand year history, never had such liberty, such rights, so much employment, such a measure of material welfare, such conditions for spiritual growth and cultural progress, or so much joy in living, as it had in the years of the Slovak Republic. The Slovak nation was contented with its State, despite its deficiencies, and it did not long for any other kind of state, including the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Slovak Republic conclusively refuted all the arguments against Slovak national independenqe. Every Slovak could see for himself that Slovakia, utilizing the industriousness of its people, is large enough and wealthy enough to provide all the economic conditions needed for indep8ndent national life . . The Slovak nation, during its five-year history of political independence, passed with remarkable success its test in the art of creating a government, and it deserved to be recognized as an independent and equal member in the family of free nations. By its experience as a Slovak republic, it is qualified to decide all questions pertaining to its own life, and is prepared to use its strength for the common welfare of the nations of Central Europe. One Slovak generation tasted the sweet fruit of liberty for which so many generations of the Slovak nation had fervently yearned, and therefore Slovaks will never again be satisfied with the bitter bread of slave labor. All this the Slovak nation learned in its own state. But all this was noted also by Dr. Eruard Benes, who observed the development of Slovak life abroad during 66 SLOVAKIA the war and in the spring of 1945, accompanied by Soviet bayonets, set foot on the blood-stained soil of Slovakia. The restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was one of the g1·eat inter-national mistakes. The revival of this State not only could not draw the Slovaks and Czechs closer to each other, but, on the contrary, relations between the Slovaks and Czechs became extremely cold as a direct result of this forced cohabitation in a joint state. The so-called Kosice Agreement of April 5, 1945, which recognized in the Slovaks the distinctive marks of a nation and promised. them complete equality with the Czechs, was not a cure for the wound which Slovakia suffered by the loss of its national independence, nor could it serve as a basis for a satisfying cohabitation of these two nations within one state. This sort of solution of Slovak-Czech relations would have had a meaning when the Slovaks were seeking autonomy in the spirit of the Pittsburgh Pact. The declaration at Kosice and the promises of Klement Gottwald had no power of attraction after the violent destruction of the Slovak Republic. The national independence of Slovakia was trampled by the Soviet army, which was followed by the Government and President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The restored Czecho-Slovak Republic was alien to the Slovaks not only because it could in no way replace the Slovak State, but also because it brought Slovakia under the control of Moscow through the administration at Prague. Slovakia, even while silenced by the presence of the Soviet army, in no way concealed either its irreconcilable opposition to the situation in which it found itself or its desire for its own national independence. Dr. Eduard Benes, as president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, was determined to crack this opposition of Slovakia at any cost and by any means, and to strangle in the Slovak nation every longing for independence. If Dr. Eduard Benes, by his personal propaganda, enjoyed the reputation abroad of a great democrat and farsighted statesman, he now himself tore off this mask and showed himself to be a ruthless tyrant far removed from democracy and wise foresight. He saw in the Communist people's democracy a new, higher and more advanced form of democracy, and SLOVAKIA 67 as president of the restored Czecho-Slovak Republic he approved and confirmed all the violence committed by the Prague Government and its Bratislava agencies in the. name of the people's democracy. The Slovak nation now became a victim of revenge because it had its own state during the War. Criminal status was given not only to those who served in the Slovak Republic and had not redeemed their "crime" by the sin of treason, but also to those who disagreed with the new order. The executor of this people's democratic justice was the so-called "National Court" in Bratislava and the chain so-called "People's Courts" all over Slovakia . Since it was impossible to bring before the Court the entire "liberated" nation to condemn it , it was necessary to condemn hundreds and thousands of decent Slovaks in order that all Slovakia might be terrified silenced and coerced into slavish obedience. The " National Court" of Bratislava also condemned to death the president of the Slovak Republic Dr. Jozef Tiso, and the Czecho-Slovak Government together with its president saw to it that this judgment was carried out on April 18 , 1947. The execution of the President of the Slovak Republic evoked deep horror throughout Slovakia and at the same time extinguished the last spark of hope that Slovak~ and Czechs could live together in a common state. The gallows on which Dr. Jozef Tiso died a martyr's death stands above the chasm which once and for all obliterated any form of Czecho-Slovak state.11 Slovakia did not permit itself to be broken in its opposition to the Czecho-Slovak Republic nor to the Communistic people's democracy either by the murder of Dr. Jozef Tiso or by subsequent forcible measures. The Slovak nation is enduring the same wrongs, injustices and pains that are being suffered by all the other nations behind the Iron Curtain. The spirit and form of the Communist people's democracy are foreign, repulsive and unacceptable to the Slovak nation. With persistent and remarkable consistency, the Slovaks are rejecting everything that the Government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic as a servant of Moscow is 68 SLOVAKIA forcing upon them. And they are defending with heroic courage everything that feeds and strengthens their own life. 12 From the very dawn of its history, Slovakia has belonged to Western Europe, and for twelve centuries of its past it has lived in unity with the Christian civilization of the Western world. During this long historical evolution the Slovak nation has achieved a stature, spiritual character and moral tradition that cannot be reconciled with the godless materialism of Communist doctrine or with the un-Christian methods of the people's democracy. Even though its beautiful land serves as a huge prison behind the Iron Curtain, the Slovak nation has not lost, but continues to confess fearlessly, its faith in God as the source of its strength and hope. Deprived as it is of everything, it still does not surrender its claim to a free life in its own state, but insists on an independent position in the great family of equal nations in Europe. Could youf as a free citizen of a democratic country, say that the Slovak nation does not deserve freedom? Or that it want more than it has a right to expect? FOOTNOTES 1) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1934, p . 308. 2) In addition to many articles, Konstantin culen has written a separate two-volume study on American Slovaks: Dejiny Slov<ikov v Amerike (A History of Slovaks in America), Vols. I and II, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1942. The cultural life of American Slovaks is described in his book Slovaci v Amerike (Slovaks in America), Turciansky Svaty Martin, Slovakia, 1938. Several articles are devoted to the intervention of the Slovak League in America in the political conditions of Slovakia in the book Slovensk<i Liga v Amerike styridsat'rocnri (Fortieth Anniversary of the Slovak League in America), Scranton, Pa., 1947. These questions are dealt in detail also by Karol Sidor in the book Slovrici v zahranicnom odboji ( Slovaks in the Resistance Movement Abroad), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1928. A separate book on the Pittsburgh Agreement was written by Konstantin culen, Pittsburghskd dohoda (The Pittsburgh Agreement), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1937. 3 ) Martin Greco, Martinsk<i deklar<icia (The St. Martin Declaration) , Bratislava, Slovakia, 1939. SLOVAKIA 69 4) According to the 1930 census there were 3,329,793 inhabitants in 5) 6) 7) 8) Slovakia. Of this number, 2,284,355 were Roman Catholics, 213,725 Greek Catholics, 555,900 Protestants, 9,079 of the Orthodox faith . Only 16,890 were counted as not adhering to any religion: they were Czechs. The activity of Andrej Hlinka and the role of the Slovak People's Party are told in detail by Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1934. The Slovak National Party was numerically small, gaining only one delegate in the election, but it numbered among its members many of the Lutheran intelligentsia. The cession of Slovakia southern lands to Hungary was decided already between the Prague Government and the administration of Hungary. The government of autonomous Slovakia was confronted by this prepared situation, and Dr. Jozef Tiso, who had led these conferences, was actually a delegate of the Central Government of Prague. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was prepared by the vicepresident of Parliament and the chairman of the constitutional committee, Dr. Karol Mederly, who published it in an a separate brochure with a comprehensive introduction, Ostava Slovenslcej republilcy a jej zakladne smernice (The Constitution of the Slovak Republic and Its Basic Principles), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1939. 9) Plots against the independent statehood of Slovakia were led abroad by Dr. Eduard Benes who had resigned from the office of president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, had recognized Dr. Emil Hacha as his successor and then once again claimed the office of president. His faithful co-worker was the Slovak Communist, Dr. Vladimir Clementis. 10) The Soviet aircraft landed in Slovakia Slovak soldiers who had been captured by the Soviets and were obHged to join the so-called Czechoslovak Brigade in Russia. This entire brigade dispersed because the Slovak troops who had seen conditions in Soviet Russia with their own eyes did not wish to fight against the Slovak Republic, but fled to their homes at the first opportunity. 11) The entire address spoken by Dr. Jozef Tiso in Bratislava before his sentence has been published by the Slovak Catholic Sokol in a book entitled Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (Dr. Jozef Tiso, in His own Words), Slovak Catholic Sokol, Passaic, N. J., 1952, edited by Dr. Jozef Pauco. 12) Much valuable information regarding the resistance of the Slovaks against Communism may be found in the booklet by Dr. Jozef :Mikus, The Thee Slovak Bishops, Slovak Catholic Federation of America, Passaic, N. J. 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 This Is Slovakia Description An account of the resource Francis Hrušovský, Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 42-69 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrušovský, František, 1903-1956 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/31e0c60f69f15d24ad7724109f4ac0c8.pdf 90c5be899b963ddadef1addb70cd7a93 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 35 The Politica] }\Iessage of l\'Iat(1s (:ernak By Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum On July 5. 1955 Matus cernak, a distinguished Slovak politician and diplomat, was assassinated in Munich, Germany. Forces rabid in opposing Slovak effort to secure to establish an independent Slovakia could have hardly struck a mere telling blow than was this dastardly attack, for by it they removed from active service an esteemed patriot, this cernak of whom it may be said that of all national movers currently in exile, he must closely approximated what relatively speaking, we might designate as the position of a non-accredited legate of the Slovak nation to the republic of Western Germany. And to him as such were paid final tributes and honors in death not only by the officials of that government but by the chancellor of Western Germany himself who expressed deep sympathy on the occasion of cernak's tragic death. In Germany Matus cernak signalized himself beyond his office as a deserving politician and diplomat. It was due mostly to his untiring diligence and interest that two noteworthy publications continued to appear after the departure of Dr . Jozef Pauco; viz., SLOBODNE SLOVENSKO (Free Slovakia, founded by Dr. Pauco ) and SLOWAKISCHE KORRESPONDENZ. Concern for the social wellbeing of hundreds of Slovak refugees who arrived in Germany alw came to devolve upon cernak, and his name is very closely associated with the Slovak Institute in Munich. Even this meager cut-and-dry survey of his major activities in exile yields us the realization that the foul political murder, which so unexpectedly wrested Matus cernak from our midst, is to all the Slovaks in the free world and to the struggle for a democratic independent Slovakia a much greater loss and a much more significant incident than we had appraised and accounted it in the earliest hours of our grief. After the cernova massacre of 1907, the murder of Stefanik in 1919 and of Dr. Jozef Tiso �36 SLOVAKI A in 1947, the attack of July 5, 1955 will be recorded in Slovak national annals as a historica lly vital event. The death of Matus Cernak marks not merely the passing of another exiled Slovak diplomat and patriot who dedicated all his mind and heart to the struggle to liberate Slovakia from ·commun ism and the Czech yoke. Matus Cerna.k's previous political backgrou nd, his personal characte r and talents, his uncompr omising doggedne ss and his tireless and successfu l activities within the territory of one of the most decisive powers affecting the fate of Slovakia -all this contribu ted tc make Cernak indispens able to the current state of our political efforts as well as a symbol for posterity . WHO WAS MATOS CERN.AK Matus Cernak was born on August 28, 1903 in the town of Vieska where his father was a miller. After his prelimin ary educatio n in Prievidza , Kezmaro k, and Banska Bystrica, he undertoo k universit y studies in Prague and subseque ntly in Leipzig, Germany . His courses were orientated toward a professor ship. Having attained his diploma, he spent several years in teaching at Trnava, and in 1930 he became a high school instructo r i.n Bratislav a. Until 1937 Cernak devoted himself almost exclusive ly to academic pursuits and to cultural interests. He was, however, one of the younger element, a member of that youthful and vitally consciou s generatio n of Slovaks who in the 1932 demonst rations at Trencian ske Teplice gave Prague incontrov ertible evidence of the fact that the spiritual and political developm ent of Slovakia will follow native inspirati on and bent and will not be trammele d by constrain ing directive s from Prague. As a youthful patriot, then, Cernak naturally found himself ah active participa nt in various political demonst rations supportin g Slovakia 's interests and deserts. It was the temper of the times that shaped his destiny. He made more and more public appearan ces and spirited pronounc ements but after his patriotic manifest o delivered in the Slovak National Theater in 1937, Cernak was overnigh t not only projected into popular acclaim but was also irrevocab ly commite d to his role as an outstand ing �SLOVAKIA 37 leader in the political arena. The keynote of his message on this occasion was "Ours is that portion of land beneath the Tatra and to us rightfully belongs all its yield." This cry and justification came to echo from innumerable speaker's platforms and it blazed its appeal throughout all the press houses of Slovakia. Within a year after this induction into public national life, Matus Cerrnik, despite his youthful thirty-five years, became a minister in the Prague government. Prague, long accustomed to an accord of fawning subservience and servility on the part of those to whom she had granted political ministries and various similar offices, soon realized that this Cernak who accepted a ministerial portfolio came as a representative of a new generation. H e was not a hireling. He was a public servant who bore the concerns of the Slovak nation deep in his heart, one to be touched neither by bribes nor by intimidation. He was upright as well as fearless and his attitude was undisguised . He understood that it served no purpose to temporize with the Czechs ; consequently, he had hardly established himself in his new office when, mincing no words, he demanded as by a 24-hour ultimatum that Dr. Benes examine the Slovak problem in the spirit of the Pittsburgh , Pact; i. e., Cerrn'i.k sought to activate Slovakia's autonomy as it had been guaranteed by the Czechs when Thomas G. Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact in 1918 and the unreserved ratification of the Parliament convened on November 12, 1918 had made the agreement binding both legally and morally. Benes was unwilling to meet Cerna.k's terms. Manfully and honorably, Cernak offered his resignation from ministerial duties and his decisive action hastened Slovakia's autonomy and later her complete independence. In the autonomous state of Slovakia (October 6, 1938 - March 14, 1939 ) 0 ernak became a prominent and popular personality. He was named minister of education and after the proclamation of independence, he was appointed the first Slovak envoy to Berlin. Berlin was not only the most significant, it was also tbe most difficult ambassadorial post. The very existence of the Slovak republic often hung by a hair there, and the Slovak diplomatic representative had to exercise consum- �38 SLOVAKIA mate tact while at the same time he preserved an inflexible devotion to his country and defended the interests committed to him in sacred trust. Matus cernak proved himself in this capacity. He again advanced the welfare of Slovakia with the same degree of ardor and uncompromising vigor which had characterized him formerly in Prague, and his mission was successful. So well, in fact, did he acquit himselr to his duties that he won for the Slovak cause the sympathies even of that power that came after the occupation of Germany, and in its eyes, too, he was accepted as a non-accredited envoy of the Slovak nation. Political reprisals meted out a prison sentence for Cernak, and after serving several years in Bratislava, he left Slovakia in 1948. His country was then degraded by the Communistic and Czech regimes. Cernak in exile dedicated himself to the struggle to secure a new freedom and independence for Slovakia, a sacred fight against Communism, a crusade for the triumph of democracy and liberty. For this reason, the brutal political murder of Matus Cernak, who ha.ct been favored by fate to assume in this national struggle for liberty and independence a role granted only tc heroes and to persons of uncommon historic stature, has shaken every worthy Slovak and every honorable person in the world. For in that little post office in Munich there fell at the hands of a cynical murderer and merely a member of the little Slovak nation but a wholly dedicated defender of the idea of freedom and democracy, and that at the very hour when the representatives of international Communism and of Czech imperialism were sporting the ma~k of surface smiles and pretending sugared speeches on peace and cooperation and coexistence. If the world's free press agencies, broadcasts and televised reports from Bonn to Washington, from Paris to Canada, Australia, Argentina, and all the free world circulated reports and commentaries on this despicable political crime, then it was in tribute to the victim cernak, a promoter of the ideal of freedom and democracy. Only the intervention and meddling of the forces of cowardly appeasement , of collaboration with Communism and Czechsown hatred of the Slovaks prevented the glorification �SLOVAKIA 39 of this sacrifice of Matus cernak as· a price demanded by the true instinct of Communism and of Czech chauvinism. Their malice alone precluded the hailing of Matus cern.ak as a martyr to the cause of liberty and democracy, blessings cherished by the universal free world. This honor Matus cernak fully deserves. Slovak nation and all loyal Slovaks now exiled and scattered throughout the far-flung countries of the free world can appraise this holocaus~ of Matus cernak in its full historic significance. WHY WAS MATO$ CERNAK SLAIN? Matus cernak fell because he was the foe of Communism and of Czech efforts to dominate Slovakia and to usurp her rights. He was singled out as one of the most unyielding exponents of the principle of liberty and a democratic way for Slovakia. For these reasons he became marked as a sworn enemy of the dual powers of international Communism and of Czech aggressive pretensions. Because he had already established a record of several years of successful service on the Slovak political front which has been in the recent past and which will very likely in the near future again be a paramount importance in the Slovak contest for liberty and independence, not only Communistic Prague but also the adherents of there-established Czech hegemony over Slovakia ranked him as the number one man on their list of resistance leaders active in exile to thwart their nefarious designs. He fell because of his love for Slovakia suffering under Czech domination, because of his friendly attitude toward the German nation, and because of the fruitful mission he was accomplishing in the Republic of Western Germany where he had all the prospects of continuing an eminently flourishing career. Whether the base assassin will be discovered as an individual or not, it is unmistakably clear to every thinking person just whose henchmen he must have been and in whose employ he accomplished his ambushed bloody deed. Since 1945 so great a number of outstanding Slovak patriots has been killed, deported anq deprivea of liberty that doubt concerning the mastermind of this vicious �40 SLOVAKIA crime would hardly be in place. Czechs, both of the Communist water-mark and non-Communist conformers, especially those who in the wake of unsuccessful collaboration with Communism escaped into the countries of western Europe, live in abnormal fears bred by guilt, the spawn of those crimes they perpetrated against Sudeten and Carpathian Germans. Their panic mounts as they see Germany now in the ascendancy as one of the influential nations in international politics. To both classes of Czechs it is clear that the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the question of Czech boundaries and conditions affecting the principles of life for the Czech nation in the future will come to depend in no small measure and in no negligible way on Germany and on this decisive factor whether or not Slovakia will succeed in winning the suppor t of influential powers which will further her endeavor for independence. Matus c ernak with over 15 years of residence in Germany an d very desirable contacts and personal acquaintance even among the highest of German dignitaries was undeniably instrumental in securing favor for the idea of Slovakia'~ independence. His personal integrity and his indefatigable efforts in behalf of his country, as posthumously appraised by the German press and attested to by hundreds of telegrams of condolence, won sympathetic response even in the highest levels of political power in Bonn and presaged ultimate success for the Slovak cause. It was primar ily for this reason that the foes of the Slovak nation and of the Slovak effort to attain national independence decided to liquidate cernak. THE POLITICAL MESSAGE OF MATO$ CERNA K cernak was felled in the heat of the national struggle. H e died with a conviction of Slovak truth, confident in the ultimate victory of the natural right of the Slovak p eople to enjoy their proper national life. He consummated his own supremf sacrifice in the spirit of his motto "To liberty through sacrifice" and he signed his political credo with his own life's blood. It is n ot difficult nor will be difficult to ascertain what would have been the final political message of cernak. �SLOVAKIA 41 He wrote it in 1938 in terms of his adamant resistance to compromise, his steadfastness and his patriotic ardor. You can find it recorded in hundreds of his articles and political manifestoes, in his life-long political career and in his heroic martyrdom . In the ranks of Slovak political figures, personages who have gone before us in death, cernak takes his place as the representative of a new political generation, one which has sought and which still seeks a solution of the Slovak problem on a broader European basis within the cadre of modern democratic and Christian powers. For his political mission in exile, Matus cernak was better prepared. than were most Slovaks, and by his educational background and his professional experience as well as by his personal endowments and characteristics he satisfactorily evidenced a Slovak; sense of balance and maturity and fitness for life. He also exemplified Slovakia's innate belonging to Europe and to European traditions. The most substantial and eloquent proof of his adequacy to fill the role he chose in the fight for a democratic and independent Slovakia is his very assassination, the tragic bomb which the antagonists of a Christian and independent Slovakia sent him. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is an AMERICAN INSTITUTION; it was organized May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, 0., by the Rev. Stephen Furdek. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. � SLOVAKIA 35 The Politica] }\Iessage of l\'Iat(1s (:ernak By Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum On July 5. 1955 Matus cernak, a distinguished Slovak politician and diplomat, was assassinated in Munich, Germany. Forces rabid in opposing Slovak effort to secure to establish an independent Slovakia could have hardly struck a mere telling blow than was this dastardly attack, for by it they removed from active service an esteemed patriot, this cernak of whom it may be said that of all national movers currently in exile, he must closely approximated what relatively speaking, we might designate as the position of a non-accredited legate of the Slovak nation to the republic of Western Germany. And to him as such were paid final tributes and honors in death not only by the officials of that government but by the chancellor of Western Germany himself who expressed deep sympathy on the occasion of cernak's tragic death. In Germany Matus cernak signalized himself beyond his office as a deserving politician and diplomat. It was due mostly to his untiring diligence and interest that two noteworthy publications continued to appear after the departure of Dr . Jozef Pauco; viz., SLOBODNE SLOVENSKO (Free Slovakia, founded by Dr. Pauco ) and SLOWAKISCHE KORRESPONDENZ. Concern for the social wellbeing of hundreds of Slovak refugees who arrived in Germany alw came to devolve upon cernak, and his name is very closely associated with the Slovak Institute in Munich. Even this meager cut-and-dry survey of his major activities in exile yields us the realization that the foul political murder, which so unexpectedly wrested Matus cernak from our midst, is to all the Slovaks in the free world and to the struggle for a democratic independent Slovakia a much greater loss and a much more significant incident than we had appraised and accounted it in the earliest hours of our grief. After the cernova massacre of 1907, the murder of Stefanik in 1919 and of Dr. Jozef Tiso �36 SLOVAKI A in 1947, the attack of July 5, 1955 will be recorded in Slovak national annals as a historica lly vital event. The death of Matus Cernak marks not merely the passing of another exiled Slovak diplomat and patriot who dedicated all his mind and heart to the struggle to liberate Slovakia from ·commun ism and the Czech yoke. Matus Cerna.k's previous political backgrou nd, his personal characte r and talents, his uncompr omising doggedne ss and his tireless and successfu l activities within the territory of one of the most decisive powers affecting the fate of Slovakia -all this contribu ted tc make Cernak indispens able to the current state of our political efforts as well as a symbol for posterity . WHO WAS MATOS CERN.AK Matus Cernak was born on August 28, 1903 in the town of Vieska where his father was a miller. After his prelimin ary educatio n in Prievidza , Kezmaro k, and Banska Bystrica, he undertoo k universit y studies in Prague and subseque ntly in Leipzig, Germany . His courses were orientated toward a professor ship. Having attained his diploma, he spent several years in teaching at Trnava, and in 1930 he became a high school instructo r i.n Bratislav a. Until 1937 Cernak devoted himself almost exclusive ly to academic pursuits and to cultural interests. He was, however, one of the younger element, a member of that youthful and vitally consciou s generatio n of Slovaks who in the 1932 demonst rations at Trencian ske Teplice gave Prague incontrov ertible evidence of the fact that the spiritual and political developm ent of Slovakia will follow native inspirati on and bent and will not be trammele d by constrain ing directive s from Prague. As a youthful patriot, then, Cernak naturally found himself ah active participa nt in various political demonst rations supportin g Slovakia 's interests and deserts. It was the temper of the times that shaped his destiny. He made more and more public appearan ces and spirited pronounc ements but after his patriotic manifest o delivered in the Slovak National Theater in 1937, Cernak was overnigh t not only projected into popular acclaim but was also irrevocab ly commite d to his role as an outstand ing �SLOVAKIA 37 leader in the political arena. The keynote of his message on this occasion was "Ours is that portion of land beneath the Tatra and to us rightfully belongs all its yield." This cry and justification came to echo from innumerable speaker's platforms and it blazed its appeal throughout all the press houses of Slovakia. Within a year after this induction into public national life, Matus Cerrnik, despite his youthful thirty-five years, became a minister in the Prague government. Prague, long accustomed to an accord of fawning subservience and servility on the part of those to whom she had granted political ministries and various similar offices, soon realized that this Cernak who accepted a ministerial portfolio came as a representative of a new generation. H e was not a hireling. He was a public servant who bore the concerns of the Slovak nation deep in his heart, one to be touched neither by bribes nor by intimidation. He was upright as well as fearless and his attitude was undisguised . He understood that it served no purpose to temporize with the Czechs ; consequently, he had hardly established himself in his new office when, mincing no words, he demanded as by a 24-hour ultimatum that Dr. Benes examine the Slovak problem in the spirit of the Pittsburgh , Pact; i. e., Cerrn'i.k sought to activate Slovakia's autonomy as it had been guaranteed by the Czechs when Thomas G. Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact in 1918 and the unreserved ratification of the Parliament convened on November 12, 1918 had made the agreement binding both legally and morally. Benes was unwilling to meet Cerna.k's terms. Manfully and honorably, Cernak offered his resignation from ministerial duties and his decisive action hastened Slovakia's autonomy and later her complete independence. In the autonomous state of Slovakia (October 6, 1938 - March 14, 1939 ) 0 ernak became a prominent and popular personality. He was named minister of education and after the proclamation of independence, he was appointed the first Slovak envoy to Berlin. Berlin was not only the most significant, it was also tbe most difficult ambassadorial post. The very existence of the Slovak republic often hung by a hair there, and the Slovak diplomatic representative had to exercise consum- �38 SLOVAKIA mate tact while at the same time he preserved an inflexible devotion to his country and defended the interests committed to him in sacred trust. Matus cernak proved himself in this capacity. He again advanced the welfare of Slovakia with the same degree of ardor and uncompromising vigor which had characterized him formerly in Prague, and his mission was successful. So well, in fact, did he acquit himselr to his duties that he won for the Slovak cause the sympathies even of that power that came after the occupation of Germany, and in its eyes, too, he was accepted as a non-accredited envoy of the Slovak nation. Political reprisals meted out a prison sentence for Cernak, and after serving several years in Bratislava, he left Slovakia in 1948. His country was then degraded by the Communistic and Czech regimes. Cernak in exile dedicated himself to the struggle to secure a new freedom and independence for Slovakia, a sacred fight against Communism, a crusade for the triumph of democracy and liberty. For this reason, the brutal political murder of Matus Cernak, who ha.ct been favored by fate to assume in this national struggle for liberty and independence a role granted only tc heroes and to persons of uncommon historic stature, has shaken every worthy Slovak and every honorable person in the world. For in that little post office in Munich there fell at the hands of a cynical murderer and merely a member of the little Slovak nation but a wholly dedicated defender of the idea of freedom and democracy, and that at the very hour when the representatives of international Communism and of Czech imperialism were sporting the ma~k of surface smiles and pretending sugared speeches on peace and cooperation and coexistence. If the world's free press agencies, broadcasts and televised reports from Bonn to Washington, from Paris to Canada, Australia, Argentina, and all the free world circulated reports and commentaries on this despicable political crime, then it was in tribute to the victim cernak, a promoter of the ideal of freedom and democracy. Only the intervention and meddling of the forces of cowardly appeasement , of collaboration with Communism and Czechsown hatred of the Slovaks prevented the glorification �SLOVAKIA 39 of this sacrifice of Matus cernak as· a price demanded by the true instinct of Communism and of Czech chauvinism. Their malice alone precluded the hailing of Matus cern.ak as a martyr to the cause of liberty and democracy, blessings cherished by the universal free world. This honor Matus cernak fully deserves. Slovak nation and all loyal Slovaks now exiled and scattered throughout the far-flung countries of the free world can appraise this holocaus~ of Matus cernak in its full historic significance. WHY WAS MATO$ CERNAK SLAIN? Matus cernak fell because he was the foe of Communism and of Czech efforts to dominate Slovakia and to usurp her rights. He was singled out as one of the most unyielding exponents of the principle of liberty and a democratic way for Slovakia. For these reasons he became marked as a sworn enemy of the dual powers of international Communism and of Czech aggressive pretensions. Because he had already established a record of several years of successful service on the Slovak political front which has been in the recent past and which will very likely in the near future again be a paramount importance in the Slovak contest for liberty and independence, not only Communistic Prague but also the adherents of there-established Czech hegemony over Slovakia ranked him as the number one man on their list of resistance leaders active in exile to thwart their nefarious designs. He fell because of his love for Slovakia suffering under Czech domination, because of his friendly attitude toward the German nation, and because of the fruitful mission he was accomplishing in the Republic of Western Germany where he had all the prospects of continuing an eminently flourishing career. Whether the base assassin will be discovered as an individual or not, it is unmistakably clear to every thinking person just whose henchmen he must have been and in whose employ he accomplished his ambushed bloody deed. Since 1945 so great a number of outstanding Slovak patriots has been killed, deported anq deprivea of liberty that doubt concerning the mastermind of this vicious �40 SLOVAKIA crime would hardly be in place. Czechs, both of the Communist water-mark and non-Communist conformers, especially those who in the wake of unsuccessful collaboration with Communism escaped into the countries of western Europe, live in abnormal fears bred by guilt, the spawn of those crimes they perpetrated against Sudeten and Carpathian Germans. Their panic mounts as they see Germany now in the ascendancy as one of the influential nations in international politics. To both classes of Czechs it is clear that the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the question of Czech boundaries and conditions affecting the principles of life for the Czech nation in the future will come to depend in no small measure and in no negligible way on Germany and on this decisive factor whether or not Slovakia will succeed in winning the suppor t of influential powers which will further her endeavor for independence. Matus c ernak with over 15 years of residence in Germany an d very desirable contacts and personal acquaintance even among the highest of German dignitaries was undeniably instrumental in securing favor for the idea of Slovakia'~ independence. His personal integrity and his indefatigable efforts in behalf of his country, as posthumously appraised by the German press and attested to by hundreds of telegrams of condolence, won sympathetic response even in the highest levels of political power in Bonn and presaged ultimate success for the Slovak cause. It was primar ily for this reason that the foes of the Slovak nation and of the Slovak effort to attain national independence decided to liquidate cernak. THE POLITICAL MESSAGE OF MATO$ CERNA K cernak was felled in the heat of the national struggle. H e died with a conviction of Slovak truth, confident in the ultimate victory of the natural right of the Slovak p eople to enjoy their proper national life. He consummated his own supremf sacrifice in the spirit of his motto "To liberty through sacrifice" and he signed his political credo with his own life's blood. It is n ot difficult nor will be difficult to ascertain what would have been the final political message of cernak. �SLOVAKIA 41 He wrote it in 1938 in terms of his adamant resistance to compromise, his steadfastness and his patriotic ardor. You can find it recorded in hundreds of his articles and political manifestoes, in his life-long political career and in his heroic martyrdom . In the ranks of Slovak political figures, personages who have gone before us in death, cernak takes his place as the representative of a new political generation, one which has sought and which still seeks a solution of the Slovak problem on a broader European basis within the cadre of modern democratic and Christian powers. For his political mission in exile, Matus cernak was better prepared. than were most Slovaks, and by his educational background and his professional experience as well as by his personal endowments and characteristics he satisfactorily evidenced a Slovak; sense of balance and maturity and fitness for life. He also exemplified Slovakia's innate belonging to Europe and to European traditions. The most substantial and eloquent proof of his adequacy to fill the role he chose in the fight for a democratic and independent Slovakia is his very assassination, the tragic bomb which the antagonists of a Christian and independent Slovakia sent him. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is an AMERICAN INSTITUTION; it was organized May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, 0., by the Rev. Stephen Furdek. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. � 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 SLOVAKIA 35 The Politica] }\Iessage of l\'Iat(1s (:ernak By Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum On July 5. 1955 Matus cernak, a distinguished Slovak politician and diplomat, was assassinated in Munich, Germany. Forces rabid in opposing Slovak effort to secure to establish an independent Slovakia could have hardly struck a mere telling blow than was this dastardly attack, for by it they removed from active service an esteemed patriot, this cernak of whom it may be said that of all national movers currently in exile, he must closely approximated what relatively speaking, we might designate as the position of a non-accredited legate of the Slovak nation to the republic of Western Germany. And to him as such were paid final tributes and honors in death not only by the officials of that government but by the chancellor of Western Germany himself who expressed deep sympathy on the occasion of cernak's tragic death. In Germany Matus cernak signalized himself beyond his office as a deserving politician and diplomat. It was due mostly to his untiring diligence and interest that two noteworthy publications continued to appear after the departure of Dr . Jozef Pauco; viz., SLOBODNE SLOVENSKO (Free Slovakia, founded by Dr. Pauco ) and SLOWAKISCHE KORRESPONDENZ. Concern for the social wellbeing of hundreds of Slovak refugees who arrived in Germany alw came to devolve upon cernak, and his name is very closely associated with the Slovak Institute in Munich. Even this meager cut-and-dry survey of his major activities in exile yields us the realization that the foul political murder, which so unexpectedly wrested Matus cernak from our midst, is to all the Slovaks in the free world and to the struggle for a democratic independent Slovakia a much greater loss and a much more significant incident than we had appraised and accounted it in the earliest hours of our grief. After the cernova massacre of 1907, the murder of Stefanik in 1919 and of Dr. Jozef Tiso 36 SLOVAKI A in 1947, the attack of July 5, 1955 will be recorded in Slovak national annals as a historica lly vital event. The death of Matus Cernak marks not merely the passing of another exiled Slovak diplomat and patriot who dedicated all his mind and heart to the struggle to liberate Slovakia from ·commun ism and the Czech yoke. Matus Cerna.k's previous political backgrou nd, his personal characte r and talents, his uncompr omising doggedne ss and his tireless and successfu l activities within the territory of one of the most decisive powers affecting the fate of Slovakia -all this contribu ted tc make Cernak indispens able to the current state of our political efforts as well as a symbol for posterity . WHO WAS MATOS CERN.AK Matus Cernak was born on August 28, 1903 in the town of Vieska where his father was a miller. After his prelimin ary educatio n in Prievidza , Kezmaro k, and Banska Bystrica, he undertoo k universit y studies in Prague and subseque ntly in Leipzig, Germany . His courses were orientated toward a professor ship. Having attained his diploma, he spent several years in teaching at Trnava, and in 1930 he became a high school instructo r i.n Bratislav a. Until 1937 Cernak devoted himself almost exclusive ly to academic pursuits and to cultural interests. He was, however, one of the younger element, a member of that youthful and vitally consciou s generatio n of Slovaks who in the 1932 demonst rations at Trencian ske Teplice gave Prague incontrov ertible evidence of the fact that the spiritual and political developm ent of Slovakia will follow native inspirati on and bent and will not be trammele d by constrain ing directive s from Prague. As a youthful patriot, then, Cernak naturally found himself ah active participa nt in various political demonst rations supportin g Slovakia 's interests and deserts. It was the temper of the times that shaped his destiny. He made more and more public appearan ces and spirited pronounc ements but after his patriotic manifest o delivered in the Slovak National Theater in 1937, Cernak was overnigh t not only projected into popular acclaim but was also irrevocab ly commite d to his role as an outstand ing SLOVAKIA 37 leader in the political arena. The keynote of his message on this occasion was "Ours is that portion of land beneath the Tatra and to us rightfully belongs all its yield." This cry and justification came to echo from innumerable speaker's platforms and it blazed its appeal throughout all the press houses of Slovakia. Within a year after this induction into public national life, Matus Cerrnik, despite his youthful thirty-five years, became a minister in the Prague government. Prague, long accustomed to an accord of fawning subservience and servility on the part of those to whom she had granted political ministries and various similar offices, soon realized that this Cernak who accepted a ministerial portfolio came as a representative of a new generation. H e was not a hireling. He was a public servant who bore the concerns of the Slovak nation deep in his heart, one to be touched neither by bribes nor by intimidation. He was upright as well as fearless and his attitude was undisguised . He understood that it served no purpose to temporize with the Czechs ; consequently, he had hardly established himself in his new office when, mincing no words, he demanded as by a 24-hour ultimatum that Dr. Benes examine the Slovak problem in the spirit of the Pittsburgh , Pact; i. e., Cerrn'i.k sought to activate Slovakia's autonomy as it had been guaranteed by the Czechs when Thomas G. Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact in 1918 and the unreserved ratification of the Parliament convened on November 12, 1918 had made the agreement binding both legally and morally. Benes was unwilling to meet Cerna.k's terms. Manfully and honorably, Cernak offered his resignation from ministerial duties and his decisive action hastened Slovakia's autonomy and later her complete independence. In the autonomous state of Slovakia (October 6, 1938 - March 14, 1939 ) 0 ernak became a prominent and popular personality. He was named minister of education and after the proclamation of independence, he was appointed the first Slovak envoy to Berlin. Berlin was not only the most significant, it was also tbe most difficult ambassadorial post. The very existence of the Slovak republic often hung by a hair there, and the Slovak diplomatic representative had to exercise consum- 38 SLOVAKIA mate tact while at the same time he preserved an inflexible devotion to his country and defended the interests committed to him in sacred trust. Matus cernak proved himself in this capacity. He again advanced the welfare of Slovakia with the same degree of ardor and uncompromising vigor which had characterized him formerly in Prague, and his mission was successful. So well, in fact, did he acquit himselr to his duties that he won for the Slovak cause the sympathies even of that power that came after the occupation of Germany, and in its eyes, too, he was accepted as a non-accredited envoy of the Slovak nation. Political reprisals meted out a prison sentence for Cernak, and after serving several years in Bratislava, he left Slovakia in 1948. His country was then degraded by the Communistic and Czech regimes. Cernak in exile dedicated himself to the struggle to secure a new freedom and independence for Slovakia, a sacred fight against Communism, a crusade for the triumph of democracy and liberty. For this reason, the brutal political murder of Matus Cernak, who ha.ct been favored by fate to assume in this national struggle for liberty and independence a role granted only tc heroes and to persons of uncommon historic stature, has shaken every worthy Slovak and every honorable person in the world. For in that little post office in Munich there fell at the hands of a cynical murderer and merely a member of the little Slovak nation but a wholly dedicated defender of the idea of freedom and democracy, and that at the very hour when the representatives of international Communism and of Czech imperialism were sporting the ma~k of surface smiles and pretending sugared speeches on peace and cooperation and coexistence. If the world's free press agencies, broadcasts and televised reports from Bonn to Washington, from Paris to Canada, Australia, Argentina, and all the free world circulated reports and commentaries on this despicable political crime, then it was in tribute to the victim cernak, a promoter of the ideal of freedom and democracy. Only the intervention and meddling of the forces of cowardly appeasement , of collaboration with Communism and Czechsown hatred of the Slovaks prevented the glorification SLOVAKIA 39 of this sacrifice of Matus cernak as· a price demanded by the true instinct of Communism and of Czech chauvinism. Their malice alone precluded the hailing of Matus cern.ak as a martyr to the cause of liberty and democracy, blessings cherished by the universal free world. This honor Matus cernak fully deserves. Slovak nation and all loyal Slovaks now exiled and scattered throughout the far-flung countries of the free world can appraise this holocaus~ of Matus cernak in its full historic significance. WHY WAS MATO$ CERNAK SLAIN? Matus cernak fell because he was the foe of Communism and of Czech efforts to dominate Slovakia and to usurp her rights. He was singled out as one of the most unyielding exponents of the principle of liberty and a democratic way for Slovakia. For these reasons he became marked as a sworn enemy of the dual powers of international Communism and of Czech aggressive pretensions. Because he had already established a record of several years of successful service on the Slovak political front which has been in the recent past and which will very likely in the near future again be a paramount importance in the Slovak contest for liberty and independence, not only Communistic Prague but also the adherents of there-established Czech hegemony over Slovakia ranked him as the number one man on their list of resistance leaders active in exile to thwart their nefarious designs. He fell because of his love for Slovakia suffering under Czech domination, because of his friendly attitude toward the German nation, and because of the fruitful mission he was accomplishing in the Republic of Western Germany where he had all the prospects of continuing an eminently flourishing career. Whether the base assassin will be discovered as an individual or not, it is unmistakably clear to every thinking person just whose henchmen he must have been and in whose employ he accomplished his ambushed bloody deed. Since 1945 so great a number of outstanding Slovak patriots has been killed, deported anq deprivea of liberty that doubt concerning the mastermind of this vicious 40 SLOVAKIA crime would hardly be in place. Czechs, both of the Communist water-mark and non-Communist conformers, especially those who in the wake of unsuccessful collaboration with Communism escaped into the countries of western Europe, live in abnormal fears bred by guilt, the spawn of those crimes they perpetrated against Sudeten and Carpathian Germans. Their panic mounts as they see Germany now in the ascendancy as one of the influential nations in international politics. To both classes of Czechs it is clear that the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the question of Czech boundaries and conditions affecting the principles of life for the Czech nation in the future will come to depend in no small measure and in no negligible way on Germany and on this decisive factor whether or not Slovakia will succeed in winning the suppor t of influential powers which will further her endeavor for independence. Matus c ernak with over 15 years of residence in Germany an d very desirable contacts and personal acquaintance even among the highest of German dignitaries was undeniably instrumental in securing favor for the idea of Slovakia'~ independence. His personal integrity and his indefatigable efforts in behalf of his country, as posthumously appraised by the German press and attested to by hundreds of telegrams of condolence, won sympathetic response even in the highest levels of political power in Bonn and presaged ultimate success for the Slovak cause. It was primar ily for this reason that the foes of the Slovak nation and of the Slovak effort to attain national independence decided to liquidate cernak. THE POLITICAL MESSAGE OF MATO$ CERNA K cernak was felled in the heat of the national struggle. H e died with a conviction of Slovak truth, confident in the ultimate victory of the natural right of the Slovak p eople to enjoy their proper national life. He consummated his own supremf sacrifice in the spirit of his motto "To liberty through sacrifice" and he signed his political credo with his own life's blood. It is n ot difficult nor will be difficult to ascertain what would have been the final political message of cernak. SLOVAKIA 41 He wrote it in 1938 in terms of his adamant resistance to compromise, his steadfastness and his patriotic ardor. You can find it recorded in hundreds of his articles and political manifestoes, in his life-long political career and in his heroic martyrdom . In the ranks of Slovak political figures, personages who have gone before us in death, cernak takes his place as the representative of a new political generation, one which has sought and which still seeks a solution of the Slovak problem on a broader European basis within the cadre of modern democratic and Christian powers. For his political mission in exile, Matus cernak was better prepared. than were most Slovaks, and by his educational background and his professional experience as well as by his personal endowments and characteristics he satisfactorily evidenced a Slovak; sense of balance and maturity and fitness for life. He also exemplified Slovakia's innate belonging to Europe and to European traditions. The most substantial and eloquent proof of his adequacy to fill the role he chose in the fight for a democratic and independent Slovakia is his very assassination, the tragic bomb which the antagonists of a Christian and independent Slovakia sent him. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is an AMERICAN INSTITUTION; it was organized May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, 0., by the Rev. Stephen Furdek. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union.  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 Political Message of Matúš Černák Description An account of the resource Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 35-41 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9d6bfbe96479556cd018597efcd96afa.pdf 31bb9a054f4b02976b6e9d17f0409a01 PDF Text Text 28 SLOVAKIA Slovaks Have Repaid Their Adopted Country Well (The following is the address of the Honorable John T. Van Sant, Senator of Pennsylvania and the Majority Whip, presented at the Reception and Luncheon of the Board of Directors of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Sunday, February 22, 1970, at the George Washington Motor Lodge, Allentown, Pa.) By John T. Van Sant Somehow it is most appropriate that we should meet together on this day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For here we have h!istoTic traditions of being "the Ho1y Experiment, a co1ony established on the guiding principle of freedom for all mankind." As OTdained in the "Declaration of Rights," every man has the right to worship according to the dictates o,f his own conscience. It is this spiritual basis and our belief in God which has guided us through the stormy sea of rebellion to nationhood. It is this freedom which has beckoned to the oppressed people of the world who have made their home h€re. As we meet today it is especially fitting thait we join in special tribute on this national holiday to our first president, George Washington. Washington has been described as "more than a general ... as the embodiment of everything fine in the American chairacter .. . with no illusions of grandeur ... he answered ev•ery responsibility thrust upon him and fulfilled it . . . he brought something more to the cause than military ability and statesmanship -to us he brought the priceless gift of character. " It was his leadership that guided and maintained the little band of thirteen colonies into the course of nationhood; welding them together into the union of states we have today. In 1831 the French aristocrat, Alexis De Tocqueville, came to America to study our experiment in Democracy. Fascinated by the fusion of people reaching our country, he remarked that the immigrants came with two elements �SLOVAKIA 29 essential to the development of a democracy-"no notion of superi()lfity, one over another, and poverty and misfortune." What Alexis De TocqueviHe saw here was a society of immigrants, each of whom had begun life anew, a nation of people with fresh memories of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a society that did not restrict their freedom of choice. In just over 350 years our nation of nearly 200 million people has grown up, popul ated almost entirely by persons who came from other lands or whose forefathers came from other lands. 1 The interaction of these disparate cultures, the belief in the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity for a new life, all gave America a flavor and character that distinguishes our land today. Immigrants have enriched the fabric of American lifethe American poet, Walt Whitman said: "These states are the amplest poem-here is not merely a nation but a teeming nartion of nations." Victims of oppression have always looked upon migration to a new land with a promise of freedom and equal opportunity. The Slovak of the 19bh century was no exception. Subject to the insidious pressures of Magyarization, longing to be free of social injustice, economic serfdom and the threat of national liquidation, literally thousands of Slovak famiHes sought refuge in the New World. They were among the countless thousands of oppressed peoples from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe who came to dwell here in the last qua!fter of the 19th century. The uprooting of these countless families was not without its pain and hea,r tbreak-although sure that he was headed for a "better lifo" for himse-1£ and his family, the Slovak immig,rant left his ancestral home and aH its romantic traditions f()lf a strange new lif·e in the stone and asphalt deserts of industrial and mining America . For the poor Slovak peasant, for centuries the tiller of someone's soil, the change was never an easy one. Always close �30 SLOVAKIA to the land the Slovak immigrant now found himself working in the mil:ls of America or mining in the darkness of its coal mines. Life was not easy-only the menial tasks were open to him. City living was strang,e and often frightening. The language made huddling tog-ether a necessityBut there was freedom , freedom to think, write and worshlp as one wishes-There was opportunity to grow and to prosper. The late Car-dinal Francis J . Spellman said "I think the story, the traditions and the lives of the Slovak people are one of the most glorious stories in history. It is hard to find any greater story of any people, for more than one thousand years, were deprived of liberty, nationality and subjected to national and religious persecution. The Slovaks have given aN the world a lesson in what it means to be devoted to ideals. During the crucial period of their history, these brothers, sisters and children of that noble race came to the United States, which has been a sanctuary and a home of persecuted people." Slovaks have repaid their adopted country well. Major John L. Polerecky served with George Washlngton . Colonel Gejza Mihal6tzy recrnited a company of riflemen in Chicago and then wrote for and received permission from President Lincoln to call the group "The Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak origin". Sergeant Matej Kocak, w1nnier of two Congressiol'l!al Medails of Honor, died on a French baittlefi:eld druving World Warr I, and one of the men who raised 'the £fag art Iwo J,ima was named Stralllk and hailed rrom Franklin Boro, Pa. These are to name only a few of the soldiers who have fought bravely for the United States. In World War II alone moTe than 50,000 Americans of Slovak descent served and of these more than 3,000 gave their lives. But the Slovak people have served this state, and this nation, in peace as weH as war; and they have been doing it for a long time. Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, the "Apostle orf the Alleghenies, " came to Pennsylvania before 1800 as Father Gallitzin. And in his footsteps have followed clergymen like the Reverend Father Stephen Furdek; the Reverend Father John Marrtvon; Father Joseph Murgas; Father Gregory Vaniscak: And the Right Reverend Stanislaus Gmuca. �SLOVAKIA 31 And, as good Americans as they are, they have managed to maintain the color and warmth of the Slovak tradition. But as the immigrants settled in the eastern cities of this country, in Wilkes-Ba:rre, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Hazleton and Philadelph ia-there was scarcely a mill, factory or mine where they could not be f.ound . It was these haTdworking, hardy, heroic folks who stoked the furnaces of our steel mills, dug the coal from the seams of the earth and embedded railroad ties. Everywhere they went they were motivated by the drive to Americanize and to win social acceptance and yet still longing for a homeland across the ocean. The founding of the First Catholic Slovak Union for Slovaks and their families by Father Stephen Furdek was one means, and a very successful one, which assisted new immigrants by providing financial security against incapacitation by serious illness and death. From this early beginning the members of your organization are to be commended for their phenomena l success. The la,test information I have received indicates an excess of 117,500 insurance certificates were issued at a value of $121.5 million in 1968. But even more significant is the outgrowth of a truly farseeing benevolent and protective program for your members of whom some 59,000 make their home here in Pennsylvania. The naitional home for orphaned children in Middletown, Outside of Harrisburg, (1909), and the first Slovak high school for girls at St. Cyril's Academy in Danville, now named for both great missionaTies among the Slovak people, (1919) are only a few of the notewodhy achievements of your organization here in Pennsylvania. And your college scholw-ship program should not be overlooked, for in an age when the costs of education are so great, these scho,l arships provide incentive as well as financial aid to worthy boys and girls to continue their education. But I marvel even more at the leader and founderr of this great movement. Surely Father Stephen Furdek had a special vision in mind 1 �32 SLOVAKIA for the Slovak people when he founded your organization, a vision which if he were heire today would please him. Arriving here early in the spring of 1882 he completed his studies in the diocesan seminary and was o,rdained. As he wo,rked and preached among the Slovak people he recognized •the great need which had to be met. The founding of your organization (1890) as well as the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Unio,n (1892), the Slovenska Matica (Slovak Institute) (1893), ,the National Fund, later the Fund ,t o P,veserv,e our Na,tional Hwtage ·and Slovak League of America (1907) present 1the keys to the £utwe ,educational and cultural accomp'Hshments for the Slovak people. "Za Boha a za narod" . "For God and for the Nation" was his lifo's slogan. What mo•r e worthy goal is there than this one! And though Father Furdek is not the only Slovak to leave his mark on our histo,r y-he does represent, in every sense, the qualities of leadership which distinguish him above all others. As George Wa,shington is revered and hono·red as the Father of Our Country-so Father Furdek is to be remembered and honored as the Father of the First Catholic Slovak Union. There is one other impression I have of Father Furdek on which I would like to comment. As he toiled among the early immigrants he recognized that there were common bonds necessary to hold his people together. They were the urgent need for education, the continuation of cultural ties and customs and above all-faith. ReaHzing that most of the immigrants had sought opportunity in America because they had been held in bondage in their native land, one of the most important ingredients to succeed in the new land was to be educated, for without an education they could not be accepted in the new society. MeanwhHe, to provide for his family , the Slovak immigrant took any job he could find. Everyone in the family worked at something, as they struggled to survive, and they did. Schools where Slovak was taught and churches where Slova·k wa,s spoken and which kept the faith rooted in the young received the time and wha,tever financial resources the family �SLOVAKIA 33 had left aiter sending weekly stipends to the family back in the old country. But it was mainta-ining his Catholic faith that the Slovak devo,ted the major po·rtion of his efforts. The first Catholic parish was founded in HazJeton in 1882 and the rkst Evangelical {LutJheran) in Streart:oir, Illino,is, iii 1884. ·• Slovak priests were enlisted from the old country to serve heire 1n the churches where the native tongue was spoken. lh 1909 the Congregation of bhe Sisters of SS. Cyriil ,a nd Methodius was founded by Father Matthew Jankofa, and in 1922 th e Slova,k Benedictine Fathers were established. These two ord&s have as one of thei!l' principal aims the preservation and promulgation of the Slovak national culture. But Father Furdek went futher, knowing that in order to preserve a language one must read and speak it, through his effoirts, the official newspaper JEDNOTA was founded, edited and published by him until his death . While the framework of culture, 1anguag,e and church organizations were helpful to the Slovak people in retaining theiir national identity, the real spirit of the homeland was kept aili\11e in the family. Slo·vak was spoken at home, in school and in church. Eveiryday customs of prayers, food and dress were continued with modification. Even dance and chornl groups helped keep al!ive the coilorful historic traditions. The "melting pot" symbol of America is not yet dead. The process of blending many strains into a single nationality need not mean the end of particular ethnic identities or traditions. Groups such as yours is a prime example of how one nationality can retain its culture and cus ~oms and still become a corutiributor to the national identity. Rededication to the American philosophy or equality means much more than the restatement of the Decfairation of Independence . 1 It means a reunifica,tion of spirit and energy to build · a strong economy, it means conquering the massive frontier and a virgin continent, shaping and reshaping the structure of government and influencing the American a,ttitude towaird the outside world. �34 SLOVAKIA The second generation, and the thi.Td, and the fourth, are inheriting the fruits of the geneTation. Let us hope that we, the members of generations which inheriited American citizenship instead of winning it, prize our freedom as highly as those who founded our families in this -great land. For if we do, the United States will grow stronger and better as its years increase. Let us a:lso welcome the men and women of other lands who still seek, and who wm continue to seek, sanctuary from oppression, and hope for a better life, in America. Whether they come from Calaiis or Bratislava, from Bremen or Naples, t his nation has always welcomed them. For in the fresh air of freedom they f1omish: to their own, and our own, inestimable benefits. In New York Harbor the Statue of Liberty awaits them, symbolizing the welcome we always have ex;tended in the land of 1mmigrants and immigraruts' sons and daughters. And on the base of that statue, these words are written for all to see and all to live by: "Give me your tired, your poor, "You!l' hudd1ed masses yearning to breathe free , "The wretched ref use of your teemmg shore, "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: "I 1ift my lamp beside the golden door." The coming of new immigrants to the country serves as a continual reminder to all Americans, old and new-that change is the essence of Hfe, and thait the American society is a process, not a conclusion. The abundant resources of this nation provided the founda·tion for our nation, but only people could marke the opportunity a reality. Immigrants pvovide the human resource and more than -thart--infused the nation with a commitment to new frontiers. They have kept the spirit of equality and hope always alive and strong. Herman Melville the American author, wrote "We are the heirs of al!l time and with all nations we divide our inherita,nce. '' To my fellow countrymen and especia lliy to you of Slovak descent I say, thank you for sharing with us your customs and your culture. 1 � 28 SLOVAKIA Slovaks Have Repaid Their Adopted Country Well (The following is the address of the Honorable John T. Van Sant, Senator of Pennsylvania and the Majority Whip, presented at the Reception and Luncheon of the Board of Directors of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Sunday, February 22, 1970, at the George Washington Motor Lodge, Allentown, Pa.) By John T. Van Sant Somehow it is most appropriate that we should meet together on this day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For here we have h!istoTic traditions of being "the Ho1y Experiment, a co1ony established on the guiding principle of freedom for all mankind." As OTdained in the "Declaration of Rights," every man has the right to worship according to the dictates o,f his own conscience. It is this spiritual basis and our belief in God which has guided us through the stormy sea of rebellion to nationhood. It is this freedom which has beckoned to the oppressed people of the world who have made their home h€re. As we meet today it is especially fitting thait we join in special tribute on this national holiday to our first president, George Washington. Washington has been described as "more than a general ... as the embodiment of everything fine in the American chairacter .. . with no illusions of grandeur ... he answered ev•ery responsibility thrust upon him and fulfilled it . . . he brought something more to the cause than military ability and statesmanship -to us he brought the priceless gift of character. " It was his leadership that guided and maintained the little band of thirteen colonies into the course of nationhood; welding them together into the union of states we have today. In 1831 the French aristocrat, Alexis De Tocqueville, came to America to study our experiment in Democracy. Fascinated by the fusion of people reaching our country, he remarked that the immigrants came with two elements �SLOVAKIA 29 essential to the development of a democracy-"no notion of superi()lfity, one over another, and poverty and misfortune." What Alexis De TocqueviHe saw here was a society of immigrants, each of whom had begun life anew, a nation of people with fresh memories of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a society that did not restrict their freedom of choice. In just over 350 years our nation of nearly 200 million people has grown up, popul ated almost entirely by persons who came from other lands or whose forefathers came from other lands. 1 The interaction of these disparate cultures, the belief in the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity for a new life, all gave America a flavor and character that distinguishes our land today. Immigrants have enriched the fabric of American lifethe American poet, Walt Whitman said: "These states are the amplest poem-here is not merely a nation but a teeming nartion of nations." Victims of oppression have always looked upon migration to a new land with a promise of freedom and equal opportunity. The Slovak of the 19bh century was no exception. Subject to the insidious pressures of Magyarization, longing to be free of social injustice, economic serfdom and the threat of national liquidation, literally thousands of Slovak famiHes sought refuge in the New World. They were among the countless thousands of oppressed peoples from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe who came to dwell here in the last qua!fter of the 19th century. The uprooting of these countless families was not without its pain and hea,r tbreak-although sure that he was headed for a "better lifo" for himse-1£ and his family, the Slovak immig,rant left his ancestral home and aH its romantic traditions f()lf a strange new lif·e in the stone and asphalt deserts of industrial and mining America . For the poor Slovak peasant, for centuries the tiller of someone's soil, the change was never an easy one. Always close �30 SLOVAKIA to the land the Slovak immigrant now found himself working in the mil:ls of America or mining in the darkness of its coal mines. Life was not easy-only the menial tasks were open to him. City living was strang,e and often frightening. The language made huddling tog-ether a necessityBut there was freedom , freedom to think, write and worshlp as one wishes-There was opportunity to grow and to prosper. The late Car-dinal Francis J . Spellman said "I think the story, the traditions and the lives of the Slovak people are one of the most glorious stories in history. It is hard to find any greater story of any people, for more than one thousand years, were deprived of liberty, nationality and subjected to national and religious persecution. The Slovaks have given aN the world a lesson in what it means to be devoted to ideals. During the crucial period of their history, these brothers, sisters and children of that noble race came to the United States, which has been a sanctuary and a home of persecuted people." Slovaks have repaid their adopted country well. Major John L. Polerecky served with George Washlngton . Colonel Gejza Mihal6tzy recrnited a company of riflemen in Chicago and then wrote for and received permission from President Lincoln to call the group "The Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak origin". Sergeant Matej Kocak, w1nnier of two Congressiol'l!al Medails of Honor, died on a French baittlefi:eld druving World Warr I, and one of the men who raised 'the £fag art Iwo J,ima was named Stralllk and hailed rrom Franklin Boro, Pa. These are to name only a few of the soldiers who have fought bravely for the United States. In World War II alone moTe than 50,000 Americans of Slovak descent served and of these more than 3,000 gave their lives. But the Slovak people have served this state, and this nation, in peace as weH as war; and they have been doing it for a long time. Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, the "Apostle orf the Alleghenies, " came to Pennsylvania before 1800 as Father Gallitzin. And in his footsteps have followed clergymen like the Reverend Father Stephen Furdek; the Reverend Father John Marrtvon; Father Joseph Murgas; Father Gregory Vaniscak: And the Right Reverend Stanislaus Gmuca. �SLOVAKIA 31 And, as good Americans as they are, they have managed to maintain the color and warmth of the Slovak tradition. But as the immigrants settled in the eastern cities of this country, in Wilkes-Ba:rre, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Hazleton and Philadelph ia-there was scarcely a mill, factory or mine where they could not be f.ound . It was these haTdworking, hardy, heroic folks who stoked the furnaces of our steel mills, dug the coal from the seams of the earth and embedded railroad ties. Everywhere they went they were motivated by the drive to Americanize and to win social acceptance and yet still longing for a homeland across the ocean. The founding of the First Catholic Slovak Union for Slovaks and their families by Father Stephen Furdek was one means, and a very successful one, which assisted new immigrants by providing financial security against incapacitation by serious illness and death. From this early beginning the members of your organization are to be commended for their phenomena l success. The la,test information I have received indicates an excess of 117,500 insurance certificates were issued at a value of $121.5 million in 1968. But even more significant is the outgrowth of a truly farseeing benevolent and protective program for your members of whom some 59,000 make their home here in Pennsylvania. The naitional home for orphaned children in Middletown, Outside of Harrisburg, (1909), and the first Slovak high school for girls at St. Cyril's Academy in Danville, now named for both great missionaTies among the Slovak people, (1919) are only a few of the notewodhy achievements of your organization here in Pennsylvania. And your college scholw-ship program should not be overlooked, for in an age when the costs of education are so great, these scho,l arships provide incentive as well as financial aid to worthy boys and girls to continue their education. But I marvel even more at the leader and founderr of this great movement. Surely Father Stephen Furdek had a special vision in mind 1 �32 SLOVAKIA for the Slovak people when he founded your organization, a vision which if he were heire today would please him. Arriving here early in the spring of 1882 he completed his studies in the diocesan seminary and was o,rdained. As he wo,rked and preached among the Slovak people he recognized •the great need which had to be met. The founding of your organization (1890) as well as the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Unio,n (1892), the Slovenska Matica (Slovak Institute) (1893), ,the National Fund, later the Fund ,t o P,veserv,e our Na,tional Hwtage ·and Slovak League of America (1907) present 1the keys to the £utwe ,educational and cultural accomp'Hshments for the Slovak people. "Za Boha a za narod" . "For God and for the Nation" was his lifo's slogan. What mo•r e worthy goal is there than this one! And though Father Furdek is not the only Slovak to leave his mark on our histo,r y-he does represent, in every sense, the qualities of leadership which distinguish him above all others. As George Wa,shington is revered and hono·red as the Father of Our Country-so Father Furdek is to be remembered and honored as the Father of the First Catholic Slovak Union. There is one other impression I have of Father Furdek on which I would like to comment. As he toiled among the early immigrants he recognized that there were common bonds necessary to hold his people together. They were the urgent need for education, the continuation of cultural ties and customs and above all-faith. ReaHzing that most of the immigrants had sought opportunity in America because they had been held in bondage in their native land, one of the most important ingredients to succeed in the new land was to be educated, for without an education they could not be accepted in the new society. MeanwhHe, to provide for his family , the Slovak immigrant took any job he could find. Everyone in the family worked at something, as they struggled to survive, and they did. Schools where Slovak was taught and churches where Slova·k wa,s spoken and which kept the faith rooted in the young received the time and wha,tever financial resources the family �SLOVAKIA 33 had left aiter sending weekly stipends to the family back in the old country. But it was mainta-ining his Catholic faith that the Slovak devo,ted the major po·rtion of his efforts. The first Catholic parish was founded in HazJeton in 1882 and the rkst Evangelical {LutJheran) in Streart:oir, Illino,is, iii 1884. ·• Slovak priests were enlisted from the old country to serve heire 1n the churches where the native tongue was spoken. lh 1909 the Congregation of bhe Sisters of SS. Cyriil ,a nd Methodius was founded by Father Matthew Jankofa, and in 1922 th e Slova,k Benedictine Fathers were established. These two ord&s have as one of thei!l' principal aims the preservation and promulgation of the Slovak national culture. But Father Furdek went futher, knowing that in order to preserve a language one must read and speak it, through his effoirts, the official newspaper JEDNOTA was founded, edited and published by him until his death . While the framework of culture, 1anguag,e and church organizations were helpful to the Slovak people in retaining theiir national identity, the real spirit of the homeland was kept aili\11e in the family. Slo·vak was spoken at home, in school and in church. Eveiryday customs of prayers, food and dress were continued with modification. Even dance and chornl groups helped keep al!ive the coilorful historic traditions. The "melting pot" symbol of America is not yet dead. The process of blending many strains into a single nationality need not mean the end of particular ethnic identities or traditions. Groups such as yours is a prime example of how one nationality can retain its culture and cus ~oms and still become a corutiributor to the national identity. Rededication to the American philosophy or equality means much more than the restatement of the Decfairation of Independence . 1 It means a reunifica,tion of spirit and energy to build · a strong economy, it means conquering the massive frontier and a virgin continent, shaping and reshaping the structure of government and influencing the American a,ttitude towaird the outside world. �34 SLOVAKIA The second generation, and the thi.Td, and the fourth, are inheriting the fruits of the geneTation. Let us hope that we, the members of generations which inheriited American citizenship instead of winning it, prize our freedom as highly as those who founded our families in this -great land. For if we do, the United States will grow stronger and better as its years increase. Let us a:lso welcome the men and women of other lands who still seek, and who wm continue to seek, sanctuary from oppression, and hope for a better life, in America. Whether they come from Calaiis or Bratislava, from Bremen or Naples, t his nation has always welcomed them. For in the fresh air of freedom they f1omish: to their own, and our own, inestimable benefits. In New York Harbor the Statue of Liberty awaits them, symbolizing the welcome we always have ex;tended in the land of 1mmigrants and immigraruts' sons and daughters. And on the base of that statue, these words are written for all to see and all to live by: "Give me your tired, your poor, "You!l' hudd1ed masses yearning to breathe free , "The wretched ref use of your teemmg shore, "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: "I 1ift my lamp beside the golden door." The coming of new immigrants to the country serves as a continual reminder to all Americans, old and new-that change is the essence of Hfe, and thait the American society is a process, not a conclusion. The abundant resources of this nation provided the founda·tion for our nation, but only people could marke the opportunity a reality. Immigrants pvovide the human resource and more than -thart--infused the nation with a commitment to new frontiers. They have kept the spirit of equality and hope always alive and strong. Herman Melville the American author, wrote "We are the heirs of al!l time and with all nations we divide our inherita,nce. '' To my fellow countrymen and especia lliy to you of Slovak descent I say, thank you for sharing with us your customs and your culture. 1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 28 SLOVAKIA Slovaks Have Repaid Their Adopted Country Well (The following is the address of the Honorable John T. Van Sant, Senator of Pennsylvania and the Majority Whip, presented at the Reception and Luncheon of the Board of Directors of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Sunday, February 22, 1970, at the George Washington Motor Lodge, Allentown, Pa.) By John T. Van Sant Somehow it is most appropriate that we should meet together on this day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For here we have h!istoTic traditions of being "the Ho1y Experiment, a co1ony established on the guiding principle of freedom for all mankind." As OTdained in the "Declaration of Rights," every man has the right to worship according to the dictates o,f his own conscience. It is this spiritual basis and our belief in God which has guided us through the stormy sea of rebellion to nationhood. It is this freedom which has beckoned to the oppressed people of the world who have made their home h€re. As we meet today it is especially fitting thait we join in special tribute on this national holiday to our first president, George Washington. Washington has been described as "more than a general ... as the embodiment of everything fine in the American chairacter .. . with no illusions of grandeur ... he answered ev•ery responsibility thrust upon him and fulfilled it . . . he brought something more to the cause than military ability and statesmanship -to us he brought the priceless gift of character. " It was his leadership that guided and maintained the little band of thirteen colonies into the course of nationhood; welding them together into the union of states we have today. In 1831 the French aristocrat, Alexis De Tocqueville, came to America to study our experiment in Democracy. Fascinated by the fusion of people reaching our country, he remarked that the immigrants came with two elements SLOVAKIA 29 essential to the development of a democracy-"no notion of superi()lfity, one over another, and poverty and misfortune." What Alexis De TocqueviHe saw here was a society of immigrants, each of whom had begun life anew, a nation of people with fresh memories of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a society that did not restrict their freedom of choice. In just over 350 years our nation of nearly 200 million people has grown up, popul ated almost entirely by persons who came from other lands or whose forefathers came from other lands. 1 The interaction of these disparate cultures, the belief in the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity for a new life, all gave America a flavor and character that distinguishes our land today. Immigrants have enriched the fabric of American lifethe American poet, Walt Whitman said: "These states are the amplest poem-here is not merely a nation but a teeming nartion of nations." Victims of oppression have always looked upon migration to a new land with a promise of freedom and equal opportunity. The Slovak of the 19bh century was no exception. Subject to the insidious pressures of Magyarization, longing to be free of social injustice, economic serfdom and the threat of national liquidation, literally thousands of Slovak famiHes sought refuge in the New World. They were among the countless thousands of oppressed peoples from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe who came to dwell here in the last qua!fter of the 19th century. The uprooting of these countless families was not without its pain and hea,r tbreak-although sure that he was headed for a "better lifo" for himse-1£ and his family, the Slovak immig,rant left his ancestral home and aH its romantic traditions f()lf a strange new lif·e in the stone and asphalt deserts of industrial and mining America . For the poor Slovak peasant, for centuries the tiller of someone's soil, the change was never an easy one. Always close 30 SLOVAKIA to the land the Slovak immigrant now found himself working in the mil:ls of America or mining in the darkness of its coal mines. Life was not easy-only the menial tasks were open to him. City living was strang,e and often frightening. The language made huddling tog-ether a necessityBut there was freedom , freedom to think, write and worshlp as one wishes-There was opportunity to grow and to prosper. The late Car-dinal Francis J . Spellman said "I think the story, the traditions and the lives of the Slovak people are one of the most glorious stories in history. It is hard to find any greater story of any people, for more than one thousand years, were deprived of liberty, nationality and subjected to national and religious persecution. The Slovaks have given aN the world a lesson in what it means to be devoted to ideals. During the crucial period of their history, these brothers, sisters and children of that noble race came to the United States, which has been a sanctuary and a home of persecuted people." Slovaks have repaid their adopted country well. Major John L. Polerecky served with George Washlngton . Colonel Gejza Mihal6tzy recrnited a company of riflemen in Chicago and then wrote for and received permission from President Lincoln to call the group "The Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak origin". Sergeant Matej Kocak, w1nnier of two Congressiol'l!al Medails of Honor, died on a French baittlefi:eld druving World Warr I, and one of the men who raised 'the £fag art Iwo J,ima was named Stralllk and hailed rrom Franklin Boro, Pa. These are to name only a few of the soldiers who have fought bravely for the United States. In World War II alone moTe than 50,000 Americans of Slovak descent served and of these more than 3,000 gave their lives. But the Slovak people have served this state, and this nation, in peace as weH as war; and they have been doing it for a long time. Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, the "Apostle orf the Alleghenies, " came to Pennsylvania before 1800 as Father Gallitzin. And in his footsteps have followed clergymen like the Reverend Father Stephen Furdek; the Reverend Father John Marrtvon; Father Joseph Murgas; Father Gregory Vaniscak: And the Right Reverend Stanislaus Gmuca. SLOVAKIA 31 And, as good Americans as they are, they have managed to maintain the color and warmth of the Slovak tradition. But as the immigrants settled in the eastern cities of this country, in Wilkes-Ba:rre, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Hazleton and Philadelph ia-there was scarcely a mill, factory or mine where they could not be f.ound . It was these haTdworking, hardy, heroic folks who stoked the furnaces of our steel mills, dug the coal from the seams of the earth and embedded railroad ties. Everywhere they went they were motivated by the drive to Americanize and to win social acceptance and yet still longing for a homeland across the ocean. The founding of the First Catholic Slovak Union for Slovaks and their families by Father Stephen Furdek was one means, and a very successful one, which assisted new immigrants by providing financial security against incapacitation by serious illness and death. From this early beginning the members of your organization are to be commended for their phenomena l success. The la,test information I have received indicates an excess of 117,500 insurance certificates were issued at a value of $121.5 million in 1968. But even more significant is the outgrowth of a truly farseeing benevolent and protective program for your members of whom some 59,000 make their home here in Pennsylvania. The naitional home for orphaned children in Middletown, Outside of Harrisburg, (1909), and the first Slovak high school for girls at St. Cyril's Academy in Danville, now named for both great missionaTies among the Slovak people, (1919) are only a few of the notewodhy achievements of your organization here in Pennsylvania. And your college scholw-ship program should not be overlooked, for in an age when the costs of education are so great, these scho,l arships provide incentive as well as financial aid to worthy boys and girls to continue their education. But I marvel even more at the leader and founderr of this great movement. Surely Father Stephen Furdek had a special vision in mind 1 32 SLOVAKIA for the Slovak people when he founded your organization, a vision which if he were heire today would please him. Arriving here early in the spring of 1882 he completed his studies in the diocesan seminary and was o,rdained. As he wo,rked and preached among the Slovak people he recognized •the great need which had to be met. The founding of your organization (1890) as well as the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Unio,n (1892), the Slovenska Matica (Slovak Institute) (1893), ,the National Fund, later the Fund ,t o P,veserv,e our Na,tional Hwtage ·and Slovak League of America (1907) present 1the keys to the £utwe ,educational and cultural accomp'Hshments for the Slovak people. "Za Boha a za narod" . "For God and for the Nation" was his lifo's slogan. What mo•r e worthy goal is there than this one! And though Father Furdek is not the only Slovak to leave his mark on our histo,r y-he does represent, in every sense, the qualities of leadership which distinguish him above all others. As George Wa,shington is revered and hono·red as the Father of Our Country-so Father Furdek is to be remembered and honored as the Father of the First Catholic Slovak Union. There is one other impression I have of Father Furdek on which I would like to comment. As he toiled among the early immigrants he recognized that there were common bonds necessary to hold his people together. They were the urgent need for education, the continuation of cultural ties and customs and above all-faith. ReaHzing that most of the immigrants had sought opportunity in America because they had been held in bondage in their native land, one of the most important ingredients to succeed in the new land was to be educated, for without an education they could not be accepted in the new society. MeanwhHe, to provide for his family , the Slovak immigrant took any job he could find. Everyone in the family worked at something, as they struggled to survive, and they did. Schools where Slovak was taught and churches where Slova·k wa,s spoken and which kept the faith rooted in the young received the time and wha,tever financial resources the family SLOVAKIA 33 had left aiter sending weekly stipends to the family back in the old country. But it was mainta-ining his Catholic faith that the Slovak devo,ted the major po·rtion of his efforts. The first Catholic parish was founded in HazJeton in 1882 and the rkst Evangelical {LutJheran) in Streart:oir, Illino,is, iii 1884. ·• Slovak priests were enlisted from the old country to serve heire 1n the churches where the native tongue was spoken. lh 1909 the Congregation of bhe Sisters of SS. Cyriil ,a nd Methodius was founded by Father Matthew Jankofa, and in 1922 th e Slova,k Benedictine Fathers were established. These two ord&s have as one of thei!l' principal aims the preservation and promulgation of the Slovak national culture. But Father Furdek went futher, knowing that in order to preserve a language one must read and speak it, through his effoirts, the official newspaper JEDNOTA was founded, edited and published by him until his death . While the framework of culture, 1anguag,e and church organizations were helpful to the Slovak people in retaining theiir national identity, the real spirit of the homeland was kept aili\11e in the family. Slo·vak was spoken at home, in school and in church. Eveiryday customs of prayers, food and dress were continued with modification. Even dance and chornl groups helped keep al!ive the coilorful historic traditions. The "melting pot" symbol of America is not yet dead. The process of blending many strains into a single nationality need not mean the end of particular ethnic identities or traditions. Groups such as yours is a prime example of how one nationality can retain its culture and cus ~oms and still become a corutiributor to the national identity. Rededication to the American philosophy or equality means much more than the restatement of the Decfairation of Independence . 1 It means a reunifica,tion of spirit and energy to build · a strong economy, it means conquering the massive frontier and a virgin continent, shaping and reshaping the structure of government and influencing the American a,ttitude towaird the outside world. 34 SLOVAKIA The second generation, and the thi.Td, and the fourth, are inheriting the fruits of the geneTation. Let us hope that we, the members of generations which inheriited American citizenship instead of winning it, prize our freedom as highly as those who founded our families in this -great land. For if we do, the United States will grow stronger and better as its years increase. Let us a:lso welcome the men and women of other lands who still seek, and who wm continue to seek, sanctuary from oppression, and hope for a better life, in America. Whether they come from Calaiis or Bratislava, from Bremen or Naples, t his nation has always welcomed them. For in the fresh air of freedom they f1omish: to their own, and our own, inestimable benefits. In New York Harbor the Statue of Liberty awaits them, symbolizing the welcome we always have ex;tended in the land of 1mmigrants and immigraruts' sons and daughters. And on the base of that statue, these words are written for all to see and all to live by: "Give me your tired, your poor, "You!l' hudd1ed masses yearning to breathe free , "The wretched ref use of your teemmg shore, "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: "I 1ift my lamp beside the golden door." The coming of new immigrants to the country serves as a continual reminder to all Americans, old and new-that change is the essence of Hfe, and thait the American society is a process, not a conclusion. The abundant resources of this nation provided the founda·tion for our nation, but only people could marke the opportunity a reality. Immigrants pvovide the human resource and more than -thart--infused the nation with a commitment to new frontiers. They have kept the spirit of equality and hope always alive and strong. Herman Melville the American author, wrote "We are the heirs of al!l time and with all nations we divide our inherita,nce. '' To my fellow countrymen and especia lliy to you of Slovak descent I say, thank you for sharing with us your customs and your culture. 1  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovaks Have Repaid Their Adopted Country Well Description An account of the resource Address of the Honorable John T. Van Sant, Senator of Pennsylvania and the Majority Whip, presented at the Reception and Luncheon of the Board of Directors of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Sunday, February 22, 1970, at the George Washington Motor Lodge, Allentown, Pa. Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 28-34 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Van Sant, John T. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/58e736c35597fc360380bb232a58bd94.pdf 0796af79766589d3985fcf01f6273126 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 11 Will the Phoenix Rise Again? Sister M . Martina Tybor, SS. C. M . You may heard it said both literally and poetically that Slovakia is a country strategically situated in the heart of central Europe. You may have read that historically it was the crossroads of trade caravans between East and West. You may know that closer to our day, American presidents as well as some European leaders hoped that it would become a bridge between the East and the West to promote world friendship. It may have also occurred to you that over long centuries it seems to be a land unfortunately fated to oppression though it did have a golden glorious epoch in bygone days and hopefully rose as an independent democracy out of the shambles of World War I. If, on the other hand, Czecho-Slovakia is to you and to many persons only a nameless someplace on the map and its people a faceless family among nations, August events in 1968 have blazoned its name upon front page news reports, and the events themselves have shaped a fair perspective to show the world who these people are--the Slovaks and the Czechs, two distinct nations in one unique political cadre. Unfortunately, too many preoccupied nations and unthinking men are letting news from Czecho-Slovakia unconcernedly slip to the thirc:i; and fourth pages of their newspapers and, like hectographed copy left in the sun, the impact of tragic Soviet moves upon a defensless and unaided natio:ri is fading from public notice. Good people honestly hope that the interests of freedom , liberty of spirit, private enterprise and national initiative within the concept of true progressive self-determination and political independence will prevail. However, if good people do not bestir themselves to act on conviction, they do not further the cause of moral good. Their well-intentioned hopes can be merely the stuff of vacuous dreams. And as they dream, destiny sites the wheel of time, spinning, spinning. Democracies may dream that evils will somehow right �12 SLOVAKIA themselves and that there is really no call to become involved. The oppressed and aggrieved wait, for reasonably they can hardly do more with the odds so hopelessly stacked against them, and they must dream that they will yet liberate themselves in spite of the present hopeless outlook, or that-unbelievably but possibly-the seemingly impossible probability-help may yet come to implement their liberation. The aggressors unashamedly plot, with less dreaming than scheming in their designs and efforts, to dupe naive free countries again and to steal another thrust, another vantage area in order to further the realization of their master plan. Ineffectively the world waits. It lets itself grow accustomed to the numbing shock. And as it waits, it too dreams on. History fingers the spun threads and weaves a pattern of events shaped by man. Is the pattern bound to be determined by fate? Are the cycles of ages bound to repeat patterns from the past? Do we learn from the past, build on it, or supinely wait in an easily oblivious present? Some consideration of Slovakia's past may help toward a better understanding of its present plight and its still undying aspirations. Unfortunately some writers tend to treat the historic backgrounds of Slovakia as a peripheral aspect of the Czech of the Magyar past. Some have been satisfied to accept without research or question the kind of political science and European history that biased Magyars and Czechs tailored for general public consumption. There are also some who do not know, others who deny, ignore, or overlook the ethnic, social, cultural, linguistic and political identity or individuality of the Slovaks. Add to this also the regrettable circumstance that altogether too little authentic Slovak history is known to the world at large and that consequently a discriminating reader is sometimes at a loss to discriminate. Happily, recent decades have brought a number of excellent histories of Slovakia and reliable Slovak studies published in English. Information is now available to the honest seeker. For centuries, however, this nation had been almost anonymous in history; it was a country not granted recognition under its own name-literally nameless because it fflJ.t}l~ged by stronger powers. When the first tatha Baptist Bible College �SLOVAKIA 13 wave of immigration brought thousands of European newcomers to our shores, the Italian was identified as one who came from Italy, the Irishman came from Ireland, the German from Germany, the Frenchman from France, but the Slovak, incongruously, from Austria-Hungary. Yet historically the Slovaks are a nation much older than are many people blessed with national independence today. The territory which they occupy was the Danubian cradle of ancient European civilization that spread westward into Germany. The 1930 archeological expedition that the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania sent into Czecho-Slovakia reported findings that substantiate "periods of culture ranging from the Neolithic Age of about 3000 B. C. to what is locally known as the 'Roman' period of the first century A. D." It is pertinent to the history of the land to recall that even before the dawn of the Christian era several nations had lived in the territory now occupied by Slovakia. Greek and Roman writers record the presence of Gauls and Celts among these inhabitants. Coins dating from the first century B. C., stamped with identification of the Roman Republic have been found in Bratislava, and there is a third century Greek map of the region with many Slavonic markings for mountains and rivers. In the vicissitudes of historic developments, warring Germanic tribes also settled in the Danubian territory. To the great aggravation of the Romans, they frequently raided the Roman province ,o f Pannonia established south of the Danube river. To deal with this problem, Rome secured military outposts on the northern bank of the Danube and by 179 A. D., after a number of bloody skirmishes, succeeded in breaking the power of hostile Germanic peoples. The troops of Marcus Aurelius then advanced deeply into Slovak territory even as far as Trencin on the Vah. To maintain order and to guard important approaches in the area, part of the troops established the garrison Laugaricio. To this day a commemorative inscription carved into the natural bluff supporting Trencin castle reads: "In memory of the victory of the Emperor's army which encamped at Laugaricio, 855 soldiers of the IL Legion. Made by Constantine, �14 SLOVAKIA Cammander of the II. Auxiliary Legion." Incidentally, this is the earliest relic of written records found on Slovak territory. During the incursion of the Roman monarchy forces into Danubian regions along the Hron river in 173, the army was threatened by a drought so acute that the lives of the soldiers were endangered. But among the Romans there were some Christians from Asia Minor who prayed for relief. The triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius in Rome immortalize the fact that in answer to their prayer a saving ra~ fell and the men did not perish. Incidentally, again, there is additional historic value in this record, for it is the earliest reference to the presence of Christianity in the Danube basin. Though the might of Rome was challenged by Germanic tribes, Emperors matched strength with them repeatedly, and by 374 Valentinian claimed undisputed sovereignty over the territory. But the climax of Roman power also presaged a change toward decline. By 375 the migration of nations began to release its force against the face of Europe, and the already deteriorating power of Rome slowly yielded ground. Tribes from Danubian regions pressed into richer Roman possessions in the south. As the Romans drew back, tribes vied with tribes for supremacy and cut across many lands before coming to rest in permanent settlements. At the same time new tribes began to appear, moving through the mountain passes in the lofty Carpathians. They were the Slovan people, the forebears of Slovak ancestors. Somewhere in the maelstrom of events and movements, Slovak groups and related western Slavonic tribes chose to occupy lands that extended across the central Danube basin, reaching from the Elbe river to the southern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and the rich plains of the Danube river valley. In the fifth and sixth centuries, however the fierce hordes of Turco-Tatar Avars plunged into the Danubian region and swarmed as far west as the Frankish kingdom. They forced a number of Slavonic tribes into their service on looting raids against the Germans to the west and upon Constantinople and Salonica in the east. The subjugated peoples fretted and chafed under this yoke and looked to rid themselves of �SLOVAKIA 15 it even as they withdrew from Pannonia and re-settled north of the Danube. In 624 a Frankish merchant named Samo came to the region with rich merchandise and a large retinue.' His was a peaceful mission but his interests were thwarted by the marauding Avars. To secure his rights and to maintain a favorable economic situation, Samo initiated resistance to the invaders. He hoped to force the Avars out of Panonia, their key stronghold. His audacity and leadership attracted the support of most of the harried Slavonic tribes, and their united effort under Samo succeeded in routing the savage Avars. Exhilarated by victory, Samo and his allies set their power against the Germanic Franks and conquered them also. In the ensuing period of peace Samo united the tribes that had fought with him with other Danubian Slavs to the north and with Slovenes to south, establishing an empire of extensive territories on both banks of the Danube. It is the inhabitants of these lands that originally came to be designated as Slovieni or simply the Slavs. Some historians are inclined to consider this as the first historic state of Slovakia even though it declined after Samo's death; others look upon it as the forerunner of the realm known as Vel'k<i Morava (Great Moravia) which was created in the first half of the ninth century under Mojmir I, strengthened under Rastislav, and brought to a climax of glory under Svatopluk in the second half of the ninth century. This state was the first political unity in central Europe. The territories consolidated by Mojmir I are historically designated as Great Moravia in the official work De administrando Imperio (Concerning the Executive Management of a State) written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenneto s in 950. Yet it must be understood that this second Slavonic state in the heart of Europe was not an empire with clearly defined borders. The temper of the age did not confine itself to any strict division of territory but the reality of an empire was there, including present-day Slovakia and Moravia. Nor could this reality be overlooked, for Great Moravia enjoyed international status, maintaining relations with the Holy See and with neighboring empires. �16 SLOVAKIA While political history was thus evolving, cultural history was also in the making. Dr. Hrusovsky ascribes the earliest Christianizing influences in the Danubian regions to Irish missionaries and to Benedictine monks working out of the monasteries of Bavaria. About 833 Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg consecrated a church in Nitra, the principality of Pribina. This event testifies to the efforts of the German clergy to Christianize the Slavs and it is a historic landmark, for the church of St. Emeram was the first Christian church among western Slavs. This is by no means to suggest, however, that Christianity was generally accepted throughout the land. As a matter of fact, it had rather slow beginnings, for though the people were interested in Christian truth, they were distrustful of all things German even the worthy efforts of German monl :s . Moreover, they were not at home with the language of u-e Bavarian preachers. These circumstances greatly ham: ,ered early evangelizing along the Danube. When Rastislav became the ruler of Great Moravia, he sent special envoys to Pope Nicholas I in Rome, requesting missionaries who would preach to his people in their native tongue. In this era around 860, Rome was not able to satisfy such a need. Rastislav then made another attempt, this time sending a special mission to Emperor Michael III of Constantinople. His petition read: "Since our people have cast off paganism and follow Christian law, and we have no teacher to explain the Christian faith to us in our own tongue . . . send us, Emperor, such a bishop and teacher, because your country is recognized everywhere for its good laws." The Emperor was interested and he was able to help. He sent two brothers: Constantine, a court philosopher and linguist who later became Cyril by monastic name, and Methodius, an expert in civil law and government. Both had already proved themselves in apostolic work, and as natives of Salonica they spoke Slavonic fluently. The gifted brothers came to Rastislav's land in Great Moravia in 863, prepared to teach and preach. Constantine brought an alphabet that he had devised to give their work permanence among people who were still illiterate. It was the Glagolitic script ( today's Old Slavonic or Church Slavonic, a later derivative from this was termed Cyrillic.) �SLOVAKIA 17 He also brought as many translations of the Scriptures as he had prepared, beginning with the Gospel of St. John. His translations at this time also included a Slavonic version of the Liturgy of St. Peter (from the Greek) and various liturgical books. These works are the foundation of Slovak literature, and it is inspiring that it should have its origin with the phrase "In the beginning was the Word ... " Since some of the inhabitants of Great Moravia were already Christians of the western rite, the new missionaries celebrated both the Mass and the Divine Liturgy, using the Slavonic language in both, and they oriented the Church of the Danubian lands toward Rome. Unfavorably disposed clergymen considered the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular a presumptuous and unorthodox innovation in central Europe and denounced the brothers in Rome. Pope Hadrian II, however, gave it express approbation after investigating the charge brought against Cyril and Methodius (867): "Receiving the Slavonic books, the Pope blessed them and placed them on the altar in the Basilica of St. Mary Major ... and forthwith the liturgy was sung from them." ( Vita Constantini, Chap. XVII, p. 95) After the death of Cyril in Rome, Pope Hadrian II wrote to the rulers Rastislav, Svatopluk, and Kocel': "We have decided to send you Methodius ... translating and using the sacred books in your language in all ecclesiastical functions, in Holy Mass, i. e., the Liturgy, too, as well as in Baptism, as was initiated by Constantine, the Philosopher ... " (Vita Methodii, Chap. VII, Acta Acad. Velehrad. XVII. pp. 113116.) Pope John VII also approved the Slavonic liturgy in his bull Industriae Tuae : "We justly commend the Slavonic script, devised some time ago by Constantine, the Philosopher. And we direct that the doctrine of Christ be preached in that language. There is nothing contrary to the true faith and doctrine either in singing Holy Mass in that Slavonic tongue, or in reading in that language the Gospels and other texts of the Old and New Testament, provided they are correctly translated ... " (Monumenta Germanicae Historica, Epistolarum T. VII, arm. 880Friedrich, Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Regni Bohemiae, Vol. I, arm. 880.) In spite of difficulties and trials, the mission of the zealous brothers prospered and it is �18 SLOVAKIA to their labors that the Slovaks owe the glory of their faith as well as the foundations of their literature and great cultural strides. The Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century, built as a power against the forces of the west ( as Samo's had been a buffer restraining the might of hordes from the east), was exposed to continuous attacks from the Germans. Late in the ninth century, however, another menace overtook the people of the Danube settlements. Fierce Magyars poured into the lower regions and became a formidable threat to all the inhabitants there. In 902 they turned upon Slovakia with insistent and ruthless attacks. Beset now by hostilities from west and east, and victim of a coalition of Magyars and Germans, Slovakia lost her glorious independence when Great Moravia fell to the Magyars in 907. The foregoing century of beneficent independence and cultural development had brough to the Slovaks intellectual influences from Salzburg, Regensburg, and Passau which mingled with Byzantine culture and with western learning to give the Slovaks a rich heritage whose greatest boast is deep-rooted Christianity. The era after 906 was marked by fierce contests between the Germans and the Magyars to establish dominance of the Danube lands. Though they were caught in the pressures of the rise and fall of these powers, the Slovaks managed to maintain their ethnic identity and even their hope for eventual autonomy. Formidable castles, which became their places of refuge from the vicissitudes of war, date from this period and are still interesting landmarks. Closer to our day several have become sites of archeological explorations. Fated in all the long centuries from the tenth to the twentieth to live in serfdom, scourged by wild Tatar and Mongolian hordes, ravaged by the later ferocity of Hussite wars, doomed to a thousand years under the crushing heel of Magyars, pawn of powerful overlords, how did these people ever survive? The bread of poverty and humiliation, and the cup of tears and sweat which was their portion seemed only to favor their survival. And with it all they did not become a bleak and bitter people. Very appropriately they choose Our Mother of Sorrows as their national patroness and sought strength through �SLOVAKIA 19 her intercession. They graced their lowly homes and menial labors with song and wit and prayer. Richness of the spirit transcended their material misery. Patience, perseverance, and undying hope are their unfailing heritage. Theirs is the perennial grace of resurrection faith and pentecostal hope. These fruits have come to the Slovak nation even to the present day as a natural harvest of the spirit. Disadvantaged materially, economically, and politically, the Slovaks turned to cultivate what no man can take from another-the talents of the spirit. It is worthy of comment here that the poorest of their geographic districts-Orava -a land so thin and rocky that only small patches of its ground can be spaded into vegetable gardens to yield cabbage and potatoes as holiday fare-this pitifully deprived area has given the nation many of its intellectual giants-poets, teachers, leaders. Circumstances that denied education beyond one or two winters of formal schooling just for basic literacy skills, except for the privilege of seminary studies, gave the country great priests who understood and fulfilled their role as men of God and leaders of their people in all walks of life. They are a long line of glory, men like Anton Bernolak with his monumental six-volume pentalingual dictionary and his organizing genius to establish the first cultural society "Slovenske ucene tovarisstvo;" Hviezdoslav, the epic poet and brilliant translator of Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin, and Lermontov; Andrew Radlinsky with his compendium of Slovak liturgical prayers on one hand and his journalism to fan fires of patriotism on the other; F. V. Sasinek, the historian; Stephen Furdek who became an unequaled leader and the father of Slovak immigrants in America; Matthew Jank.ala who founded the American community of Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius; Milo Urban, an outstanding novelist of the twentieth century. Speaking of the Hungarian oppression as a thousand years under the Magyar heel may sound like the easy glossing over of a difficult situation. It was prolonged agony but stating the historic fact is not to imply that there were a thousand years of mute and irrational resignation, of unmanly acceptance of "things as they are." �20 SLOVAKIA Nothing could make ardent Slovaks forget the pride of Great Moravia. Nothing could make them lose hope that there would yet be freedom and the glory of distinguished leaders in a free land. There was resistance of varying types and degrees; there were repeated appeals for redress; there were petitions for official intervention on behalf of justice; the most spectacular of such movements being the National Uprising of 1848 led by Louis stur and his close collaborators Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza. Europe remembers 1848 as a year of revolutions. Central Europe at this time developed an awareness of Pan-Slavism which more than nettled the Hungarian government. There were also Pan-Germanic movements. Minorities and subjugated groups were not only restless, they were impatient for the restoration of their dignity and freedom; they were vocal in their demands; they were poised for action. The patriot stur led his armed rebellion in September but it netted bloodshed and the cruelty of gallows reprisals for many. Yet there was honor and pride in the effort and amid the bitter disappointments of foiled plans there were some bright moments of renewed hope. It was World War I that dismembered Austria-Hungary and brought about the Czecho-Slovak state. Though its creation was the act of the victorious powers and not the choice of the Slovak people, it seemed that perhaps the hopes cherished over a thousand fallow years would yet be justified. Since 1918, unfortunately, there followed the thorny years of coming to an understanding with the Czechs, for right from the outset, President Thomas Masaryk high-handedly began to treat the Slovaks as an underprivileged colony to be assimilated and exploited rather than as a co-equal partner in government. Consequently the Slovaks faced another period (1918-1939) of tension and threat to national survival. Post-Munich Czecho-Slovakia became a dual state briefly. On March 14, 1939, after Hitler's decision to make Czechia and Moravia Protectorates of the Reich, the Slovak Parliament proclaimed the independence of Slovakia and established the Slovak autonomous republic under the presidency of Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The world at large had generally assumed that Slovakia, left to its �SLOVAKIA 21 own assets and resources, would never survive independently, yet in a critical period of world history this nation gained the recognition of 27 countries and it proved that an independent Slovakia is viable and can fulfill its people's ideal of a prosperous and vigorous independent national life. With the support of Moscow, Benes shattered this dream after World War II. Slovakia was occupied by the Red army, the Czecho-Slovak Republic was restored against the will of the Slovak people on much the same inequitable principles as it had had before, and with practically the same old problems-and this over and above the burden of the communist system. The Slovaks cannot tolerate domination by the Czechs because these Czech brothers are too ready to undercut Slovak interests not only politically but economically as well. The most recent political development in Slovakia has been the liberalization program under Alexander Dubcek and the re-vamping of the political structures to effect autonomy for the Slovaks as well as for the Czechs under a new Czecho-Slovak (not Czechoslovak) constitution for a federal state involving two distinct nations. And this is only right. It would hardly occur to anyone who is well informed to confuse the Czechs with the Slovaks; neither are there any grounds for believing that the Slovaks can be taken for Czechs. In the light of historical documentation and by sociological norms these are two distinct nations, two distinct peoples with national histories of their own and distinct languages of their own with only some accidental similarities inasmuch as both are Slavic tongues. When Dubcek came to power as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Czecho-Slovak Communist Party, he initiated a program not in line with the heavyhanded policies of his predecessor Novotny. He did not promote the repressive measures of Kremlin circles, for communist though he is, he realizes that Slovak people will never thrive under a system that negates the values of Christian tradition and integral European culture. Instead of tightening pressures, he proposed to "humanize" the communist system-to relax the party's grip on national �22 SLOVAKIA economy, to curb police power, to guarantee freedom of expression, to hear minority opinions in government, to rehabilitate political prisoners, to ease travel restrictions. These were some of his "January reforms" under which the country burgeoned. These are the measures that Moscow cannot countenance and demands must be retracted. It is against such a way of life that the Soviets have sent their tanks, matching guns against ideas. The world looks on as the Slovaks and the Czechs meet with only their bare hands this overwhelming material force from the Red East-an army of a half million gathered to retaliate against newspaper articles and basic human rights. Thousands of tanks have come, readied to reintroduce censorship among a people who disavow it. The free world is shocked and outraged by such bullying and brazen invasion of a people's liberty and innate right to self-determination. The inhumanity of it leaves onlookers unbelieving and stunned into inaction. Almost as if to salve their consciences, commentators have been heard to observe that these people have been through the oppression mill many times before. Yet this is no reason why another chapter of oppression should be added to their history. Their history? A cruel taunt made against these very people was: You have no history. Where are your great victories? What are your historical boasts? The mightiest answer that can be leveled to counter this charge is WE ARE; in essence our very existence is our history. A people that can preserve its national identity, never relinquish its right to a free government, and survive agonizing centuries of subjugation, deprivation, occupation, oppression, and deliberate plotting to bring about their decay and extermination hardly need more to document as history. The Slovak people do have proportionate exploits and achievements though they do not chronicle dynasties or world-celebrated potentates. Their greatest history reposes not in documented words but in people. It is not a tangible something that can be pinned within a frame like a butterfly specimen and labeled This is it, for the spirit that makes history defies analysis; it cannot be plotted; it cannot be dissected; it cannot be positioned under a microscopic lens ; it cannot be trapped before �SLOVAKIA 23 an examining commission or a saber-rattling council; but it is there. History, after all, is not a made-to-order commodity. Nations and leaders of nations do not meet on assignment or by some preconceived arrangement "to make history." Exigencies of time and circumstance bring their historic moment and their challenge, and the texture of a nation's leadership and spirit is bound to be revealed by the response. Though the Slovaks lost political independence with the fall of Great Moravia in the tenth to the thirteeRth centuries, their civilization was not destroyed. They occupied their land for long centuries without interruption and endured all the catastrophes that overtook them. Even under the Magyars they managed to become a cultural unit in central Europe with a university at Bratislava as early as the fifteenth century and later a Catholic university at Trnava in the seventeenth century. They have a distinctive literature, culture, history, economic capability, sociological and ethnographic individuality-the constituents for full recognition as a free nation. Their all too brief years of autonomy under Tiso are proof of their ability to function and to prosper as a free nation. Subservience to any overlord is all the more galling to the Slovaks as a nation with a long historic past especially in this era of brotherhood and decolonization. In an International Year of Human Rights when aspiring states in Asia and Africa were happily granted recognition and freedom, it is-to say the least-incongruous that a nation with every right to be free and independent and progressive should be coerced into puppet status in order to gratify the Soviet bloc, with all the world as witness to this violence and degradation. The victims of this aggression are only too well aware of the futility of force to wrest their rights in the present situation. Among views they have expressed are these, released to the world in current issues of the newspaper Kulturny zivot: " ... it seems that for some time we will have to communicate as mutes. I believe that a cultural nation �SLOVAKlA 24 under pressure will transmit ideas by gestures, barring other means." "Our fate and very existence are in foreign hands. Honor is the only thing we can and must preserve-honor in thought and in action: not to be satisfied with evil and not to compromise with it; not to give up ideals of humanism and freedom. We are not the only ones with a stake in this situation; the whole human race may depend on it." " .. . The external force is a fact and must be reckoned with, without illusions. People have learned to wear fur coats against the cold. Against armor they defend themselves with spiritual and cultural values ... " "Something happened that cannot be undone. History has dealt us a blow but ipso facto something new happened to history. Nothing is the same as it was a week ago. We have changed and so has the world around us. Something has happened that has no place in the last third of the twentieth century." These are the voices of some of the Slovak writers in Bratislava. They are young people but their thinking has outstripped their years. Poets too speak of this Pyrrhic victory of the Soviets. A sampling from the contemporary thoughts of A. Murin, living in Canada, forms a suitable conclusion for this rapid survey: A BLEEDING LAND The signs are that we shall yet long document the words of the bleeding land ... The grain harvest was just ripening and the scythe readied; sheer loveliness invited smiles; the toughened palm was already weighting the seed gold-glistening on the August field. Nature presaged no storm; only the heart registered the seething volcano and the thunderous drum of march-stomping warriors. �SLOVAKIA 25 Anyone who could interpret the graphs of the alarm-surprised wildflowers on the mountainsides knew: this is Ghengis Khan splintering the circlet of love; knew it was he who would cut low the fruited ears with a nicked blade to make it hurt, just to make it hurt the more, to burn and sear in the forge of the August sun. Vainly do you ask the goldened ears, vainly you question the furnaced heavens, vainly you probe the meanderings of the cascading brook: Why did the song become a dead sound? Why is the kerneled blade not transformed into loaved bread? Why this fate, worse than abject bondage? Ho, brothers, this is a for a long time, a very we shall document the of the bleeding Slovak palpable certainty: long time, words land ... BIBLIOGRAPHY Bokes, Frantisek. Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov (History of Slovakia and the Slovaks) . Bratislava: Academia Scientiarum et Artium Slovaca, 1946. - - . Sl.ovenske pokusy o vyrovnanie s Mad'armi ( Slovak Attempts to Reach Agreement with the Magyars). Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1944. Bue, B. S. Slovak Nationalism. Middletown, Pa. : Slovak League of America, 1960. Butvin, Jozef. "Martin Hamuljak and Fundamental Problems of the Slovak National Revival." Studia Historica Slovaca III. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1965, pp. 135-172. Capek, Thomas. Origins of the Czechoslovak State. New York: Revell Press, 1926. - - . The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906. Chaloupecky, V. Stare Slovensko (Ancient Slovakia). Bratislava, 1934. Culen, Konstantin. Roky slovenskych nadeji a sklamani (Years of Slovak Hopes and Frustrations). Trnava : -Ostredie slov. kat. studentstva, 1932. �SLOVAKIA 26 !>urcansky, Ferdinand. Prcivo Slovcikov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov-Biela Kniha (The White Book-The Right of the Slovaks to Independence in the Light of Official Documents). V. 1, Buenos Aires: Slovensky Oslobodzovaci Vybor, 1954. Glaser, Kurt. Czecho-Slovakia: A Critical History. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1961. Grivec, Francis. Vitae Constantini et Methodii. Versio Latina, notis dissertationibusque de fontibus ac de theologia SS. Cyrill et Methodii illustrata: Acta Academiae Velehradensis XVII (1941) . Hrusovsky, Frantisek. Slovenske Dejiny (Slovak History). Turciansky Sv. Martin : Matica Sl-0venska, 1940. - - -. Slovensko v dejincich Strednej Eur6py. (Slovakia in the History of Central Europe) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1939. - - - . Slovenski vladciri (Slovak Rulers). Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1948. - - - . This is Slovakia. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1954. JanMk, Stefan. Brciny do dcivnoveku (Gateways to Antiquity) . Bratislava: Tatran, 1966. - - - . Slovensko v dobe uhorskeho feudalizmu ( Slovakia in the Era of Hungarian Feudalism). Bratiillava: <'.:eskoslovenske Zemedel- ske Muzeum, 1932. - - - . Stare osidlenie Slovensk.a (Ancient Settlement of Slovakia) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1938. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York: Robert Speller, 1960. York: Robert Speller, 1960. Lacko, Michael. Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Rome: Institute of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, 1963. Mikus, Joseph. Slovakia: A Political History 1918-1950. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia and its People. New York: Robert Speller, 1960. Pauco, Jozef. Christian Slovakia under Communism. Valparaiso, Ind.: Slovak Catholic Federation of America, 1959. - - - . Pod zcistavou krest'anskej demokracie (Under the Banner of Christian Democracy). Middletown, Pa.: Slovak Christian Demo- crats, 1957. - - - . " Slovakia Viewed by American Historians," Most, Vol. I, No. 4, 1954. Polakovic, Stefan. K zcikladom Slovenskeho statu (Foundations of the Slovak State) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1939. Porphyrogennetos, Constantinus. De administrando lmperio. In: Migne P. G. CXIII, col. 158-422. New critical edition published by G. Moravcsik. �SLOVAKIA 27 Ratkos, Peter. Pramene k dejinam Vel' kej Moravy (Prime Sources of the History of Great Moravia) . Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1964. Sasinek, Franko Vit'azoslav, Drzava Vel' komoravska (The Domain of Great Moravia). Ruzomberok: Karol Salva, 1896. Seton-Watson, R. W. Racial Problems in Hungary . London: Constable & Co. , Ltd., 1907. Sidor, Karol. Cernova, 1907-1937 (The cernova massacre and its aftermath) , Bratislava: Novinarsky a nakladatel'sky ucitel'sky spolok, 1937. - - -. Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji (Slovaks in the Resis tance Movement Abroad ). Bratislava: Jednota Press, 1929. Skultety, Jozef. Nehante l'ud moj! (Do Not Malign My People!) Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928. - - - . Sketches from Slovak History. Translated by 0 . D. Koreff, Mid- dletown, Pa.: Jednota, 1930. - - - . Slovenske memorandum r. 1861. Turciansky Sv. Martin: Knih- tlaciarsky ucastinarsky spolok, 1911. Smrzik, Stephen. The Glagolitic or Roman-Slavonic Liturgy. Rome : The Slovak Institute, 1959. Sprinc, Mikulas, ed. Slov enskci Republika, 1939-1949. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1949. Stanislav, Jan. Les Slav es, Byzance et Rome . Paris, 1926. - - - . Risa Vel' komorav skci. (The Empire of Great Moravia) . Prague : Mazac, 1933. Yurchak, Peter. The Slov aks: Their History and Traditions . Whiting, Ind.: 1946. Zachar, L'udovit. Borba za narodnu slobodu (The Struggle for National Independence ). Bratislava: Jednota Press, 1931. - - - . Sv. Cyril a Metod na Devine (Sts. Cyril and Methodius at Devin) . Trnava: Spolok Sv. Vojtecha , 1928. Zubek, Theodoric J . The Church of Si lence i n Slovakia. Passaic, N. J .: Lach, 1956. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U . S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. � SLOVAKIA 11 Will the Phoenix Rise Again? Sister M . Martina Tybor, SS. C. M . You may heard it said both literally and poetically that Slovakia is a country strategically situated in the heart of central Europe. You may have read that historically it was the crossroads of trade caravans between East and West. You may know that closer to our day, American presidents as well as some European leaders hoped that it would become a bridge between the East and the West to promote world friendship. It may have also occurred to you that over long centuries it seems to be a land unfortunately fated to oppression though it did have a golden glorious epoch in bygone days and hopefully rose as an independent democracy out of the shambles of World War I. If, on the other hand, Czecho-Slovakia is to you and to many persons only a nameless someplace on the map and its people a faceless family among nations, August events in 1968 have blazoned its name upon front page news reports, and the events themselves have shaped a fair perspective to show the world who these people are--the Slovaks and the Czechs, two distinct nations in one unique political cadre. Unfortunately, too many preoccupied nations and unthinking men are letting news from Czecho-Slovakia unconcernedly slip to the thirc:i; and fourth pages of their newspapers and, like hectographed copy left in the sun, the impact of tragic Soviet moves upon a defensless and unaided natio:ri is fading from public notice. Good people honestly hope that the interests of freedom , liberty of spirit, private enterprise and national initiative within the concept of true progressive self-determination and political independence will prevail. However, if good people do not bestir themselves to act on conviction, they do not further the cause of moral good. Their well-intentioned hopes can be merely the stuff of vacuous dreams. And as they dream, destiny sites the wheel of time, spinning, spinning. Democracies may dream that evils will somehow right �12 SLOVAKIA themselves and that there is really no call to become involved. The oppressed and aggrieved wait, for reasonably they can hardly do more with the odds so hopelessly stacked against them, and they must dream that they will yet liberate themselves in spite of the present hopeless outlook, or that-unbelievably but possibly-the seemingly impossible probability-help may yet come to implement their liberation. The aggressors unashamedly plot, with less dreaming than scheming in their designs and efforts, to dupe naive free countries again and to steal another thrust, another vantage area in order to further the realization of their master plan. Ineffectively the world waits. It lets itself grow accustomed to the numbing shock. And as it waits, it too dreams on. History fingers the spun threads and weaves a pattern of events shaped by man. Is the pattern bound to be determined by fate? Are the cycles of ages bound to repeat patterns from the past? Do we learn from the past, build on it, or supinely wait in an easily oblivious present? Some consideration of Slovakia's past may help toward a better understanding of its present plight and its still undying aspirations. Unfortunately some writers tend to treat the historic backgrounds of Slovakia as a peripheral aspect of the Czech of the Magyar past. Some have been satisfied to accept without research or question the kind of political science and European history that biased Magyars and Czechs tailored for general public consumption. There are also some who do not know, others who deny, ignore, or overlook the ethnic, social, cultural, linguistic and political identity or individuality of the Slovaks. Add to this also the regrettable circumstance that altogether too little authentic Slovak history is known to the world at large and that consequently a discriminating reader is sometimes at a loss to discriminate. Happily, recent decades have brought a number of excellent histories of Slovakia and reliable Slovak studies published in English. Information is now available to the honest seeker. For centuries, however, this nation had been almost anonymous in history; it was a country not granted recognition under its own name-literally nameless because it fflJ.t}l~ged by stronger powers. When the first tatha Baptist Bible College �SLOVAKIA 13 wave of immigration brought thousands of European newcomers to our shores, the Italian was identified as one who came from Italy, the Irishman came from Ireland, the German from Germany, the Frenchman from France, but the Slovak, incongruously, from Austria-Hungary. Yet historically the Slovaks are a nation much older than are many people blessed with national independence today. The territory which they occupy was the Danubian cradle of ancient European civilization that spread westward into Germany. The 1930 archeological expedition that the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania sent into Czecho-Slovakia reported findings that substantiate "periods of culture ranging from the Neolithic Age of about 3000 B. C. to what is locally known as the 'Roman' period of the first century A. D." It is pertinent to the history of the land to recall that even before the dawn of the Christian era several nations had lived in the territory now occupied by Slovakia. Greek and Roman writers record the presence of Gauls and Celts among these inhabitants. Coins dating from the first century B. C., stamped with identification of the Roman Republic have been found in Bratislava, and there is a third century Greek map of the region with many Slavonic markings for mountains and rivers. In the vicissitudes of historic developments, warring Germanic tribes also settled in the Danubian territory. To the great aggravation of the Romans, they frequently raided the Roman province ,o f Pannonia established south of the Danube river. To deal with this problem, Rome secured military outposts on the northern bank of the Danube and by 179 A. D., after a number of bloody skirmishes, succeeded in breaking the power of hostile Germanic peoples. The troops of Marcus Aurelius then advanced deeply into Slovak territory even as far as Trencin on the Vah. To maintain order and to guard important approaches in the area, part of the troops established the garrison Laugaricio. To this day a commemorative inscription carved into the natural bluff supporting Trencin castle reads: "In memory of the victory of the Emperor's army which encamped at Laugaricio, 855 soldiers of the IL Legion. Made by Constantine, �14 SLOVAKIA Cammander of the II. Auxiliary Legion." Incidentally, this is the earliest relic of written records found on Slovak territory. During the incursion of the Roman monarchy forces into Danubian regions along the Hron river in 173, the army was threatened by a drought so acute that the lives of the soldiers were endangered. But among the Romans there were some Christians from Asia Minor who prayed for relief. The triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius in Rome immortalize the fact that in answer to their prayer a saving ra~ fell and the men did not perish. Incidentally, again, there is additional historic value in this record, for it is the earliest reference to the presence of Christianity in the Danube basin. Though the might of Rome was challenged by Germanic tribes, Emperors matched strength with them repeatedly, and by 374 Valentinian claimed undisputed sovereignty over the territory. But the climax of Roman power also presaged a change toward decline. By 375 the migration of nations began to release its force against the face of Europe, and the already deteriorating power of Rome slowly yielded ground. Tribes from Danubian regions pressed into richer Roman possessions in the south. As the Romans drew back, tribes vied with tribes for supremacy and cut across many lands before coming to rest in permanent settlements. At the same time new tribes began to appear, moving through the mountain passes in the lofty Carpathians. They were the Slovan people, the forebears of Slovak ancestors. Somewhere in the maelstrom of events and movements, Slovak groups and related western Slavonic tribes chose to occupy lands that extended across the central Danube basin, reaching from the Elbe river to the southern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and the rich plains of the Danube river valley. In the fifth and sixth centuries, however the fierce hordes of Turco-Tatar Avars plunged into the Danubian region and swarmed as far west as the Frankish kingdom. They forced a number of Slavonic tribes into their service on looting raids against the Germans to the west and upon Constantinople and Salonica in the east. The subjugated peoples fretted and chafed under this yoke and looked to rid themselves of �SLOVAKIA 15 it even as they withdrew from Pannonia and re-settled north of the Danube. In 624 a Frankish merchant named Samo came to the region with rich merchandise and a large retinue.' His was a peaceful mission but his interests were thwarted by the marauding Avars. To secure his rights and to maintain a favorable economic situation, Samo initiated resistance to the invaders. He hoped to force the Avars out of Panonia, their key stronghold. His audacity and leadership attracted the support of most of the harried Slavonic tribes, and their united effort under Samo succeeded in routing the savage Avars. Exhilarated by victory, Samo and his allies set their power against the Germanic Franks and conquered them also. In the ensuing period of peace Samo united the tribes that had fought with him with other Danubian Slavs to the north and with Slovenes to south, establishing an empire of extensive territories on both banks of the Danube. It is the inhabitants of these lands that originally came to be designated as Slovieni or simply the Slavs. Some historians are inclined to consider this as the first historic state of Slovakia even though it declined after Samo's death; others look upon it as the forerunner of the realm known as Vel'k<i Morava (Great Moravia) which was created in the first half of the ninth century under Mojmir I, strengthened under Rastislav, and brought to a climax of glory under Svatopluk in the second half of the ninth century. This state was the first political unity in central Europe. The territories consolidated by Mojmir I are historically designated as Great Moravia in the official work De administrando Imperio (Concerning the Executive Management of a State) written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenneto s in 950. Yet it must be understood that this second Slavonic state in the heart of Europe was not an empire with clearly defined borders. The temper of the age did not confine itself to any strict division of territory but the reality of an empire was there, including present-day Slovakia and Moravia. Nor could this reality be overlooked, for Great Moravia enjoyed international status, maintaining relations with the Holy See and with neighboring empires. �16 SLOVAKIA While political history was thus evolving, cultural history was also in the making. Dr. Hrusovsky ascribes the earliest Christianizing influences in the Danubian regions to Irish missionaries and to Benedictine monks working out of the monasteries of Bavaria. About 833 Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg consecrated a church in Nitra, the principality of Pribina. This event testifies to the efforts of the German clergy to Christianize the Slavs and it is a historic landmark, for the church of St. Emeram was the first Christian church among western Slavs. This is by no means to suggest, however, that Christianity was generally accepted throughout the land. As a matter of fact, it had rather slow beginnings, for though the people were interested in Christian truth, they were distrustful of all things German even the worthy efforts of German monl :s . Moreover, they were not at home with the language of u-e Bavarian preachers. These circumstances greatly ham: ,ered early evangelizing along the Danube. When Rastislav became the ruler of Great Moravia, he sent special envoys to Pope Nicholas I in Rome, requesting missionaries who would preach to his people in their native tongue. In this era around 860, Rome was not able to satisfy such a need. Rastislav then made another attempt, this time sending a special mission to Emperor Michael III of Constantinople. His petition read: "Since our people have cast off paganism and follow Christian law, and we have no teacher to explain the Christian faith to us in our own tongue . . . send us, Emperor, such a bishop and teacher, because your country is recognized everywhere for its good laws." The Emperor was interested and he was able to help. He sent two brothers: Constantine, a court philosopher and linguist who later became Cyril by monastic name, and Methodius, an expert in civil law and government. Both had already proved themselves in apostolic work, and as natives of Salonica they spoke Slavonic fluently. The gifted brothers came to Rastislav's land in Great Moravia in 863, prepared to teach and preach. Constantine brought an alphabet that he had devised to give their work permanence among people who were still illiterate. It was the Glagolitic script ( today's Old Slavonic or Church Slavonic, a later derivative from this was termed Cyrillic.) �SLOVAKIA 17 He also brought as many translations of the Scriptures as he had prepared, beginning with the Gospel of St. John. His translations at this time also included a Slavonic version of the Liturgy of St. Peter (from the Greek) and various liturgical books. These works are the foundation of Slovak literature, and it is inspiring that it should have its origin with the phrase "In the beginning was the Word ... " Since some of the inhabitants of Great Moravia were already Christians of the western rite, the new missionaries celebrated both the Mass and the Divine Liturgy, using the Slavonic language in both, and they oriented the Church of the Danubian lands toward Rome. Unfavorably disposed clergymen considered the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular a presumptuous and unorthodox innovation in central Europe and denounced the brothers in Rome. Pope Hadrian II, however, gave it express approbation after investigating the charge brought against Cyril and Methodius (867): "Receiving the Slavonic books, the Pope blessed them and placed them on the altar in the Basilica of St. Mary Major ... and forthwith the liturgy was sung from them." ( Vita Constantini, Chap. XVII, p. 95) After the death of Cyril in Rome, Pope Hadrian II wrote to the rulers Rastislav, Svatopluk, and Kocel': "We have decided to send you Methodius ... translating and using the sacred books in your language in all ecclesiastical functions, in Holy Mass, i. e., the Liturgy, too, as well as in Baptism, as was initiated by Constantine, the Philosopher ... " (Vita Methodii, Chap. VII, Acta Acad. Velehrad. XVII. pp. 113116.) Pope John VII also approved the Slavonic liturgy in his bull Industriae Tuae : "We justly commend the Slavonic script, devised some time ago by Constantine, the Philosopher. And we direct that the doctrine of Christ be preached in that language. There is nothing contrary to the true faith and doctrine either in singing Holy Mass in that Slavonic tongue, or in reading in that language the Gospels and other texts of the Old and New Testament, provided they are correctly translated ... " (Monumenta Germanicae Historica, Epistolarum T. VII, arm. 880Friedrich, Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Regni Bohemiae, Vol. I, arm. 880.) In spite of difficulties and trials, the mission of the zealous brothers prospered and it is �18 SLOVAKIA to their labors that the Slovaks owe the glory of their faith as well as the foundations of their literature and great cultural strides. The Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century, built as a power against the forces of the west ( as Samo's had been a buffer restraining the might of hordes from the east), was exposed to continuous attacks from the Germans. Late in the ninth century, however, another menace overtook the people of the Danube settlements. Fierce Magyars poured into the lower regions and became a formidable threat to all the inhabitants there. In 902 they turned upon Slovakia with insistent and ruthless attacks. Beset now by hostilities from west and east, and victim of a coalition of Magyars and Germans, Slovakia lost her glorious independence when Great Moravia fell to the Magyars in 907. The foregoing century of beneficent independence and cultural development had brough to the Slovaks intellectual influences from Salzburg, Regensburg, and Passau which mingled with Byzantine culture and with western learning to give the Slovaks a rich heritage whose greatest boast is deep-rooted Christianity. The era after 906 was marked by fierce contests between the Germans and the Magyars to establish dominance of the Danube lands. Though they were caught in the pressures of the rise and fall of these powers, the Slovaks managed to maintain their ethnic identity and even their hope for eventual autonomy. Formidable castles, which became their places of refuge from the vicissitudes of war, date from this period and are still interesting landmarks. Closer to our day several have become sites of archeological explorations. Fated in all the long centuries from the tenth to the twentieth to live in serfdom, scourged by wild Tatar and Mongolian hordes, ravaged by the later ferocity of Hussite wars, doomed to a thousand years under the crushing heel of Magyars, pawn of powerful overlords, how did these people ever survive? The bread of poverty and humiliation, and the cup of tears and sweat which was their portion seemed only to favor their survival. And with it all they did not become a bleak and bitter people. Very appropriately they choose Our Mother of Sorrows as their national patroness and sought strength through �SLOVAKIA 19 her intercession. They graced their lowly homes and menial labors with song and wit and prayer. Richness of the spirit transcended their material misery. Patience, perseverance, and undying hope are their unfailing heritage. Theirs is the perennial grace of resurrection faith and pentecostal hope. These fruits have come to the Slovak nation even to the present day as a natural harvest of the spirit. Disadvantaged materially, economically, and politically, the Slovaks turned to cultivate what no man can take from another-the talents of the spirit. It is worthy of comment here that the poorest of their geographic districts-Orava -a land so thin and rocky that only small patches of its ground can be spaded into vegetable gardens to yield cabbage and potatoes as holiday fare-this pitifully deprived area has given the nation many of its intellectual giants-poets, teachers, leaders. Circumstances that denied education beyond one or two winters of formal schooling just for basic literacy skills, except for the privilege of seminary studies, gave the country great priests who understood and fulfilled their role as men of God and leaders of their people in all walks of life. They are a long line of glory, men like Anton Bernolak with his monumental six-volume pentalingual dictionary and his organizing genius to establish the first cultural society "Slovenske ucene tovarisstvo;" Hviezdoslav, the epic poet and brilliant translator of Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin, and Lermontov; Andrew Radlinsky with his compendium of Slovak liturgical prayers on one hand and his journalism to fan fires of patriotism on the other; F. V. Sasinek, the historian; Stephen Furdek who became an unequaled leader and the father of Slovak immigrants in America; Matthew Jank.ala who founded the American community of Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius; Milo Urban, an outstanding novelist of the twentieth century. Speaking of the Hungarian oppression as a thousand years under the Magyar heel may sound like the easy glossing over of a difficult situation. It was prolonged agony but stating the historic fact is not to imply that there were a thousand years of mute and irrational resignation, of unmanly acceptance of "things as they are." �20 SLOVAKIA Nothing could make ardent Slovaks forget the pride of Great Moravia. Nothing could make them lose hope that there would yet be freedom and the glory of distinguished leaders in a free land. There was resistance of varying types and degrees; there were repeated appeals for redress; there were petitions for official intervention on behalf of justice; the most spectacular of such movements being the National Uprising of 1848 led by Louis stur and his close collaborators Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza. Europe remembers 1848 as a year of revolutions. Central Europe at this time developed an awareness of Pan-Slavism which more than nettled the Hungarian government. There were also Pan-Germanic movements. Minorities and subjugated groups were not only restless, they were impatient for the restoration of their dignity and freedom; they were vocal in their demands; they were poised for action. The patriot stur led his armed rebellion in September but it netted bloodshed and the cruelty of gallows reprisals for many. Yet there was honor and pride in the effort and amid the bitter disappointments of foiled plans there were some bright moments of renewed hope. It was World War I that dismembered Austria-Hungary and brought about the Czecho-Slovak state. Though its creation was the act of the victorious powers and not the choice of the Slovak people, it seemed that perhaps the hopes cherished over a thousand fallow years would yet be justified. Since 1918, unfortunately, there followed the thorny years of coming to an understanding with the Czechs, for right from the outset, President Thomas Masaryk high-handedly began to treat the Slovaks as an underprivileged colony to be assimilated and exploited rather than as a co-equal partner in government. Consequently the Slovaks faced another period (1918-1939) of tension and threat to national survival. Post-Munich Czecho-Slovakia became a dual state briefly. On March 14, 1939, after Hitler's decision to make Czechia and Moravia Protectorates of the Reich, the Slovak Parliament proclaimed the independence of Slovakia and established the Slovak autonomous republic under the presidency of Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The world at large had generally assumed that Slovakia, left to its �SLOVAKIA 21 own assets and resources, would never survive independently, yet in a critical period of world history this nation gained the recognition of 27 countries and it proved that an independent Slovakia is viable and can fulfill its people's ideal of a prosperous and vigorous independent national life. With the support of Moscow, Benes shattered this dream after World War II. Slovakia was occupied by the Red army, the Czecho-Slovak Republic was restored against the will of the Slovak people on much the same inequitable principles as it had had before, and with practically the same old problems-and this over and above the burden of the communist system. The Slovaks cannot tolerate domination by the Czechs because these Czech brothers are too ready to undercut Slovak interests not only politically but economically as well. The most recent political development in Slovakia has been the liberalization program under Alexander Dubcek and the re-vamping of the political structures to effect autonomy for the Slovaks as well as for the Czechs under a new Czecho-Slovak (not Czechoslovak) constitution for a federal state involving two distinct nations. And this is only right. It would hardly occur to anyone who is well informed to confuse the Czechs with the Slovaks; neither are there any grounds for believing that the Slovaks can be taken for Czechs. In the light of historical documentation and by sociological norms these are two distinct nations, two distinct peoples with national histories of their own and distinct languages of their own with only some accidental similarities inasmuch as both are Slavic tongues. When Dubcek came to power as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Czecho-Slovak Communist Party, he initiated a program not in line with the heavyhanded policies of his predecessor Novotny. He did not promote the repressive measures of Kremlin circles, for communist though he is, he realizes that Slovak people will never thrive under a system that negates the values of Christian tradition and integral European culture. Instead of tightening pressures, he proposed to "humanize" the communist system-to relax the party's grip on national �22 SLOVAKIA economy, to curb police power, to guarantee freedom of expression, to hear minority opinions in government, to rehabilitate political prisoners, to ease travel restrictions. These were some of his "January reforms" under which the country burgeoned. These are the measures that Moscow cannot countenance and demands must be retracted. It is against such a way of life that the Soviets have sent their tanks, matching guns against ideas. The world looks on as the Slovaks and the Czechs meet with only their bare hands this overwhelming material force from the Red East-an army of a half million gathered to retaliate against newspaper articles and basic human rights. Thousands of tanks have come, readied to reintroduce censorship among a people who disavow it. The free world is shocked and outraged by such bullying and brazen invasion of a people's liberty and innate right to self-determination. The inhumanity of it leaves onlookers unbelieving and stunned into inaction. Almost as if to salve their consciences, commentators have been heard to observe that these people have been through the oppression mill many times before. Yet this is no reason why another chapter of oppression should be added to their history. Their history? A cruel taunt made against these very people was: You have no history. Where are your great victories? What are your historical boasts? The mightiest answer that can be leveled to counter this charge is WE ARE; in essence our very existence is our history. A people that can preserve its national identity, never relinquish its right to a free government, and survive agonizing centuries of subjugation, deprivation, occupation, oppression, and deliberate plotting to bring about their decay and extermination hardly need more to document as history. The Slovak people do have proportionate exploits and achievements though they do not chronicle dynasties or world-celebrated potentates. Their greatest history reposes not in documented words but in people. It is not a tangible something that can be pinned within a frame like a butterfly specimen and labeled This is it, for the spirit that makes history defies analysis; it cannot be plotted; it cannot be dissected; it cannot be positioned under a microscopic lens ; it cannot be trapped before �SLOVAKIA 23 an examining commission or a saber-rattling council; but it is there. History, after all, is not a made-to-order commodity. Nations and leaders of nations do not meet on assignment or by some preconceived arrangement "to make history." Exigencies of time and circumstance bring their historic moment and their challenge, and the texture of a nation's leadership and spirit is bound to be revealed by the response. Though the Slovaks lost political independence with the fall of Great Moravia in the tenth to the thirteeRth centuries, their civilization was not destroyed. They occupied their land for long centuries without interruption and endured all the catastrophes that overtook them. Even under the Magyars they managed to become a cultural unit in central Europe with a university at Bratislava as early as the fifteenth century and later a Catholic university at Trnava in the seventeenth century. They have a distinctive literature, culture, history, economic capability, sociological and ethnographic individuality-the constituents for full recognition as a free nation. Their all too brief years of autonomy under Tiso are proof of their ability to function and to prosper as a free nation. Subservience to any overlord is all the more galling to the Slovaks as a nation with a long historic past especially in this era of brotherhood and decolonization. In an International Year of Human Rights when aspiring states in Asia and Africa were happily granted recognition and freedom, it is-to say the least-incongruous that a nation with every right to be free and independent and progressive should be coerced into puppet status in order to gratify the Soviet bloc, with all the world as witness to this violence and degradation. The victims of this aggression are only too well aware of the futility of force to wrest their rights in the present situation. Among views they have expressed are these, released to the world in current issues of the newspaper Kulturny zivot: " ... it seems that for some time we will have to communicate as mutes. I believe that a cultural nation �SLOVAKlA 24 under pressure will transmit ideas by gestures, barring other means." "Our fate and very existence are in foreign hands. Honor is the only thing we can and must preserve-honor in thought and in action: not to be satisfied with evil and not to compromise with it; not to give up ideals of humanism and freedom. We are not the only ones with a stake in this situation; the whole human race may depend on it." " .. . The external force is a fact and must be reckoned with, without illusions. People have learned to wear fur coats against the cold. Against armor they defend themselves with spiritual and cultural values ... " "Something happened that cannot be undone. History has dealt us a blow but ipso facto something new happened to history. Nothing is the same as it was a week ago. We have changed and so has the world around us. Something has happened that has no place in the last third of the twentieth century." These are the voices of some of the Slovak writers in Bratislava. They are young people but their thinking has outstripped their years. Poets too speak of this Pyrrhic victory of the Soviets. A sampling from the contemporary thoughts of A. Murin, living in Canada, forms a suitable conclusion for this rapid survey: A BLEEDING LAND The signs are that we shall yet long document the words of the bleeding land ... The grain harvest was just ripening and the scythe readied; sheer loveliness invited smiles; the toughened palm was already weighting the seed gold-glistening on the August field. Nature presaged no storm; only the heart registered the seething volcano and the thunderous drum of march-stomping warriors. �SLOVAKIA 25 Anyone who could interpret the graphs of the alarm-surprised wildflowers on the mountainsides knew: this is Ghengis Khan splintering the circlet of love; knew it was he who would cut low the fruited ears with a nicked blade to make it hurt, just to make it hurt the more, to burn and sear in the forge of the August sun. Vainly do you ask the goldened ears, vainly you question the furnaced heavens, vainly you probe the meanderings of the cascading brook: Why did the song become a dead sound? Why is the kerneled blade not transformed into loaved bread? Why this fate, worse than abject bondage? Ho, brothers, this is a for a long time, a very we shall document the of the bleeding Slovak palpable certainty: long time, words land ... BIBLIOGRAPHY Bokes, Frantisek. Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov (History of Slovakia and the Slovaks) . Bratislava: Academia Scientiarum et Artium Slovaca, 1946. - - . Sl.ovenske pokusy o vyrovnanie s Mad'armi ( Slovak Attempts to Reach Agreement with the Magyars). Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1944. Bue, B. S. Slovak Nationalism. Middletown, Pa. : Slovak League of America, 1960. Butvin, Jozef. "Martin Hamuljak and Fundamental Problems of the Slovak National Revival." Studia Historica Slovaca III. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1965, pp. 135-172. Capek, Thomas. Origins of the Czechoslovak State. New York: Revell Press, 1926. - - . The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906. Chaloupecky, V. Stare Slovensko (Ancient Slovakia). Bratislava, 1934. Culen, Konstantin. Roky slovenskych nadeji a sklamani (Years of Slovak Hopes and Frustrations). Trnava : -Ostredie slov. kat. studentstva, 1932. �SLOVAKIA 26 !>urcansky, Ferdinand. Prcivo Slovcikov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov-Biela Kniha (The White Book-The Right of the Slovaks to Independence in the Light of Official Documents). V. 1, Buenos Aires: Slovensky Oslobodzovaci Vybor, 1954. Glaser, Kurt. Czecho-Slovakia: A Critical History. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1961. Grivec, Francis. Vitae Constantini et Methodii. Versio Latina, notis dissertationibusque de fontibus ac de theologia SS. Cyrill et Methodii illustrata: Acta Academiae Velehradensis XVII (1941) . Hrusovsky, Frantisek. Slovenske Dejiny (Slovak History). Turciansky Sv. Martin : Matica Sl-0venska, 1940. - - -. Slovensko v dejincich Strednej Eur6py. (Slovakia in the History of Central Europe) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1939. - - - . Slovenski vladciri (Slovak Rulers). Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1948. - - - . This is Slovakia. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1954. JanMk, Stefan. Brciny do dcivnoveku (Gateways to Antiquity) . Bratislava: Tatran, 1966. - - - . Slovensko v dobe uhorskeho feudalizmu ( Slovakia in the Era of Hungarian Feudalism). Bratiillava: <'.:eskoslovenske Zemedel- ske Muzeum, 1932. - - - . Stare osidlenie Slovensk.a (Ancient Settlement of Slovakia) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1938. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York: Robert Speller, 1960. York: Robert Speller, 1960. Lacko, Michael. Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Rome: Institute of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, 1963. Mikus, Joseph. Slovakia: A Political History 1918-1950. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia and its People. New York: Robert Speller, 1960. Pauco, Jozef. Christian Slovakia under Communism. Valparaiso, Ind.: Slovak Catholic Federation of America, 1959. - - - . Pod zcistavou krest'anskej demokracie (Under the Banner of Christian Democracy). Middletown, Pa.: Slovak Christian Demo- crats, 1957. - - - . " Slovakia Viewed by American Historians," Most, Vol. I, No. 4, 1954. Polakovic, Stefan. K zcikladom Slovenskeho statu (Foundations of the Slovak State) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1939. Porphyrogennetos, Constantinus. De administrando lmperio. In: Migne P. G. CXIII, col. 158-422. New critical edition published by G. Moravcsik. �SLOVAKIA 27 Ratkos, Peter. Pramene k dejinam Vel' kej Moravy (Prime Sources of the History of Great Moravia) . Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1964. Sasinek, Franko Vit'azoslav, Drzava Vel' komoravska (The Domain of Great Moravia). Ruzomberok: Karol Salva, 1896. Seton-Watson, R. W. Racial Problems in Hungary . London: Constable & Co. , Ltd., 1907. Sidor, Karol. Cernova, 1907-1937 (The cernova massacre and its aftermath) , Bratislava: Novinarsky a nakladatel'sky ucitel'sky spolok, 1937. - - -. Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji (Slovaks in the Resis tance Movement Abroad ). Bratislava: Jednota Press, 1929. Skultety, Jozef. Nehante l'ud moj! (Do Not Malign My People!) Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928. - - - . Sketches from Slovak History. Translated by 0 . D. Koreff, Mid- dletown, Pa.: Jednota, 1930. - - - . Slovenske memorandum r. 1861. Turciansky Sv. Martin: Knih- tlaciarsky ucastinarsky spolok, 1911. Smrzik, Stephen. The Glagolitic or Roman-Slavonic Liturgy. Rome : The Slovak Institute, 1959. Sprinc, Mikulas, ed. Slov enskci Republika, 1939-1949. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1949. Stanislav, Jan. Les Slav es, Byzance et Rome . Paris, 1926. - - - . Risa Vel' komorav skci. (The Empire of Great Moravia) . Prague : Mazac, 1933. Yurchak, Peter. The Slov aks: Their History and Traditions . Whiting, Ind.: 1946. Zachar, L'udovit. Borba za narodnu slobodu (The Struggle for National Independence ). Bratislava: Jednota Press, 1931. - - - . Sv. Cyril a Metod na Devine (Sts. Cyril and Methodius at Devin) . Trnava: Spolok Sv. Vojtecha , 1928. Zubek, Theodoric J . The Church of Si lence i n Slovakia. Passaic, N. J .: Lach, 1956. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U . S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. � 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 SLOVAKIA 11 Will the Phoenix Rise Again? Sister M . Martina Tybor, SS. C. M . You may heard it said both literally and poetically that Slovakia is a country strategically situated in the heart of central Europe. You may have read that historically it was the crossroads of trade caravans between East and West. You may know that closer to our day, American presidents as well as some European leaders hoped that it would become a bridge between the East and the West to promote world friendship. It may have also occurred to you that over long centuries it seems to be a land unfortunately fated to oppression though it did have a golden glorious epoch in bygone days and hopefully rose as an independent democracy out of the shambles of World War I. If, on the other hand, Czecho-Slovakia is to you and to many persons only a nameless someplace on the map and its people a faceless family among nations, August events in 1968 have blazoned its name upon front page news reports, and the events themselves have shaped a fair perspective to show the world who these people are--the Slovaks and the Czechs, two distinct nations in one unique political cadre. Unfortunately, too many preoccupied nations and unthinking men are letting news from Czecho-Slovakia unconcernedly slip to the thirc:i; and fourth pages of their newspapers and, like hectographed copy left in the sun, the impact of tragic Soviet moves upon a defensless and unaided natio:ri is fading from public notice. Good people honestly hope that the interests of freedom , liberty of spirit, private enterprise and national initiative within the concept of true progressive self-determination and political independence will prevail. However, if good people do not bestir themselves to act on conviction, they do not further the cause of moral good. Their well-intentioned hopes can be merely the stuff of vacuous dreams. And as they dream, destiny sites the wheel of time, spinning, spinning. Democracies may dream that evils will somehow right 12 SLOVAKIA themselves and that there is really no call to become involved. The oppressed and aggrieved wait, for reasonably they can hardly do more with the odds so hopelessly stacked against them, and they must dream that they will yet liberate themselves in spite of the present hopeless outlook, or that-unbelievably but possibly-the seemingly impossible probability-help may yet come to implement their liberation. The aggressors unashamedly plot, with less dreaming than scheming in their designs and efforts, to dupe naive free countries again and to steal another thrust, another vantage area in order to further the realization of their master plan. Ineffectively the world waits. It lets itself grow accustomed to the numbing shock. And as it waits, it too dreams on. History fingers the spun threads and weaves a pattern of events shaped by man. Is the pattern bound to be determined by fate? Are the cycles of ages bound to repeat patterns from the past? Do we learn from the past, build on it, or supinely wait in an easily oblivious present? Some consideration of Slovakia's past may help toward a better understanding of its present plight and its still undying aspirations. Unfortunately some writers tend to treat the historic backgrounds of Slovakia as a peripheral aspect of the Czech of the Magyar past. Some have been satisfied to accept without research or question the kind of political science and European history that biased Magyars and Czechs tailored for general public consumption. There are also some who do not know, others who deny, ignore, or overlook the ethnic, social, cultural, linguistic and political identity or individuality of the Slovaks. Add to this also the regrettable circumstance that altogether too little authentic Slovak history is known to the world at large and that consequently a discriminating reader is sometimes at a loss to discriminate. Happily, recent decades have brought a number of excellent histories of Slovakia and reliable Slovak studies published in English. Information is now available to the honest seeker. For centuries, however, this nation had been almost anonymous in history; it was a country not granted recognition under its own name-literally nameless because it fflJ.t}l~ged by stronger powers. When the first tatha Baptist Bible College SLOVAKIA 13 wave of immigration brought thousands of European newcomers to our shores, the Italian was identified as one who came from Italy, the Irishman came from Ireland, the German from Germany, the Frenchman from France, but the Slovak, incongruously, from Austria-Hungary. Yet historically the Slovaks are a nation much older than are many people blessed with national independence today. The territory which they occupy was the Danubian cradle of ancient European civilization that spread westward into Germany. The 1930 archeological expedition that the Peabody Museum of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania sent into Czecho-Slovakia reported findings that substantiate "periods of culture ranging from the Neolithic Age of about 3000 B. C. to what is locally known as the 'Roman' period of the first century A. D." It is pertinent to the history of the land to recall that even before the dawn of the Christian era several nations had lived in the territory now occupied by Slovakia. Greek and Roman writers record the presence of Gauls and Celts among these inhabitants. Coins dating from the first century B. C., stamped with identification of the Roman Republic have been found in Bratislava, and there is a third century Greek map of the region with many Slavonic markings for mountains and rivers. In the vicissitudes of historic developments, warring Germanic tribes also settled in the Danubian territory. To the great aggravation of the Romans, they frequently raided the Roman province ,o f Pannonia established south of the Danube river. To deal with this problem, Rome secured military outposts on the northern bank of the Danube and by 179 A. D., after a number of bloody skirmishes, succeeded in breaking the power of hostile Germanic peoples. The troops of Marcus Aurelius then advanced deeply into Slovak territory even as far as Trencin on the Vah. To maintain order and to guard important approaches in the area, part of the troops established the garrison Laugaricio. To this day a commemorative inscription carved into the natural bluff supporting Trencin castle reads: "In memory of the victory of the Emperor's army which encamped at Laugaricio, 855 soldiers of the IL Legion. Made by Constantine, 14 SLOVAKIA Cammander of the II. Auxiliary Legion." Incidentally, this is the earliest relic of written records found on Slovak territory. During the incursion of the Roman monarchy forces into Danubian regions along the Hron river in 173, the army was threatened by a drought so acute that the lives of the soldiers were endangered. But among the Romans there were some Christians from Asia Minor who prayed for relief. The triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius in Rome immortalize the fact that in answer to their prayer a saving ra~ fell and the men did not perish. Incidentally, again, there is additional historic value in this record, for it is the earliest reference to the presence of Christianity in the Danube basin. Though the might of Rome was challenged by Germanic tribes, Emperors matched strength with them repeatedly, and by 374 Valentinian claimed undisputed sovereignty over the territory. But the climax of Roman power also presaged a change toward decline. By 375 the migration of nations began to release its force against the face of Europe, and the already deteriorating power of Rome slowly yielded ground. Tribes from Danubian regions pressed into richer Roman possessions in the south. As the Romans drew back, tribes vied with tribes for supremacy and cut across many lands before coming to rest in permanent settlements. At the same time new tribes began to appear, moving through the mountain passes in the lofty Carpathians. They were the Slovan people, the forebears of Slovak ancestors. Somewhere in the maelstrom of events and movements, Slovak groups and related western Slavonic tribes chose to occupy lands that extended across the central Danube basin, reaching from the Elbe river to the southern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and the rich plains of the Danube river valley. In the fifth and sixth centuries, however the fierce hordes of Turco-Tatar Avars plunged into the Danubian region and swarmed as far west as the Frankish kingdom. They forced a number of Slavonic tribes into their service on looting raids against the Germans to the west and upon Constantinople and Salonica in the east. The subjugated peoples fretted and chafed under this yoke and looked to rid themselves of SLOVAKIA 15 it even as they withdrew from Pannonia and re-settled north of the Danube. In 624 a Frankish merchant named Samo came to the region with rich merchandise and a large retinue.' His was a peaceful mission but his interests were thwarted by the marauding Avars. To secure his rights and to maintain a favorable economic situation, Samo initiated resistance to the invaders. He hoped to force the Avars out of Panonia, their key stronghold. His audacity and leadership attracted the support of most of the harried Slavonic tribes, and their united effort under Samo succeeded in routing the savage Avars. Exhilarated by victory, Samo and his allies set their power against the Germanic Franks and conquered them also. In the ensuing period of peace Samo united the tribes that had fought with him with other Danubian Slavs to the north and with Slovenes to south, establishing an empire of extensive territories on both banks of the Danube. It is the inhabitants of these lands that originally came to be designated as Slovieni or simply the Slavs. Some historians are inclined to consider this as the first historic state of Slovakia even though it declined after Samo's death; others look upon it as the forerunner of the realm known as Vel'k<i Morava (Great Moravia) which was created in the first half of the ninth century under Mojmir I, strengthened under Rastislav, and brought to a climax of glory under Svatopluk in the second half of the ninth century. This state was the first political unity in central Europe. The territories consolidated by Mojmir I are historically designated as Great Moravia in the official work De administrando Imperio (Concerning the Executive Management of a State) written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenneto s in 950. Yet it must be understood that this second Slavonic state in the heart of Europe was not an empire with clearly defined borders. The temper of the age did not confine itself to any strict division of territory but the reality of an empire was there, including present-day Slovakia and Moravia. Nor could this reality be overlooked, for Great Moravia enjoyed international status, maintaining relations with the Holy See and with neighboring empires. 16 SLOVAKIA While political history was thus evolving, cultural history was also in the making. Dr. Hrusovsky ascribes the earliest Christianizing influences in the Danubian regions to Irish missionaries and to Benedictine monks working out of the monasteries of Bavaria. About 833 Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg consecrated a church in Nitra, the principality of Pribina. This event testifies to the efforts of the German clergy to Christianize the Slavs and it is a historic landmark, for the church of St. Emeram was the first Christian church among western Slavs. This is by no means to suggest, however, that Christianity was generally accepted throughout the land. As a matter of fact, it had rather slow beginnings, for though the people were interested in Christian truth, they were distrustful of all things German even the worthy efforts of German monl :s . Moreover, they were not at home with the language of u-e Bavarian preachers. These circumstances greatly ham: ,ered early evangelizing along the Danube. When Rastislav became the ruler of Great Moravia, he sent special envoys to Pope Nicholas I in Rome, requesting missionaries who would preach to his people in their native tongue. In this era around 860, Rome was not able to satisfy such a need. Rastislav then made another attempt, this time sending a special mission to Emperor Michael III of Constantinople. His petition read: "Since our people have cast off paganism and follow Christian law, and we have no teacher to explain the Christian faith to us in our own tongue . . . send us, Emperor, such a bishop and teacher, because your country is recognized everywhere for its good laws." The Emperor was interested and he was able to help. He sent two brothers: Constantine, a court philosopher and linguist who later became Cyril by monastic name, and Methodius, an expert in civil law and government. Both had already proved themselves in apostolic work, and as natives of Salonica they spoke Slavonic fluently. The gifted brothers came to Rastislav's land in Great Moravia in 863, prepared to teach and preach. Constantine brought an alphabet that he had devised to give their work permanence among people who were still illiterate. It was the Glagolitic script ( today's Old Slavonic or Church Slavonic, a later derivative from this was termed Cyrillic.) SLOVAKIA 17 He also brought as many translations of the Scriptures as he had prepared, beginning with the Gospel of St. John. His translations at this time also included a Slavonic version of the Liturgy of St. Peter (from the Greek) and various liturgical books. These works are the foundation of Slovak literature, and it is inspiring that it should have its origin with the phrase "In the beginning was the Word ... " Since some of the inhabitants of Great Moravia were already Christians of the western rite, the new missionaries celebrated both the Mass and the Divine Liturgy, using the Slavonic language in both, and they oriented the Church of the Danubian lands toward Rome. Unfavorably disposed clergymen considered the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular a presumptuous and unorthodox innovation in central Europe and denounced the brothers in Rome. Pope Hadrian II, however, gave it express approbation after investigating the charge brought against Cyril and Methodius (867): "Receiving the Slavonic books, the Pope blessed them and placed them on the altar in the Basilica of St. Mary Major ... and forthwith the liturgy was sung from them." ( Vita Constantini, Chap. XVII, p. 95) After the death of Cyril in Rome, Pope Hadrian II wrote to the rulers Rastislav, Svatopluk, and Kocel': "We have decided to send you Methodius ... translating and using the sacred books in your language in all ecclesiastical functions, in Holy Mass, i. e., the Liturgy, too, as well as in Baptism, as was initiated by Constantine, the Philosopher ... " (Vita Methodii, Chap. VII, Acta Acad. Velehrad. XVII. pp. 113116.) Pope John VII also approved the Slavonic liturgy in his bull Industriae Tuae : "We justly commend the Slavonic script, devised some time ago by Constantine, the Philosopher. And we direct that the doctrine of Christ be preached in that language. There is nothing contrary to the true faith and doctrine either in singing Holy Mass in that Slavonic tongue, or in reading in that language the Gospels and other texts of the Old and New Testament, provided they are correctly translated ... " (Monumenta Germanicae Historica, Epistolarum T. VII, arm. 880Friedrich, Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Regni Bohemiae, Vol. I, arm. 880.) In spite of difficulties and trials, the mission of the zealous brothers prospered and it is 18 SLOVAKIA to their labors that the Slovaks owe the glory of their faith as well as the foundations of their literature and great cultural strides. The Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century, built as a power against the forces of the west ( as Samo's had been a buffer restraining the might of hordes from the east), was exposed to continuous attacks from the Germans. Late in the ninth century, however, another menace overtook the people of the Danube settlements. Fierce Magyars poured into the lower regions and became a formidable threat to all the inhabitants there. In 902 they turned upon Slovakia with insistent and ruthless attacks. Beset now by hostilities from west and east, and victim of a coalition of Magyars and Germans, Slovakia lost her glorious independence when Great Moravia fell to the Magyars in 907. The foregoing century of beneficent independence and cultural development had brough to the Slovaks intellectual influences from Salzburg, Regensburg, and Passau which mingled with Byzantine culture and with western learning to give the Slovaks a rich heritage whose greatest boast is deep-rooted Christianity. The era after 906 was marked by fierce contests between the Germans and the Magyars to establish dominance of the Danube lands. Though they were caught in the pressures of the rise and fall of these powers, the Slovaks managed to maintain their ethnic identity and even their hope for eventual autonomy. Formidable castles, which became their places of refuge from the vicissitudes of war, date from this period and are still interesting landmarks. Closer to our day several have become sites of archeological explorations. Fated in all the long centuries from the tenth to the twentieth to live in serfdom, scourged by wild Tatar and Mongolian hordes, ravaged by the later ferocity of Hussite wars, doomed to a thousand years under the crushing heel of Magyars, pawn of powerful overlords, how did these people ever survive? The bread of poverty and humiliation, and the cup of tears and sweat which was their portion seemed only to favor their survival. And with it all they did not become a bleak and bitter people. Very appropriately they choose Our Mother of Sorrows as their national patroness and sought strength through SLOVAKIA 19 her intercession. They graced their lowly homes and menial labors with song and wit and prayer. Richness of the spirit transcended their material misery. Patience, perseverance, and undying hope are their unfailing heritage. Theirs is the perennial grace of resurrection faith and pentecostal hope. These fruits have come to the Slovak nation even to the present day as a natural harvest of the spirit. Disadvantaged materially, economically, and politically, the Slovaks turned to cultivate what no man can take from another-the talents of the spirit. It is worthy of comment here that the poorest of their geographic districts-Orava -a land so thin and rocky that only small patches of its ground can be spaded into vegetable gardens to yield cabbage and potatoes as holiday fare-this pitifully deprived area has given the nation many of its intellectual giants-poets, teachers, leaders. Circumstances that denied education beyond one or two winters of formal schooling just for basic literacy skills, except for the privilege of seminary studies, gave the country great priests who understood and fulfilled their role as men of God and leaders of their people in all walks of life. They are a long line of glory, men like Anton Bernolak with his monumental six-volume pentalingual dictionary and his organizing genius to establish the first cultural society "Slovenske ucene tovarisstvo;" Hviezdoslav, the epic poet and brilliant translator of Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin, and Lermontov; Andrew Radlinsky with his compendium of Slovak liturgical prayers on one hand and his journalism to fan fires of patriotism on the other; F. V. Sasinek, the historian; Stephen Furdek who became an unequaled leader and the father of Slovak immigrants in America; Matthew Jank.ala who founded the American community of Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius; Milo Urban, an outstanding novelist of the twentieth century. Speaking of the Hungarian oppression as a thousand years under the Magyar heel may sound like the easy glossing over of a difficult situation. It was prolonged agony but stating the historic fact is not to imply that there were a thousand years of mute and irrational resignation, of unmanly acceptance of "things as they are." 20 SLOVAKIA Nothing could make ardent Slovaks forget the pride of Great Moravia. Nothing could make them lose hope that there would yet be freedom and the glory of distinguished leaders in a free land. There was resistance of varying types and degrees; there were repeated appeals for redress; there were petitions for official intervention on behalf of justice; the most spectacular of such movements being the National Uprising of 1848 led by Louis stur and his close collaborators Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza. Europe remembers 1848 as a year of revolutions. Central Europe at this time developed an awareness of Pan-Slavism which more than nettled the Hungarian government. There were also Pan-Germanic movements. Minorities and subjugated groups were not only restless, they were impatient for the restoration of their dignity and freedom; they were vocal in their demands; they were poised for action. The patriot stur led his armed rebellion in September but it netted bloodshed and the cruelty of gallows reprisals for many. Yet there was honor and pride in the effort and amid the bitter disappointments of foiled plans there were some bright moments of renewed hope. It was World War I that dismembered Austria-Hungary and brought about the Czecho-Slovak state. Though its creation was the act of the victorious powers and not the choice of the Slovak people, it seemed that perhaps the hopes cherished over a thousand fallow years would yet be justified. Since 1918, unfortunately, there followed the thorny years of coming to an understanding with the Czechs, for right from the outset, President Thomas Masaryk high-handedly began to treat the Slovaks as an underprivileged colony to be assimilated and exploited rather than as a co-equal partner in government. Consequently the Slovaks faced another period (1918-1939) of tension and threat to national survival. Post-Munich Czecho-Slovakia became a dual state briefly. On March 14, 1939, after Hitler's decision to make Czechia and Moravia Protectorates of the Reich, the Slovak Parliament proclaimed the independence of Slovakia and established the Slovak autonomous republic under the presidency of Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The world at large had generally assumed that Slovakia, left to its SLOVAKIA 21 own assets and resources, would never survive independently, yet in a critical period of world history this nation gained the recognition of 27 countries and it proved that an independent Slovakia is viable and can fulfill its people's ideal of a prosperous and vigorous independent national life. With the support of Moscow, Benes shattered this dream after World War II. Slovakia was occupied by the Red army, the Czecho-Slovak Republic was restored against the will of the Slovak people on much the same inequitable principles as it had had before, and with practically the same old problems-and this over and above the burden of the communist system. The Slovaks cannot tolerate domination by the Czechs because these Czech brothers are too ready to undercut Slovak interests not only politically but economically as well. The most recent political development in Slovakia has been the liberalization program under Alexander Dubcek and the re-vamping of the political structures to effect autonomy for the Slovaks as well as for the Czechs under a new Czecho-Slovak (not Czechoslovak) constitution for a federal state involving two distinct nations. And this is only right. It would hardly occur to anyone who is well informed to confuse the Czechs with the Slovaks; neither are there any grounds for believing that the Slovaks can be taken for Czechs. In the light of historical documentation and by sociological norms these are two distinct nations, two distinct peoples with national histories of their own and distinct languages of their own with only some accidental similarities inasmuch as both are Slavic tongues. When Dubcek came to power as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Czecho-Slovak Communist Party, he initiated a program not in line with the heavyhanded policies of his predecessor Novotny. He did not promote the repressive measures of Kremlin circles, for communist though he is, he realizes that Slovak people will never thrive under a system that negates the values of Christian tradition and integral European culture. Instead of tightening pressures, he proposed to "humanize" the communist system-to relax the party's grip on national 22 SLOVAKIA economy, to curb police power, to guarantee freedom of expression, to hear minority opinions in government, to rehabilitate political prisoners, to ease travel restrictions. These were some of his "January reforms" under which the country burgeoned. These are the measures that Moscow cannot countenance and demands must be retracted. It is against such a way of life that the Soviets have sent their tanks, matching guns against ideas. The world looks on as the Slovaks and the Czechs meet with only their bare hands this overwhelming material force from the Red East-an army of a half million gathered to retaliate against newspaper articles and basic human rights. Thousands of tanks have come, readied to reintroduce censorship among a people who disavow it. The free world is shocked and outraged by such bullying and brazen invasion of a people's liberty and innate right to self-determination. The inhumanity of it leaves onlookers unbelieving and stunned into inaction. Almost as if to salve their consciences, commentators have been heard to observe that these people have been through the oppression mill many times before. Yet this is no reason why another chapter of oppression should be added to their history. Their history? A cruel taunt made against these very people was: You have no history. Where are your great victories? What are your historical boasts? The mightiest answer that can be leveled to counter this charge is WE ARE; in essence our very existence is our history. A people that can preserve its national identity, never relinquish its right to a free government, and survive agonizing centuries of subjugation, deprivation, occupation, oppression, and deliberate plotting to bring about their decay and extermination hardly need more to document as history. The Slovak people do have proportionate exploits and achievements though they do not chronicle dynasties or world-celebrated potentates. Their greatest history reposes not in documented words but in people. It is not a tangible something that can be pinned within a frame like a butterfly specimen and labeled This is it, for the spirit that makes history defies analysis; it cannot be plotted; it cannot be dissected; it cannot be positioned under a microscopic lens ; it cannot be trapped before SLOVAKIA 23 an examining commission or a saber-rattling council; but it is there. History, after all, is not a made-to-order commodity. Nations and leaders of nations do not meet on assignment or by some preconceived arrangement "to make history." Exigencies of time and circumstance bring their historic moment and their challenge, and the texture of a nation's leadership and spirit is bound to be revealed by the response. Though the Slovaks lost political independence with the fall of Great Moravia in the tenth to the thirteeRth centuries, their civilization was not destroyed. They occupied their land for long centuries without interruption and endured all the catastrophes that overtook them. Even under the Magyars they managed to become a cultural unit in central Europe with a university at Bratislava as early as the fifteenth century and later a Catholic university at Trnava in the seventeenth century. They have a distinctive literature, culture, history, economic capability, sociological and ethnographic individuality-the constituents for full recognition as a free nation. Their all too brief years of autonomy under Tiso are proof of their ability to function and to prosper as a free nation. Subservience to any overlord is all the more galling to the Slovaks as a nation with a long historic past especially in this era of brotherhood and decolonization. In an International Year of Human Rights when aspiring states in Asia and Africa were happily granted recognition and freedom, it is-to say the least-incongruous that a nation with every right to be free and independent and progressive should be coerced into puppet status in order to gratify the Soviet bloc, with all the world as witness to this violence and degradation. The victims of this aggression are only too well aware of the futility of force to wrest their rights in the present situation. Among views they have expressed are these, released to the world in current issues of the newspaper Kulturny zivot: " ... it seems that for some time we will have to communicate as mutes. I believe that a cultural nation SLOVAKlA 24 under pressure will transmit ideas by gestures, barring other means." "Our fate and very existence are in foreign hands. Honor is the only thing we can and must preserve-honor in thought and in action: not to be satisfied with evil and not to compromise with it; not to give up ideals of humanism and freedom. We are not the only ones with a stake in this situation; the whole human race may depend on it." " .. . The external force is a fact and must be reckoned with, without illusions. People have learned to wear fur coats against the cold. Against armor they defend themselves with spiritual and cultural values ... " "Something happened that cannot be undone. History has dealt us a blow but ipso facto something new happened to history. Nothing is the same as it was a week ago. We have changed and so has the world around us. Something has happened that has no place in the last third of the twentieth century." These are the voices of some of the Slovak writers in Bratislava. They are young people but their thinking has outstripped their years. Poets too speak of this Pyrrhic victory of the Soviets. A sampling from the contemporary thoughts of A. Murin, living in Canada, forms a suitable conclusion for this rapid survey: A BLEEDING LAND The signs are that we shall yet long document the words of the bleeding land ... The grain harvest was just ripening and the scythe readied; sheer loveliness invited smiles; the toughened palm was already weighting the seed gold-glistening on the August field. Nature presaged no storm; only the heart registered the seething volcano and the thunderous drum of march-stomping warriors. SLOVAKIA 25 Anyone who could interpret the graphs of the alarm-surprised wildflowers on the mountainsides knew: this is Ghengis Khan splintering the circlet of love; knew it was he who would cut low the fruited ears with a nicked blade to make it hurt, just to make it hurt the more, to burn and sear in the forge of the August sun. Vainly do you ask the goldened ears, vainly you question the furnaced heavens, vainly you probe the meanderings of the cascading brook: Why did the song become a dead sound? Why is the kerneled blade not transformed into loaved bread? Why this fate, worse than abject bondage? Ho, brothers, this is a for a long time, a very we shall document the of the bleeding Slovak palpable certainty: long time, words land ... BIBLIOGRAPHY Bokes, Frantisek. Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov (History of Slovakia and the Slovaks) . Bratislava: Academia Scientiarum et Artium Slovaca, 1946. - - . Sl.ovenske pokusy o vyrovnanie s Mad'armi ( Slovak Attempts to Reach Agreement with the Magyars). Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1944. Bue, B. S. Slovak Nationalism. Middletown, Pa. : Slovak League of America, 1960. Butvin, Jozef. "Martin Hamuljak and Fundamental Problems of the Slovak National Revival." Studia Historica Slovaca III. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1965, pp. 135-172. Capek, Thomas. Origins of the Czechoslovak State. New York: Revell Press, 1926. - - . The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906. Chaloupecky, V. Stare Slovensko (Ancient Slovakia). Bratislava, 1934. Culen, Konstantin. Roky slovenskych nadeji a sklamani (Years of Slovak Hopes and Frustrations). Trnava : -Ostredie slov. kat. studentstva, 1932. SLOVAKIA 26 !>urcansky, Ferdinand. Prcivo Slovcikov na samostatnost' vo svetle dokumentov-Biela Kniha (The White Book-The Right of the Slovaks to Independence in the Light of Official Documents). V. 1, Buenos Aires: Slovensky Oslobodzovaci Vybor, 1954. Glaser, Kurt. Czecho-Slovakia: A Critical History. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1961. Grivec, Francis. Vitae Constantini et Methodii. Versio Latina, notis dissertationibusque de fontibus ac de theologia SS. Cyrill et Methodii illustrata: Acta Academiae Velehradensis XVII (1941) . Hrusovsky, Frantisek. Slovenske Dejiny (Slovak History). Turciansky Sv. Martin : Matica Sl-0venska, 1940. - - -. Slovensko v dejincich Strednej Eur6py. (Slovakia in the History of Central Europe) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1939. - - - . Slovenski vladciri (Slovak Rulers). Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1948. - - - . This is Slovakia. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1954. JanMk, Stefan. Brciny do dcivnoveku (Gateways to Antiquity) . Bratislava: Tatran, 1966. - - - . Slovensko v dobe uhorskeho feudalizmu ( Slovakia in the Era of Hungarian Feudalism). Bratiillava: <'.:eskoslovenske Zemedel- ske Muzeum, 1932. - - - . Stare osidlenie Slovensk.a (Ancient Settlement of Slovakia) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1938. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York: Robert Speller, 1960. York: Robert Speller, 1960. Lacko, Michael. Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Rome: Institute of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, 1963. Mikus, Joseph. Slovakia: A Political History 1918-1950. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia and its People. New York: Robert Speller, 1960. Pauco, Jozef. Christian Slovakia under Communism. Valparaiso, Ind.: Slovak Catholic Federation of America, 1959. - - - . Pod zcistavou krest'anskej demokracie (Under the Banner of Christian Democracy). Middletown, Pa.: Slovak Christian Demo- crats, 1957. - - - . " Slovakia Viewed by American Historians," Most, Vol. I, No. 4, 1954. Polakovic, Stefan. K zcikladom Slovenskeho statu (Foundations of the Slovak State) . Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1939. Porphyrogennetos, Constantinus. De administrando lmperio. In: Migne P. G. CXIII, col. 158-422. New critical edition published by G. Moravcsik. SLOVAKIA 27 Ratkos, Peter. Pramene k dejinam Vel' kej Moravy (Prime Sources of the History of Great Moravia) . Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1964. Sasinek, Franko Vit'azoslav, Drzava Vel' komoravska (The Domain of Great Moravia). Ruzomberok: Karol Salva, 1896. Seton-Watson, R. W. Racial Problems in Hungary . London: Constable & Co. , Ltd., 1907. Sidor, Karol. Cernova, 1907-1937 (The cernova massacre and its aftermath) , Bratislava: Novinarsky a nakladatel'sky ucitel'sky spolok, 1937. - - -. Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji (Slovaks in the Resis tance Movement Abroad ). Bratislava: Jednota Press, 1929. Skultety, Jozef. Nehante l'ud moj! (Do Not Malign My People!) Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928. - - - . Sketches from Slovak History. Translated by 0 . D. Koreff, Mid- dletown, Pa.: Jednota, 1930. - - - . Slovenske memorandum r. 1861. Turciansky Sv. Martin: Knih- tlaciarsky ucastinarsky spolok, 1911. Smrzik, Stephen. The Glagolitic or Roman-Slavonic Liturgy. Rome : The Slovak Institute, 1959. Sprinc, Mikulas, ed. Slov enskci Republika, 1939-1949. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana, 1949. Stanislav, Jan. Les Slav es, Byzance et Rome . Paris, 1926. - - - . Risa Vel' komorav skci. (The Empire of Great Moravia) . Prague : Mazac, 1933. Yurchak, Peter. The Slov aks: Their History and Traditions . Whiting, Ind.: 1946. Zachar, L'udovit. Borba za narodnu slobodu (The Struggle for National Independence ). Bratislava: Jednota Press, 1931. - - - . Sv. Cyril a Metod na Devine (Sts. Cyril and Methodius at Devin) . Trnava: Spolok Sv. Vojtecha , 1928. Zubek, Theodoric J . The Church of Si lence i n Slovakia. Passaic, N. J .: Lach, 1956. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U . S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English.  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 Will the Phoenix Rise Again? Description An account of the resource Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 11-27 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tybor, Sister M. Martina, SS.C.M. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/79e6f7cc0cfc9f2755b01fc0f2f8c215.pdf e8d9971cc9195b43fa1ca9625bfe5654 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 3 F. Vnuk: Slovak Language and Literature A BRIEF SURVEY The Slovak language, one of the 13 Slavonic languages, belongs to the Western group of Slavonic languages. It developed from the old Slavonic language which in the 8th century was a common tongue for all Slavonic tribes. For this language the holy brothers Constantine ( d. 869) and M ethodius ( d. 885) devised a new alphabet ( the Glagolitic). They also translated the Bible and liturgical texts and thus laid the foundation of not only Slovak but all Slavonic literatures. In the 10th century the use of this language (known as Old Church Slavonic) in Slovakia came to an abrupt end and in the 11th century was completely replaced by Latin. The Slovak language, along with the German and Czech, was degraded to a secondary role and hence only very few written Slovak records survived, the oldest one being the "Spis Sermon" ("Spisskci. kdzeii, " circa 1480) . At the time of the Protestant Reformation the language spoken by the Slovaks had no written grammar and no established norms. Instead of making a laborious codification of their own language, the Slovak Protestants adopted as their literary language the Czech, which had been perfected and codified by John Hus (1369-1415) and was very close to the Slovak. The best known book in this language was the "Bible of Kralice" (1579-93) and thus the language came later to be known as 'biblictina'. The Catholics did not follow suit. They wrote in a language which bore many marks of the Czech but also unmistakeable Slovak characteristics. (S. Szollosi in " Cantus Catholici", 1655, writes 'u' instead of Czech 'ou', uses prefix 'naj-' instead of 'nej-', leaves out such Czech characters as 'f', etc.). This trend continued also in the 18th century, as can be seen in the works of Mdcsay, Gavlovic, Bajza and others. The first successful attempt to codify the Slovak �4 SLOVAKIA language was carried out by a Catholic priest, A. Bernol<ik 0762-1813). By his theoretical treatise ("De litteris Slavorum", " Orthographia," 1787) , grammar ("Grammatica Slavica", 1790) and dictionary (published posthumously 1825-7) Bernolak laid the foundations of a literary Slovak based on a western dialect ('bernolacina'). The Protestants viewed the step with open dislike and continued to use the Czech. But after Dobrovsky's reform of the Czech language in 1809 they found themselves -with their 'biblictina'-isolated. This led a young Protestant publicist, E. stur (1815-56), to devise in the mid-forties a new literary language, based on the central dialect and acceptable to both the Catholics and Protestants. stur explained his step in a theoretical work, "The Slovak Dialect and the Need to write in that Dialect" ("Narecja slovenskuo a potreba pisania v tomto n<ireci, " 1846) and gave the language its grammar ("N<iuka reci slovenskej", 1846) . In spite of some opposition the new language-known as 'sturovcina'-was accepted. Some modifications by M . M. Hodza ( Epigenes Slovenicus, 1847) and M. Hattala (Grammatica Linguae Slavonicae, 1850) who replaced stur's phonemiq system by an etymological one, gave the language its present form. SLOVAK LITERATURE Period of Old Church Slavonic. The old Slavonic inhabitants of Slovakia had their own songs, proverbs, myths, etc. Of these only fragments are left, since the old ancestors of present-day Slovaks did not have an alphabet of their own. In 863 the Byzantine missionaries Constantine-Cyril and Methodius arrived in Slovakia. They brought with them the translations of the Scriptures and liturgical and canonical texts. Their missionary activity led to the conversion of the Slav tribes of the Danube basin. Hand in hand with the spread of the Gospel went an extensive cultural and literary activity to which several religious legends and hagiographical texts bear eloquent witness ("Life of St. Constantine", "Life of St. Methodius", etc.) Period of Latin. After Methodius' death (885) King, Svatopluk (870-894) expelled Methodius' students and disciples from the Great Moravian kingdom. Then at the �SLOVAKIA 5 beginning of the 10th century Great Moravia fell with the onslaught of the Magyars and for the next 1000 years Slovakia became a part of Hungary. The Hungarian king Stephen (997-1038), following the pattern of medieval Western Europe, imposed Latin as a liturgical language and the administrative language of his kingdom. Books were written in Latin and were predominantly religious and didactic in content. Renaissance. Secular motives appeared more frequently in the Renaissance period which came to Hungary in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some writers of the period reached world fame: Johannes Sambucus of Trnava (15341584), Martin Rakovsky 0532-79), z. Rohoznik-Mosovsky 0542-87) the bishop of Nitra, etc. A university was opened at Bratislava (Academia Istropolitana) but it did not last long ( 1467-91). Reformation and Baroque. The Reformation of 1517 reached Slovakia through the German population of the Slovak towns. It came in the wake of a disastrous defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at Mohacs (1526). The imminent Turkish peril was a source of many historical songs (most by authors unknown), e.g. " Siladi a Hadmazy" (1560). The Reformation had a profound effect on the development of Slovak literature. It was a period of prolific literary activity. The books were polemic or homiletic in character, but they were directed primarily to thei middle class. Thus they had to be written in the language of the people and the people had to be taught to read. Among the Protestant writers were many able composers of spiritual hymns and songs: J. Silvan (1493-1572) , J. Pruno-Frastacky (d. 1586), Elias Lani (1570-1618), J. Kalinka (1601-78). Many of their hymns found a way into the well-known and still used hymn-book of the Slovak Protestants-the " Tranoscius." The compiler and publisher of the book (originally called "Cithara Sanctorum", 1635 ) was Jirik Tranovsky (1592-1637) a native of Teschen (Silesia). At approximately the same time there appeared a hymnal "Cantus Catholici" ( 1655) edited by a Slovak Jezuit Benedikt Szollosi (1609-56). It contains 290 hymns of �6 SLOVAKIA which some 100 can be found both in the " Cantus" and in the "Tranoscius ." In the Latin introduction the author proudly recalled the old Slavonic and Cyrillo-Methodian tradition of Slovak Catholicism. Other Catholic authors published apologies (M. Thanuissy's "First Catholic Handbook", 1691), prayer books ( J. Abraham/fy 's " H olocaustum quotidianum', 1695), didactic works ( B . Smrtnik's " Ars bene moriendi", 1697) , polemic writings ( $. Dubnicsay's " Eductus coluber tortu osus", 1723 ), etc. Of unusual interest-both linguistically and thematically- are the writings of the Franciscan friar H. Gavlovic, especially his " Valasskd skola"("The mountainshepherds' school, the storehouse of virtues", 1755). Other Protestant writers who excelled were: $ . Pilldrik 0615-93) the author of spiritual songs and of an interesting autobiography in verse " Sors Pilarikiana", (1666), D . Sina p i us-Horcicka (1640-88 ), T . Masnik (1 640-97 ), D . Krman (1663-1740 ), etc . Drama also made its entry during the Reformation. Foreign plays were gradually supplemented by those of native authors such as P. Kyrmezer (d. 1589 ), J. TesdkMosovsk'J} (1545-1617 ) , E . Ladiver (1633-86). Scientific works emanated mainly from Trnava, where in 1635 Peter Cardinal Pazmdny (1570-1637) founded a university. One of its professors, the Jesuit M . Szentivdnyi (1633-1705 ), published a comprehensive six-volume encyclopedia ("Curiosiora et selectiora variarum scientarium miscelanea", 1686-1702 ). I . Caban, lecturer at the Protestant lyceum at Presov, was the author of " Existentia atomorum'' (1667 ). Historico-geographical works were written by S . Timon (1675-1736) and especially by M. Bel (1684-1749) . M. Rotarides is known as a literary historian. An 'Apologia' ( 1728 ) directed against the slanderers of the Slovak past was written by J. B. Magin (1682-1735), a Catholic priest. Enlightenment . The Toleration Edict of 1781 officially terminated the religious strifes and polemics of the past 150 years. Instead there appeared nationality and national sentiment as the new keynotes of the literary activity. J . Sklenar (1745-91) and J . Papdnek (1738-1802 ) wrote popular histories of Great Moravia. Learned societies were founded of which 'Tovarisstvo' ( Slovak Learned Society, �SLOVAKIA 7 founded 1792) was the largest ( 452 members, some 350 of them Catholic clergymen). The first Slovak novel "Adventures and Experiences of a young man Rene" ("Rene mladenca prihody a skusenosti", 1783) was published by J. I. Bajza (1755-1836). Bernolak's codification of literary Slovak proved to have a very beneficial effect on the national and literary revival. Around Bernolak grouped about 100 writers, the most prominent among them J. Holly (1785-1849), creator of the national epio ("Sviitopluk", 1833, "Slav", 1839) and a capable translator of the classical poets. Canon J. Palkovic (1763-1835) translated the Bible (1829-33). J. Fandly (17501811) wrote practical books for the instruction and education of the people. Apart from the Bernolak group, and even against it, stood the Protestant writers: B. Tablic (1769-1832) translator from the English. A. Dolezal (1737-1802) author of a "holy novel" ("The Fall of the First Parents Described in Verse ", 1791), Jifi Palkovic (1769-1850), J. Ribay 07541812). Romanticism. The new focus of Slovak literary life concentrated round the chair of Slovak language and literature at the Bratislava Lyceum. Its spiritus mavens was E. stur (1815-56) who after his return from Germany was accepted as a leader of the Slovak youth studying at Bratislava. Influenced by Herder, Hegel and German romanticism stur's followers became zealous admirers ( and collectors) of folklore and modelled their poetry on simple folk songs. Their achievements were remarkable, particularly the poetry of J. Kral' ( 1822-76), J. Botto (1829-81) and S. Chalupka (1812-83). The most outstanding success of the new literary Slovak was "Marina" (1846) a masterpiece of intimate lyricism by A. Sladkovic(1820-72) . The best prose writer of the group was J. Kalinciak (1822-71). Dramatic works were composed mainly by J . Chalupka (1791-1871), J. Zaborsky (1812-76) and J. Paldrik (1822-70). Among the opponents of the stur circle, the protagonists of the Panslavist movement, J. Kollar (1793-1852) and P. J. Safarik (1795-1861), deserve mentioning. Realism. Th~ 60's and 70's are often called "the years �8 SLOVAKIA of Slovak hopes and disappointments." Liberal currents in the Habsburg Empire created favourable conditions for the rapid growth of literary and cultural life. Several literary annuals and periodicals started their publication and in 1863 a national cultural organization "Matica Slovenskd', was founded. The cultural awakening moved hand in hand with the political one. This movement was frowned upon by the Magyar state authorities who countered it with the idea of a unitary Hungarian nation. In 1875 the Matica was closed. Yet in this oppressive atmosphere Slovak literature reached its classical age. Slovak poetry was brought to its zenith in the perfect verse of P. 0. Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) who successfully exploited all the beauty and flexibility of the language in delightful lyrical poems, ballads, epics. S. H. Vajansky (1847-1916), besides being a distinguished poet, novelist and literary critic, was also an acknowledged national leader. The third star of this bright constellation was M. Kukucin (1860-1928), who spent half of his life in voluntary exile. In spite of his long separation from his native land he created masterly short stories and novels. Other significant writers of the period included: J. G. Tajovsky (1874-1940), J. cajak (1863-1943), Jege (18661938), and G. M. Petrovsky (1862-1916) who lived in the USA. Several women-writers made their debut also. E . M. Soltesov<i (1855-1939), T . Vansov<i (1857-1941, Timrava (1867-1951) and a fine poetess E. Podjavorinskd (1872-1951) . While the older literary generation looked mainly toward Russia for artistic guidance and political salvation, there arose in Slovakia at the beginning of the 20th century a new literary schools the 'Moderna'. Centred around the literary magazine " Prudy" ("The Currents, " 1909-14), they were looking for their inspiration more in the West than in the East and opposed the passive political attitude of their Russophile fathers . The most prominent representative of the school was I. Kraska (1876-1958) , author of two slender books of poems ("Nox et solitudo," 1909, " Verses," 1912) which were destined to have a lasting influence on the further development of Slovak lyrical poetry. Other modernists were: J. Jesensky (1874-1945), V. Roy (1885-1935), M. Rdzus (1888-1937). Interwar Years (1918-45). The post-war years witness- �SLOVAKIA 9 ed an unprecedented activity in the literary field. The poet and critic s. Krcmery (1892-1955)' dubbed the period "the years of the untying tongues". The young poets of the pre-war era reached their maturity. Their ranks were soon joined by new arrivals such as J. Smrek (b. 1892), E. B. Lukac <b. 1900), v. Beniak (b. 1894), s. Krcmery (1892-1935) to mention the best known. There emerged also some talented prose writers: T. J. Gaspar (b . 1893 ), J. C. Bronsky (1896-1960), G. Vamos (1901-46) and especially M. Urban (b. 1904) the creator of "ziv'J} bic" ('The living whip', 1927) the most successful Slovak novel so far. The writers were grouped around several literary reviews. The Catholic writers around "Vatra" ("The Bonfire", 1919-25) included M. Urban, K . Sidor (1902-56), A. zarnov (b . 1903), J. Nizn<insky (b. 1903), A. N. Borin (b. 1903). Out of this group later grew a second generation of co-called "Catholic modernists": P. G. Hlbina (b. 1908), R. Dilong (b. 1905), J. Silan (b. 1918), K. Strmen (b. 1921) , J . Haranta (b. 1909), S. Veigl (b. 1915) and others. In the second group around "Mlade Slovensko" ("The Young Slovakia». 1919-29) we find E. B. Lukac, M. Halamova (b. 1908), I. Horvath 0904-59), G. Vamos. The left-oriented writers gathered around " Dav" ("The Mob", 1924-37) and included J . Ponican (b. 1902), L. Novomesk'J} (b. 1904) , F. Kral' (1903-55). Slovak surrealists made their appearance rather belatedly, in the late 1920's. They included: s. zary (b . 1918, V. Reisel (b. 1915), J. Brezina (b. 1917). The leading playwrights of the period were: F. Urbanek (1859-1934), V. Hurban (1884-?), I. Stodola (b. 1888) , J. Bare-Ivan (1909-1955). Literary criticism and literary history found their exponents in A. Mraz (1904-1964), P. Bujn<ik (1882-1932),L. Hanus (b. 1907), J. Ambrus (b.1914), Post-1945 Development. In 1945, and particularly after 1948, Slovak literature was dealt a heavy blow from which it still has not recovered. Many prominent writers sought freedom in escape to the West (Hronsky, Dilong, zarnov, Urban, Gaspar; the last two were later forcibly repatriated), others were gradually silenced (Beniak, Lukac, Graf, the Catholic modernists). The surrealists farcically "dissolved" their group and offered their services to the Communists. Under the guidance of the commissars the rule of "socialist realism" was proclaimed and in the process �10 SLOVAKIA even the erstwhile Communist writers were purged (Novomesky, Horvath, Oka.Ii). Many gifted writers degenerated into versifiers parroting party-slogans in rhymes: J. Kostra (b. 1910) wrote a long rhapsodic poem "On Stalin" (1949), J. Brezina entitled his book of poems "The Song of Love the New China" (1950), etc. The officially-approved "socialist realism" precisely prescribed and strictly enforced the theme, style and content of all work. As a result of this imposition all literary output of the 1950-60 period is uniformly marked with mediocrity and dullness in which all the artistic individuality of a writer is debased or completely lost. The writers made several attempts to shake off the Party's guidance and solicitude over their creative activity: in 1956, in 1962 and again in 1967-8; but each time with little success. As demonstrated by the recent Soviet invasion of Czecho-Slovakia (Aug. 1968 ) the Party views artistic liberty as an inadmissible challenge to its power monopoly. From among the writers labouring under these depressing and degrading circumstances one could single out the following: D. Tatarka (b. 1912), M. Figuli (b. 1910), A. Bednar (b . 1914), P. Karvas (b. 1920), V . Mihalik (b . 1926), M. Rufus (b . 1928), J. Blazkovci (b . 1929), A. Hykisch (b. 1930), J. Johanides (b. 1934). Literary critics and historians of some originality include A. Matuska (b. 1910), J. Felix (b. 1913), M. Pisut (b. 1908), M . Hamada and P. Stevcek (b . 1932) . Slovak Exile Literature. Since 1945 Slovak literature had a sizeable group of exile writers who left their enslaved country in 1945 and after. They continue to publish even under increasingly difficult conditions of emigre life. Poetry is well represented by such fine artists as K. Strmeii, R. Dilong, M. Sprinc (b. 1914), G. Zvonicky (b. 1913), M. Ziar (b, 1914), J. Okcil' (b. 1915), E. Vesnin (b. 1913) . Dramatic writing is being pursued by J. Dorcinsky (b . 1911), J. Zvoncir-Tieii (b. 1919). Noteworthy prose works have been written by M. K. Mlynarovic (b. 1887), J. C. Bronsky, P. Hrtus-Jurina (b. 1919), Draga Divinska (b. 1922). In the field of literary history and criticism one meets the names of J.E. Bor (b. 1907), S. Meciar (b. 1910), J. Rekem (b. 1917), J.M. Kirschbaum (b. 1913), J. Mest'ancik (b. 1908), F . Vnuk (b. 1926). � SLOVAKIA 3 F. Vnuk: Slovak Language and Literature A BRIEF SURVEY The Slovak language, one of the 13 Slavonic languages, belongs to the Western group of Slavonic languages. It developed from the old Slavonic language which in the 8th century was a common tongue for all Slavonic tribes. For this language the holy brothers Constantine ( d. 869) and M ethodius ( d. 885) devised a new alphabet ( the Glagolitic). They also translated the Bible and liturgical texts and thus laid the foundation of not only Slovak but all Slavonic literatures. In the 10th century the use of this language (known as Old Church Slavonic) in Slovakia came to an abrupt end and in the 11th century was completely replaced by Latin. The Slovak language, along with the German and Czech, was degraded to a secondary role and hence only very few written Slovak records survived, the oldest one being the "Spis Sermon" ("Spisskci. kdzeii, " circa 1480) . At the time of the Protestant Reformation the language spoken by the Slovaks had no written grammar and no established norms. Instead of making a laborious codification of their own language, the Slovak Protestants adopted as their literary language the Czech, which had been perfected and codified by John Hus (1369-1415) and was very close to the Slovak. The best known book in this language was the "Bible of Kralice" (1579-93) and thus the language came later to be known as 'biblictina'. The Catholics did not follow suit. They wrote in a language which bore many marks of the Czech but also unmistakeable Slovak characteristics. (S. Szollosi in " Cantus Catholici", 1655, writes 'u' instead of Czech 'ou', uses prefix 'naj-' instead of 'nej-', leaves out such Czech characters as 'f', etc.). This trend continued also in the 18th century, as can be seen in the works of Mdcsay, Gavlovic, Bajza and others. The first successful attempt to codify the Slovak �4 SLOVAKIA language was carried out by a Catholic priest, A. Bernol<ik 0762-1813). By his theoretical treatise ("De litteris Slavorum", " Orthographia," 1787) , grammar ("Grammatica Slavica", 1790) and dictionary (published posthumously 1825-7) Bernolak laid the foundations of a literary Slovak based on a western dialect ('bernolacina'). The Protestants viewed the step with open dislike and continued to use the Czech. But after Dobrovsky's reform of the Czech language in 1809 they found themselves -with their 'biblictina'-isolated. This led a young Protestant publicist, E. stur (1815-56), to devise in the mid-forties a new literary language, based on the central dialect and acceptable to both the Catholics and Protestants. stur explained his step in a theoretical work, "The Slovak Dialect and the Need to write in that Dialect" ("Narecja slovenskuo a potreba pisania v tomto n<ireci, " 1846) and gave the language its grammar ("N<iuka reci slovenskej", 1846) . In spite of some opposition the new language-known as 'sturovcina'-was accepted. Some modifications by M . M. Hodza ( Epigenes Slovenicus, 1847) and M. Hattala (Grammatica Linguae Slavonicae, 1850) who replaced stur's phonemiq system by an etymological one, gave the language its present form. SLOVAK LITERATURE Period of Old Church Slavonic. The old Slavonic inhabitants of Slovakia had their own songs, proverbs, myths, etc. Of these only fragments are left, since the old ancestors of present-day Slovaks did not have an alphabet of their own. In 863 the Byzantine missionaries Constantine-Cyril and Methodius arrived in Slovakia. They brought with them the translations of the Scriptures and liturgical and canonical texts. Their missionary activity led to the conversion of the Slav tribes of the Danube basin. Hand in hand with the spread of the Gospel went an extensive cultural and literary activity to which several religious legends and hagiographical texts bear eloquent witness ("Life of St. Constantine", "Life of St. Methodius", etc.) Period of Latin. After Methodius' death (885) King, Svatopluk (870-894) expelled Methodius' students and disciples from the Great Moravian kingdom. Then at the �SLOVAKIA 5 beginning of the 10th century Great Moravia fell with the onslaught of the Magyars and for the next 1000 years Slovakia became a part of Hungary. The Hungarian king Stephen (997-1038), following the pattern of medieval Western Europe, imposed Latin as a liturgical language and the administrative language of his kingdom. Books were written in Latin and were predominantly religious and didactic in content. Renaissance. Secular motives appeared more frequently in the Renaissance period which came to Hungary in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some writers of the period reached world fame: Johannes Sambucus of Trnava (15341584), Martin Rakovsky 0532-79), z. Rohoznik-Mosovsky 0542-87) the bishop of Nitra, etc. A university was opened at Bratislava (Academia Istropolitana) but it did not last long ( 1467-91). Reformation and Baroque. The Reformation of 1517 reached Slovakia through the German population of the Slovak towns. It came in the wake of a disastrous defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at Mohacs (1526). The imminent Turkish peril was a source of many historical songs (most by authors unknown), e.g. " Siladi a Hadmazy" (1560). The Reformation had a profound effect on the development of Slovak literature. It was a period of prolific literary activity. The books were polemic or homiletic in character, but they were directed primarily to thei middle class. Thus they had to be written in the language of the people and the people had to be taught to read. Among the Protestant writers were many able composers of spiritual hymns and songs: J. Silvan (1493-1572) , J. Pruno-Frastacky (d. 1586), Elias Lani (1570-1618), J. Kalinka (1601-78). Many of their hymns found a way into the well-known and still used hymn-book of the Slovak Protestants-the " Tranoscius." The compiler and publisher of the book (originally called "Cithara Sanctorum", 1635 ) was Jirik Tranovsky (1592-1637) a native of Teschen (Silesia). At approximately the same time there appeared a hymnal "Cantus Catholici" ( 1655) edited by a Slovak Jezuit Benedikt Szollosi (1609-56). It contains 290 hymns of �6 SLOVAKIA which some 100 can be found both in the " Cantus" and in the "Tranoscius ." In the Latin introduction the author proudly recalled the old Slavonic and Cyrillo-Methodian tradition of Slovak Catholicism. Other Catholic authors published apologies (M. Thanuissy's "First Catholic Handbook", 1691), prayer books ( J. Abraham/fy 's " H olocaustum quotidianum', 1695), didactic works ( B . Smrtnik's " Ars bene moriendi", 1697) , polemic writings ( $. Dubnicsay's " Eductus coluber tortu osus", 1723 ), etc. Of unusual interest-both linguistically and thematically- are the writings of the Franciscan friar H. Gavlovic, especially his " Valasskd skola"("The mountainshepherds' school, the storehouse of virtues", 1755). Other Protestant writers who excelled were: $ . Pilldrik 0615-93) the author of spiritual songs and of an interesting autobiography in verse " Sors Pilarikiana", (1666), D . Sina p i us-Horcicka (1640-88 ), T . Masnik (1 640-97 ), D . Krman (1663-1740 ), etc . Drama also made its entry during the Reformation. Foreign plays were gradually supplemented by those of native authors such as P. Kyrmezer (d. 1589 ), J. TesdkMosovsk'J} (1545-1617 ) , E . Ladiver (1633-86). Scientific works emanated mainly from Trnava, where in 1635 Peter Cardinal Pazmdny (1570-1637) founded a university. One of its professors, the Jesuit M . Szentivdnyi (1633-1705 ), published a comprehensive six-volume encyclopedia ("Curiosiora et selectiora variarum scientarium miscelanea", 1686-1702 ). I . Caban, lecturer at the Protestant lyceum at Presov, was the author of " Existentia atomorum'' (1667 ). Historico-geographical works were written by S . Timon (1675-1736) and especially by M. Bel (1684-1749) . M. Rotarides is known as a literary historian. An 'Apologia' ( 1728 ) directed against the slanderers of the Slovak past was written by J. B. Magin (1682-1735), a Catholic priest. Enlightenment . The Toleration Edict of 1781 officially terminated the religious strifes and polemics of the past 150 years. Instead there appeared nationality and national sentiment as the new keynotes of the literary activity. J . Sklenar (1745-91) and J . Papdnek (1738-1802 ) wrote popular histories of Great Moravia. Learned societies were founded of which 'Tovarisstvo' ( Slovak Learned Society, �SLOVAKIA 7 founded 1792) was the largest ( 452 members, some 350 of them Catholic clergymen). The first Slovak novel "Adventures and Experiences of a young man Rene" ("Rene mladenca prihody a skusenosti", 1783) was published by J. I. Bajza (1755-1836). Bernolak's codification of literary Slovak proved to have a very beneficial effect on the national and literary revival. Around Bernolak grouped about 100 writers, the most prominent among them J. Holly (1785-1849), creator of the national epio ("Sviitopluk", 1833, "Slav", 1839) and a capable translator of the classical poets. Canon J. Palkovic (1763-1835) translated the Bible (1829-33). J. Fandly (17501811) wrote practical books for the instruction and education of the people. Apart from the Bernolak group, and even against it, stood the Protestant writers: B. Tablic (1769-1832) translator from the English. A. Dolezal (1737-1802) author of a "holy novel" ("The Fall of the First Parents Described in Verse ", 1791), Jifi Palkovic (1769-1850), J. Ribay 07541812). Romanticism. The new focus of Slovak literary life concentrated round the chair of Slovak language and literature at the Bratislava Lyceum. Its spiritus mavens was E. stur (1815-56) who after his return from Germany was accepted as a leader of the Slovak youth studying at Bratislava. Influenced by Herder, Hegel and German romanticism stur's followers became zealous admirers ( and collectors) of folklore and modelled their poetry on simple folk songs. Their achievements were remarkable, particularly the poetry of J. Kral' ( 1822-76), J. Botto (1829-81) and S. Chalupka (1812-83). The most outstanding success of the new literary Slovak was "Marina" (1846) a masterpiece of intimate lyricism by A. Sladkovic(1820-72) . The best prose writer of the group was J. Kalinciak (1822-71). Dramatic works were composed mainly by J . Chalupka (1791-1871), J. Zaborsky (1812-76) and J. Paldrik (1822-70). Among the opponents of the stur circle, the protagonists of the Panslavist movement, J. Kollar (1793-1852) and P. J. Safarik (1795-1861), deserve mentioning. Realism. Th~ 60's and 70's are often called "the years �8 SLOVAKIA of Slovak hopes and disappointments." Liberal currents in the Habsburg Empire created favourable conditions for the rapid growth of literary and cultural life. Several literary annuals and periodicals started their publication and in 1863 a national cultural organization "Matica Slovenskd', was founded. The cultural awakening moved hand in hand with the political one. This movement was frowned upon by the Magyar state authorities who countered it with the idea of a unitary Hungarian nation. In 1875 the Matica was closed. Yet in this oppressive atmosphere Slovak literature reached its classical age. Slovak poetry was brought to its zenith in the perfect verse of P. 0. Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) who successfully exploited all the beauty and flexibility of the language in delightful lyrical poems, ballads, epics. S. H. Vajansky (1847-1916), besides being a distinguished poet, novelist and literary critic, was also an acknowledged national leader. The third star of this bright constellation was M. Kukucin (1860-1928), who spent half of his life in voluntary exile. In spite of his long separation from his native land he created masterly short stories and novels. Other significant writers of the period included: J. G. Tajovsky (1874-1940), J. cajak (1863-1943), Jege (18661938), and G. M. Petrovsky (1862-1916) who lived in the USA. Several women-writers made their debut also. E . M. Soltesov<i (1855-1939), T . Vansov<i (1857-1941, Timrava (1867-1951) and a fine poetess E. Podjavorinskd (1872-1951) . While the older literary generation looked mainly toward Russia for artistic guidance and political salvation, there arose in Slovakia at the beginning of the 20th century a new literary schools the 'Moderna'. Centred around the literary magazine " Prudy" ("The Currents, " 1909-14), they were looking for their inspiration more in the West than in the East and opposed the passive political attitude of their Russophile fathers . The most prominent representative of the school was I. Kraska (1876-1958) , author of two slender books of poems ("Nox et solitudo," 1909, " Verses," 1912) which were destined to have a lasting influence on the further development of Slovak lyrical poetry. Other modernists were: J. Jesensky (1874-1945), V. Roy (1885-1935), M. Rdzus (1888-1937). Interwar Years (1918-45). The post-war years witness- �SLOVAKIA 9 ed an unprecedented activity in the literary field. The poet and critic s. Krcmery (1892-1955)' dubbed the period "the years of the untying tongues". The young poets of the pre-war era reached their maturity. Their ranks were soon joined by new arrivals such as J. Smrek (b. 1892), E. B. Lukac <b. 1900), v. Beniak (b. 1894), s. Krcmery (1892-1935) to mention the best known. There emerged also some talented prose writers: T. J. Gaspar (b . 1893 ), J. C. Bronsky (1896-1960), G. Vamos (1901-46) and especially M. Urban (b. 1904) the creator of "ziv'J} bic" ('The living whip', 1927) the most successful Slovak novel so far. The writers were grouped around several literary reviews. The Catholic writers around "Vatra" ("The Bonfire", 1919-25) included M. Urban, K . Sidor (1902-56), A. zarnov (b . 1903), J. Nizn<insky (b. 1903), A. N. Borin (b. 1903). Out of this group later grew a second generation of co-called "Catholic modernists": P. G. Hlbina (b. 1908), R. Dilong (b. 1905), J. Silan (b. 1918), K. Strmen (b. 1921) , J . Haranta (b. 1909), S. Veigl (b. 1915) and others. In the second group around "Mlade Slovensko" ("The Young Slovakia». 1919-29) we find E. B. Lukac, M. Halamova (b. 1908), I. Horvath 0904-59), G. Vamos. The left-oriented writers gathered around " Dav" ("The Mob", 1924-37) and included J . Ponican (b. 1902), L. Novomesk'J} (b. 1904) , F. Kral' (1903-55). Slovak surrealists made their appearance rather belatedly, in the late 1920's. They included: s. zary (b . 1918, V. Reisel (b. 1915), J. Brezina (b. 1917). The leading playwrights of the period were: F. Urbanek (1859-1934), V. Hurban (1884-?), I. Stodola (b. 1888) , J. Bare-Ivan (1909-1955). Literary criticism and literary history found their exponents in A. Mraz (1904-1964), P. Bujn<ik (1882-1932),L. Hanus (b. 1907), J. Ambrus (b.1914), Post-1945 Development. In 1945, and particularly after 1948, Slovak literature was dealt a heavy blow from which it still has not recovered. Many prominent writers sought freedom in escape to the West (Hronsky, Dilong, zarnov, Urban, Gaspar; the last two were later forcibly repatriated), others were gradually silenced (Beniak, Lukac, Graf, the Catholic modernists). The surrealists farcically "dissolved" their group and offered their services to the Communists. Under the guidance of the commissars the rule of "socialist realism" was proclaimed and in the process �10 SLOVAKIA even the erstwhile Communist writers were purged (Novomesky, Horvath, Oka.Ii). Many gifted writers degenerated into versifiers parroting party-slogans in rhymes: J. Kostra (b. 1910) wrote a long rhapsodic poem "On Stalin" (1949), J. Brezina entitled his book of poems "The Song of Love the New China" (1950), etc. The officially-approved "socialist realism" precisely prescribed and strictly enforced the theme, style and content of all work. As a result of this imposition all literary output of the 1950-60 period is uniformly marked with mediocrity and dullness in which all the artistic individuality of a writer is debased or completely lost. The writers made several attempts to shake off the Party's guidance and solicitude over their creative activity: in 1956, in 1962 and again in 1967-8; but each time with little success. As demonstrated by the recent Soviet invasion of Czecho-Slovakia (Aug. 1968 ) the Party views artistic liberty as an inadmissible challenge to its power monopoly. From among the writers labouring under these depressing and degrading circumstances one could single out the following: D. Tatarka (b. 1912), M. Figuli (b. 1910), A. Bednar (b . 1914), P. Karvas (b. 1920), V . Mihalik (b . 1926), M. Rufus (b . 1928), J. Blazkovci (b . 1929), A. Hykisch (b. 1930), J. Johanides (b. 1934). Literary critics and historians of some originality include A. Matuska (b. 1910), J. Felix (b. 1913), M. Pisut (b. 1908), M . Hamada and P. Stevcek (b . 1932) . Slovak Exile Literature. Since 1945 Slovak literature had a sizeable group of exile writers who left their enslaved country in 1945 and after. They continue to publish even under increasingly difficult conditions of emigre life. Poetry is well represented by such fine artists as K. Strmeii, R. Dilong, M. Sprinc (b. 1914), G. Zvonicky (b. 1913), M. Ziar (b, 1914), J. Okcil' (b. 1915), E. Vesnin (b. 1913) . Dramatic writing is being pursued by J. Dorcinsky (b . 1911), J. Zvoncir-Tieii (b. 1919). Noteworthy prose works have been written by M. K. Mlynarovic (b. 1887), J. C. Bronsky, P. Hrtus-Jurina (b. 1919), Draga Divinska (b. 1922). In the field of literary history and criticism one meets the names of J.E. Bor (b. 1907), S. Meciar (b. 1910), J. Rekem (b. 1917), J.M. Kirschbaum (b. 1913), J. Mest'ancik (b. 1908), F . Vnuk (b. 1926). � 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 SLOVAKIA 3 F. Vnuk: Slovak Language and Literature A BRIEF SURVEY The Slovak language, one of the 13 Slavonic languages, belongs to the Western group of Slavonic languages. It developed from the old Slavonic language which in the 8th century was a common tongue for all Slavonic tribes. For this language the holy brothers Constantine ( d. 869) and M ethodius ( d. 885) devised a new alphabet ( the Glagolitic). They also translated the Bible and liturgical texts and thus laid the foundation of not only Slovak but all Slavonic literatures. In the 10th century the use of this language (known as Old Church Slavonic) in Slovakia came to an abrupt end and in the 11th century was completely replaced by Latin. The Slovak language, along with the German and Czech, was degraded to a secondary role and hence only very few written Slovak records survived, the oldest one being the "Spis Sermon" ("Spisskci. kdzeii, " circa 1480) . At the time of the Protestant Reformation the language spoken by the Slovaks had no written grammar and no established norms. Instead of making a laborious codification of their own language, the Slovak Protestants adopted as their literary language the Czech, which had been perfected and codified by John Hus (1369-1415) and was very close to the Slovak. The best known book in this language was the "Bible of Kralice" (1579-93) and thus the language came later to be known as 'biblictina'. The Catholics did not follow suit. They wrote in a language which bore many marks of the Czech but also unmistakeable Slovak characteristics. (S. Szollosi in " Cantus Catholici", 1655, writes 'u' instead of Czech 'ou', uses prefix 'naj-' instead of 'nej-', leaves out such Czech characters as 'f', etc.). This trend continued also in the 18th century, as can be seen in the works of Mdcsay, Gavlovic, Bajza and others. The first successful attempt to codify the Slovak 4 SLOVAKIA language was carried out by a Catholic priest, A. Bernol<ik 0762-1813). By his theoretical treatise ("De litteris Slavorum", " Orthographia," 1787) , grammar ("Grammatica Slavica", 1790) and dictionary (published posthumously 1825-7) Bernolak laid the foundations of a literary Slovak based on a western dialect ('bernolacina'). The Protestants viewed the step with open dislike and continued to use the Czech. But after Dobrovsky's reform of the Czech language in 1809 they found themselves -with their 'biblictina'-isolated. This led a young Protestant publicist, E. stur (1815-56), to devise in the mid-forties a new literary language, based on the central dialect and acceptable to both the Catholics and Protestants. stur explained his step in a theoretical work, "The Slovak Dialect and the Need to write in that Dialect" ("Narecja slovenskuo a potreba pisania v tomto n<ireci, " 1846) and gave the language its grammar ("N<iuka reci slovenskej", 1846) . In spite of some opposition the new language-known as 'sturovcina'-was accepted. Some modifications by M . M. Hodza ( Epigenes Slovenicus, 1847) and M. Hattala (Grammatica Linguae Slavonicae, 1850) who replaced stur's phonemiq system by an etymological one, gave the language its present form. SLOVAK LITERATURE Period of Old Church Slavonic. The old Slavonic inhabitants of Slovakia had their own songs, proverbs, myths, etc. Of these only fragments are left, since the old ancestors of present-day Slovaks did not have an alphabet of their own. In 863 the Byzantine missionaries Constantine-Cyril and Methodius arrived in Slovakia. They brought with them the translations of the Scriptures and liturgical and canonical texts. Their missionary activity led to the conversion of the Slav tribes of the Danube basin. Hand in hand with the spread of the Gospel went an extensive cultural and literary activity to which several religious legends and hagiographical texts bear eloquent witness ("Life of St. Constantine", "Life of St. Methodius", etc.) Period of Latin. After Methodius' death (885) King, Svatopluk (870-894) expelled Methodius' students and disciples from the Great Moravian kingdom. Then at the SLOVAKIA 5 beginning of the 10th century Great Moravia fell with the onslaught of the Magyars and for the next 1000 years Slovakia became a part of Hungary. The Hungarian king Stephen (997-1038), following the pattern of medieval Western Europe, imposed Latin as a liturgical language and the administrative language of his kingdom. Books were written in Latin and were predominantly religious and didactic in content. Renaissance. Secular motives appeared more frequently in the Renaissance period which came to Hungary in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some writers of the period reached world fame: Johannes Sambucus of Trnava (15341584), Martin Rakovsky 0532-79), z. Rohoznik-Mosovsky 0542-87) the bishop of Nitra, etc. A university was opened at Bratislava (Academia Istropolitana) but it did not last long ( 1467-91). Reformation and Baroque. The Reformation of 1517 reached Slovakia through the German population of the Slovak towns. It came in the wake of a disastrous defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at Mohacs (1526). The imminent Turkish peril was a source of many historical songs (most by authors unknown), e.g. " Siladi a Hadmazy" (1560). The Reformation had a profound effect on the development of Slovak literature. It was a period of prolific literary activity. The books were polemic or homiletic in character, but they were directed primarily to thei middle class. Thus they had to be written in the language of the people and the people had to be taught to read. Among the Protestant writers were many able composers of spiritual hymns and songs: J. Silvan (1493-1572) , J. Pruno-Frastacky (d. 1586), Elias Lani (1570-1618), J. Kalinka (1601-78). Many of their hymns found a way into the well-known and still used hymn-book of the Slovak Protestants-the " Tranoscius." The compiler and publisher of the book (originally called "Cithara Sanctorum", 1635 ) was Jirik Tranovsky (1592-1637) a native of Teschen (Silesia). At approximately the same time there appeared a hymnal "Cantus Catholici" ( 1655) edited by a Slovak Jezuit Benedikt Szollosi (1609-56). It contains 290 hymns of 6 SLOVAKIA which some 100 can be found both in the " Cantus" and in the "Tranoscius ." In the Latin introduction the author proudly recalled the old Slavonic and Cyrillo-Methodian tradition of Slovak Catholicism. Other Catholic authors published apologies (M. Thanuissy's "First Catholic Handbook", 1691), prayer books ( J. Abraham/fy 's " H olocaustum quotidianum', 1695), didactic works ( B . Smrtnik's " Ars bene moriendi", 1697) , polemic writings ( $. Dubnicsay's " Eductus coluber tortu osus", 1723 ), etc. Of unusual interest-both linguistically and thematically- are the writings of the Franciscan friar H. Gavlovic, especially his " Valasskd skola"("The mountainshepherds' school, the storehouse of virtues", 1755). Other Protestant writers who excelled were: $ . Pilldrik 0615-93) the author of spiritual songs and of an interesting autobiography in verse " Sors Pilarikiana", (1666), D . Sina p i us-Horcicka (1640-88 ), T . Masnik (1 640-97 ), D . Krman (1663-1740 ), etc . Drama also made its entry during the Reformation. Foreign plays were gradually supplemented by those of native authors such as P. Kyrmezer (d. 1589 ), J. TesdkMosovsk'J} (1545-1617 ) , E . Ladiver (1633-86). Scientific works emanated mainly from Trnava, where in 1635 Peter Cardinal Pazmdny (1570-1637) founded a university. One of its professors, the Jesuit M . Szentivdnyi (1633-1705 ), published a comprehensive six-volume encyclopedia ("Curiosiora et selectiora variarum scientarium miscelanea", 1686-1702 ). I . Caban, lecturer at the Protestant lyceum at Presov, was the author of " Existentia atomorum'' (1667 ). Historico-geographical works were written by S . Timon (1675-1736) and especially by M. Bel (1684-1749) . M. Rotarides is known as a literary historian. An 'Apologia' ( 1728 ) directed against the slanderers of the Slovak past was written by J. B. Magin (1682-1735), a Catholic priest. Enlightenment . The Toleration Edict of 1781 officially terminated the religious strifes and polemics of the past 150 years. Instead there appeared nationality and national sentiment as the new keynotes of the literary activity. J . Sklenar (1745-91) and J . Papdnek (1738-1802 ) wrote popular histories of Great Moravia. Learned societies were founded of which 'Tovarisstvo' ( Slovak Learned Society, SLOVAKIA 7 founded 1792) was the largest ( 452 members, some 350 of them Catholic clergymen). The first Slovak novel "Adventures and Experiences of a young man Rene" ("Rene mladenca prihody a skusenosti", 1783) was published by J. I. Bajza (1755-1836). Bernolak's codification of literary Slovak proved to have a very beneficial effect on the national and literary revival. Around Bernolak grouped about 100 writers, the most prominent among them J. Holly (1785-1849), creator of the national epio ("Sviitopluk", 1833, "Slav", 1839) and a capable translator of the classical poets. Canon J. Palkovic (1763-1835) translated the Bible (1829-33). J. Fandly (17501811) wrote practical books for the instruction and education of the people. Apart from the Bernolak group, and even against it, stood the Protestant writers: B. Tablic (1769-1832) translator from the English. A. Dolezal (1737-1802) author of a "holy novel" ("The Fall of the First Parents Described in Verse ", 1791), Jifi Palkovic (1769-1850), J. Ribay 07541812). Romanticism. The new focus of Slovak literary life concentrated round the chair of Slovak language and literature at the Bratislava Lyceum. Its spiritus mavens was E. stur (1815-56) who after his return from Germany was accepted as a leader of the Slovak youth studying at Bratislava. Influenced by Herder, Hegel and German romanticism stur's followers became zealous admirers ( and collectors) of folklore and modelled their poetry on simple folk songs. Their achievements were remarkable, particularly the poetry of J. Kral' ( 1822-76), J. Botto (1829-81) and S. Chalupka (1812-83). The most outstanding success of the new literary Slovak was "Marina" (1846) a masterpiece of intimate lyricism by A. Sladkovic(1820-72) . The best prose writer of the group was J. Kalinciak (1822-71). Dramatic works were composed mainly by J . Chalupka (1791-1871), J. Zaborsky (1812-76) and J. Paldrik (1822-70). Among the opponents of the stur circle, the protagonists of the Panslavist movement, J. Kollar (1793-1852) and P. J. Safarik (1795-1861), deserve mentioning. Realism. Th~ 60's and 70's are often called "the years 8 SLOVAKIA of Slovak hopes and disappointments." Liberal currents in the Habsburg Empire created favourable conditions for the rapid growth of literary and cultural life. Several literary annuals and periodicals started their publication and in 1863 a national cultural organization "Matica Slovenskd', was founded. The cultural awakening moved hand in hand with the political one. This movement was frowned upon by the Magyar state authorities who countered it with the idea of a unitary Hungarian nation. In 1875 the Matica was closed. Yet in this oppressive atmosphere Slovak literature reached its classical age. Slovak poetry was brought to its zenith in the perfect verse of P. 0. Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) who successfully exploited all the beauty and flexibility of the language in delightful lyrical poems, ballads, epics. S. H. Vajansky (1847-1916), besides being a distinguished poet, novelist and literary critic, was also an acknowledged national leader. The third star of this bright constellation was M. Kukucin (1860-1928), who spent half of his life in voluntary exile. In spite of his long separation from his native land he created masterly short stories and novels. Other significant writers of the period included: J. G. Tajovsky (1874-1940), J. cajak (1863-1943), Jege (18661938), and G. M. Petrovsky (1862-1916) who lived in the USA. Several women-writers made their debut also. E . M. Soltesov<i (1855-1939), T . Vansov<i (1857-1941, Timrava (1867-1951) and a fine poetess E. Podjavorinskd (1872-1951) . While the older literary generation looked mainly toward Russia for artistic guidance and political salvation, there arose in Slovakia at the beginning of the 20th century a new literary schools the 'Moderna'. Centred around the literary magazine " Prudy" ("The Currents, " 1909-14), they were looking for their inspiration more in the West than in the East and opposed the passive political attitude of their Russophile fathers . The most prominent representative of the school was I. Kraska (1876-1958) , author of two slender books of poems ("Nox et solitudo," 1909, " Verses," 1912) which were destined to have a lasting influence on the further development of Slovak lyrical poetry. Other modernists were: J. Jesensky (1874-1945), V. Roy (1885-1935), M. Rdzus (1888-1937). Interwar Years (1918-45). The post-war years witness- SLOVAKIA 9 ed an unprecedented activity in the literary field. The poet and critic s. Krcmery (1892-1955)' dubbed the period "the years of the untying tongues". The young poets of the pre-war era reached their maturity. Their ranks were soon joined by new arrivals such as J. Smrek (b. 1892), E. B. Lukac <b. 1900), v. Beniak (b. 1894), s. Krcmery (1892-1935) to mention the best known. There emerged also some talented prose writers: T. J. Gaspar (b . 1893 ), J. C. Bronsky (1896-1960), G. Vamos (1901-46) and especially M. Urban (b. 1904) the creator of "ziv'J} bic" ('The living whip', 1927) the most successful Slovak novel so far. The writers were grouped around several literary reviews. The Catholic writers around "Vatra" ("The Bonfire", 1919-25) included M. Urban, K . Sidor (1902-56), A. zarnov (b . 1903), J. Nizn<insky (b. 1903), A. N. Borin (b. 1903). Out of this group later grew a second generation of co-called "Catholic modernists": P. G. Hlbina (b. 1908), R. Dilong (b. 1905), J. Silan (b. 1918), K. Strmen (b. 1921) , J . Haranta (b. 1909), S. Veigl (b. 1915) and others. In the second group around "Mlade Slovensko" ("The Young Slovakia». 1919-29) we find E. B. Lukac, M. Halamova (b. 1908), I. Horvath 0904-59), G. Vamos. The left-oriented writers gathered around " Dav" ("The Mob", 1924-37) and included J . Ponican (b. 1902), L. Novomesk'J} (b. 1904) , F. Kral' (1903-55). Slovak surrealists made their appearance rather belatedly, in the late 1920's. They included: s. zary (b . 1918, V. Reisel (b. 1915), J. Brezina (b. 1917). The leading playwrights of the period were: F. Urbanek (1859-1934), V. Hurban (1884-?), I. Stodola (b. 1888) , J. Bare-Ivan (1909-1955). Literary criticism and literary history found their exponents in A. Mraz (1904-1964), P. Bujn<ik (1882-1932),L. Hanus (b. 1907), J. Ambrus (b.1914), Post-1945 Development. In 1945, and particularly after 1948, Slovak literature was dealt a heavy blow from which it still has not recovered. Many prominent writers sought freedom in escape to the West (Hronsky, Dilong, zarnov, Urban, Gaspar; the last two were later forcibly repatriated), others were gradually silenced (Beniak, Lukac, Graf, the Catholic modernists). The surrealists farcically "dissolved" their group and offered their services to the Communists. Under the guidance of the commissars the rule of "socialist realism" was proclaimed and in the process 10 SLOVAKIA even the erstwhile Communist writers were purged (Novomesky, Horvath, Oka.Ii). Many gifted writers degenerated into versifiers parroting party-slogans in rhymes: J. Kostra (b. 1910) wrote a long rhapsodic poem "On Stalin" (1949), J. Brezina entitled his book of poems "The Song of Love the New China" (1950), etc. The officially-approved "socialist realism" precisely prescribed and strictly enforced the theme, style and content of all work. As a result of this imposition all literary output of the 1950-60 period is uniformly marked with mediocrity and dullness in which all the artistic individuality of a writer is debased or completely lost. The writers made several attempts to shake off the Party's guidance and solicitude over their creative activity: in 1956, in 1962 and again in 1967-8; but each time with little success. As demonstrated by the recent Soviet invasion of Czecho-Slovakia (Aug. 1968 ) the Party views artistic liberty as an inadmissible challenge to its power monopoly. From among the writers labouring under these depressing and degrading circumstances one could single out the following: D. Tatarka (b. 1912), M. Figuli (b. 1910), A. Bednar (b . 1914), P. Karvas (b. 1920), V . Mihalik (b . 1926), M. Rufus (b . 1928), J. Blazkovci (b . 1929), A. Hykisch (b. 1930), J. Johanides (b. 1934). Literary critics and historians of some originality include A. Matuska (b. 1910), J. Felix (b. 1913), M. Pisut (b. 1908), M . Hamada and P. Stevcek (b . 1932) . Slovak Exile Literature. Since 1945 Slovak literature had a sizeable group of exile writers who left their enslaved country in 1945 and after. They continue to publish even under increasingly difficult conditions of emigre life. Poetry is well represented by such fine artists as K. Strmeii, R. Dilong, M. Sprinc (b. 1914), G. Zvonicky (b. 1913), M. Ziar (b, 1914), J. Okcil' (b. 1915), E. Vesnin (b. 1913) . Dramatic writing is being pursued by J. Dorcinsky (b . 1911), J. Zvoncir-Tieii (b. 1919). Noteworthy prose works have been written by M. K. Mlynarovic (b. 1887), J. C. Bronsky, P. Hrtus-Jurina (b. 1919), Draga Divinska (b. 1922). In the field of literary history and criticism one meets the names of J.E. Bor (b. 1907), S. Meciar (b. 1910), J. Rekem (b. 1917), J.M. Kirschbaum (b. 1913), J. Mest'ancik (b. 1908), F . Vnuk (b. 1926).  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 Language and Literature Description An account of the resource F. Vnuk Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 3-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vnuk, František, 1926- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7fb64a41061ac2631958dd4902c3c91c.pdf 35b680f0f00892678e8cfe170963b625 PDF Text Text �SLOVAKIA VOLUME XX • 1970 • NO. 43 Editor JOSEPH PAUCO, Ph.D. LIBRARY Maranatha Baptist Bible College Watertown, Wisconsin ., Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA 313 Ridge Avenue • Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY, Middletown, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. � �SLOVAKIA VOLUME XX • 1970 • NO. 43 Editor JOSEPH PAUCO, Ph.D. LIBRARY Maranatha Baptist Bible College Watertown, Wisconsin ., Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA 313 Ridge Avenue • Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY, Middletown, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. � 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 SLOVAKIA VOLUME XX • 1970 • NO. 43 Editor JOSEPH PAUCO, Ph.D. LIBRARY Maranatha Baptist Bible College Watertown, Wisconsin ., Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA 313 Ridge Avenue • Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY, Middletown, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.  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. 20 (No. 43) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/723bfaf4aefbd5e911707c6f38422bad.pdf 9f95f2cb98ee85afce41ac6d0fff4940 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 189 CURRENT ISSUES Proclamation of the 42nd Congress of the Slovak League of America At Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Solemnly convened in Congress, the officers and delegates of the Slovak League of America formally decla·r e that: 1. We rededica,te ourselves and our membership to the preserva,l!ion of the basic moral principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United Staites o·f America and the United Naitions organization. 2. In light of the above, we request our member organizations and the memberships to solicit their lo<:al, state and federal officials for assistance needed to reestablish Slovakia as a democratic state in a free Central Europe. 3. Fwrther we ask all our fellow citizens to likewise rededicate themselves to the great challenge and opportunities confronting all decent God fearing people in this period of violence, hatred and abuse of lawful authority; for, without a concerted effort by the silent majority, we could easily lose the God given rights and freedoms which we here enjoy, and which are presently non-existent in Slovakia and other nations with age old Christian cultures and traditions, and to insure tile continued safeguarding of these precious rights and gifts, as loyal citizens, we put our trust in and support the dedicated efforts of our President, Richard M. Nix·on, to end the Indochina War, to establish an honorable peace and to restore domestic tranquility. In witness whereof, we have caused these sentiments to be published this 24th day of May, 1970. Edward J. Behuncik, President Joseph Pauco, Secretary �190 SLOVAKIA Slovak World Congress (Mr. TAFT asked and was given permission-June 30, 1970-to address the House of Representatives for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous matter.) Mr. TAFT. Mr. Speaker, last week the American Slovak fraternal and religious organizations were participating in the First Slovak World Congress which was held in New York City at the Americana Hotel. I had both the honor and the pleasure to be one of their guests at the banquet, Sunday, June 21, together with my colleagues from the Congress-Ray J. Madden, Paul Findley, Michael A. Feighan, William E. Minshall, and John M. Murphy. Congressman Joseph M. Gaydos, himself of Slovak origin, was unfortunately in hospital at the time and missed this worthy event. Ambassador Nguyen Huu Chi, permanent observer to the United Nations, was also present. Representatives of other American nationalities were also present. Senator John G. Tower, an outstanding American and an eloquent speaker, gave the keynote address. It was a fine speech and the assembled were unanimous in their praise of Senator Tower's presentation and knowledge of history. Among the many delegates from the free world, including from Australia, Latin America, Europe, and Canada, who attended the sessions were also three bishops, Andrew G. Grutka of Gary, Ind., the honorary chairman of the congress; Michael Rusnak of Toronto, and Paul Hnilica of Rome, Italy. Stephen B. Roman, the internationally known industrialist from Canada, chaired the proceedings of the congress with Bishop Grutka. Mr. Roman was elected the chairman of the Slovak World Congress for 1970-71. The major organizations from the United States participating in the congress included the National Slovak Society, presided by John Pankuch, the Slovak Catholic Union, presided by John A. Sabol, the Catholic Sokol, presided by Paul Fallat, Slovak League of America, by Edward Behuncik. �SLOVAKIA 191 Feeling certain that many other heritage groups in our great country will find gems of hope for their own ideals, I include Senator Tower's introduction and speech in the Record at this point: Introduction of Key Speaker (By Joseph Krajsa, editor of the largest fraternal American Slovak newspaper) When you think of Texas you immediately think of something big. And President Nixon has sent someone Big to extend official greetings to the Slovak World Congress. The distinguished United States Senator from Texas, Senator Tower, known as a Progressive-Conservative, is a close advisor to President Nixon and serves on three major committees-Armed Services, Banking and Currency, and the Joint Committee on Defense Production. He has spent more time with our commanders and troops in Southwest Asia than any other member of the Senate. The Senator is an internationally known leader and has been distinguished as a gentleman of dedicated zeal. All of you present here today have displayed a zeal for an ideal. We are fortunate that our distinguished American, Senator Tower, shares our zeal. His presence here during his busy congressional session proves his interest in the Slovak cause, a cause so common to all separate ethnic cultures. His massage will be rewarding to all nationality groups, but especially to the Slovak delegates here assembled from all over the free world. And yes, Senator, to the thousands of Slovak Americans living in Texas, too. It has been said that one day the world will be reformed, but not by reformers, but as a result of a zeal for an ideal that is burning in the hearts of dedicated men. Ladies, and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you an inter• nationally known gentleman, our guest to honor, a public servant of dedicated zeal, our distinguished United States Senator from the State of Texas, the Honorable John G. Tower. Thank you for that very fine introduction. Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Reverend clergy, Mr. Ambassador, my distinguished colleagues in the Congress, ladies and gentlemen. �192 SLOVAKIA It certainly is a great pleasure to be here today. It's extremely difficult for me to undertake to address you as the final speaker on the program. I have listened with great interest to all that has been said, but have not understood it all, since I don't speak Slovak. And so I am reasonably sure that Steve Roman has probably made my speech. But I'll find out afterwards. I think that this is a great and significant moment that you meet here in your first World Congress. I think it is always inspiring when like-minded people get together for a noble common cause. You are Slovaks and I am an Anglo-Saxon. But we are all childred of God. And as such, we are enjoined to stand fast in the liberty with Christ who set us free. We are all of one family. And we are our brothers in the common cause to try to achieve in this world, and in that which God intends, freedom for all mankind. There are those in this world today who I think are ready to give up in the struggle against totalitarianism. I am so happy to note that you people are not among them. There are many in our country who have never felt the lash of communist imperialism. Because Karl Marx stated things in lofty terms, in terms of thinking what he considered to be human objectives, they think perhaps that system is not so bad after all. I wish every American could have shared the experiences many of you had, who have lived under communist totalitarianism to understand what it is all about. I have never lived in a totalitarian system, but I've been in places in this world where I've seen the stultifying and inhuman effects of the communist drive for world aggrandizement. As it has been noted, I have been in Vietnam several times. I returned from there, most recently, several weeks ago. Two weeks ago, today, I was sludging around on the battlefield in Cambodia. Today I'm glad to report to you that we are achieving our objectives in Vietnam. We can measure our achievement in several ways. We have reduced the capacity of the enemy to wage massive forces against us. We have improved the fighting qualities of the army of South Vietnam. And I can tell you that Army, and indeed all the Armed Forces of South Vietnam performed �SLOVAKIA 193 in a most professional, courageous and effective manner in the recent and current operations in Cambodia. And, I am given to understand by the military commanders, that this will hasten the day when we can bring our boys back home. But I think the most important reason, and underlying everything, is the fact that now most of the Vietnamese people have had some experience with Communism. They may not understand democracy, as you and I understand it. They may not understand all of the responsibilities of self-government, as you and I understand it. Those who have lived under the Viet Cong, and under the heel of North Vietnamese military have made a decision, that they would rather be with us. I think that the only way we can fail to accomplish our objectives, in trying to combat communist aggression in Southeast Asia, is for the people here at home to throw in the towel. I do not think we can lose the war in Southeast Asia if we can maintain our presence there. I know I didn't have to convince you about our responsibilities in the world. You know what Communism has done to Eastern Europe and what America must do to maintain her own security. You know the reason why. It's the same reason that we fight today in South Vietnam because Communist aggressor powers seek to expand their realm by force. There are so many naive people, unfortunately, too many of them on the college faculties of this country, who hold that there is no danger from Communist aggression. I imagine that the people in Czecho-Slovakia can say a word or two on that score. And I wish that they who have fled from the Russian tanks and tbe Russian machine guns could be on the college faculties so that our youth can get a better impression of what Communism is really like. How can we believe that there is no danger? There are those who try to impose a sense of guilt on the people of the United States for the arms race. We didn't start the arms race! It was not the U.S. which continued to maintain its poverful military force immediately following World War II. We demobilized. It was not the U.S. that swallowed-up the Eastern European countries with the use of military force. It was not the U.S. who sealed off Berlin. It-was not the U.S. who invaded �194 SLOVAKIA South Korea. And, in the past few years, from the point of strategic technology, the Russians have been developing their military potential at a much greater rate than we have. I submit to you that there is a clear and present danger which you well know. And I am not speaking so much to you, as I am through you, to a lot of people who are not in this room. But who should understand that this nation must maintain a posture of military superiority, not inferiority. Not parity, but superiority! Because if we fail to maintain it, my friends, there will be no hope for the Slovaks, nor for the millions of others to ever aspire to freedom and selfdetermination and have any reasonable hope of realizing it. Does anyone believe that if the Soviets achieve strategic military superiority they will not use it to blackmail the rest of the world into going along their way. And you know what their way is. My friends, we are going to be in grave trouble by the end of this decade, or perhaps even before, if we don't recognize this fact. I don't believe that we, Americans, can retreat to "fortress America" and hope to survive as a great nation ourselves. Even if we made our country impregnable; if we withdrew from the world, other nations would have to make their own accommodations with the Soviets. Then we will find ourselves in grave economic difficulties in a few years hence, because we are not a self-sufficient nation. We depend on sources and resources from other parts of the world. So, our capacity to progress as free people in the free enterprise system is involved here. But beyond that the mantle of world leadership has fallen on our shoulde11s whether we like it or not. We certainly are our brothers keepers! If we, as a Judeo-Christian society don't believe that then we have lost sight of the basic tenet. We are our brothers keepers, and have a responsibility to try and maintain a secure world in which Slovaks and all others, can aspire to freedom and hope ultimately to achieve it. I'm pleased to bring you greetings from the White House. I'm also pleased to observe that you are willing to make common cause with all others, to combat the great Communist menace. There can be no freedom where Russian tanks, Russian soldiers occupy soil. There is no �SLOVAKIA 195 freedom in such territory anyplace. Ultimately, I think that all societies in this world can aspire to the kind of progress we in the U.S. and Canada have enjoyed through the free enterprise system. In the final analysis, when man becomes totally dependent upon the State, he losses his freedom. The right of man to own and do with his property what he considers best to him and his environment is a ba:sic right and the major factor which prevents his being reduced to meek dependency on the State. I commend you for what you are doing. I wish you well. Know that you are not alone, that there will be those of us who although are not Slovak, will be at your side. God speed! COMMENTS SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POET JAN DORANSKY Among Slovak poets and writers in exile whom we considered in 1945 as the "young generation," there are several who are approaching their venerable age of 60 years. In 1971, we should not bypass in silence the 60th birthday of one of them-Jan Doransky, born on May 28, 1911, in Trstena. Coming from a part of Slovakia which gave to Slovak literature and public life many outstanding poets and novelists, Jan Doransky inherited a love for literature and began to write in his early youth, first for student's periodicals, later for literary and cultural monthlies. Afte·r finishing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Bratislava and practiced as a notary in various parts of Slovakia. The outbreak of the Second World War interrupted his civilian life. Being, however, known at that time as a poet and writer, he was retained in the Department for cultural affairs at the Ministry of National Defense. When the Russian armies overran Slovakia, Doransky with thousands of other Slovak intellectuals left with his family for the West. After spending two years in Austria and two years in Rome, he landed in Canada �196 SLOVAKIA in 1949 and has lived in Montreal for the past eighteen years. Doransky is a poet of considerable versatility, and besides many lyrical verses and patriotic poems, he wrote in Canada a drama called Stard mat', neopust'aj nds (Grandmother do not leave us alone), successfully played by Slovak groups across Canada. The play was originally published in Kanadsky Slovak and later in 1953 in book form. Before coming to Canada, Doransky had published in 1939 a play called Novou cestou (On a new path) and in 1943 a collection of satirical verses Slepi pasazieri (Blind passengers). In Slovakia as well as in Canada, his poetry was published in various anthologies : Pred ohnivym drakom (1939), Vo vyhnanstve (1947), Zdravica sv. Cyrilovi a Metodovi (1963); in literary periodicals (Kultura, Most) and in almanacs. In recent years his epigrams published either in the quarterly Most or in newspapers and almanacs became preferred reading among Slovak intelligentsia in the free world. Besides poetry, Doransky wrote a number of short novels and other prose contributions for periodicals (Oral Tatransky, Svojet', Kultura) under the pen-name Hamernik and for the Slovak almanacs and newspapers in Canada and the United States under the name J. D. Oravec. Doransky's literary production is extensive and only the difficulties which a poet or a writer has to overcome in exile, prevented him from publishing his writings in book form. At his 60th birthday, two or three collections of lyrical verses, one collection of short novels and three collections_ of epigrams and satire are among his manuscripts awaiting more favorable circumstances for publication. All who like his poetry and his excellent epigrams called by him "Jedorasty", cannot but wish him that he may live to see not only his manuscripts published but also go back to a free and independent Slovakia for which he fought and to which he dedicated his life and his talent. Ad multos annos! J. M . Ki rs c h b au m �SLOVAKIA 197 GREAT DISTINCTION FOR SLOVAK POET KAROL STRMEN Slovak emigre poetry has given to Slovak literature not only its share of excellent original works which echo the great poets of Western nations, but also a new dimension in masterful translations from several world literatures. Recently Slovak literature achieved recognition in this field from the excellent work in scholarship and poetry of one of the most gifted Slovak poets, Prof. Karol Strmen. On October 28, 1970, during the meeting of the Association of American Teachers of French, held in New Orleans, the cultural attache of the French Embassy in Washington presented Prof. Strmen, on behalf of the Government of France, with the Medal of the Knight of Academic Palms. No doubt it has been a deserved distinction, and Slovak literary community abroad is rightly proud of it. Karol Strmen (born in 1921), by vocation university professor of Romance literature, enriched Slovak poetry by translations from several World literatures as well as by his own poetic works. Belonging to the "Catholic Moderna" but following his own literary path, Strmen impressed literary critics and readers almost unanimously as a gifted and mature poet from the time he published his first verses in the prestigous literary monthly Slovenske Pohl'ady, and his first two collections of verses Vyzinok zivota (Harvest of Life) (1940), and Testament (1945) . Attracted by French, Spanish, German and Italian poets, whose works he was masterfully translating during the past two decades, Strmen deviated from the main stream of Slovak emigre poetry as indicate his two collections of verses Striebornd Legenda (The Silver Legend) (1950), and Cakaju nivy jar (Meadows are Expecting Spring) (1963), and his contributions to literary journals and newspapers. His poetry is rather for the cultivated than for the average readers and the traditional and national values are less visible in his poetry than in the poetry of other Slovak emigre poets. Among Strmen's early translations is an anthology �198 SLOVAKIA from the poetry of Michael Eminescu, R. M. Rilke, the wellknown poem by Edgar Allan Poe "Raven" and several poems by Dante. His translating activity increased during the years of his exile to a degree unequalled by any other Slovak poet or writer. He continued to translate from practically all Romance languages as well as from German and English. Among the main translations are Robert Browning's Portuguese Sonnets (1947), Paul Claudel's Via Crucis (1954) and Dante's Inferno (1963 ) . In manuscript form he has Shakespeare's dramas. Slovak literary journals like Most, Literdrny Almanach Slovdka v Amerike, and other Slovak annuals have published regularly his translations from many literatures. His master work in translated poems is, according to literary critics, Dante's Inferno, published in a highly elaborate volume also from the printing point of view. It was, however, Paul Claude!, whose work he liked best and on whom he wrote his doctoral dissertation. Strmen who originally intended to study theology, translated also the New Testament and other religious books, hymns and psalms. Together with sprinc he deserves credit for many cultural activities which developed among Slovaks in exile since the end of the Second World War. Like Sprinc he left home for the United States and in 1949 settled in Cleveland. He is a member of several learned societies, of the Slovak Institute, Slovak Association of Writers and Artists, etc. Even though many of his poems reflect his strong patriotic feelings and aversion to communism before which he fled in 1945, Strmen was among the few emigre poets and writers whose verses pierced the Iron Curtain and were published in 1968 thaw in Slovakia. Slovak emigre writers and poets congratulate their distinguished colleague. J. M. Kirschbaum . . . The Polish monthly Kultura, which is published in Paris by the intellectuals who either did not return to Poland after the Second World War, or escaped the Communist tyranny, dedicated a special issue to the upheavals �SLOVAKIA 199 in Czecho-Slovakia. Unfortunately the presentation of the events which led to the liberalization and de-Stalinization movement seems to be strongly influenced by Czech propaganda or insufficient knowledge of the situation in Slovakia, as well as of the role which Slovaks played in changing the Stalinist system and giving "a human face to socialism." Prof. J.M. Kirschbaum who has many friends among Polish intellectuals and has been known for his positive attitude towards Poland since the time of his studies in Warsaw and Cracow, wrote to the editor of Kultura a let.t er but he never received an answer to his friendly remarks. As a result, we decided to publish the letter as a document to record that we were not silent when the presentation of historical events, in which the Slovaks played an important role, has been distorted. Mr. Jerzy Giedroyc, Editor: Kultura, 91 Avenue de Poissy, Paris, France. Dear Sir: I have read with great interest your special issue dedicated to Czecho-Slovakia. As a representative of that group of Slovak political exiles who always stood for a close friendship with Poland, I feel obliged to write a few comments on that issue, especially with regard to the view that the movement for liberalization and democratization stemmed from the Hussite traditions. There is a number of good studies in the West by AngloSaxon and French political writers who analyzed the policy of Czecho-Slovakia during the period of the so-called de-Stalinization and none of them came to a similar conclusion. Only a few journalists stationed in Prague during the summer of 1968 accepted, for reasons which I will mention later, the Czech view that the liberalization movement was due to their national traditions. Books and studies by Western experts in Eastern Europe, like Prof. Skilling, Ph. E. Mosley, W. E. Griffith, Kertesz and even Duchacek, indicate that the Czech part �200 SLOVAKIA of the population of Czecho-Slovakia were lethargic and did not come until 1968 with any noteworthy opposition to the Stalinist regime of Antonin Novotny. Two Czech writers in Griffith's symposium even accuse their compatriots of fully supporting that regime after the upheavals in Hungary and Poland or later when the Slovak intellectuals began to attack the Stalinist dictatorship. (See Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968.) I think it can be objectively established that the movement for liberalization and democratization not only started in Slovakia, but also was carried on mainly by the Slovak intellectuals. One of the contributors to your special issue on Czecho-Slovakia, P. Carnogursky, pointed to this fact, but did not develop his thesis by giving names and data. In all serious studies in the West it has been accepted that the beginning of the de-Stalinization was a Congress of Slovak writers in May 1963 and a following Congress of Slovak journalists. Actually, Slovak writers attacked the Novotny regime and its Stalinist form and tactics in 1956 and the crimes and methods of that regime were described in a book by Ladislav Mnacko : "Belated Reportages." The Slovak review "Kulturny zivot," then systematically attacked and criticized the regime, asking for a change towards more freedom and more human methods. After 1963, the Slovak intellectuals, among them also several intellectuals of Jewish origin (G. Husak, L. Novomesky, M. Hysko, V. Mihalik, L. Kalisky, E. Lobl, E. Goldstticker, Spitzer ), began an organized struggle for more freedom, justice and democracy. They created a sort of brain trust, behind Alexander Dubcek, who became the embodiment and leader of this movement. The reasons behind the fact that the movement started in Slovakia, can be found in the harsh treatment of Slovakia by the Prague Government under Gottwald and mainly under Novotny. In the purges organized by Prague was eliminated not only Dr. Vlado Clementis, the ideological leader of communism in Slovakia, who died on the gallows, but soon after him all the influential and educated communist leaders branded as bourgeois nationalists. Slovakia �SLOVAKIA 201 was submerged in terror, persecution, de-nationalization and an economic crisis, which was created intentionally by the Government of Prague. President Novotny also hurt the pride and feelings of the Slovak population and, therefore, in the 1960's the outrage was general in Slovakia. When the "bourgeois nationalists" were freed from prisons and rehabilitated, they began to speak about the horrors of their investigations and imprisonment and this gave the impulse to the writers and to the intellectuals, who previously sided with Novotny for an attack on Novotny's regime, because in the purges of the 1950's, mainly Slovaks and Jews became the victims of the furor of the Prague Government. In the Czech part of the country the intellectuals did not feel the terror with such intensity and, therefore, they joined only slowly and individually the movement for democratization and de-Stalinization. As a result, the movement was headed not only by Dubcek but also by Goldsti.icker, Lobl, and many others, all from Slovakia. Should your Revue be interested in a more detailed analysis of this period and should more arguments be required to support my statement that not the Hussite traditions or Czech attachment to democracy were the moving force in the upheavals of 1968 in Czecho-Slovakia, but the Slovak nationalism and striving of Slovaks and some good Czechs for freedom and a more human life, I would be only too glad to send to you a documented study on this subject. Yours very truly, Prof. J. M . Ki rs c h b au m " . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA represents an overwhelming majority of organized Americans of Slovak descent; actively affiliated with it are the large3t Slovak fraternals, religious organizations, Slovak Clubs and Slovak civic organizations in the United States . . . . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is an AMERICAN INSTITUTION; it was organized May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, 0., by the Rev. Stephen Furdek. �202 SLOVAKIA BOOK REVIEWS NEW COLLECTION OF SLOVAK EMIGRE POETRY Jan Okal', Voda a vino (Water and Wine, United States 1970) , pp. 70. Eugen Vesnin, Aj v etrurskych zahradach (Also in the Gardens of Etruria, Buenos Aires, 1970). Rome, as the first free refuge of many Slovak intellectuals, inspired several Slovak ,poets and writers who created during the past quarter of a century literary works of high standards. Among them was not only J. C. Hronsky, R. Dilong, M. Sprinc, and K. Strmen, but also Jan Okal' and Eugen Vesnin. All of them reacted to the beauty of the Eternal city in prose or verse and enriched Slovak emigre literature by several volumes. The above volumes by Jan Okal' and Eugen Vesnin attest to the creative inspiration of Rome and Italy. Jan Okal' (born in 1915) published his first verses in Slovakia during the War in two collections Nehnem sa (I do not move, 1942) and L!ubost' (Love, 1944). He also profusely contributed to Slovak periodicals, wrote short stories for children and translated from Ukrainian literature. It was, however, in exile that his talent developed. Even though he spent most of his time as editor of a S1ovak newspaper in the United States, and for several years also as the editor of Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, he did not cease to publish poetry or prose of refined taste and literary ma• turity. He also published in English a well-written sketch on the Slovak Robin Hood-George Janosik: A Carpathian Saga ( 1953) and a chronicle in 13 poems called Kro- nika siovakov (The Chronicle of Slovaks, 1954), as well as a satirical novel Blizenci (Gemini, 1962) and translations from I Fioretti di San Francesco . After a few years of silence, he surprised now readers and critics by the above mentioned collection of his poetry, in addition to many verses published in the literary journal Most or in almanacs and calendars. His collection Voda a vino (Water and Wine) is a masterfully illustrated volume of lyrical sketches in verse which reflect Okal"s years spent in Rome and Italy. All his poems, usually not longer than one or two verses, are sensitive and well-written images of beautiful monuments and places of Rome and of •o ther countries which he visited during his exile. The volume under review proves that Okal' is a refined and gifted poet as well as an alert commentator on literary and cultural matters. Personal reminiscences and memories give to his book, as well as to his scattered poems in literary journals, a certain gentleness and tenderness. All his published works were artistically illustrated by the well-known Slovak artist, Joseph G. Cincik, and belong to the finest readings in Slovak emigre literature. * The ancient beauty of Rome and the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean area marked even more the lyrical verses of Eugen Vesnin (Dr. Ignac Zelenka, born in 1913) . After publishing a score of verses in Slovakia before the war, Vesnin spent in silence nearly three dee- �203 SLOVAKIA ades before his three collections of mature lyrical poetry were published in Slovak, and an anthology in Italian. For the past 25 years a librarian in the Vatican library, Vesnin--as the Osservatore Romano wrote when his Italian collection was published- is a "poet of peace, love, patriotism and the beauty of nature, but also well-known as a scholar." Osservatore Romano mentions in this connection Vesnin's works on the Vatican, on the Holy See, as well as 1111 essay on Juraj Knzanic, the -p recursor of Pan-Slavism, and on the liturgical editions which can be found in the Vatican library. Among Vesnin's published poetical works should be mentioned the following collections: Zo zcitisia ntim6z (1965) which appeared also in Italian translation by Prof. Leo Magnino under the title L'Oasi delle mimose (Rome 1967); Jani e som potomok i latokopov (I am not a descendant of gold-diggers) and S temena mojich hor (From the top of my mountains, Buenos Aires 1966) . These collections were followed by lyrical verses Aj v etrurskych zcihradach (Also in the Gardens of Etruria, Buenos Aires, 1970), which seems to be the best selection of Vesnin's peotry. In spite of the fact that Vesnin spent nearly his whole life in Rome where he originally studied theology, his poetry is deeply patriotic and one of his verses "Salute to my Country" can be considered even in its Italian translation as one of the best patriotic poems of the Slovak emigre literature. The literary critic Jan E. Bor considers Vesnin as one of the highly gifted lyrical poets of his generation. The readers, including this reviewer, will agree that his poetry is an enjoyable and cultivated reading. J. M . Kirschbaum TWO FOREIGN LANGUAGE COLLECTIONS OF SLOVAK POETRY Mikulas Sprinc: DRIFTWOOI) Poems translated from the Slovak by the author, Larz Pearson and Jaroslav Vajda. Engravings by Dr. Joseph G. Cincik. Published by the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, 1969. Printed by the Benedictine Press at St. Andrew's Abbey, Cleveland, 0. Gorazd Zvonicky: SOLTANTO ROVINE - Italian translation by Milan S. !>urica and Ernesto Simonetto. Published by Associazione di cultura ceca e slovaca "Arturo Cronia," Padua, 1968. Slovak culture was enriched recently by two excellent collections of translations of poems by two of our outstanding poets in exile. The first collection is published in English and presents a selection of recent verses from the lyrical works of the cultivated and sensitive poet, Mikulas Sprinc. The selection, as well as the translations, are very successful and the English reader will go through this carefully published and artistically illustrated volume with delight. Whoever likes intimate lyrics written by a poet who seems to combine the art of Paul Verlaine and the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi will enjoy every verse of this excellent collection. Some verses were translated by the author himself, others by the well-known translator of Slovak poetry into English, Rev. J. Vajda, and some by one of the students of the poet, Larz Pearson. As usual, �204 SLOVAKIA the translations do not reflect exactly the Slovak text and its musical and rhythmical quality but, on the whole, all translations attest to the talent of both the auther and the translators. Those who appreciate poetry which is rooted in the strong belief in the Creator without sounding too religious, and those who like the beauty of life iu the songs of birds, the color of flowers, the sound of the wind, and blue skies or the colors of the rainbow, will find delight in reading Mikulas Sprinc's poetry. The volume also contains several fine poems with patriotic overtones expressing the poet's love for his lost and oppressed native Slovakia. The author and the publishers deserve credit for enriching Slovak culture by this valuable volume. there is a refined poet following in the footsteps of Slovak fighters for the nation's freedom, who used the most efficient weapon against tyranny and the sufferings of the Slovak people--the deeply felt and masterfully written poetic protest. As in the case of the volume by Mikulas Sprinc, Slovak intellectuals in the free world as well as at home will appreciate Zvonicky's publication. -jmkDr. Heinrich Kuhn: Bibliographisches Handbuch der Tschechoslowakei. Publications of the Collegium Carolinum, Verlag Robert Lerche, Munich 1969. Dr. Kuhn has added to his very useful previous work Handbuch this new pubThe collection "Soltanto Rovine" der Tschechoslowakei the biowith deals which lication by Gorazd Zvonicky in the tranlapoliticians, Party oftion of Prof. Milan S. !>urica and graphies of and other persons in the Ernesto Simonetto, is another valu- ficials the present Czechoable contribution. Masterfully il- public life of Slovakia. lustrated , the volume gives both As in his previous work, Dr. the Slovak text as well as the Italian translation. Gorazd Zvoni- Kuhn shows a detailed knowledge cky is one of the best contemporary of the subject and prepared it with Slovak poets, highly cultivated and his usual "ptinktlichkeit" and segifted. His poetry is of the same riousness of a scholar. Therefore, genre as that of Mikula!; Sprinc- specialists in Eastern Europe will lyrical, intimate, musical and well welcome this new publication ewritten. It wa~, therefore, not easy specially after the Soviet occupato make an adequate translation. tion placed Czecho-Slovakia again The translators used free verse and into the focus of international indid not look for rhyme. Neverthe- terest. Kuhn's work has been published less, the volume transfers to the readers the feeling of a Slovak in loose sheets in two volumes patriot and poet towards the brutal which will be welcomed by reoccupation of his native country searchers as a very practical way by Soviet troops and the martyr- of dealing with the political figures dom of the Slovak population. The in occupied Czecho-Slovakia. All verses express, however, not only biographies are carefully prepared, intimate and personal sorrows, but containing the most important data. also indignation of all Slovak pa- In some biographies the author triots and of the whole Slovak left out the place of birth of some politician or Party official, but he nation. Once more in Slovak poetry I gives detailed information on all �SLOVAKIA the main leaders either in the government or in the Party. In some cases, like that of the present First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. G. Husak, it would have been useful to mention the ten years he spent in jail under Novotny's regime, as well as his writings in periodicals about his experience in Novotny's dungeons. Dr. Kuhn mentions only three publications by Husak and in the first one there 205 is a slight mistake in the title. It should read "Zapas o zajtrajfok." Since the leading figures of Slovak and Czech political life were often presented in the West with journalistic superficia!lity, confusing Slovaks for Czechs, we we1lcome this book because it will enable everybody interested in the problems of Czecho.Slovakia to receive correct information. J . M . Kirschbaum BOOKS ON DUBCEK AND SLOVAKIA Among some 50 books in the English and French languages which dealt with the events in Czecho-Sl-ovakia in 1968 and after, there was none, as mentioned last year in my review of books on Slovakia, which paid attention to the situation in Slovakia. The authors of these books overlooked the fact that the liberalization movement had started in Slovakia and that it was also headed by a Slovak-Alexander Dubcek. Prof. Gordon Skilling, who is one of the foremost Canadian specialists on post-war Czecho-Slovakia, drew attention to this lack of interest or intentional neglect in the works of Western specialists in Eastern Europe.1 The role of Slovaks was analyzed and evaluated only in the Canadian siavonic Papers (Vol. X, 4, 1968) by this writer. In 1970 we have, however, several books or studies which do not treat the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 exclusively as "Prague Spring" but are concerned with the whole country and point out to the specific Slovak problems and the role the Slovaks played in the deStalinization period. The best among these studies in English so far is the book by William Shawcross DUBCEK (London, 1970) which would deserve a much more extensive review than space allow us. Another work also deserves our attention is "Dubcek's Biue Print for Freedom" by Lunghi and Ello (Kimber, London, 1968) c1s are two essays by the members of the staff of the Czeclio-Slovak Section of the B.B.C., Michael Montgomery and Deryck Viney. The latter wrote an interesting essay in "Studies of Comparative Communism" (University of Southern California, July-August 1969). The book by Shawcross does not give any biography except to say that "he left Oxford in June 1968 and is now writing on Eastern European affairs for the ' Sunday Times.' He is 24 and this is his first book." In view of this, the book is quite an achievement. From the references, as well as from the contents, it is clear that Shawcross carried out extensive research, interviews, and travelled around .Slovakia, including the birth place of ~lexander Dubcek. As a result, we have in hand a thorough and well documented study. The book is, of course, not without mistakes and shortcomings which, in the intricate situation and confused reporing on events, is to be expected. �206 SLOVAKIA While other Western authors ascribed the liberalization movement to the Czechs, Shawcross's main thesis is that Dubcek's rise to power and the subsequent liberalization of Czecho-Slovakia were due to the fact that the Slovak question had been the motive force behind these events. He traces Dubcek's career within the apparatus of the Communist Barty of Slovakia as a more or less obsequious Party member until he decided to spearhead the Slovak movement within the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia for greater justice for all the Slovaks. Carried to the ht)ad of this movement that had much deeper roots than most Western observers have cared to point out, Dubcek then demonstrated strategic and tactical talents in forestalling Novotny's counterattacks and eventually in leading the struggle to rid the country of its Stalinist President and Communist Party First Secretary. Although Dubcek did not expect it, he saw himself placed at the head of Czecho-Slovakia, the first Slovak to achieve this position. Up to this point, Shawcross's presentation, despite some mistakes on the meaning and on some details of the 1944 revolt, is very good. The author shows good knowledge of the political situation in Slovakia and an understanding of the problem which Slovakia poses within Czecho-Slovakia. Husak's rise to power is dismissed as a personal repetition of Dubcek's ascension. No doubt Husak's emergence as the head of •t he Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia was in many ways a personal success, but the fact that a second Slovak rose to the highest position when many Czech Stalinists were waiting in the wings, indicates that the Communist Party of Slovakia, if not other institutions or groups, must also have played some role. With the federalization of CzecboSlovakia, the Slovak element could not be further ignored as it had been during the Novotny years. It is to be regretted that Sbawcross did not pursue the developments in Slovakia and if be was unab'1e to find out more of what happened there after August 1968, he could present at least some hypotheses. As far as Husak is concerned, he also made an error when stating that he graduated at Prague University. Despite these shortcomings, Shawcross's work must be considered not only as a good piece of research, but in view of his age, is an act of courage, as he did not hesitate to bring forward a problem that Western historiography has been ignoring for more than half a century. Among the books on Czecho-Slovakia in the French language, it is the one by Pavel Tigrid which deals with Dubcek and with the It is after the time of the in- situation leading to the dismissal vasion by the Soviet Union and of Novotny, as well as with the her satellites that Shawcross's nar- events of 1968, and the aftermath rative shows some of its flaws, of the invasion. Tigrid's book is much of this is due to the fact entitled La chute irresistible d'Athat he follows Tigrid's book too iexander Dubcek, (Calmann-Levy, closely. The author is carried away Paris, 1969) . The book was written on the by his admiration for Dubcek and paints his opponents too black. basis of many unpublished docuJ<'urthermore, the Slovak problem ments and minutes of the meetings is completely lost in this part. 1 of the Central Committee of the �SLOVAKIA Communist Party, or of the government. Tigrid has recognized that the Slovak problem played an important role in the attempts to oust Novotny from his position and he depicts Dubcek in this first phase ot the struggle within the Central Committee of the Communist Party as a fighting, courageous man. However, the role of Dubcek after he took over the office of First Secretary is painted with a certain tendency tJo diminish his importance or to present him as a timid, indecisive man, lacking in intellectual abilities and preparation to cope with the problem of liberalization. One chapter is entitled "Alexander Dubcek, heros malgre lui" which by itself indicates a sort of depreciation and shows an attempt on the part of Tigrid to ascribe the liberalization movement to the Czechs, even though the truth is ,that the behavior of the Czech masses as well as of some of their politicians greatly contributed to the decision of the Soviets to invade the country and to destroy the liberalization movement. Tigrid's book is written in a journalistic rather than in a scholarly style, but by using original sources and confidential information, it fills a certain gap in the literature about the events in Czecho.JSlovakia in 1967 and 1968. We also find in Tigrid',s book a sympathetic mention of Vasil Bil'ak who strongly opposed Novotny in December 1967 and courageously fought for Slovak interests, but apparently became later one of those sided with Moscow. More objectively than in Tigrid's book, Slovakia and Dubcek are presented in the book by Francois Fetji:i Histoire des democracies populaires apres Staline (Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1969) . In Fetji:i's 207 book, Dubcek is not presented as a timid, indecisive and implicitly naive and politically unprepared leader. On the contrary, he is portrayed as a man who believed strongly in his "Communism with human face," and in Lenin's thesis on the independence and the territorial integrity of socialist states. Throughout his book, Fetjo deals with the situation in Czecho-Slovakia with rare objectivity and compares -the events with either Hungary or Poland. As one chapter, entitled "La Tragedie Tchechoslovaque et ses ,p rolongements," indicates, he considers the invasion of Czecho-Slovakia as a tragedy and as a brutal and unnecessary action on the cpart of Moscow. A one-time Communist and author of several books on Eastern Europe and communism, Fetji:i presents in his book conclusions which are logical and displays solid knowledge of the problems of the countries under Soviet rule. He writes about Slovakia and the Communist leaders of Slovak origin or born in Slovakia without any bias, which many authors of books on Eastern Europe u~ually are unable or unwilling to do. Michel Tatu also published a series of articles and a book on the events in Czecho-Slovakia, and two books by Ladislav Mnacko have been translated into the French language. For the events of 1968, only one of Mnacko's books La septieme nuit is of importance. Books in German dealing with the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 are comperatively few when compared to the number of books published in English. With regard to Slovakia, we can mention the German translation of Mnacko's book Die Siebente Nacht (Vienna, 1968) which was reviewed last yeaT �208 SLOVAKIA in Slovakia. Another author from knowledge of the situation in Slovakia, Dr. Eugen Lobl published Czecho-Slovakia and refers to many his experiences in jail in German, sources in the Slovak and Czech Die Revolution rehabilitiert ihre language which would indicate Kinder, (Vienna: Europa, 1968), as that he might be one of the Sudewell as a political essay published ten Germans who now live in West together with Leopold Grunwald, Germany. His approach to the SloDie intellektuelle Revolution, Hi~ vak problem is unbiased. Dubcek tergriinde und Auswirkungen des and other Slovak communist lead"Prager Friihlings," (Diisseldorf: ers played, according to him, an important role during the crisis Econ, 1969) . While in the first book Dr. Lobl of the Communist Party in 1967, speaks about the persecution and and he portrays Dubcek as First Communists Secretary of the Communist Party of rehabilitation purged during the Stalinist period without the caustic remarks or and later in the Novotny era, his disdain which can be found in contribution in the second book Tigrid 's book, for instance. Even though Reitzner's book is presents his views on the possibility of reforming communist systems rather the work of an experienced and of giving them a human face. journalist who made detailed reAccording to Prof. Skilling "As search, it reflects quite objectively a severe critique of the Soviet the changing situation in Czechobrand of socialism, this book ranks Slov-akia in those two fateful years. with Djilas' The New Class, but In addition, by quoting from Slorepresents also an original and vak and Czech periodicals, newsimaginative, even if passionate and papers and speeches of communist one-sided, interpretation of the leaders, Reitzner's book preserves proposed Czechoslovak model. For m·eful materials for further reLobl, the events of 1968 constituted search. Speaking probably much a new phase in the 'socialist re- better Czech than Slovak, he was volution,' continuing the work led to misspel the name of some begun by the October revolution Slovak newspapers like "Smena" and later interrupted by Stalinism. or "Smer" which he writes in It was also a renewed effort by Czech orthography. The reader is left with the imCzechs and Slovaks to follow a that the author had a pression atan own, s pecial path of their tempt which had been made in the sincere intention to give a realistic 1940s and then had been rudely and objective account of th ~ Mmblocked by Soviet coercion as ex- plex situation in both Slovakia and emplified by the trials of the the Czech lands. 1950s." (International Journal, Vol. l) See H. Gordon Skilling: "Thaw XXV, No. 1, p. 197) . and Freeze-Up: Prague 1968." International Journal Vol. XXV, There is also, however, a German No. 1, pp. 192-201. author, Almar Reitzner, wh o published a book entitled D ubcek F . Kennan: From Prague (Miinchen, 1970) but actually deals George Diplomatic Papers Munich, after with all the aspects of the crisis 1938-1940, Princeton University in Czecho-Slovakia in 1967 and Press, 1968, 226 Pages. with the short period of liberalizaThe well-known diplomat-historition and the Soviet invasion of 1968. Reitzner displays a detailed an George F . Kennan contributes �SLOVAKIA in this volume to the history of the crucial years 1938-1940 by many valuable documents, diplomatic despat.ches and personal observations. As he admits himself in his preface : "All were written either for private purposes or for the confidential information of the United States government." With all academic honesty, he also admits : "This material was unavoidably in many respects unbalanced and inadequate. In reflected serious lapses in my own historical background as well as in the range of my contacts in the Czechoslovak society of the time. The selection of the subject matter was inevitably affected by the limitations on opportunities for reading, for travel, and for personal acquaintance." .Such a confession does not diminish the value for historians or students of the political tragedy which started with Munich. Nevertheless, the reader and even more the student of history has to keep in mind the author's remarks, especially with regard to Slovakia, where his contacts were not only limited but his information came mostly from people who were not free to bias against the Slovak aspirations for an equal footing with the Czech half of the country. Kennan himself admits in his despatches that Slovakia was not treated by Prague governments without discrimination and prejudice; yet he accepted in many instances the Czech views on the motives and goals of the ffiinka's Slovak Populist Party, on the autonomist movement and on the contacts of its leaders with Berlin. The Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, published in 1957 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office i11 co-operation with the United States Department of State, dis- 209 prove many of the adverse allegations about the Slovak autonomist movement; even the history books published by communist historians in the short period of liberalization in Slovakia seem to put the events of 1938-1939 and the leading personalities in a more objective historical perspective than some documents contained in this volume. It would, however, be unjust to blame Kennan because his information was gathered from people either in Prague or in Slovakia who viewed the situation from their partisan position and with the result that his report reflected their biased opinions. This valuable volume of documents and excellently written observations also suffers from another shortcoming. The author writes that the documents are source material "above all to those students of the political process who wish to examine the anatomy of an attempt by a military powerful country to dominate and control, under modern conditions, the life of a small and helpless but highly developed neighbor for whose national feelings, and claim to independence, it has only contempt." This is certainly a highly motivated purpose and no doubt the documents will be helpful in this respect. rt is, however, hard to understand why the epilogue to this book was written by Frederick G. Heymann, who left Prague in 1939, was hardly acquainted with Slovakia and her internal problems and who admits that his own immediate information at the time on which Kennan reported same from representatives of the replaced Bene§ Government and other Czech friends. In addition, Heymann admits that he stayed in Czecho-Slovakia only from 1932 to 1939 and "looked at the political �210 SLOVAKIA and socieconomic development there from the viewpoint of a newspaperman of originally German background." With all respect to Mr. Heymann, no student of Eastern European history can take this as his credentials to write an epilogue, let alone an objective epilogue to this volume. Especially acute is his biased attitude towards Slovakia which he severely condemns--not the regime exclusively which certainly deserve condemnation for some acts; furthermore, he does not even indicate that he ever liv~d in Slovakia or studied the Slovak problem. J.M. Kirschbaum David L. Hoggan: Der Erzwungene Krieg , Die Ursachen und Urheber des z. Weltkriegs, Verlag der Deutschen HochschullehrerZeitung Tubingen, 1963, bibliography, maps, photographs, pages 898. The book Der Erzurnngene Krieg (The Imposed War) by the American historian, Prof. David L. Hoggan, represents an effort to reverse the blame for the Second World War. According to his research, it was not Germany which imposed the war on other countries, but the war was imposed by other countries on Germany. The main culprit in Prof. Hoggan's opinion seems to be Poland, but other great powers share, according to him, some of the responsibility as well. The voluminous work has been written in English but only its German translation has been so far published. If we believe the assertions of Dr. Herbert Grabert, several outstanding historians and colleagues of Prof. Hoggan in the United States read the manuscript and helped the author with advice or agreed with his conclusions. He names especially Michael Karpovltch, Sidney B. Fay, William L. Langer, Rudolf Holsti, Harry Rudin, Raymond Sontag, Charles Tansill, M. K. Dziewanowski, Ralph Lutz, Henry Adams, James Martin and Richavd Jones. Each of them " contributed a lot to the work; other renowned American learned men who came with worthwhile suggestions should not be quoted by their names but their help should be gratefully acknowledged," says Dr. Grabert. The book is undoubtedly one of the most controversial works on the Second World War and it is the duty of the historians of the Second World War to come to grips with the conclusions of Prof. Hoggan. In view of his extended research and references to many works, his narrative seems to be in accordance with the facts. However unbelievable some of these conclusions may seem, Prof. Hoggan shows that he knows all the main sources and documents in English, German, French, Polish and Russian, and pays attention even to books by Czech, Rumanian and Slovak authors. This mass of documentation and references stresses the impression that the book is a scholarly serious undertaking and were it not for the many books published in the West, as well as by the Communist historians who defend quite opposite conclusions, the reader could draw the definite conclusion that the Second World War was really imposed upon the Third Reich. The author, as well as the publishers, were aware of the controversial nature of the book and mentioned that some learned societies or historians in Germany itself express views which are in complete contradiction of Prof. �SLOVAKIA Hoggan's story on the reasons which led to the Second World War. Due to lack of space, we cannot unfortunately write an extensive review or to point out areas where the book differs from the accepted opinions expressed by either American, English, German, French or Russian historians and wish simply to register the publication of this book and its controversial contents. It is also worthwhile to mention that the origins and birth of the Slovak Republic are presented in Prof. Hoggan's book in a different light than we are accustomed to in the books published in the West or in the Communist countries. Prof. Hoggan made the effort to get acquainted with books and documents published by Slovak scholars and historians abroad and did not accept the Czech version, greatly unfavorable to the Slovak people, but uncritically accepted by many renowned historians in the West and East alike. Despite the fact that this book will be opposed by many historians who are unable or unwilling to correct their views no matter how erroneous they may be, Slovaks should be pleased that the truth about Slovakia begins to penetrate Western historiography. Unfortunately, insignificant as the Slovak problem seems to be to the Great Powers, foreign historians will not deal with small problems and by opposing the main conclusions of Prof. Hoggan's book, they will indirectly oppose also his truthful presentation in minor events including the origins and existence of the Slovak Republic. A a result, we must face reality and believe that it will take a long time and many efforts on the part of Slovak scholars who live in the Western world before Slovakia is treated 211 in Western historiography without bias and is free of anti-Slovak tendencies sustained and propagated mainly by the books of Czech historians and politicians and by Communist propaganda literature. J.M. Kirschbaum TOW ARD A NEW CENTRAL EUROPE : A Symposmm on the Prob- lems of the Danubian Nations, Edited by: Francis S. Wagner, Danubian Press, Inc. Astor Park, Florida, 1970. Not only specialists but anyone interested in Eastern Europe will welcome this well documented and carefully edited symposium which reflects the view of some 30 authors on the problems of Central Europe. The book is divided into five parts and the contributors belong practically to all the peoples of the Danubian and Carpathian part of East Central Europe. Part I deals with the international relations of individual Central European peoples with the Western Powers. It also contains some basic principles for the possibility of the co-existence of nations in the Danubian and Carpathian basins. The contributions by C. A. Macartney, T. Eckhardt, and the late Wenzel Jaksch seem to be the most relevant in this part. Part II deals with federalism in Central Europe and contains views and analysis of the federalist efforts in Central Europe by some 15 authors. We can find among them not only the late Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, Milan Hodza, but also the well-known supporter of Danubian Federation, F. 0. Miksche, as well as a contribution entitled : "Slovakia and the Integration Plans of Central Europe" by J . M. Kirschbaum, and a historical �212 SLOVAKIA survey of federalist movement a- Conference reads as follows: "It mong Slovaks and Czechs by Jo- is the intention of the Czecho-Sloseph Ostrovsky entitled "Czech and vak Government to create the orSlovak Statesmen in Favor of a ganization of the State by accepting as a basis of natural rights the Central European Federation." Part III deals with the national- principles applied in the constituity questions which were the main tion of the Swiss Republic, that is, problem in that part of Europe to make the Czecho-Slovak Repubfor the past 200 years. The authors, lic a sort of Switzerland," and not Alexander Gallus and Francis S. as quoted by Ostrovsky. The author Wagner, who edited this symposi- also omitted other- Slovaks who um, figure among the main con- during or after the Second World tributors to this part. As far as War advocated federalist plans in Slovakia is concerned, it is especial- Central Europe: Karol Sidor in ly the contribution by Francis S. " Gazette de Lausanne," Dr. F. Wagner "The Nationality Problem :i'.lurcansky in "Revue de droit inin Czecho-Slovakia after World tC"rnational" (Geneve, 1944), this War II" which is of interest for writer in several foreign language Slovaks. Part IV deals with econom- articles and books, etc. In 1968 ic problems, and Part V contains Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed a federation of two Republics on maps and statistical data. October 27th in the Assembly and Even though it is impossible to following day in Bratislava, the agree with some of the views exbut with the provision that the. to belonging authors by pressed Law No. 143 will take effect on several nations, the book is a seriJanuary 1st, 1969, and not as Osous attempt to find ways for the trnvsky writes. Certain of these r.ations in Central Europe, who are omissions were unnecessary, bezone influence Soviet a now in cause he could have found a detail( except for the Austrians) to live ed survey of Slovak federalist tentheir pooling by again together dencies in my book: "Slovakiaeconomies and by assuring better Nation at the Crossroads of Central economic standards and freedom Europe" (R. Speller, Publishers, for nearly one hundred million New York, 1960). enslaved people. The academic The contributors amassed a rich value of the contributions differs from author to author but, gener- sources of bibliographical informaally, all contributions are on a high tion in several languages which level and the maps and statistical also can help to acquire a much data will be especially appreciated better and more objective view of by those who research the problems the problems in the past and the possibilities of co-operation of the of Central Eastern Europe. living between the Soviet peoples view, of point Slovak From the in J. Ostrovsky's article one can Union and Germany in the future. unfortunately, find sor:ie errors' The Magyar intellectuals who deinaccuracies and omissions. Dr. Mi~ serve recognition for publishing Ian Hodfa died in the United states this symposium came undoubtedly and not in London. The number with a good initiative to discuss cf Magyars was never one million on a broad basis the problems and in Slovakia and the exact promise ways which would lead toward a of a federal structure of Czecho- 1new Central Europe. J. M. Ki rs c h b au m Slovakia by Dr. Bene~ at the Peace �SLOVAKIA 213 Beitrage zum Deutsch-Tschechi- cide." The Czech population was schen Verhiiltnis im 19. und 20 . encouraged before Dr. Benes reJahrhundert. (Veroffentlichungen turned to Prague by his Ministers des Collegium Oarolinum) Verlag in exile: " to beat them ; kill them ; Robert Lerche (Miinchen, 1967), leave none alive," and many were pp. 178. massacred, mistreated, raped and burned alive. Hundreds of thouThis collection of lectures on the sands died on the "death march" problem of German-Czech relations or in concentration camps, accordis an attempt at presenting the ing to the published documents. problem without passion on a scholarly basis. The lectures were In spite of this, the volume under read at a conference which took r eview refrained from general acplace in Nurenberg and Salzburg cusations of the whole Czech popuin 1964, but the book was publish- lation and gives quite a sober ed only in 1967. survey of the German-Czech r elations. Also the two Czech conAmong the contributors there is tributors avoid mentioning the a Czech historian, Bohdan Chudo- massacres and plead for a sort of ba, and the former Czech diplomat, co-operation in Central Europe and Karel Lisicky. From the German reconciliation. side seven contributors deal with the problem and all seem to master Among the contributions by the Czech language which would German scholars, Dr. Kuhn's artiindicate that they were either born cle on the attitude of the Commuor studied in Czecho-Slovakia. nist Party of Czecho-Slovakia to Whoever read the documents on the Sudeten German question is the expulsion of the Sudeten Ger- one which is the most timely since mans or the book by Prof. Kurt it is the Communist government Glaser (Czecho-Slovakia-A Criti- and Moscow which can bring any cal History ) must admire the quiet change in the relations between tone and restraint with which the Germans and Czechs, and give a German authors present the Ger- new solution to the Sudeten German"Czech relations through the man problem. For specialists in centuries up to the expulsion of Eastern Europe will be, however, more than three million Sudeten of great interest also the contribuGermans from their centuries old tions by Ferdinand Seibt about the settlements in Bohemia. When Dr. social structure of the first CzechoBenes was seeking the Allied sup- Sl ovakia and Frederich Prinz's port for his plan to expel the ar ticle on Benes and the Sudeten Sudeten Germans, he emphasized Germans. E. Zajicek gives in his repeatedly that the transfers would essay some insight into the politics be carried out decently and human- of the Sudeten Germans who coly. However, when he returned operated with Prague. behind the Red Army to Slovakia All the contributions were writand Bohemia, he apparently forgot ten on the basis of good knowledge about his promises of a human solution of the Sudeten German of the literature either in the qu estion. Basing his philosophy on Czech, German or English lanthe so-called " collective guilt," Dr. guage, which enhances the value Bmes allowed the use of methods of the book. which Prof. Glaser calls "geno- I J. M . K i r s c h b a um �214 SLOVAKIA AS OTHERS SEE I commend the Slovak leaders who are sponsoring and perfecting an organization of American Slovak patriots to continue the fight to restore freedom and self-govern• ment to the Slovak Nation. I also commend those Slovak leaders who are endeavoring to unite various Slovak organizations and groups t hroughout the country and combine their efforts in a unified force for the purpose of concentrating public opinion not only in America Lut throughout the world on enslaved nations who must break the shackles of despotism as rapidly as possible and give millions an opportunity to live and enjoy the life of freedom and self-determination. The Slovak Nation historically maintains the highest spirit of friendshi·p for all humanity and at no time in history has ever encroached upon the rights and freedoms of its neighbor nations, and has always given tangible proof of its generosity and spirit of cooperation with humanity in t he hope that world peace can be a reality for all people on the globe. The Slovak World Congress could inaugurate a great educational program to apprise youth i America and throughout the world of the true facts regarding world communism from the days of Lenin down to the present year 1970. IT their people by the sword, guns, slave-labor camps, and mass murders. Education and presentation of fact on Communist enslavement to the world's uninformed are the greatest weapons democracy possesses against the destruction of the Communist menace. The free world must continue this fight. Someday this victory will be won and the Communist enslavers will become extinct. Slovakia and other captive nations will regain free and independent government. I know that the SLOVAK WORLD CONGRESS will continue its outstanding contribution to the free world's fight to exterminate international communist conspiracy and restore freedom to millions throughout the world by the reestablishment of former governments which will give freedom and liberty to their people. - Ray J . Madden, M. C. Mr. ESHLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, neither the Slovak League of A· merica nor the Congress of the United States has forgotten the brutal occupation of Slovakia by the Soviet Army in 1968. We appeal to the conscience of America, to the American people, and to the United Nations-most of all-for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Slovak soil and for guaranteed free democratic elections under United N'cltions' control. One of my valued constituents, Mr. Joseph Pauco, is secretary of the Slovak League of America. That organization is entirely correct when they, in the proper manner, demand the right of freedom for Slovakia. - Edwin D. Eshle- The free nations have the ability, the education, the defense machinery, and the assets to curtail the further spread of the Communist menace and we must continue our fight. History has revealed over the centuries that dictators cannot stay in power long when they must rule man, M.C. �SLOVAKIA 215 The leading example of an unem- of the party presidium last month, ployed party official is, of course, Mr. Husak was in the minority of Alexander Dubcek, the party's a 7-4 vote over an analysis of the leader during the reforms. After events leading up to the Soviet dismissal earlier this year as Am- invasion. The following morning bassador to Turkey and expulsion Mr. Husak left for Moscow to refrom the party, Mr. Dubcek retired ceive Kremlin assurances of conto his Bratislava home to await tinued confidence. employment. Mr. Husak received limited SoHe turned down a fund-handling viet support earlier this fall when post with the Slovak social-security a major campaign to remove him agency for fear that it might be was disclosed through the accidentu~ed to implicate him in possible al death of one of the conspirators. misappropriation charges. He re- Jaroslav Trojan, a member of the quested instead, employment as a presidium of the Federal Assembly, forester .. . was killed as he drove his car after The makers and chief propo- a drinking session with a Soviet nents of Czecho-Slovakia's lost companion. A routine search of his liberalization take their principal desk disclosed copies of dozens of consolation from the fact that there letters by right-wing party officials have been no political trials and addressed to various Soviet leaders few Czechs or Slovaks are in jail and calling for the ouster of Mr. on political charges. But most see Husak. 110 reason to consider this state The party leader was authorized necessarily permanent. to dismiss a few of his principal It is generally believed that while opponents, notably the Czech Inthe party's First Secretary, there terior Minister, Josef Groesser, and will be no political trials because the military man in charge of Mr. Husak was himself a victim of liaison with the Soviet occupation such a trial in Stalin's day. But if tr oops, Gen. Otakar Rytar. But the Soviet Union wants trials, ac- after the general's dismissal, Moscording to this belief, it will re- cow was reported to have sent place Mr. Husak just as it ousted word that he was to be the last Mr. Dubcek last year and replaced "internationalist" ousted. him with Mr. Husak. "Internationalist" is the term for Mr. Husak, while evidently still those who accept the doctrine that the man Moscow considers best the Soviet Union has the right to able to run Czecho-Slovakia, has intervene in a socialist country for some time been under open whenever it says socialism is attack by party leaders even more threatened, such as in Czecho-SloprO-.Soviet than himself. It is as- vakia in 1968. sumed here that these leaders are Opponents of Mr. Husak are conalso operating with Soviet approval, ducting a campaign to present him presumably to keep Mr. Husak as insufficiently internationalist. At from the illusion of independent a Central Committee meeting this power. month, Vasil Bilak, a strongly proThe most determined of Mr. Hu- Soviet leader, surprisingly disclosed sak's opponents are Antonin Ka- that he had a long-missing docupek, secretary of the Prague organ- ment that would identify the ization and Alois Indra, Cetral genuine internationalists and from Committee secretary. At a meeting I which Mr. Husak's name is absent. �216 SLOVAKIA The document is the alleged 1968 letter from Czecho-Slovak leaders to the Soviet Union inviting the Warsaw Pact intervention. The letter was mentioned by Moscow immediately after the invasion but has never been produced nor all its signers disclosed. Mr. Bilak listed about 40 signers, including himself, Mr. Kapek and Mr. Indra. - The New York Times, December 22, 1970. George Blanda, the 43-year-old grey-beard sub quarterback and kicking specialist of the Oakland Raiders football team whose lastgasp heroics gave new hope to the middle-aged, has been named Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. The ageless marvel of the gridiron, who excelled in a tough contact sport competing against athletes half his age, beat out a glittering array of stars in assorted sports in the year-end poll of sports writers and broadcasters. Blanda received 332 votes compared with 246 for Bobby Orr, defenseman of the Boston Bruins hockey team who was runner-up, and 224 for Johnny Bench, slugging catcher of the Cincinnati Reds' baseball team who was a close third . - Associated Press. (Blanda i:; of Slovak ancestry.) I could not condemn the Hungarians or the Czechs and Slovaks, for example, if they were able to launch an effort in this country to turn our eyes toward the danger of the new isolationism. - Frank Morris. The Wanderer, St. Paul, Minn. , September 24, 1970. Those who have known nothing but freedom seldom are capable of appreciating the single majesty of that which they have: the privilege nf aff!'rfing their own destiny. But ask any Czech or Slovak, who has had liberty and then lost it, what it means to be free. Such men know, and in them the dream never dies. - Smith Hempstone. The Phil.adeiphia Inquirer, November 1, 1970. Slovak police recently made a series of raids on government stores and found that one-third were overcharging by as much as 50 per cent on scarce goods. Forty thousand dollars worth of goods were found hidden for customers with extra money. - Donald R. Shanor. Chicago Daily News. December 26, 1970. .Slovak youth stubbornly clings to its anti-Soviet feelings and looks upon the presence of Soviet troops in Czecho-Slovakia as the greatest injustice and offense. This is the conclusion of Ondrej Pavlik, a member of the Slovak Academy of Science. Pavlik gave an account-in the official organ of the Ministry of Education-of an investigation carried out among students in secondary sohools in all parts of Slovakia. In the course of the research more than 2000 questionnaires were collected from students and 400 from teachers. The replies were anonymous. Pertinent portions of Pavlik's report follow : "The entry of Soviet troops in our country and their stationing here still occupy a dominant position in the minds of our students. "The ..Soviet presence in our country is considered by students as a grave act of injustice and a sufficient reason to feel angry at the Soviet Union. "Another source of anti-Sovietism among our youth is our trade relation with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. The �SLOVAKIA arguments of ota Sik, economic expert during the Dubcek era are still accepted as valid by our you•th. 'There is much confusion in the minds of our students about modern capitalism. The students' arguments are seldom political but chiefly of economic nature. "The survey revealed a strikingly high degree of religious beliefs, especially among girls in all secondary schools of Slovakia. In most cases the influence of the school in political-ideological questions is weak, very weak indeed. "Too many teachers concentrate on their particular subject, or pretend they do and do not concern themselves with ideological education; they regard ideological educational work with disdain. "The investigation revealed that students seldom ask their teachers ideological questions for fears of embarrassing the teachers. There is a kind of tacit agreement between students and teachers: 'you say what you want and we think what we want.'" "A considerate proportion of the youth questioned have expressed confidence in the person of Gustav Husak, present leader of the Czecho-Slovak Communist Party, even though such students remain highly critical of the Soviets. "The reduced emphasis put on atheistic education is chiefly responsible for the growing influence of the Church among Slovak yeuth." - Theodore Andrica. Cleveland Press Vienna Bureau. I went behind the Iron Curtain. For so many years I have read a lot of reports concerning communism and many times I often wondered how much of the horror that I have read about is true. So many times I wondered, as I think most Americans have, is commu- 217 nism as bad as my government has told me? Although my trip to Slovakia was short, I can tell you that communism is horrible. I flew from Zurich, Switzerland to Vienna, Austria. In Austria, part of our free world, I rented a car and drove to Slovakia. The entry point was Bratislava. Trying desperately to find my way through the chopped up, beaten, narrow streets of the city, I stopped at a little store to try to get directions to the institute. A woman about 60 years old attending this store, which had nothing but barren shelves and some old clothing, was very secretly hanging a Christmas tree ball in the far end of the store. What she was trying to do was add some Christmas to her store which was something she enjoyed as a young woman. Any display, religious or nationalistic, is absolutely forbidden. A prison sentence is imposed. As I drove through Bratislava, there were uniformed soldiers and police with machine guns. Their purpose was to contain the Slovak people so they could not revolt or could not escape the country. Obviously, the people knew that I was American by the way I was dressed and also the license plates on the automobile were that of the fre e world. A Slovak friend told me how communism begins to infect people and countries. He told me that if you read the Communist doctrine, it sounds glorious but impossible to work. He told me that communism in Russia itself is a complete failure and certainly was a failure in Czecho-Slovakia. So much so that it is necessary in Russia and in Czecho-Slovakia to contain the people by machine guns. He talked of America's greatness, and said that one of the great �218 SLOVAKIA things about America was our free enterprise system. People are individualistic, people want to progress in their life. If a man does more, he is entitled to more. If a man has greater ability, he is entitled to advance. Under the Communist system no such thing exists. There is no individual compensation for doing more or knowing more. He urged me to make known what I saw so that people here would know the true horrors of communism. The lack of sufficient food and clothing. The government regulating their lives. You can't buy a pair of shoes unless the government authorizes you to purchase them. You can't buy a suit unless the government approves the purchase of a suit. There is something that resembles TV with one channel. This goes on about 7 o'clock at night and it is turned off aproximately at 9. Half of the time is devoted to government propaganda. When the Russians came into Czecho-Slovakia, they did so because Czech and Slovak peoples were desirous of developing a free enterprise system so that people could work and get paid fairly for their day's labor, so that they could trade and associate more closely with the free world. The Russians invaded CzechoSlovakia. As Communists do they raped the nation, they pulled out all of the machinery in their factories, they even tore out street lights and took them into Russia. The Slovak people told me that the Russian soldiers did not have a watch on their wrist and in order to get a watch they pulled it off the arm of the Slovak people. They also touched on the intrusion of their homes and the raping of their wives and daughters, which is again a typical Communist and Nazi type of thing. He begged me to tell people how truly horrible communism is. It is very difficult for me to tell you how bad I really think it is. The Communists are told that soon America will convert to communism. This man told me this is difficult to believe. He said why would anybody want communism when you have such a wonderful system. I told him that the propaganda he was hearing was untrue, that there are some people, who believe communism is good, but unfortunately they have not seen what I have seen. He warned me to beware of what I say. Under Communism we don't know who will report us. If you say something to offend the system you could very easily be thrown in prison, in fact, they are looking just for that. - American Tourist. The Evening News , Harrisburg, Pa., December 26, 1970. The Christmas holiday for Czecho-Slovakia ended abruptly in a working Sunday. Factories, stores and shops were open, and traffic appeared about as heavy as on a weekday. Officially it was a week dayThursday, to be exact. The government decreed that it took the place of last Thursday, Christmas Eve, on the economic schedule, with all normal Thursday services supposed to be operating. Thursday had been designated a Saturday, meaning half-day shopping and offices closed. The calender confusion continues with Monday designated a Wednesday for work and organizational purposes. Tuesday is Tuesday but you're wrong if you think it will be followed by Wednesday. Wednesday, Dec. 30, has been designated a Friday, meaning extra �SLOVAKIA long business hours, because the real Friday, Jan. 1, is a holiday. Next Saturday, Jan. 2. has been designated a Sunday and Sunday, Jan. 3, a Monday. Finally, on Monday, January 4, normality of sorts returns-if two Mondays in one week can be conAssociated sidered normal. Press. The federal status of Czechia, Moravia and Slovakia has been replaced by strict Prague centralism, much to the embarrassment of Gustav Husak, the Communist Party's first secretary. As a Slovak nationalist, Husak spent years in jail during the Novotny regime. Theodore Andrica, cievel,and Press Vienna Bureau. Shortly after President Richard ~ixon's inaguaration in 1968 it was reported from Washington that Dr. Walter R. Tkach, an American of Slovak descent, and a long-time friend, serving as a colonel with the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, wa!:' recalled from Vietnam to be chief medical advisor to the President. 219 ing called to serve as the White House physician. It is not generally known, but the White House is equipped with an ultra modern medical clinic which is at the service of Mr. Nixon, his family, and the White House staff. More complete facilities are available at nearby Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Hospital and AFB with attending specialists. The White House clinic is staffed by seven people, three of whom are doctors. Whenever the president leaves the White House, even though it might be only a few feet away, he is always accompanied by a doctor. Dr. Tkach first became aquainted with Mr. Nixon 17 years ago when hi:! served as our country's vicepresident. Dr. Tkach at the time waE an assistant on President Eisenhower's medical staff in the White House. He accompanied the vice-president as his medical advisor during his historic trip to Russia, and on other travels had an opportunity to meet with fa. mous world personages like Nehru of India and Hirohito of Japan . . . The President's regimen under the close watch of Dr. Tkach seems to be working for him. Just recently Mr. Nixon remarked that he could not recall ever having had headache, the physical kind of ! course Dr. Tkach was graduated from Dr. Tkach is a strong advocate Penn State College where he attained a Bachelor of Science in of military service. He feels that Chemistry, and embarked on an military service affords young phyAir Force career after graduation sicians unlimited opportunities, and from medical school in 1945. He recommends that they consider served in Japan 1946-1948. Since military careers, particularly in the that time he had tours of duty at Air Force. - ,Dr. S. J . metko, various military medical schools, National Slovak Society Almanac, clinics and institutions, before be• Pittsburgh, Pa. About a year later Dr. Tkach, a 52-year old native of Monongahela, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh (his wife Helen, also hails from the same town), was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. �220 SLOVAKLA The last remammg clause of Alexander Dubcek's short lived "action program" is crumbling. That clause is the one that instituted a Czecho-,Slovak "federation" - a move that gave Slovakia, for the first time, more or less equal status with the more educated, industrialized, prosperous and powerful Czech lands. state bank, fuel and power engineering, transport and communications have all been recentralized in Prague. New national ministers have been appointed and the Czech and Slovak ministries closed. Even the secret police are to be controlled from the center again. Husak, in a speech last month, pledged that the federation itself Dubcek, a Slovak, included the would last, but said certain minor federation in the action program shortcomings had to be solved. The he introduced on April 9, 1968, at new laws were the result. a time when his now discredited To add insult to injury, both the liberalization was at its height. The Czech and Slovak governments had action program also provided a to apprnve emasculation of their range of civil rights-freedoms of own powers. speech, assembly and the press, A constitutional court was to secret elections, freedom to travel have been set up arbitrate disputes -that disappeared within a year between the two halves of Czechoof the Soviet led invasion. Slovakia and the national governBut Dubcek's successor Commu- ment. As far as is known the court nist Party First Secretary Gustav does not exist. Instead, the Prague Husak, also a Slovak, and there go'llernment has been authorized to were hopes that he would keep the handle such disputes-making it federation plan which was enor- both prosecutor and judge. mously popular in Slovakia. F'rom the Slovaks' point of view, It's likely to remain, at least on possibly the worst development paper, for some time. But a series was the new power of the central of measures taken over the Christgovernment to allocate investments mas holidays have reduced it to in Slovakia or Czech lands. For an empty shell. decades under communism and Through government decrees and before communism- Prague shortparliamentary moves, the regime changed the Slovaks in investment has all but eliminated Slovakia's and industry, keeping the area autonomy in economics and put permanently depressed. The record its economy back under central of the prewar Benes-Masaryk govcontrol from Prague - a Czech ernment was no better than the city. postwar Communist regime. Under federation, separate Czech After the action program, Slovaks and Slovak passports were issued. hoped the age old imbalance would The new law erases this and re- end. That hope now is dying. introduces Czecho-Slovak citizen- Richard C. Longworth of United ship. Press International, February 25, Foreign currency control, the 1971. �SLOVAKIA 221 Our Contributors Edw ard J. Behuncik, Attorney-at-Law, Stratford, Conn. J. M . Kirschbaum , LL.D ., Ph;D ., professor, historian, author, Toronto, Ontario Sister M. Delphina, SS.C.M ., teacher, Danville, Pa. Edw ard A . Tuleya , M . A ., Associate Professor, History Department, Millersville State College, Millersville, Pa. Joseph J. Krajsa, B.A., Bethany College, W. Va. Joseph Hradnansky, Ph.-D ., Associate Professor, Indiana University of · Pennsylvania; Instructor, University of Pittsburgh. Francis Vnuk, M.A ., Professor, Institute of Technology; historian, Ade: laide, Australia_ �222 SLOVAKIA Contents Slovak World Congress - Edward J. Behuncik - Stephen B. Roman-Slovak Tycoon Political Views of nudovit Stur - 3 J. M. Kirschbaum - Sister M. Delphina Opet - 7 20 The Assimilation Process of American Slovaks-J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D -79 The Slovak National Awakening - Edward A. Tuleya - The Emergence of the Slovak State - 85 Daniel F . Tanzone - 109 General Mil.an Rastislav Stefanik and the Movement for Czecho-Slovak Independence - Mary Ann Kadera - 124 Sviitopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? - - Mary Susan Sabol 134 Slovaks - Joseph John Krajsa - 145 Bratislava: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center - Dr. Joseph Hradnansky -164 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Francis Hrusovsky - J . M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. - Karol Sidor - F. Vnuk - 175 180 Current Issues (Proclamation of the 42nd Congress of the Slovak League of America. - Slovak World Congress.) - 189 Comments (Sixtieth Anniversary of the Poet Jan Doransky. - Great Distinction for Slovak Poet Karol Strmen. - A Letter of Prof J. M. Kirschbaum to the Polish Monthly Kultura.) - 195 Book Reviews (J. M. Kirschbaum: New Collection of Slovak Emigre Poetry. - Two Foreign Language Collections of Slovak Poetry. Dr. Heinrich Kuhn : Bibliographishes Handbuch der Tschechoslowakei. - Books on Dubcek and Slovakia. - David L. Hoggan: Der Erzwungene Krieg. - Toward a New Central Europe. - Beitrage zum Deutsch-Tschechischen Verhaltnis im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.) - 202 As Others See It - 214 �SLOVAKIA 223 SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA - supports freedom and independence of Slovakia; - promotes a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation, its history, culture, traditions, and desires ; - makes America better known to Slovakia and Slovakia better known to America in the interest of world peace, freedom and security; - has a scholarship program for college and university students; - promotes cooperation among all American-Slovak organizations and publications for the promulgations of Slovak ethnic heritage. - is a charter member of the Slovak World Congress. Life membership: $100.00 For further information, write to: Slovak League of America 313 Ridge Avenue Middletown, Pa. 17057 ��PRI NTI D IN U.S. A. JIDN OTA PlllN TER Y, MID DLli TOW N, PA. � SLOVAKIA 189 CURRENT ISSUES Proclamation of the 42nd Congress of the Slovak League of America At Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Solemnly convened in Congress, the officers and delegates of the Slovak League of America formally decla·r e that: 1. We rededica,te ourselves and our membership to the preserva,l!ion of the basic moral principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United Staites o·f America and the United Naitions organization. 2. In light of the above, we request our member organizations and the memberships to solicit their lo<:al, state and federal officials for assistance needed to reestablish Slovakia as a democratic state in a free Central Europe. 3. Fwrther we ask all our fellow citizens to likewise rededicate themselves to the great challenge and opportunities confronting all decent God fearing people in this period of violence, hatred and abuse of lawful authority; for, without a concerted effort by the silent majority, we could easily lose the God given rights and freedoms which we here enjoy, and which are presently non-existent in Slovakia and other nations with age old Christian cultures and traditions, and to insure tile continued safeguarding of these precious rights and gifts, as loyal citizens, we put our trust in and support the dedicated efforts of our President, Richard M. Nix·on, to end the Indochina War, to establish an honorable peace and to restore domestic tranquility. In witness whereof, we have caused these sentiments to be published this 24th day of May, 1970. Edward J. Behuncik, President Joseph Pauco, Secretary �190 SLOVAKIA Slovak World Congress (Mr. TAFT asked and was given permission-June 30, 1970-to address the House of Representatives for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous matter.) Mr. TAFT. Mr. Speaker, last week the American Slovak fraternal and religious organizations were participating in the First Slovak World Congress which was held in New York City at the Americana Hotel. I had both the honor and the pleasure to be one of their guests at the banquet, Sunday, June 21, together with my colleagues from the Congress-Ray J. Madden, Paul Findley, Michael A. Feighan, William E. Minshall, and John M. Murphy. Congressman Joseph M. Gaydos, himself of Slovak origin, was unfortunately in hospital at the time and missed this worthy event. Ambassador Nguyen Huu Chi, permanent observer to the United Nations, was also present. Representatives of other American nationalities were also present. Senator John G. Tower, an outstanding American and an eloquent speaker, gave the keynote address. It was a fine speech and the assembled were unanimous in their praise of Senator Tower's presentation and knowledge of history. Among the many delegates from the free world, including from Australia, Latin America, Europe, and Canada, who attended the sessions were also three bishops, Andrew G. Grutka of Gary, Ind., the honorary chairman of the congress; Michael Rusnak of Toronto, and Paul Hnilica of Rome, Italy. Stephen B. Roman, the internationally known industrialist from Canada, chaired the proceedings of the congress with Bishop Grutka. Mr. Roman was elected the chairman of the Slovak World Congress for 1970-71. The major organizations from the United States participating in the congress included the National Slovak Society, presided by John Pankuch, the Slovak Catholic Union, presided by John A. Sabol, the Catholic Sokol, presided by Paul Fallat, Slovak League of America, by Edward Behuncik. �SLOVAKIA 191 Feeling certain that many other heritage groups in our great country will find gems of hope for their own ideals, I include Senator Tower's introduction and speech in the Record at this point: Introduction of Key Speaker (By Joseph Krajsa, editor of the largest fraternal American Slovak newspaper) When you think of Texas you immediately think of something big. And President Nixon has sent someone Big to extend official greetings to the Slovak World Congress. The distinguished United States Senator from Texas, Senator Tower, known as a Progressive-Conservative, is a close advisor to President Nixon and serves on three major committees-Armed Services, Banking and Currency, and the Joint Committee on Defense Production. He has spent more time with our commanders and troops in Southwest Asia than any other member of the Senate. The Senator is an internationally known leader and has been distinguished as a gentleman of dedicated zeal. All of you present here today have displayed a zeal for an ideal. We are fortunate that our distinguished American, Senator Tower, shares our zeal. His presence here during his busy congressional session proves his interest in the Slovak cause, a cause so common to all separate ethnic cultures. His massage will be rewarding to all nationality groups, but especially to the Slovak delegates here assembled from all over the free world. And yes, Senator, to the thousands of Slovak Americans living in Texas, too. It has been said that one day the world will be reformed, but not by reformers, but as a result of a zeal for an ideal that is burning in the hearts of dedicated men. Ladies, and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you an inter• nationally known gentleman, our guest to honor, a public servant of dedicated zeal, our distinguished United States Senator from the State of Texas, the Honorable John G. Tower. Thank you for that very fine introduction. Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Reverend clergy, Mr. Ambassador, my distinguished colleagues in the Congress, ladies and gentlemen. �192 SLOVAKIA It certainly is a great pleasure to be here today. It's extremely difficult for me to undertake to address you as the final speaker on the program. I have listened with great interest to all that has been said, but have not understood it all, since I don't speak Slovak. And so I am reasonably sure that Steve Roman has probably made my speech. But I'll find out afterwards. I think that this is a great and significant moment that you meet here in your first World Congress. I think it is always inspiring when like-minded people get together for a noble common cause. You are Slovaks and I am an Anglo-Saxon. But we are all childred of God. And as such, we are enjoined to stand fast in the liberty with Christ who set us free. We are all of one family. And we are our brothers in the common cause to try to achieve in this world, and in that which God intends, freedom for all mankind. There are those in this world today who I think are ready to give up in the struggle against totalitarianism. I am so happy to note that you people are not among them. There are many in our country who have never felt the lash of communist imperialism. Because Karl Marx stated things in lofty terms, in terms of thinking what he considered to be human objectives, they think perhaps that system is not so bad after all. I wish every American could have shared the experiences many of you had, who have lived under communist totalitarianism to understand what it is all about. I have never lived in a totalitarian system, but I've been in places in this world where I've seen the stultifying and inhuman effects of the communist drive for world aggrandizement. As it has been noted, I have been in Vietnam several times. I returned from there, most recently, several weeks ago. Two weeks ago, today, I was sludging around on the battlefield in Cambodia. Today I'm glad to report to you that we are achieving our objectives in Vietnam. We can measure our achievement in several ways. We have reduced the capacity of the enemy to wage massive forces against us. We have improved the fighting qualities of the army of South Vietnam. And I can tell you that Army, and indeed all the Armed Forces of South Vietnam performed �SLOVAKIA 193 in a most professional, courageous and effective manner in the recent and current operations in Cambodia. And, I am given to understand by the military commanders, that this will hasten the day when we can bring our boys back home. But I think the most important reason, and underlying everything, is the fact that now most of the Vietnamese people have had some experience with Communism. They may not understand democracy, as you and I understand it. They may not understand all of the responsibilities of self-government, as you and I understand it. Those who have lived under the Viet Cong, and under the heel of North Vietnamese military have made a decision, that they would rather be with us. I think that the only way we can fail to accomplish our objectives, in trying to combat communist aggression in Southeast Asia, is for the people here at home to throw in the towel. I do not think we can lose the war in Southeast Asia if we can maintain our presence there. I know I didn't have to convince you about our responsibilities in the world. You know what Communism has done to Eastern Europe and what America must do to maintain her own security. You know the reason why. It's the same reason that we fight today in South Vietnam because Communist aggressor powers seek to expand their realm by force. There are so many naive people, unfortunately, too many of them on the college faculties of this country, who hold that there is no danger from Communist aggression. I imagine that the people in Czecho-Slovakia can say a word or two on that score. And I wish that they who have fled from the Russian tanks and tbe Russian machine guns could be on the college faculties so that our youth can get a better impression of what Communism is really like. How can we believe that there is no danger? There are those who try to impose a sense of guilt on the people of the United States for the arms race. We didn't start the arms race! It was not the U.S. which continued to maintain its poverful military force immediately following World War II. We demobilized. It was not the U.S. that swallowed-up the Eastern European countries with the use of military force. It was not the U.S. who sealed off Berlin. It-was not the U.S. who invaded �194 SLOVAKIA South Korea. And, in the past few years, from the point of strategic technology, the Russians have been developing their military potential at a much greater rate than we have. I submit to you that there is a clear and present danger which you well know. And I am not speaking so much to you, as I am through you, to a lot of people who are not in this room. But who should understand that this nation must maintain a posture of military superiority, not inferiority. Not parity, but superiority! Because if we fail to maintain it, my friends, there will be no hope for the Slovaks, nor for the millions of others to ever aspire to freedom and selfdetermination and have any reasonable hope of realizing it. Does anyone believe that if the Soviets achieve strategic military superiority they will not use it to blackmail the rest of the world into going along their way. And you know what their way is. My friends, we are going to be in grave trouble by the end of this decade, or perhaps even before, if we don't recognize this fact. I don't believe that we, Americans, can retreat to "fortress America" and hope to survive as a great nation ourselves. Even if we made our country impregnable; if we withdrew from the world, other nations would have to make their own accommodations with the Soviets. Then we will find ourselves in grave economic difficulties in a few years hence, because we are not a self-sufficient nation. We depend on sources and resources from other parts of the world. So, our capacity to progress as free people in the free enterprise system is involved here. But beyond that the mantle of world leadership has fallen on our shoulde11s whether we like it or not. We certainly are our brothers keepers! If we, as a Judeo-Christian society don't believe that then we have lost sight of the basic tenet. We are our brothers keepers, and have a responsibility to try and maintain a secure world in which Slovaks and all others, can aspire to freedom and hope ultimately to achieve it. I'm pleased to bring you greetings from the White House. I'm also pleased to observe that you are willing to make common cause with all others, to combat the great Communist menace. There can be no freedom where Russian tanks, Russian soldiers occupy soil. There is no �SLOVAKIA 195 freedom in such territory anyplace. Ultimately, I think that all societies in this world can aspire to the kind of progress we in the U.S. and Canada have enjoyed through the free enterprise system. In the final analysis, when man becomes totally dependent upon the State, he losses his freedom. The right of man to own and do with his property what he considers best to him and his environment is a ba:sic right and the major factor which prevents his being reduced to meek dependency on the State. I commend you for what you are doing. I wish you well. Know that you are not alone, that there will be those of us who although are not Slovak, will be at your side. God speed! COMMENTS SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POET JAN DORANSKY Among Slovak poets and writers in exile whom we considered in 1945 as the "young generation," there are several who are approaching their venerable age of 60 years. In 1971, we should not bypass in silence the 60th birthday of one of them-Jan Doransky, born on May 28, 1911, in Trstena. Coming from a part of Slovakia which gave to Slovak literature and public life many outstanding poets and novelists, Jan Doransky inherited a love for literature and began to write in his early youth, first for student's periodicals, later for literary and cultural monthlies. Afte·r finishing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Bratislava and practiced as a notary in various parts of Slovakia. The outbreak of the Second World War interrupted his civilian life. Being, however, known at that time as a poet and writer, he was retained in the Department for cultural affairs at the Ministry of National Defense. When the Russian armies overran Slovakia, Doransky with thousands of other Slovak intellectuals left with his family for the West. After spending two years in Austria and two years in Rome, he landed in Canada �196 SLOVAKIA in 1949 and has lived in Montreal for the past eighteen years. Doransky is a poet of considerable versatility, and besides many lyrical verses and patriotic poems, he wrote in Canada a drama called Stard mat', neopust'aj nds (Grandmother do not leave us alone), successfully played by Slovak groups across Canada. The play was originally published in Kanadsky Slovak and later in 1953 in book form. Before coming to Canada, Doransky had published in 1939 a play called Novou cestou (On a new path) and in 1943 a collection of satirical verses Slepi pasazieri (Blind passengers). In Slovakia as well as in Canada, his poetry was published in various anthologies : Pred ohnivym drakom (1939), Vo vyhnanstve (1947), Zdravica sv. Cyrilovi a Metodovi (1963); in literary periodicals (Kultura, Most) and in almanacs. In recent years his epigrams published either in the quarterly Most or in newspapers and almanacs became preferred reading among Slovak intelligentsia in the free world. Besides poetry, Doransky wrote a number of short novels and other prose contributions for periodicals (Oral Tatransky, Svojet', Kultura) under the pen-name Hamernik and for the Slovak almanacs and newspapers in Canada and the United States under the name J. D. Oravec. Doransky's literary production is extensive and only the difficulties which a poet or a writer has to overcome in exile, prevented him from publishing his writings in book form. At his 60th birthday, two or three collections of lyrical verses, one collection of short novels and three collections_ of epigrams and satire are among his manuscripts awaiting more favorable circumstances for publication. All who like his poetry and his excellent epigrams called by him "Jedorasty", cannot but wish him that he may live to see not only his manuscripts published but also go back to a free and independent Slovakia for which he fought and to which he dedicated his life and his talent. Ad multos annos! J. M . Ki rs c h b au m �SLOVAKIA 197 GREAT DISTINCTION FOR SLOVAK POET KAROL STRMEN Slovak emigre poetry has given to Slovak literature not only its share of excellent original works which echo the great poets of Western nations, but also a new dimension in masterful translations from several world literatures. Recently Slovak literature achieved recognition in this field from the excellent work in scholarship and poetry of one of the most gifted Slovak poets, Prof. Karol Strmen. On October 28, 1970, during the meeting of the Association of American Teachers of French, held in New Orleans, the cultural attache of the French Embassy in Washington presented Prof. Strmen, on behalf of the Government of France, with the Medal of the Knight of Academic Palms. No doubt it has been a deserved distinction, and Slovak literary community abroad is rightly proud of it. Karol Strmen (born in 1921), by vocation university professor of Romance literature, enriched Slovak poetry by translations from several World literatures as well as by his own poetic works. Belonging to the "Catholic Moderna" but following his own literary path, Strmen impressed literary critics and readers almost unanimously as a gifted and mature poet from the time he published his first verses in the prestigous literary monthly Slovenske Pohl'ady, and his first two collections of verses Vyzinok zivota (Harvest of Life) (1940), and Testament (1945) . Attracted by French, Spanish, German and Italian poets, whose works he was masterfully translating during the past two decades, Strmen deviated from the main stream of Slovak emigre poetry as indicate his two collections of verses Striebornd Legenda (The Silver Legend) (1950), and Cakaju nivy jar (Meadows are Expecting Spring) (1963), and his contributions to literary journals and newspapers. His poetry is rather for the cultivated than for the average readers and the traditional and national values are less visible in his poetry than in the poetry of other Slovak emigre poets. Among Strmen's early translations is an anthology �198 SLOVAKIA from the poetry of Michael Eminescu, R. M. Rilke, the wellknown poem by Edgar Allan Poe "Raven" and several poems by Dante. His translating activity increased during the years of his exile to a degree unequalled by any other Slovak poet or writer. He continued to translate from practically all Romance languages as well as from German and English. Among the main translations are Robert Browning's Portuguese Sonnets (1947), Paul Claudel's Via Crucis (1954) and Dante's Inferno (1963 ) . In manuscript form he has Shakespeare's dramas. Slovak literary journals like Most, Literdrny Almanach Slovdka v Amerike, and other Slovak annuals have published regularly his translations from many literatures. His master work in translated poems is, according to literary critics, Dante's Inferno, published in a highly elaborate volume also from the printing point of view. It was, however, Paul Claude!, whose work he liked best and on whom he wrote his doctoral dissertation. Strmen who originally intended to study theology, translated also the New Testament and other religious books, hymns and psalms. Together with sprinc he deserves credit for many cultural activities which developed among Slovaks in exile since the end of the Second World War. Like Sprinc he left home for the United States and in 1949 settled in Cleveland. He is a member of several learned societies, of the Slovak Institute, Slovak Association of Writers and Artists, etc. Even though many of his poems reflect his strong patriotic feelings and aversion to communism before which he fled in 1945, Strmen was among the few emigre poets and writers whose verses pierced the Iron Curtain and were published in 1968 thaw in Slovakia. Slovak emigre writers and poets congratulate their distinguished colleague. J. M. Kirschbaum . . . The Polish monthly Kultura, which is published in Paris by the intellectuals who either did not return to Poland after the Second World War, or escaped the Communist tyranny, dedicated a special issue to the upheavals �SLOVAKIA 199 in Czecho-Slovakia. Unfortunately the presentation of the events which led to the liberalization and de-Stalinization movement seems to be strongly influenced by Czech propaganda or insufficient knowledge of the situation in Slovakia, as well as of the role which Slovaks played in changing the Stalinist system and giving "a human face to socialism." Prof. J.M. Kirschbaum who has many friends among Polish intellectuals and has been known for his positive attitude towards Poland since the time of his studies in Warsaw and Cracow, wrote to the editor of Kultura a let.t er but he never received an answer to his friendly remarks. As a result, we decided to publish the letter as a document to record that we were not silent when the presentation of historical events, in which the Slovaks played an important role, has been distorted. Mr. Jerzy Giedroyc, Editor: Kultura, 91 Avenue de Poissy, Paris, France. Dear Sir: I have read with great interest your special issue dedicated to Czecho-Slovakia. As a representative of that group of Slovak political exiles who always stood for a close friendship with Poland, I feel obliged to write a few comments on that issue, especially with regard to the view that the movement for liberalization and democratization stemmed from the Hussite traditions. There is a number of good studies in the West by AngloSaxon and French political writers who analyzed the policy of Czecho-Slovakia during the period of the so-called de-Stalinization and none of them came to a similar conclusion. Only a few journalists stationed in Prague during the summer of 1968 accepted, for reasons which I will mention later, the Czech view that the liberalization movement was due to their national traditions. Books and studies by Western experts in Eastern Europe, like Prof. Skilling, Ph. E. Mosley, W. E. Griffith, Kertesz and even Duchacek, indicate that the Czech part �200 SLOVAKIA of the population of Czecho-Slovakia were lethargic and did not come until 1968 with any noteworthy opposition to the Stalinist regime of Antonin Novotny. Two Czech writers in Griffith's symposium even accuse their compatriots of fully supporting that regime after the upheavals in Hungary and Poland or later when the Slovak intellectuals began to attack the Stalinist dictatorship. (See Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968.) I think it can be objectively established that the movement for liberalization and democratization not only started in Slovakia, but also was carried on mainly by the Slovak intellectuals. One of the contributors to your special issue on Czecho-Slovakia, P. Carnogursky, pointed to this fact, but did not develop his thesis by giving names and data. In all serious studies in the West it has been accepted that the beginning of the de-Stalinization was a Congress of Slovak writers in May 1963 and a following Congress of Slovak journalists. Actually, Slovak writers attacked the Novotny regime and its Stalinist form and tactics in 1956 and the crimes and methods of that regime were described in a book by Ladislav Mnacko : "Belated Reportages." The Slovak review "Kulturny zivot," then systematically attacked and criticized the regime, asking for a change towards more freedom and more human methods. After 1963, the Slovak intellectuals, among them also several intellectuals of Jewish origin (G. Husak, L. Novomesky, M. Hysko, V. Mihalik, L. Kalisky, E. Lobl, E. Goldstticker, Spitzer ), began an organized struggle for more freedom, justice and democracy. They created a sort of brain trust, behind Alexander Dubcek, who became the embodiment and leader of this movement. The reasons behind the fact that the movement started in Slovakia, can be found in the harsh treatment of Slovakia by the Prague Government under Gottwald and mainly under Novotny. In the purges organized by Prague was eliminated not only Dr. Vlado Clementis, the ideological leader of communism in Slovakia, who died on the gallows, but soon after him all the influential and educated communist leaders branded as bourgeois nationalists. Slovakia �SLOVAKIA 201 was submerged in terror, persecution, de-nationalization and an economic crisis, which was created intentionally by the Government of Prague. President Novotny also hurt the pride and feelings of the Slovak population and, therefore, in the 1960's the outrage was general in Slovakia. When the "bourgeois nationalists" were freed from prisons and rehabilitated, they began to speak about the horrors of their investigations and imprisonment and this gave the impulse to the writers and to the intellectuals, who previously sided with Novotny for an attack on Novotny's regime, because in the purges of the 1950's, mainly Slovaks and Jews became the victims of the furor of the Prague Government. In the Czech part of the country the intellectuals did not feel the terror with such intensity and, therefore, they joined only slowly and individually the movement for democratization and de-Stalinization. As a result, the movement was headed not only by Dubcek but also by Goldsti.icker, Lobl, and many others, all from Slovakia. Should your Revue be interested in a more detailed analysis of this period and should more arguments be required to support my statement that not the Hussite traditions or Czech attachment to democracy were the moving force in the upheavals of 1968 in Czecho-Slovakia, but the Slovak nationalism and striving of Slovaks and some good Czechs for freedom and a more human life, I would be only too glad to send to you a documented study on this subject. Yours very truly, Prof. J. M . Ki rs c h b au m " . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA represents an overwhelming majority of organized Americans of Slovak descent; actively affiliated with it are the large3t Slovak fraternals, religious organizations, Slovak Clubs and Slovak civic organizations in the United States . . . . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is an AMERICAN INSTITUTION; it was organized May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, 0., by the Rev. Stephen Furdek. �202 SLOVAKIA BOOK REVIEWS NEW COLLECTION OF SLOVAK EMIGRE POETRY Jan Okal', Voda a vino (Water and Wine, United States 1970) , pp. 70. Eugen Vesnin, Aj v etrurskych zahradach (Also in the Gardens of Etruria, Buenos Aires, 1970). Rome, as the first free refuge of many Slovak intellectuals, inspired several Slovak ,poets and writers who created during the past quarter of a century literary works of high standards. Among them was not only J. C. Hronsky, R. Dilong, M. Sprinc, and K. Strmen, but also Jan Okal' and Eugen Vesnin. All of them reacted to the beauty of the Eternal city in prose or verse and enriched Slovak emigre literature by several volumes. The above volumes by Jan Okal' and Eugen Vesnin attest to the creative inspiration of Rome and Italy. Jan Okal' (born in 1915) published his first verses in Slovakia during the War in two collections Nehnem sa (I do not move, 1942) and L!ubost' (Love, 1944). He also profusely contributed to Slovak periodicals, wrote short stories for children and translated from Ukrainian literature. It was, however, in exile that his talent developed. Even though he spent most of his time as editor of a S1ovak newspaper in the United States, and for several years also as the editor of Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, he did not cease to publish poetry or prose of refined taste and literary ma• turity. He also published in English a well-written sketch on the Slovak Robin Hood-George Janosik: A Carpathian Saga ( 1953) and a chronicle in 13 poems called Kro- nika siovakov (The Chronicle of Slovaks, 1954), as well as a satirical novel Blizenci (Gemini, 1962) and translations from I Fioretti di San Francesco . After a few years of silence, he surprised now readers and critics by the above mentioned collection of his poetry, in addition to many verses published in the literary journal Most or in almanacs and calendars. His collection Voda a vino (Water and Wine) is a masterfully illustrated volume of lyrical sketches in verse which reflect Okal"s years spent in Rome and Italy. All his poems, usually not longer than one or two verses, are sensitive and well-written images of beautiful monuments and places of Rome and of •o ther countries which he visited during his exile. The volume under review proves that Okal' is a refined and gifted poet as well as an alert commentator on literary and cultural matters. Personal reminiscences and memories give to his book, as well as to his scattered poems in literary journals, a certain gentleness and tenderness. All his published works were artistically illustrated by the well-known Slovak artist, Joseph G. Cincik, and belong to the finest readings in Slovak emigre literature. * The ancient beauty of Rome and the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean area marked even more the lyrical verses of Eugen Vesnin (Dr. Ignac Zelenka, born in 1913) . After publishing a score of verses in Slovakia before the war, Vesnin spent in silence nearly three dee- �203 SLOVAKIA ades before his three collections of mature lyrical poetry were published in Slovak, and an anthology in Italian. For the past 25 years a librarian in the Vatican library, Vesnin--as the Osservatore Romano wrote when his Italian collection was published- is a "poet of peace, love, patriotism and the beauty of nature, but also well-known as a scholar." Osservatore Romano mentions in this connection Vesnin's works on the Vatican, on the Holy See, as well as 1111 essay on Juraj Knzanic, the -p recursor of Pan-Slavism, and on the liturgical editions which can be found in the Vatican library. Among Vesnin's published poetical works should be mentioned the following collections: Zo zcitisia ntim6z (1965) which appeared also in Italian translation by Prof. Leo Magnino under the title L'Oasi delle mimose (Rome 1967); Jani e som potomok i latokopov (I am not a descendant of gold-diggers) and S temena mojich hor (From the top of my mountains, Buenos Aires 1966) . These collections were followed by lyrical verses Aj v etrurskych zcihradach (Also in the Gardens of Etruria, Buenos Aires, 1970), which seems to be the best selection of Vesnin's peotry. In spite of the fact that Vesnin spent nearly his whole life in Rome where he originally studied theology, his poetry is deeply patriotic and one of his verses "Salute to my Country" can be considered even in its Italian translation as one of the best patriotic poems of the Slovak emigre literature. The literary critic Jan E. Bor considers Vesnin as one of the highly gifted lyrical poets of his generation. The readers, including this reviewer, will agree that his poetry is an enjoyable and cultivated reading. J. M . Kirschbaum TWO FOREIGN LANGUAGE COLLECTIONS OF SLOVAK POETRY Mikulas Sprinc: DRIFTWOOI) Poems translated from the Slovak by the author, Larz Pearson and Jaroslav Vajda. Engravings by Dr. Joseph G. Cincik. Published by the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, 1969. Printed by the Benedictine Press at St. Andrew's Abbey, Cleveland, 0. Gorazd Zvonicky: SOLTANTO ROVINE - Italian translation by Milan S. !>urica and Ernesto Simonetto. Published by Associazione di cultura ceca e slovaca "Arturo Cronia," Padua, 1968. Slovak culture was enriched recently by two excellent collections of translations of poems by two of our outstanding poets in exile. The first collection is published in English and presents a selection of recent verses from the lyrical works of the cultivated and sensitive poet, Mikulas Sprinc. The selection, as well as the translations, are very successful and the English reader will go through this carefully published and artistically illustrated volume with delight. Whoever likes intimate lyrics written by a poet who seems to combine the art of Paul Verlaine and the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi will enjoy every verse of this excellent collection. Some verses were translated by the author himself, others by the well-known translator of Slovak poetry into English, Rev. J. Vajda, and some by one of the students of the poet, Larz Pearson. As usual, �204 SLOVAKIA the translations do not reflect exactly the Slovak text and its musical and rhythmical quality but, on the whole, all translations attest to the talent of both the auther and the translators. Those who appreciate poetry which is rooted in the strong belief in the Creator without sounding too religious, and those who like the beauty of life iu the songs of birds, the color of flowers, the sound of the wind, and blue skies or the colors of the rainbow, will find delight in reading Mikulas Sprinc's poetry. The volume also contains several fine poems with patriotic overtones expressing the poet's love for his lost and oppressed native Slovakia. The author and the publishers deserve credit for enriching Slovak culture by this valuable volume. there is a refined poet following in the footsteps of Slovak fighters for the nation's freedom, who used the most efficient weapon against tyranny and the sufferings of the Slovak people--the deeply felt and masterfully written poetic protest. As in the case of the volume by Mikulas Sprinc, Slovak intellectuals in the free world as well as at home will appreciate Zvonicky's publication. -jmkDr. Heinrich Kuhn: Bibliographisches Handbuch der Tschechoslowakei. Publications of the Collegium Carolinum, Verlag Robert Lerche, Munich 1969. Dr. Kuhn has added to his very useful previous work Handbuch this new pubThe collection "Soltanto Rovine" der Tschechoslowakei the biowith deals which lication by Gorazd Zvonicky in the tranlapoliticians, Party oftion of Prof. Milan S. !>urica and graphies of and other persons in the Ernesto Simonetto, is another valu- ficials the present Czechoable contribution. Masterfully il- public life of Slovakia. lustrated , the volume gives both As in his previous work, Dr. the Slovak text as well as the Italian translation. Gorazd Zvoni- Kuhn shows a detailed knowledge cky is one of the best contemporary of the subject and prepared it with Slovak poets, highly cultivated and his usual "ptinktlichkeit" and segifted. His poetry is of the same riousness of a scholar. Therefore, genre as that of Mikula!; Sprinc- specialists in Eastern Europe will lyrical, intimate, musical and well welcome this new publication ewritten. It wa~, therefore, not easy specially after the Soviet occupato make an adequate translation. tion placed Czecho-Slovakia again The translators used free verse and into the focus of international indid not look for rhyme. Neverthe- terest. Kuhn's work has been published less, the volume transfers to the readers the feeling of a Slovak in loose sheets in two volumes patriot and poet towards the brutal which will be welcomed by reoccupation of his native country searchers as a very practical way by Soviet troops and the martyr- of dealing with the political figures dom of the Slovak population. The in occupied Czecho-Slovakia. All verses express, however, not only biographies are carefully prepared, intimate and personal sorrows, but containing the most important data. also indignation of all Slovak pa- In some biographies the author triots and of the whole Slovak left out the place of birth of some politician or Party official, but he nation. Once more in Slovak poetry I gives detailed information on all �SLOVAKIA the main leaders either in the government or in the Party. In some cases, like that of the present First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. G. Husak, it would have been useful to mention the ten years he spent in jail under Novotny's regime, as well as his writings in periodicals about his experience in Novotny's dungeons. Dr. Kuhn mentions only three publications by Husak and in the first one there 205 is a slight mistake in the title. It should read "Zapas o zajtrajfok." Since the leading figures of Slovak and Czech political life were often presented in the West with journalistic superficia!lity, confusing Slovaks for Czechs, we we1lcome this book because it will enable everybody interested in the problems of Czecho.Slovakia to receive correct information. J . M . Kirschbaum BOOKS ON DUBCEK AND SLOVAKIA Among some 50 books in the English and French languages which dealt with the events in Czecho-Sl-ovakia in 1968 and after, there was none, as mentioned last year in my review of books on Slovakia, which paid attention to the situation in Slovakia. The authors of these books overlooked the fact that the liberalization movement had started in Slovakia and that it was also headed by a Slovak-Alexander Dubcek. Prof. Gordon Skilling, who is one of the foremost Canadian specialists on post-war Czecho-Slovakia, drew attention to this lack of interest or intentional neglect in the works of Western specialists in Eastern Europe.1 The role of Slovaks was analyzed and evaluated only in the Canadian siavonic Papers (Vol. X, 4, 1968) by this writer. In 1970 we have, however, several books or studies which do not treat the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 exclusively as "Prague Spring" but are concerned with the whole country and point out to the specific Slovak problems and the role the Slovaks played in the deStalinization period. The best among these studies in English so far is the book by William Shawcross DUBCEK (London, 1970) which would deserve a much more extensive review than space allow us. Another work also deserves our attention is "Dubcek's Biue Print for Freedom" by Lunghi and Ello (Kimber, London, 1968) c1s are two essays by the members of the staff of the Czeclio-Slovak Section of the B.B.C., Michael Montgomery and Deryck Viney. The latter wrote an interesting essay in "Studies of Comparative Communism" (University of Southern California, July-August 1969). The book by Shawcross does not give any biography except to say that "he left Oxford in June 1968 and is now writing on Eastern European affairs for the ' Sunday Times.' He is 24 and this is his first book." In view of this, the book is quite an achievement. From the references, as well as from the contents, it is clear that Shawcross carried out extensive research, interviews, and travelled around .Slovakia, including the birth place of ~lexander Dubcek. As a result, we have in hand a thorough and well documented study. The book is, of course, not without mistakes and shortcomings which, in the intricate situation and confused reporing on events, is to be expected. �206 SLOVAKIA While other Western authors ascribed the liberalization movement to the Czechs, Shawcross's main thesis is that Dubcek's rise to power and the subsequent liberalization of Czecho-Slovakia were due to the fact that the Slovak question had been the motive force behind these events. He traces Dubcek's career within the apparatus of the Communist Barty of Slovakia as a more or less obsequious Party member until he decided to spearhead the Slovak movement within the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia for greater justice for all the Slovaks. Carried to the ht)ad of this movement that had much deeper roots than most Western observers have cared to point out, Dubcek then demonstrated strategic and tactical talents in forestalling Novotny's counterattacks and eventually in leading the struggle to rid the country of its Stalinist President and Communist Party First Secretary. Although Dubcek did not expect it, he saw himself placed at the head of Czecho-Slovakia, the first Slovak to achieve this position. Up to this point, Shawcross's presentation, despite some mistakes on the meaning and on some details of the 1944 revolt, is very good. The author shows good knowledge of the political situation in Slovakia and an understanding of the problem which Slovakia poses within Czecho-Slovakia. Husak's rise to power is dismissed as a personal repetition of Dubcek's ascension. No doubt Husak's emergence as the head of •t he Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia was in many ways a personal success, but the fact that a second Slovak rose to the highest position when many Czech Stalinists were waiting in the wings, indicates that the Communist Party of Slovakia, if not other institutions or groups, must also have played some role. With the federalization of CzecboSlovakia, the Slovak element could not be further ignored as it had been during the Novotny years. It is to be regretted that Sbawcross did not pursue the developments in Slovakia and if be was unab'1e to find out more of what happened there after August 1968, he could present at least some hypotheses. As far as Husak is concerned, he also made an error when stating that he graduated at Prague University. Despite these shortcomings, Shawcross's work must be considered not only as a good piece of research, but in view of his age, is an act of courage, as he did not hesitate to bring forward a problem that Western historiography has been ignoring for more than half a century. Among the books on Czecho-Slovakia in the French language, it is the one by Pavel Tigrid which deals with Dubcek and with the It is after the time of the in- situation leading to the dismissal vasion by the Soviet Union and of Novotny, as well as with the her satellites that Shawcross's nar- events of 1968, and the aftermath rative shows some of its flaws, of the invasion. Tigrid's book is much of this is due to the fact entitled La chute irresistible d'Athat he follows Tigrid's book too iexander Dubcek, (Calmann-Levy, closely. The author is carried away Paris, 1969) . The book was written on the by his admiration for Dubcek and paints his opponents too black. basis of many unpublished docuJ<'urthermore, the Slovak problem ments and minutes of the meetings is completely lost in this part. 1 of the Central Committee of the �SLOVAKIA Communist Party, or of the government. Tigrid has recognized that the Slovak problem played an important role in the attempts to oust Novotny from his position and he depicts Dubcek in this first phase ot the struggle within the Central Committee of the Communist Party as a fighting, courageous man. However, the role of Dubcek after he took over the office of First Secretary is painted with a certain tendency tJo diminish his importance or to present him as a timid, indecisive man, lacking in intellectual abilities and preparation to cope with the problem of liberalization. One chapter is entitled "Alexander Dubcek, heros malgre lui" which by itself indicates a sort of depreciation and shows an attempt on the part of Tigrid to ascribe the liberalization movement to the Czechs, even though the truth is ,that the behavior of the Czech masses as well as of some of their politicians greatly contributed to the decision of the Soviets to invade the country and to destroy the liberalization movement. Tigrid's book is written in a journalistic rather than in a scholarly style, but by using original sources and confidential information, it fills a certain gap in the literature about the events in Czecho.JSlovakia in 1967 and 1968. We also find in Tigrid',s book a sympathetic mention of Vasil Bil'ak who strongly opposed Novotny in December 1967 and courageously fought for Slovak interests, but apparently became later one of those sided with Moscow. More objectively than in Tigrid's book, Slovakia and Dubcek are presented in the book by Francois Fetji:i Histoire des democracies populaires apres Staline (Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1969) . In Fetji:i's 207 book, Dubcek is not presented as a timid, indecisive and implicitly naive and politically unprepared leader. On the contrary, he is portrayed as a man who believed strongly in his "Communism with human face," and in Lenin's thesis on the independence and the territorial integrity of socialist states. Throughout his book, Fetjo deals with the situation in Czecho-Slovakia with rare objectivity and compares -the events with either Hungary or Poland. As one chapter, entitled "La Tragedie Tchechoslovaque et ses ,p rolongements," indicates, he considers the invasion of Czecho-Slovakia as a tragedy and as a brutal and unnecessary action on the cpart of Moscow. A one-time Communist and author of several books on Eastern Europe and communism, Fetji:i presents in his book conclusions which are logical and displays solid knowledge of the problems of the countries under Soviet rule. He writes about Slovakia and the Communist leaders of Slovak origin or born in Slovakia without any bias, which many authors of books on Eastern Europe u~ually are unable or unwilling to do. Michel Tatu also published a series of articles and a book on the events in Czecho-Slovakia, and two books by Ladislav Mnacko have been translated into the French language. For the events of 1968, only one of Mnacko's books La septieme nuit is of importance. Books in German dealing with the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 are comperatively few when compared to the number of books published in English. With regard to Slovakia, we can mention the German translation of Mnacko's book Die Siebente Nacht (Vienna, 1968) which was reviewed last yeaT �208 SLOVAKIA in Slovakia. Another author from knowledge of the situation in Slovakia, Dr. Eugen Lobl published Czecho-Slovakia and refers to many his experiences in jail in German, sources in the Slovak and Czech Die Revolution rehabilitiert ihre language which would indicate Kinder, (Vienna: Europa, 1968), as that he might be one of the Sudewell as a political essay published ten Germans who now live in West together with Leopold Grunwald, Germany. His approach to the SloDie intellektuelle Revolution, Hi~ vak problem is unbiased. Dubcek tergriinde und Auswirkungen des and other Slovak communist lead"Prager Friihlings," (Diisseldorf: ers played, according to him, an important role during the crisis Econ, 1969) . While in the first book Dr. Lobl of the Communist Party in 1967, speaks about the persecution and and he portrays Dubcek as First Communists Secretary of the Communist Party of rehabilitation purged during the Stalinist period without the caustic remarks or and later in the Novotny era, his disdain which can be found in contribution in the second book Tigrid 's book, for instance. Even though Reitzner's book is presents his views on the possibility of reforming communist systems rather the work of an experienced and of giving them a human face. journalist who made detailed reAccording to Prof. Skilling "As search, it reflects quite objectively a severe critique of the Soviet the changing situation in Czechobrand of socialism, this book ranks Slov-akia in those two fateful years. with Djilas' The New Class, but In addition, by quoting from Slorepresents also an original and vak and Czech periodicals, newsimaginative, even if passionate and papers and speeches of communist one-sided, interpretation of the leaders, Reitzner's book preserves proposed Czechoslovak model. For m·eful materials for further reLobl, the events of 1968 constituted search. Speaking probably much a new phase in the 'socialist re- better Czech than Slovak, he was volution,' continuing the work led to misspel the name of some begun by the October revolution Slovak newspapers like "Smena" and later interrupted by Stalinism. or "Smer" which he writes in It was also a renewed effort by Czech orthography. The reader is left with the imCzechs and Slovaks to follow a that the author had a pression atan own, s pecial path of their tempt which had been made in the sincere intention to give a realistic 1940s and then had been rudely and objective account of th ~ Mmblocked by Soviet coercion as ex- plex situation in both Slovakia and emplified by the trials of the the Czech lands. 1950s." (International Journal, Vol. l) See H. Gordon Skilling: "Thaw XXV, No. 1, p. 197) . and Freeze-Up: Prague 1968." International Journal Vol. XXV, There is also, however, a German No. 1, pp. 192-201. author, Almar Reitzner, wh o published a book entitled D ubcek F . Kennan: From Prague (Miinchen, 1970) but actually deals George Diplomatic Papers Munich, after with all the aspects of the crisis 1938-1940, Princeton University in Czecho-Slovakia in 1967 and Press, 1968, 226 Pages. with the short period of liberalizaThe well-known diplomat-historition and the Soviet invasion of 1968. Reitzner displays a detailed an George F . Kennan contributes �SLOVAKIA in this volume to the history of the crucial years 1938-1940 by many valuable documents, diplomatic despat.ches and personal observations. As he admits himself in his preface : "All were written either for private purposes or for the confidential information of the United States government." With all academic honesty, he also admits : "This material was unavoidably in many respects unbalanced and inadequate. In reflected serious lapses in my own historical background as well as in the range of my contacts in the Czechoslovak society of the time. The selection of the subject matter was inevitably affected by the limitations on opportunities for reading, for travel, and for personal acquaintance." .Such a confession does not diminish the value for historians or students of the political tragedy which started with Munich. Nevertheless, the reader and even more the student of history has to keep in mind the author's remarks, especially with regard to Slovakia, where his contacts were not only limited but his information came mostly from people who were not free to bias against the Slovak aspirations for an equal footing with the Czech half of the country. Kennan himself admits in his despatches that Slovakia was not treated by Prague governments without discrimination and prejudice; yet he accepted in many instances the Czech views on the motives and goals of the ffiinka's Slovak Populist Party, on the autonomist movement and on the contacts of its leaders with Berlin. The Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, published in 1957 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office i11 co-operation with the United States Department of State, dis- 209 prove many of the adverse allegations about the Slovak autonomist movement; even the history books published by communist historians in the short period of liberalization in Slovakia seem to put the events of 1938-1939 and the leading personalities in a more objective historical perspective than some documents contained in this volume. It would, however, be unjust to blame Kennan because his information was gathered from people either in Prague or in Slovakia who viewed the situation from their partisan position and with the result that his report reflected their biased opinions. This valuable volume of documents and excellently written observations also suffers from another shortcoming. The author writes that the documents are source material "above all to those students of the political process who wish to examine the anatomy of an attempt by a military powerful country to dominate and control, under modern conditions, the life of a small and helpless but highly developed neighbor for whose national feelings, and claim to independence, it has only contempt." This is certainly a highly motivated purpose and no doubt the documents will be helpful in this respect. rt is, however, hard to understand why the epilogue to this book was written by Frederick G. Heymann, who left Prague in 1939, was hardly acquainted with Slovakia and her internal problems and who admits that his own immediate information at the time on which Kennan reported same from representatives of the replaced Bene§ Government and other Czech friends. In addition, Heymann admits that he stayed in Czecho-Slovakia only from 1932 to 1939 and "looked at the political �210 SLOVAKIA and socieconomic development there from the viewpoint of a newspaperman of originally German background." With all respect to Mr. Heymann, no student of Eastern European history can take this as his credentials to write an epilogue, let alone an objective epilogue to this volume. Especially acute is his biased attitude towards Slovakia which he severely condemns--not the regime exclusively which certainly deserve condemnation for some acts; furthermore, he does not even indicate that he ever liv~d in Slovakia or studied the Slovak problem. J.M. Kirschbaum David L. Hoggan: Der Erzwungene Krieg , Die Ursachen und Urheber des z. Weltkriegs, Verlag der Deutschen HochschullehrerZeitung Tubingen, 1963, bibliography, maps, photographs, pages 898. The book Der Erzurnngene Krieg (The Imposed War) by the American historian, Prof. David L. Hoggan, represents an effort to reverse the blame for the Second World War. According to his research, it was not Germany which imposed the war on other countries, but the war was imposed by other countries on Germany. The main culprit in Prof. Hoggan's opinion seems to be Poland, but other great powers share, according to him, some of the responsibility as well. The voluminous work has been written in English but only its German translation has been so far published. If we believe the assertions of Dr. Herbert Grabert, several outstanding historians and colleagues of Prof. Hoggan in the United States read the manuscript and helped the author with advice or agreed with his conclusions. He names especially Michael Karpovltch, Sidney B. Fay, William L. Langer, Rudolf Holsti, Harry Rudin, Raymond Sontag, Charles Tansill, M. K. Dziewanowski, Ralph Lutz, Henry Adams, James Martin and Richavd Jones. Each of them " contributed a lot to the work; other renowned American learned men who came with worthwhile suggestions should not be quoted by their names but their help should be gratefully acknowledged," says Dr. Grabert. The book is undoubtedly one of the most controversial works on the Second World War and it is the duty of the historians of the Second World War to come to grips with the conclusions of Prof. Hoggan. In view of his extended research and references to many works, his narrative seems to be in accordance with the facts. However unbelievable some of these conclusions may seem, Prof. Hoggan shows that he knows all the main sources and documents in English, German, French, Polish and Russian, and pays attention even to books by Czech, Rumanian and Slovak authors. This mass of documentation and references stresses the impression that the book is a scholarly serious undertaking and were it not for the many books published in the West, as well as by the Communist historians who defend quite opposite conclusions, the reader could draw the definite conclusion that the Second World War was really imposed upon the Third Reich. The author, as well as the publishers, were aware of the controversial nature of the book and mentioned that some learned societies or historians in Germany itself express views which are in complete contradiction of Prof. �SLOVAKIA Hoggan's story on the reasons which led to the Second World War. Due to lack of space, we cannot unfortunately write an extensive review or to point out areas where the book differs from the accepted opinions expressed by either American, English, German, French or Russian historians and wish simply to register the publication of this book and its controversial contents. It is also worthwhile to mention that the origins and birth of the Slovak Republic are presented in Prof. Hoggan's book in a different light than we are accustomed to in the books published in the West or in the Communist countries. Prof. Hoggan made the effort to get acquainted with books and documents published by Slovak scholars and historians abroad and did not accept the Czech version, greatly unfavorable to the Slovak people, but uncritically accepted by many renowned historians in the West and East alike. Despite the fact that this book will be opposed by many historians who are unable or unwilling to correct their views no matter how erroneous they may be, Slovaks should be pleased that the truth about Slovakia begins to penetrate Western historiography. Unfortunately, insignificant as the Slovak problem seems to be to the Great Powers, foreign historians will not deal with small problems and by opposing the main conclusions of Prof. Hoggan's book, they will indirectly oppose also his truthful presentation in minor events including the origins and existence of the Slovak Republic. A a result, we must face reality and believe that it will take a long time and many efforts on the part of Slovak scholars who live in the Western world before Slovakia is treated 211 in Western historiography without bias and is free of anti-Slovak tendencies sustained and propagated mainly by the books of Czech historians and politicians and by Communist propaganda literature. J.M. Kirschbaum TOW ARD A NEW CENTRAL EUROPE : A Symposmm on the Prob- lems of the Danubian Nations, Edited by: Francis S. Wagner, Danubian Press, Inc. Astor Park, Florida, 1970. Not only specialists but anyone interested in Eastern Europe will welcome this well documented and carefully edited symposium which reflects the view of some 30 authors on the problems of Central Europe. The book is divided into five parts and the contributors belong practically to all the peoples of the Danubian and Carpathian part of East Central Europe. Part I deals with the international relations of individual Central European peoples with the Western Powers. It also contains some basic principles for the possibility of the co-existence of nations in the Danubian and Carpathian basins. The contributions by C. A. Macartney, T. Eckhardt, and the late Wenzel Jaksch seem to be the most relevant in this part. Part II deals with federalism in Central Europe and contains views and analysis of the federalist efforts in Central Europe by some 15 authors. We can find among them not only the late Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, Milan Hodza, but also the well-known supporter of Danubian Federation, F. 0. Miksche, as well as a contribution entitled : "Slovakia and the Integration Plans of Central Europe" by J . M. Kirschbaum, and a historical �212 SLOVAKIA survey of federalist movement a- Conference reads as follows: "It mong Slovaks and Czechs by Jo- is the intention of the Czecho-Sloseph Ostrovsky entitled "Czech and vak Government to create the orSlovak Statesmen in Favor of a ganization of the State by accepting as a basis of natural rights the Central European Federation." Part III deals with the national- principles applied in the constituity questions which were the main tion of the Swiss Republic, that is, problem in that part of Europe to make the Czecho-Slovak Repubfor the past 200 years. The authors, lic a sort of Switzerland," and not Alexander Gallus and Francis S. as quoted by Ostrovsky. The author Wagner, who edited this symposi- also omitted other- Slovaks who um, figure among the main con- during or after the Second World tributors to this part. As far as War advocated federalist plans in Slovakia is concerned, it is especial- Central Europe: Karol Sidor in ly the contribution by Francis S. " Gazette de Lausanne," Dr. F. Wagner "The Nationality Problem :i'.lurcansky in "Revue de droit inin Czecho-Slovakia after World tC"rnational" (Geneve, 1944), this War II" which is of interest for writer in several foreign language Slovaks. Part IV deals with econom- articles and books, etc. In 1968 ic problems, and Part V contains Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed a federation of two Republics on maps and statistical data. October 27th in the Assembly and Even though it is impossible to following day in Bratislava, the agree with some of the views exbut with the provision that the. to belonging authors by pressed Law No. 143 will take effect on several nations, the book is a seriJanuary 1st, 1969, and not as Osous attempt to find ways for the trnvsky writes. Certain of these r.ations in Central Europe, who are omissions were unnecessary, bezone influence Soviet a now in cause he could have found a detail( except for the Austrians) to live ed survey of Slovak federalist tentheir pooling by again together dencies in my book: "Slovakiaeconomies and by assuring better Nation at the Crossroads of Central economic standards and freedom Europe" (R. Speller, Publishers, for nearly one hundred million New York, 1960). enslaved people. The academic The contributors amassed a rich value of the contributions differs from author to author but, gener- sources of bibliographical informaally, all contributions are on a high tion in several languages which level and the maps and statistical also can help to acquire a much data will be especially appreciated better and more objective view of by those who research the problems the problems in the past and the possibilities of co-operation of the of Central Eastern Europe. living between the Soviet peoples view, of point Slovak From the in J. Ostrovsky's article one can Union and Germany in the future. unfortunately, find sor:ie errors' The Magyar intellectuals who deinaccuracies and omissions. Dr. Mi~ serve recognition for publishing Ian Hodfa died in the United states this symposium came undoubtedly and not in London. The number with a good initiative to discuss cf Magyars was never one million on a broad basis the problems and in Slovakia and the exact promise ways which would lead toward a of a federal structure of Czecho- 1new Central Europe. J. M. Ki rs c h b au m Slovakia by Dr. Bene~ at the Peace �SLOVAKIA 213 Beitrage zum Deutsch-Tschechi- cide." The Czech population was schen Verhiiltnis im 19. und 20 . encouraged before Dr. Benes reJahrhundert. (Veroffentlichungen turned to Prague by his Ministers des Collegium Oarolinum) Verlag in exile: " to beat them ; kill them ; Robert Lerche (Miinchen, 1967), leave none alive," and many were pp. 178. massacred, mistreated, raped and burned alive. Hundreds of thouThis collection of lectures on the sands died on the "death march" problem of German-Czech relations or in concentration camps, accordis an attempt at presenting the ing to the published documents. problem without passion on a scholarly basis. The lectures were In spite of this, the volume under read at a conference which took r eview refrained from general acplace in Nurenberg and Salzburg cusations of the whole Czech popuin 1964, but the book was publish- lation and gives quite a sober ed only in 1967. survey of the German-Czech r elations. Also the two Czech conAmong the contributors there is tributors avoid mentioning the a Czech historian, Bohdan Chudo- massacres and plead for a sort of ba, and the former Czech diplomat, co-operation in Central Europe and Karel Lisicky. From the German reconciliation. side seven contributors deal with the problem and all seem to master Among the contributions by the Czech language which would German scholars, Dr. Kuhn's artiindicate that they were either born cle on the attitude of the Commuor studied in Czecho-Slovakia. nist Party of Czecho-Slovakia to Whoever read the documents on the Sudeten German question is the expulsion of the Sudeten Ger- one which is the most timely since mans or the book by Prof. Kurt it is the Communist government Glaser (Czecho-Slovakia-A Criti- and Moscow which can bring any cal History ) must admire the quiet change in the relations between tone and restraint with which the Germans and Czechs, and give a German authors present the Ger- new solution to the Sudeten German"Czech relations through the man problem. For specialists in centuries up to the expulsion of Eastern Europe will be, however, more than three million Sudeten of great interest also the contribuGermans from their centuries old tions by Ferdinand Seibt about the settlements in Bohemia. When Dr. social structure of the first CzechoBenes was seeking the Allied sup- Sl ovakia and Frederich Prinz's port for his plan to expel the ar ticle on Benes and the Sudeten Sudeten Germans, he emphasized Germans. E. Zajicek gives in his repeatedly that the transfers would essay some insight into the politics be carried out decently and human- of the Sudeten Germans who coly. However, when he returned operated with Prague. behind the Red Army to Slovakia All the contributions were writand Bohemia, he apparently forgot ten on the basis of good knowledge about his promises of a human solution of the Sudeten German of the literature either in the qu estion. Basing his philosophy on Czech, German or English lanthe so-called " collective guilt," Dr. guage, which enhances the value Bmes allowed the use of methods of the book. which Prof. Glaser calls "geno- I J. M . K i r s c h b a um �214 SLOVAKIA AS OTHERS SEE I commend the Slovak leaders who are sponsoring and perfecting an organization of American Slovak patriots to continue the fight to restore freedom and self-govern• ment to the Slovak Nation. I also commend those Slovak leaders who are endeavoring to unite various Slovak organizations and groups t hroughout the country and combine their efforts in a unified force for the purpose of concentrating public opinion not only in America Lut throughout the world on enslaved nations who must break the shackles of despotism as rapidly as possible and give millions an opportunity to live and enjoy the life of freedom and self-determination. The Slovak Nation historically maintains the highest spirit of friendshi·p for all humanity and at no time in history has ever encroached upon the rights and freedoms of its neighbor nations, and has always given tangible proof of its generosity and spirit of cooperation with humanity in t he hope that world peace can be a reality for all people on the globe. The Slovak World Congress could inaugurate a great educational program to apprise youth i America and throughout the world of the true facts regarding world communism from the days of Lenin down to the present year 1970. IT their people by the sword, guns, slave-labor camps, and mass murders. Education and presentation of fact on Communist enslavement to the world's uninformed are the greatest weapons democracy possesses against the destruction of the Communist menace. The free world must continue this fight. Someday this victory will be won and the Communist enslavers will become extinct. Slovakia and other captive nations will regain free and independent government. I know that the SLOVAK WORLD CONGRESS will continue its outstanding contribution to the free world's fight to exterminate international communist conspiracy and restore freedom to millions throughout the world by the reestablishment of former governments which will give freedom and liberty to their people. - Ray J . Madden, M. C. Mr. ESHLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, neither the Slovak League of A· merica nor the Congress of the United States has forgotten the brutal occupation of Slovakia by the Soviet Army in 1968. We appeal to the conscience of America, to the American people, and to the United Nations-most of all-for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Slovak soil and for guaranteed free democratic elections under United N'cltions' control. One of my valued constituents, Mr. Joseph Pauco, is secretary of the Slovak League of America. That organization is entirely correct when they, in the proper manner, demand the right of freedom for Slovakia. - Edwin D. Eshle- The free nations have the ability, the education, the defense machinery, and the assets to curtail the further spread of the Communist menace and we must continue our fight. History has revealed over the centuries that dictators cannot stay in power long when they must rule man, M.C. �SLOVAKIA 215 The leading example of an unem- of the party presidium last month, ployed party official is, of course, Mr. Husak was in the minority of Alexander Dubcek, the party's a 7-4 vote over an analysis of the leader during the reforms. After events leading up to the Soviet dismissal earlier this year as Am- invasion. The following morning bassador to Turkey and expulsion Mr. Husak left for Moscow to refrom the party, Mr. Dubcek retired ceive Kremlin assurances of conto his Bratislava home to await tinued confidence. employment. Mr. Husak received limited SoHe turned down a fund-handling viet support earlier this fall when post with the Slovak social-security a major campaign to remove him agency for fear that it might be was disclosed through the accidentu~ed to implicate him in possible al death of one of the conspirators. misappropriation charges. He re- Jaroslav Trojan, a member of the quested instead, employment as a presidium of the Federal Assembly, forester .. . was killed as he drove his car after The makers and chief propo- a drinking session with a Soviet nents of Czecho-Slovakia's lost companion. A routine search of his liberalization take their principal desk disclosed copies of dozens of consolation from the fact that there letters by right-wing party officials have been no political trials and addressed to various Soviet leaders few Czechs or Slovaks are in jail and calling for the ouster of Mr. on political charges. But most see Husak. 110 reason to consider this state The party leader was authorized necessarily permanent. to dismiss a few of his principal It is generally believed that while opponents, notably the Czech Inthe party's First Secretary, there terior Minister, Josef Groesser, and will be no political trials because the military man in charge of Mr. Husak was himself a victim of liaison with the Soviet occupation such a trial in Stalin's day. But if tr oops, Gen. Otakar Rytar. But the Soviet Union wants trials, ac- after the general's dismissal, Moscording to this belief, it will re- cow was reported to have sent place Mr. Husak just as it ousted word that he was to be the last Mr. Dubcek last year and replaced "internationalist" ousted. him with Mr. Husak. "Internationalist" is the term for Mr. Husak, while evidently still those who accept the doctrine that the man Moscow considers best the Soviet Union has the right to able to run Czecho-Slovakia, has intervene in a socialist country for some time been under open whenever it says socialism is attack by party leaders even more threatened, such as in Czecho-SloprO-.Soviet than himself. It is as- vakia in 1968. sumed here that these leaders are Opponents of Mr. Husak are conalso operating with Soviet approval, ducting a campaign to present him presumably to keep Mr. Husak as insufficiently internationalist. At from the illusion of independent a Central Committee meeting this power. month, Vasil Bilak, a strongly proThe most determined of Mr. Hu- Soviet leader, surprisingly disclosed sak's opponents are Antonin Ka- that he had a long-missing docupek, secretary of the Prague organ- ment that would identify the ization and Alois Indra, Cetral genuine internationalists and from Committee secretary. At a meeting I which Mr. Husak's name is absent. �216 SLOVAKIA The document is the alleged 1968 letter from Czecho-Slovak leaders to the Soviet Union inviting the Warsaw Pact intervention. The letter was mentioned by Moscow immediately after the invasion but has never been produced nor all its signers disclosed. Mr. Bilak listed about 40 signers, including himself, Mr. Kapek and Mr. Indra. - The New York Times, December 22, 1970. George Blanda, the 43-year-old grey-beard sub quarterback and kicking specialist of the Oakland Raiders football team whose lastgasp heroics gave new hope to the middle-aged, has been named Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. The ageless marvel of the gridiron, who excelled in a tough contact sport competing against athletes half his age, beat out a glittering array of stars in assorted sports in the year-end poll of sports writers and broadcasters. Blanda received 332 votes compared with 246 for Bobby Orr, defenseman of the Boston Bruins hockey team who was runner-up, and 224 for Johnny Bench, slugging catcher of the Cincinnati Reds' baseball team who was a close third . - Associated Press. (Blanda i:; of Slovak ancestry.) I could not condemn the Hungarians or the Czechs and Slovaks, for example, if they were able to launch an effort in this country to turn our eyes toward the danger of the new isolationism. - Frank Morris. The Wanderer, St. Paul, Minn. , September 24, 1970. Those who have known nothing but freedom seldom are capable of appreciating the single majesty of that which they have: the privilege nf aff!'rfing their own destiny. But ask any Czech or Slovak, who has had liberty and then lost it, what it means to be free. Such men know, and in them the dream never dies. - Smith Hempstone. The Phil.adeiphia Inquirer, November 1, 1970. Slovak police recently made a series of raids on government stores and found that one-third were overcharging by as much as 50 per cent on scarce goods. Forty thousand dollars worth of goods were found hidden for customers with extra money. - Donald R. Shanor. Chicago Daily News. December 26, 1970. .Slovak youth stubbornly clings to its anti-Soviet feelings and looks upon the presence of Soviet troops in Czecho-Slovakia as the greatest injustice and offense. This is the conclusion of Ondrej Pavlik, a member of the Slovak Academy of Science. Pavlik gave an account-in the official organ of the Ministry of Education-of an investigation carried out among students in secondary sohools in all parts of Slovakia. In the course of the research more than 2000 questionnaires were collected from students and 400 from teachers. The replies were anonymous. Pertinent portions of Pavlik's report follow : "The entry of Soviet troops in our country and their stationing here still occupy a dominant position in the minds of our students. "The ..Soviet presence in our country is considered by students as a grave act of injustice and a sufficient reason to feel angry at the Soviet Union. "Another source of anti-Sovietism among our youth is our trade relation with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. The �SLOVAKIA arguments of ota Sik, economic expert during the Dubcek era are still accepted as valid by our you•th. 'There is much confusion in the minds of our students about modern capitalism. The students' arguments are seldom political but chiefly of economic nature. "The survey revealed a strikingly high degree of religious beliefs, especially among girls in all secondary schools of Slovakia. In most cases the influence of the school in political-ideological questions is weak, very weak indeed. "Too many teachers concentrate on their particular subject, or pretend they do and do not concern themselves with ideological education; they regard ideological educational work with disdain. "The investigation revealed that students seldom ask their teachers ideological questions for fears of embarrassing the teachers. There is a kind of tacit agreement between students and teachers: 'you say what you want and we think what we want.'" "A considerate proportion of the youth questioned have expressed confidence in the person of Gustav Husak, present leader of the Czecho-Slovak Communist Party, even though such students remain highly critical of the Soviets. "The reduced emphasis put on atheistic education is chiefly responsible for the growing influence of the Church among Slovak yeuth." - Theodore Andrica. Cleveland Press Vienna Bureau. I went behind the Iron Curtain. For so many years I have read a lot of reports concerning communism and many times I often wondered how much of the horror that I have read about is true. So many times I wondered, as I think most Americans have, is commu- 217 nism as bad as my government has told me? Although my trip to Slovakia was short, I can tell you that communism is horrible. I flew from Zurich, Switzerland to Vienna, Austria. In Austria, part of our free world, I rented a car and drove to Slovakia. The entry point was Bratislava. Trying desperately to find my way through the chopped up, beaten, narrow streets of the city, I stopped at a little store to try to get directions to the institute. A woman about 60 years old attending this store, which had nothing but barren shelves and some old clothing, was very secretly hanging a Christmas tree ball in the far end of the store. What she was trying to do was add some Christmas to her store which was something she enjoyed as a young woman. Any display, religious or nationalistic, is absolutely forbidden. A prison sentence is imposed. As I drove through Bratislava, there were uniformed soldiers and police with machine guns. Their purpose was to contain the Slovak people so they could not revolt or could not escape the country. Obviously, the people knew that I was American by the way I was dressed and also the license plates on the automobile were that of the fre e world. A Slovak friend told me how communism begins to infect people and countries. He told me that if you read the Communist doctrine, it sounds glorious but impossible to work. He told me that communism in Russia itself is a complete failure and certainly was a failure in Czecho-Slovakia. So much so that it is necessary in Russia and in Czecho-Slovakia to contain the people by machine guns. He talked of America's greatness, and said that one of the great �218 SLOVAKIA things about America was our free enterprise system. People are individualistic, people want to progress in their life. If a man does more, he is entitled to more. If a man has greater ability, he is entitled to advance. Under the Communist system no such thing exists. There is no individual compensation for doing more or knowing more. He urged me to make known what I saw so that people here would know the true horrors of communism. The lack of sufficient food and clothing. The government regulating their lives. You can't buy a pair of shoes unless the government authorizes you to purchase them. You can't buy a suit unless the government approves the purchase of a suit. There is something that resembles TV with one channel. This goes on about 7 o'clock at night and it is turned off aproximately at 9. Half of the time is devoted to government propaganda. When the Russians came into Czecho-Slovakia, they did so because Czech and Slovak peoples were desirous of developing a free enterprise system so that people could work and get paid fairly for their day's labor, so that they could trade and associate more closely with the free world. The Russians invaded CzechoSlovakia. As Communists do they raped the nation, they pulled out all of the machinery in their factories, they even tore out street lights and took them into Russia. The Slovak people told me that the Russian soldiers did not have a watch on their wrist and in order to get a watch they pulled it off the arm of the Slovak people. They also touched on the intrusion of their homes and the raping of their wives and daughters, which is again a typical Communist and Nazi type of thing. He begged me to tell people how truly horrible communism is. It is very difficult for me to tell you how bad I really think it is. The Communists are told that soon America will convert to communism. This man told me this is difficult to believe. He said why would anybody want communism when you have such a wonderful system. I told him that the propaganda he was hearing was untrue, that there are some people, who believe communism is good, but unfortunately they have not seen what I have seen. He warned me to beware of what I say. Under Communism we don't know who will report us. If you say something to offend the system you could very easily be thrown in prison, in fact, they are looking just for that. - American Tourist. The Evening News , Harrisburg, Pa., December 26, 1970. The Christmas holiday for Czecho-Slovakia ended abruptly in a working Sunday. Factories, stores and shops were open, and traffic appeared about as heavy as on a weekday. Officially it was a week dayThursday, to be exact. The government decreed that it took the place of last Thursday, Christmas Eve, on the economic schedule, with all normal Thursday services supposed to be operating. Thursday had been designated a Saturday, meaning half-day shopping and offices closed. The calender confusion continues with Monday designated a Wednesday for work and organizational purposes. Tuesday is Tuesday but you're wrong if you think it will be followed by Wednesday. Wednesday, Dec. 30, has been designated a Friday, meaning extra �SLOVAKIA long business hours, because the real Friday, Jan. 1, is a holiday. Next Saturday, Jan. 2. has been designated a Sunday and Sunday, Jan. 3, a Monday. Finally, on Monday, January 4, normality of sorts returns-if two Mondays in one week can be conAssociated sidered normal. Press. The federal status of Czechia, Moravia and Slovakia has been replaced by strict Prague centralism, much to the embarrassment of Gustav Husak, the Communist Party's first secretary. As a Slovak nationalist, Husak spent years in jail during the Novotny regime. Theodore Andrica, cievel,and Press Vienna Bureau. Shortly after President Richard ~ixon's inaguaration in 1968 it was reported from Washington that Dr. Walter R. Tkach, an American of Slovak descent, and a long-time friend, serving as a colonel with the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, wa!:' recalled from Vietnam to be chief medical advisor to the President. 219 ing called to serve as the White House physician. It is not generally known, but the White House is equipped with an ultra modern medical clinic which is at the service of Mr. Nixon, his family, and the White House staff. More complete facilities are available at nearby Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Hospital and AFB with attending specialists. The White House clinic is staffed by seven people, three of whom are doctors. Whenever the president leaves the White House, even though it might be only a few feet away, he is always accompanied by a doctor. Dr. Tkach first became aquainted with Mr. Nixon 17 years ago when hi:! served as our country's vicepresident. Dr. Tkach at the time waE an assistant on President Eisenhower's medical staff in the White House. He accompanied the vice-president as his medical advisor during his historic trip to Russia, and on other travels had an opportunity to meet with fa. mous world personages like Nehru of India and Hirohito of Japan . . . The President's regimen under the close watch of Dr. Tkach seems to be working for him. Just recently Mr. Nixon remarked that he could not recall ever having had headache, the physical kind of ! course Dr. Tkach was graduated from Dr. Tkach is a strong advocate Penn State College where he attained a Bachelor of Science in of military service. He feels that Chemistry, and embarked on an military service affords young phyAir Force career after graduation sicians unlimited opportunities, and from medical school in 1945. He recommends that they consider served in Japan 1946-1948. Since military careers, particularly in the that time he had tours of duty at Air Force. - ,Dr. S. J . metko, various military medical schools, National Slovak Society Almanac, clinics and institutions, before be• Pittsburgh, Pa. About a year later Dr. Tkach, a 52-year old native of Monongahela, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh (his wife Helen, also hails from the same town), was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. �220 SLOVAKLA The last remammg clause of Alexander Dubcek's short lived "action program" is crumbling. That clause is the one that instituted a Czecho-,Slovak "federation" - a move that gave Slovakia, for the first time, more or less equal status with the more educated, industrialized, prosperous and powerful Czech lands. state bank, fuel and power engineering, transport and communications have all been recentralized in Prague. New national ministers have been appointed and the Czech and Slovak ministries closed. Even the secret police are to be controlled from the center again. Husak, in a speech last month, pledged that the federation itself Dubcek, a Slovak, included the would last, but said certain minor federation in the action program shortcomings had to be solved. The he introduced on April 9, 1968, at new laws were the result. a time when his now discredited To add insult to injury, both the liberalization was at its height. The Czech and Slovak governments had action program also provided a to apprnve emasculation of their range of civil rights-freedoms of own powers. speech, assembly and the press, A constitutional court was to secret elections, freedom to travel have been set up arbitrate disputes -that disappeared within a year between the two halves of Czechoof the Soviet led invasion. Slovakia and the national governBut Dubcek's successor Commu- ment. As far as is known the court nist Party First Secretary Gustav does not exist. Instead, the Prague Husak, also a Slovak, and there go'llernment has been authorized to were hopes that he would keep the handle such disputes-making it federation plan which was enor- both prosecutor and judge. mously popular in Slovakia. F'rom the Slovaks' point of view, It's likely to remain, at least on possibly the worst development paper, for some time. But a series was the new power of the central of measures taken over the Christgovernment to allocate investments mas holidays have reduced it to in Slovakia or Czech lands. For an empty shell. decades under communism and Through government decrees and before communism- Prague shortparliamentary moves, the regime changed the Slovaks in investment has all but eliminated Slovakia's and industry, keeping the area autonomy in economics and put permanently depressed. The record its economy back under central of the prewar Benes-Masaryk govcontrol from Prague - a Czech ernment was no better than the city. postwar Communist regime. Under federation, separate Czech After the action program, Slovaks and Slovak passports were issued. hoped the age old imbalance would The new law erases this and re- end. That hope now is dying. introduces Czecho-Slovak citizen- Richard C. Longworth of United ship. Press International, February 25, Foreign currency control, the 1971. �SLOVAKIA 221 Our Contributors Edw ard J. Behuncik, Attorney-at-Law, Stratford, Conn. J. M . Kirschbaum , LL.D ., Ph;D ., professor, historian, author, Toronto, Ontario Sister M. Delphina, SS.C.M ., teacher, Danville, Pa. Edw ard A . Tuleya , M . A ., Associate Professor, History Department, Millersville State College, Millersville, Pa. Joseph J. Krajsa, B.A., Bethany College, W. Va. Joseph Hradnansky, Ph.-D ., Associate Professor, Indiana University of · Pennsylvania; Instructor, University of Pittsburgh. Francis Vnuk, M.A ., Professor, Institute of Technology; historian, Ade: laide, Australia_ �222 SLOVAKIA Contents Slovak World Congress - Edward J. Behuncik - Stephen B. Roman-Slovak Tycoon Political Views of nudovit Stur - 3 J. M. Kirschbaum - Sister M. Delphina Opet - 7 20 The Assimilation Process of American Slovaks-J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D -79 The Slovak National Awakening - Edward A. Tuleya - The Emergence of the Slovak State - 85 Daniel F . Tanzone - 109 General Mil.an Rastislav Stefanik and the Movement for Czecho-Slovak Independence - Mary Ann Kadera - 124 Sviitopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? - - Mary Susan Sabol 134 Slovaks - Joseph John Krajsa - 145 Bratislava: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center - Dr. Joseph Hradnansky -164 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Francis Hrusovsky - J . M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. - Karol Sidor - F. Vnuk - 175 180 Current Issues (Proclamation of the 42nd Congress of the Slovak League of America. - Slovak World Congress.) - 189 Comments (Sixtieth Anniversary of the Poet Jan Doransky. - Great Distinction for Slovak Poet Karol Strmen. - A Letter of Prof J. M. Kirschbaum to the Polish Monthly Kultura.) - 195 Book Reviews (J. M. Kirschbaum: New Collection of Slovak Emigre Poetry. - Two Foreign Language Collections of Slovak Poetry. Dr. Heinrich Kuhn : Bibliographishes Handbuch der Tschechoslowakei. - Books on Dubcek and Slovakia. - David L. Hoggan: Der Erzwungene Krieg. - Toward a New Central Europe. - Beitrage zum Deutsch-Tschechischen Verhaltnis im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.) - 202 As Others See It - 214 �SLOVAKIA 223 SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA - supports freedom and independence of Slovakia; - promotes a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation, its history, culture, traditions, and desires ; - makes America better known to Slovakia and Slovakia better known to America in the interest of world peace, freedom and security; - has a scholarship program for college and university students; - promotes cooperation among all American-Slovak organizations and publications for the promulgations of Slovak ethnic heritage. - is a charter member of the Slovak World Congress. Life membership: $100.00 For further information, write to: Slovak League of America 313 Ridge Avenue Middletown, Pa. 17057 ��PRI NTI D IN U.S. A. JIDN OTA PlllN TER Y, MID DLli TOW N, PA. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 189 CURRENT ISSUES Proclamation of the 42nd Congress of the Slovak League of America At Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Solemnly convened in Congress, the officers and delegates of the Slovak League of America formally decla·r e that: 1. We rededica,te ourselves and our membership to the preserva,l!ion of the basic moral principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United Staites o·f America and the United Naitions organization. 2. In light of the above, we request our member organizations and the memberships to solicit their lo<:al, state and federal officials for assistance needed to reestablish Slovakia as a democratic state in a free Central Europe. 3. Fwrther we ask all our fellow citizens to likewise rededicate themselves to the great challenge and opportunities confronting all decent God fearing people in this period of violence, hatred and abuse of lawful authority; for, without a concerted effort by the silent majority, we could easily lose the God given rights and freedoms which we here enjoy, and which are presently non-existent in Slovakia and other nations with age old Christian cultures and traditions, and to insure tile continued safeguarding of these precious rights and gifts, as loyal citizens, we put our trust in and support the dedicated efforts of our President, Richard M. Nix·on, to end the Indochina War, to establish an honorable peace and to restore domestic tranquility. In witness whereof, we have caused these sentiments to be published this 24th day of May, 1970. Edward J. Behuncik, President Joseph Pauco, Secretary 190 SLOVAKIA Slovak World Congress (Mr. TAFT asked and was given permission-June 30, 1970-to address the House of Representatives for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous matter.) Mr. TAFT. Mr. Speaker, last week the American Slovak fraternal and religious organizations were participating in the First Slovak World Congress which was held in New York City at the Americana Hotel. I had both the honor and the pleasure to be one of their guests at the banquet, Sunday, June 21, together with my colleagues from the Congress-Ray J. Madden, Paul Findley, Michael A. Feighan, William E. Minshall, and John M. Murphy. Congressman Joseph M. Gaydos, himself of Slovak origin, was unfortunately in hospital at the time and missed this worthy event. Ambassador Nguyen Huu Chi, permanent observer to the United Nations, was also present. Representatives of other American nationalities were also present. Senator John G. Tower, an outstanding American and an eloquent speaker, gave the keynote address. It was a fine speech and the assembled were unanimous in their praise of Senator Tower's presentation and knowledge of history. Among the many delegates from the free world, including from Australia, Latin America, Europe, and Canada, who attended the sessions were also three bishops, Andrew G. Grutka of Gary, Ind., the honorary chairman of the congress; Michael Rusnak of Toronto, and Paul Hnilica of Rome, Italy. Stephen B. Roman, the internationally known industrialist from Canada, chaired the proceedings of the congress with Bishop Grutka. Mr. Roman was elected the chairman of the Slovak World Congress for 1970-71. The major organizations from the United States participating in the congress included the National Slovak Society, presided by John Pankuch, the Slovak Catholic Union, presided by John A. Sabol, the Catholic Sokol, presided by Paul Fallat, Slovak League of America, by Edward Behuncik. SLOVAKIA 191 Feeling certain that many other heritage groups in our great country will find gems of hope for their own ideals, I include Senator Tower's introduction and speech in the Record at this point: Introduction of Key Speaker (By Joseph Krajsa, editor of the largest fraternal American Slovak newspaper) When you think of Texas you immediately think of something big. And President Nixon has sent someone Big to extend official greetings to the Slovak World Congress. The distinguished United States Senator from Texas, Senator Tower, known as a Progressive-Conservative, is a close advisor to President Nixon and serves on three major committees-Armed Services, Banking and Currency, and the Joint Committee on Defense Production. He has spent more time with our commanders and troops in Southwest Asia than any other member of the Senate. The Senator is an internationally known leader and has been distinguished as a gentleman of dedicated zeal. All of you present here today have displayed a zeal for an ideal. We are fortunate that our distinguished American, Senator Tower, shares our zeal. His presence here during his busy congressional session proves his interest in the Slovak cause, a cause so common to all separate ethnic cultures. His massage will be rewarding to all nationality groups, but especially to the Slovak delegates here assembled from all over the free world. And yes, Senator, to the thousands of Slovak Americans living in Texas, too. It has been said that one day the world will be reformed, but not by reformers, but as a result of a zeal for an ideal that is burning in the hearts of dedicated men. Ladies, and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you an inter• nationally known gentleman, our guest to honor, a public servant of dedicated zeal, our distinguished United States Senator from the State of Texas, the Honorable John G. Tower. Thank you for that very fine introduction. Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Reverend clergy, Mr. Ambassador, my distinguished colleagues in the Congress, ladies and gentlemen. 192 SLOVAKIA It certainly is a great pleasure to be here today. It's extremely difficult for me to undertake to address you as the final speaker on the program. I have listened with great interest to all that has been said, but have not understood it all, since I don't speak Slovak. And so I am reasonably sure that Steve Roman has probably made my speech. But I'll find out afterwards. I think that this is a great and significant moment that you meet here in your first World Congress. I think it is always inspiring when like-minded people get together for a noble common cause. You are Slovaks and I am an Anglo-Saxon. But we are all childred of God. And as such, we are enjoined to stand fast in the liberty with Christ who set us free. We are all of one family. And we are our brothers in the common cause to try to achieve in this world, and in that which God intends, freedom for all mankind. There are those in this world today who I think are ready to give up in the struggle against totalitarianism. I am so happy to note that you people are not among them. There are many in our country who have never felt the lash of communist imperialism. Because Karl Marx stated things in lofty terms, in terms of thinking what he considered to be human objectives, they think perhaps that system is not so bad after all. I wish every American could have shared the experiences many of you had, who have lived under communist totalitarianism to understand what it is all about. I have never lived in a totalitarian system, but I've been in places in this world where I've seen the stultifying and inhuman effects of the communist drive for world aggrandizement. As it has been noted, I have been in Vietnam several times. I returned from there, most recently, several weeks ago. Two weeks ago, today, I was sludging around on the battlefield in Cambodia. Today I'm glad to report to you that we are achieving our objectives in Vietnam. We can measure our achievement in several ways. We have reduced the capacity of the enemy to wage massive forces against us. We have improved the fighting qualities of the army of South Vietnam. And I can tell you that Army, and indeed all the Armed Forces of South Vietnam performed SLOVAKIA 193 in a most professional, courageous and effective manner in the recent and current operations in Cambodia. And, I am given to understand by the military commanders, that this will hasten the day when we can bring our boys back home. But I think the most important reason, and underlying everything, is the fact that now most of the Vietnamese people have had some experience with Communism. They may not understand democracy, as you and I understand it. They may not understand all of the responsibilities of self-government, as you and I understand it. Those who have lived under the Viet Cong, and under the heel of North Vietnamese military have made a decision, that they would rather be with us. I think that the only way we can fail to accomplish our objectives, in trying to combat communist aggression in Southeast Asia, is for the people here at home to throw in the towel. I do not think we can lose the war in Southeast Asia if we can maintain our presence there. I know I didn't have to convince you about our responsibilities in the world. You know what Communism has done to Eastern Europe and what America must do to maintain her own security. You know the reason why. It's the same reason that we fight today in South Vietnam because Communist aggressor powers seek to expand their realm by force. There are so many naive people, unfortunately, too many of them on the college faculties of this country, who hold that there is no danger from Communist aggression. I imagine that the people in Czecho-Slovakia can say a word or two on that score. And I wish that they who have fled from the Russian tanks and tbe Russian machine guns could be on the college faculties so that our youth can get a better impression of what Communism is really like. How can we believe that there is no danger? There are those who try to impose a sense of guilt on the people of the United States for the arms race. We didn't start the arms race! It was not the U.S. which continued to maintain its poverful military force immediately following World War II. We demobilized. It was not the U.S. that swallowed-up the Eastern European countries with the use of military force. It was not the U.S. who sealed off Berlin. It-was not the U.S. who invaded 194 SLOVAKIA South Korea. And, in the past few years, from the point of strategic technology, the Russians have been developing their military potential at a much greater rate than we have. I submit to you that there is a clear and present danger which you well know. And I am not speaking so much to you, as I am through you, to a lot of people who are not in this room. But who should understand that this nation must maintain a posture of military superiority, not inferiority. Not parity, but superiority! Because if we fail to maintain it, my friends, there will be no hope for the Slovaks, nor for the millions of others to ever aspire to freedom and selfdetermination and have any reasonable hope of realizing it. Does anyone believe that if the Soviets achieve strategic military superiority they will not use it to blackmail the rest of the world into going along their way. And you know what their way is. My friends, we are going to be in grave trouble by the end of this decade, or perhaps even before, if we don't recognize this fact. I don't believe that we, Americans, can retreat to "fortress America" and hope to survive as a great nation ourselves. Even if we made our country impregnable; if we withdrew from the world, other nations would have to make their own accommodations with the Soviets. Then we will find ourselves in grave economic difficulties in a few years hence, because we are not a self-sufficient nation. We depend on sources and resources from other parts of the world. So, our capacity to progress as free people in the free enterprise system is involved here. But beyond that the mantle of world leadership has fallen on our shoulde11s whether we like it or not. We certainly are our brothers keepers! If we, as a Judeo-Christian society don't believe that then we have lost sight of the basic tenet. We are our brothers keepers, and have a responsibility to try and maintain a secure world in which Slovaks and all others, can aspire to freedom and hope ultimately to achieve it. I'm pleased to bring you greetings from the White House. I'm also pleased to observe that you are willing to make common cause with all others, to combat the great Communist menace. There can be no freedom where Russian tanks, Russian soldiers occupy soil. There is no SLOVAKIA 195 freedom in such territory anyplace. Ultimately, I think that all societies in this world can aspire to the kind of progress we in the U.S. and Canada have enjoyed through the free enterprise system. In the final analysis, when man becomes totally dependent upon the State, he losses his freedom. The right of man to own and do with his property what he considers best to him and his environment is a ba:sic right and the major factor which prevents his being reduced to meek dependency on the State. I commend you for what you are doing. I wish you well. Know that you are not alone, that there will be those of us who although are not Slovak, will be at your side. God speed! COMMENTS SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POET JAN DORANSKY Among Slovak poets and writers in exile whom we considered in 1945 as the "young generation," there are several who are approaching their venerable age of 60 years. In 1971, we should not bypass in silence the 60th birthday of one of them-Jan Doransky, born on May 28, 1911, in Trstena. Coming from a part of Slovakia which gave to Slovak literature and public life many outstanding poets and novelists, Jan Doransky inherited a love for literature and began to write in his early youth, first for student's periodicals, later for literary and cultural monthlies. Afte·r finishing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Bratislava and practiced as a notary in various parts of Slovakia. The outbreak of the Second World War interrupted his civilian life. Being, however, known at that time as a poet and writer, he was retained in the Department for cultural affairs at the Ministry of National Defense. When the Russian armies overran Slovakia, Doransky with thousands of other Slovak intellectuals left with his family for the West. After spending two years in Austria and two years in Rome, he landed in Canada 196 SLOVAKIA in 1949 and has lived in Montreal for the past eighteen years. Doransky is a poet of considerable versatility, and besides many lyrical verses and patriotic poems, he wrote in Canada a drama called Stard mat', neopust'aj nds (Grandmother do not leave us alone), successfully played by Slovak groups across Canada. The play was originally published in Kanadsky Slovak and later in 1953 in book form. Before coming to Canada, Doransky had published in 1939 a play called Novou cestou (On a new path) and in 1943 a collection of satirical verses Slepi pasazieri (Blind passengers). In Slovakia as well as in Canada, his poetry was published in various anthologies : Pred ohnivym drakom (1939), Vo vyhnanstve (1947), Zdravica sv. Cyrilovi a Metodovi (1963); in literary periodicals (Kultura, Most) and in almanacs. In recent years his epigrams published either in the quarterly Most or in newspapers and almanacs became preferred reading among Slovak intelligentsia in the free world. Besides poetry, Doransky wrote a number of short novels and other prose contributions for periodicals (Oral Tatransky, Svojet', Kultura) under the pen-name Hamernik and for the Slovak almanacs and newspapers in Canada and the United States under the name J. D. Oravec. Doransky's literary production is extensive and only the difficulties which a poet or a writer has to overcome in exile, prevented him from publishing his writings in book form. At his 60th birthday, two or three collections of lyrical verses, one collection of short novels and three collections_ of epigrams and satire are among his manuscripts awaiting more favorable circumstances for publication. All who like his poetry and his excellent epigrams called by him "Jedorasty", cannot but wish him that he may live to see not only his manuscripts published but also go back to a free and independent Slovakia for which he fought and to which he dedicated his life and his talent. Ad multos annos! J. M . Ki rs c h b au m SLOVAKIA 197 GREAT DISTINCTION FOR SLOVAK POET KAROL STRMEN Slovak emigre poetry has given to Slovak literature not only its share of excellent original works which echo the great poets of Western nations, but also a new dimension in masterful translations from several world literatures. Recently Slovak literature achieved recognition in this field from the excellent work in scholarship and poetry of one of the most gifted Slovak poets, Prof. Karol Strmen. On October 28, 1970, during the meeting of the Association of American Teachers of French, held in New Orleans, the cultural attache of the French Embassy in Washington presented Prof. Strmen, on behalf of the Government of France, with the Medal of the Knight of Academic Palms. No doubt it has been a deserved distinction, and Slovak literary community abroad is rightly proud of it. Karol Strmen (born in 1921), by vocation university professor of Romance literature, enriched Slovak poetry by translations from several World literatures as well as by his own poetic works. Belonging to the "Catholic Moderna" but following his own literary path, Strmen impressed literary critics and readers almost unanimously as a gifted and mature poet from the time he published his first verses in the prestigous literary monthly Slovenske Pohl'ady, and his first two collections of verses Vyzinok zivota (Harvest of Life) (1940), and Testament (1945) . Attracted by French, Spanish, German and Italian poets, whose works he was masterfully translating during the past two decades, Strmen deviated from the main stream of Slovak emigre poetry as indicate his two collections of verses Striebornd Legenda (The Silver Legend) (1950), and Cakaju nivy jar (Meadows are Expecting Spring) (1963), and his contributions to literary journals and newspapers. His poetry is rather for the cultivated than for the average readers and the traditional and national values are less visible in his poetry than in the poetry of other Slovak emigre poets. Among Strmen's early translations is an anthology 198 SLOVAKIA from the poetry of Michael Eminescu, R. M. Rilke, the wellknown poem by Edgar Allan Poe "Raven" and several poems by Dante. His translating activity increased during the years of his exile to a degree unequalled by any other Slovak poet or writer. He continued to translate from practically all Romance languages as well as from German and English. Among the main translations are Robert Browning's Portuguese Sonnets (1947), Paul Claudel's Via Crucis (1954) and Dante's Inferno (1963 ) . In manuscript form he has Shakespeare's dramas. Slovak literary journals like Most, Literdrny Almanach Slovdka v Amerike, and other Slovak annuals have published regularly his translations from many literatures. His master work in translated poems is, according to literary critics, Dante's Inferno, published in a highly elaborate volume also from the printing point of view. It was, however, Paul Claude!, whose work he liked best and on whom he wrote his doctoral dissertation. Strmen who originally intended to study theology, translated also the New Testament and other religious books, hymns and psalms. Together with sprinc he deserves credit for many cultural activities which developed among Slovaks in exile since the end of the Second World War. Like Sprinc he left home for the United States and in 1949 settled in Cleveland. He is a member of several learned societies, of the Slovak Institute, Slovak Association of Writers and Artists, etc. Even though many of his poems reflect his strong patriotic feelings and aversion to communism before which he fled in 1945, Strmen was among the few emigre poets and writers whose verses pierced the Iron Curtain and were published in 1968 thaw in Slovakia. Slovak emigre writers and poets congratulate their distinguished colleague. J. M. Kirschbaum . . . The Polish monthly Kultura, which is published in Paris by the intellectuals who either did not return to Poland after the Second World War, or escaped the Communist tyranny, dedicated a special issue to the upheavals SLOVAKIA 199 in Czecho-Slovakia. Unfortunately the presentation of the events which led to the liberalization and de-Stalinization movement seems to be strongly influenced by Czech propaganda or insufficient knowledge of the situation in Slovakia, as well as of the role which Slovaks played in changing the Stalinist system and giving "a human face to socialism." Prof. J.M. Kirschbaum who has many friends among Polish intellectuals and has been known for his positive attitude towards Poland since the time of his studies in Warsaw and Cracow, wrote to the editor of Kultura a let.t er but he never received an answer to his friendly remarks. As a result, we decided to publish the letter as a document to record that we were not silent when the presentation of historical events, in which the Slovaks played an important role, has been distorted. Mr. Jerzy Giedroyc, Editor: Kultura, 91 Avenue de Poissy, Paris, France. Dear Sir: I have read with great interest your special issue dedicated to Czecho-Slovakia. As a representative of that group of Slovak political exiles who always stood for a close friendship with Poland, I feel obliged to write a few comments on that issue, especially with regard to the view that the movement for liberalization and democratization stemmed from the Hussite traditions. There is a number of good studies in the West by AngloSaxon and French political writers who analyzed the policy of Czecho-Slovakia during the period of the so-called de-Stalinization and none of them came to a similar conclusion. Only a few journalists stationed in Prague during the summer of 1968 accepted, for reasons which I will mention later, the Czech view that the liberalization movement was due to their national traditions. Books and studies by Western experts in Eastern Europe, like Prof. Skilling, Ph. E. Mosley, W. E. Griffith, Kertesz and even Duchacek, indicate that the Czech part 200 SLOVAKIA of the population of Czecho-Slovakia were lethargic and did not come until 1968 with any noteworthy opposition to the Stalinist regime of Antonin Novotny. Two Czech writers in Griffith's symposium even accuse their compatriots of fully supporting that regime after the upheavals in Hungary and Poland or later when the Slovak intellectuals began to attack the Stalinist dictatorship. (See Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968.) I think it can be objectively established that the movement for liberalization and democratization not only started in Slovakia, but also was carried on mainly by the Slovak intellectuals. One of the contributors to your special issue on Czecho-Slovakia, P. Carnogursky, pointed to this fact, but did not develop his thesis by giving names and data. In all serious studies in the West it has been accepted that the beginning of the de-Stalinization was a Congress of Slovak writers in May 1963 and a following Congress of Slovak journalists. Actually, Slovak writers attacked the Novotny regime and its Stalinist form and tactics in 1956 and the crimes and methods of that regime were described in a book by Ladislav Mnacko : "Belated Reportages." The Slovak review "Kulturny zivot," then systematically attacked and criticized the regime, asking for a change towards more freedom and more human methods. After 1963, the Slovak intellectuals, among them also several intellectuals of Jewish origin (G. Husak, L. Novomesky, M. Hysko, V. Mihalik, L. Kalisky, E. Lobl, E. Goldstticker, Spitzer ), began an organized struggle for more freedom, justice and democracy. They created a sort of brain trust, behind Alexander Dubcek, who became the embodiment and leader of this movement. The reasons behind the fact that the movement started in Slovakia, can be found in the harsh treatment of Slovakia by the Prague Government under Gottwald and mainly under Novotny. In the purges organized by Prague was eliminated not only Dr. Vlado Clementis, the ideological leader of communism in Slovakia, who died on the gallows, but soon after him all the influential and educated communist leaders branded as bourgeois nationalists. Slovakia SLOVAKIA 201 was submerged in terror, persecution, de-nationalization and an economic crisis, which was created intentionally by the Government of Prague. President Novotny also hurt the pride and feelings of the Slovak population and, therefore, in the 1960's the outrage was general in Slovakia. When the "bourgeois nationalists" were freed from prisons and rehabilitated, they began to speak about the horrors of their investigations and imprisonment and this gave the impulse to the writers and to the intellectuals, who previously sided with Novotny for an attack on Novotny's regime, because in the purges of the 1950's, mainly Slovaks and Jews became the victims of the furor of the Prague Government. In the Czech part of the country the intellectuals did not feel the terror with such intensity and, therefore, they joined only slowly and individually the movement for democratization and de-Stalinization. As a result, the movement was headed not only by Dubcek but also by Goldsti.icker, Lobl, and many others, all from Slovakia. Should your Revue be interested in a more detailed analysis of this period and should more arguments be required to support my statement that not the Hussite traditions or Czech attachment to democracy were the moving force in the upheavals of 1968 in Czecho-Slovakia, but the Slovak nationalism and striving of Slovaks and some good Czechs for freedom and a more human life, I would be only too glad to send to you a documented study on this subject. Yours very truly, Prof. J. M . Ki rs c h b au m " . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA represents an overwhelming majority of organized Americans of Slovak descent; actively affiliated with it are the large3t Slovak fraternals, religious organizations, Slovak Clubs and Slovak civic organizations in the United States . . . . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is an AMERICAN INSTITUTION; it was organized May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, 0., by the Rev. Stephen Furdek. 202 SLOVAKIA BOOK REVIEWS NEW COLLECTION OF SLOVAK EMIGRE POETRY Jan Okal', Voda a vino (Water and Wine, United States 1970) , pp. 70. Eugen Vesnin, Aj v etrurskych zahradach (Also in the Gardens of Etruria, Buenos Aires, 1970). Rome, as the first free refuge of many Slovak intellectuals, inspired several Slovak ,poets and writers who created during the past quarter of a century literary works of high standards. Among them was not only J. C. Hronsky, R. Dilong, M. Sprinc, and K. Strmen, but also Jan Okal' and Eugen Vesnin. All of them reacted to the beauty of the Eternal city in prose or verse and enriched Slovak emigre literature by several volumes. The above volumes by Jan Okal' and Eugen Vesnin attest to the creative inspiration of Rome and Italy. Jan Okal' (born in 1915) published his first verses in Slovakia during the War in two collections Nehnem sa (I do not move, 1942) and L!ubost' (Love, 1944). He also profusely contributed to Slovak periodicals, wrote short stories for children and translated from Ukrainian literature. It was, however, in exile that his talent developed. Even though he spent most of his time as editor of a S1ovak newspaper in the United States, and for several years also as the editor of Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, he did not cease to publish poetry or prose of refined taste and literary ma• turity. He also published in English a well-written sketch on the Slovak Robin Hood-George Janosik: A Carpathian Saga ( 1953) and a chronicle in 13 poems called Kro- nika siovakov (The Chronicle of Slovaks, 1954), as well as a satirical novel Blizenci (Gemini, 1962) and translations from I Fioretti di San Francesco . After a few years of silence, he surprised now readers and critics by the above mentioned collection of his poetry, in addition to many verses published in the literary journal Most or in almanacs and calendars. His collection Voda a vino (Water and Wine) is a masterfully illustrated volume of lyrical sketches in verse which reflect Okal"s years spent in Rome and Italy. All his poems, usually not longer than one or two verses, are sensitive and well-written images of beautiful monuments and places of Rome and of •o ther countries which he visited during his exile. The volume under review proves that Okal' is a refined and gifted poet as well as an alert commentator on literary and cultural matters. Personal reminiscences and memories give to his book, as well as to his scattered poems in literary journals, a certain gentleness and tenderness. All his published works were artistically illustrated by the well-known Slovak artist, Joseph G. Cincik, and belong to the finest readings in Slovak emigre literature. * The ancient beauty of Rome and the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean area marked even more the lyrical verses of Eugen Vesnin (Dr. Ignac Zelenka, born in 1913) . After publishing a score of verses in Slovakia before the war, Vesnin spent in silence nearly three dee- 203 SLOVAKIA ades before his three collections of mature lyrical poetry were published in Slovak, and an anthology in Italian. For the past 25 years a librarian in the Vatican library, Vesnin--as the Osservatore Romano wrote when his Italian collection was published- is a "poet of peace, love, patriotism and the beauty of nature, but also well-known as a scholar." Osservatore Romano mentions in this connection Vesnin's works on the Vatican, on the Holy See, as well as 1111 essay on Juraj Knzanic, the -p recursor of Pan-Slavism, and on the liturgical editions which can be found in the Vatican library. Among Vesnin's published poetical works should be mentioned the following collections: Zo zcitisia ntim6z (1965) which appeared also in Italian translation by Prof. Leo Magnino under the title L'Oasi delle mimose (Rome 1967); Jani e som potomok i latokopov (I am not a descendant of gold-diggers) and S temena mojich hor (From the top of my mountains, Buenos Aires 1966) . These collections were followed by lyrical verses Aj v etrurskych zcihradach (Also in the Gardens of Etruria, Buenos Aires, 1970), which seems to be the best selection of Vesnin's peotry. In spite of the fact that Vesnin spent nearly his whole life in Rome where he originally studied theology, his poetry is deeply patriotic and one of his verses "Salute to my Country" can be considered even in its Italian translation as one of the best patriotic poems of the Slovak emigre literature. The literary critic Jan E. Bor considers Vesnin as one of the highly gifted lyrical poets of his generation. The readers, including this reviewer, will agree that his poetry is an enjoyable and cultivated reading. J. M . Kirschbaum TWO FOREIGN LANGUAGE COLLECTIONS OF SLOVAK POETRY Mikulas Sprinc: DRIFTWOOI) Poems translated from the Slovak by the author, Larz Pearson and Jaroslav Vajda. Engravings by Dr. Joseph G. Cincik. Published by the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, 1969. Printed by the Benedictine Press at St. Andrew's Abbey, Cleveland, 0. Gorazd Zvonicky: SOLTANTO ROVINE - Italian translation by Milan S. !>urica and Ernesto Simonetto. Published by Associazione di cultura ceca e slovaca "Arturo Cronia," Padua, 1968. Slovak culture was enriched recently by two excellent collections of translations of poems by two of our outstanding poets in exile. The first collection is published in English and presents a selection of recent verses from the lyrical works of the cultivated and sensitive poet, Mikulas Sprinc. The selection, as well as the translations, are very successful and the English reader will go through this carefully published and artistically illustrated volume with delight. Whoever likes intimate lyrics written by a poet who seems to combine the art of Paul Verlaine and the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi will enjoy every verse of this excellent collection. Some verses were translated by the author himself, others by the well-known translator of Slovak poetry into English, Rev. J. Vajda, and some by one of the students of the poet, Larz Pearson. As usual, 204 SLOVAKIA the translations do not reflect exactly the Slovak text and its musical and rhythmical quality but, on the whole, all translations attest to the talent of both the auther and the translators. Those who appreciate poetry which is rooted in the strong belief in the Creator without sounding too religious, and those who like the beauty of life iu the songs of birds, the color of flowers, the sound of the wind, and blue skies or the colors of the rainbow, will find delight in reading Mikulas Sprinc's poetry. The volume also contains several fine poems with patriotic overtones expressing the poet's love for his lost and oppressed native Slovakia. The author and the publishers deserve credit for enriching Slovak culture by this valuable volume. there is a refined poet following in the footsteps of Slovak fighters for the nation's freedom, who used the most efficient weapon against tyranny and the sufferings of the Slovak people--the deeply felt and masterfully written poetic protest. As in the case of the volume by Mikulas Sprinc, Slovak intellectuals in the free world as well as at home will appreciate Zvonicky's publication. -jmkDr. Heinrich Kuhn: Bibliographisches Handbuch der Tschechoslowakei. Publications of the Collegium Carolinum, Verlag Robert Lerche, Munich 1969. Dr. Kuhn has added to his very useful previous work Handbuch this new pubThe collection "Soltanto Rovine" der Tschechoslowakei the biowith deals which lication by Gorazd Zvonicky in the tranlapoliticians, Party oftion of Prof. Milan S. !>urica and graphies of and other persons in the Ernesto Simonetto, is another valu- ficials the present Czechoable contribution. Masterfully il- public life of Slovakia. lustrated , the volume gives both As in his previous work, Dr. the Slovak text as well as the Italian translation. Gorazd Zvoni- Kuhn shows a detailed knowledge cky is one of the best contemporary of the subject and prepared it with Slovak poets, highly cultivated and his usual "ptinktlichkeit" and segifted. His poetry is of the same riousness of a scholar. Therefore, genre as that of Mikula!; Sprinc- specialists in Eastern Europe will lyrical, intimate, musical and well welcome this new publication ewritten. It wa~, therefore, not easy specially after the Soviet occupato make an adequate translation. tion placed Czecho-Slovakia again The translators used free verse and into the focus of international indid not look for rhyme. Neverthe- terest. Kuhn's work has been published less, the volume transfers to the readers the feeling of a Slovak in loose sheets in two volumes patriot and poet towards the brutal which will be welcomed by reoccupation of his native country searchers as a very practical way by Soviet troops and the martyr- of dealing with the political figures dom of the Slovak population. The in occupied Czecho-Slovakia. All verses express, however, not only biographies are carefully prepared, intimate and personal sorrows, but containing the most important data. also indignation of all Slovak pa- In some biographies the author triots and of the whole Slovak left out the place of birth of some politician or Party official, but he nation. Once more in Slovak poetry I gives detailed information on all SLOVAKIA the main leaders either in the government or in the Party. In some cases, like that of the present First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. G. Husak, it would have been useful to mention the ten years he spent in jail under Novotny's regime, as well as his writings in periodicals about his experience in Novotny's dungeons. Dr. Kuhn mentions only three publications by Husak and in the first one there 205 is a slight mistake in the title. It should read "Zapas o zajtrajfok." Since the leading figures of Slovak and Czech political life were often presented in the West with journalistic superficia!lity, confusing Slovaks for Czechs, we we1lcome this book because it will enable everybody interested in the problems of Czecho.Slovakia to receive correct information. J . M . Kirschbaum BOOKS ON DUBCEK AND SLOVAKIA Among some 50 books in the English and French languages which dealt with the events in Czecho-Sl-ovakia in 1968 and after, there was none, as mentioned last year in my review of books on Slovakia, which paid attention to the situation in Slovakia. The authors of these books overlooked the fact that the liberalization movement had started in Slovakia and that it was also headed by a Slovak-Alexander Dubcek. Prof. Gordon Skilling, who is one of the foremost Canadian specialists on post-war Czecho-Slovakia, drew attention to this lack of interest or intentional neglect in the works of Western specialists in Eastern Europe.1 The role of Slovaks was analyzed and evaluated only in the Canadian siavonic Papers (Vol. X, 4, 1968) by this writer. In 1970 we have, however, several books or studies which do not treat the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 exclusively as "Prague Spring" but are concerned with the whole country and point out to the specific Slovak problems and the role the Slovaks played in the deStalinization period. The best among these studies in English so far is the book by William Shawcross DUBCEK (London, 1970) which would deserve a much more extensive review than space allow us. Another work also deserves our attention is "Dubcek's Biue Print for Freedom" by Lunghi and Ello (Kimber, London, 1968) c1s are two essays by the members of the staff of the Czeclio-Slovak Section of the B.B.C., Michael Montgomery and Deryck Viney. The latter wrote an interesting essay in "Studies of Comparative Communism" (University of Southern California, July-August 1969). The book by Shawcross does not give any biography except to say that "he left Oxford in June 1968 and is now writing on Eastern European affairs for the ' Sunday Times.' He is 24 and this is his first book." In view of this, the book is quite an achievement. From the references, as well as from the contents, it is clear that Shawcross carried out extensive research, interviews, and travelled around .Slovakia, including the birth place of ~lexander Dubcek. As a result, we have in hand a thorough and well documented study. The book is, of course, not without mistakes and shortcomings which, in the intricate situation and confused reporing on events, is to be expected. 206 SLOVAKIA While other Western authors ascribed the liberalization movement to the Czechs, Shawcross's main thesis is that Dubcek's rise to power and the subsequent liberalization of Czecho-Slovakia were due to the fact that the Slovak question had been the motive force behind these events. He traces Dubcek's career within the apparatus of the Communist Barty of Slovakia as a more or less obsequious Party member until he decided to spearhead the Slovak movement within the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia for greater justice for all the Slovaks. Carried to the ht)ad of this movement that had much deeper roots than most Western observers have cared to point out, Dubcek then demonstrated strategic and tactical talents in forestalling Novotny's counterattacks and eventually in leading the struggle to rid the country of its Stalinist President and Communist Party First Secretary. Although Dubcek did not expect it, he saw himself placed at the head of Czecho-Slovakia, the first Slovak to achieve this position. Up to this point, Shawcross's presentation, despite some mistakes on the meaning and on some details of the 1944 revolt, is very good. The author shows good knowledge of the political situation in Slovakia and an understanding of the problem which Slovakia poses within Czecho-Slovakia. Husak's rise to power is dismissed as a personal repetition of Dubcek's ascension. No doubt Husak's emergence as the head of •t he Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia was in many ways a personal success, but the fact that a second Slovak rose to the highest position when many Czech Stalinists were waiting in the wings, indicates that the Communist Party of Slovakia, if not other institutions or groups, must also have played some role. With the federalization of CzecboSlovakia, the Slovak element could not be further ignored as it had been during the Novotny years. It is to be regretted that Sbawcross did not pursue the developments in Slovakia and if be was unab'1e to find out more of what happened there after August 1968, he could present at least some hypotheses. As far as Husak is concerned, he also made an error when stating that he graduated at Prague University. Despite these shortcomings, Shawcross's work must be considered not only as a good piece of research, but in view of his age, is an act of courage, as he did not hesitate to bring forward a problem that Western historiography has been ignoring for more than half a century. Among the books on Czecho-Slovakia in the French language, it is the one by Pavel Tigrid which deals with Dubcek and with the It is after the time of the in- situation leading to the dismissal vasion by the Soviet Union and of Novotny, as well as with the her satellites that Shawcross's nar- events of 1968, and the aftermath rative shows some of its flaws, of the invasion. Tigrid's book is much of this is due to the fact entitled La chute irresistible d'Athat he follows Tigrid's book too iexander Dubcek, (Calmann-Levy, closely. The author is carried away Paris, 1969) . The book was written on the by his admiration for Dubcek and paints his opponents too black. basis of many unpublished docuJ<'urthermore, the Slovak problem ments and minutes of the meetings is completely lost in this part. 1 of the Central Committee of the SLOVAKIA Communist Party, or of the government. Tigrid has recognized that the Slovak problem played an important role in the attempts to oust Novotny from his position and he depicts Dubcek in this first phase ot the struggle within the Central Committee of the Communist Party as a fighting, courageous man. However, the role of Dubcek after he took over the office of First Secretary is painted with a certain tendency tJo diminish his importance or to present him as a timid, indecisive man, lacking in intellectual abilities and preparation to cope with the problem of liberalization. One chapter is entitled "Alexander Dubcek, heros malgre lui" which by itself indicates a sort of depreciation and shows an attempt on the part of Tigrid to ascribe the liberalization movement to the Czechs, even though the truth is ,that the behavior of the Czech masses as well as of some of their politicians greatly contributed to the decision of the Soviets to invade the country and to destroy the liberalization movement. Tigrid's book is written in a journalistic rather than in a scholarly style, but by using original sources and confidential information, it fills a certain gap in the literature about the events in Czecho.JSlovakia in 1967 and 1968. We also find in Tigrid',s book a sympathetic mention of Vasil Bil'ak who strongly opposed Novotny in December 1967 and courageously fought for Slovak interests, but apparently became later one of those sided with Moscow. More objectively than in Tigrid's book, Slovakia and Dubcek are presented in the book by Francois Fetji:i Histoire des democracies populaires apres Staline (Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1969) . In Fetji:i's 207 book, Dubcek is not presented as a timid, indecisive and implicitly naive and politically unprepared leader. On the contrary, he is portrayed as a man who believed strongly in his "Communism with human face," and in Lenin's thesis on the independence and the territorial integrity of socialist states. Throughout his book, Fetjo deals with the situation in Czecho-Slovakia with rare objectivity and compares -the events with either Hungary or Poland. As one chapter, entitled "La Tragedie Tchechoslovaque et ses ,p rolongements," indicates, he considers the invasion of Czecho-Slovakia as a tragedy and as a brutal and unnecessary action on the cpart of Moscow. A one-time Communist and author of several books on Eastern Europe and communism, Fetji:i presents in his book conclusions which are logical and displays solid knowledge of the problems of the countries under Soviet rule. He writes about Slovakia and the Communist leaders of Slovak origin or born in Slovakia without any bias, which many authors of books on Eastern Europe u~ually are unable or unwilling to do. Michel Tatu also published a series of articles and a book on the events in Czecho-Slovakia, and two books by Ladislav Mnacko have been translated into the French language. For the events of 1968, only one of Mnacko's books La septieme nuit is of importance. Books in German dealing with the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 are comperatively few when compared to the number of books published in English. With regard to Slovakia, we can mention the German translation of Mnacko's book Die Siebente Nacht (Vienna, 1968) which was reviewed last yeaT 208 SLOVAKIA in Slovakia. Another author from knowledge of the situation in Slovakia, Dr. Eugen Lobl published Czecho-Slovakia and refers to many his experiences in jail in German, sources in the Slovak and Czech Die Revolution rehabilitiert ihre language which would indicate Kinder, (Vienna: Europa, 1968), as that he might be one of the Sudewell as a political essay published ten Germans who now live in West together with Leopold Grunwald, Germany. His approach to the SloDie intellektuelle Revolution, Hi~ vak problem is unbiased. Dubcek tergriinde und Auswirkungen des and other Slovak communist lead"Prager Friihlings," (Diisseldorf: ers played, according to him, an important role during the crisis Econ, 1969) . While in the first book Dr. Lobl of the Communist Party in 1967, speaks about the persecution and and he portrays Dubcek as First Communists Secretary of the Communist Party of rehabilitation purged during the Stalinist period without the caustic remarks or and later in the Novotny era, his disdain which can be found in contribution in the second book Tigrid 's book, for instance. Even though Reitzner's book is presents his views on the possibility of reforming communist systems rather the work of an experienced and of giving them a human face. journalist who made detailed reAccording to Prof. Skilling "As search, it reflects quite objectively a severe critique of the Soviet the changing situation in Czechobrand of socialism, this book ranks Slov-akia in those two fateful years. with Djilas' The New Class, but In addition, by quoting from Slorepresents also an original and vak and Czech periodicals, newsimaginative, even if passionate and papers and speeches of communist one-sided, interpretation of the leaders, Reitzner's book preserves proposed Czechoslovak model. For m·eful materials for further reLobl, the events of 1968 constituted search. Speaking probably much a new phase in the 'socialist re- better Czech than Slovak, he was volution,' continuing the work led to misspel the name of some begun by the October revolution Slovak newspapers like "Smena" and later interrupted by Stalinism. or "Smer" which he writes in It was also a renewed effort by Czech orthography. The reader is left with the imCzechs and Slovaks to follow a that the author had a pression atan own, s pecial path of their tempt which had been made in the sincere intention to give a realistic 1940s and then had been rudely and objective account of th ~ Mmblocked by Soviet coercion as ex- plex situation in both Slovakia and emplified by the trials of the the Czech lands. 1950s." (International Journal, Vol. l) See H. Gordon Skilling: "Thaw XXV, No. 1, p. 197) . and Freeze-Up: Prague 1968." International Journal Vol. XXV, There is also, however, a German No. 1, pp. 192-201. author, Almar Reitzner, wh o published a book entitled D ubcek F . Kennan: From Prague (Miinchen, 1970) but actually deals George Diplomatic Papers Munich, after with all the aspects of the crisis 1938-1940, Princeton University in Czecho-Slovakia in 1967 and Press, 1968, 226 Pages. with the short period of liberalizaThe well-known diplomat-historition and the Soviet invasion of 1968. Reitzner displays a detailed an George F . Kennan contributes SLOVAKIA in this volume to the history of the crucial years 1938-1940 by many valuable documents, diplomatic despat.ches and personal observations. As he admits himself in his preface : "All were written either for private purposes or for the confidential information of the United States government." With all academic honesty, he also admits : "This material was unavoidably in many respects unbalanced and inadequate. In reflected serious lapses in my own historical background as well as in the range of my contacts in the Czechoslovak society of the time. The selection of the subject matter was inevitably affected by the limitations on opportunities for reading, for travel, and for personal acquaintance." .Such a confession does not diminish the value for historians or students of the political tragedy which started with Munich. Nevertheless, the reader and even more the student of history has to keep in mind the author's remarks, especially with regard to Slovakia, where his contacts were not only limited but his information came mostly from people who were not free to bias against the Slovak aspirations for an equal footing with the Czech half of the country. Kennan himself admits in his despatches that Slovakia was not treated by Prague governments without discrimination and prejudice; yet he accepted in many instances the Czech views on the motives and goals of the ffiinka's Slovak Populist Party, on the autonomist movement and on the contacts of its leaders with Berlin. The Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, published in 1957 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office i11 co-operation with the United States Department of State, dis- 209 prove many of the adverse allegations about the Slovak autonomist movement; even the history books published by communist historians in the short period of liberalization in Slovakia seem to put the events of 1938-1939 and the leading personalities in a more objective historical perspective than some documents contained in this volume. It would, however, be unjust to blame Kennan because his information was gathered from people either in Prague or in Slovakia who viewed the situation from their partisan position and with the result that his report reflected their biased opinions. This valuable volume of documents and excellently written observations also suffers from another shortcoming. The author writes that the documents are source material "above all to those students of the political process who wish to examine the anatomy of an attempt by a military powerful country to dominate and control, under modern conditions, the life of a small and helpless but highly developed neighbor for whose national feelings, and claim to independence, it has only contempt." This is certainly a highly motivated purpose and no doubt the documents will be helpful in this respect. rt is, however, hard to understand why the epilogue to this book was written by Frederick G. Heymann, who left Prague in 1939, was hardly acquainted with Slovakia and her internal problems and who admits that his own immediate information at the time on which Kennan reported same from representatives of the replaced Bene§ Government and other Czech friends. In addition, Heymann admits that he stayed in Czecho-Slovakia only from 1932 to 1939 and "looked at the political 210 SLOVAKIA and socieconomic development there from the viewpoint of a newspaperman of originally German background." With all respect to Mr. Heymann, no student of Eastern European history can take this as his credentials to write an epilogue, let alone an objective epilogue to this volume. Especially acute is his biased attitude towards Slovakia which he severely condemns--not the regime exclusively which certainly deserve condemnation for some acts; furthermore, he does not even indicate that he ever liv~d in Slovakia or studied the Slovak problem. J.M. Kirschbaum David L. Hoggan: Der Erzwungene Krieg , Die Ursachen und Urheber des z. Weltkriegs, Verlag der Deutschen HochschullehrerZeitung Tubingen, 1963, bibliography, maps, photographs, pages 898. The book Der Erzurnngene Krieg (The Imposed War) by the American historian, Prof. David L. Hoggan, represents an effort to reverse the blame for the Second World War. According to his research, it was not Germany which imposed the war on other countries, but the war was imposed by other countries on Germany. The main culprit in Prof. Hoggan's opinion seems to be Poland, but other great powers share, according to him, some of the responsibility as well. The voluminous work has been written in English but only its German translation has been so far published. If we believe the assertions of Dr. Herbert Grabert, several outstanding historians and colleagues of Prof. Hoggan in the United States read the manuscript and helped the author with advice or agreed with his conclusions. He names especially Michael Karpovltch, Sidney B. Fay, William L. Langer, Rudolf Holsti, Harry Rudin, Raymond Sontag, Charles Tansill, M. K. Dziewanowski, Ralph Lutz, Henry Adams, James Martin and Richavd Jones. Each of them " contributed a lot to the work; other renowned American learned men who came with worthwhile suggestions should not be quoted by their names but their help should be gratefully acknowledged," says Dr. Grabert. The book is undoubtedly one of the most controversial works on the Second World War and it is the duty of the historians of the Second World War to come to grips with the conclusions of Prof. Hoggan. In view of his extended research and references to many works, his narrative seems to be in accordance with the facts. However unbelievable some of these conclusions may seem, Prof. Hoggan shows that he knows all the main sources and documents in English, German, French, Polish and Russian, and pays attention even to books by Czech, Rumanian and Slovak authors. This mass of documentation and references stresses the impression that the book is a scholarly serious undertaking and were it not for the many books published in the West, as well as by the Communist historians who defend quite opposite conclusions, the reader could draw the definite conclusion that the Second World War was really imposed upon the Third Reich. The author, as well as the publishers, were aware of the controversial nature of the book and mentioned that some learned societies or historians in Germany itself express views which are in complete contradiction of Prof. SLOVAKIA Hoggan's story on the reasons which led to the Second World War. Due to lack of space, we cannot unfortunately write an extensive review or to point out areas where the book differs from the accepted opinions expressed by either American, English, German, French or Russian historians and wish simply to register the publication of this book and its controversial contents. It is also worthwhile to mention that the origins and birth of the Slovak Republic are presented in Prof. Hoggan's book in a different light than we are accustomed to in the books published in the West or in the Communist countries. Prof. Hoggan made the effort to get acquainted with books and documents published by Slovak scholars and historians abroad and did not accept the Czech version, greatly unfavorable to the Slovak people, but uncritically accepted by many renowned historians in the West and East alike. Despite the fact that this book will be opposed by many historians who are unable or unwilling to correct their views no matter how erroneous they may be, Slovaks should be pleased that the truth about Slovakia begins to penetrate Western historiography. Unfortunately, insignificant as the Slovak problem seems to be to the Great Powers, foreign historians will not deal with small problems and by opposing the main conclusions of Prof. Hoggan's book, they will indirectly oppose also his truthful presentation in minor events including the origins and existence of the Slovak Republic. A a result, we must face reality and believe that it will take a long time and many efforts on the part of Slovak scholars who live in the Western world before Slovakia is treated 211 in Western historiography without bias and is free of anti-Slovak tendencies sustained and propagated mainly by the books of Czech historians and politicians and by Communist propaganda literature. J.M. Kirschbaum TOW ARD A NEW CENTRAL EUROPE : A Symposmm on the Prob- lems of the Danubian Nations, Edited by: Francis S. Wagner, Danubian Press, Inc. Astor Park, Florida, 1970. Not only specialists but anyone interested in Eastern Europe will welcome this well documented and carefully edited symposium which reflects the view of some 30 authors on the problems of Central Europe. The book is divided into five parts and the contributors belong practically to all the peoples of the Danubian and Carpathian part of East Central Europe. Part I deals with the international relations of individual Central European peoples with the Western Powers. It also contains some basic principles for the possibility of the co-existence of nations in the Danubian and Carpathian basins. The contributions by C. A. Macartney, T. Eckhardt, and the late Wenzel Jaksch seem to be the most relevant in this part. Part II deals with federalism in Central Europe and contains views and analysis of the federalist efforts in Central Europe by some 15 authors. We can find among them not only the late Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, Milan Hodza, but also the well-known supporter of Danubian Federation, F. 0. Miksche, as well as a contribution entitled : "Slovakia and the Integration Plans of Central Europe" by J . M. Kirschbaum, and a historical 212 SLOVAKIA survey of federalist movement a- Conference reads as follows: "It mong Slovaks and Czechs by Jo- is the intention of the Czecho-Sloseph Ostrovsky entitled "Czech and vak Government to create the orSlovak Statesmen in Favor of a ganization of the State by accepting as a basis of natural rights the Central European Federation." Part III deals with the national- principles applied in the constituity questions which were the main tion of the Swiss Republic, that is, problem in that part of Europe to make the Czecho-Slovak Repubfor the past 200 years. The authors, lic a sort of Switzerland," and not Alexander Gallus and Francis S. as quoted by Ostrovsky. The author Wagner, who edited this symposi- also omitted other- Slovaks who um, figure among the main con- during or after the Second World tributors to this part. As far as War advocated federalist plans in Slovakia is concerned, it is especial- Central Europe: Karol Sidor in ly the contribution by Francis S. " Gazette de Lausanne," Dr. F. Wagner "The Nationality Problem :i'.lurcansky in "Revue de droit inin Czecho-Slovakia after World tC"rnational" (Geneve, 1944), this War II" which is of interest for writer in several foreign language Slovaks. Part IV deals with econom- articles and books, etc. In 1968 ic problems, and Part V contains Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed a federation of two Republics on maps and statistical data. October 27th in the Assembly and Even though it is impossible to following day in Bratislava, the agree with some of the views exbut with the provision that the. to belonging authors by pressed Law No. 143 will take effect on several nations, the book is a seriJanuary 1st, 1969, and not as Osous attempt to find ways for the trnvsky writes. Certain of these r.ations in Central Europe, who are omissions were unnecessary, bezone influence Soviet a now in cause he could have found a detail( except for the Austrians) to live ed survey of Slovak federalist tentheir pooling by again together dencies in my book: "Slovakiaeconomies and by assuring better Nation at the Crossroads of Central economic standards and freedom Europe" (R. Speller, Publishers, for nearly one hundred million New York, 1960). enslaved people. The academic The contributors amassed a rich value of the contributions differs from author to author but, gener- sources of bibliographical informaally, all contributions are on a high tion in several languages which level and the maps and statistical also can help to acquire a much data will be especially appreciated better and more objective view of by those who research the problems the problems in the past and the possibilities of co-operation of the of Central Eastern Europe. living between the Soviet peoples view, of point Slovak From the in J. Ostrovsky's article one can Union and Germany in the future. unfortunately, find sor:ie errors' The Magyar intellectuals who deinaccuracies and omissions. Dr. Mi~ serve recognition for publishing Ian Hodfa died in the United states this symposium came undoubtedly and not in London. The number with a good initiative to discuss cf Magyars was never one million on a broad basis the problems and in Slovakia and the exact promise ways which would lead toward a of a federal structure of Czecho- 1new Central Europe. J. M. Ki rs c h b au m Slovakia by Dr. Bene~ at the Peace SLOVAKIA 213 Beitrage zum Deutsch-Tschechi- cide." The Czech population was schen Verhiiltnis im 19. und 20 . encouraged before Dr. Benes reJahrhundert. (Veroffentlichungen turned to Prague by his Ministers des Collegium Oarolinum) Verlag in exile: " to beat them ; kill them ; Robert Lerche (Miinchen, 1967), leave none alive," and many were pp. 178. massacred, mistreated, raped and burned alive. Hundreds of thouThis collection of lectures on the sands died on the "death march" problem of German-Czech relations or in concentration camps, accordis an attempt at presenting the ing to the published documents. problem without passion on a scholarly basis. The lectures were In spite of this, the volume under read at a conference which took r eview refrained from general acplace in Nurenberg and Salzburg cusations of the whole Czech popuin 1964, but the book was publish- lation and gives quite a sober ed only in 1967. survey of the German-Czech r elations. Also the two Czech conAmong the contributors there is tributors avoid mentioning the a Czech historian, Bohdan Chudo- massacres and plead for a sort of ba, and the former Czech diplomat, co-operation in Central Europe and Karel Lisicky. From the German reconciliation. side seven contributors deal with the problem and all seem to master Among the contributions by the Czech language which would German scholars, Dr. Kuhn's artiindicate that they were either born cle on the attitude of the Commuor studied in Czecho-Slovakia. nist Party of Czecho-Slovakia to Whoever read the documents on the Sudeten German question is the expulsion of the Sudeten Ger- one which is the most timely since mans or the book by Prof. Kurt it is the Communist government Glaser (Czecho-Slovakia-A Criti- and Moscow which can bring any cal History ) must admire the quiet change in the relations between tone and restraint with which the Germans and Czechs, and give a German authors present the Ger- new solution to the Sudeten German"Czech relations through the man problem. For specialists in centuries up to the expulsion of Eastern Europe will be, however, more than three million Sudeten of great interest also the contribuGermans from their centuries old tions by Ferdinand Seibt about the settlements in Bohemia. When Dr. social structure of the first CzechoBenes was seeking the Allied sup- Sl ovakia and Frederich Prinz's port for his plan to expel the ar ticle on Benes and the Sudeten Sudeten Germans, he emphasized Germans. E. Zajicek gives in his repeatedly that the transfers would essay some insight into the politics be carried out decently and human- of the Sudeten Germans who coly. However, when he returned operated with Prague. behind the Red Army to Slovakia All the contributions were writand Bohemia, he apparently forgot ten on the basis of good knowledge about his promises of a human solution of the Sudeten German of the literature either in the qu estion. Basing his philosophy on Czech, German or English lanthe so-called " collective guilt," Dr. guage, which enhances the value Bmes allowed the use of methods of the book. which Prof. Glaser calls "geno- I J. M . K i r s c h b a um 214 SLOVAKIA AS OTHERS SEE I commend the Slovak leaders who are sponsoring and perfecting an organization of American Slovak patriots to continue the fight to restore freedom and self-govern• ment to the Slovak Nation. I also commend those Slovak leaders who are endeavoring to unite various Slovak organizations and groups t hroughout the country and combine their efforts in a unified force for the purpose of concentrating public opinion not only in America Lut throughout the world on enslaved nations who must break the shackles of despotism as rapidly as possible and give millions an opportunity to live and enjoy the life of freedom and self-determination. The Slovak Nation historically maintains the highest spirit of friendshi·p for all humanity and at no time in history has ever encroached upon the rights and freedoms of its neighbor nations, and has always given tangible proof of its generosity and spirit of cooperation with humanity in t he hope that world peace can be a reality for all people on the globe. The Slovak World Congress could inaugurate a great educational program to apprise youth i America and throughout the world of the true facts regarding world communism from the days of Lenin down to the present year 1970. IT their people by the sword, guns, slave-labor camps, and mass murders. Education and presentation of fact on Communist enslavement to the world's uninformed are the greatest weapons democracy possesses against the destruction of the Communist menace. The free world must continue this fight. Someday this victory will be won and the Communist enslavers will become extinct. Slovakia and other captive nations will regain free and independent government. I know that the SLOVAK WORLD CONGRESS will continue its outstanding contribution to the free world's fight to exterminate international communist conspiracy and restore freedom to millions throughout the world by the reestablishment of former governments which will give freedom and liberty to their people. - Ray J . Madden, M. C. Mr. ESHLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, neither the Slovak League of A· merica nor the Congress of the United States has forgotten the brutal occupation of Slovakia by the Soviet Army in 1968. We appeal to the conscience of America, to the American people, and to the United Nations-most of all-for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Slovak soil and for guaranteed free democratic elections under United N'cltions' control. One of my valued constituents, Mr. Joseph Pauco, is secretary of the Slovak League of America. That organization is entirely correct when they, in the proper manner, demand the right of freedom for Slovakia. - Edwin D. Eshle- The free nations have the ability, the education, the defense machinery, and the assets to curtail the further spread of the Communist menace and we must continue our fight. History has revealed over the centuries that dictators cannot stay in power long when they must rule man, M.C. SLOVAKIA 215 The leading example of an unem- of the party presidium last month, ployed party official is, of course, Mr. Husak was in the minority of Alexander Dubcek, the party's a 7-4 vote over an analysis of the leader during the reforms. After events leading up to the Soviet dismissal earlier this year as Am- invasion. The following morning bassador to Turkey and expulsion Mr. Husak left for Moscow to refrom the party, Mr. Dubcek retired ceive Kremlin assurances of conto his Bratislava home to await tinued confidence. employment. Mr. Husak received limited SoHe turned down a fund-handling viet support earlier this fall when post with the Slovak social-security a major campaign to remove him agency for fear that it might be was disclosed through the accidentu~ed to implicate him in possible al death of one of the conspirators. misappropriation charges. He re- Jaroslav Trojan, a member of the quested instead, employment as a presidium of the Federal Assembly, forester .. . was killed as he drove his car after The makers and chief propo- a drinking session with a Soviet nents of Czecho-Slovakia's lost companion. A routine search of his liberalization take their principal desk disclosed copies of dozens of consolation from the fact that there letters by right-wing party officials have been no political trials and addressed to various Soviet leaders few Czechs or Slovaks are in jail and calling for the ouster of Mr. on political charges. But most see Husak. 110 reason to consider this state The party leader was authorized necessarily permanent. to dismiss a few of his principal It is generally believed that while opponents, notably the Czech Inthe party's First Secretary, there terior Minister, Josef Groesser, and will be no political trials because the military man in charge of Mr. Husak was himself a victim of liaison with the Soviet occupation such a trial in Stalin's day. But if tr oops, Gen. Otakar Rytar. But the Soviet Union wants trials, ac- after the general's dismissal, Moscording to this belief, it will re- cow was reported to have sent place Mr. Husak just as it ousted word that he was to be the last Mr. Dubcek last year and replaced "internationalist" ousted. him with Mr. Husak. "Internationalist" is the term for Mr. Husak, while evidently still those who accept the doctrine that the man Moscow considers best the Soviet Union has the right to able to run Czecho-Slovakia, has intervene in a socialist country for some time been under open whenever it says socialism is attack by party leaders even more threatened, such as in Czecho-SloprO-.Soviet than himself. It is as- vakia in 1968. sumed here that these leaders are Opponents of Mr. Husak are conalso operating with Soviet approval, ducting a campaign to present him presumably to keep Mr. Husak as insufficiently internationalist. At from the illusion of independent a Central Committee meeting this power. month, Vasil Bilak, a strongly proThe most determined of Mr. Hu- Soviet leader, surprisingly disclosed sak's opponents are Antonin Ka- that he had a long-missing docupek, secretary of the Prague organ- ment that would identify the ization and Alois Indra, Cetral genuine internationalists and from Committee secretary. At a meeting I which Mr. Husak's name is absent. 216 SLOVAKIA The document is the alleged 1968 letter from Czecho-Slovak leaders to the Soviet Union inviting the Warsaw Pact intervention. The letter was mentioned by Moscow immediately after the invasion but has never been produced nor all its signers disclosed. Mr. Bilak listed about 40 signers, including himself, Mr. Kapek and Mr. Indra. - The New York Times, December 22, 1970. George Blanda, the 43-year-old grey-beard sub quarterback and kicking specialist of the Oakland Raiders football team whose lastgasp heroics gave new hope to the middle-aged, has been named Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. The ageless marvel of the gridiron, who excelled in a tough contact sport competing against athletes half his age, beat out a glittering array of stars in assorted sports in the year-end poll of sports writers and broadcasters. Blanda received 332 votes compared with 246 for Bobby Orr, defenseman of the Boston Bruins hockey team who was runner-up, and 224 for Johnny Bench, slugging catcher of the Cincinnati Reds' baseball team who was a close third . - Associated Press. (Blanda i:; of Slovak ancestry.) I could not condemn the Hungarians or the Czechs and Slovaks, for example, if they were able to launch an effort in this country to turn our eyes toward the danger of the new isolationism. - Frank Morris. The Wanderer, St. Paul, Minn. , September 24, 1970. Those who have known nothing but freedom seldom are capable of appreciating the single majesty of that which they have: the privilege nf aff!'rfing their own destiny. But ask any Czech or Slovak, who has had liberty and then lost it, what it means to be free. Such men know, and in them the dream never dies. - Smith Hempstone. The Phil.adeiphia Inquirer, November 1, 1970. Slovak police recently made a series of raids on government stores and found that one-third were overcharging by as much as 50 per cent on scarce goods. Forty thousand dollars worth of goods were found hidden for customers with extra money. - Donald R. Shanor. Chicago Daily News. December 26, 1970. .Slovak youth stubbornly clings to its anti-Soviet feelings and looks upon the presence of Soviet troops in Czecho-Slovakia as the greatest injustice and offense. This is the conclusion of Ondrej Pavlik, a member of the Slovak Academy of Science. Pavlik gave an account-in the official organ of the Ministry of Education-of an investigation carried out among students in secondary sohools in all parts of Slovakia. In the course of the research more than 2000 questionnaires were collected from students and 400 from teachers. The replies were anonymous. Pertinent portions of Pavlik's report follow : "The entry of Soviet troops in our country and their stationing here still occupy a dominant position in the minds of our students. "The ..Soviet presence in our country is considered by students as a grave act of injustice and a sufficient reason to feel angry at the Soviet Union. "Another source of anti-Sovietism among our youth is our trade relation with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. The SLOVAKIA arguments of ota Sik, economic expert during the Dubcek era are still accepted as valid by our you•th. 'There is much confusion in the minds of our students about modern capitalism. The students' arguments are seldom political but chiefly of economic nature. "The survey revealed a strikingly high degree of religious beliefs, especially among girls in all secondary schools of Slovakia. In most cases the influence of the school in political-ideological questions is weak, very weak indeed. "Too many teachers concentrate on their particular subject, or pretend they do and do not concern themselves with ideological education; they regard ideological educational work with disdain. "The investigation revealed that students seldom ask their teachers ideological questions for fears of embarrassing the teachers. There is a kind of tacit agreement between students and teachers: 'you say what you want and we think what we want.'" "A considerate proportion of the youth questioned have expressed confidence in the person of Gustav Husak, present leader of the Czecho-Slovak Communist Party, even though such students remain highly critical of the Soviets. "The reduced emphasis put on atheistic education is chiefly responsible for the growing influence of the Church among Slovak yeuth." - Theodore Andrica. Cleveland Press Vienna Bureau. I went behind the Iron Curtain. For so many years I have read a lot of reports concerning communism and many times I often wondered how much of the horror that I have read about is true. So many times I wondered, as I think most Americans have, is commu- 217 nism as bad as my government has told me? Although my trip to Slovakia was short, I can tell you that communism is horrible. I flew from Zurich, Switzerland to Vienna, Austria. In Austria, part of our free world, I rented a car and drove to Slovakia. The entry point was Bratislava. Trying desperately to find my way through the chopped up, beaten, narrow streets of the city, I stopped at a little store to try to get directions to the institute. A woman about 60 years old attending this store, which had nothing but barren shelves and some old clothing, was very secretly hanging a Christmas tree ball in the far end of the store. What she was trying to do was add some Christmas to her store which was something she enjoyed as a young woman. Any display, religious or nationalistic, is absolutely forbidden. A prison sentence is imposed. As I drove through Bratislava, there were uniformed soldiers and police with machine guns. Their purpose was to contain the Slovak people so they could not revolt or could not escape the country. Obviously, the people knew that I was American by the way I was dressed and also the license plates on the automobile were that of the fre e world. A Slovak friend told me how communism begins to infect people and countries. He told me that if you read the Communist doctrine, it sounds glorious but impossible to work. He told me that communism in Russia itself is a complete failure and certainly was a failure in Czecho-Slovakia. So much so that it is necessary in Russia and in Czecho-Slovakia to contain the people by machine guns. He talked of America's greatness, and said that one of the great 218 SLOVAKIA things about America was our free enterprise system. People are individualistic, people want to progress in their life. If a man does more, he is entitled to more. If a man has greater ability, he is entitled to advance. Under the Communist system no such thing exists. There is no individual compensation for doing more or knowing more. He urged me to make known what I saw so that people here would know the true horrors of communism. The lack of sufficient food and clothing. The government regulating their lives. You can't buy a pair of shoes unless the government authorizes you to purchase them. You can't buy a suit unless the government approves the purchase of a suit. There is something that resembles TV with one channel. This goes on about 7 o'clock at night and it is turned off aproximately at 9. Half of the time is devoted to government propaganda. When the Russians came into Czecho-Slovakia, they did so because Czech and Slovak peoples were desirous of developing a free enterprise system so that people could work and get paid fairly for their day's labor, so that they could trade and associate more closely with the free world. The Russians invaded CzechoSlovakia. As Communists do they raped the nation, they pulled out all of the machinery in their factories, they even tore out street lights and took them into Russia. The Slovak people told me that the Russian soldiers did not have a watch on their wrist and in order to get a watch they pulled it off the arm of the Slovak people. They also touched on the intrusion of their homes and the raping of their wives and daughters, which is again a typical Communist and Nazi type of thing. He begged me to tell people how truly horrible communism is. It is very difficult for me to tell you how bad I really think it is. The Communists are told that soon America will convert to communism. This man told me this is difficult to believe. He said why would anybody want communism when you have such a wonderful system. I told him that the propaganda he was hearing was untrue, that there are some people, who believe communism is good, but unfortunately they have not seen what I have seen. He warned me to beware of what I say. Under Communism we don't know who will report us. If you say something to offend the system you could very easily be thrown in prison, in fact, they are looking just for that. - American Tourist. The Evening News , Harrisburg, Pa., December 26, 1970. The Christmas holiday for Czecho-Slovakia ended abruptly in a working Sunday. Factories, stores and shops were open, and traffic appeared about as heavy as on a weekday. Officially it was a week dayThursday, to be exact. The government decreed that it took the place of last Thursday, Christmas Eve, on the economic schedule, with all normal Thursday services supposed to be operating. Thursday had been designated a Saturday, meaning half-day shopping and offices closed. The calender confusion continues with Monday designated a Wednesday for work and organizational purposes. Tuesday is Tuesday but you're wrong if you think it will be followed by Wednesday. Wednesday, Dec. 30, has been designated a Friday, meaning extra SLOVAKIA long business hours, because the real Friday, Jan. 1, is a holiday. Next Saturday, Jan. 2. has been designated a Sunday and Sunday, Jan. 3, a Monday. Finally, on Monday, January 4, normality of sorts returns-if two Mondays in one week can be conAssociated sidered normal. Press. The federal status of Czechia, Moravia and Slovakia has been replaced by strict Prague centralism, much to the embarrassment of Gustav Husak, the Communist Party's first secretary. As a Slovak nationalist, Husak spent years in jail during the Novotny regime. Theodore Andrica, cievel,and Press Vienna Bureau. Shortly after President Richard ~ixon's inaguaration in 1968 it was reported from Washington that Dr. Walter R. Tkach, an American of Slovak descent, and a long-time friend, serving as a colonel with the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, wa!:' recalled from Vietnam to be chief medical advisor to the President. 219 ing called to serve as the White House physician. It is not generally known, but the White House is equipped with an ultra modern medical clinic which is at the service of Mr. Nixon, his family, and the White House staff. More complete facilities are available at nearby Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Hospital and AFB with attending specialists. The White House clinic is staffed by seven people, three of whom are doctors. Whenever the president leaves the White House, even though it might be only a few feet away, he is always accompanied by a doctor. Dr. Tkach first became aquainted with Mr. Nixon 17 years ago when hi:! served as our country's vicepresident. Dr. Tkach at the time waE an assistant on President Eisenhower's medical staff in the White House. He accompanied the vice-president as his medical advisor during his historic trip to Russia, and on other travels had an opportunity to meet with fa. mous world personages like Nehru of India and Hirohito of Japan . . . The President's regimen under the close watch of Dr. Tkach seems to be working for him. Just recently Mr. Nixon remarked that he could not recall ever having had headache, the physical kind of ! course Dr. Tkach was graduated from Dr. Tkach is a strong advocate Penn State College where he attained a Bachelor of Science in of military service. He feels that Chemistry, and embarked on an military service affords young phyAir Force career after graduation sicians unlimited opportunities, and from medical school in 1945. He recommends that they consider served in Japan 1946-1948. Since military careers, particularly in the that time he had tours of duty at Air Force. - ,Dr. S. J . metko, various military medical schools, National Slovak Society Almanac, clinics and institutions, before be• Pittsburgh, Pa. About a year later Dr. Tkach, a 52-year old native of Monongahela, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh (his wife Helen, also hails from the same town), was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. 220 SLOVAKLA The last remammg clause of Alexander Dubcek's short lived "action program" is crumbling. That clause is the one that instituted a Czecho-,Slovak "federation" - a move that gave Slovakia, for the first time, more or less equal status with the more educated, industrialized, prosperous and powerful Czech lands. state bank, fuel and power engineering, transport and communications have all been recentralized in Prague. New national ministers have been appointed and the Czech and Slovak ministries closed. Even the secret police are to be controlled from the center again. Husak, in a speech last month, pledged that the federation itself Dubcek, a Slovak, included the would last, but said certain minor federation in the action program shortcomings had to be solved. The he introduced on April 9, 1968, at new laws were the result. a time when his now discredited To add insult to injury, both the liberalization was at its height. The Czech and Slovak governments had action program also provided a to apprnve emasculation of their range of civil rights-freedoms of own powers. speech, assembly and the press, A constitutional court was to secret elections, freedom to travel have been set up arbitrate disputes -that disappeared within a year between the two halves of Czechoof the Soviet led invasion. Slovakia and the national governBut Dubcek's successor Commu- ment. As far as is known the court nist Party First Secretary Gustav does not exist. Instead, the Prague Husak, also a Slovak, and there go'llernment has been authorized to were hopes that he would keep the handle such disputes-making it federation plan which was enor- both prosecutor and judge. mously popular in Slovakia. F'rom the Slovaks' point of view, It's likely to remain, at least on possibly the worst development paper, for some time. But a series was the new power of the central of measures taken over the Christgovernment to allocate investments mas holidays have reduced it to in Slovakia or Czech lands. For an empty shell. decades under communism and Through government decrees and before communism- Prague shortparliamentary moves, the regime changed the Slovaks in investment has all but eliminated Slovakia's and industry, keeping the area autonomy in economics and put permanently depressed. The record its economy back under central of the prewar Benes-Masaryk govcontrol from Prague - a Czech ernment was no better than the city. postwar Communist regime. Under federation, separate Czech After the action program, Slovaks and Slovak passports were issued. hoped the age old imbalance would The new law erases this and re- end. That hope now is dying. introduces Czecho-Slovak citizen- Richard C. Longworth of United ship. Press International, February 25, Foreign currency control, the 1971. SLOVAKIA 221 Our Contributors Edw ard J. Behuncik, Attorney-at-Law, Stratford, Conn. J. M . Kirschbaum , LL.D ., Ph;D ., professor, historian, author, Toronto, Ontario Sister M. Delphina, SS.C.M ., teacher, Danville, Pa. Edw ard A . Tuleya , M . A ., Associate Professor, History Department, Millersville State College, Millersville, Pa. Joseph J. Krajsa, B.A., Bethany College, W. Va. Joseph Hradnansky, Ph.-D ., Associate Professor, Indiana University of · Pennsylvania; Instructor, University of Pittsburgh. Francis Vnuk, M.A ., Professor, Institute of Technology; historian, Ade: laide, Australia_ 222 SLOVAKIA Contents Slovak World Congress - Edward J. Behuncik - Stephen B. Roman-Slovak Tycoon Political Views of nudovit Stur - 3 J. M. Kirschbaum - Sister M. Delphina Opet - 7 20 The Assimilation Process of American Slovaks-J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D -79 The Slovak National Awakening - Edward A. Tuleya - The Emergence of the Slovak State - 85 Daniel F . Tanzone - 109 General Mil.an Rastislav Stefanik and the Movement for Czecho-Slovak Independence - Mary Ann Kadera - 124 Sviitopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? - - Mary Susan Sabol 134 Slovaks - Joseph John Krajsa - 145 Bratislava: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center - Dr. Joseph Hradnansky -164 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Francis Hrusovsky - J . M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. - Karol Sidor - F. Vnuk - 175 180 Current Issues (Proclamation of the 42nd Congress of the Slovak League of America. - Slovak World Congress.) - 189 Comments (Sixtieth Anniversary of the Poet Jan Doransky. - Great Distinction for Slovak Poet Karol Strmen. - A Letter of Prof J. M. Kirschbaum to the Polish Monthly Kultura.) - 195 Book Reviews (J. M. Kirschbaum: New Collection of Slovak Emigre Poetry. - Two Foreign Language Collections of Slovak Poetry. Dr. Heinrich Kuhn : Bibliographishes Handbuch der Tschechoslowakei. - Books on Dubcek and Slovakia. - David L. Hoggan: Der Erzwungene Krieg. - Toward a New Central Europe. - Beitrage zum Deutsch-Tschechischen Verhaltnis im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.) - 202 As Others See It - 214 SLOVAKIA 223 SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA - supports freedom and independence of Slovakia; - promotes a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation, its history, culture, traditions, and desires ; - makes America better known to Slovakia and Slovakia better known to America in the interest of world peace, freedom and security; - has a scholarship program for college and university students; - promotes cooperation among all American-Slovak organizations and publications for the promulgations of Slovak ethnic heritage. - is a charter member of the Slovak World Congress. Life membership: $100.00 For further information, write to: Slovak League of America 313 Ridge Avenue Middletown, Pa. 17057 PRI NTI D IN U.S. A. JIDN OTA PlllN TER Y, MID DLli TOW N, PA.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Description An account of the resource includes Current Issues; Comments; Book Reviews; As Others See It; Contributors https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7b797658c21c19dc38340fafae2270d7.pdf 3ed8d2faa58e42cbc0f41b61acb00067 PDF Text Text 180 SLOVAKIA F. Vnuk : Karol Sidor (1901-1953) The life-span of Karol Sidor was short, but so full of many-sided activities that it can only inspire admiration and respect. He entered on the Slovak political scene as a young 18-year old student and from his first appearance till the untimely death in 1953 he was almost continuously in the thick of the fight. All his adult life was completely devoted to the cause of his nation. In this struggle he was to experience some of the supreme triumphs as well as deepest humiliations which befall the Slovak nation during his life-time. Karol Sidor was born in Ruzomberok on July 16th, 1901. As a young student he came under the powerful influence of Andrej Hlinka who was the parish priest of Ruzomberok and at that time already a fearless, charismatic and acknowledged leader of the Slovak people oppressed by the Magyar rule. The Magyar oppression was ruthless, systematic and in its denationalizing process so successful that the Slovak leaders had resignedly steadied themselves for national extinction in the very near future. Into this pessimistic and hopeless atmosphere the youth of Hlinka's entourage injected a new and much needed hope. On the pages of "Narodnie noviny", the most influential journal of the day, K . Sidor published in January 1918 his clarion-like call: "Let us restore sttir's epoch!" He was referring to the 1840's and 1850's when the young Slovak enthusiasts around I'... sttir rallied the Slovak national spirit and actively asserted Slovak political and cultural aspirations. At the end of World War I Slovakia breathed a sigh of relief. The suffocating link with the old Hungary was finally and irrevocably broken and the Slovaks entered into a hopeful union with the Czechs in a common state: Czecho-Slovakia. The magyarization of the Slovak nation was arrested and the way was opened for the free and unhindered development of its national needs and desires. �SLOVAKIA 181 However, serious difficulties arose soon after liberation. The Czechs, who were more numerous and more advanced both economically and culturally, looked on the Slovaks at best as their poor relations. Their arrogant and patronizing treatment of the Slovaks very quickly led to disenchantment, created a lot of bitterness and dangerously strained Slovak-Czech relations. The majority of Slovaks felt deceived, betrayed in their trust, dispossessed of their rightful due. At the head of these discontented masses stood Andrej Hlinka, who in the autumn of 1919 undertook a journey to Paris to protest against the unequal partnership to which his countrymen in Czecho-Slovakia had been relegated in spite of the solemn promises given in writing by President Masaryk when signing the Pittsburgh Agreement. After his return from an unsuccessful mission in Paris Hlinka was put in prison. Karol Sidor immediately organized a student ·protest strike. For the leading part in this venture Sidor was expelled from his school and could complete his high school studies only as an external student. As a young student Sidor was attracted to literary and journalistic pursuits. In 1919 he was a co-founder of the literary-cultural magazine, "Vatra" ('Bonfire'), in which he published his first short stories and plays with a strong social undertone. But it was the ever-changing and challenging world of journalism which finally absorbed his full attention. Initially Sidor's work in the editorial office of "Slovak" ( official organ of the Hlinka People's Party l was just occasional and more or less accidental. But Hlinka soon realized taat his party must possess a modern popular daily with a high journalistic standard of reporting, informing and commenting. He entrusted Tuka and Sidor with this demanding and responsible task and when in 1929 Tuka was put on trial (and subsequently imprisoned ), Sidor took over. With Sidor as editor-in-chief the party daily "Slovak" became a powerful weapon in the fight for Slovak autonomy. In the meantime Sidor grew up both physically and politically. He became Hlinka's right hand, his indispensable and highly-valued helper. His name and reputation �182 SLOVAKIA reached every corner of Slovakia and among the Slovak masses he enjoyed a popularity seoond to Hlinka. In 1935 he was elected a deputy of the Prague parliament where his alertness, fiery speeches and searching questions earned him the reputation of the stormy petrel of this assembly. He was considered a radical politician, a tough fighter and an uncompromising autonomist. All this Sidor indeed was, but these characteristics were not. inherent in his nature. He had developed them in the service of the Slovak cause. It is a great pity that he and his contemporaries had to spend their talents and energies in a fight which was not of their choice. Had the Czechs granted the Slovaks autonomy as they had promised, treated them: as equals, as they should have, all these energies could have been constructively chanelled into a common effort to build Czecho-Slovakia into a happy homeland of two brotherly nations: the Slovaks and the Czechs. The Czechs, and indeed many Slovaks, thought Sidor to be a Czech-hater and a separatist. On account of his Polonophil attitude he was frequently accused by his opponents of wanting to break up Czecho-Slovakia in order to unite Slovakia with Poland. It was an injust accusation. Sidor's friendly disposition towards Poland was a part of his Slavophil sentiments which, incidentally, included the Czechs also. Sidor's hope and dream was a strong Slavic central European federation, poised between Germany and Russia, yet independent of both. It was his and our tragedy that this hope was not realized and that the Czechs, whom Sidor would have liked to have seen with the Slovaks and Poles opposing the German and Russian expansionist tendencies, were his most persistent political opponents. Sidor's activities in the eventful months October 1938 to March 1939 must be considered in the light of these realities. At the beginning of 1938 Sidor issued to his followers the signal to intensify the struggle for autonomy. After twenty years of frustration this was to be a year of decision and on October 6th, 1938 the Hlinka People's party achieved its long-fought goal: autonomy. Czechoslovakia became a federated state, Czecho-Slovakia, and within its framework Slovakia obtained its own parliament and its own government led by Dr. Jozef Tiso. Karol Sidor was made a Deputy �SLOVAKIA 183 Prime Minister in the central government. At the same time he assumed the leadership of the newly-formed paramilitary Hlinka guards. As an avowed autonomist Sidor strove very hard to make autonomy workable and mutually advantageous to both sides. It was not an easy task and it was made even more difficult by the intransigence of Czech bureaucracy and by the mounting radicalism of a growing number of dissatisfied Slovaks. In Slovakia it was mainly the University students and the Hlinka guards who became the torch-bearers of aggressive and vociferous radicalism demanding the full independence of Slovakia. In the Czech lands there was a general reluctance to accept the Slovaks as equal partners. The Slovaks were implicitly and even openly accused of having obtained their autonomy by stealth and blackmail. The Czech political, military and administrative leaders tried their hardest to make autonomy as unpalatable and cumbersome as possible and even to undo it by a military coup. Early in 1939 a military plot initiated by General Alois Elias was hatched in Prague. It was later sanctioned by the highest members of the central government and boldly put into operation during the night of 9th/10th March 1939. The Czech military coup caught everybody in Slovakia by surprise. Sidor, who was staying in Prague, was not only surprised, he was profoundly shocked. He was dismayed by the heavyhanded action of the Prague government and saw in it not only a direct threat to Slovak autonomy, but also a potential danger to the further existence of Czecho-Slovakia. In dismissing Tiso's government in Slovakia and sending military units to occupy Slovak cities and towns the Czechs were unwittingly playing Hitler's political game . This became plain to them almost immediately when their occupation evoked complete rejection and bitter resentment in Slovakia. Instead of solving a minor problem they had created a major one. There was not a single Slovak politician worthy of the name who was willing to go along with the Czech plans to subdue Slovakia by force. To get out of this mess of their own making (which �184 SLOVAKIA in the meantime provided Hitler with a welcome opportunity to set into motion his plans for the liquidation of Czecho-Slovakia ) the Czechs now turned to Sidor. Ever afraid of German intentions and considering Hitler far the greater of two evils, Sidor, after some hesitation, concluded that it would be in the interests of the Slovak nation to preserve Czecho-Slovakia in its federated form. It was a decision which found little understanding among the more radical of the Slovak politicians and caused considerable confusion even among the rank and file of the Hlinka guards. Sidor was weighing not only the immediate short-time advantages which were obvious to everybody, but also the long-range consequences of the steps to be undertaken. With the approval of the Presidium of the Hlinka People's party Sidor accepted the Premiership of the Slovak autonomous government. Having assumed responsible office he did his utmost to calm the situation, to restore order and to revive mutual confidence. But the crisis was now beyond his power. The Germans, determined to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia, saw in the Czech coup a suitable pretext to start the ball rolling. They expected that the Slovaks would not need much prompting where separation from the Czechs was concerned. They chose Sidor as a man of stature and authority to carry out the proclamation of Slovak independence. This Sidor resolutely refused to do, arguing that this was not the appropriate time and he was not authorized person to initiate such a far-reaching step. The same answer he gave also to W. Keppler, Hitler's special emissary, who came to see him in Bratislava in the small hours of March 12th, 1939. Sidor's dignified and determined refusal to assist Hitler in his dismembering of CzechoSlovakia was a brave and gallant gesture which would not have been lost in the age of chivalry. But in the brutal world of Hitler's 'Realpolitik' its moral strength was lost. Hitler contemptuously branded Sidor as "a soldier of Prague" and them went on in his anti-Czech campaign as if nothing had happened. Yet Sidor's actions were not lost among Slovak politicians. His solitary stand, his insistence on legality and �SLOVAKIA 185 correct procedures made all the Slovak leaders cautious and alert in their actions and dealings. Thus one finds that the proclamation of Slovak independence, when it did take place, was carried out with strict observance of legal procedures, i.e. independence was proclaimed, not by an unauthorized individual, but by the Slovak parliament constitutionally convened by the President of Czecho-Slovakia, by a free vote of its deputies and without any direct pressure or interference. In the first Slovak government Sidor was made Minister of the Interior. As Sidor said later, he accepted the position against his will, after lengthy persuation, and resigned from his office two days later. Events seemed to have conspired against him and he was visibly embarrassed by the new course and development of Slovak politics. His "error of judgment"-as it was seen then by many of his colleagues-cost him his political career but brought him an unexpected flood of popularity from ordinary people who sympathized with him in his predicament. Unfortunately this newly-found popularity became also a shield for the enemies of Slovak independence. Using Sidor's name and his anti-German sentiment they tried to drive a wedge between Slovak-German relations. For a new state which could exist only under German protection it was vital to keep these relations neighborly and without any provocative gestures. Others tried to exploit personal differences between Sidor on the one hand and Tiso, 1'.>urcansky, etc. on the other, and transplanting them into a political sphere tried to split national and ideological unity so essential at that time. It seems that Sidor did not quite see that among his sympathizers and newly-acquired supporters were many of his former enemies and slanderers. The Slovak government watched the situation with apprehension. They concluded that Sidor-though unknowingly-had become an obstruction to a speedy consolidation of the political situation in Slovakia. When the Germans objected to his further stay in Slovakia, Sidor was asked to take a diplomatic appointment at the Vatican as the Slovak Minister to the Holy See. He was most reluctant to accept this offer �186 SLOVAKIA which he rightly viewed as an attempt to exclude him from domestic politics. But eventually he agreed and in June 1939 he went to the Vatican where he served as a diplomatic representative of the Slovak Republic for six years. Sidor himself gave an account of his activities in a book "Six years at the Vatican" ( sest' rokov pri Vatikane, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1947). In Rome he quickly settled into his new job. He found it not only new and interesting, but also challenging and demanding, especially after the outbreak of the World War II. After September 1939 he was repeatedly approached by dissident Slovak politicians and diplomats (Hodfa, Pauliny-T6th, Harminc, Szatmary, etc.) to join them in forming an anti-Nazi Slovak group in exile. But he declined. This decision did not come easy and in making it Sidor was guided by the Slovak national interests. The Western powers (namely England and France) in spite of their "de facto" recognition of Slovakia were mot inclined to continue in this recognition after the outbreak of war. They were unwilling to support any Slovak exile group advocating an independent Slovakia and switched their support to Benes and his followers. Benes's aim was the restoration of pre-Munich Czecho-Slovakia. Yet Sidor knew only too well how deeply the Slovak nation was attached to its own state. Any action against independent Slovakia would be tantamount to a betrayal of Slovak history and tradition. Sidor knew that Germany would lose the war, but he was also convinced in his mind that the Western allies would not go against the wishes of the Slovak nation in depriving it of its independence. He saw the future of Slovakia in a loose Slovak-Polish-Czech federation and he was continuously striving for this ambitious ideal. In Kazimierz Papee, Polish Minister at the Vatican, he found a helpful colleague and sincere friend. Through him Sidor submitted several proposals about the future Slovak-PolishCzech cooperation in the post-war years. These suggestions and propositions were seriously and attentively treated by the Polish government-in-exile in London. Unfortunately for the Slovaks and the whole Central Europe the Allies at Yalta abandoned Central Europe to �SLOVAKIA 187 the Russians as the Soviet zone of interest. The tragic result of this political barter was the Iron curtain with Slovakia, Poland and many other proud nations of Europe on the wrong side of it. With complete disregard for the wishes of the people Soviet Russia imposed communist regimes, drew new frontiers, introduced its totalitarian rule into this part of Europe. In the process independent Slovakia was liquidated, it leaders murdered or jailed, the nation enslaved, Sidor too was sentenced 'in absentia' to a 20-year imprisonment. In 1945, having been granted political asylum, Sidor became an exile in the Vatican. But even in this position - using his influence and connections at the Vatican and in Rome-he was able to do much for the Slovak refugees who were fleeing the Red Army. In December 1948 he founded the Slovak National Council Abroad and as its President did his utmost to advance the cause of Slovakia in the post-war world. In 1950 he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he died on October 20th, 1953. A PP E iN DIX WHY AND HOW THE SLOVAKS SEPARATED FROM THE CZECHS? An explanatory memorandum wais submitted by Karol Sidor to the State Secretary of the Holy See and to Pope Pius XII personally in sommer 1943. In the document Sidor outlined a short history of the Slovak struggle for autonomy, promised to them by the President Masaryk in 1918, but denied in the subsequent years 1918-38. This mistaken policy of the Prague government towards Slovak legitimate aims and aspirations as well as others injustices and wrongdoings of the Czech administration created an atmosphere of mistrust and bitterness and considerably weakened the foundations of the common state. The Czechs tried to justify their centralist and oppressive policies towards the Slovaks by three completely erroneous arguments : 1. They maintained that the Slovaks did not have their �188 SLOVAKIA own educated class of able administrators to run Slovak affairs in Slovakia; 2. That Slovakia was too poor and, without Czech financial help and know-how, it would collapse economically; 3. That the Czechs and Slovaks formed but one nation and hence there was no need for two separate administrative organizations in one state. It was only after the Munich crisis, in October 1938, that the Czechs reluctantly agreed to the establishment of an autonomous Slovak government. Unfortunately this arrangement did not last long. Hitler-as he confessed in his book "Mein Kampf"-felt an intense dislike towards the Czechs. In 1939 he decided to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia. First he tried to exploit the existing Slovak-Czech antagonism. He approached K . Sidor, asking him to declare Slovak independence. When Sidor refused, Hitler invited to Berlin Dr. J. Tiso and explained to him that Slovakia had only two options open: ( i) to stay in Czecho-Slovakia and share the lot of the Czechs who were singled out by Hitler for political liquidation; or (ii) to declare their own independence and thus prevent national subjugation and humiliation. Dr. Tiso explained this proposition to the Slovak deputies at the special meeting of the Slovak Diet on March 14, 1939. They voted freely and unanimously for Slovak independence. The world acknowledged the legality and propriety of their action by extending diplomatic recognition to the new state. The Vatican was among the first to give Slovakia both 'de facto' and 'de jure' recognition. The separation of Slovakia from the Czech lands was an act of self-preservation. "The Slovaks could not have done otherwise. Any other move would have been tantamount to national suicide", writes K. Sidor in the concluding paragraphs in this memorandum. � 180 SLOVAKIA F. Vnuk : Karol Sidor (1901-1953) The life-span of Karol Sidor was short, but so full of many-sided activities that it can only inspire admiration and respect. He entered on the Slovak political scene as a young 18-year old student and from his first appearance till the untimely death in 1953 he was almost continuously in the thick of the fight. All his adult life was completely devoted to the cause of his nation. In this struggle he was to experience some of the supreme triumphs as well as deepest humiliations which befall the Slovak nation during his life-time. Karol Sidor was born in Ruzomberok on July 16th, 1901. As a young student he came under the powerful influence of Andrej Hlinka who was the parish priest of Ruzomberok and at that time already a fearless, charismatic and acknowledged leader of the Slovak people oppressed by the Magyar rule. The Magyar oppression was ruthless, systematic and in its denationalizing process so successful that the Slovak leaders had resignedly steadied themselves for national extinction in the very near future. Into this pessimistic and hopeless atmosphere the youth of Hlinka's entourage injected a new and much needed hope. On the pages of "Narodnie noviny", the most influential journal of the day, K . Sidor published in January 1918 his clarion-like call: "Let us restore sttir's epoch!" He was referring to the 1840's and 1850's when the young Slovak enthusiasts around I'... sttir rallied the Slovak national spirit and actively asserted Slovak political and cultural aspirations. At the end of World War I Slovakia breathed a sigh of relief. The suffocating link with the old Hungary was finally and irrevocably broken and the Slovaks entered into a hopeful union with the Czechs in a common state: Czecho-Slovakia. The magyarization of the Slovak nation was arrested and the way was opened for the free and unhindered development of its national needs and desires. �SLOVAKIA 181 However, serious difficulties arose soon after liberation. The Czechs, who were more numerous and more advanced both economically and culturally, looked on the Slovaks at best as their poor relations. Their arrogant and patronizing treatment of the Slovaks very quickly led to disenchantment, created a lot of bitterness and dangerously strained Slovak-Czech relations. The majority of Slovaks felt deceived, betrayed in their trust, dispossessed of their rightful due. At the head of these discontented masses stood Andrej Hlinka, who in the autumn of 1919 undertook a journey to Paris to protest against the unequal partnership to which his countrymen in Czecho-Slovakia had been relegated in spite of the solemn promises given in writing by President Masaryk when signing the Pittsburgh Agreement. After his return from an unsuccessful mission in Paris Hlinka was put in prison. Karol Sidor immediately organized a student ·protest strike. For the leading part in this venture Sidor was expelled from his school and could complete his high school studies only as an external student. As a young student Sidor was attracted to literary and journalistic pursuits. In 1919 he was a co-founder of the literary-cultural magazine, "Vatra" ('Bonfire'), in which he published his first short stories and plays with a strong social undertone. But it was the ever-changing and challenging world of journalism which finally absorbed his full attention. Initially Sidor's work in the editorial office of "Slovak" ( official organ of the Hlinka People's Party l was just occasional and more or less accidental. But Hlinka soon realized taat his party must possess a modern popular daily with a high journalistic standard of reporting, informing and commenting. He entrusted Tuka and Sidor with this demanding and responsible task and when in 1929 Tuka was put on trial (and subsequently imprisoned ), Sidor took over. With Sidor as editor-in-chief the party daily "Slovak" became a powerful weapon in the fight for Slovak autonomy. In the meantime Sidor grew up both physically and politically. He became Hlinka's right hand, his indispensable and highly-valued helper. His name and reputation �182 SLOVAKIA reached every corner of Slovakia and among the Slovak masses he enjoyed a popularity seoond to Hlinka. In 1935 he was elected a deputy of the Prague parliament where his alertness, fiery speeches and searching questions earned him the reputation of the stormy petrel of this assembly. He was considered a radical politician, a tough fighter and an uncompromising autonomist. All this Sidor indeed was, but these characteristics were not. inherent in his nature. He had developed them in the service of the Slovak cause. It is a great pity that he and his contemporaries had to spend their talents and energies in a fight which was not of their choice. Had the Czechs granted the Slovaks autonomy as they had promised, treated them: as equals, as they should have, all these energies could have been constructively chanelled into a common effort to build Czecho-Slovakia into a happy homeland of two brotherly nations: the Slovaks and the Czechs. The Czechs, and indeed many Slovaks, thought Sidor to be a Czech-hater and a separatist. On account of his Polonophil attitude he was frequently accused by his opponents of wanting to break up Czecho-Slovakia in order to unite Slovakia with Poland. It was an injust accusation. Sidor's friendly disposition towards Poland was a part of his Slavophil sentiments which, incidentally, included the Czechs also. Sidor's hope and dream was a strong Slavic central European federation, poised between Germany and Russia, yet independent of both. It was his and our tragedy that this hope was not realized and that the Czechs, whom Sidor would have liked to have seen with the Slovaks and Poles opposing the German and Russian expansionist tendencies, were his most persistent political opponents. Sidor's activities in the eventful months October 1938 to March 1939 must be considered in the light of these realities. At the beginning of 1938 Sidor issued to his followers the signal to intensify the struggle for autonomy. After twenty years of frustration this was to be a year of decision and on October 6th, 1938 the Hlinka People's party achieved its long-fought goal: autonomy. Czechoslovakia became a federated state, Czecho-Slovakia, and within its framework Slovakia obtained its own parliament and its own government led by Dr. Jozef Tiso. Karol Sidor was made a Deputy �SLOVAKIA 183 Prime Minister in the central government. At the same time he assumed the leadership of the newly-formed paramilitary Hlinka guards. As an avowed autonomist Sidor strove very hard to make autonomy workable and mutually advantageous to both sides. It was not an easy task and it was made even more difficult by the intransigence of Czech bureaucracy and by the mounting radicalism of a growing number of dissatisfied Slovaks. In Slovakia it was mainly the University students and the Hlinka guards who became the torch-bearers of aggressive and vociferous radicalism demanding the full independence of Slovakia. In the Czech lands there was a general reluctance to accept the Slovaks as equal partners. The Slovaks were implicitly and even openly accused of having obtained their autonomy by stealth and blackmail. The Czech political, military and administrative leaders tried their hardest to make autonomy as unpalatable and cumbersome as possible and even to undo it by a military coup. Early in 1939 a military plot initiated by General Alois Elias was hatched in Prague. It was later sanctioned by the highest members of the central government and boldly put into operation during the night of 9th/10th March 1939. The Czech military coup caught everybody in Slovakia by surprise. Sidor, who was staying in Prague, was not only surprised, he was profoundly shocked. He was dismayed by the heavyhanded action of the Prague government and saw in it not only a direct threat to Slovak autonomy, but also a potential danger to the further existence of Czecho-Slovakia. In dismissing Tiso's government in Slovakia and sending military units to occupy Slovak cities and towns the Czechs were unwittingly playing Hitler's political game . This became plain to them almost immediately when their occupation evoked complete rejection and bitter resentment in Slovakia. Instead of solving a minor problem they had created a major one. There was not a single Slovak politician worthy of the name who was willing to go along with the Czech plans to subdue Slovakia by force. To get out of this mess of their own making (which �184 SLOVAKIA in the meantime provided Hitler with a welcome opportunity to set into motion his plans for the liquidation of Czecho-Slovakia ) the Czechs now turned to Sidor. Ever afraid of German intentions and considering Hitler far the greater of two evils, Sidor, after some hesitation, concluded that it would be in the interests of the Slovak nation to preserve Czecho-Slovakia in its federated form. It was a decision which found little understanding among the more radical of the Slovak politicians and caused considerable confusion even among the rank and file of the Hlinka guards. Sidor was weighing not only the immediate short-time advantages which were obvious to everybody, but also the long-range consequences of the steps to be undertaken. With the approval of the Presidium of the Hlinka People's party Sidor accepted the Premiership of the Slovak autonomous government. Having assumed responsible office he did his utmost to calm the situation, to restore order and to revive mutual confidence. But the crisis was now beyond his power. The Germans, determined to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia, saw in the Czech coup a suitable pretext to start the ball rolling. They expected that the Slovaks would not need much prompting where separation from the Czechs was concerned. They chose Sidor as a man of stature and authority to carry out the proclamation of Slovak independence. This Sidor resolutely refused to do, arguing that this was not the appropriate time and he was not authorized person to initiate such a far-reaching step. The same answer he gave also to W. Keppler, Hitler's special emissary, who came to see him in Bratislava in the small hours of March 12th, 1939. Sidor's dignified and determined refusal to assist Hitler in his dismembering of CzechoSlovakia was a brave and gallant gesture which would not have been lost in the age of chivalry. But in the brutal world of Hitler's 'Realpolitik' its moral strength was lost. Hitler contemptuously branded Sidor as "a soldier of Prague" and them went on in his anti-Czech campaign as if nothing had happened. Yet Sidor's actions were not lost among Slovak politicians. His solitary stand, his insistence on legality and �SLOVAKIA 185 correct procedures made all the Slovak leaders cautious and alert in their actions and dealings. Thus one finds that the proclamation of Slovak independence, when it did take place, was carried out with strict observance of legal procedures, i.e. independence was proclaimed, not by an unauthorized individual, but by the Slovak parliament constitutionally convened by the President of Czecho-Slovakia, by a free vote of its deputies and without any direct pressure or interference. In the first Slovak government Sidor was made Minister of the Interior. As Sidor said later, he accepted the position against his will, after lengthy persuation, and resigned from his office two days later. Events seemed to have conspired against him and he was visibly embarrassed by the new course and development of Slovak politics. His "error of judgment"-as it was seen then by many of his colleagues-cost him his political career but brought him an unexpected flood of popularity from ordinary people who sympathized with him in his predicament. Unfortunately this newly-found popularity became also a shield for the enemies of Slovak independence. Using Sidor's name and his anti-German sentiment they tried to drive a wedge between Slovak-German relations. For a new state which could exist only under German protection it was vital to keep these relations neighborly and without any provocative gestures. Others tried to exploit personal differences between Sidor on the one hand and Tiso, 1'.>urcansky, etc. on the other, and transplanting them into a political sphere tried to split national and ideological unity so essential at that time. It seems that Sidor did not quite see that among his sympathizers and newly-acquired supporters were many of his former enemies and slanderers. The Slovak government watched the situation with apprehension. They concluded that Sidor-though unknowingly-had become an obstruction to a speedy consolidation of the political situation in Slovakia. When the Germans objected to his further stay in Slovakia, Sidor was asked to take a diplomatic appointment at the Vatican as the Slovak Minister to the Holy See. He was most reluctant to accept this offer �186 SLOVAKIA which he rightly viewed as an attempt to exclude him from domestic politics. But eventually he agreed and in June 1939 he went to the Vatican where he served as a diplomatic representative of the Slovak Republic for six years. Sidor himself gave an account of his activities in a book "Six years at the Vatican" ( sest' rokov pri Vatikane, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1947). In Rome he quickly settled into his new job. He found it not only new and interesting, but also challenging and demanding, especially after the outbreak of the World War II. After September 1939 he was repeatedly approached by dissident Slovak politicians and diplomats (Hodfa, Pauliny-T6th, Harminc, Szatmary, etc.) to join them in forming an anti-Nazi Slovak group in exile. But he declined. This decision did not come easy and in making it Sidor was guided by the Slovak national interests. The Western powers (namely England and France) in spite of their "de facto" recognition of Slovakia were mot inclined to continue in this recognition after the outbreak of war. They were unwilling to support any Slovak exile group advocating an independent Slovakia and switched their support to Benes and his followers. Benes's aim was the restoration of pre-Munich Czecho-Slovakia. Yet Sidor knew only too well how deeply the Slovak nation was attached to its own state. Any action against independent Slovakia would be tantamount to a betrayal of Slovak history and tradition. Sidor knew that Germany would lose the war, but he was also convinced in his mind that the Western allies would not go against the wishes of the Slovak nation in depriving it of its independence. He saw the future of Slovakia in a loose Slovak-Polish-Czech federation and he was continuously striving for this ambitious ideal. In Kazimierz Papee, Polish Minister at the Vatican, he found a helpful colleague and sincere friend. Through him Sidor submitted several proposals about the future Slovak-PolishCzech cooperation in the post-war years. These suggestions and propositions were seriously and attentively treated by the Polish government-in-exile in London. Unfortunately for the Slovaks and the whole Central Europe the Allies at Yalta abandoned Central Europe to �SLOVAKIA 187 the Russians as the Soviet zone of interest. The tragic result of this political barter was the Iron curtain with Slovakia, Poland and many other proud nations of Europe on the wrong side of it. With complete disregard for the wishes of the people Soviet Russia imposed communist regimes, drew new frontiers, introduced its totalitarian rule into this part of Europe. In the process independent Slovakia was liquidated, it leaders murdered or jailed, the nation enslaved, Sidor too was sentenced 'in absentia' to a 20-year imprisonment. In 1945, having been granted political asylum, Sidor became an exile in the Vatican. But even in this position - using his influence and connections at the Vatican and in Rome-he was able to do much for the Slovak refugees who were fleeing the Red Army. In December 1948 he founded the Slovak National Council Abroad and as its President did his utmost to advance the cause of Slovakia in the post-war world. In 1950 he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he died on October 20th, 1953. A PP E iN DIX WHY AND HOW THE SLOVAKS SEPARATED FROM THE CZECHS? An explanatory memorandum wais submitted by Karol Sidor to the State Secretary of the Holy See and to Pope Pius XII personally in sommer 1943. In the document Sidor outlined a short history of the Slovak struggle for autonomy, promised to them by the President Masaryk in 1918, but denied in the subsequent years 1918-38. This mistaken policy of the Prague government towards Slovak legitimate aims and aspirations as well as others injustices and wrongdoings of the Czech administration created an atmosphere of mistrust and bitterness and considerably weakened the foundations of the common state. The Czechs tried to justify their centralist and oppressive policies towards the Slovaks by three completely erroneous arguments : 1. They maintained that the Slovaks did not have their �188 SLOVAKIA own educated class of able administrators to run Slovak affairs in Slovakia; 2. That Slovakia was too poor and, without Czech financial help and know-how, it would collapse economically; 3. That the Czechs and Slovaks formed but one nation and hence there was no need for two separate administrative organizations in one state. It was only after the Munich crisis, in October 1938, that the Czechs reluctantly agreed to the establishment of an autonomous Slovak government. Unfortunately this arrangement did not last long. Hitler-as he confessed in his book "Mein Kampf"-felt an intense dislike towards the Czechs. In 1939 he decided to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia. First he tried to exploit the existing Slovak-Czech antagonism. He approached K . Sidor, asking him to declare Slovak independence. When Sidor refused, Hitler invited to Berlin Dr. J. Tiso and explained to him that Slovakia had only two options open: ( i) to stay in Czecho-Slovakia and share the lot of the Czechs who were singled out by Hitler for political liquidation; or (ii) to declare their own independence and thus prevent national subjugation and humiliation. Dr. Tiso explained this proposition to the Slovak deputies at the special meeting of the Slovak Diet on March 14, 1939. They voted freely and unanimously for Slovak independence. The world acknowledged the legality and propriety of their action by extending diplomatic recognition to the new state. The Vatican was among the first to give Slovakia both 'de facto' and 'de jure' recognition. The separation of Slovakia from the Czech lands was an act of self-preservation. "The Slovaks could not have done otherwise. Any other move would have been tantamount to national suicide", writes K. Sidor in the concluding paragraphs in this memorandum. � 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 180 SLOVAKIA F. Vnuk : Karol Sidor (1901-1953) The life-span of Karol Sidor was short, but so full of many-sided activities that it can only inspire admiration and respect. He entered on the Slovak political scene as a young 18-year old student and from his first appearance till the untimely death in 1953 he was almost continuously in the thick of the fight. All his adult life was completely devoted to the cause of his nation. In this struggle he was to experience some of the supreme triumphs as well as deepest humiliations which befall the Slovak nation during his life-time. Karol Sidor was born in Ruzomberok on July 16th, 1901. As a young student he came under the powerful influence of Andrej Hlinka who was the parish priest of Ruzomberok and at that time already a fearless, charismatic and acknowledged leader of the Slovak people oppressed by the Magyar rule. The Magyar oppression was ruthless, systematic and in its denationalizing process so successful that the Slovak leaders had resignedly steadied themselves for national extinction in the very near future. Into this pessimistic and hopeless atmosphere the youth of Hlinka's entourage injected a new and much needed hope. On the pages of "Narodnie noviny", the most influential journal of the day, K . Sidor published in January 1918 his clarion-like call: "Let us restore sttir's epoch!" He was referring to the 1840's and 1850's when the young Slovak enthusiasts around I'... sttir rallied the Slovak national spirit and actively asserted Slovak political and cultural aspirations. At the end of World War I Slovakia breathed a sigh of relief. The suffocating link with the old Hungary was finally and irrevocably broken and the Slovaks entered into a hopeful union with the Czechs in a common state: Czecho-Slovakia. The magyarization of the Slovak nation was arrested and the way was opened for the free and unhindered development of its national needs and desires. SLOVAKIA 181 However, serious difficulties arose soon after liberation. The Czechs, who were more numerous and more advanced both economically and culturally, looked on the Slovaks at best as their poor relations. Their arrogant and patronizing treatment of the Slovaks very quickly led to disenchantment, created a lot of bitterness and dangerously strained Slovak-Czech relations. The majority of Slovaks felt deceived, betrayed in their trust, dispossessed of their rightful due. At the head of these discontented masses stood Andrej Hlinka, who in the autumn of 1919 undertook a journey to Paris to protest against the unequal partnership to which his countrymen in Czecho-Slovakia had been relegated in spite of the solemn promises given in writing by President Masaryk when signing the Pittsburgh Agreement. After his return from an unsuccessful mission in Paris Hlinka was put in prison. Karol Sidor immediately organized a student ·protest strike. For the leading part in this venture Sidor was expelled from his school and could complete his high school studies only as an external student. As a young student Sidor was attracted to literary and journalistic pursuits. In 1919 he was a co-founder of the literary-cultural magazine, "Vatra" ('Bonfire'), in which he published his first short stories and plays with a strong social undertone. But it was the ever-changing and challenging world of journalism which finally absorbed his full attention. Initially Sidor's work in the editorial office of "Slovak" ( official organ of the Hlinka People's Party l was just occasional and more or less accidental. But Hlinka soon realized taat his party must possess a modern popular daily with a high journalistic standard of reporting, informing and commenting. He entrusted Tuka and Sidor with this demanding and responsible task and when in 1929 Tuka was put on trial (and subsequently imprisoned ), Sidor took over. With Sidor as editor-in-chief the party daily "Slovak" became a powerful weapon in the fight for Slovak autonomy. In the meantime Sidor grew up both physically and politically. He became Hlinka's right hand, his indispensable and highly-valued helper. His name and reputation 182 SLOVAKIA reached every corner of Slovakia and among the Slovak masses he enjoyed a popularity seoond to Hlinka. In 1935 he was elected a deputy of the Prague parliament where his alertness, fiery speeches and searching questions earned him the reputation of the stormy petrel of this assembly. He was considered a radical politician, a tough fighter and an uncompromising autonomist. All this Sidor indeed was, but these characteristics were not. inherent in his nature. He had developed them in the service of the Slovak cause. It is a great pity that he and his contemporaries had to spend their talents and energies in a fight which was not of their choice. Had the Czechs granted the Slovaks autonomy as they had promised, treated them: as equals, as they should have, all these energies could have been constructively chanelled into a common effort to build Czecho-Slovakia into a happy homeland of two brotherly nations: the Slovaks and the Czechs. The Czechs, and indeed many Slovaks, thought Sidor to be a Czech-hater and a separatist. On account of his Polonophil attitude he was frequently accused by his opponents of wanting to break up Czecho-Slovakia in order to unite Slovakia with Poland. It was an injust accusation. Sidor's friendly disposition towards Poland was a part of his Slavophil sentiments which, incidentally, included the Czechs also. Sidor's hope and dream was a strong Slavic central European federation, poised between Germany and Russia, yet independent of both. It was his and our tragedy that this hope was not realized and that the Czechs, whom Sidor would have liked to have seen with the Slovaks and Poles opposing the German and Russian expansionist tendencies, were his most persistent political opponents. Sidor's activities in the eventful months October 1938 to March 1939 must be considered in the light of these realities. At the beginning of 1938 Sidor issued to his followers the signal to intensify the struggle for autonomy. After twenty years of frustration this was to be a year of decision and on October 6th, 1938 the Hlinka People's party achieved its long-fought goal: autonomy. Czechoslovakia became a federated state, Czecho-Slovakia, and within its framework Slovakia obtained its own parliament and its own government led by Dr. Jozef Tiso. Karol Sidor was made a Deputy SLOVAKIA 183 Prime Minister in the central government. At the same time he assumed the leadership of the newly-formed paramilitary Hlinka guards. As an avowed autonomist Sidor strove very hard to make autonomy workable and mutually advantageous to both sides. It was not an easy task and it was made even more difficult by the intransigence of Czech bureaucracy and by the mounting radicalism of a growing number of dissatisfied Slovaks. In Slovakia it was mainly the University students and the Hlinka guards who became the torch-bearers of aggressive and vociferous radicalism demanding the full independence of Slovakia. In the Czech lands there was a general reluctance to accept the Slovaks as equal partners. The Slovaks were implicitly and even openly accused of having obtained their autonomy by stealth and blackmail. The Czech political, military and administrative leaders tried their hardest to make autonomy as unpalatable and cumbersome as possible and even to undo it by a military coup. Early in 1939 a military plot initiated by General Alois Elias was hatched in Prague. It was later sanctioned by the highest members of the central government and boldly put into operation during the night of 9th/10th March 1939. The Czech military coup caught everybody in Slovakia by surprise. Sidor, who was staying in Prague, was not only surprised, he was profoundly shocked. He was dismayed by the heavyhanded action of the Prague government and saw in it not only a direct threat to Slovak autonomy, but also a potential danger to the further existence of Czecho-Slovakia. In dismissing Tiso's government in Slovakia and sending military units to occupy Slovak cities and towns the Czechs were unwittingly playing Hitler's political game . This became plain to them almost immediately when their occupation evoked complete rejection and bitter resentment in Slovakia. Instead of solving a minor problem they had created a major one. There was not a single Slovak politician worthy of the name who was willing to go along with the Czech plans to subdue Slovakia by force. To get out of this mess of their own making (which 184 SLOVAKIA in the meantime provided Hitler with a welcome opportunity to set into motion his plans for the liquidation of Czecho-Slovakia ) the Czechs now turned to Sidor. Ever afraid of German intentions and considering Hitler far the greater of two evils, Sidor, after some hesitation, concluded that it would be in the interests of the Slovak nation to preserve Czecho-Slovakia in its federated form. It was a decision which found little understanding among the more radical of the Slovak politicians and caused considerable confusion even among the rank and file of the Hlinka guards. Sidor was weighing not only the immediate short-time advantages which were obvious to everybody, but also the long-range consequences of the steps to be undertaken. With the approval of the Presidium of the Hlinka People's party Sidor accepted the Premiership of the Slovak autonomous government. Having assumed responsible office he did his utmost to calm the situation, to restore order and to revive mutual confidence. But the crisis was now beyond his power. The Germans, determined to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia, saw in the Czech coup a suitable pretext to start the ball rolling. They expected that the Slovaks would not need much prompting where separation from the Czechs was concerned. They chose Sidor as a man of stature and authority to carry out the proclamation of Slovak independence. This Sidor resolutely refused to do, arguing that this was not the appropriate time and he was not authorized person to initiate such a far-reaching step. The same answer he gave also to W. Keppler, Hitler's special emissary, who came to see him in Bratislava in the small hours of March 12th, 1939. Sidor's dignified and determined refusal to assist Hitler in his dismembering of CzechoSlovakia was a brave and gallant gesture which would not have been lost in the age of chivalry. But in the brutal world of Hitler's 'Realpolitik' its moral strength was lost. Hitler contemptuously branded Sidor as "a soldier of Prague" and them went on in his anti-Czech campaign as if nothing had happened. Yet Sidor's actions were not lost among Slovak politicians. His solitary stand, his insistence on legality and SLOVAKIA 185 correct procedures made all the Slovak leaders cautious and alert in their actions and dealings. Thus one finds that the proclamation of Slovak independence, when it did take place, was carried out with strict observance of legal procedures, i.e. independence was proclaimed, not by an unauthorized individual, but by the Slovak parliament constitutionally convened by the President of Czecho-Slovakia, by a free vote of its deputies and without any direct pressure or interference. In the first Slovak government Sidor was made Minister of the Interior. As Sidor said later, he accepted the position against his will, after lengthy persuation, and resigned from his office two days later. Events seemed to have conspired against him and he was visibly embarrassed by the new course and development of Slovak politics. His "error of judgment"-as it was seen then by many of his colleagues-cost him his political career but brought him an unexpected flood of popularity from ordinary people who sympathized with him in his predicament. Unfortunately this newly-found popularity became also a shield for the enemies of Slovak independence. Using Sidor's name and his anti-German sentiment they tried to drive a wedge between Slovak-German relations. For a new state which could exist only under German protection it was vital to keep these relations neighborly and without any provocative gestures. Others tried to exploit personal differences between Sidor on the one hand and Tiso, 1'.>urcansky, etc. on the other, and transplanting them into a political sphere tried to split national and ideological unity so essential at that time. It seems that Sidor did not quite see that among his sympathizers and newly-acquired supporters were many of his former enemies and slanderers. The Slovak government watched the situation with apprehension. They concluded that Sidor-though unknowingly-had become an obstruction to a speedy consolidation of the political situation in Slovakia. When the Germans objected to his further stay in Slovakia, Sidor was asked to take a diplomatic appointment at the Vatican as the Slovak Minister to the Holy See. He was most reluctant to accept this offer 186 SLOVAKIA which he rightly viewed as an attempt to exclude him from domestic politics. But eventually he agreed and in June 1939 he went to the Vatican where he served as a diplomatic representative of the Slovak Republic for six years. Sidor himself gave an account of his activities in a book "Six years at the Vatican" ( sest' rokov pri Vatikane, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1947). In Rome he quickly settled into his new job. He found it not only new and interesting, but also challenging and demanding, especially after the outbreak of the World War II. After September 1939 he was repeatedly approached by dissident Slovak politicians and diplomats (Hodfa, Pauliny-T6th, Harminc, Szatmary, etc.) to join them in forming an anti-Nazi Slovak group in exile. But he declined. This decision did not come easy and in making it Sidor was guided by the Slovak national interests. The Western powers (namely England and France) in spite of their "de facto" recognition of Slovakia were mot inclined to continue in this recognition after the outbreak of war. They were unwilling to support any Slovak exile group advocating an independent Slovakia and switched their support to Benes and his followers. Benes's aim was the restoration of pre-Munich Czecho-Slovakia. Yet Sidor knew only too well how deeply the Slovak nation was attached to its own state. Any action against independent Slovakia would be tantamount to a betrayal of Slovak history and tradition. Sidor knew that Germany would lose the war, but he was also convinced in his mind that the Western allies would not go against the wishes of the Slovak nation in depriving it of its independence. He saw the future of Slovakia in a loose Slovak-Polish-Czech federation and he was continuously striving for this ambitious ideal. In Kazimierz Papee, Polish Minister at the Vatican, he found a helpful colleague and sincere friend. Through him Sidor submitted several proposals about the future Slovak-PolishCzech cooperation in the post-war years. These suggestions and propositions were seriously and attentively treated by the Polish government-in-exile in London. Unfortunately for the Slovaks and the whole Central Europe the Allies at Yalta abandoned Central Europe to SLOVAKIA 187 the Russians as the Soviet zone of interest. The tragic result of this political barter was the Iron curtain with Slovakia, Poland and many other proud nations of Europe on the wrong side of it. With complete disregard for the wishes of the people Soviet Russia imposed communist regimes, drew new frontiers, introduced its totalitarian rule into this part of Europe. In the process independent Slovakia was liquidated, it leaders murdered or jailed, the nation enslaved, Sidor too was sentenced 'in absentia' to a 20-year imprisonment. In 1945, having been granted political asylum, Sidor became an exile in the Vatican. But even in this position - using his influence and connections at the Vatican and in Rome-he was able to do much for the Slovak refugees who were fleeing the Red Army. In December 1948 he founded the Slovak National Council Abroad and as its President did his utmost to advance the cause of Slovakia in the post-war world. In 1950 he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he died on October 20th, 1953. A PP E iN DIX WHY AND HOW THE SLOVAKS SEPARATED FROM THE CZECHS? An explanatory memorandum wais submitted by Karol Sidor to the State Secretary of the Holy See and to Pope Pius XII personally in sommer 1943. In the document Sidor outlined a short history of the Slovak struggle for autonomy, promised to them by the President Masaryk in 1918, but denied in the subsequent years 1918-38. This mistaken policy of the Prague government towards Slovak legitimate aims and aspirations as well as others injustices and wrongdoings of the Czech administration created an atmosphere of mistrust and bitterness and considerably weakened the foundations of the common state. The Czechs tried to justify their centralist and oppressive policies towards the Slovaks by three completely erroneous arguments : 1. They maintained that the Slovaks did not have their 188 SLOVAKIA own educated class of able administrators to run Slovak affairs in Slovakia; 2. That Slovakia was too poor and, without Czech financial help and know-how, it would collapse economically; 3. That the Czechs and Slovaks formed but one nation and hence there was no need for two separate administrative organizations in one state. It was only after the Munich crisis, in October 1938, that the Czechs reluctantly agreed to the establishment of an autonomous Slovak government. Unfortunately this arrangement did not last long. Hitler-as he confessed in his book "Mein Kampf"-felt an intense dislike towards the Czechs. In 1939 he decided to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia. First he tried to exploit the existing Slovak-Czech antagonism. He approached K . Sidor, asking him to declare Slovak independence. When Sidor refused, Hitler invited to Berlin Dr. J. Tiso and explained to him that Slovakia had only two options open: ( i) to stay in Czecho-Slovakia and share the lot of the Czechs who were singled out by Hitler for political liquidation; or (ii) to declare their own independence and thus prevent national subjugation and humiliation. Dr. Tiso explained this proposition to the Slovak deputies at the special meeting of the Slovak Diet on March 14, 1939. They voted freely and unanimously for Slovak independence. The world acknowledged the legality and propriety of their action by extending diplomatic recognition to the new state. The Vatican was among the first to give Slovakia both 'de facto' and 'de jure' recognition. The separation of Slovakia from the Czech lands was an act of self-preservation. "The Slovaks could not have done otherwise. Any other move would have been tantamount to national suicide", writes K. Sidor in the concluding paragraphs in this memorandum.  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 Karol Sidor (1901-1953) Description An account of the resource F. Vnuk includes "Why and How the Slovaks Separated from the Czechs?" explanatory memorandum submitted by Karol Sidor to the State Secretary of the Holy See and to Pope Pius XII, 1943 Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 180-188 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vnuk, František, 1926- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1bb283910ed6a8ea38ad73e24d74aa8e.pdf e82bddf6053a97a11377379245df8d8e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 175 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Franci Hrusovsky J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. On September 9, 1971, it wiil be 15 years since the Slovak cultural and political life in the free world lost one of its best representatives, Prof. Francis Hrusovsky. Even though he dedicated his life in Slovakia primarily to education and history, after leaving Slovakia in 1945, he became one of the most important political leaders among Slovaks in the free world. A very close personal and political friend of Karol Sidor who represented Slovakia during the War in the Vatican, Hrusovsky looked for contacts with Sidor a few months after leaving his native country and summoned him to organize political action of all Slovak exiles against the Communist and Czech rule in Slovakia. The message signed by several prominent Slovak politicians and intellectuals was sent first to me in Switzerland with the request to use the diplomatic channels of the Vatican to forward it to Minister Sidor. It was, therefore, only natural that later Hrusovsky became one of the closest co-operators of Karol Sidor when in 1948 we founded in the Vatican City the Slovak National Council Abroad. Being one of the first Slovak exiles admitted to the United States, Hrusovsky deserves recognition that the Slovak National Council Abroad was accepted by the main American Slovak organizations as the only representative of the Slovak exile movement for regaining freedom and independence. A man of outstanding qualities and warm personality, he gained friends very soon among all the Slovak leaders in the United States and used his time and enegy to help, on the one side, the Slovak refugees in Europe and, on the other side, he played an important role in Slovak political and cultural endeavors. He chose for his new home Cleveland, Ohio, one of the cities where the first important Slovak political document �176 SLOVAKIA was signed in the first World War and where the only Slovak religious Order, the Benedictine Fathers, had their headquarters and schools. Highly respected and liked by the Abbot of the Benedictine Fathers, Rt. Rev. T. Kojis, Hrusovsky became a professor again but, at the same time, he was working on several valuable historical works either on Slovakia ("This is Slovakia") or on the history of the religious Orders in the United States. He was also a cofounder of the Slovak Institute, of a Slovak newspaper in Cleveland, and whole-heartedly supported the activities of the Slovak National Council Abroad. When in 1953 Karol Sidor suddenly died, Prof. Hrusovsky took his place and became the leader of the Slovak exiles working for freedom, democracy and independence of their native country. Unfortunately, he did not stay for a long time at the helm of this struggle. On September 9, 1956, he left the scene of the Slovak exile life. It was the third tragic loss among Slovaks in exile and thousands of Slovaks livings on this side of the Iron Curtain were stunned by the unexpected news announcing the sudden death of Dr. Francis Hrusovsky. He was admired and deeply respected not only as the President of the Slovak National Council Abroad, but also as an outstanding patriot, eminent historian and educator, and a man of sterling moral calibre. Among prominent representatives of a Slovak generation to which it was given to see their cherished dream of Slovakia's independence and statehood fulfilled only to be ruthlessly destroyed within a few years, Dr. Hrusovsk}· personified the best traditions and characteristics which distinguished Slovak intellectuals, mercilessly hounded to extermination by the Communists. The loss of Dr. Hrusovsky was very keenly felt both because of what he was per se and because of what he meant to the nation. Because of these reasons Slovaks abroad realized that no blow could have been more grievous in their ranks than the death of Dr. Hrusovsky. It sorely afflicted all Slovak communities in the free world but �SLOVAKIA 177 especially Slovak emigres dedicated to the vindication of Slovakia's liberation from foreign rule. It has been an unhappy lot of Slovaks in the free world to suffer three irreparable losses within the span of three consecutive years: the passing of Karol Sidor, diplomat, politician, and key leader of the Slovak exile movement, the political assassination of Matus Cernak, a diplomat and the most valuable force among Slovak exiles in Germany; and then the untimely death of Dr. Hrusovsky, called in the prime of his career at the age of 53. Only a year before, when Dr. Hrusovsky accepted the chief executive responsibilities of the Slovak National Council Abroad, Slovaks abroad rejoiced in being under his capable leadership. We confidently fixed all our prospects on him as being the individual best qualified to effect a united effort of all Slovak exiled groups engaged in the struggle to attain Slovakia's liberation and independence. Mild-mannered and unassuming as he was, Dr. Hrusovsky commanded the respect of Slovaks of both the old and new immigrants. His personal inclination and preference were not for the tensions and strategems of a political career 1 but he did not decline wholehearted service to his nation in this difficult post when it was evident that the need of the hour required it of him. The Cleveland weekly SLOVAK NEWS wrote of him : "In less than a decade in his adopted country he became a beloved figure in Slovak circles everywhere. Everyone who met him was impressed by his personality. Those who knew him learned to admire his scholarship, to respect his unwavering devotion to principles and to love him for his boundless charity. Seldom can one expect to meet a man of his moral stature, dignity, idealism and faith." The primary interest of Dr. Hrusovsky's life was teaching-as we mentioned above-specifically the teaching of history and the pursuit of historical research. His innate love of his people and his instinctive devotion to youth prompted him to choose education as his profession. He attained distinction in this field and it was as an aducator and a historian that he entered the political arena. Here �178 SLOVAKIA he looked upon all his political functions and commitments as a service to his nation's highest interest and hence he worked with a sense of dedication to public duty. Specializing as he did in medieval history, Dr. Hrusovsky published several fully documented studies on Great Moravia, the first Slovak and Slav state on the Danube. He also prepared a Slovak history text for secondary schools which established a precedent in the Slovak publishing world. In its second edition this book was velcomed with such wide acclaim that it became a national best seller. Translated into Geman, the book was the first serious history book on Slovakia for scholars outside Slovakia. In the early part of his exile, during his sojourn in Rome and in the United States, Dr. Hrusovsky prepared a scholarly work on the earliest Slovak rulers and an exhaustive study investigating the relations of the Slovak rulers of Great Moravia with the Holy See, which was published first in Slovak and later in English translation in Slovak Studi es - Cyrillo-Methodian a (Slovak Institute, Rome, 1963 ). Slovak letters as well as American Slovak history were definitely enriched by Dr. Hrusovsky's book surveying the growth and expansion of Slovak religious orders in the United States. 3 This book incidentally develops a great deal of the cultural history of American citizens of Slovak descent, and would certainly deserve an edition in English.3 Besides these books, Dr. Hrusovsky has to his credit hundreds of articles and numerous addresses delivered on various occasions. Unfortunately, so far no bibliography of his writings was published except that in Literarny Almanach.4 Reflecting on some of the work and life of Dr. Hrusovsky, we find that our sentiments, too, correspond with the expression of one of the prominent American leaders in Slovak cultural life who said with deepest sincerity that we "will miss his wise guidance, his great capacity for work and his unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow." We can safely say that all true Slovaks on both sides �SLOVAKIA 179 of the Iron Curtain bear with regret the loss of Dr. Hrusovsky. Our one comfort and consolation stems from the belief that national leaders of Dr. Hrusovsky's moral stature and defenders of a nation's rights and liberties share the prerogative of great soldiers who never die. Thus indeed will Dr. Hrusovsky continue to live among us; his courage, his vision, his selflessness serving as an undying example for coming generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to win for their country that freedom, that independence and intenationally recognized state for which Hrusovsky worked literally to his dying breath. FOOTNOTES 1) Hrusovsky was best known in Slovakia as a director of a secondary Catholic school with old national traditions in Klafu>r pod Znievom. Slovenske Rehole v Amerike (Slovak Religious Orders in America) , Slovensky ustav, Cleveland, Ohio, 1955. 3) His only book in English is: "This is Slovakia" (Obrana Press, Inc., Scranton, Pa.) 1953, which was the first objective presentation of Slovakia to Americans of Slovak origin as well as to all who read English. 2) 4) See Litercirny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Ed. Dr. J. Pauco, Middletown, Pa., 1967. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. " THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies .kwdliary, 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 "V~ielky" in every large Slovak community. � SLOVAKIA 175 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Franci Hrusovsky J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. On September 9, 1971, it wiil be 15 years since the Slovak cultural and political life in the free world lost one of its best representatives, Prof. Francis Hrusovsky. Even though he dedicated his life in Slovakia primarily to education and history, after leaving Slovakia in 1945, he became one of the most important political leaders among Slovaks in the free world. A very close personal and political friend of Karol Sidor who represented Slovakia during the War in the Vatican, Hrusovsky looked for contacts with Sidor a few months after leaving his native country and summoned him to organize political action of all Slovak exiles against the Communist and Czech rule in Slovakia. The message signed by several prominent Slovak politicians and intellectuals was sent first to me in Switzerland with the request to use the diplomatic channels of the Vatican to forward it to Minister Sidor. It was, therefore, only natural that later Hrusovsky became one of the closest co-operators of Karol Sidor when in 1948 we founded in the Vatican City the Slovak National Council Abroad. Being one of the first Slovak exiles admitted to the United States, Hrusovsky deserves recognition that the Slovak National Council Abroad was accepted by the main American Slovak organizations as the only representative of the Slovak exile movement for regaining freedom and independence. A man of outstanding qualities and warm personality, he gained friends very soon among all the Slovak leaders in the United States and used his time and enegy to help, on the one side, the Slovak refugees in Europe and, on the other side, he played an important role in Slovak political and cultural endeavors. He chose for his new home Cleveland, Ohio, one of the cities where the first important Slovak political document �176 SLOVAKIA was signed in the first World War and where the only Slovak religious Order, the Benedictine Fathers, had their headquarters and schools. Highly respected and liked by the Abbot of the Benedictine Fathers, Rt. Rev. T. Kojis, Hrusovsky became a professor again but, at the same time, he was working on several valuable historical works either on Slovakia ("This is Slovakia") or on the history of the religious Orders in the United States. He was also a cofounder of the Slovak Institute, of a Slovak newspaper in Cleveland, and whole-heartedly supported the activities of the Slovak National Council Abroad. When in 1953 Karol Sidor suddenly died, Prof. Hrusovsky took his place and became the leader of the Slovak exiles working for freedom, democracy and independence of their native country. Unfortunately, he did not stay for a long time at the helm of this struggle. On September 9, 1956, he left the scene of the Slovak exile life. It was the third tragic loss among Slovaks in exile and thousands of Slovaks livings on this side of the Iron Curtain were stunned by the unexpected news announcing the sudden death of Dr. Francis Hrusovsky. He was admired and deeply respected not only as the President of the Slovak National Council Abroad, but also as an outstanding patriot, eminent historian and educator, and a man of sterling moral calibre. Among prominent representatives of a Slovak generation to which it was given to see their cherished dream of Slovakia's independence and statehood fulfilled only to be ruthlessly destroyed within a few years, Dr. Hrusovsk}· personified the best traditions and characteristics which distinguished Slovak intellectuals, mercilessly hounded to extermination by the Communists. The loss of Dr. Hrusovsky was very keenly felt both because of what he was per se and because of what he meant to the nation. Because of these reasons Slovaks abroad realized that no blow could have been more grievous in their ranks than the death of Dr. Hrusovsky. It sorely afflicted all Slovak communities in the free world but �SLOVAKIA 177 especially Slovak emigres dedicated to the vindication of Slovakia's liberation from foreign rule. It has been an unhappy lot of Slovaks in the free world to suffer three irreparable losses within the span of three consecutive years: the passing of Karol Sidor, diplomat, politician, and key leader of the Slovak exile movement, the political assassination of Matus Cernak, a diplomat and the most valuable force among Slovak exiles in Germany; and then the untimely death of Dr. Hrusovsky, called in the prime of his career at the age of 53. Only a year before, when Dr. Hrusovsky accepted the chief executive responsibilities of the Slovak National Council Abroad, Slovaks abroad rejoiced in being under his capable leadership. We confidently fixed all our prospects on him as being the individual best qualified to effect a united effort of all Slovak exiled groups engaged in the struggle to attain Slovakia's liberation and independence. Mild-mannered and unassuming as he was, Dr. Hrusovsky commanded the respect of Slovaks of both the old and new immigrants. His personal inclination and preference were not for the tensions and strategems of a political career 1 but he did not decline wholehearted service to his nation in this difficult post when it was evident that the need of the hour required it of him. The Cleveland weekly SLOVAK NEWS wrote of him : "In less than a decade in his adopted country he became a beloved figure in Slovak circles everywhere. Everyone who met him was impressed by his personality. Those who knew him learned to admire his scholarship, to respect his unwavering devotion to principles and to love him for his boundless charity. Seldom can one expect to meet a man of his moral stature, dignity, idealism and faith." The primary interest of Dr. Hrusovsky's life was teaching-as we mentioned above-specifically the teaching of history and the pursuit of historical research. His innate love of his people and his instinctive devotion to youth prompted him to choose education as his profession. He attained distinction in this field and it was as an aducator and a historian that he entered the political arena. Here �178 SLOVAKIA he looked upon all his political functions and commitments as a service to his nation's highest interest and hence he worked with a sense of dedication to public duty. Specializing as he did in medieval history, Dr. Hrusovsky published several fully documented studies on Great Moravia, the first Slovak and Slav state on the Danube. He also prepared a Slovak history text for secondary schools which established a precedent in the Slovak publishing world. In its second edition this book was velcomed with such wide acclaim that it became a national best seller. Translated into Geman, the book was the first serious history book on Slovakia for scholars outside Slovakia. In the early part of his exile, during his sojourn in Rome and in the United States, Dr. Hrusovsky prepared a scholarly work on the earliest Slovak rulers and an exhaustive study investigating the relations of the Slovak rulers of Great Moravia with the Holy See, which was published first in Slovak and later in English translation in Slovak Studi es - Cyrillo-Methodian a (Slovak Institute, Rome, 1963 ). Slovak letters as well as American Slovak history were definitely enriched by Dr. Hrusovsky's book surveying the growth and expansion of Slovak religious orders in the United States. 3 This book incidentally develops a great deal of the cultural history of American citizens of Slovak descent, and would certainly deserve an edition in English.3 Besides these books, Dr. Hrusovsky has to his credit hundreds of articles and numerous addresses delivered on various occasions. Unfortunately, so far no bibliography of his writings was published except that in Literarny Almanach.4 Reflecting on some of the work and life of Dr. Hrusovsky, we find that our sentiments, too, correspond with the expression of one of the prominent American leaders in Slovak cultural life who said with deepest sincerity that we "will miss his wise guidance, his great capacity for work and his unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow." We can safely say that all true Slovaks on both sides �SLOVAKIA 179 of the Iron Curtain bear with regret the loss of Dr. Hrusovsky. Our one comfort and consolation stems from the belief that national leaders of Dr. Hrusovsky's moral stature and defenders of a nation's rights and liberties share the prerogative of great soldiers who never die. Thus indeed will Dr. Hrusovsky continue to live among us; his courage, his vision, his selflessness serving as an undying example for coming generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to win for their country that freedom, that independence and intenationally recognized state for which Hrusovsky worked literally to his dying breath. FOOTNOTES 1) Hrusovsky was best known in Slovakia as a director of a secondary Catholic school with old national traditions in Klafu>r pod Znievom. Slovenske Rehole v Amerike (Slovak Religious Orders in America) , Slovensky ustav, Cleveland, Ohio, 1955. 3) His only book in English is: "This is Slovakia" (Obrana Press, Inc., Scranton, Pa.) 1953, which was the first objective presentation of Slovakia to Americans of Slovak origin as well as to all who read English. 2) 4) See Litercirny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Ed. Dr. J. Pauco, Middletown, Pa., 1967. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. " THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies .kwdliary, 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 "V~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 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 175 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Franci Hrusovsky J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. On September 9, 1971, it wiil be 15 years since the Slovak cultural and political life in the free world lost one of its best representatives, Prof. Francis Hrusovsky. Even though he dedicated his life in Slovakia primarily to education and history, after leaving Slovakia in 1945, he became one of the most important political leaders among Slovaks in the free world. A very close personal and political friend of Karol Sidor who represented Slovakia during the War in the Vatican, Hrusovsky looked for contacts with Sidor a few months after leaving his native country and summoned him to organize political action of all Slovak exiles against the Communist and Czech rule in Slovakia. The message signed by several prominent Slovak politicians and intellectuals was sent first to me in Switzerland with the request to use the diplomatic channels of the Vatican to forward it to Minister Sidor. It was, therefore, only natural that later Hrusovsky became one of the closest co-operators of Karol Sidor when in 1948 we founded in the Vatican City the Slovak National Council Abroad. Being one of the first Slovak exiles admitted to the United States, Hrusovsky deserves recognition that the Slovak National Council Abroad was accepted by the main American Slovak organizations as the only representative of the Slovak exile movement for regaining freedom and independence. A man of outstanding qualities and warm personality, he gained friends very soon among all the Slovak leaders in the United States and used his time and enegy to help, on the one side, the Slovak refugees in Europe and, on the other side, he played an important role in Slovak political and cultural endeavors. He chose for his new home Cleveland, Ohio, one of the cities where the first important Slovak political document 176 SLOVAKIA was signed in the first World War and where the only Slovak religious Order, the Benedictine Fathers, had their headquarters and schools. Highly respected and liked by the Abbot of the Benedictine Fathers, Rt. Rev. T. Kojis, Hrusovsky became a professor again but, at the same time, he was working on several valuable historical works either on Slovakia ("This is Slovakia") or on the history of the religious Orders in the United States. He was also a cofounder of the Slovak Institute, of a Slovak newspaper in Cleveland, and whole-heartedly supported the activities of the Slovak National Council Abroad. When in 1953 Karol Sidor suddenly died, Prof. Hrusovsky took his place and became the leader of the Slovak exiles working for freedom, democracy and independence of their native country. Unfortunately, he did not stay for a long time at the helm of this struggle. On September 9, 1956, he left the scene of the Slovak exile life. It was the third tragic loss among Slovaks in exile and thousands of Slovaks livings on this side of the Iron Curtain were stunned by the unexpected news announcing the sudden death of Dr. Francis Hrusovsky. He was admired and deeply respected not only as the President of the Slovak National Council Abroad, but also as an outstanding patriot, eminent historian and educator, and a man of sterling moral calibre. Among prominent representatives of a Slovak generation to which it was given to see their cherished dream of Slovakia's independence and statehood fulfilled only to be ruthlessly destroyed within a few years, Dr. Hrusovsk}· personified the best traditions and characteristics which distinguished Slovak intellectuals, mercilessly hounded to extermination by the Communists. The loss of Dr. Hrusovsky was very keenly felt both because of what he was per se and because of what he meant to the nation. Because of these reasons Slovaks abroad realized that no blow could have been more grievous in their ranks than the death of Dr. Hrusovsky. It sorely afflicted all Slovak communities in the free world but SLOVAKIA 177 especially Slovak emigres dedicated to the vindication of Slovakia's liberation from foreign rule. It has been an unhappy lot of Slovaks in the free world to suffer three irreparable losses within the span of three consecutive years: the passing of Karol Sidor, diplomat, politician, and key leader of the Slovak exile movement, the political assassination of Matus Cernak, a diplomat and the most valuable force among Slovak exiles in Germany; and then the untimely death of Dr. Hrusovsky, called in the prime of his career at the age of 53. Only a year before, when Dr. Hrusovsky accepted the chief executive responsibilities of the Slovak National Council Abroad, Slovaks abroad rejoiced in being under his capable leadership. We confidently fixed all our prospects on him as being the individual best qualified to effect a united effort of all Slovak exiled groups engaged in the struggle to attain Slovakia's liberation and independence. Mild-mannered and unassuming as he was, Dr. Hrusovsky commanded the respect of Slovaks of both the old and new immigrants. His personal inclination and preference were not for the tensions and strategems of a political career 1 but he did not decline wholehearted service to his nation in this difficult post when it was evident that the need of the hour required it of him. The Cleveland weekly SLOVAK NEWS wrote of him : "In less than a decade in his adopted country he became a beloved figure in Slovak circles everywhere. Everyone who met him was impressed by his personality. Those who knew him learned to admire his scholarship, to respect his unwavering devotion to principles and to love him for his boundless charity. Seldom can one expect to meet a man of his moral stature, dignity, idealism and faith." The primary interest of Dr. Hrusovsky's life was teaching-as we mentioned above-specifically the teaching of history and the pursuit of historical research. His innate love of his people and his instinctive devotion to youth prompted him to choose education as his profession. He attained distinction in this field and it was as an aducator and a historian that he entered the political arena. Here 178 SLOVAKIA he looked upon all his political functions and commitments as a service to his nation's highest interest and hence he worked with a sense of dedication to public duty. Specializing as he did in medieval history, Dr. Hrusovsky published several fully documented studies on Great Moravia, the first Slovak and Slav state on the Danube. He also prepared a Slovak history text for secondary schools which established a precedent in the Slovak publishing world. In its second edition this book was velcomed with such wide acclaim that it became a national best seller. Translated into Geman, the book was the first serious history book on Slovakia for scholars outside Slovakia. In the early part of his exile, during his sojourn in Rome and in the United States, Dr. Hrusovsky prepared a scholarly work on the earliest Slovak rulers and an exhaustive study investigating the relations of the Slovak rulers of Great Moravia with the Holy See, which was published first in Slovak and later in English translation in Slovak Studi es - Cyrillo-Methodian a (Slovak Institute, Rome, 1963 ). Slovak letters as well as American Slovak history were definitely enriched by Dr. Hrusovsky's book surveying the growth and expansion of Slovak religious orders in the United States. 3 This book incidentally develops a great deal of the cultural history of American citizens of Slovak descent, and would certainly deserve an edition in English.3 Besides these books, Dr. Hrusovsky has to his credit hundreds of articles and numerous addresses delivered on various occasions. Unfortunately, so far no bibliography of his writings was published except that in Literarny Almanach.4 Reflecting on some of the work and life of Dr. Hrusovsky, we find that our sentiments, too, correspond with the expression of one of the prominent American leaders in Slovak cultural life who said with deepest sincerity that we "will miss his wise guidance, his great capacity for work and his unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow." We can safely say that all true Slovaks on both sides SLOVAKIA 179 of the Iron Curtain bear with regret the loss of Dr. Hrusovsky. Our one comfort and consolation stems from the belief that national leaders of Dr. Hrusovsky's moral stature and defenders of a nation's rights and liberties share the prerogative of great soldiers who never die. Thus indeed will Dr. Hrusovsky continue to live among us; his courage, his vision, his selflessness serving as an undying example for coming generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to win for their country that freedom, that independence and intenationally recognized state for which Hrusovsky worked literally to his dying breath. FOOTNOTES 1) Hrusovsky was best known in Slovakia as a director of a secondary Catholic school with old national traditions in Klafu>r pod Znievom. Slovenske Rehole v Amerike (Slovak Religious Orders in America) , Slovensky ustav, Cleveland, Ohio, 1955. 3) His only book in English is: "This is Slovakia" (Obrana Press, Inc., Scranton, Pa.) 1953, which was the first objective presentation of Slovakia to Americans of Slovak origin as well as to all who read English. 2) 4) See Litercirny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Ed. Dr. J. Pauco, Middletown, Pa., 1967. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. " THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies .kwdliary, 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 "V~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 The 15th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Prof. Francis Hrušovský Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 175-179 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/847fc09eac7538b42921e528d59f9fae.pdf 038707c6df155a3847caa8c68ade0a81 PDF Text Text 164 SLOVAKIA BRATISLAVA: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center (A translation from the Slovak of a portion of I.:udo Ztibek's Moja Bratislava (My Bratislava), published by Mlade Leta Publishing House, Bratislava, 1965) 1467 ACADEMIA ISTROPOLITANA Bratislava's city chamberlain, who had charge of the so-called chamberlain book (the book of the city's receipts and expenditures ) recorded on the 20th of July, 1467, that on that day the mayor and the councilmen hosted the professors who had arrived for the opening of the new school of higher learning. They gave them fried chicken, rolls, wine and fruit. Bratislava's mayor and councilmen were hospitable people, and they honored each distin guished guest with a more modest or a more expensive refreshment according to the guest's station in life. The reception, which is mentioned in the book of records, was not the poorest. From this one may conclude that the affair concerned distinguished guests. The event, with which the arrival of the professors bore upon, was centainly significant. In Bratislava they opened a university known as Academia Istropolitana. The reception of the professors was the culmination of lengthy preparatory work which began two years before in 1465. At that time the Hungarian king, Matej Korvin, sent t o Rome a mission of some renown in order to obtain from the Pope an agreement for the establishment of an institution of higher learning in Bratislava. In the fifteenth century there already existed a number of well-known universities in Europe: Salerno, Bologna, Paris, Prague, Cracow, Vienna, etc. The universities had merit for the reason, that concurrently with their fame there was also spread the glory of the city in which the institution was located. Each university depended on the fact that it should have well-known professors because its scholarly renown was the best recommendation for higher learning. Such universities had students also from distant countries. The �SLOVAKIA 165 young men of Hungary who wished to attain a higher education could only decide upon a foreign university because in Hungary there were none. They had no language difficulties, since in all the schools teaching was carried on in Latin. It is therefore natural that the king, who revered the arts and surrounded himself at his court in Budin with outstanding humanists, desired that there should be a university in his country. He could have established it himself, but in such a case the degrees granted there would have value only in Hungary. In order for it to have international academic recognition, some kind of higher authority had to permit the establishment of the university. Such an authority was the German emperor ( at that time Fridrich III) or the Pope. Since Matej's relations with Fridrich could not be called friendly, the king turned to the Pope. Under the leadership of the learned bishop Jan cezmicky, better known by the name Jan Pannonius, and the commanderin-chief Jan Rozgon, a magnificent escort numbering 300 people left on February 20, 1465 from Budin on a march to Rome. In order to make the success of the mission more certain, they carried with them for the Pope a humble "St. Peter's pence": 20,000 gold pieces. Pope Paul II settled Matej's request favorably, but in the charter with which he permitted the establishment of the Academia, he stated a condition that the new school should be set up according to the example of Bologna University. From this condition it would logically result that for Academia Istropolitana the Bologna school should be the model in all matters, but the leaders of the university used Bologna as an example only for its teaching programs. The management of the Academia had a different tenor. At Bologna the students had the greatest of power. They chose their professors and had control over their lectures. In like manner they themselves elected the rector, and he was chosen from their midst. The rector had advisors at hand with whom he exercised authority not only over the students, but also over professors. Without consent of students and presence of their representatives a professor could not call in a student and admonish or punish him. �166 SLOVAKIA Nowhere else on earth did scholars have such rights as at Bologna. At Academia Istropolitana all authority was in the hands of the chancellor, who was appointed by the king. The chancellor hired and fired professors, granted the academic degrees, and carried out his judicial and disciplinary authority over the professors and students. Academia Istropolitana was formally opened July 20, 1467, but actual teaching there did not begin until the end of September. The university obtained the building as a gift from the king and Chancellor Vitez. It was a building on Venturska Street, of which half was deeded over from a dead title to the king's possession and the other half Vitez bought for the university for 600 gold pieces. The city had the building remodeled in such a way that there would be lecture halls, apartments for professors and living quarters for the students. Commencement exercises were held in a nearby cathedral. The first chancellor of Academia Istropolitana was the above mentioned Jan Vitez, the archbishop of Ostrihom and the king's chancellor. He was not only a statesman of distinction, but also a humanistic writer of the first rank. He was born in the year 1408 in Zredna, but his forefathers came from Ostrihom. Along with his career as a priest (first he was bishop of Vel'ky Varadin, then archbishop of Ostrihom) he very quickly attained a leading position at the king's court: he became chancellor of the king Matej Korvin. At his resi_d ence in the Ostrihom palace, which he remodeled and artistically decorated at great cost, he surrounded himself with humanistic writers and scholars of the highest rank. They came to Ostrihom from almost all parts of Europe: from Czechia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, and Greece. Vitez was a true child of his times. On the one hand, under the influence of the work of his contemporaries, he very quickly saw the reasons for unhealthy events in the country and openly warned of them. In the introduction to his book of letters (his collection of letters written in Latin) he wr.o te: "Truly I have already saturated myself with viewing so much misery, but in order that I secure a safer destiny, I shall be silent." This is the other side �SLOVAKIA 167 of his personality: behave as others behave. He dressed as a worldly magnate in clothes of embroidered gold, wore a gold chain around his neck and a wreath embeded with precious stones on his head. His personal guard consisted of 300 knights. He eagerly supported the building of new palaces and churches and put forth a great amount of money for the procurement of books, especially beautifully decorated codices. His library was world-famous. He had in it the works of all the important ancient Greek and Roman authors and prominent church fathers. Although Johannes Guttenberg was a contemporary of Vitez, the printing of books was then not yet known in Hungary. All books were transcribed by writers and illustrated by artists. Vitez's love of beautiful manuscripts financially cost him very heavily. Let us not be surprised that the chancellor wanted to obtain some books at less cost. He simply borrowed them-and didn't return them. Most frequently he would borrow them from his nephew, bishop Jan Cezmicky. When the bishop's reminders to the great chancellor reminded without result-but on the contrary, Vitez requested that his nephew lend him more codices-Pannonius answered with an ironic letter: You write that I should send you books. Well, did I not already send you enough? I have only Greek books left: you have taken away all the Latin ones. Praise God that you do not know Greek, otherwise you would not leave me even those. If you would learn Greek, I would immediately acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew language and I would establish a libvary of Hebrew codices. I ask, how it is possible, that in the procurement of books, you are so dissatisfied. Do you possibly think that in this you are not committing a sinful act? In my opinion it does not matter on what things our passions concentrate. If in fact you truly desire books so much, do not take them from others who have less of them then you. The extravagant, rich, diplomatic and literary eventfilled life of the chancellor took a sudden sharp turn when Vitez embroiled himself in a conspiracy against the king Matej. The king had him imprisoned. Shortly after (1467) the former chancellor died. At the time of the establishment of Academia Istropolitana, Vitez was at the peak of his power. His greatest responsibility in connection with the new school was to get famous professors for it. He was successful in that . �168 SLOVAKIA because already in the first year of the existence of the academy we meet here with the name of the outstanding astronomer Johann Miiller, known in the scientific world as Regiomontanus. Vitez invited him to Bratislava from Vienna, where he was a professor of the university located there. Here are at least some of the most well-known data from his life: He was born in the year 1436 in Konigsberg (from this he derived the Latinized form of his scientific name Regiomontanus). Upon completion of schooling, he taught mathematics at Vienna University, then in 1462 he left with the escort of Cardinal Bessarion to Italy in order to complete his study of Greek. The humanistic and renaissance learned men studied Greek a great deal, which previously the educated had neglected. He wanted to publish a revised translation of the works of the great ancient astronomer Ptolemy. Upon his return from Italy he lived in Vienna and in Ostrihom at the court of Jan Vitez. From there he left to become a professor at Bratislava. But he did not remain long. Maybe he lacked a properly equipped observatory; perhaps he did not wish to compose horoscopes which the king, the aristocracy and rich townsfolk requested of him. In 1471 he moved to Ntirnberg where with the financial aid of the wealthy townsman Walther he had constructed astronomical instruments and set up his own printery at which his scientific works were printed. In 1474 Pope Sixtus IV invited him to Rome in order to be the scientific advisor on calendar reform. Here he died in 1476. His most famous astronomical work was a calculation of the paths of heavenly bodies published under the title Tabulae Directionum. Still 200 years after Regiomontanus' death these tables were used as an important astronomical aid. The authorities of Bratislava hired other professors in Poland, Italy and France. From Cracow University came Professor Martin Ilkus, who in addition to philosophy also occupied himself with astronomy. Many of his astronomical instruments and handwritings of his scientific works could still be found in Cracow. There are horoscopes which Magister Martin-this is the manner in which he was �SLOVAKIA 169 referred to at the king's court-made for King Matej and members of his family. All of the aristocrats and noblemen of that time gave priority to astrology over astronomy. Ilkus must certainly have found in Regiomontanus a good co-worker because he was a scientific personality. Historians of the new era refer to Regiomontanus as a spiritual predecessor of Christopher Columbus. It seems that the fate of Academia Istropolitana was very closely tied to the fate of its chancellor Vitez. When Vitez fell into disfavor and lost his position with the university, the Academia began to decline. Vice-chancellor Schomberg did not succeed in obtaining professors of such standing as Regiomontanus. Also the number of students began to dwindle. The king had planned the construction of a new building for students in the rear of the courtyard or next to the main building. But the addition was not necessary. From foreign countries very few applicants inquired and many students from Hungary gave preference henceforth to Vienna and Cracow. And thus Academia Istropolitana ceased to exist immediately upon the death of Matej Korvin (1490). STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS Let us return to our student and follow him to the Gmaitlovsky house on Venturska Street. Academia Istropolitana is located in a building in the courtyard. The entire court is filled with building materials because King Matej has great plans for the university. He wants to build a rear wing and remodel the facade so that afterward the building would form an enclosed unit. At present there are in the completed part only lecture halls, professors' apartments, and the students' dormitory section. All students however do not live in the dormitory. The home-towners, naturally, live with their parents and those from out of town who have relatives or friends in Bratislava would rather live with them. It is more convenient because the house rules of the dormitory are very strict. It is especially bad in winter. There is heat only in the common study where, in the afternoon and evening hours under the supervision of the dormitory's headmaster, the students must repeat the subject-matter on �170 SLOVAKIA which the professors lectured in the forenoon. There is no heat in rooms where students sleep ... Let the students accustom themselves! The school years begins on the tenth of October with a high mass in the cathedral. The students had to arrive in Bratislava even before this. The first of their concerns was to announce themselves at the rector's, identify themselves with a certificate of completion of middle school, and register with one of four faculties. By registration with the rector the student formally became a member of a great university society, but he became a true student only after the Beaniae. A first year student was titled a beanus ( allegedly because of the fact that he is still stupid or a sheep which, with the exception of bleating, knows nothing else; a beanus knows only to say be). The initiation rites to which every beanus had to submit was called the Beaniae. · The comic ceremony had only one purpose: to torment the beani in the worst way. For example, they smeared their faces with some kind of black grease and then they shaved them with a large wooden razor, or they placed horns on their heads and ordered them to perform all kinds of difficult and amusing tasks. Upon completion of the production the beani had to host their professors and older colleagues. At the majority of the universities the professors themselves voted for the rector, the vice-rector and the deans. It was not so in Bratislava. Academia Istropolitana did not have a rector, but a chancellor appointed by the king. His term of office was not limited by time; while a rector was elected by professors for a term of one year, the chancellor was in fact a royal office-holder commissioned with the management of the university. He alone chose his representative, the vicechancellor. The main course of study at the Academia was theology; the weakest by attendance was in medicine. At Academia Istropolitana we know only of the master Peter who lectured here on medicine. As we speak of lecturing, this is not a completely precise description. The professor did not lecture, but read. He read the works of recognized �SLOVAKIA 171 scientific authorities and explained them. He did not add anything of his own. Students sat on simple wooden benches, on their knees were placed planks, and on those some kind of parchment or paper on which they made notes with a goose guill dipped in ink. They had a little bottle of ink tied with a string around the waist. There were no textbooks and for that reason the head-master, who had supervision over them, went over the lectured material with the students in the dormitory or study room. Because the age of those in attendance was not prescribed, 15 year old boys and 30-40 years old men sat together in the classroom. After two years of study, the student attained the academic degree of the first step: the bachelor's. The next higher step was the licenciate and the highest was titled master. Degrees were granted ceremonially after rigorous examinations of which the main part was the disputation; we could compare it to today's defense of the dissertation. It is true, disputation themes of those times were substantially different. There was a preponderance of theological and philosophical topics. Less were concerned with the natural sciences. In the archives of Prague's Karlova University there is preserved from the sixteenth century a report on the disputation of Master Ondtej Mitisko. He debated the subject of earthquakes. According to him the cause of earthquakes was warm and dry steam or wind enclosed in the bowels of the earth and searching for an escape. When the wind does not find that escape because of the firmness of those parts of the earth, it shakes those parts. The title of another disputation was again thus: "Is it proper that a Christian should look on a meteor as holding in itself a sign of the future?" It is too bad that there were not preserved the titles of the bachelor and master disputations of Academia Istropolitana. It would certainly be interesting reading. The life of students was gay, but we would be mistaken if we were to assume that equality reigned among them. A folk proverb says that a lord is in Hell also a lord. Therefore it is undestandable that the university students of nobility wanted to be lords also at Academia Istro- �172 SLOVAKIA politana. It is interesting that among the students there were also bOYIS from the poor serf families. Nearly all studied theology. The landowners prevented their subjects to send their sons to school. They themselves underrated education, and even at the time of King Matej many of the most prominent of the rich could not write and did not allow their subjects to study. They permitted an exception only with the study of theology. From the goodness-of-heart of his lord even a subject could become a priest. In order that these poor scholars could complete their studies in some way, they became a famulus to the rich students. Famulus is actually only a Latin name for the word servant. Such a poor student then took care of the bed, shoes and clothing of his rich lord colleague. For this he received from him a regular monthly payment. Many students did not remain in Bratislava until the attainment of the master's degree. As a rule they left for some foreign university as soon as they reached the bachelor's. With its relatively short existence, Academia Istropolitana could claim only a few distinguished graduates. (There is among them the notorious Stefan Verboczy, the author of the juridicial regulations called Tripartitum which, after the ill fated Dofa uprising in 1514, made the position of the Hungarian serfs substantially worse.) THE FORMER EVANGELICAL LYCEUM It seems almost unbelievable that a handful of students could imprint with its activities the mark of the times upon the city. This handful of young people entered into our national and literary history under the name of stur's Followers. Their activities in Bratislava were inseparably connected with the activities of Cudovit stur and with the former evangelical lyceum building on Konventna Street. Nearly all of his followers studied at this school. A sandstone tablet on the wall of the lyceum building calls their names to mind. It is a long list of names, well-known and lesser known people, who in some way registered themselves into our cultural history. Behold at least a few of the most famous: Cudovit stur, J. M. Hurban, M. M. Hod.fa, Samo Chalupka, Karol Kuzmany, �SLOVAKIA 173 Janko Matuska, A. H. Skultety, Jan Francisci, Andrej Sladkovic ... This generation of young men burning with a national spirit came to Bratislava as a second wave. The first were the students of the Catholic general seminary, which Maria Teresia organized at the citadel. Anton Bemolak, Juraj Fandli and others had studied at this seminary. In their company it is also necessary to include the canon of Bratislava Jozef Ignac Bajza, author of the first Slovak novel Rene, a young man of events and experiences. In the thirties 0829) Cudovit stur came to Bratislava. With his arrival the still waters of the cultural life of Slovak students in Bratislava began to move. The so-called Society of Czecho-Slovak Language and Literature, which before this lived very poorly, began to develop under Stu.r's leadership a very intensive activity. The Society had over 100 members who regularly met at common meetings. Here they always heard some kind of lecture or recitation of poems, and finally an appointed judge evaluated the literary work of the members of the Society. Because at that time Moravians, Czechs, Croatians and Serbians also studied at Bratislava's lyceum, the Society had a Slavonic character not only in the nationalities of its members, but also in the tenor of its activities. But the obligations of the members of the Society did not end at vacation time. On the contrary, stur assigned his students tasks during vacation: they traveled in Slovakia, Moravia and Czechia, established personal contacts and cultural acquaintances, collected folk-songs and folk-tales, and .searched for new students for the lyceum. In Bratislava, the activities of the Society were not limited only to the lyceum hall meetings where the students were under the control of nationally biased professorn. stur took his followers to places of former Slavonic majesty and glory: the Bratislava citadel, Kamzik mountain, and the more distant surroundings of Bratislava. Most memorable was the excursion to Devin on April 24 in 1836. It was an important national manifestation, which left its impression on the participants the rest of their lives. Such undertakings also had a political meaning and their influence grew in all of Slovakia. �174 SLOVAKIA Indeed Shir's id.eals, which the students adopted in Bratislava, were taken with them after completion of studies to their home districts. And most of all, stur began to spread his views with the printed word. Beginning with the year 1845, there appeared the most important Slovak newspaper of prerevolutionary times, the Slovak National News with its supplement, the Tatra Eagle. And in two years stur became a representative with the Bratislava parliament. We may say that all this grew from a seed which the Bratislava evangelical lyceum planted in the students. Today's building is from the year 1854, thus from post-stur times. The building is a little further from town than the original and today houses the library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in which stur and his friends studied. Dr. Joseph Hr ad nan s k y Associate Professor Indiana University of Pennsylvania Instructor in Slovak University of Pittsburgh • • • SLOVAKIA is published annually by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. One of the purposes of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Sl-ovak nation and its long struggle foT freedom and independence. Subscription to Slovakia $3.00 per year in the U .S.A. - $4.00 el-sewhei-e. Rend subscription to: SLOVAKIA 313 Ridge A venue Mi<l.clletown, Pa. 17057 � 164 SLOVAKIA BRATISLAVA: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center (A translation from the Slovak of a portion of I.:udo Ztibek's Moja Bratislava (My Bratislava), published by Mlade Leta Publishing House, Bratislava, 1965) 1467 ACADEMIA ISTROPOLITANA Bratislava's city chamberlain, who had charge of the so-called chamberlain book (the book of the city's receipts and expenditures ) recorded on the 20th of July, 1467, that on that day the mayor and the councilmen hosted the professors who had arrived for the opening of the new school of higher learning. They gave them fried chicken, rolls, wine and fruit. Bratislava's mayor and councilmen were hospitable people, and they honored each distin guished guest with a more modest or a more expensive refreshment according to the guest's station in life. The reception, which is mentioned in the book of records, was not the poorest. From this one may conclude that the affair concerned distinguished guests. The event, with which the arrival of the professors bore upon, was centainly significant. In Bratislava they opened a university known as Academia Istropolitana. The reception of the professors was the culmination of lengthy preparatory work which began two years before in 1465. At that time the Hungarian king, Matej Korvin, sent t o Rome a mission of some renown in order to obtain from the Pope an agreement for the establishment of an institution of higher learning in Bratislava. In the fifteenth century there already existed a number of well-known universities in Europe: Salerno, Bologna, Paris, Prague, Cracow, Vienna, etc. The universities had merit for the reason, that concurrently with their fame there was also spread the glory of the city in which the institution was located. Each university depended on the fact that it should have well-known professors because its scholarly renown was the best recommendation for higher learning. Such universities had students also from distant countries. The �SLOVAKIA 165 young men of Hungary who wished to attain a higher education could only decide upon a foreign university because in Hungary there were none. They had no language difficulties, since in all the schools teaching was carried on in Latin. It is therefore natural that the king, who revered the arts and surrounded himself at his court in Budin with outstanding humanists, desired that there should be a university in his country. He could have established it himself, but in such a case the degrees granted there would have value only in Hungary. In order for it to have international academic recognition, some kind of higher authority had to permit the establishment of the university. Such an authority was the German emperor ( at that time Fridrich III) or the Pope. Since Matej's relations with Fridrich could not be called friendly, the king turned to the Pope. Under the leadership of the learned bishop Jan cezmicky, better known by the name Jan Pannonius, and the commanderin-chief Jan Rozgon, a magnificent escort numbering 300 people left on February 20, 1465 from Budin on a march to Rome. In order to make the success of the mission more certain, they carried with them for the Pope a humble "St. Peter's pence": 20,000 gold pieces. Pope Paul II settled Matej's request favorably, but in the charter with which he permitted the establishment of the Academia, he stated a condition that the new school should be set up according to the example of Bologna University. From this condition it would logically result that for Academia Istropolitana the Bologna school should be the model in all matters, but the leaders of the university used Bologna as an example only for its teaching programs. The management of the Academia had a different tenor. At Bologna the students had the greatest of power. They chose their professors and had control over their lectures. In like manner they themselves elected the rector, and he was chosen from their midst. The rector had advisors at hand with whom he exercised authority not only over the students, but also over professors. Without consent of students and presence of their representatives a professor could not call in a student and admonish or punish him. �166 SLOVAKIA Nowhere else on earth did scholars have such rights as at Bologna. At Academia Istropolitana all authority was in the hands of the chancellor, who was appointed by the king. The chancellor hired and fired professors, granted the academic degrees, and carried out his judicial and disciplinary authority over the professors and students. Academia Istropolitana was formally opened July 20, 1467, but actual teaching there did not begin until the end of September. The university obtained the building as a gift from the king and Chancellor Vitez. It was a building on Venturska Street, of which half was deeded over from a dead title to the king's possession and the other half Vitez bought for the university for 600 gold pieces. The city had the building remodeled in such a way that there would be lecture halls, apartments for professors and living quarters for the students. Commencement exercises were held in a nearby cathedral. The first chancellor of Academia Istropolitana was the above mentioned Jan Vitez, the archbishop of Ostrihom and the king's chancellor. He was not only a statesman of distinction, but also a humanistic writer of the first rank. He was born in the year 1408 in Zredna, but his forefathers came from Ostrihom. Along with his career as a priest (first he was bishop of Vel'ky Varadin, then archbishop of Ostrihom) he very quickly attained a leading position at the king's court: he became chancellor of the king Matej Korvin. At his resi_d ence in the Ostrihom palace, which he remodeled and artistically decorated at great cost, he surrounded himself with humanistic writers and scholars of the highest rank. They came to Ostrihom from almost all parts of Europe: from Czechia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, and Greece. Vitez was a true child of his times. On the one hand, under the influence of the work of his contemporaries, he very quickly saw the reasons for unhealthy events in the country and openly warned of them. In the introduction to his book of letters (his collection of letters written in Latin) he wr.o te: "Truly I have already saturated myself with viewing so much misery, but in order that I secure a safer destiny, I shall be silent." This is the other side �SLOVAKIA 167 of his personality: behave as others behave. He dressed as a worldly magnate in clothes of embroidered gold, wore a gold chain around his neck and a wreath embeded with precious stones on his head. His personal guard consisted of 300 knights. He eagerly supported the building of new palaces and churches and put forth a great amount of money for the procurement of books, especially beautifully decorated codices. His library was world-famous. He had in it the works of all the important ancient Greek and Roman authors and prominent church fathers. Although Johannes Guttenberg was a contemporary of Vitez, the printing of books was then not yet known in Hungary. All books were transcribed by writers and illustrated by artists. Vitez's love of beautiful manuscripts financially cost him very heavily. Let us not be surprised that the chancellor wanted to obtain some books at less cost. He simply borrowed them-and didn't return them. Most frequently he would borrow them from his nephew, bishop Jan Cezmicky. When the bishop's reminders to the great chancellor reminded without result-but on the contrary, Vitez requested that his nephew lend him more codices-Pannonius answered with an ironic letter: You write that I should send you books. Well, did I not already send you enough? I have only Greek books left: you have taken away all the Latin ones. Praise God that you do not know Greek, otherwise you would not leave me even those. If you would learn Greek, I would immediately acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew language and I would establish a libvary of Hebrew codices. I ask, how it is possible, that in the procurement of books, you are so dissatisfied. Do you possibly think that in this you are not committing a sinful act? In my opinion it does not matter on what things our passions concentrate. If in fact you truly desire books so much, do not take them from others who have less of them then you. The extravagant, rich, diplomatic and literary eventfilled life of the chancellor took a sudden sharp turn when Vitez embroiled himself in a conspiracy against the king Matej. The king had him imprisoned. Shortly after (1467) the former chancellor died. At the time of the establishment of Academia Istropolitana, Vitez was at the peak of his power. His greatest responsibility in connection with the new school was to get famous professors for it. He was successful in that . �168 SLOVAKIA because already in the first year of the existence of the academy we meet here with the name of the outstanding astronomer Johann Miiller, known in the scientific world as Regiomontanus. Vitez invited him to Bratislava from Vienna, where he was a professor of the university located there. Here are at least some of the most well-known data from his life: He was born in the year 1436 in Konigsberg (from this he derived the Latinized form of his scientific name Regiomontanus). Upon completion of schooling, he taught mathematics at Vienna University, then in 1462 he left with the escort of Cardinal Bessarion to Italy in order to complete his study of Greek. The humanistic and renaissance learned men studied Greek a great deal, which previously the educated had neglected. He wanted to publish a revised translation of the works of the great ancient astronomer Ptolemy. Upon his return from Italy he lived in Vienna and in Ostrihom at the court of Jan Vitez. From there he left to become a professor at Bratislava. But he did not remain long. Maybe he lacked a properly equipped observatory; perhaps he did not wish to compose horoscopes which the king, the aristocracy and rich townsfolk requested of him. In 1471 he moved to Ntirnberg where with the financial aid of the wealthy townsman Walther he had constructed astronomical instruments and set up his own printery at which his scientific works were printed. In 1474 Pope Sixtus IV invited him to Rome in order to be the scientific advisor on calendar reform. Here he died in 1476. His most famous astronomical work was a calculation of the paths of heavenly bodies published under the title Tabulae Directionum. Still 200 years after Regiomontanus' death these tables were used as an important astronomical aid. The authorities of Bratislava hired other professors in Poland, Italy and France. From Cracow University came Professor Martin Ilkus, who in addition to philosophy also occupied himself with astronomy. Many of his astronomical instruments and handwritings of his scientific works could still be found in Cracow. There are horoscopes which Magister Martin-this is the manner in which he was �SLOVAKIA 169 referred to at the king's court-made for King Matej and members of his family. All of the aristocrats and noblemen of that time gave priority to astrology over astronomy. Ilkus must certainly have found in Regiomontanus a good co-worker because he was a scientific personality. Historians of the new era refer to Regiomontanus as a spiritual predecessor of Christopher Columbus. It seems that the fate of Academia Istropolitana was very closely tied to the fate of its chancellor Vitez. When Vitez fell into disfavor and lost his position with the university, the Academia began to decline. Vice-chancellor Schomberg did not succeed in obtaining professors of such standing as Regiomontanus. Also the number of students began to dwindle. The king had planned the construction of a new building for students in the rear of the courtyard or next to the main building. But the addition was not necessary. From foreign countries very few applicants inquired and many students from Hungary gave preference henceforth to Vienna and Cracow. And thus Academia Istropolitana ceased to exist immediately upon the death of Matej Korvin (1490). STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS Let us return to our student and follow him to the Gmaitlovsky house on Venturska Street. Academia Istropolitana is located in a building in the courtyard. The entire court is filled with building materials because King Matej has great plans for the university. He wants to build a rear wing and remodel the facade so that afterward the building would form an enclosed unit. At present there are in the completed part only lecture halls, professors' apartments, and the students' dormitory section. All students however do not live in the dormitory. The home-towners, naturally, live with their parents and those from out of town who have relatives or friends in Bratislava would rather live with them. It is more convenient because the house rules of the dormitory are very strict. It is especially bad in winter. There is heat only in the common study where, in the afternoon and evening hours under the supervision of the dormitory's headmaster, the students must repeat the subject-matter on �170 SLOVAKIA which the professors lectured in the forenoon. There is no heat in rooms where students sleep ... Let the students accustom themselves! The school years begins on the tenth of October with a high mass in the cathedral. The students had to arrive in Bratislava even before this. The first of their concerns was to announce themselves at the rector's, identify themselves with a certificate of completion of middle school, and register with one of four faculties. By registration with the rector the student formally became a member of a great university society, but he became a true student only after the Beaniae. A first year student was titled a beanus ( allegedly because of the fact that he is still stupid or a sheep which, with the exception of bleating, knows nothing else; a beanus knows only to say be). The initiation rites to which every beanus had to submit was called the Beaniae. · The comic ceremony had only one purpose: to torment the beani in the worst way. For example, they smeared their faces with some kind of black grease and then they shaved them with a large wooden razor, or they placed horns on their heads and ordered them to perform all kinds of difficult and amusing tasks. Upon completion of the production the beani had to host their professors and older colleagues. At the majority of the universities the professors themselves voted for the rector, the vice-rector and the deans. It was not so in Bratislava. Academia Istropolitana did not have a rector, but a chancellor appointed by the king. His term of office was not limited by time; while a rector was elected by professors for a term of one year, the chancellor was in fact a royal office-holder commissioned with the management of the university. He alone chose his representative, the vicechancellor. The main course of study at the Academia was theology; the weakest by attendance was in medicine. At Academia Istropolitana we know only of the master Peter who lectured here on medicine. As we speak of lecturing, this is not a completely precise description. The professor did not lecture, but read. He read the works of recognized �SLOVAKIA 171 scientific authorities and explained them. He did not add anything of his own. Students sat on simple wooden benches, on their knees were placed planks, and on those some kind of parchment or paper on which they made notes with a goose guill dipped in ink. They had a little bottle of ink tied with a string around the waist. There were no textbooks and for that reason the head-master, who had supervision over them, went over the lectured material with the students in the dormitory or study room. Because the age of those in attendance was not prescribed, 15 year old boys and 30-40 years old men sat together in the classroom. After two years of study, the student attained the academic degree of the first step: the bachelor's. The next higher step was the licenciate and the highest was titled master. Degrees were granted ceremonially after rigorous examinations of which the main part was the disputation; we could compare it to today's defense of the dissertation. It is true, disputation themes of those times were substantially different. There was a preponderance of theological and philosophical topics. Less were concerned with the natural sciences. In the archives of Prague's Karlova University there is preserved from the sixteenth century a report on the disputation of Master Ondtej Mitisko. He debated the subject of earthquakes. According to him the cause of earthquakes was warm and dry steam or wind enclosed in the bowels of the earth and searching for an escape. When the wind does not find that escape because of the firmness of those parts of the earth, it shakes those parts. The title of another disputation was again thus: "Is it proper that a Christian should look on a meteor as holding in itself a sign of the future?" It is too bad that there were not preserved the titles of the bachelor and master disputations of Academia Istropolitana. It would certainly be interesting reading. The life of students was gay, but we would be mistaken if we were to assume that equality reigned among them. A folk proverb says that a lord is in Hell also a lord. Therefore it is undestandable that the university students of nobility wanted to be lords also at Academia Istro- �172 SLOVAKIA politana. It is interesting that among the students there were also bOYIS from the poor serf families. Nearly all studied theology. The landowners prevented their subjects to send their sons to school. They themselves underrated education, and even at the time of King Matej many of the most prominent of the rich could not write and did not allow their subjects to study. They permitted an exception only with the study of theology. From the goodness-of-heart of his lord even a subject could become a priest. In order that these poor scholars could complete their studies in some way, they became a famulus to the rich students. Famulus is actually only a Latin name for the word servant. Such a poor student then took care of the bed, shoes and clothing of his rich lord colleague. For this he received from him a regular monthly payment. Many students did not remain in Bratislava until the attainment of the master's degree. As a rule they left for some foreign university as soon as they reached the bachelor's. With its relatively short existence, Academia Istropolitana could claim only a few distinguished graduates. (There is among them the notorious Stefan Verboczy, the author of the juridicial regulations called Tripartitum which, after the ill fated Dofa uprising in 1514, made the position of the Hungarian serfs substantially worse.) THE FORMER EVANGELICAL LYCEUM It seems almost unbelievable that a handful of students could imprint with its activities the mark of the times upon the city. This handful of young people entered into our national and literary history under the name of stur's Followers. Their activities in Bratislava were inseparably connected with the activities of Cudovit stur and with the former evangelical lyceum building on Konventna Street. Nearly all of his followers studied at this school. A sandstone tablet on the wall of the lyceum building calls their names to mind. It is a long list of names, well-known and lesser known people, who in some way registered themselves into our cultural history. Behold at least a few of the most famous: Cudovit stur, J. M. Hurban, M. M. Hod.fa, Samo Chalupka, Karol Kuzmany, �SLOVAKIA 173 Janko Matuska, A. H. Skultety, Jan Francisci, Andrej Sladkovic ... This generation of young men burning with a national spirit came to Bratislava as a second wave. The first were the students of the Catholic general seminary, which Maria Teresia organized at the citadel. Anton Bemolak, Juraj Fandli and others had studied at this seminary. In their company it is also necessary to include the canon of Bratislava Jozef Ignac Bajza, author of the first Slovak novel Rene, a young man of events and experiences. In the thirties 0829) Cudovit stur came to Bratislava. With his arrival the still waters of the cultural life of Slovak students in Bratislava began to move. The so-called Society of Czecho-Slovak Language and Literature, which before this lived very poorly, began to develop under Stu.r's leadership a very intensive activity. The Society had over 100 members who regularly met at common meetings. Here they always heard some kind of lecture or recitation of poems, and finally an appointed judge evaluated the literary work of the members of the Society. Because at that time Moravians, Czechs, Croatians and Serbians also studied at Bratislava's lyceum, the Society had a Slavonic character not only in the nationalities of its members, but also in the tenor of its activities. But the obligations of the members of the Society did not end at vacation time. On the contrary, stur assigned his students tasks during vacation: they traveled in Slovakia, Moravia and Czechia, established personal contacts and cultural acquaintances, collected folk-songs and folk-tales, and .searched for new students for the lyceum. In Bratislava, the activities of the Society were not limited only to the lyceum hall meetings where the students were under the control of nationally biased professorn. stur took his followers to places of former Slavonic majesty and glory: the Bratislava citadel, Kamzik mountain, and the more distant surroundings of Bratislava. Most memorable was the excursion to Devin on April 24 in 1836. It was an important national manifestation, which left its impression on the participants the rest of their lives. Such undertakings also had a political meaning and their influence grew in all of Slovakia. �174 SLOVAKIA Indeed Shir's id.eals, which the students adopted in Bratislava, were taken with them after completion of studies to their home districts. And most of all, stur began to spread his views with the printed word. Beginning with the year 1845, there appeared the most important Slovak newspaper of prerevolutionary times, the Slovak National News with its supplement, the Tatra Eagle. And in two years stur became a representative with the Bratislava parliament. We may say that all this grew from a seed which the Bratislava evangelical lyceum planted in the students. Today's building is from the year 1854, thus from post-stur times. The building is a little further from town than the original and today houses the library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in which stur and his friends studied. Dr. Joseph Hr ad nan s k y Associate Professor Indiana University of Pennsylvania Instructor in Slovak University of Pittsburgh • • • SLOVAKIA is published annually by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. One of the purposes of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Sl-ovak nation and its long struggle foT freedom and independence. Subscription to Slovakia $3.00 per year in the U .S.A. - $4.00 el-sewhei-e. Rend subscription to: SLOVAKIA 313 Ridge A venue Mi<l.clletown, Pa. 17057 � 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 164 SLOVAKIA BRATISLAVA: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center (A translation from the Slovak of a portion of I.:udo Ztibek's Moja Bratislava (My Bratislava), published by Mlade Leta Publishing House, Bratislava, 1965) 1467 ACADEMIA ISTROPOLITANA Bratislava's city chamberlain, who had charge of the so-called chamberlain book (the book of the city's receipts and expenditures ) recorded on the 20th of July, 1467, that on that day the mayor and the councilmen hosted the professors who had arrived for the opening of the new school of higher learning. They gave them fried chicken, rolls, wine and fruit. Bratislava's mayor and councilmen were hospitable people, and they honored each distin guished guest with a more modest or a more expensive refreshment according to the guest's station in life. The reception, which is mentioned in the book of records, was not the poorest. From this one may conclude that the affair concerned distinguished guests. The event, with which the arrival of the professors bore upon, was centainly significant. In Bratislava they opened a university known as Academia Istropolitana. The reception of the professors was the culmination of lengthy preparatory work which began two years before in 1465. At that time the Hungarian king, Matej Korvin, sent t o Rome a mission of some renown in order to obtain from the Pope an agreement for the establishment of an institution of higher learning in Bratislava. In the fifteenth century there already existed a number of well-known universities in Europe: Salerno, Bologna, Paris, Prague, Cracow, Vienna, etc. The universities had merit for the reason, that concurrently with their fame there was also spread the glory of the city in which the institution was located. Each university depended on the fact that it should have well-known professors because its scholarly renown was the best recommendation for higher learning. Such universities had students also from distant countries. The SLOVAKIA 165 young men of Hungary who wished to attain a higher education could only decide upon a foreign university because in Hungary there were none. They had no language difficulties, since in all the schools teaching was carried on in Latin. It is therefore natural that the king, who revered the arts and surrounded himself at his court in Budin with outstanding humanists, desired that there should be a university in his country. He could have established it himself, but in such a case the degrees granted there would have value only in Hungary. In order for it to have international academic recognition, some kind of higher authority had to permit the establishment of the university. Such an authority was the German emperor ( at that time Fridrich III) or the Pope. Since Matej's relations with Fridrich could not be called friendly, the king turned to the Pope. Under the leadership of the learned bishop Jan cezmicky, better known by the name Jan Pannonius, and the commanderin-chief Jan Rozgon, a magnificent escort numbering 300 people left on February 20, 1465 from Budin on a march to Rome. In order to make the success of the mission more certain, they carried with them for the Pope a humble "St. Peter's pence": 20,000 gold pieces. Pope Paul II settled Matej's request favorably, but in the charter with which he permitted the establishment of the Academia, he stated a condition that the new school should be set up according to the example of Bologna University. From this condition it would logically result that for Academia Istropolitana the Bologna school should be the model in all matters, but the leaders of the university used Bologna as an example only for its teaching programs. The management of the Academia had a different tenor. At Bologna the students had the greatest of power. They chose their professors and had control over their lectures. In like manner they themselves elected the rector, and he was chosen from their midst. The rector had advisors at hand with whom he exercised authority not only over the students, but also over professors. Without consent of students and presence of their representatives a professor could not call in a student and admonish or punish him. 166 SLOVAKIA Nowhere else on earth did scholars have such rights as at Bologna. At Academia Istropolitana all authority was in the hands of the chancellor, who was appointed by the king. The chancellor hired and fired professors, granted the academic degrees, and carried out his judicial and disciplinary authority over the professors and students. Academia Istropolitana was formally opened July 20, 1467, but actual teaching there did not begin until the end of September. The university obtained the building as a gift from the king and Chancellor Vitez. It was a building on Venturska Street, of which half was deeded over from a dead title to the king's possession and the other half Vitez bought for the university for 600 gold pieces. The city had the building remodeled in such a way that there would be lecture halls, apartments for professors and living quarters for the students. Commencement exercises were held in a nearby cathedral. The first chancellor of Academia Istropolitana was the above mentioned Jan Vitez, the archbishop of Ostrihom and the king's chancellor. He was not only a statesman of distinction, but also a humanistic writer of the first rank. He was born in the year 1408 in Zredna, but his forefathers came from Ostrihom. Along with his career as a priest (first he was bishop of Vel'ky Varadin, then archbishop of Ostrihom) he very quickly attained a leading position at the king's court: he became chancellor of the king Matej Korvin. At his resi_d ence in the Ostrihom palace, which he remodeled and artistically decorated at great cost, he surrounded himself with humanistic writers and scholars of the highest rank. They came to Ostrihom from almost all parts of Europe: from Czechia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, and Greece. Vitez was a true child of his times. On the one hand, under the influence of the work of his contemporaries, he very quickly saw the reasons for unhealthy events in the country and openly warned of them. In the introduction to his book of letters (his collection of letters written in Latin) he wr.o te: "Truly I have already saturated myself with viewing so much misery, but in order that I secure a safer destiny, I shall be silent." This is the other side SLOVAKIA 167 of his personality: behave as others behave. He dressed as a worldly magnate in clothes of embroidered gold, wore a gold chain around his neck and a wreath embeded with precious stones on his head. His personal guard consisted of 300 knights. He eagerly supported the building of new palaces and churches and put forth a great amount of money for the procurement of books, especially beautifully decorated codices. His library was world-famous. He had in it the works of all the important ancient Greek and Roman authors and prominent church fathers. Although Johannes Guttenberg was a contemporary of Vitez, the printing of books was then not yet known in Hungary. All books were transcribed by writers and illustrated by artists. Vitez's love of beautiful manuscripts financially cost him very heavily. Let us not be surprised that the chancellor wanted to obtain some books at less cost. He simply borrowed them-and didn't return them. Most frequently he would borrow them from his nephew, bishop Jan Cezmicky. When the bishop's reminders to the great chancellor reminded without result-but on the contrary, Vitez requested that his nephew lend him more codices-Pannonius answered with an ironic letter: You write that I should send you books. Well, did I not already send you enough? I have only Greek books left: you have taken away all the Latin ones. Praise God that you do not know Greek, otherwise you would not leave me even those. If you would learn Greek, I would immediately acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew language and I would establish a libvary of Hebrew codices. I ask, how it is possible, that in the procurement of books, you are so dissatisfied. Do you possibly think that in this you are not committing a sinful act? In my opinion it does not matter on what things our passions concentrate. If in fact you truly desire books so much, do not take them from others who have less of them then you. The extravagant, rich, diplomatic and literary eventfilled life of the chancellor took a sudden sharp turn when Vitez embroiled himself in a conspiracy against the king Matej. The king had him imprisoned. Shortly after (1467) the former chancellor died. At the time of the establishment of Academia Istropolitana, Vitez was at the peak of his power. His greatest responsibility in connection with the new school was to get famous professors for it. He was successful in that . 168 SLOVAKIA because already in the first year of the existence of the academy we meet here with the name of the outstanding astronomer Johann Miiller, known in the scientific world as Regiomontanus. Vitez invited him to Bratislava from Vienna, where he was a professor of the university located there. Here are at least some of the most well-known data from his life: He was born in the year 1436 in Konigsberg (from this he derived the Latinized form of his scientific name Regiomontanus). Upon completion of schooling, he taught mathematics at Vienna University, then in 1462 he left with the escort of Cardinal Bessarion to Italy in order to complete his study of Greek. The humanistic and renaissance learned men studied Greek a great deal, which previously the educated had neglected. He wanted to publish a revised translation of the works of the great ancient astronomer Ptolemy. Upon his return from Italy he lived in Vienna and in Ostrihom at the court of Jan Vitez. From there he left to become a professor at Bratislava. But he did not remain long. Maybe he lacked a properly equipped observatory; perhaps he did not wish to compose horoscopes which the king, the aristocracy and rich townsfolk requested of him. In 1471 he moved to Ntirnberg where with the financial aid of the wealthy townsman Walther he had constructed astronomical instruments and set up his own printery at which his scientific works were printed. In 1474 Pope Sixtus IV invited him to Rome in order to be the scientific advisor on calendar reform. Here he died in 1476. His most famous astronomical work was a calculation of the paths of heavenly bodies published under the title Tabulae Directionum. Still 200 years after Regiomontanus' death these tables were used as an important astronomical aid. The authorities of Bratislava hired other professors in Poland, Italy and France. From Cracow University came Professor Martin Ilkus, who in addition to philosophy also occupied himself with astronomy. Many of his astronomical instruments and handwritings of his scientific works could still be found in Cracow. There are horoscopes which Magister Martin-this is the manner in which he was SLOVAKIA 169 referred to at the king's court-made for King Matej and members of his family. All of the aristocrats and noblemen of that time gave priority to astrology over astronomy. Ilkus must certainly have found in Regiomontanus a good co-worker because he was a scientific personality. Historians of the new era refer to Regiomontanus as a spiritual predecessor of Christopher Columbus. It seems that the fate of Academia Istropolitana was very closely tied to the fate of its chancellor Vitez. When Vitez fell into disfavor and lost his position with the university, the Academia began to decline. Vice-chancellor Schomberg did not succeed in obtaining professors of such standing as Regiomontanus. Also the number of students began to dwindle. The king had planned the construction of a new building for students in the rear of the courtyard or next to the main building. But the addition was not necessary. From foreign countries very few applicants inquired and many students from Hungary gave preference henceforth to Vienna and Cracow. And thus Academia Istropolitana ceased to exist immediately upon the death of Matej Korvin (1490). STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS Let us return to our student and follow him to the Gmaitlovsky house on Venturska Street. Academia Istropolitana is located in a building in the courtyard. The entire court is filled with building materials because King Matej has great plans for the university. He wants to build a rear wing and remodel the facade so that afterward the building would form an enclosed unit. At present there are in the completed part only lecture halls, professors' apartments, and the students' dormitory section. All students however do not live in the dormitory. The home-towners, naturally, live with their parents and those from out of town who have relatives or friends in Bratislava would rather live with them. It is more convenient because the house rules of the dormitory are very strict. It is especially bad in winter. There is heat only in the common study where, in the afternoon and evening hours under the supervision of the dormitory's headmaster, the students must repeat the subject-matter on 170 SLOVAKIA which the professors lectured in the forenoon. There is no heat in rooms where students sleep ... Let the students accustom themselves! The school years begins on the tenth of October with a high mass in the cathedral. The students had to arrive in Bratislava even before this. The first of their concerns was to announce themselves at the rector's, identify themselves with a certificate of completion of middle school, and register with one of four faculties. By registration with the rector the student formally became a member of a great university society, but he became a true student only after the Beaniae. A first year student was titled a beanus ( allegedly because of the fact that he is still stupid or a sheep which, with the exception of bleating, knows nothing else; a beanus knows only to say be). The initiation rites to which every beanus had to submit was called the Beaniae. · The comic ceremony had only one purpose: to torment the beani in the worst way. For example, they smeared their faces with some kind of black grease and then they shaved them with a large wooden razor, or they placed horns on their heads and ordered them to perform all kinds of difficult and amusing tasks. Upon completion of the production the beani had to host their professors and older colleagues. At the majority of the universities the professors themselves voted for the rector, the vice-rector and the deans. It was not so in Bratislava. Academia Istropolitana did not have a rector, but a chancellor appointed by the king. His term of office was not limited by time; while a rector was elected by professors for a term of one year, the chancellor was in fact a royal office-holder commissioned with the management of the university. He alone chose his representative, the vicechancellor. The main course of study at the Academia was theology; the weakest by attendance was in medicine. At Academia Istropolitana we know only of the master Peter who lectured here on medicine. As we speak of lecturing, this is not a completely precise description. The professor did not lecture, but read. He read the works of recognized SLOVAKIA 171 scientific authorities and explained them. He did not add anything of his own. Students sat on simple wooden benches, on their knees were placed planks, and on those some kind of parchment or paper on which they made notes with a goose guill dipped in ink. They had a little bottle of ink tied with a string around the waist. There were no textbooks and for that reason the head-master, who had supervision over them, went over the lectured material with the students in the dormitory or study room. Because the age of those in attendance was not prescribed, 15 year old boys and 30-40 years old men sat together in the classroom. After two years of study, the student attained the academic degree of the first step: the bachelor's. The next higher step was the licenciate and the highest was titled master. Degrees were granted ceremonially after rigorous examinations of which the main part was the disputation; we could compare it to today's defense of the dissertation. It is true, disputation themes of those times were substantially different. There was a preponderance of theological and philosophical topics. Less were concerned with the natural sciences. In the archives of Prague's Karlova University there is preserved from the sixteenth century a report on the disputation of Master Ondtej Mitisko. He debated the subject of earthquakes. According to him the cause of earthquakes was warm and dry steam or wind enclosed in the bowels of the earth and searching for an escape. When the wind does not find that escape because of the firmness of those parts of the earth, it shakes those parts. The title of another disputation was again thus: "Is it proper that a Christian should look on a meteor as holding in itself a sign of the future?" It is too bad that there were not preserved the titles of the bachelor and master disputations of Academia Istropolitana. It would certainly be interesting reading. The life of students was gay, but we would be mistaken if we were to assume that equality reigned among them. A folk proverb says that a lord is in Hell also a lord. Therefore it is undestandable that the university students of nobility wanted to be lords also at Academia Istro- 172 SLOVAKIA politana. It is interesting that among the students there were also bOYIS from the poor serf families. Nearly all studied theology. The landowners prevented their subjects to send their sons to school. They themselves underrated education, and even at the time of King Matej many of the most prominent of the rich could not write and did not allow their subjects to study. They permitted an exception only with the study of theology. From the goodness-of-heart of his lord even a subject could become a priest. In order that these poor scholars could complete their studies in some way, they became a famulus to the rich students. Famulus is actually only a Latin name for the word servant. Such a poor student then took care of the bed, shoes and clothing of his rich lord colleague. For this he received from him a regular monthly payment. Many students did not remain in Bratislava until the attainment of the master's degree. As a rule they left for some foreign university as soon as they reached the bachelor's. With its relatively short existence, Academia Istropolitana could claim only a few distinguished graduates. (There is among them the notorious Stefan Verboczy, the author of the juridicial regulations called Tripartitum which, after the ill fated Dofa uprising in 1514, made the position of the Hungarian serfs substantially worse.) THE FORMER EVANGELICAL LYCEUM It seems almost unbelievable that a handful of students could imprint with its activities the mark of the times upon the city. This handful of young people entered into our national and literary history under the name of stur's Followers. Their activities in Bratislava were inseparably connected with the activities of Cudovit stur and with the former evangelical lyceum building on Konventna Street. Nearly all of his followers studied at this school. A sandstone tablet on the wall of the lyceum building calls their names to mind. It is a long list of names, well-known and lesser known people, who in some way registered themselves into our cultural history. Behold at least a few of the most famous: Cudovit stur, J. M. Hurban, M. M. Hod.fa, Samo Chalupka, Karol Kuzmany, SLOVAKIA 173 Janko Matuska, A. H. Skultety, Jan Francisci, Andrej Sladkovic ... This generation of young men burning with a national spirit came to Bratislava as a second wave. The first were the students of the Catholic general seminary, which Maria Teresia organized at the citadel. Anton Bemolak, Juraj Fandli and others had studied at this seminary. In their company it is also necessary to include the canon of Bratislava Jozef Ignac Bajza, author of the first Slovak novel Rene, a young man of events and experiences. In the thirties 0829) Cudovit stur came to Bratislava. With his arrival the still waters of the cultural life of Slovak students in Bratislava began to move. The so-called Society of Czecho-Slovak Language and Literature, which before this lived very poorly, began to develop under Stu.r's leadership a very intensive activity. The Society had over 100 members who regularly met at common meetings. Here they always heard some kind of lecture or recitation of poems, and finally an appointed judge evaluated the literary work of the members of the Society. Because at that time Moravians, Czechs, Croatians and Serbians also studied at Bratislava's lyceum, the Society had a Slavonic character not only in the nationalities of its members, but also in the tenor of its activities. But the obligations of the members of the Society did not end at vacation time. On the contrary, stur assigned his students tasks during vacation: they traveled in Slovakia, Moravia and Czechia, established personal contacts and cultural acquaintances, collected folk-songs and folk-tales, and .searched for new students for the lyceum. In Bratislava, the activities of the Society were not limited only to the lyceum hall meetings where the students were under the control of nationally biased professorn. stur took his followers to places of former Slavonic majesty and glory: the Bratislava citadel, Kamzik mountain, and the more distant surroundings of Bratislava. Most memorable was the excursion to Devin on April 24 in 1836. It was an important national manifestation, which left its impression on the participants the rest of their lives. Such undertakings also had a political meaning and their influence grew in all of Slovakia. 174 SLOVAKIA Indeed Shir's id.eals, which the students adopted in Bratislava, were taken with them after completion of studies to their home districts. And most of all, stur began to spread his views with the printed word. Beginning with the year 1845, there appeared the most important Slovak newspaper of prerevolutionary times, the Slovak National News with its supplement, the Tatra Eagle. And in two years stur became a representative with the Bratislava parliament. We may say that all this grew from a seed which the Bratislava evangelical lyceum planted in the students. Today's building is from the year 1854, thus from post-stur times. The building is a little further from town than the original and today houses the library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in which stur and his friends studied. Dr. Joseph Hr ad nan s k y Associate Professor Indiana University of Pennsylvania Instructor in Slovak University of Pittsburgh • • • SLOVAKIA is published annually by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. One of the purposes of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Sl-ovak nation and its long struggle foT freedom and independence. Subscription to Slovakia $3.00 per year in the U .S.A. - $4.00 el-sewhei-e. Rend subscription to: SLOVAKIA 313 Ridge A venue Mi<l.clletown, Pa. 17057  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 Bratislava: Ancient Slovak Cultural Center Description An account of the resource Dr. Joseph Hradnansky Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 164-174 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hradnansky, Joseph 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/b6b8000204ecbaea6c54d44eefc26dac.pdf 4fce58f3064c766f04e09a6fe0dcd850 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 145 Slovaks A PART OF THE GREAT EMIGRATION TO AMERICA Joseph John K r a j s a The Slovak nation and the Slovak people, who have had their own territory of Slovakia since the sixth century in Central Europe, and who were a part of the great emigration to America, have left their indelible imprint on the character of America. Slovakia's history is a very tragic one. This country has suffered for over 1,100 years from every type of oppression ever conceived by man. It is one of the oldest Christian nations in Central Eure>pe, and has suffered under foreign domination more than any other nation. At times the Slovaks have been misunderstood and misrepresented, but they clung to their language, religion, customs, and traditions. The Slovaks lived through the predominance of feudalistic Hungary, the glory of the Magyars and the Czechs, and presently the Slovaks are ever determined to outlive the terror of Communism that has been thrust on them since 1945. Until recent years, very little has been written in this country on the history and culture of the Slovak people, in spite of the fact that almost one-third of all the Slovaks in the world live in the United States and Canada. 1 In area Slovakia is larger than Switzerland or Denmark. It lies along the northern shores of the Central Danube River, where its slopes on the east touch the Alps and the western slopes the Carpathian mountains. Since the beginning of European history, a route run through the gate of the Danube basin connecting the West and the East. Because of this fact, Slovakia is a nation that blends the culture of the West with the Eastern Slovanic culture even though the Romans withdraw from the Danube at the end of the 4th century. Oppressive measures continued for centuries in one form or another, but when it became possible to rid themselves of this oppression, the Slovaks migrated to �146 SLOVAKIA America to help mould the American culture-one rooted in the best traditions which they brought with them. True, the Slovaks began coming to America after 1875 numbers and before the great exodus itself, there great in hardly was a family in Slovakia which did not have at least one relative in America. The Slovaks were not always welcomed in the locale where they settled. When my grandfather arrived in A· merica in 1906, he was stoned by the "Americans" from the railroad station until he arrived in the section of the town called a Ward where all the "foreigners" were living. When he became settled, he was hard at work like the rest of the immigrants. He worked as a wiremaker ( drotar) and became what the handbook, "Gateway to Citizenship", prepared by the Department of Justice, said in tribute: The Slovak The endlessly unbowed, That gave the west continent The proudest and best of my Broad backs and eager youth ... Ask the coal you burn, who mined it, The ore, what worker wrung it from the earth, The bridge, what man bound its steel togetherAn every third answer will be a 'Slovak' ... And shall you forget me?2 President Taft did not forgot when he said of the Slovaks: The truth is, we need a little ,p oetry among our native Americans; we need an appreciation of poetic ideals; we need to have mixed with our every-day humdrum life a little bit of the romance that you bring from the old country and we welcome you on that account. 2 a President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not forgot the Slovak1s when he said: This country is m~dful of the vast contribution the Slovaks have made to ,the cause of furthering its development and growth-moral, cultural and material. The stout-hearted, clear-minded, freedomloving and determined people of Slovakia, who, sensitive of the wrongs and deprivations experienced in th~ir own country at the hands of invading forces, turned to America seeking a new home, now comprise with their children and grandchildren an asset in life, industry and culture of this great land that defies human power of appraisal.3 �SLOVAKIA 147 EARLY SWVAK EMIGRATION Even before the great "new emigration" which began around 1873, many Slovaks came to America as part of the "old emigration". Long before the exodus of the Slovak peasants and journeymen for America, hundreds of Slovaks left their homeland for life elsewhere. The Slovak emigration was not only for economic reasons, but also involved was the impelling desire to be part of the dream of a free world. This was also the dream of other ethnic groups from Central Europe. It should be mentioned, however, that before the mass emigration to the United States after the 1870's, there were Slovaks who made their mark in this land of the free. One Slovak who helped America gain her independence from Great Britain was a soldier, Major John J. Polereck~•, son of Count Andrew Polerecky of Polerieka, Turiec County, Slovakia. In 1781, when the army of Cornwallis was defeated, its arms were surrendered to Polerecky at Yorktown, Va. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, a professor in Cleveland, Ohio, who is a distant relative of Major Polerecky. John Polerecky, promoted to a Major in the " French Hussars" by Louis XV, came to America with the French expeditionary army of Rochambeau to help the colonists overthrow British rule. It was during the siege of Yorktown, ait: the beginning of 1781, that Major Polerecky became acquainted with Col. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) and Col. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), who later became General in the American Army and then Secretary of War. On October 20, 1781, when Rochambeau sent Duke de Lauzun to Paris to report the victory to the French King, Polerecky accompanied him. Polerecky became a naturalized citizen by an act of ;the Massachusetts legislature and his papers were signed by Governor John Hancock, one of the signers of ,the American Dec1aration of Independence. Major Polerecky held various public offices from 1789 to 1828.4 Another Slovak who came to America in the earlier years was a doctor, Dr. Samuel Figuly, who fought in the Civil War in the side of the North and is especially noted for his many contributions to the scientific cultivation of tabacco in Virginia. As a plantation owner, he settled down to the cultivation of tabacco in the South, counseled from abroad by the Slovak botanist, Holuby. During the latter part of his life, Dr. Figuly took part in the unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole.5 �148 SLOVAKIA There is a long list of Slovak names that appear on the list of volunteers during the Civil War, especially with the militia in Chicago known as the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin". Such names as Filip, Krupinsky, Fiala, and Kozlej are listed as some of the volunteers.6 The famed Civil War soldier who commanded the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin" was a Slovak, Col Gejza Mihalotzy, who was killed later at Chattanooga. The fort there was then referred to as "Fort Mihalotzy". Col. Mihalotzy recruited the company of riflemen in Illinois and received permission from the President to call his group the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin" .7 A Slovak, Andrew Jelik, was a tailor on a Dutch Ship which sailed to America in 1754-1755.8 Another Slovak who arrived in America during the 18th century was Count Maurice Benovsky who landed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1757 . .Ais an adventurer his career took him to Madagascar where he became King. In the year 1800, a Slovak dealer in oils surprised a Slovak Jesuit by making his confession in Slovak. 9 The first Slovak setUement was made in Philadelphia, Pa. by wire-workers (drotari), in 1840 at 412-414 Front Street.10A Martin Chalan landed in the United States in 1872, took out his first papers in 1876, and became an American citizen in 1879. He made the round-trip across the ocean twenty-six times.11 THE GREAT SURGE OF SLOVAK EMIGRATION In the wake of the great emigration to America, the movement seems to have begun in the eastern part of Slovakia, especially the counties of Zemplin, saris, and Spis.12 Between the years 1869-1890, the county of Spis lost 14 % of her youth between the ages of 20 to 25 years and 31 % of the men between 26 and 30; saris lost 34 % of those between 20 and 25 and 44 % of the men ·b etween 26 and 30 years of age. The movement spread in Slovakia as their brethren became settled in America and the central and western counties took to emigration in the next decade. 13 Between 1875-1914, great masses of Slovak intellectuals, peasants, tradesmen, and artists made up the hundreds �SLOVAKIA 149 of thousands who crowded the cities of New York, Scranton, Hazleton, Cleveland, Wilkes-Barre, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Philadelphia, Detroit, Bridgeport, Newark and the eastern industrial portions of the United States. These big cities and the little towns around them became centers of the new Slovak life in this country. There scarcely was an industry or trade, factory, mill, mine, or iron works where Slovak immigrants and their sons could not be found. Because of their brawn, they took on the most difficult jobs.14 New York ranked first as the port of entry to America; then in order followed Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, and Portland. From Slovakia, the immigrants generally moved by rail to German, Dutch, or Italian ports. Through the port of Hamburg, Germany passed the greatest number of emigrants. Their voyage took from 13 to 19 days. For my grandmother and grandfather, who came across the ocean in different ships and in different years, the voyage lasted thirteen days. All they brought with them was a suitcase made of straw. It is difficult to give the exact figures on Slovak immigration before 1899 because the authorities counted the immigrants according to the country of last residence, and many of the Slovaks listed Hungary as their country of last residence. The total immigration to the United States numbered 9,555,673 in the period of 1899-1910, and of this number there were 337,527 Slovaks. The peak year was 1905 for the Slovaks when 52,368 of them were admitted to this new country of America. 15 In the twelve years ending with June 30, 1910, Slovakia ranked eight among the nations who emigrated to the United States. The Slovaks percentage rate of emigration was the highest of any other group. In fact, the rate of emigration of Slovaks per 1,000 was 18.6; double that of any other race of people, except the Hebrews (18.3). 16 SWV AK PIONEERS The truth remains that Slovakia, a nation with an area of 31,600 square miles-situated in the very heart of Central Europe; a small number of people of five million �150 SLOVAKIA in population and the oldest nation on the central Danube River, contributed much to the development of America. 17 In 1963, United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, reflected pointedly about the Slovaks when he spoke in Youngstown, Ohio: The United States wou~d be a poorer nation today, economically, intellectually, culturally, and in every other way, if it were not for the over two million of our citizens who are of Slovak birth or ancestry.17a The passing of some eighty years and the contributions of Slovaks to this country prompted Attorney General Kennedy to make the above conclusion. The immigrant, no matter where he was situated in the United States, had two seemingly opposing drives that moved him. One was toward becoming an American with which came the social acceptance all immigrants wanted from those who came to this country before them. The other was to preserve the culture, language, and faith of their Slovak past. Strange as it may seem, the two aims did not clash, instead, the two meshed and contributed largerly to the dedication and labors of the Slovak pioneers in the new land. Living in a vastly different environment, they were able to fashion a completely new life. 18 Thou, 0 Columbia, hast rent their chains, And lifted them to manhood, heaven, God!l9 On United States soil, the Slovaks developed a very living and dynamic organized activity; chiefly in journalism, fratemalism, education, music, drama, and religion. 20 Among the first was Julius Wolf (1859-1930) and John Slovensky ( 1856-1900) who, shortly after arriving in America in 1879, founded in Pittsburgh, Pa., the first Slovak periodical, the BULLETIN" (1885), which was hectograph~d. lit was replaced a year later, on October 21, 1886, by the first Slovak newspaper published in America, the AMERIKANSKO-SLOVENSK:t NOVINY (The American-Slovak News), through which Wolf and Slovensky set about encouraging the twofold development of .Slovaks in America. Intergration and yet preservation were ,the ideas of Slovensky and Wolf, both former teachers in Spis County, held out as maxims to the new immigrant.21 The second Slovak newspaper in the United States, called NOVA VLAS1' (The New Homeland), was founded in 1888 in Streator, Illinois. However, the town of Plymouth, �SLOVAKIA 151 Pennsylvania is the cradle of SWV .AK V AMERIKE (Slovak In America), which is actually the oldest continuously published Slovak newspaper in the world. The founder of this newspaper was Albert S. Ambrose in 1889.22 The largest and most influential American-Slovak newspaper in the world-even today-is the JEDNOTA (The Union) -circulation 40,000-the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, which was founded by the Rev. Stephen Furdek in Cleveland, Ohio, May 12, 1891.23 From the very beginning, the Slovaks set out to preserve their Christian heritage, and, because of economic and social need, they formed societies or lodges. Both established organizational life for the Slovaks and the task of implementing it fell on the shoulders of clergymen. It was the Slovak clergymen who came from the old country and responded to the call of the people and founded and helped to organize parishes, fraternal benefit societies, other organizations, and edited newspapers and periodicals.24 It was natural that the Slovaks first wanted to have their own churches for that was their prized heritage. In 862, there already stood in our Nitra, Slovakia, a Christian church for more than thirty years, the first among all western Slavs and the first church in Central Europe.25 The Slovak Calvinists of Jessup, Pa. had a chapel there in 1888 and were first organized as a religious group in 1887 in Scranton, Pa. 26 The Slovak Lutherans were the first to organize on a religious basis in the United States. They established the Parish of the Holy Trinity in Streator, Illinois, October 5, 1884, and their first minister was Karol Horak. Other Lutheran parishes were organized in Freeland, Pa. and Nanticoke, Pa., in 1886, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1888.27 The Slovak Lutherans of Chicago organized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1893 and in 1894, the Rev. L. Boor became the pastor. 28 Today, the Protestant group represents about 12 % of the Americans of Slovak descent. The Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church has 52 churches and the Slovak Presbyterians have 15 churches. A very small number of Slovaks also belong to other denominations. 29 The first Catholic parish was founded in Hazleton, �152 SLOVAKIA Pa., in 1882, by the Slovak priest, Ignatius Jaskovic. His St. Joseph's Parish was actually formed in November 18, 1884. Prior to that he 1said Mass for his people in the "Irish Church", St. Gabriel's of Hazleton.30 The Slovak Catholics had two problems: priests were needed who could speak the language and funds were needed for parish churches and schools. One of the first Slovak priests who came to the new world, and luckily for the future, was the Rev. Stephen Furdek, a native of the village of Trstemi, Orava County, Slovakia. He arrived in Cleveland, Ohio in the early spring of 1882, and with Bishop Richard Gilmour's understanding and cooperation, he set the pattern in motion to solve the Slovak's problems. At the Bishop's request, Father Furdek went to Europe to seek out priests who would serve the spiritual needs of the Catholic Slovaks, Slovenes, and Croatians.31 Besides Father Furdek, other Catholic clergymen-Rev. Paul Lisicky, Dr. Alexander Dianiska, Rev. Anton Gracik, Rev. Joseph Murgas, Msgr. Stephen Krasul'a, and others became dynamic leaders of the Slovaks in America.32 Slovak Catholics number about 85 % of the American Slovaks in this country.33 A look at our Church dignitaries shows Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Bishop Andrew G. Grutka, Bishop Paul Hnilica, Bishop Michael Rusnak (the first Bishop i-n over 1,100 years for the Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite); Abbots Theodore Kojis, Stanislav F. Gmuca, Jerome Koval; five with the rank of Protonotary Apostolic; over fifty prelates; and over 1,000 American,Slov,ak priests. There are seven friaries, one abbey, nine motherhouses for Sisters; nine institutions of higher learning; an orphanage; four old age homes; hundreds of elementary schools; and about 300 Slovak Catholic Parishes. 34 It was toward the maintaining of his Catholic faith that the Slovak Catholic immigrant devoted the greatest portion of his efforts. He did this by organizing parishes, schools, social clubs, and fraternal societies to keep the faith rooted in the young. He did it with whatever time and financial resources he had left after sending stipends back to relatives in the old country for payment of his passage to America or to help his next of kin to emigrate to this land of opportunity.35 Mine disasters and other tragedies often took the lives of husbands and fathers, leaving the family destitute and �SLOVAKIA 153 without money for the funeral. In answer to the need of sickness and funeral benefits, a large number of societies grew up in the industrial and mining towns. Father Furdek organized these individual societies into a Union (Jednota) -the First Catholic Slovak Union (1890). He also organized the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union (1892), the Slovak Institute (Matica Slovenska) (1893), The National Fund, and the Fund to Preserve National Heritage. 36 The First Catholic Slovak Union, the largest Slovak fraternal benefit society in the world (105,000 members), founded in Cleveland, on September 4, 1890, is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of Father Furdek's fruitful life. He founded the organization's official organ, JEDNOT A (The Union), on May 12, 1891, and edited and published it and the KALENDAR JEDNOTA (Annual Jednota) for over a decade. 37 To write about the contributions of the Jednota to American-Slovak life would require a manuscript that could fill a good size book. In fact, on the society's 75th Anniversary in 1965, its history was published in a 560-page book: 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), by Dr. Joseph Pauco. This book portrays the early struggles of the Slovak immigrant.:;, their traits of character, their involvement in events, both here and rn their fatherland, their progress from life in simple settlements to flourishing parishes and to the founding of religious, dducational, cultural and eharitable institutions. It presents thumbnail sketches of institutions like the Catholic Slovak Federation of men and women, the newly established Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome for the training of priests for Slovakia. It includes biographical sketches of notable persons in Slovak life, contemporary ,as well as past, persons whose names were household words in their day-Furdek, Jankola, Hrobak, Dianiska, Pavfo, Murga§, Husek, Kozak, Lach, Rovnianek-all active in American Slovak life.as The Immigrant Archives of the University of Minnesota is establishing a Slovak Room with materials and references from Jednota Press in Middletown, Pa. Other Slovak societies and institutions are making their resources available to the study.39 Another Slovak pioneer, Peter P. Rovnianek, an outstanding organizer, brilliant writer and speaker, organized �154 SLOVAKIA the National Slovak Society "for all the Slovaks" without regard to creed (1890). He was born in Dolny Hricov, Trencin County, Slovakia. 40 In al:idition to the National Slovak Society, the First Catholic Slovak Union, and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, other Slovak fraternal benefit societies were organized: the Zivena Beneficial Society (1891), the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union (1893), the Slovak Evangelical Union (1893), the Slovak Gymnastic Union (1896), the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Ladies Union (1898), the Slovak Caitholic Sokol (1905), the Oanadian Slovak League (1932). The total membership of the Slovak fraternal benefit societies in the United States and Canada today is at the 500,000 mark.41 The newspapers were the sounding boards of popular oprmon as well as a unifying force among the Slovaks. Almanacs, such as the FIRST SLOVAK NATIONAL ALMANAC of the National Slovak Society (1893), and KALEND.AR JEDNOTA (Annual Jednota) (1896) of the First Catholic Slovak Union, provided the literary reading that most Slovaks did: short stories, political essays, reviews of important events, religious essays, articles on marriage, and articles pertaining to almost any subject useful to the Slovak readers. Almanacs by the Slovak writers reached the American-Slovak public and became so popular that twenty-nine were published at one time.t2 Slovakia was a land of song and dancing and any celebration of even slight importance in America had to be combined with singing, dancing, and shouting of the most vigorous sort.43 The Slovaks have thousands of folk songs and the 'cardas' dance is the universal favorite. 41 Slovak dramatic clubs were organized at the Slovak parishes and the plays served as the handmaid of religion and stirred the audiences. The best remembered plays are "St. Elizabeth", "St. Genevieva", and "Fabiola", by Fr. Matthew Jankola, a man who foresaw the needs of the Slovak immigrants and did much for them, especially in the field of education. Often enacted were ... entertaining skits portraying the Foibles of human nature, each with a wholesome lesson.4s The Slovaks also organized political clubs, cultural societies, and literary circles, but these had to wait because the Slovaks were occupied with labor conflicts. The early �SLOVAKIA 155 history of unions show the great part the Slovaks played in the labor movement. 46 The Slovaks made their contribution to agriculture in this country. Slovaktown, Arkansas, was a farm community near the town of Stuttgart, which was established by Slovak settlers from the "old country" who came there from the coal fields of Pennsylvania to produce dairy products and vegetables. Slovaktown was chartered in 1895, through the efforts of Peter V. Rovnianek, Francis Pucher, Julius Tatraj, Rev. Stephen Dzubaj, Rev. Stephen Furdek, and Rev. Vaclav Panuska. 47 The first Slovak Catholic parochial school in America was established in 1889 in Streator, Illinois, by the Rev. Ervin E. Gelhoff. 48 Today there are over 200 parochial schools, several high schools, also : St. Andrew's Abbey of the Slovak Benedictines, Cleveland, Ohio; the Slovak Franciscan Fathers of Uniontown, Pa., Pittsburgh, Pa., Valparaiso, Ind., Columbiana, Ohio, and Easton, Pa.; the Order of Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Danville, Pa.; the Slovak Dominican Sisters, Oxford, Mich.; the Slovak Vincentian Sisters, Perrysville, Pa., Bedford, Ohio; the Slovak Franciscan Sisters of Bellevue, Pa., Lacon, Ill., and Bethlehem, Pa; and the Slovak Benedictine Sisters, Tinley Park, Ill .49 Their contribution to the education and the life of the Slovak immigrants should be regarded with deep appreciation for the achievements and accomplishments for the Slovaks in America. They have fulfilled their mission and lived up to their motto "For God and Country" (Za Boha a narod ).50 There remains a whole list of Slovak pioneers, and, with those already mentioned in some detail, a whole volume can be written on each with ease. Perhaps the most fertile, imaginative mind among the Slovaks who came to this country belonged to Father Joseph Murgas. A man of many talents, a painter, and yet having literary skill, Father Murgas made outstanding contributions in the field of electronics. Working even before Marconi had perfected his wireless, Murgas pioneered in telegraphic communication. He perfected a method to transit messages to moving railroad trains and secured a series of patents for his invention which he called the "Tone System". With his financial resources exhausted, Fr. Murgas invited �156 SLOVAKIA Marconi and the famous Professor Fessendom of the University of Pittsburgh to assess his work. What followed is not too clear, but shortly the "Sonorous System" appeared on the commercial market that infringed upon Murgas' patents. The "System" was sold in Europe beyond the reach of U.S. patent courts. Father Murgas held twelve patents, all instrumental in making wireless communications between railroad trains possible. In Slovakia, a new radio station was named after him and the Slovak Republic issued a postage stamp in his memory. In United States during World War II, a Liberty Ship was named in his honor. Father Murgas is also the founder of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, a Slovak Catholic Action organization which came into existence on February 22, 1911, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.st Just as the Slovak Catholic Federation of America was founded to promote Catholic Action, so on May 26, 1907, Father Furdek presided over 7,000 Slovaks in Cleveland, Ohio, representing all the Slovak societies and newspapers and clergy and laity of various religious and political convictions, to found the Slovak League of America. The purpose of the League was to unite all Americans of Slovak descent in the fight of the Slovak nation abroad. 52 The activities of the League and the Federation are a significant chapter in the life of the Slovak immigrants and they still function today with effectiveness. The League promotes Slovak culture and maintains the identity of the Slovak, and the Federation continues to promote Catholic Action. Another Slovak immigrant who "labored indefatigably" to preserve the Catholic faith among the people of his nationality was the Rev. Matthew Jankola. He not only took care of and built parishes in Hazleton, Pa., Pittston, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn., but served as president of the First Catholic Slovak Union; was editor of JEDNOJ;'A (The Union); contributed to Slovak periodicals; and was responsible, after tremendous effort, of establishing a teaching community of Slovak Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius for the perpetuation of Catholic education among the Slovak people of America.53 It has been said that what Fr. �SLOVAKIA 157 Furdek was to the national life of the Slovak immigrants, Father Jankola was to their religious life.54 CONCLUSION The Slovak pioneer has built the foundation and started the process of development in the religious field, in education, in fraternalism, in journalism, in literature, and in culture. He did this in a strange environment, living in big cities and small towns, with a frightening language barrier, but he enjoyed and breathed freedom. He was free to think, work, write, and worship as he wished. He grasped every opportunity to grow and prosper in this free land, and he did all this to good advantage, thereby reaping all the precious things necessary and peculiar to him in the new world. And, the Slovak pioneer did this within one generation! 55 The Slovak with his sons and their sons, the new generations, advanced rapidly and their activity in the business world, political life, sports, and social life became more pronounced. But it was the hundreds of thousands of Slovak workers-the peasants representing practically every village in Slovakia- who gave concrete meaning to the dream which brought them here.56 The immigrants and those of Slovak descent took on another task when they resolved in the spirit of America that their homeland, Slovakia, would some day be free and independent of alien rule. They worked for and were determined to see in their time, . . . that Slovakia some day would be master of its own household, free to work out its own destiny ·as on equal among the civilized nations of the eavth.57 Along with Father Furdek, countless others played a large role in this work. Among them were Michael Bosak, Sr., whose warm story follows the traditionally American "rags to riches" theme. He was the wealthiest American of Slovak descent in the entire country. 58 Then there was Joseph Rusek, who spent thirty-seven years as the editor of the JEDNOTA (The Union), the most widely read American-Slovak newspaper in the United States. Both these men were instrumental in getting Slovakia's problems before their fellow Americans.59 �158 SLOVAKIA There were also many significant contributions by the American Slovaks in all the wars. Not only did the youth serve with distinction in the armed forces, but the Slovak leaders at home conducted huge War Bond drives. In World War II, headed by the Rev. John J. Lach of Whiting, Indiana, the Committee sold over $53 million in bonds. In recognition of this achievement, the Treasury Department credited the Slovak League with five bombers and named four "Liberty Ships" after famous Slovaks: "The Stephen Furdek", "The Mathias Kocak", "The General Milan R. t'itefanik", and "The Joseph Murgas". 60 In 1964, the Slovaks of America donated over one-half million dollars to build the Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, where young men are being trained to be priests so that one day they can serve Slovakia when it is free of communism. Another great contribution was the Chapel of Our Mother of Sorrows, a gift of the First Catholic Slovak Union which was dedicated on September 5, 1965 in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D. C. This occasion was also the Diamond Jubilee of the Jednota and over 15,000 American• Slovaks gathered in the nation's capital to hear Senator Frank Lausche of Ohio laud the achievements of the American Slovaks. 61 The Slovaks contributed a large quota of stars and stalwarts in the field of sports and athletics in American colleges and on the professional teams. 62 The names on the teams' rosters today are witness to this fact, but names like: Pafko, Lapchik, Musial, Bucha, Bednarik, Valo, Kralik and Mucha are familiar to most sports-minded Americans. Yes, indeed, the Slovakis were a part of the "great emigration and: ... they have definitely and permanently united their /destiny with the destiny of America. It was men like Furdek, Murgas, Jankola, Rovnianek, and others who came after them that aided and guided their fellow Slovaks. They interpret~d America to the Slovaks and likewise interpreted the psychology and ideals of the Slovaks to their American neighbors. Through their leadership and guidance the Slovaks of America were enabled to make their contribution to the material, cultural, and spiritual progress of their adopted land.6 3 The Slovak was similar in many ways to other im- �SLOVAKIA 159 migrants in the assimilation process, but unlike the other ethnic groups, he was destined to play a role in the future of his homeland.64 In the last 25 years, over 15,000 Slovaks fled from their homeland to escape the vengeance of the communists and over 3,000 of these were Slovak intellectuals. Among the refugees from this tyranny are some of the best known Slovak novelists, journalists, poets, and writers. These writers preserved their literary creativeness and formed the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists and opened avenue to the greatest surge of literary efforts aboUlt Slovaks on several continents. More books have been published and distributed about the Slovak!s on this continent in the last ten years than in all the prevfous years put together.65 There is no question that these writers and historians will echo the deeds of their countrymen for posterity. What is still needed, however, are writers about the Slovaks in the English language. The Most Reverend Joseph A. Durick, D. D., Bishop, Diocese of Nashville, Tenn., speaking in 1965 in Washington, D. C.,summed it all up when in tribute to the Slovaks he said: The triumph of the Slov,aks has come about because of constant effort, faithful service, zeal for God's house and the willingness always to sacrifice. The Slovaks great triumph over innumerable odds has made ,t heir contribution to Church and Country a considerable one. By their loyalty to the Faith and subscription to the great fundamental fre~doms which they •have exemplified in the market place and in th~ home, they have helped to build the great city of God and the city of man in our beloved Country.66 FOOTNOTES 1) Victor R. Greene, " Sons of Hunkies: Men With A Past," SLOVAKI,\ , Vol. XVI (No. 39, 1966) , 80. 2) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946) , p. 176. 2a ) Ibid., p. 177. 3) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 178. 4 ) Gilbert L. Oddo, SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y. , 1960) , pp. 331-332. 5) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946),p. 168. 6) John Porubsky, "Lincoln And The Slovaks", KALEND'AR JEDNOTA, XLVII (1944), 129. �160 SLOVAKI A 7) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p. 332. 8 ) Konstantin Culen, DEJINY SLOVAKOV V AMERJKE (History of the Slovaks In America) (Slovakia, 1942), I, 24-25. 9 ) Ibid., p. 26-27. 10 ) Ibid. , p. 28. 11) Ibid., p . 29. 12) Emily Greene Balch, Ph.D., OUR SLAVIC FELLOW CITIZENS (New York, N. Y., 1910), p. 99. 13 ) James J. Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV ( 1965), 15. 14) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p. 333. 15) Emily Greene Balch, Ph.D., OUR SLAVIC CITIZENS (New York, N. Y., 1910) , p. 103. 16) James J . Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), 16. 17 ) Joseph M. Kirschbaum , LL.D., Ph.D., SLOVAKIA : NATION AT THE CROSSROA DS OF CENTRAL EUROPE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p . 15. 17a ) Joseph N. Misany, Esq., "Father Andrew Hlinka", SLOVAKIA , xv (1965), p. 76. 18) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y. , 1960), p. 333. 19) Peter P . Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p . 157. 20) Bonaventu re S. Bue, Ph.D., SLOVAK NATIONAL ISM: ITS ORIGINS, CONFLICT S AND OBJECTIV ES (M.ddletow n, Pa., 1957), p. 60. 21) Oddo, op. cit., p. 334. 22) William Kona, M.A., "The Oldest Slovak Newpaper in the U.S.A.", S LOVAKIA, XV (1965), pp. 38-39. 23 ) Joseph Pauoo, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCK EJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Middletow n, Pa., 1965) , pp. 13-14. 24 ) Gilbert Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960 ), p. 169. 25 ) Joseph Skultety, SKETCHE S FROM SLOVAK HISTORY (Middletown, Pa., 1930), p. 10. 26) Konstantin Culen, DEJINY SLOVAKO V V AMERIKE (History of the Slovaks in America) (Slovakia, 1942), I, 114-115. 28) James J . Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), 28. 29) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960 ), p. 338. �SLOVAKIA 161 30) "St. Joseph's Hazleton: Slovak Church Rebuilt", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV (1966) , p. 12. 31) Gilbert L. o'ddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 334. 32) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 169. 33) Oddo, op. cit., p. 337. 34) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrived", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965) , p. 65. 35) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 336. 36) Ibid., p. 335. 37) Ibid., p . 334. 38) Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M., "Book Reviews", SLOVAKIA, XV, (1965), pp. 152-155. 39) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Jednota Talk", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV, (1966), p. 5. 40) Dr. Peter Hletko, "The Founder of Our Society", ALMANAC FOR THE YEAR 1966, LXXIV (1966), 3. 41) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York. N. Y., 1960), p . 339. 42) James J. Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of the Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), p . 25. 43) Sr. Mary Eileen, SS.C.M., SLOVAK WEEK LECTURES: FEATURING ART AND MUSIC (Danville, Pa., 1957), p. 1. 44) James J . .Zatko, Ph.D., Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), p . 19. 45) Sr. M. Consuela Gregorovic, M .A., CONTRIBUTIONS OF MATTHEW JANKOLA TO SLOVAK EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Danville, Pa., 1959), pp. 11, 47. 46) .Zatko, op. cit. , p. 29. 47) James J . .Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), p. 30. 48) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Looking Back", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV ( 1966), p. 5. 49) Philip A. Hrobak, SLOVAK CATHOLIC PARISHES AND INSTITUTIONS (Middletown, Pa., 1955) , p. 23. 50) Ibid., p. 27. 51) Canon Joseph Altany, LL.D., "Joseph Murgas: Father of Wireless", DOBRY PASTIER (Good Shepherd), XXXVII (1964), p. 3. 52) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , pp. 343, 344. 53) Sr. M. Consuela Gregorovic, M.A., CONTRIBUTIONS OF MAT- �162 SLOVAKIA THEW JANKOLA TO SLOVAK EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Danville, Pa., 1959), p. 6. 54) Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Mid/dletown, Pa., 1965), .p . 306. 55) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 331. 56) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 157. 57) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 344. 58) Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of ,the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Middletown, Pa., 1965), p. 179. 59) Ibid., p. 344. 60) Oddo, op. cit., p. 338. 61) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrivejd", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), pp. 66, 67. 62) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton,Pa., 1946),p.176. 63) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 177. 64) Gilbert L. O~do, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y.), p. 346. 65) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrived", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965) , p. 65. 66) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Jednota's Glories and Future", JEDNOTA ANNUAL FURDEK, 1966, V (1966), pp. 4, 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY Altany, Joseph. " Rev. Joseph Murgas, Founder of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, Recogniz~ as the 'Father of Wireless'", Dobry Pastier (Good Shepherd), XXXVII (1964). Balch, Emily G. Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, New York: Charities Publication, 1910. Consuela, Sr. M. Contributions of Reverend Matthew Jankola to Slovak Catholic Education in the United States. Danville, Pa., 1958. <'.'.:ulen, Konstantin. Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike (History of the Slovaks in America), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1942. Eileen, Sr. M. Slovak Week Lectures: Featuring Art and Music. Danville, Pa., 1957. Emerentia, Mother M. "Book reviews", Slovakia, XV (1965). Greene, Victor R. "Sons of Hunkies: Men With a Past?", Slovakia, XVI, Middletown, Pa., (1966). Hletko, Peter. "The Founder of Our Society", Almanac for the Year 1966. LXXIV, Pittsburgh, Pa., (1966). �SLOVAKIA 163 Hrobak, Philip. Slovak Catholic Parishes and Instituti ons. Midjdletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1955. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Kona, William. "The Oldest Slovak Newspaper in the U.S.A.", Slovakia , XV, Middletown, Pa., (1965). Krajsa, Joseph C. "St. Joseph, Hazleton: Slovak Church Rebuilt", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 3998 (1966). "Jednota Talk", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 3999 (1966). "Looking Back", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 4000 (1966). "Je\foOlta Glories and Future", Jednota Annual Furdek. V, Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, (1960). "Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia. XV, Jednota Press, Middletown , Pa., (1965)°. Misany, Joseph N. "Father Andrew ffiinka", Slovakia, XV, Jednota Press, Middletown, Pa. ( 1965). Mother Tongue of the Foreign Born. U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, United States Census of Population, 1960. Washington, D. C. (1966). Qido, Gilbert L. Slovakia and Its People. New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Orth, Samuel P. Immigration and Labor. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1920. Pauco, Joseph. 75 Rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union). Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1965. Porubsky, John Rev. "Lincoln and the Slovaks", Kalendar Jednota (Annual Jednota) XLVII, Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, (1944) . Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1930. Steiner, Edward A. The Immigrant Tide: Its Ebb and Flow. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909. Yurchak, Peter P. The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, 1946. 2atko, James J. "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", Slovakia, XV, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, (1965). THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects. � SLOVAKIA 145 Slovaks A PART OF THE GREAT EMIGRATION TO AMERICA Joseph John K r a j s a The Slovak nation and the Slovak people, who have had their own territory of Slovakia since the sixth century in Central Europe, and who were a part of the great emigration to America, have left their indelible imprint on the character of America. Slovakia's history is a very tragic one. This country has suffered for over 1,100 years from every type of oppression ever conceived by man. It is one of the oldest Christian nations in Central Eure>pe, and has suffered under foreign domination more than any other nation. At times the Slovaks have been misunderstood and misrepresented, but they clung to their language, religion, customs, and traditions. The Slovaks lived through the predominance of feudalistic Hungary, the glory of the Magyars and the Czechs, and presently the Slovaks are ever determined to outlive the terror of Communism that has been thrust on them since 1945. Until recent years, very little has been written in this country on the history and culture of the Slovak people, in spite of the fact that almost one-third of all the Slovaks in the world live in the United States and Canada. 1 In area Slovakia is larger than Switzerland or Denmark. It lies along the northern shores of the Central Danube River, where its slopes on the east touch the Alps and the western slopes the Carpathian mountains. Since the beginning of European history, a route run through the gate of the Danube basin connecting the West and the East. Because of this fact, Slovakia is a nation that blends the culture of the West with the Eastern Slovanic culture even though the Romans withdraw from the Danube at the end of the 4th century. Oppressive measures continued for centuries in one form or another, but when it became possible to rid themselves of this oppression, the Slovaks migrated to �146 SLOVAKIA America to help mould the American culture-one rooted in the best traditions which they brought with them. True, the Slovaks began coming to America after 1875 numbers and before the great exodus itself, there great in hardly was a family in Slovakia which did not have at least one relative in America. The Slovaks were not always welcomed in the locale where they settled. When my grandfather arrived in A· merica in 1906, he was stoned by the "Americans" from the railroad station until he arrived in the section of the town called a Ward where all the "foreigners" were living. When he became settled, he was hard at work like the rest of the immigrants. He worked as a wiremaker ( drotar) and became what the handbook, "Gateway to Citizenship", prepared by the Department of Justice, said in tribute: The Slovak The endlessly unbowed, That gave the west continent The proudest and best of my Broad backs and eager youth ... Ask the coal you burn, who mined it, The ore, what worker wrung it from the earth, The bridge, what man bound its steel togetherAn every third answer will be a 'Slovak' ... And shall you forget me?2 President Taft did not forgot when he said of the Slovaks: The truth is, we need a little ,p oetry among our native Americans; we need an appreciation of poetic ideals; we need to have mixed with our every-day humdrum life a little bit of the romance that you bring from the old country and we welcome you on that account. 2 a President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not forgot the Slovak1s when he said: This country is m~dful of the vast contribution the Slovaks have made to ,the cause of furthering its development and growth-moral, cultural and material. The stout-hearted, clear-minded, freedomloving and determined people of Slovakia, who, sensitive of the wrongs and deprivations experienced in th~ir own country at the hands of invading forces, turned to America seeking a new home, now comprise with their children and grandchildren an asset in life, industry and culture of this great land that defies human power of appraisal.3 �SLOVAKIA 147 EARLY SWVAK EMIGRATION Even before the great "new emigration" which began around 1873, many Slovaks came to America as part of the "old emigration". Long before the exodus of the Slovak peasants and journeymen for America, hundreds of Slovaks left their homeland for life elsewhere. The Slovak emigration was not only for economic reasons, but also involved was the impelling desire to be part of the dream of a free world. This was also the dream of other ethnic groups from Central Europe. It should be mentioned, however, that before the mass emigration to the United States after the 1870's, there were Slovaks who made their mark in this land of the free. One Slovak who helped America gain her independence from Great Britain was a soldier, Major John J. Polereck~•, son of Count Andrew Polerecky of Polerieka, Turiec County, Slovakia. In 1781, when the army of Cornwallis was defeated, its arms were surrendered to Polerecky at Yorktown, Va. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, a professor in Cleveland, Ohio, who is a distant relative of Major Polerecky. John Polerecky, promoted to a Major in the " French Hussars" by Louis XV, came to America with the French expeditionary army of Rochambeau to help the colonists overthrow British rule. It was during the siege of Yorktown, ait: the beginning of 1781, that Major Polerecky became acquainted with Col. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) and Col. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), who later became General in the American Army and then Secretary of War. On October 20, 1781, when Rochambeau sent Duke de Lauzun to Paris to report the victory to the French King, Polerecky accompanied him. Polerecky became a naturalized citizen by an act of ;the Massachusetts legislature and his papers were signed by Governor John Hancock, one of the signers of ,the American Dec1aration of Independence. Major Polerecky held various public offices from 1789 to 1828.4 Another Slovak who came to America in the earlier years was a doctor, Dr. Samuel Figuly, who fought in the Civil War in the side of the North and is especially noted for his many contributions to the scientific cultivation of tabacco in Virginia. As a plantation owner, he settled down to the cultivation of tabacco in the South, counseled from abroad by the Slovak botanist, Holuby. During the latter part of his life, Dr. Figuly took part in the unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole.5 �148 SLOVAKIA There is a long list of Slovak names that appear on the list of volunteers during the Civil War, especially with the militia in Chicago known as the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin". Such names as Filip, Krupinsky, Fiala, and Kozlej are listed as some of the volunteers.6 The famed Civil War soldier who commanded the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin" was a Slovak, Col Gejza Mihalotzy, who was killed later at Chattanooga. The fort there was then referred to as "Fort Mihalotzy". Col. Mihalotzy recruited the company of riflemen in Illinois and received permission from the President to call his group the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin" .7 A Slovak, Andrew Jelik, was a tailor on a Dutch Ship which sailed to America in 1754-1755.8 Another Slovak who arrived in America during the 18th century was Count Maurice Benovsky who landed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1757 . .Ais an adventurer his career took him to Madagascar where he became King. In the year 1800, a Slovak dealer in oils surprised a Slovak Jesuit by making his confession in Slovak. 9 The first Slovak setUement was made in Philadelphia, Pa. by wire-workers (drotari), in 1840 at 412-414 Front Street.10A Martin Chalan landed in the United States in 1872, took out his first papers in 1876, and became an American citizen in 1879. He made the round-trip across the ocean twenty-six times.11 THE GREAT SURGE OF SLOVAK EMIGRATION In the wake of the great emigration to America, the movement seems to have begun in the eastern part of Slovakia, especially the counties of Zemplin, saris, and Spis.12 Between the years 1869-1890, the county of Spis lost 14 % of her youth between the ages of 20 to 25 years and 31 % of the men between 26 and 30; saris lost 34 % of those between 20 and 25 and 44 % of the men ·b etween 26 and 30 years of age. The movement spread in Slovakia as their brethren became settled in America and the central and western counties took to emigration in the next decade. 13 Between 1875-1914, great masses of Slovak intellectuals, peasants, tradesmen, and artists made up the hundreds �SLOVAKIA 149 of thousands who crowded the cities of New York, Scranton, Hazleton, Cleveland, Wilkes-Barre, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Philadelphia, Detroit, Bridgeport, Newark and the eastern industrial portions of the United States. These big cities and the little towns around them became centers of the new Slovak life in this country. There scarcely was an industry or trade, factory, mill, mine, or iron works where Slovak immigrants and their sons could not be found. Because of their brawn, they took on the most difficult jobs.14 New York ranked first as the port of entry to America; then in order followed Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, and Portland. From Slovakia, the immigrants generally moved by rail to German, Dutch, or Italian ports. Through the port of Hamburg, Germany passed the greatest number of emigrants. Their voyage took from 13 to 19 days. For my grandmother and grandfather, who came across the ocean in different ships and in different years, the voyage lasted thirteen days. All they brought with them was a suitcase made of straw. It is difficult to give the exact figures on Slovak immigration before 1899 because the authorities counted the immigrants according to the country of last residence, and many of the Slovaks listed Hungary as their country of last residence. The total immigration to the United States numbered 9,555,673 in the period of 1899-1910, and of this number there were 337,527 Slovaks. The peak year was 1905 for the Slovaks when 52,368 of them were admitted to this new country of America. 15 In the twelve years ending with June 30, 1910, Slovakia ranked eight among the nations who emigrated to the United States. The Slovaks percentage rate of emigration was the highest of any other group. In fact, the rate of emigration of Slovaks per 1,000 was 18.6; double that of any other race of people, except the Hebrews (18.3). 16 SWV AK PIONEERS The truth remains that Slovakia, a nation with an area of 31,600 square miles-situated in the very heart of Central Europe; a small number of people of five million �150 SLOVAKIA in population and the oldest nation on the central Danube River, contributed much to the development of America. 17 In 1963, United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, reflected pointedly about the Slovaks when he spoke in Youngstown, Ohio: The United States wou~d be a poorer nation today, economically, intellectually, culturally, and in every other way, if it were not for the over two million of our citizens who are of Slovak birth or ancestry.17a The passing of some eighty years and the contributions of Slovaks to this country prompted Attorney General Kennedy to make the above conclusion. The immigrant, no matter where he was situated in the United States, had two seemingly opposing drives that moved him. One was toward becoming an American with which came the social acceptance all immigrants wanted from those who came to this country before them. The other was to preserve the culture, language, and faith of their Slovak past. Strange as it may seem, the two aims did not clash, instead, the two meshed and contributed largerly to the dedication and labors of the Slovak pioneers in the new land. Living in a vastly different environment, they were able to fashion a completely new life. 18 Thou, 0 Columbia, hast rent their chains, And lifted them to manhood, heaven, God!l9 On United States soil, the Slovaks developed a very living and dynamic organized activity; chiefly in journalism, fratemalism, education, music, drama, and religion. 20 Among the first was Julius Wolf (1859-1930) and John Slovensky ( 1856-1900) who, shortly after arriving in America in 1879, founded in Pittsburgh, Pa., the first Slovak periodical, the BULLETIN" (1885), which was hectograph~d. lit was replaced a year later, on October 21, 1886, by the first Slovak newspaper published in America, the AMERIKANSKO-SLOVENSK:t NOVINY (The American-Slovak News), through which Wolf and Slovensky set about encouraging the twofold development of .Slovaks in America. Intergration and yet preservation were ,the ideas of Slovensky and Wolf, both former teachers in Spis County, held out as maxims to the new immigrant.21 The second Slovak newspaper in the United States, called NOVA VLAS1' (The New Homeland), was founded in 1888 in Streator, Illinois. However, the town of Plymouth, �SLOVAKIA 151 Pennsylvania is the cradle of SWV .AK V AMERIKE (Slovak In America), which is actually the oldest continuously published Slovak newspaper in the world. The founder of this newspaper was Albert S. Ambrose in 1889.22 The largest and most influential American-Slovak newspaper in the world-even today-is the JEDNOTA (The Union) -circulation 40,000-the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, which was founded by the Rev. Stephen Furdek in Cleveland, Ohio, May 12, 1891.23 From the very beginning, the Slovaks set out to preserve their Christian heritage, and, because of economic and social need, they formed societies or lodges. Both established organizational life for the Slovaks and the task of implementing it fell on the shoulders of clergymen. It was the Slovak clergymen who came from the old country and responded to the call of the people and founded and helped to organize parishes, fraternal benefit societies, other organizations, and edited newspapers and periodicals.24 It was natural that the Slovaks first wanted to have their own churches for that was their prized heritage. In 862, there already stood in our Nitra, Slovakia, a Christian church for more than thirty years, the first among all western Slavs and the first church in Central Europe.25 The Slovak Calvinists of Jessup, Pa. had a chapel there in 1888 and were first organized as a religious group in 1887 in Scranton, Pa. 26 The Slovak Lutherans were the first to organize on a religious basis in the United States. They established the Parish of the Holy Trinity in Streator, Illinois, October 5, 1884, and their first minister was Karol Horak. Other Lutheran parishes were organized in Freeland, Pa. and Nanticoke, Pa., in 1886, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1888.27 The Slovak Lutherans of Chicago organized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1893 and in 1894, the Rev. L. Boor became the pastor. 28 Today, the Protestant group represents about 12 % of the Americans of Slovak descent. The Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church has 52 churches and the Slovak Presbyterians have 15 churches. A very small number of Slovaks also belong to other denominations. 29 The first Catholic parish was founded in Hazleton, �152 SLOVAKIA Pa., in 1882, by the Slovak priest, Ignatius Jaskovic. His St. Joseph's Parish was actually formed in November 18, 1884. Prior to that he 1said Mass for his people in the "Irish Church", St. Gabriel's of Hazleton.30 The Slovak Catholics had two problems: priests were needed who could speak the language and funds were needed for parish churches and schools. One of the first Slovak priests who came to the new world, and luckily for the future, was the Rev. Stephen Furdek, a native of the village of Trstemi, Orava County, Slovakia. He arrived in Cleveland, Ohio in the early spring of 1882, and with Bishop Richard Gilmour's understanding and cooperation, he set the pattern in motion to solve the Slovak's problems. At the Bishop's request, Father Furdek went to Europe to seek out priests who would serve the spiritual needs of the Catholic Slovaks, Slovenes, and Croatians.31 Besides Father Furdek, other Catholic clergymen-Rev. Paul Lisicky, Dr. Alexander Dianiska, Rev. Anton Gracik, Rev. Joseph Murgas, Msgr. Stephen Krasul'a, and others became dynamic leaders of the Slovaks in America.32 Slovak Catholics number about 85 % of the American Slovaks in this country.33 A look at our Church dignitaries shows Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Bishop Andrew G. Grutka, Bishop Paul Hnilica, Bishop Michael Rusnak (the first Bishop i-n over 1,100 years for the Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite); Abbots Theodore Kojis, Stanislav F. Gmuca, Jerome Koval; five with the rank of Protonotary Apostolic; over fifty prelates; and over 1,000 American,Slov,ak priests. There are seven friaries, one abbey, nine motherhouses for Sisters; nine institutions of higher learning; an orphanage; four old age homes; hundreds of elementary schools; and about 300 Slovak Catholic Parishes. 34 It was toward the maintaining of his Catholic faith that the Slovak Catholic immigrant devoted the greatest portion of his efforts. He did this by organizing parishes, schools, social clubs, and fraternal societies to keep the faith rooted in the young. He did it with whatever time and financial resources he had left after sending stipends back to relatives in the old country for payment of his passage to America or to help his next of kin to emigrate to this land of opportunity.35 Mine disasters and other tragedies often took the lives of husbands and fathers, leaving the family destitute and �SLOVAKIA 153 without money for the funeral. In answer to the need of sickness and funeral benefits, a large number of societies grew up in the industrial and mining towns. Father Furdek organized these individual societies into a Union (Jednota) -the First Catholic Slovak Union (1890). He also organized the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union (1892), the Slovak Institute (Matica Slovenska) (1893), The National Fund, and the Fund to Preserve National Heritage. 36 The First Catholic Slovak Union, the largest Slovak fraternal benefit society in the world (105,000 members), founded in Cleveland, on September 4, 1890, is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of Father Furdek's fruitful life. He founded the organization's official organ, JEDNOT A (The Union), on May 12, 1891, and edited and published it and the KALENDAR JEDNOTA (Annual Jednota) for over a decade. 37 To write about the contributions of the Jednota to American-Slovak life would require a manuscript that could fill a good size book. In fact, on the society's 75th Anniversary in 1965, its history was published in a 560-page book: 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), by Dr. Joseph Pauco. This book portrays the early struggles of the Slovak immigrant.:;, their traits of character, their involvement in events, both here and rn their fatherland, their progress from life in simple settlements to flourishing parishes and to the founding of religious, dducational, cultural and eharitable institutions. It presents thumbnail sketches of institutions like the Catholic Slovak Federation of men and women, the newly established Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome for the training of priests for Slovakia. It includes biographical sketches of notable persons in Slovak life, contemporary ,as well as past, persons whose names were household words in their day-Furdek, Jankola, Hrobak, Dianiska, Pavfo, Murga§, Husek, Kozak, Lach, Rovnianek-all active in American Slovak life.as The Immigrant Archives of the University of Minnesota is establishing a Slovak Room with materials and references from Jednota Press in Middletown, Pa. Other Slovak societies and institutions are making their resources available to the study.39 Another Slovak pioneer, Peter P. Rovnianek, an outstanding organizer, brilliant writer and speaker, organized �154 SLOVAKIA the National Slovak Society "for all the Slovaks" without regard to creed (1890). He was born in Dolny Hricov, Trencin County, Slovakia. 40 In al:idition to the National Slovak Society, the First Catholic Slovak Union, and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, other Slovak fraternal benefit societies were organized: the Zivena Beneficial Society (1891), the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union (1893), the Slovak Evangelical Union (1893), the Slovak Gymnastic Union (1896), the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Ladies Union (1898), the Slovak Caitholic Sokol (1905), the Oanadian Slovak League (1932). The total membership of the Slovak fraternal benefit societies in the United States and Canada today is at the 500,000 mark.41 The newspapers were the sounding boards of popular oprmon as well as a unifying force among the Slovaks. Almanacs, such as the FIRST SLOVAK NATIONAL ALMANAC of the National Slovak Society (1893), and KALEND.AR JEDNOTA (Annual Jednota) (1896) of the First Catholic Slovak Union, provided the literary reading that most Slovaks did: short stories, political essays, reviews of important events, religious essays, articles on marriage, and articles pertaining to almost any subject useful to the Slovak readers. Almanacs by the Slovak writers reached the American-Slovak public and became so popular that twenty-nine were published at one time.t2 Slovakia was a land of song and dancing and any celebration of even slight importance in America had to be combined with singing, dancing, and shouting of the most vigorous sort.43 The Slovaks have thousands of folk songs and the 'cardas' dance is the universal favorite. 41 Slovak dramatic clubs were organized at the Slovak parishes and the plays served as the handmaid of religion and stirred the audiences. The best remembered plays are "St. Elizabeth", "St. Genevieva", and "Fabiola", by Fr. Matthew Jankola, a man who foresaw the needs of the Slovak immigrants and did much for them, especially in the field of education. Often enacted were ... entertaining skits portraying the Foibles of human nature, each with a wholesome lesson.4s The Slovaks also organized political clubs, cultural societies, and literary circles, but these had to wait because the Slovaks were occupied with labor conflicts. The early �SLOVAKIA 155 history of unions show the great part the Slovaks played in the labor movement. 46 The Slovaks made their contribution to agriculture in this country. Slovaktown, Arkansas, was a farm community near the town of Stuttgart, which was established by Slovak settlers from the "old country" who came there from the coal fields of Pennsylvania to produce dairy products and vegetables. Slovaktown was chartered in 1895, through the efforts of Peter V. Rovnianek, Francis Pucher, Julius Tatraj, Rev. Stephen Dzubaj, Rev. Stephen Furdek, and Rev. Vaclav Panuska. 47 The first Slovak Catholic parochial school in America was established in 1889 in Streator, Illinois, by the Rev. Ervin E. Gelhoff. 48 Today there are over 200 parochial schools, several high schools, also : St. Andrew's Abbey of the Slovak Benedictines, Cleveland, Ohio; the Slovak Franciscan Fathers of Uniontown, Pa., Pittsburgh, Pa., Valparaiso, Ind., Columbiana, Ohio, and Easton, Pa.; the Order of Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Danville, Pa.; the Slovak Dominican Sisters, Oxford, Mich.; the Slovak Vincentian Sisters, Perrysville, Pa., Bedford, Ohio; the Slovak Franciscan Sisters of Bellevue, Pa., Lacon, Ill., and Bethlehem, Pa; and the Slovak Benedictine Sisters, Tinley Park, Ill .49 Their contribution to the education and the life of the Slovak immigrants should be regarded with deep appreciation for the achievements and accomplishments for the Slovaks in America. They have fulfilled their mission and lived up to their motto "For God and Country" (Za Boha a narod ).50 There remains a whole list of Slovak pioneers, and, with those already mentioned in some detail, a whole volume can be written on each with ease. Perhaps the most fertile, imaginative mind among the Slovaks who came to this country belonged to Father Joseph Murgas. A man of many talents, a painter, and yet having literary skill, Father Murgas made outstanding contributions in the field of electronics. Working even before Marconi had perfected his wireless, Murgas pioneered in telegraphic communication. He perfected a method to transit messages to moving railroad trains and secured a series of patents for his invention which he called the "Tone System". With his financial resources exhausted, Fr. Murgas invited �156 SLOVAKIA Marconi and the famous Professor Fessendom of the University of Pittsburgh to assess his work. What followed is not too clear, but shortly the "Sonorous System" appeared on the commercial market that infringed upon Murgas' patents. The "System" was sold in Europe beyond the reach of U.S. patent courts. Father Murgas held twelve patents, all instrumental in making wireless communications between railroad trains possible. In Slovakia, a new radio station was named after him and the Slovak Republic issued a postage stamp in his memory. In United States during World War II, a Liberty Ship was named in his honor. Father Murgas is also the founder of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, a Slovak Catholic Action organization which came into existence on February 22, 1911, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.st Just as the Slovak Catholic Federation of America was founded to promote Catholic Action, so on May 26, 1907, Father Furdek presided over 7,000 Slovaks in Cleveland, Ohio, representing all the Slovak societies and newspapers and clergy and laity of various religious and political convictions, to found the Slovak League of America. The purpose of the League was to unite all Americans of Slovak descent in the fight of the Slovak nation abroad. 52 The activities of the League and the Federation are a significant chapter in the life of the Slovak immigrants and they still function today with effectiveness. The League promotes Slovak culture and maintains the identity of the Slovak, and the Federation continues to promote Catholic Action. Another Slovak immigrant who "labored indefatigably" to preserve the Catholic faith among the people of his nationality was the Rev. Matthew Jankola. He not only took care of and built parishes in Hazleton, Pa., Pittston, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn., but served as president of the First Catholic Slovak Union; was editor of JEDNOJ;'A (The Union); contributed to Slovak periodicals; and was responsible, after tremendous effort, of establishing a teaching community of Slovak Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius for the perpetuation of Catholic education among the Slovak people of America.53 It has been said that what Fr. �SLOVAKIA 157 Furdek was to the national life of the Slovak immigrants, Father Jankola was to their religious life.54 CONCLUSION The Slovak pioneer has built the foundation and started the process of development in the religious field, in education, in fraternalism, in journalism, in literature, and in culture. He did this in a strange environment, living in big cities and small towns, with a frightening language barrier, but he enjoyed and breathed freedom. He was free to think, work, write, and worship as he wished. He grasped every opportunity to grow and prosper in this free land, and he did all this to good advantage, thereby reaping all the precious things necessary and peculiar to him in the new world. And, the Slovak pioneer did this within one generation! 55 The Slovak with his sons and their sons, the new generations, advanced rapidly and their activity in the business world, political life, sports, and social life became more pronounced. But it was the hundreds of thousands of Slovak workers-the peasants representing practically every village in Slovakia- who gave concrete meaning to the dream which brought them here.56 The immigrants and those of Slovak descent took on another task when they resolved in the spirit of America that their homeland, Slovakia, would some day be free and independent of alien rule. They worked for and were determined to see in their time, . . . that Slovakia some day would be master of its own household, free to work out its own destiny ·as on equal among the civilized nations of the eavth.57 Along with Father Furdek, countless others played a large role in this work. Among them were Michael Bosak, Sr., whose warm story follows the traditionally American "rags to riches" theme. He was the wealthiest American of Slovak descent in the entire country. 58 Then there was Joseph Rusek, who spent thirty-seven years as the editor of the JEDNOTA (The Union), the most widely read American-Slovak newspaper in the United States. Both these men were instrumental in getting Slovakia's problems before their fellow Americans.59 �158 SLOVAKIA There were also many significant contributions by the American Slovaks in all the wars. Not only did the youth serve with distinction in the armed forces, but the Slovak leaders at home conducted huge War Bond drives. In World War II, headed by the Rev. John J. Lach of Whiting, Indiana, the Committee sold over $53 million in bonds. In recognition of this achievement, the Treasury Department credited the Slovak League with five bombers and named four "Liberty Ships" after famous Slovaks: "The Stephen Furdek", "The Mathias Kocak", "The General Milan R. t'itefanik", and "The Joseph Murgas". 60 In 1964, the Slovaks of America donated over one-half million dollars to build the Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, where young men are being trained to be priests so that one day they can serve Slovakia when it is free of communism. Another great contribution was the Chapel of Our Mother of Sorrows, a gift of the First Catholic Slovak Union which was dedicated on September 5, 1965 in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D. C. This occasion was also the Diamond Jubilee of the Jednota and over 15,000 American• Slovaks gathered in the nation's capital to hear Senator Frank Lausche of Ohio laud the achievements of the American Slovaks. 61 The Slovaks contributed a large quota of stars and stalwarts in the field of sports and athletics in American colleges and on the professional teams. 62 The names on the teams' rosters today are witness to this fact, but names like: Pafko, Lapchik, Musial, Bucha, Bednarik, Valo, Kralik and Mucha are familiar to most sports-minded Americans. Yes, indeed, the Slovakis were a part of the "great emigration and: ... they have definitely and permanently united their /destiny with the destiny of America. It was men like Furdek, Murgas, Jankola, Rovnianek, and others who came after them that aided and guided their fellow Slovaks. They interpret~d America to the Slovaks and likewise interpreted the psychology and ideals of the Slovaks to their American neighbors. Through their leadership and guidance the Slovaks of America were enabled to make their contribution to the material, cultural, and spiritual progress of their adopted land.6 3 The Slovak was similar in many ways to other im- �SLOVAKIA 159 migrants in the assimilation process, but unlike the other ethnic groups, he was destined to play a role in the future of his homeland.64 In the last 25 years, over 15,000 Slovaks fled from their homeland to escape the vengeance of the communists and over 3,000 of these were Slovak intellectuals. Among the refugees from this tyranny are some of the best known Slovak novelists, journalists, poets, and writers. These writers preserved their literary creativeness and formed the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists and opened avenue to the greatest surge of literary efforts aboUlt Slovaks on several continents. More books have been published and distributed about the Slovak!s on this continent in the last ten years than in all the prevfous years put together.65 There is no question that these writers and historians will echo the deeds of their countrymen for posterity. What is still needed, however, are writers about the Slovaks in the English language. The Most Reverend Joseph A. Durick, D. D., Bishop, Diocese of Nashville, Tenn., speaking in 1965 in Washington, D. C.,summed it all up when in tribute to the Slovaks he said: The triumph of the Slov,aks has come about because of constant effort, faithful service, zeal for God's house and the willingness always to sacrifice. The Slovaks great triumph over innumerable odds has made ,t heir contribution to Church and Country a considerable one. By their loyalty to the Faith and subscription to the great fundamental fre~doms which they •have exemplified in the market place and in th~ home, they have helped to build the great city of God and the city of man in our beloved Country.66 FOOTNOTES 1) Victor R. Greene, " Sons of Hunkies: Men With A Past," SLOVAKI,\ , Vol. XVI (No. 39, 1966) , 80. 2) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946) , p. 176. 2a ) Ibid., p. 177. 3) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 178. 4 ) Gilbert L. Oddo, SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y. , 1960) , pp. 331-332. 5) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946),p. 168. 6) John Porubsky, "Lincoln And The Slovaks", KALEND'AR JEDNOTA, XLVII (1944), 129. �160 SLOVAKI A 7) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p. 332. 8 ) Konstantin Culen, DEJINY SLOVAKOV V AMERJKE (History of the Slovaks In America) (Slovakia, 1942), I, 24-25. 9 ) Ibid., p. 26-27. 10 ) Ibid. , p. 28. 11) Ibid., p . 29. 12) Emily Greene Balch, Ph.D., OUR SLAVIC FELLOW CITIZENS (New York, N. Y., 1910), p. 99. 13 ) James J. Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV ( 1965), 15. 14) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p. 333. 15) Emily Greene Balch, Ph.D., OUR SLAVIC CITIZENS (New York, N. Y., 1910) , p. 103. 16) James J . Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), 16. 17 ) Joseph M. Kirschbaum , LL.D., Ph.D., SLOVAKIA : NATION AT THE CROSSROA DS OF CENTRAL EUROPE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p . 15. 17a ) Joseph N. Misany, Esq., "Father Andrew Hlinka", SLOVAKIA , xv (1965), p. 76. 18) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y. , 1960), p. 333. 19) Peter P . Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p . 157. 20) Bonaventu re S. Bue, Ph.D., SLOVAK NATIONAL ISM: ITS ORIGINS, CONFLICT S AND OBJECTIV ES (M.ddletow n, Pa., 1957), p. 60. 21) Oddo, op. cit., p. 334. 22) William Kona, M.A., "The Oldest Slovak Newpaper in the U.S.A.", S LOVAKIA, XV (1965), pp. 38-39. 23 ) Joseph Pauoo, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCK EJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Middletow n, Pa., 1965) , pp. 13-14. 24 ) Gilbert Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960 ), p. 169. 25 ) Joseph Skultety, SKETCHE S FROM SLOVAK HISTORY (Middletown, Pa., 1930), p. 10. 26) Konstantin Culen, DEJINY SLOVAKO V V AMERIKE (History of the Slovaks in America) (Slovakia, 1942), I, 114-115. 28) James J . Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), 28. 29) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960 ), p. 338. �SLOVAKIA 161 30) "St. Joseph's Hazleton: Slovak Church Rebuilt", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV (1966) , p. 12. 31) Gilbert L. o'ddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 334. 32) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 169. 33) Oddo, op. cit., p. 337. 34) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrived", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965) , p. 65. 35) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 336. 36) Ibid., p. 335. 37) Ibid., p . 334. 38) Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M., "Book Reviews", SLOVAKIA, XV, (1965), pp. 152-155. 39) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Jednota Talk", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV, (1966), p. 5. 40) Dr. Peter Hletko, "The Founder of Our Society", ALMANAC FOR THE YEAR 1966, LXXIV (1966), 3. 41) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York. N. Y., 1960), p . 339. 42) James J. Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of the Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), p . 25. 43) Sr. Mary Eileen, SS.C.M., SLOVAK WEEK LECTURES: FEATURING ART AND MUSIC (Danville, Pa., 1957), p. 1. 44) James J . .Zatko, Ph.D., Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), p . 19. 45) Sr. M. Consuela Gregorovic, M .A., CONTRIBUTIONS OF MATTHEW JANKOLA TO SLOVAK EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Danville, Pa., 1959), pp. 11, 47. 46) .Zatko, op. cit. , p. 29. 47) James J . .Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), p. 30. 48) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Looking Back", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV ( 1966), p. 5. 49) Philip A. Hrobak, SLOVAK CATHOLIC PARISHES AND INSTITUTIONS (Middletown, Pa., 1955) , p. 23. 50) Ibid., p. 27. 51) Canon Joseph Altany, LL.D., "Joseph Murgas: Father of Wireless", DOBRY PASTIER (Good Shepherd), XXXVII (1964), p. 3. 52) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , pp. 343, 344. 53) Sr. M. Consuela Gregorovic, M.A., CONTRIBUTIONS OF MAT- �162 SLOVAKIA THEW JANKOLA TO SLOVAK EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Danville, Pa., 1959), p. 6. 54) Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Mid/dletown, Pa., 1965), .p . 306. 55) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 331. 56) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 157. 57) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 344. 58) Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of ,the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Middletown, Pa., 1965), p. 179. 59) Ibid., p. 344. 60) Oddo, op. cit., p. 338. 61) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrivejd", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), pp. 66, 67. 62) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton,Pa., 1946),p.176. 63) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 177. 64) Gilbert L. O~do, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y.), p. 346. 65) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrived", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965) , p. 65. 66) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Jednota's Glories and Future", JEDNOTA ANNUAL FURDEK, 1966, V (1966), pp. 4, 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY Altany, Joseph. " Rev. Joseph Murgas, Founder of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, Recogniz~ as the 'Father of Wireless'", Dobry Pastier (Good Shepherd), XXXVII (1964). Balch, Emily G. Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, New York: Charities Publication, 1910. Consuela, Sr. M. Contributions of Reverend Matthew Jankola to Slovak Catholic Education in the United States. Danville, Pa., 1958. <'.'.:ulen, Konstantin. Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike (History of the Slovaks in America), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1942. Eileen, Sr. M. Slovak Week Lectures: Featuring Art and Music. Danville, Pa., 1957. Emerentia, Mother M. "Book reviews", Slovakia, XV (1965). Greene, Victor R. "Sons of Hunkies: Men With a Past?", Slovakia, XVI, Middletown, Pa., (1966). Hletko, Peter. "The Founder of Our Society", Almanac for the Year 1966. LXXIV, Pittsburgh, Pa., (1966). �SLOVAKIA 163 Hrobak, Philip. Slovak Catholic Parishes and Instituti ons. Midjdletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1955. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Kona, William. "The Oldest Slovak Newspaper in the U.S.A.", Slovakia , XV, Middletown, Pa., (1965). Krajsa, Joseph C. "St. Joseph, Hazleton: Slovak Church Rebuilt", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 3998 (1966). "Jednota Talk", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 3999 (1966). "Looking Back", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 4000 (1966). "Je\foOlta Glories and Future", Jednota Annual Furdek. V, Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, (1960). "Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia. XV, Jednota Press, Middletown , Pa., (1965)°. Misany, Joseph N. "Father Andrew ffiinka", Slovakia, XV, Jednota Press, Middletown, Pa. ( 1965). Mother Tongue of the Foreign Born. U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, United States Census of Population, 1960. Washington, D. C. (1966). Qido, Gilbert L. Slovakia and Its People. New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Orth, Samuel P. Immigration and Labor. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1920. Pauco, Joseph. 75 Rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union). Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1965. Porubsky, John Rev. "Lincoln and the Slovaks", Kalendar Jednota (Annual Jednota) XLVII, Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, (1944) . Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1930. Steiner, Edward A. The Immigrant Tide: Its Ebb and Flow. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909. Yurchak, Peter P. The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, 1946. 2atko, James J. "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", Slovakia, XV, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, (1965). THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects. � 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 145 Slovaks A PART OF THE GREAT EMIGRATION TO AMERICA Joseph John K r a j s a The Slovak nation and the Slovak people, who have had their own territory of Slovakia since the sixth century in Central Europe, and who were a part of the great emigration to America, have left their indelible imprint on the character of America. Slovakia's history is a very tragic one. This country has suffered for over 1,100 years from every type of oppression ever conceived by man. It is one of the oldest Christian nations in Central Eure>pe, and has suffered under foreign domination more than any other nation. At times the Slovaks have been misunderstood and misrepresented, but they clung to their language, religion, customs, and traditions. The Slovaks lived through the predominance of feudalistic Hungary, the glory of the Magyars and the Czechs, and presently the Slovaks are ever determined to outlive the terror of Communism that has been thrust on them since 1945. Until recent years, very little has been written in this country on the history and culture of the Slovak people, in spite of the fact that almost one-third of all the Slovaks in the world live in the United States and Canada. 1 In area Slovakia is larger than Switzerland or Denmark. It lies along the northern shores of the Central Danube River, where its slopes on the east touch the Alps and the western slopes the Carpathian mountains. Since the beginning of European history, a route run through the gate of the Danube basin connecting the West and the East. Because of this fact, Slovakia is a nation that blends the culture of the West with the Eastern Slovanic culture even though the Romans withdraw from the Danube at the end of the 4th century. Oppressive measures continued for centuries in one form or another, but when it became possible to rid themselves of this oppression, the Slovaks migrated to 146 SLOVAKIA America to help mould the American culture-one rooted in the best traditions which they brought with them. True, the Slovaks began coming to America after 1875 numbers and before the great exodus itself, there great in hardly was a family in Slovakia which did not have at least one relative in America. The Slovaks were not always welcomed in the locale where they settled. When my grandfather arrived in A· merica in 1906, he was stoned by the "Americans" from the railroad station until he arrived in the section of the town called a Ward where all the "foreigners" were living. When he became settled, he was hard at work like the rest of the immigrants. He worked as a wiremaker ( drotar) and became what the handbook, "Gateway to Citizenship", prepared by the Department of Justice, said in tribute: The Slovak The endlessly unbowed, That gave the west continent The proudest and best of my Broad backs and eager youth ... Ask the coal you burn, who mined it, The ore, what worker wrung it from the earth, The bridge, what man bound its steel togetherAn every third answer will be a 'Slovak' ... And shall you forget me?2 President Taft did not forgot when he said of the Slovaks: The truth is, we need a little ,p oetry among our native Americans; we need an appreciation of poetic ideals; we need to have mixed with our every-day humdrum life a little bit of the romance that you bring from the old country and we welcome you on that account. 2 a President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not forgot the Slovak1s when he said: This country is m~dful of the vast contribution the Slovaks have made to ,the cause of furthering its development and growth-moral, cultural and material. The stout-hearted, clear-minded, freedomloving and determined people of Slovakia, who, sensitive of the wrongs and deprivations experienced in th~ir own country at the hands of invading forces, turned to America seeking a new home, now comprise with their children and grandchildren an asset in life, industry and culture of this great land that defies human power of appraisal.3 SLOVAKIA 147 EARLY SWVAK EMIGRATION Even before the great "new emigration" which began around 1873, many Slovaks came to America as part of the "old emigration". Long before the exodus of the Slovak peasants and journeymen for America, hundreds of Slovaks left their homeland for life elsewhere. The Slovak emigration was not only for economic reasons, but also involved was the impelling desire to be part of the dream of a free world. This was also the dream of other ethnic groups from Central Europe. It should be mentioned, however, that before the mass emigration to the United States after the 1870's, there were Slovaks who made their mark in this land of the free. One Slovak who helped America gain her independence from Great Britain was a soldier, Major John J. Polereck~•, son of Count Andrew Polerecky of Polerieka, Turiec County, Slovakia. In 1781, when the army of Cornwallis was defeated, its arms were surrendered to Polerecky at Yorktown, Va. The story of John Polerecky's participation in the American Revolution was unfolded by Dr. Joseph Cincik, a professor in Cleveland, Ohio, who is a distant relative of Major Polerecky. John Polerecky, promoted to a Major in the " French Hussars" by Louis XV, came to America with the French expeditionary army of Rochambeau to help the colonists overthrow British rule. It was during the siege of Yorktown, ait: the beginning of 1781, that Major Polerecky became acquainted with Col. Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) and Col. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), who later became General in the American Army and then Secretary of War. On October 20, 1781, when Rochambeau sent Duke de Lauzun to Paris to report the victory to the French King, Polerecky accompanied him. Polerecky became a naturalized citizen by an act of ;the Massachusetts legislature and his papers were signed by Governor John Hancock, one of the signers of ,the American Dec1aration of Independence. Major Polerecky held various public offices from 1789 to 1828.4 Another Slovak who came to America in the earlier years was a doctor, Dr. Samuel Figuly, who fought in the Civil War in the side of the North and is especially noted for his many contributions to the scientific cultivation of tabacco in Virginia. As a plantation owner, he settled down to the cultivation of tabacco in the South, counseled from abroad by the Slovak botanist, Holuby. During the latter part of his life, Dr. Figuly took part in the unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole.5 148 SLOVAKIA There is a long list of Slovak names that appear on the list of volunteers during the Civil War, especially with the militia in Chicago known as the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin". Such names as Filip, Krupinsky, Fiala, and Kozlej are listed as some of the volunteers.6 The famed Civil War soldier who commanded the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin" was a Slovak, Col Gejza Mihalotzy, who was killed later at Chattanooga. The fort there was then referred to as "Fort Mihalotzy". Col. Mihalotzy recruited the company of riflemen in Illinois and received permission from the President to call his group the "Lincoln Riflemen of Slovak Origin" .7 A Slovak, Andrew Jelik, was a tailor on a Dutch Ship which sailed to America in 1754-1755.8 Another Slovak who arrived in America during the 18th century was Count Maurice Benovsky who landed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1757 . .Ais an adventurer his career took him to Madagascar where he became King. In the year 1800, a Slovak dealer in oils surprised a Slovak Jesuit by making his confession in Slovak. 9 The first Slovak setUement was made in Philadelphia, Pa. by wire-workers (drotari), in 1840 at 412-414 Front Street.10A Martin Chalan landed in the United States in 1872, took out his first papers in 1876, and became an American citizen in 1879. He made the round-trip across the ocean twenty-six times.11 THE GREAT SURGE OF SLOVAK EMIGRATION In the wake of the great emigration to America, the movement seems to have begun in the eastern part of Slovakia, especially the counties of Zemplin, saris, and Spis.12 Between the years 1869-1890, the county of Spis lost 14 % of her youth between the ages of 20 to 25 years and 31 % of the men between 26 and 30; saris lost 34 % of those between 20 and 25 and 44 % of the men ·b etween 26 and 30 years of age. The movement spread in Slovakia as their brethren became settled in America and the central and western counties took to emigration in the next decade. 13 Between 1875-1914, great masses of Slovak intellectuals, peasants, tradesmen, and artists made up the hundreds SLOVAKIA 149 of thousands who crowded the cities of New York, Scranton, Hazleton, Cleveland, Wilkes-Barre, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Philadelphia, Detroit, Bridgeport, Newark and the eastern industrial portions of the United States. These big cities and the little towns around them became centers of the new Slovak life in this country. There scarcely was an industry or trade, factory, mill, mine, or iron works where Slovak immigrants and their sons could not be found. Because of their brawn, they took on the most difficult jobs.14 New York ranked first as the port of entry to America; then in order followed Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, and Portland. From Slovakia, the immigrants generally moved by rail to German, Dutch, or Italian ports. Through the port of Hamburg, Germany passed the greatest number of emigrants. Their voyage took from 13 to 19 days. For my grandmother and grandfather, who came across the ocean in different ships and in different years, the voyage lasted thirteen days. All they brought with them was a suitcase made of straw. It is difficult to give the exact figures on Slovak immigration before 1899 because the authorities counted the immigrants according to the country of last residence, and many of the Slovaks listed Hungary as their country of last residence. The total immigration to the United States numbered 9,555,673 in the period of 1899-1910, and of this number there were 337,527 Slovaks. The peak year was 1905 for the Slovaks when 52,368 of them were admitted to this new country of America. 15 In the twelve years ending with June 30, 1910, Slovakia ranked eight among the nations who emigrated to the United States. The Slovaks percentage rate of emigration was the highest of any other group. In fact, the rate of emigration of Slovaks per 1,000 was 18.6; double that of any other race of people, except the Hebrews (18.3). 16 SWV AK PIONEERS The truth remains that Slovakia, a nation with an area of 31,600 square miles-situated in the very heart of Central Europe; a small number of people of five million 150 SLOVAKIA in population and the oldest nation on the central Danube River, contributed much to the development of America. 17 In 1963, United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, reflected pointedly about the Slovaks when he spoke in Youngstown, Ohio: The United States wou~d be a poorer nation today, economically, intellectually, culturally, and in every other way, if it were not for the over two million of our citizens who are of Slovak birth or ancestry.17a The passing of some eighty years and the contributions of Slovaks to this country prompted Attorney General Kennedy to make the above conclusion. The immigrant, no matter where he was situated in the United States, had two seemingly opposing drives that moved him. One was toward becoming an American with which came the social acceptance all immigrants wanted from those who came to this country before them. The other was to preserve the culture, language, and faith of their Slovak past. Strange as it may seem, the two aims did not clash, instead, the two meshed and contributed largerly to the dedication and labors of the Slovak pioneers in the new land. Living in a vastly different environment, they were able to fashion a completely new life. 18 Thou, 0 Columbia, hast rent their chains, And lifted them to manhood, heaven, God!l9 On United States soil, the Slovaks developed a very living and dynamic organized activity; chiefly in journalism, fratemalism, education, music, drama, and religion. 20 Among the first was Julius Wolf (1859-1930) and John Slovensky ( 1856-1900) who, shortly after arriving in America in 1879, founded in Pittsburgh, Pa., the first Slovak periodical, the BULLETIN" (1885), which was hectograph~d. lit was replaced a year later, on October 21, 1886, by the first Slovak newspaper published in America, the AMERIKANSKO-SLOVENSK:t NOVINY (The American-Slovak News), through which Wolf and Slovensky set about encouraging the twofold development of .Slovaks in America. Intergration and yet preservation were ,the ideas of Slovensky and Wolf, both former teachers in Spis County, held out as maxims to the new immigrant.21 The second Slovak newspaper in the United States, called NOVA VLAS1' (The New Homeland), was founded in 1888 in Streator, Illinois. However, the town of Plymouth, SLOVAKIA 151 Pennsylvania is the cradle of SWV .AK V AMERIKE (Slovak In America), which is actually the oldest continuously published Slovak newspaper in the world. The founder of this newspaper was Albert S. Ambrose in 1889.22 The largest and most influential American-Slovak newspaper in the world-even today-is the JEDNOTA (The Union) -circulation 40,000-the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, which was founded by the Rev. Stephen Furdek in Cleveland, Ohio, May 12, 1891.23 From the very beginning, the Slovaks set out to preserve their Christian heritage, and, because of economic and social need, they formed societies or lodges. Both established organizational life for the Slovaks and the task of implementing it fell on the shoulders of clergymen. It was the Slovak clergymen who came from the old country and responded to the call of the people and founded and helped to organize parishes, fraternal benefit societies, other organizations, and edited newspapers and periodicals.24 It was natural that the Slovaks first wanted to have their own churches for that was their prized heritage. In 862, there already stood in our Nitra, Slovakia, a Christian church for more than thirty years, the first among all western Slavs and the first church in Central Europe.25 The Slovak Calvinists of Jessup, Pa. had a chapel there in 1888 and were first organized as a religious group in 1887 in Scranton, Pa. 26 The Slovak Lutherans were the first to organize on a religious basis in the United States. They established the Parish of the Holy Trinity in Streator, Illinois, October 5, 1884, and their first minister was Karol Horak. Other Lutheran parishes were organized in Freeland, Pa. and Nanticoke, Pa., in 1886, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1888.27 The Slovak Lutherans of Chicago organized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1893 and in 1894, the Rev. L. Boor became the pastor. 28 Today, the Protestant group represents about 12 % of the Americans of Slovak descent. The Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church has 52 churches and the Slovak Presbyterians have 15 churches. A very small number of Slovaks also belong to other denominations. 29 The first Catholic parish was founded in Hazleton, 152 SLOVAKIA Pa., in 1882, by the Slovak priest, Ignatius Jaskovic. His St. Joseph's Parish was actually formed in November 18, 1884. Prior to that he 1said Mass for his people in the "Irish Church", St. Gabriel's of Hazleton.30 The Slovak Catholics had two problems: priests were needed who could speak the language and funds were needed for parish churches and schools. One of the first Slovak priests who came to the new world, and luckily for the future, was the Rev. Stephen Furdek, a native of the village of Trstemi, Orava County, Slovakia. He arrived in Cleveland, Ohio in the early spring of 1882, and with Bishop Richard Gilmour's understanding and cooperation, he set the pattern in motion to solve the Slovak's problems. At the Bishop's request, Father Furdek went to Europe to seek out priests who would serve the spiritual needs of the Catholic Slovaks, Slovenes, and Croatians.31 Besides Father Furdek, other Catholic clergymen-Rev. Paul Lisicky, Dr. Alexander Dianiska, Rev. Anton Gracik, Rev. Joseph Murgas, Msgr. Stephen Krasul'a, and others became dynamic leaders of the Slovaks in America.32 Slovak Catholics number about 85 % of the American Slovaks in this country.33 A look at our Church dignitaries shows Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Bishop Andrew G. Grutka, Bishop Paul Hnilica, Bishop Michael Rusnak (the first Bishop i-n over 1,100 years for the Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite); Abbots Theodore Kojis, Stanislav F. Gmuca, Jerome Koval; five with the rank of Protonotary Apostolic; over fifty prelates; and over 1,000 American,Slov,ak priests. There are seven friaries, one abbey, nine motherhouses for Sisters; nine institutions of higher learning; an orphanage; four old age homes; hundreds of elementary schools; and about 300 Slovak Catholic Parishes. 34 It was toward the maintaining of his Catholic faith that the Slovak Catholic immigrant devoted the greatest portion of his efforts. He did this by organizing parishes, schools, social clubs, and fraternal societies to keep the faith rooted in the young. He did it with whatever time and financial resources he had left after sending stipends back to relatives in the old country for payment of his passage to America or to help his next of kin to emigrate to this land of opportunity.35 Mine disasters and other tragedies often took the lives of husbands and fathers, leaving the family destitute and SLOVAKIA 153 without money for the funeral. In answer to the need of sickness and funeral benefits, a large number of societies grew up in the industrial and mining towns. Father Furdek organized these individual societies into a Union (Jednota) -the First Catholic Slovak Union (1890). He also organized the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union (1892), the Slovak Institute (Matica Slovenska) (1893), The National Fund, and the Fund to Preserve National Heritage. 36 The First Catholic Slovak Union, the largest Slovak fraternal benefit society in the world (105,000 members), founded in Cleveland, on September 4, 1890, is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of Father Furdek's fruitful life. He founded the organization's official organ, JEDNOT A (The Union), on May 12, 1891, and edited and published it and the KALENDAR JEDNOTA (Annual Jednota) for over a decade. 37 To write about the contributions of the Jednota to American-Slovak life would require a manuscript that could fill a good size book. In fact, on the society's 75th Anniversary in 1965, its history was published in a 560-page book: 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), by Dr. Joseph Pauco. This book portrays the early struggles of the Slovak immigrant.:;, their traits of character, their involvement in events, both here and rn their fatherland, their progress from life in simple settlements to flourishing parishes and to the founding of religious, dducational, cultural and eharitable institutions. It presents thumbnail sketches of institutions like the Catholic Slovak Federation of men and women, the newly established Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome for the training of priests for Slovakia. It includes biographical sketches of notable persons in Slovak life, contemporary ,as well as past, persons whose names were household words in their day-Furdek, Jankola, Hrobak, Dianiska, Pavfo, Murga§, Husek, Kozak, Lach, Rovnianek-all active in American Slovak life.as The Immigrant Archives of the University of Minnesota is establishing a Slovak Room with materials and references from Jednota Press in Middletown, Pa. Other Slovak societies and institutions are making their resources available to the study.39 Another Slovak pioneer, Peter P. Rovnianek, an outstanding organizer, brilliant writer and speaker, organized 154 SLOVAKIA the National Slovak Society "for all the Slovaks" without regard to creed (1890). He was born in Dolny Hricov, Trencin County, Slovakia. 40 In al:idition to the National Slovak Society, the First Catholic Slovak Union, and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, other Slovak fraternal benefit societies were organized: the Zivena Beneficial Society (1891), the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union (1893), the Slovak Evangelical Union (1893), the Slovak Gymnastic Union (1896), the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Ladies Union (1898), the Slovak Caitholic Sokol (1905), the Oanadian Slovak League (1932). The total membership of the Slovak fraternal benefit societies in the United States and Canada today is at the 500,000 mark.41 The newspapers were the sounding boards of popular oprmon as well as a unifying force among the Slovaks. Almanacs, such as the FIRST SLOVAK NATIONAL ALMANAC of the National Slovak Society (1893), and KALEND.AR JEDNOTA (Annual Jednota) (1896) of the First Catholic Slovak Union, provided the literary reading that most Slovaks did: short stories, political essays, reviews of important events, religious essays, articles on marriage, and articles pertaining to almost any subject useful to the Slovak readers. Almanacs by the Slovak writers reached the American-Slovak public and became so popular that twenty-nine were published at one time.t2 Slovakia was a land of song and dancing and any celebration of even slight importance in America had to be combined with singing, dancing, and shouting of the most vigorous sort.43 The Slovaks have thousands of folk songs and the 'cardas' dance is the universal favorite. 41 Slovak dramatic clubs were organized at the Slovak parishes and the plays served as the handmaid of religion and stirred the audiences. The best remembered plays are "St. Elizabeth", "St. Genevieva", and "Fabiola", by Fr. Matthew Jankola, a man who foresaw the needs of the Slovak immigrants and did much for them, especially in the field of education. Often enacted were ... entertaining skits portraying the Foibles of human nature, each with a wholesome lesson.4s The Slovaks also organized political clubs, cultural societies, and literary circles, but these had to wait because the Slovaks were occupied with labor conflicts. The early SLOVAKIA 155 history of unions show the great part the Slovaks played in the labor movement. 46 The Slovaks made their contribution to agriculture in this country. Slovaktown, Arkansas, was a farm community near the town of Stuttgart, which was established by Slovak settlers from the "old country" who came there from the coal fields of Pennsylvania to produce dairy products and vegetables. Slovaktown was chartered in 1895, through the efforts of Peter V. Rovnianek, Francis Pucher, Julius Tatraj, Rev. Stephen Dzubaj, Rev. Stephen Furdek, and Rev. Vaclav Panuska. 47 The first Slovak Catholic parochial school in America was established in 1889 in Streator, Illinois, by the Rev. Ervin E. Gelhoff. 48 Today there are over 200 parochial schools, several high schools, also : St. Andrew's Abbey of the Slovak Benedictines, Cleveland, Ohio; the Slovak Franciscan Fathers of Uniontown, Pa., Pittsburgh, Pa., Valparaiso, Ind., Columbiana, Ohio, and Easton, Pa.; the Order of Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Danville, Pa.; the Slovak Dominican Sisters, Oxford, Mich.; the Slovak Vincentian Sisters, Perrysville, Pa., Bedford, Ohio; the Slovak Franciscan Sisters of Bellevue, Pa., Lacon, Ill., and Bethlehem, Pa; and the Slovak Benedictine Sisters, Tinley Park, Ill .49 Their contribution to the education and the life of the Slovak immigrants should be regarded with deep appreciation for the achievements and accomplishments for the Slovaks in America. They have fulfilled their mission and lived up to their motto "For God and Country" (Za Boha a narod ).50 There remains a whole list of Slovak pioneers, and, with those already mentioned in some detail, a whole volume can be written on each with ease. Perhaps the most fertile, imaginative mind among the Slovaks who came to this country belonged to Father Joseph Murgas. A man of many talents, a painter, and yet having literary skill, Father Murgas made outstanding contributions in the field of electronics. Working even before Marconi had perfected his wireless, Murgas pioneered in telegraphic communication. He perfected a method to transit messages to moving railroad trains and secured a series of patents for his invention which he called the "Tone System". With his financial resources exhausted, Fr. Murgas invited 156 SLOVAKIA Marconi and the famous Professor Fessendom of the University of Pittsburgh to assess his work. What followed is not too clear, but shortly the "Sonorous System" appeared on the commercial market that infringed upon Murgas' patents. The "System" was sold in Europe beyond the reach of U.S. patent courts. Father Murgas held twelve patents, all instrumental in making wireless communications between railroad trains possible. In Slovakia, a new radio station was named after him and the Slovak Republic issued a postage stamp in his memory. In United States during World War II, a Liberty Ship was named in his honor. Father Murgas is also the founder of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, a Slovak Catholic Action organization which came into existence on February 22, 1911, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.st Just as the Slovak Catholic Federation of America was founded to promote Catholic Action, so on May 26, 1907, Father Furdek presided over 7,000 Slovaks in Cleveland, Ohio, representing all the Slovak societies and newspapers and clergy and laity of various religious and political convictions, to found the Slovak League of America. The purpose of the League was to unite all Americans of Slovak descent in the fight of the Slovak nation abroad. 52 The activities of the League and the Federation are a significant chapter in the life of the Slovak immigrants and they still function today with effectiveness. The League promotes Slovak culture and maintains the identity of the Slovak, and the Federation continues to promote Catholic Action. Another Slovak immigrant who "labored indefatigably" to preserve the Catholic faith among the people of his nationality was the Rev. Matthew Jankola. He not only took care of and built parishes in Hazleton, Pa., Pittston, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn., but served as president of the First Catholic Slovak Union; was editor of JEDNOJ;'A (The Union); contributed to Slovak periodicals; and was responsible, after tremendous effort, of establishing a teaching community of Slovak Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius for the perpetuation of Catholic education among the Slovak people of America.53 It has been said that what Fr. SLOVAKIA 157 Furdek was to the national life of the Slovak immigrants, Father Jankola was to their religious life.54 CONCLUSION The Slovak pioneer has built the foundation and started the process of development in the religious field, in education, in fraternalism, in journalism, in literature, and in culture. He did this in a strange environment, living in big cities and small towns, with a frightening language barrier, but he enjoyed and breathed freedom. He was free to think, work, write, and worship as he wished. He grasped every opportunity to grow and prosper in this free land, and he did all this to good advantage, thereby reaping all the precious things necessary and peculiar to him in the new world. And, the Slovak pioneer did this within one generation! 55 The Slovak with his sons and their sons, the new generations, advanced rapidly and their activity in the business world, political life, sports, and social life became more pronounced. But it was the hundreds of thousands of Slovak workers-the peasants representing practically every village in Slovakia- who gave concrete meaning to the dream which brought them here.56 The immigrants and those of Slovak descent took on another task when they resolved in the spirit of America that their homeland, Slovakia, would some day be free and independent of alien rule. They worked for and were determined to see in their time, . . . that Slovakia some day would be master of its own household, free to work out its own destiny ·as on equal among the civilized nations of the eavth.57 Along with Father Furdek, countless others played a large role in this work. Among them were Michael Bosak, Sr., whose warm story follows the traditionally American "rags to riches" theme. He was the wealthiest American of Slovak descent in the entire country. 58 Then there was Joseph Rusek, who spent thirty-seven years as the editor of the JEDNOTA (The Union), the most widely read American-Slovak newspaper in the United States. Both these men were instrumental in getting Slovakia's problems before their fellow Americans.59 158 SLOVAKIA There were also many significant contributions by the American Slovaks in all the wars. Not only did the youth serve with distinction in the armed forces, but the Slovak leaders at home conducted huge War Bond drives. In World War II, headed by the Rev. John J. Lach of Whiting, Indiana, the Committee sold over $53 million in bonds. In recognition of this achievement, the Treasury Department credited the Slovak League with five bombers and named four "Liberty Ships" after famous Slovaks: "The Stephen Furdek", "The Mathias Kocak", "The General Milan R. t'itefanik", and "The Joseph Murgas". 60 In 1964, the Slovaks of America donated over one-half million dollars to build the Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, where young men are being trained to be priests so that one day they can serve Slovakia when it is free of communism. Another great contribution was the Chapel of Our Mother of Sorrows, a gift of the First Catholic Slovak Union which was dedicated on September 5, 1965 in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D. C. This occasion was also the Diamond Jubilee of the Jednota and over 15,000 American• Slovaks gathered in the nation's capital to hear Senator Frank Lausche of Ohio laud the achievements of the American Slovaks. 61 The Slovaks contributed a large quota of stars and stalwarts in the field of sports and athletics in American colleges and on the professional teams. 62 The names on the teams' rosters today are witness to this fact, but names like: Pafko, Lapchik, Musial, Bucha, Bednarik, Valo, Kralik and Mucha are familiar to most sports-minded Americans. Yes, indeed, the Slovakis were a part of the "great emigration and: ... they have definitely and permanently united their /destiny with the destiny of America. It was men like Furdek, Murgas, Jankola, Rovnianek, and others who came after them that aided and guided their fellow Slovaks. They interpret~d America to the Slovaks and likewise interpreted the psychology and ideals of the Slovaks to their American neighbors. Through their leadership and guidance the Slovaks of America were enabled to make their contribution to the material, cultural, and spiritual progress of their adopted land.6 3 The Slovak was similar in many ways to other im- SLOVAKIA 159 migrants in the assimilation process, but unlike the other ethnic groups, he was destined to play a role in the future of his homeland.64 In the last 25 years, over 15,000 Slovaks fled from their homeland to escape the vengeance of the communists and over 3,000 of these were Slovak intellectuals. Among the refugees from this tyranny are some of the best known Slovak novelists, journalists, poets, and writers. These writers preserved their literary creativeness and formed the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists and opened avenue to the greatest surge of literary efforts aboUlt Slovaks on several continents. More books have been published and distributed about the Slovak!s on this continent in the last ten years than in all the prevfous years put together.65 There is no question that these writers and historians will echo the deeds of their countrymen for posterity. What is still needed, however, are writers about the Slovaks in the English language. The Most Reverend Joseph A. Durick, D. D., Bishop, Diocese of Nashville, Tenn., speaking in 1965 in Washington, D. C.,summed it all up when in tribute to the Slovaks he said: The triumph of the Slov,aks has come about because of constant effort, faithful service, zeal for God's house and the willingness always to sacrifice. The Slovaks great triumph over innumerable odds has made ,t heir contribution to Church and Country a considerable one. By their loyalty to the Faith and subscription to the great fundamental fre~doms which they •have exemplified in the market place and in th~ home, they have helped to build the great city of God and the city of man in our beloved Country.66 FOOTNOTES 1) Victor R. Greene, " Sons of Hunkies: Men With A Past," SLOVAKI,\ , Vol. XVI (No. 39, 1966) , 80. 2) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946) , p. 176. 2a ) Ibid., p. 177. 3) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 178. 4 ) Gilbert L. Oddo, SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y. , 1960) , pp. 331-332. 5) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946),p. 168. 6) John Porubsky, "Lincoln And The Slovaks", KALEND'AR JEDNOTA, XLVII (1944), 129. 160 SLOVAKI A 7) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p. 332. 8 ) Konstantin Culen, DEJINY SLOVAKOV V AMERJKE (History of the Slovaks In America) (Slovakia, 1942), I, 24-25. 9 ) Ibid., p. 26-27. 10 ) Ibid. , p. 28. 11) Ibid., p . 29. 12) Emily Greene Balch, Ph.D., OUR SLAVIC FELLOW CITIZENS (New York, N. Y., 1910), p. 99. 13 ) James J. Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV ( 1965), 15. 14) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p. 333. 15) Emily Greene Balch, Ph.D., OUR SLAVIC CITIZENS (New York, N. Y., 1910) , p. 103. 16) James J . Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), 16. 17 ) Joseph M. Kirschbaum , LL.D., Ph.D., SLOVAKIA : NATION AT THE CROSSROA DS OF CENTRAL EUROPE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , p . 15. 17a ) Joseph N. Misany, Esq., "Father Andrew Hlinka", SLOVAKIA , xv (1965), p. 76. 18) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y. , 1960), p. 333. 19) Peter P . Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p . 157. 20) Bonaventu re S. Bue, Ph.D., SLOVAK NATIONAL ISM: ITS ORIGINS, CONFLICT S AND OBJECTIV ES (M.ddletow n, Pa., 1957), p. 60. 21) Oddo, op. cit., p. 334. 22) William Kona, M.A., "The Oldest Slovak Newpaper in the U.S.A.", S LOVAKIA, XV (1965), pp. 38-39. 23 ) Joseph Pauoo, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCK EJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Middletow n, Pa., 1965) , pp. 13-14. 24 ) Gilbert Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960 ), p. 169. 25 ) Joseph Skultety, SKETCHE S FROM SLOVAK HISTORY (Middletown, Pa., 1930), p. 10. 26) Konstantin Culen, DEJINY SLOVAKO V V AMERIKE (History of the Slovaks in America) (Slovakia, 1942), I, 114-115. 28) James J . Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), 28. 29) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960 ), p. 338. SLOVAKIA 161 30) "St. Joseph's Hazleton: Slovak Church Rebuilt", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV (1966) , p. 12. 31) Gilbert L. o'ddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 334. 32) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 169. 33) Oddo, op. cit., p. 337. 34) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrived", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965) , p. 65. 35) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 336. 36) Ibid., p. 335. 37) Ibid., p . 334. 38) Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M., "Book Reviews", SLOVAKIA, XV, (1965), pp. 152-155. 39) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Jednota Talk", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV, (1966), p. 5. 40) Dr. Peter Hletko, "The Founder of Our Society", ALMANAC FOR THE YEAR 1966, LXXIV (1966), 3. 41) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York. N. Y., 1960), p . 339. 42) James J. Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of the Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), p . 25. 43) Sr. Mary Eileen, SS.C.M., SLOVAK WEEK LECTURES: FEATURING ART AND MUSIC (Danville, Pa., 1957), p. 1. 44) James J . .Zatko, Ph.D., Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), p . 19. 45) Sr. M. Consuela Gregorovic, M .A., CONTRIBUTIONS OF MATTHEW JANKOLA TO SLOVAK EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Danville, Pa., 1959), pp. 11, 47. 46) .Zatko, op. cit. , p. 29. 47) James J . .Zatko, Ph.D., "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", SLOVAKIA , XV (1965), p. 30. 48) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Looking Back", JEDNOTA (The Union), LXXV ( 1966), p. 5. 49) Philip A. Hrobak, SLOVAK CATHOLIC PARISHES AND INSTITUTIONS (Middletown, Pa., 1955) , p. 23. 50) Ibid., p. 27. 51) Canon Joseph Altany, LL.D., "Joseph Murgas: Father of Wireless", DOBRY PASTIER (Good Shepherd), XXXVII (1964), p. 3. 52) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960) , pp. 343, 344. 53) Sr. M. Consuela Gregorovic, M.A., CONTRIBUTIONS OF MAT- 162 SLOVAKIA THEW JANKOLA TO SLOVAK EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES (Danville, Pa., 1959), p. 6. 54) Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Mid/dletown, Pa., 1965), .p . 306. 55) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 331. 56) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 157. 57) Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y., 1960), p. 344. 58) Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., 75 ROKOV PRVEJ KATOLfCKEJ SLOVENSKEJ JEDNOTY (75 Year History of ,the First Catholic Slovak Union) (Middletown, Pa., 1965), p. 179. 59) Ibid., p. 344. 60) Oddo, op. cit., p. 338. 61) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrivejd", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965), pp. 66, 67. 62) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton,Pa., 1946),p.176. 63) Peter P. Yurchak, Esq., THE SLOVAKS (Scranton, Pa., 1946), p. 177. 64) Gilbert L. O~do, Ph.D., SLOVAKIA AND ITS PEOPLE (New York, N. Y.), p. 346. 65) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Slovaks Have Arrived", SLOVAKIA, XV (1965) , p. 65. 66) Joseph C. Krajsa, "Jednota's Glories and Future", JEDNOTA ANNUAL FURDEK, 1966, V (1966), pp. 4, 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY Altany, Joseph. " Rev. Joseph Murgas, Founder of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, Recogniz~ as the 'Father of Wireless'", Dobry Pastier (Good Shepherd), XXXVII (1964). Balch, Emily G. Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, New York: Charities Publication, 1910. Consuela, Sr. M. Contributions of Reverend Matthew Jankola to Slovak Catholic Education in the United States. Danville, Pa., 1958. <'.'.:ulen, Konstantin. Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike (History of the Slovaks in America), Bratislava, Slovakia, 1942. Eileen, Sr. M. Slovak Week Lectures: Featuring Art and Music. Danville, Pa., 1957. Emerentia, Mother M. "Book reviews", Slovakia, XV (1965). Greene, Victor R. "Sons of Hunkies: Men With a Past?", Slovakia, XVI, Middletown, Pa., (1966). Hletko, Peter. "The Founder of Our Society", Almanac for the Year 1966. LXXIV, Pittsburgh, Pa., (1966). SLOVAKIA 163 Hrobak, Philip. Slovak Catholic Parishes and Instituti ons. Midjdletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1955. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Kona, William. "The Oldest Slovak Newspaper in the U.S.A.", Slovakia , XV, Middletown, Pa., (1965). Krajsa, Joseph C. "St. Joseph, Hazleton: Slovak Church Rebuilt", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 3998 (1966). "Jednota Talk", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 3999 (1966). "Looking Back", Jednota (The Union), LXXV, No. 4000 (1966). "Je\foOlta Glories and Future", Jednota Annual Furdek. V, Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, (1960). "Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia. XV, Jednota Press, Middletown , Pa., (1965)°. Misany, Joseph N. "Father Andrew ffiinka", Slovakia, XV, Jednota Press, Middletown, Pa. ( 1965). Mother Tongue of the Foreign Born. U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, United States Census of Population, 1960. Washington, D. C. (1966). Qido, Gilbert L. Slovakia and Its People. New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Orth, Samuel P. Immigration and Labor. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1920. Pauco, Joseph. 75 Rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union). Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1965. Porubsky, John Rev. "Lincoln and the Slovaks", Kalendar Jednota (Annual Jednota) XLVII, Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, (1944) . Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1930. Steiner, Edward A. The Immigrant Tide: Its Ebb and Flow. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909. Yurchak, Peter P. The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, 1946. 2atko, James J. "Early Beginnings of Slovaks in America", Slovakia, XV, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, (1965). THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects.  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 Slovaks: A Part of the Great Emigration to America Description An account of the resource Joseph John Krajsa Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 145-163 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Krajsa, Joseph John 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/41c5c4e4a7537be7f2b42199ad687ee4.pdf 3e132eeb4e29481927e19b13a01fbee7 PDF Text Text 134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. �SLOVAKIA 135 Louis the German feared Svatopluk was building a strong Slavic state that could pose a threat to his German Empire. Consequently, Slavomir, a Moravian prince, was elected by the Slavs to take over Svatopluk's position of leadership, and initiated a rebellion against the Germans.3 Svatopluk eonvinced Carloman to allow him to direct a siege of the fortress of Devin, where he betrayed his troops, destroyed the German army, and again became the ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. He pressed the offensive against the Germans, and in 873, he defeated Carloman decisively. Carloman sought a truce, and in 874, he signed a treaty with Svatopluk at Forsheim which acknowledged the independence of Great Moravia. Svatopluk then waged wars against Panonia, Bohemia, the Vislanians, and the Lusatian Serbs to extend the frontier of his empire. Because Carloman's son and successor as one of the claimants of the German Empire, Arnulf, also feared a large Slavic state on his eastern border, he sought an alliance with the Magyars against Great Moravia and attacked Devin several times during the remainder of Svatopluk's reign. The empire always repulsed those attacks as long as Svatopluk lived. 4 It is almost impossible to determine the motives of a man who lived oved a millenium ago, yet the question arises whether Svatopluk sought control and expansion of the ~reat Moravian Empire to satisfy his own powerlust, or whether he was convinced of the importance and necessity of a united Slavic peoples, and determined to create such a union. Svatopluk's first move for power appears to be a traitorous one. It is doubtful that he questioned his uncle's statesmanship and loyalty to the Slavic state, because Rastislav considered the independence of his country most important. He was painfully aware of the German military and cultural imperialistic foreign policy.5 Consequently, he strengthened his country militarily. Fortresses were built, a strong army was trained, and support was obtained from the other Moravian princes who still retained their lands after the fall of Mojmir, the predecessor of Rastislav. Rastislav was able to defeat the attacking German armies in 855, thus gaining even greater support from the local princes.6 By this time, �136 SLOVAKIA Great Moravia was secure, and Rastislav was able to concentrate on the domestic problems in his country. Rastislav publicly opposed the Carolingian brand of Christianity the German missionaries were imposing on the Slavs in a foreign language. He realized that the Christian culture spread by the German clerics would inevitably cause the ebbing of Slavonic community among his people and a gradual German takeover of the Great Moravian Empire. 7 However, Rastislav was aware of the political advantage Christianity held for the Slavs. If the Slavic people accepted it, the Christian faith might be an invaluable link in the alliance of the Slavs against their enemies.8 He turned to the East and asked Michael III, Emperor at Constantinople, to send missionaries who would teach in the Slavonic language.9 In 863, Rastislav welcomed the brothers, Constantine and Methodius to his domain to teach Christianity in the vernacular. 10 The German bishops in Salzburg, Passau, and Regensburg and the Bavarian missionaries in Moravia protested against the activities of the eastern missionaries, accusing them of initiating dangerous liturgical reforms and ignoring German ecclesiastical authority. Constantine and Methodius were called to Rome to defend themselves.11 After convincing the papacy of their orthodoxy, and then, after Constantine's untimely death, Methodius returned alone to Great Moravia as archbishop and papal legate with the authority to organize the Church among the Slavs, and with the permission to use the Slavonic liturgy. 12 The German bishops flouted the papacy's approval of Methodius' apostolate and imprisoned him. At this time, Church-state affairs were considerably integrated. Papal authority in secular affairs developed as a result of fifth century papal thinking, which held that ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions were distinct, but papal authority was considered superior to secular power because the papacy had sovereign authority, whereas the secular leadership had only derivative administrative authority.13 Theoretically under the pope's authority, the Church's bishops, who were often from aristocratic families, asserted their leadership and influence in major European cities. They created the only effective replace- �SLOVAKIA 137 ment for the diminishing secular organization of society, becoming the main secular power of their districts. However, because of their own power bases, the bishops were often tempted and often did, in fact, flout the pope's dictates, creating division not necessarily between the pope and secular ruler, but between the pope and bishops, with the secular . ruler siding with either one, as occured in the Great Moravia case. 14 Svatopluk, during his regency at Nitra, championed the German opposition in the Moravian religious controversy in order to gain the German backing for his attempt to usurp Rastis1av's power. 15 Thus, Svatopluk's first major powerplay was made after his extensive effort to form a strong political alliance with the Germans succeeded. Svatopluk proved to be a strong and independent ruler once in control of the Great Moravian Empire. Having achieved the headship of state, he sought the absolute control of the Moravian Empire. Soon, however, the Germans suspected his loyalty to the German Empire. Consequently, in 871, Svatopluk was deposed and imprisoned, despite his denial of charges for having plotted against the German Crown. 16 Svatopluk continued to play his political games with the Germans despite his temporary loss of a power base. Carloman was unable to suppress, after several attempts, Slavomir's rebellion. Therefore, Svatopluk asked to lead an army against Slavomir.17 Carloman finally decided to risk Svatopluk's leadership, and sent the Slav in command of the German army to put down the Moravian uprising, trusting for the success of the arrangement to Svatopluk's gratitude and to the division among the Moravian princes. 18 When the army reached Devin, Svatopluk ordered his men to encamp below the fortress while he went up to the castle under the pretenses of persuading the Moravians under Slavomir to surrender without a fight. 19 However, since the most he could receive from a German victory was limited control of Great Moravia under German hegemony, although he would more likely be imprisoned eventually for trying to build a strong Moravian Empire again, Svatopluk decided that the Germans had outlived their usefulness to his quest for power. Consequently, he �138 SLOVAKIA reversed his loyalties, betrayed his command, and told Slavomfr of a plan he had to defeat the German army. Then, taking command of the Moravian forces, Svatopluk waged a surprise attack on the men he was commanding the previous day. The German troops were crushed under the savage attack. 20 Svatopluk continued to press the offensive against Carloman until the German sought a truce in 873. The following year at Forsheim, Carloman signed an agreement recognizing the independence of the Great Moravian Empire.21 Svatopluk's ambition to have absolute control of Great Moravia was finally realized. It was no longer politically expedient for Svatopluk to curry German favor, so he turned to his Slav neighbors to strengthen his power position. He married the sister of the Czech duke, Botivoj, to broaden the sphere of his influence to include Bohemia.22 He brought the Pannonians and the Lusatian Serbs under his rule and defeated the powerful pagan ruler of the Vislanian Poles. His extended Great Moravian Empire appears to have been more of a federation than an empire, which was created by the alliances of the overpowered Slavic princes under the leadership of Svatopluk.23 The foreign policy of the Great Moravian Empire under Rastislav was reshaped by Svatopluk. He wanted to gain the support of the papacy in Rome rather than that of the Byzantine Emperor.24 In 879, the relationship between the East Frankish. Empire and Rome was cool, and the Byzantine Empire was considered a theological threat to Christianity. Svatopluk reasoned that the pope would want and need an ally. Therefore, he sent his personal envoy, Zemezizeit, along with Archbishop Methodius, who had been freed in 873 from his German captors, to secure for his empire the recognition and "protection" of the papacy. 25 However, Svatopluk did not return the favor to Methodius and back his position on ecclesiastical matters. Methodius had been freed after three years of German imprisonment, through the efforts of Pope John VIII, who suspended the German bishops and thretened them with excommunication.26 In 879, however, Methodius was �SLOVAKIA 139 summoned to Rome again to appear before the Roman Synod. Through the instigation of Wiching, a German Benedictine who Svatopluk appointed Bishop of Nitra during Methodius' imprisonment, the German bishops charged Methodius with supporting and teaching the Greek heresy of the Single Procession. Again, Methodius defended himself successfully, convinced the pope that he accepted his authority, and returned to Moravia with the pope's blessing.27 After this contrived issue was resolved, the actual dispute was brought to a head. The German bishops were determined to prove the Slavonic liturgy unlawful, and to abolish the Archbishopric of Moravia. They declared that the use of the "barbarous" Slavonic language in the liturgy degraded the religious service. Their argument was a reference in the scriptures which described the inscription Pilate had written on the Cross in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Methodius argued than on Pentecost, the apostles taught about the Christ in all the languages so that all present could understand. The pope rejected the German clergy's argument, and, once again, sanctioned the apostolic works of Methodius.28 Svatopluk found it convenient to side with the German bishops on this issue. Pope John suggested that Svatopluk and his courtiers could use the Latin liturgy at his court, if they really felt that strongly about the liturgy issue. 29 Pope John also made a statement concerning Svatopluk's appointment of Wiching as Bishop of Nitra. The pope was aware of Svatopluk's intention to counterbalance the authority of Methodius. Therefore, he agreed to recognize the appointment provided that Wiching was subordinate to Methodius. John also recommended that Svatopluk appoints future bishops with Methodius' advice and consent. 30 Of course, the pope was protecting his own political interests. Methodius was the safer party to back, rather than the German bishops, whose first loyalties were always to the German Empire. Svatopluk even used Methodius when his political position would be enhanced. He subtly used Methodius' presence in Rome to try to obtain the recognition of his Great Moravian Empire by the papacy in 879. However, �140 SLOVAKIA Svatopluk generally opposed the efforts of the missionary, because of his fierce hatred for Methodius.31 Svatopluk was a nominal Christian who still followed pagan practices. His behavior made Methodius' task of creating a solid organization among the Slavs more difficult, since their leader did not take the Christian faith seriously. It appears as though Methodius reproached him on occasion for his irresponsibility, and Svatopluk naturally resented it.32 The hostility that existed between Methodius and Svatopluk might have eventually resulted in the exile or death of the archbishop, had not the relations between Svatopluk and Arnulf become cold because of Arnulf's growing influence in Pannonia. Svatopluk's preocupation with Arnulf's menacing prevented the Moravian ruler from taking stronger action against Methodius. However, after Methodius' death in 885, Svatopluk rejected the archbishop's chosen successor, Gorazd, warmed his relations with An1ulf, and expelled Methodius' closest followers from Moravia. Slavic services were outlowed by Svatopluk; a new pope was elected in Rome, who condoned Svatopluk's action; and the German priests of the Latin rite took control of the church organization in the Great Moravian Empire.33 Arnulf never trusted the strong Moravian ruler on his borders. Therefore, he sought an alliance with the Magyars, who had recently migrated to the vicinity, to destroy the i>lavic empire. Yet, despite the nwnerous German-Magyar attacks, Great Moravia thrived until the death of Svatopluk in 894. 34 Svatopluk's record as ruler of the Great Moravian Empire is almost a flawless case study for Hans Morgenthau's power school theory, which asserts that all politics is a struggle for power. 35 The evidence shows that throughout his public life, Svatopluk would use any means to gain and maintain power. His initial rise to power was cloaked in treachery. After he lost his power, he managed to persuade his captor to trust him with an army which was to attack Svatopluk's countrymen, only to betray his army and seize control of Great Moravia again. He waged wars recurrently to extend his influence over the Slavs, and to stand up to the Germans. He negotiated �SLOVAKIA 141 alliances when they would strengthen his position. It appears that he always gave his support or sought support only when it was politically expedient. Since every move Svatopluk made seemed to be a politically expedient one, one of his official policies does not fit into the pattern. For the most part, he actively opposed the Christianization of the Great Moravian Empire in the Slavonic language. He rejected Rastislav's contention that Slavonic Christianity would enhance the ethnic community of the Great Moravian Empire, fortify it from German culture, and, especially, create a strong bond among the Slavic peoples. Svatopluk must have realized that his own power could only be strengthened under such circumstances, yet, he continually opposed Methodius' activities. Historians propose that Svatopluk was against the archbishop because Methodius rebuked him for his pagan ways, which hindered the effectiveness of the apostle's mission. Svatopluk's relations with Methodius seem to be the one major contradiction in the former's career. For the wily Svatopluk to jeopardize his power over a personality conflict seems out of character, which leads one to suspect that he might have considered Methodius to be larger threat to his power than the Germans were. Though the German bishops were temporal princes as well as spiritual leaders, Svatopluk was probably confident in his ability to deal with them. He might have feared Methodius because of the missionary's widespread popularity and influence over all the Slavs, which could have easily been used to the advantage of the archbishop if he sought temporal power as the German bishops did. If Svatopluk did consider Methodius a threat to his power, and not just a bothersome conscience, such a threat would be far more immediate to Svatopluk than a German cultural-imperialistic foreign policy, and therefore, his antagonism toward Methodius would be understandable. The evidence, construed from the few known facts about Svatopluk, would suggest that Svatopluk was indeed a political opportunist. However, the Slovak romantic writers of the nineteenth century, in an effort to create a feeling of a glorious national past among their people, �142 SLOVAKIA cast Svatopluk into the role of a great national hero whose sole intention was to build a strong Slavic state for the Slavis in East Central Europe. Jan Holly, a leading Slovak poet, in his epic, "Svatopluk," gives an exaggerated picture of Svatopluk's victories in his military campaigns for independence and enlargement of the Great Moravian Empire. 36 Most of the nineteenth century writers embroidered legend over fact to create a very noble Svatopluk, downplaying his crimes because, according to their sources, he repented in the end anyway. Slovak romantics wanted a national hero with integrity, selfless motivation, and absolute devotion to the Slavic Empire. Consequently, they squeezed Svatopluk into their conceived mold of a national hero, rewriting history in the process. Too many kings and soldiers who tremendously increased the power and prestige of a nation are either remembered mainly for their treachery and cruelty, or are recast into noble superhuman King Arthurs and Lancelots, while some bishops and priests, who may have weakened the national consciousness and national independence by preaching foremost loyalty to the Church, are revered and even considered "symbols of a distinctive national life."38 Svatopluk was a cruel and unscrupulous antagonist of Methodius and his disciples. He was treacherous in usurping his uncle's power. He was a talented politician who used every legitimate, as well as illegitimate, form of statescraft to increase his power. He was a political opportunist. Svatopluk was on the opposite side of the spectrum from the virtuous hero the nineteenth century romantics wanted to make him. Yet, from the objective nationalistic viewpoint, he did establish Slavic greatness. He did champion the independence of the Slavic Empire. He did defend the Great Moravian Empire against the barbaric Magyar invaders. 39 Under Svatopluk's leadership, Great Moravia became the center of a strong Slavic alliance. Svatopluk wielded an authority over the Slav princes which was at least equal to that of the German Emperor over the princes which were subject to him. 40 The impact of Svatopluk's unified Slavic state has influenced Slavic political history throughout the last �SLOVAKIA 143 twelve hundred years. Sviitopluk developed the tradition of unity. FOOTNOTES Oscar Halecki, Borderlands of Western Civilization (New York, 1952 ) , p. 25; hereafter cited as Haleckrl.. 2) Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovaki a and Its People (New York, N . Y. , 1960 ), p. 15; hereafter cited as Oddo. 1) 3 ) 0&10, p. 16. 4 ) Od/do, pp. 17-18. 5 ) Joseph Skultety, Sketches from Slovak History (Middletown, Pa., 1930 ), p. 10; hereafter cited as Skultety. 6) P. Yurchak, The Slovaks (Scranton, Pa. , 1946 ), p. 35; hereafter cited as Yurchak. 7 ) Skultety, p. 10. 8) C. Edmund Maurice, Bohemia (New York, 1896) , p. 10; hereafter 9) 10 ) 11 ) 12 ) 13 ) 14) 15) 16 ) 17 ) 18 ) 19) 20 ) 21 ) 22 ) 23 ) 24 ) 25 ) 26) 27 ) 28) 29 ) 30 ) 31 ) 32 ) cited as Maurice. Oddo, p. 12. Maurice, p. 10. Yurchak, p. 51 . Yurchak, p. 52. Norman Cantor, Western Civili zation Its Genesis and Destiny (Glenview, Ill., 1969), p. 301 ; hereafter citdd as Cantor. Cantor, p. 301 . Maurice, p. 11 . Oddo, p. 16. Oddo, p. 16. Yurchak, p. 36. Oddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Maurice, p . 12. Yurchak, p. 37. Frantisek Kavka, A n Outline of Czechoslovak Hist ory (Prague, 1963 ) , p. 18; hereafter cited as Kavka. ojddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Maurice, p. 14. Maurice, p. 15. Maurice, p. 15. Maurice, p. 15. R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (Hamden, Conn., 1965 ), p. 13 ; hereafter cited as Seton-Watson. Oddo, p. 18. �144 SLOVAKIA 33) Maurice, p. 16. 34) Frederick G. Heymann, Poland and Czechoslovakia (Englewood Cliffs, N. J ., 1966), p. 27. 35 ) Hans J . Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (New York, 1967 ), 4th dd., p . 3. 36) Yurchak, p. 37. 37 ) Seton-Watson, p. 25. 38 ) Maurice, p. 18. 39 ) Maurice, p. 19. 40) Maurice, p. 19. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cantor, Norman. Western Civilization Its Genesis and Destiny. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1969. Halecki, Oscar. Borderlands of Western Civilizati on. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1952. Heymann, Frederick C. Poland and Czechoslovaki a. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall Inc., 1966. Kavka, Franti.sek. An Outline of Czechoslovak History. Prague: Orbis, 1963. Krofta, Kamil. A Short History of Czechoslovakia. London: Williams and Norgate L~d., 1935. Lutzow, Count. Bohemi a: An Historical Sketch. London: J. M . Dent and Sons, 1910 Maurice, C. Edmund. Bohemia. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1896. Monroe, W. S. Bohemia and the Czechs. London: L. C. Page and Co. Inc., 1910. Morgenthau, Hans J. Politics Among Nations, 4th ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1967. Od\do, Gilbert L. Slov akia and Its People. New York : Robert ,Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Rechcigl, Miloslav, ed. The Czec hoslovak Contribution to World Cul.titre. The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1964. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965. Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1930. Wiskeman, Elizabeth. Czechs and Germans. London: Oxforid University Press, 1938. Yurchak, P. The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa. 1946. (THIRD PRIZE AWARD) � 134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. �SLOVAKIA 135 Louis the German feared Svatopluk was building a strong Slavic state that could pose a threat to his German Empire. Consequently, Slavomir, a Moravian prince, was elected by the Slavs to take over Svatopluk's position of leadership, and initiated a rebellion against the Germans.3 Svatopluk eonvinced Carloman to allow him to direct a siege of the fortress of Devin, where he betrayed his troops, destroyed the German army, and again became the ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. He pressed the offensive against the Germans, and in 873, he defeated Carloman decisively. Carloman sought a truce, and in 874, he signed a treaty with Svatopluk at Forsheim which acknowledged the independence of Great Moravia. Svatopluk then waged wars against Panonia, Bohemia, the Vislanians, and the Lusatian Serbs to extend the frontier of his empire. Because Carloman's son and successor as one of the claimants of the German Empire, Arnulf, also feared a large Slavic state on his eastern border, he sought an alliance with the Magyars against Great Moravia and attacked Devin several times during the remainder of Svatopluk's reign. The empire always repulsed those attacks as long as Svatopluk lived. 4 It is almost impossible to determine the motives of a man who lived oved a millenium ago, yet the question arises whether Svatopluk sought control and expansion of the ~reat Moravian Empire to satisfy his own powerlust, or whether he was convinced of the importance and necessity of a united Slavic peoples, and determined to create such a union. Svatopluk's first move for power appears to be a traitorous one. It is doubtful that he questioned his uncle's statesmanship and loyalty to the Slavic state, because Rastislav considered the independence of his country most important. He was painfully aware of the German military and cultural imperialistic foreign policy.5 Consequently, he strengthened his country militarily. Fortresses were built, a strong army was trained, and support was obtained from the other Moravian princes who still retained their lands after the fall of Mojmir, the predecessor of Rastislav. Rastislav was able to defeat the attacking German armies in 855, thus gaining even greater support from the local princes.6 By this time, �136 SLOVAKIA Great Moravia was secure, and Rastislav was able to concentrate on the domestic problems in his country. Rastislav publicly opposed the Carolingian brand of Christianity the German missionaries were imposing on the Slavs in a foreign language. He realized that the Christian culture spread by the German clerics would inevitably cause the ebbing of Slavonic community among his people and a gradual German takeover of the Great Moravian Empire. 7 However, Rastislav was aware of the political advantage Christianity held for the Slavs. If the Slavic people accepted it, the Christian faith might be an invaluable link in the alliance of the Slavs against their enemies.8 He turned to the East and asked Michael III, Emperor at Constantinople, to send missionaries who would teach in the Slavonic language.9 In 863, Rastislav welcomed the brothers, Constantine and Methodius to his domain to teach Christianity in the vernacular. 10 The German bishops in Salzburg, Passau, and Regensburg and the Bavarian missionaries in Moravia protested against the activities of the eastern missionaries, accusing them of initiating dangerous liturgical reforms and ignoring German ecclesiastical authority. Constantine and Methodius were called to Rome to defend themselves.11 After convincing the papacy of their orthodoxy, and then, after Constantine's untimely death, Methodius returned alone to Great Moravia as archbishop and papal legate with the authority to organize the Church among the Slavs, and with the permission to use the Slavonic liturgy. 12 The German bishops flouted the papacy's approval of Methodius' apostolate and imprisoned him. At this time, Church-state affairs were considerably integrated. Papal authority in secular affairs developed as a result of fifth century papal thinking, which held that ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions were distinct, but papal authority was considered superior to secular power because the papacy had sovereign authority, whereas the secular leadership had only derivative administrative authority.13 Theoretically under the pope's authority, the Church's bishops, who were often from aristocratic families, asserted their leadership and influence in major European cities. They created the only effective replace- �SLOVAKIA 137 ment for the diminishing secular organization of society, becoming the main secular power of their districts. However, because of their own power bases, the bishops were often tempted and often did, in fact, flout the pope's dictates, creating division not necessarily between the pope and secular ruler, but between the pope and bishops, with the secular . ruler siding with either one, as occured in the Great Moravia case. 14 Svatopluk, during his regency at Nitra, championed the German opposition in the Moravian religious controversy in order to gain the German backing for his attempt to usurp Rastis1av's power. 15 Thus, Svatopluk's first major powerplay was made after his extensive effort to form a strong political alliance with the Germans succeeded. Svatopluk proved to be a strong and independent ruler once in control of the Great Moravian Empire. Having achieved the headship of state, he sought the absolute control of the Moravian Empire. Soon, however, the Germans suspected his loyalty to the German Empire. Consequently, in 871, Svatopluk was deposed and imprisoned, despite his denial of charges for having plotted against the German Crown. 16 Svatopluk continued to play his political games with the Germans despite his temporary loss of a power base. Carloman was unable to suppress, after several attempts, Slavomir's rebellion. Therefore, Svatopluk asked to lead an army against Slavomir.17 Carloman finally decided to risk Svatopluk's leadership, and sent the Slav in command of the German army to put down the Moravian uprising, trusting for the success of the arrangement to Svatopluk's gratitude and to the division among the Moravian princes. 18 When the army reached Devin, Svatopluk ordered his men to encamp below the fortress while he went up to the castle under the pretenses of persuading the Moravians under Slavomir to surrender without a fight. 19 However, since the most he could receive from a German victory was limited control of Great Moravia under German hegemony, although he would more likely be imprisoned eventually for trying to build a strong Moravian Empire again, Svatopluk decided that the Germans had outlived their usefulness to his quest for power. Consequently, he �138 SLOVAKIA reversed his loyalties, betrayed his command, and told Slavomfr of a plan he had to defeat the German army. Then, taking command of the Moravian forces, Svatopluk waged a surprise attack on the men he was commanding the previous day. The German troops were crushed under the savage attack. 20 Svatopluk continued to press the offensive against Carloman until the German sought a truce in 873. The following year at Forsheim, Carloman signed an agreement recognizing the independence of the Great Moravian Empire.21 Svatopluk's ambition to have absolute control of Great Moravia was finally realized. It was no longer politically expedient for Svatopluk to curry German favor, so he turned to his Slav neighbors to strengthen his power position. He married the sister of the Czech duke, Botivoj, to broaden the sphere of his influence to include Bohemia.22 He brought the Pannonians and the Lusatian Serbs under his rule and defeated the powerful pagan ruler of the Vislanian Poles. His extended Great Moravian Empire appears to have been more of a federation than an empire, which was created by the alliances of the overpowered Slavic princes under the leadership of Svatopluk.23 The foreign policy of the Great Moravian Empire under Rastislav was reshaped by Svatopluk. He wanted to gain the support of the papacy in Rome rather than that of the Byzantine Emperor.24 In 879, the relationship between the East Frankish. Empire and Rome was cool, and the Byzantine Empire was considered a theological threat to Christianity. Svatopluk reasoned that the pope would want and need an ally. Therefore, he sent his personal envoy, Zemezizeit, along with Archbishop Methodius, who had been freed in 873 from his German captors, to secure for his empire the recognition and "protection" of the papacy. 25 However, Svatopluk did not return the favor to Methodius and back his position on ecclesiastical matters. Methodius had been freed after three years of German imprisonment, through the efforts of Pope John VIII, who suspended the German bishops and thretened them with excommunication.26 In 879, however, Methodius was �SLOVAKIA 139 summoned to Rome again to appear before the Roman Synod. Through the instigation of Wiching, a German Benedictine who Svatopluk appointed Bishop of Nitra during Methodius' imprisonment, the German bishops charged Methodius with supporting and teaching the Greek heresy of the Single Procession. Again, Methodius defended himself successfully, convinced the pope that he accepted his authority, and returned to Moravia with the pope's blessing.27 After this contrived issue was resolved, the actual dispute was brought to a head. The German bishops were determined to prove the Slavonic liturgy unlawful, and to abolish the Archbishopric of Moravia. They declared that the use of the "barbarous" Slavonic language in the liturgy degraded the religious service. Their argument was a reference in the scriptures which described the inscription Pilate had written on the Cross in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Methodius argued than on Pentecost, the apostles taught about the Christ in all the languages so that all present could understand. The pope rejected the German clergy's argument, and, once again, sanctioned the apostolic works of Methodius.28 Svatopluk found it convenient to side with the German bishops on this issue. Pope John suggested that Svatopluk and his courtiers could use the Latin liturgy at his court, if they really felt that strongly about the liturgy issue. 29 Pope John also made a statement concerning Svatopluk's appointment of Wiching as Bishop of Nitra. The pope was aware of Svatopluk's intention to counterbalance the authority of Methodius. Therefore, he agreed to recognize the appointment provided that Wiching was subordinate to Methodius. John also recommended that Svatopluk appoints future bishops with Methodius' advice and consent. 30 Of course, the pope was protecting his own political interests. Methodius was the safer party to back, rather than the German bishops, whose first loyalties were always to the German Empire. Svatopluk even used Methodius when his political position would be enhanced. He subtly used Methodius' presence in Rome to try to obtain the recognition of his Great Moravian Empire by the papacy in 879. However, �140 SLOVAKIA Svatopluk generally opposed the efforts of the missionary, because of his fierce hatred for Methodius.31 Svatopluk was a nominal Christian who still followed pagan practices. His behavior made Methodius' task of creating a solid organization among the Slavs more difficult, since their leader did not take the Christian faith seriously. It appears as though Methodius reproached him on occasion for his irresponsibility, and Svatopluk naturally resented it.32 The hostility that existed between Methodius and Svatopluk might have eventually resulted in the exile or death of the archbishop, had not the relations between Svatopluk and Arnulf become cold because of Arnulf's growing influence in Pannonia. Svatopluk's preocupation with Arnulf's menacing prevented the Moravian ruler from taking stronger action against Methodius. However, after Methodius' death in 885, Svatopluk rejected the archbishop's chosen successor, Gorazd, warmed his relations with An1ulf, and expelled Methodius' closest followers from Moravia. Slavic services were outlowed by Svatopluk; a new pope was elected in Rome, who condoned Svatopluk's action; and the German priests of the Latin rite took control of the church organization in the Great Moravian Empire.33 Arnulf never trusted the strong Moravian ruler on his borders. Therefore, he sought an alliance with the Magyars, who had recently migrated to the vicinity, to destroy the i>lavic empire. Yet, despite the nwnerous German-Magyar attacks, Great Moravia thrived until the death of Svatopluk in 894. 34 Svatopluk's record as ruler of the Great Moravian Empire is almost a flawless case study for Hans Morgenthau's power school theory, which asserts that all politics is a struggle for power. 35 The evidence shows that throughout his public life, Svatopluk would use any means to gain and maintain power. His initial rise to power was cloaked in treachery. After he lost his power, he managed to persuade his captor to trust him with an army which was to attack Svatopluk's countrymen, only to betray his army and seize control of Great Moravia again. He waged wars recurrently to extend his influence over the Slavs, and to stand up to the Germans. He negotiated �SLOVAKIA 141 alliances when they would strengthen his position. It appears that he always gave his support or sought support only when it was politically expedient. Since every move Svatopluk made seemed to be a politically expedient one, one of his official policies does not fit into the pattern. For the most part, he actively opposed the Christianization of the Great Moravian Empire in the Slavonic language. He rejected Rastislav's contention that Slavonic Christianity would enhance the ethnic community of the Great Moravian Empire, fortify it from German culture, and, especially, create a strong bond among the Slavic peoples. Svatopluk must have realized that his own power could only be strengthened under such circumstances, yet, he continually opposed Methodius' activities. Historians propose that Svatopluk was against the archbishop because Methodius rebuked him for his pagan ways, which hindered the effectiveness of the apostle's mission. Svatopluk's relations with Methodius seem to be the one major contradiction in the former's career. For the wily Svatopluk to jeopardize his power over a personality conflict seems out of character, which leads one to suspect that he might have considered Methodius to be larger threat to his power than the Germans were. Though the German bishops were temporal princes as well as spiritual leaders, Svatopluk was probably confident in his ability to deal with them. He might have feared Methodius because of the missionary's widespread popularity and influence over all the Slavs, which could have easily been used to the advantage of the archbishop if he sought temporal power as the German bishops did. If Svatopluk did consider Methodius a threat to his power, and not just a bothersome conscience, such a threat would be far more immediate to Svatopluk than a German cultural-imperialistic foreign policy, and therefore, his antagonism toward Methodius would be understandable. The evidence, construed from the few known facts about Svatopluk, would suggest that Svatopluk was indeed a political opportunist. However, the Slovak romantic writers of the nineteenth century, in an effort to create a feeling of a glorious national past among their people, �142 SLOVAKIA cast Svatopluk into the role of a great national hero whose sole intention was to build a strong Slavic state for the Slavis in East Central Europe. Jan Holly, a leading Slovak poet, in his epic, "Svatopluk," gives an exaggerated picture of Svatopluk's victories in his military campaigns for independence and enlargement of the Great Moravian Empire. 36 Most of the nineteenth century writers embroidered legend over fact to create a very noble Svatopluk, downplaying his crimes because, according to their sources, he repented in the end anyway. Slovak romantics wanted a national hero with integrity, selfless motivation, and absolute devotion to the Slavic Empire. Consequently, they squeezed Svatopluk into their conceived mold of a national hero, rewriting history in the process. Too many kings and soldiers who tremendously increased the power and prestige of a nation are either remembered mainly for their treachery and cruelty, or are recast into noble superhuman King Arthurs and Lancelots, while some bishops and priests, who may have weakened the national consciousness and national independence by preaching foremost loyalty to the Church, are revered and even considered "symbols of a distinctive national life."38 Svatopluk was a cruel and unscrupulous antagonist of Methodius and his disciples. He was treacherous in usurping his uncle's power. He was a talented politician who used every legitimate, as well as illegitimate, form of statescraft to increase his power. He was a political opportunist. Svatopluk was on the opposite side of the spectrum from the virtuous hero the nineteenth century romantics wanted to make him. Yet, from the objective nationalistic viewpoint, he did establish Slavic greatness. He did champion the independence of the Slavic Empire. He did defend the Great Moravian Empire against the barbaric Magyar invaders. 39 Under Svatopluk's leadership, Great Moravia became the center of a strong Slavic alliance. Svatopluk wielded an authority over the Slav princes which was at least equal to that of the German Emperor over the princes which were subject to him. 40 The impact of Svatopluk's unified Slavic state has influenced Slavic political history throughout the last �SLOVAKIA 143 twelve hundred years. Sviitopluk developed the tradition of unity. FOOTNOTES Oscar Halecki, Borderlands of Western Civilization (New York, 1952 ) , p. 25; hereafter cited as Haleckrl.. 2) Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovaki a and Its People (New York, N . Y. , 1960 ), p. 15; hereafter cited as Oddo. 1) 3 ) 0&10, p. 16. 4 ) Od/do, pp. 17-18. 5 ) Joseph Skultety, Sketches from Slovak History (Middletown, Pa., 1930 ), p. 10; hereafter cited as Skultety. 6) P. Yurchak, The Slovaks (Scranton, Pa. , 1946 ), p. 35; hereafter cited as Yurchak. 7 ) Skultety, p. 10. 8) C. Edmund Maurice, Bohemia (New York, 1896) , p. 10; hereafter 9) 10 ) 11 ) 12 ) 13 ) 14) 15) 16 ) 17 ) 18 ) 19) 20 ) 21 ) 22 ) 23 ) 24 ) 25 ) 26) 27 ) 28) 29 ) 30 ) 31 ) 32 ) cited as Maurice. Oddo, p. 12. Maurice, p. 10. Yurchak, p. 51 . Yurchak, p. 52. Norman Cantor, Western Civili zation Its Genesis and Destiny (Glenview, Ill., 1969), p. 301 ; hereafter citdd as Cantor. Cantor, p. 301 . Maurice, p. 11 . Oddo, p. 16. Oddo, p. 16. Yurchak, p. 36. Oddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Maurice, p . 12. Yurchak, p. 37. Frantisek Kavka, A n Outline of Czechoslovak Hist ory (Prague, 1963 ) , p. 18; hereafter cited as Kavka. ojddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Maurice, p. 14. Maurice, p. 15. Maurice, p. 15. Maurice, p. 15. R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (Hamden, Conn., 1965 ), p. 13 ; hereafter cited as Seton-Watson. Oddo, p. 18. �144 SLOVAKIA 33) Maurice, p. 16. 34) Frederick G. Heymann, Poland and Czechoslovakia (Englewood Cliffs, N. J ., 1966), p. 27. 35 ) Hans J . Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (New York, 1967 ), 4th dd., p . 3. 36) Yurchak, p. 37. 37 ) Seton-Watson, p. 25. 38 ) Maurice, p. 18. 39 ) Maurice, p. 19. 40) Maurice, p. 19. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cantor, Norman. Western Civilization Its Genesis and Destiny. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1969. Halecki, Oscar. Borderlands of Western Civilizati on. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1952. Heymann, Frederick C. Poland and Czechoslovaki a. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall Inc., 1966. Kavka, Franti.sek. An Outline of Czechoslovak History. Prague: Orbis, 1963. Krofta, Kamil. A Short History of Czechoslovakia. London: Williams and Norgate L~d., 1935. Lutzow, Count. Bohemi a: An Historical Sketch. London: J. M . Dent and Sons, 1910 Maurice, C. Edmund. Bohemia. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1896. Monroe, W. S. Bohemia and the Czechs. London: L. C. Page and Co. Inc., 1910. Morgenthau, Hans J. Politics Among Nations, 4th ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1967. Od\do, Gilbert L. Slov akia and Its People. New York : Robert ,Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Rechcigl, Miloslav, ed. The Czec hoslovak Contribution to World Cul.titre. The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1964. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965. Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1930. Wiskeman, Elizabeth. Czechs and Germans. London: Oxforid University Press, 1938. Yurchak, P. The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa. 1946. (THIRD PRIZE AWARD) � 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 134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. SLOVAKIA 135 Louis the German feared Svatopluk was building a strong Slavic state that could pose a threat to his German Empire. Consequently, Slavomir, a Moravian prince, was elected by the Slavs to take over Svatopluk's position of leadership, and initiated a rebellion against the Germans.3 Svatopluk eonvinced Carloman to allow him to direct a siege of the fortress of Devin, where he betrayed his troops, destroyed the German army, and again became the ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. He pressed the offensive against the Germans, and in 873, he defeated Carloman decisively. Carloman sought a truce, and in 874, he signed a treaty with Svatopluk at Forsheim which acknowledged the independence of Great Moravia. Svatopluk then waged wars against Panonia, Bohemia, the Vislanians, and the Lusatian Serbs to extend the frontier of his empire. Because Carloman's son and successor as one of the claimants of the German Empire, Arnulf, also feared a large Slavic state on his eastern border, he sought an alliance with the Magyars against Great Moravia and attacked Devin several times during the remainder of Svatopluk's reign. The empire always repulsed those attacks as long as Svatopluk lived. 4 It is almost impossible to determine the motives of a man who lived oved a millenium ago, yet the question arises whether Svatopluk sought control and expansion of the ~reat Moravian Empire to satisfy his own powerlust, or whether he was convinced of the importance and necessity of a united Slavic peoples, and determined to create such a union. Svatopluk's first move for power appears to be a traitorous one. It is doubtful that he questioned his uncle's statesmanship and loyalty to the Slavic state, because Rastislav considered the independence of his country most important. He was painfully aware of the German military and cultural imperialistic foreign policy.5 Consequently, he strengthened his country militarily. Fortresses were built, a strong army was trained, and support was obtained from the other Moravian princes who still retained their lands after the fall of Mojmir, the predecessor of Rastislav. Rastislav was able to defeat the attacking German armies in 855, thus gaining even greater support from the local princes.6 By this time, 136 SLOVAKIA Great Moravia was secure, and Rastislav was able to concentrate on the domestic problems in his country. Rastislav publicly opposed the Carolingian brand of Christianity the German missionaries were imposing on the Slavs in a foreign language. He realized that the Christian culture spread by the German clerics would inevitably cause the ebbing of Slavonic community among his people and a gradual German takeover of the Great Moravian Empire. 7 However, Rastislav was aware of the political advantage Christianity held for the Slavs. If the Slavic people accepted it, the Christian faith might be an invaluable link in the alliance of the Slavs against their enemies.8 He turned to the East and asked Michael III, Emperor at Constantinople, to send missionaries who would teach in the Slavonic language.9 In 863, Rastislav welcomed the brothers, Constantine and Methodius to his domain to teach Christianity in the vernacular. 10 The German bishops in Salzburg, Passau, and Regensburg and the Bavarian missionaries in Moravia protested against the activities of the eastern missionaries, accusing them of initiating dangerous liturgical reforms and ignoring German ecclesiastical authority. Constantine and Methodius were called to Rome to defend themselves.11 After convincing the papacy of their orthodoxy, and then, after Constantine's untimely death, Methodius returned alone to Great Moravia as archbishop and papal legate with the authority to organize the Church among the Slavs, and with the permission to use the Slavonic liturgy. 12 The German bishops flouted the papacy's approval of Methodius' apostolate and imprisoned him. At this time, Church-state affairs were considerably integrated. Papal authority in secular affairs developed as a result of fifth century papal thinking, which held that ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions were distinct, but papal authority was considered superior to secular power because the papacy had sovereign authority, whereas the secular leadership had only derivative administrative authority.13 Theoretically under the pope's authority, the Church's bishops, who were often from aristocratic families, asserted their leadership and influence in major European cities. They created the only effective replace- SLOVAKIA 137 ment for the diminishing secular organization of society, becoming the main secular power of their districts. However, because of their own power bases, the bishops were often tempted and often did, in fact, flout the pope's dictates, creating division not necessarily between the pope and secular ruler, but between the pope and bishops, with the secular . ruler siding with either one, as occured in the Great Moravia case. 14 Svatopluk, during his regency at Nitra, championed the German opposition in the Moravian religious controversy in order to gain the German backing for his attempt to usurp Rastis1av's power. 15 Thus, Svatopluk's first major powerplay was made after his extensive effort to form a strong political alliance with the Germans succeeded. Svatopluk proved to be a strong and independent ruler once in control of the Great Moravian Empire. Having achieved the headship of state, he sought the absolute control of the Moravian Empire. Soon, however, the Germans suspected his loyalty to the German Empire. Consequently, in 871, Svatopluk was deposed and imprisoned, despite his denial of charges for having plotted against the German Crown. 16 Svatopluk continued to play his political games with the Germans despite his temporary loss of a power base. Carloman was unable to suppress, after several attempts, Slavomir's rebellion. Therefore, Svatopluk asked to lead an army against Slavomir.17 Carloman finally decided to risk Svatopluk's leadership, and sent the Slav in command of the German army to put down the Moravian uprising, trusting for the success of the arrangement to Svatopluk's gratitude and to the division among the Moravian princes. 18 When the army reached Devin, Svatopluk ordered his men to encamp below the fortress while he went up to the castle under the pretenses of persuading the Moravians under Slavomir to surrender without a fight. 19 However, since the most he could receive from a German victory was limited control of Great Moravia under German hegemony, although he would more likely be imprisoned eventually for trying to build a strong Moravian Empire again, Svatopluk decided that the Germans had outlived their usefulness to his quest for power. Consequently, he 138 SLOVAKIA reversed his loyalties, betrayed his command, and told Slavomfr of a plan he had to defeat the German army. Then, taking command of the Moravian forces, Svatopluk waged a surprise attack on the men he was commanding the previous day. The German troops were crushed under the savage attack. 20 Svatopluk continued to press the offensive against Carloman until the German sought a truce in 873. The following year at Forsheim, Carloman signed an agreement recognizing the independence of the Great Moravian Empire.21 Svatopluk's ambition to have absolute control of Great Moravia was finally realized. It was no longer politically expedient for Svatopluk to curry German favor, so he turned to his Slav neighbors to strengthen his power position. He married the sister of the Czech duke, Botivoj, to broaden the sphere of his influence to include Bohemia.22 He brought the Pannonians and the Lusatian Serbs under his rule and defeated the powerful pagan ruler of the Vislanian Poles. His extended Great Moravian Empire appears to have been more of a federation than an empire, which was created by the alliances of the overpowered Slavic princes under the leadership of Svatopluk.23 The foreign policy of the Great Moravian Empire under Rastislav was reshaped by Svatopluk. He wanted to gain the support of the papacy in Rome rather than that of the Byzantine Emperor.24 In 879, the relationship between the East Frankish. Empire and Rome was cool, and the Byzantine Empire was considered a theological threat to Christianity. Svatopluk reasoned that the pope would want and need an ally. Therefore, he sent his personal envoy, Zemezizeit, along with Archbishop Methodius, who had been freed in 873 from his German captors, to secure for his empire the recognition and "protection" of the papacy. 25 However, Svatopluk did not return the favor to Methodius and back his position on ecclesiastical matters. Methodius had been freed after three years of German imprisonment, through the efforts of Pope John VIII, who suspended the German bishops and thretened them with excommunication.26 In 879, however, Methodius was SLOVAKIA 139 summoned to Rome again to appear before the Roman Synod. Through the instigation of Wiching, a German Benedictine who Svatopluk appointed Bishop of Nitra during Methodius' imprisonment, the German bishops charged Methodius with supporting and teaching the Greek heresy of the Single Procession. Again, Methodius defended himself successfully, convinced the pope that he accepted his authority, and returned to Moravia with the pope's blessing.27 After this contrived issue was resolved, the actual dispute was brought to a head. The German bishops were determined to prove the Slavonic liturgy unlawful, and to abolish the Archbishopric of Moravia. They declared that the use of the "barbarous" Slavonic language in the liturgy degraded the religious service. Their argument was a reference in the scriptures which described the inscription Pilate had written on the Cross in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Methodius argued than on Pentecost, the apostles taught about the Christ in all the languages so that all present could understand. The pope rejected the German clergy's argument, and, once again, sanctioned the apostolic works of Methodius.28 Svatopluk found it convenient to side with the German bishops on this issue. Pope John suggested that Svatopluk and his courtiers could use the Latin liturgy at his court, if they really felt that strongly about the liturgy issue. 29 Pope John also made a statement concerning Svatopluk's appointment of Wiching as Bishop of Nitra. The pope was aware of Svatopluk's intention to counterbalance the authority of Methodius. Therefore, he agreed to recognize the appointment provided that Wiching was subordinate to Methodius. John also recommended that Svatopluk appoints future bishops with Methodius' advice and consent. 30 Of course, the pope was protecting his own political interests. Methodius was the safer party to back, rather than the German bishops, whose first loyalties were always to the German Empire. Svatopluk even used Methodius when his political position would be enhanced. He subtly used Methodius' presence in Rome to try to obtain the recognition of his Great Moravian Empire by the papacy in 879. However, 140 SLOVAKIA Svatopluk generally opposed the efforts of the missionary, because of his fierce hatred for Methodius.31 Svatopluk was a nominal Christian who still followed pagan practices. His behavior made Methodius' task of creating a solid organization among the Slavs more difficult, since their leader did not take the Christian faith seriously. It appears as though Methodius reproached him on occasion for his irresponsibility, and Svatopluk naturally resented it.32 The hostility that existed between Methodius and Svatopluk might have eventually resulted in the exile or death of the archbishop, had not the relations between Svatopluk and Arnulf become cold because of Arnulf's growing influence in Pannonia. Svatopluk's preocupation with Arnulf's menacing prevented the Moravian ruler from taking stronger action against Methodius. However, after Methodius' death in 885, Svatopluk rejected the archbishop's chosen successor, Gorazd, warmed his relations with An1ulf, and expelled Methodius' closest followers from Moravia. Slavic services were outlowed by Svatopluk; a new pope was elected in Rome, who condoned Svatopluk's action; and the German priests of the Latin rite took control of the church organization in the Great Moravian Empire.33 Arnulf never trusted the strong Moravian ruler on his borders. Therefore, he sought an alliance with the Magyars, who had recently migrated to the vicinity, to destroy the i>lavic empire. Yet, despite the nwnerous German-Magyar attacks, Great Moravia thrived until the death of Svatopluk in 894. 34 Svatopluk's record as ruler of the Great Moravian Empire is almost a flawless case study for Hans Morgenthau's power school theory, which asserts that all politics is a struggle for power. 35 The evidence shows that throughout his public life, Svatopluk would use any means to gain and maintain power. His initial rise to power was cloaked in treachery. After he lost his power, he managed to persuade his captor to trust him with an army which was to attack Svatopluk's countrymen, only to betray his army and seize control of Great Moravia again. He waged wars recurrently to extend his influence over the Slavs, and to stand up to the Germans. He negotiated SLOVAKIA 141 alliances when they would strengthen his position. It appears that he always gave his support or sought support only when it was politically expedient. Since every move Svatopluk made seemed to be a politically expedient one, one of his official policies does not fit into the pattern. For the most part, he actively opposed the Christianization of the Great Moravian Empire in the Slavonic language. He rejected Rastislav's contention that Slavonic Christianity would enhance the ethnic community of the Great Moravian Empire, fortify it from German culture, and, especially, create a strong bond among the Slavic peoples. Svatopluk must have realized that his own power could only be strengthened under such circumstances, yet, he continually opposed Methodius' activities. Historians propose that Svatopluk was against the archbishop because Methodius rebuked him for his pagan ways, which hindered the effectiveness of the apostle's mission. Svatopluk's relations with Methodius seem to be the one major contradiction in the former's career. For the wily Svatopluk to jeopardize his power over a personality conflict seems out of character, which leads one to suspect that he might have considered Methodius to be larger threat to his power than the Germans were. Though the German bishops were temporal princes as well as spiritual leaders, Svatopluk was probably confident in his ability to deal with them. He might have feared Methodius because of the missionary's widespread popularity and influence over all the Slavs, which could have easily been used to the advantage of the archbishop if he sought temporal power as the German bishops did. If Svatopluk did consider Methodius a threat to his power, and not just a bothersome conscience, such a threat would be far more immediate to Svatopluk than a German cultural-imperialistic foreign policy, and therefore, his antagonism toward Methodius would be understandable. The evidence, construed from the few known facts about Svatopluk, would suggest that Svatopluk was indeed a political opportunist. However, the Slovak romantic writers of the nineteenth century, in an effort to create a feeling of a glorious national past among their people, 142 SLOVAKIA cast Svatopluk into the role of a great national hero whose sole intention was to build a strong Slavic state for the Slavis in East Central Europe. Jan Holly, a leading Slovak poet, in his epic, "Svatopluk," gives an exaggerated picture of Svatopluk's victories in his military campaigns for independence and enlargement of the Great Moravian Empire. 36 Most of the nineteenth century writers embroidered legend over fact to create a very noble Svatopluk, downplaying his crimes because, according to their sources, he repented in the end anyway. Slovak romantics wanted a national hero with integrity, selfless motivation, and absolute devotion to the Slavic Empire. Consequently, they squeezed Svatopluk into their conceived mold of a national hero, rewriting history in the process. Too many kings and soldiers who tremendously increased the power and prestige of a nation are either remembered mainly for their treachery and cruelty, or are recast into noble superhuman King Arthurs and Lancelots, while some bishops and priests, who may have weakened the national consciousness and national independence by preaching foremost loyalty to the Church, are revered and even considered "symbols of a distinctive national life."38 Svatopluk was a cruel and unscrupulous antagonist of Methodius and his disciples. He was treacherous in usurping his uncle's power. He was a talented politician who used every legitimate, as well as illegitimate, form of statescraft to increase his power. He was a political opportunist. Svatopluk was on the opposite side of the spectrum from the virtuous hero the nineteenth century romantics wanted to make him. Yet, from the objective nationalistic viewpoint, he did establish Slavic greatness. He did champion the independence of the Slavic Empire. He did defend the Great Moravian Empire against the barbaric Magyar invaders. 39 Under Svatopluk's leadership, Great Moravia became the center of a strong Slavic alliance. Svatopluk wielded an authority over the Slav princes which was at least equal to that of the German Emperor over the princes which were subject to him. 40 The impact of Svatopluk's unified Slavic state has influenced Slavic political history throughout the last SLOVAKIA 143 twelve hundred years. Sviitopluk developed the tradition of unity. FOOTNOTES Oscar Halecki, Borderlands of Western Civilization (New York, 1952 ) , p. 25; hereafter cited as Haleckrl.. 2) Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovaki a and Its People (New York, N . Y. , 1960 ), p. 15; hereafter cited as Oddo. 1) 3 ) 0&10, p. 16. 4 ) Od/do, pp. 17-18. 5 ) Joseph Skultety, Sketches from Slovak History (Middletown, Pa., 1930 ), p. 10; hereafter cited as Skultety. 6) P. Yurchak, The Slovaks (Scranton, Pa. , 1946 ), p. 35; hereafter cited as Yurchak. 7 ) Skultety, p. 10. 8) C. Edmund Maurice, Bohemia (New York, 1896) , p. 10; hereafter 9) 10 ) 11 ) 12 ) 13 ) 14) 15) 16 ) 17 ) 18 ) 19) 20 ) 21 ) 22 ) 23 ) 24 ) 25 ) 26) 27 ) 28) 29 ) 30 ) 31 ) 32 ) cited as Maurice. Oddo, p. 12. Maurice, p. 10. Yurchak, p. 51 . Yurchak, p. 52. Norman Cantor, Western Civili zation Its Genesis and Destiny (Glenview, Ill., 1969), p. 301 ; hereafter citdd as Cantor. Cantor, p. 301 . Maurice, p. 11 . Oddo, p. 16. Oddo, p. 16. Yurchak, p. 36. Oddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Maurice, p . 12. Yurchak, p. 37. Frantisek Kavka, A n Outline of Czechoslovak Hist ory (Prague, 1963 ) , p. 18; hereafter cited as Kavka. ojddo, p. 17. Oddo, p. 17. Maurice, p. 14. Maurice, p. 15. Maurice, p. 15. Maurice, p. 15. R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (Hamden, Conn., 1965 ), p. 13 ; hereafter cited as Seton-Watson. Oddo, p. 18. 144 SLOVAKIA 33) Maurice, p. 16. 34) Frederick G. Heymann, Poland and Czechoslovakia (Englewood Cliffs, N. J ., 1966), p. 27. 35 ) Hans J . Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (New York, 1967 ), 4th dd., p . 3. 36) Yurchak, p. 37. 37 ) Seton-Watson, p. 25. 38 ) Maurice, p. 18. 39 ) Maurice, p. 19. 40) Maurice, p. 19. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cantor, Norman. Western Civilization Its Genesis and Destiny. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1969. Halecki, Oscar. Borderlands of Western Civilizati on. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1952. Heymann, Frederick C. Poland and Czechoslovaki a. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall Inc., 1966. Kavka, Franti.sek. An Outline of Czechoslovak History. Prague: Orbis, 1963. Krofta, Kamil. A Short History of Czechoslovakia. London: Williams and Norgate L~d., 1935. Lutzow, Count. Bohemi a: An Historical Sketch. London: J. M . Dent and Sons, 1910 Maurice, C. Edmund. Bohemia. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1896. Monroe, W. S. Bohemia and the Czechs. London: L. C. Page and Co. Inc., 1910. Morgenthau, Hans J. Politics Among Nations, 4th ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1967. Od\do, Gilbert L. Slov akia and Its People. New York : Robert ,Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Rechcigl, Miloslav, ed. The Czec hoslovak Contribution to World Cul.titre. The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1964. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965. Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1930. Wiskeman, Elizabeth. Czechs and Germans. London: Oxforid University Press, 1938. Yurchak, P. The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa. 1946. (THIRD PRIZE AWARD)  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 Svätopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Description An account of the resource Mary Susan Sabol Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 134-144 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sabol, Mary Susan 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/9dc86c5a6e35cec03fa65bcc3c27426b.pdf 83e57f4902c0efb3f718c590d57f75fe PDF Text Text 124 SLOVAKIA General Milan Rastislav Stefanik and the Moven1ent for Czecho-Slovak Independence Mary Ann Kadera It soon became apparent to Thomas G. Masaryk and the group of exiles around him; namely, Edward Benes, Antonin Svehla, and the Doctors Hajn, Scheiner, Herban and samal1 that in order to induce the allies to agree to the partition of the Dual Monarchy, the people who would be free after the partition had to make a tangible contribution to the allied war efforts. "To this end the National Czecho-Slovak Committee was established with Masaryk as head, Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, as secretary and the great Slovak, General Milan Stefanik as vice president." 2 Since Stefanik was the only one of the three who had had any military experience (he had served with distinction in the French Air Force) the task of providing a Czecho-Slovak division to fight with the allied armies was given to him. The son of a Protestant minister, Stefanik, who was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska in 1880, had achieved a brilliant career as a mathematician and an astronomer of world wide stature. After completing his studies of science, law and medicine at the University of Prague, he went to Paris in 19043 where he became Secretary to the Astronomical Observ:atory. As a result he was sent on scientific and astronomical missions to various parts of the world such as Mont Blanc, Spain, Oxford, Turkestan, Algiers, South America and Tahiti. 4 Using his influence in the Frenoh social circle, Stefanik began to acquaint those in influence of Magyar tyranny and to gain their sympathy for the suffering Slovak nation. As soon as Austria declared war on Serbs, Stefanik left Marocco where he had been engaged in astronomical observation and returned to France and enlisted as a private in the French army. (Stefanik was also a citizen �SLOVAKIA 125 of France). After first fighting on the Western front, Stefanik was tranferred to the French Air Force in January and in July 1915 took part in the battles on the Aisne and near Ypres. 5 Afterwards he was sent as an airman to Serbia. Having no contact with Masaryk or his plans as yet, Stefanik already thought of organizing a separate corps of Slovaks who had fought against their convictions on the side of Austria-Hungary and who had been captured by the Allies. Due to the Serbian retreat he was forced to abandon this plan. Toward the end of November, Stefanik arrived in Rome on a special torpedo boat from Vallona. While in Rome his fame as a member of the French Academy led to his acquaintance with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Barrere and Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister. Upon returning to Paris, Stefanik became associated with Masaryk and Benes. Thus the nucleus of the CzechoSlovak Legion was organized in France. It was Stefanik who held the link to the important government officials who would one day decide the fate of Austria-Hungary and with it Czecho-Slovakia. Stefanik travelled to Italy where he used his influence to spread the cause of establishing an independent state for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the defeat of AustriaHungary. In July and August of 19166 he visited Russia where he conferred with all military authorities and even with the Tsar who sent, through Stefanik, greetings to Masaryk and approval of his policy. From Russia Stefanik went to the Rumanian front where he organized many volunteer Slovak prisoners for military service in France which arrived in the summer of 1917. He returned to Russia in January 1917 and then proceeded to Paris. While in Paris, he kept in touch with the Southern Slavic states and Italy. Then, he continued to Rome. 7 Of Stefanik and his journey, Thomas G. Masaryk, in his book, The Making of a State, comments: His methods were those of an apostle rather than of <1 diplomat and soldier. In Paris, where he had gradually made a ckcle of friends and admirers, he smoothed the way for me and for Dr. Benes in many an influential quarter and he did tqe same in Rome. When I Ulink of him I always remember the picture ()f �126 SLOVAKIA our little Slovak tinkers who wander throughout the world; but this Slovak wandered through all the Allied fronts, through all Government Departments, political drawing-rooms and Courts. From him Marshall Foch heard for the first time about us and our work against Austria.a "But perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of his people was the visit he made to the United States in 1917." 9 In the United States, American Slovaks and Czechs were promoting the cause of Czechoslovakia. It was Stefanik who was largely responsible for the combining of the two efforts ( one here and the other in Paris) toward the common goal both were seeking. Although the American Slovaks wanted a Slovakia free of Magyar rule, they distrusted the idea of uniting with the Czechs who were numerically superior. Before they would accept this union, they had to be guaranteeed that Slovakia would be a political and cultural autonomy in the proposed new state. For this reason representatives of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League met and signed the Cleveland Agreement. In the Agreement three main points were emphasized: 1) The new state would be a federal republic consisting of both Czech lands (Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia) and Slovakia. 2) Slovakia would be nationally autonomous, it would have its own administration, schools and cultural development and also the use of the Slovak language within its borders. 3) Voting suffrage in Czecho-Slovakia would be secret, universal and direct. 10 But despite the good will which was created by the Cleveland Agreement, Slovak fears of "Czechism" still persisted. There was good reason for this fear. In 1916 Czech spokesmen began to use the term "Czechia" to describe the Council's objectives, the Council's publication, "Samostatnost," talked unceasingly of the Czech army, the Czech language and the Czech culture, leaving no doubt that for them the new state was to be dominated by the Czechs. Even Masaryk stated in an official communique to London that "The Slovaks are Czechs." In so doing, he not only ignored a thousand years of history but also brought the full weight of Slovak wrath upon him. In his reply to Masaryk, Vladimir Hurban wrote to Masaryk in 1917: �SLOVAKIA 127 There is not a single Slovak in all Slovakia who would call himself a Czech. Slovaks regard themselves as an ethnically distinct nation, as such we have lived and suffered. As Slovaks we hope to see dawn of liberty fur our land; we wish to unite with Czechs in one political state, but onl.y if our national and cultural autonomy will be safeguarded.11 In order to counteract the Pan-Czech attitude and to have the Cleveland Agreement gain wider acceptance in Europe, the Slovak League of America sent Gustav Kosik, editor of the Catholic Sokol and Dr. Stephen Osusky, a lawyer and a Protestant minister, as its representative to the National Council. During this time the recruitment of the Czech-Slovak foreign legion was going wery slowly. For this reason Edward Benes requested the French government to entrust Stefanik with the mission of organizing volunteers among the American Czechs and Slovaks for the army in France with the approval of the United States government. Permission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia. Stefanik postponed this trip to the United States in order to complete his work in Rumania where he gained one thousand 12 prisoners for the Czecho-Slovak army. Before stefanik's departure 1 the French government had already sent a special political commission headed by Franklin Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States government for this task. Upon arriving in America in June 191713 Stefanik through the French ambassador, Jusserand, immediately contacted the government officials in Washington. After a conference with the then Secretary of State, Lansing, in which Jusserand stressed the loyalty of the Czechs and Slovaks to the United States of America, permission was granted to all Czechs and Slovaks not subject to military duty in the American army to join the CzechoSlovak Legion in France. Besides the recruitment, Stefanik · also had to see to the financial and travelling arrangements. While in the United States, Stefanik contacted American journalists and wrote several articles on the cause for the newpapers. He aroused both the interest of F. H. Allen of the "World" and of Gordon Smith, ("The New Republic,") and his articles soon appeared in their magazines. �128 SLOVAKIA Theodore Roosevelt, Lansing Frank and A. Polk Oater the head of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles) were other influential people with whom Stefanik caxne in close contact. 14 It has been conceded by most historians that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in the United States by securing the cooperation of both parties ( the Czechs and the Slovaks) in the Czecho-Slovak movement. stefanik was a true Slovak patriot. "While dealing with him the American Slovaks could be sure of an integrity and a sincere awareness of Slovak affairs they often found missing in Czech leaders." 15 For this reason, Stefanik was able to dispel the skepticism with which the Slovaks had greeted any and all manifestations of centralist Pan-Czechism. The first important meeting between Stefanik and the Czechs and the Slovaks was held on July 1, 191 7 at the Congress Hall Hotel in Washington. Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech National Society; Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League; Emil Voslm; Ivan Daxner; Charles Pergler; Dr. Hrdlicka; Ivan Bielek; and, Ferdinand Pisecky were some of the important men who attended. "Stefanik reported on conditions in Russia but the main object of the meeting was to arrange the military organization and the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czecho-Slovak question and against his so-called 'autonomistic attitude,' Stefanik emphasized the necessity of forming a politically inseparable state and not an ethnographically inseparable one." 16 (Whether Stefanik envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak affairs is not clear.) Charles Pergler who also attended the meeting has asserted: " Naturally, the representatives of the Slovak organizations of the future Czechoslovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik always insisted that it was the concern of the nation at home, that it alone must decide concerning its future organization, in short, that it is impossible to dictate from beyond the borders of the country and that every such attempt would be futile. Whenever the question of Slovak autonomy arose, he !decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded from th<>se living outside of the new state. " 11 �SLOVAKIA 129 However, it is impossible to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written promise, did reach an agreement with the American Slovaks and succeeded in gaining their cooperation with the American Czechs without the Slovaks relinquishing their principles. Stefanik in a ringing declaration on September 16 at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting told several thousand compatriots that "Our fight against Austria-Hungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent State free of Magyar-German domination." 18 It was at this meeting also that Franklin Bouillon made the first public statement by an influential allied statesman officially calling for the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. At a meeting held in New York on September 20, Stefanik was able to dispel the fears of the Slovak Catholic clergymen-that Slovak Catholicism would suffer at the hands of a completely Czechi"zed non-Catholic or perhaps anti-Catholic government in Prague. Stefanik and the Clergy agreed that the new state would have to guarantee religious in addition to cultural freedom for Slovakia before the American Slovaks would give their full support to it. Of the success of this meeting Benes later wrote: ''The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanik broke all suspicion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence . . ." 19 Although stefanik's delicate health prohibited him from making many public appearances, when he did, however, he succeeded in making a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke both Slovak and Czech and would sometimes pass from one laguage into the other in the same speech. "He gained the confidence off the people by his enthusiasm and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising attitude towards all things." 20 In other meetings which were held Stefanik met with presidents of the Slovak and Czech organizations (July 1); received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting �130 SLOVAKIA (July 24); was present at a meeting of Czecho-Slovak artists (August 13); and, in September addressed the Czech and Slovak women of New York. 21 After a meeting which took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth of October, Stefanik along with other Czech and Slovak leaders organized a Czecho-Slovak military committee in order that the recruiting could proceed in an orga_¢zed manner. After the meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mobilization by Stefanik who also issued instructions for the Czecho-Slovak soldiers in America. The country was divided into four sections each · with a separate "reporter" who was responsible to Stefanik. This plan later had to be adjusted. The recruiting did not go as well as had been expected. Many of the Czechs and Slovaks had already joined the Canadian army even before the United States entered the War and, forty thousand22 joined the American army soon after the United States entered. Thus, only two thousand five hundred23 men were recruited. Having completed the task of cementing Czecho-Sloval{ relationships in the United States, Stefanik was granted permission by French General Vignal to return to Paris in order to organize the Czechs in France. Vignal highly praised stefanik's work in America in a telegram sent on November 5 and December 5, 1917 saying: "He proved to possess the highest degree of tact, discipline and sense for organization. His personal influence in all matters was such that no misunderstanding arose during his stay and all the Crech groups followed his directions" aqd again "I am not able to praise sufficiently this great patriot, coolheaded and inspired by the most honest and highest feelings. Full of tact and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he organizeld with the greatest success the recruiting of the Czechoslovaks."24 All of this time, the collapse of Austria-Hungary continued steadily. In 1918 for the first time the Czech members of the Reichsrat demanded a sovereign state of their own. The establishment of Czecho-Slovakia had only vaguely been an allied war aim. However, when the Allies realized how important a Czech and Slovak movement free of Bolshevism would be in central Europe, the National Council then began to make progress. It was �SLOVAKIA 131 Stefani.k's Czecho-Slovak legion in Russia that finally swayed the tide of allied opinion. The legion had remained apart from and had even fought against the Bolsheviks and, for this reason, Allied statesmen took another look at Masaryk's National Council and its aims. May 30, 1918 Thomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact which guaranteed Slovakia its autonomy. "On September 3, 1918 Masaryk and the National Council were recognized as the de-facto government of Czecho-Slovakia. The new government now had legal existence.''.25 However, the feeling which followed this was shortlived. It was soon discovered that Masaryk did not take the signing of the Pittsburgh Pact seriously as can be seen by the statement, "it (the Pittsburgh Pact) was concluded in order to appease a small faction which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independence for Slovakia." 26 According to Gilbert L. Oddo, the Slovaks in America should have insisted that Stefanik, too, sign the Pittsburgh Pact thus binding the National Council itself. The declaration of independence that was presented to Secretary of State Lansing in order to be approved had stated: "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 27 Stefanik was displeased with the manner and the wording of the declaration. An aide had written that the General was disturbed because the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris; issued without his previous knowledge; and, that Masaryk had affixed his (Stefanik's) signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik voiced these objections both to Masaryk and Benes by telegraph on October eighteenth. 28 Soon after Masaryk's National Council took over the Czecho-Slovak government in Prague on October 28, 191829 other atrocities were committed to make Slovakia seem more insignificant. Dr. Vavro srobar was appointed by Prague as Minister Plenipotentiary for the administration of Slovakia. He had surrounded himself solely with Prague-educated Czechophiles and was strongly against any form of Slovak autonomy. �132 SLOVAKIA At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, the Slovak nation was included in Czecho-Slovakia only because Masaryk and Benes asserted that the Slovaks were Czechs who spoke a dialect of the Czech language. When Andrew Hlinka, the great Slovak fighter for autonomy and leader of the Slovak People's Party, wanted to expose this false claim, he was expelled. He was later imprisoned by the Czechs. But the worst blow to Slovakia was the death of General Milan Stefanik amidst circumstances that have been suspected ever since. A little after 11 a.m. on May 4, 1919 the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495, carrying Stefanik to CzechoSlovakia to take up his duties as first Minister of Defense in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. In one blind flash the plane rocked, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground, a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage thrown up by the Czecho-Slovak military garrison at the field on orders from its Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to keep the tragedy very secret. When that proved to be impossible, stefanik's death was explained as an accident. The commanding officer had thought it to be an enemy plane. "But despite all the rationalizing attempts of Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered." 30 Masaryk expressed his personal regrets but refused to have the "accident" investigated either because it would damage the negotiations at Versailles or perhaps because it would give damaging evidence of Czech duplicity and deceit. Stefanik had been openly displeased with the slighting reference to Slovakia in Masaryk's declaration of independence. "Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still to the Czech centralism, the outline of which by this time had already been revealed."31 He was a Slovak Christian who could nev_er compromise with the rationalist agnosticism of the chief policy makers in Prague. Stefanik was thus an "inconvenient gadfly" 32 to Czech plans to make Slovakia a part of the "great Czechia" that �SLOVAKIA 133 the National Council had dreamed of. The death of Stefanik served Prague well. It can only be suspected if it was planned that way. Even from the sketchy reference to his work and the surprisingly meagre sources available to the historian of today, it is clearly evident that in courage, in self-sacrifice, in tact and ability in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the cause he was no t surpassed by anyone of the leaders in the Czech<>-Slovak movement for independence.33 Thus, with stefanik',s death the year 1919 came to a tragic close. The autonomy which had been sought, cherished and died for under Magyar rule still seemed a remote hope. Indeed, Slovakia did not become an independent state until 1939 under Tiso. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) S. Harrison Thomson, Czecho-Slovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1944, p. 252. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia And Its People, New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960, p . 160. Dr. Thomas Garigue Masaryk, The Making of a State, New York : Frederick A. Stokes, 1927, p. 191. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 102. Ibid., p. 104. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p . 161. Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p . 163. Stephanie 0. Husek, " General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in America,"' Jednota Katolicky Kalend.ar, 1938, p. 184. Gilbert L. O<l):lo, op. cit., p. 165. Stephanie 0 . Husek, op. cit., p. 185. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 166. Stephanie 0 . Rusek, op. cit., p. 189. Ibid. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 167. Ibid. , pp. 168-169. Stephanie 0. Husek, <ip. cit., p. 190. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 183. Ib~i., p. 184. Ibid. , p. 192. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 177. Ibid., p. 176. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid. Ibid., p. 182. Ibid., pp. 191-192. �134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. � 124 SLOVAKIA General Milan Rastislav Stefanik and the Moven1ent for Czecho-Slovak Independence Mary Ann Kadera It soon became apparent to Thomas G. Masaryk and the group of exiles around him; namely, Edward Benes, Antonin Svehla, and the Doctors Hajn, Scheiner, Herban and samal1 that in order to induce the allies to agree to the partition of the Dual Monarchy, the people who would be free after the partition had to make a tangible contribution to the allied war efforts. "To this end the National Czecho-Slovak Committee was established with Masaryk as head, Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, as secretary and the great Slovak, General Milan Stefanik as vice president." 2 Since Stefanik was the only one of the three who had had any military experience (he had served with distinction in the French Air Force) the task of providing a Czecho-Slovak division to fight with the allied armies was given to him. The son of a Protestant minister, Stefanik, who was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska in 1880, had achieved a brilliant career as a mathematician and an astronomer of world wide stature. After completing his studies of science, law and medicine at the University of Prague, he went to Paris in 19043 where he became Secretary to the Astronomical Observ:atory. As a result he was sent on scientific and astronomical missions to various parts of the world such as Mont Blanc, Spain, Oxford, Turkestan, Algiers, South America and Tahiti. 4 Using his influence in the Frenoh social circle, Stefanik began to acquaint those in influence of Magyar tyranny and to gain their sympathy for the suffering Slovak nation. As soon as Austria declared war on Serbs, Stefanik left Marocco where he had been engaged in astronomical observation and returned to France and enlisted as a private in the French army. (Stefanik was also a citizen �SLOVAKIA 125 of France). After first fighting on the Western front, Stefanik was tranferred to the French Air Force in January and in July 1915 took part in the battles on the Aisne and near Ypres. 5 Afterwards he was sent as an airman to Serbia. Having no contact with Masaryk or his plans as yet, Stefanik already thought of organizing a separate corps of Slovaks who had fought against their convictions on the side of Austria-Hungary and who had been captured by the Allies. Due to the Serbian retreat he was forced to abandon this plan. Toward the end of November, Stefanik arrived in Rome on a special torpedo boat from Vallona. While in Rome his fame as a member of the French Academy led to his acquaintance with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Barrere and Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister. Upon returning to Paris, Stefanik became associated with Masaryk and Benes. Thus the nucleus of the CzechoSlovak Legion was organized in France. It was Stefanik who held the link to the important government officials who would one day decide the fate of Austria-Hungary and with it Czecho-Slovakia. Stefanik travelled to Italy where he used his influence to spread the cause of establishing an independent state for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the defeat of AustriaHungary. In July and August of 19166 he visited Russia where he conferred with all military authorities and even with the Tsar who sent, through Stefanik, greetings to Masaryk and approval of his policy. From Russia Stefanik went to the Rumanian front where he organized many volunteer Slovak prisoners for military service in France which arrived in the summer of 1917. He returned to Russia in January 1917 and then proceeded to Paris. While in Paris, he kept in touch with the Southern Slavic states and Italy. Then, he continued to Rome. 7 Of Stefanik and his journey, Thomas G. Masaryk, in his book, The Making of a State, comments: His methods were those of an apostle rather than of <1 diplomat and soldier. In Paris, where he had gradually made a ckcle of friends and admirers, he smoothed the way for me and for Dr. Benes in many an influential quarter and he did tqe same in Rome. When I Ulink of him I always remember the picture ()f �126 SLOVAKIA our little Slovak tinkers who wander throughout the world; but this Slovak wandered through all the Allied fronts, through all Government Departments, political drawing-rooms and Courts. From him Marshall Foch heard for the first time about us and our work against Austria.a "But perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of his people was the visit he made to the United States in 1917." 9 In the United States, American Slovaks and Czechs were promoting the cause of Czechoslovakia. It was Stefanik who was largely responsible for the combining of the two efforts ( one here and the other in Paris) toward the common goal both were seeking. Although the American Slovaks wanted a Slovakia free of Magyar rule, they distrusted the idea of uniting with the Czechs who were numerically superior. Before they would accept this union, they had to be guaranteeed that Slovakia would be a political and cultural autonomy in the proposed new state. For this reason representatives of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League met and signed the Cleveland Agreement. In the Agreement three main points were emphasized: 1) The new state would be a federal republic consisting of both Czech lands (Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia) and Slovakia. 2) Slovakia would be nationally autonomous, it would have its own administration, schools and cultural development and also the use of the Slovak language within its borders. 3) Voting suffrage in Czecho-Slovakia would be secret, universal and direct. 10 But despite the good will which was created by the Cleveland Agreement, Slovak fears of "Czechism" still persisted. There was good reason for this fear. In 1916 Czech spokesmen began to use the term "Czechia" to describe the Council's objectives, the Council's publication, "Samostatnost," talked unceasingly of the Czech army, the Czech language and the Czech culture, leaving no doubt that for them the new state was to be dominated by the Czechs. Even Masaryk stated in an official communique to London that "The Slovaks are Czechs." In so doing, he not only ignored a thousand years of history but also brought the full weight of Slovak wrath upon him. In his reply to Masaryk, Vladimir Hurban wrote to Masaryk in 1917: �SLOVAKIA 127 There is not a single Slovak in all Slovakia who would call himself a Czech. Slovaks regard themselves as an ethnically distinct nation, as such we have lived and suffered. As Slovaks we hope to see dawn of liberty fur our land; we wish to unite with Czechs in one political state, but onl.y if our national and cultural autonomy will be safeguarded.11 In order to counteract the Pan-Czech attitude and to have the Cleveland Agreement gain wider acceptance in Europe, the Slovak League of America sent Gustav Kosik, editor of the Catholic Sokol and Dr. Stephen Osusky, a lawyer and a Protestant minister, as its representative to the National Council. During this time the recruitment of the Czech-Slovak foreign legion was going wery slowly. For this reason Edward Benes requested the French government to entrust Stefanik with the mission of organizing volunteers among the American Czechs and Slovaks for the army in France with the approval of the United States government. Permission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia. Stefanik postponed this trip to the United States in order to complete his work in Rumania where he gained one thousand 12 prisoners for the Czecho-Slovak army. Before stefanik's departure 1 the French government had already sent a special political commission headed by Franklin Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States government for this task. Upon arriving in America in June 191713 Stefanik through the French ambassador, Jusserand, immediately contacted the government officials in Washington. After a conference with the then Secretary of State, Lansing, in which Jusserand stressed the loyalty of the Czechs and Slovaks to the United States of America, permission was granted to all Czechs and Slovaks not subject to military duty in the American army to join the CzechoSlovak Legion in France. Besides the recruitment, Stefanik · also had to see to the financial and travelling arrangements. While in the United States, Stefanik contacted American journalists and wrote several articles on the cause for the newpapers. He aroused both the interest of F. H. Allen of the "World" and of Gordon Smith, ("The New Republic,") and his articles soon appeared in their magazines. �128 SLOVAKIA Theodore Roosevelt, Lansing Frank and A. Polk Oater the head of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles) were other influential people with whom Stefanik caxne in close contact. 14 It has been conceded by most historians that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in the United States by securing the cooperation of both parties ( the Czechs and the Slovaks) in the Czecho-Slovak movement. stefanik was a true Slovak patriot. "While dealing with him the American Slovaks could be sure of an integrity and a sincere awareness of Slovak affairs they often found missing in Czech leaders." 15 For this reason, Stefanik was able to dispel the skepticism with which the Slovaks had greeted any and all manifestations of centralist Pan-Czechism. The first important meeting between Stefanik and the Czechs and the Slovaks was held on July 1, 191 7 at the Congress Hall Hotel in Washington. Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech National Society; Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League; Emil Voslm; Ivan Daxner; Charles Pergler; Dr. Hrdlicka; Ivan Bielek; and, Ferdinand Pisecky were some of the important men who attended. "Stefanik reported on conditions in Russia but the main object of the meeting was to arrange the military organization and the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czecho-Slovak question and against his so-called 'autonomistic attitude,' Stefanik emphasized the necessity of forming a politically inseparable state and not an ethnographically inseparable one." 16 (Whether Stefanik envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak affairs is not clear.) Charles Pergler who also attended the meeting has asserted: " Naturally, the representatives of the Slovak organizations of the future Czechoslovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik always insisted that it was the concern of the nation at home, that it alone must decide concerning its future organization, in short, that it is impossible to dictate from beyond the borders of the country and that every such attempt would be futile. Whenever the question of Slovak autonomy arose, he !decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded from th<>se living outside of the new state. " 11 �SLOVAKIA 129 However, it is impossible to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written promise, did reach an agreement with the American Slovaks and succeeded in gaining their cooperation with the American Czechs without the Slovaks relinquishing their principles. Stefanik in a ringing declaration on September 16 at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting told several thousand compatriots that "Our fight against Austria-Hungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent State free of Magyar-German domination." 18 It was at this meeting also that Franklin Bouillon made the first public statement by an influential allied statesman officially calling for the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. At a meeting held in New York on September 20, Stefanik was able to dispel the fears of the Slovak Catholic clergymen-that Slovak Catholicism would suffer at the hands of a completely Czechi"zed non-Catholic or perhaps anti-Catholic government in Prague. Stefanik and the Clergy agreed that the new state would have to guarantee religious in addition to cultural freedom for Slovakia before the American Slovaks would give their full support to it. Of the success of this meeting Benes later wrote: ''The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanik broke all suspicion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence . . ." 19 Although stefanik's delicate health prohibited him from making many public appearances, when he did, however, he succeeded in making a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke both Slovak and Czech and would sometimes pass from one laguage into the other in the same speech. "He gained the confidence off the people by his enthusiasm and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising attitude towards all things." 20 In other meetings which were held Stefanik met with presidents of the Slovak and Czech organizations (July 1); received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting �130 SLOVAKIA (July 24); was present at a meeting of Czecho-Slovak artists (August 13); and, in September addressed the Czech and Slovak women of New York. 21 After a meeting which took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth of October, Stefanik along with other Czech and Slovak leaders organized a Czecho-Slovak military committee in order that the recruiting could proceed in an orga_¢zed manner. After the meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mobilization by Stefanik who also issued instructions for the Czecho-Slovak soldiers in America. The country was divided into four sections each · with a separate "reporter" who was responsible to Stefanik. This plan later had to be adjusted. The recruiting did not go as well as had been expected. Many of the Czechs and Slovaks had already joined the Canadian army even before the United States entered the War and, forty thousand22 joined the American army soon after the United States entered. Thus, only two thousand five hundred23 men were recruited. Having completed the task of cementing Czecho-Sloval{ relationships in the United States, Stefanik was granted permission by French General Vignal to return to Paris in order to organize the Czechs in France. Vignal highly praised stefanik's work in America in a telegram sent on November 5 and December 5, 1917 saying: "He proved to possess the highest degree of tact, discipline and sense for organization. His personal influence in all matters was such that no misunderstanding arose during his stay and all the Crech groups followed his directions" aqd again "I am not able to praise sufficiently this great patriot, coolheaded and inspired by the most honest and highest feelings. Full of tact and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he organizeld with the greatest success the recruiting of the Czechoslovaks."24 All of this time, the collapse of Austria-Hungary continued steadily. In 1918 for the first time the Czech members of the Reichsrat demanded a sovereign state of their own. The establishment of Czecho-Slovakia had only vaguely been an allied war aim. However, when the Allies realized how important a Czech and Slovak movement free of Bolshevism would be in central Europe, the National Council then began to make progress. It was �SLOVAKIA 131 Stefani.k's Czecho-Slovak legion in Russia that finally swayed the tide of allied opinion. The legion had remained apart from and had even fought against the Bolsheviks and, for this reason, Allied statesmen took another look at Masaryk's National Council and its aims. May 30, 1918 Thomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact which guaranteed Slovakia its autonomy. "On September 3, 1918 Masaryk and the National Council were recognized as the de-facto government of Czecho-Slovakia. The new government now had legal existence.''.25 However, the feeling which followed this was shortlived. It was soon discovered that Masaryk did not take the signing of the Pittsburgh Pact seriously as can be seen by the statement, "it (the Pittsburgh Pact) was concluded in order to appease a small faction which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independence for Slovakia." 26 According to Gilbert L. Oddo, the Slovaks in America should have insisted that Stefanik, too, sign the Pittsburgh Pact thus binding the National Council itself. The declaration of independence that was presented to Secretary of State Lansing in order to be approved had stated: "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 27 Stefanik was displeased with the manner and the wording of the declaration. An aide had written that the General was disturbed because the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris; issued without his previous knowledge; and, that Masaryk had affixed his (Stefanik's) signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik voiced these objections both to Masaryk and Benes by telegraph on October eighteenth. 28 Soon after Masaryk's National Council took over the Czecho-Slovak government in Prague on October 28, 191829 other atrocities were committed to make Slovakia seem more insignificant. Dr. Vavro srobar was appointed by Prague as Minister Plenipotentiary for the administration of Slovakia. He had surrounded himself solely with Prague-educated Czechophiles and was strongly against any form of Slovak autonomy. �132 SLOVAKIA At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, the Slovak nation was included in Czecho-Slovakia only because Masaryk and Benes asserted that the Slovaks were Czechs who spoke a dialect of the Czech language. When Andrew Hlinka, the great Slovak fighter for autonomy and leader of the Slovak People's Party, wanted to expose this false claim, he was expelled. He was later imprisoned by the Czechs. But the worst blow to Slovakia was the death of General Milan Stefanik amidst circumstances that have been suspected ever since. A little after 11 a.m. on May 4, 1919 the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495, carrying Stefanik to CzechoSlovakia to take up his duties as first Minister of Defense in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. In one blind flash the plane rocked, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground, a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage thrown up by the Czecho-Slovak military garrison at the field on orders from its Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to keep the tragedy very secret. When that proved to be impossible, stefanik's death was explained as an accident. The commanding officer had thought it to be an enemy plane. "But despite all the rationalizing attempts of Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered." 30 Masaryk expressed his personal regrets but refused to have the "accident" investigated either because it would damage the negotiations at Versailles or perhaps because it would give damaging evidence of Czech duplicity and deceit. Stefanik had been openly displeased with the slighting reference to Slovakia in Masaryk's declaration of independence. "Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still to the Czech centralism, the outline of which by this time had already been revealed."31 He was a Slovak Christian who could nev_er compromise with the rationalist agnosticism of the chief policy makers in Prague. Stefanik was thus an "inconvenient gadfly" 32 to Czech plans to make Slovakia a part of the "great Czechia" that �SLOVAKIA 133 the National Council had dreamed of. The death of Stefanik served Prague well. It can only be suspected if it was planned that way. Even from the sketchy reference to his work and the surprisingly meagre sources available to the historian of today, it is clearly evident that in courage, in self-sacrifice, in tact and ability in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the cause he was no t surpassed by anyone of the leaders in the Czech<>-Slovak movement for independence.33 Thus, with stefanik',s death the year 1919 came to a tragic close. The autonomy which had been sought, cherished and died for under Magyar rule still seemed a remote hope. Indeed, Slovakia did not become an independent state until 1939 under Tiso. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) S. Harrison Thomson, Czecho-Slovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1944, p. 252. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia And Its People, New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960, p . 160. Dr. Thomas Garigue Masaryk, The Making of a State, New York : Frederick A. Stokes, 1927, p. 191. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 102. Ibid., p. 104. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p . 161. Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p . 163. Stephanie 0. Husek, " General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in America,"' Jednota Katolicky Kalend.ar, 1938, p. 184. Gilbert L. O<l):lo, op. cit., p. 165. Stephanie 0 . Husek, op. cit., p. 185. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 166. Stephanie 0 . Rusek, op. cit., p. 189. Ibid. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 167. Ibid. , pp. 168-169. Stephanie 0. Husek, <ip. cit., p. 190. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 183. Ib~i., p. 184. Ibid. , p. 192. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 177. Ibid., p. 176. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid. Ibid., p. 182. Ibid., pp. 191-192. �134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. � 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 124 SLOVAKIA General Milan Rastislav Stefanik and the Moven1ent for Czecho-Slovak Independence Mary Ann Kadera It soon became apparent to Thomas G. Masaryk and the group of exiles around him; namely, Edward Benes, Antonin Svehla, and the Doctors Hajn, Scheiner, Herban and samal1 that in order to induce the allies to agree to the partition of the Dual Monarchy, the people who would be free after the partition had to make a tangible contribution to the allied war efforts. "To this end the National Czecho-Slovak Committee was established with Masaryk as head, Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, as secretary and the great Slovak, General Milan Stefanik as vice president." 2 Since Stefanik was the only one of the three who had had any military experience (he had served with distinction in the French Air Force) the task of providing a Czecho-Slovak division to fight with the allied armies was given to him. The son of a Protestant minister, Stefanik, who was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska in 1880, had achieved a brilliant career as a mathematician and an astronomer of world wide stature. After completing his studies of science, law and medicine at the University of Prague, he went to Paris in 19043 where he became Secretary to the Astronomical Observ:atory. As a result he was sent on scientific and astronomical missions to various parts of the world such as Mont Blanc, Spain, Oxford, Turkestan, Algiers, South America and Tahiti. 4 Using his influence in the Frenoh social circle, Stefanik began to acquaint those in influence of Magyar tyranny and to gain their sympathy for the suffering Slovak nation. As soon as Austria declared war on Serbs, Stefanik left Marocco where he had been engaged in astronomical observation and returned to France and enlisted as a private in the French army. (Stefanik was also a citizen SLOVAKIA 125 of France). After first fighting on the Western front, Stefanik was tranferred to the French Air Force in January and in July 1915 took part in the battles on the Aisne and near Ypres. 5 Afterwards he was sent as an airman to Serbia. Having no contact with Masaryk or his plans as yet, Stefanik already thought of organizing a separate corps of Slovaks who had fought against their convictions on the side of Austria-Hungary and who had been captured by the Allies. Due to the Serbian retreat he was forced to abandon this plan. Toward the end of November, Stefanik arrived in Rome on a special torpedo boat from Vallona. While in Rome his fame as a member of the French Academy led to his acquaintance with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Barrere and Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister. Upon returning to Paris, Stefanik became associated with Masaryk and Benes. Thus the nucleus of the CzechoSlovak Legion was organized in France. It was Stefanik who held the link to the important government officials who would one day decide the fate of Austria-Hungary and with it Czecho-Slovakia. Stefanik travelled to Italy where he used his influence to spread the cause of establishing an independent state for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the defeat of AustriaHungary. In July and August of 19166 he visited Russia where he conferred with all military authorities and even with the Tsar who sent, through Stefanik, greetings to Masaryk and approval of his policy. From Russia Stefanik went to the Rumanian front where he organized many volunteer Slovak prisoners for military service in France which arrived in the summer of 1917. He returned to Russia in January 1917 and then proceeded to Paris. While in Paris, he kept in touch with the Southern Slavic states and Italy. Then, he continued to Rome. 7 Of Stefanik and his journey, Thomas G. Masaryk, in his book, The Making of a State, comments: His methods were those of an apostle rather than of <1 diplomat and soldier. In Paris, where he had gradually made a ckcle of friends and admirers, he smoothed the way for me and for Dr. Benes in many an influential quarter and he did tqe same in Rome. When I Ulink of him I always remember the picture ()f 126 SLOVAKIA our little Slovak tinkers who wander throughout the world; but this Slovak wandered through all the Allied fronts, through all Government Departments, political drawing-rooms and Courts. From him Marshall Foch heard for the first time about us and our work against Austria.a "But perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of his people was the visit he made to the United States in 1917." 9 In the United States, American Slovaks and Czechs were promoting the cause of Czechoslovakia. It was Stefanik who was largely responsible for the combining of the two efforts ( one here and the other in Paris) toward the common goal both were seeking. Although the American Slovaks wanted a Slovakia free of Magyar rule, they distrusted the idea of uniting with the Czechs who were numerically superior. Before they would accept this union, they had to be guaranteeed that Slovakia would be a political and cultural autonomy in the proposed new state. For this reason representatives of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League met and signed the Cleveland Agreement. In the Agreement three main points were emphasized: 1) The new state would be a federal republic consisting of both Czech lands (Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia) and Slovakia. 2) Slovakia would be nationally autonomous, it would have its own administration, schools and cultural development and also the use of the Slovak language within its borders. 3) Voting suffrage in Czecho-Slovakia would be secret, universal and direct. 10 But despite the good will which was created by the Cleveland Agreement, Slovak fears of "Czechism" still persisted. There was good reason for this fear. In 1916 Czech spokesmen began to use the term "Czechia" to describe the Council's objectives, the Council's publication, "Samostatnost," talked unceasingly of the Czech army, the Czech language and the Czech culture, leaving no doubt that for them the new state was to be dominated by the Czechs. Even Masaryk stated in an official communique to London that "The Slovaks are Czechs." In so doing, he not only ignored a thousand years of history but also brought the full weight of Slovak wrath upon him. In his reply to Masaryk, Vladimir Hurban wrote to Masaryk in 1917: SLOVAKIA 127 There is not a single Slovak in all Slovakia who would call himself a Czech. Slovaks regard themselves as an ethnically distinct nation, as such we have lived and suffered. As Slovaks we hope to see dawn of liberty fur our land; we wish to unite with Czechs in one political state, but onl.y if our national and cultural autonomy will be safeguarded.11 In order to counteract the Pan-Czech attitude and to have the Cleveland Agreement gain wider acceptance in Europe, the Slovak League of America sent Gustav Kosik, editor of the Catholic Sokol and Dr. Stephen Osusky, a lawyer and a Protestant minister, as its representative to the National Council. During this time the recruitment of the Czech-Slovak foreign legion was going wery slowly. For this reason Edward Benes requested the French government to entrust Stefanik with the mission of organizing volunteers among the American Czechs and Slovaks for the army in France with the approval of the United States government. Permission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia. Stefanik postponed this trip to the United States in order to complete his work in Rumania where he gained one thousand 12 prisoners for the Czecho-Slovak army. Before stefanik's departure 1 the French government had already sent a special political commission headed by Franklin Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States government for this task. Upon arriving in America in June 191713 Stefanik through the French ambassador, Jusserand, immediately contacted the government officials in Washington. After a conference with the then Secretary of State, Lansing, in which Jusserand stressed the loyalty of the Czechs and Slovaks to the United States of America, permission was granted to all Czechs and Slovaks not subject to military duty in the American army to join the CzechoSlovak Legion in France. Besides the recruitment, Stefanik · also had to see to the financial and travelling arrangements. While in the United States, Stefanik contacted American journalists and wrote several articles on the cause for the newpapers. He aroused both the interest of F. H. Allen of the "World" and of Gordon Smith, ("The New Republic,") and his articles soon appeared in their magazines. 128 SLOVAKIA Theodore Roosevelt, Lansing Frank and A. Polk Oater the head of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles) were other influential people with whom Stefanik caxne in close contact. 14 It has been conceded by most historians that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in the United States by securing the cooperation of both parties ( the Czechs and the Slovaks) in the Czecho-Slovak movement. stefanik was a true Slovak patriot. "While dealing with him the American Slovaks could be sure of an integrity and a sincere awareness of Slovak affairs they often found missing in Czech leaders." 15 For this reason, Stefanik was able to dispel the skepticism with which the Slovaks had greeted any and all manifestations of centralist Pan-Czechism. The first important meeting between Stefanik and the Czechs and the Slovaks was held on July 1, 191 7 at the Congress Hall Hotel in Washington. Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech National Society; Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League; Emil Voslm; Ivan Daxner; Charles Pergler; Dr. Hrdlicka; Ivan Bielek; and, Ferdinand Pisecky were some of the important men who attended. "Stefanik reported on conditions in Russia but the main object of the meeting was to arrange the military organization and the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czecho-Slovak question and against his so-called 'autonomistic attitude,' Stefanik emphasized the necessity of forming a politically inseparable state and not an ethnographically inseparable one." 16 (Whether Stefanik envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak affairs is not clear.) Charles Pergler who also attended the meeting has asserted: " Naturally, the representatives of the Slovak organizations of the future Czechoslovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik always insisted that it was the concern of the nation at home, that it alone must decide concerning its future organization, in short, that it is impossible to dictate from beyond the borders of the country and that every such attempt would be futile. Whenever the question of Slovak autonomy arose, he !decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded from th<>se living outside of the new state. " 11 SLOVAKIA 129 However, it is impossible to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written promise, did reach an agreement with the American Slovaks and succeeded in gaining their cooperation with the American Czechs without the Slovaks relinquishing their principles. Stefanik in a ringing declaration on September 16 at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting told several thousand compatriots that "Our fight against Austria-Hungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent State free of Magyar-German domination." 18 It was at this meeting also that Franklin Bouillon made the first public statement by an influential allied statesman officially calling for the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. At a meeting held in New York on September 20, Stefanik was able to dispel the fears of the Slovak Catholic clergymen-that Slovak Catholicism would suffer at the hands of a completely Czechi"zed non-Catholic or perhaps anti-Catholic government in Prague. Stefanik and the Clergy agreed that the new state would have to guarantee religious in addition to cultural freedom for Slovakia before the American Slovaks would give their full support to it. Of the success of this meeting Benes later wrote: ''The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanik broke all suspicion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence . . ." 19 Although stefanik's delicate health prohibited him from making many public appearances, when he did, however, he succeeded in making a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke both Slovak and Czech and would sometimes pass from one laguage into the other in the same speech. "He gained the confidence off the people by his enthusiasm and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising attitude towards all things." 20 In other meetings which were held Stefanik met with presidents of the Slovak and Czech organizations (July 1); received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting 130 SLOVAKIA (July 24); was present at a meeting of Czecho-Slovak artists (August 13); and, in September addressed the Czech and Slovak women of New York. 21 After a meeting which took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth of October, Stefanik along with other Czech and Slovak leaders organized a Czecho-Slovak military committee in order that the recruiting could proceed in an orga_¢zed manner. After the meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mobilization by Stefanik who also issued instructions for the Czecho-Slovak soldiers in America. The country was divided into four sections each · with a separate "reporter" who was responsible to Stefanik. This plan later had to be adjusted. The recruiting did not go as well as had been expected. Many of the Czechs and Slovaks had already joined the Canadian army even before the United States entered the War and, forty thousand22 joined the American army soon after the United States entered. Thus, only two thousand five hundred23 men were recruited. Having completed the task of cementing Czecho-Sloval{ relationships in the United States, Stefanik was granted permission by French General Vignal to return to Paris in order to organize the Czechs in France. Vignal highly praised stefanik's work in America in a telegram sent on November 5 and December 5, 1917 saying: "He proved to possess the highest degree of tact, discipline and sense for organization. His personal influence in all matters was such that no misunderstanding arose during his stay and all the Crech groups followed his directions" aqd again "I am not able to praise sufficiently this great patriot, coolheaded and inspired by the most honest and highest feelings. Full of tact and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he organizeld with the greatest success the recruiting of the Czechoslovaks."24 All of this time, the collapse of Austria-Hungary continued steadily. In 1918 for the first time the Czech members of the Reichsrat demanded a sovereign state of their own. The establishment of Czecho-Slovakia had only vaguely been an allied war aim. However, when the Allies realized how important a Czech and Slovak movement free of Bolshevism would be in central Europe, the National Council then began to make progress. It was SLOVAKIA 131 Stefani.k's Czecho-Slovak legion in Russia that finally swayed the tide of allied opinion. The legion had remained apart from and had even fought against the Bolsheviks and, for this reason, Allied statesmen took another look at Masaryk's National Council and its aims. May 30, 1918 Thomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact which guaranteed Slovakia its autonomy. "On September 3, 1918 Masaryk and the National Council were recognized as the de-facto government of Czecho-Slovakia. The new government now had legal existence.''.25 However, the feeling which followed this was shortlived. It was soon discovered that Masaryk did not take the signing of the Pittsburgh Pact seriously as can be seen by the statement, "it (the Pittsburgh Pact) was concluded in order to appease a small faction which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independence for Slovakia." 26 According to Gilbert L. Oddo, the Slovaks in America should have insisted that Stefanik, too, sign the Pittsburgh Pact thus binding the National Council itself. The declaration of independence that was presented to Secretary of State Lansing in order to be approved had stated: "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 27 Stefanik was displeased with the manner and the wording of the declaration. An aide had written that the General was disturbed because the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris; issued without his previous knowledge; and, that Masaryk had affixed his (Stefanik's) signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik voiced these objections both to Masaryk and Benes by telegraph on October eighteenth. 28 Soon after Masaryk's National Council took over the Czecho-Slovak government in Prague on October 28, 191829 other atrocities were committed to make Slovakia seem more insignificant. Dr. Vavro srobar was appointed by Prague as Minister Plenipotentiary for the administration of Slovakia. He had surrounded himself solely with Prague-educated Czechophiles and was strongly against any form of Slovak autonomy. 132 SLOVAKIA At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, the Slovak nation was included in Czecho-Slovakia only because Masaryk and Benes asserted that the Slovaks were Czechs who spoke a dialect of the Czech language. When Andrew Hlinka, the great Slovak fighter for autonomy and leader of the Slovak People's Party, wanted to expose this false claim, he was expelled. He was later imprisoned by the Czechs. But the worst blow to Slovakia was the death of General Milan Stefanik amidst circumstances that have been suspected ever since. A little after 11 a.m. on May 4, 1919 the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495, carrying Stefanik to CzechoSlovakia to take up his duties as first Minister of Defense in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. In one blind flash the plane rocked, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground, a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage thrown up by the Czecho-Slovak military garrison at the field on orders from its Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to keep the tragedy very secret. When that proved to be impossible, stefanik's death was explained as an accident. The commanding officer had thought it to be an enemy plane. "But despite all the rationalizing attempts of Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered." 30 Masaryk expressed his personal regrets but refused to have the "accident" investigated either because it would damage the negotiations at Versailles or perhaps because it would give damaging evidence of Czech duplicity and deceit. Stefanik had been openly displeased with the slighting reference to Slovakia in Masaryk's declaration of independence. "Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still to the Czech centralism, the outline of which by this time had already been revealed."31 He was a Slovak Christian who could nev_er compromise with the rationalist agnosticism of the chief policy makers in Prague. Stefanik was thus an "inconvenient gadfly" 32 to Czech plans to make Slovakia a part of the "great Czechia" that SLOVAKIA 133 the National Council had dreamed of. The death of Stefanik served Prague well. It can only be suspected if it was planned that way. Even from the sketchy reference to his work and the surprisingly meagre sources available to the historian of today, it is clearly evident that in courage, in self-sacrifice, in tact and ability in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the cause he was no t surpassed by anyone of the leaders in the Czech<>-Slovak movement for independence.33 Thus, with stefanik',s death the year 1919 came to a tragic close. The autonomy which had been sought, cherished and died for under Magyar rule still seemed a remote hope. Indeed, Slovakia did not become an independent state until 1939 under Tiso. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) S. Harrison Thomson, Czecho-Slovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1944, p. 252. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia And Its People, New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960, p . 160. Dr. Thomas Garigue Masaryk, The Making of a State, New York : Frederick A. Stokes, 1927, p. 191. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 102. Ibid., p. 104. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p . 161. Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p . 163. Stephanie 0. Husek, " General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in America,"' Jednota Katolicky Kalend.ar, 1938, p. 184. Gilbert L. O<l):lo, op. cit., p. 165. Stephanie 0 . Husek, op. cit., p. 185. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 166. Stephanie 0 . Rusek, op. cit., p. 189. Ibid. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 167. Ibid. , pp. 168-169. Stephanie 0. Husek, <ip. cit., p. 190. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 183. Ib~i., p. 184. Ibid. , p. 192. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 177. Ibid., p. 176. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid. Ibid., p. 182. Ibid., pp. 191-192. 134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned.  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 General Milan Rastislav Štefánik and the Movement for Czecho-Slovak Independence Description An account of the resource Mary Ann Kadera Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 124-134 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kadera, Mary Ann 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/f5ca1a388ad860f4ed82d3e78c2ad7ad.pdf 3e38bffc1a0883cc09a06aaaed3af7e5 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 109 Winning Essays - Slovak League Scholarship Awards The Emergence of the Slovak State Daniel F. T a n z o n e I. Following the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy the small nations of Central Europe organized their own national states. The Slovaks joined hands with their Czech brothers and organized a common state: the Czecho-Slovak Republic. On the part of the Slovaks it was a belated re-appearance on the map of Europe after their ancestors hll-ci made a short debut in the Moravian Empire of the Ninth century. The union with the Czechs was considered as the most opportune alternative, the others being complete independence which was beyond their will, or autonomy within Hungary. It is interesting to note that large Slovak emigrant organizations in the United States came to the same conclusions, although there was no co-ordination of action between the Slovaks in Slovakia and those in the United States. "During· the war of 1914-18 every action for the unification of the Czechs and Slovaks into a common state was considered by the Austro-Hungarian authorities as treason, and consequently there were only a few sporadic pronouncements on this theme." 1 "But the idea was being entertained by the Czech and Slovak leaders at home, while abroad an active group led by Thomas G. Masaryk and Milan R. Stefanik and Benes worked with the Allies for the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia." 2 Their hard work, carried out with superhuman endurance and untiring stubborness against many odds, was crowned with splendid success. On October 30, 1918 in Turciansky Svaty Martin the Slovak representatives claiming "the absolute right to selfdetermination" declared for unity with the Czechs (at a �110 SLOVAKIA meeting which bore all the marks of haste and excitement). The declaration called not only for political but also for linguistic and cultural unity and marked the beginning of a new epoch in Slovak history. From living under the Magyars, the Slovaks started a new life with the Czechs.3 To go back for_a minute to look at the situation in America the historic month of May, 1918, saw events both at home and abroad moving inexorably toward the formation of a new Czecho-Slovak Republic. May saw Masaryk in Pittsburgh meeting with American Czech and Slovak leaders, explaining just how Czecho-Slovakia would be administered and precisely what the status of Slovakia would be within the new state. He assured Slovaks that Slovakia would be autonomous, would have its own schools, its own language, its own local administration, its own courts, its own legislative assembly and to further appease Slovak sensibilities he drafted a document which has since been hotly debated. It is known in history as the Pittsburgh Pact. Because Masaryk had written the draft in pencil Albert Mamatey, the President of the Slovak League of America had calligraphed and later took it to Washington where Masaryk (his government now officially recognized by the Wilson Administration), already temporary president of Czecho-Slovakia, signed the calligraphed copy on November 14 just before his departure for Europe. 4 The agreement was necessary to assure the American Slovaks of the position of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The American Czechs and Slovaks under the leadership of the Rev. Joseph Murgas, pastor of Sacred Heart Slovak Roman Catholic Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, launched a drive to raise funds for the cause of Czech and Slovak liberation. The drive netted the sum of well over $800,000.00 and it was sent to Masaryk, Benes, the former's daughter Alice, the National Council's offices in Paris, Russia, and the United States. 5 The agreement proclaimed that Slovaks and Czechs would form one state but that Slovakia would be completely autonomous, and that Czechs would not meddle in the domestic affairs of Slovakia. The Pittsburgh Pact is as follows: �SLOVAKIA 111 THE PITISBURGH PACT May 30, 1918 The representatives of the Slovak and Czech organizations in the United States-The Slovak League of America, the Czech National Alliance, and the Union of Czech Catholics-have !deliberated, in the presence of the Chairman of rthe Czecho-Slovak National Council, Professor Masaryk, on the C2iecho-Slovak question and on our previous program manifestations, and have resolved as follows: We favor a political program whose purpose it shall be to unite the Czechs and the Slovaks into an autonomous state comprising the Czech lands and Slovakia. Slovakia shall have her own administration, heT own assembly and her own courts. The Slovak language shall be the official language in the schools in public offices, and in public life in general. The Czecho Slovak State shall be a republic ; its constitution shall be democratic. The cooperation of the Czechs and the Slovaks in the United States shall be intensified and regulated by mutual consent, accord• ing to need and changing situations. Detailed provisions relating to the organization of the CzechoSlov,ak state shall be left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks anci their legal representatives. 0 Signators Slovak Representatives: A. Mamatey, I. Bielek, J. Jancek, M. Gazdik, M. Getting, J . Pankuch, G. H. Mika, M. Bosak, I. Gessay, Rev. John Kubasek, A. Schustek, Rev. L. J . Karlovsky, Rev. Paul J . Siska, J. A. Feriencik, I. Daxner. Czech Representatives: T. G. Masaryk, K. Pergler, H. Dostal, Dr. L. Fischer, Rev. Oldrich Zla.mal, B. Simek, V. Benes, J. Zmrhal, Rev. I. Restl, J. Straka, J. Martinek, Dr. G. V. Pecival6 II. The transition was loaded with difficulties optimistically minimized or overlooked (in the initial enthusiasm) but which started to transpire as the honeymoon was wearing thin. The Slovaks ( and the Czechs, too) found very soon that they were much further apart than two branches of one nation ought to be or are supposed to be. Apart from an undeniable linguistic similarity there was little else these two nations had in common. In 1918 the Czechs were more progressive in their views, more aggressive in their action and more western in their political outlook than the Slovaks. At the same time the Slovaks �112 SLOVAKIA were practically without "intelligentsia", emerging from a battle for survival which they had very nearly lost and their general attitude was more conservative than revolutionary; in a word, they were badly equipped for the stormy days ahead. They depended greatly on Czech help. From 1919 under the pretext of helping Slovakia the Czechs were sending into Slovakia hundreds upon hundreds of teachers, officials and technicians; some of these did creditable work and rendered valuable services, others less so. Many of the new Czech arrivals commited a great number of unnecessary blunders which discredited their often well-meant help. Their ignorance of Slovak psy-• chology made their approach to their Slovak brothers awkward and sometimes even insulting. 7 When Masaryk entered upon the work of liberating the Czechs he did so with a singular talent and thoroughness. No other man could have possibly done better. The Czechs came to revere him as the personification of Czech genius expressed in an essentially rationalist philosophy. His outlook became fundamentally Czech. He came to be an admirer of John Hus. Educated in German schools, he was thus well equipped to cope with the German mentality. He became less a Slovak and more a stranger to the Slovak outlook and Slovak mentality. The Slovak has a deep respect for tradition: he is conservative, and does not change his opinions overnight with each new bit of information or of knowledge he may acquire. The Czech has less respect for tradition, indeed, challenges it, and is essentially opportunistic rather than conservative. 8 The first post-war weeks witnessed a sudden revival of anti-Catholic and Hussite traditions in Bohemia. The Czechs saw in the Catholic Church a Hapsburg ally and wanted the Slovaks to see in her an instrument of Magyarization. They tried to transplant their excesses into Slovakia but with no success. For most Slovaks the Catholic Church was an object of awe and respect and any attack on it, secret or open, horrified them, even made them nostalgic for those days when the Church was sacrosanct. The British minister in Prague summed up the principal errors of the Czech administration in Slovakia in his report of November 6, 1919 as follows: �SLOVAKIA 113 1. Hostility to the Roman Catholic Church is evidenced by Czech soldiers and offidals and includes the desecration and mutilation of crucifixes and holy images, interruption of marriages, and similar offenses against the principles of culture and decency. 2. The Country has been flooded with Czech officials and Slovaks dismissed, or, if employed, they receive from one half to two-thirds less pay than the Czechs. 3. Corruption exists in public offices. 4. Attempts are being made to substitute the Czech for the Slovak language.9 The British representative not only pointed out these errors but strove for their rectification. With the approval of his government he advocated with both Masaryk and Benes more moderate courses and a more reasonable approach to the Slovak problem. One of the most important laws passed by the Czechoslovak Republic (hyphen was dropped) which antagonized the Slovaks was the Language Act (No. 122 of the year 1920). It provided that the state official language of CzechoSlovakia was the "Czechoslovak" language in which (with the exception of the provisions made for the use of the languages of the minorities, namely German and Hungarian) the proceedings of all courts, organs, institutions and enterprises of the state were to conducted. 10 The last paragraph of the Pittsburgh Agreement notes that the "detailed regulations, concerning the ·establishment of the Czecho-Slovak state, are left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives." Only one recognized authority existed in the years 1918-20: the Provisional Constituent Assembly of Czecho-Slovakia. 11 Meanwhile, on December 12, 1918, Vavro ~robar was sent to Slovakia with "full powers" from the central government and placed at the head of a semi-autonomous administration named by Prague. Soon Czech generals. Czecho-Slovak legionnaires, and tens of thousands of Czech officials would follow him. Thus, ~robar, who had already turned against his former benefactor, Monsignor Andrew Hlinka, P.A., and had renounced his Catholic Faith, could and did in time impose a "Czech peace" upon a people who had illusions of cultural autonomy after centuries of oppression from Budapest.12 As Slovakia represented 23 percent of the Republic's population, it would have seemed logical-as the com- �114 SLOVAKIA petitive system was not generally used-to reserve for Slovaks 23 per cent of the positions in the central administration. Now the statistics for the Slovak civil servants during the twentieth and last year of the Czecho-Slovak Republic show the following: Slovaks Civil Servants The Parliament of Prague ....... . Service to the Chief of State ..... . Presidency of the Council .. . .... . Ministries: Foreign Affairs . ... ........ . .. . Interior ..... ..... ............ . Justice ... ..... . .. . ....... . . .. . Unification ..... .. .. . ... . ..... . National Defense ............. . Generals ......... .... ........ . Industry: Civil Servants ......... . Agriculture ................. ... . . Post Offices . .... ............... . Communications .... ........... . Public Works ......... . ........ . Commerce ....... .. . . . ... . .... . . Social Welfare ..... . .. . ......... . Public Health .... . .. ... . . ... ... . Finance ....... . .. .............. . 1 out of 224 96 3 153 9 33 2 12 6 6 1 4 11 7 9 4 1 4 6 12 1,246 386 143 51 1,300 139 417 391 305 1,006 82 322 397 182 630 13 Of the 318,981,000 Crowns representing the sum total of the salaries paid annually to the civil servants of the Republic, the Slovaks received only 3,614,000, that is 1,1 per cent. If the 23 per cent proportion had been respected , the Slovak civil servants would have received 73,000,000 Crowns annually .14 Considering the fact that there were few Slovak intellectuals in 1918, after twenty years, the picture remained the same as regards the position of the Slovaks in the Republic. According to the Czechs, the Slovak constitutional demands have gone so far and been pressed so ruthlessly that it is not facetious to say that in CzechoSlovakia everyone now has autonomy except the Czechs. The Czechs dismissed the Slovak behavior outwardly as the pranks of a headstrong child who has been given a new toy.15 �SLOVAKIA 115 All these problems led to the development of the autonomist movement led by Monsignor Andrew Hlinka. After the 1925 election his party, known as the Slovak People's Party, emerges as the strongest party in Slovakia (among twenty odd parties contesting the election) scoring 34 % of the total votes (489,111 out of 1,425,595) .16 In such an atmosphere the situation was ripening for a show-down. The young generation was predominantly autonomist and radical. Educated by Czech teachers it knew how to fight the Czechs with their own weapons. The nationalism of the Twenties with all its immature self-expression was coming of age. Its claims were now more demanding and better substantiated. There was no other way of satisfying them except by granting them. The difficult period when Slovakia had practically no nationally conscious intelligentsia, no administrative experience and no definite political aims, was now over. Even reasonable Czechs were aware of the fact that the Slovaks did not need tutelage in everything and were willing to grant gradually some sort of autonomy. In fact there was more opposition to the part of centralist Slovaks than on the part of the Czechs themselves. III. The Slovak problem re-emerged in all its magnitude in 1938. Up to that year it was relatively unknown outside Czecho-Slovakia, very few foreigners being aware even of its existence. The Czech-German dispute had made it a second-rate affair and being an internal one it had captured little attention abroad. But in September 1938 its presence and importance were stressed by both Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler in his speech of September 26 at the Sportpalast said that the Czechs and the Slovaks were separate nations and "the Slovaks did not want to have anything to do with the Czechs." 17 Mussolini in his open letter to Runciman pointed out that "there is not only a Sudeten-German problem, there is also a Hungarian, a Polish and a Slovak problem." 18 The tragi-comic element of their focusing attention on this problem lies in the fact that they were actually repeating, practically word for word, what had been said or written at least 20 years �116 SLOVAKIA before by Msgr. Hlinka in September, 1919 demanding an autonomous status for Slovakia in Paris. 19 By the Munich Agreement of the European Big Four Slovakia was condemned to transfer to Hungary the southern zone settled by Magyars. Faced with the threat of mutilation, the country reacted healthily in knitting the national unity more closely together. The numerous parties of the former system resulting from Prague's policy of "divide et impera" were spontaneously abandoned by their leaders and replaced by a gathering together of all Slovaks of good will. The amputation decided in Vienna was painful but not fatal for the country.20 On October 6, 1938, under international pressure, Prague had to make up its mind to take care of the Slovak problem. On September 22, 1938, in the course of the crisis brought on by the German question Mr. Benes, after many postponements and three modifications, finally had the text of a plan of solution put into the hands of Monsignor Joseph Tiso, Vice-President of the Populist party in Bratislava.21 General John Syrovy, who headed the Prague Government in Prague after Munich, nominated the First autonomous government of Slovakia. Monsignor Joseph Tiso was appointed Prime Minister. Tiso's government was empowered with full control over all matters affecting Slovak territory with the exception of foreign affairs, national finance, and national defense, which remained matters of common juristiction with Prague. Tiso's cabinet consisted of four ministers-Matth ew Cernak, Education; Ferdinand Durcansky, Justice; Paul Teplansky, Agriculture; John Lichner, trade and Public Works, Railroads and Post. Durcansky was a member of the Hlinka's People's Party, Cernak was an independent autonomist, while Teplansky and Lichner were members of the Czecho-Slovak Agrarian Party.22 Monsignor Tiso announced that Slovakia would be a part of a Federated Czecho-Slovak Republic. The hyphen was again incorporated in the title to emphasize the component parts that make up the state. After the victory of Munich, Germany was no less determined than before to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia. Hun- �SLOVAKIA 117 gary made demands upon territory in Slovakia which contained a heavy Hungarian population. Before March 13, 1939, Berlin was faced with the following alternative in regard to the Slovak question: either Slovakia would declare its independence and become Germany's ally, or else it would refuse--an act which would be one reason for the Reich's leaving Hungary's hands free to reconquer the former territory of the crown of St. Stephen. Hitler never ceased plotting in Budapest. As early as February, 1939, Dr. Edmund Wesenmayer, who was later to become Minister Plenipotentiary of the Third Reich in Budapest, informed Slovak politicians that Hungary was considering March 15 to attack Slovak territory. He did not forget to add that only the Declaration of Independence could ward off Hungarian intervention.23 In March, inspite of strong autonomist tendencies, . the Czech preponderance in Slovakia was still considerable. The effects of twenty years just could not be undone in several months. Mostly because of lack of qualified personnel, the officers' corps in the army units stationed in Slovakia, police and gendarmerie and higher officials in the administrative service were still largely Czech. Industry ran mostly on Czech capital and Slovak economy was closely linked to the economy of the Czech lands . These facts were realized by Tiso and it caused him to be very cautious in his actions against the Czech lands. Independence at this angle spelled great economic danger and administrative chaos in Slovakia. Monsignor Tiso went to see Hitler and discuss the Slovak situation. Hitler definitely had no interest in anything east of the Carpathian mountains. It was indifferent to him what happened there. Hitler stated that if Slovakia wanted independence he would support this endeavor and even guarantee it. Hitler wanted Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence on the Berlin Radio, but he refused this because he did not have the right to decide Slovakia's fate. It was up to the Parliament in Bratislava to decide Slovakia's fate. Tiso called President Ha.cha, the president of Czecho-Slovakia to call the Slovak deputies together for the meeting of the parliament. After an exposition by Tiso behind closed doors the �118 SLOVAKIA fifty-seven deputies from the Slovak Parliament voted unanimously for independence. Three quarters of an hour later the same parliament voted the following law: Article 1. The Slovak land kleclared itself an independent State. The Diet of the Slovak land is transformed into a parliament of the Slovak State. Article 2. Until the adoption of the Constitution of the Slovak State, the executive power is entrusted to the government named by the Presidency of the Parliament. Article 3. All the laws, decrees and dispositions valid up to the present continue in force with the changes resulting from the fact of the existence of the i~dependent Slovak State. Article 4. By means of decrees, the government is instructed to take all measures necessary for the maintenance of order and the protection of the interests of the Slovak State. Article 5. This law goes into effect this very day and it devolves upon the government to enforce it. Bratislava, Slovakia, March 14, 1939 The new government comprised the Prime Minister, Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso; Vice-Premier, Dr. Vojtech Tuka; Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ferdinand t>urcansky; Interior, Karol Sidor; National Defense, Lieutenant-Colonel Ferdinand Catlos; Public Education, Joseph Sivak; Economy, Dr. Gejza Medricky; Finance, Dr. Mikulas Pruzinsky; Communications and Public Works, Julius Stano; Justice, Dr. Gejza Fritz.25 Slovakia became Germany's ally rather than her victim as in the Czech lands, but German policy wanted to prove how happy even a small Slavic nation could be in Hitler's new order. Slovakia was recognized, and many Czech historians neglect to admit, by many countries both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. She was recognized by Poland, Hungary, and Germany in March of 1939, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain in April, and on May by Great Britain by a 'de facto' recognition. Before the outbreak of the war she was recognized by Vatican, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Sweden, Japan, Liberia, Equador, Costa Rica, both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. In addition she received recognition 'de facto' from France and Belgium. On September 17, 1939 the Soviet Union recognized Slovakia both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. After the declaration of independence on March 14, �SLOVAKIA 119 1939, Slovakia, for the time in over one thousand years she took her place among the nations of the earth. She no longer had stringis attached to Budapest or Prague. The Slovak government first wanted to solve the problem of a heavy Czech labor force in intellectual areas of thought. "On October 1, 1938 the number of teachers in Slovakia was 345 Slovaks and 523 Czechs. This figure completely reversed by 1940 when there were 680 Slovak teachers as opposed to 73 Czech teachers." 27 Slovakia did have many problems in her economy which were heavily exploited by German interference. The very fact that in 1939 a separate Slovak state could somehow exist where it would have been an impossibility twenty years earlier shown that the Slovaks had not only been able students but had also had able teachers in the Czechs. But there were still those who would show arrogance and lack of undestanding for Slovak pride and spoil the atmosphere. Although some authors like Schmitt feel that the "independent Slovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia became, for all practical purpose, parts of the Reich." 28 Yet some authors seem to negate the fact that there was a declaration of independence by the Slovak Parliament which represented the Slovak people and only the Slovak people. Another fact which is paramount in a nation's right to life is the fact of recognition by other nations. It must be emphasized that Slovakia was recognized by nations in both camps, Allied and German. IV. The way in which Slovakia disappeared from the face of Europe and became again a part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic offers experts of international law and political science an interesting subject for study and investigation. Considering the fact that Slovakia was recognized by 27 states, of which two thirds were on the side of the Allies, the Slovak Republic became a member of the international community and subject to the codes of international law. We must consider the fact that Slovakia like Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria and Rumania were defeated states but they were never incorporated into any other states. Accordin~ to the Atlantic Charter Slovakia should have been �120 SLOVAKIA treated as an existing state under military occupation and remain such until the Peace treaties were signed. Indeed the Allies favored the Czech exiles and decided not to apply the right of self-determination and the principles of the Atlantic Charter to the Slovak people. This seems very strange because of the fact that when a state is recognized it cannot be desolved with the impression that it never had existed. "On May 8, 1945 the Slovak Government signed a document of 'protection' or 'surrender' to the Allied High Command."29 Considering the fact that Slovakia never declared war against the Western Allies-Great Britain, France, or the United States. The attempts to save Slovakia as an independent state failed and her right to self-government disappeared. Never consulting the Slovak people, she was again a part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. All signs of autonomy as evidenced before the war disappeared within the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Slovakia again became a mere appendage of the term "Czechoslovak." Slovaks could no longer speak for Slovaks but had to look to the Czechs in Prague. V. In conclusion the road to Slovakia's independence led through stormy days of the post-Munich period and the time of her independence on the European scene was not very propitious. But we must remember that there are some things in life in which we have no say in. It is highly unlikely that Slovakia would have survived if she had appeared after World War I due to the fact that she lacked a substantial intellectual class. The fact remains that fifty years before she possessed a larger intelligentsia than in 1918. The one thousand year sentence of subjugation under Magyarization had almost destroyed the Slovaks and their civilization. The Slovaks owe much to the Czechs, for without them they would not have been able twenty years later to possess an intelligentsia which had multiplied in size and improved in . depth and competence and stand on their own feet in March of 1939. The Czecho-Slovak Republic might have worked if it was bilateral and not unilateral as it was. The Czechs neglected to realize the �SLOVAKIA 121 fact that children do mature and no longer need to be tied to their mother's apron strings. It was tragic that the United States' indolence resulted in Slovakia again being incorporated into the Czecho-Slovak Republic against the will of majority of her people. It was astrous that the United States favored the Czech Benes over the Slovak Tiso in deciding the fate of the Slovak people. The Slovakia that did emerge on March 14, 1939 was not the archetype that I would have envisioned, for there were many things wrong, among them heavy dependence on Germany. It is both simple and sweet to assert that Adolph Hitler imposed independence on Slovakia but these allegations are not factual. The circumstances surrounding Slovakia's birth are far more complex. The Slovaks, unable to escape Central European events, reconciled themselves to the geographical and political conditions of 1939, as they thought best. Independence was not rejected, it was hailed, true some more eagerly than others. Slovakia was a failure in one respect in that it could not avert the persecution of its Jewish population, of whom about a fourth survived the six years of Slovakia's existence. The Catholic bishops however, under the leadership of Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko, of Nitra, were as outspoken in their criticism of anti-Jewish legislation and courageous in their defense of human dignity as was s:inybody in Hitler's Europe. We can all appreciate the fact that no nation on earth desires tyranny over freedom, and even some who have a different view regarding the Slovak Republic and her war-time regime. No man on earth has the right to condemn the Slovaks to be an appendage to any other nation nor to be a colony of any other nation no matter how ethnically or linguistically they are related. The Slovak does not want any Czech to use his debasive form of rhetoric in international spheres of interest on behalf of his culture, language and history but rather feels quite proficient enough to do this for himself. The Slovak nation has a God-given right to live a free and independent life according to its tr,aditions. �122 SLOVAKIA One very important thing the world has to learn is the fact that the dreams and aspirations of little nations must be respected and supported even if they cramp the style of a brother nation who in the world's eyes seemingly wants only the best for its little brother. Another thing is the fact that the Slovaks do not wish to be known as Czechs or "Czechoslovaks". They are not a mere appendage but a distinct entity. If politics is the art of the impossible, then we cannot condemn the Slovaks for having achieved that impossible dream in the years of 1939-1945. Althought I am an American born of Slovak blood only on my mother's side I have come to know and love the aspirations of the Slovak people. As an American I can appreciate freedom and justice and see the same for my brothers in Slovakia. The story and traditions of the Slovak people are among the most glorious in all of history. No other nation has suffered so much nor been more misunderstood and yet still possesses a fire of determination for its freedom and self-determination. Slovakia did emerge but unfortunately was stiffled, but she will again someday rise up to stand among the free and independent peoples of the earth as master of her own household. Ibsen's words from his work "An Enemy of the People, V" seem to be appropriate: "The Strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone ... " 1) F. Vnuk, "Slovakia's Six Eventful Months ( Oct. 1938- March 1939) ," Slovak Studies IV, Historica II, 1964, 14. 2) J . Lettrich, "The Declaration of Turciansky Sv. Martin," A Histor y of Modern Slovakia, p. 288. 3) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 15. 4) G. L. Oddo, "To be Free of Budapest," Slov akia anji Its People, (New York, 1960) , p. 174. 5) Ibid., p. 175. 6) IbH, p. 175-76 7) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 16. 8) P . P . Yurchak, "Masaryk," The Slovaks,(Whiting, Ind.,1946), pp. 206. 9) Vnuk, op. cit., p. 16. 10) I. Derer, The Unity of the Czechs and Slovaks, (Prague, 1938) p. 32. 11) G. L. Ojddo, "Czecho-Slovakia," Slovakia and Its People, (New York, 1960) , p. 205. �SLOVAKIA 123 12) Ibid. , p. 205. 13 ) J . A. Mikus, "Czecho-Slovakia (1918-1939) " , Slovakia: A Political history, Marquette Slavic Studies ed., (Milwaukee, 1963) , pp. 38-39. 14 ) Ibid., p. 39. 15 ) G. F. Kennan, "Report on Conditions in Slovakia," From Prague After Muni ch, Princeton University Press ed. (Princeton, N. J . 1968) , p . 19. 16) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 17. 17 ) F . Vnuk, op. ci t ., p. 23. 18) Ibid., p . 23 . 19) F Vnuk, loc. cit. 20 ) J. A. Mikus, op. cit., p. 66. 21 ) Ibid, p. 67. 22 ) G. L. Oddo, op. cit ., p. 237. 23 ) J. A. Mikus, op. ci t ., p. 76. 24 ) J. A. Mikus, op . cit., pp. 86-87. 25 ) Ibid., p. 88. 26 ) I bid. , pp. 135-36. 27 ) J . A. Mikus, op. ci t ., pp. 108-09. 28 ) B. E. Schmitt, " The Road to Munich," Czechoslov akia, R. J . Kerner ed., (Los Angeles, 1949), p. 438. 29 ) J . M. Kirschbaum, "Twenty years of Czech an/d Communist Rule in Slovakia," Slov akia, XV, (1965) , p. 80. BIBLIOGRAPHY Derer , Ivan, The Unity of the Czechs and Slovaks, Prague, The Orbis Publishing Company, 1938. Heymann, Frederick, G., Poland and Czechoslovakia, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1966. Kennan, George, F ., From Prague After Munich, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1968. Kirschbaum, Joseph, M ., "Twenty Years of Ozech and Communist Rule in Slovakia," Slovaki a, XV, ( 1965) , pp. 78-90. Lettrich, Joseph, A. , A History of Modern Slovakia, New York, N . Y ., Praeger Publishing, 1955. Mikus, Joseph, A. , Slovakia a Political History: 1918-1950, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert, L., Slovakia and Its People, New York, Robert Speller and Sons, 1960. Schmitt, Berna/dette, E ., Czechoslovakia, Los Angeles, Ca.Hfornia. University of California Press, 1949. Vnuk, Francis, Slov ak Studies IV, Rome, Italy, Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius Press, 1964, pp. 7-164. Yurchak, Peter, P., The Slovaks, Whiting, Indiana, The Rev. John J. Lach Press, 1946. ( FIRST PRIZE AWARD) � SLOVAKIA 109 Winning Essays - Slovak League Scholarship Awards The Emergence of the Slovak State Daniel F. T a n z o n e I. Following the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy the small nations of Central Europe organized their own national states. The Slovaks joined hands with their Czech brothers and organized a common state: the Czecho-Slovak Republic. On the part of the Slovaks it was a belated re-appearance on the map of Europe after their ancestors hll-ci made a short debut in the Moravian Empire of the Ninth century. The union with the Czechs was considered as the most opportune alternative, the others being complete independence which was beyond their will, or autonomy within Hungary. It is interesting to note that large Slovak emigrant organizations in the United States came to the same conclusions, although there was no co-ordination of action between the Slovaks in Slovakia and those in the United States. "During· the war of 1914-18 every action for the unification of the Czechs and Slovaks into a common state was considered by the Austro-Hungarian authorities as treason, and consequently there were only a few sporadic pronouncements on this theme." 1 "But the idea was being entertained by the Czech and Slovak leaders at home, while abroad an active group led by Thomas G. Masaryk and Milan R. Stefanik and Benes worked with the Allies for the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia." 2 Their hard work, carried out with superhuman endurance and untiring stubborness against many odds, was crowned with splendid success. On October 30, 1918 in Turciansky Svaty Martin the Slovak representatives claiming "the absolute right to selfdetermination" declared for unity with the Czechs (at a �110 SLOVAKIA meeting which bore all the marks of haste and excitement). The declaration called not only for political but also for linguistic and cultural unity and marked the beginning of a new epoch in Slovak history. From living under the Magyars, the Slovaks started a new life with the Czechs.3 To go back for_a minute to look at the situation in America the historic month of May, 1918, saw events both at home and abroad moving inexorably toward the formation of a new Czecho-Slovak Republic. May saw Masaryk in Pittsburgh meeting with American Czech and Slovak leaders, explaining just how Czecho-Slovakia would be administered and precisely what the status of Slovakia would be within the new state. He assured Slovaks that Slovakia would be autonomous, would have its own schools, its own language, its own local administration, its own courts, its own legislative assembly and to further appease Slovak sensibilities he drafted a document which has since been hotly debated. It is known in history as the Pittsburgh Pact. Because Masaryk had written the draft in pencil Albert Mamatey, the President of the Slovak League of America had calligraphed and later took it to Washington where Masaryk (his government now officially recognized by the Wilson Administration), already temporary president of Czecho-Slovakia, signed the calligraphed copy on November 14 just before his departure for Europe. 4 The agreement was necessary to assure the American Slovaks of the position of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The American Czechs and Slovaks under the leadership of the Rev. Joseph Murgas, pastor of Sacred Heart Slovak Roman Catholic Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, launched a drive to raise funds for the cause of Czech and Slovak liberation. The drive netted the sum of well over $800,000.00 and it was sent to Masaryk, Benes, the former's daughter Alice, the National Council's offices in Paris, Russia, and the United States. 5 The agreement proclaimed that Slovaks and Czechs would form one state but that Slovakia would be completely autonomous, and that Czechs would not meddle in the domestic affairs of Slovakia. The Pittsburgh Pact is as follows: �SLOVAKIA 111 THE PITISBURGH PACT May 30, 1918 The representatives of the Slovak and Czech organizations in the United States-The Slovak League of America, the Czech National Alliance, and the Union of Czech Catholics-have !deliberated, in the presence of the Chairman of rthe Czecho-Slovak National Council, Professor Masaryk, on the C2iecho-Slovak question and on our previous program manifestations, and have resolved as follows: We favor a political program whose purpose it shall be to unite the Czechs and the Slovaks into an autonomous state comprising the Czech lands and Slovakia. Slovakia shall have her own administration, heT own assembly and her own courts. The Slovak language shall be the official language in the schools in public offices, and in public life in general. The Czecho Slovak State shall be a republic ; its constitution shall be democratic. The cooperation of the Czechs and the Slovaks in the United States shall be intensified and regulated by mutual consent, accord• ing to need and changing situations. Detailed provisions relating to the organization of the CzechoSlov,ak state shall be left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks anci their legal representatives. 0 Signators Slovak Representatives: A. Mamatey, I. Bielek, J. Jancek, M. Gazdik, M. Getting, J . Pankuch, G. H. Mika, M. Bosak, I. Gessay, Rev. John Kubasek, A. Schustek, Rev. L. J . Karlovsky, Rev. Paul J . Siska, J. A. Feriencik, I. Daxner. Czech Representatives: T. G. Masaryk, K. Pergler, H. Dostal, Dr. L. Fischer, Rev. Oldrich Zla.mal, B. Simek, V. Benes, J. Zmrhal, Rev. I. Restl, J. Straka, J. Martinek, Dr. G. V. Pecival6 II. The transition was loaded with difficulties optimistically minimized or overlooked (in the initial enthusiasm) but which started to transpire as the honeymoon was wearing thin. The Slovaks ( and the Czechs, too) found very soon that they were much further apart than two branches of one nation ought to be or are supposed to be. Apart from an undeniable linguistic similarity there was little else these two nations had in common. In 1918 the Czechs were more progressive in their views, more aggressive in their action and more western in their political outlook than the Slovaks. At the same time the Slovaks �112 SLOVAKIA were practically without "intelligentsia", emerging from a battle for survival which they had very nearly lost and their general attitude was more conservative than revolutionary; in a word, they were badly equipped for the stormy days ahead. They depended greatly on Czech help. From 1919 under the pretext of helping Slovakia the Czechs were sending into Slovakia hundreds upon hundreds of teachers, officials and technicians; some of these did creditable work and rendered valuable services, others less so. Many of the new Czech arrivals commited a great number of unnecessary blunders which discredited their often well-meant help. Their ignorance of Slovak psy-• chology made their approach to their Slovak brothers awkward and sometimes even insulting. 7 When Masaryk entered upon the work of liberating the Czechs he did so with a singular talent and thoroughness. No other man could have possibly done better. The Czechs came to revere him as the personification of Czech genius expressed in an essentially rationalist philosophy. His outlook became fundamentally Czech. He came to be an admirer of John Hus. Educated in German schools, he was thus well equipped to cope with the German mentality. He became less a Slovak and more a stranger to the Slovak outlook and Slovak mentality. The Slovak has a deep respect for tradition: he is conservative, and does not change his opinions overnight with each new bit of information or of knowledge he may acquire. The Czech has less respect for tradition, indeed, challenges it, and is essentially opportunistic rather than conservative. 8 The first post-war weeks witnessed a sudden revival of anti-Catholic and Hussite traditions in Bohemia. The Czechs saw in the Catholic Church a Hapsburg ally and wanted the Slovaks to see in her an instrument of Magyarization. They tried to transplant their excesses into Slovakia but with no success. For most Slovaks the Catholic Church was an object of awe and respect and any attack on it, secret or open, horrified them, even made them nostalgic for those days when the Church was sacrosanct. The British minister in Prague summed up the principal errors of the Czech administration in Slovakia in his report of November 6, 1919 as follows: �SLOVAKIA 113 1. Hostility to the Roman Catholic Church is evidenced by Czech soldiers and offidals and includes the desecration and mutilation of crucifixes and holy images, interruption of marriages, and similar offenses against the principles of culture and decency. 2. The Country has been flooded with Czech officials and Slovaks dismissed, or, if employed, they receive from one half to two-thirds less pay than the Czechs. 3. Corruption exists in public offices. 4. Attempts are being made to substitute the Czech for the Slovak language.9 The British representative not only pointed out these errors but strove for their rectification. With the approval of his government he advocated with both Masaryk and Benes more moderate courses and a more reasonable approach to the Slovak problem. One of the most important laws passed by the Czechoslovak Republic (hyphen was dropped) which antagonized the Slovaks was the Language Act (No. 122 of the year 1920). It provided that the state official language of CzechoSlovakia was the "Czechoslovak" language in which (with the exception of the provisions made for the use of the languages of the minorities, namely German and Hungarian) the proceedings of all courts, organs, institutions and enterprises of the state were to conducted. 10 The last paragraph of the Pittsburgh Agreement notes that the "detailed regulations, concerning the ·establishment of the Czecho-Slovak state, are left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives." Only one recognized authority existed in the years 1918-20: the Provisional Constituent Assembly of Czecho-Slovakia. 11 Meanwhile, on December 12, 1918, Vavro ~robar was sent to Slovakia with "full powers" from the central government and placed at the head of a semi-autonomous administration named by Prague. Soon Czech generals. Czecho-Slovak legionnaires, and tens of thousands of Czech officials would follow him. Thus, ~robar, who had already turned against his former benefactor, Monsignor Andrew Hlinka, P.A., and had renounced his Catholic Faith, could and did in time impose a "Czech peace" upon a people who had illusions of cultural autonomy after centuries of oppression from Budapest.12 As Slovakia represented 23 percent of the Republic's population, it would have seemed logical-as the com- �114 SLOVAKIA petitive system was not generally used-to reserve for Slovaks 23 per cent of the positions in the central administration. Now the statistics for the Slovak civil servants during the twentieth and last year of the Czecho-Slovak Republic show the following: Slovaks Civil Servants The Parliament of Prague ....... . Service to the Chief of State ..... . Presidency of the Council .. . .... . Ministries: Foreign Affairs . ... ........ . .. . Interior ..... ..... ............ . Justice ... ..... . .. . ....... . . .. . Unification ..... .. .. . ... . ..... . National Defense ............. . Generals ......... .... ........ . Industry: Civil Servants ......... . Agriculture ................. ... . . Post Offices . .... ............... . Communications .... ........... . Public Works ......... . ........ . Commerce ....... .. . . . ... . .... . . Social Welfare ..... . .. . ......... . Public Health .... . .. ... . . ... ... . Finance ....... . .. .............. . 1 out of 224 96 3 153 9 33 2 12 6 6 1 4 11 7 9 4 1 4 6 12 1,246 386 143 51 1,300 139 417 391 305 1,006 82 322 397 182 630 13 Of the 318,981,000 Crowns representing the sum total of the salaries paid annually to the civil servants of the Republic, the Slovaks received only 3,614,000, that is 1,1 per cent. If the 23 per cent proportion had been respected , the Slovak civil servants would have received 73,000,000 Crowns annually .14 Considering the fact that there were few Slovak intellectuals in 1918, after twenty years, the picture remained the same as regards the position of the Slovaks in the Republic. According to the Czechs, the Slovak constitutional demands have gone so far and been pressed so ruthlessly that it is not facetious to say that in CzechoSlovakia everyone now has autonomy except the Czechs. The Czechs dismissed the Slovak behavior outwardly as the pranks of a headstrong child who has been given a new toy.15 �SLOVAKIA 115 All these problems led to the development of the autonomist movement led by Monsignor Andrew Hlinka. After the 1925 election his party, known as the Slovak People's Party, emerges as the strongest party in Slovakia (among twenty odd parties contesting the election) scoring 34 % of the total votes (489,111 out of 1,425,595) .16 In such an atmosphere the situation was ripening for a show-down. The young generation was predominantly autonomist and radical. Educated by Czech teachers it knew how to fight the Czechs with their own weapons. The nationalism of the Twenties with all its immature self-expression was coming of age. Its claims were now more demanding and better substantiated. There was no other way of satisfying them except by granting them. The difficult period when Slovakia had practically no nationally conscious intelligentsia, no administrative experience and no definite political aims, was now over. Even reasonable Czechs were aware of the fact that the Slovaks did not need tutelage in everything and were willing to grant gradually some sort of autonomy. In fact there was more opposition to the part of centralist Slovaks than on the part of the Czechs themselves. III. The Slovak problem re-emerged in all its magnitude in 1938. Up to that year it was relatively unknown outside Czecho-Slovakia, very few foreigners being aware even of its existence. The Czech-German dispute had made it a second-rate affair and being an internal one it had captured little attention abroad. But in September 1938 its presence and importance were stressed by both Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler in his speech of September 26 at the Sportpalast said that the Czechs and the Slovaks were separate nations and "the Slovaks did not want to have anything to do with the Czechs." 17 Mussolini in his open letter to Runciman pointed out that "there is not only a Sudeten-German problem, there is also a Hungarian, a Polish and a Slovak problem." 18 The tragi-comic element of their focusing attention on this problem lies in the fact that they were actually repeating, practically word for word, what had been said or written at least 20 years �116 SLOVAKIA before by Msgr. Hlinka in September, 1919 demanding an autonomous status for Slovakia in Paris. 19 By the Munich Agreement of the European Big Four Slovakia was condemned to transfer to Hungary the southern zone settled by Magyars. Faced with the threat of mutilation, the country reacted healthily in knitting the national unity more closely together. The numerous parties of the former system resulting from Prague's policy of "divide et impera" were spontaneously abandoned by their leaders and replaced by a gathering together of all Slovaks of good will. The amputation decided in Vienna was painful but not fatal for the country.20 On October 6, 1938, under international pressure, Prague had to make up its mind to take care of the Slovak problem. On September 22, 1938, in the course of the crisis brought on by the German question Mr. Benes, after many postponements and three modifications, finally had the text of a plan of solution put into the hands of Monsignor Joseph Tiso, Vice-President of the Populist party in Bratislava.21 General John Syrovy, who headed the Prague Government in Prague after Munich, nominated the First autonomous government of Slovakia. Monsignor Joseph Tiso was appointed Prime Minister. Tiso's government was empowered with full control over all matters affecting Slovak territory with the exception of foreign affairs, national finance, and national defense, which remained matters of common juristiction with Prague. Tiso's cabinet consisted of four ministers-Matth ew Cernak, Education; Ferdinand Durcansky, Justice; Paul Teplansky, Agriculture; John Lichner, trade and Public Works, Railroads and Post. Durcansky was a member of the Hlinka's People's Party, Cernak was an independent autonomist, while Teplansky and Lichner were members of the Czecho-Slovak Agrarian Party.22 Monsignor Tiso announced that Slovakia would be a part of a Federated Czecho-Slovak Republic. The hyphen was again incorporated in the title to emphasize the component parts that make up the state. After the victory of Munich, Germany was no less determined than before to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia. Hun- �SLOVAKIA 117 gary made demands upon territory in Slovakia which contained a heavy Hungarian population. Before March 13, 1939, Berlin was faced with the following alternative in regard to the Slovak question: either Slovakia would declare its independence and become Germany's ally, or else it would refuse--an act which would be one reason for the Reich's leaving Hungary's hands free to reconquer the former territory of the crown of St. Stephen. Hitler never ceased plotting in Budapest. As early as February, 1939, Dr. Edmund Wesenmayer, who was later to become Minister Plenipotentiary of the Third Reich in Budapest, informed Slovak politicians that Hungary was considering March 15 to attack Slovak territory. He did not forget to add that only the Declaration of Independence could ward off Hungarian intervention.23 In March, inspite of strong autonomist tendencies, . the Czech preponderance in Slovakia was still considerable. The effects of twenty years just could not be undone in several months. Mostly because of lack of qualified personnel, the officers' corps in the army units stationed in Slovakia, police and gendarmerie and higher officials in the administrative service were still largely Czech. Industry ran mostly on Czech capital and Slovak economy was closely linked to the economy of the Czech lands . These facts were realized by Tiso and it caused him to be very cautious in his actions against the Czech lands. Independence at this angle spelled great economic danger and administrative chaos in Slovakia. Monsignor Tiso went to see Hitler and discuss the Slovak situation. Hitler definitely had no interest in anything east of the Carpathian mountains. It was indifferent to him what happened there. Hitler stated that if Slovakia wanted independence he would support this endeavor and even guarantee it. Hitler wanted Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence on the Berlin Radio, but he refused this because he did not have the right to decide Slovakia's fate. It was up to the Parliament in Bratislava to decide Slovakia's fate. Tiso called President Ha.cha, the president of Czecho-Slovakia to call the Slovak deputies together for the meeting of the parliament. After an exposition by Tiso behind closed doors the �118 SLOVAKIA fifty-seven deputies from the Slovak Parliament voted unanimously for independence. Three quarters of an hour later the same parliament voted the following law: Article 1. The Slovak land kleclared itself an independent State. The Diet of the Slovak land is transformed into a parliament of the Slovak State. Article 2. Until the adoption of the Constitution of the Slovak State, the executive power is entrusted to the government named by the Presidency of the Parliament. Article 3. All the laws, decrees and dispositions valid up to the present continue in force with the changes resulting from the fact of the existence of the i~dependent Slovak State. Article 4. By means of decrees, the government is instructed to take all measures necessary for the maintenance of order and the protection of the interests of the Slovak State. Article 5. This law goes into effect this very day and it devolves upon the government to enforce it. Bratislava, Slovakia, March 14, 1939 The new government comprised the Prime Minister, Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso; Vice-Premier, Dr. Vojtech Tuka; Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ferdinand t>urcansky; Interior, Karol Sidor; National Defense, Lieutenant-Colonel Ferdinand Catlos; Public Education, Joseph Sivak; Economy, Dr. Gejza Medricky; Finance, Dr. Mikulas Pruzinsky; Communications and Public Works, Julius Stano; Justice, Dr. Gejza Fritz.25 Slovakia became Germany's ally rather than her victim as in the Czech lands, but German policy wanted to prove how happy even a small Slavic nation could be in Hitler's new order. Slovakia was recognized, and many Czech historians neglect to admit, by many countries both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. She was recognized by Poland, Hungary, and Germany in March of 1939, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain in April, and on May by Great Britain by a 'de facto' recognition. Before the outbreak of the war she was recognized by Vatican, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Sweden, Japan, Liberia, Equador, Costa Rica, both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. In addition she received recognition 'de facto' from France and Belgium. On September 17, 1939 the Soviet Union recognized Slovakia both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. After the declaration of independence on March 14, �SLOVAKIA 119 1939, Slovakia, for the time in over one thousand years she took her place among the nations of the earth. She no longer had stringis attached to Budapest or Prague. The Slovak government first wanted to solve the problem of a heavy Czech labor force in intellectual areas of thought. "On October 1, 1938 the number of teachers in Slovakia was 345 Slovaks and 523 Czechs. This figure completely reversed by 1940 when there were 680 Slovak teachers as opposed to 73 Czech teachers." 27 Slovakia did have many problems in her economy which were heavily exploited by German interference. The very fact that in 1939 a separate Slovak state could somehow exist where it would have been an impossibility twenty years earlier shown that the Slovaks had not only been able students but had also had able teachers in the Czechs. But there were still those who would show arrogance and lack of undestanding for Slovak pride and spoil the atmosphere. Although some authors like Schmitt feel that the "independent Slovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia became, for all practical purpose, parts of the Reich." 28 Yet some authors seem to negate the fact that there was a declaration of independence by the Slovak Parliament which represented the Slovak people and only the Slovak people. Another fact which is paramount in a nation's right to life is the fact of recognition by other nations. It must be emphasized that Slovakia was recognized by nations in both camps, Allied and German. IV. The way in which Slovakia disappeared from the face of Europe and became again a part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic offers experts of international law and political science an interesting subject for study and investigation. Considering the fact that Slovakia was recognized by 27 states, of which two thirds were on the side of the Allies, the Slovak Republic became a member of the international community and subject to the codes of international law. We must consider the fact that Slovakia like Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria and Rumania were defeated states but they were never incorporated into any other states. Accordin~ to the Atlantic Charter Slovakia should have been �120 SLOVAKIA treated as an existing state under military occupation and remain such until the Peace treaties were signed. Indeed the Allies favored the Czech exiles and decided not to apply the right of self-determination and the principles of the Atlantic Charter to the Slovak people. This seems very strange because of the fact that when a state is recognized it cannot be desolved with the impression that it never had existed. "On May 8, 1945 the Slovak Government signed a document of 'protection' or 'surrender' to the Allied High Command."29 Considering the fact that Slovakia never declared war against the Western Allies-Great Britain, France, or the United States. The attempts to save Slovakia as an independent state failed and her right to self-government disappeared. Never consulting the Slovak people, she was again a part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. All signs of autonomy as evidenced before the war disappeared within the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Slovakia again became a mere appendage of the term "Czechoslovak." Slovaks could no longer speak for Slovaks but had to look to the Czechs in Prague. V. In conclusion the road to Slovakia's independence led through stormy days of the post-Munich period and the time of her independence on the European scene was not very propitious. But we must remember that there are some things in life in which we have no say in. It is highly unlikely that Slovakia would have survived if she had appeared after World War I due to the fact that she lacked a substantial intellectual class. The fact remains that fifty years before she possessed a larger intelligentsia than in 1918. The one thousand year sentence of subjugation under Magyarization had almost destroyed the Slovaks and their civilization. The Slovaks owe much to the Czechs, for without them they would not have been able twenty years later to possess an intelligentsia which had multiplied in size and improved in . depth and competence and stand on their own feet in March of 1939. The Czecho-Slovak Republic might have worked if it was bilateral and not unilateral as it was. The Czechs neglected to realize the �SLOVAKIA 121 fact that children do mature and no longer need to be tied to their mother's apron strings. It was tragic that the United States' indolence resulted in Slovakia again being incorporated into the Czecho-Slovak Republic against the will of majority of her people. It was astrous that the United States favored the Czech Benes over the Slovak Tiso in deciding the fate of the Slovak people. The Slovakia that did emerge on March 14, 1939 was not the archetype that I would have envisioned, for there were many things wrong, among them heavy dependence on Germany. It is both simple and sweet to assert that Adolph Hitler imposed independence on Slovakia but these allegations are not factual. The circumstances surrounding Slovakia's birth are far more complex. The Slovaks, unable to escape Central European events, reconciled themselves to the geographical and political conditions of 1939, as they thought best. Independence was not rejected, it was hailed, true some more eagerly than others. Slovakia was a failure in one respect in that it could not avert the persecution of its Jewish population, of whom about a fourth survived the six years of Slovakia's existence. The Catholic bishops however, under the leadership of Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko, of Nitra, were as outspoken in their criticism of anti-Jewish legislation and courageous in their defense of human dignity as was s:inybody in Hitler's Europe. We can all appreciate the fact that no nation on earth desires tyranny over freedom, and even some who have a different view regarding the Slovak Republic and her war-time regime. No man on earth has the right to condemn the Slovaks to be an appendage to any other nation nor to be a colony of any other nation no matter how ethnically or linguistically they are related. The Slovak does not want any Czech to use his debasive form of rhetoric in international spheres of interest on behalf of his culture, language and history but rather feels quite proficient enough to do this for himself. The Slovak nation has a God-given right to live a free and independent life according to its tr,aditions. �122 SLOVAKIA One very important thing the world has to learn is the fact that the dreams and aspirations of little nations must be respected and supported even if they cramp the style of a brother nation who in the world's eyes seemingly wants only the best for its little brother. Another thing is the fact that the Slovaks do not wish to be known as Czechs or "Czechoslovaks". They are not a mere appendage but a distinct entity. If politics is the art of the impossible, then we cannot condemn the Slovaks for having achieved that impossible dream in the years of 1939-1945. Althought I am an American born of Slovak blood only on my mother's side I have come to know and love the aspirations of the Slovak people. As an American I can appreciate freedom and justice and see the same for my brothers in Slovakia. The story and traditions of the Slovak people are among the most glorious in all of history. No other nation has suffered so much nor been more misunderstood and yet still possesses a fire of determination for its freedom and self-determination. Slovakia did emerge but unfortunately was stiffled, but she will again someday rise up to stand among the free and independent peoples of the earth as master of her own household. Ibsen's words from his work "An Enemy of the People, V" seem to be appropriate: "The Strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone ... " 1) F. Vnuk, "Slovakia's Six Eventful Months ( Oct. 1938- March 1939) ," Slovak Studies IV, Historica II, 1964, 14. 2) J . Lettrich, "The Declaration of Turciansky Sv. Martin," A Histor y of Modern Slovakia, p. 288. 3) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 15. 4) G. L. Oddo, "To be Free of Budapest," Slov akia anji Its People, (New York, 1960) , p. 174. 5) Ibid., p. 175. 6) IbH, p. 175-76 7) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 16. 8) P . P . Yurchak, "Masaryk," The Slovaks,(Whiting, Ind.,1946), pp. 206. 9) Vnuk, op. cit., p. 16. 10) I. Derer, The Unity of the Czechs and Slovaks, (Prague, 1938) p. 32. 11) G. L. Ojddo, "Czecho-Slovakia," Slovakia and Its People, (New York, 1960) , p. 205. �SLOVAKIA 123 12) Ibid. , p. 205. 13 ) J . A. Mikus, "Czecho-Slovakia (1918-1939) " , Slovakia: A Political history, Marquette Slavic Studies ed., (Milwaukee, 1963) , pp. 38-39. 14 ) Ibid., p. 39. 15 ) G. F. Kennan, "Report on Conditions in Slovakia," From Prague After Muni ch, Princeton University Press ed. (Princeton, N. J . 1968) , p . 19. 16) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 17. 17 ) F . Vnuk, op. ci t ., p. 23. 18) Ibid., p . 23 . 19) F Vnuk, loc. cit. 20 ) J. A. Mikus, op. cit., p. 66. 21 ) Ibid, p. 67. 22 ) G. L. Oddo, op. cit ., p. 237. 23 ) J. A. Mikus, op. ci t ., p. 76. 24 ) J. A. Mikus, op . cit., pp. 86-87. 25 ) Ibid., p. 88. 26 ) I bid. , pp. 135-36. 27 ) J . A. Mikus, op. ci t ., pp. 108-09. 28 ) B. E. Schmitt, " The Road to Munich," Czechoslov akia, R. J . Kerner ed., (Los Angeles, 1949), p. 438. 29 ) J . M. Kirschbaum, "Twenty years of Czech an/d Communist Rule in Slovakia," Slov akia, XV, (1965) , p. 80. BIBLIOGRAPHY Derer , Ivan, The Unity of the Czechs and Slovaks, Prague, The Orbis Publishing Company, 1938. Heymann, Frederick, G., Poland and Czechoslovakia, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1966. Kennan, George, F ., From Prague After Munich, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1968. Kirschbaum, Joseph, M ., "Twenty Years of Ozech and Communist Rule in Slovakia," Slovaki a, XV, ( 1965) , pp. 78-90. Lettrich, Joseph, A. , A History of Modern Slovakia, New York, N . Y ., Praeger Publishing, 1955. Mikus, Joseph, A. , Slovakia a Political History: 1918-1950, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert, L., Slovakia and Its People, New York, Robert Speller and Sons, 1960. Schmitt, Berna/dette, E ., Czechoslovakia, Los Angeles, Ca.Hfornia. University of California Press, 1949. Vnuk, Francis, Slov ak Studies IV, Rome, Italy, Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius Press, 1964, pp. 7-164. Yurchak, Peter, P., The Slovaks, Whiting, Indiana, The Rev. John J. Lach Press, 1946. ( FIRST PRIZE AWARD) � 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 109 Winning Essays - Slovak League Scholarship Awards The Emergence of the Slovak State Daniel F. T a n z o n e I. Following the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy the small nations of Central Europe organized their own national states. The Slovaks joined hands with their Czech brothers and organized a common state: the Czecho-Slovak Republic. On the part of the Slovaks it was a belated re-appearance on the map of Europe after their ancestors hll-ci made a short debut in the Moravian Empire of the Ninth century. The union with the Czechs was considered as the most opportune alternative, the others being complete independence which was beyond their will, or autonomy within Hungary. It is interesting to note that large Slovak emigrant organizations in the United States came to the same conclusions, although there was no co-ordination of action between the Slovaks in Slovakia and those in the United States. "During· the war of 1914-18 every action for the unification of the Czechs and Slovaks into a common state was considered by the Austro-Hungarian authorities as treason, and consequently there were only a few sporadic pronouncements on this theme." 1 "But the idea was being entertained by the Czech and Slovak leaders at home, while abroad an active group led by Thomas G. Masaryk and Milan R. Stefanik and Benes worked with the Allies for the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia." 2 Their hard work, carried out with superhuman endurance and untiring stubborness against many odds, was crowned with splendid success. On October 30, 1918 in Turciansky Svaty Martin the Slovak representatives claiming "the absolute right to selfdetermination" declared for unity with the Czechs (at a 110 SLOVAKIA meeting which bore all the marks of haste and excitement). The declaration called not only for political but also for linguistic and cultural unity and marked the beginning of a new epoch in Slovak history. From living under the Magyars, the Slovaks started a new life with the Czechs.3 To go back for_a minute to look at the situation in America the historic month of May, 1918, saw events both at home and abroad moving inexorably toward the formation of a new Czecho-Slovak Republic. May saw Masaryk in Pittsburgh meeting with American Czech and Slovak leaders, explaining just how Czecho-Slovakia would be administered and precisely what the status of Slovakia would be within the new state. He assured Slovaks that Slovakia would be autonomous, would have its own schools, its own language, its own local administration, its own courts, its own legislative assembly and to further appease Slovak sensibilities he drafted a document which has since been hotly debated. It is known in history as the Pittsburgh Pact. Because Masaryk had written the draft in pencil Albert Mamatey, the President of the Slovak League of America had calligraphed and later took it to Washington where Masaryk (his government now officially recognized by the Wilson Administration), already temporary president of Czecho-Slovakia, signed the calligraphed copy on November 14 just before his departure for Europe. 4 The agreement was necessary to assure the American Slovaks of the position of Slovakia in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The American Czechs and Slovaks under the leadership of the Rev. Joseph Murgas, pastor of Sacred Heart Slovak Roman Catholic Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, launched a drive to raise funds for the cause of Czech and Slovak liberation. The drive netted the sum of well over $800,000.00 and it was sent to Masaryk, Benes, the former's daughter Alice, the National Council's offices in Paris, Russia, and the United States. 5 The agreement proclaimed that Slovaks and Czechs would form one state but that Slovakia would be completely autonomous, and that Czechs would not meddle in the domestic affairs of Slovakia. The Pittsburgh Pact is as follows: SLOVAKIA 111 THE PITISBURGH PACT May 30, 1918 The representatives of the Slovak and Czech organizations in the United States-The Slovak League of America, the Czech National Alliance, and the Union of Czech Catholics-have !deliberated, in the presence of the Chairman of rthe Czecho-Slovak National Council, Professor Masaryk, on the C2iecho-Slovak question and on our previous program manifestations, and have resolved as follows: We favor a political program whose purpose it shall be to unite the Czechs and the Slovaks into an autonomous state comprising the Czech lands and Slovakia. Slovakia shall have her own administration, heT own assembly and her own courts. The Slovak language shall be the official language in the schools in public offices, and in public life in general. The Czecho Slovak State shall be a republic ; its constitution shall be democratic. The cooperation of the Czechs and the Slovaks in the United States shall be intensified and regulated by mutual consent, accord• ing to need and changing situations. Detailed provisions relating to the organization of the CzechoSlov,ak state shall be left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks anci their legal representatives. 0 Signators Slovak Representatives: A. Mamatey, I. Bielek, J. Jancek, M. Gazdik, M. Getting, J . Pankuch, G. H. Mika, M. Bosak, I. Gessay, Rev. John Kubasek, A. Schustek, Rev. L. J . Karlovsky, Rev. Paul J . Siska, J. A. Feriencik, I. Daxner. Czech Representatives: T. G. Masaryk, K. Pergler, H. Dostal, Dr. L. Fischer, Rev. Oldrich Zla.mal, B. Simek, V. Benes, J. Zmrhal, Rev. I. Restl, J. Straka, J. Martinek, Dr. G. V. Pecival6 II. The transition was loaded with difficulties optimistically minimized or overlooked (in the initial enthusiasm) but which started to transpire as the honeymoon was wearing thin. The Slovaks ( and the Czechs, too) found very soon that they were much further apart than two branches of one nation ought to be or are supposed to be. Apart from an undeniable linguistic similarity there was little else these two nations had in common. In 1918 the Czechs were more progressive in their views, more aggressive in their action and more western in their political outlook than the Slovaks. At the same time the Slovaks 112 SLOVAKIA were practically without "intelligentsia", emerging from a battle for survival which they had very nearly lost and their general attitude was more conservative than revolutionary; in a word, they were badly equipped for the stormy days ahead. They depended greatly on Czech help. From 1919 under the pretext of helping Slovakia the Czechs were sending into Slovakia hundreds upon hundreds of teachers, officials and technicians; some of these did creditable work and rendered valuable services, others less so. Many of the new Czech arrivals commited a great number of unnecessary blunders which discredited their often well-meant help. Their ignorance of Slovak psy-• chology made their approach to their Slovak brothers awkward and sometimes even insulting. 7 When Masaryk entered upon the work of liberating the Czechs he did so with a singular talent and thoroughness. No other man could have possibly done better. The Czechs came to revere him as the personification of Czech genius expressed in an essentially rationalist philosophy. His outlook became fundamentally Czech. He came to be an admirer of John Hus. Educated in German schools, he was thus well equipped to cope with the German mentality. He became less a Slovak and more a stranger to the Slovak outlook and Slovak mentality. The Slovak has a deep respect for tradition: he is conservative, and does not change his opinions overnight with each new bit of information or of knowledge he may acquire. The Czech has less respect for tradition, indeed, challenges it, and is essentially opportunistic rather than conservative. 8 The first post-war weeks witnessed a sudden revival of anti-Catholic and Hussite traditions in Bohemia. The Czechs saw in the Catholic Church a Hapsburg ally and wanted the Slovaks to see in her an instrument of Magyarization. They tried to transplant their excesses into Slovakia but with no success. For most Slovaks the Catholic Church was an object of awe and respect and any attack on it, secret or open, horrified them, even made them nostalgic for those days when the Church was sacrosanct. The British minister in Prague summed up the principal errors of the Czech administration in Slovakia in his report of November 6, 1919 as follows: SLOVAKIA 113 1. Hostility to the Roman Catholic Church is evidenced by Czech soldiers and offidals and includes the desecration and mutilation of crucifixes and holy images, interruption of marriages, and similar offenses against the principles of culture and decency. 2. The Country has been flooded with Czech officials and Slovaks dismissed, or, if employed, they receive from one half to two-thirds less pay than the Czechs. 3. Corruption exists in public offices. 4. Attempts are being made to substitute the Czech for the Slovak language.9 The British representative not only pointed out these errors but strove for their rectification. With the approval of his government he advocated with both Masaryk and Benes more moderate courses and a more reasonable approach to the Slovak problem. One of the most important laws passed by the Czechoslovak Republic (hyphen was dropped) which antagonized the Slovaks was the Language Act (No. 122 of the year 1920). It provided that the state official language of CzechoSlovakia was the "Czechoslovak" language in which (with the exception of the provisions made for the use of the languages of the minorities, namely German and Hungarian) the proceedings of all courts, organs, institutions and enterprises of the state were to conducted. 10 The last paragraph of the Pittsburgh Agreement notes that the "detailed regulations, concerning the ·establishment of the Czecho-Slovak state, are left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives." Only one recognized authority existed in the years 1918-20: the Provisional Constituent Assembly of Czecho-Slovakia. 11 Meanwhile, on December 12, 1918, Vavro ~robar was sent to Slovakia with "full powers" from the central government and placed at the head of a semi-autonomous administration named by Prague. Soon Czech generals. Czecho-Slovak legionnaires, and tens of thousands of Czech officials would follow him. Thus, ~robar, who had already turned against his former benefactor, Monsignor Andrew Hlinka, P.A., and had renounced his Catholic Faith, could and did in time impose a "Czech peace" upon a people who had illusions of cultural autonomy after centuries of oppression from Budapest.12 As Slovakia represented 23 percent of the Republic's population, it would have seemed logical-as the com- 114 SLOVAKIA petitive system was not generally used-to reserve for Slovaks 23 per cent of the positions in the central administration. Now the statistics for the Slovak civil servants during the twentieth and last year of the Czecho-Slovak Republic show the following: Slovaks Civil Servants The Parliament of Prague ....... . Service to the Chief of State ..... . Presidency of the Council .. . .... . Ministries: Foreign Affairs . ... ........ . .. . Interior ..... ..... ............ . Justice ... ..... . .. . ....... . . .. . Unification ..... .. .. . ... . ..... . National Defense ............. . Generals ......... .... ........ . Industry: Civil Servants ......... . Agriculture ................. ... . . Post Offices . .... ............... . Communications .... ........... . Public Works ......... . ........ . Commerce ....... .. . . . ... . .... . . Social Welfare ..... . .. . ......... . Public Health .... . .. ... . . ... ... . Finance ....... . .. .............. . 1 out of 224 96 3 153 9 33 2 12 6 6 1 4 11 7 9 4 1 4 6 12 1,246 386 143 51 1,300 139 417 391 305 1,006 82 322 397 182 630 13 Of the 318,981,000 Crowns representing the sum total of the salaries paid annually to the civil servants of the Republic, the Slovaks received only 3,614,000, that is 1,1 per cent. If the 23 per cent proportion had been respected , the Slovak civil servants would have received 73,000,000 Crowns annually .14 Considering the fact that there were few Slovak intellectuals in 1918, after twenty years, the picture remained the same as regards the position of the Slovaks in the Republic. According to the Czechs, the Slovak constitutional demands have gone so far and been pressed so ruthlessly that it is not facetious to say that in CzechoSlovakia everyone now has autonomy except the Czechs. The Czechs dismissed the Slovak behavior outwardly as the pranks of a headstrong child who has been given a new toy.15 SLOVAKIA 115 All these problems led to the development of the autonomist movement led by Monsignor Andrew Hlinka. After the 1925 election his party, known as the Slovak People's Party, emerges as the strongest party in Slovakia (among twenty odd parties contesting the election) scoring 34 % of the total votes (489,111 out of 1,425,595) .16 In such an atmosphere the situation was ripening for a show-down. The young generation was predominantly autonomist and radical. Educated by Czech teachers it knew how to fight the Czechs with their own weapons. The nationalism of the Twenties with all its immature self-expression was coming of age. Its claims were now more demanding and better substantiated. There was no other way of satisfying them except by granting them. The difficult period when Slovakia had practically no nationally conscious intelligentsia, no administrative experience and no definite political aims, was now over. Even reasonable Czechs were aware of the fact that the Slovaks did not need tutelage in everything and were willing to grant gradually some sort of autonomy. In fact there was more opposition to the part of centralist Slovaks than on the part of the Czechs themselves. III. The Slovak problem re-emerged in all its magnitude in 1938. Up to that year it was relatively unknown outside Czecho-Slovakia, very few foreigners being aware even of its existence. The Czech-German dispute had made it a second-rate affair and being an internal one it had captured little attention abroad. But in September 1938 its presence and importance were stressed by both Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler in his speech of September 26 at the Sportpalast said that the Czechs and the Slovaks were separate nations and "the Slovaks did not want to have anything to do with the Czechs." 17 Mussolini in his open letter to Runciman pointed out that "there is not only a Sudeten-German problem, there is also a Hungarian, a Polish and a Slovak problem." 18 The tragi-comic element of their focusing attention on this problem lies in the fact that they were actually repeating, practically word for word, what had been said or written at least 20 years 116 SLOVAKIA before by Msgr. Hlinka in September, 1919 demanding an autonomous status for Slovakia in Paris. 19 By the Munich Agreement of the European Big Four Slovakia was condemned to transfer to Hungary the southern zone settled by Magyars. Faced with the threat of mutilation, the country reacted healthily in knitting the national unity more closely together. The numerous parties of the former system resulting from Prague's policy of "divide et impera" were spontaneously abandoned by their leaders and replaced by a gathering together of all Slovaks of good will. The amputation decided in Vienna was painful but not fatal for the country.20 On October 6, 1938, under international pressure, Prague had to make up its mind to take care of the Slovak problem. On September 22, 1938, in the course of the crisis brought on by the German question Mr. Benes, after many postponements and three modifications, finally had the text of a plan of solution put into the hands of Monsignor Joseph Tiso, Vice-President of the Populist party in Bratislava.21 General John Syrovy, who headed the Prague Government in Prague after Munich, nominated the First autonomous government of Slovakia. Monsignor Joseph Tiso was appointed Prime Minister. Tiso's government was empowered with full control over all matters affecting Slovak territory with the exception of foreign affairs, national finance, and national defense, which remained matters of common juristiction with Prague. Tiso's cabinet consisted of four ministers-Matth ew Cernak, Education; Ferdinand Durcansky, Justice; Paul Teplansky, Agriculture; John Lichner, trade and Public Works, Railroads and Post. Durcansky was a member of the Hlinka's People's Party, Cernak was an independent autonomist, while Teplansky and Lichner were members of the Czecho-Slovak Agrarian Party.22 Monsignor Tiso announced that Slovakia would be a part of a Federated Czecho-Slovak Republic. The hyphen was again incorporated in the title to emphasize the component parts that make up the state. After the victory of Munich, Germany was no less determined than before to liquidate Czecho-Slovakia. Hun- SLOVAKIA 117 gary made demands upon territory in Slovakia which contained a heavy Hungarian population. Before March 13, 1939, Berlin was faced with the following alternative in regard to the Slovak question: either Slovakia would declare its independence and become Germany's ally, or else it would refuse--an act which would be one reason for the Reich's leaving Hungary's hands free to reconquer the former territory of the crown of St. Stephen. Hitler never ceased plotting in Budapest. As early as February, 1939, Dr. Edmund Wesenmayer, who was later to become Minister Plenipotentiary of the Third Reich in Budapest, informed Slovak politicians that Hungary was considering March 15 to attack Slovak territory. He did not forget to add that only the Declaration of Independence could ward off Hungarian intervention.23 In March, inspite of strong autonomist tendencies, . the Czech preponderance in Slovakia was still considerable. The effects of twenty years just could not be undone in several months. Mostly because of lack of qualified personnel, the officers' corps in the army units stationed in Slovakia, police and gendarmerie and higher officials in the administrative service were still largely Czech. Industry ran mostly on Czech capital and Slovak economy was closely linked to the economy of the Czech lands . These facts were realized by Tiso and it caused him to be very cautious in his actions against the Czech lands. Independence at this angle spelled great economic danger and administrative chaos in Slovakia. Monsignor Tiso went to see Hitler and discuss the Slovak situation. Hitler definitely had no interest in anything east of the Carpathian mountains. It was indifferent to him what happened there. Hitler stated that if Slovakia wanted independence he would support this endeavor and even guarantee it. Hitler wanted Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence on the Berlin Radio, but he refused this because he did not have the right to decide Slovakia's fate. It was up to the Parliament in Bratislava to decide Slovakia's fate. Tiso called President Ha.cha, the president of Czecho-Slovakia to call the Slovak deputies together for the meeting of the parliament. After an exposition by Tiso behind closed doors the 118 SLOVAKIA fifty-seven deputies from the Slovak Parliament voted unanimously for independence. Three quarters of an hour later the same parliament voted the following law: Article 1. The Slovak land kleclared itself an independent State. The Diet of the Slovak land is transformed into a parliament of the Slovak State. Article 2. Until the adoption of the Constitution of the Slovak State, the executive power is entrusted to the government named by the Presidency of the Parliament. Article 3. All the laws, decrees and dispositions valid up to the present continue in force with the changes resulting from the fact of the existence of the i~dependent Slovak State. Article 4. By means of decrees, the government is instructed to take all measures necessary for the maintenance of order and the protection of the interests of the Slovak State. Article 5. This law goes into effect this very day and it devolves upon the government to enforce it. Bratislava, Slovakia, March 14, 1939 The new government comprised the Prime Minister, Msgr. Dr. Joseph Tiso; Vice-Premier, Dr. Vojtech Tuka; Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ferdinand t>urcansky; Interior, Karol Sidor; National Defense, Lieutenant-Colonel Ferdinand Catlos; Public Education, Joseph Sivak; Economy, Dr. Gejza Medricky; Finance, Dr. Mikulas Pruzinsky; Communications and Public Works, Julius Stano; Justice, Dr. Gejza Fritz.25 Slovakia became Germany's ally rather than her victim as in the Czech lands, but German policy wanted to prove how happy even a small Slavic nation could be in Hitler's new order. Slovakia was recognized, and many Czech historians neglect to admit, by many countries both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. She was recognized by Poland, Hungary, and Germany in March of 1939, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain in April, and on May by Great Britain by a 'de facto' recognition. Before the outbreak of the war she was recognized by Vatican, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Sweden, Japan, Liberia, Equador, Costa Rica, both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. In addition she received recognition 'de facto' from France and Belgium. On September 17, 1939 the Soviet Union recognized Slovakia both 'de facto' and 'de jure'. After the declaration of independence on March 14, SLOVAKIA 119 1939, Slovakia, for the time in over one thousand years she took her place among the nations of the earth. She no longer had stringis attached to Budapest or Prague. The Slovak government first wanted to solve the problem of a heavy Czech labor force in intellectual areas of thought. "On October 1, 1938 the number of teachers in Slovakia was 345 Slovaks and 523 Czechs. This figure completely reversed by 1940 when there were 680 Slovak teachers as opposed to 73 Czech teachers." 27 Slovakia did have many problems in her economy which were heavily exploited by German interference. The very fact that in 1939 a separate Slovak state could somehow exist where it would have been an impossibility twenty years earlier shown that the Slovaks had not only been able students but had also had able teachers in the Czechs. But there were still those who would show arrogance and lack of undestanding for Slovak pride and spoil the atmosphere. Although some authors like Schmitt feel that the "independent Slovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia became, for all practical purpose, parts of the Reich." 28 Yet some authors seem to negate the fact that there was a declaration of independence by the Slovak Parliament which represented the Slovak people and only the Slovak people. Another fact which is paramount in a nation's right to life is the fact of recognition by other nations. It must be emphasized that Slovakia was recognized by nations in both camps, Allied and German. IV. The way in which Slovakia disappeared from the face of Europe and became again a part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic offers experts of international law and political science an interesting subject for study and investigation. Considering the fact that Slovakia was recognized by 27 states, of which two thirds were on the side of the Allies, the Slovak Republic became a member of the international community and subject to the codes of international law. We must consider the fact that Slovakia like Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria and Rumania were defeated states but they were never incorporated into any other states. Accordin~ to the Atlantic Charter Slovakia should have been 120 SLOVAKIA treated as an existing state under military occupation and remain such until the Peace treaties were signed. Indeed the Allies favored the Czech exiles and decided not to apply the right of self-determination and the principles of the Atlantic Charter to the Slovak people. This seems very strange because of the fact that when a state is recognized it cannot be desolved with the impression that it never had existed. "On May 8, 1945 the Slovak Government signed a document of 'protection' or 'surrender' to the Allied High Command."29 Considering the fact that Slovakia never declared war against the Western Allies-Great Britain, France, or the United States. The attempts to save Slovakia as an independent state failed and her right to self-government disappeared. Never consulting the Slovak people, she was again a part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. All signs of autonomy as evidenced before the war disappeared within the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Slovakia again became a mere appendage of the term "Czechoslovak." Slovaks could no longer speak for Slovaks but had to look to the Czechs in Prague. V. In conclusion the road to Slovakia's independence led through stormy days of the post-Munich period and the time of her independence on the European scene was not very propitious. But we must remember that there are some things in life in which we have no say in. It is highly unlikely that Slovakia would have survived if she had appeared after World War I due to the fact that she lacked a substantial intellectual class. The fact remains that fifty years before she possessed a larger intelligentsia than in 1918. The one thousand year sentence of subjugation under Magyarization had almost destroyed the Slovaks and their civilization. The Slovaks owe much to the Czechs, for without them they would not have been able twenty years later to possess an intelligentsia which had multiplied in size and improved in . depth and competence and stand on their own feet in March of 1939. The Czecho-Slovak Republic might have worked if it was bilateral and not unilateral as it was. The Czechs neglected to realize the SLOVAKIA 121 fact that children do mature and no longer need to be tied to their mother's apron strings. It was tragic that the United States' indolence resulted in Slovakia again being incorporated into the Czecho-Slovak Republic against the will of majority of her people. It was astrous that the United States favored the Czech Benes over the Slovak Tiso in deciding the fate of the Slovak people. The Slovakia that did emerge on March 14, 1939 was not the archetype that I would have envisioned, for there were many things wrong, among them heavy dependence on Germany. It is both simple and sweet to assert that Adolph Hitler imposed independence on Slovakia but these allegations are not factual. The circumstances surrounding Slovakia's birth are far more complex. The Slovaks, unable to escape Central European events, reconciled themselves to the geographical and political conditions of 1939, as they thought best. Independence was not rejected, it was hailed, true some more eagerly than others. Slovakia was a failure in one respect in that it could not avert the persecution of its Jewish population, of whom about a fourth survived the six years of Slovakia's existence. The Catholic bishops however, under the leadership of Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko, of Nitra, were as outspoken in their criticism of anti-Jewish legislation and courageous in their defense of human dignity as was s:inybody in Hitler's Europe. We can all appreciate the fact that no nation on earth desires tyranny over freedom, and even some who have a different view regarding the Slovak Republic and her war-time regime. No man on earth has the right to condemn the Slovaks to be an appendage to any other nation nor to be a colony of any other nation no matter how ethnically or linguistically they are related. The Slovak does not want any Czech to use his debasive form of rhetoric in international spheres of interest on behalf of his culture, language and history but rather feels quite proficient enough to do this for himself. The Slovak nation has a God-given right to live a free and independent life according to its tr,aditions. 122 SLOVAKIA One very important thing the world has to learn is the fact that the dreams and aspirations of little nations must be respected and supported even if they cramp the style of a brother nation who in the world's eyes seemingly wants only the best for its little brother. Another thing is the fact that the Slovaks do not wish to be known as Czechs or "Czechoslovaks". They are not a mere appendage but a distinct entity. If politics is the art of the impossible, then we cannot condemn the Slovaks for having achieved that impossible dream in the years of 1939-1945. Althought I am an American born of Slovak blood only on my mother's side I have come to know and love the aspirations of the Slovak people. As an American I can appreciate freedom and justice and see the same for my brothers in Slovakia. The story and traditions of the Slovak people are among the most glorious in all of history. No other nation has suffered so much nor been more misunderstood and yet still possesses a fire of determination for its freedom and self-determination. Slovakia did emerge but unfortunately was stiffled, but she will again someday rise up to stand among the free and independent peoples of the earth as master of her own household. Ibsen's words from his work "An Enemy of the People, V" seem to be appropriate: "The Strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone ... " 1) F. Vnuk, "Slovakia's Six Eventful Months ( Oct. 1938- March 1939) ," Slovak Studies IV, Historica II, 1964, 14. 2) J . Lettrich, "The Declaration of Turciansky Sv. Martin," A Histor y of Modern Slovakia, p. 288. 3) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 15. 4) G. L. Oddo, "To be Free of Budapest," Slov akia anji Its People, (New York, 1960) , p. 174. 5) Ibid., p. 175. 6) IbH, p. 175-76 7) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 16. 8) P . P . Yurchak, "Masaryk," The Slovaks,(Whiting, Ind.,1946), pp. 206. 9) Vnuk, op. cit., p. 16. 10) I. Derer, The Unity of the Czechs and Slovaks, (Prague, 1938) p. 32. 11) G. L. Ojddo, "Czecho-Slovakia," Slovakia and Its People, (New York, 1960) , p. 205. SLOVAKIA 123 12) Ibid. , p. 205. 13 ) J . A. Mikus, "Czecho-Slovakia (1918-1939) " , Slovakia: A Political history, Marquette Slavic Studies ed., (Milwaukee, 1963) , pp. 38-39. 14 ) Ibid., p. 39. 15 ) G. F. Kennan, "Report on Conditions in Slovakia," From Prague After Muni ch, Princeton University Press ed. (Princeton, N. J . 1968) , p . 19. 16) F . Vnuk, op. cit., p. 17. 17 ) F . Vnuk, op. ci t ., p. 23. 18) Ibid., p . 23 . 19) F Vnuk, loc. cit. 20 ) J. A. Mikus, op. cit., p. 66. 21 ) Ibid, p. 67. 22 ) G. L. Oddo, op. cit ., p. 237. 23 ) J. A. Mikus, op. ci t ., p. 76. 24 ) J. A. Mikus, op . cit., pp. 86-87. 25 ) Ibid., p. 88. 26 ) I bid. , pp. 135-36. 27 ) J . A. Mikus, op. ci t ., pp. 108-09. 28 ) B. E. Schmitt, " The Road to Munich," Czechoslov akia, R. J . Kerner ed., (Los Angeles, 1949), p. 438. 29 ) J . M. Kirschbaum, "Twenty years of Czech an/d Communist Rule in Slovakia," Slov akia, XV, (1965) , p. 80. BIBLIOGRAPHY Derer , Ivan, The Unity of the Czechs and Slovaks, Prague, The Orbis Publishing Company, 1938. Heymann, Frederick, G., Poland and Czechoslovakia, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1966. Kennan, George, F ., From Prague After Munich, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1968. Kirschbaum, Joseph, M ., "Twenty Years of Ozech and Communist Rule in Slovakia," Slovaki a, XV, ( 1965) , pp. 78-90. Lettrich, Joseph, A. , A History of Modern Slovakia, New York, N . Y ., Praeger Publishing, 1955. Mikus, Joseph, A. , Slovakia a Political History: 1918-1950, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert, L., Slovakia and Its People, New York, Robert Speller and Sons, 1960. Schmitt, Berna/dette, E ., Czechoslovakia, Los Angeles, Ca.Hfornia. University of California Press, 1949. Vnuk, Francis, Slov ak Studies IV, Rome, Italy, Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius Press, 1964, pp. 7-164. Yurchak, Peter, P., The Slovaks, Whiting, Indiana, The Rev. John J. Lach Press, 1946. ( FIRST PRIZE AWARD)  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 Emergence of the Slovak State Description An account of the resource Daniel F. Tanzone Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 109-123 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tanzone, Daniel F. 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/adfa3c760fa984f80ae9d956da0d118c.pdf 80c2f053e604d8071a064bb2658a3c70 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 85 The Slovak National Awakening By Edward A. Tuleya Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 democratic principles and nationalism had been suppressed by the joint efforts of the great powers. However, by 1848 the dream of freedom could no longer be contained, and throughout the continent of Europe, except for Russia, the revolution spread. Revolts in Palermo, Paris, Vienna, and Prague were like huge cannon aimed to destroy the fortress of reaction. 1 The time that Prince Metternich feared had come, and on March 14th he was forced to flee Vienna. Hope for the oppressed ran high. 2 Within the framework of the Austrian Empire dissatisfied nations now saw the opportunity to gain rights which had long been denied them. Magyars Would Deny Others Freedom Napoleon's downfall had created a dilemma for Vienna and she reacted by adopting a policy which relegated the Slavs to an inferior status within the Empire, especially those living in Hungary. The Russian more than any other army was responsible for the defeat of Napoleon. Gratitude quickly gave way to suspicion as to what the Russian Tsar might do now that he had the strongest fighting force in Europe. Vienna feared that Russia would use her power to back up the demands of the Slav nations in Empire, for the improvement of their political position or more alarming for breaking away from Hapsburg control. Instead of turning to a rational policy for her Slav subjects, she opted for a diametrical course by seeking the co-operation of the Magyars who were in complete sympathy with Vienna, at least on that overriding issue. Vienna gave the Magyars more than tacit support to do whatever was necessary in Hungary to preserve the Empire's internal security. What the Magyars had in mind was something more, greater independence from Vienna. For centuries the Magyars ruled a population three fourths of which was made up of nonMagyar peoples, such as Germans, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, �86 SLOVAKIA Ruthenians, and Rumanians. But the Magyar leaders had no sympathy for others when the latter called for equal rights. 3 Thus, while the Magyars were pressing Vienna for more rights, the non-Magyar nations were being refused those very same rights and others by the Magyars. 4 The lot of the subject races in Hungary was difficult, particularly for the Slovaks, a Slavic people, numbering close to three million and living in northern Hungary. Unlike the Croats, Serbs, and Rumanians, the Slovaks did not enjoy favor in Vienna, representation in Parliament, nor the right to cultivate their own language. 5 It was not, however, until the end of the eighteenth century that the Magyars began to accelerate the Magyarization of the Slovaks and other ·non-Magyar nations. The greatest contributing factor to their plan was Joseph II's policy to centralize and Germanize the Empire. In 1784 Joseph II ordered that in place of the dead language, Latin, German would be the official language in Hungary. From that time on there was a strong reawakening of the people.6 "Just as the encroachments of German had awakened the susceptibilities of the Magyars", writes A. Patterson, "so did the encroachments of Hungarian (Magyar) awaken those of the Croats and Slovaks."7 Effect of Joseph's Policy on Magyarization The policy of Joseph II, instead of unifying the Empire through Germanization, only aroused the subject nations to take further steps to defend their national identity.8 The awakened spirit affected the Magyar nationalists to adhere to the belief that the security of Hungary as a Magyar nation could only be assured if all its inhabitants were Magyars. 9 In opposition to this, Michael Hodza, ardent fighter for Slovak people, exclaimed, "We don't want Magyar as our language. If you fought against Germanization of Joseph II, we also fight against your Magyarization."10 Therefore, the Slovaks who had enjoyed some linguistic tolerance were now to feel the pains of a denaturalization program. Lack of concern on the part of the Magyars and their feeling of superiority and arrogance can be best expressed in a; Magyar proverb: "Toth ember nem ember." (The Slovak is not a man).11 �SLOVAKIA 87 The first Magyarization laws were passed in 1791-92 by the County councils.12 For several years the laws. were poorly enforced and not too much concern was paid to the activities of the non-Magyar groups or their resistance to assimilation. This apathy, however, was not the rule in all quarters. In some cities in Hungary it was calculated that in 1798 the Magyar and the Slovak population was equal, and because of the manner in which the Germans had been absorbed by the Slovaks, the Magyars could not expect a better fate .13 Reaction to this fear took different forms on the part of the Magyars. In many cases Magyar priests unable to speak Slovak were sent to Slovak churches. In the village of :r.udovilovo-Komarno police were posted outside the doors of the church to keep the people from leaving. Those who protasted were placed on the deres and beaten. Me;:i,nwhile Slovak priests were not allowed to perform services and Magyars were appointed. 14 This could have had a disastrous affect on the Slovaks, for the Catholic priests and Protestant ministers were looked upon as leaders by the people. With few exceptions, the clergy were the only national-minded Slovaks possessing a higher education. They used their learning to better the lives of the people through writing and organizing schools. The Slovak aristocracy, on the other hand, were pro-Magyar in their sympathies and looked with indifference on their own countrymen. Influ ence of Anton B ernolak In 1787, Anton Bernolak, a Catholic priest, published his Slovak grammar. His work laid the foundations for a Slovak literary language and contributed to a growing national consciousness. 15 Heretofore, Slovak writers had used Czech as a medium of written expression, but now they had, based on the West Sl@vak dialect, the beginning of their own literary language. Slovak writers now turned to the distant p ast in Slovak history, and using the new idiom, wrote about her past glory and achievements in an effort to inspire the people. Not long afterwards, in 1793, Bernolak and his followers founded the Slovak Education Society for the purpose of publishing and distributing Slovak books. A �88 SLOVAKIA generous patron and member of the Trnava Literary circle was Alexander Rudnay, Archbishop Cardinal of Ostrihom, who openly proclaimed, "Slovak I am and if I were a Pope I would still be a Slovak."16 For the Slovak people, Bernolak and his followers had taken the first stride toward the preservation of their language, heritage, and nation. 17 "Had it not been for those who in the 1790's were awake, as true Slovaks, by the year 1867 we would have been smothered by Magyarization," were the words used by Skultety to stress the importance of the school of Bernolak.18 Before the Slovaks could present a more united front against the Magyars, however, it was necessary to close the ranks among their own people. One of the greate$t obstacles which confronted the Slovak leaders was the selection of a literary language which would be accepted by both Catholic and Protestant groups. Centered in Trnava, the Catholics continued on their new course by using the Western Slovak vernacular as their vehicle for development of a literary language. The Bernolak group was steering away from the Czech which until this time had been used by the educated class as the literary language in Slovakia. On the other hand, the Protestants remained adherents of the Czech. They in turn began to gather around the Lutheran Lycee in Bratislava. In 1801, they founded the "Society for Slovak Literature," and two years later they established a chair for the study of the Slovak language and literature at the Lycee. 19 Eudovit Stur And The Defense of Slovak Rights For the Slovaks much good emanated from the Lycee in the years that followed. In the circles of the young students, Eudovit sttir from 1836 became prominent. Born in the small town of Uhrovec, the son of a school teacher, :Cudovit was destined to devote his life to his people. He succeeded in getting the chair of Slovak as substitute of the superannuated Professor George Palkovic.20 In order to prepare himself for the cause of his nation, sttir, in 1838, departed for Germany to take up studies at the University of Halle. During his sojourn at Halle he continued to keep contact with his homeland by �SLOVAKIA 89 exchanging letters witl1 his literary associates in Slovakia and Bohemia. Before returning home $tur visited the Lusatians, an island of the Western Slavic people located in the "German Sea." He hoped to find the purest type of Slavic character and racial purity. He came upon a village which except for the name of the community had lost all its Slavic identity. $tur wa.s moved by this experience and in a poem called "The Pagan Priest" expressed with sadness the eventual loss of these people to the Slavic world. On his way home he lingered in Prague at the home of a dear friend, Jaroslav Pospisil. Unfortunately, $tur fell down the steps and was forced to remain. 21 During his convalescence he fell in love with his host's daughter, Maria. After great deliberation, $tur decided against placing his own personal feelings before those of his people. It may, be said by some that a marriage at this time by $tur would have meant his loss to the Slovak cause. There is no doubt that during his marital adjustment he may have neglected his life'is work, but one must not forget his burning desire to fulfill his mission for the welfare of his people. It must also be remembered that $tur's prospective father-in-law was a man steeped in the Slavic cause which in itself would certainly have not been a deterring factor towards $tur's continued efforts in the Slovak cause. Indeed, the Slovak people came much closer to losing their great son in 1833 and from an entirely different quarter. After completing his studies in that year at the Lycee in Bratislava, $tur was employed at the office on the estate of Count Zay. Such a position would have been cherished by most young men, yet $tur resigned. His mission and work lay elsewhere. When his mother protested and pleaded that he remain, $tur in a voice full of love and emotion said, "Mommy dear, as you see today, I will still be a student. I must be a student." $tur returned to Bratislava where he gave himself to his people. 22 Few will deny that Jan Kollar's "Slavy Dcera" (The Daughter of Slava) and Paul Joseph $afarik's "Slavonic Antiquities" had influenced $tur's decision. 23 The Lycee attracted not only Slovaks but also Serbian �90 SLOVAKIA and Croatian youth. 24 Replicas of the society at the Lycee were found in other schools in Slovakia. Stimulating contacts among the Catholic and Lutheran Slovak students was established through correspondence. They were preparing each other for future duties in life. Acceleration of Magyarization It was not until the 1830's that-the non-Magyar nations began to rise and defend themselves against the accelerated Magyarization program. 25 By 1820, in some counties, Magyar was advocated as the language in non-Magyar schools. 26 A terrible blow was dealt to Slovak people by the Hungarian Diet in 1825-27. Seemingly, the only purpose of the Diet body at the time was to replace Latin with Magyar as the official language. Consequently this meant that all citizens of Hungary would be forced to use the Magyar language in schools, civil service, army and public life as well. To further the cause of Magyarization, Count Stefan Szechenyi, prominent Magyar nobleman, offered to donate his yearly income towards the building of a Magyar academy. A member of the parliament explained that the chief reason for such aims was for the defense against Russian pressure. 27 The constant fear of Russia led the Magyars to look upon a strong Poland as a likely ally. Professor Daniel Rapant explains that Felsobukki Nagy Pal in his Parliamentary speech in 1833 called for the need of a resurrected Poland and a widening of Magyarization to the remotest frontiers of Hungary. He emphasized a common frontier with Poland. 28 Needless to say, much of this fear can be attributed to the cleverness of the Magyars in their defense against the Slavic nations. Both German and Magyar publishers used "Pan-Slavism" extensively as their propaganda weapon. With their careful program of assimilating other nations, the Magyars themselves made blunders which were to turn the Slovak people further away from them. M. Rey wrote: "The Magyar nobles had often made generous sacrifices in the defense of their own interests but they had always shown the most deplorable selfishness as regards the condition of the peasants." 29 All this in turn gave the �SLOVAKIA 91 Austrian crown an opportunity to play the part of the oppressed peasants' friend. 30 The Slovak peasant from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 19th century bore the main burden of taxation in Hungary, paying fifty per cent of what he produced to his lord and to the crown.31 There is no question that the conditiorts of the peasantry in Slovakia were pitiful. 32 Therefore, it is understandable that occasionally open peasant rebellions took place against their lords. One of the latest to occur was in 1831 which took place in the counties of saris, Zemplin, Spis, Abauj, and Gerner with the outbreak of cholera. Some of the lords were put to death by the people who accused them of having poisoned the wells. 33 According t:o Bakes, the disease had spread across the frontier from Poland where Russian soldiers had been encamped.34 rt is estimated that 56,000 died, and one writer claims that Russian agents incited the people to revolt against their lords. 35 The brutality with which the revolt was put down left hatred in the hearts of those who survived. In this state of affairs the Emperor in 1833 invited the Diet to meet at Bratislava to discuss agrarian reforms which he claimed were drawn up by himself. 36 Among the people there was great hope that such interest on the part of the Emperor would mean the gradual alleviation of their terrible conditions. Actually, the congress did not concern itself with such matters and instead they were put aside to be dealt with at later sessions. Something more important now commanded their attention, the coronation of Francis's son, Ferdinand, as kin of Hungary. As Magyars they were won over to the new king when he contributed his coronation gift to the Magyar Scientific Academy. Ferdinand, who claimed to be Magyar at heart, became a strong supporter for the Magyarization program. In 1830, the Diet passed a series of laws which extended the reaches of the Magyar language. By 1836, Magyar was elevated to equal stature with Latin as a language to be used in courts and documents. As a result of the Diet of 1839, Magyar now became the official language of Hungary . Now Magyarization would need only time. What �92 SLOVAKIA would St. Stephen, Hungary's greatest king, have said of this? The Magyars had revered their king and maybe they would have been wiser had they paid heed to his words of wisdom. In a letter written by St. Stephen to his son, St. Emerich, we find him saying: "For as guests some from various parts of the provinces, they bring different languages and customs, knowledge, and arms, all of which adorn the royal court; and make it more magnificent. All this shakes the self-confidence of foreigners. A country with one language and one morality is weak and fragile. Therefore I exhort you, my son, to accept them with benevolence and hold them in esteem in order that they may prefer staying with you in the kingdom."37 Thus, the Magyars were taking their ship on a different course than that charted by their great captam, St. Stephen. At this time, Uudovit stur returned to the Lycee in Bratislava from Germany where he had been studying for the last two years. Much had taken place in his absence; however, he was the man destined to lead his people during their great trial in 1848-49. An effective weapon t,o be used against stur and his followers was the Pesti Hirlap, the first political newspaper in Hungary and edited by Louis Kossuth in 1841. The "forties" were to see the Magyars, "champions" of the newly-won freedom of the press acting quickly to refuse its benefits to their weaker fellow nations. Although some assurances were given that racial tolerance would be honored to all, it was not long before the true character of the journal became evident. Kossuth was very free in his attacks on the Slovaks and answers to his attacks were never allowed space in his "democratic" paper. 38 The Pesti Hirlap became the voice of Magyarization. The Magyars in their search for every technique and new approach did not overlook the possibilities of using the religious issue as a vehicle toward their goal of assimilation. This only served to strengthen Slovak resistance. On September 10, 1840, Count Zay was appointed chief inspector of the Protestant Congregations and schools.39 In his acceptance speech he called for the promotion of Magyarization as the only salvation for the Protestant confession in Slovakia. Zay's goal was to unify the Lutheran �SLOVAKIA 93 and Calvinist Churches. Of all the Lutherans in Hungary, five eights were Slovaks, the rest were Germans. On the other hand, the Calvinists were Magyars and were greater in number. This in itself added to Slovak suspicions that such a union was not in the interest of the faith as proclaimed, but actually a chauvinistic design on the part of the Magyars to absorb the Slovak people.40 Zay openly announced in a public circular, September 26, 1840, his determination to Magyarize the Slovaks. Moreover, he stated that the Slovak language would prevent the Slovaks from being good stolid Protestants, and the Magyarization of the Slavs was the holiest duty of every genuine patriot:u Hungary, according to Zay, could only be strong if she were welded into one nation, for she could then defend herself from the danger in the north, Russia. 42 Slovak leaders were not tardy in answering Zay. Sttir's rebuttal was so intelligently plain that Zay became firmly convinced Sttir was behind all the protestations that were being made. He was determined to have Stlir removed from the chair of Slovak Studies at the Lycee. This appeared to be quite difficult to do inasmuch as i:ittir was very popUllar. Nevertheless, supporters of Zay's plan proclaimed that the Lycee's at Bratislava and Levoca were the hotbeds of all Slovak societies at Lutheran schools and colleges in Slovakia. For the time being, however, Magyar plans were not successful. Jan Seberini answered Zay on April 2, 1841, by stating that he, Zay, professed to Magyarize in the name of Protestantism; yet that is not only contrary to the Protestant beliefs, but also to all Christian teachings. "Who has the right to say what language a man must speak?" he continued, " I am a Slovak not because of glory and honor but according to Christian teachings, for God wanted that I be born Slovak. Therefore, I am not ashamed of my origin nor my tongue just as any German, Frenchman, Magyar need not to be ashamed." 43 It must be remembered that not all of the Protestant clergy sensed danger in the union; nevertheless, Zay's program eventually became evident even to those idealists. At Nitra, where some believed that union of the two �94 SLOVAKIA Protestant groups was in good faith, Jozef Miloslav Hurban warned them to be more realistic and not to be taken in. The part that Hurban was to play in the revolt of 1848-49 was second to none but his great friend and comrade in arms, Jjudovit Stlir. Jozef Miloslav Hurban Born on the 19th of March, 1817, in Beckov, Jozef Hurban was educated by his father, Pavol, a Lutheran Minister of that place. His father was timid and wished not to implicate himself in national problems. Therefore, under these circumstances, the youthful Hurban while at home was not exposed to Slovak national consciousness.44 After spending his lower grades at Trencin, he went in 1830 to study at the Lycee at Bratislava. He was there for six years before he met Shir. Prior to this time Hurban had not taken part in Slovak aspirations at the Lycee. One evening, while taking a walk in the streets of Bratislava, he met stlir who asked him whether he was studying and practicing in the Slovak language. This stur explained, was the duty of all Slovaks. Hurban at the moment was embarrassed and could not answer. stur then said, "You are a Slovak, is that correct? And is not your friend George Zaborsky?" Hurban replied that he was a Slovak and that his friend was George Zabo11sky. 45 stur complimented Hurban for his selection of such a good, able friend and recommended that he continue to cultivate Zaborsky's friendship. Before the two had departed, Hurban was invited to visit stur. That meeting was to have far-reaching effects on Hurban; for, when he arrived home, his mind was full of thought. The lamp in his room burned past midnight, while Hurban wrote hils first verse in Slovak. This he presented to stur the next morning and from that time on the Slovak Institute in Bratislava, as well as the Slovak nation, did not have a more zealous member nor a more deserving son than Hurban. A trip to Devin was planned for April 24, 1836, by the members of the Slovak Society at the Lycee in order to initiate and plan more definite activities. The ruins �SLOVAKIA 95 of Devin, reminders of a rich history, stood majestic on her pedestal of massive rock guarding the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers. This place recalled the Great Moravian Empire in the 9th century and her ceaseless struggles against German and Magyar. For the new Slovak generation this was a setting best suited for the revival of Slovak national feeling. 46 On this day filled with bright spring sunshine, lectures were given, prose recited, and songs were sung. Everyone participated in the theme of awakening Slovak consciousness. 47 In a further expression of loyalty to their beloved cause, they adopted Slavic names which they pledged to carry forever. sttir was the first to announce that he was to take the name of Velislav and others followed suit, taking different Slavic names. Hurban took the name Miloslav, a name which was to live in Slovak history. 48 Below the fortress of Devin rested a small town by the same name, and there in a tavern the young Slovaks gathered after an eventful day. Conversation, according to Hurban, had to be carried on in Latin so that waiters might not learn and betray their information.49 Just as stur and others had taken trips to broaden their views and get better acquainted with affairs which might influence their actions, Hurban also traveled. 50 His opportunity was afforded during a vacation 1839 when he visited Vienna, Bohemia and Moravia. 51 In 1841, a book relating his experiences was published: Trip of a Slovak to his Slav Brothers in Moravia and Bohemia. 52 When he completed his studies in 1840, Hurban became town chaplain at Brezova. For Hurban, the post at Brezova was a fortunate one, for here his work was to be understood and appreciated. Even before his arrival, the people of Brezova had had experiences in the struggle against the landed gentry. The peasants were aware of their rights and were prepared to defend them. They, too, had been effected by stur and showed a keen interest in his work. 53 Although Hurban knew that the upper classes would hold it against him, he, nevertheless, set about to reach the less fortunate classes. 54 Within himself there was a shining spiritual fire that others felt, and with his expressive face, warm kind eyes, and strong thundering �96 SLOVAKIA voice, he imparted to others the knowledge he had. Through talks and writings, he began to create among the uneducated people an interest in how they could better themselves. Out of this grew a Sunday school and Moderation and Temperance Society, both of which were to help in strengthening his people. The Sunday school was designed for those living in Brezova and it met on Sundays and holidays and on other days when time permitted. Those who attended were taught the arts and sciences. The Moderation and Temperance Society was just as important. Drunkenness came to Slovakia not through a habit developed from pleasure, but as a medium of escape from the extreme hardships of life. Not anywhere in Hungary was misery so great as in Slovakia, nor was drunkenness more widespread. Besides education, there was a dire need for bettering the lot of these people who lived under such deplorable conditions.55 The enlightened Slovak leaders knew that in order to lift up their nation they must first of all remove this scourge of alcoholism. 56 Throughout Slovakia, Moderation Societies were set up which were similar to those in America, but were chiefly modeled after those in Ireland where conditions were unfortunately similar to those found in Slovakia. However, the obstacle to legislation which would have curbed, if not eliminated, the sale of liquor came from the great landowners and Jews. 57 They owned the distilleries as well as the village taverns. The latter were frequented by those who could not pay and high rates of interest were charged them. 58 Agricultural schools had been established, but they were more for the middle class: townsmen, tradesmen, and prosperous farmers who were able to save their earnings.59 But for the less fortunate people of the lower classes, the Moderation and Temperance Societies had greater meaning and importance.6 1, Its founders believed that Slovak patriotism must be aroused, for a poor and drunken nation could achieve nothing but death. In the field of literary activitieis Hurban felt there was a strong need for a journal to help to direct Slovak literary life. In fact, when in May, 1840, Hurban grieved that there was no journal which could serve the interest �SLOVAKIA 97 of defending national rights, he made this comparison: "A journal is to the life of a nation what hands are to a clock to indicate the time; therefore, as conditions exist we do not even have a clock."61 Putting forth all his efforts, he managed, by 1842, to produce a yearly almanac, Nitra, written in Czech, consisting of some three hundred pages.62 Included in the first edition were songs, poems, and prose from members of the young Slovak generation. Nitra's title page was consecrated to "The daughters and sons of Slovakia, Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia." Hurban dedicated the introductory poem of this first issue of Nitra to Jan Caplovic, landowner and great lover of books and literature. All this was done purposefully so that he might join the Slovak cause more actively .63 There was some speculation among the Magyars as to Hurban's purpose of editing the Nitra. Some claimed that the almanac was given the name Nitra so that Slovakia might arise around the glory that surrounded that name. Prior to this time any open discussion about historic Nitra was forbidden. However, friends of Hurban came to his rescue by tactfully assuring the Magyars there was nothing to fear from Hurban who was but a young man and as such should be excused for his actions. 64 A weaker man would have sensed the danger but Hurban stayed on to put out three more almanacs until 1848 when he was forced to flee for his life. In the year 1843, Hurban was called as pastor to Hlboke and there he edited his second issue of Nitra, but this time in the new Slovak literary language, and censors played havoc with this issue.65 The Magyars also hindered in every way the realization of a Slovak newspaper. stur, with the help of Kollar, had petitioned in 1842 for permission to publish a newspaper, but approval was denied. There was no telling how long this condition would last. In the meantime, something had to be done to draw the Slovak people together into a unified body. It was for this purpose in 1843 that the Slovak leaders stur and Hodza met in Hurban's residence in Hlboke.66 Here they decided that if they were not free to edit a newspaper, a society formed along national lines might help achieve the same results. �98 SLOVAKIA Slovak Literary Language The triumvirate agreed that Czech should no longer be used by the Lutherans in their churches and writings. Therefore, the adoption of the Central Slovak dialect by this body brought the Lutherans and Catholics closer to the goal of having one dialect as a base for their literary language. There was a great need to reach the people, but in a language that was dear to them and one which they understood. Not all people could read the Czech, only the educated; it seemed so foreign to the common people. The society planned for in Hlboke paved the way for the achievement of a common langu&ge.67 Near the beautiful High Tatra mountains on the 27th of August, 1844, in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas, the Tatrin Society was organized. In the words of Rapant, "It was the culminating point of cultural organization in Slovakia at that time; and it was the most important organ for the stur generation."68 A factor of far reaching consequences for Slovakia was that it was the first national Slovak organization and it encompassed all of the sides and segments of the nation, Catholic and Lutheran.69 Along with unity of language, it concerned itself with the cultural needs of the Slovaks.70 The Tatrin gave financial support to young Catholic and Protestant men who were studying in higher schools of education. Peter Bohun, the famous Slovak artist who painted portraits and scenes of the revolution of 1848-1849, was given such assistance by the Tatrin, so that he was able to publish a book of national costumes. 71 The third meeting of the Tatrin was held at cachtice in the Catholic parish house chiefly to resolve the language issue.72 On this memorial occasion the Catholics and Lutherans on the 10th of August, 1847, agreed to adopt the Central Slovak as the common literary language. The effect of this meeting meant the rupture with the Czechs. As was expected, it drew exclamations of disapproval from Palkovic, Kollar, and others who felt the only salvation for the Slovaks was in their tie with the Czechs. On the part of the Czechs there was great anger, and claims were made that such a move only strengthened the German influence about them. �SLOVAKIA 99 The Czech nationals could not understand the Slovak problem,73 for the vernacular is the natural medium and the truest heartbeat of the people. It, the vernacular, only could help enlighten and lift the Slovak people from their death sleep. Not all Czechs, however, were against the founding of a new literary language. This group argued that a Slovak literature would enrich the whole of Slavic literature. On the other hand, the agreement reached in Cachtice was celebrated throughout Slovakia by Protestants and Catholics alike. stl1r's former students who now served as Protestant clergymen were filled with joy. It seemed that at once Slovak was elevated to a literary language bringing with it a new life which surged into the land. Slavic historians claim that had not such a step been taken it is doubtful whether the Slovaks could have withstood the pressure of Magyarization. 74 It seemed that every,.vhere nobles, townscitizens, and people of the villages began to proclaim that they were Slovaks. The poor classes were not able to understand most of what was written. Time was needed so they might completely understand. Along with Sunday schools which had been established new ones sprang up, and, in addition, writing and reading rooms were opened. People began to realize that through learning and enlightenment they could be helped out of their misery. In Brezova, peasants who had long been held under the nobles' yoke began their attempt to free themselves by purchasing the land. Now that it was their land they worked it as never before. 75 Books and articles were not written to adorn libraries but to serve the people. Advice on practical matters in the written medium was beginning to evidence itself in the lives of the Slovak people. The societies which already existed in the cultural, social, and economic field were given a tremendous impetus by the new language. In the meantime, all protests against Zay had not been aired. The inroads of Magyarization aroused superintendent Dr. Paul Jozeffy 76 to protest at the Lutheran general convention on September 10, 1841. He warned that if they continued forcing Magyarization into Slovak churches and schools, he himself would present these �100 SLOVAKIA ~ievances to the court.77 Needless to say, Magyar ambitions were not deterred, for when in 1840 the Jittenka (Morning Star), a student journal, was first issued at Levoca the Magyar press vehemently attacked it as a tool of PanSlavism. By 1841 the young students were forced to cease its publication.78 Paul Jozeffy Heads Delegation to Vienna, June, 1842 Every move by the Slovaks the Magyars suspected as intrigues against their kingdom and made use of the strongest propaganda weapon by crying "Pan-Slavism." They claimed Pan-Slavism was nc.t only dangerous to the Magyars but also politically perilous to the Empire; therefore, it was necessary that the Magyars and Germans fight this menace. 79 All candidates for Slovak pastorates were barred unless they could speak Magyar fluently. It was under these conditions that 200 ministers under the supervision of Jozeffy signed a petition demanding rights for the Slovaks. Jozeffy and his delegation went to Vienna in early June 1842 where they presented their grievances before Ferdinand V. The petition began by stating that the Slovaks are an individual nation which can progress only when it fosters its own tongue. Furthermore, for many centuries the Slovaks had made sacrifices along with other nations . of Hungary for the preservation of the Empire. They had been able to use their own language, but now the Slovak priests were being humiliated by having to adopt another tongue. _Because of this, the Slovak language and its literature was suffering, while in business transactions Slovak was no longer used. They, therefore, petitioned: 1) that the King should declare officially as false all testimony against the Slovaks that had been so proven, 2) that proper authority be granted ·so that two censors for Slovak literature be assigned to interpret and defend Slovak works, 3) that the seat of language and literature at the Lycee at Bratislava be confirmed and fully certified, 4') that at the University of Pest there be established a seat of Slavic language and literature, 5) that for matriculation records and church protocol Latin be put in use again, 6) that churches and schools be defended against �SLOVAKIA 101 fanatic, self styled patriots who seek to Magyarize everything.80 This petition was signed by Paul Jozeffy, John Seberini, John Chalupka, Michael Hodza, Samuel Ferjencik, George Palkovic and 200 ministers, teachers and men of all stations in life.81 Although the Slovak delegation did not get very far w:.th its request, it served as a morale booster for the Slovaks. From the outset, promises were made and it looked as though something might be accomplished. The delegation had an audience with Metternich who assured them their request would be studied. After leaving Metternich they saw Count Kolowrat, a Czech nobleman and member of the Emperor's entourage. Although he greeted them with great warmth and is reported to have said, "Slav must help Slav," the delegation felt that they were being sidetracked. Kolowrat sensed this lack of confidence and assured them that he would lend them his support. When they left Vienna, the delegation felt something would be achieved. Now it seemed necessary only to wait. Upon their return home the delegation was shocked by the Magyar's overt reaction. The Slovak delegation had gone to Vienna with nothing but peaceful intentions in mind. But now the chauvinistic Magyars were infuriated and began to reel off in their papers and journals diatribes against the deputation headed by Jozeffy. Amidst this growing fervor a climax was reached when Kossuth delivered his flailing message at the General Convention on June 15th in Pest. In his attack, Kossuth, capable orator that he was, spared no words and vehemently described the deputation as a shame for the Protestant church and the betrayal of the best interest of the kingdom of Hungary. Kossuth demanded the punishment and resignation of Jozeffy from his superintendency. By the end of October, 1842, the petition was sent from Vienna to Buda to Palatine Joseph for his study and recommendations. When Kollar got wind of this he wrote a letter in November advising Jozeffy to come to Buda and intercede with the Palatine. Jozeffy arrived in Buda at the end of November and brought with him data and other materials with which he could strengthen his �102 SLOVAKIA position before the Pa1atine.82 But all proved futile, for prior to his arrival Joseph had been prepared by the Magyars for such an audience. Already on the 16th of April, 1843, Kollar had warned Jozeffy that the Palatine was Magyar in his symphaties. Moreover, according to Kollar, the Palatine Joseph had been oriented and advised by Vienna to disregard the Slovak demands. Vienna had no desire to strengthen the Slavs whether they be Slovak, Czech, or Serb, for in their union and strength she saw jeopardy to her position. At the same time she knew she could depend upon the support of the Slavs in case the Magyars caused trouble. And yet because of rumblings in Germany and Italy she could not afford to offend the Magyars. This policy of "cat and mouse" by Vienna was reaffirmed when in his letter to Jozeffy dated April 25th, 184J, the Palatine urged him to be patient, thus leaving Jozeffy to hope that all was not in vain. Hodza summed up the situation: "We cannot expect help from the Magyars but we must look to the Empire which is far away; and God is too high to help." 83 Other attempts were made to present Slovak grievances before the Emperor but they likewise proved fruitless . The Slovaks now more than ever realized that they must fight alone. s tur Leaves Bratislava As a result of Kossuth's charges at the General Convention an inquiry was held to det ermine for the Magyars the real reason for Jozeffy's trip to Vienna. Through their cunning, Zay and Kossuth at last felt they had a way of removing s tur from his position as professor of Slovak Studies at the Lycee. With it they hoped that if they could not remove the chair of studies completely, they could at least render it harmless through an appointee of their choice. The Slovaks called his investigation an inquisition, but in spite of all the false charges and doctored methods the inquiry ended in an acquittal of the charges made. Zay, however, insisted upon action which in the future would prevent stur from making lectures. Unheard-of pressure brought the removal of stur in December 1843. �SLOVAKIA 103 A petition initiated by his beloved students was circulated for signatures. From all over Slovakia protests came from clergy and laity for the restoration of stur to his post.84 This did not, however, bring the result desired. In a feeling of indignation the young students left Bratislava. While most of them stopped at Levoca, others continued on to Presov, Kezmarok, stiavnica and Jelenova. 85 On their way, with heavy hearts but no resignation, they composed a song "Nad Tatrou sa blyska" (Over Tatra's Peaks Lightning Flashes) .86 The Magyars, blinded by their recent victory, did not realize that they had ironically rendered a great service to the Slovak cause. Previously the young Slovak students were centered in Bratislava where observation could be made of their every move, but they now were being scattered throughout Slovakia. Like so many seeds the ideals of stur and other Slovak leadership, knowledge, national pride, betterment and unity of purpose began to sprout and grow. The Slovak National News For st\ir his removal meant that his next fight would not be in the schools as before but among the masses of the Slovak people. To help reach the people a newspaper was needed. It was not until 1845, however, that the first issue of the Slovenske N<irodne Noviny (Slovak National News) was published.87 The paper, written in Slovak, was to become the most important vehicle in presenting stur's platform, and in fighting for Slovak rights. 88 Though criticized by some for lacking more aggressive action, stur stuck to his conservative approach, for he knew that if the Magyars were irritated the paper would not have long to live. stur believed that in order that the Slovak people might better preserve their nation they must be first educated in politics as well as home affairs. Some of his articles seemingly were written for the benefit of the Magyars to whom stur wished to prove that the Slovaks desired only peace and what was rightfully theirs. Through his paper, stur hoped to modernize his people, therefore he discussed their schools, institutions, libraries, and �104 SLOVAKIA societies. His words gave new hope to those who long suffered under the burden of serfdom. As a result of the appearance of the Slovak National News, there blossomed in all corners of Slovakia in 1845 a great number of Literary, Social, Agricultural, Economic, Woman's, and Moderation and Temperance societies. They were modeled after those which had been found in previous years, but now they seemed to grow everywhere. To reach national unity and purpose every facet was tried. As with her fighting sons, the role women were to play became apparent. Articles appeared in st1.1r's newspaper stressing the point that being good mother was no longer sufficient, for all women now must take on additional responsibilities and become interested in the affairs of their nation. 89 Other writers called for the establishment of a girls' institute where industry and devotion to the Slovak cause would be taught.90 Readers of the Slovak newspapers were reproached for not helping themselves and were given sound advice that jealousy of others will not get them ahead. stur wrote that, "In order for the Slovaks to be more fortunate, they must be concerned about themselves and must get a 'common soul.'" He stated further, "Authough the mark of a nation is her language, the Slovak tongue is completely neglected in schools; it does not have social and constitutional rights for its cultivation. This is due to the fact that the Slovaks have not lived like a nation but as an individual. He has hidden his tongue only for use in the home and therefore it has no chance of blossoming forth into reality." 91 Hodza in his Dobruo slovo (Good Word) proclaimed that the Slovaks must recognize their own nation and then others will do likewise. The program of sttir as outlined in the Slovak National News was but the continuation of demands placed before Vienna and Pest by the Slovaks for the past twenty years. Aside from the need of economic reforms the major issue was that of language. stur's paper was read in towns and villages. Hurban wrote, "The voice of that national organ under stur was really strong, one which had to be considered." 92 The Slovak National News had awakened the Slovak people and helped prepare them for the moment for which everyone waited. �SLOVAKIA 105 FOOTNOTES 1) Charles E. Maurice, The Rev olutionary Movements of 1848-1849, p . vi. 2 ) Daniel Rapant, Slov enske Pov stanie, ( Slovak Uprising) Vol. I, Bk. I, p. 18. 3) Milan Hodfa, "Political Evolution of Slovakia," Slov akia Then and Now, ed. R. W . Seton-Watson, p . 71. 4 ) Alphonse M. Lamarune, "Past, Present and Future," North Ameri can Revi ew, LXXII, (Jan. 1851) , p . 206. 5) Rapant, op. cit. , pp. 75, 88, 89; " Austria and Germany," Quarterly Review, LXXXIV, (Dec. 1849), p. 198. 6 ) Julius Botto, Slovcici , (Slovaks) , I, 23 ; Arnost Dennis, Slov cici: Otcizka Rakouskci, (Slovaks : The Austrian Question), p. 134; C. J . C. Street, Slov akia Past and Present, p. 9; Rapant, op. cit., p. 84. 7) Arthur Patterson, The Magyars, II, 70. 8) Jozef Cieker, Slovenskci Otcizka, (Slovak Question) , pp. 19, 20; E. L. Miyatovich, "Panslavism: Its Rise and Decline", Fortnightly Revi ew, XIV (1873) , p. 96. 9 ) Michael Hodza, Der Slowake, (The Slovak), p . 10; Rapant, op. cit., p . 4. 10) Htjdza, op. cit., p. 16. 11 ) Louis Leger, A History of Austro-Hungary, p. 520; Geoffrey Drage, Austria-Hungary, p. 200 ; Harold W. Ternperley, "Racial Strife in Hungary," Westminster Review, C. XIX (Jan. 1908) , p. 4. 12) Daniel Rapant, Ileqalna Mad'arizcicia: 1790-1840, (Illegal Magyarization) , p. 3. 13 ) Cieker, op. cit ., p. 39. 14) Hodza, op. ci t ., p. 10. 15) Ernest Flachbarth, Companion to Hungarian Studies, p. 372. 16 ) Michael Hodza, Der Slowake, (The Slovak), p. 41. 17) Frantisek Hrusovsky, Slovenske D ej iny, (Slovak History) , p. 248. 18) Skultety, op. cit., p. 62. 19) Julius Bodnar, Dr. Jozef Miloslav Hurban, p. 12. 20) Jozef Skultety, Sketches from Slo·va.lc History, trans. 0 . D. Koreff, p. 184; Bodnar, Zoe. cit.; Albert Prazak, Dejiny Spisovne Slovenstiny po Dobu sturovu , (History of Literary Slovak Before the Time of Stur) p. 163; Miss Parooe, an English lady who traveled throughout Hungary in the late 1830's w110te, "It is said that in the whole k!ingdom there is not so high and liberal an academic spirit in any scholastic establishment as in that of the Lycee of Bratislava" (City of the Magyar and Hungary) , JI, 281. 21 ) Frantisek Frydecky, Dopisy .fudev ita Stura Jaroslavu Pospisilovi, (Letters of Cudovit Stur to Jaroslav Pospisil) , pp. 31, 73. �SLOVAKIA 106 22) Jozef Hurban, I!udovit Stur, I, 38,39. 23) See R. W. Seton-Watson, A H istory of the Czechs m# Slovaks, pp. 173-176. 24) There were, in aj:ldition, German and Magyar societies at the Lycee at Bratislava. 25) Daniel Rapant, llegalna Mad'arizacia: 1790-1840, (Illegal Magyarization), p. v. 26) Ibid., p. 23; Pardoe, op. cit., III, 78-80. 27) Rapant, op. cit., p. 24. 28) Daniel Rapant, Slovenske Povstanie, (Slovak Uprising), Vol. I., Bk. I ., p. 66. 29) M. Rey in his study of this period described the privileges of the nobility: " The rights of the nobles were as vast as a privileged race of conquerors could possibly enjoy ... Neither the noble himself nor his servants paid any tax, real or personal, to the king or the counties; neither his horse nor his men could be required to work on the roald or the dykes. The peasant alone was the person who paid the tax termed 'domestical' for the expense of the Diet and the county administration. The peasant paid the salary of the school master, the notary, the priest, the patrol. The peasant constructed and maintained either with his ,o wn money or his labor, the roads, bridges, churches, schools, public bui~dings, dykes, canals; and it was the peasant and the townsman who drained the marshes, turned the course of rivers, etc. The peasant and the townspeople paid the war tax and furnished recruits." (Autriche, Hongrie, et Turquie on 1839-48, p. 126, cited by Corvinus, Hungary: Its Constitutions and the Catastrophe, p. 17) ; Louis Leger, A History of Austro-Hungary, p. 493. 30 ) Peter E. Turnbull, Austria: Social a111:l Political Conditions, II, 21, 22. 31 ) Stefan Jansak, "The Land Question in Slovakia," The Slav onic Review, (March, 1930), p. 620. 32) As a result of the Diet of 1764 a law was passed restricting the power of inflicting corporal punishment to the bestowing of twentyfive lashes. (Lord Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy, II, 9.3 ). 33 ) Leger, op. cit., pp. 493, 494. 34) Frantisek Bokes, Dejiny Slovakov a Slovenska, (History of the Slovaks and Slovakia ); Vol. IV, Slovenska Vlastiveda, p. 146. 35 ) Arthur Yolland, Hungary, p. 253. 36) Leger, op. cit., p. 494. 37) Ernest Flachbarth, History of Hungcry's Nati onalities, pp. 5, 6. 38) Arminius Vambery, Hungary, p. 417. 39) Hurban, op. cit., II, 118. 40 ) Arnost Dennis, Slovaci: Otazka Rakouska, p. 155. �SLOVAKIA 107 41) ~udovit Stur, Stary i Novy Vek Slovaku, (Old and New Slovak Age), p. 39. 42) Stur writes the Magyars feel that they can only be safe from Russia by Magyarizing the Slovaks. "Was there a time," he asked, "when the Slovaks have not ·prov~d faithful? We have fought for our country, Hungary, and thousands have shed their blood." (Ibid. , p . 42) . 43) Julius Botto, Slovaci, pp. 53, 54. 44) Hurban, op. cit., III, 228. 45) Dr. Luidvik Ktihn, Buditelia v zupe bratislavskej, p. 66 . 46) Nitra had been considered. 47) Hurban, op. cit., I, 94-106. 48)\ Ibid., 102. 49) Ibid., 103. 50) Ibid., 155. 51) Hurban visited the Rajhrad Cloister in Moravia and made the following entry in the visitors' book on July 10, 1839: "Miloslav Jozef Hurban, a traveling Slovak, visited .this famous cloister with the motto, 'Long Live Czecho-Slovak' " (Author in 1948 humbly ~dded his name to the same visitors' book at the Rajhrad Cloister). 52) Cesta Slovaka ku b1·atrum slavenskym na Morave av techach. 53) Julius Bodnar, Dr. Jozef Miloslav Hurban, p. 17. 54) Ibid., p . 16. 55) See Stefan Jansak, Les Conditions Sociales dans l'Anciene Hongrie et la Situation de la Slovaquie. 56 ) Rapant, op. cit., p. 159. 57 ) Ibid., p. 160; Max Schlesinger, The War in Hungary, 1848-1849, II, 218, 2l9. 58) G. R. Gleig, Germany_. Bohemia, arlji Hungary, III, 59-62. 59) Rapant, op. cit., p. 158. 60) Rapant relates that many of 't hese people would spend their last earnings for liquor, and that in some areas between one thiDd to one half of the population on certain days were intoxicated; even children in the nursing stages were given alcohol L-Oc. cit. 61) Karol Golan, Rok so Sturovcami, p. 11. 62) At that time there were practically no printing facilities available in Slovakia. 63) Vendelin Jankovic, Jan taplovic: Zivot, Osobnost', Dielo, p. 24. 64) Bodnar, op. cit., p. 20. 65) J . Skultety, 0 Slovakoch (About the Slovaks), p. 254. 66) Hurban, op. cit., II, 302; Hurban wrote : "Tatrin's function was to the nation what Stur's was to the Slovak youth." Loe. cit. �108 SLOVAKIA 67) Prazak, op. cit., p. 304. 68) Rapant, op. cit., p. 156. 69) Mikulas Dohnany, Historia Povstanja Slovenskjeho z Roku 1848, (History of the Slovak Uprising in 1848), p. 21. 70) Hodza, op. cit., p. 54. 71) Hurban, op. cit., p. 298; Dohnany, op. cit., p. 21 . 72) Botto, op. cit., p. 62. 73) Dohnany, op. cit., p. 22. 74) Albert Prazak, "Czechs and Slovaks in Revolution of 1848," The Slavonic Review, V (March, 1927), p. 573. 75) Dohnany, op. cit., p. 20. 76) In ~::ldition to his fine qualities his contemporaries described Dr. Jozeffy as being timid and lacking ,t he firmness and obstinancy needed for his time. One can well imagine that when such a man is roused to make a protest of this order it generally must be for reason. (Botto, op. cit., p. 55) . 77) Hurban, op. cit., p. 115. 78) Ibid. , p. 116. 79) Jozef Cieker, Slovenska Otazka, p. 72. 80) Botto, op. cit., pp. 57, 58; Hurban, op. cit., pp. 166-168. 81) Ibid. , p. 164. 82) Ibid., p. 171. cit., p. 32. 84) Skultety, op. cit., p. 200. 83) Hodza, op. 85) Prazak, Dejiny Spisovne Slovenstiny, op. cit., pp. 285, 286. 86) Jan Matuska ( 1821-1877) was the writer of that song. 87) It may be interesting to note that Zay was commission~ by his government to study Stur's request for a Slovak paper. To the surprise of Stur and his followers the request was granted. The rejoicing which took place was not to last for any great length of time for when the Magyars saw fit, they deprived the Slovaks of their news organ. 88) Bokes, op. cit., p. 158. 89) Rapant, op. cit., p. 155. 90) Cieker, op. cit., p. 210. 91) Rapant, op. cit., p. 148. 92) Hurban, op. cit., III, 80, 81. • THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interest.eel primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the Unit.eel States of America. � SLOVAKIA 85 The Slovak National Awakening By Edward A. Tuleya Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 democratic principles and nationalism had been suppressed by the joint efforts of the great powers. However, by 1848 the dream of freedom could no longer be contained, and throughout the continent of Europe, except for Russia, the revolution spread. Revolts in Palermo, Paris, Vienna, and Prague were like huge cannon aimed to destroy the fortress of reaction. 1 The time that Prince Metternich feared had come, and on March 14th he was forced to flee Vienna. Hope for the oppressed ran high. 2 Within the framework of the Austrian Empire dissatisfied nations now saw the opportunity to gain rights which had long been denied them. Magyars Would Deny Others Freedom Napoleon's downfall had created a dilemma for Vienna and she reacted by adopting a policy which relegated the Slavs to an inferior status within the Empire, especially those living in Hungary. The Russian more than any other army was responsible for the defeat of Napoleon. Gratitude quickly gave way to suspicion as to what the Russian Tsar might do now that he had the strongest fighting force in Europe. Vienna feared that Russia would use her power to back up the demands of the Slav nations in Empire, for the improvement of their political position or more alarming for breaking away from Hapsburg control. Instead of turning to a rational policy for her Slav subjects, she opted for a diametrical course by seeking the co-operation of the Magyars who were in complete sympathy with Vienna, at least on that overriding issue. Vienna gave the Magyars more than tacit support to do whatever was necessary in Hungary to preserve the Empire's internal security. What the Magyars had in mind was something more, greater independence from Vienna. For centuries the Magyars ruled a population three fourths of which was made up of nonMagyar peoples, such as Germans, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, �86 SLOVAKIA Ruthenians, and Rumanians. But the Magyar leaders had no sympathy for others when the latter called for equal rights. 3 Thus, while the Magyars were pressing Vienna for more rights, the non-Magyar nations were being refused those very same rights and others by the Magyars. 4 The lot of the subject races in Hungary was difficult, particularly for the Slovaks, a Slavic people, numbering close to three million and living in northern Hungary. Unlike the Croats, Serbs, and Rumanians, the Slovaks did not enjoy favor in Vienna, representation in Parliament, nor the right to cultivate their own language. 5 It was not, however, until the end of the eighteenth century that the Magyars began to accelerate the Magyarization of the Slovaks and other ·non-Magyar nations. The greatest contributing factor to their plan was Joseph II's policy to centralize and Germanize the Empire. In 1784 Joseph II ordered that in place of the dead language, Latin, German would be the official language in Hungary. From that time on there was a strong reawakening of the people.6 "Just as the encroachments of German had awakened the susceptibilities of the Magyars", writes A. Patterson, "so did the encroachments of Hungarian (Magyar) awaken those of the Croats and Slovaks."7 Effect of Joseph's Policy on Magyarization The policy of Joseph II, instead of unifying the Empire through Germanization, only aroused the subject nations to take further steps to defend their national identity.8 The awakened spirit affected the Magyar nationalists to adhere to the belief that the security of Hungary as a Magyar nation could only be assured if all its inhabitants were Magyars. 9 In opposition to this, Michael Hodza, ardent fighter for Slovak people, exclaimed, "We don't want Magyar as our language. If you fought against Germanization of Joseph II, we also fight against your Magyarization."10 Therefore, the Slovaks who had enjoyed some linguistic tolerance were now to feel the pains of a denaturalization program. Lack of concern on the part of the Magyars and their feeling of superiority and arrogance can be best expressed in a; Magyar proverb: "Toth ember nem ember." (The Slovak is not a man).11 �SLOVAKIA 87 The first Magyarization laws were passed in 1791-92 by the County councils.12 For several years the laws. were poorly enforced and not too much concern was paid to the activities of the non-Magyar groups or their resistance to assimilation. This apathy, however, was not the rule in all quarters. In some cities in Hungary it was calculated that in 1798 the Magyar and the Slovak population was equal, and because of the manner in which the Germans had been absorbed by the Slovaks, the Magyars could not expect a better fate .13 Reaction to this fear took different forms on the part of the Magyars. In many cases Magyar priests unable to speak Slovak were sent to Slovak churches. In the village of :r.udovilovo-Komarno police were posted outside the doors of the church to keep the people from leaving. Those who protasted were placed on the deres and beaten. Me;:i,nwhile Slovak priests were not allowed to perform services and Magyars were appointed. 14 This could have had a disastrous affect on the Slovaks, for the Catholic priests and Protestant ministers were looked upon as leaders by the people. With few exceptions, the clergy were the only national-minded Slovaks possessing a higher education. They used their learning to better the lives of the people through writing and organizing schools. The Slovak aristocracy, on the other hand, were pro-Magyar in their sympathies and looked with indifference on their own countrymen. Influ ence of Anton B ernolak In 1787, Anton Bernolak, a Catholic priest, published his Slovak grammar. His work laid the foundations for a Slovak literary language and contributed to a growing national consciousness. 15 Heretofore, Slovak writers had used Czech as a medium of written expression, but now they had, based on the West Sl@vak dialect, the beginning of their own literary language. Slovak writers now turned to the distant p ast in Slovak history, and using the new idiom, wrote about her past glory and achievements in an effort to inspire the people. Not long afterwards, in 1793, Bernolak and his followers founded the Slovak Education Society for the purpose of publishing and distributing Slovak books. A �88 SLOVAKIA generous patron and member of the Trnava Literary circle was Alexander Rudnay, Archbishop Cardinal of Ostrihom, who openly proclaimed, "Slovak I am and if I were a Pope I would still be a Slovak."16 For the Slovak people, Bernolak and his followers had taken the first stride toward the preservation of their language, heritage, and nation. 17 "Had it not been for those who in the 1790's were awake, as true Slovaks, by the year 1867 we would have been smothered by Magyarization," were the words used by Skultety to stress the importance of the school of Bernolak.18 Before the Slovaks could present a more united front against the Magyars, however, it was necessary to close the ranks among their own people. One of the greate$t obstacles which confronted the Slovak leaders was the selection of a literary language which would be accepted by both Catholic and Protestant groups. Centered in Trnava, the Catholics continued on their new course by using the Western Slovak vernacular as their vehicle for development of a literary language. The Bernolak group was steering away from the Czech which until this time had been used by the educated class as the literary language in Slovakia. On the other hand, the Protestants remained adherents of the Czech. They in turn began to gather around the Lutheran Lycee in Bratislava. In 1801, they founded the "Society for Slovak Literature," and two years later they established a chair for the study of the Slovak language and literature at the Lycee. 19 Eudovit Stur And The Defense of Slovak Rights For the Slovaks much good emanated from the Lycee in the years that followed. In the circles of the young students, Eudovit sttir from 1836 became prominent. Born in the small town of Uhrovec, the son of a school teacher, :Cudovit was destined to devote his life to his people. He succeeded in getting the chair of Slovak as substitute of the superannuated Professor George Palkovic.20 In order to prepare himself for the cause of his nation, sttir, in 1838, departed for Germany to take up studies at the University of Halle. During his sojourn at Halle he continued to keep contact with his homeland by �SLOVAKIA 89 exchanging letters witl1 his literary associates in Slovakia and Bohemia. Before returning home $tur visited the Lusatians, an island of the Western Slavic people located in the "German Sea." He hoped to find the purest type of Slavic character and racial purity. He came upon a village which except for the name of the community had lost all its Slavic identity. $tur wa.s moved by this experience and in a poem called "The Pagan Priest" expressed with sadness the eventual loss of these people to the Slavic world. On his way home he lingered in Prague at the home of a dear friend, Jaroslav Pospisil. Unfortunately, $tur fell down the steps and was forced to remain. 21 During his convalescence he fell in love with his host's daughter, Maria. After great deliberation, $tur decided against placing his own personal feelings before those of his people. It may, be said by some that a marriage at this time by $tur would have meant his loss to the Slovak cause. There is no doubt that during his marital adjustment he may have neglected his life'is work, but one must not forget his burning desire to fulfill his mission for the welfare of his people. It must also be remembered that $tur's prospective father-in-law was a man steeped in the Slavic cause which in itself would certainly have not been a deterring factor towards $tur's continued efforts in the Slovak cause. Indeed, the Slovak people came much closer to losing their great son in 1833 and from an entirely different quarter. After completing his studies in that year at the Lycee in Bratislava, $tur was employed at the office on the estate of Count Zay. Such a position would have been cherished by most young men, yet $tur resigned. His mission and work lay elsewhere. When his mother protested and pleaded that he remain, $tur in a voice full of love and emotion said, "Mommy dear, as you see today, I will still be a student. I must be a student." $tur returned to Bratislava where he gave himself to his people. 22 Few will deny that Jan Kollar's "Slavy Dcera" (The Daughter of Slava) and Paul Joseph $afarik's "Slavonic Antiquities" had influenced $tur's decision. 23 The Lycee attracted not only Slovaks but also Serbian �90 SLOVAKIA and Croatian youth. 24 Replicas of the society at the Lycee were found in other schools in Slovakia. Stimulating contacts among the Catholic and Lutheran Slovak students was established through correspondence. They were preparing each other for future duties in life. Acceleration of Magyarization It was not until the 1830's that-the non-Magyar nations began to rise and defend themselves against the accelerated Magyarization program. 25 By 1820, in some counties, Magyar was advocated as the language in non-Magyar schools. 26 A terrible blow was dealt to Slovak people by the Hungarian Diet in 1825-27. Seemingly, the only purpose of the Diet body at the time was to replace Latin with Magyar as the official language. Consequently this meant that all citizens of Hungary would be forced to use the Magyar language in schools, civil service, army and public life as well. To further the cause of Magyarization, Count Stefan Szechenyi, prominent Magyar nobleman, offered to donate his yearly income towards the building of a Magyar academy. A member of the parliament explained that the chief reason for such aims was for the defense against Russian pressure. 27 The constant fear of Russia led the Magyars to look upon a strong Poland as a likely ally. Professor Daniel Rapant explains that Felsobukki Nagy Pal in his Parliamentary speech in 1833 called for the need of a resurrected Poland and a widening of Magyarization to the remotest frontiers of Hungary. He emphasized a common frontier with Poland. 28 Needless to say, much of this fear can be attributed to the cleverness of the Magyars in their defense against the Slavic nations. Both German and Magyar publishers used "Pan-Slavism" extensively as their propaganda weapon. With their careful program of assimilating other nations, the Magyars themselves made blunders which were to turn the Slovak people further away from them. M. Rey wrote: "The Magyar nobles had often made generous sacrifices in the defense of their own interests but they had always shown the most deplorable selfishness as regards the condition of the peasants." 29 All this in turn gave the �SLOVAKIA 91 Austrian crown an opportunity to play the part of the oppressed peasants' friend. 30 The Slovak peasant from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 19th century bore the main burden of taxation in Hungary, paying fifty per cent of what he produced to his lord and to the crown.31 There is no question that the conditiorts of the peasantry in Slovakia were pitiful. 32 Therefore, it is understandable that occasionally open peasant rebellions took place against their lords. One of the latest to occur was in 1831 which took place in the counties of saris, Zemplin, Spis, Abauj, and Gerner with the outbreak of cholera. Some of the lords were put to death by the people who accused them of having poisoned the wells. 33 According t:o Bakes, the disease had spread across the frontier from Poland where Russian soldiers had been encamped.34 rt is estimated that 56,000 died, and one writer claims that Russian agents incited the people to revolt against their lords. 35 The brutality with which the revolt was put down left hatred in the hearts of those who survived. In this state of affairs the Emperor in 1833 invited the Diet to meet at Bratislava to discuss agrarian reforms which he claimed were drawn up by himself. 36 Among the people there was great hope that such interest on the part of the Emperor would mean the gradual alleviation of their terrible conditions. Actually, the congress did not concern itself with such matters and instead they were put aside to be dealt with at later sessions. Something more important now commanded their attention, the coronation of Francis's son, Ferdinand, as kin of Hungary. As Magyars they were won over to the new king when he contributed his coronation gift to the Magyar Scientific Academy. Ferdinand, who claimed to be Magyar at heart, became a strong supporter for the Magyarization program. In 1830, the Diet passed a series of laws which extended the reaches of the Magyar language. By 1836, Magyar was elevated to equal stature with Latin as a language to be used in courts and documents. As a result of the Diet of 1839, Magyar now became the official language of Hungary . Now Magyarization would need only time. What �92 SLOVAKIA would St. Stephen, Hungary's greatest king, have said of this? The Magyars had revered their king and maybe they would have been wiser had they paid heed to his words of wisdom. In a letter written by St. Stephen to his son, St. Emerich, we find him saying: "For as guests some from various parts of the provinces, they bring different languages and customs, knowledge, and arms, all of which adorn the royal court; and make it more magnificent. All this shakes the self-confidence of foreigners. A country with one language and one morality is weak and fragile. Therefore I exhort you, my son, to accept them with benevolence and hold them in esteem in order that they may prefer staying with you in the kingdom."37 Thus, the Magyars were taking their ship on a different course than that charted by their great captam, St. Stephen. At this time, Uudovit stur returned to the Lycee in Bratislava from Germany where he had been studying for the last two years. Much had taken place in his absence; however, he was the man destined to lead his people during their great trial in 1848-49. An effective weapon t,o be used against stur and his followers was the Pesti Hirlap, the first political newspaper in Hungary and edited by Louis Kossuth in 1841. The "forties" were to see the Magyars, "champions" of the newly-won freedom of the press acting quickly to refuse its benefits to their weaker fellow nations. Although some assurances were given that racial tolerance would be honored to all, it was not long before the true character of the journal became evident. Kossuth was very free in his attacks on the Slovaks and answers to his attacks were never allowed space in his "democratic" paper. 38 The Pesti Hirlap became the voice of Magyarization. The Magyars in their search for every technique and new approach did not overlook the possibilities of using the religious issue as a vehicle toward their goal of assimilation. This only served to strengthen Slovak resistance. On September 10, 1840, Count Zay was appointed chief inspector of the Protestant Congregations and schools.39 In his acceptance speech he called for the promotion of Magyarization as the only salvation for the Protestant confession in Slovakia. Zay's goal was to unify the Lutheran �SLOVAKIA 93 and Calvinist Churches. Of all the Lutherans in Hungary, five eights were Slovaks, the rest were Germans. On the other hand, the Calvinists were Magyars and were greater in number. This in itself added to Slovak suspicions that such a union was not in the interest of the faith as proclaimed, but actually a chauvinistic design on the part of the Magyars to absorb the Slovak people.40 Zay openly announced in a public circular, September 26, 1840, his determination to Magyarize the Slovaks. Moreover, he stated that the Slovak language would prevent the Slovaks from being good stolid Protestants, and the Magyarization of the Slavs was the holiest duty of every genuine patriot:u Hungary, according to Zay, could only be strong if she were welded into one nation, for she could then defend herself from the danger in the north, Russia. 42 Slovak leaders were not tardy in answering Zay. Sttir's rebuttal was so intelligently plain that Zay became firmly convinced Sttir was behind all the protestations that were being made. He was determined to have Stlir removed from the chair of Slovak Studies at the Lycee. This appeared to be quite difficult to do inasmuch as i:ittir was very popUllar. Nevertheless, supporters of Zay's plan proclaimed that the Lycee's at Bratislava and Levoca were the hotbeds of all Slovak societies at Lutheran schools and colleges in Slovakia. For the time being, however, Magyar plans were not successful. Jan Seberini answered Zay on April 2, 1841, by stating that he, Zay, professed to Magyarize in the name of Protestantism; yet that is not only contrary to the Protestant beliefs, but also to all Christian teachings. "Who has the right to say what language a man must speak?" he continued, " I am a Slovak not because of glory and honor but according to Christian teachings, for God wanted that I be born Slovak. Therefore, I am not ashamed of my origin nor my tongue just as any German, Frenchman, Magyar need not to be ashamed." 43 It must be remembered that not all of the Protestant clergy sensed danger in the union; nevertheless, Zay's program eventually became evident even to those idealists. At Nitra, where some believed that union of the two �94 SLOVAKIA Protestant groups was in good faith, Jozef Miloslav Hurban warned them to be more realistic and not to be taken in. The part that Hurban was to play in the revolt of 1848-49 was second to none but his great friend and comrade in arms, Jjudovit Stlir. Jozef Miloslav Hurban Born on the 19th of March, 1817, in Beckov, Jozef Hurban was educated by his father, Pavol, a Lutheran Minister of that place. His father was timid and wished not to implicate himself in national problems. Therefore, under these circumstances, the youthful Hurban while at home was not exposed to Slovak national consciousness.44 After spending his lower grades at Trencin, he went in 1830 to study at the Lycee at Bratislava. He was there for six years before he met Shir. Prior to this time Hurban had not taken part in Slovak aspirations at the Lycee. One evening, while taking a walk in the streets of Bratislava, he met stlir who asked him whether he was studying and practicing in the Slovak language. This stur explained, was the duty of all Slovaks. Hurban at the moment was embarrassed and could not answer. stur then said, "You are a Slovak, is that correct? And is not your friend George Zaborsky?" Hurban replied that he was a Slovak and that his friend was George Zabo11sky. 45 stur complimented Hurban for his selection of such a good, able friend and recommended that he continue to cultivate Zaborsky's friendship. Before the two had departed, Hurban was invited to visit stur. That meeting was to have far-reaching effects on Hurban; for, when he arrived home, his mind was full of thought. The lamp in his room burned past midnight, while Hurban wrote hils first verse in Slovak. This he presented to stur the next morning and from that time on the Slovak Institute in Bratislava, as well as the Slovak nation, did not have a more zealous member nor a more deserving son than Hurban. A trip to Devin was planned for April 24, 1836, by the members of the Slovak Society at the Lycee in order to initiate and plan more definite activities. The ruins �SLOVAKIA 95 of Devin, reminders of a rich history, stood majestic on her pedestal of massive rock guarding the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers. This place recalled the Great Moravian Empire in the 9th century and her ceaseless struggles against German and Magyar. For the new Slovak generation this was a setting best suited for the revival of Slovak national feeling. 46 On this day filled with bright spring sunshine, lectures were given, prose recited, and songs were sung. Everyone participated in the theme of awakening Slovak consciousness. 47 In a further expression of loyalty to their beloved cause, they adopted Slavic names which they pledged to carry forever. sttir was the first to announce that he was to take the name of Velislav and others followed suit, taking different Slavic names. Hurban took the name Miloslav, a name which was to live in Slovak history. 48 Below the fortress of Devin rested a small town by the same name, and there in a tavern the young Slovaks gathered after an eventful day. Conversation, according to Hurban, had to be carried on in Latin so that waiters might not learn and betray their information.49 Just as stur and others had taken trips to broaden their views and get better acquainted with affairs which might influence their actions, Hurban also traveled. 50 His opportunity was afforded during a vacation 1839 when he visited Vienna, Bohemia and Moravia. 51 In 1841, a book relating his experiences was published: Trip of a Slovak to his Slav Brothers in Moravia and Bohemia. 52 When he completed his studies in 1840, Hurban became town chaplain at Brezova. For Hurban, the post at Brezova was a fortunate one, for here his work was to be understood and appreciated. Even before his arrival, the people of Brezova had had experiences in the struggle against the landed gentry. The peasants were aware of their rights and were prepared to defend them. They, too, had been effected by stur and showed a keen interest in his work. 53 Although Hurban knew that the upper classes would hold it against him, he, nevertheless, set about to reach the less fortunate classes. 54 Within himself there was a shining spiritual fire that others felt, and with his expressive face, warm kind eyes, and strong thundering �96 SLOVAKIA voice, he imparted to others the knowledge he had. Through talks and writings, he began to create among the uneducated people an interest in how they could better themselves. Out of this grew a Sunday school and Moderation and Temperance Society, both of which were to help in strengthening his people. The Sunday school was designed for those living in Brezova and it met on Sundays and holidays and on other days when time permitted. Those who attended were taught the arts and sciences. The Moderation and Temperance Society was just as important. Drunkenness came to Slovakia not through a habit developed from pleasure, but as a medium of escape from the extreme hardships of life. Not anywhere in Hungary was misery so great as in Slovakia, nor was drunkenness more widespread. Besides education, there was a dire need for bettering the lot of these people who lived under such deplorable conditions.55 The enlightened Slovak leaders knew that in order to lift up their nation they must first of all remove this scourge of alcoholism. 56 Throughout Slovakia, Moderation Societies were set up which were similar to those in America, but were chiefly modeled after those in Ireland where conditions were unfortunately similar to those found in Slovakia. However, the obstacle to legislation which would have curbed, if not eliminated, the sale of liquor came from the great landowners and Jews. 57 They owned the distilleries as well as the village taverns. The latter were frequented by those who could not pay and high rates of interest were charged them. 58 Agricultural schools had been established, but they were more for the middle class: townsmen, tradesmen, and prosperous farmers who were able to save their earnings.59 But for the less fortunate people of the lower classes, the Moderation and Temperance Societies had greater meaning and importance.6 1, Its founders believed that Slovak patriotism must be aroused, for a poor and drunken nation could achieve nothing but death. In the field of literary activitieis Hurban felt there was a strong need for a journal to help to direct Slovak literary life. In fact, when in May, 1840, Hurban grieved that there was no journal which could serve the interest �SLOVAKIA 97 of defending national rights, he made this comparison: "A journal is to the life of a nation what hands are to a clock to indicate the time; therefore, as conditions exist we do not even have a clock."61 Putting forth all his efforts, he managed, by 1842, to produce a yearly almanac, Nitra, written in Czech, consisting of some three hundred pages.62 Included in the first edition were songs, poems, and prose from members of the young Slovak generation. Nitra's title page was consecrated to "The daughters and sons of Slovakia, Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia." Hurban dedicated the introductory poem of this first issue of Nitra to Jan Caplovic, landowner and great lover of books and literature. All this was done purposefully so that he might join the Slovak cause more actively .63 There was some speculation among the Magyars as to Hurban's purpose of editing the Nitra. Some claimed that the almanac was given the name Nitra so that Slovakia might arise around the glory that surrounded that name. Prior to this time any open discussion about historic Nitra was forbidden. However, friends of Hurban came to his rescue by tactfully assuring the Magyars there was nothing to fear from Hurban who was but a young man and as such should be excused for his actions. 64 A weaker man would have sensed the danger but Hurban stayed on to put out three more almanacs until 1848 when he was forced to flee for his life. In the year 1843, Hurban was called as pastor to Hlboke and there he edited his second issue of Nitra, but this time in the new Slovak literary language, and censors played havoc with this issue.65 The Magyars also hindered in every way the realization of a Slovak newspaper. stur, with the help of Kollar, had petitioned in 1842 for permission to publish a newspaper, but approval was denied. There was no telling how long this condition would last. In the meantime, something had to be done to draw the Slovak people together into a unified body. It was for this purpose in 1843 that the Slovak leaders stur and Hodza met in Hurban's residence in Hlboke.66 Here they decided that if they were not free to edit a newspaper, a society formed along national lines might help achieve the same results. �98 SLOVAKIA Slovak Literary Language The triumvirate agreed that Czech should no longer be used by the Lutherans in their churches and writings. Therefore, the adoption of the Central Slovak dialect by this body brought the Lutherans and Catholics closer to the goal of having one dialect as a base for their literary language. There was a great need to reach the people, but in a language that was dear to them and one which they understood. Not all people could read the Czech, only the educated; it seemed so foreign to the common people. The society planned for in Hlboke paved the way for the achievement of a common langu&ge.67 Near the beautiful High Tatra mountains on the 27th of August, 1844, in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas, the Tatrin Society was organized. In the words of Rapant, "It was the culminating point of cultural organization in Slovakia at that time; and it was the most important organ for the stur generation."68 A factor of far reaching consequences for Slovakia was that it was the first national Slovak organization and it encompassed all of the sides and segments of the nation, Catholic and Lutheran.69 Along with unity of language, it concerned itself with the cultural needs of the Slovaks.70 The Tatrin gave financial support to young Catholic and Protestant men who were studying in higher schools of education. Peter Bohun, the famous Slovak artist who painted portraits and scenes of the revolution of 1848-1849, was given such assistance by the Tatrin, so that he was able to publish a book of national costumes. 71 The third meeting of the Tatrin was held at cachtice in the Catholic parish house chiefly to resolve the language issue.72 On this memorial occasion the Catholics and Lutherans on the 10th of August, 1847, agreed to adopt the Central Slovak as the common literary language. The effect of this meeting meant the rupture with the Czechs. As was expected, it drew exclamations of disapproval from Palkovic, Kollar, and others who felt the only salvation for the Slovaks was in their tie with the Czechs. On the part of the Czechs there was great anger, and claims were made that such a move only strengthened the German influence about them. �SLOVAKIA 99 The Czech nationals could not understand the Slovak problem,73 for the vernacular is the natural medium and the truest heartbeat of the people. It, the vernacular, only could help enlighten and lift the Slovak people from their death sleep. Not all Czechs, however, were against the founding of a new literary language. This group argued that a Slovak literature would enrich the whole of Slavic literature. On the other hand, the agreement reached in Cachtice was celebrated throughout Slovakia by Protestants and Catholics alike. stl1r's former students who now served as Protestant clergymen were filled with joy. It seemed that at once Slovak was elevated to a literary language bringing with it a new life which surged into the land. Slavic historians claim that had not such a step been taken it is doubtful whether the Slovaks could have withstood the pressure of Magyarization. 74 It seemed that every,.vhere nobles, townscitizens, and people of the villages began to proclaim that they were Slovaks. The poor classes were not able to understand most of what was written. Time was needed so they might completely understand. Along with Sunday schools which had been established new ones sprang up, and, in addition, writing and reading rooms were opened. People began to realize that through learning and enlightenment they could be helped out of their misery. In Brezova, peasants who had long been held under the nobles' yoke began their attempt to free themselves by purchasing the land. Now that it was their land they worked it as never before. 75 Books and articles were not written to adorn libraries but to serve the people. Advice on practical matters in the written medium was beginning to evidence itself in the lives of the Slovak people. The societies which already existed in the cultural, social, and economic field were given a tremendous impetus by the new language. In the meantime, all protests against Zay had not been aired. The inroads of Magyarization aroused superintendent Dr. Paul Jozeffy 76 to protest at the Lutheran general convention on September 10, 1841. He warned that if they continued forcing Magyarization into Slovak churches and schools, he himself would present these �100 SLOVAKIA ~ievances to the court.77 Needless to say, Magyar ambitions were not deterred, for when in 1840 the Jittenka (Morning Star), a student journal, was first issued at Levoca the Magyar press vehemently attacked it as a tool of PanSlavism. By 1841 the young students were forced to cease its publication.78 Paul Jozeffy Heads Delegation to Vienna, June, 1842 Every move by the Slovaks the Magyars suspected as intrigues against their kingdom and made use of the strongest propaganda weapon by crying "Pan-Slavism." They claimed Pan-Slavism was nc.t only dangerous to the Magyars but also politically perilous to the Empire; therefore, it was necessary that the Magyars and Germans fight this menace. 79 All candidates for Slovak pastorates were barred unless they could speak Magyar fluently. It was under these conditions that 200 ministers under the supervision of Jozeffy signed a petition demanding rights for the Slovaks. Jozeffy and his delegation went to Vienna in early June 1842 where they presented their grievances before Ferdinand V. The petition began by stating that the Slovaks are an individual nation which can progress only when it fosters its own tongue. Furthermore, for many centuries the Slovaks had made sacrifices along with other nations . of Hungary for the preservation of the Empire. They had been able to use their own language, but now the Slovak priests were being humiliated by having to adopt another tongue. _Because of this, the Slovak language and its literature was suffering, while in business transactions Slovak was no longer used. They, therefore, petitioned: 1) that the King should declare officially as false all testimony against the Slovaks that had been so proven, 2) that proper authority be granted ·so that two censors for Slovak literature be assigned to interpret and defend Slovak works, 3) that the seat of language and literature at the Lycee at Bratislava be confirmed and fully certified, 4') that at the University of Pest there be established a seat of Slavic language and literature, 5) that for matriculation records and church protocol Latin be put in use again, 6) that churches and schools be defended against �SLOVAKIA 101 fanatic, self styled patriots who seek to Magyarize everything.80 This petition was signed by Paul Jozeffy, John Seberini, John Chalupka, Michael Hodza, Samuel Ferjencik, George Palkovic and 200 ministers, teachers and men of all stations in life.81 Although the Slovak delegation did not get very far w:.th its request, it served as a morale booster for the Slovaks. From the outset, promises were made and it looked as though something might be accomplished. The delegation had an audience with Metternich who assured them their request would be studied. After leaving Metternich they saw Count Kolowrat, a Czech nobleman and member of the Emperor's entourage. Although he greeted them with great warmth and is reported to have said, "Slav must help Slav," the delegation felt that they were being sidetracked. Kolowrat sensed this lack of confidence and assured them that he would lend them his support. When they left Vienna, the delegation felt something would be achieved. Now it seemed necessary only to wait. Upon their return home the delegation was shocked by the Magyar's overt reaction. The Slovak delegation had gone to Vienna with nothing but peaceful intentions in mind. But now the chauvinistic Magyars were infuriated and began to reel off in their papers and journals diatribes against the deputation headed by Jozeffy. Amidst this growing fervor a climax was reached when Kossuth delivered his flailing message at the General Convention on June 15th in Pest. In his attack, Kossuth, capable orator that he was, spared no words and vehemently described the deputation as a shame for the Protestant church and the betrayal of the best interest of the kingdom of Hungary. Kossuth demanded the punishment and resignation of Jozeffy from his superintendency. By the end of October, 1842, the petition was sent from Vienna to Buda to Palatine Joseph for his study and recommendations. When Kollar got wind of this he wrote a letter in November advising Jozeffy to come to Buda and intercede with the Palatine. Jozeffy arrived in Buda at the end of November and brought with him data and other materials with which he could strengthen his �102 SLOVAKIA position before the Pa1atine.82 But all proved futile, for prior to his arrival Joseph had been prepared by the Magyars for such an audience. Already on the 16th of April, 1843, Kollar had warned Jozeffy that the Palatine was Magyar in his symphaties. Moreover, according to Kollar, the Palatine Joseph had been oriented and advised by Vienna to disregard the Slovak demands. Vienna had no desire to strengthen the Slavs whether they be Slovak, Czech, or Serb, for in their union and strength she saw jeopardy to her position. At the same time she knew she could depend upon the support of the Slavs in case the Magyars caused trouble. And yet because of rumblings in Germany and Italy she could not afford to offend the Magyars. This policy of "cat and mouse" by Vienna was reaffirmed when in his letter to Jozeffy dated April 25th, 184J, the Palatine urged him to be patient, thus leaving Jozeffy to hope that all was not in vain. Hodza summed up the situation: "We cannot expect help from the Magyars but we must look to the Empire which is far away; and God is too high to help." 83 Other attempts were made to present Slovak grievances before the Emperor but they likewise proved fruitless . The Slovaks now more than ever realized that they must fight alone. s tur Leaves Bratislava As a result of Kossuth's charges at the General Convention an inquiry was held to det ermine for the Magyars the real reason for Jozeffy's trip to Vienna. Through their cunning, Zay and Kossuth at last felt they had a way of removing s tur from his position as professor of Slovak Studies at the Lycee. With it they hoped that if they could not remove the chair of studies completely, they could at least render it harmless through an appointee of their choice. The Slovaks called his investigation an inquisition, but in spite of all the false charges and doctored methods the inquiry ended in an acquittal of the charges made. Zay, however, insisted upon action which in the future would prevent stur from making lectures. Unheard-of pressure brought the removal of stur in December 1843. �SLOVAKIA 103 A petition initiated by his beloved students was circulated for signatures. From all over Slovakia protests came from clergy and laity for the restoration of stur to his post.84 This did not, however, bring the result desired. In a feeling of indignation the young students left Bratislava. While most of them stopped at Levoca, others continued on to Presov, Kezmarok, stiavnica and Jelenova. 85 On their way, with heavy hearts but no resignation, they composed a song "Nad Tatrou sa blyska" (Over Tatra's Peaks Lightning Flashes) .86 The Magyars, blinded by their recent victory, did not realize that they had ironically rendered a great service to the Slovak cause. Previously the young Slovak students were centered in Bratislava where observation could be made of their every move, but they now were being scattered throughout Slovakia. Like so many seeds the ideals of stur and other Slovak leadership, knowledge, national pride, betterment and unity of purpose began to sprout and grow. The Slovak National News For st\ir his removal meant that his next fight would not be in the schools as before but among the masses of the Slovak people. To help reach the people a newspaper was needed. It was not until 1845, however, that the first issue of the Slovenske N<irodne Noviny (Slovak National News) was published.87 The paper, written in Slovak, was to become the most important vehicle in presenting stur's platform, and in fighting for Slovak rights. 88 Though criticized by some for lacking more aggressive action, stur stuck to his conservative approach, for he knew that if the Magyars were irritated the paper would not have long to live. stur believed that in order that the Slovak people might better preserve their nation they must be first educated in politics as well as home affairs. Some of his articles seemingly were written for the benefit of the Magyars to whom stur wished to prove that the Slovaks desired only peace and what was rightfully theirs. Through his paper, stur hoped to modernize his people, therefore he discussed their schools, institutions, libraries, and �104 SLOVAKIA societies. His words gave new hope to those who long suffered under the burden of serfdom. As a result of the appearance of the Slovak National News, there blossomed in all corners of Slovakia in 1845 a great number of Literary, Social, Agricultural, Economic, Woman's, and Moderation and Temperance societies. They were modeled after those which had been found in previous years, but now they seemed to grow everywhere. To reach national unity and purpose every facet was tried. As with her fighting sons, the role women were to play became apparent. Articles appeared in st1.1r's newspaper stressing the point that being good mother was no longer sufficient, for all women now must take on additional responsibilities and become interested in the affairs of their nation. 89 Other writers called for the establishment of a girls' institute where industry and devotion to the Slovak cause would be taught.90 Readers of the Slovak newspapers were reproached for not helping themselves and were given sound advice that jealousy of others will not get them ahead. stur wrote that, "In order for the Slovaks to be more fortunate, they must be concerned about themselves and must get a 'common soul.'" He stated further, "Authough the mark of a nation is her language, the Slovak tongue is completely neglected in schools; it does not have social and constitutional rights for its cultivation. This is due to the fact that the Slovaks have not lived like a nation but as an individual. He has hidden his tongue only for use in the home and therefore it has no chance of blossoming forth into reality." 91 Hodza in his Dobruo slovo (Good Word) proclaimed that the Slovaks must recognize their own nation and then others will do likewise. The program of sttir as outlined in the Slovak National News was but the continuation of demands placed before Vienna and Pest by the Slovaks for the past twenty years. Aside from the need of economic reforms the major issue was that of language. stur's paper was read in towns and villages. Hurban wrote, "The voice of that national organ under stur was really strong, one which had to be considered." 92 The Slovak National News had awakened the Slovak people and helped prepare them for the moment for which everyone waited. �SLOVAKIA 105 FOOTNOTES 1) Charles E. Maurice, The Rev olutionary Movements of 1848-1849, p . vi. 2 ) Daniel Rapant, Slov enske Pov stanie, ( Slovak Uprising) Vol. I, Bk. I, p. 18. 3) Milan Hodfa, "Political Evolution of Slovakia," Slov akia Then and Now, ed. R. W . Seton-Watson, p . 71. 4 ) Alphonse M. Lamarune, "Past, Present and Future," North Ameri can Revi ew, LXXII, (Jan. 1851) , p . 206. 5) Rapant, op. cit. , pp. 75, 88, 89; " Austria and Germany," Quarterly Review, LXXXIV, (Dec. 1849), p. 198. 6 ) Julius Botto, Slovcici , (Slovaks) , I, 23 ; Arnost Dennis, Slov cici: Otcizka Rakouskci, (Slovaks : The Austrian Question), p. 134; C. J . C. Street, Slov akia Past and Present, p. 9; Rapant, op. cit., p. 84. 7) Arthur Patterson, The Magyars, II, 70. 8) Jozef Cieker, Slovenskci Otcizka, (Slovak Question) , pp. 19, 20; E. L. Miyatovich, "Panslavism: Its Rise and Decline", Fortnightly Revi ew, XIV (1873) , p. 96. 9 ) Michael Hodza, Der Slowake, (The Slovak), p . 10; Rapant, op. cit., p . 4. 10) Htjdza, op. cit., p. 16. 11 ) Louis Leger, A History of Austro-Hungary, p. 520; Geoffrey Drage, Austria-Hungary, p. 200 ; Harold W. Ternperley, "Racial Strife in Hungary," Westminster Review, C. XIX (Jan. 1908) , p. 4. 12) Daniel Rapant, Ileqalna Mad'arizcicia: 1790-1840, (Illegal Magyarization) , p. 3. 13 ) Cieker, op. cit ., p. 39. 14) Hodza, op. ci t ., p. 10. 15) Ernest Flachbarth, Companion to Hungarian Studies, p. 372. 16 ) Michael Hodza, Der Slowake, (The Slovak), p. 41. 17) Frantisek Hrusovsky, Slovenske D ej iny, (Slovak History) , p. 248. 18) Skultety, op. cit., p. 62. 19) Julius Bodnar, Dr. Jozef Miloslav Hurban, p. 12. 20) Jozef Skultety, Sketches from Slo·va.lc History, trans. 0 . D. Koreff, p. 184; Bodnar, Zoe. cit.; Albert Prazak, Dejiny Spisovne Slovenstiny po Dobu sturovu , (History of Literary Slovak Before the Time of Stur) p. 163; Miss Parooe, an English lady who traveled throughout Hungary in the late 1830's w110te, "It is said that in the whole k!ingdom there is not so high and liberal an academic spirit in any scholastic establishment as in that of the Lycee of Bratislava" (City of the Magyar and Hungary) , JI, 281. 21 ) Frantisek Frydecky, Dopisy .fudev ita Stura Jaroslavu Pospisilovi, (Letters of Cudovit Stur to Jaroslav Pospisil) , pp. 31, 73. �SLOVAKIA 106 22) Jozef Hurban, I!udovit Stur, I, 38,39. 23) See R. W. Seton-Watson, A H istory of the Czechs m# Slovaks, pp. 173-176. 24) There were, in aj:ldition, German and Magyar societies at the Lycee at Bratislava. 25) Daniel Rapant, llegalna Mad'arizacia: 1790-1840, (Illegal Magyarization), p. v. 26) Ibid., p. 23; Pardoe, op. cit., III, 78-80. 27) Rapant, op. cit., p. 24. 28) Daniel Rapant, Slovenske Povstanie, (Slovak Uprising), Vol. I., Bk. I ., p. 66. 29) M. Rey in his study of this period described the privileges of the nobility: " The rights of the nobles were as vast as a privileged race of conquerors could possibly enjoy ... Neither the noble himself nor his servants paid any tax, real or personal, to the king or the counties; neither his horse nor his men could be required to work on the roald or the dykes. The peasant alone was the person who paid the tax termed 'domestical' for the expense of the Diet and the county administration. The peasant paid the salary of the school master, the notary, the priest, the patrol. The peasant constructed and maintained either with his ,o wn money or his labor, the roads, bridges, churches, schools, public bui~dings, dykes, canals; and it was the peasant and the townsman who drained the marshes, turned the course of rivers, etc. The peasant and the townspeople paid the war tax and furnished recruits." (Autriche, Hongrie, et Turquie on 1839-48, p. 126, cited by Corvinus, Hungary: Its Constitutions and the Catastrophe, p. 17) ; Louis Leger, A History of Austro-Hungary, p. 493. 30 ) Peter E. Turnbull, Austria: Social a111:l Political Conditions, II, 21, 22. 31 ) Stefan Jansak, "The Land Question in Slovakia," The Slav onic Review, (March, 1930), p. 620. 32) As a result of the Diet of 1764 a law was passed restricting the power of inflicting corporal punishment to the bestowing of twentyfive lashes. (Lord Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy, II, 9.3 ). 33 ) Leger, op. cit., pp. 493, 494. 34) Frantisek Bokes, Dejiny Slovakov a Slovenska, (History of the Slovaks and Slovakia ); Vol. IV, Slovenska Vlastiveda, p. 146. 35 ) Arthur Yolland, Hungary, p. 253. 36) Leger, op. cit., p. 494. 37) Ernest Flachbarth, History of Hungcry's Nati onalities, pp. 5, 6. 38) Arminius Vambery, Hungary, p. 417. 39) Hurban, op. cit., II, 118. 40 ) Arnost Dennis, Slovaci: Otazka Rakouska, p. 155. �SLOVAKIA 107 41) ~udovit Stur, Stary i Novy Vek Slovaku, (Old and New Slovak Age), p. 39. 42) Stur writes the Magyars feel that they can only be safe from Russia by Magyarizing the Slovaks. "Was there a time," he asked, "when the Slovaks have not ·prov~d faithful? We have fought for our country, Hungary, and thousands have shed their blood." (Ibid. , p . 42) . 43) Julius Botto, Slovaci, pp. 53, 54. 44) Hurban, op. cit., III, 228. 45) Dr. Luidvik Ktihn, Buditelia v zupe bratislavskej, p. 66 . 46) Nitra had been considered. 47) Hurban, op. cit., I, 94-106. 48)\ Ibid., 102. 49) Ibid., 103. 50) Ibid., 155. 51) Hurban visited the Rajhrad Cloister in Moravia and made the following entry in the visitors' book on July 10, 1839: "Miloslav Jozef Hurban, a traveling Slovak, visited .this famous cloister with the motto, 'Long Live Czecho-Slovak' " (Author in 1948 humbly ~dded his name to the same visitors' book at the Rajhrad Cloister). 52) Cesta Slovaka ku b1·atrum slavenskym na Morave av techach. 53) Julius Bodnar, Dr. Jozef Miloslav Hurban, p. 17. 54) Ibid., p . 16. 55) See Stefan Jansak, Les Conditions Sociales dans l'Anciene Hongrie et la Situation de la Slovaquie. 56 ) Rapant, op. cit., p. 159. 57 ) Ibid., p. 160; Max Schlesinger, The War in Hungary, 1848-1849, II, 218, 2l9. 58) G. R. Gleig, Germany_. Bohemia, arlji Hungary, III, 59-62. 59) Rapant, op. cit., p. 158. 60) Rapant relates that many of 't hese people would spend their last earnings for liquor, and that in some areas between one thiDd to one half of the population on certain days were intoxicated; even children in the nursing stages were given alcohol L-Oc. cit. 61) Karol Golan, Rok so Sturovcami, p. 11. 62) At that time there were practically no printing facilities available in Slovakia. 63) Vendelin Jankovic, Jan taplovic: Zivot, Osobnost', Dielo, p. 24. 64) Bodnar, op. cit., p. 20. 65) J . Skultety, 0 Slovakoch (About the Slovaks), p. 254. 66) Hurban, op. cit., II, 302; Hurban wrote : "Tatrin's function was to the nation what Stur's was to the Slovak youth." Loe. cit. �108 SLOVAKIA 67) Prazak, op. cit., p. 304. 68) Rapant, op. cit., p. 156. 69) Mikulas Dohnany, Historia Povstanja Slovenskjeho z Roku 1848, (History of the Slovak Uprising in 1848), p. 21. 70) Hodza, op. cit., p. 54. 71) Hurban, op. cit., p. 298; Dohnany, op. cit., p. 21 . 72) Botto, op. cit., p. 62. 73) Dohnany, op. cit., p. 22. 74) Albert Prazak, "Czechs and Slovaks in Revolution of 1848," The Slavonic Review, V (March, 1927), p. 573. 75) Dohnany, op. cit., p. 20. 76) In ~::ldition to his fine qualities his contemporaries described Dr. Jozeffy as being timid and lacking ,t he firmness and obstinancy needed for his time. One can well imagine that when such a man is roused to make a protest of this order it generally must be for reason. (Botto, op. cit., p. 55) . 77) Hurban, op. cit., p. 115. 78) Ibid. , p. 116. 79) Jozef Cieker, Slovenska Otazka, p. 72. 80) Botto, op. cit., pp. 57, 58; Hurban, op. cit., pp. 166-168. 81) Ibid. , p. 164. 82) Ibid., p. 171. cit., p. 32. 84) Skultety, op. cit., p. 200. 83) Hodza, op. 85) Prazak, Dejiny Spisovne Slovenstiny, op. cit., pp. 285, 286. 86) Jan Matuska ( 1821-1877) was the writer of that song. 87) It may be interesting to note that Zay was commission~ by his government to study Stur's request for a Slovak paper. To the surprise of Stur and his followers the request was granted. The rejoicing which took place was not to last for any great length of time for when the Magyars saw fit, they deprived the Slovaks of their news organ. 88) Bokes, op. cit., p. 158. 89) Rapant, op. cit., p. 155. 90) Cieker, op. cit., p. 210. 91) Rapant, op. cit., p. 148. 92) Hurban, op. cit., III, 80, 81. • THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interest.eel primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the Unit.eel 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 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 85 The Slovak National Awakening By Edward A. Tuleya Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 democratic principles and nationalism had been suppressed by the joint efforts of the great powers. However, by 1848 the dream of freedom could no longer be contained, and throughout the continent of Europe, except for Russia, the revolution spread. Revolts in Palermo, Paris, Vienna, and Prague were like huge cannon aimed to destroy the fortress of reaction. 1 The time that Prince Metternich feared had come, and on March 14th he was forced to flee Vienna. Hope for the oppressed ran high. 2 Within the framework of the Austrian Empire dissatisfied nations now saw the opportunity to gain rights which had long been denied them. Magyars Would Deny Others Freedom Napoleon's downfall had created a dilemma for Vienna and she reacted by adopting a policy which relegated the Slavs to an inferior status within the Empire, especially those living in Hungary. The Russian more than any other army was responsible for the defeat of Napoleon. Gratitude quickly gave way to suspicion as to what the Russian Tsar might do now that he had the strongest fighting force in Europe. Vienna feared that Russia would use her power to back up the demands of the Slav nations in Empire, for the improvement of their political position or more alarming for breaking away from Hapsburg control. Instead of turning to a rational policy for her Slav subjects, she opted for a diametrical course by seeking the co-operation of the Magyars who were in complete sympathy with Vienna, at least on that overriding issue. Vienna gave the Magyars more than tacit support to do whatever was necessary in Hungary to preserve the Empire's internal security. What the Magyars had in mind was something more, greater independence from Vienna. For centuries the Magyars ruled a population three fourths of which was made up of nonMagyar peoples, such as Germans, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, 86 SLOVAKIA Ruthenians, and Rumanians. But the Magyar leaders had no sympathy for others when the latter called for equal rights. 3 Thus, while the Magyars were pressing Vienna for more rights, the non-Magyar nations were being refused those very same rights and others by the Magyars. 4 The lot of the subject races in Hungary was difficult, particularly for the Slovaks, a Slavic people, numbering close to three million and living in northern Hungary. Unlike the Croats, Serbs, and Rumanians, the Slovaks did not enjoy favor in Vienna, representation in Parliament, nor the right to cultivate their own language. 5 It was not, however, until the end of the eighteenth century that the Magyars began to accelerate the Magyarization of the Slovaks and other ·non-Magyar nations. The greatest contributing factor to their plan was Joseph II's policy to centralize and Germanize the Empire. In 1784 Joseph II ordered that in place of the dead language, Latin, German would be the official language in Hungary. From that time on there was a strong reawakening of the people.6 "Just as the encroachments of German had awakened the susceptibilities of the Magyars", writes A. Patterson, "so did the encroachments of Hungarian (Magyar) awaken those of the Croats and Slovaks."7 Effect of Joseph's Policy on Magyarization The policy of Joseph II, instead of unifying the Empire through Germanization, only aroused the subject nations to take further steps to defend their national identity.8 The awakened spirit affected the Magyar nationalists to adhere to the belief that the security of Hungary as a Magyar nation could only be assured if all its inhabitants were Magyars. 9 In opposition to this, Michael Hodza, ardent fighter for Slovak people, exclaimed, "We don't want Magyar as our language. If you fought against Germanization of Joseph II, we also fight against your Magyarization."10 Therefore, the Slovaks who had enjoyed some linguistic tolerance were now to feel the pains of a denaturalization program. Lack of concern on the part of the Magyars and their feeling of superiority and arrogance can be best expressed in a; Magyar proverb: "Toth ember nem ember." (The Slovak is not a man).11 SLOVAKIA 87 The first Magyarization laws were passed in 1791-92 by the County councils.12 For several years the laws. were poorly enforced and not too much concern was paid to the activities of the non-Magyar groups or their resistance to assimilation. This apathy, however, was not the rule in all quarters. In some cities in Hungary it was calculated that in 1798 the Magyar and the Slovak population was equal, and because of the manner in which the Germans had been absorbed by the Slovaks, the Magyars could not expect a better fate .13 Reaction to this fear took different forms on the part of the Magyars. In many cases Magyar priests unable to speak Slovak were sent to Slovak churches. In the village of :r.udovilovo-Komarno police were posted outside the doors of the church to keep the people from leaving. Those who protasted were placed on the deres and beaten. Me;:i,nwhile Slovak priests were not allowed to perform services and Magyars were appointed. 14 This could have had a disastrous affect on the Slovaks, for the Catholic priests and Protestant ministers were looked upon as leaders by the people. With few exceptions, the clergy were the only national-minded Slovaks possessing a higher education. They used their learning to better the lives of the people through writing and organizing schools. The Slovak aristocracy, on the other hand, were pro-Magyar in their sympathies and looked with indifference on their own countrymen. Influ ence of Anton B ernolak In 1787, Anton Bernolak, a Catholic priest, published his Slovak grammar. His work laid the foundations for a Slovak literary language and contributed to a growing national consciousness. 15 Heretofore, Slovak writers had used Czech as a medium of written expression, but now they had, based on the West Sl@vak dialect, the beginning of their own literary language. Slovak writers now turned to the distant p ast in Slovak history, and using the new idiom, wrote about her past glory and achievements in an effort to inspire the people. Not long afterwards, in 1793, Bernolak and his followers founded the Slovak Education Society for the purpose of publishing and distributing Slovak books. A 88 SLOVAKIA generous patron and member of the Trnava Literary circle was Alexander Rudnay, Archbishop Cardinal of Ostrihom, who openly proclaimed, "Slovak I am and if I were a Pope I would still be a Slovak."16 For the Slovak people, Bernolak and his followers had taken the first stride toward the preservation of their language, heritage, and nation. 17 "Had it not been for those who in the 1790's were awake, as true Slovaks, by the year 1867 we would have been smothered by Magyarization," were the words used by Skultety to stress the importance of the school of Bernolak.18 Before the Slovaks could present a more united front against the Magyars, however, it was necessary to close the ranks among their own people. One of the greate$t obstacles which confronted the Slovak leaders was the selection of a literary language which would be accepted by both Catholic and Protestant groups. Centered in Trnava, the Catholics continued on their new course by using the Western Slovak vernacular as their vehicle for development of a literary language. The Bernolak group was steering away from the Czech which until this time had been used by the educated class as the literary language in Slovakia. On the other hand, the Protestants remained adherents of the Czech. They in turn began to gather around the Lutheran Lycee in Bratislava. In 1801, they founded the "Society for Slovak Literature," and two years later they established a chair for the study of the Slovak language and literature at the Lycee. 19 Eudovit Stur And The Defense of Slovak Rights For the Slovaks much good emanated from the Lycee in the years that followed. In the circles of the young students, Eudovit sttir from 1836 became prominent. Born in the small town of Uhrovec, the son of a school teacher, :Cudovit was destined to devote his life to his people. He succeeded in getting the chair of Slovak as substitute of the superannuated Professor George Palkovic.20 In order to prepare himself for the cause of his nation, sttir, in 1838, departed for Germany to take up studies at the University of Halle. During his sojourn at Halle he continued to keep contact with his homeland by SLOVAKIA 89 exchanging letters witl1 his literary associates in Slovakia and Bohemia. Before returning home $tur visited the Lusatians, an island of the Western Slavic people located in the "German Sea." He hoped to find the purest type of Slavic character and racial purity. He came upon a village which except for the name of the community had lost all its Slavic identity. $tur wa.s moved by this experience and in a poem called "The Pagan Priest" expressed with sadness the eventual loss of these people to the Slavic world. On his way home he lingered in Prague at the home of a dear friend, Jaroslav Pospisil. Unfortunately, $tur fell down the steps and was forced to remain. 21 During his convalescence he fell in love with his host's daughter, Maria. After great deliberation, $tur decided against placing his own personal feelings before those of his people. It may, be said by some that a marriage at this time by $tur would have meant his loss to the Slovak cause. There is no doubt that during his marital adjustment he may have neglected his life'is work, but one must not forget his burning desire to fulfill his mission for the welfare of his people. It must also be remembered that $tur's prospective father-in-law was a man steeped in the Slavic cause which in itself would certainly have not been a deterring factor towards $tur's continued efforts in the Slovak cause. Indeed, the Slovak people came much closer to losing their great son in 1833 and from an entirely different quarter. After completing his studies in that year at the Lycee in Bratislava, $tur was employed at the office on the estate of Count Zay. Such a position would have been cherished by most young men, yet $tur resigned. His mission and work lay elsewhere. When his mother protested and pleaded that he remain, $tur in a voice full of love and emotion said, "Mommy dear, as you see today, I will still be a student. I must be a student." $tur returned to Bratislava where he gave himself to his people. 22 Few will deny that Jan Kollar's "Slavy Dcera" (The Daughter of Slava) and Paul Joseph $afarik's "Slavonic Antiquities" had influenced $tur's decision. 23 The Lycee attracted not only Slovaks but also Serbian 90 SLOVAKIA and Croatian youth. 24 Replicas of the society at the Lycee were found in other schools in Slovakia. Stimulating contacts among the Catholic and Lutheran Slovak students was established through correspondence. They were preparing each other for future duties in life. Acceleration of Magyarization It was not until the 1830's that-the non-Magyar nations began to rise and defend themselves against the accelerated Magyarization program. 25 By 1820, in some counties, Magyar was advocated as the language in non-Magyar schools. 26 A terrible blow was dealt to Slovak people by the Hungarian Diet in 1825-27. Seemingly, the only purpose of the Diet body at the time was to replace Latin with Magyar as the official language. Consequently this meant that all citizens of Hungary would be forced to use the Magyar language in schools, civil service, army and public life as well. To further the cause of Magyarization, Count Stefan Szechenyi, prominent Magyar nobleman, offered to donate his yearly income towards the building of a Magyar academy. A member of the parliament explained that the chief reason for such aims was for the defense against Russian pressure. 27 The constant fear of Russia led the Magyars to look upon a strong Poland as a likely ally. Professor Daniel Rapant explains that Felsobukki Nagy Pal in his Parliamentary speech in 1833 called for the need of a resurrected Poland and a widening of Magyarization to the remotest frontiers of Hungary. He emphasized a common frontier with Poland. 28 Needless to say, much of this fear can be attributed to the cleverness of the Magyars in their defense against the Slavic nations. Both German and Magyar publishers used "Pan-Slavism" extensively as their propaganda weapon. With their careful program of assimilating other nations, the Magyars themselves made blunders which were to turn the Slovak people further away from them. M. Rey wrote: "The Magyar nobles had often made generous sacrifices in the defense of their own interests but they had always shown the most deplorable selfishness as regards the condition of the peasants." 29 All this in turn gave the SLOVAKIA 91 Austrian crown an opportunity to play the part of the oppressed peasants' friend. 30 The Slovak peasant from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 19th century bore the main burden of taxation in Hungary, paying fifty per cent of what he produced to his lord and to the crown.31 There is no question that the conditiorts of the peasantry in Slovakia were pitiful. 32 Therefore, it is understandable that occasionally open peasant rebellions took place against their lords. One of the latest to occur was in 1831 which took place in the counties of saris, Zemplin, Spis, Abauj, and Gerner with the outbreak of cholera. Some of the lords were put to death by the people who accused them of having poisoned the wells. 33 According t:o Bakes, the disease had spread across the frontier from Poland where Russian soldiers had been encamped.34 rt is estimated that 56,000 died, and one writer claims that Russian agents incited the people to revolt against their lords. 35 The brutality with which the revolt was put down left hatred in the hearts of those who survived. In this state of affairs the Emperor in 1833 invited the Diet to meet at Bratislava to discuss agrarian reforms which he claimed were drawn up by himself. 36 Among the people there was great hope that such interest on the part of the Emperor would mean the gradual alleviation of their terrible conditions. Actually, the congress did not concern itself with such matters and instead they were put aside to be dealt with at later sessions. Something more important now commanded their attention, the coronation of Francis's son, Ferdinand, as kin of Hungary. As Magyars they were won over to the new king when he contributed his coronation gift to the Magyar Scientific Academy. Ferdinand, who claimed to be Magyar at heart, became a strong supporter for the Magyarization program. In 1830, the Diet passed a series of laws which extended the reaches of the Magyar language. By 1836, Magyar was elevated to equal stature with Latin as a language to be used in courts and documents. As a result of the Diet of 1839, Magyar now became the official language of Hungary . Now Magyarization would need only time. What 92 SLOVAKIA would St. Stephen, Hungary's greatest king, have said of this? The Magyars had revered their king and maybe they would have been wiser had they paid heed to his words of wisdom. In a letter written by St. Stephen to his son, St. Emerich, we find him saying: "For as guests some from various parts of the provinces, they bring different languages and customs, knowledge, and arms, all of which adorn the royal court; and make it more magnificent. All this shakes the self-confidence of foreigners. A country with one language and one morality is weak and fragile. Therefore I exhort you, my son, to accept them with benevolence and hold them in esteem in order that they may prefer staying with you in the kingdom."37 Thus, the Magyars were taking their ship on a different course than that charted by their great captam, St. Stephen. At this time, Uudovit stur returned to the Lycee in Bratislava from Germany where he had been studying for the last two years. Much had taken place in his absence; however, he was the man destined to lead his people during their great trial in 1848-49. An effective weapon t,o be used against stur and his followers was the Pesti Hirlap, the first political newspaper in Hungary and edited by Louis Kossuth in 1841. The "forties" were to see the Magyars, "champions" of the newly-won freedom of the press acting quickly to refuse its benefits to their weaker fellow nations. Although some assurances were given that racial tolerance would be honored to all, it was not long before the true character of the journal became evident. Kossuth was very free in his attacks on the Slovaks and answers to his attacks were never allowed space in his "democratic" paper. 38 The Pesti Hirlap became the voice of Magyarization. The Magyars in their search for every technique and new approach did not overlook the possibilities of using the religious issue as a vehicle toward their goal of assimilation. This only served to strengthen Slovak resistance. On September 10, 1840, Count Zay was appointed chief inspector of the Protestant Congregations and schools.39 In his acceptance speech he called for the promotion of Magyarization as the only salvation for the Protestant confession in Slovakia. Zay's goal was to unify the Lutheran SLOVAKIA 93 and Calvinist Churches. Of all the Lutherans in Hungary, five eights were Slovaks, the rest were Germans. On the other hand, the Calvinists were Magyars and were greater in number. This in itself added to Slovak suspicions that such a union was not in the interest of the faith as proclaimed, but actually a chauvinistic design on the part of the Magyars to absorb the Slovak people.40 Zay openly announced in a public circular, September 26, 1840, his determination to Magyarize the Slovaks. Moreover, he stated that the Slovak language would prevent the Slovaks from being good stolid Protestants, and the Magyarization of the Slavs was the holiest duty of every genuine patriot:u Hungary, according to Zay, could only be strong if she were welded into one nation, for she could then defend herself from the danger in the north, Russia. 42 Slovak leaders were not tardy in answering Zay. Sttir's rebuttal was so intelligently plain that Zay became firmly convinced Sttir was behind all the protestations that were being made. He was determined to have Stlir removed from the chair of Slovak Studies at the Lycee. This appeared to be quite difficult to do inasmuch as i:ittir was very popUllar. Nevertheless, supporters of Zay's plan proclaimed that the Lycee's at Bratislava and Levoca were the hotbeds of all Slovak societies at Lutheran schools and colleges in Slovakia. For the time being, however, Magyar plans were not successful. Jan Seberini answered Zay on April 2, 1841, by stating that he, Zay, professed to Magyarize in the name of Protestantism; yet that is not only contrary to the Protestant beliefs, but also to all Christian teachings. "Who has the right to say what language a man must speak?" he continued, " I am a Slovak not because of glory and honor but according to Christian teachings, for God wanted that I be born Slovak. Therefore, I am not ashamed of my origin nor my tongue just as any German, Frenchman, Magyar need not to be ashamed." 43 It must be remembered that not all of the Protestant clergy sensed danger in the union; nevertheless, Zay's program eventually became evident even to those idealists. At Nitra, where some believed that union of the two 94 SLOVAKIA Protestant groups was in good faith, Jozef Miloslav Hurban warned them to be more realistic and not to be taken in. The part that Hurban was to play in the revolt of 1848-49 was second to none but his great friend and comrade in arms, Jjudovit Stlir. Jozef Miloslav Hurban Born on the 19th of March, 1817, in Beckov, Jozef Hurban was educated by his father, Pavol, a Lutheran Minister of that place. His father was timid and wished not to implicate himself in national problems. Therefore, under these circumstances, the youthful Hurban while at home was not exposed to Slovak national consciousness.44 After spending his lower grades at Trencin, he went in 1830 to study at the Lycee at Bratislava. He was there for six years before he met Shir. Prior to this time Hurban had not taken part in Slovak aspirations at the Lycee. One evening, while taking a walk in the streets of Bratislava, he met stlir who asked him whether he was studying and practicing in the Slovak language. This stur explained, was the duty of all Slovaks. Hurban at the moment was embarrassed and could not answer. stur then said, "You are a Slovak, is that correct? And is not your friend George Zaborsky?" Hurban replied that he was a Slovak and that his friend was George Zabo11sky. 45 stur complimented Hurban for his selection of such a good, able friend and recommended that he continue to cultivate Zaborsky's friendship. Before the two had departed, Hurban was invited to visit stur. That meeting was to have far-reaching effects on Hurban; for, when he arrived home, his mind was full of thought. The lamp in his room burned past midnight, while Hurban wrote hils first verse in Slovak. This he presented to stur the next morning and from that time on the Slovak Institute in Bratislava, as well as the Slovak nation, did not have a more zealous member nor a more deserving son than Hurban. A trip to Devin was planned for April 24, 1836, by the members of the Slovak Society at the Lycee in order to initiate and plan more definite activities. The ruins SLOVAKIA 95 of Devin, reminders of a rich history, stood majestic on her pedestal of massive rock guarding the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers. This place recalled the Great Moravian Empire in the 9th century and her ceaseless struggles against German and Magyar. For the new Slovak generation this was a setting best suited for the revival of Slovak national feeling. 46 On this day filled with bright spring sunshine, lectures were given, prose recited, and songs were sung. Everyone participated in the theme of awakening Slovak consciousness. 47 In a further expression of loyalty to their beloved cause, they adopted Slavic names which they pledged to carry forever. sttir was the first to announce that he was to take the name of Velislav and others followed suit, taking different Slavic names. Hurban took the name Miloslav, a name which was to live in Slovak history. 48 Below the fortress of Devin rested a small town by the same name, and there in a tavern the young Slovaks gathered after an eventful day. Conversation, according to Hurban, had to be carried on in Latin so that waiters might not learn and betray their information.49 Just as stur and others had taken trips to broaden their views and get better acquainted with affairs which might influence their actions, Hurban also traveled. 50 His opportunity was afforded during a vacation 1839 when he visited Vienna, Bohemia and Moravia. 51 In 1841, a book relating his experiences was published: Trip of a Slovak to his Slav Brothers in Moravia and Bohemia. 52 When he completed his studies in 1840, Hurban became town chaplain at Brezova. For Hurban, the post at Brezova was a fortunate one, for here his work was to be understood and appreciated. Even before his arrival, the people of Brezova had had experiences in the struggle against the landed gentry. The peasants were aware of their rights and were prepared to defend them. They, too, had been effected by stur and showed a keen interest in his work. 53 Although Hurban knew that the upper classes would hold it against him, he, nevertheless, set about to reach the less fortunate classes. 54 Within himself there was a shining spiritual fire that others felt, and with his expressive face, warm kind eyes, and strong thundering 96 SLOVAKIA voice, he imparted to others the knowledge he had. Through talks and writings, he began to create among the uneducated people an interest in how they could better themselves. Out of this grew a Sunday school and Moderation and Temperance Society, both of which were to help in strengthening his people. The Sunday school was designed for those living in Brezova and it met on Sundays and holidays and on other days when time permitted. Those who attended were taught the arts and sciences. The Moderation and Temperance Society was just as important. Drunkenness came to Slovakia not through a habit developed from pleasure, but as a medium of escape from the extreme hardships of life. Not anywhere in Hungary was misery so great as in Slovakia, nor was drunkenness more widespread. Besides education, there was a dire need for bettering the lot of these people who lived under such deplorable conditions.55 The enlightened Slovak leaders knew that in order to lift up their nation they must first of all remove this scourge of alcoholism. 56 Throughout Slovakia, Moderation Societies were set up which were similar to those in America, but were chiefly modeled after those in Ireland where conditions were unfortunately similar to those found in Slovakia. However, the obstacle to legislation which would have curbed, if not eliminated, the sale of liquor came from the great landowners and Jews. 57 They owned the distilleries as well as the village taverns. The latter were frequented by those who could not pay and high rates of interest were charged them. 58 Agricultural schools had been established, but they were more for the middle class: townsmen, tradesmen, and prosperous farmers who were able to save their earnings.59 But for the less fortunate people of the lower classes, the Moderation and Temperance Societies had greater meaning and importance.6 1, Its founders believed that Slovak patriotism must be aroused, for a poor and drunken nation could achieve nothing but death. In the field of literary activitieis Hurban felt there was a strong need for a journal to help to direct Slovak literary life. In fact, when in May, 1840, Hurban grieved that there was no journal which could serve the interest SLOVAKIA 97 of defending national rights, he made this comparison: "A journal is to the life of a nation what hands are to a clock to indicate the time; therefore, as conditions exist we do not even have a clock."61 Putting forth all his efforts, he managed, by 1842, to produce a yearly almanac, Nitra, written in Czech, consisting of some three hundred pages.62 Included in the first edition were songs, poems, and prose from members of the young Slovak generation. Nitra's title page was consecrated to "The daughters and sons of Slovakia, Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia." Hurban dedicated the introductory poem of this first issue of Nitra to Jan Caplovic, landowner and great lover of books and literature. All this was done purposefully so that he might join the Slovak cause more actively .63 There was some speculation among the Magyars as to Hurban's purpose of editing the Nitra. Some claimed that the almanac was given the name Nitra so that Slovakia might arise around the glory that surrounded that name. Prior to this time any open discussion about historic Nitra was forbidden. However, friends of Hurban came to his rescue by tactfully assuring the Magyars there was nothing to fear from Hurban who was but a young man and as such should be excused for his actions. 64 A weaker man would have sensed the danger but Hurban stayed on to put out three more almanacs until 1848 when he was forced to flee for his life. In the year 1843, Hurban was called as pastor to Hlboke and there he edited his second issue of Nitra, but this time in the new Slovak literary language, and censors played havoc with this issue.65 The Magyars also hindered in every way the realization of a Slovak newspaper. stur, with the help of Kollar, had petitioned in 1842 for permission to publish a newspaper, but approval was denied. There was no telling how long this condition would last. In the meantime, something had to be done to draw the Slovak people together into a unified body. It was for this purpose in 1843 that the Slovak leaders stur and Hodza met in Hurban's residence in Hlboke.66 Here they decided that if they were not free to edit a newspaper, a society formed along national lines might help achieve the same results. 98 SLOVAKIA Slovak Literary Language The triumvirate agreed that Czech should no longer be used by the Lutherans in their churches and writings. Therefore, the adoption of the Central Slovak dialect by this body brought the Lutherans and Catholics closer to the goal of having one dialect as a base for their literary language. There was a great need to reach the people, but in a language that was dear to them and one which they understood. Not all people could read the Czech, only the educated; it seemed so foreign to the common people. The society planned for in Hlboke paved the way for the achievement of a common langu&ge.67 Near the beautiful High Tatra mountains on the 27th of August, 1844, in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas, the Tatrin Society was organized. In the words of Rapant, "It was the culminating point of cultural organization in Slovakia at that time; and it was the most important organ for the stur generation."68 A factor of far reaching consequences for Slovakia was that it was the first national Slovak organization and it encompassed all of the sides and segments of the nation, Catholic and Lutheran.69 Along with unity of language, it concerned itself with the cultural needs of the Slovaks.70 The Tatrin gave financial support to young Catholic and Protestant men who were studying in higher schools of education. Peter Bohun, the famous Slovak artist who painted portraits and scenes of the revolution of 1848-1849, was given such assistance by the Tatrin, so that he was able to publish a book of national costumes. 71 The third meeting of the Tatrin was held at cachtice in the Catholic parish house chiefly to resolve the language issue.72 On this memorial occasion the Catholics and Lutherans on the 10th of August, 1847, agreed to adopt the Central Slovak as the common literary language. The effect of this meeting meant the rupture with the Czechs. As was expected, it drew exclamations of disapproval from Palkovic, Kollar, and others who felt the only salvation for the Slovaks was in their tie with the Czechs. On the part of the Czechs there was great anger, and claims were made that such a move only strengthened the German influence about them. SLOVAKIA 99 The Czech nationals could not understand the Slovak problem,73 for the vernacular is the natural medium and the truest heartbeat of the people. It, the vernacular, only could help enlighten and lift the Slovak people from their death sleep. Not all Czechs, however, were against the founding of a new literary language. This group argued that a Slovak literature would enrich the whole of Slavic literature. On the other hand, the agreement reached in Cachtice was celebrated throughout Slovakia by Protestants and Catholics alike. stl1r's former students who now served as Protestant clergymen were filled with joy. It seemed that at once Slovak was elevated to a literary language bringing with it a new life which surged into the land. Slavic historians claim that had not such a step been taken it is doubtful whether the Slovaks could have withstood the pressure of Magyarization. 74 It seemed that every,.vhere nobles, townscitizens, and people of the villages began to proclaim that they were Slovaks. The poor classes were not able to understand most of what was written. Time was needed so they might completely understand. Along with Sunday schools which had been established new ones sprang up, and, in addition, writing and reading rooms were opened. People began to realize that through learning and enlightenment they could be helped out of their misery. In Brezova, peasants who had long been held under the nobles' yoke began their attempt to free themselves by purchasing the land. Now that it was their land they worked it as never before. 75 Books and articles were not written to adorn libraries but to serve the people. Advice on practical matters in the written medium was beginning to evidence itself in the lives of the Slovak people. The societies which already existed in the cultural, social, and economic field were given a tremendous impetus by the new language. In the meantime, all protests against Zay had not been aired. The inroads of Magyarization aroused superintendent Dr. Paul Jozeffy 76 to protest at the Lutheran general convention on September 10, 1841. He warned that if they continued forcing Magyarization into Slovak churches and schools, he himself would present these 100 SLOVAKIA ~ievances to the court.77 Needless to say, Magyar ambitions were not deterred, for when in 1840 the Jittenka (Morning Star), a student journal, was first issued at Levoca the Magyar press vehemently attacked it as a tool of PanSlavism. By 1841 the young students were forced to cease its publication.78 Paul Jozeffy Heads Delegation to Vienna, June, 1842 Every move by the Slovaks the Magyars suspected as intrigues against their kingdom and made use of the strongest propaganda weapon by crying "Pan-Slavism." They claimed Pan-Slavism was nc.t only dangerous to the Magyars but also politically perilous to the Empire; therefore, it was necessary that the Magyars and Germans fight this menace. 79 All candidates for Slovak pastorates were barred unless they could speak Magyar fluently. It was under these conditions that 200 ministers under the supervision of Jozeffy signed a petition demanding rights for the Slovaks. Jozeffy and his delegation went to Vienna in early June 1842 where they presented their grievances before Ferdinand V. The petition began by stating that the Slovaks are an individual nation which can progress only when it fosters its own tongue. Furthermore, for many centuries the Slovaks had made sacrifices along with other nations . of Hungary for the preservation of the Empire. They had been able to use their own language, but now the Slovak priests were being humiliated by having to adopt another tongue. _Because of this, the Slovak language and its literature was suffering, while in business transactions Slovak was no longer used. They, therefore, petitioned: 1) that the King should declare officially as false all testimony against the Slovaks that had been so proven, 2) that proper authority be granted ·so that two censors for Slovak literature be assigned to interpret and defend Slovak works, 3) that the seat of language and literature at the Lycee at Bratislava be confirmed and fully certified, 4') that at the University of Pest there be established a seat of Slavic language and literature, 5) that for matriculation records and church protocol Latin be put in use again, 6) that churches and schools be defended against SLOVAKIA 101 fanatic, self styled patriots who seek to Magyarize everything.80 This petition was signed by Paul Jozeffy, John Seberini, John Chalupka, Michael Hodza, Samuel Ferjencik, George Palkovic and 200 ministers, teachers and men of all stations in life.81 Although the Slovak delegation did not get very far w:.th its request, it served as a morale booster for the Slovaks. From the outset, promises were made and it looked as though something might be accomplished. The delegation had an audience with Metternich who assured them their request would be studied. After leaving Metternich they saw Count Kolowrat, a Czech nobleman and member of the Emperor's entourage. Although he greeted them with great warmth and is reported to have said, "Slav must help Slav," the delegation felt that they were being sidetracked. Kolowrat sensed this lack of confidence and assured them that he would lend them his support. When they left Vienna, the delegation felt something would be achieved. Now it seemed necessary only to wait. Upon their return home the delegation was shocked by the Magyar's overt reaction. The Slovak delegation had gone to Vienna with nothing but peaceful intentions in mind. But now the chauvinistic Magyars were infuriated and began to reel off in their papers and journals diatribes against the deputation headed by Jozeffy. Amidst this growing fervor a climax was reached when Kossuth delivered his flailing message at the General Convention on June 15th in Pest. In his attack, Kossuth, capable orator that he was, spared no words and vehemently described the deputation as a shame for the Protestant church and the betrayal of the best interest of the kingdom of Hungary. Kossuth demanded the punishment and resignation of Jozeffy from his superintendency. By the end of October, 1842, the petition was sent from Vienna to Buda to Palatine Joseph for his study and recommendations. When Kollar got wind of this he wrote a letter in November advising Jozeffy to come to Buda and intercede with the Palatine. Jozeffy arrived in Buda at the end of November and brought with him data and other materials with which he could strengthen his 102 SLOVAKIA position before the Pa1atine.82 But all proved futile, for prior to his arrival Joseph had been prepared by the Magyars for such an audience. Already on the 16th of April, 1843, Kollar had warned Jozeffy that the Palatine was Magyar in his symphaties. Moreover, according to Kollar, the Palatine Joseph had been oriented and advised by Vienna to disregard the Slovak demands. Vienna had no desire to strengthen the Slavs whether they be Slovak, Czech, or Serb, for in their union and strength she saw jeopardy to her position. At the same time she knew she could depend upon the support of the Slavs in case the Magyars caused trouble. And yet because of rumblings in Germany and Italy she could not afford to offend the Magyars. This policy of "cat and mouse" by Vienna was reaffirmed when in his letter to Jozeffy dated April 25th, 184J, the Palatine urged him to be patient, thus leaving Jozeffy to hope that all was not in vain. Hodza summed up the situation: "We cannot expect help from the Magyars but we must look to the Empire which is far away; and God is too high to help." 83 Other attempts were made to present Slovak grievances before the Emperor but they likewise proved fruitless . The Slovaks now more than ever realized that they must fight alone. s tur Leaves Bratislava As a result of Kossuth's charges at the General Convention an inquiry was held to det ermine for the Magyars the real reason for Jozeffy's trip to Vienna. Through their cunning, Zay and Kossuth at last felt they had a way of removing s tur from his position as professor of Slovak Studies at the Lycee. With it they hoped that if they could not remove the chair of studies completely, they could at least render it harmless through an appointee of their choice. The Slovaks called his investigation an inquisition, but in spite of all the false charges and doctored methods the inquiry ended in an acquittal of the charges made. Zay, however, insisted upon action which in the future would prevent stur from making lectures. Unheard-of pressure brought the removal of stur in December 1843. SLOVAKIA 103 A petition initiated by his beloved students was circulated for signatures. From all over Slovakia protests came from clergy and laity for the restoration of stur to his post.84 This did not, however, bring the result desired. In a feeling of indignation the young students left Bratislava. While most of them stopped at Levoca, others continued on to Presov, Kezmarok, stiavnica and Jelenova. 85 On their way, with heavy hearts but no resignation, they composed a song "Nad Tatrou sa blyska" (Over Tatra's Peaks Lightning Flashes) .86 The Magyars, blinded by their recent victory, did not realize that they had ironically rendered a great service to the Slovak cause. Previously the young Slovak students were centered in Bratislava where observation could be made of their every move, but they now were being scattered throughout Slovakia. Like so many seeds the ideals of stur and other Slovak leadership, knowledge, national pride, betterment and unity of purpose began to sprout and grow. The Slovak National News For st\ir his removal meant that his next fight would not be in the schools as before but among the masses of the Slovak people. To help reach the people a newspaper was needed. It was not until 1845, however, that the first issue of the Slovenske N<irodne Noviny (Slovak National News) was published.87 The paper, written in Slovak, was to become the most important vehicle in presenting stur's platform, and in fighting for Slovak rights. 88 Though criticized by some for lacking more aggressive action, stur stuck to his conservative approach, for he knew that if the Magyars were irritated the paper would not have long to live. stur believed that in order that the Slovak people might better preserve their nation they must be first educated in politics as well as home affairs. Some of his articles seemingly were written for the benefit of the Magyars to whom stur wished to prove that the Slovaks desired only peace and what was rightfully theirs. Through his paper, stur hoped to modernize his people, therefore he discussed their schools, institutions, libraries, and 104 SLOVAKIA societies. His words gave new hope to those who long suffered under the burden of serfdom. As a result of the appearance of the Slovak National News, there blossomed in all corners of Slovakia in 1845 a great number of Literary, Social, Agricultural, Economic, Woman's, and Moderation and Temperance societies. They were modeled after those which had been found in previous years, but now they seemed to grow everywhere. To reach national unity and purpose every facet was tried. As with her fighting sons, the role women were to play became apparent. Articles appeared in st1.1r's newspaper stressing the point that being good mother was no longer sufficient, for all women now must take on additional responsibilities and become interested in the affairs of their nation. 89 Other writers called for the establishment of a girls' institute where industry and devotion to the Slovak cause would be taught.90 Readers of the Slovak newspapers were reproached for not helping themselves and were given sound advice that jealousy of others will not get them ahead. stur wrote that, "In order for the Slovaks to be more fortunate, they must be concerned about themselves and must get a 'common soul.'" He stated further, "Authough the mark of a nation is her language, the Slovak tongue is completely neglected in schools; it does not have social and constitutional rights for its cultivation. This is due to the fact that the Slovaks have not lived like a nation but as an individual. He has hidden his tongue only for use in the home and therefore it has no chance of blossoming forth into reality." 91 Hodza in his Dobruo slovo (Good Word) proclaimed that the Slovaks must recognize their own nation and then others will do likewise. The program of sttir as outlined in the Slovak National News was but the continuation of demands placed before Vienna and Pest by the Slovaks for the past twenty years. Aside from the need of economic reforms the major issue was that of language. stur's paper was read in towns and villages. Hurban wrote, "The voice of that national organ under stur was really strong, one which had to be considered." 92 The Slovak National News had awakened the Slovak people and helped prepare them for the moment for which everyone waited. SLOVAKIA 105 FOOTNOTES 1) Charles E. Maurice, The Rev olutionary Movements of 1848-1849, p . vi. 2 ) Daniel Rapant, Slov enske Pov stanie, ( Slovak Uprising) Vol. I, Bk. I, p. 18. 3) Milan Hodfa, "Political Evolution of Slovakia," Slov akia Then and Now, ed. R. W . Seton-Watson, p . 71. 4 ) Alphonse M. Lamarune, "Past, Present and Future," North Ameri can Revi ew, LXXII, (Jan. 1851) , p . 206. 5) Rapant, op. cit. , pp. 75, 88, 89; " Austria and Germany," Quarterly Review, LXXXIV, (Dec. 1849), p. 198. 6 ) Julius Botto, Slovcici , (Slovaks) , I, 23 ; Arnost Dennis, Slov cici: Otcizka Rakouskci, (Slovaks : The Austrian Question), p. 134; C. J . C. Street, Slov akia Past and Present, p. 9; Rapant, op. cit., p. 84. 7) Arthur Patterson, The Magyars, II, 70. 8) Jozef Cieker, Slovenskci Otcizka, (Slovak Question) , pp. 19, 20; E. L. Miyatovich, "Panslavism: Its Rise and Decline", Fortnightly Revi ew, XIV (1873) , p. 96. 9 ) Michael Hodza, Der Slowake, (The Slovak), p . 10; Rapant, op. cit., p . 4. 10) Htjdza, op. cit., p. 16. 11 ) Louis Leger, A History of Austro-Hungary, p. 520; Geoffrey Drage, Austria-Hungary, p. 200 ; Harold W. Ternperley, "Racial Strife in Hungary," Westminster Review, C. XIX (Jan. 1908) , p. 4. 12) Daniel Rapant, Ileqalna Mad'arizcicia: 1790-1840, (Illegal Magyarization) , p. 3. 13 ) Cieker, op. cit ., p. 39. 14) Hodza, op. ci t ., p. 10. 15) Ernest Flachbarth, Companion to Hungarian Studies, p. 372. 16 ) Michael Hodza, Der Slowake, (The Slovak), p. 41. 17) Frantisek Hrusovsky, Slovenske D ej iny, (Slovak History) , p. 248. 18) Skultety, op. cit., p. 62. 19) Julius Bodnar, Dr. Jozef Miloslav Hurban, p. 12. 20) Jozef Skultety, Sketches from Slo·va.lc History, trans. 0 . D. Koreff, p. 184; Bodnar, Zoe. cit.; Albert Prazak, Dejiny Spisovne Slovenstiny po Dobu sturovu , (History of Literary Slovak Before the Time of Stur) p. 163; Miss Parooe, an English lady who traveled throughout Hungary in the late 1830's w110te, "It is said that in the whole k!ingdom there is not so high and liberal an academic spirit in any scholastic establishment as in that of the Lycee of Bratislava" (City of the Magyar and Hungary) , JI, 281. 21 ) Frantisek Frydecky, Dopisy .fudev ita Stura Jaroslavu Pospisilovi, (Letters of Cudovit Stur to Jaroslav Pospisil) , pp. 31, 73. SLOVAKIA 106 22) Jozef Hurban, I!udovit Stur, I, 38,39. 23) See R. W. Seton-Watson, A H istory of the Czechs m# Slovaks, pp. 173-176. 24) There were, in aj:ldition, German and Magyar societies at the Lycee at Bratislava. 25) Daniel Rapant, llegalna Mad'arizacia: 1790-1840, (Illegal Magyarization), p. v. 26) Ibid., p. 23; Pardoe, op. cit., III, 78-80. 27) Rapant, op. cit., p. 24. 28) Daniel Rapant, Slovenske Povstanie, (Slovak Uprising), Vol. I., Bk. I ., p. 66. 29) M. Rey in his study of this period described the privileges of the nobility: " The rights of the nobles were as vast as a privileged race of conquerors could possibly enjoy ... Neither the noble himself nor his servants paid any tax, real or personal, to the king or the counties; neither his horse nor his men could be required to work on the roald or the dykes. The peasant alone was the person who paid the tax termed 'domestical' for the expense of the Diet and the county administration. The peasant paid the salary of the school master, the notary, the priest, the patrol. The peasant constructed and maintained either with his ,o wn money or his labor, the roads, bridges, churches, schools, public bui~dings, dykes, canals; and it was the peasant and the townsman who drained the marshes, turned the course of rivers, etc. The peasant and the townspeople paid the war tax and furnished recruits." (Autriche, Hongrie, et Turquie on 1839-48, p. 126, cited by Corvinus, Hungary: Its Constitutions and the Catastrophe, p. 17) ; Louis Leger, A History of Austro-Hungary, p. 493. 30 ) Peter E. Turnbull, Austria: Social a111:l Political Conditions, II, 21, 22. 31 ) Stefan Jansak, "The Land Question in Slovakia," The Slav onic Review, (March, 1930), p. 620. 32) As a result of the Diet of 1764 a law was passed restricting the power of inflicting corporal punishment to the bestowing of twentyfive lashes. (Lord Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy, II, 9.3 ). 33 ) Leger, op. cit., pp. 493, 494. 34) Frantisek Bokes, Dejiny Slovakov a Slovenska, (History of the Slovaks and Slovakia ); Vol. IV, Slovenska Vlastiveda, p. 146. 35 ) Arthur Yolland, Hungary, p. 253. 36) Leger, op. cit., p. 494. 37) Ernest Flachbarth, History of Hungcry's Nati onalities, pp. 5, 6. 38) Arminius Vambery, Hungary, p. 417. 39) Hurban, op. cit., II, 118. 40 ) Arnost Dennis, Slovaci: Otazka Rakouska, p. 155. SLOVAKIA 107 41) ~udovit Stur, Stary i Novy Vek Slovaku, (Old and New Slovak Age), p. 39. 42) Stur writes the Magyars feel that they can only be safe from Russia by Magyarizing the Slovaks. "Was there a time," he asked, "when the Slovaks have not ·prov~d faithful? We have fought for our country, Hungary, and thousands have shed their blood." (Ibid. , p . 42) . 43) Julius Botto, Slovaci, pp. 53, 54. 44) Hurban, op. cit., III, 228. 45) Dr. Luidvik Ktihn, Buditelia v zupe bratislavskej, p. 66 . 46) Nitra had been considered. 47) Hurban, op. cit., I, 94-106. 48)\ Ibid., 102. 49) Ibid., 103. 50) Ibid., 155. 51) Hurban visited the Rajhrad Cloister in Moravia and made the following entry in the visitors' book on July 10, 1839: "Miloslav Jozef Hurban, a traveling Slovak, visited .this famous cloister with the motto, 'Long Live Czecho-Slovak' " (Author in 1948 humbly ~dded his name to the same visitors' book at the Rajhrad Cloister). 52) Cesta Slovaka ku b1·atrum slavenskym na Morave av techach. 53) Julius Bodnar, Dr. Jozef Miloslav Hurban, p. 17. 54) Ibid., p . 16. 55) See Stefan Jansak, Les Conditions Sociales dans l'Anciene Hongrie et la Situation de la Slovaquie. 56 ) Rapant, op. cit., p. 159. 57 ) Ibid., p. 160; Max Schlesinger, The War in Hungary, 1848-1849, II, 218, 2l9. 58) G. R. Gleig, Germany_. Bohemia, arlji Hungary, III, 59-62. 59) Rapant, op. cit., p. 158. 60) Rapant relates that many of 't hese people would spend their last earnings for liquor, and that in some areas between one thiDd to one half of the population on certain days were intoxicated; even children in the nursing stages were given alcohol L-Oc. cit. 61) Karol Golan, Rok so Sturovcami, p. 11. 62) At that time there were practically no printing facilities available in Slovakia. 63) Vendelin Jankovic, Jan taplovic: Zivot, Osobnost', Dielo, p. 24. 64) Bodnar, op. cit., p. 20. 65) J . Skultety, 0 Slovakoch (About the Slovaks), p. 254. 66) Hurban, op. cit., II, 302; Hurban wrote : "Tatrin's function was to the nation what Stur's was to the Slovak youth." Loe. cit. 108 SLOVAKIA 67) Prazak, op. cit., p. 304. 68) Rapant, op. cit., p. 156. 69) Mikulas Dohnany, Historia Povstanja Slovenskjeho z Roku 1848, (History of the Slovak Uprising in 1848), p. 21. 70) Hodza, op. cit., p. 54. 71) Hurban, op. cit., p. 298; Dohnany, op. cit., p. 21 . 72) Botto, op. cit., p. 62. 73) Dohnany, op. cit., p. 22. 74) Albert Prazak, "Czechs and Slovaks in Revolution of 1848," The Slavonic Review, V (March, 1927), p. 573. 75) Dohnany, op. cit., p. 20. 76) In ~::ldition to his fine qualities his contemporaries described Dr. Jozeffy as being timid and lacking ,t he firmness and obstinancy needed for his time. One can well imagine that when such a man is roused to make a protest of this order it generally must be for reason. (Botto, op. cit., p. 55) . 77) Hurban, op. cit., p. 115. 78) Ibid. , p. 116. 79) Jozef Cieker, Slovenska Otazka, p. 72. 80) Botto, op. cit., pp. 57, 58; Hurban, op. cit., pp. 166-168. 81) Ibid. , p. 164. 82) Ibid., p. 171. cit., p. 32. 84) Skultety, op. cit., p. 200. 83) Hodza, op. 85) Prazak, Dejiny Spisovne Slovenstiny, op. cit., pp. 285, 286. 86) Jan Matuska ( 1821-1877) was the writer of that song. 87) It may be interesting to note that Zay was commission~ by his government to study Stur's request for a Slovak paper. To the surprise of Stur and his followers the request was granted. The rejoicing which took place was not to last for any great length of time for when the Magyars saw fit, they deprived the Slovaks of their news organ. 88) Bokes, op. cit., p. 158. 89) Rapant, op. cit., p. 155. 90) Cieker, op. cit., p. 210. 91) Rapant, op. cit., p. 148. 92) Hurban, op. cit., III, 80, 81. • THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interest.eel primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the Unit.eel 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 The Slovak National Awakening Description An account of the resource Edward A. Tuleya Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 85-108 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tuleya, Edward Andrew, 1919-2008 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/fb40bfffdceeb97a931b9b25f09f126a.pdf 911fa8cfb7edca5158a25708177d2d32 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 79 The Assin1ilation Process of An1e rican Slovaks J . M . Ki rs c h b au m, Ph. D . Historians and sociologists have presented the United States during the past 200 years as a vast melting pot in which immigrants from many nations and continents were supposed to become Americans and lose their identity. This belief became a part of the national consciousness of the majority of Americans and foreign scholars have accepted uncritically the idea that successive waves of immigrants have been "digested" and have become an integral part of the American nation. During the past few year s, this hypothesis has been put in doubt by scholars and especially by sociologists dealing with today's America. Some of them assert that the melting pot was a romantic idea about something which happened only in the writings of historians who dealt with national ambitions and dreams and not with reality. Even 200 years after the enunciation of the melting pot idea, the ethnic groups continue to behave differently from the Anglo-Saxon element. According to recent studies, the melting pot concept extended chiefly to the political and economic spheres. In other areas, what sociologists call "structual separation," persists. In religion and in social relations, the ethnic groups resist amalgamation. In view of this situation, the Organization of American Historians dedicated a session during its annual meeting in 1969 to the topic : "Ethnicity: A Neglected Dimension of American History." At this meeting, some scholars challenged the traditional ways of interpreting American history and came to the conclusions which brought renewed academic interest in the problems of the ethnic groups .1 The historians were joined by sociologists and linguists and the results of their research contradicts to a great degree the idea of a melting pot and monolithic structure of the American nation. They found out that even Americans of western European origin (German, Norwegian, �80 SLOVAKIA Swedish, Irish, etc.) continue to this very day t.o recognize their ancestry and t.o partially define themselves in accordance with it. "For reasons that are not really well understood, these groups have not lost themselves entirely within their American surroundings even after three, four, or more generations, although they have had every opportunity to do so." 2 The ethnic groups preserved, however, not only the awareness of their European ancestry and cultural heritage, but many of them maintained the languages spoken by their fathers and fore-fathers. As a result, the idea of ethnicity and of language maintenance in America is becoming of interest not only to scholars but also to other Americans. "That third and subsequent generations frequently continue to think of themselves in partially ethnic terms and frequently maintain positive attitudes and interests with respect to the heritage of their grandparents, became a significant fact in American life." 3 Prof. Fishman in the recent book Language Loyalty in the United States which he edited together with several American scholars, deals especially with the maintenance and perpetuation of non-English mother tongues of American ethnic and religious groups. Through thorough research, Fishman and a group of American scholars came to startling results about present-day America. They also mention Slovaks and in view of the possibility that the statistics confused again Czechs and Slovaks, the new generation of Slovaks educated at American universities should carry out genuine research into the problems of the Slovak ethnic group in the United States. According to Fishman, the assimilation process of the Slovaks proceeds much faster than that of many other ethnic groups. They have assimilated much faster than, for instance, Poles, Magyars, Ukrainians, or Germans. According to the census data, there were 274,948 Slovaks in 1920 who were not born in the United States, whereas in 1940 only 171,580 and 125,000 in 1960. As for Slovaks born in the United States, the 1920 statistics show 344,918 as against 283,520 in 1940 and 125,000 in 1960, which means a considerable decrease from decade to decade. The number of Slovaks born in America who gave their mother tongue �SLOVAKIA 81 as Slovaks, according to the censuses of 1920 and 1940 is again percentagewise much smaller than in the case of other Slavs or even Magyars. The maintenance of mother tongues or the admission of Slovak parentage declines among the children of Slovak parents from generation to generation, according to American statistics. Thus the process of assimilation seems to be much stronger among Slovaks than among Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Magyars or Germans. For instance, in 1960, 125,000 first generation Slovaks claimed their mother tongue as Slovak. The same number of second generation Slovaks appear in the statistics, but in the third generation, only 10,000 Americans born to Slovak parents claimed Slovak as their mother tongue. As a result, only 260,000 persons born in the United States claimed in 1960 to be of Slovak origin or admitted that their mother tongue was Slovak. The total number of foreign and native born persons who claimed Slovak as their mother tongue was 484,360 in 1940 and only 260,0000 in 1960.4 The decrease or assimilation process among Slovaks in the United States is best shown by the following comparison with other central European immigrants: Slovaks decreased by 46.3 % Poles decreased by 9 .6 % Serbs and Croats decreased by 10.8 % Ukrainians increased by 202.6 % Prof. Fishman carefully mentions that mother tongue data on natives of foreign or mixed parentage does not necessarily reflect the real number of people born in the individual ethnic groups. Some demographic and some non-demographic factors account for the fact that some Americans of non Anglo-Saxon origin did not reveal their ethnic origin and mother tongue. Among the factors were a) "the varying prestige of the mother tongue both among its own speakers and among Americans in general," and b) tlile social mobility experienced by the second generation. Where the prestige of a particular mother tongue was low, and where the social mobility of its prospective claimants was high, it is likely the language less frequently �82 SLOVAKIA became the mother of American-born (second generation) offspring and was even less frequently claimed as such. "Unfortunately," concludes Fishman, "no census-type data are available on either of these variables and it has been necessary to study them by other means." 5 Generally, the immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe preserved their language and cultural heritage much better than immigrants from other parts of the European Continent. In the case of Slovaks, the statistics show that in spite of the greater number of parishes, organizations and newspapers compared to some other ethnic groups from Central Europe had in the past decades, the assimilation process was much stronger. As far as the mother tongue maintenance is concerned, American Slovaks are in twelfth place among the 23 ethnic groups in 1969, but for the period 1940-1960 in the 15th place. They are far ahead of Magyars, Russians, Poles, Croats, or Serbians in their integration into the AngloSaxon language group. There are no statistics about the number of Slovak newspapers and periodicals since these were shown under "other Slavic Groups" which includes Slovenes, Croatians, and Serbians. The statistics also show that the number of Slovaks is inferior during some decades to the number of Czechs and this could lead to the conclusion that the census takers may have confused the Czechs with Slovaks and vice-versa, as it happened according to the official admission in the Canadian census of 1961. The statistics quoted above and used in Fishman's book have been derived from U.S. Census of Population 1960: General Social and Economic Characteristics, United States Summary, Final Report PC ( 1 )-lC.6 The statistics do not add, however, correctly and they seem to be at odds with unofficial statistics and numbers of Slovaks who are at the present time organized in Slovak organizations in the United States. Although generally only 15 to 20 % of Americans or Canadians of East European origin are members of their fraternal or socio-cultural associations, the number of Slovaks organized in the United States amounted in 1969 to well over 450,000 according to the �SLOVAKIA 83 Secretary of the Slovak League of America, Joseph Pauco, Ph.D. In addition 'to this membership, we have to take into consideration social clubs and church organizations, as well as cultural centres which have been organized within Slovak Catholic and Protestant parishes or in larger American cities, and whose members are only partly organized in the fraternal Slovak organizations. According to Dr. Pauco, there is almost at each parish such a club or church organization and half of its membership does not belong to any Slovak fraternal organization. Since there are over 400 parishes in the United States, and taking into account that Slovak families are usually very large, counting five members as a f!1inimum, Dr. Pauco, as a long time Secretary of the Federation of Slovak Organizations in the United States, the Slovak League of America, assumes that the number of Americans of Slovak origin who to a great degree are still conscious of their ethnic background, amount to approximately two million. 7 However, if the official statistics are correct, then we cannot but come to the conclusion that the assimilation process of Slovaks is much stronger than we are willing to admit. On the other hand, if the statistics can be doubted, then there is only one remedy; the educated Slovaks whose numbers are not negligible, should begin a thorough research into the problems of American Slovaks. Their task will be now much easier than a few years ago since a joint commission cif the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association issued a statement on the writing and teaching of American history in the text books, stressing the fact that American ethnlc difference must be "faithfully portrayed." Also many other things reveal that a new tide of ethnic studies is at hand. The first sign is the growing interest of publishers and, second, new scholarship efforts are growing in American universities. The renewed interest in ethnic Americans was underscored by the Ford Foundation which announced in Ne,v York a new program of fellowships to encourage scholarships in the field of ethnic studies. A. national award of $288,052.00 will go to 87 doctoral candidacies at 58 graduate �SLOVAKIA 84 schools for the writing of dissertations on subjects dealing with the experience and culture of ethnic minorities in the United States. "The new program is designed to help stimulate the development of a body of knowledge on the history and culture of the nation's ethnic minorities, which is already becoming a subject of intense interest to a new generation of American students," according to F. Champion Ward, the Foundation's Vice-President for Higher Education and Research. 8 1) International Migration Rev.iew, an article by Dean Cincl, p. 58-63. 2) See Fishman et al, Language Loyalty in the United States (Mouton & Co., The Hague) , 1966. 3) Fishman, op. c. p. 31. 4 ) Fishman, ibid. p. 44. This figure shou}jd read 415,000 because Fishman shows 125,000 for foreign born (,p. 36) and 260,000 for native born ( p. 42) . 5 ) Ibid. , p. 40. 6 ) Published in Washington, D. C., by U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965. 7 ) Personal letter by Dr. Pauco /dated December 8, 1970. Dr. Pauco's estimate of the number of Slovaks in the United States is corroborated also by the figures on the emigration from Slovakia to the United States published recently by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the years 1880-1890, 122,479 persons left Slovakia for the United States; in the years 1901-1910, 215,292 persons, and in the years 1850-1921 529,949 persons; althogether 867,720 persons left for the United States. Even if i,t is true that many of these persons returned after two or three years spent in the United States, the statistics justify the estimate that about two million Americans are of Slovak origin. 8 ) The New York Times, November 27, 1970, page L. 41. " THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. � SLOVAKIA 79 The Assin1ilation Process of An1e rican Slovaks J . M . Ki rs c h b au m, Ph. D . Historians and sociologists have presented the United States during the past 200 years as a vast melting pot in which immigrants from many nations and continents were supposed to become Americans and lose their identity. This belief became a part of the national consciousness of the majority of Americans and foreign scholars have accepted uncritically the idea that successive waves of immigrants have been "digested" and have become an integral part of the American nation. During the past few year s, this hypothesis has been put in doubt by scholars and especially by sociologists dealing with today's America. Some of them assert that the melting pot was a romantic idea about something which happened only in the writings of historians who dealt with national ambitions and dreams and not with reality. Even 200 years after the enunciation of the melting pot idea, the ethnic groups continue to behave differently from the Anglo-Saxon element. According to recent studies, the melting pot concept extended chiefly to the political and economic spheres. In other areas, what sociologists call "structual separation," persists. In religion and in social relations, the ethnic groups resist amalgamation. In view of this situation, the Organization of American Historians dedicated a session during its annual meeting in 1969 to the topic : "Ethnicity: A Neglected Dimension of American History." At this meeting, some scholars challenged the traditional ways of interpreting American history and came to the conclusions which brought renewed academic interest in the problems of the ethnic groups .1 The historians were joined by sociologists and linguists and the results of their research contradicts to a great degree the idea of a melting pot and monolithic structure of the American nation. They found out that even Americans of western European origin (German, Norwegian, �80 SLOVAKIA Swedish, Irish, etc.) continue to this very day t.o recognize their ancestry and t.o partially define themselves in accordance with it. "For reasons that are not really well understood, these groups have not lost themselves entirely within their American surroundings even after three, four, or more generations, although they have had every opportunity to do so." 2 The ethnic groups preserved, however, not only the awareness of their European ancestry and cultural heritage, but many of them maintained the languages spoken by their fathers and fore-fathers. As a result, the idea of ethnicity and of language maintenance in America is becoming of interest not only to scholars but also to other Americans. "That third and subsequent generations frequently continue to think of themselves in partially ethnic terms and frequently maintain positive attitudes and interests with respect to the heritage of their grandparents, became a significant fact in American life." 3 Prof. Fishman in the recent book Language Loyalty in the United States which he edited together with several American scholars, deals especially with the maintenance and perpetuation of non-English mother tongues of American ethnic and religious groups. Through thorough research, Fishman and a group of American scholars came to startling results about present-day America. They also mention Slovaks and in view of the possibility that the statistics confused again Czechs and Slovaks, the new generation of Slovaks educated at American universities should carry out genuine research into the problems of the Slovak ethnic group in the United States. According to Fishman, the assimilation process of the Slovaks proceeds much faster than that of many other ethnic groups. They have assimilated much faster than, for instance, Poles, Magyars, Ukrainians, or Germans. According to the census data, there were 274,948 Slovaks in 1920 who were not born in the United States, whereas in 1940 only 171,580 and 125,000 in 1960. As for Slovaks born in the United States, the 1920 statistics show 344,918 as against 283,520 in 1940 and 125,000 in 1960, which means a considerable decrease from decade to decade. The number of Slovaks born in America who gave their mother tongue �SLOVAKIA 81 as Slovaks, according to the censuses of 1920 and 1940 is again percentagewise much smaller than in the case of other Slavs or even Magyars. The maintenance of mother tongues or the admission of Slovak parentage declines among the children of Slovak parents from generation to generation, according to American statistics. Thus the process of assimilation seems to be much stronger among Slovaks than among Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Magyars or Germans. For instance, in 1960, 125,000 first generation Slovaks claimed their mother tongue as Slovak. The same number of second generation Slovaks appear in the statistics, but in the third generation, only 10,000 Americans born to Slovak parents claimed Slovak as their mother tongue. As a result, only 260,000 persons born in the United States claimed in 1960 to be of Slovak origin or admitted that their mother tongue was Slovak. The total number of foreign and native born persons who claimed Slovak as their mother tongue was 484,360 in 1940 and only 260,0000 in 1960.4 The decrease or assimilation process among Slovaks in the United States is best shown by the following comparison with other central European immigrants: Slovaks decreased by 46.3 % Poles decreased by 9 .6 % Serbs and Croats decreased by 10.8 % Ukrainians increased by 202.6 % Prof. Fishman carefully mentions that mother tongue data on natives of foreign or mixed parentage does not necessarily reflect the real number of people born in the individual ethnic groups. Some demographic and some non-demographic factors account for the fact that some Americans of non Anglo-Saxon origin did not reveal their ethnic origin and mother tongue. Among the factors were a) "the varying prestige of the mother tongue both among its own speakers and among Americans in general," and b) tlile social mobility experienced by the second generation. Where the prestige of a particular mother tongue was low, and where the social mobility of its prospective claimants was high, it is likely the language less frequently �82 SLOVAKIA became the mother of American-born (second generation) offspring and was even less frequently claimed as such. "Unfortunately," concludes Fishman, "no census-type data are available on either of these variables and it has been necessary to study them by other means." 5 Generally, the immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe preserved their language and cultural heritage much better than immigrants from other parts of the European Continent. In the case of Slovaks, the statistics show that in spite of the greater number of parishes, organizations and newspapers compared to some other ethnic groups from Central Europe had in the past decades, the assimilation process was much stronger. As far as the mother tongue maintenance is concerned, American Slovaks are in twelfth place among the 23 ethnic groups in 1969, but for the period 1940-1960 in the 15th place. They are far ahead of Magyars, Russians, Poles, Croats, or Serbians in their integration into the AngloSaxon language group. There are no statistics about the number of Slovak newspapers and periodicals since these were shown under "other Slavic Groups" which includes Slovenes, Croatians, and Serbians. The statistics also show that the number of Slovaks is inferior during some decades to the number of Czechs and this could lead to the conclusion that the census takers may have confused the Czechs with Slovaks and vice-versa, as it happened according to the official admission in the Canadian census of 1961. The statistics quoted above and used in Fishman's book have been derived from U.S. Census of Population 1960: General Social and Economic Characteristics, United States Summary, Final Report PC ( 1 )-lC.6 The statistics do not add, however, correctly and they seem to be at odds with unofficial statistics and numbers of Slovaks who are at the present time organized in Slovak organizations in the United States. Although generally only 15 to 20 % of Americans or Canadians of East European origin are members of their fraternal or socio-cultural associations, the number of Slovaks organized in the United States amounted in 1969 to well over 450,000 according to the �SLOVAKIA 83 Secretary of the Slovak League of America, Joseph Pauco, Ph.D. In addition 'to this membership, we have to take into consideration social clubs and church organizations, as well as cultural centres which have been organized within Slovak Catholic and Protestant parishes or in larger American cities, and whose members are only partly organized in the fraternal Slovak organizations. According to Dr. Pauco, there is almost at each parish such a club or church organization and half of its membership does not belong to any Slovak fraternal organization. Since there are over 400 parishes in the United States, and taking into account that Slovak families are usually very large, counting five members as a f!1inimum, Dr. Pauco, as a long time Secretary of the Federation of Slovak Organizations in the United States, the Slovak League of America, assumes that the number of Americans of Slovak origin who to a great degree are still conscious of their ethnic background, amount to approximately two million. 7 However, if the official statistics are correct, then we cannot but come to the conclusion that the assimilation process of Slovaks is much stronger than we are willing to admit. On the other hand, if the statistics can be doubted, then there is only one remedy; the educated Slovaks whose numbers are not negligible, should begin a thorough research into the problems of American Slovaks. Their task will be now much easier than a few years ago since a joint commission cif the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association issued a statement on the writing and teaching of American history in the text books, stressing the fact that American ethnlc difference must be "faithfully portrayed." Also many other things reveal that a new tide of ethnic studies is at hand. The first sign is the growing interest of publishers and, second, new scholarship efforts are growing in American universities. The renewed interest in ethnic Americans was underscored by the Ford Foundation which announced in Ne,v York a new program of fellowships to encourage scholarships in the field of ethnic studies. A. national award of $288,052.00 will go to 87 doctoral candidacies at 58 graduate �SLOVAKIA 84 schools for the writing of dissertations on subjects dealing with the experience and culture of ethnic minorities in the United States. "The new program is designed to help stimulate the development of a body of knowledge on the history and culture of the nation's ethnic minorities, which is already becoming a subject of intense interest to a new generation of American students," according to F. Champion Ward, the Foundation's Vice-President for Higher Education and Research. 8 1) International Migration Rev.iew, an article by Dean Cincl, p. 58-63. 2) See Fishman et al, Language Loyalty in the United States (Mouton & Co., The Hague) , 1966. 3) Fishman, op. c. p. 31. 4 ) Fishman, ibid. p. 44. This figure shou}jd read 415,000 because Fishman shows 125,000 for foreign born (,p. 36) and 260,000 for native born ( p. 42) . 5 ) Ibid. , p. 40. 6 ) Published in Washington, D. C., by U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965. 7 ) Personal letter by Dr. Pauco /dated December 8, 1970. Dr. Pauco's estimate of the number of Slovaks in the United States is corroborated also by the figures on the emigration from Slovakia to the United States published recently by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the years 1880-1890, 122,479 persons left Slovakia for the United States; in the years 1901-1910, 215,292 persons, and in the years 1850-1921 529,949 persons; althogether 867,720 persons left for the United States. Even if i,t is true that many of these persons returned after two or three years spent in the United States, the statistics justify the estimate that about two million Americans are of Slovak origin. 8 ) The New York Times, November 27, 1970, page L. 41. " THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. � 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 79 The Assin1ilation Process of An1e rican Slovaks J . M . Ki rs c h b au m, Ph. D . Historians and sociologists have presented the United States during the past 200 years as a vast melting pot in which immigrants from many nations and continents were supposed to become Americans and lose their identity. This belief became a part of the national consciousness of the majority of Americans and foreign scholars have accepted uncritically the idea that successive waves of immigrants have been "digested" and have become an integral part of the American nation. During the past few year s, this hypothesis has been put in doubt by scholars and especially by sociologists dealing with today's America. Some of them assert that the melting pot was a romantic idea about something which happened only in the writings of historians who dealt with national ambitions and dreams and not with reality. Even 200 years after the enunciation of the melting pot idea, the ethnic groups continue to behave differently from the Anglo-Saxon element. According to recent studies, the melting pot concept extended chiefly to the political and economic spheres. In other areas, what sociologists call "structual separation," persists. In religion and in social relations, the ethnic groups resist amalgamation. In view of this situation, the Organization of American Historians dedicated a session during its annual meeting in 1969 to the topic : "Ethnicity: A Neglected Dimension of American History." At this meeting, some scholars challenged the traditional ways of interpreting American history and came to the conclusions which brought renewed academic interest in the problems of the ethnic groups .1 The historians were joined by sociologists and linguists and the results of their research contradicts to a great degree the idea of a melting pot and monolithic structure of the American nation. They found out that even Americans of western European origin (German, Norwegian, 80 SLOVAKIA Swedish, Irish, etc.) continue to this very day t.o recognize their ancestry and t.o partially define themselves in accordance with it. "For reasons that are not really well understood, these groups have not lost themselves entirely within their American surroundings even after three, four, or more generations, although they have had every opportunity to do so." 2 The ethnic groups preserved, however, not only the awareness of their European ancestry and cultural heritage, but many of them maintained the languages spoken by their fathers and fore-fathers. As a result, the idea of ethnicity and of language maintenance in America is becoming of interest not only to scholars but also to other Americans. "That third and subsequent generations frequently continue to think of themselves in partially ethnic terms and frequently maintain positive attitudes and interests with respect to the heritage of their grandparents, became a significant fact in American life." 3 Prof. Fishman in the recent book Language Loyalty in the United States which he edited together with several American scholars, deals especially with the maintenance and perpetuation of non-English mother tongues of American ethnic and religious groups. Through thorough research, Fishman and a group of American scholars came to startling results about present-day America. They also mention Slovaks and in view of the possibility that the statistics confused again Czechs and Slovaks, the new generation of Slovaks educated at American universities should carry out genuine research into the problems of the Slovak ethnic group in the United States. According to Fishman, the assimilation process of the Slovaks proceeds much faster than that of many other ethnic groups. They have assimilated much faster than, for instance, Poles, Magyars, Ukrainians, or Germans. According to the census data, there were 274,948 Slovaks in 1920 who were not born in the United States, whereas in 1940 only 171,580 and 125,000 in 1960. As for Slovaks born in the United States, the 1920 statistics show 344,918 as against 283,520 in 1940 and 125,000 in 1960, which means a considerable decrease from decade to decade. The number of Slovaks born in America who gave their mother tongue SLOVAKIA 81 as Slovaks, according to the censuses of 1920 and 1940 is again percentagewise much smaller than in the case of other Slavs or even Magyars. The maintenance of mother tongues or the admission of Slovak parentage declines among the children of Slovak parents from generation to generation, according to American statistics. Thus the process of assimilation seems to be much stronger among Slovaks than among Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Magyars or Germans. For instance, in 1960, 125,000 first generation Slovaks claimed their mother tongue as Slovak. The same number of second generation Slovaks appear in the statistics, but in the third generation, only 10,000 Americans born to Slovak parents claimed Slovak as their mother tongue. As a result, only 260,000 persons born in the United States claimed in 1960 to be of Slovak origin or admitted that their mother tongue was Slovak. The total number of foreign and native born persons who claimed Slovak as their mother tongue was 484,360 in 1940 and only 260,0000 in 1960.4 The decrease or assimilation process among Slovaks in the United States is best shown by the following comparison with other central European immigrants: Slovaks decreased by 46.3 % Poles decreased by 9 .6 % Serbs and Croats decreased by 10.8 % Ukrainians increased by 202.6 % Prof. Fishman carefully mentions that mother tongue data on natives of foreign or mixed parentage does not necessarily reflect the real number of people born in the individual ethnic groups. Some demographic and some non-demographic factors account for the fact that some Americans of non Anglo-Saxon origin did not reveal their ethnic origin and mother tongue. Among the factors were a) "the varying prestige of the mother tongue both among its own speakers and among Americans in general," and b) tlile social mobility experienced by the second generation. Where the prestige of a particular mother tongue was low, and where the social mobility of its prospective claimants was high, it is likely the language less frequently 82 SLOVAKIA became the mother of American-born (second generation) offspring and was even less frequently claimed as such. "Unfortunately," concludes Fishman, "no census-type data are available on either of these variables and it has been necessary to study them by other means." 5 Generally, the immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe preserved their language and cultural heritage much better than immigrants from other parts of the European Continent. In the case of Slovaks, the statistics show that in spite of the greater number of parishes, organizations and newspapers compared to some other ethnic groups from Central Europe had in the past decades, the assimilation process was much stronger. As far as the mother tongue maintenance is concerned, American Slovaks are in twelfth place among the 23 ethnic groups in 1969, but for the period 1940-1960 in the 15th place. They are far ahead of Magyars, Russians, Poles, Croats, or Serbians in their integration into the AngloSaxon language group. There are no statistics about the number of Slovak newspapers and periodicals since these were shown under "other Slavic Groups" which includes Slovenes, Croatians, and Serbians. The statistics also show that the number of Slovaks is inferior during some decades to the number of Czechs and this could lead to the conclusion that the census takers may have confused the Czechs with Slovaks and vice-versa, as it happened according to the official admission in the Canadian census of 1961. The statistics quoted above and used in Fishman's book have been derived from U.S. Census of Population 1960: General Social and Economic Characteristics, United States Summary, Final Report PC ( 1 )-lC.6 The statistics do not add, however, correctly and they seem to be at odds with unofficial statistics and numbers of Slovaks who are at the present time organized in Slovak organizations in the United States. Although generally only 15 to 20 % of Americans or Canadians of East European origin are members of their fraternal or socio-cultural associations, the number of Slovaks organized in the United States amounted in 1969 to well over 450,000 according to the SLOVAKIA 83 Secretary of the Slovak League of America, Joseph Pauco, Ph.D. In addition 'to this membership, we have to take into consideration social clubs and church organizations, as well as cultural centres which have been organized within Slovak Catholic and Protestant parishes or in larger American cities, and whose members are only partly organized in the fraternal Slovak organizations. According to Dr. Pauco, there is almost at each parish such a club or church organization and half of its membership does not belong to any Slovak fraternal organization. Since there are over 400 parishes in the United States, and taking into account that Slovak families are usually very large, counting five members as a f!1inimum, Dr. Pauco, as a long time Secretary of the Federation of Slovak Organizations in the United States, the Slovak League of America, assumes that the number of Americans of Slovak origin who to a great degree are still conscious of their ethnic background, amount to approximately two million. 7 However, if the official statistics are correct, then we cannot but come to the conclusion that the assimilation process of Slovaks is much stronger than we are willing to admit. On the other hand, if the statistics can be doubted, then there is only one remedy; the educated Slovaks whose numbers are not negligible, should begin a thorough research into the problems of American Slovaks. Their task will be now much easier than a few years ago since a joint commission cif the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association issued a statement on the writing and teaching of American history in the text books, stressing the fact that American ethnlc difference must be "faithfully portrayed." Also many other things reveal that a new tide of ethnic studies is at hand. The first sign is the growing interest of publishers and, second, new scholarship efforts are growing in American universities. The renewed interest in ethnic Americans was underscored by the Ford Foundation which announced in Ne,v York a new program of fellowships to encourage scholarships in the field of ethnic studies. A. national award of $288,052.00 will go to 87 doctoral candidacies at 58 graduate SLOVAKIA 84 schools for the writing of dissertations on subjects dealing with the experience and culture of ethnic minorities in the United States. "The new program is designed to help stimulate the development of a body of knowledge on the history and culture of the nation's ethnic minorities, which is already becoming a subject of intense interest to a new generation of American students," according to F. Champion Ward, the Foundation's Vice-President for Higher Education and Research. 8 1) International Migration Rev.iew, an article by Dean Cincl, p. 58-63. 2) See Fishman et al, Language Loyalty in the United States (Mouton & Co., The Hague) , 1966. 3) Fishman, op. c. p. 31. 4 ) Fishman, ibid. p. 44. This figure shou}jd read 415,000 because Fishman shows 125,000 for foreign born (,p. 36) and 260,000 for native born ( p. 42) . 5 ) Ibid. , p. 40. 6 ) Published in Washington, D. C., by U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965. 7 ) Personal letter by Dr. Pauco /dated December 8, 1970. Dr. Pauco's estimate of the number of Slovaks in the United States is corroborated also by the figures on the emigration from Slovakia to the United States published recently by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the years 1880-1890, 122,479 persons left Slovakia for the United States; in the years 1901-1910, 215,292 persons, and in the years 1850-1921 529,949 persons; althogether 867,720 persons left for the United States. Even if i,t is true that many of these persons returned after two or three years spent in the United States, the statistics justify the estimate that about two million Americans are of Slovak origin. 8 ) The New York Times, November 27, 1970, page L. 41. " THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union.  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 Assimilation Process of American Slovaks Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 79-84 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0ee6af3c46d6a3eb17d4267613a9684e.pdf eceed05f9d18c1d358c66f5733b8368e PDF Text Text 20 SLOVAKIA Political Views of 11udovit St(u Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS. C. M. INTRODUCTION Since this study will concern itself with :Cudovit $tur, the inspiration of modern national Slovak ideology, it may be beneficial first of all to review the life story of the man and then to consider his work and influence. Though his life was all too short, stur was a key figure in the Slovak national movement of the second third of the nineteenth century. He was heir to the cultural, political and social endeavors of his predecessors, and he developed his natural gifts to attain the strength, courage and vision, which it took to launch movements toward realizing a vital national organization on behalf of his people. Without these natural and acquired gifts, stur could hardly have been effective in his work toward attaining independence in Slovak national life and the pursuit of culture. His greatest merits lie in the fact that he assumed the historical challenge to unite the fragmented multicultural powers of the Slovaks into a liberation front against Hungarian oppressors. His contemporaries attributed to stur an almost legendary but realistic aura even during his lifetime. It was said of him that he had a magnetic personality, that his very presence bespoke patriotism and a vibrant national spirit. Worthy of specific mention is at least one evaluation by William Pauliny-T6th: "He is an extraordinary figure-a manifestation, as it were, of a leader charged to create a new epoch in the history of the Slovak nation." His young collaborator, Jozef M. Hurban, devoted to stur a commemorative and comprehensive monograph which was published in the first issue of the revitalized "Slovenske pohl'ady" (Slovak Views) . In his history of Slovak literature published in 1890, the literary critic and historian Jaroslav Vlcek rated stur as the central figure of the Romantic generations, even though he did not see �SLOVAKIA 21 in stur's poetry the merit which it rightly deserves. Criticism of stur was not wanting, but it did not detract from stur's merits or stature at all.1 This fiery patriot was born in Zay-Uhrovec, on the twentyninth of October, 1815. He was one of five children. His father was an elementary school teacher and a rigid disciplinarian both at school and at home. His mother's was a gentle and loving nature. The stur family home breathed a peaceful atmosphere graced with poetry. The natural surroundings of his boyhood, with their profusion of beauty and natural grandeur influenced stur's outlook on life. It was very likely here and because of his environment that his aesthetic taste developed to a remarkable degree. Leopold Petz, a Lutheran pastor, was his first teacher in the gymnasium at Rab. He kindled the glow of national consciousness and patriotism in stur's unfolding mind and animated his spirit with keen appreciation for the richness of his mother tongue. He also made him aware of the rightful place of the Slovaks in the Slavic world and of the potential concentrated within the new generation. After two years at Rab, stur continued his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava.2 Here stur and a memorable group of similarly ardent young men with him (Hurban, Hodza, Francisci, Sladkovic, Chalupka, et. al.) , were schooled under the powerful influence of seasoned literary personalities who were still devoted to fostering at least some forms of Czecho-Slovak orientation. It was around the chair of Czecho-Slovak language arts held by Juraj Palkovic that the Czecho-Slovak Society, later known as the Institute of Language and Literature, was formed. 3 stur was undeniably a talented leader who devoted himself first of all to lecturing on Slovak grammar, literature and history. He devoted much time and thought to Slovak national poetry, especially to works dealing with the themes of Great Moravia, Svatopluk, and the Slavic Apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius. To the eager young members of the Czecho-Slovak Society, he spoke of Slavism, of the hardships and injustices heroically endured by Slav peoples over long centuries, and of the great responsibility �22 SLOVAKIA committed to the younger generation. He pointed out to them some possible means toward a better future and fanned their hopes for the building of a glorious large Slavic family. He made every effort to destroy all roots of doubt, pessimism, and prejudice, those divisive forces that plagued Slavic families of nations and fragmented their efforts toward unity. His aims for establishing a standard language for Slovak literary expression were not purely liiterary. Since Slovak national life was closely connected with literary expression, it bore a vigorous sense of purpose. Stu.r's prime objective was to unite the Slovak people culturally, politically and socially. A universally adopted standard language would greatly advance this couse. Granted, he suffered many reversals, but a wakened spirit cannot be stilled. As authorities intervened to support his Slavic group meetings at the Lyceum, new literary group in other places formed in their stead. The strain of the struggle to resist oppression in student centers left stur physically exhausted; spiritually, however, he remained strong and vigorous and indomitable. In 1838 stur left his center of Slovak literary activity in Bratislava and went to Halle, Germany. His courses of study at Halle strongly affected his theoretical foundations adding depth and fuller meaning to all his later activities. He learned to favor much in Hegelian thought, the theories advocated by a German idealist philosophy. This experience created a mental revolution in Stu.r's objectives and philosophy. It was, first of all a dialectical style of thinking which brought to naught all concept of a final validity in the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is involved in a process of development, all is being perpetually transformed and changed, proceeding from a lower to a higher stage. It also maintains that human history is a steady process of development of this kind, as stur put it, an "uninterrupted chain."4 stur was not simply an unquestioning disciple of Hegelian philosophy, as is often said of him. Together with several other thinkers of his generation, he formed an independent philosophical school which exerted farreaching influence and excelled in originality of thought. �SLOVAKIA 23 stur's excellent book, "sturova filozofia zivota" ("stur's Philosophy of life"), embodies his philosophical conceptions. Though his propositions in general are original, stur's underlying ideas were greatly influenced by Hegel. He was motivated by the idea that national unity is strongly furthered by means of common language which gives rise to mutual understanding. After his return from Germany, stur set out in 1843 to establish a distinctive literary Slovak language which he boldly promoted. Its basis was the central Slovak dialect which he considered the last contaminated by neighboring or foreign influence. He realized also the need for a common political effort; Kollar's reciprocity was not enough. He spared no pains to achieve a social and national awakening of the Slovak people. In a sense, stur completed the work that Bernolak, the first codifier of literary Slovak, had begun in 1787. On his return from Germany stur became an assistant professor in the Pressburg (Bratislava) Lyceum. As he lectured in the department of history, students flocked to him with undivided attention, for this dynamic young professor had a wealth of attainable ideals to offer. But chauvinistic authorities viewed this influence with anxiety. In 1844, stur lost his post as Deputy Professor because the Magyar government began to tighten its political controls on Slovakia and found stur's flaming Slovak ardor a threat to its interests. When he was dismissed, many students left the Pressburg Lyceum in protest and continued their studies elsewhere. The Bratislava incident did not intimidate stur; as a matter of fact, it only stimulated him to press on. He kept in close touch with his patriotic adherents. Because the ground was fertile and properly prepared for a national change, stur was able to do the apparently impossible. He strongly voiced the long repressed aspirations and justified rights of the Slovaks, he formulated the demands of his people. 13udovit stur's publications of an article titled "Zaloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku" ("The Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary") which appeared in Leipzig in 1843 which exposed the chief inspector of the �24 SLOVAKIA Lutheran Church and schools because of his measure to magyarize Slovaks for political gain became a sensation. The Slovaks had been resisting magyarization quietly but effectively; now, however, they were determined to secure an independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. All petitions and demands presented in Vienna and in the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava were prompted by the following statement by stur: "We seek no rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of inherent right." These words became the underlying proposition on which were based all the subsequent petitions and demands of the Slovak leaders for equal rights. Stu.r's debates and controversies with Kossuth, the Slovak renegade, stemmed from this moral and democratic principle. He demanded "peace based on just rights and mutual understanding" declaring: "In the paper, Pesti Hirlap, Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he advocates orders to investigate and punish those who define and seek their rights ... That is Kossuth's concept of freedom and liberalism."5 stur continues to express his thoughts in writing. In 1844, after three years of waiting, he was granted permission to publish the periodical "Slovenske narodne noviny" ("The Slovak National News") through which he was resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The supplement of the periodical was "Orol tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle"). Both were widely supported and endorsed by all classes of people, for the Slovak public rejoiced in the realization that this publication was in itself a great step forward in their struggle. stur, too, was gratified. His program for action toward achieving ultimate freedom was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due yet he did not hesitate to denounce the shortcomings of his people. His editorials defended not only the purity of the Slovak language, but also the recognition of the inherent rights of the Slovak nation-rights that affected all their levels of national freedom: political, literary, social, economic, etc. His exhortations are as timely today as they were in 1845: "Let us not yield, Slovak countrymen. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the �SLOVAKIA 25 whole than of the individual person, and even the individual harm us, the cause itself does not do so. But with us thus far, it has been so that individuals offended by our people, immediately abandoned the cause itself ... "6 stur's periodicals served their purpose effectively for three years, uniting the people, teaching and enlightening them and encouraging them during one of the most crucial periods of their history. This was almost too good to be true. When the Magyars began to realize what these publications were doing for the Slovak people, fanning the flames of Slovak patriotism to the detriment of Magyar hegemony, they raised an alarm and put in action measures to have them confiscated or proscribed. Despite this suppression, however, much of stur's purpose was already achieved. The Slovak people were nationally awakened. They were conscious of a cause and of an obligation to defend it. Most of this new stirring never would have been realized without stur's activities and publications. The codification of a literary language, which was perfected and universally adopted, concretized the efforts and fond aspir,a tions and hopes nurtured by Slovak literary leaders in bygone generations. I'..udovit stur knew that the times were ripe for the Slovak people to appear on the national scene of history as an independent political entity. No language, except their own Slovak language could move the people to political affectiveness. For this reason, stur chose to advocate the central-Slovak dialect as a political and literary instrument. stur was a deputy from Zvolen at the Presporok (Pressburg - Bratislava) Assembly in 1847-1848. In official sessions he spoke out honestly and courageously about the injustice of disregarding the protest of the subjugated peoples against enforced Magyarization. He also felt dutybound to advocate the equality of all people and sought the liberation of subjugated nations at the Hungarian Diet. The firm stand which stur took became a turning point in Slovak-Hungarian history. At the Slav Congress in Prague in 1848, stur and safarik defined the political aspirations of the Congress. safarik's view was prophetic, while stur made clear the �26 SLOVAKIA political program of the immediate present: "Our aim should be to preserve ourselves. First of all, we must serve the best interests of our own people and secondarily of others. Thus far Austria has flourished, but we have been declining and perishing. What would be the judgment of the world if we were to s tand for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us proclaim that we desire to stand as independent Slovanic communities within the government of Austria."7 stur was far ahead of his day, in visualizing a program to federalize Central Europe. According to Bartek, s tur was not a rebel. As long as there was evidence of national agreement with the Magyars, he was not for the destruction of the Hungarian State. He did warn the Magyar ruling class that it could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of subject nationalities and exploit the Slavs of Hungary without expecting them to strike back with righteous demands for a free national life, for the very rights which the Magyars had resolved to defend for themselves in the Hapsburg Empire. 8 When all these representatio ns and demands continued to be ignored, only then did stur and his group decide to lead the Slovaks to revolt against the Magyar intolerance in 1848. The Slovaks were fully aware of Kossuth's ultimatum declaring that whatever rights they claimed to have in the kingdom they would have to secure with sword in hand. There was no alternative now except to resort to arms. The torch of national consciousnes s carried by s tur and his group became a beacon light in Slovakia's struggle for freedom. Though revolt was crushed and betrayed by Vienna, it stands as a milestone in Slovak history. The tragic reversal of the revolutionary attempt did not affect the leadership or the stature of ~udovit stur in the estimation of others. The Hungarian revolution paid dearly for its national intolerance. It too suffered in a common defeat. Kossuth was forced into exile. stur and his group were under constant police surveillance, and many were their thrilling escapes from police snares and power. A tragic death during a hunting event in January 1856 �SLOVAKIA 27 brought stur's life to an untimely end. He died according to his own predictions in which he had foreseen an analogy of his death in the death of Julius Caesar. Some Slavs considered him a setting star but actually he is a brilliant morning star marking a better day in the history of the Slavic world. We return to stur to evaluate his work in the light of today's standards when, after the passing of a hundred years, the Slovaks are building on this foundation laid by stur and his school of thought, the promise of hope fulfilled-if only a new power from the East did not frustrate the effort. Just as stur repudiated and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars, so the Slovaks today rebel against Communist domination and occupation. 13udovit stur's spirit lives on even though an Iron Curtain creates physical bariers to liberty. GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE ON STVR Among stur's earliest academic interests were the areas of linguistics, philosophy, history and literature. To pursue these in depth and to broaden his education, he decided to study at Halle University in Germany. It was in 1838 that he came to Halle as a twenty-three year old student-a gifted energetic man of large vision and great moral strength. He had been held in high repute at home and exerted notable influence among his peers. At Halle, he was an utter stranger in a big unknown world, and the weight of the strangeness that closed in upon him was of more than mere physical and social order. University life in Germany was at this time strongly influenced by the spirit and theories of Hegel. German thought and academic preoccupation bore upon the topic of races. Yet this was in a day when the concept of race, as such, was not even properly formulated. The Germans tended to construct entire systems of philosophy and humanistic theory centered on the concept of race at a period when formal anthropology was just emerging. Fundamental misconceptions of race overtook not only historical scholars but also philosophers of history like Hegel. His philosophical system meant on the one hand, equating the Prussian state with the prime law of men �28 SLOVAKIA and, on the other, constituting materialism as the ideal of men and of nations. Exposed to this stress of innovation which was spread throughout scholarly circles by a ready press and which was further generally publicized by novelists and writers of all sorts, stur did not escape acquaintance with these false principles and this false philosophy of life was what contaminated all Central Europe. Fresh from the schools of Bratislava, he was not yet adequately prepared to discern authentic philosophic truth from political propaganda; nevertheless, he instinctively sensed the need to withhold complete acquiescence with Hegel. He tried to come to terms with much of Hegel but by the very fact that stur placed the moral and spiritual values of men as top priorities he put himself at odds with some Hegelian principles. stur's courses of study at Halle deepened his perspectives even as life in Germany provided him with countless new impressions-views of life and the world, concepts and ideas in general. From the German idealistic philosophy, even as from Hegel, its chief representative, stur adopted some new theories which resulted in a mental revolution. First among these was the aspect of dialectical thinking which brought to naught his previous conceptions of a final validity of the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is in process of development. All is being transformed and changed and proceeds from a lower to a higher stage. It affirms that human history is a process by which the Absolute Spirit unfolds, a "chain uninterrupted" in stur's words. 9 Hegel conceives of history as a process involving dialectical oppositions revaluating into a higher content of historical being. Freedom as an essential of history becomes an absolute necessity. Hegel's philosophy of history strongly took hold of stur's mind at this point. The world seemed to be created for jjudovit stur. He reveled in the thought of its systematic, architectural classification, its universality embracing all the dreams of the human spirit, its justice toward nations, all its sources of learning, its versatile penetration of all doctrine--all this bore upon him so overwhelming flood. 10 �SLOVAKIA 29 The wealth of views offered by Hegel's philosophy opened up an idealistic world of envisioned by spiritual concept of nations and not construed from previous assumptions. It provided a new vista into the domains of the rights of nations among which there existed the future tribunal of Slavic nations, too, and led stur to the realms of Christian idealism. stur's spirit was reanimated. The receptive soil of his mind was enriched with fertility for the germination of his own conceived seed. The Germanic world's new concept of views regarding world history in politics, religion and sociology at this time impressed and inspired stur more strongly than it had heretofore affected any other candidate from Slovak academies. When stur returned to his native land, he returned as a Slav, but foremost as a Slovak returned into the ranks of his confused and puzzled friends and countrymen. He brought radical concepts to the rational school and to liberal life. These concepts characteristically dealt mainly with the Slovak past, present and future, for he brought from Germany a wide and rich source of philosophical and economic knowledge as well as a firm determination to devote his life to the task of national development. stur translated Hegel's philosophy into Slovak only insofar as he accepted his concepts, for stur was a realist in his approaches to the phenomena of life. 11 In his studies at Halle, Germany, stur was also spiritually revived. He left the university imbued with strong tendencies for the policies of Kollar and safarik. He was, however, an ardent Slovak by conviction rather than by accident of birth as was their lot. He was an ardent, tireless worker. The versatility of his talents and the needs of his country brought him to the fore successively as an orator, a writer, a journalist, a politician and a soldier. Both his friends and enemies proclaimed him the most remarkable champion of Slovak rights since the days of Matthew Oak. r.udovit stur is sometimes accused of blindly accepting Hegel's philosophy and applying it to Slovak and Slavic life indiscriminately. It must be remembered, however, that political and national controversy existing at that time made it difficult, if not impossible to evaluate Slovak �30 SLOVAKIA philosophy correctly. Granted that stur manifests a dependance on Hegel and contemporary German philosophers, still to present him in this light alone--as his opponents have done--seems to be a distortion. According to cyzevski, a former professor of Halle, stur and his followers were significant for philosophic thought in general. He goes on to say that stur's generation included several thinkers who tried to create their own philosophical system, and who in these times, excelled among all Slovanic nations in originality of thinking in philosophy. cyzevski elucidated his point in the scholarly book Stur's Philosophy of Life in which he clearly points out that stur was not a simple student and advocate of Hegel's philosophy, but that he formed his own independent philosophical system, one which in many ways differed from Hegel's. cyzevski refutes the charge that: 1. stur was a simple student of Hegel's; 2. that his philosophical views were those of contemporary romantic philosophy. stur differed from Hegel in his approach to life's phenomena which he found realistic. Prior to his studies at Halle, stur had cultivated genuine national convictions which were anchored upon Herder's humanistic thought together with messianic dreams that were to glorify the future of the Slavs. These convictions enabled him to take a critical stand in regard to some of Hegel's ideals though he held Hegel in high esteem. On the other hand, Hegel's dynamic view of history matched stur's ideas and provided a justification of his thoughts concerning the Slavic world, especially his views of the historical development of the world history of nations comprising the Slavic world. Because of the influences of the Kollar-Herder conceptions of the historical mission of the Slavs, stur did not fully agree with Hegel in his concept of the absolute States of Germany and Prussia, for in these Hegel saw the completion of historical development. From the viewpoint of theology stur here saw in Hegel's philosophy definite dangers of pantheism. An authentic view of stur's attitude toward Hegel's philosophy is best provided from a personal letter which he wrote to Samo Bohdan Hrobon. In it he quotes from Hrobo:n's poem, in which he sees or perceives from a religious viewpoint, the shortcoming of Hegel's philosophy: �SLOVAKIA 31 Povez mi pisani! kde hledat spaseni? Na svete marnem, cili v pravde vecne? Cili v kouzelne prajine zpomneni? Cili v krase, lasce nekonecne ... ? Ach kam jsi zmisel svete me mladosti? Kam se rozplynul Buh otec milosti? Nenit ho vice! Usychejte kvety! Dechnite duse! do propasti svety! Nebot jiz umrel ten zakon vecnosti, Ze vlas sa nehne bez povedomosti. Tell me, 0 Poet, where to seek salvation? In the temporal world or in eternal truth? In the respective countries' pulpits? In beauty, in undying charity ... ? 0 where has disappeared the world of my youth? Where has vanished God the Father of Mercy? He is no longer? 0 wither away, ye flowers! Die, ye souls! until the world's end! Fear not for eternal laws have decreed That not a hair shall move without His knewing. 12 Hrobofl's next poem is encouraging and indicates that the religious home training and strength of Slavic convictions are more forceful than Hegel's philosophical doctrines: Zijet duse ma a zit bude vecne jit zadna bure, zaden boj nezlomi prave ponad ni s tisicmi hromy Jako stin lahky v uzase preleti mec obosecny Hegelove vedy. Duse ma citem plamennym roztopi Mee ten, do prichu padne zahanbeny. Mee ten v nicote jak stin se rozplyne Pred bleskom vecnym bozskeho nadseni! Antheus slaviansky Herkula porazi! My soul lives and will live forever Neither revolutions nor war shall ever break its spirit Directly above myriads of thunderbolts it soars, �32 SLOVAKI A Like a thin wall will crumble in confusio n The two-edge d sword of Hegel's doctrine. My soul senses a burning flame within it Melting away that sword that must fall in dust and shame As a wall crumblin g in disgrace, Before the divine lightning of eternal elan With which the Slavic Antheus Will destroy a vaunting Hercules . Both poems bear heavily the weight of tension and conflict which the sturists experienc ed because of their selective ness in analyzing and sponsori ng aspects of Hegel's philosoph y. In the first poem, stur expressly discourag es the publicizi ng of the new philosop hy for fear that the time is not right and many may be complete ly misled by Hegel. He advocate d that his followers benefit by the worthy gifts of the great mind of Hegel and accept his philosoph y only with due reservati ons; that they revamp it to meet the need of the Slavs. stur emphasiz ed the inevitabl e depth of philosoph ical studies to which Slavic youth would have to devote itself. Moreove r, he took a critical stand and used the German philosop hic system modified accordin g to his views regarding Slavdom and moral principle . Hegel's philosoph ical view became an impetus to stur in his compilat ion and formulat ion of lectures on Slavic history and poetry .13 In 1840 stur returned from Halle to Bratislav a where he was assigned to the chair of Slovak Studies in Language and Literatur e, succeedin g Palkovic in this post. Adequate ly to understa nd the nature of this assignme nt, it is importan t to realize the kind of world in which he was to teach. To say that it was riddled with rank feudalism is all too simple a generaliz ation. Far truer it is to realize that stur came to a land where the Slovaks were held in abyssmal serfdom, in an invincibl e vise of economic , moral, intellectual, spiritual and national bondage. It was the kind of situation in which misery bred misery, usually in such forms as alienatio n, alcoholis m, desperati on, extreme dehumaniz ation of the individua l and loss of personal dignity. �SLOVAKIA 33 - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - Unmitigated serfdom was reducing the Slovak into stultified begger stricken with hunger and penury. Denied schooling and spiritual enlightenmen t he was all too readily becoming a prey to superstitious folly and to grossness. The three-fourths who lorded it over the onefourth that was condemned to pay all the land truces ever collected in the region saw to it that their victims had no outlook at all for better things to come-either economically or intellectually or in anyway whatever. The Slovak element enjoyed no public community life as such and even though some attempts had been made to root cultural interests and to rouse the people to national life (such as the organizations at Trnava, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Budapest), they were doomed to short-term existence for lack of material support. As a result, Slovak life became necessarily circumscribed to the primitive pattern of the familial unit highlighted with such events as christenings, weddings and funerals. Though the Slovak labored unstintingly, he was not given the joy of benefiting by the fruits of his soil. When stur surveyed this situation on his return from Germany, he was forced to recognize this herd of subjugated beggars as his own people committed to mere animal existence, and all his nobility of soul rose in revolt at such inhumanity of man to man. But an emotional responses alone was no solution to the problem. He set himself to explore underlying causes, mainly the attitudes of the people themselves, their thinking, their social structures, their training and development, their milieu from small dimensional areas to the broad perspectives of the Austro-Hung arian domain. Aware of the need for incentives for self-improvem ent, and realizing that the most effective incentive of all is man's conviction that he is a being of value and dignity, his own consciousnes s of self, stur readily understood what his main teaching role would be to raise a new generation for Slovakia. He devoted himself completely to the enlightenmen t of his people and never in the least deviated from this objective. Under his aegis there was a vital burgeoning of new life among Slovaks of the younger element. He led the �34 SLOVAKIA young to new founts of elemental truth and saving virtue. His personality readily put him into the forefront as an inspired leader as his peers at Bratislava extolled him for his idealistic elan as well as his admirable self-discipline, his moral charm and his firmness directed first of all toward himself and secondly toward others. Impressed by the spirit of stur, Joseph Hurbl!Il who was a close collaborator wrote at this time: "We must challenge youth to difficult moral endeavors and teach the young to be concerned about the future. We must offer them stur as their paragon." Influences of the Industrial Revolution as well as effects of the national revolutions in France and in the United States were not lost upon young men and women of the day. Innovations were rampant on the air-romanticism, humanism, realism, revolution, criticism, democracy, Pan-Slavic romanticism, and a steady stream of trends and thoughts swept in upon maturing minds. stur observed it all and amid all of it mourned the divisive tendencies that tended to break the nation into two camps: the Catholics and the Lutherans and only bred new disadvantage. With clear vision he wrote in his book N drecie ("Dialect"): "There must be an end to this kind of partisanship; we must effect brotherly unity." Also "Our entire Slovak family will be united in a common speech and after centuries of fragmentation and coldness the members of one family will recognize each other and greet each other and embrace." The work of stur, however, soon evoked harsh Magyar resistance and this alerted him to the reality that it was not possible to wait for the younger generation to carry on toward brighter ideals; the need was immediate; the solution had to be effected now. His efforts for political support were fruitless. Every country from which he could have expected help was interested in pursuing its own advantage rather than in relieving the plight of another. His last resort was to exploit-in the best sense of the word-the very language of his people. By establishing a standarized form of written expression he sought to bring about one unifying element for all the nation, one bond to give to all the Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 35 a sense of one-ness, and through this medium to reach into the broader spectrum of unified national consciousness and national thought. He was convinced that given one common treasure to cherish and defend, they would be ever ready to defend it, and in this very effort, they would preserve their national being; without such a common objective they could readily lose even their national identity. Their common language would be their talisman. To implement this idea stur collaborated with Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza as early as 1843. All three were agreed that the dialect of the central regions would lend itself best as the basis for a standard Slovak literary medium. Bernolak's earlier (1787) experiments with a literary standard on the basis of western dialects had been effective to degree but not wholly successful. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Bernolak's ideas and efforts were in advance of his times. Perhaps it was because the western dialects were not the happiest choice he could have made for a common medium. Perhaps it was due also to the fact that traditionally the Catholic segment of Slovak people was ardent in promoting the Slovak cause while at the same time the Evangelical Slovaks promoted the Czech language and culture inasmuch a.s Czech had been adopted as the official liturgical language of the Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, Palkovic in 1831-32 translated and published the entire bible into Bernolak's new medium, and the renowned poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) wrote all his masterly works in the newly codified Slovak literary standard. It is understandable then, that Stu.r's innovative effort was not readily endorsed even by his own Evangelical critics. In 1840 an open assault on the Slovaks was made at the General Assembly of the Lutheran Church. Count Charles Zay, their Inspector-General and some leading laymen proclaimed racial apostasy as a duty which the Slovak Lutherans owed to their fatherland and their religion. They maintained that since "the Magyar language is the truest guardian and protector of the liberty of our country, of Europe, and the Protestant cause, it follows that Magyarization is the duty of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence." There followed a series of �36 SLOVAKIA attempts to ostracize the Slovak language from Lutheran Synods and presbyteries. Kossuth who was one of the elders of the Church and a Slovak renegade spoke publicly in favor of the abolition of all existing Slav societies in Lutheran schools. One such society at Levoca had already been suppressed, "as a breeding ground for Pan-Slavism," its library was closed and its president, ~udovit stur, was deprived of his post at the gymnasium.14 Magyarized Slovak overlords, noblemen and landlords untiringly sought to Magyarize the Slovaks, even imposing punishment on those who refused to be enticed into the Magyarized camp. Archbishop Patatic from Kolac, gave each of the subjects twelve sticks to beat up anyone who dared to speak in Slovak. It was publicly proclaimed that the Slovaks and their language must be exterminated.15 Convinced as s tur was, however, of the greater objectives to be attained, he pressed forward with his new venture. Youth groups espoused the cause very readily and this support augured well for the future. In 1844 Hurban's second volume of the annual Nitra appeared in the new literary standard and in the same year Hodza established the society Tatrin which officially recognized the new literary standard and at once put it to use in the publication of educational books, monographs and instructional pamphlets for the general public. Within two more years there appeared stur's political journal (three times a week ) Slovenske Ndrodne Noviny with its literary supplement Orol Tatransky. All these projects notably strengthened the newly devised Slovak literary form of expression and assured its permanent adoption. sT-0-R'S SEARCH FOR A SLOVAK LITERARY MEDIUM Its Effectiveness in Unifying Slovakia Slovak life was now assuredly given expression through the Slovak language. stur maintained that it could not be otherwise and the years have borne witness to his judgment. The task was demanding but largely because the ground for the identity of the new generation was properly prepared. stur not only understand existing conditions in Slovakia, he formulated, what the nation �SLOVAKIA a7 felt, what the nation needed. He gave expression to the righteous desires and demands of his Slovak nation and became its model of an inspired leader devoted to spiritual and public activity. 16 sttir's call for further action was answered by Sladkovic, Chalupka, Botto, Hurban and countless others who felt that the proper course had been taken in establishing their literary language. Even the Lutherans finally accepted the Central Slovak dialect as a form of Slovak expression touched by foreign influence of one kind or another. On this matter the Slovaks had been merely sorely split in the past but now there promised to be a common unity to face the momentous events which were to follow. The work initiated by Bernolak was completed by sttir. Even John Holly, the greatest Slovak poet and ideologist of his nation gave sttir his blessing in this venture. sttir and his collaborators found the Slovak language and literature an invaluable instrument for advancing all their endeavors especially in rousing the nation to selfconsciousness. They studied its historic past and revealed it to the people who knew little or nothing about their historic origins and so had little impulse for experiencing pride of nation. They wanted to lift up the people from poverty and abandonment, so they enlightened and trained the general public.17 sttir can rightly be called the reformer of literary Slovak. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically because they became qualified and fired to forthcoming uprisings and events that had trans-European reverberations. A new era unfolded in Slovak cultural and national life when sttir adopted aesthetic and philosophical principles in his literary school. At this point romanticism and nationalism were pactically identical. sttir's cultural activities were timely in Western and Central Europe where national consciousness, popular art, and folklore were the order of the day. In this climate sttir successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities, which marked a new era in �38 SLOVAKIA Slovak national life. The members of this school "imposed the most exacting task on themselves in order to elevate the Slovak people to the same cultural level as the rest of Europe, to release their creative energies and to enable a new national culture to arise from the existing popular art and language. 18 sttir and his school were imbued with objectives directed towards specific social goals. Hence the literature which they created echoed not only a melancholy restlessness and romantic involvement but also the call for a better world. In 1842 a petition signed by two hundred Slovaks led by their clergymen was submitted to the Emperor in Vienna. The only outcome of this effort was that is provoked Kossuth to charge Superintendent Jozeffy and his colleague Hodza with betraying the Magyar cause and the Protestant religion. Both men were publically embarrassed and howled down. By contrast, two voices were raised in defense of the Slovaks, those of Count John Mailath, Catholic historian of Hungary, and Count Stephen Szechenyi who stated in a public address to the Academy that he hardly knew a Magyar who "is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our nationality and language is raised." He begged his compatriots to "do as you would be done by." But the day on which 'the greatest magyar' and his fellow-magnate entered these protests, the popularity of the two Counts began to fail; the frenzy of Kossuth, voiced in his brilliant and aggressive organ Pesti Hirlap, carried all before it. As early as 1842, Kossuth declared in one of its issues: "Indeed, indeed I tell you, a Slovak nation has never existed even in a dream." In 1843 he boasted of his glowing love for his nation as the only one in Hungary which has any future based upon politics or law. 19 The argument of the German people, Herrenfolk: "We must be masters in our own house," was already applied in the "forties" by Magyars to the "foreign inhabitants" of Hungary. At this critical time the Slovaks found three leaders, �SLOVAKIA 39 full of courage and self-sacrifice, r.udovit stur, Michael Hodza and Joseph Hurban. All three happened to be Slovak Lutherans, courageous enough to agree in favor of the central dialect of the Slovak language for essentially political reasons. This dialect was a unifying factor which they believed would help strengthen their position in the struggle against the Magyars and Magyarones. The Slovaks could no longer stand this type of op-pression. They appealed to King Ferdinand in Vienna. He in turn said to them: "Every nation in Hungary should educate and develop itself according to law and justice and develop its national language as much as possible. The highest power will not object to this, but rather aid it in its endeavor." The Slovak delegation returned home very hopeful. But at home disappointments and hardships awaited them, because the King's words fell on deaf ears and did not phase the Magyars. 20 In 1844 stur was dismissed from his post at the Bratislava College as Deputy Professor, because he resisted Count Zay's plans for Magyarization through the school. Yet stur continued to express his thoughts in writing in the newspaper he published, "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske Narodne Noviny"). The permission for the editing of this paper was given by the Hungarian government after an interim of four years. In this paper he resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The joy was great in Slovakia. Most of the Slovaks realized the importance of this news media, and at what price it was made possible. When it was first issued the people rejoiced in diverse ways to express their appreciation of its accomplishment. The supplement to the "Slovak National News" was "Orol Tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle") which was a power to be reckoned with. This newspaper was both instructive and amusing. It found favor with all classes of people, and reached all strata of the populace. stur's program was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due. He voiced his opinions in regard to the shortcomings of his people and denounced their delinquencies. �40 SLOVAKIA The papers served their mission well for three years, uniting, teaching, exhorting and encouraging the people during the most stirring time of Slovak history. His exhortations today are as timely as they were in 1845: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak country-men. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the whole, than of the individual and even though individuals harm us, the cause itself does not do so, but with us thus far, it has been that individuals offended by our people immediately abandoned the cause itself ... " 21 The Magyars came to realize what great influence the new publications were effecting on the Slovak people and began to clamor for the immediate suppression of this press. But the embe:rlS had been stirred. Much of the purpose of the publications had already been achieved. The Slovaks were finally reawakened nationally. In 1847, stur was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a deputy for the town of Zvolen, Naturally he had limited influence since he was the only Slovak deputy in the House. However, his speeches reveal that he was an enlightened fighter for freedom and social reform, one who demanded equal rights for all nationalities in Hungary, in cultural and political life. He repeatedly insisted that the Diet adopt laws to free the peasant masses from a feudalistic Robot system and labor rent, and that the culture of the people and country be promoted by the establishment of schools in the national tongues of the people. Among other things he demanded the industrialization of Slovakia and the adoption of humanitarian laws between the gentry and the working class. One of the main topics of Stu.r's speeches was the obsolete social and political structure of Hungary. He was all for a federalistic system of government which would give equal justice to all peoples. He advocated that special efforts be made to develop the State in new social and political reforms, and to make it a partner of modern Europe. In creating their political program, stur and his followers, took into consideration not only their aims and desires, but also the existing circumstances. One was the fact that Slovakia was a part of the Hungarian state �SLOVAKIA 41 in which it did not constitute a distinctive separative administrative unit. The Slovaks were not planning to break away from Hungary. What they wanted most of all was to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands defined so that the Slovak people might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars in Hungary. This equality they urged was to apply in all areas of political, social and especially in cultural life. They intended to present these petitions to the Emperor and the Parliament but first they wished to have the endorsement and the views of the Slovak people regarding their aims and their achievements. In May of 1848 they met at the parsonage of Michael Hod.za in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas where they drew up a form for Slovakia's future political program called: "Petitions of the Slovak Nation." 22 Its Contribution Towards a Pan-Slavic Movement Stu.r's role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language was significant and far-reaching. His great efforts to this direction contributed greatly even to modern Slovak ideology. It was he who first gave to his people a new vision of political freedom and of a better future. stur provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general by his own example, and by his writings embracing fields as diversified as poetry, philosophy, history, sociology, etc. From his correspondence one learns that he had direct relations with the leaders of all Slavic peoples. During his stay in Vienna he came in contact with other Slav representatives: The Slovene Stanko Vraz, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working together and made a joint visit to the Imperial Court. stur's reforms of the literary language also brought about the unity of the Slovak people and this, in turn, was followed by flourishing cultural and literary activities. His influence was so vital that some of his principles and ideology still lives in the cultural life of Slovakia.23 The lyrical element is strong in Stu.r's poetry and prose. He passed from the sphere of the personal and social into national and Slavic thought in all his works. The soul of the nation--or of the Slavs-was his �42 SLOVAKIA constant subject. He concentrated on the pain of the nation's sufferings, struggles, and failures and this theme pervades the climate of his literary works. stur and his followers were gifted with keen insight into existing social problems and this vision they combined with the romantic inheritance of deep attachment to their country, its people and to the Slavic world at large. They did their utmost to advocate and to provide democratic enlightenment for the unpriviledged classes, viz. the peasants and workers. They defined, encouraged and glorified their importance, as they glorified the Slavs and all their past. One of stur's followers, Samo Tomasik, composed the Slav anthem, "Hej, Slovania," which bespoke new hope, a new ideal and a great pride comparable to that expressed in Vajansky's famous verse: I am proud to be a Slovak Elegant is my race; A hundred million souls it numbers, Over half the world it rules. With the Slovak tongue you can traverse The four parts of the earth! One of my brothers plants the palm Another does eternal iceland scan A third skims o'er the widespread seas! From the phantasy which Kollar inspired as the great dream of one great Slav nation and one unified Slav language, the Slovaks, as Hans Kohn agrees "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indeitructibility of the Slovak people and language," and it helped to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. 24 stur's contemporaries indicated their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Croatian and Serbian authors in the original and were very fond of the famous "Ode to Youth" by Mickiewicz. According to Bobek: "Not even the Poles received it as enthusiastically as the Slovaks." The desire of the Slovak poets and novelists of stur's time was to imitate other Slav writers, and their enthusiastic belief in one "slavic" culture was intense. �SLOVAKIA 43 Cizevsky maintains: "The only book which shows similarities with Mickiewicz's "Book of the Polish Pilgrimage" is $tur's work "An Ancient and a New Age of Slovaks" ("Stary a novy vek Slovakov") because $tur speaks of another kingdom and of other peoples. However, $tur deviates, because he wanted to unfold a realistic program, and Mickiewicz's Book could not satisfy him. $tur's position among Slav intellectuals of the nineteenth century is well attested among other various media by his rich correspondence with practically all oustanding Slavic leaders of the day also the fact that his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" was translated and twice published by Russian intellectuals in the last century and at the beginning of this century. $tur, Kollar and $afarik can rightly be regarded as great figures of the Slavic world to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century. All three expressed: "in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future , in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind which would establish forever a basis of liberty, peace and happiness." In visualizing the Slavs as a unified body with a great future, they helped the awakening of the national consciousness of their own Slav-speaking peoples.25 :CUDOVi T $ TOR'S ROLE IN THE PAN- SLAVIC MOVEMENT His Political and Social Thought Slovakia is sometimes called the mother of the PanSlavic Movement. One of her sons, John Herkel, first used the word "pan,slavic" in his Latin treaties of 1826. In addition, the Slovak poet Jan Kollar and the Slovak scholar P. J. $afarik were among the main leaders of the Pan-Slavic Movement. As a matter of fact these two are sometimes considered the fathers of Pan-Slavism in Slovakia. Herder, in his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity" ("Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte") prophesied that the Slavs, who up until then were held in bondage and oppression, would awaken from their lethargy and free themselves from the shackless, and eventually recover their possesion of the vast lands that �44 SLOVAKIA stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic, from the Don to the Mulda. In this heritage they would devote themselves to the peaceful development of the arts and commerce. Though unknowingly, Herder sowed the first germ of Pan-Slavtsm. 26 stur's significance in the Slavic world of this calibre was assessed by Seton Watson. In regard to the great literary efforts of stur, Hurban and safarik, Seton-Watson states: "their writings were of capital importance in the whole Slav revival of the last century, and form a strange sentimental link between the Western romantic school and the extravagancies of Pan-Slavism." In reference to the first Slav Congress in Prague in 1848 Seton-Watson maintains that stur "played a decisive part in the preparation for the Congress." safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza played a part second to none except Palacky at that same Congress. An analysis is in order in regard to these two opinions to determine stur's significance in the Pan,Slavic Movement. As early as 1840, stur had recourse to the throne of Austria and there presented his petitions in regard to the injustices perpetrated by Hungary against the Slovak people. He formally presented his petitions to the Hungarian Assembly. It embodied these provisions for the betterment of the Slav situation: 1) A systematic investigation of the Slovaks who were maligned by the Magyars in order to obtain protection for the oppressed; 2) that there be two censors to safeguard Slovak official writings; 3) that a Slovak literary seat be established at the Bratislava Lyceum and at Pest University; 4) that certificates and church records be kept in Latin; 5) that church ceremonies be in the mother tongue and that every guarantee and assurance be provided for this practice. The country was up in arms because the Slovaks dared to present their cause to the throne. Voluble insults were heaped upon the Slovaks in the newspapers, at gatherings, etc. Those who aided the Slovaks or sympathized with their cause were also abused. 27 It was at this point that ~udovit stur asked for permission to publish his "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske �SLOVAKIA 45 Narodne Noviny"). Archprince Joseph retorted by saying: "The Slovaks do not need newspapers. The publishing of such newspapers would be considered traitorous." It was the consensus in 1840 that Austria would lean on the Slovaks for political reasons, that is Slavic Austria, against Hungarian Austria (Magyar). But in Hungary Archduke Joseph had the upper hand and things were shaped his way. He even had control over the deputation of Slovak Pest in Church matters. At this point he is to have said: "In Hungary I know only one people and those are the Magyars. " 28 The phantom of Pan-Slavism repeated its threat in 1830 when Russia established a Slovak literary seat at its university. The young Russian Slavists began to visit the Slavs in the South as well as in Central Europe. For the ensuing years the word Pan-Slavism had political connotation for the Russian and Germanic nations implying a belligerent attempt to replace their civilization with the Slavic civilization. The connotation derived largely from the subjugated position of the various Slavic nations at this time. In Vienna the guards were ordered to stress in each paragraph of the law of magyarization that every sermon in Slovak churches be preached in Magyar and in even remote towns and villages there was a strong ban against Pan-Slavism of any kind. "In our country and near its borders," wrote Wessel, in Kossuth's newspaper, Hirlap, December, 1842, "Slovak mistakes are dangerous and a threat to all Europe and to our dynasty and country . .. " "Everyone who defies our Magyar language and our nationalism and who supports the mistakes of the Slovaks knowingly or unknowingly is an enemy to the peace and to our federation, and to our throne." 29 stur did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarian State. As long as there was any hope for a settlement with the Magyars, he was amenable to living with a fair situation. But he warned the ruling Magyar class that they could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of the lesser peoples and exploit the Slovaks and other nations of Hungary without expecting them to retaliate and to demand a free national life, just as the Magyars were themselves demanding it from the Hapsburg Empire. �46 SLOVAKIA stlir wrote a sensational article "Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary" ( ~aloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku") published in Leipzig in 1843, in which he reprimanded the chief Inspector, Count Zay, for conniving to Magyarize the Slovaks for political reasons. Count Zay felt that he was truly aware of the political currents in Slovakia. By a logic all his own, he divided the Slovaks into three groups. One was to be concerned about literary matters. The second was eager to establish a Western-Slav kingdom in Austria; the third was accused of secret contacts with Russia. 30 It is uncertain whether these three groups were fully aware of the gravity of the situation of those times; however, all had one goal in mind: to save the Slovaks from utter Magyarization and to secure for the Slovak nation its independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. "We do not want our rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of justice," stlir declared. These famous words laid the foundation to all petitions and demands presented in Vienna and at the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava. stlir's debates with Kossuth all stemmed from this moral and democratic attitude. On behalf of his nation stlir demanded "peace based on justice and mutual understanding." He went on to say: "In the Pesti Hirlap Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he wants to give the orders to investigate and punish those who stand up for the rights . . . That is his freedom and liberalism." 3 1 All of Stu.r's writings indicate a clear political view: Slovakia established as a sovereign crown land under the Hapsburgs, an equal partner of other nations in the Empire. In short, he was even back in his own day for a program of the federalization of Central Europe. In a sense stlir appeared as a Romantic visionary in the eyes 0f all who did not favor Slavic reciprocity or his vision of a great future for the Slavic world, his untiring demands for equal rights for the Slovak people and their national independence which he formulated in the following terms: "Each nation is only one part of humanity, and no �SLOVAKIA 47 nation can make for itself the claim that it alone attained the best possible human evolution and degree of perfect ability. Thereafter, no nation has a right to impose upon another nation its way of life when that nation wants to move for itself and educate itself as it sees fit. "So that we Slovaks might be revived and assume in history that place which is rightfully ottrs by reason of our native strength and abilities we must once and for all free ourselves, because a nation which is enslaved has its hands bound, its spirit stifled, and is forever threathened with danger that sooner or later it will perish." 32 The year 1848 was ushered in as a promising one, but before long it became stormy. The more the Magyars spoke of freedom, the more tyranically did they suppress all non-Magyars. They did their utmost to turn public opinion against the Slovaks. Wessel wrote to Kossuth that he would rather have 50,000 Germans settle the mountain countries than 10,000 Slavs. Once again intolerance charged all the climate. At this point, Pan-Slavism evolved as a defensive movement among the Slavs rather than as a political movement aimed at replacing western dominance in Europe. The term "Pan-Slavism" has been used generally to denote the historical tendency of the Slavic peoples to manifest in their tangible way, either cultural or political, their consciousness of ethnic kinship. Cultural Pan-Slavism had its origin in the remarkable national awakening of the Slavs at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Submerged for long centuries under cruel masters, the Slavs were quickened to a renewal of awareness of their national identities, not by political leaders, but by their cultural leaders. These Slavs realized how they had been deprived of their national identity. They nourished better hopes for the future by seeking to reanimate the faded memories of a glorious past. In this effort they discovered that they were brothers bound by a common misfortune yet endowed with a vast cultural heritage. 33 Slavic men of learning helped to initiate national �48 SLOVAKIA movements among their countrymen primarily in order to establish the individuality and cultural worth of each Slavic group: Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs and Russians. The various romantic movements were propagated in individual ways and degrees yet through them the ideal of Slavic unity, which had been lost in the past by foreign oppression, was to be resurrected with the surmounting and overthrow of that oppression. Pan-Slavism as a cultural and even as a political ideal evolved not in Russia, but rather among the Western and Southern Slavs, who had far more need of unity than did the mighty Russian Empire. This stage of Pan-Slavism signaled the national awakening of central and eastern Europe, and was characterized by interest and emphasis within the areas of language, literature, and culture. Among the Slavic peoples many had experienced a thousand years of injustice and mistreatment which yielded an unhealthy state of discouragement and stagnation. Now in the hour of their national awakening, the Slovak people seek to forgive their cruel masters rather than to avenge themselves. This attitude was shaped by the acute yearning they bore for the selfdetermination of their country. As much as they decried the enslavement of other nations, they would not permit another to enslave them. The literary and scientific Pan-Slavism of Kollar and ::;afarik created a powerful national spirit among the Slavs. Then it became only natural that this desire for national unity and selfdetermination should demand to be heard and to begin to be realized within the context of political Pan-Slavism. It moved in this direction under I.:udovit ::;tur who perceived by what stages Pan-Slavism must go. He foresaw that to achieve their glorious destiny, the Slavic peoples had to attain an assured measure of political unity. At this point political Pan-Slavism had two alternatives: Austroslavism, which meant retaining a form of Austrian political influence, for which ::;tur was ready to settle when he advocated it at the Prague Congress in 1848, the first great manifestation of Pan-Slavism and of Slavic identity, apart from the Hapsburg rule, and Pan-Russianism which ::;tur adapted after the failure of the Prague Congress.34 �SLOVAKIA 49 As Magyar exploitation of the Slovaks and other minority nations of Hungary continued, stur's admonitions to the ruling powers fall on deaf ears. The Magyars stubbornly and universally refused to heed any demands for redress of any kind of settlement with the non-Magyar nations in Hungary. This attitude helped to precipitate the revolution of 1848-49, in which the Slovaks also participated. stur together with Hodza and Hurban led an armed resistance force supporting Austria against the revolution of the Magyar aristocrats. That the Hapsburgs were forgetful of this effort and ungrateful to the Slovaks, that they finally settled with the Magyars at the expense of the non-Magyar nations of Hungary, did not help the issue of the dissatisfied minorities. The settlement of 1867, referred to as Austro-Hungarian but being in reality Austro-Magyar, became the burial pit of the monarchy which could have become a mighty confederation in Central Europe. It was I.:udovit stur and not the Slovak Magyar chauvinist, Louis Kossuth, who was the genuine democrat. 35 No setback dismayed stur completely or caused him to lose heart. Under opposition and failure he tended to redouble his energy. stur was the heart, Hodza the brain, and Hurban the soul of the revolutionary movement. They set themselves anew to collect funds, provide weapons, organize a volunteer corps, choose trained soldiers to lead them, financially aid patriots who were in prison and conduct a vast correspondence. Though defeated and betrayed in the outcome by Vienna, the Slovak revolution of 1848-49 marked an important milestone in Slovak history. The first large public manifestation of the Sl0vaks occured on May 10, 1848 at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. On this occasion a historic memorandum embracing six articles expressing the demands of the people was adopted unanimously. In substance these articles were: We demand that our people be permitted to· take part in the legislative deliberations of the land, and this not only de jure but de facto. And as such participation can alone become real and profitable when conducted in a language that is intelligible to us, we ask for our representatives the right to speak Slovak in the Diet. �50 SLOVAKIA We demand the right to plead and answer cases in the courts of law in Slovak. We demand that the school training of our youth, which is now so woefully neglected, be conducted in the mother tongue. We demand just and equitable representatives in the Diet. We demand for ourselves, and shall forever ask that our nationality, which we will never renounce, remain inviolate and inviolable. We demand that this petition be made known within the entire juristiction of Hungary, in Croatia, and Slavonia and be brought to the notice of the viceroy and of the Hungarian ministry, to the end that all friends of liberty and humanity may plead our just cause.36 Open-air meetings were held in larger towns throughout all regions during the spring of 1848. Equality and liberty, the maintenance and defense of the Slovak language were the keynote of them all. The Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas program was endorsed by a dozen towns supplemented here and there with petitions to meet subordinate local needs. Swiftly spread the news that Louis Phillipe had forfeited his crown to the French republicans, in 1848, anfi it reached every corner of the Hapsburg monarchy. Vienna was seething with political excitement. Prague was in feverish anticipation of the approaching Slavic Congress scheduled to meet there on June 2, in protest against the bartering of Slavic Austria to Greater Germany. stur went to Vienna after the March Revolution. There he met other Slav representatives, especially Ban Jelacic and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working hand in hand and paid joint visits to the Imperial Court. At this early stage of developments, stur received an invitation from the students at Prague which he accepted and through which he played a decisive part in the preparations for the Slav Congress. On April 30, he made a strong appeal in favor of united common action between the Slovaks and the Czechs. For the time being, at least, there was a healing of the breaches and disagreements.37 �SLOVAKIA 51 A manifesto program which was initiated by Hurban, was issued at Teplice in the name of the Slovaks as the original occupants of this region. It was addressed simultaneously to the Crown and to the newly-formed national government at Pest. Its main demand was that there be convened a General Parliament for the brother nations of Hungary. Precipitously, any further movement in this direction was promptly suppressed by the Magyar authorities. Kossuth thundered against the Pan-Slavs in Parliament. Hurban and a few others were obligated to flee and they joined stur in an attempt to rouse Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia to common action, and acclaimed Prague as the heart of tl<le Slavic world. Meanwhile, Hodza issued a small book in German, presenting an answer to the Slovaks to Count Zay and his summons that a choice be made between Magyarizations and the Russian knout. Hodza's fiery response was: "Rather the Russian knout than Hungarian domination, for the one can only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death." 36 The time was ripe for action by the Slavs. stur proclaimed a Slavic Congress and agreed with Czech writers to set the date for May 31, 1848. Prague was chosen for the site of the Congress. A total of 362 delegates were present representing various Slavic nations, especially those under the Hapsburg rule, but the Poles and the Russians were also represented. The express objective 1tf the meeting was the establishment of contacts and regular exchanges among the Slavic peoples and the drawing up of a program of action for all peoples living as subject nations under Austria and/ or Hungarian domination. The four Slovak leaders-safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza-played a part second to none. They were determined to make Slovakia an equal with Bohemia and Moravia, as part of a Czech-Slav federal unit, such as Palacky had contemplated. At this Congress stur offered a program for federalizing Central Europe. The Czech were consistent supporters of Austroslavism. Consequently the problem came to be narrowed down to a definition of terms: The objectives of the Congress was either to save Austria, for with her lay the best chances of maintaining Slavic identity, or �52 SLOVAKIA immediate prov1s10n for the Slavic peoples living under Austria. stur made it clear, that his aim was not specifically to preserve Austria, under whom the Slavs had hitherto rotted, but to preserve his own people; Austria, he added, was decrepit and lay under a curse. He went on to say: Our aim should be to save ourselves, not to save Austria. First we must work for ourselves, then for others. Thus far Austria has been flourishing but we have been languishing. What would the world say to us if we stood for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us say that we want to stand as independent Slovanic communities under the government of Austria . . . this will give our work a genuinely Slovanic accent ...39 stur felt that the program of the Congress should be: 1) the creation of independent Slavic united states within Austria, and 2) prompt agreement to this, so that the Austrian armies might be authorized to destroy Magyar encroachments into Slovakia. stur stressed Slavic independence: "If we are to assume that place in history which rightfully belongs to us by reason of our ability and strength, we must once and for all free ourselves from this intolerable foreign thraldom and gain national independence for ourselves." 40 The necessity of remaining with the Austrian cadre was crystal clear to stur yet he made no secret of his distrust of Austria. The Czechs felt otherwise. Because they had not been mistreated as were the Slovaks under the Magyars, they were willing to accept and abide by the vague promises of the Austrian Emperor that Slavic rights would be recognized and respected. In return for these promises, the delegates of the Congress pledged full support to Austria in her effort to subdue the Magyars. In addition, they adopted a "Manifesto t o the European Nations" which called for the following objectives: 1. That the Slavic people under Turkish rule be freed. 2. That the Magyars acknowledge the rights of the �SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak nation, including the right of its own language. 3. That the Croatian autonomy be maintained. 4. That the Slovenians be permitted to possess their land. 41 sttir felt that the Congress was a failure, because it seemed simply to reduce the Pan-Slavic movement to an attempt to reorganize Austria in a way to satisfy the nationalism of the Slavs. The insurrection of 1848 against the Magyars had also failed. sttir was disappointed to say the least and in the Pan-Slavic Movement was shaken. But he still cherished the hope that Slavic independence would be possible. In his despair and disillusionment, he became almost convinced that a small nation could not attain its freedom alone. Twice he had experienced having his great hopes in behalf of Pan-Slavism shaken. Now only one more possibility remained: alliance or association with Russia, for Russia alone of the Slavic nations was powerful enough to lead others to independence. This conclusion became the basic idea developed in his book, "Slavdom and the World of the Future," a work which extols the cultural, moral and political forces of the Russian Empire. It also presents a detailed program for the union of Slavs under the leadership of Russia. HIS POLITICAL RE-ORIENTATIO N In 1848 and 1849 when the Magyars under Kossuth arose in armed rebellion against Austria, demanding complete independence, the Slovaks braced themselves against a new wave of Magyarization pressures. Led by sttir and his collaborators, they fought in their units with the Austrians and then with the Russian Armies to subdue the Magyar rebels. In return the Slovaks hoped to gain from Vienna recognition of their own national aspirations. Vienna, however, disappointed them and overlooked guaranteeing their rigl;lts against the encroachment of the Magyars. Furthermore, influenced by Kollar, the imperial court used the antiquated Biblical Czech of the Protestants as the official Slovak language in the translation of the laws, for instruction in the schools, and in the newly established newspaper sponsored by the government, �54 SLOVAKIA "Slovak News" ("Slovenske Noviny"), published in Vienna. The fruits of Stu.r's labors seemed doomed and at this point he turned with greater hope to Russia. The Revolution that erupted in Paris in February 1848, and reverberated throughout Europe, encouraged the movement in Hungary. It affected the development of Slovak life and helped to bring the Slav political program to greater maturity. Individual regions of Slovakia rebelled against the imposition of Hungarian as the only recognized legal language and strove to secure sanctions for Slovak as their official language. The native tongue of the Slovak people represented the very survival of Slovakia. stur's basic concept in "Slavdom and the World of the Future" ("Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft") was an exceptional tribute to the cultural, moral and political forces at work within the Russian Empire. This work also included a detailed plan for the union of all Slavs with Russia, "the most complete and consistently developed program for the subjugation of Slavs to Russia," according to Professor Lednicki. stur adopted Herder's and Hegel's ideas which in turn provided the Slavs with a consciousness of unity based upon the communal element of language and a glorious destiny, proclaiming them as the prospective leaders of Europe. stur stressed the belief that the Slavs have a mission to fulfill in universal history, and that this mission can be fulfilled only if they are united. There were three procedures to consider: 1. Slavic federation without Russia. 2. Transformation of Austria into a Slavic federation. 3. Union with Russia as a monarchic empire under Russian leadership, united in the Orthodox Church and the Russian literary language. The first two approached did not appeal to stur's vision gf a Slavic world of the future. Because of geographical features and considerations, internal rivalries, religious and cultural differences, and intermingled nonSlavic elements, any attempt to federalize the Slavic nations at this time seemed doomed to failure. 42 Since the Slavs were to be leaders of the "new" Europe, stur set out to determine whether the Slavs really �SLOVAKIA 55 had a role of their own to fulfill in world history. At this point they were not in position to do anything significant but history was a progression of spent nations being replaced by young one, and stur envisioned a future in which Slavic emancipation would eventually occur. There was no use in looking to the West for support in securing Slovakia's self-determination for, the West was already on the downward path to moral, political and social dissolution. Western civilization had deteriorated, the West itself needed help. Only Slavs could aid the Slavs. stur went on to paint a highly romantic picture of the Slavs, representing them as good at heart, patient, humble, kind and democratic. These were the general characteristics of all the Slavs, but especially of the Russians who were visualized as being at the apex of all the nobles features of the Slavic nations. stur did not know them personally. He had never been in Russia, neither had he any prolonged contact with Russians. He simply claimed that it had to be so logically, since the Russians were the leaders of the Slavs; they had to be the best Slavs. He was convinced too that unity was an absolute necessity if the Slavs were to achieve their historic mission. The only alternative left was union with Russia. 43 "Russia is the prime mover and the leader of our national family. Our people are but a fragment of a single nationality. They can be reborn and united into a single whole only by a elated benevolent and great Power." In stur's mind that power was Russia. "Let us go forth together in the spirit of our own people, under the leadership of the racial elders given to us by history." The Slavist, Professor Petrovich maintains that "The failure of the Slovak revolution and other political demonstrations brought stur to the conclusion that it was u.seless for his people to seek its own freedom alone or in the framework of Austroslavism." 44 This definitive decision on the part of stur amazed contemporary experts in his Slavic world. Yet it is not hard to understand stur's position when one realized the facts with which stur had to live in the 1850's. Since his primary goal was Slavic nationalism, Slavic unity, Russia was the only leader to whom to turn since Austroslavism �56 SLOVAKIA failed. His main objective was the creation of a federation of independent Slavic states under the Russian leadership, the same kind of action he had urged at the Prague Congress in 1848 for Austrian leadership. The Slavic peoples of the Austrian Empire, such as Czechs and Slovaks, and the smaller groups looked more and more toward Russia for help, since they found themselves outnumbered by the ruling Germans and Magyars. A second Pan-Slav Congress met in Moscow in 1867. The Poles were not represented. They considered the Russians their national enemies and oppressors. Russian chauvini&m was apparent throughout the congress. From that time on Russian nationalists wished to use Pan-Slavism as a tool for Russian expansion at the expense of nonRussian Slavs for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Turkish Empire. Both Empires contained large Slavic minorities. The Russian war against Turkey in 1877 was accompanied by Pan-Slavic agitation to liberate the Balkan Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, from the Turkish domination. World War I also started partly because the Russians supported the Slavic Serbs against the Austrian Empire. The fact that Russia herself oppressed several Slavic peoples--the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorussian s -and the fact that the Russian tsarist autocracy was politically and socially backward militated before 1914 against the claim of the Russians to be regarded as the spokesmen of all Slavs.45 All the peoples, with the exception of the Croatians, Slovenians and Serbs were united under Moscow's leadership, and thus many of the extravagant Russian aspirations, voiced during the Pan-Slav Congress in Moscow, in 1867, were fulfilled .46 Stu.r's great dream of a family of Slavic peoples united under Russia may also become a reality -but not under an Orthodox Church as a dedicated community, nor under an enlightened Russian Tsar with humanist and liberal views, nor as a Russian group struggling for the highest ideals of freedom and respect for human beings, as stur wished to see it in his work "Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft" ("Slavdom and the World of the Future"), but under a disastrous �SLOVAKIA 57 policy, the cornerstone of which was laid at Yalta in February, 1945. This policy destroyed Europe's individuality and enlarged the power of the Kremlin, a power that has kept all humanity under constant tension since 1945 and is a threat to the freedom of all the states it has not yet captured. It led to the subjugation of an additional 200 million Europeans. On the soil in Northern, Central and Southern Europe, there arose a new Soviet colonial system. At a time when in the free world, peoples who have never enjoyed self-govenment in the past are gradually attained nationhood and are assisted by the United Nations in the achievement of their rightful aspiration-the exact reverse process has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. 47 ST-OR'S IMPACT ON SLOVAKIA Revival of Slovak National Life stur knew it was imperative that the Slovaks be awakened nationally; otherwise they were doomed as a nation. The nation needed scholars who would delve into antiquity and from the glory of the past raise a national enthusiasm and groundwork on which to build for the future. He assumed the task of providing them. The Slovak historian, Julius Botto, says of stur: "He trained for the Slovak nation energetic, selfless men, genuine national heroes." Since the Slovak gentry continued to yield its national identity and was overshadowed and even absorbed by Magyar influences, the Slovak people became abandoned in the midst of a rising alien nationalism and political transformation. Slovak intellectuals had the vision to realize what was happening and considered it mandatory to take over the culture of the Slovak peasants, middle classes and a sparse number of nationally minded aristocrats and garner from these elements their own national culture and new national consciousness. Without stur's important role in this effort, the Slovaks might now be a forgotten nation. stur successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities in this climate and was successful in �58 SLOVAKIA bringing about a new era of Slovak national life. Since he had a mystical idea of the nation, and respected it as a person, his approach was a philosophical one. Aesthetic and philosophical principles were inaugurated into his literary school and became the foundation of the Slovak nation revival of the nineteenth century. In the past, Slovak national life was little more than a conglomerate of regrets and passive laments, a life of hapless "do nothing." stur set up positive perspectives to create higher cultural and political values and he did not rest until the people were persuaded to adopt these new views. He repeatedly advocated a higher and stronger degree of national pride. He asked the Slovaks not to seek the source of their national pride in foreign gardens since they had it right at home in their midst. stur and his school knew what hopes were directed toward attaining concrete political and social gains; he realized how ready his people were to entertain enthusiasm and spirit for a better world. National and Slavistic themes permeate stur's poetry and prose. The soul of the nation-or of the Slavs-was his constant subject; he was always preoccupied with the nation's sufferings, struggles and failures. These topics are the substance of all his written works. The Slovaks, as Hans Kohn rightly says, "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indestructibility of the Slovak people and language." This thought supported them and enabled them to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. Although stur was not the only leader during the national revival, he embodied more vitally than did the others the true spirit of 1848. In his own right he is called the Daniel O'Connell of Slovak history. At this point is was not only necessary for the Slovak nation to map out definite goals, but it was also imperative to chart the way for coming generations of the Slovak nation in order that this goal might be realized and preserved. The task challenging stur and his followers was very complicated. Besides honoring, they had to find a way and means to discharge all the work before them in a way �SLOVAKIA 59 that would be worthy of scrutiny both in their own day and in the light of history. Much of their work had to be accomplished under duress, when revolutionary forces were mounting, when fierce struggles had to be met to insure national existence and the ennobling of the social stratum of the Slavic people. $tlir's generation had no alternative, but to play the role of a vanguard of the Slovak bourgeoisie which had to be inspired with national consciousness and formed into a worthy class. The group v0luntarily assuming this role is called the $tlir generation; in literature it is called the stur school, since it was Cudovit stur and his group who adopted the traditions of the Bernolakians for the Slovak linguistic cultural and national independence. In short, they gave the Slovak nation both a solid ideology and definite direction under the leadership of Cudovit $tlir.48 Cudovit stur's activities were directed mainly on behalf of his native country, his main interest being the Slovak people caught in an insufferably miserable situation and desperately needing a solution of their problems. He threw all his efforts into achieving a social and national awakening of his people and into raising their standards so that they could be counted as a social and national force. In the memorable Bratislava parliament of 1847, he tangled in a heated discussion with Kossuth. stur declared: "We want freedom. It is easily said that there is plenty of freedom in our homeland: yes, not only an abundance, but even an oversupply of freedom." And he went on to add, "but only the landowner's brand of freedom; for of the real, human and personal freedom there is very little. If our towns had had more freedom, our people would never have fallen into such thraldom." Kossuth's reply to this was: "That cannot be helped; that is the way the world moves. It is the fate of one who stands lower in the community to be suppressed and bear the burden and taxes; on the other hand, the one who comes along better in civic life receives rights and stands in honor. At this time I am opposed to granting towns a vote in our Assembly." stur could not be silenced. Again he met Kossuth in the Hungarian Assembly and said: "Recently when I was �60 SLOVAKIA present here and mentioned the sorrowful plight of the wretched taxpayers, the worthy deputy of Pest County, Mr. Kossuth, saw the hand of fate in the oppression of the people and said that is the way of the world when the lower class is suppressed and the higher class arrogates more rights to itself. I see no hand of fate in the matter, because then the status of the oppressed could never be corrected. We demand freedom in the country and the assignment of urbanial jobs which are not in line with freedom. Does a person who works, who works for the benefit of others and receives contempt instead of reward, have a fatherland? Will such a person become as devoted to his country as he would be to his mother? The sacred cause of mankind challenges us to declare the principle of the liberation of people and honestly bring it into reality. When this redemption is accomplished, the judical power of the landowner and the country gentry must cease, because freedom would not be served if a people liberated from the robot would continue to remain under the staves of the Lords." 49 stur's main aspiration was freedom. If his only achievement had been his effort for the rights of the enslaved and subjugated at the Bratislava Assembly, he would have deserved to be honored among the most distinguished sons of the Slovak nation. But he did not only that but even more and because of this fact he is loved and revered by the Slovak nation. In him were concentrated the cultural and social endeavors of his predecessors, with the strength and courage needed for a living national organization. Without his concentration the pursuits of an independent national culture would have been impossible. His greatest merit lies in the fact that he assumed the historical task of uniting the multi-cultural strength of the Slavs into a national liberation front. A legendary atmosphere was built around the magnetic personality of stur by those who knew him. Around him there crystallized, as it were, a veritable aura of national life as is reported by William Pauliny Toth who said of him : ":Cudovit stur is favored epochally as a created vision in the history of. the Slovak- Nation." 50 �SLOVAKIA 61 Shir in his time understood that the Slovak national process had matured and that Slovakia must appear on the scene of history as an independent political factor. It is in this foresight also that Shir's merit lies. He exemplifies the Slovak national spirit as a man possessed with deep convictions and great strength of will sufficient to execute them. His prime purpose, as we have already mentioned, was to see Slovakia united culturally, politically and socially. We must recall for our own benefit and on behalf of the free world that stur did not hesitate to accept and carry to completion the work of preceding Catholic generations; he was ready to press on in order to preserve the heritage of the Slovak nation, though he was not a Catholic, but a Lutheran and a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church. Contributions as an Energizing Stimulant to Slovak Life in General It can be said with assurance that in the history of the Slovak nation, no individual accomplished as much in so short a time as did :Cudovit stur, who was only forty-one years of age when he died. This was possible only because of the gifts of this phenomenal leader and because of the fact that the ground and the time were ripe for the ascension of a new generation. stur found that he could approve of much that already existed in Slovakia and he was ready to formulate what the nation needed and demanded in his day. One wonders how it was possible at this critical time for a man to dare to undertake structuring a spiritual foundation of modern life for the long slighted and forgotten Slovak people. Though we cannot understand the force that inspired him we can appreciate the phenomenon that in one generation, only one extraordinary person, one :Cudovit stur, appeared as a great leading luminary among approximately two million of his people. It goes without s~ying that the Slovak people are grateful to stur and to those who sacrificed much with him for the Slavic cause. Their work was aimed toward the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life envisioned by genius and inspiration. �62 SLOVAKIA The Slovak nation was not fortunate enough at this time to have a 1,1mg and cherished tradition or the advantage of experienced mature people on which to rely. Over long centuries of oppression under a foreign element, it was their fate to be wholly submissive and in this attitude to develop no leaders. Now they had to rely entirely on comparatively young men for new ideas and new leadership. The Slovak youth was entrusted with the new dawn and to project future goals, because the difficult life of the Slovaks in the past did not allow the elders to foster a strong national life. While many other European nations had their noble classes to fight their battles and to lead them to new eras, the Slovaks had no social upper strata on which to rely for inspiration. Their nobility and their middle class as well were lost by fusion with other elements predominantly Magyar milieu. Slovak national awakening consequently was achieved by the sons of humble people, usually the strong leaders from among the Catholic and Protestant clerical circles. The Slovak language as a literary medium which was chosen by l'..udovit stur and his collaborators was accepted by the Slovak population in 1843. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically by their participation in the uprising in 1848-49. During this revolutionary upheaval they sided with the Emperor in Vienna but were ill-rewarded for their services. Their repeated petitions for self-determination and for guarantees of unhindered cultural development were repeatedly denied them.5 1 In 1867, when the Austrians concluded a dual agreement with the Magyars, the Slovaks were left at the mercy of the Magyars. Under this arrangement, Slovak high schools and cultural organizations were suppressed. Education on an elementary level was permitted in the Magyar language only. Any who dared to resist magyarization were victimized and inprisoned. Thousands of Slovaks found it necessary to leave their native country and migrated to the United States of America. I.:udovit stur and his generation fired the Slovaks with new national life, a clear goal and a firm sense of direction �SLOVAKIA 63 in the spirit of stt1r's slogan: "Backward we cannot go, Forward we must!" "Forward" means to free the people from the yoke of slavery and lead them along the road of independence and true national cultural growth within a truly free country. To achieve this tne Slovak nation needs a political program. The cataclysm of the Revolution of 1848 that struck Europe impelled the Slovaks to develop their political program without further hesitation or delay. The Slovaks reassessed their aims, and aspirations as well as prevailing circumstances. Since Slovakia was part of the Hungarian State, they wished primarily to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands clearly defined in order that they might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars living in Hungary. The Magyars opposed the justified petitions of the Slovak nation. They banned all Slovak assemblies and treated Slovak leaders as traitors deserving imprisonment. When the Slovaks perceived what obstacles their political program met with in Hungary, they resorted to arms against the Magyars who themselves were engaged in a rebellion against the Emperor. The Slovak rebellion in 1848-49 ended indecisively. The Russian army was asked to help subdue the revolting Magyars and absolute rule was imposed in the country. The Magyars were punished and the Slovaks were forgotten. 52 The Slovaks renewed their political activity in 1861. They detailed their principles in newspapers and later called an assembly at Turciansky Sv. Martin where they formulated a renewed Slovak policy within the comprehensive "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation." They asked that the Slovaks be permitted the right to develop their own life without restriction. They asked that they be recognized as a nation by a special proclamation, and that Slovakia constitute a distinctive administrative unit in Hungary. These petitions were submitted to Emperor Franz Josef (1849-1916). The only concession granted to the Slovaks was permission to establish a cultural institute called "Matica Slovenska" ("The Slovak Institute"). They were also allowed to use private funds to build three high schools for the education of Slovak youth. �64 SLOVAKIA The position of the Slovaks grew steadily worse in Hungary. Feeling the pressure of denationalization at every step, they did not stop pledging their allegiance to Hungary. All these attempts even at appeasement proved futile . The Hungarian Parliament passed legislation which suppressed Slovak life yet not even these adversities broke the Slovak nation, for the Slovaks believed "That truth has never yet suffered in vain, nor will our Slovak truth suffer needlessly," according to the prophetic dictum of Andrej Hlinka in 1907 spoken as he was being led to prison.53 $TOR IN CONTEMPORAR Y HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Practicality of Stur's Ideals :r.udovit stur's role in the revival of Slovak national life was far reaching and vitally important. As a reformer of the Slovak literary medium he contributed to modern national Slovak ideology. He gave his people a new perspective and vision of political freedom and of a better future. His writings provided a powerful impetus to Slovak life in general. His manifold contributions to the Slovak national revival were not limited to Slovakia alone, but to the over-all Slavic world, since Slovakia and the Slovak people are a part of the Slavic world. Neither is his greatness only by the role he played at the first Slavic Congress in Prague, but also by his rich correspondence with all outstanding Slavic leaders, as well as his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" which was translated and published twice by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stur's school of thought laid the foundation for the self-determinatio n of Slovakia more than a century ago. Even in the present the Slovaks are building upon this foundation. They will keep on pressing their point and cherishing their hope of success until they do attain complete freedom from all foreign domination. Just as stur had defied and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars and the materialistic philosophy of Marx and Engels, so do they hope in this day to overcome all obstacles to true freedom. �SLOVAKIA 65 The followers of stur made the entire nation their concern. They applied themselves to improve the country's economy; they did their utmost to wipe out alcoholism, indifference, and illiteracy; they labored unceasingly to arouse national consciousness in more ways than one. The people at large responded and co-operated generously when r:,tur began to publish his "Slovenske Narodne Noviny" ("Slovak National News") which had great influence on the thinking of the common people. stur's articles recalled the heritage of the Slovak people, the glory of its language, morals, customs, and its homeland-which unites the nation as a whole and constrains it to press forward towards attaining the goal of unity. It was necessary to make the nation feel that someone was supporting it and was concerned about its welfare. The people had to be dealt with humanely. This applied to individuals as well as to groups. The Slovaks were threatened with complete annihilation, hence stur had to appeal to the mind, the feelings and the very character of the nation. Without first uniting this nation he could gain nothing. The sturists envisioned their task as not the conversion of renegades, but the instruction of the people to help themselves, to recognize and to fight for their God-given rights. Stu.r's newspaper served all classes of people to some degree-the intelligentsia, the laborer, the peasant, the minister of the Gospel, the merchant and the tradesman. The Slovaks did rouse themselves to national consciousness. Without effective journalism of the type provided by stur it would have been impossible to unite the Slovaks in so short a time. stur and his collaborators were realists. They encouraged and exhorted the people to better themselves by overcoming indolence and ignorance. They provided and encouraged private enterprise and more efficient ways of doing things in all fields of endeavor. The school problem was a factor of great concern to stur and his coterie. They indicated the necessity of cultivating the native language, the importance of enlightenment, the value of reading centers, libraries, sound agricultural programs, progress in industrial and financial enterprise, �66 SLOVAKIA revision in tax scales, improvement in animal husbandry and many other subjects. Temperance societies were promoted as were cultural and social institutions. Many stur followers taught Sunday school classes. This innovation of stur was probably the most interesting of all movements in Slovakia. stur and his followers were not dreamers; they were practical idealists who had the welfare and security of the Slovak people at heart.54 stur's school of thought built the foundation for the independence movement as well. With the help of his co-workers ::;tur's literary school to a great extent fulfilled the function of a political and military leadership, thereby elevating the Slovak people to the cultural level of the rest of Europe. For these achievements stur's progressive pedagogical heritage shall continue to live among us for a long time. His practical and wise suggestions, his courage, his vision, selflessness, his many precedents which could be used and developed in our day serve as an undying example for future generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to work for their country's freedom, independence and recognition. At the same time future generations are challenged to keep alive the flame of the torch which was passed to them by stur's unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow. Despite stur's comparatively youthful age, his cultural and social activities were many-sided and diversified. Slovaks in the free world can gain much by a study of his works. Because stur and his co-workers were human, they naturally made some mistakes. However, their mistakes were those of the century in which they lived. It behooves us to judge them according to the fruit of their labor, the results of their work which brought a new perspective to the Slovak nation. stur can rightly be numbered among the outstanding European revolutionaries of his time. He was a great apostle of democracy and freedom for all people. The shining light among the Slovaks of the nineteenth century, the formulator of their political and social program, as well as the interpreter of their national desires was ~udovit stur-the Father of modern Slovak nationalism .55 �SLOVAKIA 67 Application of stur's Theories in Subsequent Slovak History The evolution of Slovak national life and the role of ~udovit stur in its development are mutually inclusive. Once one delves into a study of stur's life work, he becomes permanently fascinated with it and cannot be shed the charm of this genial creator of modern national Slovak ideology. stur was endowed with extraordinary creativity and originality of concepts. Only a genius could create works of lasting value which survive long after his death. It is only natural that we return to stur and find support in him. He is an incentive to future generations to do even better things than he did. However, to date, he ranks as one of the most outstanding Slovaks of all time. Slovakia is grateful to many Slovak leaders who sacrificed everything for the nation. But most of these also worked for the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life which was spelled out and left to us by stur and his co-workers. They gave expression to the righteous desires of the Slovak nation and became the unsurpassed model in spiritual and civic activity:56 For more than a century, nothing new nor shaking has appeared than that which was expressed by stur for the Slovak nation. Hence it behooves us to return to him, because it is evident that every new and great plan of Slovak life must first pass the aqua regia test of stur's thinking. The aims of the Slovak nation which were conceived by stur are still the criteria of the life of the Slavic people. Whatever counters stur also runs counter to the vital interest of the Slovak nation. stur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens! " is just as timely today as they were in 1845. He was a man ahead of his time. His philosophical views, his democratic thinking, his principles and his social demands are timely, too. It is necessary for our generation to recognize the fact that the Slovaks over one hundred years ago fought to change the political structure of Central Europe, that they demanded a deserved independent status for their nation within the framework of a solid federation built on principles of justice and equity. �68 SLOVAKIA Great ideas may be temporarily suppressed and silenced, but in the end they will triumph. That accounts for the inability of the enemies within and without the Slovak nation to destroy the concept of individuality of the Slovak nation, its language, culture and its right to an independent life. Even today after a lapse of more than a hundred years, this idea is very much alive. Despite the fact that Pan-Slavism did not achieve any notable results during stur's time, it nevertheless had inherent value. For the first time it revealed the Slavic mind to the rest of Europe. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe today. The Prague Congress too proved significant by reason of the fact it was the first expression of Slavic unity, of Slavic identity, distinct from the Hapsburg rule. It imbued the Slavs with greater courage and confidence and a guide for the future action. Slavdom and the World of Future is today a relatively unknown work, even in the Slavic world. Yet it had exerted great influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a beacon light and incentive to furthering their program and goals. At the time of s tur's death in 1856, the whole Pan-Slavic movement was pretty much a failure. It failed because the very nationalism that it promoted led to its defeat. Pan-Slavism created dissent among the various Slav nations because it pressured national consciousness. The more the people became aware of their individuality, their historical traditions, and their language, the less they wanted to sacrifice them for a non-existent Slav federation . Another hindering factor was the centuries-old and traditional antagonism between the various Slavic nations, such as the Poles and the Russians, Czechs and Slovaks, Croatians and Serbs, prevented any success for a plan that would unite them. Hence Pan-Slavism was hindered from excercising any dominant or stable influence on European thought at that time. 57 For two decades after World War I Pan-Slavism seemed dead. The Western Slavs-the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes and Serbs--established their own states in 1918. They looked more to the West than to Moscow for guidance and inspiration. After the German �SLOVAKIA 69 aggression against Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin revived Pan-Slavism for the duration of the war and appealed for the support of all Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union again discarded Pan-Slavism after World War II. It was under the aegis of Communism rather than Pan-Slavism that the U. S. S. R. established control over the Western and Southern Slavic peoples in the post war period. $tur's vision of a unified Slovak cultural, political and social life did not indicate that he was a mere visionary. After a century of struggle there exists a Slovak nation with its own literature and cultural institutions and it is a strongly literate one. There also exists a sound national consciousness and a wholesome social stratification, which is unbalanced only by the unfortunate present Communist regime. The new generation is imbued with a spirit of national and social justice among Central European peoples and constantly resists Communistic ideology, about which £udovit $tur wrote more than a century ago: "Communism not only commits outrageous injustice against all civil society ... it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm. It divides the family, it destroys the household and thus it opens wide the door to every type of immorality, dissolution, and indulgence. It degrades· man to bestial level ... "Communism has matured to the same degree as atheism and defection from Christianity . . . In all types of Communism whatever their classification may be, the outlook is only toward a dismal life. It brings in its wake despotism of the grossest kin. It ,shatters all bonds of social living. In place of holy ties, it offers profiteering, rioting and their like." Today when our mighty nation is fighting for freedom of all enslaved and oppressed nations, this freedom must not be overlooked for Slovakia. The Slovaks of today still have the inherent and God given rights to complete freedom as do all other nations. To fight for the freedom of all nations, including Slovakia, is the obligation of all lovers of truth and freedom. The Slovaks have existed and will continue to exist if they live and remember $tur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens!" �70 SLOVAKIA Today a foreign regime in Slovakia is persecuting and crushing all that stlir stood for, because it is above all else concerned with the extermination of the Slovak traditions which in his time Eudovit stur had recreated and reformed in such a manner that they remain in permanent basis of Slovak national development. The spirit of stur lives on! One can kill a man but never the idea he stands for . In history there are myriad examples of movements, faiths and ideologies triumphant "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword." The Slovak nation did not give up the right to live in an independent state even if this state was forcibly liquidated, its rules killed and its adherents persecuted. All this has made the struggle for independence even more imperative, because if the idea was worth dying for, it i~ worth fighting for. More than a century after his death :Cudovit stur is very much alive. His name is often on the lips of his followers and his opponents. Books are written about him, his policies, his philosophy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain by his friends and his enemies. With no perceptible results to show, the situation of the Slovak nation does not look very promising today. The nation is without its state, lives in slavery but also lives in hope. There is strong evidence to indicate a living and vibrant independence movement at home where the Slovaks after an interim of partial independence are convinced that there is no substitute for complete independence. The indeology of :Cudovit stur is the source of strength and belief that independent Slovakia with a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" will re-appear on the map of Europe:58 CONCLUSION The essential part of this study dealt with the assumption that :Cudovit stur and his achievements have long been recognized by the Slovaks, that he is a great national figure and is revered as the "Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." But what of his place in the history of the Slavs at this time? Looking for stur's place in the Slavic world, after the passing of a century which tested many of his conceptions �SLOVAKIA 71 and achievements, one cannot avoid some purely Slovak cultural and political issues. One cannot help but also agree with Hans Kohn's words that "the Slovak nation with its own literary language, was definitely established."59 stur's manifold activities made this possible. Since Pan-Slavism remained the primary concern of Slavic poets, newsmen, literary scholars, philologists, and historians, Slavic nationalism was far removed from the political plan and was situated in the literary field. These individuals expressed an optimistic belief in man's inevitable progress, in the spiritual rejuvenation which would result in the assurance of liberty, peace and happiness. These visionaries felt that perhaps the Slavs were heralds of a new era. They promised a unified betterment in a future Slavic world. According to his book "Slavdom and the World of the Future" r.udovit stur set out to accomplish four tasks. He wanted an assurance to determine whether the Slavs really had a specific role to fulfill in world history. The Slavic past would yield an affirmative answer, for this certainty was the basis for the entire Pan-Slavic movement. Without doubt, the Slavs were to be the leaders of a "New Europe." Since history is a progression of spent nations being replaced by young and energetic ones, Slavic Emancipation and self-determination would eventually be realized. stur's gift of prophecy and Kollar's poetic vision of one Slav nation, language, and culture as expressed in Kollar's "Daughter of Slavs" ("Slavy dcera"): "What will the Slavs be in a hundred years? What will the whole of Europe come to be? Slav life, just as a mighty flood appears, shall everywhere extend its boundary. The science shall Slav exponents see, our peoples' customs, dress and music on both the Seine and Danube modish be." His second task was to describe the Slavic mission in universal history against the background of the cultural difference between Western and Eastern Europe.60 stur could only visualize the destruction of the peasantry by a moral, political and social dissolution in the West and the culmination of a schism between religion and daily life. The West could do little to help, since it was gradually losing face because of its prodigality. �72 SLOVAKIA Western society and its institutions were not worth the effort of imitation since they were contributing to the downfall of the West. Hence the Slavs could depend only on themselves for existence. Thirdly, Shir presents a highly romantic picture of the Slavic peoples. They are endowed with extraordinary virtue. The West was held accountable for the vices of the Slavs who were presented as being by nature kind, patient, humble, and democratic. These characteristics were typical of all Slavs, but especially the Russians, who were the embodiment of all the best and noblest features of the entire Slav nation. Logically, he concluded, that since the Russians were to be the leaders of the Slavs, they had to be the cream of the Slavic element.61 His last task dealt with the problems of Slavic political unification. If the Slavs were to attain their goal, unity was an absolute necessity. There were three possibilities. The first was a Slavic confederation without Russia, which could never succeed because of internal disputes among multi-Slavic peoples. These nation were of about equal strength, hence the emergence of a leader from these nations was an impossibility. The second was the transformation of Austria into a Slavic Empire. Attempts of this nature had been made before and failed. Shir felt that Austro-Slavism should not be considered. The only alternative left was alliance with Russia. Since she was powerful enough to unite all the Slavic nations, she was the natural leader that was needed. stur was impressed by Russia's power and influence. If Slavic peoples united under Russia, their equal would be second to none in Europe. One wonders how it came that such a decisive document was left to us by stur. Yet under the circumstances with which he had to contend in the 1850's it is not surprising. His primary concern was Slavic Nationalism, and Slavic unity. His interest in Russia came only as a result of this, since he never had any prolonged contact with the Russians, neither had he ever been in Russia. 62 After more than a century's lapse of time Stu.r's big dream of a United Slavic peoples under Russia may yet �SLOVAKIA 73 become a reality, in a strange and unfortunate nature, because of recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow has became a political powerhouse of the Slavic world and Russian leadership has technically materialized. Stu.rs drive and his vision of Slovak cultural, political and social betterment did not prove to be a myth either. There now exists a Slovak nation with its own literature, cultural institutions and almost universal literacy. Its people are nationally conscious and they can boast of sound social stratification, which was recently unbalanced only by the presence of an unwelcome Communist regime. They are proud of their fighting spirit for national and social justice, which was passed on them with the flame of Stu.r's burning torch. There is a constant resistance among them to Communist ideology and this attitude is another legacy of Stu.r's. Over a century ago he said: "Communism not only commits _o utrageous injustices against all civil society ... but it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm ... It degrades man to a bestial level ... " 63 Although Pan-Slavism did not achieve notable results during Stu.r's time, it had an inherent value in that it revealed for the first time to the rest of Europe the Slavic mind. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe. The Prague Congress, too, was the first expression of Slavic unity and identity which was separate from the Hapsburg rule. It also gave the Slavs courage and confidence. Stu.r's book, mentioned earlier in this section, has had a strong influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a forerunner of some later developments. stur and his followers executed their tasks beyond human expectation, for they came upon a scene of history when the situation of the Slovaks under the Magyars in Hungary seemed truly hopeless. The significance of Eudovit stur in the evolution and revival of Slovak national life is tremendous and far. reaching. His role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language greatly contributed to Slovak national ideology. It gave his people a new vision and perspective of political �74 SLOVAKIA freedom and of a better future. By his example and writings he provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general. stur rightfully belongs with Jan Kollar and Pavol J. safarik to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century who are regarded as great figures of the Slavic world, since Slovakia and its people are part of the Slavic world. All three found willing echo in all the Slavic peoples. As Hans Kohn states: "They were imbued in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future, in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind, which would establish for ever the basis of liberty, peace, and happiness."64 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in History at Marywood College.) FOOTNOTES 1) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 8. 2) Jaroslav Vlcek, Mala Ruko vat' literarno-historicka (A small Hanpbook of Literary History") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932). p. 195. 3) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uu,dovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 4) Ibid., p. 199. 5) Marian Ziar, "Stur" Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 6) Philip A. Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement," Slovakia, September-December, 1956, p. 39. 7) Karol Golan, "Sturove reci na slovanskom sjazde roku 1848," ("Stur's Lectures at the Slavic Congress of 1848,") Slovak Views, AugustSeptember, 1936, p. 422. 8) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, p. 7. 9) Jan Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin : Matica Slovenska, 1958) , p. 199. 10) Jaroslav Vlcek, Dejiny literatury slovenskej (History of Slovak Literature") Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1923), p. 184. 11) St. Osusky, Filozofia Sturovcov ("Sturist Philosophy") (Myjava: Typ. Daniel Pazicky, 1926), p. 10. 12) Uudovit Bakos, Uul:iovit 5tiir (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1957 ), p. 34. 13 ) . Ibid., p. 50. 14) Seton-Watson, R. H., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. (London : Archon Books, 1943), p. 260. 15) John cajak, Second Slovak History ("Bejepis Slovakov") (Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. �SLOVAKIA 75 16) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, p. 6. 17) Henrich Bartek, " Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June 1956, p. 4. 18) Joseph Kirschbaum, UU/dovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 14. 19 ) R. H. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London: Arc hon Books, 1943), PP- 260-261. 20) John cajak, "Slovak History" ("Dejepis Slovakov") (Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. 21 ) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stu!· and His Place in the Slavic World," Slovakia, March, 1958. 22) Francis Hrusovsky, "Point of No Return," This is Slovakia (Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954), p. 46. 23) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stur in His Place in the Slavic World." (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958) , p. 20. 24) Ibid., pp. 20-21. 25) Ibid., p. 28. 26 ) Thomas Capek, The Slovaks of Hungary (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 22-23. 27) Joseph Skultety, Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho .Zivota. 1790-1914. ("One Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knih. -Ocast., 1920), p. 44. 28) Ibid., p. 46. 29 ) Ibidem., p. 46. 30) Joseph Kirschbaum. "Louis Stur Centenial" Slovakia, March, 1956. (Middletown ) p. 8. 31) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 32) Joseph Kirschbaum , Uudovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World," (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 23. 33) Michael B. P e trovich. The Emergence of Russian Pan-Slavism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 18-19. 34) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur a~d the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 106-107. 35) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 7-8. 36 ) Thomas Capek. The Slovaks of Hungacy (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 70-71. 37) Ibid., p. 71. 38) Seton-Watson. History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London : Archon Books, 1943) , p. 162. 39) Suzanne Mikula. "Uudovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 109-110. 40 ) Ibid., p. 110. 41) Ibid., p. 110. 42) Joseph Kirschbaum. Uu)dovit Mur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), pp. 8-9. 43 ) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur and the Pan..Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 110-111. �76 SLOVAKIA 44) Michael Petrovich, "l!udovit Stur and Russian Pan-Slavism," Journal of Central European Pan-Slavism, 1952, p. 6. 45) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism," Encyclopedia International, XIX, 44-45. 46) Ibid., pp. 44-45. 47) ACEN statement, September 20, 1954. 48) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia I!udovita Stura ("Bibliography of I!udovit Stur") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), pp. 198-199. 49) Philip Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak I'*-1ependence Movement," Slovakia (Sept., Dec., 1956), p. 38. 50) Jan Ormis. Bibliografia L'udovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 51) Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso. (Sydney: Orbis Printing Co. pty. Ltd., 1967), pp. 5-6. 52) Francis Hrusovsky, "This Is Slovakia," Slovakia, 1969, pp. 91-92. 53 ) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka (Bratislava: 1934), p. 198. 54) Joseph Pauco, "Stur's Group in -the Service of the People," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 12-15. 55 ) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia , March, 1956, pp. 10-11. 56) Henrich Bartek, Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-4. 57) Suzanne Mikula, "l!udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, p. 113. 58 ) Frantisek Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso, (Sidney: Orbis Printing and Publishing Co., Pty Ltd., 1967), p. 43. 59) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History a'*-1 Ideology," (University of Notre Dame Press, 1953), p. 21. 60 ) Suzanne Mikula, "I!uldovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement,·• Slovakia, p. 111, 1966. 61) Ibid., p. 112. 62) Ibid., p. 112. 63) Joseph Kirschbaum , I!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic Wor~:i (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 26. 64) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology," (Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press), p. 22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Stur, L'udovit. Listy L'udovita Stura. (Letters of I!udovit Stur.") ed. Dr. Jozef Ambrus. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, (Slovak Academy of Sciences), 1956, pp. 64-375. Stur, I!udovit, 1864 Nauka Reci Slovenskej. ("Slovak Language Lessons from r;ui:lovit Stur.") Bratislava, 1946, pp. 1-10. Bakos, I;udovit. Cudovit Stur. ("Louis Stur.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1957, pp. 34-161. Bartek, Henrich, C. Stur a Slovencina. ("I;udovit Stur and the Slovak Language. ") Turc. Sv. Martin: Kompas, 1943, pp. 6-18. Botto, Julius. Michal M. Rodia. Turciansky Sv. Mart.in: -Ocastinarsky Spolok, 1911, pp. 11-41. l'.:ajak, Janko. Dejepis Slovakov. ("History of the Slovaks.") Pittsburgh: Tlac Narodnych Novin, 1914, pp. 97-110. �SLOVAKIA 77 tapek, Thomas. The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906, .pp. 18-52. Chrobak, Dobroslav. Rukoviit'. ("Handbook.") Prague: L. Mazac, 1932, pp. 25-37. Czambel, Samo. Slovaci a Ich Rec. ("The Slovaks and Their Language.") Budapest: C. A. Kr. Dvornej Knihtlac Victoria Horney Anskeho, 1903, pp. 25-42. Golan, Karol. Revolucne Pokolenie 1848-1849. ("The Revolutionary Generation 1848-1849.") Myjava: Daniel Pazisko, 1926, pp. 91-94. Hqdal, Juraj. Jan Holly. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1923, pp. 91-94. Hrobak, .Philip. Czechoslovakia. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1958, .p. 17. Hrusovsky, Francis. This Is Slovakia. Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954, pp. 42-47. Hurban, Jozef M. r.udovit Stur. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928, pp. 7-216. Kacka, Jozef. Dejiny Slovenskej Literatury. ("History of Slovak Literature.") Ruzomberok: Lev, 1928, pp. 36-39. Kalal, Karol. Dejiny Slovenska ("History of Slov,alda.") Turc. Svaty Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1916, .pp. 89-105. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Nas Boj o Samostatnost' Slovenska. ("Our Struggle for Slovak Independence.") Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1968, pp. 292-324. Kohn, Hans. Hapsburg Empire 1804-1918. An Anvil Original. Princeton: K. Vian Nostrand Company, 1961, pp. 65-95. Medvecky, Karol A. Slovensky Prevrat. ("The Slovak Revolution.") I-IV: 4 vols. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1930-1931. Mraz, Andrej. Jozef Skultety. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1933, p. 7. Novak, Uuldovit. Jazykovedne Glosy k Ceskoslovenskej Otazke. ("Linguistic Sounds of the Czecho-Slovak Question.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1935, p. 233. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York: Robert Spelle,r and Sons, 1960, pp. 108-204. Ormis, Jan. Bibliografia E,udovita Stura. ("L'udovit Stur and His Bibliography.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958, pp. 3-201. Pauco, Jozef. r.udovychova u Sturovcov. ("Popular Education among the Sturists.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1943, pp. 5-11. Pauliny, Heinrich. Dejiny Spisovnej Slovenciny. ("History of Literary Slovak.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia, 1948, p. 393. Petrovich, Michael B. The Emergence of Russia Pan-Slavism 1856-1870. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, p. 18. Porubsky, Jan. K Ste-mu Vyrociu Literarnej Slovenciny 1856-1944. ("The One Hundredth Year of Literary Slovak." ) Scranton: Obrana Press, 1944, pp. 154-166. Ruppelt, Fedor. Koncentracne Snahy Slovenske. ("Concentrated Slovak Endeavors.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky a Ucastinarsky Spolok, 1928, pp. 64-71. Skultety, Jozef. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1930, pp. 183-186. Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho tivota 1790-1914. ("One �78 SLOVAKIA Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky -Ocast. Spolok, 1920, pp. 31-65. Vlcek, Jaroslav. Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej. ("History of Slovak Literature." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Mala Rukoviit' Literarno-Historicka. ("A Small Handbook of Literary History.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Wagner, J;udovit. Slovensky Plutarch. (" Slovak Plutarch.") Nove Mesto naid Vahom: Jan Trnovsky, 1920, pp. 27-30. Address-Published Kirschbaum , Joseph M. 13udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World. An Address to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists on June 9, 1957, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Periodicals Bartek, Henrich. " Our Tradition and J;udovit Stur." Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-10. Bue, Bonaventure. " Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism. " Slovakia, June , 1958, pp. 1-17. Hrobak, Philip. "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement." Slova• kia, September-December, 1956, pp. 34-39. Kir schbaum, Joseph. "Independence and the Slovak Past." Slovakia, March, 1957, pp. 44-53 . "Louis Stur Centennial." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 3-6. 'Misconceptions of American Slavists." Slovakia, March-June, 1962, pp. 25-43 . "The Slovak Language and Its Place Among the Slavic Languages." ' Slovakia, 1966, pp. 1-17. Mikula, Suzanne. "!;udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement." Slovakia, 1966, pp. 104-115. Pauco, Joseph. "Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 11-15. Rekem, John. "The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language ." Slovakia, March-April, 1962, pp. 1-13. 2iar, Marian. "Stur: Father of Mqdern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 6-11. Banik, Anthony A. "Posledni Zastancovia Spi:sovnej Cestiny." (The Last Supporters of the Literary Czech Language.") Sbornik LiterarnoV edeckeho Odboru SSV., 1935, pp. 18-35. Horak, Juraj . "Sturova Kniha o Narqdnych Piesnach a Povestiach Plemien Slovanskych." ('Stu.r's Book on Naitional Hymns and Slavic Popular Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, January-February, 1923, pp. 97-128. Vlcek, Jaroslav. "Povodina Sturovho Spisu o Narodnych Povestiach Slovanskych." ("Stu.r's Original Writings on Slavic National Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, pp. 58-63. Unpublished Material McCoy, Sheila Marie, Sister. 'The School of Stur," (Unpublished Thesis) Cabrini College, 1965. � 20 SLOVAKIA Political Views of 11udovit St(u Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS. C. M. INTRODUCTION Since this study will concern itself with :Cudovit $tur, the inspiration of modern national Slovak ideology, it may be beneficial first of all to review the life story of the man and then to consider his work and influence. Though his life was all too short, stur was a key figure in the Slovak national movement of the second third of the nineteenth century. He was heir to the cultural, political and social endeavors of his predecessors, and he developed his natural gifts to attain the strength, courage and vision, which it took to launch movements toward realizing a vital national organization on behalf of his people. Without these natural and acquired gifts, stur could hardly have been effective in his work toward attaining independence in Slovak national life and the pursuit of culture. His greatest merits lie in the fact that he assumed the historical challenge to unite the fragmented multicultural powers of the Slovaks into a liberation front against Hungarian oppressors. His contemporaries attributed to stur an almost legendary but realistic aura even during his lifetime. It was said of him that he had a magnetic personality, that his very presence bespoke patriotism and a vibrant national spirit. Worthy of specific mention is at least one evaluation by William Pauliny-T6th: "He is an extraordinary figure-a manifestation, as it were, of a leader charged to create a new epoch in the history of the Slovak nation." His young collaborator, Jozef M. Hurban, devoted to stur a commemorative and comprehensive monograph which was published in the first issue of the revitalized "Slovenske pohl'ady" (Slovak Views) . In his history of Slovak literature published in 1890, the literary critic and historian Jaroslav Vlcek rated stur as the central figure of the Romantic generations, even though he did not see �SLOVAKIA 21 in stur's poetry the merit which it rightly deserves. Criticism of stur was not wanting, but it did not detract from stur's merits or stature at all.1 This fiery patriot was born in Zay-Uhrovec, on the twentyninth of October, 1815. He was one of five children. His father was an elementary school teacher and a rigid disciplinarian both at school and at home. His mother's was a gentle and loving nature. The stur family home breathed a peaceful atmosphere graced with poetry. The natural surroundings of his boyhood, with their profusion of beauty and natural grandeur influenced stur's outlook on life. It was very likely here and because of his environment that his aesthetic taste developed to a remarkable degree. Leopold Petz, a Lutheran pastor, was his first teacher in the gymnasium at Rab. He kindled the glow of national consciousness and patriotism in stur's unfolding mind and animated his spirit with keen appreciation for the richness of his mother tongue. He also made him aware of the rightful place of the Slovaks in the Slavic world and of the potential concentrated within the new generation. After two years at Rab, stur continued his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava.2 Here stur and a memorable group of similarly ardent young men with him (Hurban, Hodza, Francisci, Sladkovic, Chalupka, et. al.) , were schooled under the powerful influence of seasoned literary personalities who were still devoted to fostering at least some forms of Czecho-Slovak orientation. It was around the chair of Czecho-Slovak language arts held by Juraj Palkovic that the Czecho-Slovak Society, later known as the Institute of Language and Literature, was formed. 3 stur was undeniably a talented leader who devoted himself first of all to lecturing on Slovak grammar, literature and history. He devoted much time and thought to Slovak national poetry, especially to works dealing with the themes of Great Moravia, Svatopluk, and the Slavic Apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius. To the eager young members of the Czecho-Slovak Society, he spoke of Slavism, of the hardships and injustices heroically endured by Slav peoples over long centuries, and of the great responsibility �22 SLOVAKIA committed to the younger generation. He pointed out to them some possible means toward a better future and fanned their hopes for the building of a glorious large Slavic family. He made every effort to destroy all roots of doubt, pessimism, and prejudice, those divisive forces that plagued Slavic families of nations and fragmented their efforts toward unity. His aims for establishing a standard language for Slovak literary expression were not purely liiterary. Since Slovak national life was closely connected with literary expression, it bore a vigorous sense of purpose. Stu.r's prime objective was to unite the Slovak people culturally, politically and socially. A universally adopted standard language would greatly advance this couse. Granted, he suffered many reversals, but a wakened spirit cannot be stilled. As authorities intervened to support his Slavic group meetings at the Lyceum, new literary group in other places formed in their stead. The strain of the struggle to resist oppression in student centers left stur physically exhausted; spiritually, however, he remained strong and vigorous and indomitable. In 1838 stur left his center of Slovak literary activity in Bratislava and went to Halle, Germany. His courses of study at Halle strongly affected his theoretical foundations adding depth and fuller meaning to all his later activities. He learned to favor much in Hegelian thought, the theories advocated by a German idealist philosophy. This experience created a mental revolution in Stu.r's objectives and philosophy. It was, first of all a dialectical style of thinking which brought to naught all concept of a final validity in the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is involved in a process of development, all is being perpetually transformed and changed, proceeding from a lower to a higher stage. It also maintains that human history is a steady process of development of this kind, as stur put it, an "uninterrupted chain."4 stur was not simply an unquestioning disciple of Hegelian philosophy, as is often said of him. Together with several other thinkers of his generation, he formed an independent philosophical school which exerted farreaching influence and excelled in originality of thought. �SLOVAKIA 23 stur's excellent book, "sturova filozofia zivota" ("stur's Philosophy of life"), embodies his philosophical conceptions. Though his propositions in general are original, stur's underlying ideas were greatly influenced by Hegel. He was motivated by the idea that national unity is strongly furthered by means of common language which gives rise to mutual understanding. After his return from Germany, stur set out in 1843 to establish a distinctive literary Slovak language which he boldly promoted. Its basis was the central Slovak dialect which he considered the last contaminated by neighboring or foreign influence. He realized also the need for a common political effort; Kollar's reciprocity was not enough. He spared no pains to achieve a social and national awakening of the Slovak people. In a sense, stur completed the work that Bernolak, the first codifier of literary Slovak, had begun in 1787. On his return from Germany stur became an assistant professor in the Pressburg (Bratislava) Lyceum. As he lectured in the department of history, students flocked to him with undivided attention, for this dynamic young professor had a wealth of attainable ideals to offer. But chauvinistic authorities viewed this influence with anxiety. In 1844, stur lost his post as Deputy Professor because the Magyar government began to tighten its political controls on Slovakia and found stur's flaming Slovak ardor a threat to its interests. When he was dismissed, many students left the Pressburg Lyceum in protest and continued their studies elsewhere. The Bratislava incident did not intimidate stur; as a matter of fact, it only stimulated him to press on. He kept in close touch with his patriotic adherents. Because the ground was fertile and properly prepared for a national change, stur was able to do the apparently impossible. He strongly voiced the long repressed aspirations and justified rights of the Slovaks, he formulated the demands of his people. 13udovit stur's publications of an article titled "Zaloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku" ("The Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary") which appeared in Leipzig in 1843 which exposed the chief inspector of the �24 SLOVAKIA Lutheran Church and schools because of his measure to magyarize Slovaks for political gain became a sensation. The Slovaks had been resisting magyarization quietly but effectively; now, however, they were determined to secure an independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. All petitions and demands presented in Vienna and in the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava were prompted by the following statement by stur: "We seek no rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of inherent right." These words became the underlying proposition on which were based all the subsequent petitions and demands of the Slovak leaders for equal rights. Stu.r's debates and controversies with Kossuth, the Slovak renegade, stemmed from this moral and democratic principle. He demanded "peace based on just rights and mutual understanding" declaring: "In the paper, Pesti Hirlap, Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he advocates orders to investigate and punish those who define and seek their rights ... That is Kossuth's concept of freedom and liberalism."5 stur continues to express his thoughts in writing. In 1844, after three years of waiting, he was granted permission to publish the periodical "Slovenske narodne noviny" ("The Slovak National News") through which he was resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The supplement of the periodical was "Orol tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle"). Both were widely supported and endorsed by all classes of people, for the Slovak public rejoiced in the realization that this publication was in itself a great step forward in their struggle. stur, too, was gratified. His program for action toward achieving ultimate freedom was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due yet he did not hesitate to denounce the shortcomings of his people. His editorials defended not only the purity of the Slovak language, but also the recognition of the inherent rights of the Slovak nation-rights that affected all their levels of national freedom: political, literary, social, economic, etc. His exhortations are as timely today as they were in 1845: "Let us not yield, Slovak countrymen. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the �SLOVAKIA 25 whole than of the individual person, and even the individual harm us, the cause itself does not do so. But with us thus far, it has been so that individuals offended by our people, immediately abandoned the cause itself ... "6 stur's periodicals served their purpose effectively for three years, uniting the people, teaching and enlightening them and encouraging them during one of the most crucial periods of their history. This was almost too good to be true. When the Magyars began to realize what these publications were doing for the Slovak people, fanning the flames of Slovak patriotism to the detriment of Magyar hegemony, they raised an alarm and put in action measures to have them confiscated or proscribed. Despite this suppression, however, much of stur's purpose was already achieved. The Slovak people were nationally awakened. They were conscious of a cause and of an obligation to defend it. Most of this new stirring never would have been realized without stur's activities and publications. The codification of a literary language, which was perfected and universally adopted, concretized the efforts and fond aspir,a tions and hopes nurtured by Slovak literary leaders in bygone generations. I'..udovit stur knew that the times were ripe for the Slovak people to appear on the national scene of history as an independent political entity. No language, except their own Slovak language could move the people to political affectiveness. For this reason, stur chose to advocate the central-Slovak dialect as a political and literary instrument. stur was a deputy from Zvolen at the Presporok (Pressburg - Bratislava) Assembly in 1847-1848. In official sessions he spoke out honestly and courageously about the injustice of disregarding the protest of the subjugated peoples against enforced Magyarization. He also felt dutybound to advocate the equality of all people and sought the liberation of subjugated nations at the Hungarian Diet. The firm stand which stur took became a turning point in Slovak-Hungarian history. At the Slav Congress in Prague in 1848, stur and safarik defined the political aspirations of the Congress. safarik's view was prophetic, while stur made clear the �26 SLOVAKIA political program of the immediate present: "Our aim should be to preserve ourselves. First of all, we must serve the best interests of our own people and secondarily of others. Thus far Austria has flourished, but we have been declining and perishing. What would be the judgment of the world if we were to s tand for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us proclaim that we desire to stand as independent Slovanic communities within the government of Austria."7 stur was far ahead of his day, in visualizing a program to federalize Central Europe. According to Bartek, s tur was not a rebel. As long as there was evidence of national agreement with the Magyars, he was not for the destruction of the Hungarian State. He did warn the Magyar ruling class that it could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of subject nationalities and exploit the Slavs of Hungary without expecting them to strike back with righteous demands for a free national life, for the very rights which the Magyars had resolved to defend for themselves in the Hapsburg Empire. 8 When all these representatio ns and demands continued to be ignored, only then did stur and his group decide to lead the Slovaks to revolt against the Magyar intolerance in 1848. The Slovaks were fully aware of Kossuth's ultimatum declaring that whatever rights they claimed to have in the kingdom they would have to secure with sword in hand. There was no alternative now except to resort to arms. The torch of national consciousnes s carried by s tur and his group became a beacon light in Slovakia's struggle for freedom. Though revolt was crushed and betrayed by Vienna, it stands as a milestone in Slovak history. The tragic reversal of the revolutionary attempt did not affect the leadership or the stature of ~udovit stur in the estimation of others. The Hungarian revolution paid dearly for its national intolerance. It too suffered in a common defeat. Kossuth was forced into exile. stur and his group were under constant police surveillance, and many were their thrilling escapes from police snares and power. A tragic death during a hunting event in January 1856 �SLOVAKIA 27 brought stur's life to an untimely end. He died according to his own predictions in which he had foreseen an analogy of his death in the death of Julius Caesar. Some Slavs considered him a setting star but actually he is a brilliant morning star marking a better day in the history of the Slavic world. We return to stur to evaluate his work in the light of today's standards when, after the passing of a hundred years, the Slovaks are building on this foundation laid by stur and his school of thought, the promise of hope fulfilled-if only a new power from the East did not frustrate the effort. Just as stur repudiated and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars, so the Slovaks today rebel against Communist domination and occupation. 13udovit stur's spirit lives on even though an Iron Curtain creates physical bariers to liberty. GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE ON STVR Among stur's earliest academic interests were the areas of linguistics, philosophy, history and literature. To pursue these in depth and to broaden his education, he decided to study at Halle University in Germany. It was in 1838 that he came to Halle as a twenty-three year old student-a gifted energetic man of large vision and great moral strength. He had been held in high repute at home and exerted notable influence among his peers. At Halle, he was an utter stranger in a big unknown world, and the weight of the strangeness that closed in upon him was of more than mere physical and social order. University life in Germany was at this time strongly influenced by the spirit and theories of Hegel. German thought and academic preoccupation bore upon the topic of races. Yet this was in a day when the concept of race, as such, was not even properly formulated. The Germans tended to construct entire systems of philosophy and humanistic theory centered on the concept of race at a period when formal anthropology was just emerging. Fundamental misconceptions of race overtook not only historical scholars but also philosophers of history like Hegel. His philosophical system meant on the one hand, equating the Prussian state with the prime law of men �28 SLOVAKIA and, on the other, constituting materialism as the ideal of men and of nations. Exposed to this stress of innovation which was spread throughout scholarly circles by a ready press and which was further generally publicized by novelists and writers of all sorts, stur did not escape acquaintance with these false principles and this false philosophy of life was what contaminated all Central Europe. Fresh from the schools of Bratislava, he was not yet adequately prepared to discern authentic philosophic truth from political propaganda; nevertheless, he instinctively sensed the need to withhold complete acquiescence with Hegel. He tried to come to terms with much of Hegel but by the very fact that stur placed the moral and spiritual values of men as top priorities he put himself at odds with some Hegelian principles. stur's courses of study at Halle deepened his perspectives even as life in Germany provided him with countless new impressions-views of life and the world, concepts and ideas in general. From the German idealistic philosophy, even as from Hegel, its chief representative, stur adopted some new theories which resulted in a mental revolution. First among these was the aspect of dialectical thinking which brought to naught his previous conceptions of a final validity of the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is in process of development. All is being transformed and changed and proceeds from a lower to a higher stage. It affirms that human history is a process by which the Absolute Spirit unfolds, a "chain uninterrupted" in stur's words. 9 Hegel conceives of history as a process involving dialectical oppositions revaluating into a higher content of historical being. Freedom as an essential of history becomes an absolute necessity. Hegel's philosophy of history strongly took hold of stur's mind at this point. The world seemed to be created for jjudovit stur. He reveled in the thought of its systematic, architectural classification, its universality embracing all the dreams of the human spirit, its justice toward nations, all its sources of learning, its versatile penetration of all doctrine--all this bore upon him so overwhelming flood. 10 �SLOVAKIA 29 The wealth of views offered by Hegel's philosophy opened up an idealistic world of envisioned by spiritual concept of nations and not construed from previous assumptions. It provided a new vista into the domains of the rights of nations among which there existed the future tribunal of Slavic nations, too, and led stur to the realms of Christian idealism. stur's spirit was reanimated. The receptive soil of his mind was enriched with fertility for the germination of his own conceived seed. The Germanic world's new concept of views regarding world history in politics, religion and sociology at this time impressed and inspired stur more strongly than it had heretofore affected any other candidate from Slovak academies. When stur returned to his native land, he returned as a Slav, but foremost as a Slovak returned into the ranks of his confused and puzzled friends and countrymen. He brought radical concepts to the rational school and to liberal life. These concepts characteristically dealt mainly with the Slovak past, present and future, for he brought from Germany a wide and rich source of philosophical and economic knowledge as well as a firm determination to devote his life to the task of national development. stur translated Hegel's philosophy into Slovak only insofar as he accepted his concepts, for stur was a realist in his approaches to the phenomena of life. 11 In his studies at Halle, Germany, stur was also spiritually revived. He left the university imbued with strong tendencies for the policies of Kollar and safarik. He was, however, an ardent Slovak by conviction rather than by accident of birth as was their lot. He was an ardent, tireless worker. The versatility of his talents and the needs of his country brought him to the fore successively as an orator, a writer, a journalist, a politician and a soldier. Both his friends and enemies proclaimed him the most remarkable champion of Slovak rights since the days of Matthew Oak. r.udovit stur is sometimes accused of blindly accepting Hegel's philosophy and applying it to Slovak and Slavic life indiscriminately. It must be remembered, however, that political and national controversy existing at that time made it difficult, if not impossible to evaluate Slovak �30 SLOVAKIA philosophy correctly. Granted that stur manifests a dependance on Hegel and contemporary German philosophers, still to present him in this light alone--as his opponents have done--seems to be a distortion. According to cyzevski, a former professor of Halle, stur and his followers were significant for philosophic thought in general. He goes on to say that stur's generation included several thinkers who tried to create their own philosophical system, and who in these times, excelled among all Slovanic nations in originality of thinking in philosophy. cyzevski elucidated his point in the scholarly book Stur's Philosophy of Life in which he clearly points out that stur was not a simple student and advocate of Hegel's philosophy, but that he formed his own independent philosophical system, one which in many ways differed from Hegel's. cyzevski refutes the charge that: 1. stur was a simple student of Hegel's; 2. that his philosophical views were those of contemporary romantic philosophy. stur differed from Hegel in his approach to life's phenomena which he found realistic. Prior to his studies at Halle, stur had cultivated genuine national convictions which were anchored upon Herder's humanistic thought together with messianic dreams that were to glorify the future of the Slavs. These convictions enabled him to take a critical stand in regard to some of Hegel's ideals though he held Hegel in high esteem. On the other hand, Hegel's dynamic view of history matched stur's ideas and provided a justification of his thoughts concerning the Slavic world, especially his views of the historical development of the world history of nations comprising the Slavic world. Because of the influences of the Kollar-Herder conceptions of the historical mission of the Slavs, stur did not fully agree with Hegel in his concept of the absolute States of Germany and Prussia, for in these Hegel saw the completion of historical development. From the viewpoint of theology stur here saw in Hegel's philosophy definite dangers of pantheism. An authentic view of stur's attitude toward Hegel's philosophy is best provided from a personal letter which he wrote to Samo Bohdan Hrobon. In it he quotes from Hrobo:n's poem, in which he sees or perceives from a religious viewpoint, the shortcoming of Hegel's philosophy: �SLOVAKIA 31 Povez mi pisani! kde hledat spaseni? Na svete marnem, cili v pravde vecne? Cili v kouzelne prajine zpomneni? Cili v krase, lasce nekonecne ... ? Ach kam jsi zmisel svete me mladosti? Kam se rozplynul Buh otec milosti? Nenit ho vice! Usychejte kvety! Dechnite duse! do propasti svety! Nebot jiz umrel ten zakon vecnosti, Ze vlas sa nehne bez povedomosti. Tell me, 0 Poet, where to seek salvation? In the temporal world or in eternal truth? In the respective countries' pulpits? In beauty, in undying charity ... ? 0 where has disappeared the world of my youth? Where has vanished God the Father of Mercy? He is no longer? 0 wither away, ye flowers! Die, ye souls! until the world's end! Fear not for eternal laws have decreed That not a hair shall move without His knewing. 12 Hrobofl's next poem is encouraging and indicates that the religious home training and strength of Slavic convictions are more forceful than Hegel's philosophical doctrines: Zijet duse ma a zit bude vecne jit zadna bure, zaden boj nezlomi prave ponad ni s tisicmi hromy Jako stin lahky v uzase preleti mec obosecny Hegelove vedy. Duse ma citem plamennym roztopi Mee ten, do prichu padne zahanbeny. Mee ten v nicote jak stin se rozplyne Pred bleskom vecnym bozskeho nadseni! Antheus slaviansky Herkula porazi! My soul lives and will live forever Neither revolutions nor war shall ever break its spirit Directly above myriads of thunderbolts it soars, �32 SLOVAKI A Like a thin wall will crumble in confusio n The two-edge d sword of Hegel's doctrine. My soul senses a burning flame within it Melting away that sword that must fall in dust and shame As a wall crumblin g in disgrace, Before the divine lightning of eternal elan With which the Slavic Antheus Will destroy a vaunting Hercules . Both poems bear heavily the weight of tension and conflict which the sturists experienc ed because of their selective ness in analyzing and sponsori ng aspects of Hegel's philosoph y. In the first poem, stur expressly discourag es the publicizi ng of the new philosop hy for fear that the time is not right and many may be complete ly misled by Hegel. He advocate d that his followers benefit by the worthy gifts of the great mind of Hegel and accept his philosoph y only with due reservati ons; that they revamp it to meet the need of the Slavs. stur emphasiz ed the inevitabl e depth of philosoph ical studies to which Slavic youth would have to devote itself. Moreove r, he took a critical stand and used the German philosop hic system modified accordin g to his views regarding Slavdom and moral principle . Hegel's philosoph ical view became an impetus to stur in his compilat ion and formulat ion of lectures on Slavic history and poetry .13 In 1840 stur returned from Halle to Bratislav a where he was assigned to the chair of Slovak Studies in Language and Literatur e, succeedin g Palkovic in this post. Adequate ly to understa nd the nature of this assignme nt, it is importan t to realize the kind of world in which he was to teach. To say that it was riddled with rank feudalism is all too simple a generaliz ation. Far truer it is to realize that stur came to a land where the Slovaks were held in abyssmal serfdom, in an invincibl e vise of economic , moral, intellectual, spiritual and national bondage. It was the kind of situation in which misery bred misery, usually in such forms as alienatio n, alcoholis m, desperati on, extreme dehumaniz ation of the individua l and loss of personal dignity. �SLOVAKIA 33 - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - Unmitigated serfdom was reducing the Slovak into stultified begger stricken with hunger and penury. Denied schooling and spiritual enlightenmen t he was all too readily becoming a prey to superstitious folly and to grossness. The three-fourths who lorded it over the onefourth that was condemned to pay all the land truces ever collected in the region saw to it that their victims had no outlook at all for better things to come-either economically or intellectually or in anyway whatever. The Slovak element enjoyed no public community life as such and even though some attempts had been made to root cultural interests and to rouse the people to national life (such as the organizations at Trnava, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Budapest), they were doomed to short-term existence for lack of material support. As a result, Slovak life became necessarily circumscribed to the primitive pattern of the familial unit highlighted with such events as christenings, weddings and funerals. Though the Slovak labored unstintingly, he was not given the joy of benefiting by the fruits of his soil. When stur surveyed this situation on his return from Germany, he was forced to recognize this herd of subjugated beggars as his own people committed to mere animal existence, and all his nobility of soul rose in revolt at such inhumanity of man to man. But an emotional responses alone was no solution to the problem. He set himself to explore underlying causes, mainly the attitudes of the people themselves, their thinking, their social structures, their training and development, their milieu from small dimensional areas to the broad perspectives of the Austro-Hung arian domain. Aware of the need for incentives for self-improvem ent, and realizing that the most effective incentive of all is man's conviction that he is a being of value and dignity, his own consciousnes s of self, stur readily understood what his main teaching role would be to raise a new generation for Slovakia. He devoted himself completely to the enlightenmen t of his people and never in the least deviated from this objective. Under his aegis there was a vital burgeoning of new life among Slovaks of the younger element. He led the �34 SLOVAKIA young to new founts of elemental truth and saving virtue. His personality readily put him into the forefront as an inspired leader as his peers at Bratislava extolled him for his idealistic elan as well as his admirable self-discipline, his moral charm and his firmness directed first of all toward himself and secondly toward others. Impressed by the spirit of stur, Joseph Hurbl!Il who was a close collaborator wrote at this time: "We must challenge youth to difficult moral endeavors and teach the young to be concerned about the future. We must offer them stur as their paragon." Influences of the Industrial Revolution as well as effects of the national revolutions in France and in the United States were not lost upon young men and women of the day. Innovations were rampant on the air-romanticism, humanism, realism, revolution, criticism, democracy, Pan-Slavic romanticism, and a steady stream of trends and thoughts swept in upon maturing minds. stur observed it all and amid all of it mourned the divisive tendencies that tended to break the nation into two camps: the Catholics and the Lutherans and only bred new disadvantage. With clear vision he wrote in his book N drecie ("Dialect"): "There must be an end to this kind of partisanship; we must effect brotherly unity." Also "Our entire Slovak family will be united in a common speech and after centuries of fragmentation and coldness the members of one family will recognize each other and greet each other and embrace." The work of stur, however, soon evoked harsh Magyar resistance and this alerted him to the reality that it was not possible to wait for the younger generation to carry on toward brighter ideals; the need was immediate; the solution had to be effected now. His efforts for political support were fruitless. Every country from which he could have expected help was interested in pursuing its own advantage rather than in relieving the plight of another. His last resort was to exploit-in the best sense of the word-the very language of his people. By establishing a standarized form of written expression he sought to bring about one unifying element for all the nation, one bond to give to all the Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 35 a sense of one-ness, and through this medium to reach into the broader spectrum of unified national consciousness and national thought. He was convinced that given one common treasure to cherish and defend, they would be ever ready to defend it, and in this very effort, they would preserve their national being; without such a common objective they could readily lose even their national identity. Their common language would be their talisman. To implement this idea stur collaborated with Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza as early as 1843. All three were agreed that the dialect of the central regions would lend itself best as the basis for a standard Slovak literary medium. Bernolak's earlier (1787) experiments with a literary standard on the basis of western dialects had been effective to degree but not wholly successful. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Bernolak's ideas and efforts were in advance of his times. Perhaps it was because the western dialects were not the happiest choice he could have made for a common medium. Perhaps it was due also to the fact that traditionally the Catholic segment of Slovak people was ardent in promoting the Slovak cause while at the same time the Evangelical Slovaks promoted the Czech language and culture inasmuch a.s Czech had been adopted as the official liturgical language of the Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, Palkovic in 1831-32 translated and published the entire bible into Bernolak's new medium, and the renowned poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) wrote all his masterly works in the newly codified Slovak literary standard. It is understandable then, that Stu.r's innovative effort was not readily endorsed even by his own Evangelical critics. In 1840 an open assault on the Slovaks was made at the General Assembly of the Lutheran Church. Count Charles Zay, their Inspector-General and some leading laymen proclaimed racial apostasy as a duty which the Slovak Lutherans owed to their fatherland and their religion. They maintained that since "the Magyar language is the truest guardian and protector of the liberty of our country, of Europe, and the Protestant cause, it follows that Magyarization is the duty of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence." There followed a series of �36 SLOVAKIA attempts to ostracize the Slovak language from Lutheran Synods and presbyteries. Kossuth who was one of the elders of the Church and a Slovak renegade spoke publicly in favor of the abolition of all existing Slav societies in Lutheran schools. One such society at Levoca had already been suppressed, "as a breeding ground for Pan-Slavism," its library was closed and its president, ~udovit stur, was deprived of his post at the gymnasium.14 Magyarized Slovak overlords, noblemen and landlords untiringly sought to Magyarize the Slovaks, even imposing punishment on those who refused to be enticed into the Magyarized camp. Archbishop Patatic from Kolac, gave each of the subjects twelve sticks to beat up anyone who dared to speak in Slovak. It was publicly proclaimed that the Slovaks and their language must be exterminated.15 Convinced as s tur was, however, of the greater objectives to be attained, he pressed forward with his new venture. Youth groups espoused the cause very readily and this support augured well for the future. In 1844 Hurban's second volume of the annual Nitra appeared in the new literary standard and in the same year Hodza established the society Tatrin which officially recognized the new literary standard and at once put it to use in the publication of educational books, monographs and instructional pamphlets for the general public. Within two more years there appeared stur's political journal (three times a week ) Slovenske Ndrodne Noviny with its literary supplement Orol Tatransky. All these projects notably strengthened the newly devised Slovak literary form of expression and assured its permanent adoption. sT-0-R'S SEARCH FOR A SLOVAK LITERARY MEDIUM Its Effectiveness in Unifying Slovakia Slovak life was now assuredly given expression through the Slovak language. stur maintained that it could not be otherwise and the years have borne witness to his judgment. The task was demanding but largely because the ground for the identity of the new generation was properly prepared. stur not only understand existing conditions in Slovakia, he formulated, what the nation �SLOVAKIA a7 felt, what the nation needed. He gave expression to the righteous desires and demands of his Slovak nation and became its model of an inspired leader devoted to spiritual and public activity. 16 sttir's call for further action was answered by Sladkovic, Chalupka, Botto, Hurban and countless others who felt that the proper course had been taken in establishing their literary language. Even the Lutherans finally accepted the Central Slovak dialect as a form of Slovak expression touched by foreign influence of one kind or another. On this matter the Slovaks had been merely sorely split in the past but now there promised to be a common unity to face the momentous events which were to follow. The work initiated by Bernolak was completed by sttir. Even John Holly, the greatest Slovak poet and ideologist of his nation gave sttir his blessing in this venture. sttir and his collaborators found the Slovak language and literature an invaluable instrument for advancing all their endeavors especially in rousing the nation to selfconsciousness. They studied its historic past and revealed it to the people who knew little or nothing about their historic origins and so had little impulse for experiencing pride of nation. They wanted to lift up the people from poverty and abandonment, so they enlightened and trained the general public.17 sttir can rightly be called the reformer of literary Slovak. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically because they became qualified and fired to forthcoming uprisings and events that had trans-European reverberations. A new era unfolded in Slovak cultural and national life when sttir adopted aesthetic and philosophical principles in his literary school. At this point romanticism and nationalism were pactically identical. sttir's cultural activities were timely in Western and Central Europe where national consciousness, popular art, and folklore were the order of the day. In this climate sttir successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities, which marked a new era in �38 SLOVAKIA Slovak national life. The members of this school "imposed the most exacting task on themselves in order to elevate the Slovak people to the same cultural level as the rest of Europe, to release their creative energies and to enable a new national culture to arise from the existing popular art and language. 18 sttir and his school were imbued with objectives directed towards specific social goals. Hence the literature which they created echoed not only a melancholy restlessness and romantic involvement but also the call for a better world. In 1842 a petition signed by two hundred Slovaks led by their clergymen was submitted to the Emperor in Vienna. The only outcome of this effort was that is provoked Kossuth to charge Superintendent Jozeffy and his colleague Hodza with betraying the Magyar cause and the Protestant religion. Both men were publically embarrassed and howled down. By contrast, two voices were raised in defense of the Slovaks, those of Count John Mailath, Catholic historian of Hungary, and Count Stephen Szechenyi who stated in a public address to the Academy that he hardly knew a Magyar who "is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our nationality and language is raised." He begged his compatriots to "do as you would be done by." But the day on which 'the greatest magyar' and his fellow-magnate entered these protests, the popularity of the two Counts began to fail; the frenzy of Kossuth, voiced in his brilliant and aggressive organ Pesti Hirlap, carried all before it. As early as 1842, Kossuth declared in one of its issues: "Indeed, indeed I tell you, a Slovak nation has never existed even in a dream." In 1843 he boasted of his glowing love for his nation as the only one in Hungary which has any future based upon politics or law. 19 The argument of the German people, Herrenfolk: "We must be masters in our own house," was already applied in the "forties" by Magyars to the "foreign inhabitants" of Hungary. At this critical time the Slovaks found three leaders, �SLOVAKIA 39 full of courage and self-sacrifice, r.udovit stur, Michael Hodza and Joseph Hurban. All three happened to be Slovak Lutherans, courageous enough to agree in favor of the central dialect of the Slovak language for essentially political reasons. This dialect was a unifying factor which they believed would help strengthen their position in the struggle against the Magyars and Magyarones. The Slovaks could no longer stand this type of op-pression. They appealed to King Ferdinand in Vienna. He in turn said to them: "Every nation in Hungary should educate and develop itself according to law and justice and develop its national language as much as possible. The highest power will not object to this, but rather aid it in its endeavor." The Slovak delegation returned home very hopeful. But at home disappointments and hardships awaited them, because the King's words fell on deaf ears and did not phase the Magyars. 20 In 1844 stur was dismissed from his post at the Bratislava College as Deputy Professor, because he resisted Count Zay's plans for Magyarization through the school. Yet stur continued to express his thoughts in writing in the newspaper he published, "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske Narodne Noviny"). The permission for the editing of this paper was given by the Hungarian government after an interim of four years. In this paper he resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The joy was great in Slovakia. Most of the Slovaks realized the importance of this news media, and at what price it was made possible. When it was first issued the people rejoiced in diverse ways to express their appreciation of its accomplishment. The supplement to the "Slovak National News" was "Orol Tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle") which was a power to be reckoned with. This newspaper was both instructive and amusing. It found favor with all classes of people, and reached all strata of the populace. stur's program was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due. He voiced his opinions in regard to the shortcomings of his people and denounced their delinquencies. �40 SLOVAKIA The papers served their mission well for three years, uniting, teaching, exhorting and encouraging the people during the most stirring time of Slovak history. His exhortations today are as timely as they were in 1845: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak country-men. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the whole, than of the individual and even though individuals harm us, the cause itself does not do so, but with us thus far, it has been that individuals offended by our people immediately abandoned the cause itself ... " 21 The Magyars came to realize what great influence the new publications were effecting on the Slovak people and began to clamor for the immediate suppression of this press. But the embe:rlS had been stirred. Much of the purpose of the publications had already been achieved. The Slovaks were finally reawakened nationally. In 1847, stur was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a deputy for the town of Zvolen, Naturally he had limited influence since he was the only Slovak deputy in the House. However, his speeches reveal that he was an enlightened fighter for freedom and social reform, one who demanded equal rights for all nationalities in Hungary, in cultural and political life. He repeatedly insisted that the Diet adopt laws to free the peasant masses from a feudalistic Robot system and labor rent, and that the culture of the people and country be promoted by the establishment of schools in the national tongues of the people. Among other things he demanded the industrialization of Slovakia and the adoption of humanitarian laws between the gentry and the working class. One of the main topics of Stu.r's speeches was the obsolete social and political structure of Hungary. He was all for a federalistic system of government which would give equal justice to all peoples. He advocated that special efforts be made to develop the State in new social and political reforms, and to make it a partner of modern Europe. In creating their political program, stur and his followers, took into consideration not only their aims and desires, but also the existing circumstances. One was the fact that Slovakia was a part of the Hungarian state �SLOVAKIA 41 in which it did not constitute a distinctive separative administrative unit. The Slovaks were not planning to break away from Hungary. What they wanted most of all was to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands defined so that the Slovak people might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars in Hungary. This equality they urged was to apply in all areas of political, social and especially in cultural life. They intended to present these petitions to the Emperor and the Parliament but first they wished to have the endorsement and the views of the Slovak people regarding their aims and their achievements. In May of 1848 they met at the parsonage of Michael Hod.za in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas where they drew up a form for Slovakia's future political program called: "Petitions of the Slovak Nation." 22 Its Contribution Towards a Pan-Slavic Movement Stu.r's role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language was significant and far-reaching. His great efforts to this direction contributed greatly even to modern Slovak ideology. It was he who first gave to his people a new vision of political freedom and of a better future. stur provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general by his own example, and by his writings embracing fields as diversified as poetry, philosophy, history, sociology, etc. From his correspondence one learns that he had direct relations with the leaders of all Slavic peoples. During his stay in Vienna he came in contact with other Slav representatives: The Slovene Stanko Vraz, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working together and made a joint visit to the Imperial Court. stur's reforms of the literary language also brought about the unity of the Slovak people and this, in turn, was followed by flourishing cultural and literary activities. His influence was so vital that some of his principles and ideology still lives in the cultural life of Slovakia.23 The lyrical element is strong in Stu.r's poetry and prose. He passed from the sphere of the personal and social into national and Slavic thought in all his works. The soul of the nation--or of the Slavs-was his �42 SLOVAKIA constant subject. He concentrated on the pain of the nation's sufferings, struggles, and failures and this theme pervades the climate of his literary works. stur and his followers were gifted with keen insight into existing social problems and this vision they combined with the romantic inheritance of deep attachment to their country, its people and to the Slavic world at large. They did their utmost to advocate and to provide democratic enlightenment for the unpriviledged classes, viz. the peasants and workers. They defined, encouraged and glorified their importance, as they glorified the Slavs and all their past. One of stur's followers, Samo Tomasik, composed the Slav anthem, "Hej, Slovania," which bespoke new hope, a new ideal and a great pride comparable to that expressed in Vajansky's famous verse: I am proud to be a Slovak Elegant is my race; A hundred million souls it numbers, Over half the world it rules. With the Slovak tongue you can traverse The four parts of the earth! One of my brothers plants the palm Another does eternal iceland scan A third skims o'er the widespread seas! From the phantasy which Kollar inspired as the great dream of one great Slav nation and one unified Slav language, the Slovaks, as Hans Kohn agrees "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indeitructibility of the Slovak people and language," and it helped to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. 24 stur's contemporaries indicated their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Croatian and Serbian authors in the original and were very fond of the famous "Ode to Youth" by Mickiewicz. According to Bobek: "Not even the Poles received it as enthusiastically as the Slovaks." The desire of the Slovak poets and novelists of stur's time was to imitate other Slav writers, and their enthusiastic belief in one "slavic" culture was intense. �SLOVAKIA 43 Cizevsky maintains: "The only book which shows similarities with Mickiewicz's "Book of the Polish Pilgrimage" is $tur's work "An Ancient and a New Age of Slovaks" ("Stary a novy vek Slovakov") because $tur speaks of another kingdom and of other peoples. However, $tur deviates, because he wanted to unfold a realistic program, and Mickiewicz's Book could not satisfy him. $tur's position among Slav intellectuals of the nineteenth century is well attested among other various media by his rich correspondence with practically all oustanding Slavic leaders of the day also the fact that his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" was translated and twice published by Russian intellectuals in the last century and at the beginning of this century. $tur, Kollar and $afarik can rightly be regarded as great figures of the Slavic world to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century. All three expressed: "in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future , in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind which would establish forever a basis of liberty, peace and happiness." In visualizing the Slavs as a unified body with a great future, they helped the awakening of the national consciousness of their own Slav-speaking peoples.25 :CUDOVi T $ TOR'S ROLE IN THE PAN- SLAVIC MOVEMENT His Political and Social Thought Slovakia is sometimes called the mother of the PanSlavic Movement. One of her sons, John Herkel, first used the word "pan,slavic" in his Latin treaties of 1826. In addition, the Slovak poet Jan Kollar and the Slovak scholar P. J. $afarik were among the main leaders of the Pan-Slavic Movement. As a matter of fact these two are sometimes considered the fathers of Pan-Slavism in Slovakia. Herder, in his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity" ("Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte") prophesied that the Slavs, who up until then were held in bondage and oppression, would awaken from their lethargy and free themselves from the shackless, and eventually recover their possesion of the vast lands that �44 SLOVAKIA stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic, from the Don to the Mulda. In this heritage they would devote themselves to the peaceful development of the arts and commerce. Though unknowingly, Herder sowed the first germ of Pan-Slavtsm. 26 stur's significance in the Slavic world of this calibre was assessed by Seton Watson. In regard to the great literary efforts of stur, Hurban and safarik, Seton-Watson states: "their writings were of capital importance in the whole Slav revival of the last century, and form a strange sentimental link between the Western romantic school and the extravagancies of Pan-Slavism." In reference to the first Slav Congress in Prague in 1848 Seton-Watson maintains that stur "played a decisive part in the preparation for the Congress." safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza played a part second to none except Palacky at that same Congress. An analysis is in order in regard to these two opinions to determine stur's significance in the Pan,Slavic Movement. As early as 1840, stur had recourse to the throne of Austria and there presented his petitions in regard to the injustices perpetrated by Hungary against the Slovak people. He formally presented his petitions to the Hungarian Assembly. It embodied these provisions for the betterment of the Slav situation: 1) A systematic investigation of the Slovaks who were maligned by the Magyars in order to obtain protection for the oppressed; 2) that there be two censors to safeguard Slovak official writings; 3) that a Slovak literary seat be established at the Bratislava Lyceum and at Pest University; 4) that certificates and church records be kept in Latin; 5) that church ceremonies be in the mother tongue and that every guarantee and assurance be provided for this practice. The country was up in arms because the Slovaks dared to present their cause to the throne. Voluble insults were heaped upon the Slovaks in the newspapers, at gatherings, etc. Those who aided the Slovaks or sympathized with their cause were also abused. 27 It was at this point that ~udovit stur asked for permission to publish his "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske �SLOVAKIA 45 Narodne Noviny"). Archprince Joseph retorted by saying: "The Slovaks do not need newspapers. The publishing of such newspapers would be considered traitorous." It was the consensus in 1840 that Austria would lean on the Slovaks for political reasons, that is Slavic Austria, against Hungarian Austria (Magyar). But in Hungary Archduke Joseph had the upper hand and things were shaped his way. He even had control over the deputation of Slovak Pest in Church matters. At this point he is to have said: "In Hungary I know only one people and those are the Magyars. " 28 The phantom of Pan-Slavism repeated its threat in 1830 when Russia established a Slovak literary seat at its university. The young Russian Slavists began to visit the Slavs in the South as well as in Central Europe. For the ensuing years the word Pan-Slavism had political connotation for the Russian and Germanic nations implying a belligerent attempt to replace their civilization with the Slavic civilization. The connotation derived largely from the subjugated position of the various Slavic nations at this time. In Vienna the guards were ordered to stress in each paragraph of the law of magyarization that every sermon in Slovak churches be preached in Magyar and in even remote towns and villages there was a strong ban against Pan-Slavism of any kind. "In our country and near its borders," wrote Wessel, in Kossuth's newspaper, Hirlap, December, 1842, "Slovak mistakes are dangerous and a threat to all Europe and to our dynasty and country . .. " "Everyone who defies our Magyar language and our nationalism and who supports the mistakes of the Slovaks knowingly or unknowingly is an enemy to the peace and to our federation, and to our throne." 29 stur did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarian State. As long as there was any hope for a settlement with the Magyars, he was amenable to living with a fair situation. But he warned the ruling Magyar class that they could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of the lesser peoples and exploit the Slovaks and other nations of Hungary without expecting them to retaliate and to demand a free national life, just as the Magyars were themselves demanding it from the Hapsburg Empire. �46 SLOVAKIA stlir wrote a sensational article "Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary" ( ~aloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku") published in Leipzig in 1843, in which he reprimanded the chief Inspector, Count Zay, for conniving to Magyarize the Slovaks for political reasons. Count Zay felt that he was truly aware of the political currents in Slovakia. By a logic all his own, he divided the Slovaks into three groups. One was to be concerned about literary matters. The second was eager to establish a Western-Slav kingdom in Austria; the third was accused of secret contacts with Russia. 30 It is uncertain whether these three groups were fully aware of the gravity of the situation of those times; however, all had one goal in mind: to save the Slovaks from utter Magyarization and to secure for the Slovak nation its independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. "We do not want our rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of justice," stlir declared. These famous words laid the foundation to all petitions and demands presented in Vienna and at the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava. stlir's debates with Kossuth all stemmed from this moral and democratic attitude. On behalf of his nation stlir demanded "peace based on justice and mutual understanding." He went on to say: "In the Pesti Hirlap Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he wants to give the orders to investigate and punish those who stand up for the rights . . . That is his freedom and liberalism." 3 1 All of Stu.r's writings indicate a clear political view: Slovakia established as a sovereign crown land under the Hapsburgs, an equal partner of other nations in the Empire. In short, he was even back in his own day for a program of the federalization of Central Europe. In a sense stlir appeared as a Romantic visionary in the eyes 0f all who did not favor Slavic reciprocity or his vision of a great future for the Slavic world, his untiring demands for equal rights for the Slovak people and their national independence which he formulated in the following terms: "Each nation is only one part of humanity, and no �SLOVAKIA 47 nation can make for itself the claim that it alone attained the best possible human evolution and degree of perfect ability. Thereafter, no nation has a right to impose upon another nation its way of life when that nation wants to move for itself and educate itself as it sees fit. "So that we Slovaks might be revived and assume in history that place which is rightfully ottrs by reason of our native strength and abilities we must once and for all free ourselves, because a nation which is enslaved has its hands bound, its spirit stifled, and is forever threathened with danger that sooner or later it will perish." 32 The year 1848 was ushered in as a promising one, but before long it became stormy. The more the Magyars spoke of freedom, the more tyranically did they suppress all non-Magyars. They did their utmost to turn public opinion against the Slovaks. Wessel wrote to Kossuth that he would rather have 50,000 Germans settle the mountain countries than 10,000 Slavs. Once again intolerance charged all the climate. At this point, Pan-Slavism evolved as a defensive movement among the Slavs rather than as a political movement aimed at replacing western dominance in Europe. The term "Pan-Slavism" has been used generally to denote the historical tendency of the Slavic peoples to manifest in their tangible way, either cultural or political, their consciousness of ethnic kinship. Cultural Pan-Slavism had its origin in the remarkable national awakening of the Slavs at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Submerged for long centuries under cruel masters, the Slavs were quickened to a renewal of awareness of their national identities, not by political leaders, but by their cultural leaders. These Slavs realized how they had been deprived of their national identity. They nourished better hopes for the future by seeking to reanimate the faded memories of a glorious past. In this effort they discovered that they were brothers bound by a common misfortune yet endowed with a vast cultural heritage. 33 Slavic men of learning helped to initiate national �48 SLOVAKIA movements among their countrymen primarily in order to establish the individuality and cultural worth of each Slavic group: Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs and Russians. The various romantic movements were propagated in individual ways and degrees yet through them the ideal of Slavic unity, which had been lost in the past by foreign oppression, was to be resurrected with the surmounting and overthrow of that oppression. Pan-Slavism as a cultural and even as a political ideal evolved not in Russia, but rather among the Western and Southern Slavs, who had far more need of unity than did the mighty Russian Empire. This stage of Pan-Slavism signaled the national awakening of central and eastern Europe, and was characterized by interest and emphasis within the areas of language, literature, and culture. Among the Slavic peoples many had experienced a thousand years of injustice and mistreatment which yielded an unhealthy state of discouragement and stagnation. Now in the hour of their national awakening, the Slovak people seek to forgive their cruel masters rather than to avenge themselves. This attitude was shaped by the acute yearning they bore for the selfdetermination of their country. As much as they decried the enslavement of other nations, they would not permit another to enslave them. The literary and scientific Pan-Slavism of Kollar and ::;afarik created a powerful national spirit among the Slavs. Then it became only natural that this desire for national unity and selfdetermination should demand to be heard and to begin to be realized within the context of political Pan-Slavism. It moved in this direction under I.:udovit ::;tur who perceived by what stages Pan-Slavism must go. He foresaw that to achieve their glorious destiny, the Slavic peoples had to attain an assured measure of political unity. At this point political Pan-Slavism had two alternatives: Austroslavism, which meant retaining a form of Austrian political influence, for which ::;tur was ready to settle when he advocated it at the Prague Congress in 1848, the first great manifestation of Pan-Slavism and of Slavic identity, apart from the Hapsburg rule, and Pan-Russianism which ::;tur adapted after the failure of the Prague Congress.34 �SLOVAKIA 49 As Magyar exploitation of the Slovaks and other minority nations of Hungary continued, stur's admonitions to the ruling powers fall on deaf ears. The Magyars stubbornly and universally refused to heed any demands for redress of any kind of settlement with the non-Magyar nations in Hungary. This attitude helped to precipitate the revolution of 1848-49, in which the Slovaks also participated. stur together with Hodza and Hurban led an armed resistance force supporting Austria against the revolution of the Magyar aristocrats. That the Hapsburgs were forgetful of this effort and ungrateful to the Slovaks, that they finally settled with the Magyars at the expense of the non-Magyar nations of Hungary, did not help the issue of the dissatisfied minorities. The settlement of 1867, referred to as Austro-Hungarian but being in reality Austro-Magyar, became the burial pit of the monarchy which could have become a mighty confederation in Central Europe. It was I.:udovit stur and not the Slovak Magyar chauvinist, Louis Kossuth, who was the genuine democrat. 35 No setback dismayed stur completely or caused him to lose heart. Under opposition and failure he tended to redouble his energy. stur was the heart, Hodza the brain, and Hurban the soul of the revolutionary movement. They set themselves anew to collect funds, provide weapons, organize a volunteer corps, choose trained soldiers to lead them, financially aid patriots who were in prison and conduct a vast correspondence. Though defeated and betrayed in the outcome by Vienna, the Slovak revolution of 1848-49 marked an important milestone in Slovak history. The first large public manifestation of the Sl0vaks occured on May 10, 1848 at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. On this occasion a historic memorandum embracing six articles expressing the demands of the people was adopted unanimously. In substance these articles were: We demand that our people be permitted to· take part in the legislative deliberations of the land, and this not only de jure but de facto. And as such participation can alone become real and profitable when conducted in a language that is intelligible to us, we ask for our representatives the right to speak Slovak in the Diet. �50 SLOVAKIA We demand the right to plead and answer cases in the courts of law in Slovak. We demand that the school training of our youth, which is now so woefully neglected, be conducted in the mother tongue. We demand just and equitable representatives in the Diet. We demand for ourselves, and shall forever ask that our nationality, which we will never renounce, remain inviolate and inviolable. We demand that this petition be made known within the entire juristiction of Hungary, in Croatia, and Slavonia and be brought to the notice of the viceroy and of the Hungarian ministry, to the end that all friends of liberty and humanity may plead our just cause.36 Open-air meetings were held in larger towns throughout all regions during the spring of 1848. Equality and liberty, the maintenance and defense of the Slovak language were the keynote of them all. The Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas program was endorsed by a dozen towns supplemented here and there with petitions to meet subordinate local needs. Swiftly spread the news that Louis Phillipe had forfeited his crown to the French republicans, in 1848, anfi it reached every corner of the Hapsburg monarchy. Vienna was seething with political excitement. Prague was in feverish anticipation of the approaching Slavic Congress scheduled to meet there on June 2, in protest against the bartering of Slavic Austria to Greater Germany. stur went to Vienna after the March Revolution. There he met other Slav representatives, especially Ban Jelacic and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working hand in hand and paid joint visits to the Imperial Court. At this early stage of developments, stur received an invitation from the students at Prague which he accepted and through which he played a decisive part in the preparations for the Slav Congress. On April 30, he made a strong appeal in favor of united common action between the Slovaks and the Czechs. For the time being, at least, there was a healing of the breaches and disagreements.37 �SLOVAKIA 51 A manifesto program which was initiated by Hurban, was issued at Teplice in the name of the Slovaks as the original occupants of this region. It was addressed simultaneously to the Crown and to the newly-formed national government at Pest. Its main demand was that there be convened a General Parliament for the brother nations of Hungary. Precipitously, any further movement in this direction was promptly suppressed by the Magyar authorities. Kossuth thundered against the Pan-Slavs in Parliament. Hurban and a few others were obligated to flee and they joined stur in an attempt to rouse Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia to common action, and acclaimed Prague as the heart of tl<le Slavic world. Meanwhile, Hodza issued a small book in German, presenting an answer to the Slovaks to Count Zay and his summons that a choice be made between Magyarizations and the Russian knout. Hodza's fiery response was: "Rather the Russian knout than Hungarian domination, for the one can only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death." 36 The time was ripe for action by the Slavs. stur proclaimed a Slavic Congress and agreed with Czech writers to set the date for May 31, 1848. Prague was chosen for the site of the Congress. A total of 362 delegates were present representing various Slavic nations, especially those under the Hapsburg rule, but the Poles and the Russians were also represented. The express objective 1tf the meeting was the establishment of contacts and regular exchanges among the Slavic peoples and the drawing up of a program of action for all peoples living as subject nations under Austria and/ or Hungarian domination. The four Slovak leaders-safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza-played a part second to none. They were determined to make Slovakia an equal with Bohemia and Moravia, as part of a Czech-Slav federal unit, such as Palacky had contemplated. At this Congress stur offered a program for federalizing Central Europe. The Czech were consistent supporters of Austroslavism. Consequently the problem came to be narrowed down to a definition of terms: The objectives of the Congress was either to save Austria, for with her lay the best chances of maintaining Slavic identity, or �52 SLOVAKIA immediate prov1s10n for the Slavic peoples living under Austria. stur made it clear, that his aim was not specifically to preserve Austria, under whom the Slavs had hitherto rotted, but to preserve his own people; Austria, he added, was decrepit and lay under a curse. He went on to say: Our aim should be to save ourselves, not to save Austria. First we must work for ourselves, then for others. Thus far Austria has been flourishing but we have been languishing. What would the world say to us if we stood for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us say that we want to stand as independent Slovanic communities under the government of Austria . . . this will give our work a genuinely Slovanic accent ...39 stur felt that the program of the Congress should be: 1) the creation of independent Slavic united states within Austria, and 2) prompt agreement to this, so that the Austrian armies might be authorized to destroy Magyar encroachments into Slovakia. stur stressed Slavic independence: "If we are to assume that place in history which rightfully belongs to us by reason of our ability and strength, we must once and for all free ourselves from this intolerable foreign thraldom and gain national independence for ourselves." 40 The necessity of remaining with the Austrian cadre was crystal clear to stur yet he made no secret of his distrust of Austria. The Czechs felt otherwise. Because they had not been mistreated as were the Slovaks under the Magyars, they were willing to accept and abide by the vague promises of the Austrian Emperor that Slavic rights would be recognized and respected. In return for these promises, the delegates of the Congress pledged full support to Austria in her effort to subdue the Magyars. In addition, they adopted a "Manifesto t o the European Nations" which called for the following objectives: 1. That the Slavic people under Turkish rule be freed. 2. That the Magyars acknowledge the rights of the �SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak nation, including the right of its own language. 3. That the Croatian autonomy be maintained. 4. That the Slovenians be permitted to possess their land. 41 sttir felt that the Congress was a failure, because it seemed simply to reduce the Pan-Slavic movement to an attempt to reorganize Austria in a way to satisfy the nationalism of the Slavs. The insurrection of 1848 against the Magyars had also failed. sttir was disappointed to say the least and in the Pan-Slavic Movement was shaken. But he still cherished the hope that Slavic independence would be possible. In his despair and disillusionment, he became almost convinced that a small nation could not attain its freedom alone. Twice he had experienced having his great hopes in behalf of Pan-Slavism shaken. Now only one more possibility remained: alliance or association with Russia, for Russia alone of the Slavic nations was powerful enough to lead others to independence. This conclusion became the basic idea developed in his book, "Slavdom and the World of the Future," a work which extols the cultural, moral and political forces of the Russian Empire. It also presents a detailed program for the union of Slavs under the leadership of Russia. HIS POLITICAL RE-ORIENTATIO N In 1848 and 1849 when the Magyars under Kossuth arose in armed rebellion against Austria, demanding complete independence, the Slovaks braced themselves against a new wave of Magyarization pressures. Led by sttir and his collaborators, they fought in their units with the Austrians and then with the Russian Armies to subdue the Magyar rebels. In return the Slovaks hoped to gain from Vienna recognition of their own national aspirations. Vienna, however, disappointed them and overlooked guaranteeing their rigl;lts against the encroachment of the Magyars. Furthermore, influenced by Kollar, the imperial court used the antiquated Biblical Czech of the Protestants as the official Slovak language in the translation of the laws, for instruction in the schools, and in the newly established newspaper sponsored by the government, �54 SLOVAKIA "Slovak News" ("Slovenske Noviny"), published in Vienna. The fruits of Stu.r's labors seemed doomed and at this point he turned with greater hope to Russia. The Revolution that erupted in Paris in February 1848, and reverberated throughout Europe, encouraged the movement in Hungary. It affected the development of Slovak life and helped to bring the Slav political program to greater maturity. Individual regions of Slovakia rebelled against the imposition of Hungarian as the only recognized legal language and strove to secure sanctions for Slovak as their official language. The native tongue of the Slovak people represented the very survival of Slovakia. stur's basic concept in "Slavdom and the World of the Future" ("Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft") was an exceptional tribute to the cultural, moral and political forces at work within the Russian Empire. This work also included a detailed plan for the union of all Slavs with Russia, "the most complete and consistently developed program for the subjugation of Slavs to Russia," according to Professor Lednicki. stur adopted Herder's and Hegel's ideas which in turn provided the Slavs with a consciousness of unity based upon the communal element of language and a glorious destiny, proclaiming them as the prospective leaders of Europe. stur stressed the belief that the Slavs have a mission to fulfill in universal history, and that this mission can be fulfilled only if they are united. There were three procedures to consider: 1. Slavic federation without Russia. 2. Transformation of Austria into a Slavic federation. 3. Union with Russia as a monarchic empire under Russian leadership, united in the Orthodox Church and the Russian literary language. The first two approached did not appeal to stur's vision gf a Slavic world of the future. Because of geographical features and considerations, internal rivalries, religious and cultural differences, and intermingled nonSlavic elements, any attempt to federalize the Slavic nations at this time seemed doomed to failure. 42 Since the Slavs were to be leaders of the "new" Europe, stur set out to determine whether the Slavs really �SLOVAKIA 55 had a role of their own to fulfill in world history. At this point they were not in position to do anything significant but history was a progression of spent nations being replaced by young one, and stur envisioned a future in which Slavic emancipation would eventually occur. There was no use in looking to the West for support in securing Slovakia's self-determination for, the West was already on the downward path to moral, political and social dissolution. Western civilization had deteriorated, the West itself needed help. Only Slavs could aid the Slavs. stur went on to paint a highly romantic picture of the Slavs, representing them as good at heart, patient, humble, kind and democratic. These were the general characteristics of all the Slavs, but especially of the Russians who were visualized as being at the apex of all the nobles features of the Slavic nations. stur did not know them personally. He had never been in Russia, neither had he any prolonged contact with Russians. He simply claimed that it had to be so logically, since the Russians were the leaders of the Slavs; they had to be the best Slavs. He was convinced too that unity was an absolute necessity if the Slavs were to achieve their historic mission. The only alternative left was union with Russia. 43 "Russia is the prime mover and the leader of our national family. Our people are but a fragment of a single nationality. They can be reborn and united into a single whole only by a elated benevolent and great Power." In stur's mind that power was Russia. "Let us go forth together in the spirit of our own people, under the leadership of the racial elders given to us by history." The Slavist, Professor Petrovich maintains that "The failure of the Slovak revolution and other political demonstrations brought stur to the conclusion that it was u.seless for his people to seek its own freedom alone or in the framework of Austroslavism." 44 This definitive decision on the part of stur amazed contemporary experts in his Slavic world. Yet it is not hard to understand stur's position when one realized the facts with which stur had to live in the 1850's. Since his primary goal was Slavic nationalism, Slavic unity, Russia was the only leader to whom to turn since Austroslavism �56 SLOVAKIA failed. His main objective was the creation of a federation of independent Slavic states under the Russian leadership, the same kind of action he had urged at the Prague Congress in 1848 for Austrian leadership. The Slavic peoples of the Austrian Empire, such as Czechs and Slovaks, and the smaller groups looked more and more toward Russia for help, since they found themselves outnumbered by the ruling Germans and Magyars. A second Pan-Slav Congress met in Moscow in 1867. The Poles were not represented. They considered the Russians their national enemies and oppressors. Russian chauvini&m was apparent throughout the congress. From that time on Russian nationalists wished to use Pan-Slavism as a tool for Russian expansion at the expense of nonRussian Slavs for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Turkish Empire. Both Empires contained large Slavic minorities. The Russian war against Turkey in 1877 was accompanied by Pan-Slavic agitation to liberate the Balkan Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, from the Turkish domination. World War I also started partly because the Russians supported the Slavic Serbs against the Austrian Empire. The fact that Russia herself oppressed several Slavic peoples--the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorussian s -and the fact that the Russian tsarist autocracy was politically and socially backward militated before 1914 against the claim of the Russians to be regarded as the spokesmen of all Slavs.45 All the peoples, with the exception of the Croatians, Slovenians and Serbs were united under Moscow's leadership, and thus many of the extravagant Russian aspirations, voiced during the Pan-Slav Congress in Moscow, in 1867, were fulfilled .46 Stu.r's great dream of a family of Slavic peoples united under Russia may also become a reality -but not under an Orthodox Church as a dedicated community, nor under an enlightened Russian Tsar with humanist and liberal views, nor as a Russian group struggling for the highest ideals of freedom and respect for human beings, as stur wished to see it in his work "Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft" ("Slavdom and the World of the Future"), but under a disastrous �SLOVAKIA 57 policy, the cornerstone of which was laid at Yalta in February, 1945. This policy destroyed Europe's individuality and enlarged the power of the Kremlin, a power that has kept all humanity under constant tension since 1945 and is a threat to the freedom of all the states it has not yet captured. It led to the subjugation of an additional 200 million Europeans. On the soil in Northern, Central and Southern Europe, there arose a new Soviet colonial system. At a time when in the free world, peoples who have never enjoyed self-govenment in the past are gradually attained nationhood and are assisted by the United Nations in the achievement of their rightful aspiration-the exact reverse process has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. 47 ST-OR'S IMPACT ON SLOVAKIA Revival of Slovak National Life stur knew it was imperative that the Slovaks be awakened nationally; otherwise they were doomed as a nation. The nation needed scholars who would delve into antiquity and from the glory of the past raise a national enthusiasm and groundwork on which to build for the future. He assumed the task of providing them. The Slovak historian, Julius Botto, says of stur: "He trained for the Slovak nation energetic, selfless men, genuine national heroes." Since the Slovak gentry continued to yield its national identity and was overshadowed and even absorbed by Magyar influences, the Slovak people became abandoned in the midst of a rising alien nationalism and political transformation. Slovak intellectuals had the vision to realize what was happening and considered it mandatory to take over the culture of the Slovak peasants, middle classes and a sparse number of nationally minded aristocrats and garner from these elements their own national culture and new national consciousness. Without stur's important role in this effort, the Slovaks might now be a forgotten nation. stur successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities in this climate and was successful in �58 SLOVAKIA bringing about a new era of Slovak national life. Since he had a mystical idea of the nation, and respected it as a person, his approach was a philosophical one. Aesthetic and philosophical principles were inaugurated into his literary school and became the foundation of the Slovak nation revival of the nineteenth century. In the past, Slovak national life was little more than a conglomerate of regrets and passive laments, a life of hapless "do nothing." stur set up positive perspectives to create higher cultural and political values and he did not rest until the people were persuaded to adopt these new views. He repeatedly advocated a higher and stronger degree of national pride. He asked the Slovaks not to seek the source of their national pride in foreign gardens since they had it right at home in their midst. stur and his school knew what hopes were directed toward attaining concrete political and social gains; he realized how ready his people were to entertain enthusiasm and spirit for a better world. National and Slavistic themes permeate stur's poetry and prose. The soul of the nation-or of the Slavs-was his constant subject; he was always preoccupied with the nation's sufferings, struggles and failures. These topics are the substance of all his written works. The Slovaks, as Hans Kohn rightly says, "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indestructibility of the Slovak people and language." This thought supported them and enabled them to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. Although stur was not the only leader during the national revival, he embodied more vitally than did the others the true spirit of 1848. In his own right he is called the Daniel O'Connell of Slovak history. At this point is was not only necessary for the Slovak nation to map out definite goals, but it was also imperative to chart the way for coming generations of the Slovak nation in order that this goal might be realized and preserved. The task challenging stur and his followers was very complicated. Besides honoring, they had to find a way and means to discharge all the work before them in a way �SLOVAKIA 59 that would be worthy of scrutiny both in their own day and in the light of history. Much of their work had to be accomplished under duress, when revolutionary forces were mounting, when fierce struggles had to be met to insure national existence and the ennobling of the social stratum of the Slavic people. $tlir's generation had no alternative, but to play the role of a vanguard of the Slovak bourgeoisie which had to be inspired with national consciousness and formed into a worthy class. The group v0luntarily assuming this role is called the $tlir generation; in literature it is called the stur school, since it was Cudovit stur and his group who adopted the traditions of the Bernolakians for the Slovak linguistic cultural and national independence. In short, they gave the Slovak nation both a solid ideology and definite direction under the leadership of Cudovit $tlir.48 Cudovit stur's activities were directed mainly on behalf of his native country, his main interest being the Slovak people caught in an insufferably miserable situation and desperately needing a solution of their problems. He threw all his efforts into achieving a social and national awakening of his people and into raising their standards so that they could be counted as a social and national force. In the memorable Bratislava parliament of 1847, he tangled in a heated discussion with Kossuth. stur declared: "We want freedom. It is easily said that there is plenty of freedom in our homeland: yes, not only an abundance, but even an oversupply of freedom." And he went on to add, "but only the landowner's brand of freedom; for of the real, human and personal freedom there is very little. If our towns had had more freedom, our people would never have fallen into such thraldom." Kossuth's reply to this was: "That cannot be helped; that is the way the world moves. It is the fate of one who stands lower in the community to be suppressed and bear the burden and taxes; on the other hand, the one who comes along better in civic life receives rights and stands in honor. At this time I am opposed to granting towns a vote in our Assembly." stur could not be silenced. Again he met Kossuth in the Hungarian Assembly and said: "Recently when I was �60 SLOVAKIA present here and mentioned the sorrowful plight of the wretched taxpayers, the worthy deputy of Pest County, Mr. Kossuth, saw the hand of fate in the oppression of the people and said that is the way of the world when the lower class is suppressed and the higher class arrogates more rights to itself. I see no hand of fate in the matter, because then the status of the oppressed could never be corrected. We demand freedom in the country and the assignment of urbanial jobs which are not in line with freedom. Does a person who works, who works for the benefit of others and receives contempt instead of reward, have a fatherland? Will such a person become as devoted to his country as he would be to his mother? The sacred cause of mankind challenges us to declare the principle of the liberation of people and honestly bring it into reality. When this redemption is accomplished, the judical power of the landowner and the country gentry must cease, because freedom would not be served if a people liberated from the robot would continue to remain under the staves of the Lords." 49 stur's main aspiration was freedom. If his only achievement had been his effort for the rights of the enslaved and subjugated at the Bratislava Assembly, he would have deserved to be honored among the most distinguished sons of the Slovak nation. But he did not only that but even more and because of this fact he is loved and revered by the Slovak nation. In him were concentrated the cultural and social endeavors of his predecessors, with the strength and courage needed for a living national organization. Without his concentration the pursuits of an independent national culture would have been impossible. His greatest merit lies in the fact that he assumed the historical task of uniting the multi-cultural strength of the Slavs into a national liberation front. A legendary atmosphere was built around the magnetic personality of stur by those who knew him. Around him there crystallized, as it were, a veritable aura of national life as is reported by William Pauliny Toth who said of him : ":Cudovit stur is favored epochally as a created vision in the history of. the Slovak- Nation." 50 �SLOVAKIA 61 Shir in his time understood that the Slovak national process had matured and that Slovakia must appear on the scene of history as an independent political factor. It is in this foresight also that Shir's merit lies. He exemplifies the Slovak national spirit as a man possessed with deep convictions and great strength of will sufficient to execute them. His prime purpose, as we have already mentioned, was to see Slovakia united culturally, politically and socially. We must recall for our own benefit and on behalf of the free world that stur did not hesitate to accept and carry to completion the work of preceding Catholic generations; he was ready to press on in order to preserve the heritage of the Slovak nation, though he was not a Catholic, but a Lutheran and a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church. Contributions as an Energizing Stimulant to Slovak Life in General It can be said with assurance that in the history of the Slovak nation, no individual accomplished as much in so short a time as did :Cudovit stur, who was only forty-one years of age when he died. This was possible only because of the gifts of this phenomenal leader and because of the fact that the ground and the time were ripe for the ascension of a new generation. stur found that he could approve of much that already existed in Slovakia and he was ready to formulate what the nation needed and demanded in his day. One wonders how it was possible at this critical time for a man to dare to undertake structuring a spiritual foundation of modern life for the long slighted and forgotten Slovak people. Though we cannot understand the force that inspired him we can appreciate the phenomenon that in one generation, only one extraordinary person, one :Cudovit stur, appeared as a great leading luminary among approximately two million of his people. It goes without s~ying that the Slovak people are grateful to stur and to those who sacrificed much with him for the Slavic cause. Their work was aimed toward the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life envisioned by genius and inspiration. �62 SLOVAKIA The Slovak nation was not fortunate enough at this time to have a 1,1mg and cherished tradition or the advantage of experienced mature people on which to rely. Over long centuries of oppression under a foreign element, it was their fate to be wholly submissive and in this attitude to develop no leaders. Now they had to rely entirely on comparatively young men for new ideas and new leadership. The Slovak youth was entrusted with the new dawn and to project future goals, because the difficult life of the Slovaks in the past did not allow the elders to foster a strong national life. While many other European nations had their noble classes to fight their battles and to lead them to new eras, the Slovaks had no social upper strata on which to rely for inspiration. Their nobility and their middle class as well were lost by fusion with other elements predominantly Magyar milieu. Slovak national awakening consequently was achieved by the sons of humble people, usually the strong leaders from among the Catholic and Protestant clerical circles. The Slovak language as a literary medium which was chosen by l'..udovit stur and his collaborators was accepted by the Slovak population in 1843. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically by their participation in the uprising in 1848-49. During this revolutionary upheaval they sided with the Emperor in Vienna but were ill-rewarded for their services. Their repeated petitions for self-determination and for guarantees of unhindered cultural development were repeatedly denied them.5 1 In 1867, when the Austrians concluded a dual agreement with the Magyars, the Slovaks were left at the mercy of the Magyars. Under this arrangement, Slovak high schools and cultural organizations were suppressed. Education on an elementary level was permitted in the Magyar language only. Any who dared to resist magyarization were victimized and inprisoned. Thousands of Slovaks found it necessary to leave their native country and migrated to the United States of America. I.:udovit stur and his generation fired the Slovaks with new national life, a clear goal and a firm sense of direction �SLOVAKIA 63 in the spirit of stt1r's slogan: "Backward we cannot go, Forward we must!" "Forward" means to free the people from the yoke of slavery and lead them along the road of independence and true national cultural growth within a truly free country. To achieve this tne Slovak nation needs a political program. The cataclysm of the Revolution of 1848 that struck Europe impelled the Slovaks to develop their political program without further hesitation or delay. The Slovaks reassessed their aims, and aspirations as well as prevailing circumstances. Since Slovakia was part of the Hungarian State, they wished primarily to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands clearly defined in order that they might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars living in Hungary. The Magyars opposed the justified petitions of the Slovak nation. They banned all Slovak assemblies and treated Slovak leaders as traitors deserving imprisonment. When the Slovaks perceived what obstacles their political program met with in Hungary, they resorted to arms against the Magyars who themselves were engaged in a rebellion against the Emperor. The Slovak rebellion in 1848-49 ended indecisively. The Russian army was asked to help subdue the revolting Magyars and absolute rule was imposed in the country. The Magyars were punished and the Slovaks were forgotten. 52 The Slovaks renewed their political activity in 1861. They detailed their principles in newspapers and later called an assembly at Turciansky Sv. Martin where they formulated a renewed Slovak policy within the comprehensive "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation." They asked that the Slovaks be permitted the right to develop their own life without restriction. They asked that they be recognized as a nation by a special proclamation, and that Slovakia constitute a distinctive administrative unit in Hungary. These petitions were submitted to Emperor Franz Josef (1849-1916). The only concession granted to the Slovaks was permission to establish a cultural institute called "Matica Slovenska" ("The Slovak Institute"). They were also allowed to use private funds to build three high schools for the education of Slovak youth. �64 SLOVAKIA The position of the Slovaks grew steadily worse in Hungary. Feeling the pressure of denationalization at every step, they did not stop pledging their allegiance to Hungary. All these attempts even at appeasement proved futile . The Hungarian Parliament passed legislation which suppressed Slovak life yet not even these adversities broke the Slovak nation, for the Slovaks believed "That truth has never yet suffered in vain, nor will our Slovak truth suffer needlessly," according to the prophetic dictum of Andrej Hlinka in 1907 spoken as he was being led to prison.53 $TOR IN CONTEMPORAR Y HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Practicality of Stur's Ideals :r.udovit stur's role in the revival of Slovak national life was far reaching and vitally important. As a reformer of the Slovak literary medium he contributed to modern national Slovak ideology. He gave his people a new perspective and vision of political freedom and of a better future. His writings provided a powerful impetus to Slovak life in general. His manifold contributions to the Slovak national revival were not limited to Slovakia alone, but to the over-all Slavic world, since Slovakia and the Slovak people are a part of the Slavic world. Neither is his greatness only by the role he played at the first Slavic Congress in Prague, but also by his rich correspondence with all outstanding Slavic leaders, as well as his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" which was translated and published twice by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stur's school of thought laid the foundation for the self-determinatio n of Slovakia more than a century ago. Even in the present the Slovaks are building upon this foundation. They will keep on pressing their point and cherishing their hope of success until they do attain complete freedom from all foreign domination. Just as stur had defied and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars and the materialistic philosophy of Marx and Engels, so do they hope in this day to overcome all obstacles to true freedom. �SLOVAKIA 65 The followers of stur made the entire nation their concern. They applied themselves to improve the country's economy; they did their utmost to wipe out alcoholism, indifference, and illiteracy; they labored unceasingly to arouse national consciousness in more ways than one. The people at large responded and co-operated generously when r:,tur began to publish his "Slovenske Narodne Noviny" ("Slovak National News") which had great influence on the thinking of the common people. stur's articles recalled the heritage of the Slovak people, the glory of its language, morals, customs, and its homeland-which unites the nation as a whole and constrains it to press forward towards attaining the goal of unity. It was necessary to make the nation feel that someone was supporting it and was concerned about its welfare. The people had to be dealt with humanely. This applied to individuals as well as to groups. The Slovaks were threatened with complete annihilation, hence stur had to appeal to the mind, the feelings and the very character of the nation. Without first uniting this nation he could gain nothing. The sturists envisioned their task as not the conversion of renegades, but the instruction of the people to help themselves, to recognize and to fight for their God-given rights. Stu.r's newspaper served all classes of people to some degree-the intelligentsia, the laborer, the peasant, the minister of the Gospel, the merchant and the tradesman. The Slovaks did rouse themselves to national consciousness. Without effective journalism of the type provided by stur it would have been impossible to unite the Slovaks in so short a time. stur and his collaborators were realists. They encouraged and exhorted the people to better themselves by overcoming indolence and ignorance. They provided and encouraged private enterprise and more efficient ways of doing things in all fields of endeavor. The school problem was a factor of great concern to stur and his coterie. They indicated the necessity of cultivating the native language, the importance of enlightenment, the value of reading centers, libraries, sound agricultural programs, progress in industrial and financial enterprise, �66 SLOVAKIA revision in tax scales, improvement in animal husbandry and many other subjects. Temperance societies were promoted as were cultural and social institutions. Many stur followers taught Sunday school classes. This innovation of stur was probably the most interesting of all movements in Slovakia. stur and his followers were not dreamers; they were practical idealists who had the welfare and security of the Slovak people at heart.54 stur's school of thought built the foundation for the independence movement as well. With the help of his co-workers ::;tur's literary school to a great extent fulfilled the function of a political and military leadership, thereby elevating the Slovak people to the cultural level of the rest of Europe. For these achievements stur's progressive pedagogical heritage shall continue to live among us for a long time. His practical and wise suggestions, his courage, his vision, selflessness, his many precedents which could be used and developed in our day serve as an undying example for future generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to work for their country's freedom, independence and recognition. At the same time future generations are challenged to keep alive the flame of the torch which was passed to them by stur's unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow. Despite stur's comparatively youthful age, his cultural and social activities were many-sided and diversified. Slovaks in the free world can gain much by a study of his works. Because stur and his co-workers were human, they naturally made some mistakes. However, their mistakes were those of the century in which they lived. It behooves us to judge them according to the fruit of their labor, the results of their work which brought a new perspective to the Slovak nation. stur can rightly be numbered among the outstanding European revolutionaries of his time. He was a great apostle of democracy and freedom for all people. The shining light among the Slovaks of the nineteenth century, the formulator of their political and social program, as well as the interpreter of their national desires was ~udovit stur-the Father of modern Slovak nationalism .55 �SLOVAKIA 67 Application of stur's Theories in Subsequent Slovak History The evolution of Slovak national life and the role of ~udovit stur in its development are mutually inclusive. Once one delves into a study of stur's life work, he becomes permanently fascinated with it and cannot be shed the charm of this genial creator of modern national Slovak ideology. stur was endowed with extraordinary creativity and originality of concepts. Only a genius could create works of lasting value which survive long after his death. It is only natural that we return to stur and find support in him. He is an incentive to future generations to do even better things than he did. However, to date, he ranks as one of the most outstanding Slovaks of all time. Slovakia is grateful to many Slovak leaders who sacrificed everything for the nation. But most of these also worked for the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life which was spelled out and left to us by stur and his co-workers. They gave expression to the righteous desires of the Slovak nation and became the unsurpassed model in spiritual and civic activity:56 For more than a century, nothing new nor shaking has appeared than that which was expressed by stur for the Slovak nation. Hence it behooves us to return to him, because it is evident that every new and great plan of Slovak life must first pass the aqua regia test of stur's thinking. The aims of the Slovak nation which were conceived by stur are still the criteria of the life of the Slavic people. Whatever counters stur also runs counter to the vital interest of the Slovak nation. stur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens! " is just as timely today as they were in 1845. He was a man ahead of his time. His philosophical views, his democratic thinking, his principles and his social demands are timely, too. It is necessary for our generation to recognize the fact that the Slovaks over one hundred years ago fought to change the political structure of Central Europe, that they demanded a deserved independent status for their nation within the framework of a solid federation built on principles of justice and equity. �68 SLOVAKIA Great ideas may be temporarily suppressed and silenced, but in the end they will triumph. That accounts for the inability of the enemies within and without the Slovak nation to destroy the concept of individuality of the Slovak nation, its language, culture and its right to an independent life. Even today after a lapse of more than a hundred years, this idea is very much alive. Despite the fact that Pan-Slavism did not achieve any notable results during stur's time, it nevertheless had inherent value. For the first time it revealed the Slavic mind to the rest of Europe. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe today. The Prague Congress too proved significant by reason of the fact it was the first expression of Slavic unity, of Slavic identity, distinct from the Hapsburg rule. It imbued the Slavs with greater courage and confidence and a guide for the future action. Slavdom and the World of Future is today a relatively unknown work, even in the Slavic world. Yet it had exerted great influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a beacon light and incentive to furthering their program and goals. At the time of s tur's death in 1856, the whole Pan-Slavic movement was pretty much a failure. It failed because the very nationalism that it promoted led to its defeat. Pan-Slavism created dissent among the various Slav nations because it pressured national consciousness. The more the people became aware of their individuality, their historical traditions, and their language, the less they wanted to sacrifice them for a non-existent Slav federation . Another hindering factor was the centuries-old and traditional antagonism between the various Slavic nations, such as the Poles and the Russians, Czechs and Slovaks, Croatians and Serbs, prevented any success for a plan that would unite them. Hence Pan-Slavism was hindered from excercising any dominant or stable influence on European thought at that time. 57 For two decades after World War I Pan-Slavism seemed dead. The Western Slavs-the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes and Serbs--established their own states in 1918. They looked more to the West than to Moscow for guidance and inspiration. After the German �SLOVAKIA 69 aggression against Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin revived Pan-Slavism for the duration of the war and appealed for the support of all Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union again discarded Pan-Slavism after World War II. It was under the aegis of Communism rather than Pan-Slavism that the U. S. S. R. established control over the Western and Southern Slavic peoples in the post war period. $tur's vision of a unified Slovak cultural, political and social life did not indicate that he was a mere visionary. After a century of struggle there exists a Slovak nation with its own literature and cultural institutions and it is a strongly literate one. There also exists a sound national consciousness and a wholesome social stratification, which is unbalanced only by the unfortunate present Communist regime. The new generation is imbued with a spirit of national and social justice among Central European peoples and constantly resists Communistic ideology, about which £udovit $tur wrote more than a century ago: "Communism not only commits outrageous injustice against all civil society ... it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm. It divides the family, it destroys the household and thus it opens wide the door to every type of immorality, dissolution, and indulgence. It degrades· man to bestial level ... "Communism has matured to the same degree as atheism and defection from Christianity . . . In all types of Communism whatever their classification may be, the outlook is only toward a dismal life. It brings in its wake despotism of the grossest kin. It ,shatters all bonds of social living. In place of holy ties, it offers profiteering, rioting and their like." Today when our mighty nation is fighting for freedom of all enslaved and oppressed nations, this freedom must not be overlooked for Slovakia. The Slovaks of today still have the inherent and God given rights to complete freedom as do all other nations. To fight for the freedom of all nations, including Slovakia, is the obligation of all lovers of truth and freedom. The Slovaks have existed and will continue to exist if they live and remember $tur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens!" �70 SLOVAKIA Today a foreign regime in Slovakia is persecuting and crushing all that stlir stood for, because it is above all else concerned with the extermination of the Slovak traditions which in his time Eudovit stur had recreated and reformed in such a manner that they remain in permanent basis of Slovak national development. The spirit of stur lives on! One can kill a man but never the idea he stands for . In history there are myriad examples of movements, faiths and ideologies triumphant "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword." The Slovak nation did not give up the right to live in an independent state even if this state was forcibly liquidated, its rules killed and its adherents persecuted. All this has made the struggle for independence even more imperative, because if the idea was worth dying for, it i~ worth fighting for. More than a century after his death :Cudovit stur is very much alive. His name is often on the lips of his followers and his opponents. Books are written about him, his policies, his philosophy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain by his friends and his enemies. With no perceptible results to show, the situation of the Slovak nation does not look very promising today. The nation is without its state, lives in slavery but also lives in hope. There is strong evidence to indicate a living and vibrant independence movement at home where the Slovaks after an interim of partial independence are convinced that there is no substitute for complete independence. The indeology of :Cudovit stur is the source of strength and belief that independent Slovakia with a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" will re-appear on the map of Europe:58 CONCLUSION The essential part of this study dealt with the assumption that :Cudovit stur and his achievements have long been recognized by the Slovaks, that he is a great national figure and is revered as the "Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." But what of his place in the history of the Slavs at this time? Looking for stur's place in the Slavic world, after the passing of a century which tested many of his conceptions �SLOVAKIA 71 and achievements, one cannot avoid some purely Slovak cultural and political issues. One cannot help but also agree with Hans Kohn's words that "the Slovak nation with its own literary language, was definitely established."59 stur's manifold activities made this possible. Since Pan-Slavism remained the primary concern of Slavic poets, newsmen, literary scholars, philologists, and historians, Slavic nationalism was far removed from the political plan and was situated in the literary field. These individuals expressed an optimistic belief in man's inevitable progress, in the spiritual rejuvenation which would result in the assurance of liberty, peace and happiness. These visionaries felt that perhaps the Slavs were heralds of a new era. They promised a unified betterment in a future Slavic world. According to his book "Slavdom and the World of the Future" r.udovit stur set out to accomplish four tasks. He wanted an assurance to determine whether the Slavs really had a specific role to fulfill in world history. The Slavic past would yield an affirmative answer, for this certainty was the basis for the entire Pan-Slavic movement. Without doubt, the Slavs were to be the leaders of a "New Europe." Since history is a progression of spent nations being replaced by young and energetic ones, Slavic Emancipation and self-determination would eventually be realized. stur's gift of prophecy and Kollar's poetic vision of one Slav nation, language, and culture as expressed in Kollar's "Daughter of Slavs" ("Slavy dcera"): "What will the Slavs be in a hundred years? What will the whole of Europe come to be? Slav life, just as a mighty flood appears, shall everywhere extend its boundary. The science shall Slav exponents see, our peoples' customs, dress and music on both the Seine and Danube modish be." His second task was to describe the Slavic mission in universal history against the background of the cultural difference between Western and Eastern Europe.60 stur could only visualize the destruction of the peasantry by a moral, political and social dissolution in the West and the culmination of a schism between religion and daily life. The West could do little to help, since it was gradually losing face because of its prodigality. �72 SLOVAKIA Western society and its institutions were not worth the effort of imitation since they were contributing to the downfall of the West. Hence the Slavs could depend only on themselves for existence. Thirdly, Shir presents a highly romantic picture of the Slavic peoples. They are endowed with extraordinary virtue. The West was held accountable for the vices of the Slavs who were presented as being by nature kind, patient, humble, and democratic. These characteristics were typical of all Slavs, but especially the Russians, who were the embodiment of all the best and noblest features of the entire Slav nation. Logically, he concluded, that since the Russians were to be the leaders of the Slavs, they had to be the cream of the Slavic element.61 His last task dealt with the problems of Slavic political unification. If the Slavs were to attain their goal, unity was an absolute necessity. There were three possibilities. The first was a Slavic confederation without Russia, which could never succeed because of internal disputes among multi-Slavic peoples. These nation were of about equal strength, hence the emergence of a leader from these nations was an impossibility. The second was the transformation of Austria into a Slavic Empire. Attempts of this nature had been made before and failed. Shir felt that Austro-Slavism should not be considered. The only alternative left was alliance with Russia. Since she was powerful enough to unite all the Slavic nations, she was the natural leader that was needed. stur was impressed by Russia's power and influence. If Slavic peoples united under Russia, their equal would be second to none in Europe. One wonders how it came that such a decisive document was left to us by stur. Yet under the circumstances with which he had to contend in the 1850's it is not surprising. His primary concern was Slavic Nationalism, and Slavic unity. His interest in Russia came only as a result of this, since he never had any prolonged contact with the Russians, neither had he ever been in Russia. 62 After more than a century's lapse of time Stu.r's big dream of a United Slavic peoples under Russia may yet �SLOVAKIA 73 become a reality, in a strange and unfortunate nature, because of recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow has became a political powerhouse of the Slavic world and Russian leadership has technically materialized. Stu.rs drive and his vision of Slovak cultural, political and social betterment did not prove to be a myth either. There now exists a Slovak nation with its own literature, cultural institutions and almost universal literacy. Its people are nationally conscious and they can boast of sound social stratification, which was recently unbalanced only by the presence of an unwelcome Communist regime. They are proud of their fighting spirit for national and social justice, which was passed on them with the flame of Stu.r's burning torch. There is a constant resistance among them to Communist ideology and this attitude is another legacy of Stu.r's. Over a century ago he said: "Communism not only commits _o utrageous injustices against all civil society ... but it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm ... It degrades man to a bestial level ... " 63 Although Pan-Slavism did not achieve notable results during Stu.r's time, it had an inherent value in that it revealed for the first time to the rest of Europe the Slavic mind. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe. The Prague Congress, too, was the first expression of Slavic unity and identity which was separate from the Hapsburg rule. It also gave the Slavs courage and confidence. Stu.r's book, mentioned earlier in this section, has had a strong influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a forerunner of some later developments. stur and his followers executed their tasks beyond human expectation, for they came upon a scene of history when the situation of the Slovaks under the Magyars in Hungary seemed truly hopeless. The significance of Eudovit stur in the evolution and revival of Slovak national life is tremendous and far. reaching. His role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language greatly contributed to Slovak national ideology. It gave his people a new vision and perspective of political �74 SLOVAKIA freedom and of a better future. By his example and writings he provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general. stur rightfully belongs with Jan Kollar and Pavol J. safarik to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century who are regarded as great figures of the Slavic world, since Slovakia and its people are part of the Slavic world. All three found willing echo in all the Slavic peoples. As Hans Kohn states: "They were imbued in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future, in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind, which would establish for ever the basis of liberty, peace, and happiness."64 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in History at Marywood College.) FOOTNOTES 1) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 8. 2) Jaroslav Vlcek, Mala Ruko vat' literarno-historicka (A small Hanpbook of Literary History") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932). p. 195. 3) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uu,dovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 4) Ibid., p. 199. 5) Marian Ziar, "Stur" Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 6) Philip A. Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement," Slovakia, September-December, 1956, p. 39. 7) Karol Golan, "Sturove reci na slovanskom sjazde roku 1848," ("Stur's Lectures at the Slavic Congress of 1848,") Slovak Views, AugustSeptember, 1936, p. 422. 8) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, p. 7. 9) Jan Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin : Matica Slovenska, 1958) , p. 199. 10) Jaroslav Vlcek, Dejiny literatury slovenskej (History of Slovak Literature") Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1923), p. 184. 11) St. Osusky, Filozofia Sturovcov ("Sturist Philosophy") (Myjava: Typ. Daniel Pazicky, 1926), p. 10. 12) Uudovit Bakos, Uul:iovit 5tiir (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1957 ), p. 34. 13 ) . Ibid., p. 50. 14) Seton-Watson, R. H., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. (London : Archon Books, 1943), p. 260. 15) John cajak, Second Slovak History ("Bejepis Slovakov") (Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. �SLOVAKIA 75 16) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, p. 6. 17) Henrich Bartek, " Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June 1956, p. 4. 18) Joseph Kirschbaum, UU/dovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 14. 19 ) R. H. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London: Arc hon Books, 1943), PP- 260-261. 20) John cajak, "Slovak History" ("Dejepis Slovakov") (Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. 21 ) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stu!· and His Place in the Slavic World," Slovakia, March, 1958. 22) Francis Hrusovsky, "Point of No Return," This is Slovakia (Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954), p. 46. 23) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stur in His Place in the Slavic World." (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958) , p. 20. 24) Ibid., pp. 20-21. 25) Ibid., p. 28. 26 ) Thomas Capek, The Slovaks of Hungary (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 22-23. 27) Joseph Skultety, Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho .Zivota. 1790-1914. ("One Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knih. -Ocast., 1920), p. 44. 28) Ibid., p. 46. 29 ) Ibidem., p. 46. 30) Joseph Kirschbaum. "Louis Stur Centenial" Slovakia, March, 1956. (Middletown ) p. 8. 31) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 32) Joseph Kirschbaum , Uudovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World," (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 23. 33) Michael B. P e trovich. The Emergence of Russian Pan-Slavism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 18-19. 34) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur a~d the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 106-107. 35) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 7-8. 36 ) Thomas Capek. The Slovaks of Hungacy (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 70-71. 37) Ibid., p. 71. 38) Seton-Watson. History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London : Archon Books, 1943) , p. 162. 39) Suzanne Mikula. "Uudovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 109-110. 40 ) Ibid., p. 110. 41) Ibid., p. 110. 42) Joseph Kirschbaum. Uu)dovit Mur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), pp. 8-9. 43 ) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur and the Pan..Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 110-111. �76 SLOVAKIA 44) Michael Petrovich, "l!udovit Stur and Russian Pan-Slavism," Journal of Central European Pan-Slavism, 1952, p. 6. 45) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism," Encyclopedia International, XIX, 44-45. 46) Ibid., pp. 44-45. 47) ACEN statement, September 20, 1954. 48) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia I!udovita Stura ("Bibliography of I!udovit Stur") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), pp. 198-199. 49) Philip Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak I'*-1ependence Movement," Slovakia (Sept., Dec., 1956), p. 38. 50) Jan Ormis. Bibliografia L'udovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 51) Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso. (Sydney: Orbis Printing Co. pty. Ltd., 1967), pp. 5-6. 52) Francis Hrusovsky, "This Is Slovakia," Slovakia, 1969, pp. 91-92. 53 ) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka (Bratislava: 1934), p. 198. 54) Joseph Pauco, "Stur's Group in -the Service of the People," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 12-15. 55 ) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia , March, 1956, pp. 10-11. 56) Henrich Bartek, Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-4. 57) Suzanne Mikula, "l!udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, p. 113. 58 ) Frantisek Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso, (Sidney: Orbis Printing and Publishing Co., Pty Ltd., 1967), p. 43. 59) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History a'*-1 Ideology," (University of Notre Dame Press, 1953), p. 21. 60 ) Suzanne Mikula, "I!uldovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement,·• Slovakia, p. 111, 1966. 61) Ibid., p. 112. 62) Ibid., p. 112. 63) Joseph Kirschbaum , I!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic Wor~:i (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 26. 64) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology," (Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press), p. 22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Stur, L'udovit. Listy L'udovita Stura. (Letters of I!udovit Stur.") ed. Dr. Jozef Ambrus. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, (Slovak Academy of Sciences), 1956, pp. 64-375. Stur, I!udovit, 1864 Nauka Reci Slovenskej. ("Slovak Language Lessons from r;ui:lovit Stur.") Bratislava, 1946, pp. 1-10. Bakos, I;udovit. Cudovit Stur. ("Louis Stur.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1957, pp. 34-161. Bartek, Henrich, C. Stur a Slovencina. ("I;udovit Stur and the Slovak Language. ") Turc. Sv. Martin: Kompas, 1943, pp. 6-18. Botto, Julius. Michal M. Rodia. Turciansky Sv. Mart.in: -Ocastinarsky Spolok, 1911, pp. 11-41. l'.:ajak, Janko. Dejepis Slovakov. ("History of the Slovaks.") Pittsburgh: Tlac Narodnych Novin, 1914, pp. 97-110. �SLOVAKIA 77 tapek, Thomas. The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906, .pp. 18-52. Chrobak, Dobroslav. Rukoviit'. ("Handbook.") Prague: L. Mazac, 1932, pp. 25-37. Czambel, Samo. Slovaci a Ich Rec. ("The Slovaks and Their Language.") Budapest: C. A. Kr. Dvornej Knihtlac Victoria Horney Anskeho, 1903, pp. 25-42. Golan, Karol. Revolucne Pokolenie 1848-1849. ("The Revolutionary Generation 1848-1849.") Myjava: Daniel Pazisko, 1926, pp. 91-94. Hqdal, Juraj. Jan Holly. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1923, pp. 91-94. Hrobak, .Philip. Czechoslovakia. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1958, .p. 17. Hrusovsky, Francis. This Is Slovakia. Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954, pp. 42-47. Hurban, Jozef M. r.udovit Stur. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928, pp. 7-216. Kacka, Jozef. Dejiny Slovenskej Literatury. ("History of Slovak Literature.") Ruzomberok: Lev, 1928, pp. 36-39. Kalal, Karol. Dejiny Slovenska ("History of Slov,alda.") Turc. Svaty Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1916, .pp. 89-105. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Nas Boj o Samostatnost' Slovenska. ("Our Struggle for Slovak Independence.") Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1968, pp. 292-324. Kohn, Hans. Hapsburg Empire 1804-1918. An Anvil Original. Princeton: K. Vian Nostrand Company, 1961, pp. 65-95. Medvecky, Karol A. Slovensky Prevrat. ("The Slovak Revolution.") I-IV: 4 vols. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1930-1931. Mraz, Andrej. Jozef Skultety. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1933, p. 7. Novak, Uuldovit. Jazykovedne Glosy k Ceskoslovenskej Otazke. ("Linguistic Sounds of the Czecho-Slovak Question.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1935, p. 233. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York: Robert Spelle,r and Sons, 1960, pp. 108-204. Ormis, Jan. Bibliografia E,udovita Stura. ("L'udovit Stur and His Bibliography.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958, pp. 3-201. Pauco, Jozef. r.udovychova u Sturovcov. ("Popular Education among the Sturists.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1943, pp. 5-11. Pauliny, Heinrich. Dejiny Spisovnej Slovenciny. ("History of Literary Slovak.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia, 1948, p. 393. Petrovich, Michael B. The Emergence of Russia Pan-Slavism 1856-1870. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, p. 18. Porubsky, Jan. K Ste-mu Vyrociu Literarnej Slovenciny 1856-1944. ("The One Hundredth Year of Literary Slovak." ) Scranton: Obrana Press, 1944, pp. 154-166. Ruppelt, Fedor. Koncentracne Snahy Slovenske. ("Concentrated Slovak Endeavors.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky a Ucastinarsky Spolok, 1928, pp. 64-71. Skultety, Jozef. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1930, pp. 183-186. Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho tivota 1790-1914. ("One �78 SLOVAKIA Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky -Ocast. Spolok, 1920, pp. 31-65. Vlcek, Jaroslav. Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej. ("History of Slovak Literature." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Mala Rukoviit' Literarno-Historicka. ("A Small Handbook of Literary History.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Wagner, J;udovit. Slovensky Plutarch. (" Slovak Plutarch.") Nove Mesto naid Vahom: Jan Trnovsky, 1920, pp. 27-30. Address-Published Kirschbaum , Joseph M. 13udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World. An Address to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists on June 9, 1957, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Periodicals Bartek, Henrich. " Our Tradition and J;udovit Stur." Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-10. Bue, Bonaventure. " Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism. " Slovakia, June , 1958, pp. 1-17. Hrobak, Philip. "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement." Slova• kia, September-December, 1956, pp. 34-39. Kir schbaum, Joseph. "Independence and the Slovak Past." Slovakia, March, 1957, pp. 44-53 . "Louis Stur Centennial." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 3-6. 'Misconceptions of American Slavists." Slovakia, March-June, 1962, pp. 25-43 . "The Slovak Language and Its Place Among the Slavic Languages." ' Slovakia, 1966, pp. 1-17. Mikula, Suzanne. "!;udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement." Slovakia, 1966, pp. 104-115. Pauco, Joseph. "Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 11-15. Rekem, John. "The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language ." Slovakia, March-April, 1962, pp. 1-13. 2iar, Marian. "Stur: Father of Mqdern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 6-11. Banik, Anthony A. "Posledni Zastancovia Spi:sovnej Cestiny." (The Last Supporters of the Literary Czech Language.") Sbornik LiterarnoV edeckeho Odboru SSV., 1935, pp. 18-35. Horak, Juraj . "Sturova Kniha o Narqdnych Piesnach a Povestiach Plemien Slovanskych." ('Stu.r's Book on Naitional Hymns and Slavic Popular Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, January-February, 1923, pp. 97-128. Vlcek, Jaroslav. "Povodina Sturovho Spisu o Narodnych Povestiach Slovanskych." ("Stu.r's Original Writings on Slavic National Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, pp. 58-63. Unpublished Material McCoy, Sheila Marie, Sister. 'The School of Stur," (Unpublished Thesis) Cabrini College, 1965. � 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 20 SLOVAKIA Political Views of 11udovit St(u Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS. C. M. INTRODUCTION Since this study will concern itself with :Cudovit $tur, the inspiration of modern national Slovak ideology, it may be beneficial first of all to review the life story of the man and then to consider his work and influence. Though his life was all too short, stur was a key figure in the Slovak national movement of the second third of the nineteenth century. He was heir to the cultural, political and social endeavors of his predecessors, and he developed his natural gifts to attain the strength, courage and vision, which it took to launch movements toward realizing a vital national organization on behalf of his people. Without these natural and acquired gifts, stur could hardly have been effective in his work toward attaining independence in Slovak national life and the pursuit of culture. His greatest merits lie in the fact that he assumed the historical challenge to unite the fragmented multicultural powers of the Slovaks into a liberation front against Hungarian oppressors. His contemporaries attributed to stur an almost legendary but realistic aura even during his lifetime. It was said of him that he had a magnetic personality, that his very presence bespoke patriotism and a vibrant national spirit. Worthy of specific mention is at least one evaluation by William Pauliny-T6th: "He is an extraordinary figure-a manifestation, as it were, of a leader charged to create a new epoch in the history of the Slovak nation." His young collaborator, Jozef M. Hurban, devoted to stur a commemorative and comprehensive monograph which was published in the first issue of the revitalized "Slovenske pohl'ady" (Slovak Views) . In his history of Slovak literature published in 1890, the literary critic and historian Jaroslav Vlcek rated stur as the central figure of the Romantic generations, even though he did not see SLOVAKIA 21 in stur's poetry the merit which it rightly deserves. Criticism of stur was not wanting, but it did not detract from stur's merits or stature at all.1 This fiery patriot was born in Zay-Uhrovec, on the twentyninth of October, 1815. He was one of five children. His father was an elementary school teacher and a rigid disciplinarian both at school and at home. His mother's was a gentle and loving nature. The stur family home breathed a peaceful atmosphere graced with poetry. The natural surroundings of his boyhood, with their profusion of beauty and natural grandeur influenced stur's outlook on life. It was very likely here and because of his environment that his aesthetic taste developed to a remarkable degree. Leopold Petz, a Lutheran pastor, was his first teacher in the gymnasium at Rab. He kindled the glow of national consciousness and patriotism in stur's unfolding mind and animated his spirit with keen appreciation for the richness of his mother tongue. He also made him aware of the rightful place of the Slovaks in the Slavic world and of the potential concentrated within the new generation. After two years at Rab, stur continued his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava.2 Here stur and a memorable group of similarly ardent young men with him (Hurban, Hodza, Francisci, Sladkovic, Chalupka, et. al.) , were schooled under the powerful influence of seasoned literary personalities who were still devoted to fostering at least some forms of Czecho-Slovak orientation. It was around the chair of Czecho-Slovak language arts held by Juraj Palkovic that the Czecho-Slovak Society, later known as the Institute of Language and Literature, was formed. 3 stur was undeniably a talented leader who devoted himself first of all to lecturing on Slovak grammar, literature and history. He devoted much time and thought to Slovak national poetry, especially to works dealing with the themes of Great Moravia, Svatopluk, and the Slavic Apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius. To the eager young members of the Czecho-Slovak Society, he spoke of Slavism, of the hardships and injustices heroically endured by Slav peoples over long centuries, and of the great responsibility 22 SLOVAKIA committed to the younger generation. He pointed out to them some possible means toward a better future and fanned their hopes for the building of a glorious large Slavic family. He made every effort to destroy all roots of doubt, pessimism, and prejudice, those divisive forces that plagued Slavic families of nations and fragmented their efforts toward unity. His aims for establishing a standard language for Slovak literary expression were not purely liiterary. Since Slovak national life was closely connected with literary expression, it bore a vigorous sense of purpose. Stu.r's prime objective was to unite the Slovak people culturally, politically and socially. A universally adopted standard language would greatly advance this couse. Granted, he suffered many reversals, but a wakened spirit cannot be stilled. As authorities intervened to support his Slavic group meetings at the Lyceum, new literary group in other places formed in their stead. The strain of the struggle to resist oppression in student centers left stur physically exhausted; spiritually, however, he remained strong and vigorous and indomitable. In 1838 stur left his center of Slovak literary activity in Bratislava and went to Halle, Germany. His courses of study at Halle strongly affected his theoretical foundations adding depth and fuller meaning to all his later activities. He learned to favor much in Hegelian thought, the theories advocated by a German idealist philosophy. This experience created a mental revolution in Stu.r's objectives and philosophy. It was, first of all a dialectical style of thinking which brought to naught all concept of a final validity in the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is involved in a process of development, all is being perpetually transformed and changed, proceeding from a lower to a higher stage. It also maintains that human history is a steady process of development of this kind, as stur put it, an "uninterrupted chain."4 stur was not simply an unquestioning disciple of Hegelian philosophy, as is often said of him. Together with several other thinkers of his generation, he formed an independent philosophical school which exerted farreaching influence and excelled in originality of thought. SLOVAKIA 23 stur's excellent book, "sturova filozofia zivota" ("stur's Philosophy of life"), embodies his philosophical conceptions. Though his propositions in general are original, stur's underlying ideas were greatly influenced by Hegel. He was motivated by the idea that national unity is strongly furthered by means of common language which gives rise to mutual understanding. After his return from Germany, stur set out in 1843 to establish a distinctive literary Slovak language which he boldly promoted. Its basis was the central Slovak dialect which he considered the last contaminated by neighboring or foreign influence. He realized also the need for a common political effort; Kollar's reciprocity was not enough. He spared no pains to achieve a social and national awakening of the Slovak people. In a sense, stur completed the work that Bernolak, the first codifier of literary Slovak, had begun in 1787. On his return from Germany stur became an assistant professor in the Pressburg (Bratislava) Lyceum. As he lectured in the department of history, students flocked to him with undivided attention, for this dynamic young professor had a wealth of attainable ideals to offer. But chauvinistic authorities viewed this influence with anxiety. In 1844, stur lost his post as Deputy Professor because the Magyar government began to tighten its political controls on Slovakia and found stur's flaming Slovak ardor a threat to its interests. When he was dismissed, many students left the Pressburg Lyceum in protest and continued their studies elsewhere. The Bratislava incident did not intimidate stur; as a matter of fact, it only stimulated him to press on. He kept in close touch with his patriotic adherents. Because the ground was fertile and properly prepared for a national change, stur was able to do the apparently impossible. He strongly voiced the long repressed aspirations and justified rights of the Slovaks, he formulated the demands of his people. 13udovit stur's publications of an article titled "Zaloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku" ("The Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary") which appeared in Leipzig in 1843 which exposed the chief inspector of the 24 SLOVAKIA Lutheran Church and schools because of his measure to magyarize Slovaks for political gain became a sensation. The Slovaks had been resisting magyarization quietly but effectively; now, however, they were determined to secure an independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. All petitions and demands presented in Vienna and in the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava were prompted by the following statement by stur: "We seek no rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of inherent right." These words became the underlying proposition on which were based all the subsequent petitions and demands of the Slovak leaders for equal rights. Stu.r's debates and controversies with Kossuth, the Slovak renegade, stemmed from this moral and democratic principle. He demanded "peace based on just rights and mutual understanding" declaring: "In the paper, Pesti Hirlap, Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he advocates orders to investigate and punish those who define and seek their rights ... That is Kossuth's concept of freedom and liberalism."5 stur continues to express his thoughts in writing. In 1844, after three years of waiting, he was granted permission to publish the periodical "Slovenske narodne noviny" ("The Slovak National News") through which he was resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The supplement of the periodical was "Orol tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle"). Both were widely supported and endorsed by all classes of people, for the Slovak public rejoiced in the realization that this publication was in itself a great step forward in their struggle. stur, too, was gratified. His program for action toward achieving ultimate freedom was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due yet he did not hesitate to denounce the shortcomings of his people. His editorials defended not only the purity of the Slovak language, but also the recognition of the inherent rights of the Slovak nation-rights that affected all their levels of national freedom: political, literary, social, economic, etc. His exhortations are as timely today as they were in 1845: "Let us not yield, Slovak countrymen. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the SLOVAKIA 25 whole than of the individual person, and even the individual harm us, the cause itself does not do so. But with us thus far, it has been so that individuals offended by our people, immediately abandoned the cause itself ... "6 stur's periodicals served their purpose effectively for three years, uniting the people, teaching and enlightening them and encouraging them during one of the most crucial periods of their history. This was almost too good to be true. When the Magyars began to realize what these publications were doing for the Slovak people, fanning the flames of Slovak patriotism to the detriment of Magyar hegemony, they raised an alarm and put in action measures to have them confiscated or proscribed. Despite this suppression, however, much of stur's purpose was already achieved. The Slovak people were nationally awakened. They were conscious of a cause and of an obligation to defend it. Most of this new stirring never would have been realized without stur's activities and publications. The codification of a literary language, which was perfected and universally adopted, concretized the efforts and fond aspir,a tions and hopes nurtured by Slovak literary leaders in bygone generations. I'..udovit stur knew that the times were ripe for the Slovak people to appear on the national scene of history as an independent political entity. No language, except their own Slovak language could move the people to political affectiveness. For this reason, stur chose to advocate the central-Slovak dialect as a political and literary instrument. stur was a deputy from Zvolen at the Presporok (Pressburg - Bratislava) Assembly in 1847-1848. In official sessions he spoke out honestly and courageously about the injustice of disregarding the protest of the subjugated peoples against enforced Magyarization. He also felt dutybound to advocate the equality of all people and sought the liberation of subjugated nations at the Hungarian Diet. The firm stand which stur took became a turning point in Slovak-Hungarian history. At the Slav Congress in Prague in 1848, stur and safarik defined the political aspirations of the Congress. safarik's view was prophetic, while stur made clear the 26 SLOVAKIA political program of the immediate present: "Our aim should be to preserve ourselves. First of all, we must serve the best interests of our own people and secondarily of others. Thus far Austria has flourished, but we have been declining and perishing. What would be the judgment of the world if we were to s tand for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us proclaim that we desire to stand as independent Slovanic communities within the government of Austria."7 stur was far ahead of his day, in visualizing a program to federalize Central Europe. According to Bartek, s tur was not a rebel. As long as there was evidence of national agreement with the Magyars, he was not for the destruction of the Hungarian State. He did warn the Magyar ruling class that it could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of subject nationalities and exploit the Slavs of Hungary without expecting them to strike back with righteous demands for a free national life, for the very rights which the Magyars had resolved to defend for themselves in the Hapsburg Empire. 8 When all these representatio ns and demands continued to be ignored, only then did stur and his group decide to lead the Slovaks to revolt against the Magyar intolerance in 1848. The Slovaks were fully aware of Kossuth's ultimatum declaring that whatever rights they claimed to have in the kingdom they would have to secure with sword in hand. There was no alternative now except to resort to arms. The torch of national consciousnes s carried by s tur and his group became a beacon light in Slovakia's struggle for freedom. Though revolt was crushed and betrayed by Vienna, it stands as a milestone in Slovak history. The tragic reversal of the revolutionary attempt did not affect the leadership or the stature of ~udovit stur in the estimation of others. The Hungarian revolution paid dearly for its national intolerance. It too suffered in a common defeat. Kossuth was forced into exile. stur and his group were under constant police surveillance, and many were their thrilling escapes from police snares and power. A tragic death during a hunting event in January 1856 SLOVAKIA 27 brought stur's life to an untimely end. He died according to his own predictions in which he had foreseen an analogy of his death in the death of Julius Caesar. Some Slavs considered him a setting star but actually he is a brilliant morning star marking a better day in the history of the Slavic world. We return to stur to evaluate his work in the light of today's standards when, after the passing of a hundred years, the Slovaks are building on this foundation laid by stur and his school of thought, the promise of hope fulfilled-if only a new power from the East did not frustrate the effort. Just as stur repudiated and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars, so the Slovaks today rebel against Communist domination and occupation. 13udovit stur's spirit lives on even though an Iron Curtain creates physical bariers to liberty. GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE ON STVR Among stur's earliest academic interests were the areas of linguistics, philosophy, history and literature. To pursue these in depth and to broaden his education, he decided to study at Halle University in Germany. It was in 1838 that he came to Halle as a twenty-three year old student-a gifted energetic man of large vision and great moral strength. He had been held in high repute at home and exerted notable influence among his peers. At Halle, he was an utter stranger in a big unknown world, and the weight of the strangeness that closed in upon him was of more than mere physical and social order. University life in Germany was at this time strongly influenced by the spirit and theories of Hegel. German thought and academic preoccupation bore upon the topic of races. Yet this was in a day when the concept of race, as such, was not even properly formulated. The Germans tended to construct entire systems of philosophy and humanistic theory centered on the concept of race at a period when formal anthropology was just emerging. Fundamental misconceptions of race overtook not only historical scholars but also philosophers of history like Hegel. His philosophical system meant on the one hand, equating the Prussian state with the prime law of men 28 SLOVAKIA and, on the other, constituting materialism as the ideal of men and of nations. Exposed to this stress of innovation which was spread throughout scholarly circles by a ready press and which was further generally publicized by novelists and writers of all sorts, stur did not escape acquaintance with these false principles and this false philosophy of life was what contaminated all Central Europe. Fresh from the schools of Bratislava, he was not yet adequately prepared to discern authentic philosophic truth from political propaganda; nevertheless, he instinctively sensed the need to withhold complete acquiescence with Hegel. He tried to come to terms with much of Hegel but by the very fact that stur placed the moral and spiritual values of men as top priorities he put himself at odds with some Hegelian principles. stur's courses of study at Halle deepened his perspectives even as life in Germany provided him with countless new impressions-views of life and the world, concepts and ideas in general. From the German idealistic philosophy, even as from Hegel, its chief representative, stur adopted some new theories which resulted in a mental revolution. First among these was the aspect of dialectical thinking which brought to naught his previous conceptions of a final validity of the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is in process of development. All is being transformed and changed and proceeds from a lower to a higher stage. It affirms that human history is a process by which the Absolute Spirit unfolds, a "chain uninterrupted" in stur's words. 9 Hegel conceives of history as a process involving dialectical oppositions revaluating into a higher content of historical being. Freedom as an essential of history becomes an absolute necessity. Hegel's philosophy of history strongly took hold of stur's mind at this point. The world seemed to be created for jjudovit stur. He reveled in the thought of its systematic, architectural classification, its universality embracing all the dreams of the human spirit, its justice toward nations, all its sources of learning, its versatile penetration of all doctrine--all this bore upon him so overwhelming flood. 10 SLOVAKIA 29 The wealth of views offered by Hegel's philosophy opened up an idealistic world of envisioned by spiritual concept of nations and not construed from previous assumptions. It provided a new vista into the domains of the rights of nations among which there existed the future tribunal of Slavic nations, too, and led stur to the realms of Christian idealism. stur's spirit was reanimated. The receptive soil of his mind was enriched with fertility for the germination of his own conceived seed. The Germanic world's new concept of views regarding world history in politics, religion and sociology at this time impressed and inspired stur more strongly than it had heretofore affected any other candidate from Slovak academies. When stur returned to his native land, he returned as a Slav, but foremost as a Slovak returned into the ranks of his confused and puzzled friends and countrymen. He brought radical concepts to the rational school and to liberal life. These concepts characteristically dealt mainly with the Slovak past, present and future, for he brought from Germany a wide and rich source of philosophical and economic knowledge as well as a firm determination to devote his life to the task of national development. stur translated Hegel's philosophy into Slovak only insofar as he accepted his concepts, for stur was a realist in his approaches to the phenomena of life. 11 In his studies at Halle, Germany, stur was also spiritually revived. He left the university imbued with strong tendencies for the policies of Kollar and safarik. He was, however, an ardent Slovak by conviction rather than by accident of birth as was their lot. He was an ardent, tireless worker. The versatility of his talents and the needs of his country brought him to the fore successively as an orator, a writer, a journalist, a politician and a soldier. Both his friends and enemies proclaimed him the most remarkable champion of Slovak rights since the days of Matthew Oak. r.udovit stur is sometimes accused of blindly accepting Hegel's philosophy and applying it to Slovak and Slavic life indiscriminately. It must be remembered, however, that political and national controversy existing at that time made it difficult, if not impossible to evaluate Slovak 30 SLOVAKIA philosophy correctly. Granted that stur manifests a dependance on Hegel and contemporary German philosophers, still to present him in this light alone--as his opponents have done--seems to be a distortion. According to cyzevski, a former professor of Halle, stur and his followers were significant for philosophic thought in general. He goes on to say that stur's generation included several thinkers who tried to create their own philosophical system, and who in these times, excelled among all Slovanic nations in originality of thinking in philosophy. cyzevski elucidated his point in the scholarly book Stur's Philosophy of Life in which he clearly points out that stur was not a simple student and advocate of Hegel's philosophy, but that he formed his own independent philosophical system, one which in many ways differed from Hegel's. cyzevski refutes the charge that: 1. stur was a simple student of Hegel's; 2. that his philosophical views were those of contemporary romantic philosophy. stur differed from Hegel in his approach to life's phenomena which he found realistic. Prior to his studies at Halle, stur had cultivated genuine national convictions which were anchored upon Herder's humanistic thought together with messianic dreams that were to glorify the future of the Slavs. These convictions enabled him to take a critical stand in regard to some of Hegel's ideals though he held Hegel in high esteem. On the other hand, Hegel's dynamic view of history matched stur's ideas and provided a justification of his thoughts concerning the Slavic world, especially his views of the historical development of the world history of nations comprising the Slavic world. Because of the influences of the Kollar-Herder conceptions of the historical mission of the Slavs, stur did not fully agree with Hegel in his concept of the absolute States of Germany and Prussia, for in these Hegel saw the completion of historical development. From the viewpoint of theology stur here saw in Hegel's philosophy definite dangers of pantheism. An authentic view of stur's attitude toward Hegel's philosophy is best provided from a personal letter which he wrote to Samo Bohdan Hrobon. In it he quotes from Hrobo:n's poem, in which he sees or perceives from a religious viewpoint, the shortcoming of Hegel's philosophy: SLOVAKIA 31 Povez mi pisani! kde hledat spaseni? Na svete marnem, cili v pravde vecne? Cili v kouzelne prajine zpomneni? Cili v krase, lasce nekonecne ... ? Ach kam jsi zmisel svete me mladosti? Kam se rozplynul Buh otec milosti? Nenit ho vice! Usychejte kvety! Dechnite duse! do propasti svety! Nebot jiz umrel ten zakon vecnosti, Ze vlas sa nehne bez povedomosti. Tell me, 0 Poet, where to seek salvation? In the temporal world or in eternal truth? In the respective countries' pulpits? In beauty, in undying charity ... ? 0 where has disappeared the world of my youth? Where has vanished God the Father of Mercy? He is no longer? 0 wither away, ye flowers! Die, ye souls! until the world's end! Fear not for eternal laws have decreed That not a hair shall move without His knewing. 12 Hrobofl's next poem is encouraging and indicates that the religious home training and strength of Slavic convictions are more forceful than Hegel's philosophical doctrines: Zijet duse ma a zit bude vecne jit zadna bure, zaden boj nezlomi prave ponad ni s tisicmi hromy Jako stin lahky v uzase preleti mec obosecny Hegelove vedy. Duse ma citem plamennym roztopi Mee ten, do prichu padne zahanbeny. Mee ten v nicote jak stin se rozplyne Pred bleskom vecnym bozskeho nadseni! Antheus slaviansky Herkula porazi! My soul lives and will live forever Neither revolutions nor war shall ever break its spirit Directly above myriads of thunderbolts it soars, 32 SLOVAKI A Like a thin wall will crumble in confusio n The two-edge d sword of Hegel's doctrine. My soul senses a burning flame within it Melting away that sword that must fall in dust and shame As a wall crumblin g in disgrace, Before the divine lightning of eternal elan With which the Slavic Antheus Will destroy a vaunting Hercules . Both poems bear heavily the weight of tension and conflict which the sturists experienc ed because of their selective ness in analyzing and sponsori ng aspects of Hegel's philosoph y. In the first poem, stur expressly discourag es the publicizi ng of the new philosop hy for fear that the time is not right and many may be complete ly misled by Hegel. He advocate d that his followers benefit by the worthy gifts of the great mind of Hegel and accept his philosoph y only with due reservati ons; that they revamp it to meet the need of the Slavs. stur emphasiz ed the inevitabl e depth of philosoph ical studies to which Slavic youth would have to devote itself. Moreove r, he took a critical stand and used the German philosop hic system modified accordin g to his views regarding Slavdom and moral principle . Hegel's philosoph ical view became an impetus to stur in his compilat ion and formulat ion of lectures on Slavic history and poetry .13 In 1840 stur returned from Halle to Bratislav a where he was assigned to the chair of Slovak Studies in Language and Literatur e, succeedin g Palkovic in this post. Adequate ly to understa nd the nature of this assignme nt, it is importan t to realize the kind of world in which he was to teach. To say that it was riddled with rank feudalism is all too simple a generaliz ation. Far truer it is to realize that stur came to a land where the Slovaks were held in abyssmal serfdom, in an invincibl e vise of economic , moral, intellectual, spiritual and national bondage. It was the kind of situation in which misery bred misery, usually in such forms as alienatio n, alcoholis m, desperati on, extreme dehumaniz ation of the individua l and loss of personal dignity. SLOVAKIA 33 - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - Unmitigated serfdom was reducing the Slovak into stultified begger stricken with hunger and penury. Denied schooling and spiritual enlightenmen t he was all too readily becoming a prey to superstitious folly and to grossness. The three-fourths who lorded it over the onefourth that was condemned to pay all the land truces ever collected in the region saw to it that their victims had no outlook at all for better things to come-either economically or intellectually or in anyway whatever. The Slovak element enjoyed no public community life as such and even though some attempts had been made to root cultural interests and to rouse the people to national life (such as the organizations at Trnava, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Budapest), they were doomed to short-term existence for lack of material support. As a result, Slovak life became necessarily circumscribed to the primitive pattern of the familial unit highlighted with such events as christenings, weddings and funerals. Though the Slovak labored unstintingly, he was not given the joy of benefiting by the fruits of his soil. When stur surveyed this situation on his return from Germany, he was forced to recognize this herd of subjugated beggars as his own people committed to mere animal existence, and all his nobility of soul rose in revolt at such inhumanity of man to man. But an emotional responses alone was no solution to the problem. He set himself to explore underlying causes, mainly the attitudes of the people themselves, their thinking, their social structures, their training and development, their milieu from small dimensional areas to the broad perspectives of the Austro-Hung arian domain. Aware of the need for incentives for self-improvem ent, and realizing that the most effective incentive of all is man's conviction that he is a being of value and dignity, his own consciousnes s of self, stur readily understood what his main teaching role would be to raise a new generation for Slovakia. He devoted himself completely to the enlightenmen t of his people and never in the least deviated from this objective. Under his aegis there was a vital burgeoning of new life among Slovaks of the younger element. He led the 34 SLOVAKIA young to new founts of elemental truth and saving virtue. His personality readily put him into the forefront as an inspired leader as his peers at Bratislava extolled him for his idealistic elan as well as his admirable self-discipline, his moral charm and his firmness directed first of all toward himself and secondly toward others. Impressed by the spirit of stur, Joseph Hurbl!Il who was a close collaborator wrote at this time: "We must challenge youth to difficult moral endeavors and teach the young to be concerned about the future. We must offer them stur as their paragon." Influences of the Industrial Revolution as well as effects of the national revolutions in France and in the United States were not lost upon young men and women of the day. Innovations were rampant on the air-romanticism, humanism, realism, revolution, criticism, democracy, Pan-Slavic romanticism, and a steady stream of trends and thoughts swept in upon maturing minds. stur observed it all and amid all of it mourned the divisive tendencies that tended to break the nation into two camps: the Catholics and the Lutherans and only bred new disadvantage. With clear vision he wrote in his book N drecie ("Dialect"): "There must be an end to this kind of partisanship; we must effect brotherly unity." Also "Our entire Slovak family will be united in a common speech and after centuries of fragmentation and coldness the members of one family will recognize each other and greet each other and embrace." The work of stur, however, soon evoked harsh Magyar resistance and this alerted him to the reality that it was not possible to wait for the younger generation to carry on toward brighter ideals; the need was immediate; the solution had to be effected now. His efforts for political support were fruitless. Every country from which he could have expected help was interested in pursuing its own advantage rather than in relieving the plight of another. His last resort was to exploit-in the best sense of the word-the very language of his people. By establishing a standarized form of written expression he sought to bring about one unifying element for all the nation, one bond to give to all the Slovaks SLOVAKIA 35 a sense of one-ness, and through this medium to reach into the broader spectrum of unified national consciousness and national thought. He was convinced that given one common treasure to cherish and defend, they would be ever ready to defend it, and in this very effort, they would preserve their national being; without such a common objective they could readily lose even their national identity. Their common language would be their talisman. To implement this idea stur collaborated with Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza as early as 1843. All three were agreed that the dialect of the central regions would lend itself best as the basis for a standard Slovak literary medium. Bernolak's earlier (1787) experiments with a literary standard on the basis of western dialects had been effective to degree but not wholly successful. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Bernolak's ideas and efforts were in advance of his times. Perhaps it was because the western dialects were not the happiest choice he could have made for a common medium. Perhaps it was due also to the fact that traditionally the Catholic segment of Slovak people was ardent in promoting the Slovak cause while at the same time the Evangelical Slovaks promoted the Czech language and culture inasmuch a.s Czech had been adopted as the official liturgical language of the Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, Palkovic in 1831-32 translated and published the entire bible into Bernolak's new medium, and the renowned poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) wrote all his masterly works in the newly codified Slovak literary standard. It is understandable then, that Stu.r's innovative effort was not readily endorsed even by his own Evangelical critics. In 1840 an open assault on the Slovaks was made at the General Assembly of the Lutheran Church. Count Charles Zay, their Inspector-General and some leading laymen proclaimed racial apostasy as a duty which the Slovak Lutherans owed to their fatherland and their religion. They maintained that since "the Magyar language is the truest guardian and protector of the liberty of our country, of Europe, and the Protestant cause, it follows that Magyarization is the duty of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence." There followed a series of 36 SLOVAKIA attempts to ostracize the Slovak language from Lutheran Synods and presbyteries. Kossuth who was one of the elders of the Church and a Slovak renegade spoke publicly in favor of the abolition of all existing Slav societies in Lutheran schools. One such society at Levoca had already been suppressed, "as a breeding ground for Pan-Slavism," its library was closed and its president, ~udovit stur, was deprived of his post at the gymnasium.14 Magyarized Slovak overlords, noblemen and landlords untiringly sought to Magyarize the Slovaks, even imposing punishment on those who refused to be enticed into the Magyarized camp. Archbishop Patatic from Kolac, gave each of the subjects twelve sticks to beat up anyone who dared to speak in Slovak. It was publicly proclaimed that the Slovaks and their language must be exterminated.15 Convinced as s tur was, however, of the greater objectives to be attained, he pressed forward with his new venture. Youth groups espoused the cause very readily and this support augured well for the future. In 1844 Hurban's second volume of the annual Nitra appeared in the new literary standard and in the same year Hodza established the society Tatrin which officially recognized the new literary standard and at once put it to use in the publication of educational books, monographs and instructional pamphlets for the general public. Within two more years there appeared stur's political journal (three times a week ) Slovenske Ndrodne Noviny with its literary supplement Orol Tatransky. All these projects notably strengthened the newly devised Slovak literary form of expression and assured its permanent adoption. sT-0-R'S SEARCH FOR A SLOVAK LITERARY MEDIUM Its Effectiveness in Unifying Slovakia Slovak life was now assuredly given expression through the Slovak language. stur maintained that it could not be otherwise and the years have borne witness to his judgment. The task was demanding but largely because the ground for the identity of the new generation was properly prepared. stur not only understand existing conditions in Slovakia, he formulated, what the nation SLOVAKIA a7 felt, what the nation needed. He gave expression to the righteous desires and demands of his Slovak nation and became its model of an inspired leader devoted to spiritual and public activity. 16 sttir's call for further action was answered by Sladkovic, Chalupka, Botto, Hurban and countless others who felt that the proper course had been taken in establishing their literary language. Even the Lutherans finally accepted the Central Slovak dialect as a form of Slovak expression touched by foreign influence of one kind or another. On this matter the Slovaks had been merely sorely split in the past but now there promised to be a common unity to face the momentous events which were to follow. The work initiated by Bernolak was completed by sttir. Even John Holly, the greatest Slovak poet and ideologist of his nation gave sttir his blessing in this venture. sttir and his collaborators found the Slovak language and literature an invaluable instrument for advancing all their endeavors especially in rousing the nation to selfconsciousness. They studied its historic past and revealed it to the people who knew little or nothing about their historic origins and so had little impulse for experiencing pride of nation. They wanted to lift up the people from poverty and abandonment, so they enlightened and trained the general public.17 sttir can rightly be called the reformer of literary Slovak. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically because they became qualified and fired to forthcoming uprisings and events that had trans-European reverberations. A new era unfolded in Slovak cultural and national life when sttir adopted aesthetic and philosophical principles in his literary school. At this point romanticism and nationalism were pactically identical. sttir's cultural activities were timely in Western and Central Europe where national consciousness, popular art, and folklore were the order of the day. In this climate sttir successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities, which marked a new era in 38 SLOVAKIA Slovak national life. The members of this school "imposed the most exacting task on themselves in order to elevate the Slovak people to the same cultural level as the rest of Europe, to release their creative energies and to enable a new national culture to arise from the existing popular art and language. 18 sttir and his school were imbued with objectives directed towards specific social goals. Hence the literature which they created echoed not only a melancholy restlessness and romantic involvement but also the call for a better world. In 1842 a petition signed by two hundred Slovaks led by their clergymen was submitted to the Emperor in Vienna. The only outcome of this effort was that is provoked Kossuth to charge Superintendent Jozeffy and his colleague Hodza with betraying the Magyar cause and the Protestant religion. Both men were publically embarrassed and howled down. By contrast, two voices were raised in defense of the Slovaks, those of Count John Mailath, Catholic historian of Hungary, and Count Stephen Szechenyi who stated in a public address to the Academy that he hardly knew a Magyar who "is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our nationality and language is raised." He begged his compatriots to "do as you would be done by." But the day on which 'the greatest magyar' and his fellow-magnate entered these protests, the popularity of the two Counts began to fail; the frenzy of Kossuth, voiced in his brilliant and aggressive organ Pesti Hirlap, carried all before it. As early as 1842, Kossuth declared in one of its issues: "Indeed, indeed I tell you, a Slovak nation has never existed even in a dream." In 1843 he boasted of his glowing love for his nation as the only one in Hungary which has any future based upon politics or law. 19 The argument of the German people, Herrenfolk: "We must be masters in our own house," was already applied in the "forties" by Magyars to the "foreign inhabitants" of Hungary. At this critical time the Slovaks found three leaders, SLOVAKIA 39 full of courage and self-sacrifice, r.udovit stur, Michael Hodza and Joseph Hurban. All three happened to be Slovak Lutherans, courageous enough to agree in favor of the central dialect of the Slovak language for essentially political reasons. This dialect was a unifying factor which they believed would help strengthen their position in the struggle against the Magyars and Magyarones. The Slovaks could no longer stand this type of op-pression. They appealed to King Ferdinand in Vienna. He in turn said to them: "Every nation in Hungary should educate and develop itself according to law and justice and develop its national language as much as possible. The highest power will not object to this, but rather aid it in its endeavor." The Slovak delegation returned home very hopeful. But at home disappointments and hardships awaited them, because the King's words fell on deaf ears and did not phase the Magyars. 20 In 1844 stur was dismissed from his post at the Bratislava College as Deputy Professor, because he resisted Count Zay's plans for Magyarization through the school. Yet stur continued to express his thoughts in writing in the newspaper he published, "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske Narodne Noviny"). The permission for the editing of this paper was given by the Hungarian government after an interim of four years. In this paper he resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The joy was great in Slovakia. Most of the Slovaks realized the importance of this news media, and at what price it was made possible. When it was first issued the people rejoiced in diverse ways to express their appreciation of its accomplishment. The supplement to the "Slovak National News" was "Orol Tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle") which was a power to be reckoned with. This newspaper was both instructive and amusing. It found favor with all classes of people, and reached all strata of the populace. stur's program was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due. He voiced his opinions in regard to the shortcomings of his people and denounced their delinquencies. 40 SLOVAKIA The papers served their mission well for three years, uniting, teaching, exhorting and encouraging the people during the most stirring time of Slovak history. His exhortations today are as timely as they were in 1845: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak country-men. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the whole, than of the individual and even though individuals harm us, the cause itself does not do so, but with us thus far, it has been that individuals offended by our people immediately abandoned the cause itself ... " 21 The Magyars came to realize what great influence the new publications were effecting on the Slovak people and began to clamor for the immediate suppression of this press. But the embe:rlS had been stirred. Much of the purpose of the publications had already been achieved. The Slovaks were finally reawakened nationally. In 1847, stur was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a deputy for the town of Zvolen, Naturally he had limited influence since he was the only Slovak deputy in the House. However, his speeches reveal that he was an enlightened fighter for freedom and social reform, one who demanded equal rights for all nationalities in Hungary, in cultural and political life. He repeatedly insisted that the Diet adopt laws to free the peasant masses from a feudalistic Robot system and labor rent, and that the culture of the people and country be promoted by the establishment of schools in the national tongues of the people. Among other things he demanded the industrialization of Slovakia and the adoption of humanitarian laws between the gentry and the working class. One of the main topics of Stu.r's speeches was the obsolete social and political structure of Hungary. He was all for a federalistic system of government which would give equal justice to all peoples. He advocated that special efforts be made to develop the State in new social and political reforms, and to make it a partner of modern Europe. In creating their political program, stur and his followers, took into consideration not only their aims and desires, but also the existing circumstances. One was the fact that Slovakia was a part of the Hungarian state SLOVAKIA 41 in which it did not constitute a distinctive separative administrative unit. The Slovaks were not planning to break away from Hungary. What they wanted most of all was to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands defined so that the Slovak people might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars in Hungary. This equality they urged was to apply in all areas of political, social and especially in cultural life. They intended to present these petitions to the Emperor and the Parliament but first they wished to have the endorsement and the views of the Slovak people regarding their aims and their achievements. In May of 1848 they met at the parsonage of Michael Hod.za in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas where they drew up a form for Slovakia's future political program called: "Petitions of the Slovak Nation." 22 Its Contribution Towards a Pan-Slavic Movement Stu.r's role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language was significant and far-reaching. His great efforts to this direction contributed greatly even to modern Slovak ideology. It was he who first gave to his people a new vision of political freedom and of a better future. stur provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general by his own example, and by his writings embracing fields as diversified as poetry, philosophy, history, sociology, etc. From his correspondence one learns that he had direct relations with the leaders of all Slavic peoples. During his stay in Vienna he came in contact with other Slav representatives: The Slovene Stanko Vraz, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working together and made a joint visit to the Imperial Court. stur's reforms of the literary language also brought about the unity of the Slovak people and this, in turn, was followed by flourishing cultural and literary activities. His influence was so vital that some of his principles and ideology still lives in the cultural life of Slovakia.23 The lyrical element is strong in Stu.r's poetry and prose. He passed from the sphere of the personal and social into national and Slavic thought in all his works. The soul of the nation--or of the Slavs-was his 42 SLOVAKIA constant subject. He concentrated on the pain of the nation's sufferings, struggles, and failures and this theme pervades the climate of his literary works. stur and his followers were gifted with keen insight into existing social problems and this vision they combined with the romantic inheritance of deep attachment to their country, its people and to the Slavic world at large. They did their utmost to advocate and to provide democratic enlightenment for the unpriviledged classes, viz. the peasants and workers. They defined, encouraged and glorified their importance, as they glorified the Slavs and all their past. One of stur's followers, Samo Tomasik, composed the Slav anthem, "Hej, Slovania," which bespoke new hope, a new ideal and a great pride comparable to that expressed in Vajansky's famous verse: I am proud to be a Slovak Elegant is my race; A hundred million souls it numbers, Over half the world it rules. With the Slovak tongue you can traverse The four parts of the earth! One of my brothers plants the palm Another does eternal iceland scan A third skims o'er the widespread seas! From the phantasy which Kollar inspired as the great dream of one great Slav nation and one unified Slav language, the Slovaks, as Hans Kohn agrees "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indeitructibility of the Slovak people and language," and it helped to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. 24 stur's contemporaries indicated their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Croatian and Serbian authors in the original and were very fond of the famous "Ode to Youth" by Mickiewicz. According to Bobek: "Not even the Poles received it as enthusiastically as the Slovaks." The desire of the Slovak poets and novelists of stur's time was to imitate other Slav writers, and their enthusiastic belief in one "slavic" culture was intense. SLOVAKIA 43 Cizevsky maintains: "The only book which shows similarities with Mickiewicz's "Book of the Polish Pilgrimage" is $tur's work "An Ancient and a New Age of Slovaks" ("Stary a novy vek Slovakov") because $tur speaks of another kingdom and of other peoples. However, $tur deviates, because he wanted to unfold a realistic program, and Mickiewicz's Book could not satisfy him. $tur's position among Slav intellectuals of the nineteenth century is well attested among other various media by his rich correspondence with practically all oustanding Slavic leaders of the day also the fact that his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" was translated and twice published by Russian intellectuals in the last century and at the beginning of this century. $tur, Kollar and $afarik can rightly be regarded as great figures of the Slavic world to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century. All three expressed: "in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future , in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind which would establish forever a basis of liberty, peace and happiness." In visualizing the Slavs as a unified body with a great future, they helped the awakening of the national consciousness of their own Slav-speaking peoples.25 :CUDOVi T $ TOR'S ROLE IN THE PAN- SLAVIC MOVEMENT His Political and Social Thought Slovakia is sometimes called the mother of the PanSlavic Movement. One of her sons, John Herkel, first used the word "pan,slavic" in his Latin treaties of 1826. In addition, the Slovak poet Jan Kollar and the Slovak scholar P. J. $afarik were among the main leaders of the Pan-Slavic Movement. As a matter of fact these two are sometimes considered the fathers of Pan-Slavism in Slovakia. Herder, in his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity" ("Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte") prophesied that the Slavs, who up until then were held in bondage and oppression, would awaken from their lethargy and free themselves from the shackless, and eventually recover their possesion of the vast lands that 44 SLOVAKIA stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic, from the Don to the Mulda. In this heritage they would devote themselves to the peaceful development of the arts and commerce. Though unknowingly, Herder sowed the first germ of Pan-Slavtsm. 26 stur's significance in the Slavic world of this calibre was assessed by Seton Watson. In regard to the great literary efforts of stur, Hurban and safarik, Seton-Watson states: "their writings were of capital importance in the whole Slav revival of the last century, and form a strange sentimental link between the Western romantic school and the extravagancies of Pan-Slavism." In reference to the first Slav Congress in Prague in 1848 Seton-Watson maintains that stur "played a decisive part in the preparation for the Congress." safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza played a part second to none except Palacky at that same Congress. An analysis is in order in regard to these two opinions to determine stur's significance in the Pan,Slavic Movement. As early as 1840, stur had recourse to the throne of Austria and there presented his petitions in regard to the injustices perpetrated by Hungary against the Slovak people. He formally presented his petitions to the Hungarian Assembly. It embodied these provisions for the betterment of the Slav situation: 1) A systematic investigation of the Slovaks who were maligned by the Magyars in order to obtain protection for the oppressed; 2) that there be two censors to safeguard Slovak official writings; 3) that a Slovak literary seat be established at the Bratislava Lyceum and at Pest University; 4) that certificates and church records be kept in Latin; 5) that church ceremonies be in the mother tongue and that every guarantee and assurance be provided for this practice. The country was up in arms because the Slovaks dared to present their cause to the throne. Voluble insults were heaped upon the Slovaks in the newspapers, at gatherings, etc. Those who aided the Slovaks or sympathized with their cause were also abused. 27 It was at this point that ~udovit stur asked for permission to publish his "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske SLOVAKIA 45 Narodne Noviny"). Archprince Joseph retorted by saying: "The Slovaks do not need newspapers. The publishing of such newspapers would be considered traitorous." It was the consensus in 1840 that Austria would lean on the Slovaks for political reasons, that is Slavic Austria, against Hungarian Austria (Magyar). But in Hungary Archduke Joseph had the upper hand and things were shaped his way. He even had control over the deputation of Slovak Pest in Church matters. At this point he is to have said: "In Hungary I know only one people and those are the Magyars. " 28 The phantom of Pan-Slavism repeated its threat in 1830 when Russia established a Slovak literary seat at its university. The young Russian Slavists began to visit the Slavs in the South as well as in Central Europe. For the ensuing years the word Pan-Slavism had political connotation for the Russian and Germanic nations implying a belligerent attempt to replace their civilization with the Slavic civilization. The connotation derived largely from the subjugated position of the various Slavic nations at this time. In Vienna the guards were ordered to stress in each paragraph of the law of magyarization that every sermon in Slovak churches be preached in Magyar and in even remote towns and villages there was a strong ban against Pan-Slavism of any kind. "In our country and near its borders," wrote Wessel, in Kossuth's newspaper, Hirlap, December, 1842, "Slovak mistakes are dangerous and a threat to all Europe and to our dynasty and country . .. " "Everyone who defies our Magyar language and our nationalism and who supports the mistakes of the Slovaks knowingly or unknowingly is an enemy to the peace and to our federation, and to our throne." 29 stur did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarian State. As long as there was any hope for a settlement with the Magyars, he was amenable to living with a fair situation. But he warned the ruling Magyar class that they could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of the lesser peoples and exploit the Slovaks and other nations of Hungary without expecting them to retaliate and to demand a free national life, just as the Magyars were themselves demanding it from the Hapsburg Empire. 46 SLOVAKIA stlir wrote a sensational article "Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary" ( ~aloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku") published in Leipzig in 1843, in which he reprimanded the chief Inspector, Count Zay, for conniving to Magyarize the Slovaks for political reasons. Count Zay felt that he was truly aware of the political currents in Slovakia. By a logic all his own, he divided the Slovaks into three groups. One was to be concerned about literary matters. The second was eager to establish a Western-Slav kingdom in Austria; the third was accused of secret contacts with Russia. 30 It is uncertain whether these three groups were fully aware of the gravity of the situation of those times; however, all had one goal in mind: to save the Slovaks from utter Magyarization and to secure for the Slovak nation its independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. "We do not want our rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of justice," stlir declared. These famous words laid the foundation to all petitions and demands presented in Vienna and at the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava. stlir's debates with Kossuth all stemmed from this moral and democratic attitude. On behalf of his nation stlir demanded "peace based on justice and mutual understanding." He went on to say: "In the Pesti Hirlap Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he wants to give the orders to investigate and punish those who stand up for the rights . . . That is his freedom and liberalism." 3 1 All of Stu.r's writings indicate a clear political view: Slovakia established as a sovereign crown land under the Hapsburgs, an equal partner of other nations in the Empire. In short, he was even back in his own day for a program of the federalization of Central Europe. In a sense stlir appeared as a Romantic visionary in the eyes 0f all who did not favor Slavic reciprocity or his vision of a great future for the Slavic world, his untiring demands for equal rights for the Slovak people and their national independence which he formulated in the following terms: "Each nation is only one part of humanity, and no SLOVAKIA 47 nation can make for itself the claim that it alone attained the best possible human evolution and degree of perfect ability. Thereafter, no nation has a right to impose upon another nation its way of life when that nation wants to move for itself and educate itself as it sees fit. "So that we Slovaks might be revived and assume in history that place which is rightfully ottrs by reason of our native strength and abilities we must once and for all free ourselves, because a nation which is enslaved has its hands bound, its spirit stifled, and is forever threathened with danger that sooner or later it will perish." 32 The year 1848 was ushered in as a promising one, but before long it became stormy. The more the Magyars spoke of freedom, the more tyranically did they suppress all non-Magyars. They did their utmost to turn public opinion against the Slovaks. Wessel wrote to Kossuth that he would rather have 50,000 Germans settle the mountain countries than 10,000 Slavs. Once again intolerance charged all the climate. At this point, Pan-Slavism evolved as a defensive movement among the Slavs rather than as a political movement aimed at replacing western dominance in Europe. The term "Pan-Slavism" has been used generally to denote the historical tendency of the Slavic peoples to manifest in their tangible way, either cultural or political, their consciousness of ethnic kinship. Cultural Pan-Slavism had its origin in the remarkable national awakening of the Slavs at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Submerged for long centuries under cruel masters, the Slavs were quickened to a renewal of awareness of their national identities, not by political leaders, but by their cultural leaders. These Slavs realized how they had been deprived of their national identity. They nourished better hopes for the future by seeking to reanimate the faded memories of a glorious past. In this effort they discovered that they were brothers bound by a common misfortune yet endowed with a vast cultural heritage. 33 Slavic men of learning helped to initiate national 48 SLOVAKIA movements among their countrymen primarily in order to establish the individuality and cultural worth of each Slavic group: Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs and Russians. The various romantic movements were propagated in individual ways and degrees yet through them the ideal of Slavic unity, which had been lost in the past by foreign oppression, was to be resurrected with the surmounting and overthrow of that oppression. Pan-Slavism as a cultural and even as a political ideal evolved not in Russia, but rather among the Western and Southern Slavs, who had far more need of unity than did the mighty Russian Empire. This stage of Pan-Slavism signaled the national awakening of central and eastern Europe, and was characterized by interest and emphasis within the areas of language, literature, and culture. Among the Slavic peoples many had experienced a thousand years of injustice and mistreatment which yielded an unhealthy state of discouragement and stagnation. Now in the hour of their national awakening, the Slovak people seek to forgive their cruel masters rather than to avenge themselves. This attitude was shaped by the acute yearning they bore for the selfdetermination of their country. As much as they decried the enslavement of other nations, they would not permit another to enslave them. The literary and scientific Pan-Slavism of Kollar and ::;afarik created a powerful national spirit among the Slavs. Then it became only natural that this desire for national unity and selfdetermination should demand to be heard and to begin to be realized within the context of political Pan-Slavism. It moved in this direction under I.:udovit ::;tur who perceived by what stages Pan-Slavism must go. He foresaw that to achieve their glorious destiny, the Slavic peoples had to attain an assured measure of political unity. At this point political Pan-Slavism had two alternatives: Austroslavism, which meant retaining a form of Austrian political influence, for which ::;tur was ready to settle when he advocated it at the Prague Congress in 1848, the first great manifestation of Pan-Slavism and of Slavic identity, apart from the Hapsburg rule, and Pan-Russianism which ::;tur adapted after the failure of the Prague Congress.34 SLOVAKIA 49 As Magyar exploitation of the Slovaks and other minority nations of Hungary continued, stur's admonitions to the ruling powers fall on deaf ears. The Magyars stubbornly and universally refused to heed any demands for redress of any kind of settlement with the non-Magyar nations in Hungary. This attitude helped to precipitate the revolution of 1848-49, in which the Slovaks also participated. stur together with Hodza and Hurban led an armed resistance force supporting Austria against the revolution of the Magyar aristocrats. That the Hapsburgs were forgetful of this effort and ungrateful to the Slovaks, that they finally settled with the Magyars at the expense of the non-Magyar nations of Hungary, did not help the issue of the dissatisfied minorities. The settlement of 1867, referred to as Austro-Hungarian but being in reality Austro-Magyar, became the burial pit of the monarchy which could have become a mighty confederation in Central Europe. It was I.:udovit stur and not the Slovak Magyar chauvinist, Louis Kossuth, who was the genuine democrat. 35 No setback dismayed stur completely or caused him to lose heart. Under opposition and failure he tended to redouble his energy. stur was the heart, Hodza the brain, and Hurban the soul of the revolutionary movement. They set themselves anew to collect funds, provide weapons, organize a volunteer corps, choose trained soldiers to lead them, financially aid patriots who were in prison and conduct a vast correspondence. Though defeated and betrayed in the outcome by Vienna, the Slovak revolution of 1848-49 marked an important milestone in Slovak history. The first large public manifestation of the Sl0vaks occured on May 10, 1848 at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. On this occasion a historic memorandum embracing six articles expressing the demands of the people was adopted unanimously. In substance these articles were: We demand that our people be permitted to· take part in the legislative deliberations of the land, and this not only de jure but de facto. And as such participation can alone become real and profitable when conducted in a language that is intelligible to us, we ask for our representatives the right to speak Slovak in the Diet. 50 SLOVAKIA We demand the right to plead and answer cases in the courts of law in Slovak. We demand that the school training of our youth, which is now so woefully neglected, be conducted in the mother tongue. We demand just and equitable representatives in the Diet. We demand for ourselves, and shall forever ask that our nationality, which we will never renounce, remain inviolate and inviolable. We demand that this petition be made known within the entire juristiction of Hungary, in Croatia, and Slavonia and be brought to the notice of the viceroy and of the Hungarian ministry, to the end that all friends of liberty and humanity may plead our just cause.36 Open-air meetings were held in larger towns throughout all regions during the spring of 1848. Equality and liberty, the maintenance and defense of the Slovak language were the keynote of them all. The Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas program was endorsed by a dozen towns supplemented here and there with petitions to meet subordinate local needs. Swiftly spread the news that Louis Phillipe had forfeited his crown to the French republicans, in 1848, anfi it reached every corner of the Hapsburg monarchy. Vienna was seething with political excitement. Prague was in feverish anticipation of the approaching Slavic Congress scheduled to meet there on June 2, in protest against the bartering of Slavic Austria to Greater Germany. stur went to Vienna after the March Revolution. There he met other Slav representatives, especially Ban Jelacic and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working hand in hand and paid joint visits to the Imperial Court. At this early stage of developments, stur received an invitation from the students at Prague which he accepted and through which he played a decisive part in the preparations for the Slav Congress. On April 30, he made a strong appeal in favor of united common action between the Slovaks and the Czechs. For the time being, at least, there was a healing of the breaches and disagreements.37 SLOVAKIA 51 A manifesto program which was initiated by Hurban, was issued at Teplice in the name of the Slovaks as the original occupants of this region. It was addressed simultaneously to the Crown and to the newly-formed national government at Pest. Its main demand was that there be convened a General Parliament for the brother nations of Hungary. Precipitously, any further movement in this direction was promptly suppressed by the Magyar authorities. Kossuth thundered against the Pan-Slavs in Parliament. Hurban and a few others were obligated to flee and they joined stur in an attempt to rouse Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia to common action, and acclaimed Prague as the heart of tl<le Slavic world. Meanwhile, Hodza issued a small book in German, presenting an answer to the Slovaks to Count Zay and his summons that a choice be made between Magyarizations and the Russian knout. Hodza's fiery response was: "Rather the Russian knout than Hungarian domination, for the one can only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death." 36 The time was ripe for action by the Slavs. stur proclaimed a Slavic Congress and agreed with Czech writers to set the date for May 31, 1848. Prague was chosen for the site of the Congress. A total of 362 delegates were present representing various Slavic nations, especially those under the Hapsburg rule, but the Poles and the Russians were also represented. The express objective 1tf the meeting was the establishment of contacts and regular exchanges among the Slavic peoples and the drawing up of a program of action for all peoples living as subject nations under Austria and/ or Hungarian domination. The four Slovak leaders-safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza-played a part second to none. They were determined to make Slovakia an equal with Bohemia and Moravia, as part of a Czech-Slav federal unit, such as Palacky had contemplated. At this Congress stur offered a program for federalizing Central Europe. The Czech were consistent supporters of Austroslavism. Consequently the problem came to be narrowed down to a definition of terms: The objectives of the Congress was either to save Austria, for with her lay the best chances of maintaining Slavic identity, or 52 SLOVAKIA immediate prov1s10n for the Slavic peoples living under Austria. stur made it clear, that his aim was not specifically to preserve Austria, under whom the Slavs had hitherto rotted, but to preserve his own people; Austria, he added, was decrepit and lay under a curse. He went on to say: Our aim should be to save ourselves, not to save Austria. First we must work for ourselves, then for others. Thus far Austria has been flourishing but we have been languishing. What would the world say to us if we stood for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us say that we want to stand as independent Slovanic communities under the government of Austria . . . this will give our work a genuinely Slovanic accent ...39 stur felt that the program of the Congress should be: 1) the creation of independent Slavic united states within Austria, and 2) prompt agreement to this, so that the Austrian armies might be authorized to destroy Magyar encroachments into Slovakia. stur stressed Slavic independence: "If we are to assume that place in history which rightfully belongs to us by reason of our ability and strength, we must once and for all free ourselves from this intolerable foreign thraldom and gain national independence for ourselves." 40 The necessity of remaining with the Austrian cadre was crystal clear to stur yet he made no secret of his distrust of Austria. The Czechs felt otherwise. Because they had not been mistreated as were the Slovaks under the Magyars, they were willing to accept and abide by the vague promises of the Austrian Emperor that Slavic rights would be recognized and respected. In return for these promises, the delegates of the Congress pledged full support to Austria in her effort to subdue the Magyars. In addition, they adopted a "Manifesto t o the European Nations" which called for the following objectives: 1. That the Slavic people under Turkish rule be freed. 2. That the Magyars acknowledge the rights of the SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak nation, including the right of its own language. 3. That the Croatian autonomy be maintained. 4. That the Slovenians be permitted to possess their land. 41 sttir felt that the Congress was a failure, because it seemed simply to reduce the Pan-Slavic movement to an attempt to reorganize Austria in a way to satisfy the nationalism of the Slavs. The insurrection of 1848 against the Magyars had also failed. sttir was disappointed to say the least and in the Pan-Slavic Movement was shaken. But he still cherished the hope that Slavic independence would be possible. In his despair and disillusionment, he became almost convinced that a small nation could not attain its freedom alone. Twice he had experienced having his great hopes in behalf of Pan-Slavism shaken. Now only one more possibility remained: alliance or association with Russia, for Russia alone of the Slavic nations was powerful enough to lead others to independence. This conclusion became the basic idea developed in his book, "Slavdom and the World of the Future," a work which extols the cultural, moral and political forces of the Russian Empire. It also presents a detailed program for the union of Slavs under the leadership of Russia. HIS POLITICAL RE-ORIENTATIO N In 1848 and 1849 when the Magyars under Kossuth arose in armed rebellion against Austria, demanding complete independence, the Slovaks braced themselves against a new wave of Magyarization pressures. Led by sttir and his collaborators, they fought in their units with the Austrians and then with the Russian Armies to subdue the Magyar rebels. In return the Slovaks hoped to gain from Vienna recognition of their own national aspirations. Vienna, however, disappointed them and overlooked guaranteeing their rigl;lts against the encroachment of the Magyars. Furthermore, influenced by Kollar, the imperial court used the antiquated Biblical Czech of the Protestants as the official Slovak language in the translation of the laws, for instruction in the schools, and in the newly established newspaper sponsored by the government, 54 SLOVAKIA "Slovak News" ("Slovenske Noviny"), published in Vienna. The fruits of Stu.r's labors seemed doomed and at this point he turned with greater hope to Russia. The Revolution that erupted in Paris in February 1848, and reverberated throughout Europe, encouraged the movement in Hungary. It affected the development of Slovak life and helped to bring the Slav political program to greater maturity. Individual regions of Slovakia rebelled against the imposition of Hungarian as the only recognized legal language and strove to secure sanctions for Slovak as their official language. The native tongue of the Slovak people represented the very survival of Slovakia. stur's basic concept in "Slavdom and the World of the Future" ("Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft") was an exceptional tribute to the cultural, moral and political forces at work within the Russian Empire. This work also included a detailed plan for the union of all Slavs with Russia, "the most complete and consistently developed program for the subjugation of Slavs to Russia," according to Professor Lednicki. stur adopted Herder's and Hegel's ideas which in turn provided the Slavs with a consciousness of unity based upon the communal element of language and a glorious destiny, proclaiming them as the prospective leaders of Europe. stur stressed the belief that the Slavs have a mission to fulfill in universal history, and that this mission can be fulfilled only if they are united. There were three procedures to consider: 1. Slavic federation without Russia. 2. Transformation of Austria into a Slavic federation. 3. Union with Russia as a monarchic empire under Russian leadership, united in the Orthodox Church and the Russian literary language. The first two approached did not appeal to stur's vision gf a Slavic world of the future. Because of geographical features and considerations, internal rivalries, religious and cultural differences, and intermingled nonSlavic elements, any attempt to federalize the Slavic nations at this time seemed doomed to failure. 42 Since the Slavs were to be leaders of the "new" Europe, stur set out to determine whether the Slavs really SLOVAKIA 55 had a role of their own to fulfill in world history. At this point they were not in position to do anything significant but history was a progression of spent nations being replaced by young one, and stur envisioned a future in which Slavic emancipation would eventually occur. There was no use in looking to the West for support in securing Slovakia's self-determination for, the West was already on the downward path to moral, political and social dissolution. Western civilization had deteriorated, the West itself needed help. Only Slavs could aid the Slavs. stur went on to paint a highly romantic picture of the Slavs, representing them as good at heart, patient, humble, kind and democratic. These were the general characteristics of all the Slavs, but especially of the Russians who were visualized as being at the apex of all the nobles features of the Slavic nations. stur did not know them personally. He had never been in Russia, neither had he any prolonged contact with Russians. He simply claimed that it had to be so logically, since the Russians were the leaders of the Slavs; they had to be the best Slavs. He was convinced too that unity was an absolute necessity if the Slavs were to achieve their historic mission. The only alternative left was union with Russia. 43 "Russia is the prime mover and the leader of our national family. Our people are but a fragment of a single nationality. They can be reborn and united into a single whole only by a elated benevolent and great Power." In stur's mind that power was Russia. "Let us go forth together in the spirit of our own people, under the leadership of the racial elders given to us by history." The Slavist, Professor Petrovich maintains that "The failure of the Slovak revolution and other political demonstrations brought stur to the conclusion that it was u.seless for his people to seek its own freedom alone or in the framework of Austroslavism." 44 This definitive decision on the part of stur amazed contemporary experts in his Slavic world. Yet it is not hard to understand stur's position when one realized the facts with which stur had to live in the 1850's. Since his primary goal was Slavic nationalism, Slavic unity, Russia was the only leader to whom to turn since Austroslavism 56 SLOVAKIA failed. His main objective was the creation of a federation of independent Slavic states under the Russian leadership, the same kind of action he had urged at the Prague Congress in 1848 for Austrian leadership. The Slavic peoples of the Austrian Empire, such as Czechs and Slovaks, and the smaller groups looked more and more toward Russia for help, since they found themselves outnumbered by the ruling Germans and Magyars. A second Pan-Slav Congress met in Moscow in 1867. The Poles were not represented. They considered the Russians their national enemies and oppressors. Russian chauvini&m was apparent throughout the congress. From that time on Russian nationalists wished to use Pan-Slavism as a tool for Russian expansion at the expense of nonRussian Slavs for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Turkish Empire. Both Empires contained large Slavic minorities. The Russian war against Turkey in 1877 was accompanied by Pan-Slavic agitation to liberate the Balkan Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, from the Turkish domination. World War I also started partly because the Russians supported the Slavic Serbs against the Austrian Empire. The fact that Russia herself oppressed several Slavic peoples--the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorussian s -and the fact that the Russian tsarist autocracy was politically and socially backward militated before 1914 against the claim of the Russians to be regarded as the spokesmen of all Slavs.45 All the peoples, with the exception of the Croatians, Slovenians and Serbs were united under Moscow's leadership, and thus many of the extravagant Russian aspirations, voiced during the Pan-Slav Congress in Moscow, in 1867, were fulfilled .46 Stu.r's great dream of a family of Slavic peoples united under Russia may also become a reality -but not under an Orthodox Church as a dedicated community, nor under an enlightened Russian Tsar with humanist and liberal views, nor as a Russian group struggling for the highest ideals of freedom and respect for human beings, as stur wished to see it in his work "Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft" ("Slavdom and the World of the Future"), but under a disastrous SLOVAKIA 57 policy, the cornerstone of which was laid at Yalta in February, 1945. This policy destroyed Europe's individuality and enlarged the power of the Kremlin, a power that has kept all humanity under constant tension since 1945 and is a threat to the freedom of all the states it has not yet captured. It led to the subjugation of an additional 200 million Europeans. On the soil in Northern, Central and Southern Europe, there arose a new Soviet colonial system. At a time when in the free world, peoples who have never enjoyed self-govenment in the past are gradually attained nationhood and are assisted by the United Nations in the achievement of their rightful aspiration-the exact reverse process has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. 47 ST-OR'S IMPACT ON SLOVAKIA Revival of Slovak National Life stur knew it was imperative that the Slovaks be awakened nationally; otherwise they were doomed as a nation. The nation needed scholars who would delve into antiquity and from the glory of the past raise a national enthusiasm and groundwork on which to build for the future. He assumed the task of providing them. The Slovak historian, Julius Botto, says of stur: "He trained for the Slovak nation energetic, selfless men, genuine national heroes." Since the Slovak gentry continued to yield its national identity and was overshadowed and even absorbed by Magyar influences, the Slovak people became abandoned in the midst of a rising alien nationalism and political transformation. Slovak intellectuals had the vision to realize what was happening and considered it mandatory to take over the culture of the Slovak peasants, middle classes and a sparse number of nationally minded aristocrats and garner from these elements their own national culture and new national consciousness. Without stur's important role in this effort, the Slovaks might now be a forgotten nation. stur successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities in this climate and was successful in 58 SLOVAKIA bringing about a new era of Slovak national life. Since he had a mystical idea of the nation, and respected it as a person, his approach was a philosophical one. Aesthetic and philosophical principles were inaugurated into his literary school and became the foundation of the Slovak nation revival of the nineteenth century. In the past, Slovak national life was little more than a conglomerate of regrets and passive laments, a life of hapless "do nothing." stur set up positive perspectives to create higher cultural and political values and he did not rest until the people were persuaded to adopt these new views. He repeatedly advocated a higher and stronger degree of national pride. He asked the Slovaks not to seek the source of their national pride in foreign gardens since they had it right at home in their midst. stur and his school knew what hopes were directed toward attaining concrete political and social gains; he realized how ready his people were to entertain enthusiasm and spirit for a better world. National and Slavistic themes permeate stur's poetry and prose. The soul of the nation-or of the Slavs-was his constant subject; he was always preoccupied with the nation's sufferings, struggles and failures. These topics are the substance of all his written works. The Slovaks, as Hans Kohn rightly says, "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indestructibility of the Slovak people and language." This thought supported them and enabled them to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. Although stur was not the only leader during the national revival, he embodied more vitally than did the others the true spirit of 1848. In his own right he is called the Daniel O'Connell of Slovak history. At this point is was not only necessary for the Slovak nation to map out definite goals, but it was also imperative to chart the way for coming generations of the Slovak nation in order that this goal might be realized and preserved. The task challenging stur and his followers was very complicated. Besides honoring, they had to find a way and means to discharge all the work before them in a way SLOVAKIA 59 that would be worthy of scrutiny both in their own day and in the light of history. Much of their work had to be accomplished under duress, when revolutionary forces were mounting, when fierce struggles had to be met to insure national existence and the ennobling of the social stratum of the Slavic people. $tlir's generation had no alternative, but to play the role of a vanguard of the Slovak bourgeoisie which had to be inspired with national consciousness and formed into a worthy class. The group v0luntarily assuming this role is called the $tlir generation; in literature it is called the stur school, since it was Cudovit stur and his group who adopted the traditions of the Bernolakians for the Slovak linguistic cultural and national independence. In short, they gave the Slovak nation both a solid ideology and definite direction under the leadership of Cudovit $tlir.48 Cudovit stur's activities were directed mainly on behalf of his native country, his main interest being the Slovak people caught in an insufferably miserable situation and desperately needing a solution of their problems. He threw all his efforts into achieving a social and national awakening of his people and into raising their standards so that they could be counted as a social and national force. In the memorable Bratislava parliament of 1847, he tangled in a heated discussion with Kossuth. stur declared: "We want freedom. It is easily said that there is plenty of freedom in our homeland: yes, not only an abundance, but even an oversupply of freedom." And he went on to add, "but only the landowner's brand of freedom; for of the real, human and personal freedom there is very little. If our towns had had more freedom, our people would never have fallen into such thraldom." Kossuth's reply to this was: "That cannot be helped; that is the way the world moves. It is the fate of one who stands lower in the community to be suppressed and bear the burden and taxes; on the other hand, the one who comes along better in civic life receives rights and stands in honor. At this time I am opposed to granting towns a vote in our Assembly." stur could not be silenced. Again he met Kossuth in the Hungarian Assembly and said: "Recently when I was 60 SLOVAKIA present here and mentioned the sorrowful plight of the wretched taxpayers, the worthy deputy of Pest County, Mr. Kossuth, saw the hand of fate in the oppression of the people and said that is the way of the world when the lower class is suppressed and the higher class arrogates more rights to itself. I see no hand of fate in the matter, because then the status of the oppressed could never be corrected. We demand freedom in the country and the assignment of urbanial jobs which are not in line with freedom. Does a person who works, who works for the benefit of others and receives contempt instead of reward, have a fatherland? Will such a person become as devoted to his country as he would be to his mother? The sacred cause of mankind challenges us to declare the principle of the liberation of people and honestly bring it into reality. When this redemption is accomplished, the judical power of the landowner and the country gentry must cease, because freedom would not be served if a people liberated from the robot would continue to remain under the staves of the Lords." 49 stur's main aspiration was freedom. If his only achievement had been his effort for the rights of the enslaved and subjugated at the Bratislava Assembly, he would have deserved to be honored among the most distinguished sons of the Slovak nation. But he did not only that but even more and because of this fact he is loved and revered by the Slovak nation. In him were concentrated the cultural and social endeavors of his predecessors, with the strength and courage needed for a living national organization. Without his concentration the pursuits of an independent national culture would have been impossible. His greatest merit lies in the fact that he assumed the historical task of uniting the multi-cultural strength of the Slavs into a national liberation front. A legendary atmosphere was built around the magnetic personality of stur by those who knew him. Around him there crystallized, as it were, a veritable aura of national life as is reported by William Pauliny Toth who said of him : ":Cudovit stur is favored epochally as a created vision in the history of. the Slovak- Nation." 50 SLOVAKIA 61 Shir in his time understood that the Slovak national process had matured and that Slovakia must appear on the scene of history as an independent political factor. It is in this foresight also that Shir's merit lies. He exemplifies the Slovak national spirit as a man possessed with deep convictions and great strength of will sufficient to execute them. His prime purpose, as we have already mentioned, was to see Slovakia united culturally, politically and socially. We must recall for our own benefit and on behalf of the free world that stur did not hesitate to accept and carry to completion the work of preceding Catholic generations; he was ready to press on in order to preserve the heritage of the Slovak nation, though he was not a Catholic, but a Lutheran and a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church. Contributions as an Energizing Stimulant to Slovak Life in General It can be said with assurance that in the history of the Slovak nation, no individual accomplished as much in so short a time as did :Cudovit stur, who was only forty-one years of age when he died. This was possible only because of the gifts of this phenomenal leader and because of the fact that the ground and the time were ripe for the ascension of a new generation. stur found that he could approve of much that already existed in Slovakia and he was ready to formulate what the nation needed and demanded in his day. One wonders how it was possible at this critical time for a man to dare to undertake structuring a spiritual foundation of modern life for the long slighted and forgotten Slovak people. Though we cannot understand the force that inspired him we can appreciate the phenomenon that in one generation, only one extraordinary person, one :Cudovit stur, appeared as a great leading luminary among approximately two million of his people. It goes without s~ying that the Slovak people are grateful to stur and to those who sacrificed much with him for the Slavic cause. Their work was aimed toward the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life envisioned by genius and inspiration. 62 SLOVAKIA The Slovak nation was not fortunate enough at this time to have a 1,1mg and cherished tradition or the advantage of experienced mature people on which to rely. Over long centuries of oppression under a foreign element, it was their fate to be wholly submissive and in this attitude to develop no leaders. Now they had to rely entirely on comparatively young men for new ideas and new leadership. The Slovak youth was entrusted with the new dawn and to project future goals, because the difficult life of the Slovaks in the past did not allow the elders to foster a strong national life. While many other European nations had their noble classes to fight their battles and to lead them to new eras, the Slovaks had no social upper strata on which to rely for inspiration. Their nobility and their middle class as well were lost by fusion with other elements predominantly Magyar milieu. Slovak national awakening consequently was achieved by the sons of humble people, usually the strong leaders from among the Catholic and Protestant clerical circles. The Slovak language as a literary medium which was chosen by l'..udovit stur and his collaborators was accepted by the Slovak population in 1843. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically by their participation in the uprising in 1848-49. During this revolutionary upheaval they sided with the Emperor in Vienna but were ill-rewarded for their services. Their repeated petitions for self-determination and for guarantees of unhindered cultural development were repeatedly denied them.5 1 In 1867, when the Austrians concluded a dual agreement with the Magyars, the Slovaks were left at the mercy of the Magyars. Under this arrangement, Slovak high schools and cultural organizations were suppressed. Education on an elementary level was permitted in the Magyar language only. Any who dared to resist magyarization were victimized and inprisoned. Thousands of Slovaks found it necessary to leave their native country and migrated to the United States of America. I.:udovit stur and his generation fired the Slovaks with new national life, a clear goal and a firm sense of direction SLOVAKIA 63 in the spirit of stt1r's slogan: "Backward we cannot go, Forward we must!" "Forward" means to free the people from the yoke of slavery and lead them along the road of independence and true national cultural growth within a truly free country. To achieve this tne Slovak nation needs a political program. The cataclysm of the Revolution of 1848 that struck Europe impelled the Slovaks to develop their political program without further hesitation or delay. The Slovaks reassessed their aims, and aspirations as well as prevailing circumstances. Since Slovakia was part of the Hungarian State, they wished primarily to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands clearly defined in order that they might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars living in Hungary. The Magyars opposed the justified petitions of the Slovak nation. They banned all Slovak assemblies and treated Slovak leaders as traitors deserving imprisonment. When the Slovaks perceived what obstacles their political program met with in Hungary, they resorted to arms against the Magyars who themselves were engaged in a rebellion against the Emperor. The Slovak rebellion in 1848-49 ended indecisively. The Russian army was asked to help subdue the revolting Magyars and absolute rule was imposed in the country. The Magyars were punished and the Slovaks were forgotten. 52 The Slovaks renewed their political activity in 1861. They detailed their principles in newspapers and later called an assembly at Turciansky Sv. Martin where they formulated a renewed Slovak policy within the comprehensive "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation." They asked that the Slovaks be permitted the right to develop their own life without restriction. They asked that they be recognized as a nation by a special proclamation, and that Slovakia constitute a distinctive administrative unit in Hungary. These petitions were submitted to Emperor Franz Josef (1849-1916). The only concession granted to the Slovaks was permission to establish a cultural institute called "Matica Slovenska" ("The Slovak Institute"). They were also allowed to use private funds to build three high schools for the education of Slovak youth. 64 SLOVAKIA The position of the Slovaks grew steadily worse in Hungary. Feeling the pressure of denationalization at every step, they did not stop pledging their allegiance to Hungary. All these attempts even at appeasement proved futile . The Hungarian Parliament passed legislation which suppressed Slovak life yet not even these adversities broke the Slovak nation, for the Slovaks believed "That truth has never yet suffered in vain, nor will our Slovak truth suffer needlessly," according to the prophetic dictum of Andrej Hlinka in 1907 spoken as he was being led to prison.53 $TOR IN CONTEMPORAR Y HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Practicality of Stur's Ideals :r.udovit stur's role in the revival of Slovak national life was far reaching and vitally important. As a reformer of the Slovak literary medium he contributed to modern national Slovak ideology. He gave his people a new perspective and vision of political freedom and of a better future. His writings provided a powerful impetus to Slovak life in general. His manifold contributions to the Slovak national revival were not limited to Slovakia alone, but to the over-all Slavic world, since Slovakia and the Slovak people are a part of the Slavic world. Neither is his greatness only by the role he played at the first Slavic Congress in Prague, but also by his rich correspondence with all outstanding Slavic leaders, as well as his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" which was translated and published twice by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stur's school of thought laid the foundation for the self-determinatio n of Slovakia more than a century ago. Even in the present the Slovaks are building upon this foundation. They will keep on pressing their point and cherishing their hope of success until they do attain complete freedom from all foreign domination. Just as stur had defied and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars and the materialistic philosophy of Marx and Engels, so do they hope in this day to overcome all obstacles to true freedom. SLOVAKIA 65 The followers of stur made the entire nation their concern. They applied themselves to improve the country's economy; they did their utmost to wipe out alcoholism, indifference, and illiteracy; they labored unceasingly to arouse national consciousness in more ways than one. The people at large responded and co-operated generously when r:,tur began to publish his "Slovenske Narodne Noviny" ("Slovak National News") which had great influence on the thinking of the common people. stur's articles recalled the heritage of the Slovak people, the glory of its language, morals, customs, and its homeland-which unites the nation as a whole and constrains it to press forward towards attaining the goal of unity. It was necessary to make the nation feel that someone was supporting it and was concerned about its welfare. The people had to be dealt with humanely. This applied to individuals as well as to groups. The Slovaks were threatened with complete annihilation, hence stur had to appeal to the mind, the feelings and the very character of the nation. Without first uniting this nation he could gain nothing. The sturists envisioned their task as not the conversion of renegades, but the instruction of the people to help themselves, to recognize and to fight for their God-given rights. Stu.r's newspaper served all classes of people to some degree-the intelligentsia, the laborer, the peasant, the minister of the Gospel, the merchant and the tradesman. The Slovaks did rouse themselves to national consciousness. Without effective journalism of the type provided by stur it would have been impossible to unite the Slovaks in so short a time. stur and his collaborators were realists. They encouraged and exhorted the people to better themselves by overcoming indolence and ignorance. They provided and encouraged private enterprise and more efficient ways of doing things in all fields of endeavor. The school problem was a factor of great concern to stur and his coterie. They indicated the necessity of cultivating the native language, the importance of enlightenment, the value of reading centers, libraries, sound agricultural programs, progress in industrial and financial enterprise, 66 SLOVAKIA revision in tax scales, improvement in animal husbandry and many other subjects. Temperance societies were promoted as were cultural and social institutions. Many stur followers taught Sunday school classes. This innovation of stur was probably the most interesting of all movements in Slovakia. stur and his followers were not dreamers; they were practical idealists who had the welfare and security of the Slovak people at heart.54 stur's school of thought built the foundation for the independence movement as well. With the help of his co-workers ::;tur's literary school to a great extent fulfilled the function of a political and military leadership, thereby elevating the Slovak people to the cultural level of the rest of Europe. For these achievements stur's progressive pedagogical heritage shall continue to live among us for a long time. His practical and wise suggestions, his courage, his vision, selflessness, his many precedents which could be used and developed in our day serve as an undying example for future generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to work for their country's freedom, independence and recognition. At the same time future generations are challenged to keep alive the flame of the torch which was passed to them by stur's unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow. Despite stur's comparatively youthful age, his cultural and social activities were many-sided and diversified. Slovaks in the free world can gain much by a study of his works. Because stur and his co-workers were human, they naturally made some mistakes. However, their mistakes were those of the century in which they lived. It behooves us to judge them according to the fruit of their labor, the results of their work which brought a new perspective to the Slovak nation. stur can rightly be numbered among the outstanding European revolutionaries of his time. He was a great apostle of democracy and freedom for all people. The shining light among the Slovaks of the nineteenth century, the formulator of their political and social program, as well as the interpreter of their national desires was ~udovit stur-the Father of modern Slovak nationalism .55 SLOVAKIA 67 Application of stur's Theories in Subsequent Slovak History The evolution of Slovak national life and the role of ~udovit stur in its development are mutually inclusive. Once one delves into a study of stur's life work, he becomes permanently fascinated with it and cannot be shed the charm of this genial creator of modern national Slovak ideology. stur was endowed with extraordinary creativity and originality of concepts. Only a genius could create works of lasting value which survive long after his death. It is only natural that we return to stur and find support in him. He is an incentive to future generations to do even better things than he did. However, to date, he ranks as one of the most outstanding Slovaks of all time. Slovakia is grateful to many Slovak leaders who sacrificed everything for the nation. But most of these also worked for the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life which was spelled out and left to us by stur and his co-workers. They gave expression to the righteous desires of the Slovak nation and became the unsurpassed model in spiritual and civic activity:56 For more than a century, nothing new nor shaking has appeared than that which was expressed by stur for the Slovak nation. Hence it behooves us to return to him, because it is evident that every new and great plan of Slovak life must first pass the aqua regia test of stur's thinking. The aims of the Slovak nation which were conceived by stur are still the criteria of the life of the Slavic people. Whatever counters stur also runs counter to the vital interest of the Slovak nation. stur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens! " is just as timely today as they were in 1845. He was a man ahead of his time. His philosophical views, his democratic thinking, his principles and his social demands are timely, too. It is necessary for our generation to recognize the fact that the Slovaks over one hundred years ago fought to change the political structure of Central Europe, that they demanded a deserved independent status for their nation within the framework of a solid federation built on principles of justice and equity. 68 SLOVAKIA Great ideas may be temporarily suppressed and silenced, but in the end they will triumph. That accounts for the inability of the enemies within and without the Slovak nation to destroy the concept of individuality of the Slovak nation, its language, culture and its right to an independent life. Even today after a lapse of more than a hundred years, this idea is very much alive. Despite the fact that Pan-Slavism did not achieve any notable results during stur's time, it nevertheless had inherent value. For the first time it revealed the Slavic mind to the rest of Europe. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe today. The Prague Congress too proved significant by reason of the fact it was the first expression of Slavic unity, of Slavic identity, distinct from the Hapsburg rule. It imbued the Slavs with greater courage and confidence and a guide for the future action. Slavdom and the World of Future is today a relatively unknown work, even in the Slavic world. Yet it had exerted great influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a beacon light and incentive to furthering their program and goals. At the time of s tur's death in 1856, the whole Pan-Slavic movement was pretty much a failure. It failed because the very nationalism that it promoted led to its defeat. Pan-Slavism created dissent among the various Slav nations because it pressured national consciousness. The more the people became aware of their individuality, their historical traditions, and their language, the less they wanted to sacrifice them for a non-existent Slav federation . Another hindering factor was the centuries-old and traditional antagonism between the various Slavic nations, such as the Poles and the Russians, Czechs and Slovaks, Croatians and Serbs, prevented any success for a plan that would unite them. Hence Pan-Slavism was hindered from excercising any dominant or stable influence on European thought at that time. 57 For two decades after World War I Pan-Slavism seemed dead. The Western Slavs-the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes and Serbs--established their own states in 1918. They looked more to the West than to Moscow for guidance and inspiration. After the German SLOVAKIA 69 aggression against Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin revived Pan-Slavism for the duration of the war and appealed for the support of all Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union again discarded Pan-Slavism after World War II. It was under the aegis of Communism rather than Pan-Slavism that the U. S. S. R. established control over the Western and Southern Slavic peoples in the post war period. $tur's vision of a unified Slovak cultural, political and social life did not indicate that he was a mere visionary. After a century of struggle there exists a Slovak nation with its own literature and cultural institutions and it is a strongly literate one. There also exists a sound national consciousness and a wholesome social stratification, which is unbalanced only by the unfortunate present Communist regime. The new generation is imbued with a spirit of national and social justice among Central European peoples and constantly resists Communistic ideology, about which £udovit $tur wrote more than a century ago: "Communism not only commits outrageous injustice against all civil society ... it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm. It divides the family, it destroys the household and thus it opens wide the door to every type of immorality, dissolution, and indulgence. It degrades· man to bestial level ... "Communism has matured to the same degree as atheism and defection from Christianity . . . In all types of Communism whatever their classification may be, the outlook is only toward a dismal life. It brings in its wake despotism of the grossest kin. It ,shatters all bonds of social living. In place of holy ties, it offers profiteering, rioting and their like." Today when our mighty nation is fighting for freedom of all enslaved and oppressed nations, this freedom must not be overlooked for Slovakia. The Slovaks of today still have the inherent and God given rights to complete freedom as do all other nations. To fight for the freedom of all nations, including Slovakia, is the obligation of all lovers of truth and freedom. The Slovaks have existed and will continue to exist if they live and remember $tur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens!" 70 SLOVAKIA Today a foreign regime in Slovakia is persecuting and crushing all that stlir stood for, because it is above all else concerned with the extermination of the Slovak traditions which in his time Eudovit stur had recreated and reformed in such a manner that they remain in permanent basis of Slovak national development. The spirit of stur lives on! One can kill a man but never the idea he stands for . In history there are myriad examples of movements, faiths and ideologies triumphant "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword." The Slovak nation did not give up the right to live in an independent state even if this state was forcibly liquidated, its rules killed and its adherents persecuted. All this has made the struggle for independence even more imperative, because if the idea was worth dying for, it i~ worth fighting for. More than a century after his death :Cudovit stur is very much alive. His name is often on the lips of his followers and his opponents. Books are written about him, his policies, his philosophy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain by his friends and his enemies. With no perceptible results to show, the situation of the Slovak nation does not look very promising today. The nation is without its state, lives in slavery but also lives in hope. There is strong evidence to indicate a living and vibrant independence movement at home where the Slovaks after an interim of partial independence are convinced that there is no substitute for complete independence. The indeology of :Cudovit stur is the source of strength and belief that independent Slovakia with a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" will re-appear on the map of Europe:58 CONCLUSION The essential part of this study dealt with the assumption that :Cudovit stur and his achievements have long been recognized by the Slovaks, that he is a great national figure and is revered as the "Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." But what of his place in the history of the Slavs at this time? Looking for stur's place in the Slavic world, after the passing of a century which tested many of his conceptions SLOVAKIA 71 and achievements, one cannot avoid some purely Slovak cultural and political issues. One cannot help but also agree with Hans Kohn's words that "the Slovak nation with its own literary language, was definitely established."59 stur's manifold activities made this possible. Since Pan-Slavism remained the primary concern of Slavic poets, newsmen, literary scholars, philologists, and historians, Slavic nationalism was far removed from the political plan and was situated in the literary field. These individuals expressed an optimistic belief in man's inevitable progress, in the spiritual rejuvenation which would result in the assurance of liberty, peace and happiness. These visionaries felt that perhaps the Slavs were heralds of a new era. They promised a unified betterment in a future Slavic world. According to his book "Slavdom and the World of the Future" r.udovit stur set out to accomplish four tasks. He wanted an assurance to determine whether the Slavs really had a specific role to fulfill in world history. The Slavic past would yield an affirmative answer, for this certainty was the basis for the entire Pan-Slavic movement. Without doubt, the Slavs were to be the leaders of a "New Europe." Since history is a progression of spent nations being replaced by young and energetic ones, Slavic Emancipation and self-determination would eventually be realized. stur's gift of prophecy and Kollar's poetic vision of one Slav nation, language, and culture as expressed in Kollar's "Daughter of Slavs" ("Slavy dcera"): "What will the Slavs be in a hundred years? What will the whole of Europe come to be? Slav life, just as a mighty flood appears, shall everywhere extend its boundary. The science shall Slav exponents see, our peoples' customs, dress and music on both the Seine and Danube modish be." His second task was to describe the Slavic mission in universal history against the background of the cultural difference between Western and Eastern Europe.60 stur could only visualize the destruction of the peasantry by a moral, political and social dissolution in the West and the culmination of a schism between religion and daily life. The West could do little to help, since it was gradually losing face because of its prodigality. 72 SLOVAKIA Western society and its institutions were not worth the effort of imitation since they were contributing to the downfall of the West. Hence the Slavs could depend only on themselves for existence. Thirdly, Shir presents a highly romantic picture of the Slavic peoples. They are endowed with extraordinary virtue. The West was held accountable for the vices of the Slavs who were presented as being by nature kind, patient, humble, and democratic. These characteristics were typical of all Slavs, but especially the Russians, who were the embodiment of all the best and noblest features of the entire Slav nation. Logically, he concluded, that since the Russians were to be the leaders of the Slavs, they had to be the cream of the Slavic element.61 His last task dealt with the problems of Slavic political unification. If the Slavs were to attain their goal, unity was an absolute necessity. There were three possibilities. The first was a Slavic confederation without Russia, which could never succeed because of internal disputes among multi-Slavic peoples. These nation were of about equal strength, hence the emergence of a leader from these nations was an impossibility. The second was the transformation of Austria into a Slavic Empire. Attempts of this nature had been made before and failed. Shir felt that Austro-Slavism should not be considered. The only alternative left was alliance with Russia. Since she was powerful enough to unite all the Slavic nations, she was the natural leader that was needed. stur was impressed by Russia's power and influence. If Slavic peoples united under Russia, their equal would be second to none in Europe. One wonders how it came that such a decisive document was left to us by stur. Yet under the circumstances with which he had to contend in the 1850's it is not surprising. His primary concern was Slavic Nationalism, and Slavic unity. His interest in Russia came only as a result of this, since he never had any prolonged contact with the Russians, neither had he ever been in Russia. 62 After more than a century's lapse of time Stu.r's big dream of a United Slavic peoples under Russia may yet SLOVAKIA 73 become a reality, in a strange and unfortunate nature, because of recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow has became a political powerhouse of the Slavic world and Russian leadership has technically materialized. Stu.rs drive and his vision of Slovak cultural, political and social betterment did not prove to be a myth either. There now exists a Slovak nation with its own literature, cultural institutions and almost universal literacy. Its people are nationally conscious and they can boast of sound social stratification, which was recently unbalanced only by the presence of an unwelcome Communist regime. They are proud of their fighting spirit for national and social justice, which was passed on them with the flame of Stu.r's burning torch. There is a constant resistance among them to Communist ideology and this attitude is another legacy of Stu.r's. Over a century ago he said: "Communism not only commits _o utrageous injustices against all civil society ... but it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm ... It degrades man to a bestial level ... " 63 Although Pan-Slavism did not achieve notable results during Stu.r's time, it had an inherent value in that it revealed for the first time to the rest of Europe the Slavic mind. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe. The Prague Congress, too, was the first expression of Slavic unity and identity which was separate from the Hapsburg rule. It also gave the Slavs courage and confidence. Stu.r's book, mentioned earlier in this section, has had a strong influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a forerunner of some later developments. stur and his followers executed their tasks beyond human expectation, for they came upon a scene of history when the situation of the Slovaks under the Magyars in Hungary seemed truly hopeless. The significance of Eudovit stur in the evolution and revival of Slovak national life is tremendous and far. reaching. His role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language greatly contributed to Slovak national ideology. It gave his people a new vision and perspective of political 74 SLOVAKIA freedom and of a better future. By his example and writings he provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general. stur rightfully belongs with Jan Kollar and Pavol J. safarik to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century who are regarded as great figures of the Slavic world, since Slovakia and its people are part of the Slavic world. All three found willing echo in all the Slavic peoples. As Hans Kohn states: "They were imbued in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future, in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind, which would establish for ever the basis of liberty, peace, and happiness."64 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in History at Marywood College.) FOOTNOTES 1) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 8. 2) Jaroslav Vlcek, Mala Ruko vat' literarno-historicka (A small Hanpbook of Literary History") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932). p. 195. 3) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uu,dovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 4) Ibid., p. 199. 5) Marian Ziar, "Stur" Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 6) Philip A. Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement," Slovakia, September-December, 1956, p. 39. 7) Karol Golan, "Sturove reci na slovanskom sjazde roku 1848," ("Stur's Lectures at the Slavic Congress of 1848,") Slovak Views, AugustSeptember, 1936, p. 422. 8) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, p. 7. 9) Jan Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin : Matica Slovenska, 1958) , p. 199. 10) Jaroslav Vlcek, Dejiny literatury slovenskej (History of Slovak Literature") Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1923), p. 184. 11) St. Osusky, Filozofia Sturovcov ("Sturist Philosophy") (Myjava: Typ. Daniel Pazicky, 1926), p. 10. 12) Uudovit Bakos, Uul:iovit 5tiir (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1957 ), p. 34. 13 ) . Ibid., p. 50. 14) Seton-Watson, R. H., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. (London : Archon Books, 1943), p. 260. 15) John cajak, Second Slovak History ("Bejepis Slovakov") (Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. SLOVAKIA 75 16) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, p. 6. 17) Henrich Bartek, " Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June 1956, p. 4. 18) Joseph Kirschbaum, UU/dovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 14. 19 ) R. H. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London: Arc hon Books, 1943), PP- 260-261. 20) John cajak, "Slovak History" ("Dejepis Slovakov") (Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. 21 ) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stu!· and His Place in the Slavic World," Slovakia, March, 1958. 22) Francis Hrusovsky, "Point of No Return," This is Slovakia (Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954), p. 46. 23) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stur in His Place in the Slavic World." (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958) , p. 20. 24) Ibid., pp. 20-21. 25) Ibid., p. 28. 26 ) Thomas Capek, The Slovaks of Hungary (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 22-23. 27) Joseph Skultety, Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho .Zivota. 1790-1914. ("One Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knih. -Ocast., 1920), p. 44. 28) Ibid., p. 46. 29 ) Ibidem., p. 46. 30) Joseph Kirschbaum. "Louis Stur Centenial" Slovakia, March, 1956. (Middletown ) p. 8. 31) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 32) Joseph Kirschbaum , Uudovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World," (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 23. 33) Michael B. P e trovich. The Emergence of Russian Pan-Slavism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 18-19. 34) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur a~d the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 106-107. 35) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 7-8. 36 ) Thomas Capek. The Slovaks of Hungacy (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 70-71. 37) Ibid., p. 71. 38) Seton-Watson. History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London : Archon Books, 1943) , p. 162. 39) Suzanne Mikula. "Uudovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 109-110. 40 ) Ibid., p. 110. 41) Ibid., p. 110. 42) Joseph Kirschbaum. Uu)dovit Mur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), pp. 8-9. 43 ) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur and the Pan..Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 110-111. 76 SLOVAKIA 44) Michael Petrovich, "l!udovit Stur and Russian Pan-Slavism," Journal of Central European Pan-Slavism, 1952, p. 6. 45) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism," Encyclopedia International, XIX, 44-45. 46) Ibid., pp. 44-45. 47) ACEN statement, September 20, 1954. 48) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia I!udovita Stura ("Bibliography of I!udovit Stur") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), pp. 198-199. 49) Philip Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak I'*-1ependence Movement," Slovakia (Sept., Dec., 1956), p. 38. 50) Jan Ormis. Bibliografia L'udovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 51) Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso. (Sydney: Orbis Printing Co. pty. Ltd., 1967), pp. 5-6. 52) Francis Hrusovsky, "This Is Slovakia," Slovakia, 1969, pp. 91-92. 53 ) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka (Bratislava: 1934), p. 198. 54) Joseph Pauco, "Stur's Group in -the Service of the People," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 12-15. 55 ) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia , March, 1956, pp. 10-11. 56) Henrich Bartek, Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-4. 57) Suzanne Mikula, "l!udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, p. 113. 58 ) Frantisek Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso, (Sidney: Orbis Printing and Publishing Co., Pty Ltd., 1967), p. 43. 59) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History a'*-1 Ideology," (University of Notre Dame Press, 1953), p. 21. 60 ) Suzanne Mikula, "I!uldovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement,·• Slovakia, p. 111, 1966. 61) Ibid., p. 112. 62) Ibid., p. 112. 63) Joseph Kirschbaum , I!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic Wor~:i (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 26. 64) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology," (Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press), p. 22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Stur, L'udovit. Listy L'udovita Stura. (Letters of I!udovit Stur.") ed. Dr. Jozef Ambrus. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, (Slovak Academy of Sciences), 1956, pp. 64-375. Stur, I!udovit, 1864 Nauka Reci Slovenskej. ("Slovak Language Lessons from r;ui:lovit Stur.") Bratislava, 1946, pp. 1-10. Bakos, I;udovit. Cudovit Stur. ("Louis Stur.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1957, pp. 34-161. Bartek, Henrich, C. Stur a Slovencina. ("I;udovit Stur and the Slovak Language. ") Turc. Sv. Martin: Kompas, 1943, pp. 6-18. Botto, Julius. Michal M. Rodia. Turciansky Sv. Mart.in: -Ocastinarsky Spolok, 1911, pp. 11-41. l'.:ajak, Janko. Dejepis Slovakov. ("History of the Slovaks.") Pittsburgh: Tlac Narodnych Novin, 1914, pp. 97-110. SLOVAKIA 77 tapek, Thomas. The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906, .pp. 18-52. Chrobak, Dobroslav. Rukoviit'. ("Handbook.") Prague: L. Mazac, 1932, pp. 25-37. Czambel, Samo. Slovaci a Ich Rec. ("The Slovaks and Their Language.") Budapest: C. A. Kr. Dvornej Knihtlac Victoria Horney Anskeho, 1903, pp. 25-42. Golan, Karol. Revolucne Pokolenie 1848-1849. ("The Revolutionary Generation 1848-1849.") Myjava: Daniel Pazisko, 1926, pp. 91-94. Hqdal, Juraj. Jan Holly. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1923, pp. 91-94. Hrobak, .Philip. Czechoslovakia. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1958, .p. 17. Hrusovsky, Francis. This Is Slovakia. Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954, pp. 42-47. Hurban, Jozef M. r.udovit Stur. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928, pp. 7-216. Kacka, Jozef. Dejiny Slovenskej Literatury. ("History of Slovak Literature.") Ruzomberok: Lev, 1928, pp. 36-39. Kalal, Karol. Dejiny Slovenska ("History of Slov,alda.") Turc. Svaty Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1916, .pp. 89-105. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Nas Boj o Samostatnost' Slovenska. ("Our Struggle for Slovak Independence.") Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1968, pp. 292-324. Kohn, Hans. Hapsburg Empire 1804-1918. An Anvil Original. Princeton: K. Vian Nostrand Company, 1961, pp. 65-95. Medvecky, Karol A. Slovensky Prevrat. ("The Slovak Revolution.") I-IV: 4 vols. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1930-1931. Mraz, Andrej. Jozef Skultety. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1933, p. 7. Novak, Uuldovit. Jazykovedne Glosy k Ceskoslovenskej Otazke. ("Linguistic Sounds of the Czecho-Slovak Question.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1935, p. 233. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York: Robert Spelle,r and Sons, 1960, pp. 108-204. Ormis, Jan. Bibliografia E,udovita Stura. ("L'udovit Stur and His Bibliography.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958, pp. 3-201. Pauco, Jozef. r.udovychova u Sturovcov. ("Popular Education among the Sturists.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1943, pp. 5-11. Pauliny, Heinrich. Dejiny Spisovnej Slovenciny. ("History of Literary Slovak.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia, 1948, p. 393. Petrovich, Michael B. The Emergence of Russia Pan-Slavism 1856-1870. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, p. 18. Porubsky, Jan. K Ste-mu Vyrociu Literarnej Slovenciny 1856-1944. ("The One Hundredth Year of Literary Slovak." ) Scranton: Obrana Press, 1944, pp. 154-166. Ruppelt, Fedor. Koncentracne Snahy Slovenske. ("Concentrated Slovak Endeavors.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky a Ucastinarsky Spolok, 1928, pp. 64-71. Skultety, Jozef. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1930, pp. 183-186. Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho tivota 1790-1914. ("One 78 SLOVAKIA Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky -Ocast. Spolok, 1920, pp. 31-65. Vlcek, Jaroslav. Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej. ("History of Slovak Literature." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Mala Rukoviit' Literarno-Historicka. ("A Small Handbook of Literary History.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Wagner, J;udovit. Slovensky Plutarch. (" Slovak Plutarch.") Nove Mesto naid Vahom: Jan Trnovsky, 1920, pp. 27-30. Address-Published Kirschbaum , Joseph M. 13udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World. An Address to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists on June 9, 1957, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Periodicals Bartek, Henrich. " Our Tradition and J;udovit Stur." Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-10. Bue, Bonaventure. " Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism. " Slovakia, June , 1958, pp. 1-17. Hrobak, Philip. "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement." Slova• kia, September-December, 1956, pp. 34-39. Kir schbaum, Joseph. "Independence and the Slovak Past." Slovakia, March, 1957, pp. 44-53 . "Louis Stur Centennial." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 3-6. 'Misconceptions of American Slavists." Slovakia, March-June, 1962, pp. 25-43 . "The Slovak Language and Its Place Among the Slavic Languages." ' Slovakia, 1966, pp. 1-17. Mikula, Suzanne. "!;udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement." Slovakia, 1966, pp. 104-115. Pauco, Joseph. "Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 11-15. Rekem, John. "The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language ." Slovakia, March-April, 1962, pp. 1-13. 2iar, Marian. "Stur: Father of Mqdern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 6-11. Banik, Anthony A. "Posledni Zastancovia Spi:sovnej Cestiny." (The Last Supporters of the Literary Czech Language.") Sbornik LiterarnoV edeckeho Odboru SSV., 1935, pp. 18-35. Horak, Juraj . "Sturova Kniha o Narqdnych Piesnach a Povestiach Plemien Slovanskych." ('Stu.r's Book on Naitional Hymns and Slavic Popular Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, January-February, 1923, pp. 97-128. Vlcek, Jaroslav. "Povodina Sturovho Spisu o Narodnych Povestiach Slovanskych." ("Stu.r's Original Writings on Slavic National Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, pp. 58-63. Unpublished Material McCoy, Sheila Marie, Sister. 'The School of Stur," (Unpublished Thesis) Cabrini College, 1965.  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 Political Views of Ľudovít Štúr Description An account of the resource Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 20-78 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Opet, Sister M. Delphina, SS.C.M. 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/86bf2d02aa25064a624b1220f105fe79.pdf 1399999b641e54eabac86c6715c9429e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 7 Stephen B. Ro1nan - Slovak Tycoon J . M . Ki Ts C h b au m For more than ten years I was tempted to write something like "One of the most amazing characters I have met in my life," and a few years ago I prepared an outline for a book I thought should be entitled "The Defiant Tycoon." Odd circumstances prevented me from accomplishing either of these plans. On April 21, 1971, Stephen B. Roman will pass the threshold of the half-century mark of his extraordinary life, full of amazing success, uneven struggles and varied activities which made him nationally Stephen e. Roman and internationally known. The "Roman Story" re-written and re-published in numerous languages in Canada, Europe and the United States gives an example of one of the most spectacular careers in Canadian finance and industry and we will attempt to outline here at least the most interesting periods. Stephen B . Roman was born in Vel'ky Ruskov, Eastern Slovakia. According to his reminiscences, he grew up in a tightly knit family and his boyhood was happy and geared to farm life. An irresistible desire to see the world prompted him, however, as a teenager to leave his studies at the Agricultural College in a town near his home and to accompany his older brother George to Canada. They arrived in Canada on June 15, 1937, with two thousand dollars to buy a farm. For the following three years he worked for 50¢ a day on a farm near Port Perry, Ontario, �8 SLOVAKIA an experience about which he can talk with great humor. Then, after a short period of service in the Canadian Army, he worked on the assembly line at General Motors, but an awakening interest in the Canadian economy, in investments and in speculation led him to spend his time in a variety of studies from business to corporate law, history and politics. During this period, he became a Canadian citizen and in 1945 he married the former Betty Gardon, also a native of Slovakia. The following ten years skyrocketted him into wealth and fame. 1 On the treshold of his 50 birthday, we can say without any exaggeration that S. B. Roman made the most important and most spectacular contribution to the Canadian development of industry, finance and agriculture in the post-war II period. He over-shadowed the success of any Canadian of his generation and ranks with the nation's most successful and financially the most powerful Canadian, whose profiles were ably outlined in P. C. Newman's Flame of Power.2 In Canada's national economic community, the name of Stephen Roman became synonymous with the leadership of one of the richest and most powerful industrial organizations in the country, Denison Mines Limited and Roman Corporation Limited, both active in mining, oil and cement production and in a variety of other major enterprises. Denison Mines became universally known as the largest uranium mine in the world and its billion dollar asset together with the holdings of Roman Corporation hais often been called by financial journals the "Roman Empire." Together with its dynamic founder and chairman, Denison Mines have been the subject of numerous articles in Canadian and international financial publications, books, and newpapers. 3 Except for E. P. Taylor, there has not been a Canadian industrialist who has attracted as much of the attention of the national and international press, as did S. B. Roman, whose views on economic questions have been sought by the nation's press, radio and television, and respected for their candor and independence of thought. �SLOVAKIA 9 The Way to the Spectacular Success In the beginning, S. B. Roman's moves did not amount to much, hampered as he was by lack of capital and experience. His will to succeed, however, was stronger than the odds against which he had to fight and his persistence swept friends along with his enthusiasm. In 1946, he organized the Concord Mining Syndicate, converted it into Concord Mines Limited years later, and moved rapidly into oil exploration just as the oil industry was agog with the discovery of the Leduc fields in Alberta. In another move, he created a new company through further reorganization, the New Concord Development Corpora~ion, with himself as President. Success took on a broad dimension for Stephen B. Roman and his company's operations found profits not only in Alberta but also in the United States and provided funds of the size which would permit Roman to meet the test of his lifetime's greatest opportunity: uranium in the Blind River-Algom a Camp. The opportunity came when two independent stakers4 from the vast area of bush north of the Trans-Canada Highway between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, where Dr. F. R. Joubin discovered the largest deposits of uranium, turned to him for support. In January 1954, Roman made the critical decision to invest money in these Blind River -Algoma claims from the sale of his shares in Concord. Thus he fashioned Consolidated Denison Mines Limited. At 34 years of age, he began making mining history and the "Roman Story" was published in multiple variations more times on the American Continent and in Europe than any other in the past 20 years,5 Residing in a stately 17-roomed house with his family of four boys and three daughters in rolling farmland some 20 miles from Metropolitan Toronto, S. B. Roman made also noteworthy contribution to Canadian agriculture. On his 1,350 acres of choice farming land he proved as successful and imaginative in the breeding and development of Holstein-Frie sian cattle as in industry and finance. His Romandale herd is recognized throughout the world as a producer of oustanding breeding stock and many breeders in various countries have selected Romandale animals for their own breeding programs. He takes justifi- �10 SLOVAKIA able pride in the fact that his is the only herd in the breed's history which had the distinction of winning, more often than any other breed, both the Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor awards at all three major North American shows: in Canada, at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Toronto, Ontario; in the U.S. A. at the National Dairy Congress, Waterloo, Iowa, the International Dairy Exposition, Chicago, Illinois and All American Shows at Pittsburgh, Pa. S. B. Roman's Personality and Motivation Whoever knows S. B. Roman from his business or social contacts, cannot be but baffled by his complex personality, his easily changing mood from friendly laughter and smooth conversation to a temperamental eruption of criticism or rage--short lasting anyhow. "I never hold a grudge against anybody," is the frequent remark one can hear in conversation with him. Or insisting on the necessity of humility after an acerbic criticism of somebody-may it be the Pope, the President of the United States (not Nixon) or the Prime Minister of Canada-he would say: " I am, of course, sometime rough, but it is with a purpose in mind." Though one can make a guess, it is very hard to make a statement about Roman's motivation. Not only in the angry fight for the principle of free enterprise with Prime Minister Trudeau in March 1970, who stopped the sale of Denison Mines, but on many other occasions, S. B. Roman insisted that money was not his ultimate goal. A Toronto newspaper wrote on one occasion that it is the liberation of Slovakia, which has undoubtedly been very close to his heart, but even a close association with Roman provides only vague and uncertain hints about his motivation. As the most spectacularly successful Canadian of his generation-and the only non-Anglo-Saxon -who can be counted among the financial empire builders in Canada, he views, as the other Canadian magnates did, the free enterprise system as a fore-ordained to reward the most able.6 There are indications that he also shares with them other views. Like all of them, he regards the successful business corporation as the highest manifestation of man's �SLOVAKIA 11 superiority and many of his business ventures would indicate that he believes in large corporatio ns. Even though Roman's complex personality shows genuine features of his race, he also has many characteris tics in common with the other Canadian financial magnates. Of course, he is not the multi-milli onaire mine maker who spent long years prospectin g in the bush like Harry Oaks or Gilbert Labine. He belongs to the new generation of mine makers who used the promoters ' phone and the stock exchange, shrewd deals and good timing for developing Canadian industry and increasing his wealth. Among the Canadian "empire builders" Roman seems to be the closest to Sir James Dunn,7 the carpenter's son from Bathurst, N. B., who had "all the assets and all the liabilities of a promoter" , and though he was a totally self-made man and proud of it, he became Canada's most flamboyan t multi-milli onaire. Roman shares-pe rhaps unconscio usly-with Sir James Dunn the belief that handouts keep people from working. 11 Like Dunn, he gave large amounts of money to hospitals, churches and universitie s and received his first honorary degree from St. Francis University in Antigonish , N. S., as Sir James Dunn did. Furthermo re, he has in common with Dunn the love for "dreams that open new frontiers and build for greatness "-the dreams which are "not the thin vapourings of the idle mind, but rather the vision of a busy brain." In pursuing the realization of his dreams, Roman like Dunn seems to be hampered only by his impulses and always insists on his own way in all things, regardless of the number of enemies it may make him. Led by intuition and putting stress on "logic", sometimes his own logic, he would repeat: "Do not be afraid to be hurt or kicked, the time comes when you kick back." Roman's beautiful residence near Toronto, furnished with many rare pieces of furniture or paintings, as well as his palatial second residence in the millionaire 's oasis of Lyford Cay in Nassau9 , bring him also close to Sir James Dunn whose insistence on palatial surroundin gs reflected -accordin g to his biography -his efforts to compensat e �12 SLOVAKIA for the oppressive poverty of his childhood. Roman had a happy even if modest childhood, but his first years in Canada were undoubtedly those of immigrants working for 50¢ a day from dawn to late night and he never forgot them. In some other respects Roman reminds one of Sir Herbert Holt, as portrayed by P. Newman10 • H. Holt was not a business administrator and promoted his fortune by refining the sleight-of-hand process involved in the acquisition of corporate control through the trading and re-trading of stock. So was to a great degree S. B. Roman. He also likes sometimes to sit behind a desk at the end of his luxurious office and visitors leave with the impression that he has strong beliefs and does not accept easily to be contradicted. But he also meets his visitors in the reception room with a broad, friendly smile and a strong handshake, if he is in a good disposition, and sits with them around a coffee table. Roman's interest in politics and his warnings against Communism also resemble those of Sir Herbert Holt who, in 1931, said: "People do not realize the Russian menace. The spread of Communism is not a matter to laugh at." Roman was preaching anti-Communism since the outbreak of the Second World War and his visits to Moscow or to his native Slovakia, oppressed by Moscow, did not change his attitude. As a man convinced that only free enterprise can give people incentive for good work, and as a religious man, Roman could not remain indifferent to Communism. 11 Unlike Holt who according to his •c olleagues in the Conservative Party "really understood nothing about politics except how to manage ministers," Roman has been his whole life an ardent student of politics, national and international. His table conversations at home or elsewhere always ended in discussion on politics or religion-the second subject of his genuine interest. Of course, he can be sometimes an impatient listener, rather inclined to lecture authoritatively and arguing willingly on any subjeGt. On the other hand, he can be very warm and friendly in personal discussions. As a result, he appears a different personality in his office, at board meetings and in the seclusion of his residence where on weekends he invites �SLOVAKIA 13 his friends and quite often a bishop or a priest to celebrate a Sunday Mass and to share a dinner with his family. In his office a senior executive, referring to Roman's dynamism and impatience, used to say: "it takes a strong boiler which makes 15 pots to boil and sometimes even tremble." And he was not far from the truth. The Roman Legend Why around some persons legends grow fast or are created at all, nobody has yet explained. It is one of the mysterious gifts which the Lord gives at his pleasure and not always according to our human logic. In the life of many successful or outstanding men there are ingredients which can give birth to a legend, but only a few of them became legendary. Extraordinary deeds or success in many cases remain unknown or belittled by jealousy of associates or contemporaries, while in some cases everything is magnified by wishful thinking and creative fantasy into legendary proportions. The 'hero' is credited with deeds, connections and power he does not possess or, if he does, in a considerably diminished measure. In the life of S. B. Roman there have been no doubt many ingredients for a legend. God gave him also that rare gift of striking the imagination of people in a positive way. It is not only his wealth which attracts so many people in high positions to him. S. B. Roman together with his elegantly dressed wife, Betty, can also be superb hosts, and many people try to get close to the Romans and flatter them in order to gain some advantage. Roman's sharp eye can easily spot this, but he had a good laugh when a visitor tried to convince him that he should accept some function or to be a speaker because he will attract people. "Why do you think I will attract them?", asked Roman of his visitor. "You remember what happened to Moses when he led his flock from Egyptian captivity and went to the mountain to talk to the Lord", answered the visitor, "half of the flock began to worship the golden veal ... " Roman looked at his visitor with one eye and with a laugh told him: "Thank you very much." �14 SLOVAKIA Roman differs from many people who orbit the Stock Exchange and made money in the post-war boom in industry and speculation, also in some other respect. He is an avid reader and his lib:rary was built not only for the purpose of ornating his residence. Especially during the years of his ascension to wealth and social position he read diligently books from many fields and his conversations showed that his good memory helped him to learn more in some fields than many academics retained from university studies. Roman received from God among other gifts not only a good memory but also the gift of logic and ability to grasp the essentials of the problems. Discussions with him on many subjects were a pleasure in those years. From the discussions on religion which has been for years his second subject to politics-never business at table--one has the impression that the concept of eastern Christianity, with the stress on the spiritual and the mystical rather than the legalistic and the philosophical, is his religion not only formally-he belongs to the Byzantine Catholic Rite-but also conforms with his personality. It is not in carrying out the technical word that a Christian should participate in the world of God on the earth, but in fulfilling his specific role-seems to be his basic religious concept. Of many changes triggered by the Vatican Council at which he was one of the lay observers, Roman can be more critical than non-Catholics or dissident priests, being inclined to express his opinion in strong terms. Among other gifts Roman received from God also love for beautiful surroundings with a sense of proportion and good taste. If we believed in reincarnation, we could apply it to him and explain many things in the life of this extraordinary "farm boy from Slovakia." However, even without belief in reincarnation, one can explain some features of his life and character. Slovakia, that comperatively unknown land in Canada, is a romantic hilly country with hundreds of castles, fortresses, and former aristocratic domains. For centuries it was a bulwark in the defense of Europe against invasions from Asia. The Huns, the Magyars, the Tartars, the Turks overran the �SLOVAKIA 15 country and the aristocracy who ruled from castles and fortresses over the Slovak population was international rather than national. For some inexplicable reason, this historical heritage became apparent in Slovakia more abroad than in their own country. The leaders of the Hungarian struggle for independence, L. Kossuth and A. Pet6fi, or several Hungarian cardinals were of Slovak ancestry, the "king 0f Madagascar" M. Benovsky was from Slovakia, the founders of Pan-Slavism were of Slovak origin (but enriched Czech culture) as was T. G. Masaryk who freed Czechs from Austrian domination, and the famous astronomer and one of the youngest French generals, Milan R. t>tefanik who made a career outside his native country. Roman's life and character may have its roots in this peculiar feature of the Slovak people and in the history of Slovakia. Indeed, Jeanne Dixon, who had the ear-so rumor goes-of some American presidents and predicted J. F. Kennedy's death, gave one day a halting look at Roman, whom she had met for the first time, and exclaimed: "You are a descendant of Genghis Khan." Roman had a good laugh and some of his friends too, but in view of the invasions and history of Slovakia, even this far-fetched possibility is not excluded. S. B. Roman and Slovakia The "Roman Story" became a legend also in his native country after his two trips to Slovakia--one in his own jet plane. It made believe millions of Slovaks that Roman will help their country, suffering under Communism and foreign rule, to regain freedom and a better future and that he will use his great wealth for building mines, factories, hotels in the beautiful Tatra Mountains or churches in Slovak towns. For his activities among Slovaks abroad and for his successful tour of his native country, he became the best known Slovak of his generation among the Slovaks in the free world as well as in his native Slovakia and great hopes and expectations have surrounded his name. In fact Roman was genuinely interested in the organizational life of the Slovak group and from the end of the Second World War, also in the fate of Slovakia. He served �16 SLOVAKIA as the editor of a Slovak weekly, was active in the Canadian Slovak League, and was deeply involved in organizing cultural programmes for Slovak Canadians, setting up debates, concerts and trying to help his native country to freedom and independence. On his initiative in 1946 a memorandum was sent to the United Nations by Slovak organizations in Canada in which they proposed to the Delegates of the World Security Conference that, "since the Slovak People in Slovakia are a distinct and separate nation, the Security Conference provide and obtain either; "First, if the Conference choose, that the Slovak People of Slovakia could be granted complete independence from the Czech nation or state, and from any other nation in the anticipated European post-war organization of which she will be a part; "Or Second, that the Slovak people decide for themselves by a free and unhampered secret ballot under the supervision of the United Nations Military Committee, first whether they, the Slovak People of Slovakia desire to be completely independent and severed from the Czech nation and state and from any other nation in the anticipated post-war organization of Europe of which Slovakia will be a part, or second whether they desire to be an autonomous, self-governing part of the Czecho-Slovak dual State in the post-war organization of Europe of which she will be a part. N. B. In this latter case, the spelling of the name 'Czecho-Slovak' should be hyphenated and this should be its official spelling." Later he supported activities of Slovak political exiles and helped to publish books and became a sought-for speaker at celebrations, Slovak days or banquets. As he moved up in the social ladder, S. B. Roman used his connections to help the Slovak cause also on higheroften international levels. His relations with the Vatican12 helped not only the consolidation of the church organization of the Slovak Byzantine Catholics in Canada who obtained a bishop of their nationality, but also in Slovakia. He made great efforts in obtaining Slovak spiritual leaders for some 500,000 Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite in the United States13 and memorable in this respect will remain �SLOVAKIA 17 the huge celebrations of the 11th Centennial of Christianity in Slovakia which took place in Toronto in 1963. The main ceremony was attended by 18 Archbishops and Bishops, representatives of the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments, as well as by the Apostolic delegate and some 20,000 persons. 14 If Canadian Slovaks played a role of greater importance than their number would warrant, either among the other ethnic groups or generally in Canadian life, it was due mostly to his continuous contributions. This has been acknowledged on many occasions by the ethnic press in which S. B. Roman yearly published elaborate messages on special occasions like Christmas, elections or national days. 15 He also supported academic periodicals and the Conferences on Canadian Slavs ,a nd earned great respect among the leaders of the ethnic groups in Canada. Believing in organized work and concentrated effort, S. B. Roman was also instrumental in organizing the First Slovak World Congress which took place in June 1970 and was one of the most successful events among Slovaks in the free world since the end of the Second World War. Unanimously, delegates of Slovak organizations from many countries around the world elected him as the First President of the Slovak World Congress. Roman's authority and popularity with the Slovak people grew incessantly since his appointment to the Vatican Council, his close acquaintance with President Nixon, his participation at a NATO meeting in Paris as a member of the Canadian delegation and his "red carpet" reception by the government representatives in Bratislava and Prague in 1968. For all this Slovaks surrounded Roman with great hopes and expectations. In fact, his connections and his wealth gave him better possibilities to further the Slovak cause in the free world than to any other Slovak of his generation and he has been aware of it. Looking back on the life and success of S. B. Roman , one becomes aware of the old truth that for societies as for men, there can be no growth without challenge. Progress �SLOVAKIA 18 is a battle just as life is a struggle. S. B. Roman has been winning the battles because he was not afraid of the challenge. On the threshold of his 50th birthday, a great number of Slovaks and many of his acquaintances of other ethnic backgrounds will undoubtedly wish him to continue winning his battles and contributing to progress and happiness of his fellowmen, as well as to freedom of his native Slovakia. 1) Fortune (New York) , September 1966. According to Fortune, the top-ranking international monthly for business executives, "In the last twenty years, Roman has wheeled and wildcatted his way to a business empire whose worth is conservatively estimated at 2.5 billion dollars." 2) Newman presents in his Flame of Power (Toronto, 1959) eleven intimate profiles of Canadian greatest businessmen. After reading the book one has a strong feeling that Roman belongs to this category of economic empire bui:tders. 3) Among the books see: D. H. LeBourdais, Canada and the Atomic Revolution, (Toronto, 1959), p. 111-2, George Lonn, About Men and Mines, (Toronto, 1962), and Builders of Fortune, (Toronto, 1963), p. 55-60 and Businessmen Around the Globe, by the editors of Fortune (Harrisburg, Pa. 1967), p. 69-70. Among Magazines: Fortune (New York) September 1966, Executive, January 1960, Monetary Times, April 1967. In French: Enterprise (Paris, April 1967), as well as Paris dailies of September 1966. Roman also received wide television, radio and press coverage behind the Iron Curtain when he visited his native Slovakta on his own plane in 1966. 4) The book Business Around the Globe mentions a mining engineer, Art Stollery, as one of the stakers and says: "In one of the complicated financial deals at which he excels, Roman bought the claims from Stollery and his frienlds for $30,000.00 and transferred them to North Denison Mines, an old copper-and-nickel company. In return he got one million shares in what eventually became Denison Mines Limited, which he divided with Stollery's group. Soon afterwards, uranium was struck, and Denison's stock shot up from 30¢ to $12.00 within a year." Op. cit., p. 60. In September 1967, it was quoted at $85.00 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. 5) For more details on S. B. Roman's life anld success, see my book Slovaks in Canada (Canadian Ethnic Press Associaition, Toronto, 1967), pp. 374-380. 6) S. B. Roman's philosophy on free enterprise was reflected in his speech to the Rotary Club, '11oronto, in October 1970, as well as the Brief which Denison Mines submitted to the Federal Government in 1970 on the White Paper dealing with Capital Gains Tax. The Brief said that the proposal to tax economy is a form of "intellectual colonialism that ill befits a pioneering vigorous �SLOVAKIA 19 country." In S. B. Roman's opinion, in the economy of the next century, part of the profits will be divided between capital and labour. He admitted that Denison Mines does not share profits with employees because "we are as much coward as anybody else." See "The Telegram" June 23, 1970. On his speech at the Rotary Club, see 'The Northern Miner", October 29, 1970. 7) All quotations on Sir James Dunn are taken from Peter Newman's book Flame of Power. 8) See his speech in the Toronto Kiwanis Club, January 13, 1971, in which he said, among other things, "It is high time that we ~evise a formula that allows us to differentiate between people who really are not capable of looking after themselves and people who are lazy or not willing to work" . . . "I am certain every thinking Canadian must be disturbed by the developments they see occurring, developments leading to more and more irresponsibility and unwillingness to work. The ]danger is that it is a most infectious cancer in that ,i t can--and will--spread to those, now willing to work, who by seeing compatriots leaning on welfare, start to wonder about ,the wisdom of working themselves." See excerpts in The Toronto Telegram, January 14, 1971, as well as The Star, January 14, 1971. 9) See Zena Cherry, "Home Away from Home-Beach Lot for $1,000.00 a foot," Globe and Mail, May 2, 1968. 10) Ibid. 11) When the Soviets, together with their satellites, occupied CzechoSlovakia, he was the main speaker at a rally in Toronto denouncing the brutal act of Soviet impel'ialism. 12) He was not only the lay observer ,at the Vatican Council but in 1963 he also received the Order of the Knight Commander of Saint Gregory. On his participatioN at the Council, see my series of articles in Kana'.lsky Slovak and Slovak v Amerike, NovemberDecember 1966, and January 1967. 13) On this subject, he also published English and Slovak articles in the Slovak Press in Canada and the United States. 14) For more details, see my book Slovaks in Canada, op. cit., p. 263. 15) In one of such messages, he made the following appeal under the title "Democracy's Most Precious Gift": . .. "To those of us who have left our native lands for Canalda and its precious gifts of democracy, has fallen the privilege of citizenship and the responsibilities of the vote. To us has befallen the choice of government and its leadership and the survival of all that we hold dear. It has now become our task to listen and learn, that we may judge the posture of the party and the stature of the man, anld to decide and compare what is best in our own particular communities, for our own particular needs" ... � SLOVAKIA 7 Stephen B. Ro1nan - Slovak Tycoon J . M . Ki Ts C h b au m For more than ten years I was tempted to write something like "One of the most amazing characters I have met in my life," and a few years ago I prepared an outline for a book I thought should be entitled "The Defiant Tycoon." Odd circumstances prevented me from accomplishing either of these plans. On April 21, 1971, Stephen B. Roman will pass the threshold of the half-century mark of his extraordinary life, full of amazing success, uneven struggles and varied activities which made him nationally Stephen e. Roman and internationally known. The "Roman Story" re-written and re-published in numerous languages in Canada, Europe and the United States gives an example of one of the most spectacular careers in Canadian finance and industry and we will attempt to outline here at least the most interesting periods. Stephen B . Roman was born in Vel'ky Ruskov, Eastern Slovakia. According to his reminiscences, he grew up in a tightly knit family and his boyhood was happy and geared to farm life. An irresistible desire to see the world prompted him, however, as a teenager to leave his studies at the Agricultural College in a town near his home and to accompany his older brother George to Canada. They arrived in Canada on June 15, 1937, with two thousand dollars to buy a farm. For the following three years he worked for 50¢ a day on a farm near Port Perry, Ontario, �8 SLOVAKIA an experience about which he can talk with great humor. Then, after a short period of service in the Canadian Army, he worked on the assembly line at General Motors, but an awakening interest in the Canadian economy, in investments and in speculation led him to spend his time in a variety of studies from business to corporate law, history and politics. During this period, he became a Canadian citizen and in 1945 he married the former Betty Gardon, also a native of Slovakia. The following ten years skyrocketted him into wealth and fame. 1 On the treshold of his 50 birthday, we can say without any exaggeration that S. B. Roman made the most important and most spectacular contribution to the Canadian development of industry, finance and agriculture in the post-war II period. He over-shadowed the success of any Canadian of his generation and ranks with the nation's most successful and financially the most powerful Canadian, whose profiles were ably outlined in P. C. Newman's Flame of Power.2 In Canada's national economic community, the name of Stephen Roman became synonymous with the leadership of one of the richest and most powerful industrial organizations in the country, Denison Mines Limited and Roman Corporation Limited, both active in mining, oil and cement production and in a variety of other major enterprises. Denison Mines became universally known as the largest uranium mine in the world and its billion dollar asset together with the holdings of Roman Corporation hais often been called by financial journals the "Roman Empire." Together with its dynamic founder and chairman, Denison Mines have been the subject of numerous articles in Canadian and international financial publications, books, and newpapers. 3 Except for E. P. Taylor, there has not been a Canadian industrialist who has attracted as much of the attention of the national and international press, as did S. B. Roman, whose views on economic questions have been sought by the nation's press, radio and television, and respected for their candor and independence of thought. �SLOVAKIA 9 The Way to the Spectacular Success In the beginning, S. B. Roman's moves did not amount to much, hampered as he was by lack of capital and experience. His will to succeed, however, was stronger than the odds against which he had to fight and his persistence swept friends along with his enthusiasm. In 1946, he organized the Concord Mining Syndicate, converted it into Concord Mines Limited years later, and moved rapidly into oil exploration just as the oil industry was agog with the discovery of the Leduc fields in Alberta. In another move, he created a new company through further reorganization, the New Concord Development Corpora~ion, with himself as President. Success took on a broad dimension for Stephen B. Roman and his company's operations found profits not only in Alberta but also in the United States and provided funds of the size which would permit Roman to meet the test of his lifetime's greatest opportunity: uranium in the Blind River-Algom a Camp. The opportunity came when two independent stakers4 from the vast area of bush north of the Trans-Canada Highway between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, where Dr. F. R. Joubin discovered the largest deposits of uranium, turned to him for support. In January 1954, Roman made the critical decision to invest money in these Blind River -Algoma claims from the sale of his shares in Concord. Thus he fashioned Consolidated Denison Mines Limited. At 34 years of age, he began making mining history and the "Roman Story" was published in multiple variations more times on the American Continent and in Europe than any other in the past 20 years,5 Residing in a stately 17-roomed house with his family of four boys and three daughters in rolling farmland some 20 miles from Metropolitan Toronto, S. B. Roman made also noteworthy contribution to Canadian agriculture. On his 1,350 acres of choice farming land he proved as successful and imaginative in the breeding and development of Holstein-Frie sian cattle as in industry and finance. His Romandale herd is recognized throughout the world as a producer of oustanding breeding stock and many breeders in various countries have selected Romandale animals for their own breeding programs. He takes justifi- �10 SLOVAKIA able pride in the fact that his is the only herd in the breed's history which had the distinction of winning, more often than any other breed, both the Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor awards at all three major North American shows: in Canada, at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Toronto, Ontario; in the U.S. A. at the National Dairy Congress, Waterloo, Iowa, the International Dairy Exposition, Chicago, Illinois and All American Shows at Pittsburgh, Pa. S. B. Roman's Personality and Motivation Whoever knows S. B. Roman from his business or social contacts, cannot be but baffled by his complex personality, his easily changing mood from friendly laughter and smooth conversation to a temperamental eruption of criticism or rage--short lasting anyhow. "I never hold a grudge against anybody," is the frequent remark one can hear in conversation with him. Or insisting on the necessity of humility after an acerbic criticism of somebody-may it be the Pope, the President of the United States (not Nixon) or the Prime Minister of Canada-he would say: " I am, of course, sometime rough, but it is with a purpose in mind." Though one can make a guess, it is very hard to make a statement about Roman's motivation. Not only in the angry fight for the principle of free enterprise with Prime Minister Trudeau in March 1970, who stopped the sale of Denison Mines, but on many other occasions, S. B. Roman insisted that money was not his ultimate goal. A Toronto newspaper wrote on one occasion that it is the liberation of Slovakia, which has undoubtedly been very close to his heart, but even a close association with Roman provides only vague and uncertain hints about his motivation. As the most spectacularly successful Canadian of his generation-and the only non-Anglo-Saxon -who can be counted among the financial empire builders in Canada, he views, as the other Canadian magnates did, the free enterprise system as a fore-ordained to reward the most able.6 There are indications that he also shares with them other views. Like all of them, he regards the successful business corporation as the highest manifestation of man's �SLOVAKIA 11 superiority and many of his business ventures would indicate that he believes in large corporatio ns. Even though Roman's complex personality shows genuine features of his race, he also has many characteris tics in common with the other Canadian financial magnates. Of course, he is not the multi-milli onaire mine maker who spent long years prospectin g in the bush like Harry Oaks or Gilbert Labine. He belongs to the new generation of mine makers who used the promoters ' phone and the stock exchange, shrewd deals and good timing for developing Canadian industry and increasing his wealth. Among the Canadian "empire builders" Roman seems to be the closest to Sir James Dunn,7 the carpenter's son from Bathurst, N. B., who had "all the assets and all the liabilities of a promoter" , and though he was a totally self-made man and proud of it, he became Canada's most flamboyan t multi-milli onaire. Roman shares-pe rhaps unconscio usly-with Sir James Dunn the belief that handouts keep people from working. 11 Like Dunn, he gave large amounts of money to hospitals, churches and universitie s and received his first honorary degree from St. Francis University in Antigonish , N. S., as Sir James Dunn did. Furthermo re, he has in common with Dunn the love for "dreams that open new frontiers and build for greatness "-the dreams which are "not the thin vapourings of the idle mind, but rather the vision of a busy brain." In pursuing the realization of his dreams, Roman like Dunn seems to be hampered only by his impulses and always insists on his own way in all things, regardless of the number of enemies it may make him. Led by intuition and putting stress on "logic", sometimes his own logic, he would repeat: "Do not be afraid to be hurt or kicked, the time comes when you kick back." Roman's beautiful residence near Toronto, furnished with many rare pieces of furniture or paintings, as well as his palatial second residence in the millionaire 's oasis of Lyford Cay in Nassau9 , bring him also close to Sir James Dunn whose insistence on palatial surroundin gs reflected -accordin g to his biography -his efforts to compensat e �12 SLOVAKIA for the oppressive poverty of his childhood. Roman had a happy even if modest childhood, but his first years in Canada were undoubtedly those of immigrants working for 50¢ a day from dawn to late night and he never forgot them. In some other respects Roman reminds one of Sir Herbert Holt, as portrayed by P. Newman10 • H. Holt was not a business administrator and promoted his fortune by refining the sleight-of-hand process involved in the acquisition of corporate control through the trading and re-trading of stock. So was to a great degree S. B. Roman. He also likes sometimes to sit behind a desk at the end of his luxurious office and visitors leave with the impression that he has strong beliefs and does not accept easily to be contradicted. But he also meets his visitors in the reception room with a broad, friendly smile and a strong handshake, if he is in a good disposition, and sits with them around a coffee table. Roman's interest in politics and his warnings against Communism also resemble those of Sir Herbert Holt who, in 1931, said: "People do not realize the Russian menace. The spread of Communism is not a matter to laugh at." Roman was preaching anti-Communism since the outbreak of the Second World War and his visits to Moscow or to his native Slovakia, oppressed by Moscow, did not change his attitude. As a man convinced that only free enterprise can give people incentive for good work, and as a religious man, Roman could not remain indifferent to Communism. 11 Unlike Holt who according to his •c olleagues in the Conservative Party "really understood nothing about politics except how to manage ministers," Roman has been his whole life an ardent student of politics, national and international. His table conversations at home or elsewhere always ended in discussion on politics or religion-the second subject of his genuine interest. Of course, he can be sometimes an impatient listener, rather inclined to lecture authoritatively and arguing willingly on any subjeGt. On the other hand, he can be very warm and friendly in personal discussions. As a result, he appears a different personality in his office, at board meetings and in the seclusion of his residence where on weekends he invites �SLOVAKIA 13 his friends and quite often a bishop or a priest to celebrate a Sunday Mass and to share a dinner with his family. In his office a senior executive, referring to Roman's dynamism and impatience, used to say: "it takes a strong boiler which makes 15 pots to boil and sometimes even tremble." And he was not far from the truth. The Roman Legend Why around some persons legends grow fast or are created at all, nobody has yet explained. It is one of the mysterious gifts which the Lord gives at his pleasure and not always according to our human logic. In the life of many successful or outstanding men there are ingredients which can give birth to a legend, but only a few of them became legendary. Extraordinary deeds or success in many cases remain unknown or belittled by jealousy of associates or contemporaries, while in some cases everything is magnified by wishful thinking and creative fantasy into legendary proportions. The 'hero' is credited with deeds, connections and power he does not possess or, if he does, in a considerably diminished measure. In the life of S. B. Roman there have been no doubt many ingredients for a legend. God gave him also that rare gift of striking the imagination of people in a positive way. It is not only his wealth which attracts so many people in high positions to him. S. B. Roman together with his elegantly dressed wife, Betty, can also be superb hosts, and many people try to get close to the Romans and flatter them in order to gain some advantage. Roman's sharp eye can easily spot this, but he had a good laugh when a visitor tried to convince him that he should accept some function or to be a speaker because he will attract people. "Why do you think I will attract them?", asked Roman of his visitor. "You remember what happened to Moses when he led his flock from Egyptian captivity and went to the mountain to talk to the Lord", answered the visitor, "half of the flock began to worship the golden veal ... " Roman looked at his visitor with one eye and with a laugh told him: "Thank you very much." �14 SLOVAKIA Roman differs from many people who orbit the Stock Exchange and made money in the post-war boom in industry and speculation, also in some other respect. He is an avid reader and his lib:rary was built not only for the purpose of ornating his residence. Especially during the years of his ascension to wealth and social position he read diligently books from many fields and his conversations showed that his good memory helped him to learn more in some fields than many academics retained from university studies. Roman received from God among other gifts not only a good memory but also the gift of logic and ability to grasp the essentials of the problems. Discussions with him on many subjects were a pleasure in those years. From the discussions on religion which has been for years his second subject to politics-never business at table--one has the impression that the concept of eastern Christianity, with the stress on the spiritual and the mystical rather than the legalistic and the philosophical, is his religion not only formally-he belongs to the Byzantine Catholic Rite-but also conforms with his personality. It is not in carrying out the technical word that a Christian should participate in the world of God on the earth, but in fulfilling his specific role-seems to be his basic religious concept. Of many changes triggered by the Vatican Council at which he was one of the lay observers, Roman can be more critical than non-Catholics or dissident priests, being inclined to express his opinion in strong terms. Among other gifts Roman received from God also love for beautiful surroundings with a sense of proportion and good taste. If we believed in reincarnation, we could apply it to him and explain many things in the life of this extraordinary "farm boy from Slovakia." However, even without belief in reincarnation, one can explain some features of his life and character. Slovakia, that comperatively unknown land in Canada, is a romantic hilly country with hundreds of castles, fortresses, and former aristocratic domains. For centuries it was a bulwark in the defense of Europe against invasions from Asia. The Huns, the Magyars, the Tartars, the Turks overran the �SLOVAKIA 15 country and the aristocracy who ruled from castles and fortresses over the Slovak population was international rather than national. For some inexplicable reason, this historical heritage became apparent in Slovakia more abroad than in their own country. The leaders of the Hungarian struggle for independence, L. Kossuth and A. Pet6fi, or several Hungarian cardinals were of Slovak ancestry, the "king 0f Madagascar" M. Benovsky was from Slovakia, the founders of Pan-Slavism were of Slovak origin (but enriched Czech culture) as was T. G. Masaryk who freed Czechs from Austrian domination, and the famous astronomer and one of the youngest French generals, Milan R. t>tefanik who made a career outside his native country. Roman's life and character may have its roots in this peculiar feature of the Slovak people and in the history of Slovakia. Indeed, Jeanne Dixon, who had the ear-so rumor goes-of some American presidents and predicted J. F. Kennedy's death, gave one day a halting look at Roman, whom she had met for the first time, and exclaimed: "You are a descendant of Genghis Khan." Roman had a good laugh and some of his friends too, but in view of the invasions and history of Slovakia, even this far-fetched possibility is not excluded. S. B. Roman and Slovakia The "Roman Story" became a legend also in his native country after his two trips to Slovakia--one in his own jet plane. It made believe millions of Slovaks that Roman will help their country, suffering under Communism and foreign rule, to regain freedom and a better future and that he will use his great wealth for building mines, factories, hotels in the beautiful Tatra Mountains or churches in Slovak towns. For his activities among Slovaks abroad and for his successful tour of his native country, he became the best known Slovak of his generation among the Slovaks in the free world as well as in his native Slovakia and great hopes and expectations have surrounded his name. In fact Roman was genuinely interested in the organizational life of the Slovak group and from the end of the Second World War, also in the fate of Slovakia. He served �16 SLOVAKIA as the editor of a Slovak weekly, was active in the Canadian Slovak League, and was deeply involved in organizing cultural programmes for Slovak Canadians, setting up debates, concerts and trying to help his native country to freedom and independence. On his initiative in 1946 a memorandum was sent to the United Nations by Slovak organizations in Canada in which they proposed to the Delegates of the World Security Conference that, "since the Slovak People in Slovakia are a distinct and separate nation, the Security Conference provide and obtain either; "First, if the Conference choose, that the Slovak People of Slovakia could be granted complete independence from the Czech nation or state, and from any other nation in the anticipated European post-war organization of which she will be a part; "Or Second, that the Slovak people decide for themselves by a free and unhampered secret ballot under the supervision of the United Nations Military Committee, first whether they, the Slovak People of Slovakia desire to be completely independent and severed from the Czech nation and state and from any other nation in the anticipated post-war organization of Europe of which Slovakia will be a part, or second whether they desire to be an autonomous, self-governing part of the Czecho-Slovak dual State in the post-war organization of Europe of which she will be a part. N. B. In this latter case, the spelling of the name 'Czecho-Slovak' should be hyphenated and this should be its official spelling." Later he supported activities of Slovak political exiles and helped to publish books and became a sought-for speaker at celebrations, Slovak days or banquets. As he moved up in the social ladder, S. B. Roman used his connections to help the Slovak cause also on higheroften international levels. His relations with the Vatican12 helped not only the consolidation of the church organization of the Slovak Byzantine Catholics in Canada who obtained a bishop of their nationality, but also in Slovakia. He made great efforts in obtaining Slovak spiritual leaders for some 500,000 Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite in the United States13 and memorable in this respect will remain �SLOVAKIA 17 the huge celebrations of the 11th Centennial of Christianity in Slovakia which took place in Toronto in 1963. The main ceremony was attended by 18 Archbishops and Bishops, representatives of the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments, as well as by the Apostolic delegate and some 20,000 persons. 14 If Canadian Slovaks played a role of greater importance than their number would warrant, either among the other ethnic groups or generally in Canadian life, it was due mostly to his continuous contributions. This has been acknowledged on many occasions by the ethnic press in which S. B. Roman yearly published elaborate messages on special occasions like Christmas, elections or national days. 15 He also supported academic periodicals and the Conferences on Canadian Slavs ,a nd earned great respect among the leaders of the ethnic groups in Canada. Believing in organized work and concentrated effort, S. B. Roman was also instrumental in organizing the First Slovak World Congress which took place in June 1970 and was one of the most successful events among Slovaks in the free world since the end of the Second World War. Unanimously, delegates of Slovak organizations from many countries around the world elected him as the First President of the Slovak World Congress. Roman's authority and popularity with the Slovak people grew incessantly since his appointment to the Vatican Council, his close acquaintance with President Nixon, his participation at a NATO meeting in Paris as a member of the Canadian delegation and his "red carpet" reception by the government representatives in Bratislava and Prague in 1968. For all this Slovaks surrounded Roman with great hopes and expectations. In fact, his connections and his wealth gave him better possibilities to further the Slovak cause in the free world than to any other Slovak of his generation and he has been aware of it. Looking back on the life and success of S. B. Roman , one becomes aware of the old truth that for societies as for men, there can be no growth without challenge. Progress �SLOVAKIA 18 is a battle just as life is a struggle. S. B. Roman has been winning the battles because he was not afraid of the challenge. On the threshold of his 50th birthday, a great number of Slovaks and many of his acquaintances of other ethnic backgrounds will undoubtedly wish him to continue winning his battles and contributing to progress and happiness of his fellowmen, as well as to freedom of his native Slovakia. 1) Fortune (New York) , September 1966. According to Fortune, the top-ranking international monthly for business executives, "In the last twenty years, Roman has wheeled and wildcatted his way to a business empire whose worth is conservatively estimated at 2.5 billion dollars." 2) Newman presents in his Flame of Power (Toronto, 1959) eleven intimate profiles of Canadian greatest businessmen. After reading the book one has a strong feeling that Roman belongs to this category of economic empire bui:tders. 3) Among the books see: D. H. LeBourdais, Canada and the Atomic Revolution, (Toronto, 1959), p. 111-2, George Lonn, About Men and Mines, (Toronto, 1962), and Builders of Fortune, (Toronto, 1963), p. 55-60 and Businessmen Around the Globe, by the editors of Fortune (Harrisburg, Pa. 1967), p. 69-70. Among Magazines: Fortune (New York) September 1966, Executive, January 1960, Monetary Times, April 1967. In French: Enterprise (Paris, April 1967), as well as Paris dailies of September 1966. Roman also received wide television, radio and press coverage behind the Iron Curtain when he visited his native Slovakta on his own plane in 1966. 4) The book Business Around the Globe mentions a mining engineer, Art Stollery, as one of the stakers and says: "In one of the complicated financial deals at which he excels, Roman bought the claims from Stollery and his frienlds for $30,000.00 and transferred them to North Denison Mines, an old copper-and-nickel company. In return he got one million shares in what eventually became Denison Mines Limited, which he divided with Stollery's group. Soon afterwards, uranium was struck, and Denison's stock shot up from 30¢ to $12.00 within a year." Op. cit., p. 60. In September 1967, it was quoted at $85.00 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. 5) For more details on S. B. Roman's life anld success, see my book Slovaks in Canada (Canadian Ethnic Press Associaition, Toronto, 1967), pp. 374-380. 6) S. B. Roman's philosophy on free enterprise was reflected in his speech to the Rotary Club, '11oronto, in October 1970, as well as the Brief which Denison Mines submitted to the Federal Government in 1970 on the White Paper dealing with Capital Gains Tax. The Brief said that the proposal to tax economy is a form of "intellectual colonialism that ill befits a pioneering vigorous �SLOVAKIA 19 country." In S. B. Roman's opinion, in the economy of the next century, part of the profits will be divided between capital and labour. He admitted that Denison Mines does not share profits with employees because "we are as much coward as anybody else." See "The Telegram" June 23, 1970. On his speech at the Rotary Club, see 'The Northern Miner", October 29, 1970. 7) All quotations on Sir James Dunn are taken from Peter Newman's book Flame of Power. 8) See his speech in the Toronto Kiwanis Club, January 13, 1971, in which he said, among other things, "It is high time that we ~evise a formula that allows us to differentiate between people who really are not capable of looking after themselves and people who are lazy or not willing to work" . . . "I am certain every thinking Canadian must be disturbed by the developments they see occurring, developments leading to more and more irresponsibility and unwillingness to work. The ]danger is that it is a most infectious cancer in that ,i t can--and will--spread to those, now willing to work, who by seeing compatriots leaning on welfare, start to wonder about ,the wisdom of working themselves." See excerpts in The Toronto Telegram, January 14, 1971, as well as The Star, January 14, 1971. 9) See Zena Cherry, "Home Away from Home-Beach Lot for $1,000.00 a foot," Globe and Mail, May 2, 1968. 10) Ibid. 11) When the Soviets, together with their satellites, occupied CzechoSlovakia, he was the main speaker at a rally in Toronto denouncing the brutal act of Soviet impel'ialism. 12) He was not only the lay observer ,at the Vatican Council but in 1963 he also received the Order of the Knight Commander of Saint Gregory. On his participatioN at the Council, see my series of articles in Kana'.lsky Slovak and Slovak v Amerike, NovemberDecember 1966, and January 1967. 13) On this subject, he also published English and Slovak articles in the Slovak Press in Canada and the United States. 14) For more details, see my book Slovaks in Canada, op. cit., p. 263. 15) In one of such messages, he made the following appeal under the title "Democracy's Most Precious Gift": . .. "To those of us who have left our native lands for Canalda and its precious gifts of democracy, has fallen the privilege of citizenship and the responsibilities of the vote. To us has befallen the choice of government and its leadership and the survival of all that we hold dear. It has now become our task to listen and learn, that we may judge the posture of the party and the stature of the man, anld to decide and compare what is best in our own particular communities, for our own particular needs" ... � 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 7 Stephen B. Ro1nan - Slovak Tycoon J . M . Ki Ts C h b au m For more than ten years I was tempted to write something like "One of the most amazing characters I have met in my life," and a few years ago I prepared an outline for a book I thought should be entitled "The Defiant Tycoon." Odd circumstances prevented me from accomplishing either of these plans. On April 21, 1971, Stephen B. Roman will pass the threshold of the half-century mark of his extraordinary life, full of amazing success, uneven struggles and varied activities which made him nationally Stephen e. Roman and internationally known. The "Roman Story" re-written and re-published in numerous languages in Canada, Europe and the United States gives an example of one of the most spectacular careers in Canadian finance and industry and we will attempt to outline here at least the most interesting periods. Stephen B . Roman was born in Vel'ky Ruskov, Eastern Slovakia. According to his reminiscences, he grew up in a tightly knit family and his boyhood was happy and geared to farm life. An irresistible desire to see the world prompted him, however, as a teenager to leave his studies at the Agricultural College in a town near his home and to accompany his older brother George to Canada. They arrived in Canada on June 15, 1937, with two thousand dollars to buy a farm. For the following three years he worked for 50¢ a day on a farm near Port Perry, Ontario, 8 SLOVAKIA an experience about which he can talk with great humor. Then, after a short period of service in the Canadian Army, he worked on the assembly line at General Motors, but an awakening interest in the Canadian economy, in investments and in speculation led him to spend his time in a variety of studies from business to corporate law, history and politics. During this period, he became a Canadian citizen and in 1945 he married the former Betty Gardon, also a native of Slovakia. The following ten years skyrocketted him into wealth and fame. 1 On the treshold of his 50 birthday, we can say without any exaggeration that S. B. Roman made the most important and most spectacular contribution to the Canadian development of industry, finance and agriculture in the post-war II period. He over-shadowed the success of any Canadian of his generation and ranks with the nation's most successful and financially the most powerful Canadian, whose profiles were ably outlined in P. C. Newman's Flame of Power.2 In Canada's national economic community, the name of Stephen Roman became synonymous with the leadership of one of the richest and most powerful industrial organizations in the country, Denison Mines Limited and Roman Corporation Limited, both active in mining, oil and cement production and in a variety of other major enterprises. Denison Mines became universally known as the largest uranium mine in the world and its billion dollar asset together with the holdings of Roman Corporation hais often been called by financial journals the "Roman Empire." Together with its dynamic founder and chairman, Denison Mines have been the subject of numerous articles in Canadian and international financial publications, books, and newpapers. 3 Except for E. P. Taylor, there has not been a Canadian industrialist who has attracted as much of the attention of the national and international press, as did S. B. Roman, whose views on economic questions have been sought by the nation's press, radio and television, and respected for their candor and independence of thought. SLOVAKIA 9 The Way to the Spectacular Success In the beginning, S. B. Roman's moves did not amount to much, hampered as he was by lack of capital and experience. His will to succeed, however, was stronger than the odds against which he had to fight and his persistence swept friends along with his enthusiasm. In 1946, he organized the Concord Mining Syndicate, converted it into Concord Mines Limited years later, and moved rapidly into oil exploration just as the oil industry was agog with the discovery of the Leduc fields in Alberta. In another move, he created a new company through further reorganization, the New Concord Development Corpora~ion, with himself as President. Success took on a broad dimension for Stephen B. Roman and his company's operations found profits not only in Alberta but also in the United States and provided funds of the size which would permit Roman to meet the test of his lifetime's greatest opportunity: uranium in the Blind River-Algom a Camp. The opportunity came when two independent stakers4 from the vast area of bush north of the Trans-Canada Highway between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, where Dr. F. R. Joubin discovered the largest deposits of uranium, turned to him for support. In January 1954, Roman made the critical decision to invest money in these Blind River -Algoma claims from the sale of his shares in Concord. Thus he fashioned Consolidated Denison Mines Limited. At 34 years of age, he began making mining history and the "Roman Story" was published in multiple variations more times on the American Continent and in Europe than any other in the past 20 years,5 Residing in a stately 17-roomed house with his family of four boys and three daughters in rolling farmland some 20 miles from Metropolitan Toronto, S. B. Roman made also noteworthy contribution to Canadian agriculture. On his 1,350 acres of choice farming land he proved as successful and imaginative in the breeding and development of Holstein-Frie sian cattle as in industry and finance. His Romandale herd is recognized throughout the world as a producer of oustanding breeding stock and many breeders in various countries have selected Romandale animals for their own breeding programs. He takes justifi- 10 SLOVAKIA able pride in the fact that his is the only herd in the breed's history which had the distinction of winning, more often than any other breed, both the Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor awards at all three major North American shows: in Canada, at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Toronto, Ontario; in the U.S. A. at the National Dairy Congress, Waterloo, Iowa, the International Dairy Exposition, Chicago, Illinois and All American Shows at Pittsburgh, Pa. S. B. Roman's Personality and Motivation Whoever knows S. B. Roman from his business or social contacts, cannot be but baffled by his complex personality, his easily changing mood from friendly laughter and smooth conversation to a temperamental eruption of criticism or rage--short lasting anyhow. "I never hold a grudge against anybody," is the frequent remark one can hear in conversation with him. Or insisting on the necessity of humility after an acerbic criticism of somebody-may it be the Pope, the President of the United States (not Nixon) or the Prime Minister of Canada-he would say: " I am, of course, sometime rough, but it is with a purpose in mind." Though one can make a guess, it is very hard to make a statement about Roman's motivation. Not only in the angry fight for the principle of free enterprise with Prime Minister Trudeau in March 1970, who stopped the sale of Denison Mines, but on many other occasions, S. B. Roman insisted that money was not his ultimate goal. A Toronto newspaper wrote on one occasion that it is the liberation of Slovakia, which has undoubtedly been very close to his heart, but even a close association with Roman provides only vague and uncertain hints about his motivation. As the most spectacularly successful Canadian of his generation-and the only non-Anglo-Saxon -who can be counted among the financial empire builders in Canada, he views, as the other Canadian magnates did, the free enterprise system as a fore-ordained to reward the most able.6 There are indications that he also shares with them other views. Like all of them, he regards the successful business corporation as the highest manifestation of man's SLOVAKIA 11 superiority and many of his business ventures would indicate that he believes in large corporatio ns. Even though Roman's complex personality shows genuine features of his race, he also has many characteris tics in common with the other Canadian financial magnates. Of course, he is not the multi-milli onaire mine maker who spent long years prospectin g in the bush like Harry Oaks or Gilbert Labine. He belongs to the new generation of mine makers who used the promoters ' phone and the stock exchange, shrewd deals and good timing for developing Canadian industry and increasing his wealth. Among the Canadian "empire builders" Roman seems to be the closest to Sir James Dunn,7 the carpenter's son from Bathurst, N. B., who had "all the assets and all the liabilities of a promoter" , and though he was a totally self-made man and proud of it, he became Canada's most flamboyan t multi-milli onaire. Roman shares-pe rhaps unconscio usly-with Sir James Dunn the belief that handouts keep people from working. 11 Like Dunn, he gave large amounts of money to hospitals, churches and universitie s and received his first honorary degree from St. Francis University in Antigonish , N. S., as Sir James Dunn did. Furthermo re, he has in common with Dunn the love for "dreams that open new frontiers and build for greatness "-the dreams which are "not the thin vapourings of the idle mind, but rather the vision of a busy brain." In pursuing the realization of his dreams, Roman like Dunn seems to be hampered only by his impulses and always insists on his own way in all things, regardless of the number of enemies it may make him. Led by intuition and putting stress on "logic", sometimes his own logic, he would repeat: "Do not be afraid to be hurt or kicked, the time comes when you kick back." Roman's beautiful residence near Toronto, furnished with many rare pieces of furniture or paintings, as well as his palatial second residence in the millionaire 's oasis of Lyford Cay in Nassau9 , bring him also close to Sir James Dunn whose insistence on palatial surroundin gs reflected -accordin g to his biography -his efforts to compensat e 12 SLOVAKIA for the oppressive poverty of his childhood. Roman had a happy even if modest childhood, but his first years in Canada were undoubtedly those of immigrants working for 50¢ a day from dawn to late night and he never forgot them. In some other respects Roman reminds one of Sir Herbert Holt, as portrayed by P. Newman10 • H. Holt was not a business administrator and promoted his fortune by refining the sleight-of-hand process involved in the acquisition of corporate control through the trading and re-trading of stock. So was to a great degree S. B. Roman. He also likes sometimes to sit behind a desk at the end of his luxurious office and visitors leave with the impression that he has strong beliefs and does not accept easily to be contradicted. But he also meets his visitors in the reception room with a broad, friendly smile and a strong handshake, if he is in a good disposition, and sits with them around a coffee table. Roman's interest in politics and his warnings against Communism also resemble those of Sir Herbert Holt who, in 1931, said: "People do not realize the Russian menace. The spread of Communism is not a matter to laugh at." Roman was preaching anti-Communism since the outbreak of the Second World War and his visits to Moscow or to his native Slovakia, oppressed by Moscow, did not change his attitude. As a man convinced that only free enterprise can give people incentive for good work, and as a religious man, Roman could not remain indifferent to Communism. 11 Unlike Holt who according to his •c olleagues in the Conservative Party "really understood nothing about politics except how to manage ministers," Roman has been his whole life an ardent student of politics, national and international. His table conversations at home or elsewhere always ended in discussion on politics or religion-the second subject of his genuine interest. Of course, he can be sometimes an impatient listener, rather inclined to lecture authoritatively and arguing willingly on any subjeGt. On the other hand, he can be very warm and friendly in personal discussions. As a result, he appears a different personality in his office, at board meetings and in the seclusion of his residence where on weekends he invites SLOVAKIA 13 his friends and quite often a bishop or a priest to celebrate a Sunday Mass and to share a dinner with his family. In his office a senior executive, referring to Roman's dynamism and impatience, used to say: "it takes a strong boiler which makes 15 pots to boil and sometimes even tremble." And he was not far from the truth. The Roman Legend Why around some persons legends grow fast or are created at all, nobody has yet explained. It is one of the mysterious gifts which the Lord gives at his pleasure and not always according to our human logic. In the life of many successful or outstanding men there are ingredients which can give birth to a legend, but only a few of them became legendary. Extraordinary deeds or success in many cases remain unknown or belittled by jealousy of associates or contemporaries, while in some cases everything is magnified by wishful thinking and creative fantasy into legendary proportions. The 'hero' is credited with deeds, connections and power he does not possess or, if he does, in a considerably diminished measure. In the life of S. B. Roman there have been no doubt many ingredients for a legend. God gave him also that rare gift of striking the imagination of people in a positive way. It is not only his wealth which attracts so many people in high positions to him. S. B. Roman together with his elegantly dressed wife, Betty, can also be superb hosts, and many people try to get close to the Romans and flatter them in order to gain some advantage. Roman's sharp eye can easily spot this, but he had a good laugh when a visitor tried to convince him that he should accept some function or to be a speaker because he will attract people. "Why do you think I will attract them?", asked Roman of his visitor. "You remember what happened to Moses when he led his flock from Egyptian captivity and went to the mountain to talk to the Lord", answered the visitor, "half of the flock began to worship the golden veal ... " Roman looked at his visitor with one eye and with a laugh told him: "Thank you very much." 14 SLOVAKIA Roman differs from many people who orbit the Stock Exchange and made money in the post-war boom in industry and speculation, also in some other respect. He is an avid reader and his lib:rary was built not only for the purpose of ornating his residence. Especially during the years of his ascension to wealth and social position he read diligently books from many fields and his conversations showed that his good memory helped him to learn more in some fields than many academics retained from university studies. Roman received from God among other gifts not only a good memory but also the gift of logic and ability to grasp the essentials of the problems. Discussions with him on many subjects were a pleasure in those years. From the discussions on religion which has been for years his second subject to politics-never business at table--one has the impression that the concept of eastern Christianity, with the stress on the spiritual and the mystical rather than the legalistic and the philosophical, is his religion not only formally-he belongs to the Byzantine Catholic Rite-but also conforms with his personality. It is not in carrying out the technical word that a Christian should participate in the world of God on the earth, but in fulfilling his specific role-seems to be his basic religious concept. Of many changes triggered by the Vatican Council at which he was one of the lay observers, Roman can be more critical than non-Catholics or dissident priests, being inclined to express his opinion in strong terms. Among other gifts Roman received from God also love for beautiful surroundings with a sense of proportion and good taste. If we believed in reincarnation, we could apply it to him and explain many things in the life of this extraordinary "farm boy from Slovakia." However, even without belief in reincarnation, one can explain some features of his life and character. Slovakia, that comperatively unknown land in Canada, is a romantic hilly country with hundreds of castles, fortresses, and former aristocratic domains. For centuries it was a bulwark in the defense of Europe against invasions from Asia. The Huns, the Magyars, the Tartars, the Turks overran the SLOVAKIA 15 country and the aristocracy who ruled from castles and fortresses over the Slovak population was international rather than national. For some inexplicable reason, this historical heritage became apparent in Slovakia more abroad than in their own country. The leaders of the Hungarian struggle for independence, L. Kossuth and A. Pet6fi, or several Hungarian cardinals were of Slovak ancestry, the "king 0f Madagascar" M. Benovsky was from Slovakia, the founders of Pan-Slavism were of Slovak origin (but enriched Czech culture) as was T. G. Masaryk who freed Czechs from Austrian domination, and the famous astronomer and one of the youngest French generals, Milan R. t>tefanik who made a career outside his native country. Roman's life and character may have its roots in this peculiar feature of the Slovak people and in the history of Slovakia. Indeed, Jeanne Dixon, who had the ear-so rumor goes-of some American presidents and predicted J. F. Kennedy's death, gave one day a halting look at Roman, whom she had met for the first time, and exclaimed: "You are a descendant of Genghis Khan." Roman had a good laugh and some of his friends too, but in view of the invasions and history of Slovakia, even this far-fetched possibility is not excluded. S. B. Roman and Slovakia The "Roman Story" became a legend also in his native country after his two trips to Slovakia--one in his own jet plane. It made believe millions of Slovaks that Roman will help their country, suffering under Communism and foreign rule, to regain freedom and a better future and that he will use his great wealth for building mines, factories, hotels in the beautiful Tatra Mountains or churches in Slovak towns. For his activities among Slovaks abroad and for his successful tour of his native country, he became the best known Slovak of his generation among the Slovaks in the free world as well as in his native Slovakia and great hopes and expectations have surrounded his name. In fact Roman was genuinely interested in the organizational life of the Slovak group and from the end of the Second World War, also in the fate of Slovakia. He served 16 SLOVAKIA as the editor of a Slovak weekly, was active in the Canadian Slovak League, and was deeply involved in organizing cultural programmes for Slovak Canadians, setting up debates, concerts and trying to help his native country to freedom and independence. On his initiative in 1946 a memorandum was sent to the United Nations by Slovak organizations in Canada in which they proposed to the Delegates of the World Security Conference that, "since the Slovak People in Slovakia are a distinct and separate nation, the Security Conference provide and obtain either; "First, if the Conference choose, that the Slovak People of Slovakia could be granted complete independence from the Czech nation or state, and from any other nation in the anticipated European post-war organization of which she will be a part; "Or Second, that the Slovak people decide for themselves by a free and unhampered secret ballot under the supervision of the United Nations Military Committee, first whether they, the Slovak People of Slovakia desire to be completely independent and severed from the Czech nation and state and from any other nation in the anticipated post-war organization of Europe of which Slovakia will be a part, or second whether they desire to be an autonomous, self-governing part of the Czecho-Slovak dual State in the post-war organization of Europe of which she will be a part. N. B. In this latter case, the spelling of the name 'Czecho-Slovak' should be hyphenated and this should be its official spelling." Later he supported activities of Slovak political exiles and helped to publish books and became a sought-for speaker at celebrations, Slovak days or banquets. As he moved up in the social ladder, S. B. Roman used his connections to help the Slovak cause also on higheroften international levels. His relations with the Vatican12 helped not only the consolidation of the church organization of the Slovak Byzantine Catholics in Canada who obtained a bishop of their nationality, but also in Slovakia. He made great efforts in obtaining Slovak spiritual leaders for some 500,000 Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite in the United States13 and memorable in this respect will remain SLOVAKIA 17 the huge celebrations of the 11th Centennial of Christianity in Slovakia which took place in Toronto in 1963. The main ceremony was attended by 18 Archbishops and Bishops, representatives of the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments, as well as by the Apostolic delegate and some 20,000 persons. 14 If Canadian Slovaks played a role of greater importance than their number would warrant, either among the other ethnic groups or generally in Canadian life, it was due mostly to his continuous contributions. This has been acknowledged on many occasions by the ethnic press in which S. B. Roman yearly published elaborate messages on special occasions like Christmas, elections or national days. 15 He also supported academic periodicals and the Conferences on Canadian Slavs ,a nd earned great respect among the leaders of the ethnic groups in Canada. Believing in organized work and concentrated effort, S. B. Roman was also instrumental in organizing the First Slovak World Congress which took place in June 1970 and was one of the most successful events among Slovaks in the free world since the end of the Second World War. Unanimously, delegates of Slovak organizations from many countries around the world elected him as the First President of the Slovak World Congress. Roman's authority and popularity with the Slovak people grew incessantly since his appointment to the Vatican Council, his close acquaintance with President Nixon, his participation at a NATO meeting in Paris as a member of the Canadian delegation and his "red carpet" reception by the government representatives in Bratislava and Prague in 1968. For all this Slovaks surrounded Roman with great hopes and expectations. In fact, his connections and his wealth gave him better possibilities to further the Slovak cause in the free world than to any other Slovak of his generation and he has been aware of it. Looking back on the life and success of S. B. Roman , one becomes aware of the old truth that for societies as for men, there can be no growth without challenge. Progress SLOVAKIA 18 is a battle just as life is a struggle. S. B. Roman has been winning the battles because he was not afraid of the challenge. On the threshold of his 50th birthday, a great number of Slovaks and many of his acquaintances of other ethnic backgrounds will undoubtedly wish him to continue winning his battles and contributing to progress and happiness of his fellowmen, as well as to freedom of his native Slovakia. 1) Fortune (New York) , September 1966. According to Fortune, the top-ranking international monthly for business executives, "In the last twenty years, Roman has wheeled and wildcatted his way to a business empire whose worth is conservatively estimated at 2.5 billion dollars." 2) Newman presents in his Flame of Power (Toronto, 1959) eleven intimate profiles of Canadian greatest businessmen. After reading the book one has a strong feeling that Roman belongs to this category of economic empire bui:tders. 3) Among the books see: D. H. LeBourdais, Canada and the Atomic Revolution, (Toronto, 1959), p. 111-2, George Lonn, About Men and Mines, (Toronto, 1962), and Builders of Fortune, (Toronto, 1963), p. 55-60 and Businessmen Around the Globe, by the editors of Fortune (Harrisburg, Pa. 1967), p. 69-70. Among Magazines: Fortune (New York) September 1966, Executive, January 1960, Monetary Times, April 1967. In French: Enterprise (Paris, April 1967), as well as Paris dailies of September 1966. Roman also received wide television, radio and press coverage behind the Iron Curtain when he visited his native Slovakta on his own plane in 1966. 4) The book Business Around the Globe mentions a mining engineer, Art Stollery, as one of the stakers and says: "In one of the complicated financial deals at which he excels, Roman bought the claims from Stollery and his frienlds for $30,000.00 and transferred them to North Denison Mines, an old copper-and-nickel company. In return he got one million shares in what eventually became Denison Mines Limited, which he divided with Stollery's group. Soon afterwards, uranium was struck, and Denison's stock shot up from 30¢ to $12.00 within a year." Op. cit., p. 60. In September 1967, it was quoted at $85.00 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. 5) For more details on S. B. Roman's life anld success, see my book Slovaks in Canada (Canadian Ethnic Press Associaition, Toronto, 1967), pp. 374-380. 6) S. B. Roman's philosophy on free enterprise was reflected in his speech to the Rotary Club, '11oronto, in October 1970, as well as the Brief which Denison Mines submitted to the Federal Government in 1970 on the White Paper dealing with Capital Gains Tax. The Brief said that the proposal to tax economy is a form of "intellectual colonialism that ill befits a pioneering vigorous SLOVAKIA 19 country." In S. B. Roman's opinion, in the economy of the next century, part of the profits will be divided between capital and labour. He admitted that Denison Mines does not share profits with employees because "we are as much coward as anybody else." See "The Telegram" June 23, 1970. On his speech at the Rotary Club, see 'The Northern Miner", October 29, 1970. 7) All quotations on Sir James Dunn are taken from Peter Newman's book Flame of Power. 8) See his speech in the Toronto Kiwanis Club, January 13, 1971, in which he said, among other things, "It is high time that we ~evise a formula that allows us to differentiate between people who really are not capable of looking after themselves and people who are lazy or not willing to work" . . . "I am certain every thinking Canadian must be disturbed by the developments they see occurring, developments leading to more and more irresponsibility and unwillingness to work. The ]danger is that it is a most infectious cancer in that ,i t can--and will--spread to those, now willing to work, who by seeing compatriots leaning on welfare, start to wonder about ,the wisdom of working themselves." See excerpts in The Toronto Telegram, January 14, 1971, as well as The Star, January 14, 1971. 9) See Zena Cherry, "Home Away from Home-Beach Lot for $1,000.00 a foot," Globe and Mail, May 2, 1968. 10) Ibid. 11) When the Soviets, together with their satellites, occupied CzechoSlovakia, he was the main speaker at a rally in Toronto denouncing the brutal act of Soviet impel'ialism. 12) He was not only the lay observer ,at the Vatican Council but in 1963 he also received the Order of the Knight Commander of Saint Gregory. On his participatioN at the Council, see my series of articles in Kana'.lsky Slovak and Slovak v Amerike, NovemberDecember 1966, and January 1967. 13) On this subject, he also published English and Slovak articles in the Slovak Press in Canada and the United States. 14) For more details, see my book Slovaks in Canada, op. cit., p. 263. 15) In one of such messages, he made the following appeal under the title "Democracy's Most Precious Gift": . .. "To those of us who have left our native lands for Canalda and its precious gifts of democracy, has fallen the privilege of citizenship and the responsibilities of the vote. To us has befallen the choice of government and its leadership and the survival of all that we hold dear. It has now become our task to listen and learn, that we may judge the posture of the party and the stature of the man, anld to decide and compare what is best in our own particular communities, for our own particular needs" ...  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 Stephen B. Roman - Slovak Tycoon Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 7-19 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 SNK 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/568490385330d47fb80d9209df65be2c.pdf d59a318ed00651d7d7febfea970b382e PDF Text Text �SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXI • 1971 • NO. 44 Editor JOSEPH PAUCO, Ph.D. Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA JIJ Ridge Avenue • Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY, Middletown, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. � �SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXI • 1971 • NO. 44 Editor JOSEPH PAUCO, Ph.D. Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA JIJ Ridge Avenue • Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY, Middletown, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. � 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 VOLUME XXI • 1971 • NO. 44 Editor JOSEPH PAUCO, Ph.D. Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA JIJ Ridge Avenue • Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY, Middletown, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.  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. 21 (No. 44) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/43aa8245cab1ba3e7b9609982eb15ad8.pdf 9afe46899f1c9238bd781c7546a5be5c PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 193 CURRENT ISSUES Declaration Adopted by Slovak World Congress Representatives of Slovak organizations throughout the free world as well as individuals of Slovak origin in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, South Africa, Argentina, Spain and Germany assembled in Toronto in order to promote the creation of a world organization of Slovaks hereby declare that: The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment has been a continuing process throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective in the past has not been without obstacles, or dedicated work and sacrifices of many individuals and groups. Now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny, because it is under a foreign military domination, :s uch efforts, dedication and sacrifices must be increased to help them achieve their freedom once again. Those of Slovak origin now living throughout the free world, are urged to .dedicate themselves to this task. Our obligation will be to present to the free world a true picture of the life under which our brethren are compelled to live, and to seek a change of their plight. The concepts by which we will be guided in this work will be the traditional values promoted throughout Slovak history which have given vitality to the nation in its growth and acceptance among nations of the western world. The Congress will continue to adhere to the democratic principles in the civil and international relations and considers tolerance in ideological, political and religious matters an expression of maturity for democracy and strongly opposes any tyranny whether it comes from the left, or, from the right. It has been obvious during the past two decades that the Slovaks living in Slovakia have been unable to determine their own destiny. A number of recent facts attest to this unfortunate reality namely the following: The basic freedom of Slovaks, as well as of other Captive �194 SLOVAKIA Nations under communism, are still quite limited-travel to Western countries, and press and assembly freedoms have recently been set back to almost the 1948 levels. The federalization of Czecho-Slovakia into two equal sectors-the Czech and the Slovak, introduced by the Constitutional Act of October 1948, has been severely circumscribed in recent past and is slowly being replaced by a new centralism; Religious freedom continues to be restricted to Roman Catholics, Uniates, Lutherans, Jews and to other denominations; and The present Czecho-Slovak Federal Government has taken no initiative nor has it responded to initiatives suggested by the Holy See in the Vatican to establish a Catholic Province in Slovakia, even though such provinces exist in Bohemia as well as in Moravia. We contend that the issue of the continued existence and recognition of a Slovak nation be duly accepted by all nations, including the records of the United Nations. The question of the suppressed freedoms of all nations now living under communism must soon be given full airing and remedies instituted. This has been and should not cease to be an issue of interest to all civilized nations. Slovaks call upon them to help in this cause. We take a positive attitude towards the economic integration in Europe and urge that the Slovak nation be included in this and other unifying processes benefiting their degree of economic and other freedoms. Viewing the future political situation in Eastern Europe with hope and cautious optimism, we look toward to the day when obstacles which presently prevent cultural and educational exchang* between Slovaks at home and abroad will be removed. To support the objectives mentioned above, we have established a permanent organization under the name of: Slovak World Congress, which shall embody the spirit of brotherhood and mutual respect. Religious affiliations or political views, insofar as they are not contrary to the spirit of democracy and the objectives mentioned above, will not bar anyone from membership or active participation in our organization. We consider it essential that our goals and methods as well as our activities follow democratic principles. �SLOVAKIA 195 We shall endeavor to have the Slovak World Congress represent its members at international scientific, cultural, religious or political forums in the interest of the Slovak nation as expressed in the Constitution and the by-laws of the organization. We urge that the Slovak World Congress devote itself to promoting the spirit of unity among its members and to co-ordinate all its efforts through constant contact with member organizations maintained through central secretariats, regional secretariats, committees and information bureaus in various countries around the world. We ask the blessing of Almighty God in this undertaking in the firm hope that with the help and co-operation of all those who wish well for the Slovaks we may successfully fulfill our role. Members of the Committee: Stephen B. Roman, LL.D., President; Rev. Dusan Toth, Secretary General; Dr. J. A. Mikus, Dr. J. Stasko, Dr. J. M . Kirschbaum,· Dr. J. Pauco, and Prof. E. Urban. Toronto, Ont., June 20, 1971. Unity Is Necessary Edward J. Behun c i k (The following are excerpts from the address of Edward J . Behuncik, First Vice President of the Slovak World Congress, President of the Slovak League of America, and President of the American Fund for Slovak Refugees given at the closing banquet of the Slovak World Congress held at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, June 19. 1971.) It is a rare and high privilege to appear before such a historic and distinguished gathering of representatives of all walks of Slovak life and to break bread with our fellow Slovaks from all parts of the free world as we share this memorable Congress in spirit, in hope and in love with our brethren in beautiful Slovakia. The honor you do me in asking that I speak in company with the distinguished Chief Executive of the great Province of Ontario, with two colleagues from the great Senate of the United States of America, as well as the spiritual, civic and cultural leaders who grace the head table-this honor cannot but move me. I thank you most sincerely for asking me here. Hopefully 1 will leave at least �196 SLOVAKIA one or two important thoughts with you-important to the permanent success of our fledgeling Slovak World Congress, and that is, our need for unity- and for ''Svornost a laska".In Joel, we read·'Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions."Today, we combine the hopes which both dreams and visions embody. Dreams are generally of things past, visions are of the future. Dreams are truly for older men who have a past, while visions are for the younger looking forward to the future. Experience alone is the look backward, the dream of yesteryear, but it is only useful as it clarifies the vision of tomorrow. Here in Toronto, we put the finishing touches--not upon a new structure - rather upon the permanent foundation . Because in fact, at New York City, the Congress \\'as already perfect in the sense that its objects were fully perceived, its necessary organs present, its powers conferred, and its extent already, if only dimly, seen to be world wide. In addition, its final purpose, which alone can justify its existence, was perfectly clear and that was to become the r epresentative body of Slovaks scattered as they are throughout the free world. Here during the past several days, we have added to the New York beginnings. We've used our year old experience to improve, amend, delete and otherwise add to the permanent basis of a vital organ for disseminating the cause of the Slovak nation. To bring about the final liberation of the Slovak nation and its equality among all nations, the Slovak World Congress presents us with a golden opportunity. If we complete its hopeful aspirations, if we create a permanent edifice on the foundation built here and in New York, we will thereby sooner bring to fruition the age old Slovak vision of liberty and freedom with justice. But unity is necessary - that unity which has so often eluded the efforts of our forebears . Can we come together for the future ? Can we remain together? I think we can; I know we must! ! ! We will and must let bygones be bygones, let past differences as nothing be, and with steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugu rate the good and old central ideas of a free and independent Slovakia, where our presently subjugated brethren can someday in God's good time freely choose their own destiny. We have our quarrels, as all happy families have. We have di sagreed as all friend s have. But when the great human cause of Slovakia comes before us, in the natural fitness of things, we have looked into our hearts, and hidden away in their innermost recesses, we have discovered a very shy but a very faithful friendship for each other, no matter from what region of Slovakia we originated. That is why we are here this evening. �SLOVAKIA So 1 say-we are united-but more important - we must stay united. We can do it ! ! ! The human heart and human aspirations are with us. God is with us--Our Lady of Sorrows is with us. We shall-we must-succeed. God forbid, if the Congress shall dissipate instead of growing and developing as it should-it will be another eleven hundred years before the vision of a unified, free and independent Slovakia can again be dreamed of. I know none of us wish to have ~he horror of such a c a ta s t r o p h e on our consciences. So, we must not fall-and we won't if we do our duty-but the time has passed when we can remain silent regarding the great fundamentals of free government and permit the enemies of the Slovak social order to occupy the center of the stage. The time has come and that time is now when we must take issue with those, who infatuated with ch a o t i c dreams, are seeking to undermine the Slovak ideals and aspirations, dreams and visions. We now have the modus operandi-the vehicle. We have the Slovak World Congress. We, the participants in and supporters of the Congress, have it in our own hands whether it shall be nothing more than the brilliant after glow of a gorgeous renaissance, or whether it shall be the dawn of a newer and brighter day in the struggle of the Slovaks to fulfill their age old vision of liberty and freedom with justice. Already, as we well know, on several occasions, for several 197 brief moments, behind the far spread iron curtain in Eastern Europe. the rays of the setting sun of materialistic communism have mingled with the rays of the rising sun of democracy. May that sun grow in light and warmth and may it be undimmed by the clouds of our own internal dissension. I am profoundly concerned. I am deeply interested. I build the greatest hopes upon this World Congress. 1 am old enough to have the experience to be able to dream-but, I am young enough to have the vision of a great institution - one from which, for example, some day-God grant-will emerge a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - or the Literature Prize. And so, in bidding a foud adieu to our fellow Slovaks returning to their havens scattered throughout the free world, I urge them and all of you to hope- to hope as the love of truth and obedience to it shall grow and as with firmer footing thereon, we look afar and think clearly on what we see. We shall see our Slovak World Congress advancing to the high position that awaits every organization and every nation which honors the facts, which looks afar and which thinks clearly and positively. And as we aspire to greater and more illustrious achievements in the glorious history of our beloved Slovakia, we can well ponder the prayer of Sir Francis Drake: "Oh, Lord God, when Thou givest to Thy servants to endeavor any great matter, grant us also, to know, that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it is thoroughly finished, which yieldcth the true glory." �198 SLOVAKIA AS OTHERS SEE In these times, when many of us seem to reflect on the place of our origin, it was indeed interesting to see how the Americans, Canadians, and citizens of other free countries, all of Slovak origin, demonstrated their dedication to the cause of peace with freedom in our age. Their dedication was for freedom for their kinfolk in Slovakia, now part of the Communist satellite of Czechoslovakia, who cannot themselves demonstrate their longing for the liberties denied them for 23 years. The Slovaks are a hardy people who have been seeking the ideals we in our own country so freely enjoy-the right to their own self. determination. And like other nations, captives under Communist domination, the Slovaks know that one day they will join ranks with the civilized world with other free nations. Until then the work of the Slovak World Congress is indeed both most worthy and very necessary and I hope I applaud it. - U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr. The Slovak World Congress stands for freedom and seeks to preserve the language, culture and national heritage. You are to be commended for your strong antiCommunist stand. - Strom Thurmond., U.S. Senator Please know that your concern for freedom throughout the world and particularly in Slovakia is shared by all of us. No more dire threat exists today than that posed by the Soviet Union and I stand with you against their expansionary policies. Keep up with your good work. - John Tower, U.S. Senator I wish to congratulate the Slovak people of our nation for the out- IT standing fight they have been waging over the years in exposing Communist tyranny which is the most powerful threat to human freedom in the history of the world. If all groups of the free world would have the same spirit of opposition and expose the criminality of Communist enslavement methods and Communist living conditions there would be no doubt that this Communistic threat to the world would collapse in a very short time. - Ray J. Madden, U.S. Member of Congress The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment has been a continuing process throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective in the past has not been without obstacles, or dedicated work and sacrifices of many individuals and groups. Now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny, because it is under a foreign military domination, such efforts, dedication and sacrifices must be increased to help them achieve their freedom once again. Those of Slovak origin now living throughout the free world, are urged to dedicate themselves to this task. Our obligation will be to present to the free world a true picture of the life under which our brethren are compelled to live, and to seek a change of their plight. The concepts by which we will be guided in this work will be the traditional values promoted throughout Slovak history which have given vitality to the nation in its growth and acceptance among nations of the western world. Claiborne Pell, U.S. Senator Even within the Communist world there is an absolute intoler-- �SLOVAKIA ance for those faithful party members who would put a "human face" on the dictatorship in order to make it more palatable. I speak of course, of Alexander Dubcek who sought to purify, and reform, but not replace or destroy, communism in Czechoslovakia. Yes even after the true nature of the dictator reared its ugly head and Dubcek's reforms were sacrificed, we still hear the drone of those who would have us believe that the communist dictator has changed. Let no one be fooled - Communism is the Number One enemy not only of the Western World, but of humanity itself. It is a tribute to all of you who have felt the iron hand of the communist dictator that you have brought to the Western Hemisphere an appreciation and understanding of the dangers of communism which is, unfortunately, shared by too few Americans. - Robert C. Mardian It is a privilege to address men and women who stand for the forefront of civilization's never-ending struggle for freedom. For more than eleven centuries the Slovak people have been developing, extending and seeking to preserve a rich and fertile cultural heritage. More than that, you have sought endlessly to maintain that priceless ingredient of true spiritual fulfillment-the right of the individual citizen to be his own person, to think his own thoughts, to speak his own words, to contribute directly to the formation and performance of his own government and to worship as he chooses. In so doing you have contributed your full share, and perhaps more, to the development of the Slavic peoples as a whole and to the cultural family of peoples around the world. 199 Ontario and all of Canada has been enriched by the spirit and integrity of Slovaks, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and all of the others who claim the honor of membership in the world Slavic community which numbers more than 200 million persons. - William C. Davis, Prime Minister of Ontario Vienna, AtLstria - Communist Czecho-Slovakia's closed-door policy against religious literature mailed from abroad has provoked a steady stream of protests within its own borders, according to reports reaching here. Demands for an explanation are being sent to postal authorities by Czecho-Slovak citizens who learn that religious books such as the Bible have been mailed to them from abroad but returned to the sender by government authorities. The regime's reply to that publications contrary to Czecho-Slovakia's laws are refused entry. But no particulars are given to explain how the Bible or devotional books are in opposition to the country's laws. "Foreign reviews and books may be sent into Czecho-Slovakia without limitation of any sort," said a standard explanation from the central office for incoming foreign parcels in Prague. Post Office 120. "However, reviews and books which by their content are contrary to our legislative norms are refused local delivery, according to the prevailing international standards." The letter of explana,tion concluded: "Peace to the world!" It seems that books arriving from certain senders or destined for certain addresses are returned automatically without examination. Recently one man received back from Czecho..Slovakia an unopened �200 SLOVAKIA package he had sent his brother containing a book on photography. Official documents mailed by Vatican offices to various bishops in Czecho-Slovakia have been returned marked "refused." In June, the secretariat for church affairs of the Slovakia region's government notified bishops, pastors and Religious superiors that religious publications from abroad were prohibited where "in conflict with the interest of our socialist state." The of.ficial notice continued: "The provision also concerns the propagation and publication of information and instructions of various kinds from abroad, whether through internal ecclesiastical channels, in official documents or in any form whatsoever." It warned that the distribution of prohibited literature is punishable under Czecho-Slovakia's penal code. Czecho-Slovakia's hard-line communist rulers, brought to power by the Soviet invasion of August 1968, have been steadily tightening the screws on the Catholic Church for the past two years. In January 1970 the Slovakia ministry of culture decreed that every act of official worship, including private Masses, must have state approval. A similar decree was issued by the ministry of culture in the Czech region of Bohemia. In July of that same year the Slovakia government asserted the right to blackball newly chosen superiors of congregations of nuns. In November, 1970 the Bohemia ministry of culture forbade the Church to give courses preparing couples for marriage. In July 1971 the ministry of culture decreed severe limitations upon the teaching of religion. Its Slovakia counterpart did likewise. Decrees approving newly resurrected pro-government associations of peace priests were issued simultaneously in August 1971 by the Bohemian and Slovakian governments. But the regime 's restrictions on Church activity and growth have not been confined to legislation and decrees. Through administrative acts the regime has kept more than half the applicants out of the country's seminaries and has dismissed from convents all Sisters who entered them when the country's liberalized regime of early 1968 reopened the convent to novices. The present, neo-Stalinist regime has attempted to manipulate the Church by installing its own candidates in key positions, such as vicar general of Brno and of Roziiava, and the executive committees of the Bohemian and Slovakian Catholic charitable agencies. Meanwhile, the controlled press has been keeping up a steady fire on religion in general and the churches in particular. Christians in Bohemia are bracing themselves for still heavier assaults upon them and their churches now that the head of the region's religious affairs office, Karel Hruza, has returned from a Moscow meeting with · his counterparts from other Communist states. Czecho-Slovakia's present program of religious repression was launched shortly after his return from a similar meeting in Moscow in October 1969. - NC New s Service Vienna. - The situation of the Church and of human rights and freedoms. in communist-ruled Czecho-Slovakia is growing worse, not better. Experts agree that the situation �SLOVAKIA 201 after the short bright 1968 methods to promote atheist edu "humanizing" period before the cation. Dubcek regime was overthrown by Party officials said repeatedly at Soviet-led invaders - is similar recent meetings that religion "has now to that of the hated Stalinist a negative influence on the for. times. mation of Socialist conscience." The Church has become the The Bratislava communist newstarget of concentrated attacks from paper, Pravda, demanded that relitwo directions - through adminis- gious ceremonies - christenings, trati ve measures and ideological weddings and funerals - be rearguments. placed by Socialist ceremonies, The communist regime is at- because " the Church has misused tempting to strangle religious the most important stages of activities slowly but effectively by human life for its own purposes." administrative action. Karel Hruza, head of the gove rnMore than half of all parishes in ment state office, has described Bohemia lack priests and there is the regime's plans. "After rightists no chance to overcome the short- and counter-revolutionaries are reage. At the moment only 12 stu- moved from the party and governdents study for the priesthood in ment, we must concentrate in the entire Archdiocese of Olomouc. working a platform to cope with As a result of government the reactionary policy of the chicanery, the number of children Church. - Gerd Kriwanek, Reliattending religious instruction in gious News Service, January 28, school is sharply declining. 1972. th At the same time, e regime Ladislav Bezak loaded his wife has endorsed increased ideological and four children in a two-place attacks on the Church. Jozef Le- · light plane December 9 1971 and nart, firs_t secretary of the Slovak left for what he desc;ibed as a Communist Party, charged the "pleasure trip. " Church with having misused the The flight originated in Prague, situation in 1968 " to create a politand his destination was Nuernberg, ical basis for clericalism and West Germany. He did not file Catholicism. " a flight plan. Lenart alleged that religious Bezak is an experienced pilot sentiments were misused to pro- perhaps one of the best in the mote "anti-Sovietism and anti- world. At the first World Aerosocialism." batic Contest in 1960 at Bratislava, The regime has increased its Slovakia, he was a gold medal atheist propaganda. Thus the mag- winner in aerobatic competition. azine for teachers Ucitel'ske American pilots describe him as Noviny - urged the abolition of a quiet engineer who always wore any "liberal attitude towards re- a suit and tie rather than the casual ligion and the Church in our clothes worn by most competitive society." The journal also pledged pilots. increased atheist education of Shortly after he and his famil y young people by the party, the left Prague, a Czech MIG jet mass media, the schools and major fighter began a chase, and although organizations. Bezak waggled his wings and It also suggested that the Acade- waved to convince the fighter pilot my of Science devise the best they were on a pleasure flight , the �202 SLOVAKIA MIG began to fire on the light plane. Aerobatic maneuvers require precise skill. They are difficult enough in a special airplane, with perfect weight and balance distribution under ideal conditions. With six peop'le in a small plane, they would have to be considered impossible category. In addition, being fired on by a military jet could tend to disturb the concentration. The little plane - loaded over gross, and perhaps a third as fast as the fighter - apparently didn't have a chance. But the pilot was Bezak! According to the Aerobatic Club of America, Bezak flew the book at the military pilot. Flying many of the patterns which had earned him world championship 10 years before, he was able to elude the jet and continue on to the border. Before he reached it, the small plane was fired on from the ground. Bezak dived into a cloud bank, and with the children in tears and his wife in prayer, broke out across the border at 300 feet. The escape was a success. Ladislav Bezak, like most good aerobatic pilots, flies for prizes. During this trip he won the biggest prize of them all - freedom for himself and his family. - Lew Inquirer, Philadelphia Hodges, February 6, 1972. Lehigh is searching for a graduate student of Slovak ancestry to prepare a history of Slovak people in Bethlehem. Money for this project was left to the University from an even more unusual source: a Southside Bethlehem bachelor druggist who died in 1968 at age 67 and left Lehigh $67,500 in an unsigned will. The druggist, John Weldy Wasco, worked and apparently lived at 843 E. 4th Street. Relatives contested his will all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which upheld two lower court decisions in favor of Lehigh. Wasco stipuleted that $10,000 of the $67,500 was to go toward compiling and printing a history of Slovaks in Bethlehem, and that the project must be carried out by a Slovak student. Wasco's wish appeared in local newspapers without the criteria he set for the historian, and a number of Lehigh faculty expressed interest before learning they did not qualify. Wasco also specified that his personal papers be edited, and left $5,000 for the University to arrange that. University officials could not explain what motivated Wasco's generosity. He wrote a will in 1967 making Lehigh his sole beneficiary, and later changed it to add the provision about the Slovak history. - Lehigh University Publication Ondrej Nepela, the skating wonder from Slovakia, won the 11th Winter Olympic Games' gold medal as Russia's Sergei Chetveroukin edged into second place for the silver and Patrick Pera of France won the bronze. Two Americans, Ken Shelley of Downey, Calif., and John Mischa Petkevitch of Great Falls, Montana, moved into fourth and fifth places, passing East Germany's young Jan Hoffman, who had been fourth after the compulsory figures. Nepela, the world champion, fell early in his program while attempting a triple-toe-loop. Fall do not necessarily ruins a skater's marks since he is judged on the difficulty of his routine. Nepela was smooth and graceful but his program was neither as imaginative nor a dynamic as that of some of his rivals, including the two Americans. Despite his fall, the Slovak rated �SLOVAKIA scores no lower than 5.9s in technical merit and he had two 5. 7s with the rest 5.8 in artistic impressions. His total points were 2739.1, well ahead of the rest of the field. In the official ordinal rankings, Nepela had a perfect 9.0, meaning he was rated No. 1 by all nine judges. The Russian had 20.0 in ordinals and Pera 28.0. - Associated Press, February 12, 1972. Dr. Joseph Tiso, wartime president of the Slovak Republic, is no more. Tried and convicted as a "war criminal" by a ~called People's Court, he was executed last week American press dispatches - both secular and religious were concise and negligently brief. No fanfare or publicity. Merely that the priest-president was sentenced and the sentence carried out. Was Dr. Tiso a "war criminal"? The very fact of news silence here betrays a kind of embarrassed admission that things were not just fine in "Glocca Morra." The trials of Draga Mihailovitch and Archbishop Stepinac given due publicity aroused resentment in the United States, an attitude, which, while it accomplished nothing actual for the persons involved, nevertheless illustrated the rightprincipled conscience of the thinking public. But Dr. Tiso's case was denied even the type of consolation, because the facts and circumstances of the Tiso case are quite unknown to the American people. Whose the fault, whose the blame for this? The Hon. Robert Jackson, presiding over the trials in Nuremberg wrote "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal 203 guilt . . . If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for a trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." Tiso's trial was a travesty of justice. Actually, the issue was a political one primarily. Tried by the "People's Court" Tiso was denied representation by the attorney engaged by his friends. American papers had nothing to say about the fact that Alois Loyek, the attorney, was abused by the security officials, told he could not represent Tiso, and all defense material confiscated. The presiding judge and six political associates was Igor Daxner who himself was once tried by a regular court during Tiso's regime for planning with the Benes government-in-exile to turn Slovakia over to Russia, and sent to jail. Was Dr. Tiso a "war criminal" ? The answer necessitates a thorough perusal of the events which led to his election as Premier of Slovakia before the war started· - under a valid act of the Prague Parliament, events little known here, events in the evolution of democracy in the republic of Czecho-Slovakia without a knowledge of which the case of Tiso cannot be justly viewed. If these facts were made public, perhaps public opinion, such as it is. might be swayed to the right even though a little too late." The Catholic L i ght, Scranton, Pa. 4-25-47. Dr. Tiso's public life was political, though this fact is not to be held in any way against him. In many parts of Europe ecclesiastics find themselves pushed into politics because the cause of their Catholic people needs to be protected, and there are not a sufficient number of laymen educated to the job. Happily, this state of affairs is passing away, for it is not in itself �204 SLOVAKIA very desirable. However excellent the motives of the cleric concerned, he risks his spiritual office being contaminated, at least in public esteem, by the relatively low standards of political life, and the higher he rises in the political world, the harder it may become to distinguish the priest from the politics. Dr. Tiso, so far as we are aware always remained an exemplary priest, but he came to find himself responsible for the fate of his fellow Slovakians in terrible times. Through these times he did his duty to his people as he saw it. In a way not dissimilar from that of an Irish leader in relation to the British, he strove to protect the religion, culture and national autonomy of Slovakia as against the Czechs whose public outlook was dominated by very different rnlues. Such is the path of treason in the eyes of one side and of heroic patriotism in the eyes of the other. And few who tread this hard road can look back on their lives and deny having made mistakes. In the long run history will al- ways vindicate the sincere patriot as against the utilitarian judgment of those who condemn him on a legalistic interpretation of treason. In each case the career of such a man is a challenge to those called UPon to judge him. Are they big enough to look with the eyes of history and to seek reconciliation and understanding by the great gesture? Or are they small men who cannot see beyond the legalisms and their wounded vanity? In the face of this test, Dr. Benes and the rulers of Czecho-Slovakia have dismally failed. They have had to judge a good man, a priest, a great and courageous patriot, and all they have been able to do is to raise a martyr for Slovakia. This small-minded folly is only too typical of the men whom the fortunes of war have favoured . Instead of trying to realize unity on the basis of victory, these little men are as busy as they can be indulging their feelings by carving even deeper the channels which devide man from man and nation from nation. - Catholic Herald . London, 4-25-47. SLOVAKIA is µublishecl annually by the Slovak League of .America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. One of the purpo··es of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciat1on of the Sl<OVak nation and its long struggle foT freedom and i ndependeuce. Subscription to Slovwkia $3.00 pel' year in the L1.S.A. - $4.00 el-sewhere. Send 1mhscription to: SLOV AKI.A 313 Ridge A venue Middletown, Pa. 17057 �SLOVAKIA 205 BOOK REVIEWS BOOKS ON SLOVAK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Reviewed by J. M. KIRSCH BA UM Bibliografia slovenskej jazykovedy ethymology, terminology, orthoand lexicography which are the preferred fields of Slovak linguists; the survey of published articles, studies and books between 1961-1965 shows that Slovak linguists made great progress in the following disciplines; history of the language, dialectology, morphology, syntax, onomastics, stylistic aspects of language, problems of translation, the structure and acoustics of language and language culture. This development become more than apparent if we compare the present work with the Biblio- 1961-1965 (Bibliography of Slo- graphy, vak Linguistics 1961-1965), by Ladislav Dvonc; Matica slovenska (Martin, 1970), pages 804, multi-lingual, English summary. For Western Slavists the Bibliography of Slovak Linguistics is not wLthout interest. This voluminous publication shows that Slovak linguistics has developed considerably during the latter years of the Stalinist regime. It also indicates that the attempts of some philologists, supported by the policy of the regime in the 1950's, to infiltrate the Slovak language with Czech vocabulary and to bring its structure as close to the Czech language as possible in order to create a "CzechoS'lovak language" back-fired. Slovak linguists, with the exception of one or two philologists trained in Prague ( S. Peciar, especi'ally), repudiated these attempts and began not only to clear the Slovak language from foreign infiltrations but in a number of studies brought Slovak linguistics quantitatively as well as qualitatively to the level of other Slavic nations within the Soviet orbit. With its 2111 entries pertaining to the Slovak language, the Bibliography is, however, not simply a numerical expression of the development of li.nguistic studies on the Slovak language. Of great importance is the number of disciplines studied by Slovak linguists. It is not any more only grammar, graphy of Slovak Linguistics for 1957-1960 by the same author. The new Bibliography contains: 1) all linguistic articles, studies and books published in Slovakia; 2) contributions in non-Slovak periodicals ( one from Canada), studies and articles by non-Slovak authors on the Slovak language or on linguistics published in Slovakia. As a result, the entries in this Bibliography are not only more numerous, but also multi-lingual. The publication shows that many Slovak linguists themselves ,published their studies in foreign languages, mainly in Russian. A strong Russian influence in Slovak linguistics is even more evident in the number of articles, studies and books dealing with the Russian language. Bibliographical data about the Russian language cover more than 100 pages, while other Slavic languages follow in this order: Czech 25 pages, Ukrainian 9 pages, Polish 3 pages, Slovenian �206 SLOVAKIA 3/4 of a page, Byelorussian and Bulgarian ¼ of a page each. For a short time the methods of the Russian linguistic school, or as some linguists say, "the Marxists and Stalinists principles and methods," were also imposed on Slovak philology and linguistics and prevailed in some works (see my essay " Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology," Slavic and East European Studies, Vol. IV, 34, University of Montreal, 1960). Around 1960 Slovak linguists turned, however, against the russification as well as against the Czech infiltration of the Slovak language and Slovak linguistics. Studies, articles and books pertaining to the Slovak language have been published, according to this Bibiiography, predominantly in Slovak, but over 300 entries were published in Western languages, including English, in other Slavic languages and in Hungarian. It was mainly the works of the older generation of Slovak linguists (J . Stanislav, E. Pauliny) which appeared in international symposia in English, French or Russian. The younger generation on the other hand has broadened the field of Slovak linguists to include many disciplines and their studies have maintained a high academic level. They continue to be grouped around the periodicals Slovenska rec (Slovak Language), Jazykovedr ny casopis (Linguistic Journal) and Jazykovedne studie (Linguistic Studies) and have published the Zbornik Filozofickej Fakulty Univ. Komenskeho - Philologica (Sym- posium of the F1aculty of Arts of the Comenius University) and Zbornik Filozofickej Fakulty Univ. P. J. Safcirika (Symposium of the University of P. J . Safarik). Editors gether with V. Blanar, L. Dvonc, G. Horak, J. Horecky and R. Krajcovic wrote the major part of the Slovak linguistic studies contained in the Bibliography. Even though the works of foreign philologists (R. Auty, R. Jakobson) from Western countries are included in this Bibliography it does not contain articles, studies or books published by Slovak intellectuals abroad except for one French essay by this reviewer which appeared in Etudes Slaves et est-europeennes (Montreal, 1963). Valuable studies by H. Bartek who was the founder of the periodical Slovenska rec or books, articles, dictionaries and surveys by S. Bue, F. Hrobak, J . J . Konus, J . Rekem and others were apparently not allowed by the regime to be recorded. The "normalization" which followed the brief period of relative freedom in 1968, has again separated the Slovaks in Slovakia from Slovak intellectuals in the West even in the field of linguistics and the population of Slovakia is not allowed to know about the cultural activities among some two million Slovaks abroad. The usefulness of Dvonc's Bibliography for Slavists cannot be doubted. It is a thoroughly prepared standard work. An index of names and a subject index enhance the practical value of this voluminous book. SLOVENSKA BIBLIOGRAFIA V ZAHRANitf 1945-1965 (Slovak Bibliography Abroad 1945-1965) : Compiled by Prof. M. Lacko S.J .. published by The Slovak Institute (Cleveland-Rome), 1967, 366 pp., multi-lingual, instruction in Slovak and English. The long expected Slovak Biblioof these periodicals have been E. graphy Abroad, which had to reJona , J. Ruzicka, Prof. E . Pauliny, cord the cultural activities of L. f>urovic and S. Dobos who to- Slovak intellectuals in the West, �SLOVAKIA has finally been published and we cannot but welcome it. Slovak Bibliography Abroad 19451965 records the literary production of Slovak authors in Western countries in the fields of history, political science, religion, philology, folklore, literary history and cdticism, music, theology, literature and natural science. A special chapter deals with general works on Slovakia and Slovaks abroad, includtng Slovaks in Canada. In addition, the Bibliography records the works of non-Slovak authors in the above-mentioned fields if they were translated into the Slovak language and deal explicitly with Slovakia or Czecho-Slovakia as a whole. Absent from this Bibliography are works and studies on Slovak subjects., published in the countries of the Soviet block since it was impossible for the compilers to carry out the necessary research. As a result, the publication contains literary and scientific writings of Slovaks living in some 15 Westem countries and published in all major Western languages. Considering the difficulties which wr:ilters, scholars and scientists face in exile, the Bibliography with its 2,438 entries gives an impressive picture of Slovak cultural life abroad after the Second W . W. One can understand this properly only if he is familiar with some basic facts about the Slovak intellectual community in Western countries. At the end of the Second World War, 50me 5,000 educated Slovak5 left their native country; in 1948 they were followed by a new wave of immigrants after the Communist coup d'etat. In the first wave of exiles were some of the be5t Slovak writers, poets and scores of young intellectuals from all fields of cultural endeavor who either completed their studies at univer- 207 sities in Western countries or continued their intellectual work even if they had to take menial jobs in the countdes in which they found refuge. Many of the younger generation attained positions at universities (22 in Canada) or institutions of higher education. Others became editors of newpapers and many poets and writers continued to write valuable works besides their employment in clerical jobs or other professions. Besides the chapter on literature which records writings of .some 25 poets and 15 prose writers, the largest number of entries is in the chapter on history ( 437), philology and literary history ( 224) , and political science (160). However, the natural sciences and economy are also among the best represented with 275 entries. Writings on history and political science, philology and literary history are predominantly in foreign languages. Some authors (Mikus, Kirschbaum, Rekem, Vnuk) published their studies in 3 or 4 Western languages. In literature, the Bibliography lists works by several of the best Slovak poets and novelists who in exile created works considered among the best in contemporary Slovak literature (Hronsky, Dilong, Sprinc, Strmen, Zvonicky, etc.) . The Bibliography also indicates that there are several Slovak cultural centers in the Western countries. From Canada the Bibliography has listed books, studies and articles 'b y some 20 Slovak authors. Ten of them have been active either tn Slavic studies or in philology, sociology, theology and science, the remaining 15 in literature. Actually Canada and the United States seem to have produced the most prolific Slovak authors, not only in literature but also in other fields. Also the major �208 SLOVAKIA centers of Slovak publishing activities have been in the United States, but Italy, Argentina and West Germany have equally active groups in publishing books, periodicals and newspapers. The BibHography further shows that some Slovak scholars and writers published their writings, including poetry, in several languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish) and in certain cases the originals were written in foreign languages and not translated from the Slovak. This is a new feature in Slovak literature and scholarly writing. Because of adverse political circumstances Slovaks had very limited opportunities to study abroad not only before the Second World War, but also after 1945. The exiled writers and scholars made apparently a great effort to fill this lacuna. No doubt the compiler of the Bibliography, Prof. Michael Lacko, accomplished a task which is usually done by many researchers over several years. By his own admission, he does not cover all published studies and articles by Slovaks abroad ; actually in some cases valuable studies were left out either in foreign language or in Slovak. Additions and extensions to the Bibliography have, therefore, been promised by the compiler, as well as by the publishers. However, even in its present form, the Bibliography is a valuable contribution to Slavic studies and a very useful publication, not only for Slovak scholars and researchers , but also for Slavists who read English, the Bibliography being bi-lingual. The value of the Bibliography is also enhanced by listing bibliographies on Slovak matters as well as periodicals and newspapers, annuals, and symposia, published in some 15 countries. Julius Noge : An Outl.ine of Slovakian L i terature (The Tatrapress Agency, Bratislava), 1968, 120 pp. This is the first book in English on Slovak literature which was published in Slovakia since the Communist takeover in 1948. The fact that it was published in 1968 would indicate that Dubcek's liberalization has to be credited for ,t his slender booklet on 200 years of literary activities in the Slovak language. The restoration of Czecho-Slovakia in 1945 cut off Slovakia from the rest of the world, especially from the West, and Slovak literature, art, science and culture in genera-I were to remain unknown to the Western world. Julius Noge, one of the literary critics who followed the directives of the Communist Party and was, therefore, favored by the Communist regime, divided his "succint" outline of Slovak literature into 7 chapters: From Old Church Slavonic learning (sic) to pre-Romanticism; Romanticism ( 1843-1870 ) ; Realism (1870-1905); Slovakian Literary Modernism ; Slovakian Literature between the wars (1918 1945); Contemporary Literature ( 1945-); Conclusion and Completion. Some of these chapters are very short, superficial and the whole publication is unbelievably biased towards writers and poets whose works expressed ideas opposed to Communism as, for instance, the poets and writers of Catholic modernism and all Slovak writers and poets in exile, except for J . C. Hronsky. Faithful to the directives of the Party, Noge considers as the greatest poets and writers such second class poets as Novomesky or Valek, and such mediocre writers as Vamos and Jilemnicky. "The poems by Laco Novomesky - assording to Noge - are most expressive, from the �SLOVAKIA 209 artistic and human point of view that those years were the "dark most mature fruit of modern Slo- age" of Slovak literature. The lie vakfan poetry. His works are fre- has, however, short legs, as a Sloquently the key opening the way vak saying goes. A glance at the to ,t he sense and the problems of Slovak literary production between Slovakian literature between the 1939 and 1945 included in his book, wars and after them." shows that even the leading ComValek, who plays today the role munists published freely: Novoof the Minister of Culture in Slo- mesky published his book in 1939; vakia which after 1945 had been Hecko in 1942; Tafarka in 1942; played by Novomesky is, according Kostra in 1939, 1940, and two books to Noge, even of greater import- in 1942; Ponican in 1940 and 1941 ; ance for Slovak literature. "Valek's Horov in 1940 , l942 and 1944; complex work - writes Noge - . .Zary in 1941 and two books so rich in meaning and expression, in 1942; Ondrejov in 1940, and so inaugurated a new stage in the on. In fact, all Slovak writers and evolution of Slovakian poetry, re- poets created and published during presenting hitherto in some respect th e years of the Slovak Republic its peak." Horibile dictu! The Eng- more th an at any time before, lish reader could not help looking regardless of the fact whether they with contempt on Slovak literature supported the regime or not. Comif these minor poets were its great- munist literary historians should est authors and their poetry re- not underestimate the intelligence presented the peak of Slovak liter- of Wes tern readers. From the readature. ing of Noge's booklet, anyone can find out that, with the exception Noge seems to be objective in of G. Va.mos, who was not in Slohis write-up on individual Slovak vakia and Jilemnicky who was a poets and writers only in his evalu- Czech settled in Slovakia, every ation of the literary works pro- Slovak writer, poet, literary hisduce<l in the 1950's. He admits that torian or critic ,p ublished his works, "authoritarian methods of regle- and the younger ones their debuts mentation in the field of literature during that period. Since it is the first survey of reached ,t heir peak in 1951." He also writes that the literature and Slovak literature in the English poetry of that time was "just the language, we cannot but regret poetic drafting of political and that it is not better either in form journalistic phrases" and that in or content. This publication will prose writing the topics "were hardly convince English, American, treated in the manner of agitating Canadian, or Australian readers propaganda." However, this should that Slovak literature is worthbe understood in the context of while to be studied, taught and the events of 1968 when Noge's read. In addition to its shortbooklet was published. Criticism of comings mentioned above, the pubthe 1950's was not only fashionable lication also suffers from a very in 1968 but also a prerequisite for bad translation and too many printpublishing. ing errors. It would seem that One of the most .biased state- emigre Slovak intellectuals must ments in Noge's book is his asser- publish an English survey of Slotion that during the Slovak Repub- vak literature to present it to the lie some writers and poets "ceased civilized world in an objective light to write belles-lettres," intimating and proper form . �210 SLOVAKIA Letopis Pamatnika Slovenskej Lite- lenced not only Stur but also many ratu:ry 1970. Compiled and Edited of his followers and it was mainly by Juraj Chovan (Matica slovenska, Martin 1970), pp. 250, Russian and German Summary, Index. Slovak literary history receives in this publication some new insights and correct interpretation of the work of three prominent men of letters: Jan Holly, Andrej Radlinsky and Martin Hamuljak. Not only during the inter-war period when Slovak literary history was adjusted to the political aims of "Czechoslovakism", but also since 1945, Catholic writers and their role in Slovak national development was minimized or completely neglected . For a short time after the Second World War, Holly was rediscovered and some valuable publications of his life and work appeared in Slovakia or were prepared for the printers. For the ce11tennary of Holly, literary historians and critics such as Jozef Ambrus, Jozef Felix and others prepared nine volumes of Holly's poetry with comments and evaluation. However, the re.g ime did not allow distribution of Holly's work and it appeared only after 20 years in second-hand bookshops. The reason for such undeserved treatment of Holly's work was apparently the fact that it was published by Spolok sv. Vojtecha. The present publication gives justice to Holly and, at the same time, it presents Radlinsky and Hamuljak and their activities in a true light. Not only in the political history but also in literary history, the period between 1848 and 1918 was interpreted in such a way as if Slovak Catholics had not played any role in Slovak national life. The facts are, of course, quite different. The disillusionment of the year 1848 si- the Catholic intelligentsia who kept the flame of national consciousness alive and were active in cultural and literary life. From Radlinsky through Moyses to Oswald, a score of Slovak Catholics organized cultural and literary activi.ties and fought for the national rights of the Slovak people. Contributions to the present publications by Augustin Mat'ovcik, Zemka Cejkova, Konstantin Palkovie and Juraj Chovan, bring to light some interesting details on this period mainly in connection with Radlinsky's activities. The present Letopis is the fourth publication of this kind by Matica slovenska. All of them have been dealing with research into Slovak literature and contained results of studies by qualified literary historians. The greater part of the present publication is composed of papers presented at two conferences in April 1969. The first confere nce was organized on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the death of J. Holly in Trnava and the second one on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the death of A. Radlinsky. In addition of these papers, there is an interesting essay on Slovak studies Slovakica - at foreign universities by J . Kuzmik. The essay deals so far with Slovak studies in Slavic countries. But the title of the essay indicates that it will deal with Slova k studies in all foreign universities and institutions. We hope that Kuzmik will treat the subject with scholarly objectivity when he writes on Slovak studies at American and Canadian universities. A short survey published by him sometime ago indicated that he was not free of the usual bias common to all literary and cultural historians in today's Slovakia. He left out im- �SLOVAKIA portant contributions to Slovak studies at Western universities just because of political considerations and inflated the importance of others who professed political ideologies accepted rby the present regime in Czecho-Slovakia. The publication also contains documents and information on various cultural topics, as well as book reviews. Slovaks abroad learned with satisfaction that Matica slovenska in Prievidza organized an exhibition of the literary work of J. C. Hronsky. The exhibition lasted two weeks and met with great interest by the public. The objectivity of this publication is enhanced by including an account on this exhibition in which it has been admitted that Hronsky was "one of the most important, but also systematically under-estimat:ed Slovak writer." Unfortunately, the publication contains only a short Russian and German summary and will, therefore, be useful only for Slavists who can read Slovak. Nevertheless, we welcome this valuable contribution to better and more objective evalu ation of the Slovak literary past. W ith Christ in His Passion. By Rudolph Dilong. '!1ranslated from the original Slovak by Sister M. Martina Tibor, SS.C.M., Villa of the Sacred .Heart, Danville, Pa., 1971, pp. 75, $2.50. The greatest poetic genius of our century, the French poet, Paul Claude!, used to say (in several variations) about the poet and poetry. "The object of poetry is not, as they say very frequently, dreams, illusions or ideas_ It is the holy reality, given once for all times, in the center of which we are situated. It is the universe of in- 211 visible things. It is all that we look at and all that looks back at us. All this is God's work; it renders matter inexhaustible for all the greatest poet says and sings as well as the smallest bird. Since there is a phiiosophia perennis that does not invent ... abstract beings that no one has ever seen except thei r authors, .. . so there is also a poesis perennis that does not invent its themes, but it eternally recaptures those which Creation furnishes to it ... The purpose of poetry is not, as Baudelaire says, 'to plunge into the bottom of the Infinite to find something new,' but to plunge into the bottom of the definite in order to find there the inexhaustible ... Nor is he a poet who invents, but he who, approaching things, assembles and permits us to understand them." Justly we can apply these concepts especially to the religious poetry of Rudolf Dilong, the most prolific and meritorious contemporary Slovak poet living in exile (Pittsburgh, Pa.) So he took a plunge into the sacred reality of the Pascha'l Mystery and with a luminous creative poetic imagry tried the humanly impossible: to capture the uncapturable mystery found in Christ's redemptive mystery of suffering and victory. He listens in these depths and assembles the rays of his poetic vision in powerful and eloquent words. These are his immortal merits. How about the (frequently overlooked) merits of the translator, Sister Martina Tibor? Well, if poetry is art par excellence, so is its translation. To translate poetry well requires above all the perfect mastery of two languages. But this is not enough. The translator must be also a virtual pbet (in potentia), to save in his translation as much �SLOVAKIA 212 of the sublime poetic beauty as it is possible. And this process must be a new creation: a scrupulous penetration into the fine shades of meanings and the recapturing in another language this almost imperceptible shimmering of condensed poetic experience and expression. Even so, something will always be lost from the genuine beauty of the original. AU in all, we gladly say that Sister Martina did a splendid job in translating into English the most difficult, exuberant and most sublime religious poetry of the poet1>riest Rudolf Dilong. It is a valuable cultural service to the poetic Slovak genius. Nichoias Sp r in c, Borromeo Seminary College of Ohio ··DIE SLOWAKEI IN DER NACHDER KRIEGSENTWICKLUNG (The TSCHECHO-SLOWAKEI" Role of Slovakia in the Political Evolution of Czecho--Slovakia After the Second World War); by Prof. J. M. Kirschbaum, Schriftenreihe des Matus Cernak Instituts, Koln, Nr. 3, 1971, pp. 32, Bibi. Prof. J . M. Kirschbaum enriched again our political literature by a consice study about Slovakia after lhe Second World War. The publication is destined predominantly to scholars and historians but it will be welcome by anybody interested in political development in Czecho-Slovakia from 1945 to 1968. This period of Slovak history was presented in the West by fore ign historians as well as by Czech exiles in the most distorted light. Prof J. M. Kirschbaum, on the basis of sources in several languages, gives a clear picture of the role of Slovakia in the upheavals through which Czecho-Slov>akia, restored by the Soviet armies, had to undergo after the Second World War. The publication is an enlarged version of an English contribution to Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968, which was dedicated by Canadian Slavists to the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968. The English version discusses the events until the invasion of Czecho• Slovakia by the Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops. In the German version there is also a chapter on the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia , and the footnotes were completed by references to works in German, while in the English text, Prof. Kirschbaum referred mostly to books published on the American Continent and in France. The study is divided into four chapters dealing with the Communist coup d'etat in 1948, the ,period of the "cult of personality" in Slovakia, the process of de--Stalinization and the struggle for liberalization and federalization. In each chapter the author traces the special role which Slovakia played in the crucial years of the transformation of Czecho-Slovakia into the most faithful satellite of the Soviet Union. To avoid being accused of "parti pris," Prof. J .M. Kirschbaum heavily relies on quotations from American and Canadian political scientists dealing with Eastern Europe. Among others he often quotes the work by the former Secretary to President Benes, E. Taborsky, who now teaches at American universities, but the most interesting quotation comes from a Czech professor at the University of British Columbia, Stanley Z. Pech, who wrote the following remarkable statement about Western historians writing on Eastern Europe: "Although Western specialists in Eastern European history have usually regarded it as their task to �SLOVAKIA I 213 make the West familiar with the Since Prof. F . Hrusovsky published entire panorama of the polyglot his concise booklet This is Slovakia. region, they have in practice often I some 20 years ago, we did not been selective in the favors they have in English any publication to bestoved on each nation. They have give either to foreigners or to incorporated in their work, in Slovaks educated at American, Camodified form, the outlook and nadian or Australian universities, the prejudices of the nations which the basic facts of Slovak history they "adopted." To give the most and cultural life. For this reason, conspicuous examples, they viewed the Slovak World Congress deSlovak history through Czech eyes. serves credit for publishing an In so doing, they have in fact up-to-date account on Slovakia. The publication is composed of created a second-class status for certain nations. The history of the two essays by Prof. J . A. Mikus. Slovaks in the West has usually and six essays by Prof. J . M. Kirschbeen presented from the point of baum. Prof. Mikus deals with the view of "Czechoslovakism" and has individuality of Slovakia, namely, appeared as hardly more than a with geographical and demographical facts and with the personality postscript to Czech history. " of the Slovak nation. Both essays We understand that the first are written in a scholarly way but English book by Prof. J. M. Kirsch- understandable to any reader. baum Slovakia - Nati 01i at the Drawing on personal knowledge Crossroads of Central Europe is and long years of studies of Slovak no more avail.able even though it history, Prof. Mikus displayed ahad three printings. It would be gain by his essays that he belongs a service to the Slovak cause if among the best Slovak authors he revised his book and completed abroad in the field of history and it by the present study in order political science. that students of Slovak history, as The essays by Prof. J . M. Kirschwell as politicians and American baum deal with the historical back and Canadian Slovaks of the second ground of Slovakia, the ethnic and third generations, could have origin and language, cultural, poan objective history on Slovakia. litical, religious and economic The Matus cernak Institute de- background. The essays give a serves credit for publishing this complete and unbiased picture of well documented study. The Slovak 1100 years of Slovak history, as World Congress would render a well as of political and cultural service to the Slovak cause if it evolution of the Slovak people and took care of pl.acing this concise of the economic potential of Sloand expertly written account of vakia. Perhaps intentionally short, modern Slovak history into univer- the essays refer to many books sity libraries in Europe as well as either in Slovak or in foreign languages, which will be welcome by on this Continent. who want to enhance their students J . Pau c o knowledge of Slovakia. SLOVAKIA : Historical and Cu lturThe reader will notice that Prof. al Background, by Prof. J. A. J . M. Kirschbaum made great efMikus and Prof. J. M. Kirsch- forts to present the political and baum, Published by Slovak World religious background of Slovaks Congress (Toronto, Canada, June without any bias. This is in accoro 1971) , pp. 63, ill. bibl. ance with the concept of the Slovak I �SLOVAKIA 214 World Congress which published this valuable addition to books on Slovakia. The Congress is guided by national as well as by religious ecumenical spirit. As in his other works on Slovakia, Prof. Kirsch• baum makes a distinction between the history of Slovakia and the history of the Slovak people which is not history of dynasties or expansive wars, but a struggle for survival. Such an approach will probably be most understandable for Slovaks as well as foreigners and may prove to be correct in the last analysis. The publication is enhanced by a map of Europe and several pictures from the history of Slovakia, as well as by a bibliography of English books on Slovakia by Slovak authors. The Editor, Prof. J. M. Kirschbaum added this im· pressive survey of books in English by Slovak authors for Slovaks educated outside Slovakia, and he did the right thing. Published by the Slovak World Congress, this valuable publication was distributed freely to the participants at the meeting in Toronto, and is apparently no more avail• able. It would be a service to the Slovak cause if a second edition be prepared for general use. J. Pa u co ETHNOLOGIA SLAVICA I: Uni· versitas Comeniana Bratislavensis, Facultas Philosophica, Bratislava 1970, p. 226, Multi-Lingual. The liberalization period in Slovakia brought about a favorable change not only in the political climate but also in cultural and scientific activities. Many projects which for years were only debated, materialized in 1968 or 1969. As a result, several symposia from a nllltlber of Conferences dealing with inter-Slavic relations in pre- vious years were published and institutes or chairs of studies were founded and organized. The Institute of Ethnology wa one of them and the present volume ETHNOLOGIA SLAVICA is the first publication of this Institute which has been founded "for the purpose of establishing an institution for ethnological research concerned with the Slavic nations," as the editors say in their multi• lingual introduction. According to the editors, Slovak scholars also planned the establishment of Ethnological Archives and a Society of Slavic Ethnologists but " the well-known events of 1968 (in other words, the Soviet invasion) heavily intefered with the realization of the original program." Only the Institute of Ethnology came into being and this first volume of ETHNOLOGIA SLA VICA is the result of the research of its members and foreign ethnologists. The volume was published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Comenius University (1919). The Managing Editor of the publication, Jan Podolak, says in his Preface that the University has been founded "to enable Slovaks to acquire erudition (sic) of university-degree in the national language." However, it is well-known that the students of the Comenius University had to organize demonstrations for the use of the Slovak language as late as 1937-1938 because the mission of the University was to help the assimilation of Slovaks. The situation changed only during the Slovak Republic when education as well as administration, was carried on in the Slovak language which the present day scholars are not allowed to mention. The publication ETHNOLOGIA �SLOVAKIA SLA VICA is a valuable addition to Slavic studies and is a long time overdue, if we take into consideration the fact that one of the main founders of Slavic ethnology, P . J. Safarik, come from Slovakia. The volume contains contributions by Slovak as well as foreign scholars, and the essays have been published in English, French and German, with a Slovak resume in some cases, which will make the book accessible also to ethnologists in the West. Of 12 contributions, 3 have been written by Slovaks. Jan Michalek evaluated P . J. Safarik's contribution to Slavic ethnography; Jan Podolak wrote an interesting essay on the pastoral culture of the Carpathians as a subject of ethnological study, and Anton Habovstiak contributed the study "La colonisation pastorale dans les Karpates et les patois slovaques" (The Pastoral Colonization of the Carpathians and Slovak Dialects). Among foreign contributors are Milovan Gavazzi (from Zagreb), Sergei A. Tokarev (from Moscow), Christo Vakarelski (from Sofia), Zoltan Ujvary (from Debrecen), Oldrich Sirovatka (from Brno), Slobodan 2ecevic (from Beograd) , and two contributions have been written by Lusatian-Serbians, Isolde Gardos and Siegmund Musiat. This mosaic of contributors as well as the variety of subjects treated by them gives the book an intemational and inter-Slavic image. This should be velcome in view of the fact that the results of academic activities by Slovak scholars were rarely published in Western languages. The essays are not of equal value but they are all on the level of similar studies in the Soviet orbit. The volume is oriented particularly to Russian but also to Croatian, Bulgarian and Lusatian-Serbian ethnology, but the editors are 215 promising to deal also with Polish, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian ethnology in the following volumes. As an addendum the publication contains reviews in English and in German of the activities and the writings by Czech, Polish, Soviet, Ukrainian and Bulgarian ethnographers and their institutes or periodicals. Since every book in foreign language dealing with Slovak culture is of great importance for acquainting the world with Slovakia, we sincerely welcome this volume and hope that further volumes will follow as the editors promised and that the present generation of Slovak ethnologists will follow in the footsteps of P . J. Safarik who left a rich legacy to Slovak ethnology. * J. M . K i r s c h b au m * On P . J. Safarik, see Kirschbaum , P . J . Safcirik and His Contribution to Slavic Studies (Slavistica No. 43, Cleveland-Winnipeg, 1962) . DUBCEK'S Blu e Print for Fre edom: His Documentation on Czechoslovakia leading to the Soviet invasion, with a Profile by Hugh Lunghi and Commentary by Paul Ello (William Kimber, London, 1968), pp. 352, Index. Among the scores of books which were published on Dubcek and the events in Czecho--Slovakia in 1968* , this book will remain as one of the most useful for scholars and laymen alike. The editors included in the book the most important documents such as Dubcek's speech on April 1, 1968, at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Czecho,Slovak Communist Party; the Action Programme of the Party; Dubcek's report to the meeting of. the Central Committee on May 29-June 1, 1968, and the warning given by the Presidium �216 SLOVAKIA of the Central Committee in answer to the letters of five Communist and Workers' Parties. Finally, in the Appendix, the book includes Dubcek's speech of December 1, 1968. These contents are expertly introduced and commented upon by Hugh Lunghi, a former member of the British Embassy in Moscow, and Paul Ello from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington. While Lunghi, who has been one of the best informed analysts on the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation, gives in his Introduction an analysis of the events which led to the Soviet invasion, Paul Ello wrote a concise but well balanced commentary. The Summary is not signcd, and may be the work of either of the writers. The book will have a lasting value for inte11preting the attempts at changing •Stalinism in one o.f the most advanced, culturally and industrially, satellites of Moscow and at giving socialism a "human face. " Both Lunghi and Ello are factual in their analysis and Lunghi did not fail to point out the role of Slovakia and Slovak Communist leaders in the upheavals which many other authors, writing about the "Prague Spring", failed to do. In accordance with the facts, Lunghi writes that "one of the first of Novotny's fatal errors was his mishandling of the Slovaks," and that it was Dubcek's reaction to Novotny's policy towards Slovakia which began the snowball roUing. During the Central Committee meetings at the end of 1967, according to Lunghi the "three issues at stake were, firstly, the implementation of the economic reforms; secondly, freedom of expression and, finally, effective autonomy for SJovakia." (p. 17) . This conclusion has been accept- ed in the meantime as correct also by other authors who had access to documents, especially by Paul Tigrid in his book: La Chute Irresistible d'Alexander Dubcek, (Calmann-Levy, Paris, 1969) which was likewise reviewed in "Slovakia", Vol. 21, p. 206. Lunghi apparently followed the events in Slovakia very closely and without the usual bias which we can find among some Western specialists in East European problems. This appears not only in his assessment of the role of Husak after the invasion but also in his reference to Peter Colotka, Deputy Premier in Prague's government, who made some courageous declarations which resulted in his removal from his post. Lunghi's analysis of the situation in Slovakia was also correctly grasped in his statement that "the federation of the country, longed for by the Slovaks, had, at last been achieved in the face of the Russians who wanted to keep the two nations divided and at logger-heads. During the invasion the Russians had put about the totally false rumors that some Slovak provinces wanted to become Soviet republics. Symbolically, the legislation creating the federal state was enacted to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration on October 28th." Unfortunately, the law of the federation was enacted but it became ineffective to a great degree because of Czech reluctance, what Lunghi could not, of course, foresee in 1968. Western analysts mentioned various reasons for the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Warsaw Pact military forces in the books so far published on the invasion. Lunghi brings to light a new possible element which finally pushed the Soviet leadership to invade Czecho-Slovakia. During the spring �SLOVAKIA and summer of 1968 there was a strong reaction against the secret police which apparently was not only organized on the model of the Soviet secret police but also directed and infiltrated by Soviet agents to whom the Prague Ministry of Interior had to submit interrogation material before bringing them to the ministers themselves. According to Lunghi, the announced purge of the secret police apparatus threatened a vital Soviet interest by the revelations published in the newpapers in Bratislava and in Prague. Moscow's objective was, therefore, "to hold these dangerous processes and to restore a leadership in Prague which would control the population through a Soviet style Communist Party using the proper level of power - a persuasive and omnipotent secret police with no nonsense about 'demonstration of the socio-political 217 system'." (page 25). No doubt this could have been one of the serious reasons for the infamous decision to destroy an interesting effort by Slovaks and Czechs to give socialism a "human face." Paul Ello's commentary, short as it is, is clear and factual, and belongs among the best written ones shortly after the invasion, where there was a lot of confusion in Western countries among the specialists in East Europe. The book undoubtedly deserves to be read and preserved on the shelves for further study of a crucial moment in the history of Eastern Europe and probably in the history of Western civilization. J. M. Ki r s c h b au m • On a number of books on this subject, see my book reviews in "Slovakia", Vol. 21, 1971, No. 44, pp. 205-210. Rudolph Petrak, Slovak Tenor Rudolph Petrak, 54, of 32 Halsey, Dr., Old Greenwich, Conn., a leading tenor with the City Opera Company from 1948 to 1956, died March 4, 1972, at Saint Joseph Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was born in Sucany, Slovakia had sung at major opera houses in Europe and South America, and as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and other noted ensembles. He sang under the batons of such famous conductors as Leopold Stokowski, Ormandy, Leinsdorf and Krips. Mr. Petrak began his career with the Bratislava Opera and made his American debut in 1948 at the New York City Center as Rudolfo in "La Boheme." Congressman Albert P. Morano of Greenwich noted in the Congressional Record of the United States. "I have become acquainted with many artists who have immigrated to America, but know of none more possessed of deep love for his adopted country than Rudolph Petrak." "The New York Times" in an obituary on Monday, March 6, 1972 published his picture as he sang Radames in "Aida" about 1949. The New York Times also wrote: "In 1960 when Mr. Petrak sang at the Philadelphia Orchestra's presentation of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" in Carnegie Hall, Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times music critic noted: "Everything sounded effortless and clear, even the high D that Mr. Petrak took in falsetto".-J.C.S. �SLOVAKIA 218 Our Contributor s Karol Kuzmany, Slovak leader in 19th century. Msgr. George A. Galik, J.C.D., author, Hibbing, Minn. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph.D., historian, author, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. E . L. Delaney, author, journalist, Glendale, Cal. Fran!;ois d'Orcival, French political writer, Paris. Paul Kotva, pen name of Karol Sidor, former Premier of Slovakia. Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M., teacher, St. Cyril Academy, Danville, Pa. Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota, lecturer, Middletown, Pa. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L., J.D., historian, author, Washington, D. C. Francis Vnuk, M.A., political analyst, professor, Institute of Technology, Adelaide, Australia. Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., journalist, author, Middletown, Pa. K. culen, historian, journalist. Rev. A. V. Pier, O.S.B., journalist, author, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Steven I. Miller, assistant professor, Loyola University of Chicago, Ill. Daniel F. Tanzone, B.A., fraternalist, Yonkers, N. Y. Helena T. Gaydos, cultural worker, Philadelphia, Pa. George A. Podhajsky, pen name of a Slovak refugee professor. Rudolph J. Vecoli, professor of history and director of the Center of Immigration Studies at the University of Minnesota. Agnes Bocan, St. Cyril Academy, Danville, Pa. Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., teacher, author, Danville, Pa. Edward J. Behuncik, attorney-at-law, Stratford, Connecticut. Rev. Nicholas Sprinc, professor, poet, Wickliffe, Ohio. Picture on the front cover: Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Slovak Republic. �SLOVAKIA 219 Contents Dr. Tiso's Last Message to the Slovak People - 3 Paean to Integrity - Karol Kuzmany-George A. Galik - 4 Dr. Joseph Tiso-the Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People - J.M. Kirschbaum - 5 I Met President Tiso - E. L. Delaney - 21 Msgr. Joseph Tiso - Fran(;ois d'Orcival - 26 Murder in Slovakia - Hon. Alvin E. O'Konsld - 36 Speech of Hon. Ray J. Madden - 37 Slovak Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso - N.C.W.C. News Service - 40 Who Killed Dr. Tiso? - Paul Kotva - 43 Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero - 48 Dr. Jozef Tiso-His Political Creed - Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M. - 50 Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks - Joseph C. Krajsa - 57 Prof. Stanislav Meciar (1910-1971)-In Memoriam - J.M. Kirschbaum - 60 Michael Novak on White Ethnics - Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L. , J .D. - 62 Slovak Martyrs - 64 British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 1939 - F. Vnuk - 65 Th e Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) - Joseph Pauco, Ph.D. - 92 The Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks in U.S.A . and Canada - K. Culen - 98 America's Discovery of Ethnic Values - A. V. Pier, O.S.B. - 114 Historical and Empi rical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group - Dr. Steven I. Miller - 116 The Slovak Experience In Contemporary America - Daniel F. Tanzone -125 Slovakia, the Land of B eauty - Helena T. Gaydos - 136 Tourist Trade of Slovakia - George A. Podhajsky - 140 Why Our Melting Pot Cooled Off - Rudolph J. Vecoli - 146 An Introduction to Slovak Costume - Agnes Bocaii - 153 Slovak Scientist Stefan A. Jedlik, O.S.B. - A. V. Pier - 158 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 - Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Declaration Adopted by Slovak World Congress - 193 Unity Is Necessary - Edward J . Behuncik - 195 As Others See It - 198 Book Reviews - 205 Rudolph Petrak, Slovak Tenor - J.C.S. - 217 161 ��PRI NTI D IN U.S. A. JIDN OTA PlllN TER Y, MID DLli TOW N, PA. � SLOVAKIA 193 CURRENT ISSUES Declaration Adopted by Slovak World Congress Representatives of Slovak organizations throughout the free world as well as individuals of Slovak origin in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, South Africa, Argentina, Spain and Germany assembled in Toronto in order to promote the creation of a world organization of Slovaks hereby declare that: The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment has been a continuing process throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective in the past has not been without obstacles, or dedicated work and sacrifices of many individuals and groups. Now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny, because it is under a foreign military domination, :s uch efforts, dedication and sacrifices must be increased to help them achieve their freedom once again. Those of Slovak origin now living throughout the free world, are urged to .dedicate themselves to this task. Our obligation will be to present to the free world a true picture of the life under which our brethren are compelled to live, and to seek a change of their plight. The concepts by which we will be guided in this work will be the traditional values promoted throughout Slovak history which have given vitality to the nation in its growth and acceptance among nations of the western world. The Congress will continue to adhere to the democratic principles in the civil and international relations and considers tolerance in ideological, political and religious matters an expression of maturity for democracy and strongly opposes any tyranny whether it comes from the left, or, from the right. It has been obvious during the past two decades that the Slovaks living in Slovakia have been unable to determine their own destiny. A number of recent facts attest to this unfortunate reality namely the following: The basic freedom of Slovaks, as well as of other Captive �194 SLOVAKIA Nations under communism, are still quite limited-travel to Western countries, and press and assembly freedoms have recently been set back to almost the 1948 levels. The federalization of Czecho-Slovakia into two equal sectors-the Czech and the Slovak, introduced by the Constitutional Act of October 1948, has been severely circumscribed in recent past and is slowly being replaced by a new centralism; Religious freedom continues to be restricted to Roman Catholics, Uniates, Lutherans, Jews and to other denominations; and The present Czecho-Slovak Federal Government has taken no initiative nor has it responded to initiatives suggested by the Holy See in the Vatican to establish a Catholic Province in Slovakia, even though such provinces exist in Bohemia as well as in Moravia. We contend that the issue of the continued existence and recognition of a Slovak nation be duly accepted by all nations, including the records of the United Nations. The question of the suppressed freedoms of all nations now living under communism must soon be given full airing and remedies instituted. This has been and should not cease to be an issue of interest to all civilized nations. Slovaks call upon them to help in this cause. We take a positive attitude towards the economic integration in Europe and urge that the Slovak nation be included in this and other unifying processes benefiting their degree of economic and other freedoms. Viewing the future political situation in Eastern Europe with hope and cautious optimism, we look toward to the day when obstacles which presently prevent cultural and educational exchang* between Slovaks at home and abroad will be removed. To support the objectives mentioned above, we have established a permanent organization under the name of: Slovak World Congress, which shall embody the spirit of brotherhood and mutual respect. Religious affiliations or political views, insofar as they are not contrary to the spirit of democracy and the objectives mentioned above, will not bar anyone from membership or active participation in our organization. We consider it essential that our goals and methods as well as our activities follow democratic principles. �SLOVAKIA 195 We shall endeavor to have the Slovak World Congress represent its members at international scientific, cultural, religious or political forums in the interest of the Slovak nation as expressed in the Constitution and the by-laws of the organization. We urge that the Slovak World Congress devote itself to promoting the spirit of unity among its members and to co-ordinate all its efforts through constant contact with member organizations maintained through central secretariats, regional secretariats, committees and information bureaus in various countries around the world. We ask the blessing of Almighty God in this undertaking in the firm hope that with the help and co-operation of all those who wish well for the Slovaks we may successfully fulfill our role. Members of the Committee: Stephen B. Roman, LL.D., President; Rev. Dusan Toth, Secretary General; Dr. J. A. Mikus, Dr. J. Stasko, Dr. J. M . Kirschbaum,· Dr. J. Pauco, and Prof. E. Urban. Toronto, Ont., June 20, 1971. Unity Is Necessary Edward J. Behun c i k (The following are excerpts from the address of Edward J . Behuncik, First Vice President of the Slovak World Congress, President of the Slovak League of America, and President of the American Fund for Slovak Refugees given at the closing banquet of the Slovak World Congress held at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, June 19. 1971.) It is a rare and high privilege to appear before such a historic and distinguished gathering of representatives of all walks of Slovak life and to break bread with our fellow Slovaks from all parts of the free world as we share this memorable Congress in spirit, in hope and in love with our brethren in beautiful Slovakia. The honor you do me in asking that I speak in company with the distinguished Chief Executive of the great Province of Ontario, with two colleagues from the great Senate of the United States of America, as well as the spiritual, civic and cultural leaders who grace the head table-this honor cannot but move me. I thank you most sincerely for asking me here. Hopefully 1 will leave at least �196 SLOVAKIA one or two important thoughts with you-important to the permanent success of our fledgeling Slovak World Congress, and that is, our need for unity- and for ''Svornost a laska".In Joel, we read·'Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions."Today, we combine the hopes which both dreams and visions embody. Dreams are generally of things past, visions are of the future. Dreams are truly for older men who have a past, while visions are for the younger looking forward to the future. Experience alone is the look backward, the dream of yesteryear, but it is only useful as it clarifies the vision of tomorrow. Here in Toronto, we put the finishing touches--not upon a new structure - rather upon the permanent foundation . Because in fact, at New York City, the Congress \\'as already perfect in the sense that its objects were fully perceived, its necessary organs present, its powers conferred, and its extent already, if only dimly, seen to be world wide. In addition, its final purpose, which alone can justify its existence, was perfectly clear and that was to become the r epresentative body of Slovaks scattered as they are throughout the free world. Here during the past several days, we have added to the New York beginnings. We've used our year old experience to improve, amend, delete and otherwise add to the permanent basis of a vital organ for disseminating the cause of the Slovak nation. To bring about the final liberation of the Slovak nation and its equality among all nations, the Slovak World Congress presents us with a golden opportunity. If we complete its hopeful aspirations, if we create a permanent edifice on the foundation built here and in New York, we will thereby sooner bring to fruition the age old Slovak vision of liberty and freedom with justice. But unity is necessary - that unity which has so often eluded the efforts of our forebears . Can we come together for the future ? Can we remain together? I think we can; I know we must! ! ! We will and must let bygones be bygones, let past differences as nothing be, and with steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugu rate the good and old central ideas of a free and independent Slovakia, where our presently subjugated brethren can someday in God's good time freely choose their own destiny. We have our quarrels, as all happy families have. We have di sagreed as all friend s have. But when the great human cause of Slovakia comes before us, in the natural fitness of things, we have looked into our hearts, and hidden away in their innermost recesses, we have discovered a very shy but a very faithful friendship for each other, no matter from what region of Slovakia we originated. That is why we are here this evening. �SLOVAKIA So 1 say-we are united-but more important - we must stay united. We can do it ! ! ! The human heart and human aspirations are with us. God is with us--Our Lady of Sorrows is with us. We shall-we must-succeed. God forbid, if the Congress shall dissipate instead of growing and developing as it should-it will be another eleven hundred years before the vision of a unified, free and independent Slovakia can again be dreamed of. I know none of us wish to have ~he horror of such a c a ta s t r o p h e on our consciences. So, we must not fall-and we won't if we do our duty-but the time has passed when we can remain silent regarding the great fundamentals of free government and permit the enemies of the Slovak social order to occupy the center of the stage. The time has come and that time is now when we must take issue with those, who infatuated with ch a o t i c dreams, are seeking to undermine the Slovak ideals and aspirations, dreams and visions. We now have the modus operandi-the vehicle. We have the Slovak World Congress. We, the participants in and supporters of the Congress, have it in our own hands whether it shall be nothing more than the brilliant after glow of a gorgeous renaissance, or whether it shall be the dawn of a newer and brighter day in the struggle of the Slovaks to fulfill their age old vision of liberty and freedom with justice. Already, as we well know, on several occasions, for several 197 brief moments, behind the far spread iron curtain in Eastern Europe. the rays of the setting sun of materialistic communism have mingled with the rays of the rising sun of democracy. May that sun grow in light and warmth and may it be undimmed by the clouds of our own internal dissension. I am profoundly concerned. I am deeply interested. I build the greatest hopes upon this World Congress. 1 am old enough to have the experience to be able to dream-but, I am young enough to have the vision of a great institution - one from which, for example, some day-God grant-will emerge a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - or the Literature Prize. And so, in bidding a foud adieu to our fellow Slovaks returning to their havens scattered throughout the free world, I urge them and all of you to hope- to hope as the love of truth and obedience to it shall grow and as with firmer footing thereon, we look afar and think clearly on what we see. We shall see our Slovak World Congress advancing to the high position that awaits every organization and every nation which honors the facts, which looks afar and which thinks clearly and positively. And as we aspire to greater and more illustrious achievements in the glorious history of our beloved Slovakia, we can well ponder the prayer of Sir Francis Drake: "Oh, Lord God, when Thou givest to Thy servants to endeavor any great matter, grant us also, to know, that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it is thoroughly finished, which yieldcth the true glory." �198 SLOVAKIA AS OTHERS SEE In these times, when many of us seem to reflect on the place of our origin, it was indeed interesting to see how the Americans, Canadians, and citizens of other free countries, all of Slovak origin, demonstrated their dedication to the cause of peace with freedom in our age. Their dedication was for freedom for their kinfolk in Slovakia, now part of the Communist satellite of Czechoslovakia, who cannot themselves demonstrate their longing for the liberties denied them for 23 years. The Slovaks are a hardy people who have been seeking the ideals we in our own country so freely enjoy-the right to their own self. determination. And like other nations, captives under Communist domination, the Slovaks know that one day they will join ranks with the civilized world with other free nations. Until then the work of the Slovak World Congress is indeed both most worthy and very necessary and I hope I applaud it. - U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr. The Slovak World Congress stands for freedom and seeks to preserve the language, culture and national heritage. You are to be commended for your strong antiCommunist stand. - Strom Thurmond., U.S. Senator Please know that your concern for freedom throughout the world and particularly in Slovakia is shared by all of us. No more dire threat exists today than that posed by the Soviet Union and I stand with you against their expansionary policies. Keep up with your good work. - John Tower, U.S. Senator I wish to congratulate the Slovak people of our nation for the out- IT standing fight they have been waging over the years in exposing Communist tyranny which is the most powerful threat to human freedom in the history of the world. If all groups of the free world would have the same spirit of opposition and expose the criminality of Communist enslavement methods and Communist living conditions there would be no doubt that this Communistic threat to the world would collapse in a very short time. - Ray J. Madden, U.S. Member of Congress The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment has been a continuing process throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective in the past has not been without obstacles, or dedicated work and sacrifices of many individuals and groups. Now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny, because it is under a foreign military domination, such efforts, dedication and sacrifices must be increased to help them achieve their freedom once again. Those of Slovak origin now living throughout the free world, are urged to dedicate themselves to this task. Our obligation will be to present to the free world a true picture of the life under which our brethren are compelled to live, and to seek a change of their plight. The concepts by which we will be guided in this work will be the traditional values promoted throughout Slovak history which have given vitality to the nation in its growth and acceptance among nations of the western world. Claiborne Pell, U.S. Senator Even within the Communist world there is an absolute intoler-- �SLOVAKIA ance for those faithful party members who would put a "human face" on the dictatorship in order to make it more palatable. I speak of course, of Alexander Dubcek who sought to purify, and reform, but not replace or destroy, communism in Czechoslovakia. Yes even after the true nature of the dictator reared its ugly head and Dubcek's reforms were sacrificed, we still hear the drone of those who would have us believe that the communist dictator has changed. Let no one be fooled - Communism is the Number One enemy not only of the Western World, but of humanity itself. It is a tribute to all of you who have felt the iron hand of the communist dictator that you have brought to the Western Hemisphere an appreciation and understanding of the dangers of communism which is, unfortunately, shared by too few Americans. - Robert C. Mardian It is a privilege to address men and women who stand for the forefront of civilization's never-ending struggle for freedom. For more than eleven centuries the Slovak people have been developing, extending and seeking to preserve a rich and fertile cultural heritage. More than that, you have sought endlessly to maintain that priceless ingredient of true spiritual fulfillment-the right of the individual citizen to be his own person, to think his own thoughts, to speak his own words, to contribute directly to the formation and performance of his own government and to worship as he chooses. In so doing you have contributed your full share, and perhaps more, to the development of the Slavic peoples as a whole and to the cultural family of peoples around the world. 199 Ontario and all of Canada has been enriched by the spirit and integrity of Slovaks, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and all of the others who claim the honor of membership in the world Slavic community which numbers more than 200 million persons. - William C. Davis, Prime Minister of Ontario Vienna, AtLstria - Communist Czecho-Slovakia's closed-door policy against religious literature mailed from abroad has provoked a steady stream of protests within its own borders, according to reports reaching here. Demands for an explanation are being sent to postal authorities by Czecho-Slovak citizens who learn that religious books such as the Bible have been mailed to them from abroad but returned to the sender by government authorities. The regime's reply to that publications contrary to Czecho-Slovakia's laws are refused entry. But no particulars are given to explain how the Bible or devotional books are in opposition to the country's laws. "Foreign reviews and books may be sent into Czecho-Slovakia without limitation of any sort," said a standard explanation from the central office for incoming foreign parcels in Prague. Post Office 120. "However, reviews and books which by their content are contrary to our legislative norms are refused local delivery, according to the prevailing international standards." The letter of explana,tion concluded: "Peace to the world!" It seems that books arriving from certain senders or destined for certain addresses are returned automatically without examination. Recently one man received back from Czecho..Slovakia an unopened �200 SLOVAKIA package he had sent his brother containing a book on photography. Official documents mailed by Vatican offices to various bishops in Czecho-Slovakia have been returned marked "refused." In June, the secretariat for church affairs of the Slovakia region's government notified bishops, pastors and Religious superiors that religious publications from abroad were prohibited where "in conflict with the interest of our socialist state." The of.ficial notice continued: "The provision also concerns the propagation and publication of information and instructions of various kinds from abroad, whether through internal ecclesiastical channels, in official documents or in any form whatsoever." It warned that the distribution of prohibited literature is punishable under Czecho-Slovakia's penal code. Czecho-Slovakia's hard-line communist rulers, brought to power by the Soviet invasion of August 1968, have been steadily tightening the screws on the Catholic Church for the past two years. In January 1970 the Slovakia ministry of culture decreed that every act of official worship, including private Masses, must have state approval. A similar decree was issued by the ministry of culture in the Czech region of Bohemia. In July of that same year the Slovakia government asserted the right to blackball newly chosen superiors of congregations of nuns. In November, 1970 the Bohemia ministry of culture forbade the Church to give courses preparing couples for marriage. In July 1971 the ministry of culture decreed severe limitations upon the teaching of religion. Its Slovakia counterpart did likewise. Decrees approving newly resurrected pro-government associations of peace priests were issued simultaneously in August 1971 by the Bohemian and Slovakian governments. But the regime 's restrictions on Church activity and growth have not been confined to legislation and decrees. Through administrative acts the regime has kept more than half the applicants out of the country's seminaries and has dismissed from convents all Sisters who entered them when the country's liberalized regime of early 1968 reopened the convent to novices. The present, neo-Stalinist regime has attempted to manipulate the Church by installing its own candidates in key positions, such as vicar general of Brno and of Roziiava, and the executive committees of the Bohemian and Slovakian Catholic charitable agencies. Meanwhile, the controlled press has been keeping up a steady fire on religion in general and the churches in particular. Christians in Bohemia are bracing themselves for still heavier assaults upon them and their churches now that the head of the region's religious affairs office, Karel Hruza, has returned from a Moscow meeting with · his counterparts from other Communist states. Czecho-Slovakia's present program of religious repression was launched shortly after his return from a similar meeting in Moscow in October 1969. - NC New s Service Vienna. - The situation of the Church and of human rights and freedoms. in communist-ruled Czecho-Slovakia is growing worse, not better. Experts agree that the situation �SLOVAKIA 201 after the short bright 1968 methods to promote atheist edu "humanizing" period before the cation. Dubcek regime was overthrown by Party officials said repeatedly at Soviet-led invaders - is similar recent meetings that religion "has now to that of the hated Stalinist a negative influence on the for. times. mation of Socialist conscience." The Church has become the The Bratislava communist newstarget of concentrated attacks from paper, Pravda, demanded that relitwo directions - through adminis- gious ceremonies - christenings, trati ve measures and ideological weddings and funerals - be rearguments. placed by Socialist ceremonies, The communist regime is at- because " the Church has misused tempting to strangle religious the most important stages of activities slowly but effectively by human life for its own purposes." administrative action. Karel Hruza, head of the gove rnMore than half of all parishes in ment state office, has described Bohemia lack priests and there is the regime's plans. "After rightists no chance to overcome the short- and counter-revolutionaries are reage. At the moment only 12 stu- moved from the party and governdents study for the priesthood in ment, we must concentrate in the entire Archdiocese of Olomouc. working a platform to cope with As a result of government the reactionary policy of the chicanery, the number of children Church. - Gerd Kriwanek, Reliattending religious instruction in gious News Service, January 28, school is sharply declining. 1972. th At the same time, e regime Ladislav Bezak loaded his wife has endorsed increased ideological and four children in a two-place attacks on the Church. Jozef Le- · light plane December 9 1971 and nart, firs_t secretary of the Slovak left for what he desc;ibed as a Communist Party, charged the "pleasure trip. " Church with having misused the The flight originated in Prague, situation in 1968 " to create a politand his destination was Nuernberg, ical basis for clericalism and West Germany. He did not file Catholicism. " a flight plan. Lenart alleged that religious Bezak is an experienced pilot sentiments were misused to pro- perhaps one of the best in the mote "anti-Sovietism and anti- world. At the first World Aerosocialism." batic Contest in 1960 at Bratislava, The regime has increased its Slovakia, he was a gold medal atheist propaganda. Thus the mag- winner in aerobatic competition. azine for teachers Ucitel'ske American pilots describe him as Noviny - urged the abolition of a quiet engineer who always wore any "liberal attitude towards re- a suit and tie rather than the casual ligion and the Church in our clothes worn by most competitive society." The journal also pledged pilots. increased atheist education of Shortly after he and his famil y young people by the party, the left Prague, a Czech MIG jet mass media, the schools and major fighter began a chase, and although organizations. Bezak waggled his wings and It also suggested that the Acade- waved to convince the fighter pilot my of Science devise the best they were on a pleasure flight , the �202 SLOVAKIA MIG began to fire on the light plane. Aerobatic maneuvers require precise skill. They are difficult enough in a special airplane, with perfect weight and balance distribution under ideal conditions. With six peop'le in a small plane, they would have to be considered impossible category. In addition, being fired on by a military jet could tend to disturb the concentration. The little plane - loaded over gross, and perhaps a third as fast as the fighter - apparently didn't have a chance. But the pilot was Bezak! According to the Aerobatic Club of America, Bezak flew the book at the military pilot. Flying many of the patterns which had earned him world championship 10 years before, he was able to elude the jet and continue on to the border. Before he reached it, the small plane was fired on from the ground. Bezak dived into a cloud bank, and with the children in tears and his wife in prayer, broke out across the border at 300 feet. The escape was a success. Ladislav Bezak, like most good aerobatic pilots, flies for prizes. During this trip he won the biggest prize of them all - freedom for himself and his family. - Lew Inquirer, Philadelphia Hodges, February 6, 1972. Lehigh is searching for a graduate student of Slovak ancestry to prepare a history of Slovak people in Bethlehem. Money for this project was left to the University from an even more unusual source: a Southside Bethlehem bachelor druggist who died in 1968 at age 67 and left Lehigh $67,500 in an unsigned will. The druggist, John Weldy Wasco, worked and apparently lived at 843 E. 4th Street. Relatives contested his will all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which upheld two lower court decisions in favor of Lehigh. Wasco stipuleted that $10,000 of the $67,500 was to go toward compiling and printing a history of Slovaks in Bethlehem, and that the project must be carried out by a Slovak student. Wasco's wish appeared in local newspapers without the criteria he set for the historian, and a number of Lehigh faculty expressed interest before learning they did not qualify. Wasco also specified that his personal papers be edited, and left $5,000 for the University to arrange that. University officials could not explain what motivated Wasco's generosity. He wrote a will in 1967 making Lehigh his sole beneficiary, and later changed it to add the provision about the Slovak history. - Lehigh University Publication Ondrej Nepela, the skating wonder from Slovakia, won the 11th Winter Olympic Games' gold medal as Russia's Sergei Chetveroukin edged into second place for the silver and Patrick Pera of France won the bronze. Two Americans, Ken Shelley of Downey, Calif., and John Mischa Petkevitch of Great Falls, Montana, moved into fourth and fifth places, passing East Germany's young Jan Hoffman, who had been fourth after the compulsory figures. Nepela, the world champion, fell early in his program while attempting a triple-toe-loop. Fall do not necessarily ruins a skater's marks since he is judged on the difficulty of his routine. Nepela was smooth and graceful but his program was neither as imaginative nor a dynamic as that of some of his rivals, including the two Americans. Despite his fall, the Slovak rated �SLOVAKIA scores no lower than 5.9s in technical merit and he had two 5. 7s with the rest 5.8 in artistic impressions. His total points were 2739.1, well ahead of the rest of the field. In the official ordinal rankings, Nepela had a perfect 9.0, meaning he was rated No. 1 by all nine judges. The Russian had 20.0 in ordinals and Pera 28.0. - Associated Press, February 12, 1972. Dr. Joseph Tiso, wartime president of the Slovak Republic, is no more. Tried and convicted as a "war criminal" by a ~called People's Court, he was executed last week American press dispatches - both secular and religious were concise and negligently brief. No fanfare or publicity. Merely that the priest-president was sentenced and the sentence carried out. Was Dr. Tiso a "war criminal"? The very fact of news silence here betrays a kind of embarrassed admission that things were not just fine in "Glocca Morra." The trials of Draga Mihailovitch and Archbishop Stepinac given due publicity aroused resentment in the United States, an attitude, which, while it accomplished nothing actual for the persons involved, nevertheless illustrated the rightprincipled conscience of the thinking public. But Dr. Tiso's case was denied even the type of consolation, because the facts and circumstances of the Tiso case are quite unknown to the American people. Whose the fault, whose the blame for this? The Hon. Robert Jackson, presiding over the trials in Nuremberg wrote "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal 203 guilt . . . If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for a trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." Tiso's trial was a travesty of justice. Actually, the issue was a political one primarily. Tried by the "People's Court" Tiso was denied representation by the attorney engaged by his friends. American papers had nothing to say about the fact that Alois Loyek, the attorney, was abused by the security officials, told he could not represent Tiso, and all defense material confiscated. The presiding judge and six political associates was Igor Daxner who himself was once tried by a regular court during Tiso's regime for planning with the Benes government-in-exile to turn Slovakia over to Russia, and sent to jail. Was Dr. Tiso a "war criminal" ? The answer necessitates a thorough perusal of the events which led to his election as Premier of Slovakia before the war started· - under a valid act of the Prague Parliament, events little known here, events in the evolution of democracy in the republic of Czecho-Slovakia without a knowledge of which the case of Tiso cannot be justly viewed. If these facts were made public, perhaps public opinion, such as it is. might be swayed to the right even though a little too late." The Catholic L i ght, Scranton, Pa. 4-25-47. Dr. Tiso's public life was political, though this fact is not to be held in any way against him. In many parts of Europe ecclesiastics find themselves pushed into politics because the cause of their Catholic people needs to be protected, and there are not a sufficient number of laymen educated to the job. Happily, this state of affairs is passing away, for it is not in itself �204 SLOVAKIA very desirable. However excellent the motives of the cleric concerned, he risks his spiritual office being contaminated, at least in public esteem, by the relatively low standards of political life, and the higher he rises in the political world, the harder it may become to distinguish the priest from the politics. Dr. Tiso, so far as we are aware always remained an exemplary priest, but he came to find himself responsible for the fate of his fellow Slovakians in terrible times. Through these times he did his duty to his people as he saw it. In a way not dissimilar from that of an Irish leader in relation to the British, he strove to protect the religion, culture and national autonomy of Slovakia as against the Czechs whose public outlook was dominated by very different rnlues. Such is the path of treason in the eyes of one side and of heroic patriotism in the eyes of the other. And few who tread this hard road can look back on their lives and deny having made mistakes. In the long run history will al- ways vindicate the sincere patriot as against the utilitarian judgment of those who condemn him on a legalistic interpretation of treason. In each case the career of such a man is a challenge to those called UPon to judge him. Are they big enough to look with the eyes of history and to seek reconciliation and understanding by the great gesture? Or are they small men who cannot see beyond the legalisms and their wounded vanity? In the face of this test, Dr. Benes and the rulers of Czecho-Slovakia have dismally failed. They have had to judge a good man, a priest, a great and courageous patriot, and all they have been able to do is to raise a martyr for Slovakia. This small-minded folly is only too typical of the men whom the fortunes of war have favoured . Instead of trying to realize unity on the basis of victory, these little men are as busy as they can be indulging their feelings by carving even deeper the channels which devide man from man and nation from nation. - Catholic Herald . London, 4-25-47. SLOVAKIA is µublishecl annually by the Slovak League of .America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. One of the purpo··es of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciat1on of the Sl<OVak nation and its long struggle foT freedom and i ndependeuce. Subscription to Slovwkia $3.00 pel' year in the L1.S.A. - $4.00 el-sewhere. Send 1mhscription to: SLOV AKI.A 313 Ridge A venue Middletown, Pa. 17057 �SLOVAKIA 205 BOOK REVIEWS BOOKS ON SLOVAK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Reviewed by J. M. KIRSCH BA UM Bibliografia slovenskej jazykovedy ethymology, terminology, orthoand lexicography which are the preferred fields of Slovak linguists; the survey of published articles, studies and books between 1961-1965 shows that Slovak linguists made great progress in the following disciplines; history of the language, dialectology, morphology, syntax, onomastics, stylistic aspects of language, problems of translation, the structure and acoustics of language and language culture. This development become more than apparent if we compare the present work with the Biblio- 1961-1965 (Bibliography of Slo- graphy, vak Linguistics 1961-1965), by Ladislav Dvonc; Matica slovenska (Martin, 1970), pages 804, multi-lingual, English summary. For Western Slavists the Bibliography of Slovak Linguistics is not wLthout interest. This voluminous publication shows that Slovak linguistics has developed considerably during the latter years of the Stalinist regime. It also indicates that the attempts of some philologists, supported by the policy of the regime in the 1950's, to infiltrate the Slovak language with Czech vocabulary and to bring its structure as close to the Czech language as possible in order to create a "CzechoS'lovak language" back-fired. Slovak linguists, with the exception of one or two philologists trained in Prague ( S. Peciar, especi'ally), repudiated these attempts and began not only to clear the Slovak language from foreign infiltrations but in a number of studies brought Slovak linguistics quantitatively as well as qualitatively to the level of other Slavic nations within the Soviet orbit. With its 2111 entries pertaining to the Slovak language, the Bibliography is, however, not simply a numerical expression of the development of li.nguistic studies on the Slovak language. Of great importance is the number of disciplines studied by Slovak linguists. It is not any more only grammar, graphy of Slovak Linguistics for 1957-1960 by the same author. The new Bibliography contains: 1) all linguistic articles, studies and books published in Slovakia; 2) contributions in non-Slovak periodicals ( one from Canada), studies and articles by non-Slovak authors on the Slovak language or on linguistics published in Slovakia. As a result, the entries in this Bibliography are not only more numerous, but also multi-lingual. The publication shows that many Slovak linguists themselves ,published their studies in foreign languages, mainly in Russian. A strong Russian influence in Slovak linguistics is even more evident in the number of articles, studies and books dealing with the Russian language. Bibliographical data about the Russian language cover more than 100 pages, while other Slavic languages follow in this order: Czech 25 pages, Ukrainian 9 pages, Polish 3 pages, Slovenian �206 SLOVAKIA 3/4 of a page, Byelorussian and Bulgarian ¼ of a page each. For a short time the methods of the Russian linguistic school, or as some linguists say, "the Marxists and Stalinists principles and methods," were also imposed on Slovak philology and linguistics and prevailed in some works (see my essay " Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology," Slavic and East European Studies, Vol. IV, 34, University of Montreal, 1960). Around 1960 Slovak linguists turned, however, against the russification as well as against the Czech infiltration of the Slovak language and Slovak linguistics. Studies, articles and books pertaining to the Slovak language have been published, according to this Bibiiography, predominantly in Slovak, but over 300 entries were published in Western languages, including English, in other Slavic languages and in Hungarian. It was mainly the works of the older generation of Slovak linguists (J . Stanislav, E. Pauliny) which appeared in international symposia in English, French or Russian. The younger generation on the other hand has broadened the field of Slovak linguists to include many disciplines and their studies have maintained a high academic level. They continue to be grouped around the periodicals Slovenska rec (Slovak Language), Jazykovedr ny casopis (Linguistic Journal) and Jazykovedne studie (Linguistic Studies) and have published the Zbornik Filozofickej Fakulty Univ. Komenskeho - Philologica (Sym- posium of the F1aculty of Arts of the Comenius University) and Zbornik Filozofickej Fakulty Univ. P. J. Safcirika (Symposium of the University of P. J . Safarik). Editors gether with V. Blanar, L. Dvonc, G. Horak, J. Horecky and R. Krajcovic wrote the major part of the Slovak linguistic studies contained in the Bibliography. Even though the works of foreign philologists (R. Auty, R. Jakobson) from Western countries are included in this Bibliography it does not contain articles, studies or books published by Slovak intellectuals abroad except for one French essay by this reviewer which appeared in Etudes Slaves et est-europeennes (Montreal, 1963). Valuable studies by H. Bartek who was the founder of the periodical Slovenska rec or books, articles, dictionaries and surveys by S. Bue, F. Hrobak, J . J . Konus, J . Rekem and others were apparently not allowed by the regime to be recorded. The "normalization" which followed the brief period of relative freedom in 1968, has again separated the Slovaks in Slovakia from Slovak intellectuals in the West even in the field of linguistics and the population of Slovakia is not allowed to know about the cultural activities among some two million Slovaks abroad. The usefulness of Dvonc's Bibliography for Slavists cannot be doubted. It is a thoroughly prepared standard work. An index of names and a subject index enhance the practical value of this voluminous book. SLOVENSKA BIBLIOGRAFIA V ZAHRANitf 1945-1965 (Slovak Bibliography Abroad 1945-1965) : Compiled by Prof. M. Lacko S.J .. published by The Slovak Institute (Cleveland-Rome), 1967, 366 pp., multi-lingual, instruction in Slovak and English. The long expected Slovak Biblioof these periodicals have been E. graphy Abroad, which had to reJona , J. Ruzicka, Prof. E . Pauliny, cord the cultural activities of L. f>urovic and S. Dobos who to- Slovak intellectuals in the West, �SLOVAKIA has finally been published and we cannot but welcome it. Slovak Bibliography Abroad 19451965 records the literary production of Slovak authors in Western countries in the fields of history, political science, religion, philology, folklore, literary history and cdticism, music, theology, literature and natural science. A special chapter deals with general works on Slovakia and Slovaks abroad, includtng Slovaks in Canada. In addition, the Bibliography records the works of non-Slovak authors in the above-mentioned fields if they were translated into the Slovak language and deal explicitly with Slovakia or Czecho-Slovakia as a whole. Absent from this Bibliography are works and studies on Slovak subjects., published in the countries of the Soviet block since it was impossible for the compilers to carry out the necessary research. As a result, the publication contains literary and scientific writings of Slovaks living in some 15 Westem countries and published in all major Western languages. Considering the difficulties which wr:ilters, scholars and scientists face in exile, the Bibliography with its 2,438 entries gives an impressive picture of Slovak cultural life abroad after the Second W . W. One can understand this properly only if he is familiar with some basic facts about the Slovak intellectual community in Western countries. At the end of the Second World War, 50me 5,000 educated Slovak5 left their native country; in 1948 they were followed by a new wave of immigrants after the Communist coup d'etat. In the first wave of exiles were some of the be5t Slovak writers, poets and scores of young intellectuals from all fields of cultural endeavor who either completed their studies at univer- 207 sities in Western countries or continued their intellectual work even if they had to take menial jobs in the countdes in which they found refuge. Many of the younger generation attained positions at universities (22 in Canada) or institutions of higher education. Others became editors of newpapers and many poets and writers continued to write valuable works besides their employment in clerical jobs or other professions. Besides the chapter on literature which records writings of .some 25 poets and 15 prose writers, the largest number of entries is in the chapter on history ( 437), philology and literary history ( 224) , and political science (160). However, the natural sciences and economy are also among the best represented with 275 entries. Writings on history and political science, philology and literary history are predominantly in foreign languages. Some authors (Mikus, Kirschbaum, Rekem, Vnuk) published their studies in 3 or 4 Western languages. In literature, the Bibliography lists works by several of the best Slovak poets and novelists who in exile created works considered among the best in contemporary Slovak literature (Hronsky, Dilong, Sprinc, Strmen, Zvonicky, etc.) . The Bibliography also indicates that there are several Slovak cultural centers in the Western countries. From Canada the Bibliography has listed books, studies and articles 'b y some 20 Slovak authors. Ten of them have been active either tn Slavic studies or in philology, sociology, theology and science, the remaining 15 in literature. Actually Canada and the United States seem to have produced the most prolific Slovak authors, not only in literature but also in other fields. Also the major �208 SLOVAKIA centers of Slovak publishing activities have been in the United States, but Italy, Argentina and West Germany have equally active groups in publishing books, periodicals and newspapers. The BibHography further shows that some Slovak scholars and writers published their writings, including poetry, in several languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish) and in certain cases the originals were written in foreign languages and not translated from the Slovak. This is a new feature in Slovak literature and scholarly writing. Because of adverse political circumstances Slovaks had very limited opportunities to study abroad not only before the Second World War, but also after 1945. The exiled writers and scholars made apparently a great effort to fill this lacuna. No doubt the compiler of the Bibliography, Prof. Michael Lacko, accomplished a task which is usually done by many researchers over several years. By his own admission, he does not cover all published studies and articles by Slovaks abroad ; actually in some cases valuable studies were left out either in foreign language or in Slovak. Additions and extensions to the Bibliography have, therefore, been promised by the compiler, as well as by the publishers. However, even in its present form, the Bibliography is a valuable contribution to Slavic studies and a very useful publication, not only for Slovak scholars and researchers , but also for Slavists who read English, the Bibliography being bi-lingual. The value of the Bibliography is also enhanced by listing bibliographies on Slovak matters as well as periodicals and newspapers, annuals, and symposia, published in some 15 countries. Julius Noge : An Outl.ine of Slovakian L i terature (The Tatrapress Agency, Bratislava), 1968, 120 pp. This is the first book in English on Slovak literature which was published in Slovakia since the Communist takeover in 1948. The fact that it was published in 1968 would indicate that Dubcek's liberalization has to be credited for ,t his slender booklet on 200 years of literary activities in the Slovak language. The restoration of Czecho-Slovakia in 1945 cut off Slovakia from the rest of the world, especially from the West, and Slovak literature, art, science and culture in genera-I were to remain unknown to the Western world. Julius Noge, one of the literary critics who followed the directives of the Communist Party and was, therefore, favored by the Communist regime, divided his "succint" outline of Slovak literature into 7 chapters: From Old Church Slavonic learning (sic) to pre-Romanticism; Romanticism ( 1843-1870 ) ; Realism (1870-1905); Slovakian Literary Modernism ; Slovakian Literature between the wars (1918 1945); Contemporary Literature ( 1945-); Conclusion and Completion. Some of these chapters are very short, superficial and the whole publication is unbelievably biased towards writers and poets whose works expressed ideas opposed to Communism as, for instance, the poets and writers of Catholic modernism and all Slovak writers and poets in exile, except for J . C. Hronsky. Faithful to the directives of the Party, Noge considers as the greatest poets and writers such second class poets as Novomesky or Valek, and such mediocre writers as Vamos and Jilemnicky. "The poems by Laco Novomesky - assording to Noge - are most expressive, from the �SLOVAKIA 209 artistic and human point of view that those years were the "dark most mature fruit of modern Slo- age" of Slovak literature. The lie vakfan poetry. His works are fre- has, however, short legs, as a Sloquently the key opening the way vak saying goes. A glance at the to ,t he sense and the problems of Slovak literary production between Slovakian literature between the 1939 and 1945 included in his book, wars and after them." shows that even the leading ComValek, who plays today the role munists published freely: Novoof the Minister of Culture in Slo- mesky published his book in 1939; vakia which after 1945 had been Hecko in 1942; Tafarka in 1942; played by Novomesky is, according Kostra in 1939, 1940, and two books to Noge, even of greater import- in 1942; Ponican in 1940 and 1941 ; ance for Slovak literature. "Valek's Horov in 1940 , l942 and 1944; complex work - writes Noge - . .Zary in 1941 and two books so rich in meaning and expression, in 1942; Ondrejov in 1940, and so inaugurated a new stage in the on. In fact, all Slovak writers and evolution of Slovakian poetry, re- poets created and published during presenting hitherto in some respect th e years of the Slovak Republic its peak." Horibile dictu! The Eng- more th an at any time before, lish reader could not help looking regardless of the fact whether they with contempt on Slovak literature supported the regime or not. Comif these minor poets were its great- munist literary historians should est authors and their poetry re- not underestimate the intelligence presented the peak of Slovak liter- of Wes tern readers. From the readature. ing of Noge's booklet, anyone can find out that, with the exception Noge seems to be objective in of G. Va.mos, who was not in Slohis write-up on individual Slovak vakia and Jilemnicky who was a poets and writers only in his evalu- Czech settled in Slovakia, every ation of the literary works pro- Slovak writer, poet, literary hisduce<l in the 1950's. He admits that torian or critic ,p ublished his works, "authoritarian methods of regle- and the younger ones their debuts mentation in the field of literature during that period. Since it is the first survey of reached ,t heir peak in 1951." He also writes that the literature and Slovak literature in the English poetry of that time was "just the language, we cannot but regret poetic drafting of political and that it is not better either in form journalistic phrases" and that in or content. This publication will prose writing the topics "were hardly convince English, American, treated in the manner of agitating Canadian, or Australian readers propaganda." However, this should that Slovak literature is worthbe understood in the context of while to be studied, taught and the events of 1968 when Noge's read. In addition to its shortbooklet was published. Criticism of comings mentioned above, the pubthe 1950's was not only fashionable lication also suffers from a very in 1968 but also a prerequisite for bad translation and too many printpublishing. ing errors. It would seem that One of the most .biased state- emigre Slovak intellectuals must ments in Noge's book is his asser- publish an English survey of Slotion that during the Slovak Repub- vak literature to present it to the lie some writers and poets "ceased civilized world in an objective light to write belles-lettres," intimating and proper form . �210 SLOVAKIA Letopis Pamatnika Slovenskej Lite- lenced not only Stur but also many ratu:ry 1970. Compiled and Edited of his followers and it was mainly by Juraj Chovan (Matica slovenska, Martin 1970), pp. 250, Russian and German Summary, Index. Slovak literary history receives in this publication some new insights and correct interpretation of the work of three prominent men of letters: Jan Holly, Andrej Radlinsky and Martin Hamuljak. Not only during the inter-war period when Slovak literary history was adjusted to the political aims of "Czechoslovakism", but also since 1945, Catholic writers and their role in Slovak national development was minimized or completely neglected . For a short time after the Second World War, Holly was rediscovered and some valuable publications of his life and work appeared in Slovakia or were prepared for the printers. For the ce11tennary of Holly, literary historians and critics such as Jozef Ambrus, Jozef Felix and others prepared nine volumes of Holly's poetry with comments and evaluation. However, the re.g ime did not allow distribution of Holly's work and it appeared only after 20 years in second-hand bookshops. The reason for such undeserved treatment of Holly's work was apparently the fact that it was published by Spolok sv. Vojtecha. The present publication gives justice to Holly and, at the same time, it presents Radlinsky and Hamuljak and their activities in a true light. Not only in the political history but also in literary history, the period between 1848 and 1918 was interpreted in such a way as if Slovak Catholics had not played any role in Slovak national life. The facts are, of course, quite different. The disillusionment of the year 1848 si- the Catholic intelligentsia who kept the flame of national consciousness alive and were active in cultural and literary life. From Radlinsky through Moyses to Oswald, a score of Slovak Catholics organized cultural and literary activi.ties and fought for the national rights of the Slovak people. Contributions to the present publications by Augustin Mat'ovcik, Zemka Cejkova, Konstantin Palkovie and Juraj Chovan, bring to light some interesting details on this period mainly in connection with Radlinsky's activities. The present Letopis is the fourth publication of this kind by Matica slovenska. All of them have been dealing with research into Slovak literature and contained results of studies by qualified literary historians. The greater part of the present publication is composed of papers presented at two conferences in April 1969. The first confere nce was organized on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the death of J. Holly in Trnava and the second one on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the death of A. Radlinsky. In addition of these papers, there is an interesting essay on Slovak studies Slovakica - at foreign universities by J . Kuzmik. The essay deals so far with Slovak studies in Slavic countries. But the title of the essay indicates that it will deal with Slova k studies in all foreign universities and institutions. We hope that Kuzmik will treat the subject with scholarly objectivity when he writes on Slovak studies at American and Canadian universities. A short survey published by him sometime ago indicated that he was not free of the usual bias common to all literary and cultural historians in today's Slovakia. He left out im- �SLOVAKIA portant contributions to Slovak studies at Western universities just because of political considerations and inflated the importance of others who professed political ideologies accepted rby the present regime in Czecho-Slovakia. The publication also contains documents and information on various cultural topics, as well as book reviews. Slovaks abroad learned with satisfaction that Matica slovenska in Prievidza organized an exhibition of the literary work of J. C. Hronsky. The exhibition lasted two weeks and met with great interest by the public. The objectivity of this publication is enhanced by including an account on this exhibition in which it has been admitted that Hronsky was "one of the most important, but also systematically under-estimat:ed Slovak writer." Unfortunately, the publication contains only a short Russian and German summary and will, therefore, be useful only for Slavists who can read Slovak. Nevertheless, we welcome this valuable contribution to better and more objective evalu ation of the Slovak literary past. W ith Christ in His Passion. By Rudolph Dilong. '!1ranslated from the original Slovak by Sister M. Martina Tibor, SS.C.M., Villa of the Sacred .Heart, Danville, Pa., 1971, pp. 75, $2.50. The greatest poetic genius of our century, the French poet, Paul Claude!, used to say (in several variations) about the poet and poetry. "The object of poetry is not, as they say very frequently, dreams, illusions or ideas_ It is the holy reality, given once for all times, in the center of which we are situated. It is the universe of in- 211 visible things. It is all that we look at and all that looks back at us. All this is God's work; it renders matter inexhaustible for all the greatest poet says and sings as well as the smallest bird. Since there is a phiiosophia perennis that does not invent ... abstract beings that no one has ever seen except thei r authors, .. . so there is also a poesis perennis that does not invent its themes, but it eternally recaptures those which Creation furnishes to it ... The purpose of poetry is not, as Baudelaire says, 'to plunge into the bottom of the Infinite to find something new,' but to plunge into the bottom of the definite in order to find there the inexhaustible ... Nor is he a poet who invents, but he who, approaching things, assembles and permits us to understand them." Justly we can apply these concepts especially to the religious poetry of Rudolf Dilong, the most prolific and meritorious contemporary Slovak poet living in exile (Pittsburgh, Pa.) So he took a plunge into the sacred reality of the Pascha'l Mystery and with a luminous creative poetic imagry tried the humanly impossible: to capture the uncapturable mystery found in Christ's redemptive mystery of suffering and victory. He listens in these depths and assembles the rays of his poetic vision in powerful and eloquent words. These are his immortal merits. How about the (frequently overlooked) merits of the translator, Sister Martina Tibor? Well, if poetry is art par excellence, so is its translation. To translate poetry well requires above all the perfect mastery of two languages. But this is not enough. The translator must be also a virtual pbet (in potentia), to save in his translation as much �SLOVAKIA 212 of the sublime poetic beauty as it is possible. And this process must be a new creation: a scrupulous penetration into the fine shades of meanings and the recapturing in another language this almost imperceptible shimmering of condensed poetic experience and expression. Even so, something will always be lost from the genuine beauty of the original. AU in all, we gladly say that Sister Martina did a splendid job in translating into English the most difficult, exuberant and most sublime religious poetry of the poet1>riest Rudolf Dilong. It is a valuable cultural service to the poetic Slovak genius. Nichoias Sp r in c, Borromeo Seminary College of Ohio ··DIE SLOWAKEI IN DER NACHDER KRIEGSENTWICKLUNG (The TSCHECHO-SLOWAKEI" Role of Slovakia in the Political Evolution of Czecho--Slovakia After the Second World War); by Prof. J. M. Kirschbaum, Schriftenreihe des Matus Cernak Instituts, Koln, Nr. 3, 1971, pp. 32, Bibi. Prof. J . M. Kirschbaum enriched again our political literature by a consice study about Slovakia after lhe Second World War. The publication is destined predominantly to scholars and historians but it will be welcome by anybody interested in political development in Czecho-Slovakia from 1945 to 1968. This period of Slovak history was presented in the West by fore ign historians as well as by Czech exiles in the most distorted light. Prof J. M. Kirschbaum, on the basis of sources in several languages, gives a clear picture of the role of Slovakia in the upheavals through which Czecho-Slov>akia, restored by the Soviet armies, had to undergo after the Second World War. The publication is an enlarged version of an English contribution to Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968, which was dedicated by Canadian Slavists to the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968. The English version discusses the events until the invasion of Czecho• Slovakia by the Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops. In the German version there is also a chapter on the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia , and the footnotes were completed by references to works in German, while in the English text, Prof. Kirschbaum referred mostly to books published on the American Continent and in France. The study is divided into four chapters dealing with the Communist coup d'etat in 1948, the ,period of the "cult of personality" in Slovakia, the process of de--Stalinization and the struggle for liberalization and federalization. In each chapter the author traces the special role which Slovakia played in the crucial years of the transformation of Czecho-Slovakia into the most faithful satellite of the Soviet Union. To avoid being accused of "parti pris," Prof. J .M. Kirschbaum heavily relies on quotations from American and Canadian political scientists dealing with Eastern Europe. Among others he often quotes the work by the former Secretary to President Benes, E. Taborsky, who now teaches at American universities, but the most interesting quotation comes from a Czech professor at the University of British Columbia, Stanley Z. Pech, who wrote the following remarkable statement about Western historians writing on Eastern Europe: "Although Western specialists in Eastern European history have usually regarded it as their task to �SLOVAKIA I 213 make the West familiar with the Since Prof. F . Hrusovsky published entire panorama of the polyglot his concise booklet This is Slovakia. region, they have in practice often I some 20 years ago, we did not been selective in the favors they have in English any publication to bestoved on each nation. They have give either to foreigners or to incorporated in their work, in Slovaks educated at American, Camodified form, the outlook and nadian or Australian universities, the prejudices of the nations which the basic facts of Slovak history they "adopted." To give the most and cultural life. For this reason, conspicuous examples, they viewed the Slovak World Congress deSlovak history through Czech eyes. serves credit for publishing an In so doing, they have in fact up-to-date account on Slovakia. The publication is composed of created a second-class status for certain nations. The history of the two essays by Prof. J . A. Mikus. Slovaks in the West has usually and six essays by Prof. J . M. Kirschbeen presented from the point of baum. Prof. Mikus deals with the view of "Czechoslovakism" and has individuality of Slovakia, namely, appeared as hardly more than a with geographical and demographical facts and with the personality postscript to Czech history. " of the Slovak nation. Both essays We understand that the first are written in a scholarly way but English book by Prof. J. M. Kirsch- understandable to any reader. baum Slovakia - Nati 01i at the Drawing on personal knowledge Crossroads of Central Europe is and long years of studies of Slovak no more avail.able even though it history, Prof. Mikus displayed ahad three printings. It would be gain by his essays that he belongs a service to the Slovak cause if among the best Slovak authors he revised his book and completed abroad in the field of history and it by the present study in order political science. that students of Slovak history, as The essays by Prof. J . M. Kirschwell as politicians and American baum deal with the historical back and Canadian Slovaks of the second ground of Slovakia, the ethnic and third generations, could have origin and language, cultural, poan objective history on Slovakia. litical, religious and economic The Matus cernak Institute de- background. The essays give a serves credit for publishing this complete and unbiased picture of well documented study. The Slovak 1100 years of Slovak history, as World Congress would render a well as of political and cultural service to the Slovak cause if it evolution of the Slovak people and took care of pl.acing this concise of the economic potential of Sloand expertly written account of vakia. Perhaps intentionally short, modern Slovak history into univer- the essays refer to many books sity libraries in Europe as well as either in Slovak or in foreign languages, which will be welcome by on this Continent. who want to enhance their students J . Pau c o knowledge of Slovakia. SLOVAKIA : Historical and Cu lturThe reader will notice that Prof. al Background, by Prof. J. A. J . M. Kirschbaum made great efMikus and Prof. J. M. Kirsch- forts to present the political and baum, Published by Slovak World religious background of Slovaks Congress (Toronto, Canada, June without any bias. This is in accoro 1971) , pp. 63, ill. bibl. ance with the concept of the Slovak I �SLOVAKIA 214 World Congress which published this valuable addition to books on Slovakia. The Congress is guided by national as well as by religious ecumenical spirit. As in his other works on Slovakia, Prof. Kirsch• baum makes a distinction between the history of Slovakia and the history of the Slovak people which is not history of dynasties or expansive wars, but a struggle for survival. Such an approach will probably be most understandable for Slovaks as well as foreigners and may prove to be correct in the last analysis. The publication is enhanced by a map of Europe and several pictures from the history of Slovakia, as well as by a bibliography of English books on Slovakia by Slovak authors. The Editor, Prof. J. M. Kirschbaum added this im· pressive survey of books in English by Slovak authors for Slovaks educated outside Slovakia, and he did the right thing. Published by the Slovak World Congress, this valuable publication was distributed freely to the participants at the meeting in Toronto, and is apparently no more avail• able. It would be a service to the Slovak cause if a second edition be prepared for general use. J. Pa u co ETHNOLOGIA SLAVICA I: Uni· versitas Comeniana Bratislavensis, Facultas Philosophica, Bratislava 1970, p. 226, Multi-Lingual. The liberalization period in Slovakia brought about a favorable change not only in the political climate but also in cultural and scientific activities. Many projects which for years were only debated, materialized in 1968 or 1969. As a result, several symposia from a nllltlber of Conferences dealing with inter-Slavic relations in pre- vious years were published and institutes or chairs of studies were founded and organized. The Institute of Ethnology wa one of them and the present volume ETHNOLOGIA SLAVICA is the first publication of this Institute which has been founded "for the purpose of establishing an institution for ethnological research concerned with the Slavic nations," as the editors say in their multi• lingual introduction. According to the editors, Slovak scholars also planned the establishment of Ethnological Archives and a Society of Slavic Ethnologists but " the well-known events of 1968 (in other words, the Soviet invasion) heavily intefered with the realization of the original program." Only the Institute of Ethnology came into being and this first volume of ETHNOLOGIA SLA VICA is the result of the research of its members and foreign ethnologists. The volume was published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Comenius University (1919). The Managing Editor of the publication, Jan Podolak, says in his Preface that the University has been founded "to enable Slovaks to acquire erudition (sic) of university-degree in the national language." However, it is well-known that the students of the Comenius University had to organize demonstrations for the use of the Slovak language as late as 1937-1938 because the mission of the University was to help the assimilation of Slovaks. The situation changed only during the Slovak Republic when education as well as administration, was carried on in the Slovak language which the present day scholars are not allowed to mention. The publication ETHNOLOGIA �SLOVAKIA SLA VICA is a valuable addition to Slavic studies and is a long time overdue, if we take into consideration the fact that one of the main founders of Slavic ethnology, P . J. Safarik, come from Slovakia. The volume contains contributions by Slovak as well as foreign scholars, and the essays have been published in English, French and German, with a Slovak resume in some cases, which will make the book accessible also to ethnologists in the West. Of 12 contributions, 3 have been written by Slovaks. Jan Michalek evaluated P . J. Safarik's contribution to Slavic ethnography; Jan Podolak wrote an interesting essay on the pastoral culture of the Carpathians as a subject of ethnological study, and Anton Habovstiak contributed the study "La colonisation pastorale dans les Karpates et les patois slovaques" (The Pastoral Colonization of the Carpathians and Slovak Dialects). Among foreign contributors are Milovan Gavazzi (from Zagreb), Sergei A. Tokarev (from Moscow), Christo Vakarelski (from Sofia), Zoltan Ujvary (from Debrecen), Oldrich Sirovatka (from Brno), Slobodan 2ecevic (from Beograd) , and two contributions have been written by Lusatian-Serbians, Isolde Gardos and Siegmund Musiat. This mosaic of contributors as well as the variety of subjects treated by them gives the book an intemational and inter-Slavic image. This should be velcome in view of the fact that the results of academic activities by Slovak scholars were rarely published in Western languages. The essays are not of equal value but they are all on the level of similar studies in the Soviet orbit. The volume is oriented particularly to Russian but also to Croatian, Bulgarian and Lusatian-Serbian ethnology, but the editors are 215 promising to deal also with Polish, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian ethnology in the following volumes. As an addendum the publication contains reviews in English and in German of the activities and the writings by Czech, Polish, Soviet, Ukrainian and Bulgarian ethnographers and their institutes or periodicals. Since every book in foreign language dealing with Slovak culture is of great importance for acquainting the world with Slovakia, we sincerely welcome this volume and hope that further volumes will follow as the editors promised and that the present generation of Slovak ethnologists will follow in the footsteps of P . J. Safarik who left a rich legacy to Slovak ethnology. * J. M . K i r s c h b au m * On P . J. Safarik, see Kirschbaum , P . J . Safcirik and His Contribution to Slavic Studies (Slavistica No. 43, Cleveland-Winnipeg, 1962) . DUBCEK'S Blu e Print for Fre edom: His Documentation on Czechoslovakia leading to the Soviet invasion, with a Profile by Hugh Lunghi and Commentary by Paul Ello (William Kimber, London, 1968), pp. 352, Index. Among the scores of books which were published on Dubcek and the events in Czecho--Slovakia in 1968* , this book will remain as one of the most useful for scholars and laymen alike. The editors included in the book the most important documents such as Dubcek's speech on April 1, 1968, at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Czecho,Slovak Communist Party; the Action Programme of the Party; Dubcek's report to the meeting of. the Central Committee on May 29-June 1, 1968, and the warning given by the Presidium �216 SLOVAKIA of the Central Committee in answer to the letters of five Communist and Workers' Parties. Finally, in the Appendix, the book includes Dubcek's speech of December 1, 1968. These contents are expertly introduced and commented upon by Hugh Lunghi, a former member of the British Embassy in Moscow, and Paul Ello from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington. While Lunghi, who has been one of the best informed analysts on the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation, gives in his Introduction an analysis of the events which led to the Soviet invasion, Paul Ello wrote a concise but well balanced commentary. The Summary is not signcd, and may be the work of either of the writers. The book will have a lasting value for inte11preting the attempts at changing •Stalinism in one o.f the most advanced, culturally and industrially, satellites of Moscow and at giving socialism a "human face. " Both Lunghi and Ello are factual in their analysis and Lunghi did not fail to point out the role of Slovakia and Slovak Communist leaders in the upheavals which many other authors, writing about the "Prague Spring", failed to do. In accordance with the facts, Lunghi writes that "one of the first of Novotny's fatal errors was his mishandling of the Slovaks," and that it was Dubcek's reaction to Novotny's policy towards Slovakia which began the snowball roUing. During the Central Committee meetings at the end of 1967, according to Lunghi the "three issues at stake were, firstly, the implementation of the economic reforms; secondly, freedom of expression and, finally, effective autonomy for SJovakia." (p. 17) . This conclusion has been accept- ed in the meantime as correct also by other authors who had access to documents, especially by Paul Tigrid in his book: La Chute Irresistible d'Alexander Dubcek, (Calmann-Levy, Paris, 1969) which was likewise reviewed in "Slovakia", Vol. 21, p. 206. Lunghi apparently followed the events in Slovakia very closely and without the usual bias which we can find among some Western specialists in East European problems. This appears not only in his assessment of the role of Husak after the invasion but also in his reference to Peter Colotka, Deputy Premier in Prague's government, who made some courageous declarations which resulted in his removal from his post. Lunghi's analysis of the situation in Slovakia was also correctly grasped in his statement that "the federation of the country, longed for by the Slovaks, had, at last been achieved in the face of the Russians who wanted to keep the two nations divided and at logger-heads. During the invasion the Russians had put about the totally false rumors that some Slovak provinces wanted to become Soviet republics. Symbolically, the legislation creating the federal state was enacted to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration on October 28th." Unfortunately, the law of the federation was enacted but it became ineffective to a great degree because of Czech reluctance, what Lunghi could not, of course, foresee in 1968. Western analysts mentioned various reasons for the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Warsaw Pact military forces in the books so far published on the invasion. Lunghi brings to light a new possible element which finally pushed the Soviet leadership to invade Czecho-Slovakia. During the spring �SLOVAKIA and summer of 1968 there was a strong reaction against the secret police which apparently was not only organized on the model of the Soviet secret police but also directed and infiltrated by Soviet agents to whom the Prague Ministry of Interior had to submit interrogation material before bringing them to the ministers themselves. According to Lunghi, the announced purge of the secret police apparatus threatened a vital Soviet interest by the revelations published in the newpapers in Bratislava and in Prague. Moscow's objective was, therefore, "to hold these dangerous processes and to restore a leadership in Prague which would control the population through a Soviet style Communist Party using the proper level of power - a persuasive and omnipotent secret police with no nonsense about 'demonstration of the socio-political 217 system'." (page 25). No doubt this could have been one of the serious reasons for the infamous decision to destroy an interesting effort by Slovaks and Czechs to give socialism a "human face." Paul Ello's commentary, short as it is, is clear and factual, and belongs among the best written ones shortly after the invasion, where there was a lot of confusion in Western countries among the specialists in East Europe. The book undoubtedly deserves to be read and preserved on the shelves for further study of a crucial moment in the history of Eastern Europe and probably in the history of Western civilization. J. M. Ki r s c h b au m • On a number of books on this subject, see my book reviews in "Slovakia", Vol. 21, 1971, No. 44, pp. 205-210. Rudolph Petrak, Slovak Tenor Rudolph Petrak, 54, of 32 Halsey, Dr., Old Greenwich, Conn., a leading tenor with the City Opera Company from 1948 to 1956, died March 4, 1972, at Saint Joseph Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was born in Sucany, Slovakia had sung at major opera houses in Europe and South America, and as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and other noted ensembles. He sang under the batons of such famous conductors as Leopold Stokowski, Ormandy, Leinsdorf and Krips. Mr. Petrak began his career with the Bratislava Opera and made his American debut in 1948 at the New York City Center as Rudolfo in "La Boheme." Congressman Albert P. Morano of Greenwich noted in the Congressional Record of the United States. "I have become acquainted with many artists who have immigrated to America, but know of none more possessed of deep love for his adopted country than Rudolph Petrak." "The New York Times" in an obituary on Monday, March 6, 1972 published his picture as he sang Radames in "Aida" about 1949. The New York Times also wrote: "In 1960 when Mr. Petrak sang at the Philadelphia Orchestra's presentation of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" in Carnegie Hall, Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times music critic noted: "Everything sounded effortless and clear, even the high D that Mr. Petrak took in falsetto".-J.C.S. �SLOVAKIA 218 Our Contributor s Karol Kuzmany, Slovak leader in 19th century. Msgr. George A. Galik, J.C.D., author, Hibbing, Minn. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph.D., historian, author, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. E . L. Delaney, author, journalist, Glendale, Cal. Fran!;ois d'Orcival, French political writer, Paris. Paul Kotva, pen name of Karol Sidor, former Premier of Slovakia. Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M., teacher, St. Cyril Academy, Danville, Pa. Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota, lecturer, Middletown, Pa. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L., J.D., historian, author, Washington, D. C. Francis Vnuk, M.A., political analyst, professor, Institute of Technology, Adelaide, Australia. Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., journalist, author, Middletown, Pa. K. culen, historian, journalist. Rev. A. V. Pier, O.S.B., journalist, author, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Steven I. Miller, assistant professor, Loyola University of Chicago, Ill. Daniel F. Tanzone, B.A., fraternalist, Yonkers, N. Y. Helena T. Gaydos, cultural worker, Philadelphia, Pa. George A. Podhajsky, pen name of a Slovak refugee professor. Rudolph J. Vecoli, professor of history and director of the Center of Immigration Studies at the University of Minnesota. Agnes Bocan, St. Cyril Academy, Danville, Pa. Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., teacher, author, Danville, Pa. Edward J. Behuncik, attorney-at-law, Stratford, Connecticut. Rev. Nicholas Sprinc, professor, poet, Wickliffe, Ohio. Picture on the front cover: Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Slovak Republic. �SLOVAKIA 219 Contents Dr. Tiso's Last Message to the Slovak People - 3 Paean to Integrity - Karol Kuzmany-George A. Galik - 4 Dr. Joseph Tiso-the Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People - J.M. Kirschbaum - 5 I Met President Tiso - E. L. Delaney - 21 Msgr. Joseph Tiso - Fran(;ois d'Orcival - 26 Murder in Slovakia - Hon. Alvin E. O'Konsld - 36 Speech of Hon. Ray J. Madden - 37 Slovak Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso - N.C.W.C. News Service - 40 Who Killed Dr. Tiso? - Paul Kotva - 43 Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero - 48 Dr. Jozef Tiso-His Political Creed - Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M. - 50 Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks - Joseph C. Krajsa - 57 Prof. Stanislav Meciar (1910-1971)-In Memoriam - J.M. Kirschbaum - 60 Michael Novak on White Ethnics - Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L. , J .D. - 62 Slovak Martyrs - 64 British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 1939 - F. Vnuk - 65 Th e Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) - Joseph Pauco, Ph.D. - 92 The Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks in U.S.A . and Canada - K. Culen - 98 America's Discovery of Ethnic Values - A. V. Pier, O.S.B. - 114 Historical and Empi rical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group - Dr. Steven I. Miller - 116 The Slovak Experience In Contemporary America - Daniel F. Tanzone -125 Slovakia, the Land of B eauty - Helena T. Gaydos - 136 Tourist Trade of Slovakia - George A. Podhajsky - 140 Why Our Melting Pot Cooled Off - Rudolph J. Vecoli - 146 An Introduction to Slovak Costume - Agnes Bocaii - 153 Slovak Scientist Stefan A. Jedlik, O.S.B. - A. V. Pier - 158 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 - Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Declaration Adopted by Slovak World Congress - 193 Unity Is Necessary - Edward J . Behuncik - 195 As Others See It - 198 Book Reviews - 205 Rudolph Petrak, Slovak Tenor - J.C.S. - 217 161 ��PRI NTI D IN U.S. A. JIDN OTA PlllN TER Y, MID DLli TOW N, PA. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 193 CURRENT ISSUES Declaration Adopted by Slovak World Congress Representatives of Slovak organizations throughout the free world as well as individuals of Slovak origin in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, South Africa, Argentina, Spain and Germany assembled in Toronto in order to promote the creation of a world organization of Slovaks hereby declare that: The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment has been a continuing process throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective in the past has not been without obstacles, or dedicated work and sacrifices of many individuals and groups. Now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny, because it is under a foreign military domination, :s uch efforts, dedication and sacrifices must be increased to help them achieve their freedom once again. Those of Slovak origin now living throughout the free world, are urged to .dedicate themselves to this task. Our obligation will be to present to the free world a true picture of the life under which our brethren are compelled to live, and to seek a change of their plight. The concepts by which we will be guided in this work will be the traditional values promoted throughout Slovak history which have given vitality to the nation in its growth and acceptance among nations of the western world. The Congress will continue to adhere to the democratic principles in the civil and international relations and considers tolerance in ideological, political and religious matters an expression of maturity for democracy and strongly opposes any tyranny whether it comes from the left, or, from the right. It has been obvious during the past two decades that the Slovaks living in Slovakia have been unable to determine their own destiny. A number of recent facts attest to this unfortunate reality namely the following: The basic freedom of Slovaks, as well as of other Captive 194 SLOVAKIA Nations under communism, are still quite limited-travel to Western countries, and press and assembly freedoms have recently been set back to almost the 1948 levels. The federalization of Czecho-Slovakia into two equal sectors-the Czech and the Slovak, introduced by the Constitutional Act of October 1948, has been severely circumscribed in recent past and is slowly being replaced by a new centralism; Religious freedom continues to be restricted to Roman Catholics, Uniates, Lutherans, Jews and to other denominations; and The present Czecho-Slovak Federal Government has taken no initiative nor has it responded to initiatives suggested by the Holy See in the Vatican to establish a Catholic Province in Slovakia, even though such provinces exist in Bohemia as well as in Moravia. We contend that the issue of the continued existence and recognition of a Slovak nation be duly accepted by all nations, including the records of the United Nations. The question of the suppressed freedoms of all nations now living under communism must soon be given full airing and remedies instituted. This has been and should not cease to be an issue of interest to all civilized nations. Slovaks call upon them to help in this cause. We take a positive attitude towards the economic integration in Europe and urge that the Slovak nation be included in this and other unifying processes benefiting their degree of economic and other freedoms. Viewing the future political situation in Eastern Europe with hope and cautious optimism, we look toward to the day when obstacles which presently prevent cultural and educational exchang* between Slovaks at home and abroad will be removed. To support the objectives mentioned above, we have established a permanent organization under the name of: Slovak World Congress, which shall embody the spirit of brotherhood and mutual respect. Religious affiliations or political views, insofar as they are not contrary to the spirit of democracy and the objectives mentioned above, will not bar anyone from membership or active participation in our organization. We consider it essential that our goals and methods as well as our activities follow democratic principles. SLOVAKIA 195 We shall endeavor to have the Slovak World Congress represent its members at international scientific, cultural, religious or political forums in the interest of the Slovak nation as expressed in the Constitution and the by-laws of the organization. We urge that the Slovak World Congress devote itself to promoting the spirit of unity among its members and to co-ordinate all its efforts through constant contact with member organizations maintained through central secretariats, regional secretariats, committees and information bureaus in various countries around the world. We ask the blessing of Almighty God in this undertaking in the firm hope that with the help and co-operation of all those who wish well for the Slovaks we may successfully fulfill our role. Members of the Committee: Stephen B. Roman, LL.D., President; Rev. Dusan Toth, Secretary General; Dr. J. A. Mikus, Dr. J. Stasko, Dr. J. M . Kirschbaum,· Dr. J. Pauco, and Prof. E. Urban. Toronto, Ont., June 20, 1971. Unity Is Necessary Edward J. Behun c i k (The following are excerpts from the address of Edward J . Behuncik, First Vice President of the Slovak World Congress, President of the Slovak League of America, and President of the American Fund for Slovak Refugees given at the closing banquet of the Slovak World Congress held at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday, June 19. 1971.) It is a rare and high privilege to appear before such a historic and distinguished gathering of representatives of all walks of Slovak life and to break bread with our fellow Slovaks from all parts of the free world as we share this memorable Congress in spirit, in hope and in love with our brethren in beautiful Slovakia. The honor you do me in asking that I speak in company with the distinguished Chief Executive of the great Province of Ontario, with two colleagues from the great Senate of the United States of America, as well as the spiritual, civic and cultural leaders who grace the head table-this honor cannot but move me. I thank you most sincerely for asking me here. Hopefully 1 will leave at least 196 SLOVAKIA one or two important thoughts with you-important to the permanent success of our fledgeling Slovak World Congress, and that is, our need for unity- and for ''Svornost a laska".In Joel, we read·'Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions."Today, we combine the hopes which both dreams and visions embody. Dreams are generally of things past, visions are of the future. Dreams are truly for older men who have a past, while visions are for the younger looking forward to the future. Experience alone is the look backward, the dream of yesteryear, but it is only useful as it clarifies the vision of tomorrow. Here in Toronto, we put the finishing touches--not upon a new structure - rather upon the permanent foundation . Because in fact, at New York City, the Congress \\'as already perfect in the sense that its objects were fully perceived, its necessary organs present, its powers conferred, and its extent already, if only dimly, seen to be world wide. In addition, its final purpose, which alone can justify its existence, was perfectly clear and that was to become the r epresentative body of Slovaks scattered as they are throughout the free world. Here during the past several days, we have added to the New York beginnings. We've used our year old experience to improve, amend, delete and otherwise add to the permanent basis of a vital organ for disseminating the cause of the Slovak nation. To bring about the final liberation of the Slovak nation and its equality among all nations, the Slovak World Congress presents us with a golden opportunity. If we complete its hopeful aspirations, if we create a permanent edifice on the foundation built here and in New York, we will thereby sooner bring to fruition the age old Slovak vision of liberty and freedom with justice. But unity is necessary - that unity which has so often eluded the efforts of our forebears . Can we come together for the future ? Can we remain together? I think we can; I know we must! ! ! We will and must let bygones be bygones, let past differences as nothing be, and with steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugu rate the good and old central ideas of a free and independent Slovakia, where our presently subjugated brethren can someday in God's good time freely choose their own destiny. We have our quarrels, as all happy families have. We have di sagreed as all friend s have. But when the great human cause of Slovakia comes before us, in the natural fitness of things, we have looked into our hearts, and hidden away in their innermost recesses, we have discovered a very shy but a very faithful friendship for each other, no matter from what region of Slovakia we originated. That is why we are here this evening. SLOVAKIA So 1 say-we are united-but more important - we must stay united. We can do it ! ! ! The human heart and human aspirations are with us. God is with us--Our Lady of Sorrows is with us. We shall-we must-succeed. God forbid, if the Congress shall dissipate instead of growing and developing as it should-it will be another eleven hundred years before the vision of a unified, free and independent Slovakia can again be dreamed of. I know none of us wish to have ~he horror of such a c a ta s t r o p h e on our consciences. So, we must not fall-and we won't if we do our duty-but the time has passed when we can remain silent regarding the great fundamentals of free government and permit the enemies of the Slovak social order to occupy the center of the stage. The time has come and that time is now when we must take issue with those, who infatuated with ch a o t i c dreams, are seeking to undermine the Slovak ideals and aspirations, dreams and visions. We now have the modus operandi-the vehicle. We have the Slovak World Congress. We, the participants in and supporters of the Congress, have it in our own hands whether it shall be nothing more than the brilliant after glow of a gorgeous renaissance, or whether it shall be the dawn of a newer and brighter day in the struggle of the Slovaks to fulfill their age old vision of liberty and freedom with justice. Already, as we well know, on several occasions, for several 197 brief moments, behind the far spread iron curtain in Eastern Europe. the rays of the setting sun of materialistic communism have mingled with the rays of the rising sun of democracy. May that sun grow in light and warmth and may it be undimmed by the clouds of our own internal dissension. I am profoundly concerned. I am deeply interested. I build the greatest hopes upon this World Congress. 1 am old enough to have the experience to be able to dream-but, I am young enough to have the vision of a great institution - one from which, for example, some day-God grant-will emerge a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - or the Literature Prize. And so, in bidding a foud adieu to our fellow Slovaks returning to their havens scattered throughout the free world, I urge them and all of you to hope- to hope as the love of truth and obedience to it shall grow and as with firmer footing thereon, we look afar and think clearly on what we see. We shall see our Slovak World Congress advancing to the high position that awaits every organization and every nation which honors the facts, which looks afar and which thinks clearly and positively. And as we aspire to greater and more illustrious achievements in the glorious history of our beloved Slovakia, we can well ponder the prayer of Sir Francis Drake: "Oh, Lord God, when Thou givest to Thy servants to endeavor any great matter, grant us also, to know, that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it is thoroughly finished, which yieldcth the true glory." 198 SLOVAKIA AS OTHERS SEE In these times, when many of us seem to reflect on the place of our origin, it was indeed interesting to see how the Americans, Canadians, and citizens of other free countries, all of Slovak origin, demonstrated their dedication to the cause of peace with freedom in our age. Their dedication was for freedom for their kinfolk in Slovakia, now part of the Communist satellite of Czechoslovakia, who cannot themselves demonstrate their longing for the liberties denied them for 23 years. The Slovaks are a hardy people who have been seeking the ideals we in our own country so freely enjoy-the right to their own self. determination. And like other nations, captives under Communist domination, the Slovaks know that one day they will join ranks with the civilized world with other free nations. Until then the work of the Slovak World Congress is indeed both most worthy and very necessary and I hope I applaud it. - U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr. The Slovak World Congress stands for freedom and seeks to preserve the language, culture and national heritage. You are to be commended for your strong antiCommunist stand. - Strom Thurmond., U.S. Senator Please know that your concern for freedom throughout the world and particularly in Slovakia is shared by all of us. No more dire threat exists today than that posed by the Soviet Union and I stand with you against their expansionary policies. Keep up with your good work. - John Tower, U.S. Senator I wish to congratulate the Slovak people of our nation for the out- IT standing fight they have been waging over the years in exposing Communist tyranny which is the most powerful threat to human freedom in the history of the world. If all groups of the free world would have the same spirit of opposition and expose the criminality of Communist enslavement methods and Communist living conditions there would be no doubt that this Communistic threat to the world would collapse in a very short time. - Ray J. Madden, U.S. Member of Congress The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment has been a continuing process throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective in the past has not been without obstacles, or dedicated work and sacrifices of many individuals and groups. Now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny, because it is under a foreign military domination, such efforts, dedication and sacrifices must be increased to help them achieve their freedom once again. Those of Slovak origin now living throughout the free world, are urged to dedicate themselves to this task. Our obligation will be to present to the free world a true picture of the life under which our brethren are compelled to live, and to seek a change of their plight. The concepts by which we will be guided in this work will be the traditional values promoted throughout Slovak history which have given vitality to the nation in its growth and acceptance among nations of the western world. Claiborne Pell, U.S. Senator Even within the Communist world there is an absolute intoler-- SLOVAKIA ance for those faithful party members who would put a "human face" on the dictatorship in order to make it more palatable. I speak of course, of Alexander Dubcek who sought to purify, and reform, but not replace or destroy, communism in Czechoslovakia. Yes even after the true nature of the dictator reared its ugly head and Dubcek's reforms were sacrificed, we still hear the drone of those who would have us believe that the communist dictator has changed. Let no one be fooled - Communism is the Number One enemy not only of the Western World, but of humanity itself. It is a tribute to all of you who have felt the iron hand of the communist dictator that you have brought to the Western Hemisphere an appreciation and understanding of the dangers of communism which is, unfortunately, shared by too few Americans. - Robert C. Mardian It is a privilege to address men and women who stand for the forefront of civilization's never-ending struggle for freedom. For more than eleven centuries the Slovak people have been developing, extending and seeking to preserve a rich and fertile cultural heritage. More than that, you have sought endlessly to maintain that priceless ingredient of true spiritual fulfillment-the right of the individual citizen to be his own person, to think his own thoughts, to speak his own words, to contribute directly to the formation and performance of his own government and to worship as he chooses. In so doing you have contributed your full share, and perhaps more, to the development of the Slavic peoples as a whole and to the cultural family of peoples around the world. 199 Ontario and all of Canada has been enriched by the spirit and integrity of Slovaks, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and all of the others who claim the honor of membership in the world Slavic community which numbers more than 200 million persons. - William C. Davis, Prime Minister of Ontario Vienna, AtLstria - Communist Czecho-Slovakia's closed-door policy against religious literature mailed from abroad has provoked a steady stream of protests within its own borders, according to reports reaching here. Demands for an explanation are being sent to postal authorities by Czecho-Slovak citizens who learn that religious books such as the Bible have been mailed to them from abroad but returned to the sender by government authorities. The regime's reply to that publications contrary to Czecho-Slovakia's laws are refused entry. But no particulars are given to explain how the Bible or devotional books are in opposition to the country's laws. "Foreign reviews and books may be sent into Czecho-Slovakia without limitation of any sort," said a standard explanation from the central office for incoming foreign parcels in Prague. Post Office 120. "However, reviews and books which by their content are contrary to our legislative norms are refused local delivery, according to the prevailing international standards." The letter of explana,tion concluded: "Peace to the world!" It seems that books arriving from certain senders or destined for certain addresses are returned automatically without examination. Recently one man received back from Czecho..Slovakia an unopened 200 SLOVAKIA package he had sent his brother containing a book on photography. Official documents mailed by Vatican offices to various bishops in Czecho-Slovakia have been returned marked "refused." In June, the secretariat for church affairs of the Slovakia region's government notified bishops, pastors and Religious superiors that religious publications from abroad were prohibited where "in conflict with the interest of our socialist state." The of.ficial notice continued: "The provision also concerns the propagation and publication of information and instructions of various kinds from abroad, whether through internal ecclesiastical channels, in official documents or in any form whatsoever." It warned that the distribution of prohibited literature is punishable under Czecho-Slovakia's penal code. Czecho-Slovakia's hard-line communist rulers, brought to power by the Soviet invasion of August 1968, have been steadily tightening the screws on the Catholic Church for the past two years. In January 1970 the Slovakia ministry of culture decreed that every act of official worship, including private Masses, must have state approval. A similar decree was issued by the ministry of culture in the Czech region of Bohemia. In July of that same year the Slovakia government asserted the right to blackball newly chosen superiors of congregations of nuns. In November, 1970 the Bohemia ministry of culture forbade the Church to give courses preparing couples for marriage. In July 1971 the ministry of culture decreed severe limitations upon the teaching of religion. Its Slovakia counterpart did likewise. Decrees approving newly resurrected pro-government associations of peace priests were issued simultaneously in August 1971 by the Bohemian and Slovakian governments. But the regime 's restrictions on Church activity and growth have not been confined to legislation and decrees. Through administrative acts the regime has kept more than half the applicants out of the country's seminaries and has dismissed from convents all Sisters who entered them when the country's liberalized regime of early 1968 reopened the convent to novices. The present, neo-Stalinist regime has attempted to manipulate the Church by installing its own candidates in key positions, such as vicar general of Brno and of Roziiava, and the executive committees of the Bohemian and Slovakian Catholic charitable agencies. Meanwhile, the controlled press has been keeping up a steady fire on religion in general and the churches in particular. Christians in Bohemia are bracing themselves for still heavier assaults upon them and their churches now that the head of the region's religious affairs office, Karel Hruza, has returned from a Moscow meeting with · his counterparts from other Communist states. Czecho-Slovakia's present program of religious repression was launched shortly after his return from a similar meeting in Moscow in October 1969. - NC New s Service Vienna. - The situation of the Church and of human rights and freedoms. in communist-ruled Czecho-Slovakia is growing worse, not better. Experts agree that the situation SLOVAKIA 201 after the short bright 1968 methods to promote atheist edu "humanizing" period before the cation. Dubcek regime was overthrown by Party officials said repeatedly at Soviet-led invaders - is similar recent meetings that religion "has now to that of the hated Stalinist a negative influence on the for. times. mation of Socialist conscience." The Church has become the The Bratislava communist newstarget of concentrated attacks from paper, Pravda, demanded that relitwo directions - through adminis- gious ceremonies - christenings, trati ve measures and ideological weddings and funerals - be rearguments. placed by Socialist ceremonies, The communist regime is at- because " the Church has misused tempting to strangle religious the most important stages of activities slowly but effectively by human life for its own purposes." administrative action. Karel Hruza, head of the gove rnMore than half of all parishes in ment state office, has described Bohemia lack priests and there is the regime's plans. "After rightists no chance to overcome the short- and counter-revolutionaries are reage. At the moment only 12 stu- moved from the party and governdents study for the priesthood in ment, we must concentrate in the entire Archdiocese of Olomouc. working a platform to cope with As a result of government the reactionary policy of the chicanery, the number of children Church. - Gerd Kriwanek, Reliattending religious instruction in gious News Service, January 28, school is sharply declining. 1972. th At the same time, e regime Ladislav Bezak loaded his wife has endorsed increased ideological and four children in a two-place attacks on the Church. Jozef Le- · light plane December 9 1971 and nart, firs_t secretary of the Slovak left for what he desc;ibed as a Communist Party, charged the "pleasure trip. " Church with having misused the The flight originated in Prague, situation in 1968 " to create a politand his destination was Nuernberg, ical basis for clericalism and West Germany. He did not file Catholicism. " a flight plan. Lenart alleged that religious Bezak is an experienced pilot sentiments were misused to pro- perhaps one of the best in the mote "anti-Sovietism and anti- world. At the first World Aerosocialism." batic Contest in 1960 at Bratislava, The regime has increased its Slovakia, he was a gold medal atheist propaganda. Thus the mag- winner in aerobatic competition. azine for teachers Ucitel'ske American pilots describe him as Noviny - urged the abolition of a quiet engineer who always wore any "liberal attitude towards re- a suit and tie rather than the casual ligion and the Church in our clothes worn by most competitive society." The journal also pledged pilots. increased atheist education of Shortly after he and his famil y young people by the party, the left Prague, a Czech MIG jet mass media, the schools and major fighter began a chase, and although organizations. Bezak waggled his wings and It also suggested that the Acade- waved to convince the fighter pilot my of Science devise the best they were on a pleasure flight , the 202 SLOVAKIA MIG began to fire on the light plane. Aerobatic maneuvers require precise skill. They are difficult enough in a special airplane, with perfect weight and balance distribution under ideal conditions. With six peop'le in a small plane, they would have to be considered impossible category. In addition, being fired on by a military jet could tend to disturb the concentration. The little plane - loaded over gross, and perhaps a third as fast as the fighter - apparently didn't have a chance. But the pilot was Bezak! According to the Aerobatic Club of America, Bezak flew the book at the military pilot. Flying many of the patterns which had earned him world championship 10 years before, he was able to elude the jet and continue on to the border. Before he reached it, the small plane was fired on from the ground. Bezak dived into a cloud bank, and with the children in tears and his wife in prayer, broke out across the border at 300 feet. The escape was a success. Ladislav Bezak, like most good aerobatic pilots, flies for prizes. During this trip he won the biggest prize of them all - freedom for himself and his family. - Lew Inquirer, Philadelphia Hodges, February 6, 1972. Lehigh is searching for a graduate student of Slovak ancestry to prepare a history of Slovak people in Bethlehem. Money for this project was left to the University from an even more unusual source: a Southside Bethlehem bachelor druggist who died in 1968 at age 67 and left Lehigh $67,500 in an unsigned will. The druggist, John Weldy Wasco, worked and apparently lived at 843 E. 4th Street. Relatives contested his will all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which upheld two lower court decisions in favor of Lehigh. Wasco stipuleted that $10,000 of the $67,500 was to go toward compiling and printing a history of Slovaks in Bethlehem, and that the project must be carried out by a Slovak student. Wasco's wish appeared in local newspapers without the criteria he set for the historian, and a number of Lehigh faculty expressed interest before learning they did not qualify. Wasco also specified that his personal papers be edited, and left $5,000 for the University to arrange that. University officials could not explain what motivated Wasco's generosity. He wrote a will in 1967 making Lehigh his sole beneficiary, and later changed it to add the provision about the Slovak history. - Lehigh University Publication Ondrej Nepela, the skating wonder from Slovakia, won the 11th Winter Olympic Games' gold medal as Russia's Sergei Chetveroukin edged into second place for the silver and Patrick Pera of France won the bronze. Two Americans, Ken Shelley of Downey, Calif., and John Mischa Petkevitch of Great Falls, Montana, moved into fourth and fifth places, passing East Germany's young Jan Hoffman, who had been fourth after the compulsory figures. Nepela, the world champion, fell early in his program while attempting a triple-toe-loop. Fall do not necessarily ruins a skater's marks since he is judged on the difficulty of his routine. Nepela was smooth and graceful but his program was neither as imaginative nor a dynamic as that of some of his rivals, including the two Americans. Despite his fall, the Slovak rated SLOVAKIA scores no lower than 5.9s in technical merit and he had two 5. 7s with the rest 5.8 in artistic impressions. His total points were 2739.1, well ahead of the rest of the field. In the official ordinal rankings, Nepela had a perfect 9.0, meaning he was rated No. 1 by all nine judges. The Russian had 20.0 in ordinals and Pera 28.0. - Associated Press, February 12, 1972. Dr. Joseph Tiso, wartime president of the Slovak Republic, is no more. Tried and convicted as a "war criminal" by a ~called People's Court, he was executed last week American press dispatches - both secular and religious were concise and negligently brief. No fanfare or publicity. Merely that the priest-president was sentenced and the sentence carried out. Was Dr. Tiso a "war criminal"? The very fact of news silence here betrays a kind of embarrassed admission that things were not just fine in "Glocca Morra." The trials of Draga Mihailovitch and Archbishop Stepinac given due publicity aroused resentment in the United States, an attitude, which, while it accomplished nothing actual for the persons involved, nevertheless illustrated the rightprincipled conscience of the thinking public. But Dr. Tiso's case was denied even the type of consolation, because the facts and circumstances of the Tiso case are quite unknown to the American people. Whose the fault, whose the blame for this? The Hon. Robert Jackson, presiding over the trials in Nuremberg wrote "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal 203 guilt . . . If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for a trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." Tiso's trial was a travesty of justice. Actually, the issue was a political one primarily. Tried by the "People's Court" Tiso was denied representation by the attorney engaged by his friends. American papers had nothing to say about the fact that Alois Loyek, the attorney, was abused by the security officials, told he could not represent Tiso, and all defense material confiscated. The presiding judge and six political associates was Igor Daxner who himself was once tried by a regular court during Tiso's regime for planning with the Benes government-in-exile to turn Slovakia over to Russia, and sent to jail. Was Dr. Tiso a "war criminal" ? The answer necessitates a thorough perusal of the events which led to his election as Premier of Slovakia before the war started· - under a valid act of the Prague Parliament, events little known here, events in the evolution of democracy in the republic of Czecho-Slovakia without a knowledge of which the case of Tiso cannot be justly viewed. If these facts were made public, perhaps public opinion, such as it is. might be swayed to the right even though a little too late." The Catholic L i ght, Scranton, Pa. 4-25-47. Dr. Tiso's public life was political, though this fact is not to be held in any way against him. In many parts of Europe ecclesiastics find themselves pushed into politics because the cause of their Catholic people needs to be protected, and there are not a sufficient number of laymen educated to the job. Happily, this state of affairs is passing away, for it is not in itself 204 SLOVAKIA very desirable. However excellent the motives of the cleric concerned, he risks his spiritual office being contaminated, at least in public esteem, by the relatively low standards of political life, and the higher he rises in the political world, the harder it may become to distinguish the priest from the politics. Dr. Tiso, so far as we are aware always remained an exemplary priest, but he came to find himself responsible for the fate of his fellow Slovakians in terrible times. Through these times he did his duty to his people as he saw it. In a way not dissimilar from that of an Irish leader in relation to the British, he strove to protect the religion, culture and national autonomy of Slovakia as against the Czechs whose public outlook was dominated by very different rnlues. Such is the path of treason in the eyes of one side and of heroic patriotism in the eyes of the other. And few who tread this hard road can look back on their lives and deny having made mistakes. In the long run history will al- ways vindicate the sincere patriot as against the utilitarian judgment of those who condemn him on a legalistic interpretation of treason. In each case the career of such a man is a challenge to those called UPon to judge him. Are they big enough to look with the eyes of history and to seek reconciliation and understanding by the great gesture? Or are they small men who cannot see beyond the legalisms and their wounded vanity? In the face of this test, Dr. Benes and the rulers of Czecho-Slovakia have dismally failed. They have had to judge a good man, a priest, a great and courageous patriot, and all they have been able to do is to raise a martyr for Slovakia. This small-minded folly is only too typical of the men whom the fortunes of war have favoured . Instead of trying to realize unity on the basis of victory, these little men are as busy as they can be indulging their feelings by carving even deeper the channels which devide man from man and nation from nation. - Catholic Herald . London, 4-25-47. SLOVAKIA is µublishecl annually by the Slovak League of .America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. One of the purpo··es of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciat1on of the Sl<OVak nation and its long struggle foT freedom and i ndependeuce. Subscription to Slovwkia $3.00 pel' year in the L1.S.A. - $4.00 el-sewhere. Send 1mhscription to: SLOV AKI.A 313 Ridge A venue Middletown, Pa. 17057 SLOVAKIA 205 BOOK REVIEWS BOOKS ON SLOVAK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Reviewed by J. M. KIRSCH BA UM Bibliografia slovenskej jazykovedy ethymology, terminology, orthoand lexicography which are the preferred fields of Slovak linguists; the survey of published articles, studies and books between 1961-1965 shows that Slovak linguists made great progress in the following disciplines; history of the language, dialectology, morphology, syntax, onomastics, stylistic aspects of language, problems of translation, the structure and acoustics of language and language culture. This development become more than apparent if we compare the present work with the Biblio- 1961-1965 (Bibliography of Slo- graphy, vak Linguistics 1961-1965), by Ladislav Dvonc; Matica slovenska (Martin, 1970), pages 804, multi-lingual, English summary. For Western Slavists the Bibliography of Slovak Linguistics is not wLthout interest. This voluminous publication shows that Slovak linguistics has developed considerably during the latter years of the Stalinist regime. It also indicates that the attempts of some philologists, supported by the policy of the regime in the 1950's, to infiltrate the Slovak language with Czech vocabulary and to bring its structure as close to the Czech language as possible in order to create a "CzechoS'lovak language" back-fired. Slovak linguists, with the exception of one or two philologists trained in Prague ( S. Peciar, especi'ally), repudiated these attempts and began not only to clear the Slovak language from foreign infiltrations but in a number of studies brought Slovak linguistics quantitatively as well as qualitatively to the level of other Slavic nations within the Soviet orbit. With its 2111 entries pertaining to the Slovak language, the Bibliography is, however, not simply a numerical expression of the development of li.nguistic studies on the Slovak language. Of great importance is the number of disciplines studied by Slovak linguists. It is not any more only grammar, graphy of Slovak Linguistics for 1957-1960 by the same author. The new Bibliography contains: 1) all linguistic articles, studies and books published in Slovakia; 2) contributions in non-Slovak periodicals ( one from Canada), studies and articles by non-Slovak authors on the Slovak language or on linguistics published in Slovakia. As a result, the entries in this Bibliography are not only more numerous, but also multi-lingual. The publication shows that many Slovak linguists themselves ,published their studies in foreign languages, mainly in Russian. A strong Russian influence in Slovak linguistics is even more evident in the number of articles, studies and books dealing with the Russian language. Bibliographical data about the Russian language cover more than 100 pages, while other Slavic languages follow in this order: Czech 25 pages, Ukrainian 9 pages, Polish 3 pages, Slovenian 206 SLOVAKIA 3/4 of a page, Byelorussian and Bulgarian ¼ of a page each. For a short time the methods of the Russian linguistic school, or as some linguists say, "the Marxists and Stalinists principles and methods," were also imposed on Slovak philology and linguistics and prevailed in some works (see my essay " Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology," Slavic and East European Studies, Vol. IV, 34, University of Montreal, 1960). Around 1960 Slovak linguists turned, however, against the russification as well as against the Czech infiltration of the Slovak language and Slovak linguistics. Studies, articles and books pertaining to the Slovak language have been published, according to this Bibiiography, predominantly in Slovak, but over 300 entries were published in Western languages, including English, in other Slavic languages and in Hungarian. It was mainly the works of the older generation of Slovak linguists (J . Stanislav, E. Pauliny) which appeared in international symposia in English, French or Russian. The younger generation on the other hand has broadened the field of Slovak linguists to include many disciplines and their studies have maintained a high academic level. They continue to be grouped around the periodicals Slovenska rec (Slovak Language), Jazykovedr ny casopis (Linguistic Journal) and Jazykovedne studie (Linguistic Studies) and have published the Zbornik Filozofickej Fakulty Univ. Komenskeho - Philologica (Sym- posium of the F1aculty of Arts of the Comenius University) and Zbornik Filozofickej Fakulty Univ. P. J. Safcirika (Symposium of the University of P. J . Safarik). Editors gether with V. Blanar, L. Dvonc, G. Horak, J. Horecky and R. Krajcovic wrote the major part of the Slovak linguistic studies contained in the Bibliography. Even though the works of foreign philologists (R. Auty, R. Jakobson) from Western countries are included in this Bibliography it does not contain articles, studies or books published by Slovak intellectuals abroad except for one French essay by this reviewer which appeared in Etudes Slaves et est-europeennes (Montreal, 1963). Valuable studies by H. Bartek who was the founder of the periodical Slovenska rec or books, articles, dictionaries and surveys by S. Bue, F. Hrobak, J . J . Konus, J . Rekem and others were apparently not allowed by the regime to be recorded. The "normalization" which followed the brief period of relative freedom in 1968, has again separated the Slovaks in Slovakia from Slovak intellectuals in the West even in the field of linguistics and the population of Slovakia is not allowed to know about the cultural activities among some two million Slovaks abroad. The usefulness of Dvonc's Bibliography for Slavists cannot be doubted. It is a thoroughly prepared standard work. An index of names and a subject index enhance the practical value of this voluminous book. SLOVENSKA BIBLIOGRAFIA V ZAHRANitf 1945-1965 (Slovak Bibliography Abroad 1945-1965) : Compiled by Prof. M. Lacko S.J .. published by The Slovak Institute (Cleveland-Rome), 1967, 366 pp., multi-lingual, instruction in Slovak and English. The long expected Slovak Biblioof these periodicals have been E. graphy Abroad, which had to reJona , J. Ruzicka, Prof. E . Pauliny, cord the cultural activities of L. f>urovic and S. Dobos who to- Slovak intellectuals in the West, SLOVAKIA has finally been published and we cannot but welcome it. Slovak Bibliography Abroad 19451965 records the literary production of Slovak authors in Western countries in the fields of history, political science, religion, philology, folklore, literary history and cdticism, music, theology, literature and natural science. A special chapter deals with general works on Slovakia and Slovaks abroad, includtng Slovaks in Canada. In addition, the Bibliography records the works of non-Slovak authors in the above-mentioned fields if they were translated into the Slovak language and deal explicitly with Slovakia or Czecho-Slovakia as a whole. Absent from this Bibliography are works and studies on Slovak subjects., published in the countries of the Soviet block since it was impossible for the compilers to carry out the necessary research. As a result, the publication contains literary and scientific writings of Slovaks living in some 15 Westem countries and published in all major Western languages. Considering the difficulties which wr:ilters, scholars and scientists face in exile, the Bibliography with its 2,438 entries gives an impressive picture of Slovak cultural life abroad after the Second W . W. One can understand this properly only if he is familiar with some basic facts about the Slovak intellectual community in Western countries. At the end of the Second World War, 50me 5,000 educated Slovak5 left their native country; in 1948 they were followed by a new wave of immigrants after the Communist coup d'etat. In the first wave of exiles were some of the be5t Slovak writers, poets and scores of young intellectuals from all fields of cultural endeavor who either completed their studies at univer- 207 sities in Western countries or continued their intellectual work even if they had to take menial jobs in the countdes in which they found refuge. Many of the younger generation attained positions at universities (22 in Canada) or institutions of higher education. Others became editors of newpapers and many poets and writers continued to write valuable works besides their employment in clerical jobs or other professions. Besides the chapter on literature which records writings of .some 25 poets and 15 prose writers, the largest number of entries is in the chapter on history ( 437), philology and literary history ( 224) , and political science (160). However, the natural sciences and economy are also among the best represented with 275 entries. Writings on history and political science, philology and literary history are predominantly in foreign languages. Some authors (Mikus, Kirschbaum, Rekem, Vnuk) published their studies in 3 or 4 Western languages. In literature, the Bibliography lists works by several of the best Slovak poets and novelists who in exile created works considered among the best in contemporary Slovak literature (Hronsky, Dilong, Sprinc, Strmen, Zvonicky, etc.) . The Bibliography also indicates that there are several Slovak cultural centers in the Western countries. From Canada the Bibliography has listed books, studies and articles 'b y some 20 Slovak authors. Ten of them have been active either tn Slavic studies or in philology, sociology, theology and science, the remaining 15 in literature. Actually Canada and the United States seem to have produced the most prolific Slovak authors, not only in literature but also in other fields. Also the major 208 SLOVAKIA centers of Slovak publishing activities have been in the United States, but Italy, Argentina and West Germany have equally active groups in publishing books, periodicals and newspapers. The BibHography further shows that some Slovak scholars and writers published their writings, including poetry, in several languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish) and in certain cases the originals were written in foreign languages and not translated from the Slovak. This is a new feature in Slovak literature and scholarly writing. Because of adverse political circumstances Slovaks had very limited opportunities to study abroad not only before the Second World War, but also after 1945. The exiled writers and scholars made apparently a great effort to fill this lacuna. No doubt the compiler of the Bibliography, Prof. Michael Lacko, accomplished a task which is usually done by many researchers over several years. By his own admission, he does not cover all published studies and articles by Slovaks abroad ; actually in some cases valuable studies were left out either in foreign language or in Slovak. Additions and extensions to the Bibliography have, therefore, been promised by the compiler, as well as by the publishers. However, even in its present form, the Bibliography is a valuable contribution to Slavic studies and a very useful publication, not only for Slovak scholars and researchers , but also for Slavists who read English, the Bibliography being bi-lingual. The value of the Bibliography is also enhanced by listing bibliographies on Slovak matters as well as periodicals and newspapers, annuals, and symposia, published in some 15 countries. Julius Noge : An Outl.ine of Slovakian L i terature (The Tatrapress Agency, Bratislava), 1968, 120 pp. This is the first book in English on Slovak literature which was published in Slovakia since the Communist takeover in 1948. The fact that it was published in 1968 would indicate that Dubcek's liberalization has to be credited for ,t his slender booklet on 200 years of literary activities in the Slovak language. The restoration of Czecho-Slovakia in 1945 cut off Slovakia from the rest of the world, especially from the West, and Slovak literature, art, science and culture in genera-I were to remain unknown to the Western world. Julius Noge, one of the literary critics who followed the directives of the Communist Party and was, therefore, favored by the Communist regime, divided his "succint" outline of Slovak literature into 7 chapters: From Old Church Slavonic learning (sic) to pre-Romanticism; Romanticism ( 1843-1870 ) ; Realism (1870-1905); Slovakian Literary Modernism ; Slovakian Literature between the wars (1918 1945); Contemporary Literature ( 1945-); Conclusion and Completion. Some of these chapters are very short, superficial and the whole publication is unbelievably biased towards writers and poets whose works expressed ideas opposed to Communism as, for instance, the poets and writers of Catholic modernism and all Slovak writers and poets in exile, except for J . C. Hronsky. Faithful to the directives of the Party, Noge considers as the greatest poets and writers such second class poets as Novomesky or Valek, and such mediocre writers as Vamos and Jilemnicky. "The poems by Laco Novomesky - assording to Noge - are most expressive, from the SLOVAKIA 209 artistic and human point of view that those years were the "dark most mature fruit of modern Slo- age" of Slovak literature. The lie vakfan poetry. His works are fre- has, however, short legs, as a Sloquently the key opening the way vak saying goes. A glance at the to ,t he sense and the problems of Slovak literary production between Slovakian literature between the 1939 and 1945 included in his book, wars and after them." shows that even the leading ComValek, who plays today the role munists published freely: Novoof the Minister of Culture in Slo- mesky published his book in 1939; vakia which after 1945 had been Hecko in 1942; Tafarka in 1942; played by Novomesky is, according Kostra in 1939, 1940, and two books to Noge, even of greater import- in 1942; Ponican in 1940 and 1941 ; ance for Slovak literature. "Valek's Horov in 1940 , l942 and 1944; complex work - writes Noge - . .Zary in 1941 and two books so rich in meaning and expression, in 1942; Ondrejov in 1940, and so inaugurated a new stage in the on. In fact, all Slovak writers and evolution of Slovakian poetry, re- poets created and published during presenting hitherto in some respect th e years of the Slovak Republic its peak." Horibile dictu! The Eng- more th an at any time before, lish reader could not help looking regardless of the fact whether they with contempt on Slovak literature supported the regime or not. Comif these minor poets were its great- munist literary historians should est authors and their poetry re- not underestimate the intelligence presented the peak of Slovak liter- of Wes tern readers. From the readature. ing of Noge's booklet, anyone can find out that, with the exception Noge seems to be objective in of G. Va.mos, who was not in Slohis write-up on individual Slovak vakia and Jilemnicky who was a poets and writers only in his evalu- Czech settled in Slovakia, every ation of the literary works pro- Slovak writer, poet, literary hisduce<l in the 1950's. He admits that torian or critic ,p ublished his works, "authoritarian methods of regle- and the younger ones their debuts mentation in the field of literature during that period. Since it is the first survey of reached ,t heir peak in 1951." He also writes that the literature and Slovak literature in the English poetry of that time was "just the language, we cannot but regret poetic drafting of political and that it is not better either in form journalistic phrases" and that in or content. This publication will prose writing the topics "were hardly convince English, American, treated in the manner of agitating Canadian, or Australian readers propaganda." However, this should that Slovak literature is worthbe understood in the context of while to be studied, taught and the events of 1968 when Noge's read. In addition to its shortbooklet was published. Criticism of comings mentioned above, the pubthe 1950's was not only fashionable lication also suffers from a very in 1968 but also a prerequisite for bad translation and too many printpublishing. ing errors. It would seem that One of the most .biased state- emigre Slovak intellectuals must ments in Noge's book is his asser- publish an English survey of Slotion that during the Slovak Repub- vak literature to present it to the lie some writers and poets "ceased civilized world in an objective light to write belles-lettres," intimating and proper form . 210 SLOVAKIA Letopis Pamatnika Slovenskej Lite- lenced not only Stur but also many ratu:ry 1970. Compiled and Edited of his followers and it was mainly by Juraj Chovan (Matica slovenska, Martin 1970), pp. 250, Russian and German Summary, Index. Slovak literary history receives in this publication some new insights and correct interpretation of the work of three prominent men of letters: Jan Holly, Andrej Radlinsky and Martin Hamuljak. Not only during the inter-war period when Slovak literary history was adjusted to the political aims of "Czechoslovakism", but also since 1945, Catholic writers and their role in Slovak national development was minimized or completely neglected . For a short time after the Second World War, Holly was rediscovered and some valuable publications of his life and work appeared in Slovakia or were prepared for the printers. For the ce11tennary of Holly, literary historians and critics such as Jozef Ambrus, Jozef Felix and others prepared nine volumes of Holly's poetry with comments and evaluation. However, the re.g ime did not allow distribution of Holly's work and it appeared only after 20 years in second-hand bookshops. The reason for such undeserved treatment of Holly's work was apparently the fact that it was published by Spolok sv. Vojtecha. The present publication gives justice to Holly and, at the same time, it presents Radlinsky and Hamuljak and their activities in a true light. Not only in the political history but also in literary history, the period between 1848 and 1918 was interpreted in such a way as if Slovak Catholics had not played any role in Slovak national life. The facts are, of course, quite different. The disillusionment of the year 1848 si- the Catholic intelligentsia who kept the flame of national consciousness alive and were active in cultural and literary life. From Radlinsky through Moyses to Oswald, a score of Slovak Catholics organized cultural and literary activi.ties and fought for the national rights of the Slovak people. Contributions to the present publications by Augustin Mat'ovcik, Zemka Cejkova, Konstantin Palkovie and Juraj Chovan, bring to light some interesting details on this period mainly in connection with Radlinsky's activities. The present Letopis is the fourth publication of this kind by Matica slovenska. All of them have been dealing with research into Slovak literature and contained results of studies by qualified literary historians. The greater part of the present publication is composed of papers presented at two conferences in April 1969. The first confere nce was organized on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the death of J. Holly in Trnava and the second one on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the death of A. Radlinsky. In addition of these papers, there is an interesting essay on Slovak studies Slovakica - at foreign universities by J . Kuzmik. The essay deals so far with Slovak studies in Slavic countries. But the title of the essay indicates that it will deal with Slova k studies in all foreign universities and institutions. We hope that Kuzmik will treat the subject with scholarly objectivity when he writes on Slovak studies at American and Canadian universities. A short survey published by him sometime ago indicated that he was not free of the usual bias common to all literary and cultural historians in today's Slovakia. He left out im- SLOVAKIA portant contributions to Slovak studies at Western universities just because of political considerations and inflated the importance of others who professed political ideologies accepted rby the present regime in Czecho-Slovakia. The publication also contains documents and information on various cultural topics, as well as book reviews. Slovaks abroad learned with satisfaction that Matica slovenska in Prievidza organized an exhibition of the literary work of J. C. Hronsky. The exhibition lasted two weeks and met with great interest by the public. The objectivity of this publication is enhanced by including an account on this exhibition in which it has been admitted that Hronsky was "one of the most important, but also systematically under-estimat:ed Slovak writer." Unfortunately, the publication contains only a short Russian and German summary and will, therefore, be useful only for Slavists who can read Slovak. Nevertheless, we welcome this valuable contribution to better and more objective evalu ation of the Slovak literary past. W ith Christ in His Passion. By Rudolph Dilong. '!1ranslated from the original Slovak by Sister M. Martina Tibor, SS.C.M., Villa of the Sacred .Heart, Danville, Pa., 1971, pp. 75, $2.50. The greatest poetic genius of our century, the French poet, Paul Claude!, used to say (in several variations) about the poet and poetry. "The object of poetry is not, as they say very frequently, dreams, illusions or ideas_ It is the holy reality, given once for all times, in the center of which we are situated. It is the universe of in- 211 visible things. It is all that we look at and all that looks back at us. All this is God's work; it renders matter inexhaustible for all the greatest poet says and sings as well as the smallest bird. Since there is a phiiosophia perennis that does not invent ... abstract beings that no one has ever seen except thei r authors, .. . so there is also a poesis perennis that does not invent its themes, but it eternally recaptures those which Creation furnishes to it ... The purpose of poetry is not, as Baudelaire says, 'to plunge into the bottom of the Infinite to find something new,' but to plunge into the bottom of the definite in order to find there the inexhaustible ... Nor is he a poet who invents, but he who, approaching things, assembles and permits us to understand them." Justly we can apply these concepts especially to the religious poetry of Rudolf Dilong, the most prolific and meritorious contemporary Slovak poet living in exile (Pittsburgh, Pa.) So he took a plunge into the sacred reality of the Pascha'l Mystery and with a luminous creative poetic imagry tried the humanly impossible: to capture the uncapturable mystery found in Christ's redemptive mystery of suffering and victory. He listens in these depths and assembles the rays of his poetic vision in powerful and eloquent words. These are his immortal merits. How about the (frequently overlooked) merits of the translator, Sister Martina Tibor? Well, if poetry is art par excellence, so is its translation. To translate poetry well requires above all the perfect mastery of two languages. But this is not enough. The translator must be also a virtual pbet (in potentia), to save in his translation as much SLOVAKIA 212 of the sublime poetic beauty as it is possible. And this process must be a new creation: a scrupulous penetration into the fine shades of meanings and the recapturing in another language this almost imperceptible shimmering of condensed poetic experience and expression. Even so, something will always be lost from the genuine beauty of the original. AU in all, we gladly say that Sister Martina did a splendid job in translating into English the most difficult, exuberant and most sublime religious poetry of the poet1>riest Rudolf Dilong. It is a valuable cultural service to the poetic Slovak genius. Nichoias Sp r in c, Borromeo Seminary College of Ohio ··DIE SLOWAKEI IN DER NACHDER KRIEGSENTWICKLUNG (The TSCHECHO-SLOWAKEI" Role of Slovakia in the Political Evolution of Czecho--Slovakia After the Second World War); by Prof. J. M. Kirschbaum, Schriftenreihe des Matus Cernak Instituts, Koln, Nr. 3, 1971, pp. 32, Bibi. Prof. J . M. Kirschbaum enriched again our political literature by a consice study about Slovakia after lhe Second World War. The publication is destined predominantly to scholars and historians but it will be welcome by anybody interested in political development in Czecho-Slovakia from 1945 to 1968. This period of Slovak history was presented in the West by fore ign historians as well as by Czech exiles in the most distorted light. Prof J. M. Kirschbaum, on the basis of sources in several languages, gives a clear picture of the role of Slovakia in the upheavals through which Czecho-Slov>akia, restored by the Soviet armies, had to undergo after the Second World War. The publication is an enlarged version of an English contribution to Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968, which was dedicated by Canadian Slavists to the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968. The English version discusses the events until the invasion of Czecho• Slovakia by the Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops. In the German version there is also a chapter on the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia , and the footnotes were completed by references to works in German, while in the English text, Prof. Kirschbaum referred mostly to books published on the American Continent and in France. The study is divided into four chapters dealing with the Communist coup d'etat in 1948, the ,period of the "cult of personality" in Slovakia, the process of de--Stalinization and the struggle for liberalization and federalization. In each chapter the author traces the special role which Slovakia played in the crucial years of the transformation of Czecho-Slovakia into the most faithful satellite of the Soviet Union. To avoid being accused of "parti pris," Prof. J .M. Kirschbaum heavily relies on quotations from American and Canadian political scientists dealing with Eastern Europe. Among others he often quotes the work by the former Secretary to President Benes, E. Taborsky, who now teaches at American universities, but the most interesting quotation comes from a Czech professor at the University of British Columbia, Stanley Z. Pech, who wrote the following remarkable statement about Western historians writing on Eastern Europe: "Although Western specialists in Eastern European history have usually regarded it as their task to SLOVAKIA I 213 make the West familiar with the Since Prof. F . Hrusovsky published entire panorama of the polyglot his concise booklet This is Slovakia. region, they have in practice often I some 20 years ago, we did not been selective in the favors they have in English any publication to bestoved on each nation. They have give either to foreigners or to incorporated in their work, in Slovaks educated at American, Camodified form, the outlook and nadian or Australian universities, the prejudices of the nations which the basic facts of Slovak history they "adopted." To give the most and cultural life. For this reason, conspicuous examples, they viewed the Slovak World Congress deSlovak history through Czech eyes. serves credit for publishing an In so doing, they have in fact up-to-date account on Slovakia. The publication is composed of created a second-class status for certain nations. The history of the two essays by Prof. J . A. Mikus. Slovaks in the West has usually and six essays by Prof. J . M. Kirschbeen presented from the point of baum. Prof. Mikus deals with the view of "Czechoslovakism" and has individuality of Slovakia, namely, appeared as hardly more than a with geographical and demographical facts and with the personality postscript to Czech history. " of the Slovak nation. Both essays We understand that the first are written in a scholarly way but English book by Prof. J. M. Kirsch- understandable to any reader. baum Slovakia - Nati 01i at the Drawing on personal knowledge Crossroads of Central Europe is and long years of studies of Slovak no more avail.able even though it history, Prof. Mikus displayed ahad three printings. It would be gain by his essays that he belongs a service to the Slovak cause if among the best Slovak authors he revised his book and completed abroad in the field of history and it by the present study in order political science. that students of Slovak history, as The essays by Prof. J . M. Kirschwell as politicians and American baum deal with the historical back and Canadian Slovaks of the second ground of Slovakia, the ethnic and third generations, could have origin and language, cultural, poan objective history on Slovakia. litical, religious and economic The Matus cernak Institute de- background. The essays give a serves credit for publishing this complete and unbiased picture of well documented study. The Slovak 1100 years of Slovak history, as World Congress would render a well as of political and cultural service to the Slovak cause if it evolution of the Slovak people and took care of pl.acing this concise of the economic potential of Sloand expertly written account of vakia. Perhaps intentionally short, modern Slovak history into univer- the essays refer to many books sity libraries in Europe as well as either in Slovak or in foreign languages, which will be welcome by on this Continent. who want to enhance their students J . Pau c o knowledge of Slovakia. SLOVAKIA : Historical and Cu lturThe reader will notice that Prof. al Background, by Prof. J. A. J . M. Kirschbaum made great efMikus and Prof. J. M. Kirsch- forts to present the political and baum, Published by Slovak World religious background of Slovaks Congress (Toronto, Canada, June without any bias. This is in accoro 1971) , pp. 63, ill. bibl. ance with the concept of the Slovak I SLOVAKIA 214 World Congress which published this valuable addition to books on Slovakia. The Congress is guided by national as well as by religious ecumenical spirit. As in his other works on Slovakia, Prof. Kirsch• baum makes a distinction between the history of Slovakia and the history of the Slovak people which is not history of dynasties or expansive wars, but a struggle for survival. Such an approach will probably be most understandable for Slovaks as well as foreigners and may prove to be correct in the last analysis. The publication is enhanced by a map of Europe and several pictures from the history of Slovakia, as well as by a bibliography of English books on Slovakia by Slovak authors. The Editor, Prof. J. M. Kirschbaum added this im· pressive survey of books in English by Slovak authors for Slovaks educated outside Slovakia, and he did the right thing. Published by the Slovak World Congress, this valuable publication was distributed freely to the participants at the meeting in Toronto, and is apparently no more avail• able. It would be a service to the Slovak cause if a second edition be prepared for general use. J. Pa u co ETHNOLOGIA SLAVICA I: Uni· versitas Comeniana Bratislavensis, Facultas Philosophica, Bratislava 1970, p. 226, Multi-Lingual. The liberalization period in Slovakia brought about a favorable change not only in the political climate but also in cultural and scientific activities. Many projects which for years were only debated, materialized in 1968 or 1969. As a result, several symposia from a nllltlber of Conferences dealing with inter-Slavic relations in pre- vious years were published and institutes or chairs of studies were founded and organized. The Institute of Ethnology wa one of them and the present volume ETHNOLOGIA SLAVICA is the first publication of this Institute which has been founded "for the purpose of establishing an institution for ethnological research concerned with the Slavic nations," as the editors say in their multi• lingual introduction. According to the editors, Slovak scholars also planned the establishment of Ethnological Archives and a Society of Slavic Ethnologists but " the well-known events of 1968 (in other words, the Soviet invasion) heavily intefered with the realization of the original program." Only the Institute of Ethnology came into being and this first volume of ETHNOLOGIA SLA VICA is the result of the research of its members and foreign ethnologists. The volume was published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Comenius University (1919). The Managing Editor of the publication, Jan Podolak, says in his Preface that the University has been founded "to enable Slovaks to acquire erudition (sic) of university-degree in the national language." However, it is well-known that the students of the Comenius University had to organize demonstrations for the use of the Slovak language as late as 1937-1938 because the mission of the University was to help the assimilation of Slovaks. The situation changed only during the Slovak Republic when education as well as administration, was carried on in the Slovak language which the present day scholars are not allowed to mention. The publication ETHNOLOGIA SLOVAKIA SLA VICA is a valuable addition to Slavic studies and is a long time overdue, if we take into consideration the fact that one of the main founders of Slavic ethnology, P . J. Safarik, come from Slovakia. The volume contains contributions by Slovak as well as foreign scholars, and the essays have been published in English, French and German, with a Slovak resume in some cases, which will make the book accessible also to ethnologists in the West. Of 12 contributions, 3 have been written by Slovaks. Jan Michalek evaluated P . J. Safarik's contribution to Slavic ethnography; Jan Podolak wrote an interesting essay on the pastoral culture of the Carpathians as a subject of ethnological study, and Anton Habovstiak contributed the study "La colonisation pastorale dans les Karpates et les patois slovaques" (The Pastoral Colonization of the Carpathians and Slovak Dialects). Among foreign contributors are Milovan Gavazzi (from Zagreb), Sergei A. Tokarev (from Moscow), Christo Vakarelski (from Sofia), Zoltan Ujvary (from Debrecen), Oldrich Sirovatka (from Brno), Slobodan 2ecevic (from Beograd) , and two contributions have been written by Lusatian-Serbians, Isolde Gardos and Siegmund Musiat. This mosaic of contributors as well as the variety of subjects treated by them gives the book an intemational and inter-Slavic image. This should be velcome in view of the fact that the results of academic activities by Slovak scholars were rarely published in Western languages. The essays are not of equal value but they are all on the level of similar studies in the Soviet orbit. The volume is oriented particularly to Russian but also to Croatian, Bulgarian and Lusatian-Serbian ethnology, but the editors are 215 promising to deal also with Polish, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian ethnology in the following volumes. As an addendum the publication contains reviews in English and in German of the activities and the writings by Czech, Polish, Soviet, Ukrainian and Bulgarian ethnographers and their institutes or periodicals. Since every book in foreign language dealing with Slovak culture is of great importance for acquainting the world with Slovakia, we sincerely welcome this volume and hope that further volumes will follow as the editors promised and that the present generation of Slovak ethnologists will follow in the footsteps of P . J. Safarik who left a rich legacy to Slovak ethnology. * J. M . K i r s c h b au m * On P . J. Safarik, see Kirschbaum , P . J . Safcirik and His Contribution to Slavic Studies (Slavistica No. 43, Cleveland-Winnipeg, 1962) . DUBCEK'S Blu e Print for Fre edom: His Documentation on Czechoslovakia leading to the Soviet invasion, with a Profile by Hugh Lunghi and Commentary by Paul Ello (William Kimber, London, 1968), pp. 352, Index. Among the scores of books which were published on Dubcek and the events in Czecho--Slovakia in 1968* , this book will remain as one of the most useful for scholars and laymen alike. The editors included in the book the most important documents such as Dubcek's speech on April 1, 1968, at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Czecho,Slovak Communist Party; the Action Programme of the Party; Dubcek's report to the meeting of. the Central Committee on May 29-June 1, 1968, and the warning given by the Presidium 216 SLOVAKIA of the Central Committee in answer to the letters of five Communist and Workers' Parties. Finally, in the Appendix, the book includes Dubcek's speech of December 1, 1968. These contents are expertly introduced and commented upon by Hugh Lunghi, a former member of the British Embassy in Moscow, and Paul Ello from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington. While Lunghi, who has been one of the best informed analysts on the staff of the British Broadcasting Corporation, gives in his Introduction an analysis of the events which led to the Soviet invasion, Paul Ello wrote a concise but well balanced commentary. The Summary is not signcd, and may be the work of either of the writers. The book will have a lasting value for inte11preting the attempts at changing •Stalinism in one o.f the most advanced, culturally and industrially, satellites of Moscow and at giving socialism a "human face. " Both Lunghi and Ello are factual in their analysis and Lunghi did not fail to point out the role of Slovakia and Slovak Communist leaders in the upheavals which many other authors, writing about the "Prague Spring", failed to do. In accordance with the facts, Lunghi writes that "one of the first of Novotny's fatal errors was his mishandling of the Slovaks," and that it was Dubcek's reaction to Novotny's policy towards Slovakia which began the snowball roUing. During the Central Committee meetings at the end of 1967, according to Lunghi the "three issues at stake were, firstly, the implementation of the economic reforms; secondly, freedom of expression and, finally, effective autonomy for SJovakia." (p. 17) . This conclusion has been accept- ed in the meantime as correct also by other authors who had access to documents, especially by Paul Tigrid in his book: La Chute Irresistible d'Alexander Dubcek, (Calmann-Levy, Paris, 1969) which was likewise reviewed in "Slovakia", Vol. 21, p. 206. Lunghi apparently followed the events in Slovakia very closely and without the usual bias which we can find among some Western specialists in East European problems. This appears not only in his assessment of the role of Husak after the invasion but also in his reference to Peter Colotka, Deputy Premier in Prague's government, who made some courageous declarations which resulted in his removal from his post. Lunghi's analysis of the situation in Slovakia was also correctly grasped in his statement that "the federation of the country, longed for by the Slovaks, had, at last been achieved in the face of the Russians who wanted to keep the two nations divided and at logger-heads. During the invasion the Russians had put about the totally false rumors that some Slovak provinces wanted to become Soviet republics. Symbolically, the legislation creating the federal state was enacted to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration on October 28th." Unfortunately, the law of the federation was enacted but it became ineffective to a great degree because of Czech reluctance, what Lunghi could not, of course, foresee in 1968. Western analysts mentioned various reasons for the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Warsaw Pact military forces in the books so far published on the invasion. Lunghi brings to light a new possible element which finally pushed the Soviet leadership to invade Czecho-Slovakia. During the spring SLOVAKIA and summer of 1968 there was a strong reaction against the secret police which apparently was not only organized on the model of the Soviet secret police but also directed and infiltrated by Soviet agents to whom the Prague Ministry of Interior had to submit interrogation material before bringing them to the ministers themselves. According to Lunghi, the announced purge of the secret police apparatus threatened a vital Soviet interest by the revelations published in the newpapers in Bratislava and in Prague. Moscow's objective was, therefore, "to hold these dangerous processes and to restore a leadership in Prague which would control the population through a Soviet style Communist Party using the proper level of power - a persuasive and omnipotent secret police with no nonsense about 'demonstration of the socio-political 217 system'." (page 25). No doubt this could have been one of the serious reasons for the infamous decision to destroy an interesting effort by Slovaks and Czechs to give socialism a "human face." Paul Ello's commentary, short as it is, is clear and factual, and belongs among the best written ones shortly after the invasion, where there was a lot of confusion in Western countries among the specialists in East Europe. The book undoubtedly deserves to be read and preserved on the shelves for further study of a crucial moment in the history of Eastern Europe and probably in the history of Western civilization. J. M. Ki r s c h b au m • On a number of books on this subject, see my book reviews in "Slovakia", Vol. 21, 1971, No. 44, pp. 205-210. Rudolph Petrak, Slovak Tenor Rudolph Petrak, 54, of 32 Halsey, Dr., Old Greenwich, Conn., a leading tenor with the City Opera Company from 1948 to 1956, died March 4, 1972, at Saint Joseph Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was born in Sucany, Slovakia had sung at major opera houses in Europe and South America, and as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and other noted ensembles. He sang under the batons of such famous conductors as Leopold Stokowski, Ormandy, Leinsdorf and Krips. Mr. Petrak began his career with the Bratislava Opera and made his American debut in 1948 at the New York City Center as Rudolfo in "La Boheme." Congressman Albert P. Morano of Greenwich noted in the Congressional Record of the United States. "I have become acquainted with many artists who have immigrated to America, but know of none more possessed of deep love for his adopted country than Rudolph Petrak." "The New York Times" in an obituary on Monday, March 6, 1972 published his picture as he sang Radames in "Aida" about 1949. The New York Times also wrote: "In 1960 when Mr. Petrak sang at the Philadelphia Orchestra's presentation of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" in Carnegie Hall, Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times music critic noted: "Everything sounded effortless and clear, even the high D that Mr. Petrak took in falsetto".-J.C.S. SLOVAKIA 218 Our Contributor s Karol Kuzmany, Slovak leader in 19th century. Msgr. George A. Galik, J.C.D., author, Hibbing, Minn. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph.D., historian, author, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. E . L. Delaney, author, journalist, Glendale, Cal. Fran!;ois d'Orcival, French political writer, Paris. Paul Kotva, pen name of Karol Sidor, former Premier of Slovakia. Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M., teacher, St. Cyril Academy, Danville, Pa. Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota, lecturer, Middletown, Pa. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L., J.D., historian, author, Washington, D. C. Francis Vnuk, M.A., political analyst, professor, Institute of Technology, Adelaide, Australia. Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., journalist, author, Middletown, Pa. K. culen, historian, journalist. Rev. A. V. Pier, O.S.B., journalist, author, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Steven I. Miller, assistant professor, Loyola University of Chicago, Ill. Daniel F. Tanzone, B.A., fraternalist, Yonkers, N. Y. Helena T. Gaydos, cultural worker, Philadelphia, Pa. George A. Podhajsky, pen name of a Slovak refugee professor. Rudolph J. Vecoli, professor of history and director of the Center of Immigration Studies at the University of Minnesota. Agnes Bocan, St. Cyril Academy, Danville, Pa. Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., teacher, author, Danville, Pa. Edward J. Behuncik, attorney-at-law, Stratford, Connecticut. Rev. Nicholas Sprinc, professor, poet, Wickliffe, Ohio. Picture on the front cover: Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of the Slovak Republic. SLOVAKIA 219 Contents Dr. Tiso's Last Message to the Slovak People - 3 Paean to Integrity - Karol Kuzmany-George A. Galik - 4 Dr. Joseph Tiso-the Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People - J.M. Kirschbaum - 5 I Met President Tiso - E. L. Delaney - 21 Msgr. Joseph Tiso - Fran(;ois d'Orcival - 26 Murder in Slovakia - Hon. Alvin E. O'Konsld - 36 Speech of Hon. Ray J. Madden - 37 Slovak Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso - N.C.W.C. News Service - 40 Who Killed Dr. Tiso? - Paul Kotva - 43 Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero - 48 Dr. Jozef Tiso-His Political Creed - Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M. - 50 Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks - Joseph C. Krajsa - 57 Prof. Stanislav Meciar (1910-1971)-In Memoriam - J.M. Kirschbaum - 60 Michael Novak on White Ethnics - Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L. , J .D. - 62 Slovak Martyrs - 64 British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 1939 - F. Vnuk - 65 Th e Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) - Joseph Pauco, Ph.D. - 92 The Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks in U.S.A . and Canada - K. Culen - 98 America's Discovery of Ethnic Values - A. V. Pier, O.S.B. - 114 Historical and Empi rical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group - Dr. Steven I. Miller - 116 The Slovak Experience In Contemporary America - Daniel F. Tanzone -125 Slovakia, the Land of B eauty - Helena T. Gaydos - 136 Tourist Trade of Slovakia - George A. Podhajsky - 140 Why Our Melting Pot Cooled Off - Rudolph J. Vecoli - 146 An Introduction to Slovak Costume - Agnes Bocaii - 153 Slovak Scientist Stefan A. Jedlik, O.S.B. - A. V. Pier - 158 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 - Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Declaration Adopted by Slovak World Congress - 193 Unity Is Necessary - Edward J . Behuncik - 195 As Others See It - 198 Book Reviews - 205 Rudolph Petrak, Slovak Tenor - J.C.S. - 217 161 PRI NTI D IN U.S. A. JIDN OTA PlllN TER Y, MID DLli TOW N, PA.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45) Description An account of the resource includes Current Issues; As Others See It; Book Reviews; Obituary; Contributors Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/772859d41df01ca562f5584835e85c55.pdf 4fe0ec0875bb7915b4b223683798da43 PDF Text Text SLOVAKlA 161 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 SLOVAK-AMERICAN PRIEST, LEADER, EDUCATOR Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. An observance commemorating the life and accomplishments of Father Matthew Jankola in this centennial year of his birth has the advantages of distance and historic perspective. It provides a very timely opportunity for appraising this leader and his life's contribution with fair and realistic appreciation, with a degree of objective regard for his innate qualities and his unique achievements. Father Jankola's life span encompassed only forty-three years and his biographical data can be summarized very compactly. BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE The parents of Matthew Jankola were Matthew and Rosalie Medvecky Jankola. They lived very ·simply but happily in Trstena, a picturesque town in the economically disadvantaged Orava district of Slovakia, and their son Matthew spent much of his early life there. But Trstena was not Father Jankola's birthplace, for he was born away from home on July 2, 1872, while his parents were at seasonal work in the Stary Budin sector of Budapest, Hungary. After his elementary education in Trstena, the boy Matthew continued his schooling at gymnazia in Bardejov and Beckov. Later, on the recommendation and under the sponsorship of his maternal uncle, the Francisean Father Emerich Medvecky, he advanced to seminary studies with the Franciscans in Hlohovec and in Kremnica. At the same time, the school of life steadily trained him too. With ardor and utmost good will he gave his all in order to prepare for the priesthood with a religious order but the evils of oppression did not spare him even in the seminaries of Slovakia. In fact, they left their mark upon him by undermining his health though no degree of im- �162 SLOVAKIA posed suffering could shake his spirit. This apparently all-pervasive atmosphere of oppression was one of the determining factors that led him to seek a better way of life in the new world. It happened, then, that because of many types of extreme pressures in his homeland-political, economic, cultural-and because America had become a haven of refuge and security to many of his countrymen, he too ventured upon the long voyage across the Atlantic and arrived in the harbor of Baltimore on December 19, 1893. He was not in prime physical condition at this time, for strain and exhaustion had drained his reserves but his heart was filled with a determination that was always characteristic of him and with a buoyant hope that here honest work would bring honest returns, that repression did not came with him on his long and arduous trip. In his soul he cherished the vision that he could become a force for good in this new world while he would also be a support and help for his dear ones in Slovakia. And so he began a new chapter in the young manhood of his life. He had come to America as a talented and achieving student in his fourth year of theology. He was not encumbered with misgivings or uncertainties about his life's work or objectives. Without unnecessary delay he enrolled in St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore but after an interval of illness had interrupted his seminary program, he transferred to St . Bonaventure Seminary in Allegheny, New York, where Latin was the language of instruction. His proficiency in Latin made him feel very much at home here and in two semesters he was able to complete the courses that he needed for the final rounding out of his training for the priesthood. January 13, 1895 was the date Father Jankola's ordination. He was twenty-two and had lived half of his life. From this date on, he felt in his soul that he owed filial gratitude to three persons whom he regarded in the role of father: his natural father who was very dear to him; his u ncle Father Emerich Medvecky whose Franciscan charity and solicitude saw to his education and the nurturing of his priestly vocation; and Bishop William O'Hara of Scranton who received him in America and ordained him p riest. �SLOVAKIA 163 Shortly after his ordination he received his first priestly assignment: the pastorate of St. John the Baptist parish in Pittston, Pennsylvania. And from this center he extended pastoral care to seven other towns where Slovak Catholic immigrants were settling. He was subsequently pastor of St. Joseph's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and of SS. Cyril and Methodius parish in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he died on May 5, 1916. This brief and superficially simple biographical sketch does not even suggest any of the fullness of his lifetime. It is rather the bare diagram of plotting points, each of which opened upon an individual richness of life . BACKGROUNDS The pivotal key in Father Jankola's life was his total commitment to the priesthood. The fruition of all his living was in the twenty years that followed upon his ordination. The social milieu in which he had decided upon a career of service as a priest of God rightfully had conditioned him into viewing dedication to the altar as no mere token position to be satisfied by perfunctorily discharged liturgical devotions and ceremonies-significant and beautiful as they may be. To him the office of priest meant a distinctive way of life binding the priest to serve wholeheartedly as mediator, leader, educator, philanthropist and sanctifier of his people in and for Christ. Much in the mind of Vatican II, he developed his formation and his philosophy of life in the ideal that the priest is above all for Christ and for the people. In all his subsequent endeavors this wa:s his guiding principle, his constant. Even as a growing boy and as an aware adolescent, he had lived with the realization that among his people the priest was the one individual who stood for leadership, uprightness and learning as well as for spiritual ministry, moral guidance and ethical inspiration. He was oriented to his regard for the priesthood because the ruling powers that had shackled Slovakia in many ways had also-except by rare exception- denied academic opportunities for Slovak boys and girls who aspired to professional or scientific careers. On this score, the authorities relented only to permit seminary training for the sake of the priest- �164 SLOVAKIA hood, and normal school courses in a limited way, in order to prepare some teachers for schools. The priest, then, had to be more than shepherd of souls in Slovakia. He had to be the leading light of his people in temporalities as well as in spirituality. He had to be .not only teacher and guide in virtue and goodness but also a perceptive and courageous defender of justice and the basic rights of man. This is the main reason why Slovak priests sometimes found themselves consciencebound to take a hard look even at the political atmosphere in which they and their people had to live. And seeing the realities of inequity, discrimination, cultural deprivation, oppression and spiritual bondage, they had the moral fortitude even publicly to attack these evils and defend their people and their country; they had the conviction that as the educated leaders of their people, they had to have the stamina to enter the forum of public affairs and there champion the cause of the wronged, the oppressed and the helpless whenever circumstances demanded their presence in the public arena. Various modes of oppression, overt as well as patent, often discouraged or demoralized the average citizen who was usually much preoccupied with the daily need to provide at least a living for his family. The God-given beauty of his natural surroundings often put a bit of poetry into a peasant's hard life; the lilt and loveliness of folk song and folk music warmed his heart, and the ar tistry of hand crafted work brought him some gratuitous satisfaction through creative expression but he needed the wholesomeness of opportunities to cultivate his intellectual talents and his inborn creative gifts freely and even as a lifetime career, as a professional; he needed assured liberty and justice, openness and a sense of security so that he could rise above sheer drudgery and allow his spirit to grow expansive. He needed to nourish his life of the spirit as well as the life of his body . He needed to satisfy his intellectual hunger in order to develope spiritually and to structure a sense of dignity in his life. All this the Slovak priest recognized in his parish, in his town or village, in his country. More was asked of him than is generally asked of the average priest, and he had t o be a man greater dimension that the average man. He �SLOVAKIA 165 had to be capable of tactful leadership, of sound capacities for guidance and direction, of clear vission and foresight ; resourceful as well as prayerful, peace-loving yet fearless in the face of defending God-given rights, forgiving yet relentless in fighting injustice. In him converged all the likeness of Christlike being and behavior and all the paradoxes of virtue flourishing in a sin-beset world. This is the kind of life that Matthew Jankola chose with mature and deliberate will. Most importantly, this is the kind of life that he lived. Fire and ardor were of his very nature; integrity, initiative and unclouded vision were his basic assets; God, nation and fellowmen-in that order-were his top priorities; and the grit to endure was the price that he was asked to pay in the discharge of his vocation. Living here as he did under pioneering conditions among immigrants who were truly strangers in a strange land, he was imbued with characteristic missionary concern for both the material and the spiritual welfare of those around him and of those for whom he had made himself responsible. He was aware that the socio-economic circumstances which bore upon the immigrant Slovak laborer could affect him very adversely and for that reason he did not spare himself in awakening and revitalizing deep self-respect and dignity in the man who was burdened with inhuman hours and labors and even humiliation in the dank pits of coal mines, at the raging forges of steel mills, at railroad building and multiplicity of menial jobs of every description. Work itself is reasonably recognized as honorable but sometimes the conditions under which a man is compelled to work can conspire to brutalize him. And man must not spend all his working hours in just expending the strength of his muscles or he may become gross. FIRST PASTORATE It is worth noting that Bishop O'Hara appointecl. Father Jankola pastor of St. John the Baptist parish in Pittston very shortly after his ordination. He knew how urgent the need was for this parish to have a pastor and he recognized in the newly ordained Father Jankola gifts of mind and spirit that recommended him, young as h e was, for a responsible office even without seasoned ap- �166 SLOVAKIA prenticeship in parish work. Pioneering often calls for practically instant response to duty. Father Jankola never hesitated in meeting the demands of duty and Bishop O'Hara had every reason to be convinced that his trust in this pastor was well placed. With complete dedication, an unusual capacity for work and keen administrative talent, the new priest assumed the new tasks committed to him. With apostolic zeal he made it a point of his prime priestly service to reach out among the scattered Slovak Catholics of wide regions. He did not circumscribe his labors and his interests to that one Pittston parish only. He felt, rather, that all the Slovaks displaced in America were his immediate concern, and his specific responsibility to the Pittston parish of St. John the Baptist included the Slovak Catholics of seven adjoining communities commonly referred to as "places" or "plejzy." They included Sturmerville, West Pittston, Wyoming, Port Griffith, Smithville, Duryea and Pittston Junction. At this time he also traveled to the Binghamton, New York, area to serve the spiritual needs of Slovaks settling there. From the very beginning these, so to say, transplanted and still rootless people who were largely engaged in railroad building and in the shoe industry, were content to use the church facilities that were very kindly offered them by St. Patrick's parish but in 1902 Father Jankola helped them to organize their own parish under the patronal title of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Important as this was, it was enough. He next did his utmost in order to find a reasonable priest to take charge of this parish or at least to offer temporary ministry to the Binghamton Slovak community. On countless occasions when no one else was available, he himself came to provide them with Sunday services, to administer the sacraments, to advise and guide them and to inspire and encourage them to cultivate their spiritual life, much like a missionary compelled to ride h is circuit in order to bring God to man and man to God. During this pastorship in Pittston, Father Jankola also ministered to the Slovaks of Wilkes-Barre and Swoyeville ( which was called Maltby in his day) and with his sound direction and practical acumen, he helped them to build their churches. There were over eight thousand Slovaks in Wyoming Valley region around Wilkes-Barre at this time �SLOVAKIA 167 and there was a steady flow of increase into this hard coal region as ship after ship brought more Slovak immigrants to American shores. From his parish base in Pittston Father Jankola indefatigably toiled among them, deeply concerned that the burdens and troubles of providing for material needs and livelihood should not crowd out of their labor-preoccupied lives the eternal truths that God bore them all in his love and that as they spent themselves on behalf of material well-being, they keep in mind and also provide for the life of the spirit and for undying values. In the early history of Slovak Catholics in the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where there was a large concentration of Slovak immigrants, we find the record of these ten Slovak parishes which were established in the late nineteenth century: 1883 St. Joseph's in Hazleton 1886 St. Stephen's in Plymouth 1888 St. Joseph's in Nanticoke 1889 Holy Ghost in Olyphant 1893 St. John Nepomucene in Freeland 1894 St. John the Baptist in Pittston 1895 Holy Trinity in Maltby (later called Swoyerville ) 1895 Sacred Heart in Wilkes-Barre 1895 Holy Family in Scranton 1896 St. Michael's in Jessup Ten Roman Catholic parishes like ten significant reasons to make the heart rejoice! But then the stark realization that there were only eight Roman Catholic priests available for these parishes at this time. Two self-sacrificing priests in this area were obviously called upon to do the work of four. One of these was Fr. Jankola who looked after the parishes in Pittston and in Maltby; the other one was his friend Father Stas who took care of Olyphant and Jessup. PIONEERING PROBLEMS Overextended as these priests were, they realized that it was actually impossible to reach out to all the Slovak immigrants because they lived in such widely scattered places-some here and there in typically settled areas, others in sparse settlements and still others even in very �168 SLOVAKIA remote and unlikely pockets. And they did need the solicitous care of conscientious priets. Many newcomers mistakenly assumed a new "liberty" in America-the liberty to drink too freely, to look upon church-going as a practice better suited to the old country than to the new, to neglect the sacraments with easy abandon and live a loose life. In defense of such attitudes, they all too readily ralied on such specious observations as: "America is different." "I have a parish church at home in Europe; I'll receive the sacraments there." "I work hard all week; Sunday is my day of rest. No one should take my rest from me and tell me to go to Mass ." "Now i want to live. Later when I'm dying I'll send for a priest." Persisting in such attitudes, they would have succumbed to a generally unprincipled or amoral life. Surely they did need someone to bring them effective spiritual guidance and the conviction that freedom in America is not license to abandon religious and moral obligations. Father Jankola looked to the root of these problems. He understood that greater earnings and ready cash in America spelled greater self-reliance which sometimes tended to generate that degree of involvement with material goods that became detrimental to sound spiritually. Easier living here often brought with it a distaste for self-discipline and a laxity about receiving the sacraments. Above all, however, he saw that not a few men deliberately stayed away from church if they did not understand the word of God preached to them in a language that they did not know. This neglect of religious duty was only aggravated by an easy forgetfulness of home training and ready abandonment of many good practices learned at home and advocated in one's parish church in a distant native village or town. Unless measures were taken to offset these unfavorable trends, many otherwise well-meaning but unguided immigrants could stray far from the really good life and from devotion to God. Consequently, Father Jankola did his utmost in the discharge of his ministry and he accomplished very much good but the more he did, the more he saw still waiting to be done. On all sides he faced the need for more priests. Repeatedly he had to hear requests for priestly service, direction and help, and sorrowfully he �SLOVAKIA 169 realized that he was not able to satisfy many of them. Again we have the reality that this was a missionary situation and there were not enough missionaries to serve Christ's cause among the Slovaks in it. In his efforts to resolve this problem, Father Jankola made appeals of his own. On very many occasions he wrote to his homeland, urging Slovak priests and seminarians to offer their help in America. He ·s aw that priests, who could not serve effectively abroad because of hampering factors there, would find here far more suitable conditions and climate as well as an extensive field for their zeal and dedication. Very likely, too, he was prompted to encourage other priests and seminarians to come to America from their Slovak lands because he himself had been similarly invited and encouraged by Father Furdek. Now he felt persuaded that as Father Furdek had to some degree influenced the shaping of his own decision to come to America, he too should try to draw others to serve Christ and his Church here where priests were so sorely needed. Both he and Father Furdek often described the situation and made their appeal not only in personal correspondence but also in various publications abroad to which they contributed. On his visits to relatives in Slovakia, Father Jankola never missed the opportunity of making personal contacts on behalf of interesting likely prospects to bring their priestly talents to apostolic work in America. Naturally, some of this effort went fruitless but some of it did yield returns. It is known that he was instrumental in encouraging these eight priests to come to SlovakAmerican parishes: Rev. Joseph Murgas, Rev. Dr. Alexander Dianiska, Rev. Francis Skutil, Rev. Anthony Berhely, Rev. Joseph Martincek, Rev. Emerich Gottschall, Rev. Ferdinand Prikazky and Rev. Anthony Filkorn. Four clerical students likewise took to heart his urging and on completing their theological courses devoted their efforts to Slovak parishes in America. They were Rev. Andrew Jurica, Rev. John Sobota, Rev. John Porubsky and Rev. John Gaspercik. By his personal effort Father Jankola provided pastors for ten Slovak parishes; viz., in Torrington, Connecticut, Pana, Illinois, and these eight in Pennsylvania: Edwardsville, Tarentum, Mt. Carmel, Monessen, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Barnesboro, Allegheny (now part of Pittsburgh) . �170 SLOVAKIA MISSION TO ROME After visiting Slovakia in 1901 and witnessing the unrelieved plight of Slovak Catholics there, Father Jankola went to Rome. The leading priests of his homeland had authorized him to act as their representative before the Holy Father and in reality he was qualified to speak on behalf of the Slovak Catholics of two continents. He brought to Rome, for presentation to the Holy Father, a three-volume collection of writings produced by outstanding Slovak scholars and a Latin brief or memorandum with which to acquaint Pope Leo XIII with the deeply regrettable plight of Slovak Catholics living under Hungarian rule and unable to make their own appeal for redress and relief. The most grievous wrong was that the Slovak language was totally proscribed among Slovak people. This restriction affected not only their everyday lives in social and business interaction but it also encroached upon their religious way of life. Even in church they were subjected to Magyar services only, even to hearing the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of homilies and sermons in Magyar only although they did not know that language. Church schools, catechetical classes and all courses of Christian Doctrine and religious instruction, along with all other form of schooling, were ordered to use only Magyar as the language of instruction. This ruling which the Slovak populace first encountered with a sense of unbelief gradually made them more and more restive. In time, a people who had traditionally conducted themselves with exemplary respect and ideal regard for the priesthood were becoming not only resistance-prone toward their pastors who were under government control but even hostile and openly rebellious against Magyar and pro-Magyar pastors and against the Magyar hierarchy. They resented the government's interference in their worship of God and in a domain where government has no rightful authority. Since it was useless or impossible to try to negotiate this state of affairs with public officials, Rome seemed to offer the only tribunal of appeal. The document which Father Jankola brought on his visit to the Eternal City made an honest, open and respectful representation of these facts for the Holy Father's consideration. It was �SLOVAKIA 171 signed by Slovak priests who had witnessed and endured what the Slovak people suffered even in their conscience and it expressed some of their fears for the future of the Church under such circumstances. On coming to Rome Father Jankola spent some time with a young Slovak cleric, the brilliant John Porubsky, who was then studying there and who also served in the apothecary of Pope Leo XIII. John Porubsky was well acquainted with a number of Church officials in diplomatic positions and with matters of protocol and effective procedures in official circles. After he had discussed the main objective of Father Jankola in Rome, he consulted with Cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa who was then Assistant Secretary of State and who later became Pope Benedict XV. Cardinal della Chiesa reviewed the memorandum carefully and decided that it warranted further referral. He took it to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla, who was much affected by the serious nature and the further implications of the reported situation. After a personal interview with Father Jankola who confirmed the facts of the memorandum from his personal witness in his homeland, he arranged for both Father Jankola and John Porubsky to see the Holy Father in a private audience. Father Jankola's meeting with Pope Leo XIII lasted two hours. Both of the Slovak representatives spoke with the Holy Father in fluent Latin and the Holy Father was so deeply moved by their report and their citing of specifics that tears of sympathy showed the intensity of his response and his concern for his suffering children. Some measures of alleviation were the outcome of this appeal to Rome, for the hierachy of Austria-Hungary was instructed to introduce reforms allowing the Slovak minority to pray and sing in Slovak and to use their native language in church and at all liturgical and worship services. There was a second spring of spiritual fervor when the meadowlands and mountainsides as well as the churches again resounded with Slovak hymns and Slovak prayers at Mass, at pilgrimages and at popular devotions. It is generally agreed that this occasion on which Father Jankola called attention to the repression which the Slovaks endured even in spiritual matters put before the thinking of ecclesiastical officials the desirability of �172 SLOVAKIA providing Slovak bishops for the Slovak people, of establishing a Slovak hierarchy that would be subject to no local authority but directly to Rome. Such a decision did not reach immediate fruition but the climate was finally favorable for this step after the First Czecho-Slova k Republic was founded in 1918. It was late in 1920 that Rome formally established a Slovak hierarchy by appointing Bishop John Vojtassak to the see of Spis Bishop Marian Blaha to the see of Banska Bystrica Bishop Charles Kmetko to the see of Nitra. They were consecrated by the Papal Nuncio on February 13, 1921. FURTHER APOSTOLIC EFFORT From Rome Father Jankola returned to his missionary and parish work. With renewer ardor he took up his labors among those to whom he fondly referred as "transplanted linden trees." With an eye to the present, he satisfied first needs first, exhorting the faithful to a truly Christian life, promoting faith and prayerfulness , reprimanding lapses, instructing the young and the not-so-young, preaching with the spoken word and the written word, and living the life that he preached. With an eye to the future, he encouraged worthy lay leadership, adjustment to the American way of life and vocations to the priesthood and religious life . Father Jankola was a realist as well as an idealist. As he toiled to build the kingdom of God spiritually in the hearts of many, he also looked after material building for this kingdom. This is attested by the fact that his zeal led him to build a total of five churches, two schools and a rectory: a church in Pittston, Wilkes-Barre and Maltby; a church and a school in Hazleton; a church a school and a rectory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is astounding that in the twenty years of his priesthood he could accomplish so much both for the Church and for his nation. In his ardor to work for lasting values, Father Jankola not only promoted sound spirituality and provisions for fruitful parish life, he also encouraged vocations to the pri~sthood and religious life, spent him.self in the cause of church-orient ed schools, envisioned and realized a congregation of Sisters to teach and care for the children of immigrants and perform works of mercy in the Church, �SLOVAKIA 173 contributed many articles to Slovak newspapers and periodicals, sponsored and aided the publication of Slovak texts for religious instruction and language arts, and greatheartedly proposed the naming of a Slovak bishop in the United States. He felt that Father Furdek deserved the rank of bishop and that in his elevation all Slovak Catholics in this country would benefit inasmuch as they would have an official leader whose first concern would be for all levels of Church organization among American Slovaks as well as for the needs of the young, the training of seminarians, Catholic schools and schooling under the direction of qualified Slovak or Slovak-American Sisters. PARISH SCHOOLS The subject of a Catholic school system among Slovak immigrants was one of the major preoccupations of Father Jankola's life. In his second pastoral assignment he came to St. Joseph's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of the two earliest American Slovak parishes, established in 1885. (The other is St. Stephen's parish in Streator, Illinois, founded in the same year.) He was the fourth pastor of St. Joseph's which already had a combination church-school building as well as a rectory and a parish cemetery. Since these physical arrangements were cared for, he turned his energy mainly to the spiritual and cultural advancement of his parishioners. With deft organizational gifts he established confraternities, spiritual societies and sodalities, providing opportunities for all age levels in the parish to participate in at last one Catholic Action group. A program of catechetical instruction was already functioning in the parish but Father Jankola felt that the time was right for introducing a fully expanded elementary curriculum in at least the earliest grades of the parish school. Miss Catherine O'Donnell was engaged as a full-time teacher for the subjects that were to be taught in English and Mr. Andrew Ondek, the parish organist, who had been conducting catechetical classes, was retained as teacher-incharge of the school and instructor in religion, Slovak and singing. Father Jankola spent much time in the school, observing, supervising, noting the progress of the pupils and the methods of instruction. Very often he himself conducted a class. This innovation of Father Jankola stirred up some �174 SLOVAK'iA feeling against him. Until this time is was the prerogative of the organist--and solely his-to be in charge of all the instruction of children in a parish school. By hiring a teacher in his experimental full-scale school, Father Jankola seemed to be jeopardizing the teacher-status of the organist. On this score misunderstandings developed all too readily, and factions formed to support one opinion and oppose the other, depending on points of view taken and loyalties involved. This matter was a painful issue for quite some time but Father Jankola steadily and gently tried to disprove the unfounded fears that had arisen and in spite of these apprehensions, he became increasingly aware of the necessity to provide for the adequate education of youth and the training of children under Christian auspices. Because of this indefatigable labors on behalf of Catholic schools, Father Jankola has often been looked upon as the apostle of the parish school among Slovaks in America. Both his admirers and his critics knew very truly that the matter of parish schools was his dearest concern-the apple of his eye, so to say. One of his favorite observations was : "Religious conviction takes first place and patriotism second; the church comes firs t and right after it, the school." He did his unwavering best to win pastors to the cause of opening and maintaining parochial schools, of convincing the faithful of the vital need for Catholic schools for their children and most importantly , he dedicated himself to the task of providing competent teachers and encouraging promising candidates to enter the teaching profession. Father Jankola rightly saw this whole area of education for the young as the fundamental need of the day. As often as he tried to deal with it, he realized that the problem only bore upon his conscience and his professional thinking with mounting insistence. For over twelve years he wrote on this subject, presenting it to his reading public in various aspects and doing his best to find a practical way to put it into operation. Even as early as 1899, when he was a young priest just four years ordained, he spoke of it very earnestly with some of the priests who were closest to him in the Scranton diocese; viz., Rev. Andrew Pavco, Rev. Dr. Alexander Dianiska and Rev. Joseph Murgas. �SLOVAKIA 175 Basically, there was no difficulty in gaining a general appreciation for the Catholic school system, but the whole concept of operating Slovak Catholic schools in America had to be framed within the American way of maintaining church schools. In their homeland, the Slovaks had grown accustomed to living in a parish wholly subsidized by a patron. This meant that under patronal sponsorship all operating expenses were met by the individual, the family or the civic body that was legally titled as the patron. In America all church operations, including the pastor's salary, would have to be borne by the members of the parish. Given a school situation, besides, the struggling newcomers to America would have to assume responsibility for all its costs, including salaries for teachers. The prospect of such obligation seemed quite impossible. Yet to Father Jankola this obligation itself was not the first and foremost duty of leaders and parents; the first duty really was to provide adequate education for the young with the understanding that the adults would have to learn how to support the school as well as the church according to American practice. Definitely there was much educating of various kinds to be done, formally and informally, but Father Jankola did not shrink in the face of it all. The genius of leadership in him dictated the work to be done and the good to be accomplished. Along with these thoughts, Father Jankola could not help comparing the cultural deprivation of immigrant parents with the opportunities that America could make available to their children. He was not blind to the fact that given an education, Slovak children could better themselves in this land of opportunity on which he looked as a cultural El Dorado, a spiritual New Canaan. Above all, however, he was convinced that Slovaks in America would have to begin thinking of themselves as Americans of Slovak origin and meet all their responsibilities as such. His constant reminder to his parishioners and to all where it would apply was: "If we are to live in America, we must live the American way of life. We must learn to adjust." And he made it abundantly clear that the blessings which America held for all were not exclusively material blessings; he greatly extolled the democratic principles and the gift of true liberty which are the hallmarks of true Americanism. �176 SLOVAKIA ADULT EDUCATION In this connection of adopting concepts of true Americanism, Father Jankola also tried to provide some compensations for adult immigrants, some of whom had had only two or three winters of schooling in their childhood, some of whom had had even less. Under his iniciative, adult education classes were introduced, concentrating on basics first of all-reading and writing. It was an exhilarating experience for an unschooled laborer earnestly applying himself to an unfamiliar task suddenly to pluck his neighbor's sleeve and to shout with the heady joy of achievement: "Look! I wrote my name! I can really write my name now! This is my name! Now I won't have to make a cross instead of my name anymore!" This was a first step but it was not enough. After basics followed classes in American history and in civil government with a view toward applying for citizenship and becoming naturalized. Citizenship would mean suffrage and a real sense of belonging, a participation in the community and the country of their adoption. EDUCATION AL SURVEY After his 1899 conference with priests closest to him in the Scranton diocese, Father Jankola was convinced that it was no longer possible to defer steps for the establishment of Slovak parish schools on the elementary level. For this reason he devoted much time to a close study of the American system of education which he frankly admired. He felt that he needed this kind of information in order to guide him in developing his own thinking. He felt, too, that he needed substantial statistical data as groundwork and for this p-µrpose he undertook a comprehensive survey of existing parish facilities for the education of Slovak Catholic children. In 1900 he published a report of his findings in the Jednota Kalend<ir, revealing that a) there were very few standard parish schools which he could classify as "first class schools" b) several parishes had provided for special classes on Saturdays in order to supplement the children's public school courses with instruction in religion and language arts �SLOVAKIA 177 c) the commendable though inadequate efforts of many parish organists were generally handicapped by overcrowding in classrooms as well as by merging a very broad range of mental and chronological ages into one composite group sometimes numbering up to two hundred pupils This survey concluded with an earnest exhortation that pastors spare no effort in order to establish schools comparable to the best that the American school system offers and that sound measures be taken to provide certified teachers. He knew, of course, that not all parishes were in a position to undertake a full school program but he trusted that a steady and well-reasoned campaign on behalf of parish schools would eventually be fruitful. But the building of schools would not of itself solve the problem of education in a parish school. Once the schools were built, they would have to be stuffed and he knew that there would be great difficulty in procuring desirable teachers. His survey indicated that in the schools rated as "first class," such as that in Wilkes-Barre (the only one of its kind in the Scranton diocese), as well as those in Johnstown, Shamokin, St. Ladislaus and St. Martin in Cleveland, and in Streator, Illinois were all conducted with the help of religious teachers-Sisters. He commended the Irish and German immigrants for their well-functioning schools, all directed by Sisters, and he very distinctly pointed out the fact that the Slovak people in America needed Slovak Sisters to teach in their parish schools. Man of clear vision that he was, he saw beyond that statement. His very words are: "Consequently, we need Sisters. Let us bring up our own Slovak Sisters! It is they who will preserve our faith and our nation. Reverend Fathers, and you Slovak parents, you who have in your parishes young ladies who are diligent, zealous, devout and suitable for the religious life, do feel responsible for making it possible for them to achieve this state of life. This will be a gift of the utmost value both to God and the nation; this will be a most noble offering. It is Slovak Sisters, teaching Sisters, who alone can alleviate this present educational crisis among us; �178 SLOVAKIA it is they who can save us from religious and national ruin. If we wish to live in America, we must live as Americans. This same principle was valid even in Rome. There is no other way of survival. I repeat: my brothers, Slovaks, let us establish parish schools, let us bring up our own Slovak teaching-Sisters, and God's help will support us!" As he urged priests and parents to encourage likely candidates to enter the religious life at this time, he did not mention any specific community, for he had none in mind. His survey did report that Ursulines and Sisters of St. Joseph were teaching in the Slovak schools of Cleveland, that Streator had Franciscan Sisters, and that there was " an English Sister" in the Olyphant school (Very likely a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or a Sister of Mercy). At this point, however, the core of the problem was simply to promote vocations. It was much as if he were saying that God will not be outdone in generosity ; that if only enough vocations could be cultivated, God could be trusted to provide the agents and the agencies for the work of Christian education among Slovak immigrants. He did not know that his own faith would be put to sore testing. He did not know the ultimate design of Providence but he trusted with an unshaken confidence and he worked on with unmitigated zeal . EXPLORING TEACHER RESOURCES At the same time that Father Jankola ardently promoted the cause of Slovak Catholic parish schools, he began to make serious inquiries at various American motherhouses and provincial houses, hoping to find a community whose membership might include at least some Sisters of Slovak or Slavic origin for staffing prospective Slovak schools in America and introducing into them American principles of education along with a wholesome Christian philosophy of life. Once he would know where Sisters were available, a sound program for Christian education could be launched with full vigor and the Slovak people would adjust to the American way of supporting their own schools. He did not foresee at all how difficult it would be to procure Sisters. At least four major superiors of religious communities answered his inquiries with the revealing �SLOVAKIA 179 news that even at that time it was extremely difficult for them to provide enough teachers for the schools already under their care. There was a normal increase in the population rate and as immigration figures rose, so did school enrollments increase and create a demand for expanded teaching forces. As a result of this situation, religious superiors felt that they would not be able to accept any new schools in the foreseeable future. This was a totally unwelcome but obviously prudent decision which they had to make. Disappointed beyond all expectation but still undaunted, Father Jankola next turned his appeal to European institutes. In all good faith he hoped that the old world would be able to compensate for the insufficiencies of the new. With prayerful anticipation he wrote to the Holy Cross Sisters in Moravia. He did not present to them any intimidating proposal. Very modestly he explored the possibility of obtaining a small number of Sisters, even three or four, to come to America, establish a foundation and train Slovak girls here for the religious life. He was assured that in time there would be enough applications for a flourishing self-sufficient community to develop on American soil, supported by the Slovak-American clergy and laity. Apparently there was much correspondence on this matter but promising as the outlook was at the outset, its prospects eventually dimmed and finally the issue was closed without satisfactory results. With great distress Father Jankola wrote in the Jednota Kalenddr of 1902, "For three years I have been trying to obtain Sisters from Europe, but my efforts have been in vain. Everything seems to be against us." These lines are an expression of that recurring disappointment that was to be his cross in this project, the testing of his spirit, and the price of an ideal which demanded sacrifice and suffering. Frustrated in his efforts to secure help from an already established community of Sisters, yet sufficiently disciplined not to surrender readily in the face of difficulty and repeateq disappointment, Father Jankola continued to pray, to confer with others and to plan. Since existing communities could spare him no members for the parish schools that he was promoting, the only avenue open to �180 SLOVAKIA him seemed to be to find prospective condidates of his own and to present them for training in an American sisterhood. He hoped that after their numbers increased and they had prepared themselves adequately, they might be allowed to branch off into an independent province within a mother congregation and continue their apostolate in Slovak parish schools. This suggested a very long range program but the eventual benefits would surely justify the patient waiting. All delays and price aside, one purpose of Father Jankola's efforts was to provide Sisters for the much needed task of teaching in Slovak parish schools. This was the crucial issue and the demanding challenge was where to procure them . COURAGE SUPPORTS HOPE In the spring of 1903, Father Jankola invited Slovak priests who were interested in the parish school project to meet for consultation at the Vendig Hotel in Philadelphia. He took this occasion to lay before them all his experiences in working for Slovak parish schools to this time: his hopes and disappointments, his renewed efforts and his present plan which would call for candidates from local parishes. The assembled pastors listened with evident interest. They were aware of the need to work with the young and they admired the American Catholic school system. Some endorsed the proposal and were willing to cooperate with Father Jankola. Unfortunately, there were others too who looked upon this new suggestion of his as too idealistic and extreme a venture, perhaps something out of a quixotic world and not suited to the times, not amenable to a practical approach. They did not hesitate to indicate emphatically that he could not count on them for support in such a project and they had nothing else to offer. This adverse reaction from leaders of people who lived with the realities of life in America was a blow to Father Jankola's expectations. But it did not destroy his vision or diminish that dogged persistence about him which would not let the matter rest untried. At least he knew now on whom he could count for advice and support and he had learned where it would be vain to look for help and understanding. He shored up his shattered elan and renewed his faith in the work before him. Resolved to test this plan and to have events prove �SLOVAKlA 181 the validity of this approach and anxious to test whether or not such an effort was of God, Father Jankola presented his proposal to several religious oommunities in his immediate area. It is likely that he now founded his hopes on either the Mallinckrodt Sisters of Charity or on the Sisters of Mercy. He had had opportunities to observe the work of both communities on a local level because they taught in parishes near his own. He admired their spirit and evidence of dedication and he ardently hoped that he might see their influence diffused among the Slovak people, but from both communities he received an unfavorable reply. It meant just so much more disappointment and so much more need for fresh courage. EARLY PROMISE Again and again Father Jankola renewed his search for a mother community that would accept his candidates (in due time) and train them for Slovak parish schools. He even decided to appeal to the charity of a rather distant order in America, the Czech Benedictine Sisters in Chicago, Illinos. When the mail brought him a reply, it was with utmost gratitude that he read that these Sisters would b e willing to be of assistance to him. With profound relief he trusted that at last this was going to mean the realization of his prospects. With this good news to report, Father Jankola held another conference with the priests who supported his plan. At these deliberations practical measures were proposed and four specific steps were agreed upon. The first of these was the decision to accept the offer of the Benedictine Sisters and to send three aspirants to Chicago. The others were in the nature of active endorsement of Father Jankola's plan, involving the promise or agreement a ) to announce Father Jankola's plans and prospects from their pulpits b ) to preach on the subject of vocations c ) to solicit offerings to support the undertaking This last provision was embodied in a fund called St. Anthony's Treasury. The patronage of St. Anthony was chosen because this Franciscan saint beautifully exemplifies that Christian charity that provides for the needs of the poor. Now at last, although no one could foresee what the �182 SLOVAKIA future held, there seemed to be some glimmer of success at last. On the following Sunday Father Jankola preached an inspiring sermon on vocations and after the parochial mass he found an applicant in his office. Before long there were two more candidates from St. Joseph's parish in Hazleton as well as two from Sacred Heart parish in Wilkes-Barre. Now at last, hope was moving toward reality. In the fall of 1903 the first three aspirants from Hazleton were sent to the Benedictines in Chicago and the soul of Father Jankola rejoiced that the great work was launched at last while his spirit trusted that it would thrive . HOPE DEFERRED Unfortunately this joy was short-lived and this hope soon wilted. After a few short weeks Father Jankola was notified that the Superiors felt it was advisable to withdraw his candidates because they found it difficult to adjust to religious life with them. The blow fell at the very moment when two additional aspirants sat in the Wilkes-Barre railroad station holding tickets for Chicago as they waited to board the next train. Just before the train pulled into the station, their plans were abruptly changed and they returned to their homes. This was a crushing report that reached Father Jankola from Chicago. He could hardly bring himself to accept it. His first reaction was to blame the young girls for want of endurance. His own training in austerity made it difficult for him to condone their failure and apparent weakness in the face of hardship where he would have expected an almost stoic courage and strength. Gradually he was brought to realize, however, that they did not lack generosity and good will, but they were wholly unprepared for trials severe even for seasoned religious; moreover, they were still very young. Home-loving and cared-for as they had been, they were subjected to an almost traumatic and total separation from home and an absolute change from their family environment. Chicago then seemed half a world away from Hazleton. Even normal adjustment would have been necessarily gradual, but they were at once challenged with the untempered rigors of Benedictine monasticism in a community where poverty was so extreme in those �SLOVAKIA 183 pioneering days that only a tried and proven spirit would have been able to endure it without difficulty. When the unhappy candidates returned from Chicago, they were not sent back to their homes or subjected to reproach and embarrassment. Instead, they were befriended and confided to the care of Father Pavco in Pittston until further development could be planned and arranged. Father Pavco then visited Father Jankola to confer with him about the situation. He found him shaken and extremely tried by this new disappointment. NEW HOPE In his sympathetic efforts to comfort his friend, Father Pavco called Father Jankola's attention to the "Blue Sisters" of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who conducted St. John the Evangelist School in Pittston just across the street from his own church and rectory. As he spoke, Father Pavco became more and more enthusiastic about the spirit and attitudes of these Sisters, and finally he suggested that Father Jankola consult with their Reverend Mother at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Scranton. As a glowing climax he remarked, "I understand that her name is Mother Mary Cyril. Our common patron may help here; let us try in the name of God." Discouraged though he was by the latest setback to his hopes and beset by numerous other problems besides. Father Jankola agreed with Father Pavco that it would be advisable to try again; but he approached the new possibility with a measure of caution added to his natural reserve. On his first visit to Mother Cyril he conferred with her only on the prospect of enrolling the daughter of one of his parishioners at her boarding school. He did not mention the real burden that lay on his heart like a cross . Before long, however, Father Jankola made another appointment with Mother Cyril. On his initial visit he had found her so gracious that he was encouraged to present his key problem to her on this second visit. Again he found her ideally understanding. This does not mean that she at once gave him any definite assurance but she received him with such Christlike sympathy and such evidence of maternal regard for the needs of young girls that he con- �184 SLOVAKIA sidered the consultation worthwhile, to say the least, and returned home with great admiration for her, confidence in her judgment and renewed hope for the all-but-lost undertaking. Providence ordained that Mother Cyril should be the answer to Father Jankola's prayers. With the consent of her Council she accepted his candidates and trained them with unexampled care and solicitude within the shelter of her own religious family. In fact, they were so close to her own Sisters that for some time it was not even clear whether they would eventually become an independent community or whether they were to be an element added to hers. TOWARD FRUITION When she first received the young girls at Mount St. Mary's in 1903, Mother Cyril did not immediately place them under monastic novitiate discipline but rather kept them in the boarding academy as students who were to be formed into candidates for the religious life by gradual measures. They were permitted to spend the school vacation at home and on such occasions they often became an inspiration to others and attracted new vocations. These students were maintained at Mount St. Mary's through funds from St. Anthony's Treasury which was supported by the mites of hard-working and generous people and the offerings for votive candles in Slovak churches. From November 21, 1903, when they first came to the Mount, their status was that of students. On January 6, 1906, three of them became postulants. In March of the same year Mother Cyril informed Father Jankola that his group would not be identified with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This implied that they were to form their own community. Father Jankola accepted this decision and suggested the name "Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius" as a possible designation for the prospective Slovak community. On July 26, 1906, the first members were clothed in a distinctive black habit, Bishop Hoban presiding at the reception ceremony. The fruit of arduous work and confident prayer was beginning to mature but its maturing exacted a further price. Father Jankola paid the greater part of it by bearing not only the normal burden of concern but also painful �SLOVAKIA 185 misunderstandings and unreasonable demands from parish sources. He even withdrew somewhat from the project after it was safely launched, willing to deny himself the satisfaction that should have been the reward of a work brought to successful fruition after many bitter and disillusioning trials. Much of his sorrow on this score was caused by more or less well-meaning individuals who hounded him and persecuted him severely because they saw in the promise of a teaching community only the ousting of organists from teaching posts in the parish schools. They believed that this would inevitably follow upon the success of Father Jankola's project. Blinded in their narrow reasoning, they would not face facts reasonably or accept the reality which indicated only too clearly that their parish schools in America were fast outgrowing the capacities of their organists reserve and that they had no other teachers with or without adequate training to conduct schools according to American standards. The Sisters were expected to relieve an existing need, not to create a new difficulty. Organists would not necessarily have to give up all their classes. It was one of those struggles which often arise when the old order of life must yield to the newer way and cannot do so gracefully. Added to this, however, there was also a painfully critical attitude making itself within clerical ranks. Several priests still doubted the timeliness and the wisdom of Father Jankola's efforts. At first they merely refused to cooperate, later they voiced objections and even spoke of other plans of their own. In spite of his stoic exterior and his disciplined habits of conduct, Father Jankola~s soul and sensibilities were deeply refined and sensitive. It hurt him inexpressibly to be ranked as a visionary when with all his soul he bent his energies to practical matters and used very realistic means to attain vitally urgent results. He suffered keenly because of all the conflicts brewing in his Hazleton parish and when there seemed to be no other solution, he decided to leave the scene of so much bitterness and open hostility, at least until the storm should spend itself. This parish had grown very dear to him. When its original wooden church burned to the ground in 1905, he worked indefatigably to raise funds for a new structure �186 SLOVAK.IA of natural stone. Within two years he collected twelve thousand dollars, a lordly sum in a day of low wages and small incomes in the midst of a struggling community of miners and common laborers. He had the largeness of vision and the natural capacity to plan a church of unique beauty and to execute his plans in spacious proportions, artistic in design and as inspiring as a prayer. St. Joseph's in Hazleton is a worthy memorial to his priestly service there and to the spirit of Slovak pioneers in the area. TRANSFER TO BRIDGEPORT In the fall of 1907 Father Jankola took a leave of absence from the Scranton diocese and was received with joy by the people of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who were then organizing the parish of SS. Cyril and Methodius. He wrote to Mother Cyril, "I thought I would make a solitary living here, like a hermit, after much trouble, trial and injustice. But my work is not yet done . . . I have to continue to take care of the future religious institution that I have started with God's help and St. Anthony's intercession." He would not be a derelict to duty no matter what it cost him in personal pain. He would stand by his ideals and convictions. Alth0ugh Father Jankola expected eventually to return to Hazleton his missionary zeal so engrossed him in the organization of parishes in the New England region that he finally transferred to the Hartford diocese. Besides his pastoral work in St. Cyril's, he also undertook the spiritual care of Slovaks in Webster, Massachusett s, and made missionary trips to Stamford, Torrington, New Britain and surrounding settlements in Connecticut. He was untiring pastor and missionary in new surroundings again. He kept in touch with Mother Cyril through correspondence. With her he assigned the Sisters to their firs t teaching mission at Sacred Heart parish in Wilkes-Barre while disclosing to her the demands being made on him. "We have only three Slovak Sisters-how can we send them to four parishes?" he wrote her in 1908. Yet in his concern for the cherished project, he maintained an unselfishness that commands administratio n as always leaning toward the common good. When the first Sisters were to be sent on a teaching mission, he made the disinterested recommenda tion to assign them either to Wilkes- �SLOVAKIA 187 Barre or to Lansford although he would have been justified in directing them to either of the equally large parishes of his own endeavors-Hazleton or Bridgeport. FIRST AMERICAN-SLOVAK SISTERS In August 1909, Bishop Hoban brought from Rome the Holy See's decree of approval for the new community. On September 1, 1909, the first Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius made public profession of vows and the community emerged as a new family in the Church. Before the close of Mother Cyril's term of office, they were ready to open a motherhouse of their own. For ten years their formation had been under the immediate guidance of Mother Cyril at Mount St. Mary's. At last the tender seed which had been long hidden in the darkness of Father Jankola's secret hopes and prayers, long prepared through seasons of doubt and storm and the intermittent sunshine of hope and promise, often exposed to tears and blessings, now sprang in good soil and, tended with paternal care and maternal understanding, was ready to yield glory to God through a harvest of service among the Slovak people. As some of the Sisters undertook teaching in the parish schools, additional recruits were being prepared as novices and postulants in the novitiate or as students at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Scranton. After twelve years from the time of their entry into Mount St. Mary's the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius became a wholly independent community. This status was attained in 1915 after their first General Chapter elected a Mother General and a Council for internal government. Father Jankola was happy indeed to see the Sisters making progress. He continued to be interested in their welfare but denied himself the satisfaction of overseeing or directing their development. From all sides he was harassed by demands for teachers but once the stability of the Community was established, he allowed it to mature on its own and to learn to shoulder responsibility independently. PASTORSHIP IN BRIDGEPORT In Bridgeport Father Jankola continued his work, which demanded tireless energy, prudent planning and great fortitude. He was equal to the challenge. His parishione11s found him serious and purposeful, dilligent and �188 SLOVAK.IA circumspect, devout and fatherly. With him first things inexorably came first. Religion and spiritual interests held priority over all other considerations but close in second place were patriotism as well as the arts and social graces, and finally a balanced concern for temporalities. Under hls direction the parish was firmly established and within a year it had six active societies as well as an excellent choir, a dramatic club and an evening school for adult education. These evening classes became very popular and profitable. They lasted from eight to ten o'clock and in time they offered mathematics and English taught by Mr. Michael Senko on Monday; Slovak by Father Jankola on Tuesday; community singing by Mr. George Lukac on Thursday, and dramatics by Mr. Joseph Michalek on Sunday. Additional subjects were included later to enable parishioners to prepare for naturalization. For the children there were daily catechetical classes which Father Jankola himself conducted after the pupils were dismissed from public school. Within five years Father Jankola managed to have the parish clear a debt of over sixteen thousand dollars. The church which he then built for seventy thousand dollars is a magnificent cruciform structure of white brick with a seating capacity of one thousand. It was the fifth church which he planned and erected, and with its inspiring splendor it is the crown of his building effort. A severely simple frame rectory was all that he permitted for his own needs. To make provisions for a school he built a plain four-room structure planned to double for a parish hall . It, too, was severely simple and those who loved it did not mind sometimes referring to it as "Noah's Ark." His Sisters came to take charge of this school in 1910 and it must have been with intense yet complex emotion that he at last saw the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius at work teaching in his own school. Within the parish itself Father Jankola fanned a great flame of spiritual activity. The Confraternity of the Holy Rosary was canonically established and it flourished amid these people who exulted, "We have brought Kosice to America," for the rosary was a traditional family devotion among them, awakening for them fond memories of pilgrimages to the beloved Marian shrine in the Slovak city of Kosice. A deeper spirituality was cultivated among those �SLOVA.K:IA 189 who joined the Third Order of St. Francis and the Altar Society. A canonically founded Sodality and the Holy Name Society held Christian ideals before the eyes of the young. It is remarkable that Father Jankola invariably attended the meetings of all these societies and each time left some lesson or ponderable thought with the members to inspire or to enlighten them. Through the choir and the dramatic guild he aimed to make art the handmaid of religion. Church music, folk singing, and classic compositions all had their place and were rendered with feeling and skill under the direction of Mr. George Lukac. Father Jankola had recognized musical talent in him when he was yet a schoolboy and sent him to St. Procopius College in Lisle, Illinois, to develop his talent. Then he offered him the position of organist at St. Cyril's. Born of mutual regard, a strong bond of devotion developed between the two. Drama under Father Jankola's guidance included a wide variety of presentations from monologues and skits through interludes and plays to grand productions like " St. Elizabeth," "St. Genevieve," and "Fabiola." Each one was staged before a packed house usually in a spacious hall rented for the occasion and it lent the entire community the aspects of festivity and a parish holiday. For major plays Father Jankola took the trouble to rent costumes and hire a make-up crew from the theatrical centers of New York City, and he saw to it that the staging was a satisfying piece of dramatic art. It is no wonder that his parishioners idolized him. On all occasions he was an inspiration and edification to them. He may have appeared forbiddingly stern and exacting, but they knew that his heart was warm and fatherly. The priest in him was always at their service, hearing confessions every day of the week even on Sundays, answering every call as soon as it came though he was without benefit of an assistant, ready to advise, admonish, comfort, help or serve in whatever the need might be. It was generally recognized and appreciated that he did the work of three priests. Despite all the demands made on him, his parish was in enviable order and he managed a tremendous amount of work for the general public. Scholarly and cultural interests were his hobby. It is interesting that �190 SLOVAKIA shortly before his death he began the study of Hebrew under a private tutor. THE WRITER One stands in admiration of the consuming energy with which he must have worked, for apart from all these accomplishments there is the steady stream of articles, stories, reports and instructions that came from his pen. He was a recognized leader in Slovak national life also, for only six years after coming to this country, he was elected supreme president of the Jednota organization (1900) . (The First Catholic Slovak Union-a benevolent society with nationwide membership.) From 1904 to 1908 he was a member of the Jednota judiciary council. In 1910 he was editor of the "Jednota" weekly as well as of its annual or almanac . In 1908 and again after Furdek's death, he was chosen spiritual director of the Jednota. He likewise promoted the interests of the "Katolicky Sokol," contributed many articles to its news organ and served one term as spiritual director of this athletic and fraternal organization. He warmly endorsed the children's paper "Priatel' Dietok," which was sponsored by the Sokol. He encouraged pastors, parents, and teachers to support it, and highly complimented the pupils of his school when their contributions appeared on its pages. THE LEADER Among the Slovak priests, especially in the eastern part of the country, Father Jankola always enjoyed a degree of prestige. He was generally esteemed their leader. It was he who first banded them together in 1903 for the purpose of discussing common problems like education and the training of future priests and Sisters. It was he who promoted an organization of priests in the eastern states just a year before his death. He was identified with many national drives and movements; he signed the Code of American Slovak Journalists in 1897; he initiated the National Fund (also in 1897) to promote national interests and to sponsor worthy projects. He undertook the founding of a men's Slovak Benedictine priorate and a men's Slovak Franciscan province in the United States. By 1910 he urged that steps be taken to recommend �SLOVAKIA 191 the appointment of a Slovak bishop in this country and suggested that Father Furdek be named the candidate since he was "the first, the most learned, the most respected, and the best loved Slovak priest in America." In 1916 he initiated a Peter's Pence drive among the Slovaks in America. These are some of the major achievements he accumulated before death closed the door of life upon him at the age of forty-three. And he aspired to more. He even dared hope to transplant his Sisters to Europe, "First opening a house in Velehrad, Moravia, where St. Methodius is buried," as he visualized his dream. In his greatness of vision he had hoped that they might "be the instrument in God's hand for the conversion of Slav schismatics to Rome, where St. Cyril died." These are some of the hopes of which he once wrote to Mother Cyril. UNTIMELY DEATH But death stilled his ardent hopes and healed his wounds. Added to all the trials borne so courageously there descended upon him yet the cruelty of a most painful hoax. Spent as he was with unstinted labor and exertion, it took the agony of something like this to crush his very last energies. Manfully he tried to bury the hurt but it worked its havoc and undermined his strength. On Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916, he was stricken as he preached at High Mass and he died quietly on May 5, mourned by thousands and appreciated even more in death than he was in life. After the funeral services at the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Father Jankola was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut. In connection with their Golden Jubilee observances in 1959, however, the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius arranged to have their founder's remains transferred to Danville where they are interred in the Community cemetery at Villa Sacred Heart. CONCLUSION It has been said with truth that Father Jankola was to the spiritual life what Father Furdek was to the national life of the Slovak people in America. To the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius he is the gardener to whom God entrusted the seed of their congregation, charging him to plant it, to water it with his �192 SLOVAKlA tears and sufferings, to warm it with his undying love. At the moment the seed sprouted and its first promising shoots appeared, at that moment in a Profession Ceremony, he said joyfully and humbly, "You are my joy, you are my crown, you are my glory." BIBLIOGRAPHY Archival materials at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius and in Jankola Library, Danville, Pennsylvania. These include: a) personal correspondence of and with Father Jankola b) personal correspondence of and with Father Jankola's sisters, Louisa and Inna c) documents d) several books of rare parish records entrusted to the Sisters Furdek, Stefan, "Z Ameriky." Osvald, Fr. Richard, Tovarysstvo. I. Rufomberok, Osvald, 1893. Gregorovic, Sister M. Consuela, SS.C.M., Contributions of Reverend Matthew Jankola to Slovak Catholic Education in the United States. Modification of thesis submitted to the Catho.Jic University of America, 1944. DanviLle, Pennsylvania, Golden Jubilee Publication of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1958-1959. Hrusovsky, Frantisek, Slovenske rehole v Amerike. Cleveland, Slovensky ustav, 1955. Slovenske dejiny. 4th ed. Turciansky Svaty Martin, Matica Slovenska, 1940. Jankola, Matus, "crty z katolickej slovenskej farnosti v Pittston, Pa." Osvald, Fr. Richard, Tovarysstvo, III. Ruzomberok, Osvald , 1900. Jednota (Weekly newspaper) . Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota, 19011916 passim. Jednota Kalendar. (annual ). Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota. 19001931 passim. Medvecky, Karol A., Cirkevne pomery katolickych Slovakov v niekdajsom Uhorsku, Ruzomberok, Nakl. vlast., 1920. Pauco, Jozef, Matus Jan.kola, knaz a narodovec. Danville, Pennsylvania, Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1959. Slovenska rehol'a Sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda. Slovensky spolok sv. Anny vo Wyoming V.alley, Pa. 1957. 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty. Cleveland, Ohio, I.K.S.J. , 1965. Slovenski priekopnici. Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota, 1972. Petra~ek, Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M., Brief History of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Danville, Pennsylvania , Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1959. Scotus Viator (Seton Watson), Racial Problems in Hungary, London , Archibald Constable, 1908. Spolok sv. Vojtecha, Katolicke Slovensko. Trnava, SSV, 1933. Spirko, Jozef, Cirkevne dejiny s osobitnym zretel'om na vyvin cirkevnych dejin Slovenska. 2 vol. Turc. Sv. Martin, Neografia, 1943. � SLOVAKlA 161 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 SLOVAK-AMERICAN PRIEST, LEADER, EDUCATOR Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. An observance commemorating the life and accomplishments of Father Matthew Jankola in this centennial year of his birth has the advantages of distance and historic perspective. It provides a very timely opportunity for appraising this leader and his life's contribution with fair and realistic appreciation, with a degree of objective regard for his innate qualities and his unique achievements. Father Jankola's life span encompassed only forty-three years and his biographical data can be summarized very compactly. BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE The parents of Matthew Jankola were Matthew and Rosalie Medvecky Jankola. They lived very ·simply but happily in Trstena, a picturesque town in the economically disadvantaged Orava district of Slovakia, and their son Matthew spent much of his early life there. But Trstena was not Father Jankola's birthplace, for he was born away from home on July 2, 1872, while his parents were at seasonal work in the Stary Budin sector of Budapest, Hungary. After his elementary education in Trstena, the boy Matthew continued his schooling at gymnazia in Bardejov and Beckov. Later, on the recommendation and under the sponsorship of his maternal uncle, the Francisean Father Emerich Medvecky, he advanced to seminary studies with the Franciscans in Hlohovec and in Kremnica. At the same time, the school of life steadily trained him too. With ardor and utmost good will he gave his all in order to prepare for the priesthood with a religious order but the evils of oppression did not spare him even in the seminaries of Slovakia. In fact, they left their mark upon him by undermining his health though no degree of im- �162 SLOVAKIA posed suffering could shake his spirit. This apparently all-pervasive atmosphere of oppression was one of the determining factors that led him to seek a better way of life in the new world. It happened, then, that because of many types of extreme pressures in his homeland-political, economic, cultural-and because America had become a haven of refuge and security to many of his countrymen, he too ventured upon the long voyage across the Atlantic and arrived in the harbor of Baltimore on December 19, 1893. He was not in prime physical condition at this time, for strain and exhaustion had drained his reserves but his heart was filled with a determination that was always characteristic of him and with a buoyant hope that here honest work would bring honest returns, that repression did not came with him on his long and arduous trip. In his soul he cherished the vision that he could become a force for good in this new world while he would also be a support and help for his dear ones in Slovakia. And so he began a new chapter in the young manhood of his life. He had come to America as a talented and achieving student in his fourth year of theology. He was not encumbered with misgivings or uncertainties about his life's work or objectives. Without unnecessary delay he enrolled in St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore but after an interval of illness had interrupted his seminary program, he transferred to St . Bonaventure Seminary in Allegheny, New York, where Latin was the language of instruction. His proficiency in Latin made him feel very much at home here and in two semesters he was able to complete the courses that he needed for the final rounding out of his training for the priesthood. January 13, 1895 was the date Father Jankola's ordination. He was twenty-two and had lived half of his life. From this date on, he felt in his soul that he owed filial gratitude to three persons whom he regarded in the role of father: his natural father who was very dear to him; his u ncle Father Emerich Medvecky whose Franciscan charity and solicitude saw to his education and the nurturing of his priestly vocation; and Bishop William O'Hara of Scranton who received him in America and ordained him p riest. �SLOVAKIA 163 Shortly after his ordination he received his first priestly assignment: the pastorate of St. John the Baptist parish in Pittston, Pennsylvania. And from this center he extended pastoral care to seven other towns where Slovak Catholic immigrants were settling. He was subsequently pastor of St. Joseph's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and of SS. Cyril and Methodius parish in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he died on May 5, 1916. This brief and superficially simple biographical sketch does not even suggest any of the fullness of his lifetime. It is rather the bare diagram of plotting points, each of which opened upon an individual richness of life . BACKGROUNDS The pivotal key in Father Jankola's life was his total commitment to the priesthood. The fruition of all his living was in the twenty years that followed upon his ordination. The social milieu in which he had decided upon a career of service as a priest of God rightfully had conditioned him into viewing dedication to the altar as no mere token position to be satisfied by perfunctorily discharged liturgical devotions and ceremonies-significant and beautiful as they may be. To him the office of priest meant a distinctive way of life binding the priest to serve wholeheartedly as mediator, leader, educator, philanthropist and sanctifier of his people in and for Christ. Much in the mind of Vatican II, he developed his formation and his philosophy of life in the ideal that the priest is above all for Christ and for the people. In all his subsequent endeavors this wa:s his guiding principle, his constant. Even as a growing boy and as an aware adolescent, he had lived with the realization that among his people the priest was the one individual who stood for leadership, uprightness and learning as well as for spiritual ministry, moral guidance and ethical inspiration. He was oriented to his regard for the priesthood because the ruling powers that had shackled Slovakia in many ways had also-except by rare exception- denied academic opportunities for Slovak boys and girls who aspired to professional or scientific careers. On this score, the authorities relented only to permit seminary training for the sake of the priest- �164 SLOVAKIA hood, and normal school courses in a limited way, in order to prepare some teachers for schools. The priest, then, had to be more than shepherd of souls in Slovakia. He had to be the leading light of his people in temporalities as well as in spirituality. He had to be .not only teacher and guide in virtue and goodness but also a perceptive and courageous defender of justice and the basic rights of man. This is the main reason why Slovak priests sometimes found themselves consciencebound to take a hard look even at the political atmosphere in which they and their people had to live. And seeing the realities of inequity, discrimination, cultural deprivation, oppression and spiritual bondage, they had the moral fortitude even publicly to attack these evils and defend their people and their country; they had the conviction that as the educated leaders of their people, they had to have the stamina to enter the forum of public affairs and there champion the cause of the wronged, the oppressed and the helpless whenever circumstances demanded their presence in the public arena. Various modes of oppression, overt as well as patent, often discouraged or demoralized the average citizen who was usually much preoccupied with the daily need to provide at least a living for his family. The God-given beauty of his natural surroundings often put a bit of poetry into a peasant's hard life; the lilt and loveliness of folk song and folk music warmed his heart, and the ar tistry of hand crafted work brought him some gratuitous satisfaction through creative expression but he needed the wholesomeness of opportunities to cultivate his intellectual talents and his inborn creative gifts freely and even as a lifetime career, as a professional; he needed assured liberty and justice, openness and a sense of security so that he could rise above sheer drudgery and allow his spirit to grow expansive. He needed to nourish his life of the spirit as well as the life of his body . He needed to satisfy his intellectual hunger in order to develope spiritually and to structure a sense of dignity in his life. All this the Slovak priest recognized in his parish, in his town or village, in his country. More was asked of him than is generally asked of the average priest, and he had t o be a man greater dimension that the average man. He �SLOVAKIA 165 had to be capable of tactful leadership, of sound capacities for guidance and direction, of clear vission and foresight ; resourceful as well as prayerful, peace-loving yet fearless in the face of defending God-given rights, forgiving yet relentless in fighting injustice. In him converged all the likeness of Christlike being and behavior and all the paradoxes of virtue flourishing in a sin-beset world. This is the kind of life that Matthew Jankola chose with mature and deliberate will. Most importantly, this is the kind of life that he lived. Fire and ardor were of his very nature; integrity, initiative and unclouded vision were his basic assets; God, nation and fellowmen-in that order-were his top priorities; and the grit to endure was the price that he was asked to pay in the discharge of his vocation. Living here as he did under pioneering conditions among immigrants who were truly strangers in a strange land, he was imbued with characteristic missionary concern for both the material and the spiritual welfare of those around him and of those for whom he had made himself responsible. He was aware that the socio-economic circumstances which bore upon the immigrant Slovak laborer could affect him very adversely and for that reason he did not spare himself in awakening and revitalizing deep self-respect and dignity in the man who was burdened with inhuman hours and labors and even humiliation in the dank pits of coal mines, at the raging forges of steel mills, at railroad building and multiplicity of menial jobs of every description. Work itself is reasonably recognized as honorable but sometimes the conditions under which a man is compelled to work can conspire to brutalize him. And man must not spend all his working hours in just expending the strength of his muscles or he may become gross. FIRST PASTORATE It is worth noting that Bishop O'Hara appointecl. Father Jankola pastor of St. John the Baptist parish in Pittston very shortly after his ordination. He knew how urgent the need was for this parish to have a pastor and he recognized in the newly ordained Father Jankola gifts of mind and spirit that recommended him, young as h e was, for a responsible office even without seasoned ap- �166 SLOVAKIA prenticeship in parish work. Pioneering often calls for practically instant response to duty. Father Jankola never hesitated in meeting the demands of duty and Bishop O'Hara had every reason to be convinced that his trust in this pastor was well placed. With complete dedication, an unusual capacity for work and keen administrative talent, the new priest assumed the new tasks committed to him. With apostolic zeal he made it a point of his prime priestly service to reach out among the scattered Slovak Catholics of wide regions. He did not circumscribe his labors and his interests to that one Pittston parish only. He felt, rather, that all the Slovaks displaced in America were his immediate concern, and his specific responsibility to the Pittston parish of St. John the Baptist included the Slovak Catholics of seven adjoining communities commonly referred to as "places" or "plejzy." They included Sturmerville, West Pittston, Wyoming, Port Griffith, Smithville, Duryea and Pittston Junction. At this time he also traveled to the Binghamton, New York, area to serve the spiritual needs of Slovaks settling there. From the very beginning these, so to say, transplanted and still rootless people who were largely engaged in railroad building and in the shoe industry, were content to use the church facilities that were very kindly offered them by St. Patrick's parish but in 1902 Father Jankola helped them to organize their own parish under the patronal title of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Important as this was, it was enough. He next did his utmost in order to find a reasonable priest to take charge of this parish or at least to offer temporary ministry to the Binghamton Slovak community. On countless occasions when no one else was available, he himself came to provide them with Sunday services, to administer the sacraments, to advise and guide them and to inspire and encourage them to cultivate their spiritual life, much like a missionary compelled to ride h is circuit in order to bring God to man and man to God. During this pastorship in Pittston, Father Jankola also ministered to the Slovaks of Wilkes-Barre and Swoyeville ( which was called Maltby in his day) and with his sound direction and practical acumen, he helped them to build their churches. There were over eight thousand Slovaks in Wyoming Valley region around Wilkes-Barre at this time �SLOVAKIA 167 and there was a steady flow of increase into this hard coal region as ship after ship brought more Slovak immigrants to American shores. From his parish base in Pittston Father Jankola indefatigably toiled among them, deeply concerned that the burdens and troubles of providing for material needs and livelihood should not crowd out of their labor-preoccupied lives the eternal truths that God bore them all in his love and that as they spent themselves on behalf of material well-being, they keep in mind and also provide for the life of the spirit and for undying values. In the early history of Slovak Catholics in the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where there was a large concentration of Slovak immigrants, we find the record of these ten Slovak parishes which were established in the late nineteenth century: 1883 St. Joseph's in Hazleton 1886 St. Stephen's in Plymouth 1888 St. Joseph's in Nanticoke 1889 Holy Ghost in Olyphant 1893 St. John Nepomucene in Freeland 1894 St. John the Baptist in Pittston 1895 Holy Trinity in Maltby (later called Swoyerville ) 1895 Sacred Heart in Wilkes-Barre 1895 Holy Family in Scranton 1896 St. Michael's in Jessup Ten Roman Catholic parishes like ten significant reasons to make the heart rejoice! But then the stark realization that there were only eight Roman Catholic priests available for these parishes at this time. Two self-sacrificing priests in this area were obviously called upon to do the work of four. One of these was Fr. Jankola who looked after the parishes in Pittston and in Maltby; the other one was his friend Father Stas who took care of Olyphant and Jessup. PIONEERING PROBLEMS Overextended as these priests were, they realized that it was actually impossible to reach out to all the Slovak immigrants because they lived in such widely scattered places-some here and there in typically settled areas, others in sparse settlements and still others even in very �168 SLOVAKIA remote and unlikely pockets. And they did need the solicitous care of conscientious priets. Many newcomers mistakenly assumed a new "liberty" in America-the liberty to drink too freely, to look upon church-going as a practice better suited to the old country than to the new, to neglect the sacraments with easy abandon and live a loose life. In defense of such attitudes, they all too readily ralied on such specious observations as: "America is different." "I have a parish church at home in Europe; I'll receive the sacraments there." "I work hard all week; Sunday is my day of rest. No one should take my rest from me and tell me to go to Mass ." "Now i want to live. Later when I'm dying I'll send for a priest." Persisting in such attitudes, they would have succumbed to a generally unprincipled or amoral life. Surely they did need someone to bring them effective spiritual guidance and the conviction that freedom in America is not license to abandon religious and moral obligations. Father Jankola looked to the root of these problems. He understood that greater earnings and ready cash in America spelled greater self-reliance which sometimes tended to generate that degree of involvement with material goods that became detrimental to sound spiritually. Easier living here often brought with it a distaste for self-discipline and a laxity about receiving the sacraments. Above all, however, he saw that not a few men deliberately stayed away from church if they did not understand the word of God preached to them in a language that they did not know. This neglect of religious duty was only aggravated by an easy forgetfulness of home training and ready abandonment of many good practices learned at home and advocated in one's parish church in a distant native village or town. Unless measures were taken to offset these unfavorable trends, many otherwise well-meaning but unguided immigrants could stray far from the really good life and from devotion to God. Consequently, Father Jankola did his utmost in the discharge of his ministry and he accomplished very much good but the more he did, the more he saw still waiting to be done. On all sides he faced the need for more priests. Repeatedly he had to hear requests for priestly service, direction and help, and sorrowfully he �SLOVAKIA 169 realized that he was not able to satisfy many of them. Again we have the reality that this was a missionary situation and there were not enough missionaries to serve Christ's cause among the Slovaks in it. In his efforts to resolve this problem, Father Jankola made appeals of his own. On very many occasions he wrote to his homeland, urging Slovak priests and seminarians to offer their help in America. He ·s aw that priests, who could not serve effectively abroad because of hampering factors there, would find here far more suitable conditions and climate as well as an extensive field for their zeal and dedication. Very likely, too, he was prompted to encourage other priests and seminarians to come to America from their Slovak lands because he himself had been similarly invited and encouraged by Father Furdek. Now he felt persuaded that as Father Furdek had to some degree influenced the shaping of his own decision to come to America, he too should try to draw others to serve Christ and his Church here where priests were so sorely needed. Both he and Father Furdek often described the situation and made their appeal not only in personal correspondence but also in various publications abroad to which they contributed. On his visits to relatives in Slovakia, Father Jankola never missed the opportunity of making personal contacts on behalf of interesting likely prospects to bring their priestly talents to apostolic work in America. Naturally, some of this effort went fruitless but some of it did yield returns. It is known that he was instrumental in encouraging these eight priests to come to SlovakAmerican parishes: Rev. Joseph Murgas, Rev. Dr. Alexander Dianiska, Rev. Francis Skutil, Rev. Anthony Berhely, Rev. Joseph Martincek, Rev. Emerich Gottschall, Rev. Ferdinand Prikazky and Rev. Anthony Filkorn. Four clerical students likewise took to heart his urging and on completing their theological courses devoted their efforts to Slovak parishes in America. They were Rev. Andrew Jurica, Rev. John Sobota, Rev. John Porubsky and Rev. John Gaspercik. By his personal effort Father Jankola provided pastors for ten Slovak parishes; viz., in Torrington, Connecticut, Pana, Illinois, and these eight in Pennsylvania: Edwardsville, Tarentum, Mt. Carmel, Monessen, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Barnesboro, Allegheny (now part of Pittsburgh) . �170 SLOVAKIA MISSION TO ROME After visiting Slovakia in 1901 and witnessing the unrelieved plight of Slovak Catholics there, Father Jankola went to Rome. The leading priests of his homeland had authorized him to act as their representative before the Holy Father and in reality he was qualified to speak on behalf of the Slovak Catholics of two continents. He brought to Rome, for presentation to the Holy Father, a three-volume collection of writings produced by outstanding Slovak scholars and a Latin brief or memorandum with which to acquaint Pope Leo XIII with the deeply regrettable plight of Slovak Catholics living under Hungarian rule and unable to make their own appeal for redress and relief. The most grievous wrong was that the Slovak language was totally proscribed among Slovak people. This restriction affected not only their everyday lives in social and business interaction but it also encroached upon their religious way of life. Even in church they were subjected to Magyar services only, even to hearing the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of homilies and sermons in Magyar only although they did not know that language. Church schools, catechetical classes and all courses of Christian Doctrine and religious instruction, along with all other form of schooling, were ordered to use only Magyar as the language of instruction. This ruling which the Slovak populace first encountered with a sense of unbelief gradually made them more and more restive. In time, a people who had traditionally conducted themselves with exemplary respect and ideal regard for the priesthood were becoming not only resistance-prone toward their pastors who were under government control but even hostile and openly rebellious against Magyar and pro-Magyar pastors and against the Magyar hierarchy. They resented the government's interference in their worship of God and in a domain where government has no rightful authority. Since it was useless or impossible to try to negotiate this state of affairs with public officials, Rome seemed to offer the only tribunal of appeal. The document which Father Jankola brought on his visit to the Eternal City made an honest, open and respectful representation of these facts for the Holy Father's consideration. It was �SLOVAKIA 171 signed by Slovak priests who had witnessed and endured what the Slovak people suffered even in their conscience and it expressed some of their fears for the future of the Church under such circumstances. On coming to Rome Father Jankola spent some time with a young Slovak cleric, the brilliant John Porubsky, who was then studying there and who also served in the apothecary of Pope Leo XIII. John Porubsky was well acquainted with a number of Church officials in diplomatic positions and with matters of protocol and effective procedures in official circles. After he had discussed the main objective of Father Jankola in Rome, he consulted with Cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa who was then Assistant Secretary of State and who later became Pope Benedict XV. Cardinal della Chiesa reviewed the memorandum carefully and decided that it warranted further referral. He took it to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla, who was much affected by the serious nature and the further implications of the reported situation. After a personal interview with Father Jankola who confirmed the facts of the memorandum from his personal witness in his homeland, he arranged for both Father Jankola and John Porubsky to see the Holy Father in a private audience. Father Jankola's meeting with Pope Leo XIII lasted two hours. Both of the Slovak representatives spoke with the Holy Father in fluent Latin and the Holy Father was so deeply moved by their report and their citing of specifics that tears of sympathy showed the intensity of his response and his concern for his suffering children. Some measures of alleviation were the outcome of this appeal to Rome, for the hierachy of Austria-Hungary was instructed to introduce reforms allowing the Slovak minority to pray and sing in Slovak and to use their native language in church and at all liturgical and worship services. There was a second spring of spiritual fervor when the meadowlands and mountainsides as well as the churches again resounded with Slovak hymns and Slovak prayers at Mass, at pilgrimages and at popular devotions. It is generally agreed that this occasion on which Father Jankola called attention to the repression which the Slovaks endured even in spiritual matters put before the thinking of ecclesiastical officials the desirability of �172 SLOVAKIA providing Slovak bishops for the Slovak people, of establishing a Slovak hierarchy that would be subject to no local authority but directly to Rome. Such a decision did not reach immediate fruition but the climate was finally favorable for this step after the First Czecho-Slova k Republic was founded in 1918. It was late in 1920 that Rome formally established a Slovak hierarchy by appointing Bishop John Vojtassak to the see of Spis Bishop Marian Blaha to the see of Banska Bystrica Bishop Charles Kmetko to the see of Nitra. They were consecrated by the Papal Nuncio on February 13, 1921. FURTHER APOSTOLIC EFFORT From Rome Father Jankola returned to his missionary and parish work. With renewer ardor he took up his labors among those to whom he fondly referred as "transplanted linden trees." With an eye to the present, he satisfied first needs first, exhorting the faithful to a truly Christian life, promoting faith and prayerfulness , reprimanding lapses, instructing the young and the not-so-young, preaching with the spoken word and the written word, and living the life that he preached. With an eye to the future, he encouraged worthy lay leadership, adjustment to the American way of life and vocations to the priesthood and religious life . Father Jankola was a realist as well as an idealist. As he toiled to build the kingdom of God spiritually in the hearts of many, he also looked after material building for this kingdom. This is attested by the fact that his zeal led him to build a total of five churches, two schools and a rectory: a church in Pittston, Wilkes-Barre and Maltby; a church and a school in Hazleton; a church a school and a rectory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is astounding that in the twenty years of his priesthood he could accomplish so much both for the Church and for his nation. In his ardor to work for lasting values, Father Jankola not only promoted sound spirituality and provisions for fruitful parish life, he also encouraged vocations to the pri~sthood and religious life, spent him.self in the cause of church-orient ed schools, envisioned and realized a congregation of Sisters to teach and care for the children of immigrants and perform works of mercy in the Church, �SLOVAKIA 173 contributed many articles to Slovak newspapers and periodicals, sponsored and aided the publication of Slovak texts for religious instruction and language arts, and greatheartedly proposed the naming of a Slovak bishop in the United States. He felt that Father Furdek deserved the rank of bishop and that in his elevation all Slovak Catholics in this country would benefit inasmuch as they would have an official leader whose first concern would be for all levels of Church organization among American Slovaks as well as for the needs of the young, the training of seminarians, Catholic schools and schooling under the direction of qualified Slovak or Slovak-American Sisters. PARISH SCHOOLS The subject of a Catholic school system among Slovak immigrants was one of the major preoccupations of Father Jankola's life. In his second pastoral assignment he came to St. Joseph's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of the two earliest American Slovak parishes, established in 1885. (The other is St. Stephen's parish in Streator, Illinois, founded in the same year.) He was the fourth pastor of St. Joseph's which already had a combination church-school building as well as a rectory and a parish cemetery. Since these physical arrangements were cared for, he turned his energy mainly to the spiritual and cultural advancement of his parishioners. With deft organizational gifts he established confraternities, spiritual societies and sodalities, providing opportunities for all age levels in the parish to participate in at last one Catholic Action group. A program of catechetical instruction was already functioning in the parish but Father Jankola felt that the time was right for introducing a fully expanded elementary curriculum in at least the earliest grades of the parish school. Miss Catherine O'Donnell was engaged as a full-time teacher for the subjects that were to be taught in English and Mr. Andrew Ondek, the parish organist, who had been conducting catechetical classes, was retained as teacher-incharge of the school and instructor in religion, Slovak and singing. Father Jankola spent much time in the school, observing, supervising, noting the progress of the pupils and the methods of instruction. Very often he himself conducted a class. This innovation of Father Jankola stirred up some �174 SLOVAK'iA feeling against him. Until this time is was the prerogative of the organist--and solely his-to be in charge of all the instruction of children in a parish school. By hiring a teacher in his experimental full-scale school, Father Jankola seemed to be jeopardizing the teacher-status of the organist. On this score misunderstandings developed all too readily, and factions formed to support one opinion and oppose the other, depending on points of view taken and loyalties involved. This matter was a painful issue for quite some time but Father Jankola steadily and gently tried to disprove the unfounded fears that had arisen and in spite of these apprehensions, he became increasingly aware of the necessity to provide for the adequate education of youth and the training of children under Christian auspices. Because of this indefatigable labors on behalf of Catholic schools, Father Jankola has often been looked upon as the apostle of the parish school among Slovaks in America. Both his admirers and his critics knew very truly that the matter of parish schools was his dearest concern-the apple of his eye, so to say. One of his favorite observations was : "Religious conviction takes first place and patriotism second; the church comes firs t and right after it, the school." He did his unwavering best to win pastors to the cause of opening and maintaining parochial schools, of convincing the faithful of the vital need for Catholic schools for their children and most importantly , he dedicated himself to the task of providing competent teachers and encouraging promising candidates to enter the teaching profession. Father Jankola rightly saw this whole area of education for the young as the fundamental need of the day. As often as he tried to deal with it, he realized that the problem only bore upon his conscience and his professional thinking with mounting insistence. For over twelve years he wrote on this subject, presenting it to his reading public in various aspects and doing his best to find a practical way to put it into operation. Even as early as 1899, when he was a young priest just four years ordained, he spoke of it very earnestly with some of the priests who were closest to him in the Scranton diocese; viz., Rev. Andrew Pavco, Rev. Dr. Alexander Dianiska and Rev. Joseph Murgas. �SLOVAKIA 175 Basically, there was no difficulty in gaining a general appreciation for the Catholic school system, but the whole concept of operating Slovak Catholic schools in America had to be framed within the American way of maintaining church schools. In their homeland, the Slovaks had grown accustomed to living in a parish wholly subsidized by a patron. This meant that under patronal sponsorship all operating expenses were met by the individual, the family or the civic body that was legally titled as the patron. In America all church operations, including the pastor's salary, would have to be borne by the members of the parish. Given a school situation, besides, the struggling newcomers to America would have to assume responsibility for all its costs, including salaries for teachers. The prospect of such obligation seemed quite impossible. Yet to Father Jankola this obligation itself was not the first and foremost duty of leaders and parents; the first duty really was to provide adequate education for the young with the understanding that the adults would have to learn how to support the school as well as the church according to American practice. Definitely there was much educating of various kinds to be done, formally and informally, but Father Jankola did not shrink in the face of it all. The genius of leadership in him dictated the work to be done and the good to be accomplished. Along with these thoughts, Father Jankola could not help comparing the cultural deprivation of immigrant parents with the opportunities that America could make available to their children. He was not blind to the fact that given an education, Slovak children could better themselves in this land of opportunity on which he looked as a cultural El Dorado, a spiritual New Canaan. Above all, however, he was convinced that Slovaks in America would have to begin thinking of themselves as Americans of Slovak origin and meet all their responsibilities as such. His constant reminder to his parishioners and to all where it would apply was: "If we are to live in America, we must live the American way of life. We must learn to adjust." And he made it abundantly clear that the blessings which America held for all were not exclusively material blessings; he greatly extolled the democratic principles and the gift of true liberty which are the hallmarks of true Americanism. �176 SLOVAKIA ADULT EDUCATION In this connection of adopting concepts of true Americanism, Father Jankola also tried to provide some compensations for adult immigrants, some of whom had had only two or three winters of schooling in their childhood, some of whom had had even less. Under his iniciative, adult education classes were introduced, concentrating on basics first of all-reading and writing. It was an exhilarating experience for an unschooled laborer earnestly applying himself to an unfamiliar task suddenly to pluck his neighbor's sleeve and to shout with the heady joy of achievement: "Look! I wrote my name! I can really write my name now! This is my name! Now I won't have to make a cross instead of my name anymore!" This was a first step but it was not enough. After basics followed classes in American history and in civil government with a view toward applying for citizenship and becoming naturalized. Citizenship would mean suffrage and a real sense of belonging, a participation in the community and the country of their adoption. EDUCATION AL SURVEY After his 1899 conference with priests closest to him in the Scranton diocese, Father Jankola was convinced that it was no longer possible to defer steps for the establishment of Slovak parish schools on the elementary level. For this reason he devoted much time to a close study of the American system of education which he frankly admired. He felt that he needed this kind of information in order to guide him in developing his own thinking. He felt, too, that he needed substantial statistical data as groundwork and for this p-µrpose he undertook a comprehensive survey of existing parish facilities for the education of Slovak Catholic children. In 1900 he published a report of his findings in the Jednota Kalend<ir, revealing that a) there were very few standard parish schools which he could classify as "first class schools" b) several parishes had provided for special classes on Saturdays in order to supplement the children's public school courses with instruction in religion and language arts �SLOVAKIA 177 c) the commendable though inadequate efforts of many parish organists were generally handicapped by overcrowding in classrooms as well as by merging a very broad range of mental and chronological ages into one composite group sometimes numbering up to two hundred pupils This survey concluded with an earnest exhortation that pastors spare no effort in order to establish schools comparable to the best that the American school system offers and that sound measures be taken to provide certified teachers. He knew, of course, that not all parishes were in a position to undertake a full school program but he trusted that a steady and well-reasoned campaign on behalf of parish schools would eventually be fruitful. But the building of schools would not of itself solve the problem of education in a parish school. Once the schools were built, they would have to be stuffed and he knew that there would be great difficulty in procuring desirable teachers. His survey indicated that in the schools rated as "first class," such as that in Wilkes-Barre (the only one of its kind in the Scranton diocese), as well as those in Johnstown, Shamokin, St. Ladislaus and St. Martin in Cleveland, and in Streator, Illinois were all conducted with the help of religious teachers-Sisters. He commended the Irish and German immigrants for their well-functioning schools, all directed by Sisters, and he very distinctly pointed out the fact that the Slovak people in America needed Slovak Sisters to teach in their parish schools. Man of clear vision that he was, he saw beyond that statement. His very words are: "Consequently, we need Sisters. Let us bring up our own Slovak Sisters! It is they who will preserve our faith and our nation. Reverend Fathers, and you Slovak parents, you who have in your parishes young ladies who are diligent, zealous, devout and suitable for the religious life, do feel responsible for making it possible for them to achieve this state of life. This will be a gift of the utmost value both to God and the nation; this will be a most noble offering. It is Slovak Sisters, teaching Sisters, who alone can alleviate this present educational crisis among us; �178 SLOVAKIA it is they who can save us from religious and national ruin. If we wish to live in America, we must live as Americans. This same principle was valid even in Rome. There is no other way of survival. I repeat: my brothers, Slovaks, let us establish parish schools, let us bring up our own Slovak teaching-Sisters, and God's help will support us!" As he urged priests and parents to encourage likely candidates to enter the religious life at this time, he did not mention any specific community, for he had none in mind. His survey did report that Ursulines and Sisters of St. Joseph were teaching in the Slovak schools of Cleveland, that Streator had Franciscan Sisters, and that there was " an English Sister" in the Olyphant school (Very likely a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or a Sister of Mercy). At this point, however, the core of the problem was simply to promote vocations. It was much as if he were saying that God will not be outdone in generosity ; that if only enough vocations could be cultivated, God could be trusted to provide the agents and the agencies for the work of Christian education among Slovak immigrants. He did not know that his own faith would be put to sore testing. He did not know the ultimate design of Providence but he trusted with an unshaken confidence and he worked on with unmitigated zeal . EXPLORING TEACHER RESOURCES At the same time that Father Jankola ardently promoted the cause of Slovak Catholic parish schools, he began to make serious inquiries at various American motherhouses and provincial houses, hoping to find a community whose membership might include at least some Sisters of Slovak or Slavic origin for staffing prospective Slovak schools in America and introducing into them American principles of education along with a wholesome Christian philosophy of life. Once he would know where Sisters were available, a sound program for Christian education could be launched with full vigor and the Slovak people would adjust to the American way of supporting their own schools. He did not foresee at all how difficult it would be to procure Sisters. At least four major superiors of religious communities answered his inquiries with the revealing �SLOVAKIA 179 news that even at that time it was extremely difficult for them to provide enough teachers for the schools already under their care. There was a normal increase in the population rate and as immigration figures rose, so did school enrollments increase and create a demand for expanded teaching forces. As a result of this situation, religious superiors felt that they would not be able to accept any new schools in the foreseeable future. This was a totally unwelcome but obviously prudent decision which they had to make. Disappointed beyond all expectation but still undaunted, Father Jankola next turned his appeal to European institutes. In all good faith he hoped that the old world would be able to compensate for the insufficiencies of the new. With prayerful anticipation he wrote to the Holy Cross Sisters in Moravia. He did not present to them any intimidating proposal. Very modestly he explored the possibility of obtaining a small number of Sisters, even three or four, to come to America, establish a foundation and train Slovak girls here for the religious life. He was assured that in time there would be enough applications for a flourishing self-sufficient community to develop on American soil, supported by the Slovak-American clergy and laity. Apparently there was much correspondence on this matter but promising as the outlook was at the outset, its prospects eventually dimmed and finally the issue was closed without satisfactory results. With great distress Father Jankola wrote in the Jednota Kalenddr of 1902, "For three years I have been trying to obtain Sisters from Europe, but my efforts have been in vain. Everything seems to be against us." These lines are an expression of that recurring disappointment that was to be his cross in this project, the testing of his spirit, and the price of an ideal which demanded sacrifice and suffering. Frustrated in his efforts to secure help from an already established community of Sisters, yet sufficiently disciplined not to surrender readily in the face of difficulty and repeateq disappointment, Father Jankola continued to pray, to confer with others and to plan. Since existing communities could spare him no members for the parish schools that he was promoting, the only avenue open to �180 SLOVAKIA him seemed to be to find prospective condidates of his own and to present them for training in an American sisterhood. He hoped that after their numbers increased and they had prepared themselves adequately, they might be allowed to branch off into an independent province within a mother congregation and continue their apostolate in Slovak parish schools. This suggested a very long range program but the eventual benefits would surely justify the patient waiting. All delays and price aside, one purpose of Father Jankola's efforts was to provide Sisters for the much needed task of teaching in Slovak parish schools. This was the crucial issue and the demanding challenge was where to procure them . COURAGE SUPPORTS HOPE In the spring of 1903, Father Jankola invited Slovak priests who were interested in the parish school project to meet for consultation at the Vendig Hotel in Philadelphia. He took this occasion to lay before them all his experiences in working for Slovak parish schools to this time: his hopes and disappointments, his renewed efforts and his present plan which would call for candidates from local parishes. The assembled pastors listened with evident interest. They were aware of the need to work with the young and they admired the American Catholic school system. Some endorsed the proposal and were willing to cooperate with Father Jankola. Unfortunately, there were others too who looked upon this new suggestion of his as too idealistic and extreme a venture, perhaps something out of a quixotic world and not suited to the times, not amenable to a practical approach. They did not hesitate to indicate emphatically that he could not count on them for support in such a project and they had nothing else to offer. This adverse reaction from leaders of people who lived with the realities of life in America was a blow to Father Jankola's expectations. But it did not destroy his vision or diminish that dogged persistence about him which would not let the matter rest untried. At least he knew now on whom he could count for advice and support and he had learned where it would be vain to look for help and understanding. He shored up his shattered elan and renewed his faith in the work before him. Resolved to test this plan and to have events prove �SLOVAKlA 181 the validity of this approach and anxious to test whether or not such an effort was of God, Father Jankola presented his proposal to several religious oommunities in his immediate area. It is likely that he now founded his hopes on either the Mallinckrodt Sisters of Charity or on the Sisters of Mercy. He had had opportunities to observe the work of both communities on a local level because they taught in parishes near his own. He admired their spirit and evidence of dedication and he ardently hoped that he might see their influence diffused among the Slovak people, but from both communities he received an unfavorable reply. It meant just so much more disappointment and so much more need for fresh courage. EARLY PROMISE Again and again Father Jankola renewed his search for a mother community that would accept his candidates (in due time) and train them for Slovak parish schools. He even decided to appeal to the charity of a rather distant order in America, the Czech Benedictine Sisters in Chicago, Illinos. When the mail brought him a reply, it was with utmost gratitude that he read that these Sisters would b e willing to be of assistance to him. With profound relief he trusted that at last this was going to mean the realization of his prospects. With this good news to report, Father Jankola held another conference with the priests who supported his plan. At these deliberations practical measures were proposed and four specific steps were agreed upon. The first of these was the decision to accept the offer of the Benedictine Sisters and to send three aspirants to Chicago. The others were in the nature of active endorsement of Father Jankola's plan, involving the promise or agreement a ) to announce Father Jankola's plans and prospects from their pulpits b ) to preach on the subject of vocations c ) to solicit offerings to support the undertaking This last provision was embodied in a fund called St. Anthony's Treasury. The patronage of St. Anthony was chosen because this Franciscan saint beautifully exemplifies that Christian charity that provides for the needs of the poor. Now at last, although no one could foresee what the �182 SLOVAKIA future held, there seemed to be some glimmer of success at last. On the following Sunday Father Jankola preached an inspiring sermon on vocations and after the parochial mass he found an applicant in his office. Before long there were two more candidates from St. Joseph's parish in Hazleton as well as two from Sacred Heart parish in Wilkes-Barre. Now at last, hope was moving toward reality. In the fall of 1903 the first three aspirants from Hazleton were sent to the Benedictines in Chicago and the soul of Father Jankola rejoiced that the great work was launched at last while his spirit trusted that it would thrive . HOPE DEFERRED Unfortunately this joy was short-lived and this hope soon wilted. After a few short weeks Father Jankola was notified that the Superiors felt it was advisable to withdraw his candidates because they found it difficult to adjust to religious life with them. The blow fell at the very moment when two additional aspirants sat in the Wilkes-Barre railroad station holding tickets for Chicago as they waited to board the next train. Just before the train pulled into the station, their plans were abruptly changed and they returned to their homes. This was a crushing report that reached Father Jankola from Chicago. He could hardly bring himself to accept it. His first reaction was to blame the young girls for want of endurance. His own training in austerity made it difficult for him to condone their failure and apparent weakness in the face of hardship where he would have expected an almost stoic courage and strength. Gradually he was brought to realize, however, that they did not lack generosity and good will, but they were wholly unprepared for trials severe even for seasoned religious; moreover, they were still very young. Home-loving and cared-for as they had been, they were subjected to an almost traumatic and total separation from home and an absolute change from their family environment. Chicago then seemed half a world away from Hazleton. Even normal adjustment would have been necessarily gradual, but they were at once challenged with the untempered rigors of Benedictine monasticism in a community where poverty was so extreme in those �SLOVAKIA 183 pioneering days that only a tried and proven spirit would have been able to endure it without difficulty. When the unhappy candidates returned from Chicago, they were not sent back to their homes or subjected to reproach and embarrassment. Instead, they were befriended and confided to the care of Father Pavco in Pittston until further development could be planned and arranged. Father Pavco then visited Father Jankola to confer with him about the situation. He found him shaken and extremely tried by this new disappointment. NEW HOPE In his sympathetic efforts to comfort his friend, Father Pavco called Father Jankola's attention to the "Blue Sisters" of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who conducted St. John the Evangelist School in Pittston just across the street from his own church and rectory. As he spoke, Father Pavco became more and more enthusiastic about the spirit and attitudes of these Sisters, and finally he suggested that Father Jankola consult with their Reverend Mother at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Scranton. As a glowing climax he remarked, "I understand that her name is Mother Mary Cyril. Our common patron may help here; let us try in the name of God." Discouraged though he was by the latest setback to his hopes and beset by numerous other problems besides. Father Jankola agreed with Father Pavco that it would be advisable to try again; but he approached the new possibility with a measure of caution added to his natural reserve. On his first visit to Mother Cyril he conferred with her only on the prospect of enrolling the daughter of one of his parishioners at her boarding school. He did not mention the real burden that lay on his heart like a cross . Before long, however, Father Jankola made another appointment with Mother Cyril. On his initial visit he had found her so gracious that he was encouraged to present his key problem to her on this second visit. Again he found her ideally understanding. This does not mean that she at once gave him any definite assurance but she received him with such Christlike sympathy and such evidence of maternal regard for the needs of young girls that he con- �184 SLOVAKIA sidered the consultation worthwhile, to say the least, and returned home with great admiration for her, confidence in her judgment and renewed hope for the all-but-lost undertaking. Providence ordained that Mother Cyril should be the answer to Father Jankola's prayers. With the consent of her Council she accepted his candidates and trained them with unexampled care and solicitude within the shelter of her own religious family. In fact, they were so close to her own Sisters that for some time it was not even clear whether they would eventually become an independent community or whether they were to be an element added to hers. TOWARD FRUITION When she first received the young girls at Mount St. Mary's in 1903, Mother Cyril did not immediately place them under monastic novitiate discipline but rather kept them in the boarding academy as students who were to be formed into candidates for the religious life by gradual measures. They were permitted to spend the school vacation at home and on such occasions they often became an inspiration to others and attracted new vocations. These students were maintained at Mount St. Mary's through funds from St. Anthony's Treasury which was supported by the mites of hard-working and generous people and the offerings for votive candles in Slovak churches. From November 21, 1903, when they first came to the Mount, their status was that of students. On January 6, 1906, three of them became postulants. In March of the same year Mother Cyril informed Father Jankola that his group would not be identified with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This implied that they were to form their own community. Father Jankola accepted this decision and suggested the name "Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius" as a possible designation for the prospective Slovak community. On July 26, 1906, the first members were clothed in a distinctive black habit, Bishop Hoban presiding at the reception ceremony. The fruit of arduous work and confident prayer was beginning to mature but its maturing exacted a further price. Father Jankola paid the greater part of it by bearing not only the normal burden of concern but also painful �SLOVAKIA 185 misunderstandings and unreasonable demands from parish sources. He even withdrew somewhat from the project after it was safely launched, willing to deny himself the satisfaction that should have been the reward of a work brought to successful fruition after many bitter and disillusioning trials. Much of his sorrow on this score was caused by more or less well-meaning individuals who hounded him and persecuted him severely because they saw in the promise of a teaching community only the ousting of organists from teaching posts in the parish schools. They believed that this would inevitably follow upon the success of Father Jankola's project. Blinded in their narrow reasoning, they would not face facts reasonably or accept the reality which indicated only too clearly that their parish schools in America were fast outgrowing the capacities of their organists reserve and that they had no other teachers with or without adequate training to conduct schools according to American standards. The Sisters were expected to relieve an existing need, not to create a new difficulty. Organists would not necessarily have to give up all their classes. It was one of those struggles which often arise when the old order of life must yield to the newer way and cannot do so gracefully. Added to this, however, there was also a painfully critical attitude making itself within clerical ranks. Several priests still doubted the timeliness and the wisdom of Father Jankola's efforts. At first they merely refused to cooperate, later they voiced objections and even spoke of other plans of their own. In spite of his stoic exterior and his disciplined habits of conduct, Father Jankola~s soul and sensibilities were deeply refined and sensitive. It hurt him inexpressibly to be ranked as a visionary when with all his soul he bent his energies to practical matters and used very realistic means to attain vitally urgent results. He suffered keenly because of all the conflicts brewing in his Hazleton parish and when there seemed to be no other solution, he decided to leave the scene of so much bitterness and open hostility, at least until the storm should spend itself. This parish had grown very dear to him. When its original wooden church burned to the ground in 1905, he worked indefatigably to raise funds for a new structure �186 SLOVAK.IA of natural stone. Within two years he collected twelve thousand dollars, a lordly sum in a day of low wages and small incomes in the midst of a struggling community of miners and common laborers. He had the largeness of vision and the natural capacity to plan a church of unique beauty and to execute his plans in spacious proportions, artistic in design and as inspiring as a prayer. St. Joseph's in Hazleton is a worthy memorial to his priestly service there and to the spirit of Slovak pioneers in the area. TRANSFER TO BRIDGEPORT In the fall of 1907 Father Jankola took a leave of absence from the Scranton diocese and was received with joy by the people of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who were then organizing the parish of SS. Cyril and Methodius. He wrote to Mother Cyril, "I thought I would make a solitary living here, like a hermit, after much trouble, trial and injustice. But my work is not yet done . . . I have to continue to take care of the future religious institution that I have started with God's help and St. Anthony's intercession." He would not be a derelict to duty no matter what it cost him in personal pain. He would stand by his ideals and convictions. Alth0ugh Father Jankola expected eventually to return to Hazleton his missionary zeal so engrossed him in the organization of parishes in the New England region that he finally transferred to the Hartford diocese. Besides his pastoral work in St. Cyril's, he also undertook the spiritual care of Slovaks in Webster, Massachusett s, and made missionary trips to Stamford, Torrington, New Britain and surrounding settlements in Connecticut. He was untiring pastor and missionary in new surroundings again. He kept in touch with Mother Cyril through correspondence. With her he assigned the Sisters to their firs t teaching mission at Sacred Heart parish in Wilkes-Barre while disclosing to her the demands being made on him. "We have only three Slovak Sisters-how can we send them to four parishes?" he wrote her in 1908. Yet in his concern for the cherished project, he maintained an unselfishness that commands administratio n as always leaning toward the common good. When the first Sisters were to be sent on a teaching mission, he made the disinterested recommenda tion to assign them either to Wilkes- �SLOVAKIA 187 Barre or to Lansford although he would have been justified in directing them to either of the equally large parishes of his own endeavors-Hazleton or Bridgeport. FIRST AMERICAN-SLOVAK SISTERS In August 1909, Bishop Hoban brought from Rome the Holy See's decree of approval for the new community. On September 1, 1909, the first Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius made public profession of vows and the community emerged as a new family in the Church. Before the close of Mother Cyril's term of office, they were ready to open a motherhouse of their own. For ten years their formation had been under the immediate guidance of Mother Cyril at Mount St. Mary's. At last the tender seed which had been long hidden in the darkness of Father Jankola's secret hopes and prayers, long prepared through seasons of doubt and storm and the intermittent sunshine of hope and promise, often exposed to tears and blessings, now sprang in good soil and, tended with paternal care and maternal understanding, was ready to yield glory to God through a harvest of service among the Slovak people. As some of the Sisters undertook teaching in the parish schools, additional recruits were being prepared as novices and postulants in the novitiate or as students at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Scranton. After twelve years from the time of their entry into Mount St. Mary's the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius became a wholly independent community. This status was attained in 1915 after their first General Chapter elected a Mother General and a Council for internal government. Father Jankola was happy indeed to see the Sisters making progress. He continued to be interested in their welfare but denied himself the satisfaction of overseeing or directing their development. From all sides he was harassed by demands for teachers but once the stability of the Community was established, he allowed it to mature on its own and to learn to shoulder responsibility independently. PASTORSHIP IN BRIDGEPORT In Bridgeport Father Jankola continued his work, which demanded tireless energy, prudent planning and great fortitude. He was equal to the challenge. His parishione11s found him serious and purposeful, dilligent and �188 SLOVAK.IA circumspect, devout and fatherly. With him first things inexorably came first. Religion and spiritual interests held priority over all other considerations but close in second place were patriotism as well as the arts and social graces, and finally a balanced concern for temporalities. Under hls direction the parish was firmly established and within a year it had six active societies as well as an excellent choir, a dramatic club and an evening school for adult education. These evening classes became very popular and profitable. They lasted from eight to ten o'clock and in time they offered mathematics and English taught by Mr. Michael Senko on Monday; Slovak by Father Jankola on Tuesday; community singing by Mr. George Lukac on Thursday, and dramatics by Mr. Joseph Michalek on Sunday. Additional subjects were included later to enable parishioners to prepare for naturalization. For the children there were daily catechetical classes which Father Jankola himself conducted after the pupils were dismissed from public school. Within five years Father Jankola managed to have the parish clear a debt of over sixteen thousand dollars. The church which he then built for seventy thousand dollars is a magnificent cruciform structure of white brick with a seating capacity of one thousand. It was the fifth church which he planned and erected, and with its inspiring splendor it is the crown of his building effort. A severely simple frame rectory was all that he permitted for his own needs. To make provisions for a school he built a plain four-room structure planned to double for a parish hall . It, too, was severely simple and those who loved it did not mind sometimes referring to it as "Noah's Ark." His Sisters came to take charge of this school in 1910 and it must have been with intense yet complex emotion that he at last saw the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius at work teaching in his own school. Within the parish itself Father Jankola fanned a great flame of spiritual activity. The Confraternity of the Holy Rosary was canonically established and it flourished amid these people who exulted, "We have brought Kosice to America," for the rosary was a traditional family devotion among them, awakening for them fond memories of pilgrimages to the beloved Marian shrine in the Slovak city of Kosice. A deeper spirituality was cultivated among those �SLOVA.K:IA 189 who joined the Third Order of St. Francis and the Altar Society. A canonically founded Sodality and the Holy Name Society held Christian ideals before the eyes of the young. It is remarkable that Father Jankola invariably attended the meetings of all these societies and each time left some lesson or ponderable thought with the members to inspire or to enlighten them. Through the choir and the dramatic guild he aimed to make art the handmaid of religion. Church music, folk singing, and classic compositions all had their place and were rendered with feeling and skill under the direction of Mr. George Lukac. Father Jankola had recognized musical talent in him when he was yet a schoolboy and sent him to St. Procopius College in Lisle, Illinois, to develop his talent. Then he offered him the position of organist at St. Cyril's. Born of mutual regard, a strong bond of devotion developed between the two. Drama under Father Jankola's guidance included a wide variety of presentations from monologues and skits through interludes and plays to grand productions like " St. Elizabeth," "St. Genevieve," and "Fabiola." Each one was staged before a packed house usually in a spacious hall rented for the occasion and it lent the entire community the aspects of festivity and a parish holiday. For major plays Father Jankola took the trouble to rent costumes and hire a make-up crew from the theatrical centers of New York City, and he saw to it that the staging was a satisfying piece of dramatic art. It is no wonder that his parishioners idolized him. On all occasions he was an inspiration and edification to them. He may have appeared forbiddingly stern and exacting, but they knew that his heart was warm and fatherly. The priest in him was always at their service, hearing confessions every day of the week even on Sundays, answering every call as soon as it came though he was without benefit of an assistant, ready to advise, admonish, comfort, help or serve in whatever the need might be. It was generally recognized and appreciated that he did the work of three priests. Despite all the demands made on him, his parish was in enviable order and he managed a tremendous amount of work for the general public. Scholarly and cultural interests were his hobby. It is interesting that �190 SLOVAKIA shortly before his death he began the study of Hebrew under a private tutor. THE WRITER One stands in admiration of the consuming energy with which he must have worked, for apart from all these accomplishments there is the steady stream of articles, stories, reports and instructions that came from his pen. He was a recognized leader in Slovak national life also, for only six years after coming to this country, he was elected supreme president of the Jednota organization (1900) . (The First Catholic Slovak Union-a benevolent society with nationwide membership.) From 1904 to 1908 he was a member of the Jednota judiciary council. In 1910 he was editor of the "Jednota" weekly as well as of its annual or almanac . In 1908 and again after Furdek's death, he was chosen spiritual director of the Jednota. He likewise promoted the interests of the "Katolicky Sokol," contributed many articles to its news organ and served one term as spiritual director of this athletic and fraternal organization. He warmly endorsed the children's paper "Priatel' Dietok," which was sponsored by the Sokol. He encouraged pastors, parents, and teachers to support it, and highly complimented the pupils of his school when their contributions appeared on its pages. THE LEADER Among the Slovak priests, especially in the eastern part of the country, Father Jankola always enjoyed a degree of prestige. He was generally esteemed their leader. It was he who first banded them together in 1903 for the purpose of discussing common problems like education and the training of future priests and Sisters. It was he who promoted an organization of priests in the eastern states just a year before his death. He was identified with many national drives and movements; he signed the Code of American Slovak Journalists in 1897; he initiated the National Fund (also in 1897) to promote national interests and to sponsor worthy projects. He undertook the founding of a men's Slovak Benedictine priorate and a men's Slovak Franciscan province in the United States. By 1910 he urged that steps be taken to recommend �SLOVAKIA 191 the appointment of a Slovak bishop in this country and suggested that Father Furdek be named the candidate since he was "the first, the most learned, the most respected, and the best loved Slovak priest in America." In 1916 he initiated a Peter's Pence drive among the Slovaks in America. These are some of the major achievements he accumulated before death closed the door of life upon him at the age of forty-three. And he aspired to more. He even dared hope to transplant his Sisters to Europe, "First opening a house in Velehrad, Moravia, where St. Methodius is buried," as he visualized his dream. In his greatness of vision he had hoped that they might "be the instrument in God's hand for the conversion of Slav schismatics to Rome, where St. Cyril died." These are some of the hopes of which he once wrote to Mother Cyril. UNTIMELY DEATH But death stilled his ardent hopes and healed his wounds. Added to all the trials borne so courageously there descended upon him yet the cruelty of a most painful hoax. Spent as he was with unstinted labor and exertion, it took the agony of something like this to crush his very last energies. Manfully he tried to bury the hurt but it worked its havoc and undermined his strength. On Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916, he was stricken as he preached at High Mass and he died quietly on May 5, mourned by thousands and appreciated even more in death than he was in life. After the funeral services at the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Father Jankola was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut. In connection with their Golden Jubilee observances in 1959, however, the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius arranged to have their founder's remains transferred to Danville where they are interred in the Community cemetery at Villa Sacred Heart. CONCLUSION It has been said with truth that Father Jankola was to the spiritual life what Father Furdek was to the national life of the Slovak people in America. To the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius he is the gardener to whom God entrusted the seed of their congregation, charging him to plant it, to water it with his �192 SLOVAKlA tears and sufferings, to warm it with his undying love. At the moment the seed sprouted and its first promising shoots appeared, at that moment in a Profession Ceremony, he said joyfully and humbly, "You are my joy, you are my crown, you are my glory." BIBLIOGRAPHY Archival materials at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius and in Jankola Library, Danville, Pennsylvania. These include: a) personal correspondence of and with Father Jankola b) personal correspondence of and with Father Jankola's sisters, Louisa and Inna c) documents d) several books of rare parish records entrusted to the Sisters Furdek, Stefan, "Z Ameriky." Osvald, Fr. Richard, Tovarysstvo. I. Rufomberok, Osvald, 1893. Gregorovic, Sister M. Consuela, SS.C.M., Contributions of Reverend Matthew Jankola to Slovak Catholic Education in the United States. Modification of thesis submitted to the Catho.Jic University of America, 1944. DanviLle, Pennsylvania, Golden Jubilee Publication of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1958-1959. Hrusovsky, Frantisek, Slovenske rehole v Amerike. Cleveland, Slovensky ustav, 1955. Slovenske dejiny. 4th ed. Turciansky Svaty Martin, Matica Slovenska, 1940. Jankola, Matus, "crty z katolickej slovenskej farnosti v Pittston, Pa." Osvald, Fr. Richard, Tovarysstvo, III. Ruzomberok, Osvald , 1900. Jednota (Weekly newspaper) . Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota, 19011916 passim. Jednota Kalendar. (annual ). Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota. 19001931 passim. Medvecky, Karol A., Cirkevne pomery katolickych Slovakov v niekdajsom Uhorsku, Ruzomberok, Nakl. vlast., 1920. Pauco, Jozef, Matus Jan.kola, knaz a narodovec. Danville, Pennsylvania, Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1959. Slovenska rehol'a Sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda. Slovensky spolok sv. Anny vo Wyoming V.alley, Pa. 1957. 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty. Cleveland, Ohio, I.K.S.J. , 1965. Slovenski priekopnici. Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota, 1972. Petra~ek, Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M., Brief History of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Danville, Pennsylvania , Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1959. Scotus Viator (Seton Watson), Racial Problems in Hungary, London , Archibald Constable, 1908. Spolok sv. Vojtecha, Katolicke Slovensko. Trnava, SSV, 1933. Spirko, Jozef, Cirkevne dejiny s osobitnym zretel'om na vyvin cirkevnych dejin Slovenska. 2 vol. Turc. Sv. Martin, Neografia, 1943. � 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 SLOVAKlA 161 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 SLOVAK-AMERICAN PRIEST, LEADER, EDUCATOR Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. An observance commemorating the life and accomplishments of Father Matthew Jankola in this centennial year of his birth has the advantages of distance and historic perspective. It provides a very timely opportunity for appraising this leader and his life's contribution with fair and realistic appreciation, with a degree of objective regard for his innate qualities and his unique achievements. Father Jankola's life span encompassed only forty-three years and his biographical data can be summarized very compactly. BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE The parents of Matthew Jankola were Matthew and Rosalie Medvecky Jankola. They lived very ·simply but happily in Trstena, a picturesque town in the economically disadvantaged Orava district of Slovakia, and their son Matthew spent much of his early life there. But Trstena was not Father Jankola's birthplace, for he was born away from home on July 2, 1872, while his parents were at seasonal work in the Stary Budin sector of Budapest, Hungary. After his elementary education in Trstena, the boy Matthew continued his schooling at gymnazia in Bardejov and Beckov. Later, on the recommendation and under the sponsorship of his maternal uncle, the Francisean Father Emerich Medvecky, he advanced to seminary studies with the Franciscans in Hlohovec and in Kremnica. At the same time, the school of life steadily trained him too. With ardor and utmost good will he gave his all in order to prepare for the priesthood with a religious order but the evils of oppression did not spare him even in the seminaries of Slovakia. In fact, they left their mark upon him by undermining his health though no degree of im- 162 SLOVAKIA posed suffering could shake his spirit. This apparently all-pervasive atmosphere of oppression was one of the determining factors that led him to seek a better way of life in the new world. It happened, then, that because of many types of extreme pressures in his homeland-political, economic, cultural-and because America had become a haven of refuge and security to many of his countrymen, he too ventured upon the long voyage across the Atlantic and arrived in the harbor of Baltimore on December 19, 1893. He was not in prime physical condition at this time, for strain and exhaustion had drained his reserves but his heart was filled with a determination that was always characteristic of him and with a buoyant hope that here honest work would bring honest returns, that repression did not came with him on his long and arduous trip. In his soul he cherished the vision that he could become a force for good in this new world while he would also be a support and help for his dear ones in Slovakia. And so he began a new chapter in the young manhood of his life. He had come to America as a talented and achieving student in his fourth year of theology. He was not encumbered with misgivings or uncertainties about his life's work or objectives. Without unnecessary delay he enrolled in St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore but after an interval of illness had interrupted his seminary program, he transferred to St . Bonaventure Seminary in Allegheny, New York, where Latin was the language of instruction. His proficiency in Latin made him feel very much at home here and in two semesters he was able to complete the courses that he needed for the final rounding out of his training for the priesthood. January 13, 1895 was the date Father Jankola's ordination. He was twenty-two and had lived half of his life. From this date on, he felt in his soul that he owed filial gratitude to three persons whom he regarded in the role of father: his natural father who was very dear to him; his u ncle Father Emerich Medvecky whose Franciscan charity and solicitude saw to his education and the nurturing of his priestly vocation; and Bishop William O'Hara of Scranton who received him in America and ordained him p riest. SLOVAKIA 163 Shortly after his ordination he received his first priestly assignment: the pastorate of St. John the Baptist parish in Pittston, Pennsylvania. And from this center he extended pastoral care to seven other towns where Slovak Catholic immigrants were settling. He was subsequently pastor of St. Joseph's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and of SS. Cyril and Methodius parish in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he died on May 5, 1916. This brief and superficially simple biographical sketch does not even suggest any of the fullness of his lifetime. It is rather the bare diagram of plotting points, each of which opened upon an individual richness of life . BACKGROUNDS The pivotal key in Father Jankola's life was his total commitment to the priesthood. The fruition of all his living was in the twenty years that followed upon his ordination. The social milieu in which he had decided upon a career of service as a priest of God rightfully had conditioned him into viewing dedication to the altar as no mere token position to be satisfied by perfunctorily discharged liturgical devotions and ceremonies-significant and beautiful as they may be. To him the office of priest meant a distinctive way of life binding the priest to serve wholeheartedly as mediator, leader, educator, philanthropist and sanctifier of his people in and for Christ. Much in the mind of Vatican II, he developed his formation and his philosophy of life in the ideal that the priest is above all for Christ and for the people. In all his subsequent endeavors this wa:s his guiding principle, his constant. Even as a growing boy and as an aware adolescent, he had lived with the realization that among his people the priest was the one individual who stood for leadership, uprightness and learning as well as for spiritual ministry, moral guidance and ethical inspiration. He was oriented to his regard for the priesthood because the ruling powers that had shackled Slovakia in many ways had also-except by rare exception- denied academic opportunities for Slovak boys and girls who aspired to professional or scientific careers. On this score, the authorities relented only to permit seminary training for the sake of the priest- 164 SLOVAKIA hood, and normal school courses in a limited way, in order to prepare some teachers for schools. The priest, then, had to be more than shepherd of souls in Slovakia. He had to be the leading light of his people in temporalities as well as in spirituality. He had to be .not only teacher and guide in virtue and goodness but also a perceptive and courageous defender of justice and the basic rights of man. This is the main reason why Slovak priests sometimes found themselves consciencebound to take a hard look even at the political atmosphere in which they and their people had to live. And seeing the realities of inequity, discrimination, cultural deprivation, oppression and spiritual bondage, they had the moral fortitude even publicly to attack these evils and defend their people and their country; they had the conviction that as the educated leaders of their people, they had to have the stamina to enter the forum of public affairs and there champion the cause of the wronged, the oppressed and the helpless whenever circumstances demanded their presence in the public arena. Various modes of oppression, overt as well as patent, often discouraged or demoralized the average citizen who was usually much preoccupied with the daily need to provide at least a living for his family. The God-given beauty of his natural surroundings often put a bit of poetry into a peasant's hard life; the lilt and loveliness of folk song and folk music warmed his heart, and the ar tistry of hand crafted work brought him some gratuitous satisfaction through creative expression but he needed the wholesomeness of opportunities to cultivate his intellectual talents and his inborn creative gifts freely and even as a lifetime career, as a professional; he needed assured liberty and justice, openness and a sense of security so that he could rise above sheer drudgery and allow his spirit to grow expansive. He needed to nourish his life of the spirit as well as the life of his body . He needed to satisfy his intellectual hunger in order to develope spiritually and to structure a sense of dignity in his life. All this the Slovak priest recognized in his parish, in his town or village, in his country. More was asked of him than is generally asked of the average priest, and he had t o be a man greater dimension that the average man. He SLOVAKIA 165 had to be capable of tactful leadership, of sound capacities for guidance and direction, of clear vission and foresight ; resourceful as well as prayerful, peace-loving yet fearless in the face of defending God-given rights, forgiving yet relentless in fighting injustice. In him converged all the likeness of Christlike being and behavior and all the paradoxes of virtue flourishing in a sin-beset world. This is the kind of life that Matthew Jankola chose with mature and deliberate will. Most importantly, this is the kind of life that he lived. Fire and ardor were of his very nature; integrity, initiative and unclouded vision were his basic assets; God, nation and fellowmen-in that order-were his top priorities; and the grit to endure was the price that he was asked to pay in the discharge of his vocation. Living here as he did under pioneering conditions among immigrants who were truly strangers in a strange land, he was imbued with characteristic missionary concern for both the material and the spiritual welfare of those around him and of those for whom he had made himself responsible. He was aware that the socio-economic circumstances which bore upon the immigrant Slovak laborer could affect him very adversely and for that reason he did not spare himself in awakening and revitalizing deep self-respect and dignity in the man who was burdened with inhuman hours and labors and even humiliation in the dank pits of coal mines, at the raging forges of steel mills, at railroad building and multiplicity of menial jobs of every description. Work itself is reasonably recognized as honorable but sometimes the conditions under which a man is compelled to work can conspire to brutalize him. And man must not spend all his working hours in just expending the strength of his muscles or he may become gross. FIRST PASTORATE It is worth noting that Bishop O'Hara appointecl. Father Jankola pastor of St. John the Baptist parish in Pittston very shortly after his ordination. He knew how urgent the need was for this parish to have a pastor and he recognized in the newly ordained Father Jankola gifts of mind and spirit that recommended him, young as h e was, for a responsible office even without seasoned ap- 166 SLOVAKIA prenticeship in parish work. Pioneering often calls for practically instant response to duty. Father Jankola never hesitated in meeting the demands of duty and Bishop O'Hara had every reason to be convinced that his trust in this pastor was well placed. With complete dedication, an unusual capacity for work and keen administrative talent, the new priest assumed the new tasks committed to him. With apostolic zeal he made it a point of his prime priestly service to reach out among the scattered Slovak Catholics of wide regions. He did not circumscribe his labors and his interests to that one Pittston parish only. He felt, rather, that all the Slovaks displaced in America were his immediate concern, and his specific responsibility to the Pittston parish of St. John the Baptist included the Slovak Catholics of seven adjoining communities commonly referred to as "places" or "plejzy." They included Sturmerville, West Pittston, Wyoming, Port Griffith, Smithville, Duryea and Pittston Junction. At this time he also traveled to the Binghamton, New York, area to serve the spiritual needs of Slovaks settling there. From the very beginning these, so to say, transplanted and still rootless people who were largely engaged in railroad building and in the shoe industry, were content to use the church facilities that were very kindly offered them by St. Patrick's parish but in 1902 Father Jankola helped them to organize their own parish under the patronal title of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Important as this was, it was enough. He next did his utmost in order to find a reasonable priest to take charge of this parish or at least to offer temporary ministry to the Binghamton Slovak community. On countless occasions when no one else was available, he himself came to provide them with Sunday services, to administer the sacraments, to advise and guide them and to inspire and encourage them to cultivate their spiritual life, much like a missionary compelled to ride h is circuit in order to bring God to man and man to God. During this pastorship in Pittston, Father Jankola also ministered to the Slovaks of Wilkes-Barre and Swoyeville ( which was called Maltby in his day) and with his sound direction and practical acumen, he helped them to build their churches. There were over eight thousand Slovaks in Wyoming Valley region around Wilkes-Barre at this time SLOVAKIA 167 and there was a steady flow of increase into this hard coal region as ship after ship brought more Slovak immigrants to American shores. From his parish base in Pittston Father Jankola indefatigably toiled among them, deeply concerned that the burdens and troubles of providing for material needs and livelihood should not crowd out of their labor-preoccupied lives the eternal truths that God bore them all in his love and that as they spent themselves on behalf of material well-being, they keep in mind and also provide for the life of the spirit and for undying values. In the early history of Slovak Catholics in the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where there was a large concentration of Slovak immigrants, we find the record of these ten Slovak parishes which were established in the late nineteenth century: 1883 St. Joseph's in Hazleton 1886 St. Stephen's in Plymouth 1888 St. Joseph's in Nanticoke 1889 Holy Ghost in Olyphant 1893 St. John Nepomucene in Freeland 1894 St. John the Baptist in Pittston 1895 Holy Trinity in Maltby (later called Swoyerville ) 1895 Sacred Heart in Wilkes-Barre 1895 Holy Family in Scranton 1896 St. Michael's in Jessup Ten Roman Catholic parishes like ten significant reasons to make the heart rejoice! But then the stark realization that there were only eight Roman Catholic priests available for these parishes at this time. Two self-sacrificing priests in this area were obviously called upon to do the work of four. One of these was Fr. Jankola who looked after the parishes in Pittston and in Maltby; the other one was his friend Father Stas who took care of Olyphant and Jessup. PIONEERING PROBLEMS Overextended as these priests were, they realized that it was actually impossible to reach out to all the Slovak immigrants because they lived in such widely scattered places-some here and there in typically settled areas, others in sparse settlements and still others even in very 168 SLOVAKIA remote and unlikely pockets. And they did need the solicitous care of conscientious priets. Many newcomers mistakenly assumed a new "liberty" in America-the liberty to drink too freely, to look upon church-going as a practice better suited to the old country than to the new, to neglect the sacraments with easy abandon and live a loose life. In defense of such attitudes, they all too readily ralied on such specious observations as: "America is different." "I have a parish church at home in Europe; I'll receive the sacraments there." "I work hard all week; Sunday is my day of rest. No one should take my rest from me and tell me to go to Mass ." "Now i want to live. Later when I'm dying I'll send for a priest." Persisting in such attitudes, they would have succumbed to a generally unprincipled or amoral life. Surely they did need someone to bring them effective spiritual guidance and the conviction that freedom in America is not license to abandon religious and moral obligations. Father Jankola looked to the root of these problems. He understood that greater earnings and ready cash in America spelled greater self-reliance which sometimes tended to generate that degree of involvement with material goods that became detrimental to sound spiritually. Easier living here often brought with it a distaste for self-discipline and a laxity about receiving the sacraments. Above all, however, he saw that not a few men deliberately stayed away from church if they did not understand the word of God preached to them in a language that they did not know. This neglect of religious duty was only aggravated by an easy forgetfulness of home training and ready abandonment of many good practices learned at home and advocated in one's parish church in a distant native village or town. Unless measures were taken to offset these unfavorable trends, many otherwise well-meaning but unguided immigrants could stray far from the really good life and from devotion to God. Consequently, Father Jankola did his utmost in the discharge of his ministry and he accomplished very much good but the more he did, the more he saw still waiting to be done. On all sides he faced the need for more priests. Repeatedly he had to hear requests for priestly service, direction and help, and sorrowfully he SLOVAKIA 169 realized that he was not able to satisfy many of them. Again we have the reality that this was a missionary situation and there were not enough missionaries to serve Christ's cause among the Slovaks in it. In his efforts to resolve this problem, Father Jankola made appeals of his own. On very many occasions he wrote to his homeland, urging Slovak priests and seminarians to offer their help in America. He ·s aw that priests, who could not serve effectively abroad because of hampering factors there, would find here far more suitable conditions and climate as well as an extensive field for their zeal and dedication. Very likely, too, he was prompted to encourage other priests and seminarians to come to America from their Slovak lands because he himself had been similarly invited and encouraged by Father Furdek. Now he felt persuaded that as Father Furdek had to some degree influenced the shaping of his own decision to come to America, he too should try to draw others to serve Christ and his Church here where priests were so sorely needed. Both he and Father Furdek often described the situation and made their appeal not only in personal correspondence but also in various publications abroad to which they contributed. On his visits to relatives in Slovakia, Father Jankola never missed the opportunity of making personal contacts on behalf of interesting likely prospects to bring their priestly talents to apostolic work in America. Naturally, some of this effort went fruitless but some of it did yield returns. It is known that he was instrumental in encouraging these eight priests to come to SlovakAmerican parishes: Rev. Joseph Murgas, Rev. Dr. Alexander Dianiska, Rev. Francis Skutil, Rev. Anthony Berhely, Rev. Joseph Martincek, Rev. Emerich Gottschall, Rev. Ferdinand Prikazky and Rev. Anthony Filkorn. Four clerical students likewise took to heart his urging and on completing their theological courses devoted their efforts to Slovak parishes in America. They were Rev. Andrew Jurica, Rev. John Sobota, Rev. John Porubsky and Rev. John Gaspercik. By his personal effort Father Jankola provided pastors for ten Slovak parishes; viz., in Torrington, Connecticut, Pana, Illinois, and these eight in Pennsylvania: Edwardsville, Tarentum, Mt. Carmel, Monessen, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Barnesboro, Allegheny (now part of Pittsburgh) . 170 SLOVAKIA MISSION TO ROME After visiting Slovakia in 1901 and witnessing the unrelieved plight of Slovak Catholics there, Father Jankola went to Rome. The leading priests of his homeland had authorized him to act as their representative before the Holy Father and in reality he was qualified to speak on behalf of the Slovak Catholics of two continents. He brought to Rome, for presentation to the Holy Father, a three-volume collection of writings produced by outstanding Slovak scholars and a Latin brief or memorandum with which to acquaint Pope Leo XIII with the deeply regrettable plight of Slovak Catholics living under Hungarian rule and unable to make their own appeal for redress and relief. The most grievous wrong was that the Slovak language was totally proscribed among Slovak people. This restriction affected not only their everyday lives in social and business interaction but it also encroached upon their religious way of life. Even in church they were subjected to Magyar services only, even to hearing the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of homilies and sermons in Magyar only although they did not know that language. Church schools, catechetical classes and all courses of Christian Doctrine and religious instruction, along with all other form of schooling, were ordered to use only Magyar as the language of instruction. This ruling which the Slovak populace first encountered with a sense of unbelief gradually made them more and more restive. In time, a people who had traditionally conducted themselves with exemplary respect and ideal regard for the priesthood were becoming not only resistance-prone toward their pastors who were under government control but even hostile and openly rebellious against Magyar and pro-Magyar pastors and against the Magyar hierarchy. They resented the government's interference in their worship of God and in a domain where government has no rightful authority. Since it was useless or impossible to try to negotiate this state of affairs with public officials, Rome seemed to offer the only tribunal of appeal. The document which Father Jankola brought on his visit to the Eternal City made an honest, open and respectful representation of these facts for the Holy Father's consideration. It was SLOVAKIA 171 signed by Slovak priests who had witnessed and endured what the Slovak people suffered even in their conscience and it expressed some of their fears for the future of the Church under such circumstances. On coming to Rome Father Jankola spent some time with a young Slovak cleric, the brilliant John Porubsky, who was then studying there and who also served in the apothecary of Pope Leo XIII. John Porubsky was well acquainted with a number of Church officials in diplomatic positions and with matters of protocol and effective procedures in official circles. After he had discussed the main objective of Father Jankola in Rome, he consulted with Cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa who was then Assistant Secretary of State and who later became Pope Benedict XV. Cardinal della Chiesa reviewed the memorandum carefully and decided that it warranted further referral. He took it to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla, who was much affected by the serious nature and the further implications of the reported situation. After a personal interview with Father Jankola who confirmed the facts of the memorandum from his personal witness in his homeland, he arranged for both Father Jankola and John Porubsky to see the Holy Father in a private audience. Father Jankola's meeting with Pope Leo XIII lasted two hours. Both of the Slovak representatives spoke with the Holy Father in fluent Latin and the Holy Father was so deeply moved by their report and their citing of specifics that tears of sympathy showed the intensity of his response and his concern for his suffering children. Some measures of alleviation were the outcome of this appeal to Rome, for the hierachy of Austria-Hungary was instructed to introduce reforms allowing the Slovak minority to pray and sing in Slovak and to use their native language in church and at all liturgical and worship services. There was a second spring of spiritual fervor when the meadowlands and mountainsides as well as the churches again resounded with Slovak hymns and Slovak prayers at Mass, at pilgrimages and at popular devotions. It is generally agreed that this occasion on which Father Jankola called attention to the repression which the Slovaks endured even in spiritual matters put before the thinking of ecclesiastical officials the desirability of 172 SLOVAKIA providing Slovak bishops for the Slovak people, of establishing a Slovak hierarchy that would be subject to no local authority but directly to Rome. Such a decision did not reach immediate fruition but the climate was finally favorable for this step after the First Czecho-Slova k Republic was founded in 1918. It was late in 1920 that Rome formally established a Slovak hierarchy by appointing Bishop John Vojtassak to the see of Spis Bishop Marian Blaha to the see of Banska Bystrica Bishop Charles Kmetko to the see of Nitra. They were consecrated by the Papal Nuncio on February 13, 1921. FURTHER APOSTOLIC EFFORT From Rome Father Jankola returned to his missionary and parish work. With renewer ardor he took up his labors among those to whom he fondly referred as "transplanted linden trees." With an eye to the present, he satisfied first needs first, exhorting the faithful to a truly Christian life, promoting faith and prayerfulness , reprimanding lapses, instructing the young and the not-so-young, preaching with the spoken word and the written word, and living the life that he preached. With an eye to the future, he encouraged worthy lay leadership, adjustment to the American way of life and vocations to the priesthood and religious life . Father Jankola was a realist as well as an idealist. As he toiled to build the kingdom of God spiritually in the hearts of many, he also looked after material building for this kingdom. This is attested by the fact that his zeal led him to build a total of five churches, two schools and a rectory: a church in Pittston, Wilkes-Barre and Maltby; a church and a school in Hazleton; a church a school and a rectory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is astounding that in the twenty years of his priesthood he could accomplish so much both for the Church and for his nation. In his ardor to work for lasting values, Father Jankola not only promoted sound spirituality and provisions for fruitful parish life, he also encouraged vocations to the pri~sthood and religious life, spent him.self in the cause of church-orient ed schools, envisioned and realized a congregation of Sisters to teach and care for the children of immigrants and perform works of mercy in the Church, SLOVAKIA 173 contributed many articles to Slovak newspapers and periodicals, sponsored and aided the publication of Slovak texts for religious instruction and language arts, and greatheartedly proposed the naming of a Slovak bishop in the United States. He felt that Father Furdek deserved the rank of bishop and that in his elevation all Slovak Catholics in this country would benefit inasmuch as they would have an official leader whose first concern would be for all levels of Church organization among American Slovaks as well as for the needs of the young, the training of seminarians, Catholic schools and schooling under the direction of qualified Slovak or Slovak-American Sisters. PARISH SCHOOLS The subject of a Catholic school system among Slovak immigrants was one of the major preoccupations of Father Jankola's life. In his second pastoral assignment he came to St. Joseph's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of the two earliest American Slovak parishes, established in 1885. (The other is St. Stephen's parish in Streator, Illinois, founded in the same year.) He was the fourth pastor of St. Joseph's which already had a combination church-school building as well as a rectory and a parish cemetery. Since these physical arrangements were cared for, he turned his energy mainly to the spiritual and cultural advancement of his parishioners. With deft organizational gifts he established confraternities, spiritual societies and sodalities, providing opportunities for all age levels in the parish to participate in at last one Catholic Action group. A program of catechetical instruction was already functioning in the parish but Father Jankola felt that the time was right for introducing a fully expanded elementary curriculum in at least the earliest grades of the parish school. Miss Catherine O'Donnell was engaged as a full-time teacher for the subjects that were to be taught in English and Mr. Andrew Ondek, the parish organist, who had been conducting catechetical classes, was retained as teacher-incharge of the school and instructor in religion, Slovak and singing. Father Jankola spent much time in the school, observing, supervising, noting the progress of the pupils and the methods of instruction. Very often he himself conducted a class. This innovation of Father Jankola stirred up some 174 SLOVAK'iA feeling against him. Until this time is was the prerogative of the organist--and solely his-to be in charge of all the instruction of children in a parish school. By hiring a teacher in his experimental full-scale school, Father Jankola seemed to be jeopardizing the teacher-status of the organist. On this score misunderstandings developed all too readily, and factions formed to support one opinion and oppose the other, depending on points of view taken and loyalties involved. This matter was a painful issue for quite some time but Father Jankola steadily and gently tried to disprove the unfounded fears that had arisen and in spite of these apprehensions, he became increasingly aware of the necessity to provide for the adequate education of youth and the training of children under Christian auspices. Because of this indefatigable labors on behalf of Catholic schools, Father Jankola has often been looked upon as the apostle of the parish school among Slovaks in America. Both his admirers and his critics knew very truly that the matter of parish schools was his dearest concern-the apple of his eye, so to say. One of his favorite observations was : "Religious conviction takes first place and patriotism second; the church comes firs t and right after it, the school." He did his unwavering best to win pastors to the cause of opening and maintaining parochial schools, of convincing the faithful of the vital need for Catholic schools for their children and most importantly , he dedicated himself to the task of providing competent teachers and encouraging promising candidates to enter the teaching profession. Father Jankola rightly saw this whole area of education for the young as the fundamental need of the day. As often as he tried to deal with it, he realized that the problem only bore upon his conscience and his professional thinking with mounting insistence. For over twelve years he wrote on this subject, presenting it to his reading public in various aspects and doing his best to find a practical way to put it into operation. Even as early as 1899, when he was a young priest just four years ordained, he spoke of it very earnestly with some of the priests who were closest to him in the Scranton diocese; viz., Rev. Andrew Pavco, Rev. Dr. Alexander Dianiska and Rev. Joseph Murgas. SLOVAKIA 175 Basically, there was no difficulty in gaining a general appreciation for the Catholic school system, but the whole concept of operating Slovak Catholic schools in America had to be framed within the American way of maintaining church schools. In their homeland, the Slovaks had grown accustomed to living in a parish wholly subsidized by a patron. This meant that under patronal sponsorship all operating expenses were met by the individual, the family or the civic body that was legally titled as the patron. In America all church operations, including the pastor's salary, would have to be borne by the members of the parish. Given a school situation, besides, the struggling newcomers to America would have to assume responsibility for all its costs, including salaries for teachers. The prospect of such obligation seemed quite impossible. Yet to Father Jankola this obligation itself was not the first and foremost duty of leaders and parents; the first duty really was to provide adequate education for the young with the understanding that the adults would have to learn how to support the school as well as the church according to American practice. Definitely there was much educating of various kinds to be done, formally and informally, but Father Jankola did not shrink in the face of it all. The genius of leadership in him dictated the work to be done and the good to be accomplished. Along with these thoughts, Father Jankola could not help comparing the cultural deprivation of immigrant parents with the opportunities that America could make available to their children. He was not blind to the fact that given an education, Slovak children could better themselves in this land of opportunity on which he looked as a cultural El Dorado, a spiritual New Canaan. Above all, however, he was convinced that Slovaks in America would have to begin thinking of themselves as Americans of Slovak origin and meet all their responsibilities as such. His constant reminder to his parishioners and to all where it would apply was: "If we are to live in America, we must live the American way of life. We must learn to adjust." And he made it abundantly clear that the blessings which America held for all were not exclusively material blessings; he greatly extolled the democratic principles and the gift of true liberty which are the hallmarks of true Americanism. 176 SLOVAKIA ADULT EDUCATION In this connection of adopting concepts of true Americanism, Father Jankola also tried to provide some compensations for adult immigrants, some of whom had had only two or three winters of schooling in their childhood, some of whom had had even less. Under his iniciative, adult education classes were introduced, concentrating on basics first of all-reading and writing. It was an exhilarating experience for an unschooled laborer earnestly applying himself to an unfamiliar task suddenly to pluck his neighbor's sleeve and to shout with the heady joy of achievement: "Look! I wrote my name! I can really write my name now! This is my name! Now I won't have to make a cross instead of my name anymore!" This was a first step but it was not enough. After basics followed classes in American history and in civil government with a view toward applying for citizenship and becoming naturalized. Citizenship would mean suffrage and a real sense of belonging, a participation in the community and the country of their adoption. EDUCATION AL SURVEY After his 1899 conference with priests closest to him in the Scranton diocese, Father Jankola was convinced that it was no longer possible to defer steps for the establishment of Slovak parish schools on the elementary level. For this reason he devoted much time to a close study of the American system of education which he frankly admired. He felt that he needed this kind of information in order to guide him in developing his own thinking. He felt, too, that he needed substantial statistical data as groundwork and for this p-µrpose he undertook a comprehensive survey of existing parish facilities for the education of Slovak Catholic children. In 1900 he published a report of his findings in the Jednota Kalend<ir, revealing that a) there were very few standard parish schools which he could classify as "first class schools" b) several parishes had provided for special classes on Saturdays in order to supplement the children's public school courses with instruction in religion and language arts SLOVAKIA 177 c) the commendable though inadequate efforts of many parish organists were generally handicapped by overcrowding in classrooms as well as by merging a very broad range of mental and chronological ages into one composite group sometimes numbering up to two hundred pupils This survey concluded with an earnest exhortation that pastors spare no effort in order to establish schools comparable to the best that the American school system offers and that sound measures be taken to provide certified teachers. He knew, of course, that not all parishes were in a position to undertake a full school program but he trusted that a steady and well-reasoned campaign on behalf of parish schools would eventually be fruitful. But the building of schools would not of itself solve the problem of education in a parish school. Once the schools were built, they would have to be stuffed and he knew that there would be great difficulty in procuring desirable teachers. His survey indicated that in the schools rated as "first class," such as that in Wilkes-Barre (the only one of its kind in the Scranton diocese), as well as those in Johnstown, Shamokin, St. Ladislaus and St. Martin in Cleveland, and in Streator, Illinois were all conducted with the help of religious teachers-Sisters. He commended the Irish and German immigrants for their well-functioning schools, all directed by Sisters, and he very distinctly pointed out the fact that the Slovak people in America needed Slovak Sisters to teach in their parish schools. Man of clear vision that he was, he saw beyond that statement. His very words are: "Consequently, we need Sisters. Let us bring up our own Slovak Sisters! It is they who will preserve our faith and our nation. Reverend Fathers, and you Slovak parents, you who have in your parishes young ladies who are diligent, zealous, devout and suitable for the religious life, do feel responsible for making it possible for them to achieve this state of life. This will be a gift of the utmost value both to God and the nation; this will be a most noble offering. It is Slovak Sisters, teaching Sisters, who alone can alleviate this present educational crisis among us; 178 SLOVAKIA it is they who can save us from religious and national ruin. If we wish to live in America, we must live as Americans. This same principle was valid even in Rome. There is no other way of survival. I repeat: my brothers, Slovaks, let us establish parish schools, let us bring up our own Slovak teaching-Sisters, and God's help will support us!" As he urged priests and parents to encourage likely candidates to enter the religious life at this time, he did not mention any specific community, for he had none in mind. His survey did report that Ursulines and Sisters of St. Joseph were teaching in the Slovak schools of Cleveland, that Streator had Franciscan Sisters, and that there was " an English Sister" in the Olyphant school (Very likely a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or a Sister of Mercy). At this point, however, the core of the problem was simply to promote vocations. It was much as if he were saying that God will not be outdone in generosity ; that if only enough vocations could be cultivated, God could be trusted to provide the agents and the agencies for the work of Christian education among Slovak immigrants. He did not know that his own faith would be put to sore testing. He did not know the ultimate design of Providence but he trusted with an unshaken confidence and he worked on with unmitigated zeal . EXPLORING TEACHER RESOURCES At the same time that Father Jankola ardently promoted the cause of Slovak Catholic parish schools, he began to make serious inquiries at various American motherhouses and provincial houses, hoping to find a community whose membership might include at least some Sisters of Slovak or Slavic origin for staffing prospective Slovak schools in America and introducing into them American principles of education along with a wholesome Christian philosophy of life. Once he would know where Sisters were available, a sound program for Christian education could be launched with full vigor and the Slovak people would adjust to the American way of supporting their own schools. He did not foresee at all how difficult it would be to procure Sisters. At least four major superiors of religious communities answered his inquiries with the revealing SLOVAKIA 179 news that even at that time it was extremely difficult for them to provide enough teachers for the schools already under their care. There was a normal increase in the population rate and as immigration figures rose, so did school enrollments increase and create a demand for expanded teaching forces. As a result of this situation, religious superiors felt that they would not be able to accept any new schools in the foreseeable future. This was a totally unwelcome but obviously prudent decision which they had to make. Disappointed beyond all expectation but still undaunted, Father Jankola next turned his appeal to European institutes. In all good faith he hoped that the old world would be able to compensate for the insufficiencies of the new. With prayerful anticipation he wrote to the Holy Cross Sisters in Moravia. He did not present to them any intimidating proposal. Very modestly he explored the possibility of obtaining a small number of Sisters, even three or four, to come to America, establish a foundation and train Slovak girls here for the religious life. He was assured that in time there would be enough applications for a flourishing self-sufficient community to develop on American soil, supported by the Slovak-American clergy and laity. Apparently there was much correspondence on this matter but promising as the outlook was at the outset, its prospects eventually dimmed and finally the issue was closed without satisfactory results. With great distress Father Jankola wrote in the Jednota Kalenddr of 1902, "For three years I have been trying to obtain Sisters from Europe, but my efforts have been in vain. Everything seems to be against us." These lines are an expression of that recurring disappointment that was to be his cross in this project, the testing of his spirit, and the price of an ideal which demanded sacrifice and suffering. Frustrated in his efforts to secure help from an already established community of Sisters, yet sufficiently disciplined not to surrender readily in the face of difficulty and repeateq disappointment, Father Jankola continued to pray, to confer with others and to plan. Since existing communities could spare him no members for the parish schools that he was promoting, the only avenue open to 180 SLOVAKIA him seemed to be to find prospective condidates of his own and to present them for training in an American sisterhood. He hoped that after their numbers increased and they had prepared themselves adequately, they might be allowed to branch off into an independent province within a mother congregation and continue their apostolate in Slovak parish schools. This suggested a very long range program but the eventual benefits would surely justify the patient waiting. All delays and price aside, one purpose of Father Jankola's efforts was to provide Sisters for the much needed task of teaching in Slovak parish schools. This was the crucial issue and the demanding challenge was where to procure them . COURAGE SUPPORTS HOPE In the spring of 1903, Father Jankola invited Slovak priests who were interested in the parish school project to meet for consultation at the Vendig Hotel in Philadelphia. He took this occasion to lay before them all his experiences in working for Slovak parish schools to this time: his hopes and disappointments, his renewed efforts and his present plan which would call for candidates from local parishes. The assembled pastors listened with evident interest. They were aware of the need to work with the young and they admired the American Catholic school system. Some endorsed the proposal and were willing to cooperate with Father Jankola. Unfortunately, there were others too who looked upon this new suggestion of his as too idealistic and extreme a venture, perhaps something out of a quixotic world and not suited to the times, not amenable to a practical approach. They did not hesitate to indicate emphatically that he could not count on them for support in such a project and they had nothing else to offer. This adverse reaction from leaders of people who lived with the realities of life in America was a blow to Father Jankola's expectations. But it did not destroy his vision or diminish that dogged persistence about him which would not let the matter rest untried. At least he knew now on whom he could count for advice and support and he had learned where it would be vain to look for help and understanding. He shored up his shattered elan and renewed his faith in the work before him. Resolved to test this plan and to have events prove SLOVAKlA 181 the validity of this approach and anxious to test whether or not such an effort was of God, Father Jankola presented his proposal to several religious oommunities in his immediate area. It is likely that he now founded his hopes on either the Mallinckrodt Sisters of Charity or on the Sisters of Mercy. He had had opportunities to observe the work of both communities on a local level because they taught in parishes near his own. He admired their spirit and evidence of dedication and he ardently hoped that he might see their influence diffused among the Slovak people, but from both communities he received an unfavorable reply. It meant just so much more disappointment and so much more need for fresh courage. EARLY PROMISE Again and again Father Jankola renewed his search for a mother community that would accept his candidates (in due time) and train them for Slovak parish schools. He even decided to appeal to the charity of a rather distant order in America, the Czech Benedictine Sisters in Chicago, Illinos. When the mail brought him a reply, it was with utmost gratitude that he read that these Sisters would b e willing to be of assistance to him. With profound relief he trusted that at last this was going to mean the realization of his prospects. With this good news to report, Father Jankola held another conference with the priests who supported his plan. At these deliberations practical measures were proposed and four specific steps were agreed upon. The first of these was the decision to accept the offer of the Benedictine Sisters and to send three aspirants to Chicago. The others were in the nature of active endorsement of Father Jankola's plan, involving the promise or agreement a ) to announce Father Jankola's plans and prospects from their pulpits b ) to preach on the subject of vocations c ) to solicit offerings to support the undertaking This last provision was embodied in a fund called St. Anthony's Treasury. The patronage of St. Anthony was chosen because this Franciscan saint beautifully exemplifies that Christian charity that provides for the needs of the poor. Now at last, although no one could foresee what the 182 SLOVAKIA future held, there seemed to be some glimmer of success at last. On the following Sunday Father Jankola preached an inspiring sermon on vocations and after the parochial mass he found an applicant in his office. Before long there were two more candidates from St. Joseph's parish in Hazleton as well as two from Sacred Heart parish in Wilkes-Barre. Now at last, hope was moving toward reality. In the fall of 1903 the first three aspirants from Hazleton were sent to the Benedictines in Chicago and the soul of Father Jankola rejoiced that the great work was launched at last while his spirit trusted that it would thrive . HOPE DEFERRED Unfortunately this joy was short-lived and this hope soon wilted. After a few short weeks Father Jankola was notified that the Superiors felt it was advisable to withdraw his candidates because they found it difficult to adjust to religious life with them. The blow fell at the very moment when two additional aspirants sat in the Wilkes-Barre railroad station holding tickets for Chicago as they waited to board the next train. Just before the train pulled into the station, their plans were abruptly changed and they returned to their homes. This was a crushing report that reached Father Jankola from Chicago. He could hardly bring himself to accept it. His first reaction was to blame the young girls for want of endurance. His own training in austerity made it difficult for him to condone their failure and apparent weakness in the face of hardship where he would have expected an almost stoic courage and strength. Gradually he was brought to realize, however, that they did not lack generosity and good will, but they were wholly unprepared for trials severe even for seasoned religious; moreover, they were still very young. Home-loving and cared-for as they had been, they were subjected to an almost traumatic and total separation from home and an absolute change from their family environment. Chicago then seemed half a world away from Hazleton. Even normal adjustment would have been necessarily gradual, but they were at once challenged with the untempered rigors of Benedictine monasticism in a community where poverty was so extreme in those SLOVAKIA 183 pioneering days that only a tried and proven spirit would have been able to endure it without difficulty. When the unhappy candidates returned from Chicago, they were not sent back to their homes or subjected to reproach and embarrassment. Instead, they were befriended and confided to the care of Father Pavco in Pittston until further development could be planned and arranged. Father Pavco then visited Father Jankola to confer with him about the situation. He found him shaken and extremely tried by this new disappointment. NEW HOPE In his sympathetic efforts to comfort his friend, Father Pavco called Father Jankola's attention to the "Blue Sisters" of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who conducted St. John the Evangelist School in Pittston just across the street from his own church and rectory. As he spoke, Father Pavco became more and more enthusiastic about the spirit and attitudes of these Sisters, and finally he suggested that Father Jankola consult with their Reverend Mother at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Scranton. As a glowing climax he remarked, "I understand that her name is Mother Mary Cyril. Our common patron may help here; let us try in the name of God." Discouraged though he was by the latest setback to his hopes and beset by numerous other problems besides. Father Jankola agreed with Father Pavco that it would be advisable to try again; but he approached the new possibility with a measure of caution added to his natural reserve. On his first visit to Mother Cyril he conferred with her only on the prospect of enrolling the daughter of one of his parishioners at her boarding school. He did not mention the real burden that lay on his heart like a cross . Before long, however, Father Jankola made another appointment with Mother Cyril. On his initial visit he had found her so gracious that he was encouraged to present his key problem to her on this second visit. Again he found her ideally understanding. This does not mean that she at once gave him any definite assurance but she received him with such Christlike sympathy and such evidence of maternal regard for the needs of young girls that he con- 184 SLOVAKIA sidered the consultation worthwhile, to say the least, and returned home with great admiration for her, confidence in her judgment and renewed hope for the all-but-lost undertaking. Providence ordained that Mother Cyril should be the answer to Father Jankola's prayers. With the consent of her Council she accepted his candidates and trained them with unexampled care and solicitude within the shelter of her own religious family. In fact, they were so close to her own Sisters that for some time it was not even clear whether they would eventually become an independent community or whether they were to be an element added to hers. TOWARD FRUITION When she first received the young girls at Mount St. Mary's in 1903, Mother Cyril did not immediately place them under monastic novitiate discipline but rather kept them in the boarding academy as students who were to be formed into candidates for the religious life by gradual measures. They were permitted to spend the school vacation at home and on such occasions they often became an inspiration to others and attracted new vocations. These students were maintained at Mount St. Mary's through funds from St. Anthony's Treasury which was supported by the mites of hard-working and generous people and the offerings for votive candles in Slovak churches. From November 21, 1903, when they first came to the Mount, their status was that of students. On January 6, 1906, three of them became postulants. In March of the same year Mother Cyril informed Father Jankola that his group would not be identified with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This implied that they were to form their own community. Father Jankola accepted this decision and suggested the name "Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius" as a possible designation for the prospective Slovak community. On July 26, 1906, the first members were clothed in a distinctive black habit, Bishop Hoban presiding at the reception ceremony. The fruit of arduous work and confident prayer was beginning to mature but its maturing exacted a further price. Father Jankola paid the greater part of it by bearing not only the normal burden of concern but also painful SLOVAKIA 185 misunderstandings and unreasonable demands from parish sources. He even withdrew somewhat from the project after it was safely launched, willing to deny himself the satisfaction that should have been the reward of a work brought to successful fruition after many bitter and disillusioning trials. Much of his sorrow on this score was caused by more or less well-meaning individuals who hounded him and persecuted him severely because they saw in the promise of a teaching community only the ousting of organists from teaching posts in the parish schools. They believed that this would inevitably follow upon the success of Father Jankola's project. Blinded in their narrow reasoning, they would not face facts reasonably or accept the reality which indicated only too clearly that their parish schools in America were fast outgrowing the capacities of their organists reserve and that they had no other teachers with or without adequate training to conduct schools according to American standards. The Sisters were expected to relieve an existing need, not to create a new difficulty. Organists would not necessarily have to give up all their classes. It was one of those struggles which often arise when the old order of life must yield to the newer way and cannot do so gracefully. Added to this, however, there was also a painfully critical attitude making itself within clerical ranks. Several priests still doubted the timeliness and the wisdom of Father Jankola's efforts. At first they merely refused to cooperate, later they voiced objections and even spoke of other plans of their own. In spite of his stoic exterior and his disciplined habits of conduct, Father Jankola~s soul and sensibilities were deeply refined and sensitive. It hurt him inexpressibly to be ranked as a visionary when with all his soul he bent his energies to practical matters and used very realistic means to attain vitally urgent results. He suffered keenly because of all the conflicts brewing in his Hazleton parish and when there seemed to be no other solution, he decided to leave the scene of so much bitterness and open hostility, at least until the storm should spend itself. This parish had grown very dear to him. When its original wooden church burned to the ground in 1905, he worked indefatigably to raise funds for a new structure 186 SLOVAK.IA of natural stone. Within two years he collected twelve thousand dollars, a lordly sum in a day of low wages and small incomes in the midst of a struggling community of miners and common laborers. He had the largeness of vision and the natural capacity to plan a church of unique beauty and to execute his plans in spacious proportions, artistic in design and as inspiring as a prayer. St. Joseph's in Hazleton is a worthy memorial to his priestly service there and to the spirit of Slovak pioneers in the area. TRANSFER TO BRIDGEPORT In the fall of 1907 Father Jankola took a leave of absence from the Scranton diocese and was received with joy by the people of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who were then organizing the parish of SS. Cyril and Methodius. He wrote to Mother Cyril, "I thought I would make a solitary living here, like a hermit, after much trouble, trial and injustice. But my work is not yet done . . . I have to continue to take care of the future religious institution that I have started with God's help and St. Anthony's intercession." He would not be a derelict to duty no matter what it cost him in personal pain. He would stand by his ideals and convictions. Alth0ugh Father Jankola expected eventually to return to Hazleton his missionary zeal so engrossed him in the organization of parishes in the New England region that he finally transferred to the Hartford diocese. Besides his pastoral work in St. Cyril's, he also undertook the spiritual care of Slovaks in Webster, Massachusett s, and made missionary trips to Stamford, Torrington, New Britain and surrounding settlements in Connecticut. He was untiring pastor and missionary in new surroundings again. He kept in touch with Mother Cyril through correspondence. With her he assigned the Sisters to their firs t teaching mission at Sacred Heart parish in Wilkes-Barre while disclosing to her the demands being made on him. "We have only three Slovak Sisters-how can we send them to four parishes?" he wrote her in 1908. Yet in his concern for the cherished project, he maintained an unselfishness that commands administratio n as always leaning toward the common good. When the first Sisters were to be sent on a teaching mission, he made the disinterested recommenda tion to assign them either to Wilkes- SLOVAKIA 187 Barre or to Lansford although he would have been justified in directing them to either of the equally large parishes of his own endeavors-Hazleton or Bridgeport. FIRST AMERICAN-SLOVAK SISTERS In August 1909, Bishop Hoban brought from Rome the Holy See's decree of approval for the new community. On September 1, 1909, the first Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius made public profession of vows and the community emerged as a new family in the Church. Before the close of Mother Cyril's term of office, they were ready to open a motherhouse of their own. For ten years their formation had been under the immediate guidance of Mother Cyril at Mount St. Mary's. At last the tender seed which had been long hidden in the darkness of Father Jankola's secret hopes and prayers, long prepared through seasons of doubt and storm and the intermittent sunshine of hope and promise, often exposed to tears and blessings, now sprang in good soil and, tended with paternal care and maternal understanding, was ready to yield glory to God through a harvest of service among the Slovak people. As some of the Sisters undertook teaching in the parish schools, additional recruits were being prepared as novices and postulants in the novitiate or as students at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Scranton. After twelve years from the time of their entry into Mount St. Mary's the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius became a wholly independent community. This status was attained in 1915 after their first General Chapter elected a Mother General and a Council for internal government. Father Jankola was happy indeed to see the Sisters making progress. He continued to be interested in their welfare but denied himself the satisfaction of overseeing or directing their development. From all sides he was harassed by demands for teachers but once the stability of the Community was established, he allowed it to mature on its own and to learn to shoulder responsibility independently. PASTORSHIP IN BRIDGEPORT In Bridgeport Father Jankola continued his work, which demanded tireless energy, prudent planning and great fortitude. He was equal to the challenge. His parishione11s found him serious and purposeful, dilligent and 188 SLOVAK.IA circumspect, devout and fatherly. With him first things inexorably came first. Religion and spiritual interests held priority over all other considerations but close in second place were patriotism as well as the arts and social graces, and finally a balanced concern for temporalities. Under hls direction the parish was firmly established and within a year it had six active societies as well as an excellent choir, a dramatic club and an evening school for adult education. These evening classes became very popular and profitable. They lasted from eight to ten o'clock and in time they offered mathematics and English taught by Mr. Michael Senko on Monday; Slovak by Father Jankola on Tuesday; community singing by Mr. George Lukac on Thursday, and dramatics by Mr. Joseph Michalek on Sunday. Additional subjects were included later to enable parishioners to prepare for naturalization. For the children there were daily catechetical classes which Father Jankola himself conducted after the pupils were dismissed from public school. Within five years Father Jankola managed to have the parish clear a debt of over sixteen thousand dollars. The church which he then built for seventy thousand dollars is a magnificent cruciform structure of white brick with a seating capacity of one thousand. It was the fifth church which he planned and erected, and with its inspiring splendor it is the crown of his building effort. A severely simple frame rectory was all that he permitted for his own needs. To make provisions for a school he built a plain four-room structure planned to double for a parish hall . It, too, was severely simple and those who loved it did not mind sometimes referring to it as "Noah's Ark." His Sisters came to take charge of this school in 1910 and it must have been with intense yet complex emotion that he at last saw the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius at work teaching in his own school. Within the parish itself Father Jankola fanned a great flame of spiritual activity. The Confraternity of the Holy Rosary was canonically established and it flourished amid these people who exulted, "We have brought Kosice to America," for the rosary was a traditional family devotion among them, awakening for them fond memories of pilgrimages to the beloved Marian shrine in the Slovak city of Kosice. A deeper spirituality was cultivated among those SLOVA.K:IA 189 who joined the Third Order of St. Francis and the Altar Society. A canonically founded Sodality and the Holy Name Society held Christian ideals before the eyes of the young. It is remarkable that Father Jankola invariably attended the meetings of all these societies and each time left some lesson or ponderable thought with the members to inspire or to enlighten them. Through the choir and the dramatic guild he aimed to make art the handmaid of religion. Church music, folk singing, and classic compositions all had their place and were rendered with feeling and skill under the direction of Mr. George Lukac. Father Jankola had recognized musical talent in him when he was yet a schoolboy and sent him to St. Procopius College in Lisle, Illinois, to develop his talent. Then he offered him the position of organist at St. Cyril's. Born of mutual regard, a strong bond of devotion developed between the two. Drama under Father Jankola's guidance included a wide variety of presentations from monologues and skits through interludes and plays to grand productions like " St. Elizabeth," "St. Genevieve," and "Fabiola." Each one was staged before a packed house usually in a spacious hall rented for the occasion and it lent the entire community the aspects of festivity and a parish holiday. For major plays Father Jankola took the trouble to rent costumes and hire a make-up crew from the theatrical centers of New York City, and he saw to it that the staging was a satisfying piece of dramatic art. It is no wonder that his parishioners idolized him. On all occasions he was an inspiration and edification to them. He may have appeared forbiddingly stern and exacting, but they knew that his heart was warm and fatherly. The priest in him was always at their service, hearing confessions every day of the week even on Sundays, answering every call as soon as it came though he was without benefit of an assistant, ready to advise, admonish, comfort, help or serve in whatever the need might be. It was generally recognized and appreciated that he did the work of three priests. Despite all the demands made on him, his parish was in enviable order and he managed a tremendous amount of work for the general public. Scholarly and cultural interests were his hobby. It is interesting that 190 SLOVAKIA shortly before his death he began the study of Hebrew under a private tutor. THE WRITER One stands in admiration of the consuming energy with which he must have worked, for apart from all these accomplishments there is the steady stream of articles, stories, reports and instructions that came from his pen. He was a recognized leader in Slovak national life also, for only six years after coming to this country, he was elected supreme president of the Jednota organization (1900) . (The First Catholic Slovak Union-a benevolent society with nationwide membership.) From 1904 to 1908 he was a member of the Jednota judiciary council. In 1910 he was editor of the "Jednota" weekly as well as of its annual or almanac . In 1908 and again after Furdek's death, he was chosen spiritual director of the Jednota. He likewise promoted the interests of the "Katolicky Sokol," contributed many articles to its news organ and served one term as spiritual director of this athletic and fraternal organization. He warmly endorsed the children's paper "Priatel' Dietok," which was sponsored by the Sokol. He encouraged pastors, parents, and teachers to support it, and highly complimented the pupils of his school when their contributions appeared on its pages. THE LEADER Among the Slovak priests, especially in the eastern part of the country, Father Jankola always enjoyed a degree of prestige. He was generally esteemed their leader. It was he who first banded them together in 1903 for the purpose of discussing common problems like education and the training of future priests and Sisters. It was he who promoted an organization of priests in the eastern states just a year before his death. He was identified with many national drives and movements; he signed the Code of American Slovak Journalists in 1897; he initiated the National Fund (also in 1897) to promote national interests and to sponsor worthy projects. He undertook the founding of a men's Slovak Benedictine priorate and a men's Slovak Franciscan province in the United States. By 1910 he urged that steps be taken to recommend SLOVAKIA 191 the appointment of a Slovak bishop in this country and suggested that Father Furdek be named the candidate since he was "the first, the most learned, the most respected, and the best loved Slovak priest in America." In 1916 he initiated a Peter's Pence drive among the Slovaks in America. These are some of the major achievements he accumulated before death closed the door of life upon him at the age of forty-three. And he aspired to more. He even dared hope to transplant his Sisters to Europe, "First opening a house in Velehrad, Moravia, where St. Methodius is buried," as he visualized his dream. In his greatness of vision he had hoped that they might "be the instrument in God's hand for the conversion of Slav schismatics to Rome, where St. Cyril died." These are some of the hopes of which he once wrote to Mother Cyril. UNTIMELY DEATH But death stilled his ardent hopes and healed his wounds. Added to all the trials borne so courageously there descended upon him yet the cruelty of a most painful hoax. Spent as he was with unstinted labor and exertion, it took the agony of something like this to crush his very last energies. Manfully he tried to bury the hurt but it worked its havoc and undermined his strength. On Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916, he was stricken as he preached at High Mass and he died quietly on May 5, mourned by thousands and appreciated even more in death than he was in life. After the funeral services at the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Father Jankola was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut. In connection with their Golden Jubilee observances in 1959, however, the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius arranged to have their founder's remains transferred to Danville where they are interred in the Community cemetery at Villa Sacred Heart. CONCLUSION It has been said with truth that Father Jankola was to the spiritual life what Father Furdek was to the national life of the Slovak people in America. To the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius he is the gardener to whom God entrusted the seed of their congregation, charging him to plant it, to water it with his 192 SLOVAKlA tears and sufferings, to warm it with his undying love. At the moment the seed sprouted and its first promising shoots appeared, at that moment in a Profession Ceremony, he said joyfully and humbly, "You are my joy, you are my crown, you are my glory." BIBLIOGRAPHY Archival materials at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius and in Jankola Library, Danville, Pennsylvania. These include: a) personal correspondence of and with Father Jankola b) personal correspondence of and with Father Jankola's sisters, Louisa and Inna c) documents d) several books of rare parish records entrusted to the Sisters Furdek, Stefan, "Z Ameriky." Osvald, Fr. Richard, Tovarysstvo. I. Rufomberok, Osvald, 1893. Gregorovic, Sister M. Consuela, SS.C.M., Contributions of Reverend Matthew Jankola to Slovak Catholic Education in the United States. Modification of thesis submitted to the Catho.Jic University of America, 1944. DanviLle, Pennsylvania, Golden Jubilee Publication of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1958-1959. Hrusovsky, Frantisek, Slovenske rehole v Amerike. Cleveland, Slovensky ustav, 1955. Slovenske dejiny. 4th ed. Turciansky Svaty Martin, Matica Slovenska, 1940. Jankola, Matus, "crty z katolickej slovenskej farnosti v Pittston, Pa." Osvald, Fr. Richard, Tovarysstvo, III. Ruzomberok, Osvald , 1900. Jednota (Weekly newspaper) . Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota, 19011916 passim. Jednota Kalendar. (annual ). Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota. 19001931 passim. Medvecky, Karol A., Cirkevne pomery katolickych Slovakov v niekdajsom Uhorsku, Ruzomberok, Nakl. vlast., 1920. Pauco, Jozef, Matus Jan.kola, knaz a narodovec. Danville, Pennsylvania, Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1959. Slovenska rehol'a Sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda. Slovensky spolok sv. Anny vo Wyoming V.alley, Pa. 1957. 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty. Cleveland, Ohio, I.K.S.J. , 1965. Slovenski priekopnici. Middletown, Pennsylvania, Jednota, 1972. Petra~ek, Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M., Brief History of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Danville, Pennsylvania , Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, 1959. Scotus Viator (Seton Watson), Racial Problems in Hungary, London , Archibald Constable, 1908. Spolok sv. Vojtecha, Katolicke Slovensko. Trnava, SSV, 1933. Spirko, Jozef, Cirkevne dejiny s osobitnym zretel'om na vyvin cirkevnych dejin Slovenska. 2 vol. Turc. Sv. Martin, Neografia, 1943.  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 Matthew Jankola 1872-1916 Description An account of the resource Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 161-192 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tybor, Sister M. Martina, SS.C.M. 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/348c9e368340f6a63da731e0014e654c.pdf c537df93b1f349f71cf242f6784c9fe6 PDF Text Text 158 SLOVAKIA Slovak Scientist Stefan A. Jedhk, O.S.B. (JANUARY 11, 1800 - DECEMBER 12, 1895 ) Slovakia's noted physicist, Stefan A. Jedlik, Order of Saint Benedict, almost spanned the nineteenth century in his lifetime. A native of Zemne, Nove Zamky district in southern Slovakia, the Benedictine scientist patented a total of seventy-eight ( 78) inventions, the most notable being an electro-rotary machine, an electro-motor, a dynamo and a lightning-rod. The talented youth studied at Trnava, Bratislava and Budapest. He excelled not only in Philosophy and Theology but also in Mathematics and History. At the age of 22 he earned his doctorate in Physics and began his long and distinguished career in teaching and scientific experimentation as a member of the Benedictines. After teaching six years at the Benedictine Junior College in the town of Rab, he was assigned to the Royal Academy in Bratislava to teach mathematics, Physics and natural science until 1840 when he was sent to the University of Budapest to be a professor in the Physics department. Here he remained for more than a half century until his death close to the end of the century whose dawning he missed by some ten days, and whose closing he missed by 5 years. At the University of Budapest the renowned teacher of Physics met his life-long friend and associate, Dr. Jozef Pecval, a fellow Slovak professor of Physics who was destined to make notable contributions to photography. The two Slovak scientists collaborated in several projects and succeeded in developing a microscope for industrial tLSe and perfected a process and machine for the manufacture of high grade optical instruments. As a matter of historical record, Jedlik produced a dynamo and secured patent rights in 1861 , fully a half dozen years before Werner Siemens, for some mysterious reason was credited with the discovery of the dynamo in the year 1867. This strange event, incidentally, was the forerunner of what happened in the case of Father Murgas �SLOVAKIA 159 of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The Slovak priest-pioneer in wireless telegraphy successfully transmitted a message from WilkesBarre to Scranton, Pa. (a distance of ten miles) in 1905 and secured patent rights to his invention in Washington, D. C. Nevertheless, he lost out to Marconi who perfected the device several years later and has been considered as the sole inventor of the Radio. Such is the irony of human history that somehow the scientific world is reluctant to acknowledge more than one individual in the final choice of a candidate for fame and immortality. Objective research, however, leaves no doubt of the real facts in either case. In our books both Jedlik and Murgas are indelibly registered forever as co-inventors of the dynamo and radio respectively in the 19th and 20th century. So far , we Slovaks claim the following immortals in science : 1 ) stefan A. Jedlik, 2) Jozef M. Pecval, 3) I van B. Zoch, another famous physicist, 4) Jozef Murgas, 5) General Milan R. Stefanik, renowned astronomer, 6) Aurelius Stodola, turbine expert in Switzerland, 7) Stefan Bani<\ inventor of the parachute in Greenville, Pa. in 1914. As a supplement we might add that Jedlik foresaw the splitting of the atom a hundred years ahead of his time, for in his writings he declares that by use of electrical power and pressure the atom could be smashed and become a source of tremendous energy. When the job was finally done during World War II, it opened the door for the production of the first atomic bomb. Jedlik's experiments were performed in his small · apartment because the university authorities would not permit him to conduct experiments in the school's laboratories along the lines he wished and according to his standards. Some saw in the ban a clear-cut case of Magyar chauvinism, others were prompted to discourage his widescale experimentation because of potential danger of an explosion of great magnitude, if his "wild" theories would succeed. If it was the fear of possible consequences, we cannot blame his superiors. Yet, in view of the ultimate outcome of atomic development along the same lines, who knows but that the genial Slovak Benedictine monastic genius might have been the first to split the atom, and harnessed unbelievable power for peaceful and not warlike uses. �160 SLOVAKIA Our claims for Slovak scientists are not arbitrary. They rest solidly on facts, and hence we feel that future historians must re-adjust these facts and harmonize them with the proper identities. Otherwise, history, too often dismissed as prejudicial will continue to repeat a chapter of fiction and pass it off as fact when the true record of two of our foremost Slovak scientists remains obscure, and if not altogether unknown, at least unpublicized and unknown by the general public. In the interest of truth the proper labels must at last be attached and inscribed posthumously to honor our fellow Slovak countrymen in a genuine hall of fame. A. V. Pier, 0. S. B . SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA - supports freedom and independence of Slovakia; promotes a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation, its history, culture, traditions, and desires ; makes America better known to Slovakia and Slovakia better known to America in the interest of world peace, freedom and security; has a scholarship program for college and university students ; promotes cooperation among all American-Slovak organizations and publications for the promulgations of Slovak ethnic heritage. is a charter member of the Slovak World Congress. Life membership: $100.00 For further information, write to: Slovak League of America 313 Ridge Avenue Middletown, Pa. 17057 � 158 SLOVAKIA Slovak Scientist Stefan A. Jedhk, O.S.B. (JANUARY 11, 1800 - DECEMBER 12, 1895 ) Slovakia's noted physicist, Stefan A. Jedlik, Order of Saint Benedict, almost spanned the nineteenth century in his lifetime. A native of Zemne, Nove Zamky district in southern Slovakia, the Benedictine scientist patented a total of seventy-eight ( 78) inventions, the most notable being an electro-rotary machine, an electro-motor, a dynamo and a lightning-rod. The talented youth studied at Trnava, Bratislava and Budapest. He excelled not only in Philosophy and Theology but also in Mathematics and History. At the age of 22 he earned his doctorate in Physics and began his long and distinguished career in teaching and scientific experimentation as a member of the Benedictines. After teaching six years at the Benedictine Junior College in the town of Rab, he was assigned to the Royal Academy in Bratislava to teach mathematics, Physics and natural science until 1840 when he was sent to the University of Budapest to be a professor in the Physics department. Here he remained for more than a half century until his death close to the end of the century whose dawning he missed by some ten days, and whose closing he missed by 5 years. At the University of Budapest the renowned teacher of Physics met his life-long friend and associate, Dr. Jozef Pecval, a fellow Slovak professor of Physics who was destined to make notable contributions to photography. The two Slovak scientists collaborated in several projects and succeeded in developing a microscope for industrial tLSe and perfected a process and machine for the manufacture of high grade optical instruments. As a matter of historical record, Jedlik produced a dynamo and secured patent rights in 1861 , fully a half dozen years before Werner Siemens, for some mysterious reason was credited with the discovery of the dynamo in the year 1867. This strange event, incidentally, was the forerunner of what happened in the case of Father Murgas �SLOVAKIA 159 of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The Slovak priest-pioneer in wireless telegraphy successfully transmitted a message from WilkesBarre to Scranton, Pa. (a distance of ten miles) in 1905 and secured patent rights to his invention in Washington, D. C. Nevertheless, he lost out to Marconi who perfected the device several years later and has been considered as the sole inventor of the Radio. Such is the irony of human history that somehow the scientific world is reluctant to acknowledge more than one individual in the final choice of a candidate for fame and immortality. Objective research, however, leaves no doubt of the real facts in either case. In our books both Jedlik and Murgas are indelibly registered forever as co-inventors of the dynamo and radio respectively in the 19th and 20th century. So far , we Slovaks claim the following immortals in science : 1 ) stefan A. Jedlik, 2) Jozef M. Pecval, 3) I van B. Zoch, another famous physicist, 4) Jozef Murgas, 5) General Milan R. Stefanik, renowned astronomer, 6) Aurelius Stodola, turbine expert in Switzerland, 7) Stefan Bani<\ inventor of the parachute in Greenville, Pa. in 1914. As a supplement we might add that Jedlik foresaw the splitting of the atom a hundred years ahead of his time, for in his writings he declares that by use of electrical power and pressure the atom could be smashed and become a source of tremendous energy. When the job was finally done during World War II, it opened the door for the production of the first atomic bomb. Jedlik's experiments were performed in his small · apartment because the university authorities would not permit him to conduct experiments in the school's laboratories along the lines he wished and according to his standards. Some saw in the ban a clear-cut case of Magyar chauvinism, others were prompted to discourage his widescale experimentation because of potential danger of an explosion of great magnitude, if his "wild" theories would succeed. If it was the fear of possible consequences, we cannot blame his superiors. Yet, in view of the ultimate outcome of atomic development along the same lines, who knows but that the genial Slovak Benedictine monastic genius might have been the first to split the atom, and harnessed unbelievable power for peaceful and not warlike uses. �160 SLOVAKIA Our claims for Slovak scientists are not arbitrary. They rest solidly on facts, and hence we feel that future historians must re-adjust these facts and harmonize them with the proper identities. Otherwise, history, too often dismissed as prejudicial will continue to repeat a chapter of fiction and pass it off as fact when the true record of two of our foremost Slovak scientists remains obscure, and if not altogether unknown, at least unpublicized and unknown by the general public. In the interest of truth the proper labels must at last be attached and inscribed posthumously to honor our fellow Slovak countrymen in a genuine hall of fame. A. V. Pier, 0. S. B . SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA - supports freedom and independence of Slovakia; promotes a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation, its history, culture, traditions, and desires ; makes America better known to Slovakia and Slovakia better known to America in the interest of world peace, freedom and security; has a scholarship program for college and university students ; promotes cooperation among all American-Slovak organizations and publications for the promulgations of Slovak ethnic heritage. is a charter member of the Slovak World Congress. Life membership: $100.00 For further information, write to: Slovak League of America 313 Ridge Avenue Middletown, Pa. 17057 � 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 158 SLOVAKIA Slovak Scientist Stefan A. Jedhk, O.S.B. (JANUARY 11, 1800 - DECEMBER 12, 1895 ) Slovakia's noted physicist, Stefan A. Jedlik, Order of Saint Benedict, almost spanned the nineteenth century in his lifetime. A native of Zemne, Nove Zamky district in southern Slovakia, the Benedictine scientist patented a total of seventy-eight ( 78) inventions, the most notable being an electro-rotary machine, an electro-motor, a dynamo and a lightning-rod. The talented youth studied at Trnava, Bratislava and Budapest. He excelled not only in Philosophy and Theology but also in Mathematics and History. At the age of 22 he earned his doctorate in Physics and began his long and distinguished career in teaching and scientific experimentation as a member of the Benedictines. After teaching six years at the Benedictine Junior College in the town of Rab, he was assigned to the Royal Academy in Bratislava to teach mathematics, Physics and natural science until 1840 when he was sent to the University of Budapest to be a professor in the Physics department. Here he remained for more than a half century until his death close to the end of the century whose dawning he missed by some ten days, and whose closing he missed by 5 years. At the University of Budapest the renowned teacher of Physics met his life-long friend and associate, Dr. Jozef Pecval, a fellow Slovak professor of Physics who was destined to make notable contributions to photography. The two Slovak scientists collaborated in several projects and succeeded in developing a microscope for industrial tLSe and perfected a process and machine for the manufacture of high grade optical instruments. As a matter of historical record, Jedlik produced a dynamo and secured patent rights in 1861 , fully a half dozen years before Werner Siemens, for some mysterious reason was credited with the discovery of the dynamo in the year 1867. This strange event, incidentally, was the forerunner of what happened in the case of Father Murgas SLOVAKIA 159 of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The Slovak priest-pioneer in wireless telegraphy successfully transmitted a message from WilkesBarre to Scranton, Pa. (a distance of ten miles) in 1905 and secured patent rights to his invention in Washington, D. C. Nevertheless, he lost out to Marconi who perfected the device several years later and has been considered as the sole inventor of the Radio. Such is the irony of human history that somehow the scientific world is reluctant to acknowledge more than one individual in the final choice of a candidate for fame and immortality. Objective research, however, leaves no doubt of the real facts in either case. In our books both Jedlik and Murgas are indelibly registered forever as co-inventors of the dynamo and radio respectively in the 19th and 20th century. So far , we Slovaks claim the following immortals in science : 1 ) stefan A. Jedlik, 2) Jozef M. Pecval, 3) I van B. Zoch, another famous physicist, 4) Jozef Murgas, 5) General Milan R. Stefanik, renowned astronomer, 6) Aurelius Stodola, turbine expert in Switzerland, 7) Stefan Bani<\ inventor of the parachute in Greenville, Pa. in 1914. As a supplement we might add that Jedlik foresaw the splitting of the atom a hundred years ahead of his time, for in his writings he declares that by use of electrical power and pressure the atom could be smashed and become a source of tremendous energy. When the job was finally done during World War II, it opened the door for the production of the first atomic bomb. Jedlik's experiments were performed in his small · apartment because the university authorities would not permit him to conduct experiments in the school's laboratories along the lines he wished and according to his standards. Some saw in the ban a clear-cut case of Magyar chauvinism, others were prompted to discourage his widescale experimentation because of potential danger of an explosion of great magnitude, if his "wild" theories would succeed. If it was the fear of possible consequences, we cannot blame his superiors. Yet, in view of the ultimate outcome of atomic development along the same lines, who knows but that the genial Slovak Benedictine monastic genius might have been the first to split the atom, and harnessed unbelievable power for peaceful and not warlike uses. 160 SLOVAKIA Our claims for Slovak scientists are not arbitrary. They rest solidly on facts, and hence we feel that future historians must re-adjust these facts and harmonize them with the proper identities. Otherwise, history, too often dismissed as prejudicial will continue to repeat a chapter of fiction and pass it off as fact when the true record of two of our foremost Slovak scientists remains obscure, and if not altogether unknown, at least unpublicized and unknown by the general public. In the interest of truth the proper labels must at last be attached and inscribed posthumously to honor our fellow Slovak countrymen in a genuine hall of fame. A. V. Pier, 0. S. B . SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA - supports freedom and independence of Slovakia; promotes a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation, its history, culture, traditions, and desires ; makes America better known to Slovakia and Slovakia better known to America in the interest of world peace, freedom and security; has a scholarship program for college and university students ; promotes cooperation among all American-Slovak organizations and publications for the promulgations of Slovak ethnic heritage. is a charter member of the Slovak World Congress. Life membership: $100.00 For further information, write to: Slovak League of America 313 Ridge Avenue Middletown, Pa. 17057  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 Scientist Štefan A. Jedlík, O.S.B. Description An account of the resource A. V. Pier Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 158-160 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pier, Andrew W., 1910-2003 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/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/4dd10926a6ce50c231f5404ea182979f.pdf 93b506172dcb7b0a52c73b83924d8be1 PDF Text Text 146 SLOVAKIA Why Our Melting Pot Cooled Off Rudolph J. V e c o l i A policeman called me the other day about a "missing person" case. It turned out that he was the missing person. He was trying to find out where his ancestors came from . He had a Slavic name and knew that his grandparents had emigrated from Austria-Hungary, but there he lost the trail. "I want to know who I am, and to be able to tell my two sons who they are," my caller explained. Luckily we were able to locate the policeman's grandfather in the records of a Slovak church in Minneapolis. This told us the village in Slovakia from which his family had come. Our policeman was overjoyed; now he knew who he was and he was going to try to locate relatives in Slovakia. This search for grandparents was not an isolated case. "Who am I?" has become an urgent question for many Americans, for the middle-aged as well as the young. We appear to be going through a collective identity crisis. One manifestation of the crisis has been the widespread affirmation of group identities. Young people, especially children of the middle class, have created the "counter-culture" with its distinctive lifestyle, dress, and language. Women's liberation provides a new positive sense of collective identity for many of what was once known as the "gentle sex." But, for most Americans, race, religion, and national origin continue to provide the basis for group identity today-as they have historically. Not only are Black Americans, Indians, and Chicanos asserting a new-found pride in their heritage, but Croatian Americans, Finnish Americans, and Slovak Americans, among others, are declaring that they are beautiful as well. An editorial in Christian Century, pointing out that even old-stock white Americans had particularistic identities, declared: "We are all ethnics now." �SLOVAKIA 147 It seems that everyone needs an ethnic label these days. At a recent conference on cross-cultural education there was a workshop on "The Problem of the Non-Ethnic"! Presumably these are individuals of such mixed ancestry that they do not fit neatly into an ethnic category. But as anthropologist Margaret Mead said, this is nonsense, since everyone has grandparents and a heritage, even if it cannot be precisely labeled. The extraordinary resurgence of ethnic consciousness is not easily explained. Clearly the traumatic events of the sixties shattered the illusion of an American consensus. The civil rights movement, black nationalism, the Vietnam War, the student movement-all demonstrated that Americans were not of one mind about basic principles and values. Watts, Cicero, My Lai, Kent State, Chicago, elicited very different responses among different segments of the American people. We became polarized over the basic issues of racial justice, war and peace, lifestyles, the very meaning of democracy; polarized along lines of race, age, and social class. Perhaps it was the loss of a shared sense of the national purpose which caused persons to seek psychological and social security with "their own kind." In the face of this fragmentation, the myth of the "melting pot" was revealed to be transparent fiction. The mysterious process whereby peoples of diverse racial and cultural origins were to be assimilated into an "all-American" middle-class society obviously had not worked its magic. Blacks, by their words and actions, most aggressively challenged the "melting pot" ideal. Not only had they not been melted, but they made it clear they did not wish to be melted into some nondescript American type. Confronted with "black identity," other Americans were compelled to define their own particularistic identities. Not only Indians, Chicanos, and Orientals, but white ethnic groups reacted with a heightened group consciousness. "Black power" was echoed by the slogans of "Polish power" and "Italian power." It surprised many that these white ethnics who were supposed to have been assimilated long ago remained selfconscious elements in the body politic. But the census of 1960 had reported over 34 million as "foreign-stock," i. e., foreign-born or with at least one parent foreign-born. These �148 SLOVAKIA immigrants and their children constituted almost 20 percent of the American population. In addition, many of the third generation and beyond retained some degree of ethnic identity. However, their presence had been ignored by the mass media, the schools and other institutions. Because of pressures to Americanize, these descendants of European immigrants had publicly suppressed their ethnicity, though many continued to cultivate their cultural heritages in the privacy of their families, churches and organizations. Now the lid is off; the stigma of shame of being a "hyphenate," is being rejected. A new pride is being asserted in one's identity as a Ukrainian-American or a Greek-American, to give just two examples. Labeled the "forgotten American," the "middle Americans," or the "silent majority," white ethnics have come in for a good deal of attention of late. For the most part they have been portrayed as backlashing racists, potential recruits for the politics of reaction. In the mass media they have been stereotyped as Joe, the homicidal psychotic, or as Archie, the "lovable bigot." This has intensified their anger and resentment. As Barbara Mikulski, a Polish-American leader, protested: "The ethnic American is sick of being stereotyped as a racist and dullard by phony white liberals, pseudo black militants, and patronizing bureaucrats." Recently, writers such as Andrew M. Greeley and Murray Friedman have been providing us with more sympathetic analyses of lower middle-class ethnic Americans. As bluecollar workers, the bulk of them are either poor (two of every three poor people in this country are white) or "near-poor." Hard-pressed by inflation, heavy taxes, and job insecurity, they do not feel a part of the "Affluent Society." Their sons, like those of black and brown Americans, have fought and died in Vietnam, because many fewer of them go to college. Another stereotype of the ethnic American is that he is a hawk; actually many of them are strongly opposed to the war, but they do pride themselves on being patriotic Americans. They bitterly resent the class and ethnic snobbery which puts them down because of their immigrant and working-class backgrounds. In part this explains their �SLOVAKIA 149 hostility toward the educated elite and the universities . No wonder they cheer Spiro Agnew when he attacks intellectuals as "effete snobs." Like the blacks, the white ethnics are oppressed by a sense of powerlessness and exploitation; like them, they suffer from poor or inadequate schools and municipal services; like them, they are cynical about politics and politicians. As the bulk of the white population of the northern cities, the ethnics endure many of the same urban problems as do the blacks. Frustrated and insecure, they have projected their fears and anger against the blacks, Puerto Ricans, and other groups whom they regard as threats to their own marginal status. They are convicted that it is their jobs, their neighborhoods, their schools, that these newcomers are after. From the ethnics' point of view the blacks have received preferential treatment in federal programs, while their needs have been neglected. As Msgr. Geno C. Baroni, director of the Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, put it: "Little attention has been given to the anguish of the socially and politically alienated middle American." To indulge in accusations of "white racism" is a futile exercise of moral indignation. A more positive response, as Irving Levine, director of the National Project on Ethnic America has argued, is "to identify the real problems of lower middle-class ethnic groups and speak creatively to their deepest needs." The "New Pluralism" is thus not simply a psychological aberration that can be treated by exhortations to brotherhood and tolerance. Rather it is rooted in the very social and economic structure of this society. It reflects the injustices and inequities which that structure inflicts upon large numbers of Americans because of their social class and ethnic-racial character. What has happened is that many groups heretofore inarticulate have found their voices. They are demanding often in angry tones full and equal participation in all areas of American life. Pluralism is a two-edged sword. If our institutions are unresponsive to the legitimate needs and aspirations of all groups, this can lead to increasing group conflict and further polarization. However, if those institutions are responsive, the thrust of the "New Pluralism" can carry �150 SLOVAK.IA us far toward the realization of a more democratic society. This applies to the private sector as well as the public, to business, corporations as well as governmental agencies, to the churches as well as to the schools. Decision-makers at all levels must become more sensitive to group differences, aultural as well as racial. Politicians by the nature of their trade have been most responsive to ethnic pressures, though too often they have manipulated them to serve political ends. But professionals and bureaucrats in the "mainstream" institutions have usually subscribed to a universalistic model of the "typical American." They have typically displayed an insensitivity and ignorance, even arrogance, toward the cultural and social differences among their students, patients, employees, and clients. The sphere of education exemplifies this lack of sensitivity in classic fashion. It is needed a paradox that the educational system of a multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual society such as ours has been dominated by an Anglo-American model, both in curriculum and format. This can only be understood in terms of the grip of an assimilationist ideology upon administrators and teachers alike. Historically the schools were designed to serve as agencies of the " Melting Pot." It was to be their function to transform the children of the immigrants (including internal migrants ) into "good, little, middle-class Americans. '' As one educator stated it: "Our task is to assimilate or amalgamate these people as part of the American race, and to implant in their children, so far as can be done, the Anglo-Saxon conception of righteousness, law, order, and popular government." Although this statement was made over a half century ago, it continued to serve as an accurate description of educational policy until recent times. Rather than building upon the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the students, the schools sought to purify them of their "foreign" traits. The results often were, as sociologist Milton Gordon has observed, "ethnic self-hatred, family disorganization, and juvenile delinquency." Again it was the "black revolution" that initially challenged the monocultural model of American education. �SLOVAKIA 151 In most cases, efforts to adapt schools to special needs of black children have been only partially successful. However, this small beginning has called into question the basic assumptions upon which American educational philosophy and practice has rested for many decades. More and more, educators and parents are seeking a pluralistic way of teaching children which will mirror the pluralistic society in which they live. The principle that formal education should respect and reinforce the cultural and ethnic identity of the child rather than seeking to eradicate it is gaining ground. "Ethnic studies" have emerged as a major response to this need. Because American history as taught in the past was "white history," Afro-American studies was incorporated into the curriculum at the demand of the black community. But blacks have not been the only "invisible men" in American history, Indians, Hispanos, and immigrants have also been ignored or treated disparagingly in most textbooks. Hence the need to revise the course content so that the role of all the many different ethnic elements in American society may be appropriately represented. This is a large task, and resources have been inadequate. Many were encouraged by the introduction of a bill in the Congress that would have provided federal funds in support of "Ethnic Heritage Studies." While the bill was passed unanimously by the Senate, it was rejected in the House of Representatives. There is still hope that it may be revived in the current session. Ethnic studies may, of course, degenerate into tokenism, the placing of a few pictures on the wall and the adding of a few pages to a textbook. To be successful they must permeate the curriculum, not only of history, but language, literature and the social studies. Of crucial importance will be the attitudes of teachers. First, they must be convinced of the value of all cultures as equally valid expressions of the human spirit. This is the most difficult task, to overcome our own ethnocentricity. For the child, ethnic studies should serve two functions . They must foster within him a sense of his worth and dignity based on his identification with his own ancestors. Second, they must provide him with a capacity for an appreciation and acceptance of the cultural differences of �152 SLOVAKIA others. Free of a sense of either superiority or inferiority, he would be well equipped to live in a pluralistic society. We need to experiment with the format for teaching ethnic studies. Just as ecology may best be studied in a natural environment, so the ethnic communities with their rich cultural resources may be the most appropriate setting for learning about ethnic heritages. The "New Pluralism" is not limited to the East, nor to the troubled cities of New York and Chicago; it is a phenomenon that more or less pervades all of America. Bemused by the legend of Scandinavian predominance, we sometimes lose sight of the ethnic complexity of Minnesota. Certainly the racial groups of this state, blacks, chicanes, Indians, and orientals, are a smaller proportion of the total population than in many other states. But their militancy in recent years has made them conspicuous. Less visible have been the white ethnic groups, although the discerning observer might perceive their stirrings as well. Yet in 1960, more than 25 percent of the state of Minnesota population was of foreign stock, which meant that probably more than half of all Minnesotans had grandfathers born in another country. Although Norwegians, Germans, and Swedes were by far the largest groups, there were also significant numbers of British, Canadians, Czechs, Croatians, East European Jews, Finns, Italians, Irish, Poles, Slovaks, and Slovenes, as well as a scattering of other groups. Nor is pluralism in Minnesota only an urban phenomenon. Small towns on he Iron Range and in rural counties have a complex mixture of ethnic groups. To explore ethnicity in Minnesota, to initiate an inquiry into the state of the "New Pluralism" here, a conference was held recently at the International Institute in St. Paul. The Minnesota Project on Ethnic America, with the assistance of the National Project on Ethnic America of the American Jewish Committee and with the cosponsorship of various organizations and institutions, sponsored the sessions. The conference provided a forum in which perceptions, feelings, and judgments regarding social issues were offered from a variety of ethnic perspectives. Discovery of common ground may provide the means for moving Minnesota toward a "New Pluralism" based upon mutual respect and shared goals . - ( Minneapolis Tribune.) � 146 SLOVAKIA Why Our Melting Pot Cooled Off Rudolph J. V e c o l i A policeman called me the other day about a "missing person" case. It turned out that he was the missing person. He was trying to find out where his ancestors came from . He had a Slavic name and knew that his grandparents had emigrated from Austria-Hungary, but there he lost the trail. "I want to know who I am, and to be able to tell my two sons who they are," my caller explained. Luckily we were able to locate the policeman's grandfather in the records of a Slovak church in Minneapolis. This told us the village in Slovakia from which his family had come. Our policeman was overjoyed; now he knew who he was and he was going to try to locate relatives in Slovakia. This search for grandparents was not an isolated case. "Who am I?" has become an urgent question for many Americans, for the middle-aged as well as the young. We appear to be going through a collective identity crisis. One manifestation of the crisis has been the widespread affirmation of group identities. Young people, especially children of the middle class, have created the "counter-culture" with its distinctive lifestyle, dress, and language. Women's liberation provides a new positive sense of collective identity for many of what was once known as the "gentle sex." But, for most Americans, race, religion, and national origin continue to provide the basis for group identity today-as they have historically. Not only are Black Americans, Indians, and Chicanos asserting a new-found pride in their heritage, but Croatian Americans, Finnish Americans, and Slovak Americans, among others, are declaring that they are beautiful as well. An editorial in Christian Century, pointing out that even old-stock white Americans had particularistic identities, declared: "We are all ethnics now." �SLOVAKIA 147 It seems that everyone needs an ethnic label these days. At a recent conference on cross-cultural education there was a workshop on "The Problem of the Non-Ethnic"! Presumably these are individuals of such mixed ancestry that they do not fit neatly into an ethnic category. But as anthropologist Margaret Mead said, this is nonsense, since everyone has grandparents and a heritage, even if it cannot be precisely labeled. The extraordinary resurgence of ethnic consciousness is not easily explained. Clearly the traumatic events of the sixties shattered the illusion of an American consensus. The civil rights movement, black nationalism, the Vietnam War, the student movement-all demonstrated that Americans were not of one mind about basic principles and values. Watts, Cicero, My Lai, Kent State, Chicago, elicited very different responses among different segments of the American people. We became polarized over the basic issues of racial justice, war and peace, lifestyles, the very meaning of democracy; polarized along lines of race, age, and social class. Perhaps it was the loss of a shared sense of the national purpose which caused persons to seek psychological and social security with "their own kind." In the face of this fragmentation, the myth of the "melting pot" was revealed to be transparent fiction. The mysterious process whereby peoples of diverse racial and cultural origins were to be assimilated into an "all-American" middle-class society obviously had not worked its magic. Blacks, by their words and actions, most aggressively challenged the "melting pot" ideal. Not only had they not been melted, but they made it clear they did not wish to be melted into some nondescript American type. Confronted with "black identity," other Americans were compelled to define their own particularistic identities. Not only Indians, Chicanos, and Orientals, but white ethnic groups reacted with a heightened group consciousness. "Black power" was echoed by the slogans of "Polish power" and "Italian power." It surprised many that these white ethnics who were supposed to have been assimilated long ago remained selfconscious elements in the body politic. But the census of 1960 had reported over 34 million as "foreign-stock," i. e., foreign-born or with at least one parent foreign-born. These �148 SLOVAKIA immigrants and their children constituted almost 20 percent of the American population. In addition, many of the third generation and beyond retained some degree of ethnic identity. However, their presence had been ignored by the mass media, the schools and other institutions. Because of pressures to Americanize, these descendants of European immigrants had publicly suppressed their ethnicity, though many continued to cultivate their cultural heritages in the privacy of their families, churches and organizations. Now the lid is off; the stigma of shame of being a "hyphenate," is being rejected. A new pride is being asserted in one's identity as a Ukrainian-American or a Greek-American, to give just two examples. Labeled the "forgotten American," the "middle Americans," or the "silent majority," white ethnics have come in for a good deal of attention of late. For the most part they have been portrayed as backlashing racists, potential recruits for the politics of reaction. In the mass media they have been stereotyped as Joe, the homicidal psychotic, or as Archie, the "lovable bigot." This has intensified their anger and resentment. As Barbara Mikulski, a Polish-American leader, protested: "The ethnic American is sick of being stereotyped as a racist and dullard by phony white liberals, pseudo black militants, and patronizing bureaucrats." Recently, writers such as Andrew M. Greeley and Murray Friedman have been providing us with more sympathetic analyses of lower middle-class ethnic Americans. As bluecollar workers, the bulk of them are either poor (two of every three poor people in this country are white) or "near-poor." Hard-pressed by inflation, heavy taxes, and job insecurity, they do not feel a part of the "Affluent Society." Their sons, like those of black and brown Americans, have fought and died in Vietnam, because many fewer of them go to college. Another stereotype of the ethnic American is that he is a hawk; actually many of them are strongly opposed to the war, but they do pride themselves on being patriotic Americans. They bitterly resent the class and ethnic snobbery which puts them down because of their immigrant and working-class backgrounds. In part this explains their �SLOVAKIA 149 hostility toward the educated elite and the universities . No wonder they cheer Spiro Agnew when he attacks intellectuals as "effete snobs." Like the blacks, the white ethnics are oppressed by a sense of powerlessness and exploitation; like them, they suffer from poor or inadequate schools and municipal services; like them, they are cynical about politics and politicians. As the bulk of the white population of the northern cities, the ethnics endure many of the same urban problems as do the blacks. Frustrated and insecure, they have projected their fears and anger against the blacks, Puerto Ricans, and other groups whom they regard as threats to their own marginal status. They are convicted that it is their jobs, their neighborhoods, their schools, that these newcomers are after. From the ethnics' point of view the blacks have received preferential treatment in federal programs, while their needs have been neglected. As Msgr. Geno C. Baroni, director of the Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, put it: "Little attention has been given to the anguish of the socially and politically alienated middle American." To indulge in accusations of "white racism" is a futile exercise of moral indignation. A more positive response, as Irving Levine, director of the National Project on Ethnic America has argued, is "to identify the real problems of lower middle-class ethnic groups and speak creatively to their deepest needs." The "New Pluralism" is thus not simply a psychological aberration that can be treated by exhortations to brotherhood and tolerance. Rather it is rooted in the very social and economic structure of this society. It reflects the injustices and inequities which that structure inflicts upon large numbers of Americans because of their social class and ethnic-racial character. What has happened is that many groups heretofore inarticulate have found their voices. They are demanding often in angry tones full and equal participation in all areas of American life. Pluralism is a two-edged sword. If our institutions are unresponsive to the legitimate needs and aspirations of all groups, this can lead to increasing group conflict and further polarization. However, if those institutions are responsive, the thrust of the "New Pluralism" can carry �150 SLOVAK.IA us far toward the realization of a more democratic society. This applies to the private sector as well as the public, to business, corporations as well as governmental agencies, to the churches as well as to the schools. Decision-makers at all levels must become more sensitive to group differences, aultural as well as racial. Politicians by the nature of their trade have been most responsive to ethnic pressures, though too often they have manipulated them to serve political ends. But professionals and bureaucrats in the "mainstream" institutions have usually subscribed to a universalistic model of the "typical American." They have typically displayed an insensitivity and ignorance, even arrogance, toward the cultural and social differences among their students, patients, employees, and clients. The sphere of education exemplifies this lack of sensitivity in classic fashion. It is needed a paradox that the educational system of a multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual society such as ours has been dominated by an Anglo-American model, both in curriculum and format. This can only be understood in terms of the grip of an assimilationist ideology upon administrators and teachers alike. Historically the schools were designed to serve as agencies of the " Melting Pot." It was to be their function to transform the children of the immigrants (including internal migrants ) into "good, little, middle-class Americans. '' As one educator stated it: "Our task is to assimilate or amalgamate these people as part of the American race, and to implant in their children, so far as can be done, the Anglo-Saxon conception of righteousness, law, order, and popular government." Although this statement was made over a half century ago, it continued to serve as an accurate description of educational policy until recent times. Rather than building upon the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the students, the schools sought to purify them of their "foreign" traits. The results often were, as sociologist Milton Gordon has observed, "ethnic self-hatred, family disorganization, and juvenile delinquency." Again it was the "black revolution" that initially challenged the monocultural model of American education. �SLOVAKIA 151 In most cases, efforts to adapt schools to special needs of black children have been only partially successful. However, this small beginning has called into question the basic assumptions upon which American educational philosophy and practice has rested for many decades. More and more, educators and parents are seeking a pluralistic way of teaching children which will mirror the pluralistic society in which they live. The principle that formal education should respect and reinforce the cultural and ethnic identity of the child rather than seeking to eradicate it is gaining ground. "Ethnic studies" have emerged as a major response to this need. Because American history as taught in the past was "white history," Afro-American studies was incorporated into the curriculum at the demand of the black community. But blacks have not been the only "invisible men" in American history, Indians, Hispanos, and immigrants have also been ignored or treated disparagingly in most textbooks. Hence the need to revise the course content so that the role of all the many different ethnic elements in American society may be appropriately represented. This is a large task, and resources have been inadequate. Many were encouraged by the introduction of a bill in the Congress that would have provided federal funds in support of "Ethnic Heritage Studies." While the bill was passed unanimously by the Senate, it was rejected in the House of Representatives. There is still hope that it may be revived in the current session. Ethnic studies may, of course, degenerate into tokenism, the placing of a few pictures on the wall and the adding of a few pages to a textbook. To be successful they must permeate the curriculum, not only of history, but language, literature and the social studies. Of crucial importance will be the attitudes of teachers. First, they must be convinced of the value of all cultures as equally valid expressions of the human spirit. This is the most difficult task, to overcome our own ethnocentricity. For the child, ethnic studies should serve two functions . They must foster within him a sense of his worth and dignity based on his identification with his own ancestors. Second, they must provide him with a capacity for an appreciation and acceptance of the cultural differences of �152 SLOVAKIA others. Free of a sense of either superiority or inferiority, he would be well equipped to live in a pluralistic society. We need to experiment with the format for teaching ethnic studies. Just as ecology may best be studied in a natural environment, so the ethnic communities with their rich cultural resources may be the most appropriate setting for learning about ethnic heritages. The "New Pluralism" is not limited to the East, nor to the troubled cities of New York and Chicago; it is a phenomenon that more or less pervades all of America. Bemused by the legend of Scandinavian predominance, we sometimes lose sight of the ethnic complexity of Minnesota. Certainly the racial groups of this state, blacks, chicanes, Indians, and orientals, are a smaller proportion of the total population than in many other states. But their militancy in recent years has made them conspicuous. Less visible have been the white ethnic groups, although the discerning observer might perceive their stirrings as well. Yet in 1960, more than 25 percent of the state of Minnesota population was of foreign stock, which meant that probably more than half of all Minnesotans had grandfathers born in another country. Although Norwegians, Germans, and Swedes were by far the largest groups, there were also significant numbers of British, Canadians, Czechs, Croatians, East European Jews, Finns, Italians, Irish, Poles, Slovaks, and Slovenes, as well as a scattering of other groups. Nor is pluralism in Minnesota only an urban phenomenon. Small towns on he Iron Range and in rural counties have a complex mixture of ethnic groups. To explore ethnicity in Minnesota, to initiate an inquiry into the state of the "New Pluralism" here, a conference was held recently at the International Institute in St. Paul. The Minnesota Project on Ethnic America, with the assistance of the National Project on Ethnic America of the American Jewish Committee and with the cosponsorship of various organizations and institutions, sponsored the sessions. The conference provided a forum in which perceptions, feelings, and judgments regarding social issues were offered from a variety of ethnic perspectives. Discovery of common ground may provide the means for moving Minnesota toward a "New Pluralism" based upon mutual respect and shared goals . - ( Minneapolis Tribune.) � 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 146 SLOVAKIA Why Our Melting Pot Cooled Off Rudolph J. V e c o l i A policeman called me the other day about a "missing person" case. It turned out that he was the missing person. He was trying to find out where his ancestors came from . He had a Slavic name and knew that his grandparents had emigrated from Austria-Hungary, but there he lost the trail. "I want to know who I am, and to be able to tell my two sons who they are," my caller explained. Luckily we were able to locate the policeman's grandfather in the records of a Slovak church in Minneapolis. This told us the village in Slovakia from which his family had come. Our policeman was overjoyed; now he knew who he was and he was going to try to locate relatives in Slovakia. This search for grandparents was not an isolated case. "Who am I?" has become an urgent question for many Americans, for the middle-aged as well as the young. We appear to be going through a collective identity crisis. One manifestation of the crisis has been the widespread affirmation of group identities. Young people, especially children of the middle class, have created the "counter-culture" with its distinctive lifestyle, dress, and language. Women's liberation provides a new positive sense of collective identity for many of what was once known as the "gentle sex." But, for most Americans, race, religion, and national origin continue to provide the basis for group identity today-as they have historically. Not only are Black Americans, Indians, and Chicanos asserting a new-found pride in their heritage, but Croatian Americans, Finnish Americans, and Slovak Americans, among others, are declaring that they are beautiful as well. An editorial in Christian Century, pointing out that even old-stock white Americans had particularistic identities, declared: "We are all ethnics now." SLOVAKIA 147 It seems that everyone needs an ethnic label these days. At a recent conference on cross-cultural education there was a workshop on "The Problem of the Non-Ethnic"! Presumably these are individuals of such mixed ancestry that they do not fit neatly into an ethnic category. But as anthropologist Margaret Mead said, this is nonsense, since everyone has grandparents and a heritage, even if it cannot be precisely labeled. The extraordinary resurgence of ethnic consciousness is not easily explained. Clearly the traumatic events of the sixties shattered the illusion of an American consensus. The civil rights movement, black nationalism, the Vietnam War, the student movement-all demonstrated that Americans were not of one mind about basic principles and values. Watts, Cicero, My Lai, Kent State, Chicago, elicited very different responses among different segments of the American people. We became polarized over the basic issues of racial justice, war and peace, lifestyles, the very meaning of democracy; polarized along lines of race, age, and social class. Perhaps it was the loss of a shared sense of the national purpose which caused persons to seek psychological and social security with "their own kind." In the face of this fragmentation, the myth of the "melting pot" was revealed to be transparent fiction. The mysterious process whereby peoples of diverse racial and cultural origins were to be assimilated into an "all-American" middle-class society obviously had not worked its magic. Blacks, by their words and actions, most aggressively challenged the "melting pot" ideal. Not only had they not been melted, but they made it clear they did not wish to be melted into some nondescript American type. Confronted with "black identity," other Americans were compelled to define their own particularistic identities. Not only Indians, Chicanos, and Orientals, but white ethnic groups reacted with a heightened group consciousness. "Black power" was echoed by the slogans of "Polish power" and "Italian power." It surprised many that these white ethnics who were supposed to have been assimilated long ago remained selfconscious elements in the body politic. But the census of 1960 had reported over 34 million as "foreign-stock," i. e., foreign-born or with at least one parent foreign-born. These 148 SLOVAKIA immigrants and their children constituted almost 20 percent of the American population. In addition, many of the third generation and beyond retained some degree of ethnic identity. However, their presence had been ignored by the mass media, the schools and other institutions. Because of pressures to Americanize, these descendants of European immigrants had publicly suppressed their ethnicity, though many continued to cultivate their cultural heritages in the privacy of their families, churches and organizations. Now the lid is off; the stigma of shame of being a "hyphenate," is being rejected. A new pride is being asserted in one's identity as a Ukrainian-American or a Greek-American, to give just two examples. Labeled the "forgotten American," the "middle Americans," or the "silent majority," white ethnics have come in for a good deal of attention of late. For the most part they have been portrayed as backlashing racists, potential recruits for the politics of reaction. In the mass media they have been stereotyped as Joe, the homicidal psychotic, or as Archie, the "lovable bigot." This has intensified their anger and resentment. As Barbara Mikulski, a Polish-American leader, protested: "The ethnic American is sick of being stereotyped as a racist and dullard by phony white liberals, pseudo black militants, and patronizing bureaucrats." Recently, writers such as Andrew M. Greeley and Murray Friedman have been providing us with more sympathetic analyses of lower middle-class ethnic Americans. As bluecollar workers, the bulk of them are either poor (two of every three poor people in this country are white) or "near-poor." Hard-pressed by inflation, heavy taxes, and job insecurity, they do not feel a part of the "Affluent Society." Their sons, like those of black and brown Americans, have fought and died in Vietnam, because many fewer of them go to college. Another stereotype of the ethnic American is that he is a hawk; actually many of them are strongly opposed to the war, but they do pride themselves on being patriotic Americans. They bitterly resent the class and ethnic snobbery which puts them down because of their immigrant and working-class backgrounds. In part this explains their SLOVAKIA 149 hostility toward the educated elite and the universities . No wonder they cheer Spiro Agnew when he attacks intellectuals as "effete snobs." Like the blacks, the white ethnics are oppressed by a sense of powerlessness and exploitation; like them, they suffer from poor or inadequate schools and municipal services; like them, they are cynical about politics and politicians. As the bulk of the white population of the northern cities, the ethnics endure many of the same urban problems as do the blacks. Frustrated and insecure, they have projected their fears and anger against the blacks, Puerto Ricans, and other groups whom they regard as threats to their own marginal status. They are convicted that it is their jobs, their neighborhoods, their schools, that these newcomers are after. From the ethnics' point of view the blacks have received preferential treatment in federal programs, while their needs have been neglected. As Msgr. Geno C. Baroni, director of the Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, put it: "Little attention has been given to the anguish of the socially and politically alienated middle American." To indulge in accusations of "white racism" is a futile exercise of moral indignation. A more positive response, as Irving Levine, director of the National Project on Ethnic America has argued, is "to identify the real problems of lower middle-class ethnic groups and speak creatively to their deepest needs." The "New Pluralism" is thus not simply a psychological aberration that can be treated by exhortations to brotherhood and tolerance. Rather it is rooted in the very social and economic structure of this society. It reflects the injustices and inequities which that structure inflicts upon large numbers of Americans because of their social class and ethnic-racial character. What has happened is that many groups heretofore inarticulate have found their voices. They are demanding often in angry tones full and equal participation in all areas of American life. Pluralism is a two-edged sword. If our institutions are unresponsive to the legitimate needs and aspirations of all groups, this can lead to increasing group conflict and further polarization. However, if those institutions are responsive, the thrust of the "New Pluralism" can carry 150 SLOVAK.IA us far toward the realization of a more democratic society. This applies to the private sector as well as the public, to business, corporations as well as governmental agencies, to the churches as well as to the schools. Decision-makers at all levels must become more sensitive to group differences, aultural as well as racial. Politicians by the nature of their trade have been most responsive to ethnic pressures, though too often they have manipulated them to serve political ends. But professionals and bureaucrats in the "mainstream" institutions have usually subscribed to a universalistic model of the "typical American." They have typically displayed an insensitivity and ignorance, even arrogance, toward the cultural and social differences among their students, patients, employees, and clients. The sphere of education exemplifies this lack of sensitivity in classic fashion. It is needed a paradox that the educational system of a multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual society such as ours has been dominated by an Anglo-American model, both in curriculum and format. This can only be understood in terms of the grip of an assimilationist ideology upon administrators and teachers alike. Historically the schools were designed to serve as agencies of the " Melting Pot." It was to be their function to transform the children of the immigrants (including internal migrants ) into "good, little, middle-class Americans. '' As one educator stated it: "Our task is to assimilate or amalgamate these people as part of the American race, and to implant in their children, so far as can be done, the Anglo-Saxon conception of righteousness, law, order, and popular government." Although this statement was made over a half century ago, it continued to serve as an accurate description of educational policy until recent times. Rather than building upon the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the students, the schools sought to purify them of their "foreign" traits. The results often were, as sociologist Milton Gordon has observed, "ethnic self-hatred, family disorganization, and juvenile delinquency." Again it was the "black revolution" that initially challenged the monocultural model of American education. SLOVAKIA 151 In most cases, efforts to adapt schools to special needs of black children have been only partially successful. However, this small beginning has called into question the basic assumptions upon which American educational philosophy and practice has rested for many decades. More and more, educators and parents are seeking a pluralistic way of teaching children which will mirror the pluralistic society in which they live. The principle that formal education should respect and reinforce the cultural and ethnic identity of the child rather than seeking to eradicate it is gaining ground. "Ethnic studies" have emerged as a major response to this need. Because American history as taught in the past was "white history," Afro-American studies was incorporated into the curriculum at the demand of the black community. But blacks have not been the only "invisible men" in American history, Indians, Hispanos, and immigrants have also been ignored or treated disparagingly in most textbooks. Hence the need to revise the course content so that the role of all the many different ethnic elements in American society may be appropriately represented. This is a large task, and resources have been inadequate. Many were encouraged by the introduction of a bill in the Congress that would have provided federal funds in support of "Ethnic Heritage Studies." While the bill was passed unanimously by the Senate, it was rejected in the House of Representatives. There is still hope that it may be revived in the current session. Ethnic studies may, of course, degenerate into tokenism, the placing of a few pictures on the wall and the adding of a few pages to a textbook. To be successful they must permeate the curriculum, not only of history, but language, literature and the social studies. Of crucial importance will be the attitudes of teachers. First, they must be convinced of the value of all cultures as equally valid expressions of the human spirit. This is the most difficult task, to overcome our own ethnocentricity. For the child, ethnic studies should serve two functions . They must foster within him a sense of his worth and dignity based on his identification with his own ancestors. Second, they must provide him with a capacity for an appreciation and acceptance of the cultural differences of 152 SLOVAKIA others. Free of a sense of either superiority or inferiority, he would be well equipped to live in a pluralistic society. We need to experiment with the format for teaching ethnic studies. Just as ecology may best be studied in a natural environment, so the ethnic communities with their rich cultural resources may be the most appropriate setting for learning about ethnic heritages. The "New Pluralism" is not limited to the East, nor to the troubled cities of New York and Chicago; it is a phenomenon that more or less pervades all of America. Bemused by the legend of Scandinavian predominance, we sometimes lose sight of the ethnic complexity of Minnesota. Certainly the racial groups of this state, blacks, chicanes, Indians, and orientals, are a smaller proportion of the total population than in many other states. But their militancy in recent years has made them conspicuous. Less visible have been the white ethnic groups, although the discerning observer might perceive their stirrings as well. Yet in 1960, more than 25 percent of the state of Minnesota population was of foreign stock, which meant that probably more than half of all Minnesotans had grandfathers born in another country. Although Norwegians, Germans, and Swedes were by far the largest groups, there were also significant numbers of British, Canadians, Czechs, Croatians, East European Jews, Finns, Italians, Irish, Poles, Slovaks, and Slovenes, as well as a scattering of other groups. Nor is pluralism in Minnesota only an urban phenomenon. Small towns on he Iron Range and in rural counties have a complex mixture of ethnic groups. To explore ethnicity in Minnesota, to initiate an inquiry into the state of the "New Pluralism" here, a conference was held recently at the International Institute in St. Paul. The Minnesota Project on Ethnic America, with the assistance of the National Project on Ethnic America of the American Jewish Committee and with the cosponsorship of various organizations and institutions, sponsored the sessions. The conference provided a forum in which perceptions, feelings, and judgments regarding social issues were offered from a variety of ethnic perspectives. Discovery of common ground may provide the means for moving Minnesota toward a "New Pluralism" based upon mutual respect and shared goals . - ( Minneapolis Tribune.)  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 Our Melting Pot Cooled Off Description An account of the resource Rudolph J. Vecoli Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 146-152 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vecoli, Rudolph J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5b07e17d4fa04511d00a112ba3599b8b.pdf 6ca9b798de2435a9585f1b1ea60c2e69 PDF Text Text 140 SLOVAKIA religion, and their national identification. Perhaps it is only in this ability to maintain their distinctive characteristics that the Slovaks will ever realize their independence. Even more than geographical position, and greedy neighbors, these distinctive Slovak characteristics-described as easy-going, honest, idealistic, deeply religious, imaginative, open-hearted, soft-hearted, emotional, and music-loving-will equip them for the task of building a strong and independent nation in the midst of hard and cruel world. Tourist Trade of Slovakia George A. P o d h d j s k y Countries like Switzerland and Austria, which are endowed with exquisite beauty in their natural setting, devote considerable attention in terms of economic activity to the development of a high level of tourist trade. A significant proportion of their Gross National Product comes from the tourist trade, internal and especially foreign. For that purpose these two countries have steered their economic activity in such a way as to support an unprecedented development of their respective tourist trade industries. Of the Communist countries, Yugoslavia was particularly successful in developing a very attractive program for tourist trade, especially from foreign countries. A similar·potential for developing tourist trade also exists in the Slovak economy. The natural beauty of Slovak Tatra Mountains and the adjacent valleys which spread over most of the country, doubled with the proverbial hospitality of the Slovak people, are a good basis for the development of tourist trade in this country. Apart from this, there is an old tradition of internal and foreign tourism developed through the centuries. It is the purpose of this paper to assess the present situation of the Slovak tourist trade and its potential for future development. I. The following figures may sum up the state of tourist trade of Czecho-Slovakia for the years 1960-1964. 1 �SLOVAKIA 141 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 From Abroad (in Mill.) 1.3 1.6 1.7 1.8 3.7 To Foreign Countries .5 .6 .7 .7 2.0 From the above table one can see that the foreign tourists by far exceeded the number of people from CzechoSlovakia visiting foreign countries. From the breakdown of the above figures, one can also see that most of the foreign tourist trade was stemming mostly from the Sociallist block countries. However, there was some tourist trade stemming from Western countries like the United States, France, Austria, and West Germany. The figures show that there were more tourists from these countries going to Czecho-Slovakia rather than the other way around. Of course, there was an unprecedented upsurge in the inflow of Western tourists in 1968, when the gates opened for the foreigners. The facilities available for the tourists in CzechoSlovakia were not always adequate, especially during the period of 1955-1963, when the number of guests far outweighed the number of available beds. 1963 is the first year showing an excess of beds over the number of guests. The following diagram shows this picture quite clearly. 2 THE NUMBER OF GUESTS AND BEDS AVAILABLE Guests in Millions Beds in Thousands 4f - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - --,/3f _ _ _ _ guests - - - - - - - beds "7 I I I I I I ___ ,, ,,. ," ,, ,, , ,,,,.1 'fo 7S' �142 SLOVAKIA This diagram shows the varying degree of the ratio between the number of guests and available beds. Although, from the diagram, it cannot be ascertained what ratio would be considered as optimal, other sources3 show that there was a shortage of not only beds but also other facilities to adequately care for the ever-increasing tourist t rade. II. From the above information, it is evident that the tourist trade to Czecho-Slovakia underwent some fluctuation but also an overall growth in the number of guests and available facilities . The figures are for Czecho-Slovakia, but we can safely assume that at least half of this trade belonged to Slovakia which seemed to concentrate in tourist trade in the past having been endowed with more potential than Bohemia and Moravia. At this point it would be good to see if there is enough potential and incentive in Slovakia to develop tourist trade to its optimal size. The 1970 winter Olympics in the Tatra mountains prepared on short notice by the leaders of Slovakia has proven beyond any doubt that Slovaks can produce adequate facilities for such an important event as winter Olympics. Most of the facilities created are of lasting value as they may be used and reused by further similar sport activities though not necessarily on an international level. The organizers have shown not only the ability and the know-how but also good taste in creating efficient facilities. The good taste has also been demonstrated in the building of several tourist hotels at various geographical points in Slovakia. Almost without exception, hotel buildings have at last one masterpiece of art by a known artist in the foyer or elsewhere for the inspection of an appreciative customer. Such hotels usually are built with the most modern approach, and the service in such hotels is supposed to match the style. However, there is ample evidence4 that the service of high consumer satisfaction is not always present. In this respect, the potential of the Slovak trade is hampered by other services that go hand in hand with the tourist trade and which were more or less adequately solved by the Swiss or the Austrians. Bus service, cool drink and snack service at various points of movements �SLOVAKIA 143 of tourists are just a few among to be mentioned. However, this may be solved comperatively easily if the tourist planners are given enough scope and competence to develop them. There is, of course, a more important problem which the Slovak tourist planners will have to face. This is the problem of seasonal fluctuations in the tourist trade. A breakdown of the 1963 figures, for example, shows that the winter and fall quarters were very low in tourist activity in comparison to the other two quarters. This poses a problem of optimum capacity of facilities for tourist trade. This capacity will have to be determined by the spring and summer demand for them. From the point of view of the rate of return on investment, those facilities should get the priority of development which can be operated all year. Thus, the spas, sanatoriums and other hospitals are examples in question. Since tourist trade in Slovakia has shown in the past centuries an excellent tradition in this field, this development could prove very profitable indeed. Piest'any, where Beethoven composed his 7th Symphony, is an example of such tradition. This portion of the tourist trade activity taking shape of its past reputation can become the backbone of the total activity in this field. Having stressed this kind of activity, the rest of tourist trade may be taken in stride inspite of the seasonal fluctuations. However, even in this direction, a lot can be done by a good planner or economist by envisaging such tourist activity which can take place all year around. This kind of seasonal fluctuation may be at least partially curtailed by using the same facilities during the summer and winter. Since the structure of the Slovak tourist scenery in such that it can be enjoyed for skiing in winter and other activities in summer, it may be possible to create year-around tourist activity in such areas. However, in the respect a lot of planning and research should be done, as many areas have not been explored for safety reasons. All in all, a careful analysis may show that the seasonal fluctuations may turn out to appear more smoothed out than at first sight. In that case one may expect a full and optimal development of the Slovak tourist trade which would possibly make it one of the most important components of the Slovak Gross National Product. �144 SLOVAKIA The demand for Slovak facilities could prove quite high. In fact, for many years to come the Slovak tourist trade could prove an important and favorable competitor to the Swiss tourist trade, and only Austria could challenge this position of Slovakia. It is the prices of various services that are expected to be much lower than the Swiss and somewhat lower than the Austrian. In such situations, Slovakia could prove a seeked for tourist attraction filling the capacity available, provided that the services match the Swiss standards. Since this is very hard to achieve because of high Swiss standards, one may allow for some discrepancy in this respect. At the same time, one may point out that given the scope of development and authority into the hands of the tourist trade planners, they may show that they can achieve the Swiss standards. In that case, with lower prices, Slovaks are in an excellent competitive position with the Swiss. In the past, the Swiss journalists themselves have uttered such thoughts. Other non-monetary aspects of this trade are also very important. For example, the rustic setting untouched by the most modern civilization may have a point in question. The availability of concerts and other activities which are not scheduled withing the tourist trade may be another. Good and reasonable shopping activities for handicraft products may prove an excellent attraction. This of course may give an impetus to further development of other industries. The above mentioned goals in terms of foreign tourist trade may be achieved effectively in a given period of time only if other noneconomic factors are developed to give the economic development a necessary background and environment. Thus, in the respect, political measures must allow the development of tourist trade activity. The managers of smaller summer resorts must have enough opportunity to be able to decide quickly on their policy changes concerning tourist trade activities if such changes are brought about without further notice. In order to avoid unnecessary waste, such decentralized decision-making process must be inherent in the system of planning and production of the tourist trade. Since the cultural background is closely related to this one, a combination of the two may prove a stimulating factor in the development of the Slovak tourist trade. Given these conditions, there �SLOVAKIA 145 are enough qualified people in Slovakia to do it, and others can easily be trained. In order to achieve some significant result in terms of Slovak foreign trade, one will have to reorganize all present facilities, improve them and then build new ones . In this respect the Slovak economy is quite negligent as the informed sources maintain.5 Most deficiencies are in the organization itself; 6 in terms of service, 7 in public relations especially advertising,8 etc. On the other hand, there has been quite a bit done to attract the hunters into Slovakia for various kinds of activities9 and other services. These kinds of details may have to be ironed out before tourist trade can achieve the desired results. The best possible approach in this respect would be to develop the various kinds of services to such an extent that the internal tourist trade demand may be satisfied. Having achieved these standards, one may proceed to expand for foreign consumption. This is quite possible as the Slovaks proved in the past as informed tourists, demanding a high standard of service. This kind of supply-demand interaction may create the necessary base for development for foreign oriented tourist trade. Since the potential for developing the Slovak tourist trade does exist, it will depend mostly on the wisdom of those people who are in decision-making positions. They seemed sympathetic to such development in the past. NOTES 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) Statisticka rocenka Ibid, p. 405. Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Ibid. Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, c SSR 1965, Prague 1965, p. 4-04. March 14, 1969, p. 5. March 26, 1969, p. 5. February April 25, February February 19, 1969, p. 2. 1969, p. 1. 6, 1970, p. 2. 14, 1969, p. 2. * THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects. � 140 SLOVAKIA religion, and their national identification. Perhaps it is only in this ability to maintain their distinctive characteristics that the Slovaks will ever realize their independence. Even more than geographical position, and greedy neighbors, these distinctive Slovak characteristics-described as easy-going, honest, idealistic, deeply religious, imaginative, open-hearted, soft-hearted, emotional, and music-loving-will equip them for the task of building a strong and independent nation in the midst of hard and cruel world. Tourist Trade of Slovakia George A. P o d h d j s k y Countries like Switzerland and Austria, which are endowed with exquisite beauty in their natural setting, devote considerable attention in terms of economic activity to the development of a high level of tourist trade. A significant proportion of their Gross National Product comes from the tourist trade, internal and especially foreign. For that purpose these two countries have steered their economic activity in such a way as to support an unprecedented development of their respective tourist trade industries. Of the Communist countries, Yugoslavia was particularly successful in developing a very attractive program for tourist trade, especially from foreign countries. A similar·potential for developing tourist trade also exists in the Slovak economy. The natural beauty of Slovak Tatra Mountains and the adjacent valleys which spread over most of the country, doubled with the proverbial hospitality of the Slovak people, are a good basis for the development of tourist trade in this country. Apart from this, there is an old tradition of internal and foreign tourism developed through the centuries. It is the purpose of this paper to assess the present situation of the Slovak tourist trade and its potential for future development. I. The following figures may sum up the state of tourist trade of Czecho-Slovakia for the years 1960-1964. 1 �SLOVAKIA 141 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 From Abroad (in Mill.) 1.3 1.6 1.7 1.8 3.7 To Foreign Countries .5 .6 .7 .7 2.0 From the above table one can see that the foreign tourists by far exceeded the number of people from CzechoSlovakia visiting foreign countries. From the breakdown of the above figures, one can also see that most of the foreign tourist trade was stemming mostly from the Sociallist block countries. However, there was some tourist trade stemming from Western countries like the United States, France, Austria, and West Germany. The figures show that there were more tourists from these countries going to Czecho-Slovakia rather than the other way around. Of course, there was an unprecedented upsurge in the inflow of Western tourists in 1968, when the gates opened for the foreigners. The facilities available for the tourists in CzechoSlovakia were not always adequate, especially during the period of 1955-1963, when the number of guests far outweighed the number of available beds. 1963 is the first year showing an excess of beds over the number of guests. The following diagram shows this picture quite clearly. 2 THE NUMBER OF GUESTS AND BEDS AVAILABLE Guests in Millions Beds in Thousands 4f - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - --,/3f _ _ _ _ guests - - - - - - - beds "7 I I I I I I ___ ,, ,,. ," ,, ,, , ,,,,.1 'fo 7S' �142 SLOVAKIA This diagram shows the varying degree of the ratio between the number of guests and available beds. Although, from the diagram, it cannot be ascertained what ratio would be considered as optimal, other sources3 show that there was a shortage of not only beds but also other facilities to adequately care for the ever-increasing tourist t rade. II. From the above information, it is evident that the tourist trade to Czecho-Slovakia underwent some fluctuation but also an overall growth in the number of guests and available facilities . The figures are for Czecho-Slovakia, but we can safely assume that at least half of this trade belonged to Slovakia which seemed to concentrate in tourist trade in the past having been endowed with more potential than Bohemia and Moravia. At this point it would be good to see if there is enough potential and incentive in Slovakia to develop tourist trade to its optimal size. The 1970 winter Olympics in the Tatra mountains prepared on short notice by the leaders of Slovakia has proven beyond any doubt that Slovaks can produce adequate facilities for such an important event as winter Olympics. Most of the facilities created are of lasting value as they may be used and reused by further similar sport activities though not necessarily on an international level. The organizers have shown not only the ability and the know-how but also good taste in creating efficient facilities. The good taste has also been demonstrated in the building of several tourist hotels at various geographical points in Slovakia. Almost without exception, hotel buildings have at last one masterpiece of art by a known artist in the foyer or elsewhere for the inspection of an appreciative customer. Such hotels usually are built with the most modern approach, and the service in such hotels is supposed to match the style. However, there is ample evidence4 that the service of high consumer satisfaction is not always present. In this respect, the potential of the Slovak trade is hampered by other services that go hand in hand with the tourist trade and which were more or less adequately solved by the Swiss or the Austrians. Bus service, cool drink and snack service at various points of movements �SLOVAKIA 143 of tourists are just a few among to be mentioned. However, this may be solved comperatively easily if the tourist planners are given enough scope and competence to develop them. There is, of course, a more important problem which the Slovak tourist planners will have to face. This is the problem of seasonal fluctuations in the tourist trade. A breakdown of the 1963 figures, for example, shows that the winter and fall quarters were very low in tourist activity in comparison to the other two quarters. This poses a problem of optimum capacity of facilities for tourist trade. This capacity will have to be determined by the spring and summer demand for them. From the point of view of the rate of return on investment, those facilities should get the priority of development which can be operated all year. Thus, the spas, sanatoriums and other hospitals are examples in question. Since tourist trade in Slovakia has shown in the past centuries an excellent tradition in this field, this development could prove very profitable indeed. Piest'any, where Beethoven composed his 7th Symphony, is an example of such tradition. This portion of the tourist trade activity taking shape of its past reputation can become the backbone of the total activity in this field. Having stressed this kind of activity, the rest of tourist trade may be taken in stride inspite of the seasonal fluctuations. However, even in this direction, a lot can be done by a good planner or economist by envisaging such tourist activity which can take place all year around. This kind of seasonal fluctuation may be at least partially curtailed by using the same facilities during the summer and winter. Since the structure of the Slovak tourist scenery in such that it can be enjoyed for skiing in winter and other activities in summer, it may be possible to create year-around tourist activity in such areas. However, in the respect a lot of planning and research should be done, as many areas have not been explored for safety reasons. All in all, a careful analysis may show that the seasonal fluctuations may turn out to appear more smoothed out than at first sight. In that case one may expect a full and optimal development of the Slovak tourist trade which would possibly make it one of the most important components of the Slovak Gross National Product. �144 SLOVAKIA The demand for Slovak facilities could prove quite high. In fact, for many years to come the Slovak tourist trade could prove an important and favorable competitor to the Swiss tourist trade, and only Austria could challenge this position of Slovakia. It is the prices of various services that are expected to be much lower than the Swiss and somewhat lower than the Austrian. In such situations, Slovakia could prove a seeked for tourist attraction filling the capacity available, provided that the services match the Swiss standards. Since this is very hard to achieve because of high Swiss standards, one may allow for some discrepancy in this respect. At the same time, one may point out that given the scope of development and authority into the hands of the tourist trade planners, they may show that they can achieve the Swiss standards. In that case, with lower prices, Slovaks are in an excellent competitive position with the Swiss. In the past, the Swiss journalists themselves have uttered such thoughts. Other non-monetary aspects of this trade are also very important. For example, the rustic setting untouched by the most modern civilization may have a point in question. The availability of concerts and other activities which are not scheduled withing the tourist trade may be another. Good and reasonable shopping activities for handicraft products may prove an excellent attraction. This of course may give an impetus to further development of other industries. The above mentioned goals in terms of foreign tourist trade may be achieved effectively in a given period of time only if other noneconomic factors are developed to give the economic development a necessary background and environment. Thus, in the respect, political measures must allow the development of tourist trade activity. The managers of smaller summer resorts must have enough opportunity to be able to decide quickly on their policy changes concerning tourist trade activities if such changes are brought about without further notice. In order to avoid unnecessary waste, such decentralized decision-making process must be inherent in the system of planning and production of the tourist trade. Since the cultural background is closely related to this one, a combination of the two may prove a stimulating factor in the development of the Slovak tourist trade. Given these conditions, there �SLOVAKIA 145 are enough qualified people in Slovakia to do it, and others can easily be trained. In order to achieve some significant result in terms of Slovak foreign trade, one will have to reorganize all present facilities, improve them and then build new ones . In this respect the Slovak economy is quite negligent as the informed sources maintain.5 Most deficiencies are in the organization itself; 6 in terms of service, 7 in public relations especially advertising,8 etc. On the other hand, there has been quite a bit done to attract the hunters into Slovakia for various kinds of activities9 and other services. These kinds of details may have to be ironed out before tourist trade can achieve the desired results. The best possible approach in this respect would be to develop the various kinds of services to such an extent that the internal tourist trade demand may be satisfied. Having achieved these standards, one may proceed to expand for foreign consumption. This is quite possible as the Slovaks proved in the past as informed tourists, demanding a high standard of service. This kind of supply-demand interaction may create the necessary base for development for foreign oriented tourist trade. Since the potential for developing the Slovak tourist trade does exist, it will depend mostly on the wisdom of those people who are in decision-making positions. They seemed sympathetic to such development in the past. NOTES 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) Statisticka rocenka Ibid, p. 405. Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Ibid. Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, c SSR 1965, Prague 1965, p. 4-04. March 14, 1969, p. 5. March 26, 1969, p. 5. February April 25, February February 19, 1969, p. 2. 1969, p. 1. 6, 1970, p. 2. 14, 1969, p. 2. * THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects. � 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 140 SLOVAKIA religion, and their national identification. Perhaps it is only in this ability to maintain their distinctive characteristics that the Slovaks will ever realize their independence. Even more than geographical position, and greedy neighbors, these distinctive Slovak characteristics-described as easy-going, honest, idealistic, deeply religious, imaginative, open-hearted, soft-hearted, emotional, and music-loving-will equip them for the task of building a strong and independent nation in the midst of hard and cruel world. Tourist Trade of Slovakia George A. P o d h d j s k y Countries like Switzerland and Austria, which are endowed with exquisite beauty in their natural setting, devote considerable attention in terms of economic activity to the development of a high level of tourist trade. A significant proportion of their Gross National Product comes from the tourist trade, internal and especially foreign. For that purpose these two countries have steered their economic activity in such a way as to support an unprecedented development of their respective tourist trade industries. Of the Communist countries, Yugoslavia was particularly successful in developing a very attractive program for tourist trade, especially from foreign countries. A similar·potential for developing tourist trade also exists in the Slovak economy. The natural beauty of Slovak Tatra Mountains and the adjacent valleys which spread over most of the country, doubled with the proverbial hospitality of the Slovak people, are a good basis for the development of tourist trade in this country. Apart from this, there is an old tradition of internal and foreign tourism developed through the centuries. It is the purpose of this paper to assess the present situation of the Slovak tourist trade and its potential for future development. I. The following figures may sum up the state of tourist trade of Czecho-Slovakia for the years 1960-1964. 1 SLOVAKIA 141 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 From Abroad (in Mill.) 1.3 1.6 1.7 1.8 3.7 To Foreign Countries .5 .6 .7 .7 2.0 From the above table one can see that the foreign tourists by far exceeded the number of people from CzechoSlovakia visiting foreign countries. From the breakdown of the above figures, one can also see that most of the foreign tourist trade was stemming mostly from the Sociallist block countries. However, there was some tourist trade stemming from Western countries like the United States, France, Austria, and West Germany. The figures show that there were more tourists from these countries going to Czecho-Slovakia rather than the other way around. Of course, there was an unprecedented upsurge in the inflow of Western tourists in 1968, when the gates opened for the foreigners. The facilities available for the tourists in CzechoSlovakia were not always adequate, especially during the period of 1955-1963, when the number of guests far outweighed the number of available beds. 1963 is the first year showing an excess of beds over the number of guests. The following diagram shows this picture quite clearly. 2 THE NUMBER OF GUESTS AND BEDS AVAILABLE Guests in Millions Beds in Thousands 4f - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - --,/3f _ _ _ _ guests - - - - - - - beds "7 I I I I I I ___ ,, ,,. ," ,, ,, , ,,,,.1 'fo 7S' 142 SLOVAKIA This diagram shows the varying degree of the ratio between the number of guests and available beds. Although, from the diagram, it cannot be ascertained what ratio would be considered as optimal, other sources3 show that there was a shortage of not only beds but also other facilities to adequately care for the ever-increasing tourist t rade. II. From the above information, it is evident that the tourist trade to Czecho-Slovakia underwent some fluctuation but also an overall growth in the number of guests and available facilities . The figures are for Czecho-Slovakia, but we can safely assume that at least half of this trade belonged to Slovakia which seemed to concentrate in tourist trade in the past having been endowed with more potential than Bohemia and Moravia. At this point it would be good to see if there is enough potential and incentive in Slovakia to develop tourist trade to its optimal size. The 1970 winter Olympics in the Tatra mountains prepared on short notice by the leaders of Slovakia has proven beyond any doubt that Slovaks can produce adequate facilities for such an important event as winter Olympics. Most of the facilities created are of lasting value as they may be used and reused by further similar sport activities though not necessarily on an international level. The organizers have shown not only the ability and the know-how but also good taste in creating efficient facilities. The good taste has also been demonstrated in the building of several tourist hotels at various geographical points in Slovakia. Almost without exception, hotel buildings have at last one masterpiece of art by a known artist in the foyer or elsewhere for the inspection of an appreciative customer. Such hotels usually are built with the most modern approach, and the service in such hotels is supposed to match the style. However, there is ample evidence4 that the service of high consumer satisfaction is not always present. In this respect, the potential of the Slovak trade is hampered by other services that go hand in hand with the tourist trade and which were more or less adequately solved by the Swiss or the Austrians. Bus service, cool drink and snack service at various points of movements SLOVAKIA 143 of tourists are just a few among to be mentioned. However, this may be solved comperatively easily if the tourist planners are given enough scope and competence to develop them. There is, of course, a more important problem which the Slovak tourist planners will have to face. This is the problem of seasonal fluctuations in the tourist trade. A breakdown of the 1963 figures, for example, shows that the winter and fall quarters were very low in tourist activity in comparison to the other two quarters. This poses a problem of optimum capacity of facilities for tourist trade. This capacity will have to be determined by the spring and summer demand for them. From the point of view of the rate of return on investment, those facilities should get the priority of development which can be operated all year. Thus, the spas, sanatoriums and other hospitals are examples in question. Since tourist trade in Slovakia has shown in the past centuries an excellent tradition in this field, this development could prove very profitable indeed. Piest'any, where Beethoven composed his 7th Symphony, is an example of such tradition. This portion of the tourist trade activity taking shape of its past reputation can become the backbone of the total activity in this field. Having stressed this kind of activity, the rest of tourist trade may be taken in stride inspite of the seasonal fluctuations. However, even in this direction, a lot can be done by a good planner or economist by envisaging such tourist activity which can take place all year around. This kind of seasonal fluctuation may be at least partially curtailed by using the same facilities during the summer and winter. Since the structure of the Slovak tourist scenery in such that it can be enjoyed for skiing in winter and other activities in summer, it may be possible to create year-around tourist activity in such areas. However, in the respect a lot of planning and research should be done, as many areas have not been explored for safety reasons. All in all, a careful analysis may show that the seasonal fluctuations may turn out to appear more smoothed out than at first sight. In that case one may expect a full and optimal development of the Slovak tourist trade which would possibly make it one of the most important components of the Slovak Gross National Product. 144 SLOVAKIA The demand for Slovak facilities could prove quite high. In fact, for many years to come the Slovak tourist trade could prove an important and favorable competitor to the Swiss tourist trade, and only Austria could challenge this position of Slovakia. It is the prices of various services that are expected to be much lower than the Swiss and somewhat lower than the Austrian. In such situations, Slovakia could prove a seeked for tourist attraction filling the capacity available, provided that the services match the Swiss standards. Since this is very hard to achieve because of high Swiss standards, one may allow for some discrepancy in this respect. At the same time, one may point out that given the scope of development and authority into the hands of the tourist trade planners, they may show that they can achieve the Swiss standards. In that case, with lower prices, Slovaks are in an excellent competitive position with the Swiss. In the past, the Swiss journalists themselves have uttered such thoughts. Other non-monetary aspects of this trade are also very important. For example, the rustic setting untouched by the most modern civilization may have a point in question. The availability of concerts and other activities which are not scheduled withing the tourist trade may be another. Good and reasonable shopping activities for handicraft products may prove an excellent attraction. This of course may give an impetus to further development of other industries. The above mentioned goals in terms of foreign tourist trade may be achieved effectively in a given period of time only if other noneconomic factors are developed to give the economic development a necessary background and environment. Thus, in the respect, political measures must allow the development of tourist trade activity. The managers of smaller summer resorts must have enough opportunity to be able to decide quickly on their policy changes concerning tourist trade activities if such changes are brought about without further notice. In order to avoid unnecessary waste, such decentralized decision-making process must be inherent in the system of planning and production of the tourist trade. Since the cultural background is closely related to this one, a combination of the two may prove a stimulating factor in the development of the Slovak tourist trade. Given these conditions, there SLOVAKIA 145 are enough qualified people in Slovakia to do it, and others can easily be trained. In order to achieve some significant result in terms of Slovak foreign trade, one will have to reorganize all present facilities, improve them and then build new ones . In this respect the Slovak economy is quite negligent as the informed sources maintain.5 Most deficiencies are in the organization itself; 6 in terms of service, 7 in public relations especially advertising,8 etc. On the other hand, there has been quite a bit done to attract the hunters into Slovakia for various kinds of activities9 and other services. These kinds of details may have to be ironed out before tourist trade can achieve the desired results. The best possible approach in this respect would be to develop the various kinds of services to such an extent that the internal tourist trade demand may be satisfied. Having achieved these standards, one may proceed to expand for foreign consumption. This is quite possible as the Slovaks proved in the past as informed tourists, demanding a high standard of service. This kind of supply-demand interaction may create the necessary base for development for foreign oriented tourist trade. Since the potential for developing the Slovak tourist trade does exist, it will depend mostly on the wisdom of those people who are in decision-making positions. They seemed sympathetic to such development in the past. NOTES 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) Statisticka rocenka Ibid, p. 405. Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Ibid. Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, Pravda, Bratislava, c SSR 1965, Prague 1965, p. 4-04. March 14, 1969, p. 5. March 26, 1969, p. 5. February April 25, February February 19, 1969, p. 2. 1969, p. 1. 6, 1970, p. 2. 14, 1969, p. 2. * THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abroad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable projects.  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 Tourist Trade of Slovakia Description An account of the resource George A. Podhájsky Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 140-145 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Podhájsky, George A. 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/2a4b581b83da8681797032244a9d905a.pdf f600a8bd1e0dd9816cacfb5228783e47 PDF Text Text 136 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, the Land of Beauty Helena T. Gaydos Slovakia is surrounded by the Danube River on the South, the Carpathian Mountains on the North and West as natural frontiel'ls. The eastern frontier is marked by the north bank of the Tisa River, which becomes the Laborec. In the east, Slovakia borders upon the Soviet Union, in the south upon Hungary, in the north upon Poland, and in the Southwestern corner upon Austria. The area of Slovakia amounts to something around 19,000 square miles. There are approximately four and one half million people living in Slovakia. CLIMATE AND RAINFALL Slovakia is situated in the temperate zone. Because of its Central European position, maritime and continental climate mixes in the country. Owing to the great differences in altitudes above sea level, the average annual temperatures range from 25 to 50 degrees, and the average annual percipitation is from 2 to 8 inches. It rains primarily in spring and summer which is advantageous for agriculture. RIVERS AND LAKES Slovakia is a landlocked country and its rivers are important because they offer outlets to the Black and Baltic Seas. The western rivers, the Vah which is Slovakia's most important river, the Hron and the Nitra empty into the Danube, and thus indirectly flow into Black Sea. The eastern lowlands are drained by the Homad, Ondava and Laborec Rivers which empty into the Tisa and are indirect tributaries of the Black Sea. Slovakia is a country with a sufficient quantity of waterways, lakes and artificial water reservoirs; it excells, however, with its extremely numerous therapeutic mineral waters. �SLOVAKIA 137 TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION Along the river valleys, between the mountain ridges run the main ways of communication of the country: the railway lines and the roads. In ancient days, the course of these streams determined the course of the road along which people migrated and commerce and culture £,lowed. Today we still find Slovakia at the junction of these roads which cross the Carpathian Mountains from the North and the South. Historically, two roads have been especially significant in deciding the fate of Slovakia, one along the Danube connecting the countries of western Europe with the eastern world. Near the Carpatho-Alpian gate <this road crossed a second important highway, which started from the coast of the Adriatic Sea, crossed the Danube, proceeded to the north against the current at the Morava River, and went as far north as the Baltic Coast.* AGRICULTURE The uplands, pastures and meadows support sheep grazing and cattle breeding. Wool, meat, and cheese are the major products. The fertile soils and mild climate of the lowlands produce wheat, barley, sugar beets, corn, clover, tobacco, green vegetables, paprika, melons, sunflowers, peckling herbs, vineyards and orchards including almond trees. The main industries are connected with agriculture, food processing, wine making, and agricultural machinery. FORESTS AND WCX)DWORK INDUSTRIES Forests cover 34 % of Slovakia, making it one of the most forested countries in Europe. The Upper Vah is noted for lumbering (spruce, pine, and birch), and woodwork industries are found at Ruzomberok, Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas. MINERALS AND RESOURCES The Rudohorie (Slovak Ore Mountains), located in the south-central Slovakia, play an important part in economy of the country. The Rudohorie are a source of high-grade iron ore, antimony ore, mercury, copper, magnesite, limestone, semi-precious stones-agates, amethysts and milky opals. Offshoots have gold, silver, and lead. Legnite deposits are worked at Handlova. * Ghlbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., Slovakia and Its People (New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960), p. 2. �138 SLOVAKIA CITIES Bratislava, with population of 290,000, the capital of Slovakia, is the natural trading center where railway and river traffic meet. It is also a manufacturing center which includes cable production, petroleum refining, chemicals, machinery, cloth, and leather goods. Bratislava has a colorful history. It was once the capital of Hungary and is famous for being the scene of the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) between Napoleon and Emperor Francis II of Austria. Kosice, with a population of 106,000, is the steel center of eastern Slovakia and its largest city. The city of ziar is important with its immense aluminum plant. Other important cities are Banska Bystrica, a mining town, Nitra, Trnava, and Trencin. Komarno is the second port on the Danube. TRADE AND ECONOMY Throughout the country the factories are turning out everything from television sets and textiles, from refrigererators and lumber to electric motors and pharmaceuticals. Foreign trade has been chiefly with the communist states; agriculture is completely collectivized; and the economy is socialized with practically no private enterprise. In its plans for the future economy, the greatest asset Slovakia has is the beauty of the country. Slovakia is a country of mountains and forests which makes it a natural tourist attraction. Edward J. Linehan in the National Geographic writes about travelling "to primeval Slovakian mountains of breathtaking beauty," which statement reinforces my view of Slovakia as a Garden of Eden. In the summer and fall the mountains excell in beauty and color. Slovakia is often referred to as an "Oasis of Silence." SKIING The High Tatras referred to as "Alps in miniature" are capped by the 8,711-foot Gerlach Peak is a skier's paradise. The 1970 world cross-country and jumping ski championships were held here. The Low Tatras and the Fatra Mountains also offer excellent ski resorts. The Little Carpathians are famous for its wines, the most famous, of course, is Malokarpatske Zlato (Little �SLOVAKIA 139 Carpathian Gold), Slivovica, which is a fiery, colorless plum brandy, is probably the most popular drink in Slovakia. HUNTING AND FISHING To satisfy the hunter, the principal game in Slovakia are : stag, deer, fallow deer, moufflon, chomois, boar, fox, wolf, lynx, bear, hare, pheasant, partridge, grouse, blackcock, quail, wild-goose, wild-duck, bustard. For the fisherman the rivers offer trout, pike, bass, carp, eel, and salmon. CAVES The caves of Slovakia are among the country's greatest attractions. Each one is different in its underground magic . The important ones are: the Cave of Liberty, a drippingstone cave; the Ice Cave of Dobsina is one of the greatest and most beautiful ice caves in the world; the Belanska, the Harmanec, the Jasov, and the Driny are stalactite caves. The one that interests me the most is the Domica cave which was inhabited by Neolithic man and its special attraction is underground boating on the Styx river . SPAS AND MINERAL WATERS Slovakia is a country with an extraordinary richness in the most different thermal spas, climatic-health resorts, and natural mineral waters. It is the general practice of the spas to indicate its specialty as to the type of malady treated. For example: The Trencianske Teplice will cure motoric apparatus; the Sliac is for circulatory problems; the Bojnice and Dudince claim cures for motoric and nervous apparatus; and the Bardejov and Korytnica will take care of problems with the digestive canal. CUISINE Among the cuisine pirohy (potato dumplings) filled with sauerkraut are served with pork and bacon. The sweet dumplings are filled with lekvar (plum butter) or cottage cheese with melted butter or sour cream poured over them. Another specialty is Slovak paprikas made from pork, mutton, beef or veal, pig's heart, paprika and tomatoes. Smoked sausages are a favorite, and crusty dark rye bread is a standard with every meal. Throughout its long history of domination the Slovaks have managed to maintain their . own language, their �140 SLOVAKIA religion, and their national identification. Perhaps it is only in this ability to maintain their distinctive characteristics that the Slovaks will ever realize their independence. Even more than geographical position, and greedy neighbors, these distinctive Slovak characteristics-described as easy-going, honest, idealistic, deeply religious, imaginative, open-hearted, soft-hearted, emotional, and music-loving-will equip them for the task of building a strong and independent nation in the midst of hard and cruel world. Tourist Trade of Slovakia George A. P o d h d j s k y Countries like Switzerland and Austria, which are endowed with exquisite beauty in their natural setting, devote considerable attention in terms of economic activity to the development of a high level of tourist trade. A significant proportion of their Gross National Product comes from the tourist trade, internal and especially foreign. For that purpose these two countries have steered their economic activity in such a way as to support an unprecedented development of their respective tourist trade industries. Of the Communist countries, Yugoslavia was particularly successful in developing a very attractive program for tourist trade, especially from foreign countries. A similar·potential for developing tourist trade also exists in the Slovak economy. The natural beauty of Slovak Tatra Mountains and the adjacent valleys which spread over most of the country, doubled with the proverbial hospitality of the Slovak people, are a good basis for the development of tourist trade in this country. Apart from this, there is an old tradition of internal and foreign tourism developed through the centuries. It is the purpose of this paper to assess the present situation of the Slovak tourist trade and its potential for future development. I. The following figures may sum up the state of tourist trade of Czecho-Slovakia for the years 1960-1964. 1 � 136 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, the Land of Beauty Helena T. Gaydos Slovakia is surrounded by the Danube River on the South, the Carpathian Mountains on the North and West as natural frontiel'ls. The eastern frontier is marked by the north bank of the Tisa River, which becomes the Laborec. In the east, Slovakia borders upon the Soviet Union, in the south upon Hungary, in the north upon Poland, and in the Southwestern corner upon Austria. The area of Slovakia amounts to something around 19,000 square miles. There are approximately four and one half million people living in Slovakia. CLIMATE AND RAINFALL Slovakia is situated in the temperate zone. Because of its Central European position, maritime and continental climate mixes in the country. Owing to the great differences in altitudes above sea level, the average annual temperatures range from 25 to 50 degrees, and the average annual percipitation is from 2 to 8 inches. It rains primarily in spring and summer which is advantageous for agriculture. RIVERS AND LAKES Slovakia is a landlocked country and its rivers are important because they offer outlets to the Black and Baltic Seas. The western rivers, the Vah which is Slovakia's most important river, the Hron and the Nitra empty into the Danube, and thus indirectly flow into Black Sea. The eastern lowlands are drained by the Homad, Ondava and Laborec Rivers which empty into the Tisa and are indirect tributaries of the Black Sea. Slovakia is a country with a sufficient quantity of waterways, lakes and artificial water reservoirs; it excells, however, with its extremely numerous therapeutic mineral waters. �SLOVAKIA 137 TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION Along the river valleys, between the mountain ridges run the main ways of communication of the country: the railway lines and the roads. In ancient days, the course of these streams determined the course of the road along which people migrated and commerce and culture £,lowed. Today we still find Slovakia at the junction of these roads which cross the Carpathian Mountains from the North and the South. Historically, two roads have been especially significant in deciding the fate of Slovakia, one along the Danube connecting the countries of western Europe with the eastern world. Near the Carpatho-Alpian gate <this road crossed a second important highway, which started from the coast of the Adriatic Sea, crossed the Danube, proceeded to the north against the current at the Morava River, and went as far north as the Baltic Coast.* AGRICULTURE The uplands, pastures and meadows support sheep grazing and cattle breeding. Wool, meat, and cheese are the major products. The fertile soils and mild climate of the lowlands produce wheat, barley, sugar beets, corn, clover, tobacco, green vegetables, paprika, melons, sunflowers, peckling herbs, vineyards and orchards including almond trees. The main industries are connected with agriculture, food processing, wine making, and agricultural machinery. FORESTS AND WCX)DWORK INDUSTRIES Forests cover 34 % of Slovakia, making it one of the most forested countries in Europe. The Upper Vah is noted for lumbering (spruce, pine, and birch), and woodwork industries are found at Ruzomberok, Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas. MINERALS AND RESOURCES The Rudohorie (Slovak Ore Mountains), located in the south-central Slovakia, play an important part in economy of the country. The Rudohorie are a source of high-grade iron ore, antimony ore, mercury, copper, magnesite, limestone, semi-precious stones-agates, amethysts and milky opals. Offshoots have gold, silver, and lead. Legnite deposits are worked at Handlova. * Ghlbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., Slovakia and Its People (New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960), p. 2. �138 SLOVAKIA CITIES Bratislava, with population of 290,000, the capital of Slovakia, is the natural trading center where railway and river traffic meet. It is also a manufacturing center which includes cable production, petroleum refining, chemicals, machinery, cloth, and leather goods. Bratislava has a colorful history. It was once the capital of Hungary and is famous for being the scene of the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) between Napoleon and Emperor Francis II of Austria. Kosice, with a population of 106,000, is the steel center of eastern Slovakia and its largest city. The city of ziar is important with its immense aluminum plant. Other important cities are Banska Bystrica, a mining town, Nitra, Trnava, and Trencin. Komarno is the second port on the Danube. TRADE AND ECONOMY Throughout the country the factories are turning out everything from television sets and textiles, from refrigererators and lumber to electric motors and pharmaceuticals. Foreign trade has been chiefly with the communist states; agriculture is completely collectivized; and the economy is socialized with practically no private enterprise. In its plans for the future economy, the greatest asset Slovakia has is the beauty of the country. Slovakia is a country of mountains and forests which makes it a natural tourist attraction. Edward J. Linehan in the National Geographic writes about travelling "to primeval Slovakian mountains of breathtaking beauty," which statement reinforces my view of Slovakia as a Garden of Eden. In the summer and fall the mountains excell in beauty and color. Slovakia is often referred to as an "Oasis of Silence." SKIING The High Tatras referred to as "Alps in miniature" are capped by the 8,711-foot Gerlach Peak is a skier's paradise. The 1970 world cross-country and jumping ski championships were held here. The Low Tatras and the Fatra Mountains also offer excellent ski resorts. The Little Carpathians are famous for its wines, the most famous, of course, is Malokarpatske Zlato (Little �SLOVAKIA 139 Carpathian Gold), Slivovica, which is a fiery, colorless plum brandy, is probably the most popular drink in Slovakia. HUNTING AND FISHING To satisfy the hunter, the principal game in Slovakia are : stag, deer, fallow deer, moufflon, chomois, boar, fox, wolf, lynx, bear, hare, pheasant, partridge, grouse, blackcock, quail, wild-goose, wild-duck, bustard. For the fisherman the rivers offer trout, pike, bass, carp, eel, and salmon. CAVES The caves of Slovakia are among the country's greatest attractions. Each one is different in its underground magic . The important ones are: the Cave of Liberty, a drippingstone cave; the Ice Cave of Dobsina is one of the greatest and most beautiful ice caves in the world; the Belanska, the Harmanec, the Jasov, and the Driny are stalactite caves. The one that interests me the most is the Domica cave which was inhabited by Neolithic man and its special attraction is underground boating on the Styx river . SPAS AND MINERAL WATERS Slovakia is a country with an extraordinary richness in the most different thermal spas, climatic-health resorts, and natural mineral waters. It is the general practice of the spas to indicate its specialty as to the type of malady treated. For example: The Trencianske Teplice will cure motoric apparatus; the Sliac is for circulatory problems; the Bojnice and Dudince claim cures for motoric and nervous apparatus; and the Bardejov and Korytnica will take care of problems with the digestive canal. CUISINE Among the cuisine pirohy (potato dumplings) filled with sauerkraut are served with pork and bacon. The sweet dumplings are filled with lekvar (plum butter) or cottage cheese with melted butter or sour cream poured over them. Another specialty is Slovak paprikas made from pork, mutton, beef or veal, pig's heart, paprika and tomatoes. Smoked sausages are a favorite, and crusty dark rye bread is a standard with every meal. Throughout its long history of domination the Slovaks have managed to maintain their . own language, their �140 SLOVAKIA religion, and their national identification. Perhaps it is only in this ability to maintain their distinctive characteristics that the Slovaks will ever realize their independence. Even more than geographical position, and greedy neighbors, these distinctive Slovak characteristics-described as easy-going, honest, idealistic, deeply religious, imaginative, open-hearted, soft-hearted, emotional, and music-loving-will equip them for the task of building a strong and independent nation in the midst of hard and cruel world. Tourist Trade of Slovakia George A. P o d h d j s k y Countries like Switzerland and Austria, which are endowed with exquisite beauty in their natural setting, devote considerable attention in terms of economic activity to the development of a high level of tourist trade. A significant proportion of their Gross National Product comes from the tourist trade, internal and especially foreign. For that purpose these two countries have steered their economic activity in such a way as to support an unprecedented development of their respective tourist trade industries. Of the Communist countries, Yugoslavia was particularly successful in developing a very attractive program for tourist trade, especially from foreign countries. A similar·potential for developing tourist trade also exists in the Slovak economy. The natural beauty of Slovak Tatra Mountains and the adjacent valleys which spread over most of the country, doubled with the proverbial hospitality of the Slovak people, are a good basis for the development of tourist trade in this country. Apart from this, there is an old tradition of internal and foreign tourism developed through the centuries. It is the purpose of this paper to assess the present situation of the Slovak tourist trade and its potential for future development. I. The following figures may sum up the state of tourist trade of Czecho-Slovakia for the years 1960-1964. 1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 136 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, the Land of Beauty Helena T. Gaydos Slovakia is surrounded by the Danube River on the South, the Carpathian Mountains on the North and West as natural frontiel'ls. The eastern frontier is marked by the north bank of the Tisa River, which becomes the Laborec. In the east, Slovakia borders upon the Soviet Union, in the south upon Hungary, in the north upon Poland, and in the Southwestern corner upon Austria. The area of Slovakia amounts to something around 19,000 square miles. There are approximately four and one half million people living in Slovakia. CLIMATE AND RAINFALL Slovakia is situated in the temperate zone. Because of its Central European position, maritime and continental climate mixes in the country. Owing to the great differences in altitudes above sea level, the average annual temperatures range from 25 to 50 degrees, and the average annual percipitation is from 2 to 8 inches. It rains primarily in spring and summer which is advantageous for agriculture. RIVERS AND LAKES Slovakia is a landlocked country and its rivers are important because they offer outlets to the Black and Baltic Seas. The western rivers, the Vah which is Slovakia's most important river, the Hron and the Nitra empty into the Danube, and thus indirectly flow into Black Sea. The eastern lowlands are drained by the Homad, Ondava and Laborec Rivers which empty into the Tisa and are indirect tributaries of the Black Sea. Slovakia is a country with a sufficient quantity of waterways, lakes and artificial water reservoirs; it excells, however, with its extremely numerous therapeutic mineral waters. SLOVAKIA 137 TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION Along the river valleys, between the mountain ridges run the main ways of communication of the country: the railway lines and the roads. In ancient days, the course of these streams determined the course of the road along which people migrated and commerce and culture £,lowed. Today we still find Slovakia at the junction of these roads which cross the Carpathian Mountains from the North and the South. Historically, two roads have been especially significant in deciding the fate of Slovakia, one along the Danube connecting the countries of western Europe with the eastern world. Near the Carpatho-Alpian gate <this road crossed a second important highway, which started from the coast of the Adriatic Sea, crossed the Danube, proceeded to the north against the current at the Morava River, and went as far north as the Baltic Coast.* AGRICULTURE The uplands, pastures and meadows support sheep grazing and cattle breeding. Wool, meat, and cheese are the major products. The fertile soils and mild climate of the lowlands produce wheat, barley, sugar beets, corn, clover, tobacco, green vegetables, paprika, melons, sunflowers, peckling herbs, vineyards and orchards including almond trees. The main industries are connected with agriculture, food processing, wine making, and agricultural machinery. FORESTS AND WCX)DWORK INDUSTRIES Forests cover 34 % of Slovakia, making it one of the most forested countries in Europe. The Upper Vah is noted for lumbering (spruce, pine, and birch), and woodwork industries are found at Ruzomberok, Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas. MINERALS AND RESOURCES The Rudohorie (Slovak Ore Mountains), located in the south-central Slovakia, play an important part in economy of the country. The Rudohorie are a source of high-grade iron ore, antimony ore, mercury, copper, magnesite, limestone, semi-precious stones-agates, amethysts and milky opals. Offshoots have gold, silver, and lead. Legnite deposits are worked at Handlova. * Ghlbert L. Oddo, Ph.D., Slovakia and Its People (New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960), p. 2. 138 SLOVAKIA CITIES Bratislava, with population of 290,000, the capital of Slovakia, is the natural trading center where railway and river traffic meet. It is also a manufacturing center which includes cable production, petroleum refining, chemicals, machinery, cloth, and leather goods. Bratislava has a colorful history. It was once the capital of Hungary and is famous for being the scene of the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) between Napoleon and Emperor Francis II of Austria. Kosice, with a population of 106,000, is the steel center of eastern Slovakia and its largest city. The city of ziar is important with its immense aluminum plant. Other important cities are Banska Bystrica, a mining town, Nitra, Trnava, and Trencin. Komarno is the second port on the Danube. TRADE AND ECONOMY Throughout the country the factories are turning out everything from television sets and textiles, from refrigererators and lumber to electric motors and pharmaceuticals. Foreign trade has been chiefly with the communist states; agriculture is completely collectivized; and the economy is socialized with practically no private enterprise. In its plans for the future economy, the greatest asset Slovakia has is the beauty of the country. Slovakia is a country of mountains and forests which makes it a natural tourist attraction. Edward J. Linehan in the National Geographic writes about travelling "to primeval Slovakian mountains of breathtaking beauty," which statement reinforces my view of Slovakia as a Garden of Eden. In the summer and fall the mountains excell in beauty and color. Slovakia is often referred to as an "Oasis of Silence." SKIING The High Tatras referred to as "Alps in miniature" are capped by the 8,711-foot Gerlach Peak is a skier's paradise. The 1970 world cross-country and jumping ski championships were held here. The Low Tatras and the Fatra Mountains also offer excellent ski resorts. The Little Carpathians are famous for its wines, the most famous, of course, is Malokarpatske Zlato (Little SLOVAKIA 139 Carpathian Gold), Slivovica, which is a fiery, colorless plum brandy, is probably the most popular drink in Slovakia. HUNTING AND FISHING To satisfy the hunter, the principal game in Slovakia are : stag, deer, fallow deer, moufflon, chomois, boar, fox, wolf, lynx, bear, hare, pheasant, partridge, grouse, blackcock, quail, wild-goose, wild-duck, bustard. For the fisherman the rivers offer trout, pike, bass, carp, eel, and salmon. CAVES The caves of Slovakia are among the country's greatest attractions. Each one is different in its underground magic . The important ones are: the Cave of Liberty, a drippingstone cave; the Ice Cave of Dobsina is one of the greatest and most beautiful ice caves in the world; the Belanska, the Harmanec, the Jasov, and the Driny are stalactite caves. The one that interests me the most is the Domica cave which was inhabited by Neolithic man and its special attraction is underground boating on the Styx river . SPAS AND MINERAL WATERS Slovakia is a country with an extraordinary richness in the most different thermal spas, climatic-health resorts, and natural mineral waters. It is the general practice of the spas to indicate its specialty as to the type of malady treated. For example: The Trencianske Teplice will cure motoric apparatus; the Sliac is for circulatory problems; the Bojnice and Dudince claim cures for motoric and nervous apparatus; and the Bardejov and Korytnica will take care of problems with the digestive canal. CUISINE Among the cuisine pirohy (potato dumplings) filled with sauerkraut are served with pork and bacon. The sweet dumplings are filled with lekvar (plum butter) or cottage cheese with melted butter or sour cream poured over them. Another specialty is Slovak paprikas made from pork, mutton, beef or veal, pig's heart, paprika and tomatoes. Smoked sausages are a favorite, and crusty dark rye bread is a standard with every meal. Throughout its long history of domination the Slovaks have managed to maintain their . own language, their 140 SLOVAKIA religion, and their national identification. Perhaps it is only in this ability to maintain their distinctive characteristics that the Slovaks will ever realize their independence. Even more than geographical position, and greedy neighbors, these distinctive Slovak characteristics-described as easy-going, honest, idealistic, deeply religious, imaginative, open-hearted, soft-hearted, emotional, and music-loving-will equip them for the task of building a strong and independent nation in the midst of hard and cruel world. Tourist Trade of Slovakia George A. P o d h d j s k y Countries like Switzerland and Austria, which are endowed with exquisite beauty in their natural setting, devote considerable attention in terms of economic activity to the development of a high level of tourist trade. A significant proportion of their Gross National Product comes from the tourist trade, internal and especially foreign. For that purpose these two countries have steered their economic activity in such a way as to support an unprecedented development of their respective tourist trade industries. Of the Communist countries, Yugoslavia was particularly successful in developing a very attractive program for tourist trade, especially from foreign countries. A similar·potential for developing tourist trade also exists in the Slovak economy. The natural beauty of Slovak Tatra Mountains and the adjacent valleys which spread over most of the country, doubled with the proverbial hospitality of the Slovak people, are a good basis for the development of tourist trade in this country. Apart from this, there is an old tradition of internal and foreign tourism developed through the centuries. It is the purpose of this paper to assess the present situation of the Slovak tourist trade and its potential for future development. I. The following figures may sum up the state of tourist trade of Czecho-Slovakia for the years 1960-1964. 1  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovakia, the Land of Beauty Description An account of the resource Helena T. Gaydos Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 136-140 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gaydos, Helena T. 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/66d81964b502ba436e5de58154d80835.pdf 4269718fa2c19a98316fa99893d32db3 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 125 The Slovak Experience In Contemporary America Daniel F. Tanzone It shall be my design in this paper to look objectively at the problems and other pertinent sociological data regarding the history, growth and development of the Slovak immigrant in contemporary America. It shall be a study from the point of an American who is of Slovak ancestry, although this might tend to make the paper onesided and bias, I shall endeavor to present an objective view of the situation and problems in present day America. I shall consider the Slovaks to be one of America's minorities. The Slovaks can be considered minorities. For my purpose the definition will prove suggestive. Minorities are subgroups within a culture which are distinguishable from the dominant group by reason of difference in physiognomy, language, customs or culture-patterns (including any combination of these factors). I shall also consider the Slovaks as one of the many immigrant groups who "have made it" in America. Their development and eventual climb to success was brought about by overcoming great difficulties. The role played by one of the institutions of society, notably the Church, proved to be the most important single factor and in some ways one of the greatest problems for the Slovaks' emancipation from the ghettos of narrow-minded Little Slovakias in countless numbers of American cities. Victims of oppression have always looked upon migration to a new land with a promise of freedom and equal opportunity as their mecca. And in the late years of the last century in order to be free of social injustice, economic serfdom, or the threat of national liquidation, the oppressed peoples of central, southern and eastern Europe have constantly looked toward the United States as a haven. The Slovak of the nineteenth and early twentieth century was no exception. Harrassed at home, subject to the insidious pressures of Magyarization, which sought �126 SLOVAKIA to deprive them of their national character and identity literally thousands of thousands of Slovak families sought refuge in the new world. Slovaks began to emigrate in great numbers to America in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. "From the year 1880 until the outbreak of World War I, Slovakia lost more than 550,000 people through emigration to America, over 22 per cent of her total population." 1 "Numerically in the twelve years ending June 30, 1910, Slovakia ranked eighth among the nations providing immigrant material. The rate of emigration of Slovaks per 1,000 was 18.6; this was double that of any other race of people, except the Hebrews 08.3), Croatians-Slovenians (13.1), and South Italians (11.9). The rate was the highest of any group." 2 Having arrived in the United States, the Slovak immigrants began to look for a place to live and to work. The first areas to draw them were the coal mine centers; only in the second instance did the Slovaks settle in the factory cities. One focus of settlement was the hard-coal of north-eastern Pennsylvania where the center was Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Before World War I the mines in the district employed 75,000 to 100,000 men; of this group 12 ';,were Slovaks. 3 Besides northeastern Pennsylvania Slovaks crowded scores of cities in the eastern industrial portions of the United States. Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, New York, Yonkers, Philadelphia, Detroit, Bridgeport, Newark became the centers of the new Slovak life. There was scarcely a mine, factory or mill in America's new industry where Slovak immigrants and their sons could not be found. And everywhere they went, two opposing drives moved them. One toward Americanization and with it the social acceptance all new immigrants sought from their immigrant predecessors. The other, to preserve the culture and, above all, the faith of the Slovak past. That the two meshed instead of irreconcilably clashing can be attributed largely to the labors of a score or so of Slovak pioneers, in this the new land. Since the Slovaks knew little identity within the framework of Austria-Hungary and •since their very existence was denyed, a sense of Slovak nationalism and identity developed here in the United States. The early aim of �SLOVAKIA 127 these immigrant Slovaks was to preserve the Slovak language, Slovak customs and indeed a distinct Slovak identity. This nationalism, if we might call it, eventually was brought to bear fruit when the republic of CzechoSlovakia was established in 1918. The plans and agreements were reached not only in Europe but their foundations were laid in America. It was the work of the SlovakAmerican organizations in America under the banner of the Slovak League of America that guaranteed the rights of the Slovaks within the republic of Czecho-Slovakia. This early Slovak Nationalism developed with the establishment of a workable Slovak press here in America. The first Slovak newspaper was called the Bulletin which was hectographed by Julius Wolf and John Slovensky in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1885. The printed word was very important to the Slovak immigrant because in Hungary "to take a Slovak newspaper or, if an educated man, to speak the Slovak tongue, is to brand oneself in Magyar eyes as a political traitor and to insure very possible obstacle in one's path." 4 Slovak was forbidden in the schools, courts and even in the pulpits of churches. It was only natural that the Slovak who now lived in a free land would tend to encourage the use of the Slovak language in every possible instance of daily life. From its very beginnings the Slovak press has always been extremely strong and influential. The Slovak press was used as a means at voicing opposition to the programs and directives of the Austro-Hungarian government. It constantly attacked the Hungarians and their view of the Slovaks which they equated with ignorance, dullness and poverty. From the outset the Slovaks set out to preserve their Christian heritage. Their first Catholic parish was founded in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1882 and their first Evangelical (Lutheran ) church in Streator, Ill., two years later. The main problems were twofold: priests were needed who could speak the language and fund were needed for parish churches and schools; both were met but only after a long, hard pull.5 The true flowering of the Slovak identity come with the establishment of the great Slovak fraternal societies. This organizational life among the Slovaks began in the �128 SLOVAKIA lodg·es and societies so common in America after the Civil War. "By 1914 in the United States principal organizations had 15,600,000 members." 6 Economic and social need led the Slovaks to form lodges. Mine disasters often took the lives of husbands and fathers, leaving the family not only destitute, but even without the money for a funeral. In answer to the need of sickness and funeral benefits a large number of societies grew up in industrial and mining towns. These societies proved the greatest blessing to identity-starved Slovak. He now could boast a purely Slovak, not Hungarian or Austro-Hungarian society. These mutual benefit societies were organized in hundreds of cities from Maine to California. They were organized along two distant lines one purely Slovak with no regard to religion or political beliefs, and the other along strictly religious lines . The later proved to attract the majority of Slovak immigrants. The leader of the first group with a purely nationalistic view, was Peter P. Rovnianek, known as the stormy petrel, who did so much to make cause of the Slovaks known to Americans. He organized the National Slovak Society in Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 15, 1890. The second group was led by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, a Slovak immigrant priest of the Cleveland, Ohio Diocese met with representatives of seven Slovak Catholic Societies in Cleveland on September 5, 1890 and organized the First Catholic Slovak Union commonly known as Jednota. This organization attracted many other Catholic societies and became the most important Slovak organization in America. The local lodges of this organization organized Slovak Catholics and formed parishes throughout the Unites States and even in Canada. This organization helped to organize some 350 Slovak Roman Catholic parishes in America. This organization proved to be the most important single achievement of the Slovak in America. It not only protected the member's life but also served as a cultural, religious and economic means of expressing the Slovaks' distinct identity. Not even in Austria-Hungary was there a Slovak organization which had its own press, its own orphanage and a large educational complex in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This organization helped to organize a teaching order of Sisters to staff the Slovak schools which were being built in practically every Slovak parish. This organ- �SLOVAKIA 129 ization provided the first Mother house for the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, a Slovak-American community founded by the Rev. Matthew Jankola of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Other such Slovak fraternals appeared in the ensuing years. 7 The problem of the second generation was that life at home was unpleasant; whereas in the schoolroom they were too foreign, at home they were too American. The Slovak immigrant fathers who compromised most villingly in adjusting their outside affairs to the realities of the workaday world were different persons in their homes. Within the family circle, the Slovak language, religion, customs and parental authority were not to be modified simply because the home had been transplanted to the United States. The problem of the second generation Slovak American how to inhabit two worlds at the same time, was solved by escape as soon as sons were free economically, even before they reached their legal maturity. The second generation also came to know the contempt in which artistic activities were held by nineteenth and twentieth century Americans. They hastened to prove that they knew little or cared even less about art, music, th8ater or literature. "Nothing was more Yankee than a Yankeeized person of foreign descent." 8 In his opinion, that is the second generation Slovak-American it is he who is to undergo the entire transformation; the true member of the American nationality is not called upon to change in the least. The traits of foreign nationality which the Slovak brings with him are not to be mixed or interwoven. They are to be abandoned. The standard to which he must conform has been already fixed by forces quite outside himself, quite outside any individual, native or foreign, fixed by all the factors, topographical, climatic, racial, historical, fortuitous, which have worked together to make the American nationality what it is. A harsh situation, indeed. But a situation the harshness of which is determined not by the inclination or wish of any person or group of persons, but by the inherent qualities of human nature and social organization. 9 For the Eastern European immigrant and in particular the Slovak the third generation return was not so much �130 SLOVAKIA to cultural entities per se, but to a vague nostalgia and an undefined ideology. This ideology has no organic relation to the third-generation descendant's individual past, but is rather primarily a reaction to the conditions of life in the twentieth-century United States: 1) a "native" population alerted to the alleged stereotypic characteristics of immigrant groups; 2) the threat posed by numbers of incoming immigrants reinforcing a pre-existing population base of their compatriots; 3) the difficulty of maintaining ethnic anonymity; and 4) a somewhat retarded rate of growth in the country leading to a stronger emphasis upon a man's origin. 10 Essentially the group of immigrant origins-whether it be homogenous or heterogenous in character-return s in a context filtered by the American experience. Thus a general question to be put forth, the following is posed: Who returns to what with whom under which conditions of the possible forms and contents of these returns? Individual behavior is meant as well as the process of returning evidenced by the Slovaks who are a religio-ethnic group. Some reasons might be: 1) a generalized interest which may remain diffused or may become crystallized around specific segments of an ethnic folk heritage, a Slovak heritage-languag e, holiday celebrations, foods, etc. 2) the institutional religious framework-the existence of 350 Slovak Roman Catholic parishes, plus prayer and certain holiday observances within the Church. 4) Literary, ideological-cultur al-the writing of immigrant history, and since the Slovaks had a greater sense of freedom in the short period of time since they first arrived in America, the field was very ripe. The sensitive position that Slovak Americans of the third generation have toward the Slovakia of the period 1939-1945. It posed an interesting history of political science. An ethnic Slovak press which was the second largest foreign Slav press in the free world, and a press which was larger than anything that had existed in old Austria-Hungary. All this added to the socially patterned rationalizations and apologetics affirming the Slovak group's identity. 5) An interest in the dress, manner, and speech cadence, employment, political affiliation etc. The renewed interest in things Slovak can be manifested by the present Slovak-American community in the �SLOVAKIA 131 revival of Slovak customs in parishes, homes, schools and organizations throughout the United States. A major factor of this present day resurgence of the Slovak-American ethnic was the development and encouragement of the Black Power movement. This new awareness of blackness, and with it the new social and economic acceptances which world threaten all white Americans the ethnic groups all had a certain renascence. Centers for ethnic studies are proposed for many major cities in the United States so as to encourage and enbody the cultures and heritages that go into the American heritage. Due to this new interest in things Slovak some Universities have established Slovak chairs, notably at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Minnesota, Columbia, the University of Chicago and also Marquette University. 11 Some contemporary problems which face the SlovakAmerican organizations, churches, religious orders, press and communities are such things as narrow minded mentalities toward other minority groups, and in general polarization. Narrowmindedness persists in many Slovak parishes where although the Slovak parish in within a ghetto community which is no longer Slovak these parishes do nothing to serve the needs of the residents of the ghetto. Most Slovak parishes are no longer needed in the sense that they were needed three-quarters of a century ago. It is true however that certain large cities, points of settlement of newly arrived waves of immigrants, should be maintained. It seems quite ludicrous in many small towns to maintain five or six parishes, when five are national and one or two would adequately serve the needs of the Catholic community. One major factor for the persistence of many national parishes is the fact that their members feel that, although they no longer speak the language of their immigrant parents or grandparents, they nevertheless feel a certain protection from the majority group. The completely unbalanced ethnic background of the American hierarchy is one major reason why Americans born of Slovak descent or, for that matter, any ethnic group other than the Irish feel that their mentality and ideas are not understood by the Irish hierarchy. A more pluralistic hierarchy in America would tend to serve the needs and best wishes of all American Catholics. These �132 SLOVAKIA national parishes pose many juridical problems for the American church today. The problem of the national church, and there still exist in the United States at least 2,855 parishes serving the various ethnic groups, will be a problem which will have to dealt with much compassion and respect. To simply say that this, and that parish will close and all catholics must attend one church, will not settle the problem. It has been estimated that over ten million American Catholics belong to national parishes. 12 Many Slovak parishes in the United States not only serve the Slovak Catholics but serve other groups in inner cities. In most instances these parishes are without debt and are usually quite wealthy due to the fact that Slovak Catholics in America are known for their generosity. These parishes are able to finance large schools admitting many minority groups. An example is the parish of the Most Holy Trinity in Gary, Indiana, where the then Msgr. Andrew G. Grutka was pastor, now the bishop of the Diocese of Gary. Msgr. Grutka opened the parish school to the local Negroes of his parish. His parish school had two-thirds of its populations Black. He not only provided the Blacks with an education but he also gave them free lunches, free clothing and helped their families establish themselves as outstanding citizens of the community. This is an instance where the work, started by the Slovak immigrants, is continuing its service to all who come in contact with the parish. This is an outstanding example of a national parish which is providing not only services to its Slovak American people but, to serve in a true spirit of Christ, it is using its power to help who seek its aid. 13 The problem of polarization in America today is one of Black against White and the Slovaks must be open enough to see that polarization whether Black or White or ethnic is not a healthy attitude for America. Slovak ethnicity can go just so far until it becomes unhealthy and actually un-American. The days of the Slovaks and their sons and grandsons who feel that they are a subgroup and are inherently different and "not belonging" to the dominant American group are over and it is with this spirit of optimism that the Slovak-Americans will continue t o forge ahead to become outstanding American citizens. It is interesting to note that the Slovak organizations �SLOVAKIA 133 in the United States and Canada are stronger than they have ever been in their history. Their membership stands at over one half million and their assets are over $150,000,000.00. These organizations have great potential to become leaders in the realm of Catholic Action works in America. One of these organizations, the largest and the most influential, the First Catholic Slovak Union with its 104,000 members is in the forefront of major reform with its new anticipated multi-million dollar educational. cultural and civic center which will be built on its vast acreage in Middletown, Pennsylvania. The complex will provide 1,800 units of senior citizen housing for the members and any person in need, also a college for 1,000 students. The facilities will be open to all regardless of race, color or creed.14 The Slovak press still has a circulation of over 250,000 in America, althougt Slovak has been replaced with English in many instances. Two members of the American hierarchy are of Slovak descent: the Most Rev. Joseph A. Durick, D. D., Bishop of Nashville, and the Most Rev. Andrew G. Grutka, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Gary. This number should be much higher when one considers that there are over 1,200 priest of Slovak descent in America. There are three religious communities for men and nine motherhouses of Sisters among the American Slovaks, their membership is better than 3,000. Among the most outstanding laymen of Slovak descent are Dr. Walter Tkach, who is the personal physician of President Richard Nixon; astronaut Eugene V. Cernan; the uranium king of Canada Stephen B. Roman, whose empire is valued at $250,000 ,000.00 , Michael Novak, noted lay Catholic theologian; Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, Protestant theologian, and many other notables. 15 Since the land of their ancestors is now ruled by the Communists it has been the necessity of American Slovaks to help Slovakia in many areas, particularly regarding the position of the Church. Under the leadership of Bishop Andrew G. Grutka the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, the representative organization of American Catholics of Slovak descent, American Catholics of Slovak origin raised over one million dollars for the establishment of the Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, Italy to train future priests for work in Slovakia. With �134 SLOVAKIA all Slovak dioceses vacant and all but one seminary opened the Church in Slovakia would have died had it not been for the generosity and interest of the American Slovaks . Today after nine years of existence this Institute has become the spiritual center of Slovaks throughout the world. Since the invasion of Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 tens of thousands have come to Rome and have been settled in Western Countries. Necessity calls for the Slovak Catholic Federation of America to remain a potent voice for the suffering church in Slovakia. The Slovak Catholic Federation along with the Slovak League of America, its counterpart in the socio-political sphere, have had to fight for the rights of the Slovak nation, at home and abroad, time and time again. These two dynamic ethnic organizations, whose philosophy is totally American, possess a fire for the rights of the Slovak nation whose story and traditions are among the most glorious in history yet whose plight in history has been among the most misunderstood. For some nativist Americans these organizations and philosophies are excessively chauvinistic, yet the role which has been played by American Slovaks is monumental in the development of the Slovak nation as a whole. Ethnic pride must never build walls but must always build bridges in these troubled times. Ethnic enclaves must give way to cultural identity whose philosophy can enrich the whole of society. It is quite evident in today's society that homogenization is certainly not possible in America. The pluralistic society which is a reality in America knows no single language, no single culture, no single ethnic stock and no single race. The America which we all know and love is a diverse enriching experience which has no equal in the history of the world. With an enriched diversity each one's potentials can be used to build a better America, an America immanent with the identity the individual possesses. Unless each person can experience what it really means to be an individual he can never be a part of a society. We have to use our Slovak identity to enrich our lives within the framework of the whole human experience. We must use our identity not as a barries but rather as a bridge. Unless we can come to know our roots we can never really know our history. �SLOVAKIA 135 FOOTNOTES 1) Oddo, Gilbert, L., Slovakia and Its People, (New York, 1960), p. 330. 2) Zatko, James, J., "Early Beginning of the Slovaks in America ," Slovakia, (Middletown, Pa., 1965, p. 16. 3) Ibid. 4) Balch, Emily, Greene, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, (New York, 1910, p . 110. 5) Oddo, op. cit. 6) Zatko, op. cit. 7) Pauco, Joseph, 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), (Middletown , 1965), p. 35. 8) "The Problems of the Immigrants", Phylon, 1968, Volume 29, No. 4. Winter p. 362. 9) Fairchild, Henry, Pratt, The Melting-Pot Mistake, (Boston, 1946) , p. 154. 10) Ibid. 11) Krajsa, Joseph C., "Slovaks Have Arrived!" , Slovakia, (Middletown , 1965), p. 64. 12) Barron, Milton , L., American Minorities, (New York, 1957), pp. 418--19. 13) Pauco, op. cit. p. 468. 14) Krajsa, Joseph, C., "Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia, (Middletown , 1965), pp. 64-5. 15) Stolarik, Imrich, Kanadska Slovenska Liga 35rocna (35 Year History of the Canadian Slovak League), (Passaic, N.J., 1967), pp. 167-8. BIB LI O G RA PHY Balch, Emily, Greene, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, New York, William F. Fell Company, 1910. Barron, Milton, L., American Minorities, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1957. Fairchild, Henry, Pratt, The Melting-Pot Mistake, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1946. Krajsa, Joseph, C., " Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia XV, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, 1965, pp. 64-68. Oddo, Gilberit, L., Slovakia and Its People, New York, Robert Speller and Sons, 1960. Pauco, Joseph,75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty, (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), Middletown, Jednota Press, 1965. Stolarik, lmrich , Kanadska Slovenska Liga 35rocna, (35 Year History of the Canadian Slovak League), Passaic, N.J., Slovak Catholic Sokol Press, 1967. Zatko, James, J., "Early Beginnings of the Slovaks in America", Slovakia XV , Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, 1965, pp. 1-38. � SLOVAKIA 125 The Slovak Experience In Contemporary America Daniel F. Tanzone It shall be my design in this paper to look objectively at the problems and other pertinent sociological data regarding the history, growth and development of the Slovak immigrant in contemporary America. It shall be a study from the point of an American who is of Slovak ancestry, although this might tend to make the paper onesided and bias, I shall endeavor to present an objective view of the situation and problems in present day America. I shall consider the Slovaks to be one of America's minorities. The Slovaks can be considered minorities. For my purpose the definition will prove suggestive. Minorities are subgroups within a culture which are distinguishable from the dominant group by reason of difference in physiognomy, language, customs or culture-patterns (including any combination of these factors). I shall also consider the Slovaks as one of the many immigrant groups who "have made it" in America. Their development and eventual climb to success was brought about by overcoming great difficulties. The role played by one of the institutions of society, notably the Church, proved to be the most important single factor and in some ways one of the greatest problems for the Slovaks' emancipation from the ghettos of narrow-minded Little Slovakias in countless numbers of American cities. Victims of oppression have always looked upon migration to a new land with a promise of freedom and equal opportunity as their mecca. And in the late years of the last century in order to be free of social injustice, economic serfdom, or the threat of national liquidation, the oppressed peoples of central, southern and eastern Europe have constantly looked toward the United States as a haven. The Slovak of the nineteenth and early twentieth century was no exception. Harrassed at home, subject to the insidious pressures of Magyarization, which sought �126 SLOVAKIA to deprive them of their national character and identity literally thousands of thousands of Slovak families sought refuge in the new world. Slovaks began to emigrate in great numbers to America in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. "From the year 1880 until the outbreak of World War I, Slovakia lost more than 550,000 people through emigration to America, over 22 per cent of her total population." 1 "Numerically in the twelve years ending June 30, 1910, Slovakia ranked eighth among the nations providing immigrant material. The rate of emigration of Slovaks per 1,000 was 18.6; this was double that of any other race of people, except the Hebrews 08.3), Croatians-Slovenians (13.1), and South Italians (11.9). The rate was the highest of any group." 2 Having arrived in the United States, the Slovak immigrants began to look for a place to live and to work. The first areas to draw them were the coal mine centers; only in the second instance did the Slovaks settle in the factory cities. One focus of settlement was the hard-coal of north-eastern Pennsylvania where the center was Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Before World War I the mines in the district employed 75,000 to 100,000 men; of this group 12 ';,were Slovaks. 3 Besides northeastern Pennsylvania Slovaks crowded scores of cities in the eastern industrial portions of the United States. Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, New York, Yonkers, Philadelphia, Detroit, Bridgeport, Newark became the centers of the new Slovak life. There was scarcely a mine, factory or mill in America's new industry where Slovak immigrants and their sons could not be found. And everywhere they went, two opposing drives moved them. One toward Americanization and with it the social acceptance all new immigrants sought from their immigrant predecessors. The other, to preserve the culture and, above all, the faith of the Slovak past. That the two meshed instead of irreconcilably clashing can be attributed largely to the labors of a score or so of Slovak pioneers, in this the new land. Since the Slovaks knew little identity within the framework of Austria-Hungary and •since their very existence was denyed, a sense of Slovak nationalism and identity developed here in the United States. The early aim of �SLOVAKIA 127 these immigrant Slovaks was to preserve the Slovak language, Slovak customs and indeed a distinct Slovak identity. This nationalism, if we might call it, eventually was brought to bear fruit when the republic of CzechoSlovakia was established in 1918. The plans and agreements were reached not only in Europe but their foundations were laid in America. It was the work of the SlovakAmerican organizations in America under the banner of the Slovak League of America that guaranteed the rights of the Slovaks within the republic of Czecho-Slovakia. This early Slovak Nationalism developed with the establishment of a workable Slovak press here in America. The first Slovak newspaper was called the Bulletin which was hectographed by Julius Wolf and John Slovensky in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1885. The printed word was very important to the Slovak immigrant because in Hungary "to take a Slovak newspaper or, if an educated man, to speak the Slovak tongue, is to brand oneself in Magyar eyes as a political traitor and to insure very possible obstacle in one's path." 4 Slovak was forbidden in the schools, courts and even in the pulpits of churches. It was only natural that the Slovak who now lived in a free land would tend to encourage the use of the Slovak language in every possible instance of daily life. From its very beginnings the Slovak press has always been extremely strong and influential. The Slovak press was used as a means at voicing opposition to the programs and directives of the Austro-Hungarian government. It constantly attacked the Hungarians and their view of the Slovaks which they equated with ignorance, dullness and poverty. From the outset the Slovaks set out to preserve their Christian heritage. Their first Catholic parish was founded in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1882 and their first Evangelical (Lutheran ) church in Streator, Ill., two years later. The main problems were twofold: priests were needed who could speak the language and fund were needed for parish churches and schools; both were met but only after a long, hard pull.5 The true flowering of the Slovak identity come with the establishment of the great Slovak fraternal societies. This organizational life among the Slovaks began in the �128 SLOVAKIA lodg·es and societies so common in America after the Civil War. "By 1914 in the United States principal organizations had 15,600,000 members." 6 Economic and social need led the Slovaks to form lodges. Mine disasters often took the lives of husbands and fathers, leaving the family not only destitute, but even without the money for a funeral. In answer to the need of sickness and funeral benefits a large number of societies grew up in industrial and mining towns. These societies proved the greatest blessing to identity-starved Slovak. He now could boast a purely Slovak, not Hungarian or Austro-Hungarian society. These mutual benefit societies were organized in hundreds of cities from Maine to California. They were organized along two distant lines one purely Slovak with no regard to religion or political beliefs, and the other along strictly religious lines . The later proved to attract the majority of Slovak immigrants. The leader of the first group with a purely nationalistic view, was Peter P. Rovnianek, known as the stormy petrel, who did so much to make cause of the Slovaks known to Americans. He organized the National Slovak Society in Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 15, 1890. The second group was led by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, a Slovak immigrant priest of the Cleveland, Ohio Diocese met with representatives of seven Slovak Catholic Societies in Cleveland on September 5, 1890 and organized the First Catholic Slovak Union commonly known as Jednota. This organization attracted many other Catholic societies and became the most important Slovak organization in America. The local lodges of this organization organized Slovak Catholics and formed parishes throughout the Unites States and even in Canada. This organization helped to organize some 350 Slovak Roman Catholic parishes in America. This organization proved to be the most important single achievement of the Slovak in America. It not only protected the member's life but also served as a cultural, religious and economic means of expressing the Slovaks' distinct identity. Not even in Austria-Hungary was there a Slovak organization which had its own press, its own orphanage and a large educational complex in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This organization helped to organize a teaching order of Sisters to staff the Slovak schools which were being built in practically every Slovak parish. This organ- �SLOVAKIA 129 ization provided the first Mother house for the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, a Slovak-American community founded by the Rev. Matthew Jankola of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Other such Slovak fraternals appeared in the ensuing years. 7 The problem of the second generation was that life at home was unpleasant; whereas in the schoolroom they were too foreign, at home they were too American. The Slovak immigrant fathers who compromised most villingly in adjusting their outside affairs to the realities of the workaday world were different persons in their homes. Within the family circle, the Slovak language, religion, customs and parental authority were not to be modified simply because the home had been transplanted to the United States. The problem of the second generation Slovak American how to inhabit two worlds at the same time, was solved by escape as soon as sons were free economically, even before they reached their legal maturity. The second generation also came to know the contempt in which artistic activities were held by nineteenth and twentieth century Americans. They hastened to prove that they knew little or cared even less about art, music, th8ater or literature. "Nothing was more Yankee than a Yankeeized person of foreign descent." 8 In his opinion, that is the second generation Slovak-American it is he who is to undergo the entire transformation; the true member of the American nationality is not called upon to change in the least. The traits of foreign nationality which the Slovak brings with him are not to be mixed or interwoven. They are to be abandoned. The standard to which he must conform has been already fixed by forces quite outside himself, quite outside any individual, native or foreign, fixed by all the factors, topographical, climatic, racial, historical, fortuitous, which have worked together to make the American nationality what it is. A harsh situation, indeed. But a situation the harshness of which is determined not by the inclination or wish of any person or group of persons, but by the inherent qualities of human nature and social organization. 9 For the Eastern European immigrant and in particular the Slovak the third generation return was not so much �130 SLOVAKIA to cultural entities per se, but to a vague nostalgia and an undefined ideology. This ideology has no organic relation to the third-generation descendant's individual past, but is rather primarily a reaction to the conditions of life in the twentieth-century United States: 1) a "native" population alerted to the alleged stereotypic characteristics of immigrant groups; 2) the threat posed by numbers of incoming immigrants reinforcing a pre-existing population base of their compatriots; 3) the difficulty of maintaining ethnic anonymity; and 4) a somewhat retarded rate of growth in the country leading to a stronger emphasis upon a man's origin. 10 Essentially the group of immigrant origins-whether it be homogenous or heterogenous in character-return s in a context filtered by the American experience. Thus a general question to be put forth, the following is posed: Who returns to what with whom under which conditions of the possible forms and contents of these returns? Individual behavior is meant as well as the process of returning evidenced by the Slovaks who are a religio-ethnic group. Some reasons might be: 1) a generalized interest which may remain diffused or may become crystallized around specific segments of an ethnic folk heritage, a Slovak heritage-languag e, holiday celebrations, foods, etc. 2) the institutional religious framework-the existence of 350 Slovak Roman Catholic parishes, plus prayer and certain holiday observances within the Church. 4) Literary, ideological-cultur al-the writing of immigrant history, and since the Slovaks had a greater sense of freedom in the short period of time since they first arrived in America, the field was very ripe. The sensitive position that Slovak Americans of the third generation have toward the Slovakia of the period 1939-1945. It posed an interesting history of political science. An ethnic Slovak press which was the second largest foreign Slav press in the free world, and a press which was larger than anything that had existed in old Austria-Hungary. All this added to the socially patterned rationalizations and apologetics affirming the Slovak group's identity. 5) An interest in the dress, manner, and speech cadence, employment, political affiliation etc. The renewed interest in things Slovak can be manifested by the present Slovak-American community in the �SLOVAKIA 131 revival of Slovak customs in parishes, homes, schools and organizations throughout the United States. A major factor of this present day resurgence of the Slovak-American ethnic was the development and encouragement of the Black Power movement. This new awareness of blackness, and with it the new social and economic acceptances which world threaten all white Americans the ethnic groups all had a certain renascence. Centers for ethnic studies are proposed for many major cities in the United States so as to encourage and enbody the cultures and heritages that go into the American heritage. Due to this new interest in things Slovak some Universities have established Slovak chairs, notably at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Minnesota, Columbia, the University of Chicago and also Marquette University. 11 Some contemporary problems which face the SlovakAmerican organizations, churches, religious orders, press and communities are such things as narrow minded mentalities toward other minority groups, and in general polarization. Narrowmindedness persists in many Slovak parishes where although the Slovak parish in within a ghetto community which is no longer Slovak these parishes do nothing to serve the needs of the residents of the ghetto. Most Slovak parishes are no longer needed in the sense that they were needed three-quarters of a century ago. It is true however that certain large cities, points of settlement of newly arrived waves of immigrants, should be maintained. It seems quite ludicrous in many small towns to maintain five or six parishes, when five are national and one or two would adequately serve the needs of the Catholic community. One major factor for the persistence of many national parishes is the fact that their members feel that, although they no longer speak the language of their immigrant parents or grandparents, they nevertheless feel a certain protection from the majority group. The completely unbalanced ethnic background of the American hierarchy is one major reason why Americans born of Slovak descent or, for that matter, any ethnic group other than the Irish feel that their mentality and ideas are not understood by the Irish hierarchy. A more pluralistic hierarchy in America would tend to serve the needs and best wishes of all American Catholics. These �132 SLOVAKIA national parishes pose many juridical problems for the American church today. The problem of the national church, and there still exist in the United States at least 2,855 parishes serving the various ethnic groups, will be a problem which will have to dealt with much compassion and respect. To simply say that this, and that parish will close and all catholics must attend one church, will not settle the problem. It has been estimated that over ten million American Catholics belong to national parishes. 12 Many Slovak parishes in the United States not only serve the Slovak Catholics but serve other groups in inner cities. In most instances these parishes are without debt and are usually quite wealthy due to the fact that Slovak Catholics in America are known for their generosity. These parishes are able to finance large schools admitting many minority groups. An example is the parish of the Most Holy Trinity in Gary, Indiana, where the then Msgr. Andrew G. Grutka was pastor, now the bishop of the Diocese of Gary. Msgr. Grutka opened the parish school to the local Negroes of his parish. His parish school had two-thirds of its populations Black. He not only provided the Blacks with an education but he also gave them free lunches, free clothing and helped their families establish themselves as outstanding citizens of the community. This is an instance where the work, started by the Slovak immigrants, is continuing its service to all who come in contact with the parish. This is an outstanding example of a national parish which is providing not only services to its Slovak American people but, to serve in a true spirit of Christ, it is using its power to help who seek its aid. 13 The problem of polarization in America today is one of Black against White and the Slovaks must be open enough to see that polarization whether Black or White or ethnic is not a healthy attitude for America. Slovak ethnicity can go just so far until it becomes unhealthy and actually un-American. The days of the Slovaks and their sons and grandsons who feel that they are a subgroup and are inherently different and "not belonging" to the dominant American group are over and it is with this spirit of optimism that the Slovak-Americans will continue t o forge ahead to become outstanding American citizens. It is interesting to note that the Slovak organizations �SLOVAKIA 133 in the United States and Canada are stronger than they have ever been in their history. Their membership stands at over one half million and their assets are over $150,000,000.00. These organizations have great potential to become leaders in the realm of Catholic Action works in America. One of these organizations, the largest and the most influential, the First Catholic Slovak Union with its 104,000 members is in the forefront of major reform with its new anticipated multi-million dollar educational. cultural and civic center which will be built on its vast acreage in Middletown, Pennsylvania. The complex will provide 1,800 units of senior citizen housing for the members and any person in need, also a college for 1,000 students. The facilities will be open to all regardless of race, color or creed.14 The Slovak press still has a circulation of over 250,000 in America, althougt Slovak has been replaced with English in many instances. Two members of the American hierarchy are of Slovak descent: the Most Rev. Joseph A. Durick, D. D., Bishop of Nashville, and the Most Rev. Andrew G. Grutka, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Gary. This number should be much higher when one considers that there are over 1,200 priest of Slovak descent in America. There are three religious communities for men and nine motherhouses of Sisters among the American Slovaks, their membership is better than 3,000. Among the most outstanding laymen of Slovak descent are Dr. Walter Tkach, who is the personal physician of President Richard Nixon; astronaut Eugene V. Cernan; the uranium king of Canada Stephen B. Roman, whose empire is valued at $250,000 ,000.00 , Michael Novak, noted lay Catholic theologian; Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, Protestant theologian, and many other notables. 15 Since the land of their ancestors is now ruled by the Communists it has been the necessity of American Slovaks to help Slovakia in many areas, particularly regarding the position of the Church. Under the leadership of Bishop Andrew G. Grutka the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, the representative organization of American Catholics of Slovak descent, American Catholics of Slovak origin raised over one million dollars for the establishment of the Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, Italy to train future priests for work in Slovakia. With �134 SLOVAKIA all Slovak dioceses vacant and all but one seminary opened the Church in Slovakia would have died had it not been for the generosity and interest of the American Slovaks . Today after nine years of existence this Institute has become the spiritual center of Slovaks throughout the world. Since the invasion of Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 tens of thousands have come to Rome and have been settled in Western Countries. Necessity calls for the Slovak Catholic Federation of America to remain a potent voice for the suffering church in Slovakia. The Slovak Catholic Federation along with the Slovak League of America, its counterpart in the socio-political sphere, have had to fight for the rights of the Slovak nation, at home and abroad, time and time again. These two dynamic ethnic organizations, whose philosophy is totally American, possess a fire for the rights of the Slovak nation whose story and traditions are among the most glorious in history yet whose plight in history has been among the most misunderstood. For some nativist Americans these organizations and philosophies are excessively chauvinistic, yet the role which has been played by American Slovaks is monumental in the development of the Slovak nation as a whole. Ethnic pride must never build walls but must always build bridges in these troubled times. Ethnic enclaves must give way to cultural identity whose philosophy can enrich the whole of society. It is quite evident in today's society that homogenization is certainly not possible in America. The pluralistic society which is a reality in America knows no single language, no single culture, no single ethnic stock and no single race. The America which we all know and love is a diverse enriching experience which has no equal in the history of the world. With an enriched diversity each one's potentials can be used to build a better America, an America immanent with the identity the individual possesses. Unless each person can experience what it really means to be an individual he can never be a part of a society. We have to use our Slovak identity to enrich our lives within the framework of the whole human experience. We must use our identity not as a barries but rather as a bridge. Unless we can come to know our roots we can never really know our history. �SLOVAKIA 135 FOOTNOTES 1) Oddo, Gilbert, L., Slovakia and Its People, (New York, 1960), p. 330. 2) Zatko, James, J., "Early Beginning of the Slovaks in America ," Slovakia, (Middletown, Pa., 1965, p. 16. 3) Ibid. 4) Balch, Emily, Greene, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, (New York, 1910, p . 110. 5) Oddo, op. cit. 6) Zatko, op. cit. 7) Pauco, Joseph, 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), (Middletown , 1965), p. 35. 8) "The Problems of the Immigrants", Phylon, 1968, Volume 29, No. 4. Winter p. 362. 9) Fairchild, Henry, Pratt, The Melting-Pot Mistake, (Boston, 1946) , p. 154. 10) Ibid. 11) Krajsa, Joseph C., "Slovaks Have Arrived!" , Slovakia, (Middletown , 1965), p. 64. 12) Barron, Milton , L., American Minorities, (New York, 1957), pp. 418--19. 13) Pauco, op. cit. p. 468. 14) Krajsa, Joseph, C., "Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia, (Middletown , 1965), pp. 64-5. 15) Stolarik, Imrich, Kanadska Slovenska Liga 35rocna (35 Year History of the Canadian Slovak League), (Passaic, N.J., 1967), pp. 167-8. BIB LI O G RA PHY Balch, Emily, Greene, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, New York, William F. Fell Company, 1910. Barron, Milton, L., American Minorities, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1957. Fairchild, Henry, Pratt, The Melting-Pot Mistake, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1946. Krajsa, Joseph, C., " Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia XV, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, 1965, pp. 64-68. Oddo, Gilberit, L., Slovakia and Its People, New York, Robert Speller and Sons, 1960. Pauco, Joseph,75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty, (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), Middletown, Jednota Press, 1965. Stolarik, lmrich , Kanadska Slovenska Liga 35rocna, (35 Year History of the Canadian Slovak League), Passaic, N.J., Slovak Catholic Sokol Press, 1967. Zatko, James, J., "Early Beginnings of the Slovaks in America", Slovakia XV , Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, 1965, pp. 1-38. � 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 125 The Slovak Experience In Contemporary America Daniel F. Tanzone It shall be my design in this paper to look objectively at the problems and other pertinent sociological data regarding the history, growth and development of the Slovak immigrant in contemporary America. It shall be a study from the point of an American who is of Slovak ancestry, although this might tend to make the paper onesided and bias, I shall endeavor to present an objective view of the situation and problems in present day America. I shall consider the Slovaks to be one of America's minorities. The Slovaks can be considered minorities. For my purpose the definition will prove suggestive. Minorities are subgroups within a culture which are distinguishable from the dominant group by reason of difference in physiognomy, language, customs or culture-patterns (including any combination of these factors). I shall also consider the Slovaks as one of the many immigrant groups who "have made it" in America. Their development and eventual climb to success was brought about by overcoming great difficulties. The role played by one of the institutions of society, notably the Church, proved to be the most important single factor and in some ways one of the greatest problems for the Slovaks' emancipation from the ghettos of narrow-minded Little Slovakias in countless numbers of American cities. Victims of oppression have always looked upon migration to a new land with a promise of freedom and equal opportunity as their mecca. And in the late years of the last century in order to be free of social injustice, economic serfdom, or the threat of national liquidation, the oppressed peoples of central, southern and eastern Europe have constantly looked toward the United States as a haven. The Slovak of the nineteenth and early twentieth century was no exception. Harrassed at home, subject to the insidious pressures of Magyarization, which sought 126 SLOVAKIA to deprive them of their national character and identity literally thousands of thousands of Slovak families sought refuge in the new world. Slovaks began to emigrate in great numbers to America in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. "From the year 1880 until the outbreak of World War I, Slovakia lost more than 550,000 people through emigration to America, over 22 per cent of her total population." 1 "Numerically in the twelve years ending June 30, 1910, Slovakia ranked eighth among the nations providing immigrant material. The rate of emigration of Slovaks per 1,000 was 18.6; this was double that of any other race of people, except the Hebrews 08.3), Croatians-Slovenians (13.1), and South Italians (11.9). The rate was the highest of any group." 2 Having arrived in the United States, the Slovak immigrants began to look for a place to live and to work. The first areas to draw them were the coal mine centers; only in the second instance did the Slovaks settle in the factory cities. One focus of settlement was the hard-coal of north-eastern Pennsylvania where the center was Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Before World War I the mines in the district employed 75,000 to 100,000 men; of this group 12 ';,were Slovaks. 3 Besides northeastern Pennsylvania Slovaks crowded scores of cities in the eastern industrial portions of the United States. Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, New York, Yonkers, Philadelphia, Detroit, Bridgeport, Newark became the centers of the new Slovak life. There was scarcely a mine, factory or mill in America's new industry where Slovak immigrants and their sons could not be found. And everywhere they went, two opposing drives moved them. One toward Americanization and with it the social acceptance all new immigrants sought from their immigrant predecessors. The other, to preserve the culture and, above all, the faith of the Slovak past. That the two meshed instead of irreconcilably clashing can be attributed largely to the labors of a score or so of Slovak pioneers, in this the new land. Since the Slovaks knew little identity within the framework of Austria-Hungary and •since their very existence was denyed, a sense of Slovak nationalism and identity developed here in the United States. The early aim of SLOVAKIA 127 these immigrant Slovaks was to preserve the Slovak language, Slovak customs and indeed a distinct Slovak identity. This nationalism, if we might call it, eventually was brought to bear fruit when the republic of CzechoSlovakia was established in 1918. The plans and agreements were reached not only in Europe but their foundations were laid in America. It was the work of the SlovakAmerican organizations in America under the banner of the Slovak League of America that guaranteed the rights of the Slovaks within the republic of Czecho-Slovakia. This early Slovak Nationalism developed with the establishment of a workable Slovak press here in America. The first Slovak newspaper was called the Bulletin which was hectographed by Julius Wolf and John Slovensky in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1885. The printed word was very important to the Slovak immigrant because in Hungary "to take a Slovak newspaper or, if an educated man, to speak the Slovak tongue, is to brand oneself in Magyar eyes as a political traitor and to insure very possible obstacle in one's path." 4 Slovak was forbidden in the schools, courts and even in the pulpits of churches. It was only natural that the Slovak who now lived in a free land would tend to encourage the use of the Slovak language in every possible instance of daily life. From its very beginnings the Slovak press has always been extremely strong and influential. The Slovak press was used as a means at voicing opposition to the programs and directives of the Austro-Hungarian government. It constantly attacked the Hungarians and their view of the Slovaks which they equated with ignorance, dullness and poverty. From the outset the Slovaks set out to preserve their Christian heritage. Their first Catholic parish was founded in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1882 and their first Evangelical (Lutheran ) church in Streator, Ill., two years later. The main problems were twofold: priests were needed who could speak the language and fund were needed for parish churches and schools; both were met but only after a long, hard pull.5 The true flowering of the Slovak identity come with the establishment of the great Slovak fraternal societies. This organizational life among the Slovaks began in the 128 SLOVAKIA lodg·es and societies so common in America after the Civil War. "By 1914 in the United States principal organizations had 15,600,000 members." 6 Economic and social need led the Slovaks to form lodges. Mine disasters often took the lives of husbands and fathers, leaving the family not only destitute, but even without the money for a funeral. In answer to the need of sickness and funeral benefits a large number of societies grew up in industrial and mining towns. These societies proved the greatest blessing to identity-starved Slovak. He now could boast a purely Slovak, not Hungarian or Austro-Hungarian society. These mutual benefit societies were organized in hundreds of cities from Maine to California. They were organized along two distant lines one purely Slovak with no regard to religion or political beliefs, and the other along strictly religious lines . The later proved to attract the majority of Slovak immigrants. The leader of the first group with a purely nationalistic view, was Peter P. Rovnianek, known as the stormy petrel, who did so much to make cause of the Slovaks known to Americans. He organized the National Slovak Society in Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 15, 1890. The second group was led by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, a Slovak immigrant priest of the Cleveland, Ohio Diocese met with representatives of seven Slovak Catholic Societies in Cleveland on September 5, 1890 and organized the First Catholic Slovak Union commonly known as Jednota. This organization attracted many other Catholic societies and became the most important Slovak organization in America. The local lodges of this organization organized Slovak Catholics and formed parishes throughout the Unites States and even in Canada. This organization helped to organize some 350 Slovak Roman Catholic parishes in America. This organization proved to be the most important single achievement of the Slovak in America. It not only protected the member's life but also served as a cultural, religious and economic means of expressing the Slovaks' distinct identity. Not even in Austria-Hungary was there a Slovak organization which had its own press, its own orphanage and a large educational complex in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This organization helped to organize a teaching order of Sisters to staff the Slovak schools which were being built in practically every Slovak parish. This organ- SLOVAKIA 129 ization provided the first Mother house for the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, a Slovak-American community founded by the Rev. Matthew Jankola of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Other such Slovak fraternals appeared in the ensuing years. 7 The problem of the second generation was that life at home was unpleasant; whereas in the schoolroom they were too foreign, at home they were too American. The Slovak immigrant fathers who compromised most villingly in adjusting their outside affairs to the realities of the workaday world were different persons in their homes. Within the family circle, the Slovak language, religion, customs and parental authority were not to be modified simply because the home had been transplanted to the United States. The problem of the second generation Slovak American how to inhabit two worlds at the same time, was solved by escape as soon as sons were free economically, even before they reached their legal maturity. The second generation also came to know the contempt in which artistic activities were held by nineteenth and twentieth century Americans. They hastened to prove that they knew little or cared even less about art, music, th8ater or literature. "Nothing was more Yankee than a Yankeeized person of foreign descent." 8 In his opinion, that is the second generation Slovak-American it is he who is to undergo the entire transformation; the true member of the American nationality is not called upon to change in the least. The traits of foreign nationality which the Slovak brings with him are not to be mixed or interwoven. They are to be abandoned. The standard to which he must conform has been already fixed by forces quite outside himself, quite outside any individual, native or foreign, fixed by all the factors, topographical, climatic, racial, historical, fortuitous, which have worked together to make the American nationality what it is. A harsh situation, indeed. But a situation the harshness of which is determined not by the inclination or wish of any person or group of persons, but by the inherent qualities of human nature and social organization. 9 For the Eastern European immigrant and in particular the Slovak the third generation return was not so much 130 SLOVAKIA to cultural entities per se, but to a vague nostalgia and an undefined ideology. This ideology has no organic relation to the third-generation descendant's individual past, but is rather primarily a reaction to the conditions of life in the twentieth-century United States: 1) a "native" population alerted to the alleged stereotypic characteristics of immigrant groups; 2) the threat posed by numbers of incoming immigrants reinforcing a pre-existing population base of their compatriots; 3) the difficulty of maintaining ethnic anonymity; and 4) a somewhat retarded rate of growth in the country leading to a stronger emphasis upon a man's origin. 10 Essentially the group of immigrant origins-whether it be homogenous or heterogenous in character-return s in a context filtered by the American experience. Thus a general question to be put forth, the following is posed: Who returns to what with whom under which conditions of the possible forms and contents of these returns? Individual behavior is meant as well as the process of returning evidenced by the Slovaks who are a religio-ethnic group. Some reasons might be: 1) a generalized interest which may remain diffused or may become crystallized around specific segments of an ethnic folk heritage, a Slovak heritage-languag e, holiday celebrations, foods, etc. 2) the institutional religious framework-the existence of 350 Slovak Roman Catholic parishes, plus prayer and certain holiday observances within the Church. 4) Literary, ideological-cultur al-the writing of immigrant history, and since the Slovaks had a greater sense of freedom in the short period of time since they first arrived in America, the field was very ripe. The sensitive position that Slovak Americans of the third generation have toward the Slovakia of the period 1939-1945. It posed an interesting history of political science. An ethnic Slovak press which was the second largest foreign Slav press in the free world, and a press which was larger than anything that had existed in old Austria-Hungary. All this added to the socially patterned rationalizations and apologetics affirming the Slovak group's identity. 5) An interest in the dress, manner, and speech cadence, employment, political affiliation etc. The renewed interest in things Slovak can be manifested by the present Slovak-American community in the SLOVAKIA 131 revival of Slovak customs in parishes, homes, schools and organizations throughout the United States. A major factor of this present day resurgence of the Slovak-American ethnic was the development and encouragement of the Black Power movement. This new awareness of blackness, and with it the new social and economic acceptances which world threaten all white Americans the ethnic groups all had a certain renascence. Centers for ethnic studies are proposed for many major cities in the United States so as to encourage and enbody the cultures and heritages that go into the American heritage. Due to this new interest in things Slovak some Universities have established Slovak chairs, notably at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Minnesota, Columbia, the University of Chicago and also Marquette University. 11 Some contemporary problems which face the SlovakAmerican organizations, churches, religious orders, press and communities are such things as narrow minded mentalities toward other minority groups, and in general polarization. Narrowmindedness persists in many Slovak parishes where although the Slovak parish in within a ghetto community which is no longer Slovak these parishes do nothing to serve the needs of the residents of the ghetto. Most Slovak parishes are no longer needed in the sense that they were needed three-quarters of a century ago. It is true however that certain large cities, points of settlement of newly arrived waves of immigrants, should be maintained. It seems quite ludicrous in many small towns to maintain five or six parishes, when five are national and one or two would adequately serve the needs of the Catholic community. One major factor for the persistence of many national parishes is the fact that their members feel that, although they no longer speak the language of their immigrant parents or grandparents, they nevertheless feel a certain protection from the majority group. The completely unbalanced ethnic background of the American hierarchy is one major reason why Americans born of Slovak descent or, for that matter, any ethnic group other than the Irish feel that their mentality and ideas are not understood by the Irish hierarchy. A more pluralistic hierarchy in America would tend to serve the needs and best wishes of all American Catholics. These 132 SLOVAKIA national parishes pose many juridical problems for the American church today. The problem of the national church, and there still exist in the United States at least 2,855 parishes serving the various ethnic groups, will be a problem which will have to dealt with much compassion and respect. To simply say that this, and that parish will close and all catholics must attend one church, will not settle the problem. It has been estimated that over ten million American Catholics belong to national parishes. 12 Many Slovak parishes in the United States not only serve the Slovak Catholics but serve other groups in inner cities. In most instances these parishes are without debt and are usually quite wealthy due to the fact that Slovak Catholics in America are known for their generosity. These parishes are able to finance large schools admitting many minority groups. An example is the parish of the Most Holy Trinity in Gary, Indiana, where the then Msgr. Andrew G. Grutka was pastor, now the bishop of the Diocese of Gary. Msgr. Grutka opened the parish school to the local Negroes of his parish. His parish school had two-thirds of its populations Black. He not only provided the Blacks with an education but he also gave them free lunches, free clothing and helped their families establish themselves as outstanding citizens of the community. This is an instance where the work, started by the Slovak immigrants, is continuing its service to all who come in contact with the parish. This is an outstanding example of a national parish which is providing not only services to its Slovak American people but, to serve in a true spirit of Christ, it is using its power to help who seek its aid. 13 The problem of polarization in America today is one of Black against White and the Slovaks must be open enough to see that polarization whether Black or White or ethnic is not a healthy attitude for America. Slovak ethnicity can go just so far until it becomes unhealthy and actually un-American. The days of the Slovaks and their sons and grandsons who feel that they are a subgroup and are inherently different and "not belonging" to the dominant American group are over and it is with this spirit of optimism that the Slovak-Americans will continue t o forge ahead to become outstanding American citizens. It is interesting to note that the Slovak organizations SLOVAKIA 133 in the United States and Canada are stronger than they have ever been in their history. Their membership stands at over one half million and their assets are over $150,000,000.00. These organizations have great potential to become leaders in the realm of Catholic Action works in America. One of these organizations, the largest and the most influential, the First Catholic Slovak Union with its 104,000 members is in the forefront of major reform with its new anticipated multi-million dollar educational. cultural and civic center which will be built on its vast acreage in Middletown, Pennsylvania. The complex will provide 1,800 units of senior citizen housing for the members and any person in need, also a college for 1,000 students. The facilities will be open to all regardless of race, color or creed.14 The Slovak press still has a circulation of over 250,000 in America, althougt Slovak has been replaced with English in many instances. Two members of the American hierarchy are of Slovak descent: the Most Rev. Joseph A. Durick, D. D., Bishop of Nashville, and the Most Rev. Andrew G. Grutka, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Gary. This number should be much higher when one considers that there are over 1,200 priest of Slovak descent in America. There are three religious communities for men and nine motherhouses of Sisters among the American Slovaks, their membership is better than 3,000. Among the most outstanding laymen of Slovak descent are Dr. Walter Tkach, who is the personal physician of President Richard Nixon; astronaut Eugene V. Cernan; the uranium king of Canada Stephen B. Roman, whose empire is valued at $250,000 ,000.00 , Michael Novak, noted lay Catholic theologian; Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, Protestant theologian, and many other notables. 15 Since the land of their ancestors is now ruled by the Communists it has been the necessity of American Slovaks to help Slovakia in many areas, particularly regarding the position of the Church. Under the leadership of Bishop Andrew G. Grutka the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, the representative organization of American Catholics of Slovak descent, American Catholics of Slovak origin raised over one million dollars for the establishment of the Slovak Institute of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Rome, Italy to train future priests for work in Slovakia. With 134 SLOVAKIA all Slovak dioceses vacant and all but one seminary opened the Church in Slovakia would have died had it not been for the generosity and interest of the American Slovaks . Today after nine years of existence this Institute has become the spiritual center of Slovaks throughout the world. Since the invasion of Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 tens of thousands have come to Rome and have been settled in Western Countries. Necessity calls for the Slovak Catholic Federation of America to remain a potent voice for the suffering church in Slovakia. The Slovak Catholic Federation along with the Slovak League of America, its counterpart in the socio-political sphere, have had to fight for the rights of the Slovak nation, at home and abroad, time and time again. These two dynamic ethnic organizations, whose philosophy is totally American, possess a fire for the rights of the Slovak nation whose story and traditions are among the most glorious in history yet whose plight in history has been among the most misunderstood. For some nativist Americans these organizations and philosophies are excessively chauvinistic, yet the role which has been played by American Slovaks is monumental in the development of the Slovak nation as a whole. Ethnic pride must never build walls but must always build bridges in these troubled times. Ethnic enclaves must give way to cultural identity whose philosophy can enrich the whole of society. It is quite evident in today's society that homogenization is certainly not possible in America. The pluralistic society which is a reality in America knows no single language, no single culture, no single ethnic stock and no single race. The America which we all know and love is a diverse enriching experience which has no equal in the history of the world. With an enriched diversity each one's potentials can be used to build a better America, an America immanent with the identity the individual possesses. Unless each person can experience what it really means to be an individual he can never be a part of a society. We have to use our Slovak identity to enrich our lives within the framework of the whole human experience. We must use our identity not as a barries but rather as a bridge. Unless we can come to know our roots we can never really know our history. SLOVAKIA 135 FOOTNOTES 1) Oddo, Gilbert, L., Slovakia and Its People, (New York, 1960), p. 330. 2) Zatko, James, J., "Early Beginning of the Slovaks in America ," Slovakia, (Middletown, Pa., 1965, p. 16. 3) Ibid. 4) Balch, Emily, Greene, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, (New York, 1910, p . 110. 5) Oddo, op. cit. 6) Zatko, op. cit. 7) Pauco, Joseph, 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), (Middletown , 1965), p. 35. 8) "The Problems of the Immigrants", Phylon, 1968, Volume 29, No. 4. Winter p. 362. 9) Fairchild, Henry, Pratt, The Melting-Pot Mistake, (Boston, 1946) , p. 154. 10) Ibid. 11) Krajsa, Joseph C., "Slovaks Have Arrived!" , Slovakia, (Middletown , 1965), p. 64. 12) Barron, Milton , L., American Minorities, (New York, 1957), pp. 418--19. 13) Pauco, op. cit. p. 468. 14) Krajsa, Joseph, C., "Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia, (Middletown , 1965), pp. 64-5. 15) Stolarik, Imrich, Kanadska Slovenska Liga 35rocna (35 Year History of the Canadian Slovak League), (Passaic, N.J., 1967), pp. 167-8. BIB LI O G RA PHY Balch, Emily, Greene, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, New York, William F. Fell Company, 1910. Barron, Milton, L., American Minorities, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1957. Fairchild, Henry, Pratt, The Melting-Pot Mistake, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1946. Krajsa, Joseph, C., " Slovaks Have Arrived", Slovakia XV, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, 1965, pp. 64-68. Oddo, Gilberit, L., Slovakia and Its People, New York, Robert Speller and Sons, 1960. Pauco, Joseph,75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty, (75 Year History of the First Catholic Slovak Union), Middletown, Jednota Press, 1965. Stolarik, lmrich , Kanadska Slovenska Liga 35rocna, (35 Year History of the Canadian Slovak League), Passaic, N.J., Slovak Catholic Sokol Press, 1967. Zatko, James, J., "Early Beginnings of the Slovaks in America", Slovakia XV , Middletown, Pa., Jednota Press, 1965, pp. 1-38.  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 Experience in Contemporary America Description An account of the resource Daniel F. Tanzone Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 125-135 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tanzone, Daniel F. 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/45adc31d44d6443594a03d4e370d57f1.pdf c2242299f2efa63f4c444c374ab3e92d PDF Text Text 116 SLOVAKIA Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group By Dr. Steven I. Miller Any attempt to study a given group of people is a difficult task because it required and presupposes a host of complicated procedures and insights into the workings of that group. That is, the group must be "understood" (to use Max Weber's term) on several levels: historical, linguistic, demographic, familial, political, economic and so on. Unless a composite picture of the social grouping is made available on the variables mentioned above, it is virtually impossible to obtain a mature understanding of that group's values, beliefs and life-styles. How then should this task of understanding a group of people be undertaken? There are several approaches to the problem, and we will attempt to deliniate, in a broad perspective, some of them. My thesis is that Slovaks in America have not been, until very recently, studied in any systematic fashion, and that because of this oversight, the Slovak-American community is not well known to scholars and laymen. I also believe that this paucity of systematic research has caused fragmentation and alienation within the Slovak-American community, and is exemplified in a general lack of interests in things Slovak by second and third generation Slovak-Americans. There has also been, I believe, an over emphasis by certain scholars on the political problems within Slovakia itself, with a subsequent neglect of studying in depth the issues that have concerned Slovak-Americans more recently. Now, I am not arguing that the political-historical issues concerning the Slovaks in Slovakia, past and present, be overlooked or minimized in any way. This perspective is needed and merits further research. But the issue now, I believe, is one of balance or priorities. Second and third �SLOVAKIA 117 generation Slovak-Americans find it increasingly difficult to identify in any meaningful fashion with the historicalpolitical problems of Slovakia since 1918. The issues have become too distant in space and time engender a spirit of concern within this younger group. Thus a dilemma ensues: on the one hand there is the necessity of specifying the historical problems (in terms of political and moral issues ) of Slovaks as a unique national group with the possibility of losing the interest of native born SlovakAmericans; on the other hand is the problem of concentrating too exclusively on the concerns of contemporary Slovak-Americans and de-emphasizing their historical ties with Slovakia. My own feelings are that the second emphasis will in the long run be the most beneficial for all Slovaks. Namely, the in-depth and scholarly attempt to study SlovakAmerican communities in terms of historical origins and contemporary problems. How then can we go about fulfilling this task? The first step is to understand a little more about the nature of historical and empirical research. A NEED FOR DEFINING THE PROBLEM: THE HISTORICAL APPROACH Before a group of people can be studied in any systematic fashion, it is necessary to determine some type of general approach. The approach (or methodology as it is called) that one chooses will in turn permit him to view the situation in a certain way, and to draw certain conclusions from what he observes. These conclusions, if they are based on a sufficient amount of evidence, will then permit the investigator to draw appropriate conclusions or relationships about the group he is studying. Thus the historical approach will specify a problem ( or a hypothesis) that is decided upon as being worthy of further research. For example, one might want to study the history of the first permanent Slovak community in the United States; or, within this framework, look at the role of the priest in relation to newly arrived immigrants. Historical research is vital because as F . Kerlinger states, "it is the critical investigation of events, developments and experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of sources of information on the past, and �118 SLOVAKIA the interpretation of the weighted evidence." 1 Within this framework, the ethnic historian is particularly concerned with examining written sources in order to determine the quality and quantity of evidence available for the substantiation of his hypothesis. He is basically concerned with primary sources ( original records, minutes of meetings, etc.) and in the methods of internal and external criticism.2 External criticism is concerned with establishing the validity of the sources used, while internal criticism focuses on the content of the documents, themselves. Kerlinger points out the necessity of historiography when he cites the conclusions of the Social Science Research Council.3 Historiography has a necessary relevance to all the soda! sciences, to the humanities, and to the formulation of public and private policies because (1) all the data used in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in the formulation of public and private policies are drawn from records of, experience in, or writing about the past; because (2) all policies respecting human affairs, public or private, and all generalizations of a nonstatistical character in the social sciences and in the humanities involve interpretations of or assumptions about the past; and because (3) all workers in the social sciences and in the humanities are personalities of given times, places, and experience whose tmnking is consequently in some measure conditioned and determined my the historical circumstances of their lives and experiences. Thus, as a starting point in defining the approaches that may be fruitfully used in studying Slovak-Americans, we can see the necessity for beginning the investigation with a solid basis in htstoriography. From this perspective a further methodology can be defined, namely, the social science or empirical approach. 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ETHNIC STUDIES The empirical approach to understanding group behavior utilizes the perspective of history, while at the same time focusing on a more specific problem that is of interest to the researcher. The empirical approach holds that there is an objective world containing "meaning" in the form of patterns of behavior, and that the task of the social scientist is to recognize these behaviors, and interpret them in such a way as to arrive at both their overt and covert meaning. The tactic that is employed in the empirical approach is, basically, what has become known as the scientific method. That is, one formulates a problem that �SLOVAKIA 119 is deemed worthy of study; a hypothesis is put forward that states a certain relationship about the problem under study; the hypothesis is subjected to some type of test (in many cases statistical); and a conclusion, subject to the limits of the quality and quantity of evidence is put forth either substantiating or refuting the hypothesis. What is crucial in this approach is that one must take pains in the beginning of the investigation to formulate the problem as precisely as possible. This is why a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is necessary. A hypothesis is an assumption, a guess, or as Kerlinger says, "a conjectural statement about the relationship between two or more observed phenomena or variables. 5 Thus, one might wish to investigate the relationship between the Slovaks' commitment to their religious beliefs and the tendency to build parochial schools; or, perhaps, examine the correlation between Slovak attitudes toward education and the intergenerational mobility of their children. What we are suggesting here is that there are many more aspects of Slovak culture that can be identified, studied, made known and preserved, and that empirical investigation is only concerned with the compilation of meaningless statistics, or that it will obscure the unique "flavor" of Slovak culture. This need not be the case. What the empirical method of investigation strives to do is to bring to the surface the complexities of values and beliefs of a group of people and, by implication, their uniqueness. Empirical investigation also has the corollary effect of describing and explaining those characteristics that bind and hold a group together. The famous Polish Sociologist, Florian Znaniecki,6 in trying to explain the nature of the sociological investig·ation that he used in his classic work The Polish Peasant, states: Thus all generalizations constituting the common-sense social theory and based on individual experience are both insignificant and subject to innumerable exceptions. A sociology that accepts them necessarily condemns itself to remain in the same methodological stage, and a practice based upon them must be as insecure and as full of failures as is the activity of every individual. Znaniecki, however, goes on to state that sound empirical investigation has the effect of eventually explaining individual behavior more clearly. He goes on to state,7 �120 SLOVAKIA Whenever, now, this "practical" sociology makes an effort to get above the level of popular generalizations by the study of social reality instead of relying upon individual experience, it still preserves the same method as the individual in his personal reflection; investigation always goes on with an immediate reference to practical aims, and the standards of the desirable and undesirable are the ground upon which theoretic problems are approached. Thus, empirical research is an attempt to identify specific problems of interest, and subject these problems to the scrutiny of the scientific (in a broad sense) method. We have now identified the historical and empirical approaches to the study of group behavior as being two powerful tools that the researcher is able to use in arriving at "meaning" for social phenomena. I believe a further positive step in studying Slovak-Americans would be to incorporate both methodological approaches into a larger perspective. A SYNTHESIS OF HISTORICAL- EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION A perspective that incorporates historiography and a social science empirical approach is needed on two accounts: to broaden the area of investigation for scholars in general, and to insure that a body of well researched and validated knowledge be made available for future generations of people interested in their ethnic heritage. I am positing this approach not as a grand synthesis of two methodological systems to inquiry, but rather to deliniate the thrust of research that is needed to fulfill a large knowledge-gap existing about Slovak-Americans. The historical-social science approach combines the broader inquiry of the historian with the more specialized interest of the social scientist. This type of analysis is supported by a fairly substantial body of research. 8 More specifically, this type of research is now being undertaken by scholars interested in Slovak-American developments. Of particular relevance here is the research being carried on by the University of Minnesota.9 There is, to begin with, a large body of available material on Slovak-Americans that can be ascertained from examining the insurance application files of the First Catholic Slovak Union. The information from these files provides a vast amount of historical information that can give us an accurate profile of the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 121 emigrating to America. From these sources, the researcher is able to gather a composite picture of Slovak-American life. Thus, as Stolarik points out, " we can deduce the relative number of people who emigrated from each county, each village, each city . . . In addition, we can compare the grouping of people in the individual lodges at the parish level." 10 From this data other generalizations can be drawn; the amount of horizontal mobility, life expectancy, group cohesion, marriage patterns, length of residence in America, and so forth. Additional information is available from parish and lodge records. These records provide the researcher with data on parish life, relationship with clergy and the structure of parochial education. Likewise, newspapers such as Slovak v Amerike and Jednota are a further source of important historical materials. Thus, there is an abundance of historical material in which to set a firm basis for the study of SlovakAmericans . Now, within this historical framework, the researcher is also able to concentrate on certain specific aspects of behavior and apply the methods of the social sciences. For example, one of the areas that would be of interest to the sociologist, within the context of Slovak-American communities, would be the nature of social mobility. 11 The idea of mobility is closely related to the notion of stratification. That is, the sociologist is interested in the way societies group their members, and what types of judgements are placed on the people within the various strata. Once he has ascertained how the stratification system is constructed, he can ask whether or not it is possible to "move" from one strata to another, or the amount and type of mobility that occurs. These questions are significant to the researcher because from them he can gain a better understaning to the exact nature of the group he is investigating. For instance, if the researcher is able to identify a number of social classes as being representative of a given society, he can gain a great deal of information as to what different classes value; what their income and educational levels are; what occupations are associated with them; how they raise their children; their mortality rates; associations they belong to; political attitudes they hold; geographical �122 SLOVAKIA areas they occupy, and so forth. With this data, the investigator can determine what the "life-styles" and "lifechances" are for different groups in a society. 12 For our purpose the point is this: To study SlovakAmericans in tenns of mobility (and this is only one dimension) patterns is valuable in that a great deal of useful information can be gotten on changing life-styles and life-chances. This type of data, in turn, will give us answers to such questions as the rate of intergenerational mobility ( differences between father's and son's occupation); the increasing or decreasing educational level of Slovak-Americans ; and, generally, how well they have become assimilated within American society. Many other significant aspects of Slovak-American life can be examined through social science inquiry. One could take, as a point of departure for study, the chances within the structure of the Slovak-American family. A comparison could be made, for instance, between the structure of the family from the time of emigration, to the first five or ten years of living in America. It would be possible then to study such things as the impact of industrialization on the family unit, and the methods used to cope with strain and role conflicts.13 Or one could examine the cohesiveness of Slovak families as a function of their religious identity, language or fraternal organizations. The need for historical background material would, of course, be necessary here also. Inquiry could continue into such areas as achievement levels of Slovak-American children (for any given historical period); the value placed on education by Slovak families; the role of daughters in Slovak families; the role of the mother in the family unit, and so on. The techniques for investigating these types of questions have been worked out within the social sciences, and can be fruitfully employed in providing answers to the above. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail as to the statistical design that would be appropriate in investigating these questions. The methodology is available, however, and a design can be worked out by persons trained in these methods. 14 �SLOVAKIA 123 FUTURE DIRECTIONS What we have been saying is this: Slovaks have made a distinct and unique contribution to American Society. They have done this through much hardship, sacrifice, and the endurance of many types of overt and subtle injustices. As with any ethnic group, the Slovaks have a right to emphasize their special contributions in shaping American society. But in order to know what Slovaks have accomplished here and elsewhere, we must first know more about them in a systematic and objective way. To do this requires a frame of mind that is willing to set aside political controversies that are over a half-century old and that relate exclusively to Slovakia. It also calls for a change in attitude in terms of defining Slovak culture in an overly personal and emotional fashion. That is, equating Slovak culture with poetic attempts to discover the "true" Slovak "character"; or with attempts to mythologize certain Slovak leaders and their alleged contributions to all Slovaks. This change of attitude also implies a reorganization of priorities. It calls for supporting historical and scientific research in studying Slovaks; in taking positions on social issues; and in the realization that if young people do not identify in some meaningful way with their Slovak-American heritage, that heritage will not survive. One way to guarantee the survival of this heritage is, I believe, through the type of research outlined thus far. It is only by a large scale emphasis on sound research that a body of knowledge about Slovak-Americans can be constructed. This in turn will stimulate further scholarly interest the results of which will be incorporated, formally, within the structure of higher education and passed on to others who wish to carry on the investigation. In summary, is should be noted again, that objective research does not undermine the uniqueness of a group's heritage or contributions. Studying Slovak-Americans objectively does not mean that one forgets the struggle for freedom that Slovaks have had to under go, or the religious persecutions they have been subjected to. Research does not mean that personal experiences and insights of people do not count, or that the common-man Slovak is forgotten. What objective research does do is to give the sons and daughters of the "average Slovak" a lasting body of knowledge about �124 SLOVAKIA their heritage and of the sacrifices and contributions of their parents and grandparents. REFERENCES 1) Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundation of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 698. 2) Ibid., p . 699. 3) Ibid., p. 700. 4) For an in depth discussion of the scientific method see, May Brodbeck, "Logic And Scientific Method In Research On Teaching," in Handbook Of Research On Teaching , N. L. Gage, (ed), (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1963) , pp. 44-93. 5) Kerlinger, p. 14. 6) Florian Znaniecki, On Humanistic Sociology, Robert Bierstedt (ed. ), (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 58. An excerpt taken from the "Methodological Note" , William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), 1:1-86. 7) Ibid., p. 58. 8) For a compilation of sources using these methods see, Werner J . Cahnman and Alvin Bosko££ (ed.) , Sociology and History (London: Free Press, 1964) . 9) I am especially indebted to Mr. M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Minnesota for permission to use his excellent paper, "The Immigrant Is Not Anonymous" which was delivered before the American Educational Research Association, The History of Edu cation Division on March 5, 1970. Mr. Stolarik has done what, I believe, is pioneering work in the area of Slovak-American ethnic origins. He has set the important groundwork for further scholarly efforts (both historical and empirical) in this whole area. As Mr. Stolarik points out, this type of research is well on its way and will, if pursued by other scholars, give us a well grounded body of knowledge on Slovak-Americans. I am using the general outline of Mr. Stolarik's paper, pp. 1-10, in this part of the discussion. 10) Stolarik, p. 2. 11) Carol Owen, Social Stratification (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968), and Melvin M. Tumin, Social Stratification: The Forms And Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 56-81. 12) Kurt B. Mayer and Walter Buckley, Class And Society (New York: Randon House, 1970) , pp. 86-134. 13) Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process ( Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 3-9. 14) See, for example, Delbert C. Miller, Handbook of Research And Social Measurement (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1964) . � 116 SLOVAKIA Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group By Dr. Steven I. Miller Any attempt to study a given group of people is a difficult task because it required and presupposes a host of complicated procedures and insights into the workings of that group. That is, the group must be "understood" (to use Max Weber's term) on several levels: historical, linguistic, demographic, familial, political, economic and so on. Unless a composite picture of the social grouping is made available on the variables mentioned above, it is virtually impossible to obtain a mature understanding of that group's values, beliefs and life-styles. How then should this task of understanding a group of people be undertaken? There are several approaches to the problem, and we will attempt to deliniate, in a broad perspective, some of them. My thesis is that Slovaks in America have not been, until very recently, studied in any systematic fashion, and that because of this oversight, the Slovak-American community is not well known to scholars and laymen. I also believe that this paucity of systematic research has caused fragmentation and alienation within the Slovak-American community, and is exemplified in a general lack of interests in things Slovak by second and third generation Slovak-Americans. There has also been, I believe, an over emphasis by certain scholars on the political problems within Slovakia itself, with a subsequent neglect of studying in depth the issues that have concerned Slovak-Americans more recently. Now, I am not arguing that the political-historical issues concerning the Slovaks in Slovakia, past and present, be overlooked or minimized in any way. This perspective is needed and merits further research. But the issue now, I believe, is one of balance or priorities. Second and third �SLOVAKIA 117 generation Slovak-Americans find it increasingly difficult to identify in any meaningful fashion with the historicalpolitical problems of Slovakia since 1918. The issues have become too distant in space and time engender a spirit of concern within this younger group. Thus a dilemma ensues: on the one hand there is the necessity of specifying the historical problems (in terms of political and moral issues ) of Slovaks as a unique national group with the possibility of losing the interest of native born SlovakAmericans; on the other hand is the problem of concentrating too exclusively on the concerns of contemporary Slovak-Americans and de-emphasizing their historical ties with Slovakia. My own feelings are that the second emphasis will in the long run be the most beneficial for all Slovaks. Namely, the in-depth and scholarly attempt to study SlovakAmerican communities in terms of historical origins and contemporary problems. How then can we go about fulfilling this task? The first step is to understand a little more about the nature of historical and empirical research. A NEED FOR DEFINING THE PROBLEM: THE HISTORICAL APPROACH Before a group of people can be studied in any systematic fashion, it is necessary to determine some type of general approach. The approach (or methodology as it is called) that one chooses will in turn permit him to view the situation in a certain way, and to draw certain conclusions from what he observes. These conclusions, if they are based on a sufficient amount of evidence, will then permit the investigator to draw appropriate conclusions or relationships about the group he is studying. Thus the historical approach will specify a problem ( or a hypothesis) that is decided upon as being worthy of further research. For example, one might want to study the history of the first permanent Slovak community in the United States; or, within this framework, look at the role of the priest in relation to newly arrived immigrants. Historical research is vital because as F . Kerlinger states, "it is the critical investigation of events, developments and experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of sources of information on the past, and �118 SLOVAKIA the interpretation of the weighted evidence." 1 Within this framework, the ethnic historian is particularly concerned with examining written sources in order to determine the quality and quantity of evidence available for the substantiation of his hypothesis. He is basically concerned with primary sources ( original records, minutes of meetings, etc.) and in the methods of internal and external criticism.2 External criticism is concerned with establishing the validity of the sources used, while internal criticism focuses on the content of the documents, themselves. Kerlinger points out the necessity of historiography when he cites the conclusions of the Social Science Research Council.3 Historiography has a necessary relevance to all the soda! sciences, to the humanities, and to the formulation of public and private policies because (1) all the data used in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in the formulation of public and private policies are drawn from records of, experience in, or writing about the past; because (2) all policies respecting human affairs, public or private, and all generalizations of a nonstatistical character in the social sciences and in the humanities involve interpretations of or assumptions about the past; and because (3) all workers in the social sciences and in the humanities are personalities of given times, places, and experience whose tmnking is consequently in some measure conditioned and determined my the historical circumstances of their lives and experiences. Thus, as a starting point in defining the approaches that may be fruitfully used in studying Slovak-Americans, we can see the necessity for beginning the investigation with a solid basis in htstoriography. From this perspective a further methodology can be defined, namely, the social science or empirical approach. 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ETHNIC STUDIES The empirical approach to understanding group behavior utilizes the perspective of history, while at the same time focusing on a more specific problem that is of interest to the researcher. The empirical approach holds that there is an objective world containing "meaning" in the form of patterns of behavior, and that the task of the social scientist is to recognize these behaviors, and interpret them in such a way as to arrive at both their overt and covert meaning. The tactic that is employed in the empirical approach is, basically, what has become known as the scientific method. That is, one formulates a problem that �SLOVAKIA 119 is deemed worthy of study; a hypothesis is put forward that states a certain relationship about the problem under study; the hypothesis is subjected to some type of test (in many cases statistical); and a conclusion, subject to the limits of the quality and quantity of evidence is put forth either substantiating or refuting the hypothesis. What is crucial in this approach is that one must take pains in the beginning of the investigation to formulate the problem as precisely as possible. This is why a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is necessary. A hypothesis is an assumption, a guess, or as Kerlinger says, "a conjectural statement about the relationship between two or more observed phenomena or variables. 5 Thus, one might wish to investigate the relationship between the Slovaks' commitment to their religious beliefs and the tendency to build parochial schools; or, perhaps, examine the correlation between Slovak attitudes toward education and the intergenerational mobility of their children. What we are suggesting here is that there are many more aspects of Slovak culture that can be identified, studied, made known and preserved, and that empirical investigation is only concerned with the compilation of meaningless statistics, or that it will obscure the unique "flavor" of Slovak culture. This need not be the case. What the empirical method of investigation strives to do is to bring to the surface the complexities of values and beliefs of a group of people and, by implication, their uniqueness. Empirical investigation also has the corollary effect of describing and explaining those characteristics that bind and hold a group together. The famous Polish Sociologist, Florian Znaniecki,6 in trying to explain the nature of the sociological investig·ation that he used in his classic work The Polish Peasant, states: Thus all generalizations constituting the common-sense social theory and based on individual experience are both insignificant and subject to innumerable exceptions. A sociology that accepts them necessarily condemns itself to remain in the same methodological stage, and a practice based upon them must be as insecure and as full of failures as is the activity of every individual. Znaniecki, however, goes on to state that sound empirical investigation has the effect of eventually explaining individual behavior more clearly. He goes on to state,7 �120 SLOVAKIA Whenever, now, this "practical" sociology makes an effort to get above the level of popular generalizations by the study of social reality instead of relying upon individual experience, it still preserves the same method as the individual in his personal reflection; investigation always goes on with an immediate reference to practical aims, and the standards of the desirable and undesirable are the ground upon which theoretic problems are approached. Thus, empirical research is an attempt to identify specific problems of interest, and subject these problems to the scrutiny of the scientific (in a broad sense) method. We have now identified the historical and empirical approaches to the study of group behavior as being two powerful tools that the researcher is able to use in arriving at "meaning" for social phenomena. I believe a further positive step in studying Slovak-Americans would be to incorporate both methodological approaches into a larger perspective. A SYNTHESIS OF HISTORICAL- EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION A perspective that incorporates historiography and a social science empirical approach is needed on two accounts: to broaden the area of investigation for scholars in general, and to insure that a body of well researched and validated knowledge be made available for future generations of people interested in their ethnic heritage. I am positing this approach not as a grand synthesis of two methodological systems to inquiry, but rather to deliniate the thrust of research that is needed to fulfill a large knowledge-gap existing about Slovak-Americans. The historical-social science approach combines the broader inquiry of the historian with the more specialized interest of the social scientist. This type of analysis is supported by a fairly substantial body of research. 8 More specifically, this type of research is now being undertaken by scholars interested in Slovak-American developments. Of particular relevance here is the research being carried on by the University of Minnesota.9 There is, to begin with, a large body of available material on Slovak-Americans that can be ascertained from examining the insurance application files of the First Catholic Slovak Union. The information from these files provides a vast amount of historical information that can give us an accurate profile of the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 121 emigrating to America. From these sources, the researcher is able to gather a composite picture of Slovak-American life. Thus, as Stolarik points out, " we can deduce the relative number of people who emigrated from each county, each village, each city . . . In addition, we can compare the grouping of people in the individual lodges at the parish level." 10 From this data other generalizations can be drawn; the amount of horizontal mobility, life expectancy, group cohesion, marriage patterns, length of residence in America, and so forth. Additional information is available from parish and lodge records. These records provide the researcher with data on parish life, relationship with clergy and the structure of parochial education. Likewise, newspapers such as Slovak v Amerike and Jednota are a further source of important historical materials. Thus, there is an abundance of historical material in which to set a firm basis for the study of SlovakAmericans . Now, within this historical framework, the researcher is also able to concentrate on certain specific aspects of behavior and apply the methods of the social sciences. For example, one of the areas that would be of interest to the sociologist, within the context of Slovak-American communities, would be the nature of social mobility. 11 The idea of mobility is closely related to the notion of stratification. That is, the sociologist is interested in the way societies group their members, and what types of judgements are placed on the people within the various strata. Once he has ascertained how the stratification system is constructed, he can ask whether or not it is possible to "move" from one strata to another, or the amount and type of mobility that occurs. These questions are significant to the researcher because from them he can gain a better understaning to the exact nature of the group he is investigating. For instance, if the researcher is able to identify a number of social classes as being representative of a given society, he can gain a great deal of information as to what different classes value; what their income and educational levels are; what occupations are associated with them; how they raise their children; their mortality rates; associations they belong to; political attitudes they hold; geographical �122 SLOVAKIA areas they occupy, and so forth. With this data, the investigator can determine what the "life-styles" and "lifechances" are for different groups in a society. 12 For our purpose the point is this: To study SlovakAmericans in tenns of mobility (and this is only one dimension) patterns is valuable in that a great deal of useful information can be gotten on changing life-styles and life-chances. This type of data, in turn, will give us answers to such questions as the rate of intergenerational mobility ( differences between father's and son's occupation); the increasing or decreasing educational level of Slovak-Americans ; and, generally, how well they have become assimilated within American society. Many other significant aspects of Slovak-American life can be examined through social science inquiry. One could take, as a point of departure for study, the chances within the structure of the Slovak-American family. A comparison could be made, for instance, between the structure of the family from the time of emigration, to the first five or ten years of living in America. It would be possible then to study such things as the impact of industrialization on the family unit, and the methods used to cope with strain and role conflicts.13 Or one could examine the cohesiveness of Slovak families as a function of their religious identity, language or fraternal organizations. The need for historical background material would, of course, be necessary here also. Inquiry could continue into such areas as achievement levels of Slovak-American children (for any given historical period); the value placed on education by Slovak families; the role of daughters in Slovak families; the role of the mother in the family unit, and so on. The techniques for investigating these types of questions have been worked out within the social sciences, and can be fruitfully employed in providing answers to the above. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail as to the statistical design that would be appropriate in investigating these questions. The methodology is available, however, and a design can be worked out by persons trained in these methods. 14 �SLOVAKIA 123 FUTURE DIRECTIONS What we have been saying is this: Slovaks have made a distinct and unique contribution to American Society. They have done this through much hardship, sacrifice, and the endurance of many types of overt and subtle injustices. As with any ethnic group, the Slovaks have a right to emphasize their special contributions in shaping American society. But in order to know what Slovaks have accomplished here and elsewhere, we must first know more about them in a systematic and objective way. To do this requires a frame of mind that is willing to set aside political controversies that are over a half-century old and that relate exclusively to Slovakia. It also calls for a change in attitude in terms of defining Slovak culture in an overly personal and emotional fashion. That is, equating Slovak culture with poetic attempts to discover the "true" Slovak "character"; or with attempts to mythologize certain Slovak leaders and their alleged contributions to all Slovaks. This change of attitude also implies a reorganization of priorities. It calls for supporting historical and scientific research in studying Slovaks; in taking positions on social issues; and in the realization that if young people do not identify in some meaningful way with their Slovak-American heritage, that heritage will not survive. One way to guarantee the survival of this heritage is, I believe, through the type of research outlined thus far. It is only by a large scale emphasis on sound research that a body of knowledge about Slovak-Americans can be constructed. This in turn will stimulate further scholarly interest the results of which will be incorporated, formally, within the structure of higher education and passed on to others who wish to carry on the investigation. In summary, is should be noted again, that objective research does not undermine the uniqueness of a group's heritage or contributions. Studying Slovak-Americans objectively does not mean that one forgets the struggle for freedom that Slovaks have had to under go, or the religious persecutions they have been subjected to. Research does not mean that personal experiences and insights of people do not count, or that the common-man Slovak is forgotten. What objective research does do is to give the sons and daughters of the "average Slovak" a lasting body of knowledge about �124 SLOVAKIA their heritage and of the sacrifices and contributions of their parents and grandparents. REFERENCES 1) Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundation of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 698. 2) Ibid., p . 699. 3) Ibid., p. 700. 4) For an in depth discussion of the scientific method see, May Brodbeck, "Logic And Scientific Method In Research On Teaching," in Handbook Of Research On Teaching , N. L. Gage, (ed), (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1963) , pp. 44-93. 5) Kerlinger, p. 14. 6) Florian Znaniecki, On Humanistic Sociology, Robert Bierstedt (ed. ), (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 58. An excerpt taken from the "Methodological Note" , William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), 1:1-86. 7) Ibid., p. 58. 8) For a compilation of sources using these methods see, Werner J . Cahnman and Alvin Bosko££ (ed.) , Sociology and History (London: Free Press, 1964) . 9) I am especially indebted to Mr. M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Minnesota for permission to use his excellent paper, "The Immigrant Is Not Anonymous" which was delivered before the American Educational Research Association, The History of Edu cation Division on March 5, 1970. Mr. Stolarik has done what, I believe, is pioneering work in the area of Slovak-American ethnic origins. He has set the important groundwork for further scholarly efforts (both historical and empirical) in this whole area. As Mr. Stolarik points out, this type of research is well on its way and will, if pursued by other scholars, give us a well grounded body of knowledge on Slovak-Americans. I am using the general outline of Mr. Stolarik's paper, pp. 1-10, in this part of the discussion. 10) Stolarik, p. 2. 11) Carol Owen, Social Stratification (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968), and Melvin M. Tumin, Social Stratification: The Forms And Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 56-81. 12) Kurt B. Mayer and Walter Buckley, Class And Society (New York: Randon House, 1970) , pp. 86-134. 13) Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process ( Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 3-9. 14) See, for example, Delbert C. Miller, Handbook of Research And Social Measurement (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1964) . � 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 116 SLOVAKIA Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group By Dr. Steven I. Miller Any attempt to study a given group of people is a difficult task because it required and presupposes a host of complicated procedures and insights into the workings of that group. That is, the group must be "understood" (to use Max Weber's term) on several levels: historical, linguistic, demographic, familial, political, economic and so on. Unless a composite picture of the social grouping is made available on the variables mentioned above, it is virtually impossible to obtain a mature understanding of that group's values, beliefs and life-styles. How then should this task of understanding a group of people be undertaken? There are several approaches to the problem, and we will attempt to deliniate, in a broad perspective, some of them. My thesis is that Slovaks in America have not been, until very recently, studied in any systematic fashion, and that because of this oversight, the Slovak-American community is not well known to scholars and laymen. I also believe that this paucity of systematic research has caused fragmentation and alienation within the Slovak-American community, and is exemplified in a general lack of interests in things Slovak by second and third generation Slovak-Americans. There has also been, I believe, an over emphasis by certain scholars on the political problems within Slovakia itself, with a subsequent neglect of studying in depth the issues that have concerned Slovak-Americans more recently. Now, I am not arguing that the political-historical issues concerning the Slovaks in Slovakia, past and present, be overlooked or minimized in any way. This perspective is needed and merits further research. But the issue now, I believe, is one of balance or priorities. Second and third SLOVAKIA 117 generation Slovak-Americans find it increasingly difficult to identify in any meaningful fashion with the historicalpolitical problems of Slovakia since 1918. The issues have become too distant in space and time engender a spirit of concern within this younger group. Thus a dilemma ensues: on the one hand there is the necessity of specifying the historical problems (in terms of political and moral issues ) of Slovaks as a unique national group with the possibility of losing the interest of native born SlovakAmericans; on the other hand is the problem of concentrating too exclusively on the concerns of contemporary Slovak-Americans and de-emphasizing their historical ties with Slovakia. My own feelings are that the second emphasis will in the long run be the most beneficial for all Slovaks. Namely, the in-depth and scholarly attempt to study SlovakAmerican communities in terms of historical origins and contemporary problems. How then can we go about fulfilling this task? The first step is to understand a little more about the nature of historical and empirical research. A NEED FOR DEFINING THE PROBLEM: THE HISTORICAL APPROACH Before a group of people can be studied in any systematic fashion, it is necessary to determine some type of general approach. The approach (or methodology as it is called) that one chooses will in turn permit him to view the situation in a certain way, and to draw certain conclusions from what he observes. These conclusions, if they are based on a sufficient amount of evidence, will then permit the investigator to draw appropriate conclusions or relationships about the group he is studying. Thus the historical approach will specify a problem ( or a hypothesis) that is decided upon as being worthy of further research. For example, one might want to study the history of the first permanent Slovak community in the United States; or, within this framework, look at the role of the priest in relation to newly arrived immigrants. Historical research is vital because as F . Kerlinger states, "it is the critical investigation of events, developments and experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of sources of information on the past, and 118 SLOVAKIA the interpretation of the weighted evidence." 1 Within this framework, the ethnic historian is particularly concerned with examining written sources in order to determine the quality and quantity of evidence available for the substantiation of his hypothesis. He is basically concerned with primary sources ( original records, minutes of meetings, etc.) and in the methods of internal and external criticism.2 External criticism is concerned with establishing the validity of the sources used, while internal criticism focuses on the content of the documents, themselves. Kerlinger points out the necessity of historiography when he cites the conclusions of the Social Science Research Council.3 Historiography has a necessary relevance to all the soda! sciences, to the humanities, and to the formulation of public and private policies because (1) all the data used in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in the formulation of public and private policies are drawn from records of, experience in, or writing about the past; because (2) all policies respecting human affairs, public or private, and all generalizations of a nonstatistical character in the social sciences and in the humanities involve interpretations of or assumptions about the past; and because (3) all workers in the social sciences and in the humanities are personalities of given times, places, and experience whose tmnking is consequently in some measure conditioned and determined my the historical circumstances of their lives and experiences. Thus, as a starting point in defining the approaches that may be fruitfully used in studying Slovak-Americans, we can see the necessity for beginning the investigation with a solid basis in htstoriography. From this perspective a further methodology can be defined, namely, the social science or empirical approach. 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ETHNIC STUDIES The empirical approach to understanding group behavior utilizes the perspective of history, while at the same time focusing on a more specific problem that is of interest to the researcher. The empirical approach holds that there is an objective world containing "meaning" in the form of patterns of behavior, and that the task of the social scientist is to recognize these behaviors, and interpret them in such a way as to arrive at both their overt and covert meaning. The tactic that is employed in the empirical approach is, basically, what has become known as the scientific method. That is, one formulates a problem that SLOVAKIA 119 is deemed worthy of study; a hypothesis is put forward that states a certain relationship about the problem under study; the hypothesis is subjected to some type of test (in many cases statistical); and a conclusion, subject to the limits of the quality and quantity of evidence is put forth either substantiating or refuting the hypothesis. What is crucial in this approach is that one must take pains in the beginning of the investigation to formulate the problem as precisely as possible. This is why a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is necessary. A hypothesis is an assumption, a guess, or as Kerlinger says, "a conjectural statement about the relationship between two or more observed phenomena or variables. 5 Thus, one might wish to investigate the relationship between the Slovaks' commitment to their religious beliefs and the tendency to build parochial schools; or, perhaps, examine the correlation between Slovak attitudes toward education and the intergenerational mobility of their children. What we are suggesting here is that there are many more aspects of Slovak culture that can be identified, studied, made known and preserved, and that empirical investigation is only concerned with the compilation of meaningless statistics, or that it will obscure the unique "flavor" of Slovak culture. This need not be the case. What the empirical method of investigation strives to do is to bring to the surface the complexities of values and beliefs of a group of people and, by implication, their uniqueness. Empirical investigation also has the corollary effect of describing and explaining those characteristics that bind and hold a group together. The famous Polish Sociologist, Florian Znaniecki,6 in trying to explain the nature of the sociological investig·ation that he used in his classic work The Polish Peasant, states: Thus all generalizations constituting the common-sense social theory and based on individual experience are both insignificant and subject to innumerable exceptions. A sociology that accepts them necessarily condemns itself to remain in the same methodological stage, and a practice based upon them must be as insecure and as full of failures as is the activity of every individual. Znaniecki, however, goes on to state that sound empirical investigation has the effect of eventually explaining individual behavior more clearly. He goes on to state,7 120 SLOVAKIA Whenever, now, this "practical" sociology makes an effort to get above the level of popular generalizations by the study of social reality instead of relying upon individual experience, it still preserves the same method as the individual in his personal reflection; investigation always goes on with an immediate reference to practical aims, and the standards of the desirable and undesirable are the ground upon which theoretic problems are approached. Thus, empirical research is an attempt to identify specific problems of interest, and subject these problems to the scrutiny of the scientific (in a broad sense) method. We have now identified the historical and empirical approaches to the study of group behavior as being two powerful tools that the researcher is able to use in arriving at "meaning" for social phenomena. I believe a further positive step in studying Slovak-Americans would be to incorporate both methodological approaches into a larger perspective. A SYNTHESIS OF HISTORICAL- EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION A perspective that incorporates historiography and a social science empirical approach is needed on two accounts: to broaden the area of investigation for scholars in general, and to insure that a body of well researched and validated knowledge be made available for future generations of people interested in their ethnic heritage. I am positing this approach not as a grand synthesis of two methodological systems to inquiry, but rather to deliniate the thrust of research that is needed to fulfill a large knowledge-gap existing about Slovak-Americans. The historical-social science approach combines the broader inquiry of the historian with the more specialized interest of the social scientist. This type of analysis is supported by a fairly substantial body of research. 8 More specifically, this type of research is now being undertaken by scholars interested in Slovak-American developments. Of particular relevance here is the research being carried on by the University of Minnesota.9 There is, to begin with, a large body of available material on Slovak-Americans that can be ascertained from examining the insurance application files of the First Catholic Slovak Union. The information from these files provides a vast amount of historical information that can give us an accurate profile of the Slovak SLOVAKIA 121 emigrating to America. From these sources, the researcher is able to gather a composite picture of Slovak-American life. Thus, as Stolarik points out, " we can deduce the relative number of people who emigrated from each county, each village, each city . . . In addition, we can compare the grouping of people in the individual lodges at the parish level." 10 From this data other generalizations can be drawn; the amount of horizontal mobility, life expectancy, group cohesion, marriage patterns, length of residence in America, and so forth. Additional information is available from parish and lodge records. These records provide the researcher with data on parish life, relationship with clergy and the structure of parochial education. Likewise, newspapers such as Slovak v Amerike and Jednota are a further source of important historical materials. Thus, there is an abundance of historical material in which to set a firm basis for the study of SlovakAmericans . Now, within this historical framework, the researcher is also able to concentrate on certain specific aspects of behavior and apply the methods of the social sciences. For example, one of the areas that would be of interest to the sociologist, within the context of Slovak-American communities, would be the nature of social mobility. 11 The idea of mobility is closely related to the notion of stratification. That is, the sociologist is interested in the way societies group their members, and what types of judgements are placed on the people within the various strata. Once he has ascertained how the stratification system is constructed, he can ask whether or not it is possible to "move" from one strata to another, or the amount and type of mobility that occurs. These questions are significant to the researcher because from them he can gain a better understaning to the exact nature of the group he is investigating. For instance, if the researcher is able to identify a number of social classes as being representative of a given society, he can gain a great deal of information as to what different classes value; what their income and educational levels are; what occupations are associated with them; how they raise their children; their mortality rates; associations they belong to; political attitudes they hold; geographical 122 SLOVAKIA areas they occupy, and so forth. With this data, the investigator can determine what the "life-styles" and "lifechances" are for different groups in a society. 12 For our purpose the point is this: To study SlovakAmericans in tenns of mobility (and this is only one dimension) patterns is valuable in that a great deal of useful information can be gotten on changing life-styles and life-chances. This type of data, in turn, will give us answers to such questions as the rate of intergenerational mobility ( differences between father's and son's occupation); the increasing or decreasing educational level of Slovak-Americans ; and, generally, how well they have become assimilated within American society. Many other significant aspects of Slovak-American life can be examined through social science inquiry. One could take, as a point of departure for study, the chances within the structure of the Slovak-American family. A comparison could be made, for instance, between the structure of the family from the time of emigration, to the first five or ten years of living in America. It would be possible then to study such things as the impact of industrialization on the family unit, and the methods used to cope with strain and role conflicts.13 Or one could examine the cohesiveness of Slovak families as a function of their religious identity, language or fraternal organizations. The need for historical background material would, of course, be necessary here also. Inquiry could continue into such areas as achievement levels of Slovak-American children (for any given historical period); the value placed on education by Slovak families; the role of daughters in Slovak families; the role of the mother in the family unit, and so on. The techniques for investigating these types of questions have been worked out within the social sciences, and can be fruitfully employed in providing answers to the above. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail as to the statistical design that would be appropriate in investigating these questions. The methodology is available, however, and a design can be worked out by persons trained in these methods. 14 SLOVAKIA 123 FUTURE DIRECTIONS What we have been saying is this: Slovaks have made a distinct and unique contribution to American Society. They have done this through much hardship, sacrifice, and the endurance of many types of overt and subtle injustices. As with any ethnic group, the Slovaks have a right to emphasize their special contributions in shaping American society. But in order to know what Slovaks have accomplished here and elsewhere, we must first know more about them in a systematic and objective way. To do this requires a frame of mind that is willing to set aside political controversies that are over a half-century old and that relate exclusively to Slovakia. It also calls for a change in attitude in terms of defining Slovak culture in an overly personal and emotional fashion. That is, equating Slovak culture with poetic attempts to discover the "true" Slovak "character"; or with attempts to mythologize certain Slovak leaders and their alleged contributions to all Slovaks. This change of attitude also implies a reorganization of priorities. It calls for supporting historical and scientific research in studying Slovaks; in taking positions on social issues; and in the realization that if young people do not identify in some meaningful way with their Slovak-American heritage, that heritage will not survive. One way to guarantee the survival of this heritage is, I believe, through the type of research outlined thus far. It is only by a large scale emphasis on sound research that a body of knowledge about Slovak-Americans can be constructed. This in turn will stimulate further scholarly interest the results of which will be incorporated, formally, within the structure of higher education and passed on to others who wish to carry on the investigation. In summary, is should be noted again, that objective research does not undermine the uniqueness of a group's heritage or contributions. Studying Slovak-Americans objectively does not mean that one forgets the struggle for freedom that Slovaks have had to under go, or the religious persecutions they have been subjected to. Research does not mean that personal experiences and insights of people do not count, or that the common-man Slovak is forgotten. What objective research does do is to give the sons and daughters of the "average Slovak" a lasting body of knowledge about 124 SLOVAKIA their heritage and of the sacrifices and contributions of their parents and grandparents. REFERENCES 1) Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundation of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 698. 2) Ibid., p . 699. 3) Ibid., p. 700. 4) For an in depth discussion of the scientific method see, May Brodbeck, "Logic And Scientific Method In Research On Teaching," in Handbook Of Research On Teaching , N. L. Gage, (ed), (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1963) , pp. 44-93. 5) Kerlinger, p. 14. 6) Florian Znaniecki, On Humanistic Sociology, Robert Bierstedt (ed. ), (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 58. An excerpt taken from the "Methodological Note" , William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), 1:1-86. 7) Ibid., p. 58. 8) For a compilation of sources using these methods see, Werner J . Cahnman and Alvin Bosko££ (ed.) , Sociology and History (London: Free Press, 1964) . 9) I am especially indebted to Mr. M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Minnesota for permission to use his excellent paper, "The Immigrant Is Not Anonymous" which was delivered before the American Educational Research Association, The History of Edu cation Division on March 5, 1970. Mr. Stolarik has done what, I believe, is pioneering work in the area of Slovak-American ethnic origins. He has set the important groundwork for further scholarly efforts (both historical and empirical) in this whole area. As Mr. Stolarik points out, this type of research is well on its way and will, if pursued by other scholars, give us a well grounded body of knowledge on Slovak-Americans. I am using the general outline of Mr. Stolarik's paper, pp. 1-10, in this part of the discussion. 10) Stolarik, p. 2. 11) Carol Owen, Social Stratification (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968), and Melvin M. Tumin, Social Stratification: The Forms And Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 56-81. 12) Kurt B. Mayer and Walter Buckley, Class And Society (New York: Randon House, 1970) , pp. 86-134. 13) Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process ( Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 3-9. 14) See, for example, Delbert C. Miller, Handbook of Research And Social Measurement (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1964) .  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 Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as a Distinct Ethnic Group Description An account of the resource Dr. Steven I. Miller Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 116-124 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Miller, Steven I. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/70cf2b0ef30296551c584062bb55308b.pdf b828bfebe5d2865ab9e552aa226177a0 PDF Text Text 114 SLOVAKIA America's Discovery of Ethnic Values A . V . Pi e r, 0. S. B. Strangely enough after almost two hundred years since the founding of this Republic an important and vital discovery has been made by American scholars and educators, namely, that the people of America have been misled into thinking that complete amalgamation is the best and only formula for insuring a strong, united, enlightened and prosperous country. This trend until recently has been pushed officially and unofficially towards the elimination of individual nationality traits, all foreign languages, traditions, etc., according to the erstwhile popular but misguided melting-pot idea. Fortunately, at long last this trend has been radically reversed because the idea that was in vogue for so long a time without seriously questioned has been abandoned because its effects have been detrimental to our society. Its aim was to produce a monolithic entity without historic roots, without a past, without a trace of ethnic origins. The process was supposed to produce a new nation devoid of any links with the past. Such an unrealistic approach was doomed to failure from the start. It is a wonder it took so long to expose the falseness of the whole idea i na society that is known for it practicality and realistic approach to any problem. Exalted expectations of one hundred percent Americanism as the end result of total consolidation through total immersion and submersion in a common melting-pot, so to speak, went askew despite concerted efforts of government and educational agencies to produce by distillation a completely simon pure product or creation, that is, a standarized version of the new American. Cultural values are enduring. They do not, as a general rule, vanish completely from existence. Very often they become adopted to new surroundings and circumstances of time and place. For example, both the Greek and Roman �SLOVAKIA 115 cultures, though pagan, were in a different way adapted to the emerging new Chr:ilstian culture that followed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Many of the best phases of that Greco-Roman civilization still influence the western world. What are some of the genuinely worthwhile ethnic values that were downgraded almost to the point of extinction in our time? Since they deal largely with many diversified form that require a thorough study of the various languages, literatures a histories of some fifty ethnic groups in our country it would require at least several volumes to analyze and evaluate them properly and adequately. Already serious research is being done in this direction. When this essential work is completed we will have a veritable treasure trove of cultural values whose intrinsic worth will exceed by far anything the world has ever seen. Other nations may boast of their own distinct cultural riches but our collection will contain the finest gifts of fifty cultures from around the globe. Appraisal of our potential wealth will include, we feel certain, the unique cultural qualities of Slovak national culture which the American Slovaks have fostered and cherished since their coming to this country almost a century ago. So far we have not given much attention to the signs of Slovak culture which are actually all around us, particularly in localities where large numbers of immigrants from Slovakia settled. We have our own churches , schools, societies, clubs, newspapers, magazines, radio program, plays, music and literature both prose and poetry. It is only a matter of time until all these will be properly recorded, evaluated and publicized to show how truly great is our Slovak culture not only in Slovakia but here in our very midst in America. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA firmly believes in the American principle of self-determination of all nations, the inherent and God-given right of every nation, whether large or small, to freedom and independence, the right of every nation to freely choose its own form of government and freely elect persons of its own choice by whom it shall be governed. � 114 SLOVAKIA America's Discovery of Ethnic Values A . V . Pi e r, 0. S. B. Strangely enough after almost two hundred years since the founding of this Republic an important and vital discovery has been made by American scholars and educators, namely, that the people of America have been misled into thinking that complete amalgamation is the best and only formula for insuring a strong, united, enlightened and prosperous country. This trend until recently has been pushed officially and unofficially towards the elimination of individual nationality traits, all foreign languages, traditions, etc., according to the erstwhile popular but misguided melting-pot idea. Fortunately, at long last this trend has been radically reversed because the idea that was in vogue for so long a time without seriously questioned has been abandoned because its effects have been detrimental to our society. Its aim was to produce a monolithic entity without historic roots, without a past, without a trace of ethnic origins. The process was supposed to produce a new nation devoid of any links with the past. Such an unrealistic approach was doomed to failure from the start. It is a wonder it took so long to expose the falseness of the whole idea i na society that is known for it practicality and realistic approach to any problem. Exalted expectations of one hundred percent Americanism as the end result of total consolidation through total immersion and submersion in a common melting-pot, so to speak, went askew despite concerted efforts of government and educational agencies to produce by distillation a completely simon pure product or creation, that is, a standarized version of the new American. Cultural values are enduring. They do not, as a general rule, vanish completely from existence. Very often they become adopted to new surroundings and circumstances of time and place. For example, both the Greek and Roman �SLOVAKIA 115 cultures, though pagan, were in a different way adapted to the emerging new Chr:ilstian culture that followed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Many of the best phases of that Greco-Roman civilization still influence the western world. What are some of the genuinely worthwhile ethnic values that were downgraded almost to the point of extinction in our time? Since they deal largely with many diversified form that require a thorough study of the various languages, literatures a histories of some fifty ethnic groups in our country it would require at least several volumes to analyze and evaluate them properly and adequately. Already serious research is being done in this direction. When this essential work is completed we will have a veritable treasure trove of cultural values whose intrinsic worth will exceed by far anything the world has ever seen. Other nations may boast of their own distinct cultural riches but our collection will contain the finest gifts of fifty cultures from around the globe. Appraisal of our potential wealth will include, we feel certain, the unique cultural qualities of Slovak national culture which the American Slovaks have fostered and cherished since their coming to this country almost a century ago. So far we have not given much attention to the signs of Slovak culture which are actually all around us, particularly in localities where large numbers of immigrants from Slovakia settled. We have our own churches , schools, societies, clubs, newspapers, magazines, radio program, plays, music and literature both prose and poetry. It is only a matter of time until all these will be properly recorded, evaluated and publicized to show how truly great is our Slovak culture not only in Slovakia but here in our very midst in America. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA firmly believes in the American principle of self-determination of all nations, the inherent and God-given right of every nation, whether large or small, to freedom and independence, the right of every nation to freely choose its own form of government and freely elect persons of its own choice by whom it shall be governed. � 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 114 SLOVAKIA America's Discovery of Ethnic Values A . V . Pi e r, 0. S. B. Strangely enough after almost two hundred years since the founding of this Republic an important and vital discovery has been made by American scholars and educators, namely, that the people of America have been misled into thinking that complete amalgamation is the best and only formula for insuring a strong, united, enlightened and prosperous country. This trend until recently has been pushed officially and unofficially towards the elimination of individual nationality traits, all foreign languages, traditions, etc., according to the erstwhile popular but misguided melting-pot idea. Fortunately, at long last this trend has been radically reversed because the idea that was in vogue for so long a time without seriously questioned has been abandoned because its effects have been detrimental to our society. Its aim was to produce a monolithic entity without historic roots, without a past, without a trace of ethnic origins. The process was supposed to produce a new nation devoid of any links with the past. Such an unrealistic approach was doomed to failure from the start. It is a wonder it took so long to expose the falseness of the whole idea i na society that is known for it practicality and realistic approach to any problem. Exalted expectations of one hundred percent Americanism as the end result of total consolidation through total immersion and submersion in a common melting-pot, so to speak, went askew despite concerted efforts of government and educational agencies to produce by distillation a completely simon pure product or creation, that is, a standarized version of the new American. Cultural values are enduring. They do not, as a general rule, vanish completely from existence. Very often they become adopted to new surroundings and circumstances of time and place. For example, both the Greek and Roman SLOVAKIA 115 cultures, though pagan, were in a different way adapted to the emerging new Chr:ilstian culture that followed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Many of the best phases of that Greco-Roman civilization still influence the western world. What are some of the genuinely worthwhile ethnic values that were downgraded almost to the point of extinction in our time? Since they deal largely with many diversified form that require a thorough study of the various languages, literatures a histories of some fifty ethnic groups in our country it would require at least several volumes to analyze and evaluate them properly and adequately. Already serious research is being done in this direction. When this essential work is completed we will have a veritable treasure trove of cultural values whose intrinsic worth will exceed by far anything the world has ever seen. Other nations may boast of their own distinct cultural riches but our collection will contain the finest gifts of fifty cultures from around the globe. Appraisal of our potential wealth will include, we feel certain, the unique cultural qualities of Slovak national culture which the American Slovaks have fostered and cherished since their coming to this country almost a century ago. So far we have not given much attention to the signs of Slovak culture which are actually all around us, particularly in localities where large numbers of immigrants from Slovakia settled. We have our own churches , schools, societies, clubs, newspapers, magazines, radio program, plays, music and literature both prose and poetry. It is only a matter of time until all these will be properly recorded, evaluated and publicized to show how truly great is our Slovak culture not only in Slovakia but here in our very midst in America. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA firmly believes in the American principle of self-determination of all nations, the inherent and God-given right of every nation, whether large or small, to freedom and independence, the right of every nation to freely choose its own form of government and freely elect persons of its own choice by whom it shall be governed.  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 America's Discovery of Ethnic Values Description An account of the resource A. V. Pier, O.S.B. Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 114-115 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pier, Andrew W., 1910-2003 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/8071ba5523ab887312dd16e8dbc89dbb.pdf 275d0b991ec2daf93713b41d78eda43a PDF Text Text 98 SLOVAKIA The Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks Ln U.S.A. and Canada* * This essay w as prepare d by t he late Konstan tin culen i n 1962 for a symposium or ganized and edited by Prof. J. M . K i rschbaum for the 11th cent ennary of the arrival of SS. Cyril and Methodius among t he ancest ors of Slov aks. T he essays co llected and edit ed or translated by J. M. K i r sc h baum appeared in SLOVAK STUDT ES, CYRILLO-METH ODIANA, V ol. 3, (Rome, 1963). Culen's essay was not yet tr anslated and therefore not published. I n view of the valuable information and in order to complet e the history of the CyriUo-Methodia n tradition among Sl ov aks, we are grat efiil to Dr. Kirschbaum for preserving the manuscript and his adaptation for an English piiblication . By K . C u len THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN IRISH ON AMERICAN SLOVAKS The migration of Slovaks to the U.S.A. had many traits similar to those of the migration of the Irish. It was the catastrophic potato crop failure which caused the first man emigration of the Irish to the U.S.A. And we come across a similar cause of emigration of the Slovaks. The Slovak statistician Dr. Emil Stodola noted that each poor p otato crop in Slovakia was followed by rising emigration to the U.S .A. There were other similarities between the Irish and the Slovak migrations. The oppression of the Irish dates even further back in history than the Slovak one and is many sided. The political oppression started in Slovakia at the end of the 18th century and culminated befor the First World War. The Irish were oppressed due to their religion and suffered culturally and economically and therefore their resistance was stronger and more passionate than that of the Slovaks. In Ireland the oppression affected all the classes but in Slovakia the intelligentsia suffered most. The difference comes to light when we compare the cult of S t . Patrick to the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius . �SLOVAKIA 99 St. Patrick is a national saint and is known and revered by all the Irish. SS. Cyril and Methodius were not known to the same extent amongst Slovaks. The population in general had only a vague knowledge of them. But the Slovak intelligentsia had even a deeper devotion to them than the Irish to St. Patrick. Therefore the cult of the SS. Cyril and Methodius in the U.S.A. was not a cult brought over by the masses as in the case of St. Patrick, but it was a cult especially nurtured by nationally conscious immigrants, nurtured to an extent that would not have been possible in Slovakia. Generally speaking, the Slovak immigrants became aware, in their new countries, of a need for a national saint and this became evident to them on such days as the feast of St. Patrick, with its festivities attracting not only the Irish but also numerous names of other nationalities. In older Slovak papers we frequently see articles about large groups of Slovaks participating in the festivities of St. Patrick. In one case the writer claimed that Slovaks outnumbered the Irish. No wonder these Slovaks asked"Who would correspond to St. Patrick in our national life? " They frequently raised this question in the Slovak press and of course the only answer they could obtain was-SS . Cyril and Methodius. It was this background which helped to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius between the Slovak names in the U.S .A. It should be noted in this connection, that SS . Cyril and Methodius completed amongst the Slovaks the missionary work which prior to them was already initiated by Bavarian and Irish missionaries, the first Christian missionaries in the Danube area. 1 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CULT OF ST. PATRICK ON THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS In the very early Slovak papers in the U.S.A. appeared dozens of articles, some short and some extensive enough, for serial publication, describing the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius amongst the Slovak ancestors. American Slovaks who were scattered amongst the Irish saw in the SS. Cyril and Methodius their St. Patrick. The Slovak papers exhorted them to venerate them just as the Irish revered St. Patrick. It is interesting to ask the question, how much did �100 SLOVAKIA the American Slovaks know about SS. Cyril and Methodius? Not a great deal. Most often they learned about them them from the excellent and well known prayer book of Rev. Andrej Radlinsky "Nabozne Vylevy." This prayer book contained a color picture of the Saints, their brief history and their prayers. Rev. Radlinsky succeeded in doing this to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Later on when a small prayer book was published in the U.S.A., the bishop of Spis, Parvy, put it on the Index for no reason other than that it contained a prayer to SS. Cyril and Methodius. Thus while Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical highly extoling the missionary work of these two Saints, a Magyar bishop with his seat in Catholic Slovakia put the prayer book on the Index as he mistrusted these Saints because of their panslavistic learnings. The large groups of Slovak immigrants in the U.S.A. had for the first time an opportunity to learn more about the missionary work of those Apostles, as well as about their cultural and linguistic work. But at the moment when the cult of these Apostles began to spread, a group of Catholic priests rose against it even in the U.S .A. and according to the spirit which was taught to them in the seminaries in the old country prepared the road-blocks to this cult. At the head of the group were Kossalko, Denes and Haitinger. In the papers edited by them they vituperated both Saints in the same manner as did the Magyar Catholic periodical "Katolikus Szemle" (Catholic Review) in the year 1893 in an article "Slavonic Christianity in our territories before their occupation". St. Methodius was denounced here as a panslavistic chauvinist, a forerunner of the schism and a very untrustworthy personality. The author of the article applied the modern Magyar approach and the chauvinistic terminology to the period prior to 900 when the national questions were of very minor importance.2 The pupils of this chauvinistic school working in the U.S .A. could find nothing worthy to say about these Saints and made them subjects of the intrigues of the Hungarian premier Koloman Tisza and of his successors. Their success was, however, small as they were unpopular priests and their arguments were without any force against the well documented work of their opponents. �SLOVAKIA 101 THE FIRST CHURCH DEDICATED TO SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS The first church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius in the U.S .A. was a small wooden church built by two Czech Societies: the Society of St. Wenceslas and the Society of St. Ludmila in New York. These two societies were founded in 1874 with the purpose of building the first church for the growing Czech colony in New York, in the block between the 1st and 10th streets and between the Avenues B-D, where the Czechs were intermingled with the Poles. The Plan for the building of the church received a new impetus when Rev. A. V. Vacula came to New York from Baltimore, Md. He was born on the 15th of August 1845, in Osek, near Olomouc, in Moravia. He studied in Kromeriz, at the University of Vienna and at Louvain, Belgium. Here the American bishops established a seminary into which they accepted students from the whole of Europe, to prepare them for work in the ethnic settlements in the U.S.A. Vacula was accepted as the future priest of the Czech settlement in Baltimore, Md. Immediately after his consecration in 1870 he left for the U.S.A. and from the beginning of December he served in the parish of St. Wenceslas, Baltimore, Md. As the Czech Catholics of New York could not make progress with their plan, they invited into this parish Rev. Vacula, who arrived in 1875 and started his work with great enthusiasm. He immediately bought the land and the building, Number 316 E. 4th Street for $12,000.00, then enlarged the building for an outlay of an additional $6,000.00 and on the 1st of December 1875 the Vicar General of New York consecrated the Church in the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius. 3 This was the first church in the U.S.A. to be named after SS. Cyril and Methodius. And it appeared very appropriate that behind this achievement was a priest from Moravia. Out of all Slavic countries, in Moravia the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the deeepest, most widely spread and most popular. In no other Slavic country were the names SS. Cyril and Methodius given so often at baptism as in Moravia. The Cyrillo-Methodian cult spread from the Moravian Velehrad in all directions and the �102 SLOVAKIA Slovaks made frequent pilgrimages there as to a source of spiritual strength. The New York church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methoqius was the first catholic church which was also attended by "the first Slovak immigrants in that city. When later this church was closed, they went to the Irish church of St. Brigitte or to the nearest German or Polish churches until in 1894 they built the first Slovak Catholic church dedicated to St. Elizabeth of Hungary. This church was built in the same street where earlier had been the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Similarly as amongst the Slovaks, the Cyrillo-Methodian cult was as widely spread amongst the Czechs, especially in those districts where also Moravians were settled. After the first Cyrillo-Methodian church in New York, which soon closed, there were another 15 churches built in the U.S.A., namely in: Bannister, Mich.; Kansas City, Kansas; Chicago, Ill.; Platoma, Texas; Clarkson, Nebraska; Corpus Christi, Tex.; Doman, Texas; Dubina, Texas; East St. Louis, Illinois; Granger, Texas; North Judson, Indiana; Plasi (Prague), Nebraska; Shiner, Texas ; Tanton, Michigan; Vodnary, Dakota. Besides the Slovaks and the Czechs the Cyrillo-Methodian churches were mainly built by Slovenes, Croatians and · Poles. THE UNFULFILLED PLAN OF A NEW CHURCH OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN NEW YORK The next church in New York which was to bear the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the church originally dedicated to St. John Nepomucene. That this plan did not succeed was due mainly to the bitter struggles between the nationally conscious Slovaks and the Magyarones. The consecration of the first Slovak Catholic Church took place in 1894. This was the church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It was around this church that the struggle between the Slovaks and the Magyars and Magyar sympathizers developed. The night before the consecration the "Magyarones" removed from the corner stone the plaque bearing the text written in literary Slovak: "Rim. Kat. Kostal Sv. Alzbety, Vystavany R. 1892". Instead of this they �SLOVAKIA 103 placed there plaque with a text in Eastern-Slovak dialect : " Uherszko Szlovenszki Kat. Koscel Szv. Elizabethy Uherszkej, Visztav. R. 1892." This arnmounted to a declaration of war. The Slovaks refused to support a Church with a name written in a distorted Slovak language and in foreign, non-Slovak orthography. This battle lasted for over a year until finally Archbishop Corrigan wrote to Slovakia inquiring which version was correct. When he received the reply he had the plaque changed as he considered that what was orthographically incorrect, was of poor taste and unfitting for a house of God. The Slovaks were jubilant but not for long as the Archbishop was approached by a delegation led by a Magyar lawyer Czukor (Jewish by religion) who persuaded the Archbishop that this struggle was between the Eastern Orthodox Panslavistic Church and between Catholicism. The Magyars were the true catholics, a European nation, but the Slovaks were Panslavs, Russofiles and sympathizers with the Eastern-Orthodoxy. Should this movement gain power it would dominate the Danubian Basin and soon it would undermine even the See. of St. Peter. The Cyrillo-Methodian cult which they spread is an Eastern-Orthodox religion. The archbishop believed these arguments and the following day he ordered to put back the plaque with the text in the Eastern dialect. The local priest, Rev. Polakovic, protested but the Archbishop rebuked him and informed him he had to look for a new parish outside of his diocese. This naturally caused a great disappointment amongst the Slovaks. A delegation of Slovaks informed the Archbishop that they would not attend this church and would not support it but would built a new Slovak Church. The Archbishop approved the plans for the new Church. The Slovaks started to work with enthusiasm and in a few weeks they transformed an old building into a new church which stood only one block away on the same street. It was planned that this church would bear the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius, this had been already announced in the papers and the donations for the building paid and it was accepted under this name.4 But this plan did not materialize. The Archbishop appointed here a Czech priest, Rev. simonik, who under �104 SLOVAKIA the pressure from the Archbishop gave the church the name of St. John Nepomuce ne. This was the first but also the last time that the names of SS. Cyril and Methodius were in the disfavor of an American Bishop. THE OLDEST CATHOLIC CHURCHE S WITH PATRON SAINTS SS. CYRIL AND METHODI US The sudden expansion of the Cyrillo-Me thodian cult on the American continent was described by Rev. Jozef Martincek as follows: "As soon as the Slovak immigrant s settled in the U.S.A. and began to form their parishes and to build their churches, the Cyrillo-Me thodian flame, which appeared for almost extinguishe d, suddenly rekindled in the hearts of our compatriot s. They almost competed with each other in their Cyrillo-Me thodian zeal to build and dedicate churches to them and there is hardly any Slovak church in the U.S.A. where their picture or their statue would not be given a distinguish ed place." 5 The Cyrillo-Me thodian cult spread in the U.S.A. due to the expanding Slovak periodicals and papers, due to the work of the patriotic Slovak priest and to a great extent also as a result of a protest against the Magyar persecutio n at home. The popularity which the cult gained in the U.S.A. was inconceiva ble in Slovakia of that time. The first Slovak Catholic Church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius was built in 1891 in Minneapol is, Minn. The initiative came from the local Society of SS. Cyril and Methodius which was founded in 1888 as the first society on the American soil called after these Saints. In the same year another church bearing the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius was opened in Bethlehem , Pa. The founder of this church was Rev. Heinen, a missionary of German origin. He was originally an officer in the German Army but later on he changed the uniform for a priestly garb and after completing his theological studies he came to the U.S.A. and worked as a missionary mainly amongst the Slavic immigrant s in Pennsylvan ia. His assistant in missionary work ( which he directed from Mau Chung, Pa.) was Rev. Vlossak, a Slovak priest, and it was due to his influence that the church in Bethlehem , Pa., was given the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius .6 �SLOVAKIA 105 THE LIST OF THE SLOVAK CHURCHES OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. This example was followed by others and the following list shows chronologically the founding of the churches dedicated to the SS. Cyril and Methodius in different parts of the U.S.A. the brackets show the diocese to which the parish belonged. 7 1891. Minneapolis, Minn. (St. Paul, Minn. ) 1891. Bethlehem, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1893. Reading, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1895. Brookside, Ala. (Mobile, Ala. ) 1898. Haverstraw, N. Y. (New York, N. Y.) 1898. Youngstown, 0. (Youngstown, 0.) 1900. Kingston, Pa. (Scranton, Pa.) 1900. Stockett, Mont. (Great Falls, Mont.) 1900. Joliet, Ill. (Joliet, Ill.) 1900. Stuttgart, Ark. (Little Rock, Ark. ) 1901. Edwardsville, Pa. 1902. Charleroi, Pa. (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) 1903. Binghamton, N. Y. (Syracuse, N . Y.) 1903. Lakewood, Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio ) 1904. Winburne, Pa. (Erie, Pa.) 1905. Lebanon, Pa. (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1905. Windber, Pa. (Altoona, Pa.) 1906. Kansas City, Kans. (Kansas City Kans.) 1906. Barberton, Ohio 1906. Boonton, N. J. (Paterson, N. J.) 1907 . Bridgeport, Conn. (Hartford, Conn.) 1911. East St. Louis, Ill. (Belleville, Ill.) 1911. Fairchance, Pa. (Greensburg, Pa.) 1911. Superior, Wis. (Superior, Wis.) 1912. Rock Spring, Wyoming 1913. Clifton, N . J. (Paterson, N. J.) 1913. Sugar Creek, Mo. 1913. Schenectady, N . Y. (Albany, N . Y.) 1914. Chicago, Ill. (Chicago, Ill.) 1916. New Brighton, Pa. (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) 1918. Detroit, Mich. (Detroit, Mich.) 1920. Coaldale, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1923. Lisbon Falls, Maine (Portland, Maine ) 1923. Rossford, Ohio (Toledo, Ohio) 1928. Warren, Ohio 1949. Slovak Manor, N. Y. (New York, N . Y .) �106 SLOVAKIA THE GROWTH OF THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS One of the early articles dealing with the CyrilloMethodian cult appeared in Jednota in 1899. The author, J. Stas, is critical of Slovak immigrants and of their lack of devotions to SS. Cyril and Methodius. He makes the following suggestions about how to pay homage to SS. Cyril and Methodius. 1. Keep their picture in your house and teach your children about their life, their work, their contributions to our faith and our culture. 2. Give their names to your children at baptism. 3. Build and dedicate churches to these Saints and decorate the existing churches with their statues. 4. Put your societies under their patronage. So far less than 10 societies have been named after them. Is this not a disgrace to American Slovaks? 5. The 5th of July should be for the Slovaks a religious and a national holiday and in this we should learn from the Irish who so devotedly revere St. Patrick. This day, or at least the following Sunday, should be devoted to religious services and sermons in reverence to their work. On that day also other national and cultural celebrations should be organized. "I am asking our priests, our editors and all Slovaks to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius amongst our compatriots, and so preserve their heritage-- our faith and our culture." 8 But in spite of this exhortation the Slovaks in the U.S.A. were unable to organize any mass Cyrillo-Methodian celebrations. Rev. Jozef Martincek, one of the most ardent promoters of the Cyrillo-Methodian cult, wrote in 1913: "Why don't we pay the necessary homage to SS. Cyril and Methodius and why don't we celebrate one day in a year as their holiday as this was already suggested before by our compatriots and our brother in Christ, Michael Bosak. I ask Rev. Furdek and other leading Slovaks to take up this matter seriously and to present to the Slovak public a plan for Cyrillo-Methodian celebration."9 �SLOVAKIA 107 REV. F. V. SASINEK AND THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. In the days when the first Slovak papers commenced publication in the U.S.A., the 20-30,000 Slovak immigrants had only two priests and two educated laymen, Wolf and Slovensky, ( both teachers by profession and editors of these papers). It took several years before the number of such laymen together with the priest grew to 25. Naturally, under these circumstances any cultural work was extremely difficult as it fell on the shoulders of a very small group of men who besides their cultural work without monastery remuneration had also to carry on with their regular employment to provide for themselves and their families. Therefore, from the very beginning these men had to look to Slovakia for new help in their cultural and national work. The most enthusiastic and successful of such early workers was Rev. F . V. Sasinek, a catholic priest and a historian. Falling into disgrace of his bishop IpolyiStummer, he left Banska Bystrica and for some years he lived in Kuty as a guest of his friend Rev. Pukancik. He then went to Prague and from there to Maria Zell , a pilgrimage shrine in Austria, where he served as a confessor of the pilgrims and heard confessions in 12 languages. In this voluntary exile be became greatly interested in Slovak immigrants to the U.S.A. and as soon as he made contacts with Rovnianek and Furdek he became the main contributor to Slovak papers in the U.S.A. 10 He played especially a very important part in the cultivating of the Cyrillo-Methodian spirit. We estimate that approximately 85 ¼' of all Slovak publications about SS. Cyril and Methodius in the last century came from the pen of Sasinek. His first literary contribution published in 1852, was a poem: "Piesen o slovanskych blahozvestcoch", "A song about the missionaries of the Slavs".11 THE MAIN ADVOCATES OF THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. There were many active supporters of the CyrilloMethodian cult among the Catholic priests. Probably the most active was Rev. Jan Porubsky. He was an ingenious �108 SLOVAKIA writer, with a general, almost encyclopedic knowledge and was especially well acquainted with Slovak history. He began to write from Slovakia for the American Slovak papers and published a great number of articles about the life and the significance of the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Similar topics were covered by him in his books which were published in the U.S.A.12 From among other priests who were in the foreground of the Cyrillo-Methodian movement it is necessary to mention especially Stefan Furdek, then Rev. Stas, Rev. Dianiska, D. D., Rev. Pavco, Rev. Martincek, 13 Rev. Duchon and out of the younger generation, Rev. Stefan Panik, Msgr. Mlynarovic, etc. THE ORDER OF THE SISTERS OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS But probably the greatest achievement in this field can be attributed to Rev. Matus Jankola who founded the first Slovak teaching order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Dr. Fr. Hrusovsky in his history of this Order notes the following: "The Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius has a special place amongst the Slovak Orders in the U.S.A. because it is a truly Slovak Order. Even more, it is the only truly Slovak Order. Figuratively speaking we may say that The Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius is the only Slovak flower in the large bouquet of Slovak Orders. It was not by coincidence that this Order was not founded in Slovakia where SS. Cyril and Methodius worked many centuries ago and where different Orders, fo many centuries, maintained and developed their heritage. The fact that this Order was founded in the U.S .A. illustrates well how bright was the legacy of these Saints amongst those members of the Slovak nation who had to leave the mother country and how deep was their determination to preserve this legacy." 14 REV. DANIEL ZABOJ LAUcEK AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS Amongst the Slovak Protestant pastors it is especially �SLOVAKIA 109 necessary to mention Rev. Daniel Zaboj Laucek who dedicated his work to the Cyrillo-Methodian ideals when still in Slovakia and continued in this work on his arrival in America. In 1885, in Turciansky Sv. Martin he published the book Sv. Cyril a Metod, apostolovia slovanski, jich vyznam v cirkvi krest'anskej v6bec a v Slovanstve zvlast'. Nakladom vlastnym pri pomoci podporovatel'ov slovenskej spisby. (SS. Cyril and Methodius, Apostles of the Slavs, their place in Christendom and in Slavdom.) Private edition with the help of the supporters of the Slovak Literature. Besides this he published a series of articles : "Po tisic rokoch." "Pamiatke sv. slovanskych apostolov". (After a thousand years. In memory of the Saint Apostles of Slavs.) "Ocenenie jich p6sobenia" (Evaluation of their work) . "Blizsie o p6sobeni a razu sv. slovanskych apostolov" (More about the work and the spirit of the Saint Apostles of the Slavs) . "Pamiatky p6sobenia slovanskych bratov v nasom narode" (The imprints of the work of the Apostles of the Slavs in our nation). The series was published in Ndrodnie Noviny, XVI, 1885, number 1-7 . Rev. Laucek continued in this work in the U.S.A. and he wrote about similar topics in "cas" of which he was an editor for a short time. He also wrote in Slovak Protestant papers especially in Slovensky Hldsnik. Unfortunately a bibliography of the Slovak publications in the U.S.A. has never been put together and many of the works have not been preserved which means a great loss for Slovak literature. THE ASSOCIATIONS BEARING THE NAME OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS It is of great interest that the Cyrillo-Methodian Cult first spread amongst the immigrants from Eastern Slovakia. In 1875 the brothers Jan and Juraj Gogola came to Minneapolis, Minn. and shortly after them Jan Zelenak, Jan Martonik, and Tomas Ovsak. They came across an advertisement of the firm Timm Eliot and as they expected that this was probably a Slovak name, Elias, they answered the advertisement and applied for work with that firm. They were accepted and the firm found in them such good employees that it was willing in future to give preference to Slovaks. The owner of the firm was very �110 SLOVAKLA just and humanitarian and the Slovaks were pleased to work for him. From 1875 on, the number of the Slovaks in this city grew considerably and in 1878 the brothers Juraj and Andrej Olha and Jan Martonik thought of the plan of forming an Association of the Minneapolis Slovaks. They met on November 12th, 1888 and decided to form the Association. There is a notation in the minutes of the first meeting which reads: "As SS. Cyril and Methodius were our Apostles, it will be appropriate that our Association be placed under their patronage." This resolution was carried out. In 1891 the Association formed the first Slovak Catholic parish in the U.S.A. called after the two Apostles. This was the beginning of our active CyrilloMethodian cult amongst the American Slovaks. The men who were first preoccupied with this idea in the U.S.A. came from Bystre in saris county. 15 The first branch of "Narodny Slovensky Spolok" which put itself under the patronage of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the local branch No. 8, in Youngstown, Ohio. Rev. Horvath, and ardent Slovak Catholic priest, was in Youngstown at that time and it is likely that the Branch accepted the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius on his suggestion. 16 It will be of interest to note that one of the cofounders of the branch was John smigovsky, the grandfather of the colonel smigovsky, who for his service to the Slovak Republic was sentenced to death in 1946 by the pro-Communist National Tribunal under the chairmanship of Igor Daxner. Daxner recommended an amnesty, however, the chairman of the Slovak National Council refused to deal with this request on technical grounds and Smigovsky was executed the following day. Colonel smigovsky was born in the U.S.A. but was educated in Slovakia. THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN CANADA The possition of the Slovak immigrants to Canada was quite different from that of the immigration to the U.S.A. The immigration to Canada reached noticeable proportions only after the First World War when immigration to the U.S.A. became restricted and the quotas allowed were quickly filled. Unable to obtain admission to the U.S.A. many immigrants choose Canada, often with plans to seek admission to the U.S.A. later. The immigrants �SLOVAKIA 111 who come to Canada were of a different political background than those who in the previous century went to the U.S.A. They experienced the First World War, the political upheavals which followed, many of them went to Slovak schools and were on a higher cultural level than the generation who before them went to the U.S.A. They were more aware of national and political problems. There were no Magyarones amongst them and regardless of their political affiliations they declared themselves as Slovaks. Only a very small number of them believed that Slovaks ceased to exist as an individual nation and that a new "Czechoslovak" nation emerged. The first Catholic church in Canada dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius was a small church built in 1906 in Bellevue, Alberta. The oldest parish called after SS. Cyril and Methodius is the Montreal parish which was established in 1928. Similar parishes were formed in Toronto in 1934 and in Windsor in 1940. New parishes were founded following a new wave of immigrants after the Second World War. Amongst them are the parishes of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Hamilton, Ontario of 1945 and in Westminster, B. C. of 1960. 17 EPILOG The Cyrillo-Methodian ideology did not find favorable ground in Czecho-Slovakia after 1918 due to a strong anti-Catholic feeling of the ruling Czechs. But the Slovaks, in spite of many difficulties, were able to make progress in every direction. The ranks of the intelligentsia grew, the letters and the sciences advanced even in those fields where there was not one Slovak representative before. And slowly also the Cyrillo-Methodian ideas became better known to the masses. There were many who thought this development was too slow. Thus we read: "It is a pity that while the Slovaks in the U.S.A. have 16 parishes and 200 altars in their churches dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius, we at home, in Slovakia, have only 16 such altars in our 2,300 Catholic churches and chapels." 18 The author of course was poorly informed, as the number-of such parishes in the U.S.A. was not 16 but more �112 SLOVAKIA than twice that number. As in many other fields of Slovak affairs only after the formation of the Slovak Republic definite steps were taken to accept SS. Cyril and Methodius as national Saints. Their feast in Slovakia was also a day of commemoration for all Slovaks abroad. Throughout Slovakia there were festivals, meetings, lectures commemorating the Slovaks who had to leave their fatherland. The plans were made to build a cathedral to SS. Cyril and Methodius in Bratislava. Many research projects were under way and a Cyrillo-Methodian archives and library were in preparation. But with the loss of political independence these projects also died and with them also much of the work inspired by bishop Moyses, Fr. Sasinek and Holly. Out of these endeavors only those that grew abroad, in the U.S.A. and in Canada survived. But we believe that, in this age when even small nations and tribes throughout Africa are gaining independence, it will not be possible to beep in chains a nation which already 1,100 years ago belonged to the cultured and Christian nations of Europe and this mainly through the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius.19 FOOTNOTES AMI) LITERATURE 1) See Dr. F . Hrusovsky: frska misia a zaciatky krest'anstva (The Irish Mission and the Beginning of Christianity), pp. 41-65, and also by the same author Slovenski v ladari (Slovak Rulers ), Scranton 1948, p. 263. 2) Ries, Viliam : Frantisek Richard Osvald (Trnava, 1939), pp. 87, 93 . 3) Goulding, S: Catholic Churches of New York City, with sketches of their history and lives of the present Pastors, (New York, 1878 ), pp. 748. 4) Culen, K.: Dejiny newyorskych Slovcikov (The History of t he Slovaks of New York) . 5) " Oslava cyrilometodejska, 863-1863-1913," Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, p. 129. 6) Fink, Leo, Gregory: Monsignor Heinen, Militant Missionary , The Dolphin Press, (P hiladelphia, Pa. 1937) , p. 75. 7 ) Hrobak, Philip: Slovak Catholic Parishes and Institution in the United States of America, (Middletown, Pa. 1955), pp. 32, 34, 39, 42, 50, 52, 63, 65, 68, 70, 81 , 84, 87, 90, 92, 99, 105, 106, 107, 121, 132, 134, 146, 152, 154, 162. See also Piroch, Mary: "American Slovaks and SS. Cyril and Methodius," Slovakia Vol. XIII, N. 1/36, March 1963, pp. 25-28 ; ~ofranec, Tomas, Rev.: "Sv. Cyril a Metod a m y americki Slovaci" ( SS. Cyril and Methodi us and American Slovaks). Ave Maria, XLVII, No. 4, April 1, 1963, pp.175-176; Slovenske osady v Amerike, (Slovak Parishes in the U.S.A.), Kalendar Jednota for �SLOVAKIA 113 1906, pp. 23 , 51, 53-57, 73 , 81, 109, 113, 114; Baska, Louis, O.S.B.: Slovenske katolicke osady v Spojenych Statoch (Slovak Catholic Parishes in the U.S.A.) , Katolicke Slovensko (Trnava) , p. 623 ; Kushner, Jozef, Rev.: Slovaci katolici pittsburghskeho biskupstva ( Slovak Catholics of the Pittsburgh Diocese), Katolicky Sokol (Passaic, 1946) , p. 174. 8 ) J ednota, July 12, 1899. 9) Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, p. 130. 10) The first biography of SS. Cyril and Methodius started publicatio n in Jednota on the 18th January, 1899, and continued in a long series of articles. The author was Rev. Fr. Sasinek. 11) See Katolicke Noviny, 1852, 1st year, No. 35. 12) Porubsky, Jan Rev.: 100 rokov spisovnej slovenciny (One Hundred Years of Literary Slovak), Scranton, Pa.; Slovaci a slovencina (Slovaks and the Slovak language). This was edited anonymously, but it was the work of Rev. Porubsky, Katolicky Sokol, 1929, p . 114. 13 ) Martincek, Jozef, Rev. : "Oslava cyrilometodejska" (The CyrilloMethodian Jubilee) 863-1863-1913 ; Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, pp. 129135. " Oslava sv. Cyrila a Metoda v dobe Moysesa a dnes" (The Cyrillo-Methodian Celebration at the time of Moyses and Today), Kalendcir Sviitovojtessky, 1936, pp. 119-125. 14) Hrusovsky, Franti.sek, Dr. : Slovenske rehole v Amerike (Slovak Religious Orders in the U. S.A. ), Cleveland, Ohio 1935, p.496. See Chapter: Kongregacia sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Danville, P a. (Congregation of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Danville, Pa.), pp. 161-232. This Chapter has a detailed bibliography on pages 231-232 ; See also Pauco, Jozef: Matus Jankola, knaz a ncirodovec (Matus Jankola as a priest and a patriot) , Danville, Pa. , p . 173. 15) Pamiitnik Spolku sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Almanac of SS. Cyril and Methodius), No. 3, I.K.S.J. , Minneapolis, Minn. 1888-1938. 16) V. S. Platek: Nase odbory , D ejiny a pamiitnica 60 . vyrocia N. S.S. (Our Associations. The Memoirs of the 60th Anniversary of the National Slovak Society), Pittsburgh, Pa. , pp. 225-392. 17) On the religious organization of Canadian Slovaks, see J . M. Kirschbaum, Slovaks in Canada, (Toronto, 1967) , pp. 227-276. 18) Kalendcir Sviitovojtessky (St. Adalbert's Almanac ), 1936, p. 125. 19) On the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition in Slovakia, see Prof. J . M. Kirschbaum "The Role of the Cyrillo-Methodian Tradition in Slovak Na tional Life," Slovak Studies, Vol. III, (Rome, 1963 ) . • THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. � 98 SLOVAKIA The Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks Ln U.S.A. and Canada* * This essay w as prepare d by t he late Konstan tin culen i n 1962 for a symposium or ganized and edited by Prof. J. M . K i rschbaum for the 11th cent ennary of the arrival of SS. Cyril and Methodius among t he ancest ors of Slov aks. T he essays co llected and edit ed or translated by J. M. K i r sc h baum appeared in SLOVAK STUDT ES, CYRILLO-METH ODIANA, V ol. 3, (Rome, 1963). Culen's essay was not yet tr anslated and therefore not published. I n view of the valuable information and in order to complet e the history of the CyriUo-Methodia n tradition among Sl ov aks, we are grat efiil to Dr. Kirschbaum for preserving the manuscript and his adaptation for an English piiblication . By K . C u len THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN IRISH ON AMERICAN SLOVAKS The migration of Slovaks to the U.S.A. had many traits similar to those of the migration of the Irish. It was the catastrophic potato crop failure which caused the first man emigration of the Irish to the U.S.A. And we come across a similar cause of emigration of the Slovaks. The Slovak statistician Dr. Emil Stodola noted that each poor p otato crop in Slovakia was followed by rising emigration to the U.S .A. There were other similarities between the Irish and the Slovak migrations. The oppression of the Irish dates even further back in history than the Slovak one and is many sided. The political oppression started in Slovakia at the end of the 18th century and culminated befor the First World War. The Irish were oppressed due to their religion and suffered culturally and economically and therefore their resistance was stronger and more passionate than that of the Slovaks. In Ireland the oppression affected all the classes but in Slovakia the intelligentsia suffered most. The difference comes to light when we compare the cult of S t . Patrick to the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius . �SLOVAKIA 99 St. Patrick is a national saint and is known and revered by all the Irish. SS. Cyril and Methodius were not known to the same extent amongst Slovaks. The population in general had only a vague knowledge of them. But the Slovak intelligentsia had even a deeper devotion to them than the Irish to St. Patrick. Therefore the cult of the SS. Cyril and Methodius in the U.S.A. was not a cult brought over by the masses as in the case of St. Patrick, but it was a cult especially nurtured by nationally conscious immigrants, nurtured to an extent that would not have been possible in Slovakia. Generally speaking, the Slovak immigrants became aware, in their new countries, of a need for a national saint and this became evident to them on such days as the feast of St. Patrick, with its festivities attracting not only the Irish but also numerous names of other nationalities. In older Slovak papers we frequently see articles about large groups of Slovaks participating in the festivities of St. Patrick. In one case the writer claimed that Slovaks outnumbered the Irish. No wonder these Slovaks asked"Who would correspond to St. Patrick in our national life? " They frequently raised this question in the Slovak press and of course the only answer they could obtain was-SS . Cyril and Methodius. It was this background which helped to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius between the Slovak names in the U.S .A. It should be noted in this connection, that SS . Cyril and Methodius completed amongst the Slovaks the missionary work which prior to them was already initiated by Bavarian and Irish missionaries, the first Christian missionaries in the Danube area. 1 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CULT OF ST. PATRICK ON THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS In the very early Slovak papers in the U.S.A. appeared dozens of articles, some short and some extensive enough, for serial publication, describing the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius amongst the Slovak ancestors. American Slovaks who were scattered amongst the Irish saw in the SS. Cyril and Methodius their St. Patrick. The Slovak papers exhorted them to venerate them just as the Irish revered St. Patrick. It is interesting to ask the question, how much did �100 SLOVAKIA the American Slovaks know about SS. Cyril and Methodius? Not a great deal. Most often they learned about them them from the excellent and well known prayer book of Rev. Andrej Radlinsky "Nabozne Vylevy." This prayer book contained a color picture of the Saints, their brief history and their prayers. Rev. Radlinsky succeeded in doing this to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Later on when a small prayer book was published in the U.S.A., the bishop of Spis, Parvy, put it on the Index for no reason other than that it contained a prayer to SS. Cyril and Methodius. Thus while Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical highly extoling the missionary work of these two Saints, a Magyar bishop with his seat in Catholic Slovakia put the prayer book on the Index as he mistrusted these Saints because of their panslavistic learnings. The large groups of Slovak immigrants in the U.S.A. had for the first time an opportunity to learn more about the missionary work of those Apostles, as well as about their cultural and linguistic work. But at the moment when the cult of these Apostles began to spread, a group of Catholic priests rose against it even in the U.S .A. and according to the spirit which was taught to them in the seminaries in the old country prepared the road-blocks to this cult. At the head of the group were Kossalko, Denes and Haitinger. In the papers edited by them they vituperated both Saints in the same manner as did the Magyar Catholic periodical "Katolikus Szemle" (Catholic Review) in the year 1893 in an article "Slavonic Christianity in our territories before their occupation". St. Methodius was denounced here as a panslavistic chauvinist, a forerunner of the schism and a very untrustworthy personality. The author of the article applied the modern Magyar approach and the chauvinistic terminology to the period prior to 900 when the national questions were of very minor importance.2 The pupils of this chauvinistic school working in the U.S .A. could find nothing worthy to say about these Saints and made them subjects of the intrigues of the Hungarian premier Koloman Tisza and of his successors. Their success was, however, small as they were unpopular priests and their arguments were without any force against the well documented work of their opponents. �SLOVAKIA 101 THE FIRST CHURCH DEDICATED TO SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS The first church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius in the U.S .A. was a small wooden church built by two Czech Societies: the Society of St. Wenceslas and the Society of St. Ludmila in New York. These two societies were founded in 1874 with the purpose of building the first church for the growing Czech colony in New York, in the block between the 1st and 10th streets and between the Avenues B-D, where the Czechs were intermingled with the Poles. The Plan for the building of the church received a new impetus when Rev. A. V. Vacula came to New York from Baltimore, Md. He was born on the 15th of August 1845, in Osek, near Olomouc, in Moravia. He studied in Kromeriz, at the University of Vienna and at Louvain, Belgium. Here the American bishops established a seminary into which they accepted students from the whole of Europe, to prepare them for work in the ethnic settlements in the U.S.A. Vacula was accepted as the future priest of the Czech settlement in Baltimore, Md. Immediately after his consecration in 1870 he left for the U.S.A. and from the beginning of December he served in the parish of St. Wenceslas, Baltimore, Md. As the Czech Catholics of New York could not make progress with their plan, they invited into this parish Rev. Vacula, who arrived in 1875 and started his work with great enthusiasm. He immediately bought the land and the building, Number 316 E. 4th Street for $12,000.00, then enlarged the building for an outlay of an additional $6,000.00 and on the 1st of December 1875 the Vicar General of New York consecrated the Church in the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius. 3 This was the first church in the U.S.A. to be named after SS. Cyril and Methodius. And it appeared very appropriate that behind this achievement was a priest from Moravia. Out of all Slavic countries, in Moravia the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the deeepest, most widely spread and most popular. In no other Slavic country were the names SS. Cyril and Methodius given so often at baptism as in Moravia. The Cyrillo-Methodian cult spread from the Moravian Velehrad in all directions and the �102 SLOVAKIA Slovaks made frequent pilgrimages there as to a source of spiritual strength. The New York church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methoqius was the first catholic church which was also attended by "the first Slovak immigrants in that city. When later this church was closed, they went to the Irish church of St. Brigitte or to the nearest German or Polish churches until in 1894 they built the first Slovak Catholic church dedicated to St. Elizabeth of Hungary. This church was built in the same street where earlier had been the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Similarly as amongst the Slovaks, the Cyrillo-Methodian cult was as widely spread amongst the Czechs, especially in those districts where also Moravians were settled. After the first Cyrillo-Methodian church in New York, which soon closed, there were another 15 churches built in the U.S.A., namely in: Bannister, Mich.; Kansas City, Kansas; Chicago, Ill.; Platoma, Texas; Clarkson, Nebraska; Corpus Christi, Tex.; Doman, Texas; Dubina, Texas; East St. Louis, Illinois; Granger, Texas; North Judson, Indiana; Plasi (Prague), Nebraska; Shiner, Texas ; Tanton, Michigan; Vodnary, Dakota. Besides the Slovaks and the Czechs the Cyrillo-Methodian churches were mainly built by Slovenes, Croatians and · Poles. THE UNFULFILLED PLAN OF A NEW CHURCH OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN NEW YORK The next church in New York which was to bear the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the church originally dedicated to St. John Nepomucene. That this plan did not succeed was due mainly to the bitter struggles between the nationally conscious Slovaks and the Magyarones. The consecration of the first Slovak Catholic Church took place in 1894. This was the church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It was around this church that the struggle between the Slovaks and the Magyars and Magyar sympathizers developed. The night before the consecration the "Magyarones" removed from the corner stone the plaque bearing the text written in literary Slovak: "Rim. Kat. Kostal Sv. Alzbety, Vystavany R. 1892". Instead of this they �SLOVAKIA 103 placed there plaque with a text in Eastern-Slovak dialect : " Uherszko Szlovenszki Kat. Koscel Szv. Elizabethy Uherszkej, Visztav. R. 1892." This arnmounted to a declaration of war. The Slovaks refused to support a Church with a name written in a distorted Slovak language and in foreign, non-Slovak orthography. This battle lasted for over a year until finally Archbishop Corrigan wrote to Slovakia inquiring which version was correct. When he received the reply he had the plaque changed as he considered that what was orthographically incorrect, was of poor taste and unfitting for a house of God. The Slovaks were jubilant but not for long as the Archbishop was approached by a delegation led by a Magyar lawyer Czukor (Jewish by religion) who persuaded the Archbishop that this struggle was between the Eastern Orthodox Panslavistic Church and between Catholicism. The Magyars were the true catholics, a European nation, but the Slovaks were Panslavs, Russofiles and sympathizers with the Eastern-Orthodoxy. Should this movement gain power it would dominate the Danubian Basin and soon it would undermine even the See. of St. Peter. The Cyrillo-Methodian cult which they spread is an Eastern-Orthodox religion. The archbishop believed these arguments and the following day he ordered to put back the plaque with the text in the Eastern dialect. The local priest, Rev. Polakovic, protested but the Archbishop rebuked him and informed him he had to look for a new parish outside of his diocese. This naturally caused a great disappointment amongst the Slovaks. A delegation of Slovaks informed the Archbishop that they would not attend this church and would not support it but would built a new Slovak Church. The Archbishop approved the plans for the new Church. The Slovaks started to work with enthusiasm and in a few weeks they transformed an old building into a new church which stood only one block away on the same street. It was planned that this church would bear the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius, this had been already announced in the papers and the donations for the building paid and it was accepted under this name.4 But this plan did not materialize. The Archbishop appointed here a Czech priest, Rev. simonik, who under �104 SLOVAKIA the pressure from the Archbishop gave the church the name of St. John Nepomuce ne. This was the first but also the last time that the names of SS. Cyril and Methodius were in the disfavor of an American Bishop. THE OLDEST CATHOLIC CHURCHE S WITH PATRON SAINTS SS. CYRIL AND METHODI US The sudden expansion of the Cyrillo-Me thodian cult on the American continent was described by Rev. Jozef Martincek as follows: "As soon as the Slovak immigrant s settled in the U.S.A. and began to form their parishes and to build their churches, the Cyrillo-Me thodian flame, which appeared for almost extinguishe d, suddenly rekindled in the hearts of our compatriot s. They almost competed with each other in their Cyrillo-Me thodian zeal to build and dedicate churches to them and there is hardly any Slovak church in the U.S.A. where their picture or their statue would not be given a distinguish ed place." 5 The Cyrillo-Me thodian cult spread in the U.S.A. due to the expanding Slovak periodicals and papers, due to the work of the patriotic Slovak priest and to a great extent also as a result of a protest against the Magyar persecutio n at home. The popularity which the cult gained in the U.S.A. was inconceiva ble in Slovakia of that time. The first Slovak Catholic Church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius was built in 1891 in Minneapol is, Minn. The initiative came from the local Society of SS. Cyril and Methodius which was founded in 1888 as the first society on the American soil called after these Saints. In the same year another church bearing the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius was opened in Bethlehem , Pa. The founder of this church was Rev. Heinen, a missionary of German origin. He was originally an officer in the German Army but later on he changed the uniform for a priestly garb and after completing his theological studies he came to the U.S.A. and worked as a missionary mainly amongst the Slavic immigrant s in Pennsylvan ia. His assistant in missionary work ( which he directed from Mau Chung, Pa.) was Rev. Vlossak, a Slovak priest, and it was due to his influence that the church in Bethlehem , Pa., was given the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius .6 �SLOVAKIA 105 THE LIST OF THE SLOVAK CHURCHES OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. This example was followed by others and the following list shows chronologically the founding of the churches dedicated to the SS. Cyril and Methodius in different parts of the U.S.A. the brackets show the diocese to which the parish belonged. 7 1891. Minneapolis, Minn. (St. Paul, Minn. ) 1891. Bethlehem, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1893. Reading, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1895. Brookside, Ala. (Mobile, Ala. ) 1898. Haverstraw, N. Y. (New York, N. Y.) 1898. Youngstown, 0. (Youngstown, 0.) 1900. Kingston, Pa. (Scranton, Pa.) 1900. Stockett, Mont. (Great Falls, Mont.) 1900. Joliet, Ill. (Joliet, Ill.) 1900. Stuttgart, Ark. (Little Rock, Ark. ) 1901. Edwardsville, Pa. 1902. Charleroi, Pa. (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) 1903. Binghamton, N. Y. (Syracuse, N . Y.) 1903. Lakewood, Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio ) 1904. Winburne, Pa. (Erie, Pa.) 1905. Lebanon, Pa. (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1905. Windber, Pa. (Altoona, Pa.) 1906. Kansas City, Kans. (Kansas City Kans.) 1906. Barberton, Ohio 1906. Boonton, N. J. (Paterson, N. J.) 1907 . Bridgeport, Conn. (Hartford, Conn.) 1911. East St. Louis, Ill. (Belleville, Ill.) 1911. Fairchance, Pa. (Greensburg, Pa.) 1911. Superior, Wis. (Superior, Wis.) 1912. Rock Spring, Wyoming 1913. Clifton, N . J. (Paterson, N. J.) 1913. Sugar Creek, Mo. 1913. Schenectady, N . Y. (Albany, N . Y.) 1914. Chicago, Ill. (Chicago, Ill.) 1916. New Brighton, Pa. (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) 1918. Detroit, Mich. (Detroit, Mich.) 1920. Coaldale, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1923. Lisbon Falls, Maine (Portland, Maine ) 1923. Rossford, Ohio (Toledo, Ohio) 1928. Warren, Ohio 1949. Slovak Manor, N. Y. (New York, N . Y .) �106 SLOVAKIA THE GROWTH OF THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS One of the early articles dealing with the CyrilloMethodian cult appeared in Jednota in 1899. The author, J. Stas, is critical of Slovak immigrants and of their lack of devotions to SS. Cyril and Methodius. He makes the following suggestions about how to pay homage to SS. Cyril and Methodius. 1. Keep their picture in your house and teach your children about their life, their work, their contributions to our faith and our culture. 2. Give their names to your children at baptism. 3. Build and dedicate churches to these Saints and decorate the existing churches with their statues. 4. Put your societies under their patronage. So far less than 10 societies have been named after them. Is this not a disgrace to American Slovaks? 5. The 5th of July should be for the Slovaks a religious and a national holiday and in this we should learn from the Irish who so devotedly revere St. Patrick. This day, or at least the following Sunday, should be devoted to religious services and sermons in reverence to their work. On that day also other national and cultural celebrations should be organized. "I am asking our priests, our editors and all Slovaks to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius amongst our compatriots, and so preserve their heritage-- our faith and our culture." 8 But in spite of this exhortation the Slovaks in the U.S.A. were unable to organize any mass Cyrillo-Methodian celebrations. Rev. Jozef Martincek, one of the most ardent promoters of the Cyrillo-Methodian cult, wrote in 1913: "Why don't we pay the necessary homage to SS. Cyril and Methodius and why don't we celebrate one day in a year as their holiday as this was already suggested before by our compatriots and our brother in Christ, Michael Bosak. I ask Rev. Furdek and other leading Slovaks to take up this matter seriously and to present to the Slovak public a plan for Cyrillo-Methodian celebration."9 �SLOVAKIA 107 REV. F. V. SASINEK AND THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. In the days when the first Slovak papers commenced publication in the U.S.A., the 20-30,000 Slovak immigrants had only two priests and two educated laymen, Wolf and Slovensky, ( both teachers by profession and editors of these papers). It took several years before the number of such laymen together with the priest grew to 25. Naturally, under these circumstances any cultural work was extremely difficult as it fell on the shoulders of a very small group of men who besides their cultural work without monastery remuneration had also to carry on with their regular employment to provide for themselves and their families. Therefore, from the very beginning these men had to look to Slovakia for new help in their cultural and national work. The most enthusiastic and successful of such early workers was Rev. F . V. Sasinek, a catholic priest and a historian. Falling into disgrace of his bishop IpolyiStummer, he left Banska Bystrica and for some years he lived in Kuty as a guest of his friend Rev. Pukancik. He then went to Prague and from there to Maria Zell , a pilgrimage shrine in Austria, where he served as a confessor of the pilgrims and heard confessions in 12 languages. In this voluntary exile be became greatly interested in Slovak immigrants to the U.S.A. and as soon as he made contacts with Rovnianek and Furdek he became the main contributor to Slovak papers in the U.S.A. 10 He played especially a very important part in the cultivating of the Cyrillo-Methodian spirit. We estimate that approximately 85 ¼' of all Slovak publications about SS. Cyril and Methodius in the last century came from the pen of Sasinek. His first literary contribution published in 1852, was a poem: "Piesen o slovanskych blahozvestcoch", "A song about the missionaries of the Slavs".11 THE MAIN ADVOCATES OF THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. There were many active supporters of the CyrilloMethodian cult among the Catholic priests. Probably the most active was Rev. Jan Porubsky. He was an ingenious �108 SLOVAKIA writer, with a general, almost encyclopedic knowledge and was especially well acquainted with Slovak history. He began to write from Slovakia for the American Slovak papers and published a great number of articles about the life and the significance of the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Similar topics were covered by him in his books which were published in the U.S.A.12 From among other priests who were in the foreground of the Cyrillo-Methodian movement it is necessary to mention especially Stefan Furdek, then Rev. Stas, Rev. Dianiska, D. D., Rev. Pavco, Rev. Martincek, 13 Rev. Duchon and out of the younger generation, Rev. Stefan Panik, Msgr. Mlynarovic, etc. THE ORDER OF THE SISTERS OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS But probably the greatest achievement in this field can be attributed to Rev. Matus Jankola who founded the first Slovak teaching order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Dr. Fr. Hrusovsky in his history of this Order notes the following: "The Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius has a special place amongst the Slovak Orders in the U.S.A. because it is a truly Slovak Order. Even more, it is the only truly Slovak Order. Figuratively speaking we may say that The Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius is the only Slovak flower in the large bouquet of Slovak Orders. It was not by coincidence that this Order was not founded in Slovakia where SS. Cyril and Methodius worked many centuries ago and where different Orders, fo many centuries, maintained and developed their heritage. The fact that this Order was founded in the U.S .A. illustrates well how bright was the legacy of these Saints amongst those members of the Slovak nation who had to leave the mother country and how deep was their determination to preserve this legacy." 14 REV. DANIEL ZABOJ LAUcEK AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS Amongst the Slovak Protestant pastors it is especially �SLOVAKIA 109 necessary to mention Rev. Daniel Zaboj Laucek who dedicated his work to the Cyrillo-Methodian ideals when still in Slovakia and continued in this work on his arrival in America. In 1885, in Turciansky Sv. Martin he published the book Sv. Cyril a Metod, apostolovia slovanski, jich vyznam v cirkvi krest'anskej v6bec a v Slovanstve zvlast'. Nakladom vlastnym pri pomoci podporovatel'ov slovenskej spisby. (SS. Cyril and Methodius, Apostles of the Slavs, their place in Christendom and in Slavdom.) Private edition with the help of the supporters of the Slovak Literature. Besides this he published a series of articles : "Po tisic rokoch." "Pamiatke sv. slovanskych apostolov". (After a thousand years. In memory of the Saint Apostles of Slavs.) "Ocenenie jich p6sobenia" (Evaluation of their work) . "Blizsie o p6sobeni a razu sv. slovanskych apostolov" (More about the work and the spirit of the Saint Apostles of the Slavs) . "Pamiatky p6sobenia slovanskych bratov v nasom narode" (The imprints of the work of the Apostles of the Slavs in our nation). The series was published in Ndrodnie Noviny, XVI, 1885, number 1-7 . Rev. Laucek continued in this work in the U.S.A. and he wrote about similar topics in "cas" of which he was an editor for a short time. He also wrote in Slovak Protestant papers especially in Slovensky Hldsnik. Unfortunately a bibliography of the Slovak publications in the U.S.A. has never been put together and many of the works have not been preserved which means a great loss for Slovak literature. THE ASSOCIATIONS BEARING THE NAME OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS It is of great interest that the Cyrillo-Methodian Cult first spread amongst the immigrants from Eastern Slovakia. In 1875 the brothers Jan and Juraj Gogola came to Minneapolis, Minn. and shortly after them Jan Zelenak, Jan Martonik, and Tomas Ovsak. They came across an advertisement of the firm Timm Eliot and as they expected that this was probably a Slovak name, Elias, they answered the advertisement and applied for work with that firm. They were accepted and the firm found in them such good employees that it was willing in future to give preference to Slovaks. The owner of the firm was very �110 SLOVAKLA just and humanitarian and the Slovaks were pleased to work for him. From 1875 on, the number of the Slovaks in this city grew considerably and in 1878 the brothers Juraj and Andrej Olha and Jan Martonik thought of the plan of forming an Association of the Minneapolis Slovaks. They met on November 12th, 1888 and decided to form the Association. There is a notation in the minutes of the first meeting which reads: "As SS. Cyril and Methodius were our Apostles, it will be appropriate that our Association be placed under their patronage." This resolution was carried out. In 1891 the Association formed the first Slovak Catholic parish in the U.S.A. called after the two Apostles. This was the beginning of our active CyrilloMethodian cult amongst the American Slovaks. The men who were first preoccupied with this idea in the U.S.A. came from Bystre in saris county. 15 The first branch of "Narodny Slovensky Spolok" which put itself under the patronage of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the local branch No. 8, in Youngstown, Ohio. Rev. Horvath, and ardent Slovak Catholic priest, was in Youngstown at that time and it is likely that the Branch accepted the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius on his suggestion. 16 It will be of interest to note that one of the cofounders of the branch was John smigovsky, the grandfather of the colonel smigovsky, who for his service to the Slovak Republic was sentenced to death in 1946 by the pro-Communist National Tribunal under the chairmanship of Igor Daxner. Daxner recommended an amnesty, however, the chairman of the Slovak National Council refused to deal with this request on technical grounds and Smigovsky was executed the following day. Colonel smigovsky was born in the U.S.A. but was educated in Slovakia. THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN CANADA The possition of the Slovak immigrants to Canada was quite different from that of the immigration to the U.S.A. The immigration to Canada reached noticeable proportions only after the First World War when immigration to the U.S.A. became restricted and the quotas allowed were quickly filled. Unable to obtain admission to the U.S.A. many immigrants choose Canada, often with plans to seek admission to the U.S.A. later. The immigrants �SLOVAKIA 111 who come to Canada were of a different political background than those who in the previous century went to the U.S.A. They experienced the First World War, the political upheavals which followed, many of them went to Slovak schools and were on a higher cultural level than the generation who before them went to the U.S.A. They were more aware of national and political problems. There were no Magyarones amongst them and regardless of their political affiliations they declared themselves as Slovaks. Only a very small number of them believed that Slovaks ceased to exist as an individual nation and that a new "Czechoslovak" nation emerged. The first Catholic church in Canada dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius was a small church built in 1906 in Bellevue, Alberta. The oldest parish called after SS. Cyril and Methodius is the Montreal parish which was established in 1928. Similar parishes were formed in Toronto in 1934 and in Windsor in 1940. New parishes were founded following a new wave of immigrants after the Second World War. Amongst them are the parishes of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Hamilton, Ontario of 1945 and in Westminster, B. C. of 1960. 17 EPILOG The Cyrillo-Methodian ideology did not find favorable ground in Czecho-Slovakia after 1918 due to a strong anti-Catholic feeling of the ruling Czechs. But the Slovaks, in spite of many difficulties, were able to make progress in every direction. The ranks of the intelligentsia grew, the letters and the sciences advanced even in those fields where there was not one Slovak representative before. And slowly also the Cyrillo-Methodian ideas became better known to the masses. There were many who thought this development was too slow. Thus we read: "It is a pity that while the Slovaks in the U.S.A. have 16 parishes and 200 altars in their churches dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius, we at home, in Slovakia, have only 16 such altars in our 2,300 Catholic churches and chapels." 18 The author of course was poorly informed, as the number-of such parishes in the U.S.A. was not 16 but more �112 SLOVAKIA than twice that number. As in many other fields of Slovak affairs only after the formation of the Slovak Republic definite steps were taken to accept SS. Cyril and Methodius as national Saints. Their feast in Slovakia was also a day of commemoration for all Slovaks abroad. Throughout Slovakia there were festivals, meetings, lectures commemorating the Slovaks who had to leave their fatherland. The plans were made to build a cathedral to SS. Cyril and Methodius in Bratislava. Many research projects were under way and a Cyrillo-Methodian archives and library were in preparation. But with the loss of political independence these projects also died and with them also much of the work inspired by bishop Moyses, Fr. Sasinek and Holly. Out of these endeavors only those that grew abroad, in the U.S.A. and in Canada survived. But we believe that, in this age when even small nations and tribes throughout Africa are gaining independence, it will not be possible to beep in chains a nation which already 1,100 years ago belonged to the cultured and Christian nations of Europe and this mainly through the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius.19 FOOTNOTES AMI) LITERATURE 1) See Dr. F . Hrusovsky: frska misia a zaciatky krest'anstva (The Irish Mission and the Beginning of Christianity), pp. 41-65, and also by the same author Slovenski v ladari (Slovak Rulers ), Scranton 1948, p. 263. 2) Ries, Viliam : Frantisek Richard Osvald (Trnava, 1939), pp. 87, 93 . 3) Goulding, S: Catholic Churches of New York City, with sketches of their history and lives of the present Pastors, (New York, 1878 ), pp. 748. 4) Culen, K.: Dejiny newyorskych Slovcikov (The History of t he Slovaks of New York) . 5) " Oslava cyrilometodejska, 863-1863-1913," Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, p. 129. 6) Fink, Leo, Gregory: Monsignor Heinen, Militant Missionary , The Dolphin Press, (P hiladelphia, Pa. 1937) , p. 75. 7 ) Hrobak, Philip: Slovak Catholic Parishes and Institution in the United States of America, (Middletown, Pa. 1955), pp. 32, 34, 39, 42, 50, 52, 63, 65, 68, 70, 81 , 84, 87, 90, 92, 99, 105, 106, 107, 121, 132, 134, 146, 152, 154, 162. See also Piroch, Mary: "American Slovaks and SS. Cyril and Methodius," Slovakia Vol. XIII, N. 1/36, March 1963, pp. 25-28 ; ~ofranec, Tomas, Rev.: "Sv. Cyril a Metod a m y americki Slovaci" ( SS. Cyril and Methodi us and American Slovaks). Ave Maria, XLVII, No. 4, April 1, 1963, pp.175-176; Slovenske osady v Amerike, (Slovak Parishes in the U.S.A.), Kalendar Jednota for �SLOVAKIA 113 1906, pp. 23 , 51, 53-57, 73 , 81, 109, 113, 114; Baska, Louis, O.S.B.: Slovenske katolicke osady v Spojenych Statoch (Slovak Catholic Parishes in the U.S.A.) , Katolicke Slovensko (Trnava) , p. 623 ; Kushner, Jozef, Rev.: Slovaci katolici pittsburghskeho biskupstva ( Slovak Catholics of the Pittsburgh Diocese), Katolicky Sokol (Passaic, 1946) , p. 174. 8 ) J ednota, July 12, 1899. 9) Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, p. 130. 10) The first biography of SS. Cyril and Methodius started publicatio n in Jednota on the 18th January, 1899, and continued in a long series of articles. The author was Rev. Fr. Sasinek. 11) See Katolicke Noviny, 1852, 1st year, No. 35. 12) Porubsky, Jan Rev.: 100 rokov spisovnej slovenciny (One Hundred Years of Literary Slovak), Scranton, Pa.; Slovaci a slovencina (Slovaks and the Slovak language). This was edited anonymously, but it was the work of Rev. Porubsky, Katolicky Sokol, 1929, p . 114. 13 ) Martincek, Jozef, Rev. : "Oslava cyrilometodejska" (The CyrilloMethodian Jubilee) 863-1863-1913 ; Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, pp. 129135. " Oslava sv. Cyrila a Metoda v dobe Moysesa a dnes" (The Cyrillo-Methodian Celebration at the time of Moyses and Today), Kalendcir Sviitovojtessky, 1936, pp. 119-125. 14) Hrusovsky, Franti.sek, Dr. : Slovenske rehole v Amerike (Slovak Religious Orders in the U. S.A. ), Cleveland, Ohio 1935, p.496. See Chapter: Kongregacia sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Danville, P a. (Congregation of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Danville, Pa.), pp. 161-232. This Chapter has a detailed bibliography on pages 231-232 ; See also Pauco, Jozef: Matus Jankola, knaz a ncirodovec (Matus Jankola as a priest and a patriot) , Danville, Pa. , p . 173. 15) Pamiitnik Spolku sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Almanac of SS. Cyril and Methodius), No. 3, I.K.S.J. , Minneapolis, Minn. 1888-1938. 16) V. S. Platek: Nase odbory , D ejiny a pamiitnica 60 . vyrocia N. S.S. (Our Associations. The Memoirs of the 60th Anniversary of the National Slovak Society), Pittsburgh, Pa. , pp. 225-392. 17) On the religious organization of Canadian Slovaks, see J . M. Kirschbaum, Slovaks in Canada, (Toronto, 1967) , pp. 227-276. 18) Kalendcir Sviitovojtessky (St. Adalbert's Almanac ), 1936, p. 125. 19) On the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition in Slovakia, see Prof. J . M. Kirschbaum "The Role of the Cyrillo-Methodian Tradition in Slovak Na tional Life," Slovak Studies, Vol. III, (Rome, 1963 ) . • THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. � 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 98 SLOVAKIA The Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks Ln U.S.A. and Canada* * This essay w as prepare d by t he late Konstan tin culen i n 1962 for a symposium or ganized and edited by Prof. J. M . K i rschbaum for the 11th cent ennary of the arrival of SS. Cyril and Methodius among t he ancest ors of Slov aks. T he essays co llected and edit ed or translated by J. M. K i r sc h baum appeared in SLOVAK STUDT ES, CYRILLO-METH ODIANA, V ol. 3, (Rome, 1963). Culen's essay was not yet tr anslated and therefore not published. I n view of the valuable information and in order to complet e the history of the CyriUo-Methodia n tradition among Sl ov aks, we are grat efiil to Dr. Kirschbaum for preserving the manuscript and his adaptation for an English piiblication . By K . C u len THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN IRISH ON AMERICAN SLOVAKS The migration of Slovaks to the U.S.A. had many traits similar to those of the migration of the Irish. It was the catastrophic potato crop failure which caused the first man emigration of the Irish to the U.S.A. And we come across a similar cause of emigration of the Slovaks. The Slovak statistician Dr. Emil Stodola noted that each poor p otato crop in Slovakia was followed by rising emigration to the U.S .A. There were other similarities between the Irish and the Slovak migrations. The oppression of the Irish dates even further back in history than the Slovak one and is many sided. The political oppression started in Slovakia at the end of the 18th century and culminated befor the First World War. The Irish were oppressed due to their religion and suffered culturally and economically and therefore their resistance was stronger and more passionate than that of the Slovaks. In Ireland the oppression affected all the classes but in Slovakia the intelligentsia suffered most. The difference comes to light when we compare the cult of S t . Patrick to the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius . SLOVAKIA 99 St. Patrick is a national saint and is known and revered by all the Irish. SS. Cyril and Methodius were not known to the same extent amongst Slovaks. The population in general had only a vague knowledge of them. But the Slovak intelligentsia had even a deeper devotion to them than the Irish to St. Patrick. Therefore the cult of the SS. Cyril and Methodius in the U.S.A. was not a cult brought over by the masses as in the case of St. Patrick, but it was a cult especially nurtured by nationally conscious immigrants, nurtured to an extent that would not have been possible in Slovakia. Generally speaking, the Slovak immigrants became aware, in their new countries, of a need for a national saint and this became evident to them on such days as the feast of St. Patrick, with its festivities attracting not only the Irish but also numerous names of other nationalities. In older Slovak papers we frequently see articles about large groups of Slovaks participating in the festivities of St. Patrick. In one case the writer claimed that Slovaks outnumbered the Irish. No wonder these Slovaks asked"Who would correspond to St. Patrick in our national life? " They frequently raised this question in the Slovak press and of course the only answer they could obtain was-SS . Cyril and Methodius. It was this background which helped to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius between the Slovak names in the U.S .A. It should be noted in this connection, that SS . Cyril and Methodius completed amongst the Slovaks the missionary work which prior to them was already initiated by Bavarian and Irish missionaries, the first Christian missionaries in the Danube area. 1 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CULT OF ST. PATRICK ON THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS In the very early Slovak papers in the U.S.A. appeared dozens of articles, some short and some extensive enough, for serial publication, describing the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius amongst the Slovak ancestors. American Slovaks who were scattered amongst the Irish saw in the SS. Cyril and Methodius their St. Patrick. The Slovak papers exhorted them to venerate them just as the Irish revered St. Patrick. It is interesting to ask the question, how much did 100 SLOVAKIA the American Slovaks know about SS. Cyril and Methodius? Not a great deal. Most often they learned about them them from the excellent and well known prayer book of Rev. Andrej Radlinsky "Nabozne Vylevy." This prayer book contained a color picture of the Saints, their brief history and their prayers. Rev. Radlinsky succeeded in doing this to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Later on when a small prayer book was published in the U.S.A., the bishop of Spis, Parvy, put it on the Index for no reason other than that it contained a prayer to SS. Cyril and Methodius. Thus while Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical highly extoling the missionary work of these two Saints, a Magyar bishop with his seat in Catholic Slovakia put the prayer book on the Index as he mistrusted these Saints because of their panslavistic learnings. The large groups of Slovak immigrants in the U.S.A. had for the first time an opportunity to learn more about the missionary work of those Apostles, as well as about their cultural and linguistic work. But at the moment when the cult of these Apostles began to spread, a group of Catholic priests rose against it even in the U.S .A. and according to the spirit which was taught to them in the seminaries in the old country prepared the road-blocks to this cult. At the head of the group were Kossalko, Denes and Haitinger. In the papers edited by them they vituperated both Saints in the same manner as did the Magyar Catholic periodical "Katolikus Szemle" (Catholic Review) in the year 1893 in an article "Slavonic Christianity in our territories before their occupation". St. Methodius was denounced here as a panslavistic chauvinist, a forerunner of the schism and a very untrustworthy personality. The author of the article applied the modern Magyar approach and the chauvinistic terminology to the period prior to 900 when the national questions were of very minor importance.2 The pupils of this chauvinistic school working in the U.S .A. could find nothing worthy to say about these Saints and made them subjects of the intrigues of the Hungarian premier Koloman Tisza and of his successors. Their success was, however, small as they were unpopular priests and their arguments were without any force against the well documented work of their opponents. SLOVAKIA 101 THE FIRST CHURCH DEDICATED TO SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS The first church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius in the U.S .A. was a small wooden church built by two Czech Societies: the Society of St. Wenceslas and the Society of St. Ludmila in New York. These two societies were founded in 1874 with the purpose of building the first church for the growing Czech colony in New York, in the block between the 1st and 10th streets and between the Avenues B-D, where the Czechs were intermingled with the Poles. The Plan for the building of the church received a new impetus when Rev. A. V. Vacula came to New York from Baltimore, Md. He was born on the 15th of August 1845, in Osek, near Olomouc, in Moravia. He studied in Kromeriz, at the University of Vienna and at Louvain, Belgium. Here the American bishops established a seminary into which they accepted students from the whole of Europe, to prepare them for work in the ethnic settlements in the U.S.A. Vacula was accepted as the future priest of the Czech settlement in Baltimore, Md. Immediately after his consecration in 1870 he left for the U.S.A. and from the beginning of December he served in the parish of St. Wenceslas, Baltimore, Md. As the Czech Catholics of New York could not make progress with their plan, they invited into this parish Rev. Vacula, who arrived in 1875 and started his work with great enthusiasm. He immediately bought the land and the building, Number 316 E. 4th Street for $12,000.00, then enlarged the building for an outlay of an additional $6,000.00 and on the 1st of December 1875 the Vicar General of New York consecrated the Church in the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius. 3 This was the first church in the U.S.A. to be named after SS. Cyril and Methodius. And it appeared very appropriate that behind this achievement was a priest from Moravia. Out of all Slavic countries, in Moravia the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the deeepest, most widely spread and most popular. In no other Slavic country were the names SS. Cyril and Methodius given so often at baptism as in Moravia. The Cyrillo-Methodian cult spread from the Moravian Velehrad in all directions and the 102 SLOVAKIA Slovaks made frequent pilgrimages there as to a source of spiritual strength. The New York church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methoqius was the first catholic church which was also attended by "the first Slovak immigrants in that city. When later this church was closed, they went to the Irish church of St. Brigitte or to the nearest German or Polish churches until in 1894 they built the first Slovak Catholic church dedicated to St. Elizabeth of Hungary. This church was built in the same street where earlier had been the church of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Similarly as amongst the Slovaks, the Cyrillo-Methodian cult was as widely spread amongst the Czechs, especially in those districts where also Moravians were settled. After the first Cyrillo-Methodian church in New York, which soon closed, there were another 15 churches built in the U.S.A., namely in: Bannister, Mich.; Kansas City, Kansas; Chicago, Ill.; Platoma, Texas; Clarkson, Nebraska; Corpus Christi, Tex.; Doman, Texas; Dubina, Texas; East St. Louis, Illinois; Granger, Texas; North Judson, Indiana; Plasi (Prague), Nebraska; Shiner, Texas ; Tanton, Michigan; Vodnary, Dakota. Besides the Slovaks and the Czechs the Cyrillo-Methodian churches were mainly built by Slovenes, Croatians and · Poles. THE UNFULFILLED PLAN OF A NEW CHURCH OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN NEW YORK The next church in New York which was to bear the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the church originally dedicated to St. John Nepomucene. That this plan did not succeed was due mainly to the bitter struggles between the nationally conscious Slovaks and the Magyarones. The consecration of the first Slovak Catholic Church took place in 1894. This was the church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It was around this church that the struggle between the Slovaks and the Magyars and Magyar sympathizers developed. The night before the consecration the "Magyarones" removed from the corner stone the plaque bearing the text written in literary Slovak: "Rim. Kat. Kostal Sv. Alzbety, Vystavany R. 1892". Instead of this they SLOVAKIA 103 placed there plaque with a text in Eastern-Slovak dialect : " Uherszko Szlovenszki Kat. Koscel Szv. Elizabethy Uherszkej, Visztav. R. 1892." This arnmounted to a declaration of war. The Slovaks refused to support a Church with a name written in a distorted Slovak language and in foreign, non-Slovak orthography. This battle lasted for over a year until finally Archbishop Corrigan wrote to Slovakia inquiring which version was correct. When he received the reply he had the plaque changed as he considered that what was orthographically incorrect, was of poor taste and unfitting for a house of God. The Slovaks were jubilant but not for long as the Archbishop was approached by a delegation led by a Magyar lawyer Czukor (Jewish by religion) who persuaded the Archbishop that this struggle was between the Eastern Orthodox Panslavistic Church and between Catholicism. The Magyars were the true catholics, a European nation, but the Slovaks were Panslavs, Russofiles and sympathizers with the Eastern-Orthodoxy. Should this movement gain power it would dominate the Danubian Basin and soon it would undermine even the See. of St. Peter. The Cyrillo-Methodian cult which they spread is an Eastern-Orthodox religion. The archbishop believed these arguments and the following day he ordered to put back the plaque with the text in the Eastern dialect. The local priest, Rev. Polakovic, protested but the Archbishop rebuked him and informed him he had to look for a new parish outside of his diocese. This naturally caused a great disappointment amongst the Slovaks. A delegation of Slovaks informed the Archbishop that they would not attend this church and would not support it but would built a new Slovak Church. The Archbishop approved the plans for the new Church. The Slovaks started to work with enthusiasm and in a few weeks they transformed an old building into a new church which stood only one block away on the same street. It was planned that this church would bear the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius, this had been already announced in the papers and the donations for the building paid and it was accepted under this name.4 But this plan did not materialize. The Archbishop appointed here a Czech priest, Rev. simonik, who under 104 SLOVAKIA the pressure from the Archbishop gave the church the name of St. John Nepomuce ne. This was the first but also the last time that the names of SS. Cyril and Methodius were in the disfavor of an American Bishop. THE OLDEST CATHOLIC CHURCHE S WITH PATRON SAINTS SS. CYRIL AND METHODI US The sudden expansion of the Cyrillo-Me thodian cult on the American continent was described by Rev. Jozef Martincek as follows: "As soon as the Slovak immigrant s settled in the U.S.A. and began to form their parishes and to build their churches, the Cyrillo-Me thodian flame, which appeared for almost extinguishe d, suddenly rekindled in the hearts of our compatriot s. They almost competed with each other in their Cyrillo-Me thodian zeal to build and dedicate churches to them and there is hardly any Slovak church in the U.S.A. where their picture or their statue would not be given a distinguish ed place." 5 The Cyrillo-Me thodian cult spread in the U.S.A. due to the expanding Slovak periodicals and papers, due to the work of the patriotic Slovak priest and to a great extent also as a result of a protest against the Magyar persecutio n at home. The popularity which the cult gained in the U.S.A. was inconceiva ble in Slovakia of that time. The first Slovak Catholic Church dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius was built in 1891 in Minneapol is, Minn. The initiative came from the local Society of SS. Cyril and Methodius which was founded in 1888 as the first society on the American soil called after these Saints. In the same year another church bearing the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius was opened in Bethlehem , Pa. The founder of this church was Rev. Heinen, a missionary of German origin. He was originally an officer in the German Army but later on he changed the uniform for a priestly garb and after completing his theological studies he came to the U.S.A. and worked as a missionary mainly amongst the Slavic immigrant s in Pennsylvan ia. His assistant in missionary work ( which he directed from Mau Chung, Pa.) was Rev. Vlossak, a Slovak priest, and it was due to his influence that the church in Bethlehem , Pa., was given the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius .6 SLOVAKIA 105 THE LIST OF THE SLOVAK CHURCHES OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. This example was followed by others and the following list shows chronologically the founding of the churches dedicated to the SS. Cyril and Methodius in different parts of the U.S.A. the brackets show the diocese to which the parish belonged. 7 1891. Minneapolis, Minn. (St. Paul, Minn. ) 1891. Bethlehem, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1893. Reading, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1895. Brookside, Ala. (Mobile, Ala. ) 1898. Haverstraw, N. Y. (New York, N. Y.) 1898. Youngstown, 0. (Youngstown, 0.) 1900. Kingston, Pa. (Scranton, Pa.) 1900. Stockett, Mont. (Great Falls, Mont.) 1900. Joliet, Ill. (Joliet, Ill.) 1900. Stuttgart, Ark. (Little Rock, Ark. ) 1901. Edwardsville, Pa. 1902. Charleroi, Pa. (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) 1903. Binghamton, N. Y. (Syracuse, N . Y.) 1903. Lakewood, Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio ) 1904. Winburne, Pa. (Erie, Pa.) 1905. Lebanon, Pa. (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1905. Windber, Pa. (Altoona, Pa.) 1906. Kansas City, Kans. (Kansas City Kans.) 1906. Barberton, Ohio 1906. Boonton, N. J. (Paterson, N. J.) 1907 . Bridgeport, Conn. (Hartford, Conn.) 1911. East St. Louis, Ill. (Belleville, Ill.) 1911. Fairchance, Pa. (Greensburg, Pa.) 1911. Superior, Wis. (Superior, Wis.) 1912. Rock Spring, Wyoming 1913. Clifton, N . J. (Paterson, N. J.) 1913. Sugar Creek, Mo. 1913. Schenectady, N . Y. (Albany, N . Y.) 1914. Chicago, Ill. (Chicago, Ill.) 1916. New Brighton, Pa. (Pittsburgh, Pa. ) 1918. Detroit, Mich. (Detroit, Mich.) 1920. Coaldale, Pa. (Philadelphia, Pa.) 1923. Lisbon Falls, Maine (Portland, Maine ) 1923. Rossford, Ohio (Toledo, Ohio) 1928. Warren, Ohio 1949. Slovak Manor, N. Y. (New York, N . Y .) 106 SLOVAKIA THE GROWTH OF THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS One of the early articles dealing with the CyrilloMethodian cult appeared in Jednota in 1899. The author, J. Stas, is critical of Slovak immigrants and of their lack of devotions to SS. Cyril and Methodius. He makes the following suggestions about how to pay homage to SS. Cyril and Methodius. 1. Keep their picture in your house and teach your children about their life, their work, their contributions to our faith and our culture. 2. Give their names to your children at baptism. 3. Build and dedicate churches to these Saints and decorate the existing churches with their statues. 4. Put your societies under their patronage. So far less than 10 societies have been named after them. Is this not a disgrace to American Slovaks? 5. The 5th of July should be for the Slovaks a religious and a national holiday and in this we should learn from the Irish who so devotedly revere St. Patrick. This day, or at least the following Sunday, should be devoted to religious services and sermons in reverence to their work. On that day also other national and cultural celebrations should be organized. "I am asking our priests, our editors and all Slovaks to spread the cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius amongst our compatriots, and so preserve their heritage-- our faith and our culture." 8 But in spite of this exhortation the Slovaks in the U.S.A. were unable to organize any mass Cyrillo-Methodian celebrations. Rev. Jozef Martincek, one of the most ardent promoters of the Cyrillo-Methodian cult, wrote in 1913: "Why don't we pay the necessary homage to SS. Cyril and Methodius and why don't we celebrate one day in a year as their holiday as this was already suggested before by our compatriots and our brother in Christ, Michael Bosak. I ask Rev. Furdek and other leading Slovaks to take up this matter seriously and to present to the Slovak public a plan for Cyrillo-Methodian celebration."9 SLOVAKIA 107 REV. F. V. SASINEK AND THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. In the days when the first Slovak papers commenced publication in the U.S.A., the 20-30,000 Slovak immigrants had only two priests and two educated laymen, Wolf and Slovensky, ( both teachers by profession and editors of these papers). It took several years before the number of such laymen together with the priest grew to 25. Naturally, under these circumstances any cultural work was extremely difficult as it fell on the shoulders of a very small group of men who besides their cultural work without monastery remuneration had also to carry on with their regular employment to provide for themselves and their families. Therefore, from the very beginning these men had to look to Slovakia for new help in their cultural and national work. The most enthusiastic and successful of such early workers was Rev. F . V. Sasinek, a catholic priest and a historian. Falling into disgrace of his bishop IpolyiStummer, he left Banska Bystrica and for some years he lived in Kuty as a guest of his friend Rev. Pukancik. He then went to Prague and from there to Maria Zell , a pilgrimage shrine in Austria, where he served as a confessor of the pilgrims and heard confessions in 12 languages. In this voluntary exile be became greatly interested in Slovak immigrants to the U.S.A. and as soon as he made contacts with Rovnianek and Furdek he became the main contributor to Slovak papers in the U.S.A. 10 He played especially a very important part in the cultivating of the Cyrillo-Methodian spirit. We estimate that approximately 85 ¼' of all Slovak publications about SS. Cyril and Methodius in the last century came from the pen of Sasinek. His first literary contribution published in 1852, was a poem: "Piesen o slovanskych blahozvestcoch", "A song about the missionaries of the Slavs".11 THE MAIN ADVOCATES OF THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN THE U.S.A. There were many active supporters of the CyrilloMethodian cult among the Catholic priests. Probably the most active was Rev. Jan Porubsky. He was an ingenious 108 SLOVAKIA writer, with a general, almost encyclopedic knowledge and was especially well acquainted with Slovak history. He began to write from Slovakia for the American Slovak papers and published a great number of articles about the life and the significance of the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Similar topics were covered by him in his books which were published in the U.S.A.12 From among other priests who were in the foreground of the Cyrillo-Methodian movement it is necessary to mention especially Stefan Furdek, then Rev. Stas, Rev. Dianiska, D. D., Rev. Pavco, Rev. Martincek, 13 Rev. Duchon and out of the younger generation, Rev. Stefan Panik, Msgr. Mlynarovic, etc. THE ORDER OF THE SISTERS OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS But probably the greatest achievement in this field can be attributed to Rev. Matus Jankola who founded the first Slovak teaching order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius. Dr. Fr. Hrusovsky in his history of this Order notes the following: "The Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius has a special place amongst the Slovak Orders in the U.S.A. because it is a truly Slovak Order. Even more, it is the only truly Slovak Order. Figuratively speaking we may say that The Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius is the only Slovak flower in the large bouquet of Slovak Orders. It was not by coincidence that this Order was not founded in Slovakia where SS. Cyril and Methodius worked many centuries ago and where different Orders, fo many centuries, maintained and developed their heritage. The fact that this Order was founded in the U.S .A. illustrates well how bright was the legacy of these Saints amongst those members of the Slovak nation who had to leave the mother country and how deep was their determination to preserve this legacy." 14 REV. DANIEL ZABOJ LAUcEK AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS Amongst the Slovak Protestant pastors it is especially SLOVAKIA 109 necessary to mention Rev. Daniel Zaboj Laucek who dedicated his work to the Cyrillo-Methodian ideals when still in Slovakia and continued in this work on his arrival in America. In 1885, in Turciansky Sv. Martin he published the book Sv. Cyril a Metod, apostolovia slovanski, jich vyznam v cirkvi krest'anskej v6bec a v Slovanstve zvlast'. Nakladom vlastnym pri pomoci podporovatel'ov slovenskej spisby. (SS. Cyril and Methodius, Apostles of the Slavs, their place in Christendom and in Slavdom.) Private edition with the help of the supporters of the Slovak Literature. Besides this he published a series of articles : "Po tisic rokoch." "Pamiatke sv. slovanskych apostolov". (After a thousand years. In memory of the Saint Apostles of Slavs.) "Ocenenie jich p6sobenia" (Evaluation of their work) . "Blizsie o p6sobeni a razu sv. slovanskych apostolov" (More about the work and the spirit of the Saint Apostles of the Slavs) . "Pamiatky p6sobenia slovanskych bratov v nasom narode" (The imprints of the work of the Apostles of the Slavs in our nation). The series was published in Ndrodnie Noviny, XVI, 1885, number 1-7 . Rev. Laucek continued in this work in the U.S.A. and he wrote about similar topics in "cas" of which he was an editor for a short time. He also wrote in Slovak Protestant papers especially in Slovensky Hldsnik. Unfortunately a bibliography of the Slovak publications in the U.S.A. has never been put together and many of the works have not been preserved which means a great loss for Slovak literature. THE ASSOCIATIONS BEARING THE NAME OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS It is of great interest that the Cyrillo-Methodian Cult first spread amongst the immigrants from Eastern Slovakia. In 1875 the brothers Jan and Juraj Gogola came to Minneapolis, Minn. and shortly after them Jan Zelenak, Jan Martonik, and Tomas Ovsak. They came across an advertisement of the firm Timm Eliot and as they expected that this was probably a Slovak name, Elias, they answered the advertisement and applied for work with that firm. They were accepted and the firm found in them such good employees that it was willing in future to give preference to Slovaks. The owner of the firm was very 110 SLOVAKLA just and humanitarian and the Slovaks were pleased to work for him. From 1875 on, the number of the Slovaks in this city grew considerably and in 1878 the brothers Juraj and Andrej Olha and Jan Martonik thought of the plan of forming an Association of the Minneapolis Slovaks. They met on November 12th, 1888 and decided to form the Association. There is a notation in the minutes of the first meeting which reads: "As SS. Cyril and Methodius were our Apostles, it will be appropriate that our Association be placed under their patronage." This resolution was carried out. In 1891 the Association formed the first Slovak Catholic parish in the U.S.A. called after the two Apostles. This was the beginning of our active CyrilloMethodian cult amongst the American Slovaks. The men who were first preoccupied with this idea in the U.S.A. came from Bystre in saris county. 15 The first branch of "Narodny Slovensky Spolok" which put itself under the patronage of SS. Cyril and Methodius was the local branch No. 8, in Youngstown, Ohio. Rev. Horvath, and ardent Slovak Catholic priest, was in Youngstown at that time and it is likely that the Branch accepted the name of SS. Cyril and Methodius on his suggestion. 16 It will be of interest to note that one of the cofounders of the branch was John smigovsky, the grandfather of the colonel smigovsky, who for his service to the Slovak Republic was sentenced to death in 1946 by the pro-Communist National Tribunal under the chairmanship of Igor Daxner. Daxner recommended an amnesty, however, the chairman of the Slovak National Council refused to deal with this request on technical grounds and Smigovsky was executed the following day. Colonel smigovsky was born in the U.S.A. but was educated in Slovakia. THE CULT OF SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS IN CANADA The possition of the Slovak immigrants to Canada was quite different from that of the immigration to the U.S.A. The immigration to Canada reached noticeable proportions only after the First World War when immigration to the U.S.A. became restricted and the quotas allowed were quickly filled. Unable to obtain admission to the U.S.A. many immigrants choose Canada, often with plans to seek admission to the U.S.A. later. The immigrants SLOVAKIA 111 who come to Canada were of a different political background than those who in the previous century went to the U.S.A. They experienced the First World War, the political upheavals which followed, many of them went to Slovak schools and were on a higher cultural level than the generation who before them went to the U.S.A. They were more aware of national and political problems. There were no Magyarones amongst them and regardless of their political affiliations they declared themselves as Slovaks. Only a very small number of them believed that Slovaks ceased to exist as an individual nation and that a new "Czechoslovak" nation emerged. The first Catholic church in Canada dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius was a small church built in 1906 in Bellevue, Alberta. The oldest parish called after SS. Cyril and Methodius is the Montreal parish which was established in 1928. Similar parishes were formed in Toronto in 1934 and in Windsor in 1940. New parishes were founded following a new wave of immigrants after the Second World War. Amongst them are the parishes of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Hamilton, Ontario of 1945 and in Westminster, B. C. of 1960. 17 EPILOG The Cyrillo-Methodian ideology did not find favorable ground in Czecho-Slovakia after 1918 due to a strong anti-Catholic feeling of the ruling Czechs. But the Slovaks, in spite of many difficulties, were able to make progress in every direction. The ranks of the intelligentsia grew, the letters and the sciences advanced even in those fields where there was not one Slovak representative before. And slowly also the Cyrillo-Methodian ideas became better known to the masses. There were many who thought this development was too slow. Thus we read: "It is a pity that while the Slovaks in the U.S.A. have 16 parishes and 200 altars in their churches dedicated to SS. Cyril and Methodius, we at home, in Slovakia, have only 16 such altars in our 2,300 Catholic churches and chapels." 18 The author of course was poorly informed, as the number-of such parishes in the U.S.A. was not 16 but more 112 SLOVAKIA than twice that number. As in many other fields of Slovak affairs only after the formation of the Slovak Republic definite steps were taken to accept SS. Cyril and Methodius as national Saints. Their feast in Slovakia was also a day of commemoration for all Slovaks abroad. Throughout Slovakia there were festivals, meetings, lectures commemorating the Slovaks who had to leave their fatherland. The plans were made to build a cathedral to SS. Cyril and Methodius in Bratislava. Many research projects were under way and a Cyrillo-Methodian archives and library were in preparation. But with the loss of political independence these projects also died and with them also much of the work inspired by bishop Moyses, Fr. Sasinek and Holly. Out of these endeavors only those that grew abroad, in the U.S.A. and in Canada survived. But we believe that, in this age when even small nations and tribes throughout Africa are gaining independence, it will not be possible to beep in chains a nation which already 1,100 years ago belonged to the cultured and Christian nations of Europe and this mainly through the work of SS. Cyril and Methodius.19 FOOTNOTES AMI) LITERATURE 1) See Dr. F . Hrusovsky: frska misia a zaciatky krest'anstva (The Irish Mission and the Beginning of Christianity), pp. 41-65, and also by the same author Slovenski v ladari (Slovak Rulers ), Scranton 1948, p. 263. 2) Ries, Viliam : Frantisek Richard Osvald (Trnava, 1939), pp. 87, 93 . 3) Goulding, S: Catholic Churches of New York City, with sketches of their history and lives of the present Pastors, (New York, 1878 ), pp. 748. 4) Culen, K.: Dejiny newyorskych Slovcikov (The History of t he Slovaks of New York) . 5) " Oslava cyrilometodejska, 863-1863-1913," Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, p. 129. 6) Fink, Leo, Gregory: Monsignor Heinen, Militant Missionary , The Dolphin Press, (P hiladelphia, Pa. 1937) , p. 75. 7 ) Hrobak, Philip: Slovak Catholic Parishes and Institution in the United States of America, (Middletown, Pa. 1955), pp. 32, 34, 39, 42, 50, 52, 63, 65, 68, 70, 81 , 84, 87, 90, 92, 99, 105, 106, 107, 121, 132, 134, 146, 152, 154, 162. See also Piroch, Mary: "American Slovaks and SS. Cyril and Methodius," Slovakia Vol. XIII, N. 1/36, March 1963, pp. 25-28 ; ~ofranec, Tomas, Rev.: "Sv. Cyril a Metod a m y americki Slovaci" ( SS. Cyril and Methodi us and American Slovaks). Ave Maria, XLVII, No. 4, April 1, 1963, pp.175-176; Slovenske osady v Amerike, (Slovak Parishes in the U.S.A.), Kalendar Jednota for SLOVAKIA 113 1906, pp. 23 , 51, 53-57, 73 , 81, 109, 113, 114; Baska, Louis, O.S.B.: Slovenske katolicke osady v Spojenych Statoch (Slovak Catholic Parishes in the U.S.A.) , Katolicke Slovensko (Trnava) , p. 623 ; Kushner, Jozef, Rev.: Slovaci katolici pittsburghskeho biskupstva ( Slovak Catholics of the Pittsburgh Diocese), Katolicky Sokol (Passaic, 1946) , p. 174. 8 ) J ednota, July 12, 1899. 9) Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, p. 130. 10) The first biography of SS. Cyril and Methodius started publicatio n in Jednota on the 18th January, 1899, and continued in a long series of articles. The author was Rev. Fr. Sasinek. 11) See Katolicke Noviny, 1852, 1st year, No. 35. 12) Porubsky, Jan Rev.: 100 rokov spisovnej slovenciny (One Hundred Years of Literary Slovak), Scranton, Pa.; Slovaci a slovencina (Slovaks and the Slovak language). This was edited anonymously, but it was the work of Rev. Porubsky, Katolicky Sokol, 1929, p . 114. 13 ) Martincek, Jozef, Rev. : "Oslava cyrilometodejska" (The CyrilloMethodian Jubilee) 863-1863-1913 ; Kalendcir Jednota, 1913, pp. 129135. " Oslava sv. Cyrila a Metoda v dobe Moysesa a dnes" (The Cyrillo-Methodian Celebration at the time of Moyses and Today), Kalendcir Sviitovojtessky, 1936, pp. 119-125. 14) Hrusovsky, Franti.sek, Dr. : Slovenske rehole v Amerike (Slovak Religious Orders in the U. S.A. ), Cleveland, Ohio 1935, p.496. See Chapter: Kongregacia sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Danville, P a. (Congregation of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Danville, Pa.), pp. 161-232. This Chapter has a detailed bibliography on pages 231-232 ; See also Pauco, Jozef: Matus Jankola, knaz a ncirodovec (Matus Jankola as a priest and a patriot) , Danville, Pa. , p . 173. 15) Pamiitnik Spolku sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Almanac of SS. Cyril and Methodius), No. 3, I.K.S.J. , Minneapolis, Minn. 1888-1938. 16) V. S. Platek: Nase odbory , D ejiny a pamiitnica 60 . vyrocia N. S.S. (Our Associations. The Memoirs of the 60th Anniversary of the National Slovak Society), Pittsburgh, Pa. , pp. 225-392. 17) On the religious organization of Canadian Slovaks, see J . M. Kirschbaum, Slovaks in Canada, (Toronto, 1967) , pp. 227-276. 18) Kalendcir Sviitovojtessky (St. Adalbert's Almanac ), 1936, p. 125. 19) On the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition in Slovakia, see Prof. J . M. Kirschbaum "The Role of the Cyrillo-Methodian Tradition in Slovak Na tional Life," Slovak Studies, Vol. III, (Rome, 1963 ) . • THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA heartily commends all efforts of our governmental and other organs to ferret out and unmask all Communists and fellow travellers, as well as all persons and organizations who wittingly or unwittingly give aid and comfort to the conspiracy of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union.  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 Cult of SS. Cyril and Methodius Amongst the Slovaks in U.S.A. and Canada Description An account of the resource K. Čulen trans. and adapted by J. M. Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 98-113 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Čulen, Konštantín, 1904-1964 Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9f038add5ee50b9c7b79791e9bdbd49f.pdf e2c22e9efca9f94f65f2f20df6142e0a PDF Text Text 92 SLOVAKIA The Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) By Joseph Pa u co, Ph.D. Cleveland has been the home of the Slovak Benedictines, who came to the city from St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois, with the blessing of Abbot Valentine Kohlbeck, O.S.B. and his community at the invitation of Bishop Joseph Schrembs, D. D., for a full half century. The official day of their coming is February 2, 1922, when Father Stanislaus Gmuca, O.S.B. offered up the first Mass at St. Andrew's parish church at East 51st Street and Superior Avenue. The Slovak parish had been relinquished to the monks of St. Benedict earlier by Father John Liscinsky at the request of Bishop Schrembs. Father Stanislaus was named prior of the newly-established dependent priory soon afterwards by his Abbot. Father Matthew Jankola was instrumental in sending several Slovak young men to the Czech abbey of Saint Procopius in Lisle, Ill. in 1903. His hope that at least some of them would become Benedictines was realized when John Vaniscak was given the name 'Gregory' upon entering the Order of St. Benedict. Father Gregory was destined to become the founder of the Slovak Benedictine monastery in Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. Clement Hrtanek, president of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, and Rev. Stefan Kocis, the secretary, encouraged Father Vaniscak to establish a Slovak Benedictine foundation. This became a reality in the fall of 1921 when Bishop Schrembs, D. D., a graduate of St. Vincent's College and Abbey Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., extended a formal invitation to the Slovak Benedictines to come to Cleveland. Bishop Schrembs, a friend and benefactor of the Slovaks, could always be counted on to appear at their important functions. Moreover, his greetings, invariably �SLOVAKIA 93 in their native language, were greatly appreciated by Slovak audiences and congregations throughout the country. Father Gregory Vaniscak, O.S.B., who had been appointed pastor of St. Michael's Slovak parish in Chicago soon after his ordination in the early summer of 1914, remained as pastor of the large parish until the fall of 1929 when the St. Andrew Svorad dependent priory received independent status from the Holy See. The pioneer community immediately elected him as canonical prior. Father Gregory established his headquarters at the new site at 10510 Buckeye Road. The property was acquired from the Notre Dame Sisters at a cost of $125,000. The entire sum for the 15-acre tract and old building was furnished by the Slovak Educational Foundation headed by Michael Bosak, Sr., outstanding Slovak banker in Scranton, Pa. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1927 Father George Luba, O.S .B. was sent by Abbot Kohlbeck to organize a high school for boys at the priory of St. Andrew's . The versatile young priest as first principal welcomed a total of 27 boys on the opening day of Benedictine High School on September 8, 1927. Two years later when the new property was purchased the school was transfered to the East Side. The old but tenable 4-story structure at 10510 Buckeye Road was divided equally between the priory and the school; the third and fourth floors for the residence of the Religious members while the first and second floors were used for classrooms. During the early summer of 1934 the priory was elevated to abbey status and Father Stanislaus Gmuca was elected as the first abbot of St. Andrew Svorad Benedictine Abbey on August 8, 1934. The blessing of the new Abbot on October 2, 1934, was attended by a dozen abbots and five bishops, several hundred clergy and more than two thousand laity at St. John's Cathedral. As pastor and prior of the dependent priory of St. Andrew's, Father Stanislaus built the unique Spanish-style new Church in 1926. In 1940 as Abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey he directed the construction of the new Benedictine High School building at 2900 East Boulevard. This forward step was destiped to increase the school enrollment from 150 to more than 1,200 in six years. Abbot Theodore Kojis, 0. S. B., who succeeded Abbot �94 SLOVAKIA Gmuca in 1946, completed the north and south wings of the high school, added a machine shop, aeronautical depart-ment, science building, a new cafeteria, auditorium and modem gymnasium, and supervised the building of the new Abbey building during the tenure of twenty years in office. In 1953, the year after the new Abbey was completed, Father Leo Rehak, O.S.B., pastor of St. Benedict's abbey church, saw Archbishop Edward Hoban, D. D. dedicate the beautiful new edifice. One of the highlights of Abbot Kojis' administration was the grant of $50,000 in 1960 to establish a Slovak religious and cultural center in Rome. This donation by the Slovak Benedictine community in Cleveland spurred a nationwide campaign that netted more than a half million dollars (mostly donated by American Slovaks) for the project known as the Slovak SS. Cyril and Methodius Institute which sponsors a seminary, publishes religious books and acts as a center for Slovak tourists from all over the world. Abbot Jerome Koval, O.S.B., successor to Abbot Kojis in the spring of 1966, has guided the Abbey in the spirit of the founder and his pioneer community along the guidelines of the spiritual renewal of Vatican II. Abbot Koval is a member of many Slovak and non-Slovak Catholic organizations and is always in great demand as a homilist and after-dinner speaker everywhere. The abbey, in addition to administering Benedictine High School in which the majority of the faculty members are Religious, also furnishes pastoral aid on weekends the year round to many parishes in the diocese. Outside the diocese of Cleveland, the Abbey Fathers have charge of parishes in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. One of the members has been an army chaplain for ten years and three priest have assignments as chaplains at various institutions and one priest is a seminary professor. Both Abbot Stanislaus and Abbot Theodore are still active doing parish work regularly. The Ave Maria monthly religious publication in the Slovak language has been edited by the Slovak Benedictines for more than forty-two years. Editors in the past were: Father Gregory Vaniscak, Father Paschal Kavulic and Father George Luba, O.S.B. The present editors are Father �SLOVAKIA 95 Andrew Pier, O.S.B. and Dr. Karol Strmen. Brother Alfred Nasticky, O.S.B. is the business manager. Subscribers are listed from all over the world. The only countries which will not admit the magazine are communist-ruled countries, including Slovakia. Precisely twenty years ago this summer the Slovak Institute was founded at the Abbey by Abbot Theodore Kojis, O.S.B . Charter members were: Dr. Francis Hrusovsky, Rev. Mikulas Sprinc, Dr. Karol Strmen, Dr. Joseph Cincik, and Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. The ruling abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey is ex officio the president, and he appoints the director. Dr. Francis Hrusovsky was the first director until his death on September 9, 1956. Konstantin Culen served for two full years as his successor and Rev. Andrew Pier O.S.B. has been director since 1958. The Slovak Institute library contains several thousand volumes on Slovak literature, history, etc. The Most, cultural quarterly edited the past eighteen years by Father Mikulas Sprinc, is a Slovak Institute publication. Cleveland's "Slovenske Noviny-Slovak News" (19491959) spanned a decade under the sponsorship of St. Andrew's Abbey and various Slovak organizations in the city. The Slovak weekly (3 pages in Slovak and 1 page in English) finally ceased publication because of lack of funds despite the fact that the Abbey had furnished both the office and the editorial staff for the entire ten years. The editors were: Dr. Francis Hrusovsky, 1949-1952, Dr. Karol Strmen, 1952-1959 for the Slovak section and Rev. Bernard Slimak, O.S.B. (1949 ) and Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. (19491959) for the English section. At one time several Fathers conducted Slovak Missions in various parts of the country. Novenas and Forty Hour devotions, as well as Triduums and pilgrimages were on their schedule. The following priests shared this apostolate: Father George Luba, Wendelin Kravec, Paschal Kavulic, Theodore Kojis, Benedict Dobrancin, Sylvester Prise, Francis Durkac, Jerome Koval, Florian Hudac and Matthew Bonk, O.S.B . Among distinguished guests at the Abbey through the years were the following: The Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) delegation from Turciansky Sv. Martin from Slovakia in 1935. The members were: J . C. Hronsky, �96 SLOVAKIA leading Slovak novelist, Konstantin Culen, foremost Slovak journalist, Dr. Jozef Cincik, artist and architectual consultant, K . Plicka, ace photographer . The Spolok sv. Vojtecha delegation from Trnava, Slovakia, in 1937. The members were: Dr. Jozef Tiso (later President of the Slovak Republic), Msgr. Postenyi, Msgr. Korper, Msgr. Caban and Father Mondok. Both of these delegations donated valuable works on Slovak literature and history to the Abbey library, now in the Slovak Institute library. Abbot Primate Kaelin came from Rome in 1952 to participate in the dedication of the new Abbey building. The General Chapter of the Benedictine Abbots was held at the Abbey in 1953 after the blessing of the new abbey church of St. Benedict. Among famous Slovak authors associated with the Abbey were: Philip A. Hrobak (teacher at Benedictine High School for eight years), author of a Slovak dictionary and Slovak Lessons series. J. J. Konus (spent some time in research at the Abbey library), author of several Slovak dictionaries and a grammar. Father Gregory Vaniscak, O.S.B. was the author of a Slovak grammar and translation of the Holy Rule into Slovak. Abbot Stanislaus Gmuca, O.S.B. was the author of a Slovak grammar. For the past quarter of a century the Slovak Institute cooperates with the Cleveland Slovak Radio Club in arranging a speaker's program for its Slovak Hour every Sunday. Aside from their spiritual and educational work the Benedictines in Cleveland are widely known for the prowess of the Bengals in scholastic athletic circles. Benedictine High School has produced city football, basketball, baseball, bowling, tennis and golf championship s and won a state football crown in 1957. In the past quarter of a century Benedictine football teams won eleven city titles. two co-titles and lost only 4 times. In baseball the Bengals have won almost a score city titles, two city crowns in basketball, two in golf, two in tennis and two in bowling. The latest sport is hockey and in the past four years the team has won two city titles. The CYO has used the facilities of the Bengal's gym each year at no charge since 1940. �SLOVAKIA 97 At the very beginning the contributions for the foundation of Benedictine education came exclusively from the Slovaks, from individuals and our organizations. The Jednota, First Catholic Slovak Union, has been in the forefront of the Slovak fraternals that have supported the Slovak Benedictines with donations approved by the delegates at various conventions. Others like the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union, the Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union and several others have at various times made contributions to the Abbey. The most consistent supporter to the Slovak Benedictines for their high school has been the Benedictine Dads Club which has contributed more than $500,000 the past twentyseven years. At present the membership is approximately 70 ( 46 priest, 13 Brothers, 3 novices and a growing number of postulants) . The death of 15 priests in the service of God and the community the past 30 years has been a great loss to the Abbey but new vocations are beginning to come in increasing numbers. Perhaps some day St. Andrew's Abbey will send missionary monks to Slovakia to renew Benedictine monastic foundations that once flourished there during the middle ages. The last Benedictine monastery was closed by imperial edict of Joseph II of Austria-Hungary at the end of the eighteenth century. LIT ERA T U R E Frantisek Hrusovsky, Ph.D.: Slovenske re hole v Amerike. Cleveland , Ohio, 1955. Slovenski benediktini. Kalendar J edno ta, Middletown , Pa. 1928; p p. 103-109. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. � 92 SLOVAKIA The Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) By Joseph Pa u co, Ph.D. Cleveland has been the home of the Slovak Benedictines, who came to the city from St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois, with the blessing of Abbot Valentine Kohlbeck, O.S.B. and his community at the invitation of Bishop Joseph Schrembs, D. D., for a full half century. The official day of their coming is February 2, 1922, when Father Stanislaus Gmuca, O.S.B. offered up the first Mass at St. Andrew's parish church at East 51st Street and Superior Avenue. The Slovak parish had been relinquished to the monks of St. Benedict earlier by Father John Liscinsky at the request of Bishop Schrembs. Father Stanislaus was named prior of the newly-established dependent priory soon afterwards by his Abbot. Father Matthew Jankola was instrumental in sending several Slovak young men to the Czech abbey of Saint Procopius in Lisle, Ill. in 1903. His hope that at least some of them would become Benedictines was realized when John Vaniscak was given the name 'Gregory' upon entering the Order of St. Benedict. Father Gregory was destined to become the founder of the Slovak Benedictine monastery in Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. Clement Hrtanek, president of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, and Rev. Stefan Kocis, the secretary, encouraged Father Vaniscak to establish a Slovak Benedictine foundation. This became a reality in the fall of 1921 when Bishop Schrembs, D. D., a graduate of St. Vincent's College and Abbey Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., extended a formal invitation to the Slovak Benedictines to come to Cleveland. Bishop Schrembs, a friend and benefactor of the Slovaks, could always be counted on to appear at their important functions. Moreover, his greetings, invariably �SLOVAKIA 93 in their native language, were greatly appreciated by Slovak audiences and congregations throughout the country. Father Gregory Vaniscak, O.S.B., who had been appointed pastor of St. Michael's Slovak parish in Chicago soon after his ordination in the early summer of 1914, remained as pastor of the large parish until the fall of 1929 when the St. Andrew Svorad dependent priory received independent status from the Holy See. The pioneer community immediately elected him as canonical prior. Father Gregory established his headquarters at the new site at 10510 Buckeye Road. The property was acquired from the Notre Dame Sisters at a cost of $125,000. The entire sum for the 15-acre tract and old building was furnished by the Slovak Educational Foundation headed by Michael Bosak, Sr., outstanding Slovak banker in Scranton, Pa. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1927 Father George Luba, O.S .B. was sent by Abbot Kohlbeck to organize a high school for boys at the priory of St. Andrew's . The versatile young priest as first principal welcomed a total of 27 boys on the opening day of Benedictine High School on September 8, 1927. Two years later when the new property was purchased the school was transfered to the East Side. The old but tenable 4-story structure at 10510 Buckeye Road was divided equally between the priory and the school; the third and fourth floors for the residence of the Religious members while the first and second floors were used for classrooms. During the early summer of 1934 the priory was elevated to abbey status and Father Stanislaus Gmuca was elected as the first abbot of St. Andrew Svorad Benedictine Abbey on August 8, 1934. The blessing of the new Abbot on October 2, 1934, was attended by a dozen abbots and five bishops, several hundred clergy and more than two thousand laity at St. John's Cathedral. As pastor and prior of the dependent priory of St. Andrew's, Father Stanislaus built the unique Spanish-style new Church in 1926. In 1940 as Abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey he directed the construction of the new Benedictine High School building at 2900 East Boulevard. This forward step was destiped to increase the school enrollment from 150 to more than 1,200 in six years. Abbot Theodore Kojis, 0. S. B., who succeeded Abbot �94 SLOVAKIA Gmuca in 1946, completed the north and south wings of the high school, added a machine shop, aeronautical depart-ment, science building, a new cafeteria, auditorium and modem gymnasium, and supervised the building of the new Abbey building during the tenure of twenty years in office. In 1953, the year after the new Abbey was completed, Father Leo Rehak, O.S.B., pastor of St. Benedict's abbey church, saw Archbishop Edward Hoban, D. D. dedicate the beautiful new edifice. One of the highlights of Abbot Kojis' administration was the grant of $50,000 in 1960 to establish a Slovak religious and cultural center in Rome. This donation by the Slovak Benedictine community in Cleveland spurred a nationwide campaign that netted more than a half million dollars (mostly donated by American Slovaks) for the project known as the Slovak SS. Cyril and Methodius Institute which sponsors a seminary, publishes religious books and acts as a center for Slovak tourists from all over the world. Abbot Jerome Koval, O.S.B., successor to Abbot Kojis in the spring of 1966, has guided the Abbey in the spirit of the founder and his pioneer community along the guidelines of the spiritual renewal of Vatican II. Abbot Koval is a member of many Slovak and non-Slovak Catholic organizations and is always in great demand as a homilist and after-dinner speaker everywhere. The abbey, in addition to administering Benedictine High School in which the majority of the faculty members are Religious, also furnishes pastoral aid on weekends the year round to many parishes in the diocese. Outside the diocese of Cleveland, the Abbey Fathers have charge of parishes in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. One of the members has been an army chaplain for ten years and three priest have assignments as chaplains at various institutions and one priest is a seminary professor. Both Abbot Stanislaus and Abbot Theodore are still active doing parish work regularly. The Ave Maria monthly religious publication in the Slovak language has been edited by the Slovak Benedictines for more than forty-two years. Editors in the past were: Father Gregory Vaniscak, Father Paschal Kavulic and Father George Luba, O.S.B. The present editors are Father �SLOVAKIA 95 Andrew Pier, O.S.B. and Dr. Karol Strmen. Brother Alfred Nasticky, O.S.B. is the business manager. Subscribers are listed from all over the world. The only countries which will not admit the magazine are communist-ruled countries, including Slovakia. Precisely twenty years ago this summer the Slovak Institute was founded at the Abbey by Abbot Theodore Kojis, O.S.B . Charter members were: Dr. Francis Hrusovsky, Rev. Mikulas Sprinc, Dr. Karol Strmen, Dr. Joseph Cincik, and Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. The ruling abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey is ex officio the president, and he appoints the director. Dr. Francis Hrusovsky was the first director until his death on September 9, 1956. Konstantin Culen served for two full years as his successor and Rev. Andrew Pier O.S.B. has been director since 1958. The Slovak Institute library contains several thousand volumes on Slovak literature, history, etc. The Most, cultural quarterly edited the past eighteen years by Father Mikulas Sprinc, is a Slovak Institute publication. Cleveland's "Slovenske Noviny-Slovak News" (19491959) spanned a decade under the sponsorship of St. Andrew's Abbey and various Slovak organizations in the city. The Slovak weekly (3 pages in Slovak and 1 page in English) finally ceased publication because of lack of funds despite the fact that the Abbey had furnished both the office and the editorial staff for the entire ten years. The editors were: Dr. Francis Hrusovsky, 1949-1952, Dr. Karol Strmen, 1952-1959 for the Slovak section and Rev. Bernard Slimak, O.S.B. (1949 ) and Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. (19491959) for the English section. At one time several Fathers conducted Slovak Missions in various parts of the country. Novenas and Forty Hour devotions, as well as Triduums and pilgrimages were on their schedule. The following priests shared this apostolate: Father George Luba, Wendelin Kravec, Paschal Kavulic, Theodore Kojis, Benedict Dobrancin, Sylvester Prise, Francis Durkac, Jerome Koval, Florian Hudac and Matthew Bonk, O.S.B . Among distinguished guests at the Abbey through the years were the following: The Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) delegation from Turciansky Sv. Martin from Slovakia in 1935. The members were: J . C. Hronsky, �96 SLOVAKIA leading Slovak novelist, Konstantin Culen, foremost Slovak journalist, Dr. Jozef Cincik, artist and architectual consultant, K . Plicka, ace photographer . The Spolok sv. Vojtecha delegation from Trnava, Slovakia, in 1937. The members were: Dr. Jozef Tiso (later President of the Slovak Republic), Msgr. Postenyi, Msgr. Korper, Msgr. Caban and Father Mondok. Both of these delegations donated valuable works on Slovak literature and history to the Abbey library, now in the Slovak Institute library. Abbot Primate Kaelin came from Rome in 1952 to participate in the dedication of the new Abbey building. The General Chapter of the Benedictine Abbots was held at the Abbey in 1953 after the blessing of the new abbey church of St. Benedict. Among famous Slovak authors associated with the Abbey were: Philip A. Hrobak (teacher at Benedictine High School for eight years), author of a Slovak dictionary and Slovak Lessons series. J. J. Konus (spent some time in research at the Abbey library), author of several Slovak dictionaries and a grammar. Father Gregory Vaniscak, O.S.B. was the author of a Slovak grammar and translation of the Holy Rule into Slovak. Abbot Stanislaus Gmuca, O.S.B. was the author of a Slovak grammar. For the past quarter of a century the Slovak Institute cooperates with the Cleveland Slovak Radio Club in arranging a speaker's program for its Slovak Hour every Sunday. Aside from their spiritual and educational work the Benedictines in Cleveland are widely known for the prowess of the Bengals in scholastic athletic circles. Benedictine High School has produced city football, basketball, baseball, bowling, tennis and golf championship s and won a state football crown in 1957. In the past quarter of a century Benedictine football teams won eleven city titles. two co-titles and lost only 4 times. In baseball the Bengals have won almost a score city titles, two city crowns in basketball, two in golf, two in tennis and two in bowling. The latest sport is hockey and in the past four years the team has won two city titles. The CYO has used the facilities of the Bengal's gym each year at no charge since 1940. �SLOVAKIA 97 At the very beginning the contributions for the foundation of Benedictine education came exclusively from the Slovaks, from individuals and our organizations. The Jednota, First Catholic Slovak Union, has been in the forefront of the Slovak fraternals that have supported the Slovak Benedictines with donations approved by the delegates at various conventions. Others like the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union, the Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union and several others have at various times made contributions to the Abbey. The most consistent supporter to the Slovak Benedictines for their high school has been the Benedictine Dads Club which has contributed more than $500,000 the past twentyseven years. At present the membership is approximately 70 ( 46 priest, 13 Brothers, 3 novices and a growing number of postulants) . The death of 15 priests in the service of God and the community the past 30 years has been a great loss to the Abbey but new vocations are beginning to come in increasing numbers. Perhaps some day St. Andrew's Abbey will send missionary monks to Slovakia to renew Benedictine monastic foundations that once flourished there during the middle ages. The last Benedictine monastery was closed by imperial edict of Joseph II of Austria-Hungary at the end of the eighteenth century. LIT ERA T U R E Frantisek Hrusovsky, Ph.D.: Slovenske re hole v Amerike. Cleveland , Ohio, 1955. Slovenski benediktini. Kalendar J edno ta, Middletown , Pa. 1928; p p. 103-109. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. � 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 92 SLOVAKIA The Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) By Joseph Pa u co, Ph.D. Cleveland has been the home of the Slovak Benedictines, who came to the city from St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois, with the blessing of Abbot Valentine Kohlbeck, O.S.B. and his community at the invitation of Bishop Joseph Schrembs, D. D., for a full half century. The official day of their coming is February 2, 1922, when Father Stanislaus Gmuca, O.S.B. offered up the first Mass at St. Andrew's parish church at East 51st Street and Superior Avenue. The Slovak parish had been relinquished to the monks of St. Benedict earlier by Father John Liscinsky at the request of Bishop Schrembs. Father Stanislaus was named prior of the newly-established dependent priory soon afterwards by his Abbot. Father Matthew Jankola was instrumental in sending several Slovak young men to the Czech abbey of Saint Procopius in Lisle, Ill. in 1903. His hope that at least some of them would become Benedictines was realized when John Vaniscak was given the name 'Gregory' upon entering the Order of St. Benedict. Father Gregory was destined to become the founder of the Slovak Benedictine monastery in Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. Clement Hrtanek, president of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America, and Rev. Stefan Kocis, the secretary, encouraged Father Vaniscak to establish a Slovak Benedictine foundation. This became a reality in the fall of 1921 when Bishop Schrembs, D. D., a graduate of St. Vincent's College and Abbey Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., extended a formal invitation to the Slovak Benedictines to come to Cleveland. Bishop Schrembs, a friend and benefactor of the Slovaks, could always be counted on to appear at their important functions. Moreover, his greetings, invariably SLOVAKIA 93 in their native language, were greatly appreciated by Slovak audiences and congregations throughout the country. Father Gregory Vaniscak, O.S.B., who had been appointed pastor of St. Michael's Slovak parish in Chicago soon after his ordination in the early summer of 1914, remained as pastor of the large parish until the fall of 1929 when the St. Andrew Svorad dependent priory received independent status from the Holy See. The pioneer community immediately elected him as canonical prior. Father Gregory established his headquarters at the new site at 10510 Buckeye Road. The property was acquired from the Notre Dame Sisters at a cost of $125,000. The entire sum for the 15-acre tract and old building was furnished by the Slovak Educational Foundation headed by Michael Bosak, Sr., outstanding Slovak banker in Scranton, Pa. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1927 Father George Luba, O.S .B. was sent by Abbot Kohlbeck to organize a high school for boys at the priory of St. Andrew's . The versatile young priest as first principal welcomed a total of 27 boys on the opening day of Benedictine High School on September 8, 1927. Two years later when the new property was purchased the school was transfered to the East Side. The old but tenable 4-story structure at 10510 Buckeye Road was divided equally between the priory and the school; the third and fourth floors for the residence of the Religious members while the first and second floors were used for classrooms. During the early summer of 1934 the priory was elevated to abbey status and Father Stanislaus Gmuca was elected as the first abbot of St. Andrew Svorad Benedictine Abbey on August 8, 1934. The blessing of the new Abbot on October 2, 1934, was attended by a dozen abbots and five bishops, several hundred clergy and more than two thousand laity at St. John's Cathedral. As pastor and prior of the dependent priory of St. Andrew's, Father Stanislaus built the unique Spanish-style new Church in 1926. In 1940 as Abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey he directed the construction of the new Benedictine High School building at 2900 East Boulevard. This forward step was destiped to increase the school enrollment from 150 to more than 1,200 in six years. Abbot Theodore Kojis, 0. S. B., who succeeded Abbot 94 SLOVAKIA Gmuca in 1946, completed the north and south wings of the high school, added a machine shop, aeronautical depart-ment, science building, a new cafeteria, auditorium and modem gymnasium, and supervised the building of the new Abbey building during the tenure of twenty years in office. In 1953, the year after the new Abbey was completed, Father Leo Rehak, O.S.B., pastor of St. Benedict's abbey church, saw Archbishop Edward Hoban, D. D. dedicate the beautiful new edifice. One of the highlights of Abbot Kojis' administration was the grant of $50,000 in 1960 to establish a Slovak religious and cultural center in Rome. This donation by the Slovak Benedictine community in Cleveland spurred a nationwide campaign that netted more than a half million dollars (mostly donated by American Slovaks) for the project known as the Slovak SS. Cyril and Methodius Institute which sponsors a seminary, publishes religious books and acts as a center for Slovak tourists from all over the world. Abbot Jerome Koval, O.S.B., successor to Abbot Kojis in the spring of 1966, has guided the Abbey in the spirit of the founder and his pioneer community along the guidelines of the spiritual renewal of Vatican II. Abbot Koval is a member of many Slovak and non-Slovak Catholic organizations and is always in great demand as a homilist and after-dinner speaker everywhere. The abbey, in addition to administering Benedictine High School in which the majority of the faculty members are Religious, also furnishes pastoral aid on weekends the year round to many parishes in the diocese. Outside the diocese of Cleveland, the Abbey Fathers have charge of parishes in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. One of the members has been an army chaplain for ten years and three priest have assignments as chaplains at various institutions and one priest is a seminary professor. Both Abbot Stanislaus and Abbot Theodore are still active doing parish work regularly. The Ave Maria monthly religious publication in the Slovak language has been edited by the Slovak Benedictines for more than forty-two years. Editors in the past were: Father Gregory Vaniscak, Father Paschal Kavulic and Father George Luba, O.S.B. The present editors are Father SLOVAKIA 95 Andrew Pier, O.S.B. and Dr. Karol Strmen. Brother Alfred Nasticky, O.S.B. is the business manager. Subscribers are listed from all over the world. The only countries which will not admit the magazine are communist-ruled countries, including Slovakia. Precisely twenty years ago this summer the Slovak Institute was founded at the Abbey by Abbot Theodore Kojis, O.S.B . Charter members were: Dr. Francis Hrusovsky, Rev. Mikulas Sprinc, Dr. Karol Strmen, Dr. Joseph Cincik, and Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. The ruling abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey is ex officio the president, and he appoints the director. Dr. Francis Hrusovsky was the first director until his death on September 9, 1956. Konstantin Culen served for two full years as his successor and Rev. Andrew Pier O.S.B. has been director since 1958. The Slovak Institute library contains several thousand volumes on Slovak literature, history, etc. The Most, cultural quarterly edited the past eighteen years by Father Mikulas Sprinc, is a Slovak Institute publication. Cleveland's "Slovenske Noviny-Slovak News" (19491959) spanned a decade under the sponsorship of St. Andrew's Abbey and various Slovak organizations in the city. The Slovak weekly (3 pages in Slovak and 1 page in English) finally ceased publication because of lack of funds despite the fact that the Abbey had furnished both the office and the editorial staff for the entire ten years. The editors were: Dr. Francis Hrusovsky, 1949-1952, Dr. Karol Strmen, 1952-1959 for the Slovak section and Rev. Bernard Slimak, O.S.B. (1949 ) and Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. (19491959) for the English section. At one time several Fathers conducted Slovak Missions in various parts of the country. Novenas and Forty Hour devotions, as well as Triduums and pilgrimages were on their schedule. The following priests shared this apostolate: Father George Luba, Wendelin Kravec, Paschal Kavulic, Theodore Kojis, Benedict Dobrancin, Sylvester Prise, Francis Durkac, Jerome Koval, Florian Hudac and Matthew Bonk, O.S.B . Among distinguished guests at the Abbey through the years were the following: The Matica Slovenska (Slovak Institute) delegation from Turciansky Sv. Martin from Slovakia in 1935. The members were: J . C. Hronsky, 96 SLOVAKIA leading Slovak novelist, Konstantin Culen, foremost Slovak journalist, Dr. Jozef Cincik, artist and architectual consultant, K . Plicka, ace photographer . The Spolok sv. Vojtecha delegation from Trnava, Slovakia, in 1937. The members were: Dr. Jozef Tiso (later President of the Slovak Republic), Msgr. Postenyi, Msgr. Korper, Msgr. Caban and Father Mondok. Both of these delegations donated valuable works on Slovak literature and history to the Abbey library, now in the Slovak Institute library. Abbot Primate Kaelin came from Rome in 1952 to participate in the dedication of the new Abbey building. The General Chapter of the Benedictine Abbots was held at the Abbey in 1953 after the blessing of the new abbey church of St. Benedict. Among famous Slovak authors associated with the Abbey were: Philip A. Hrobak (teacher at Benedictine High School for eight years), author of a Slovak dictionary and Slovak Lessons series. J. J. Konus (spent some time in research at the Abbey library), author of several Slovak dictionaries and a grammar. Father Gregory Vaniscak, O.S.B. was the author of a Slovak grammar and translation of the Holy Rule into Slovak. Abbot Stanislaus Gmuca, O.S.B. was the author of a Slovak grammar. For the past quarter of a century the Slovak Institute cooperates with the Cleveland Slovak Radio Club in arranging a speaker's program for its Slovak Hour every Sunday. Aside from their spiritual and educational work the Benedictines in Cleveland are widely known for the prowess of the Bengals in scholastic athletic circles. Benedictine High School has produced city football, basketball, baseball, bowling, tennis and golf championship s and won a state football crown in 1957. In the past quarter of a century Benedictine football teams won eleven city titles. two co-titles and lost only 4 times. In baseball the Bengals have won almost a score city titles, two city crowns in basketball, two in golf, two in tennis and two in bowling. The latest sport is hockey and in the past four years the team has won two city titles. The CYO has used the facilities of the Bengal's gym each year at no charge since 1940. SLOVAKIA 97 At the very beginning the contributions for the foundation of Benedictine education came exclusively from the Slovaks, from individuals and our organizations. The Jednota, First Catholic Slovak Union, has been in the forefront of the Slovak fraternals that have supported the Slovak Benedictines with donations approved by the delegates at various conventions. Others like the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union, the Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union and several others have at various times made contributions to the Abbey. The most consistent supporter to the Slovak Benedictines for their high school has been the Benedictine Dads Club which has contributed more than $500,000 the past twentyseven years. At present the membership is approximately 70 ( 46 priest, 13 Brothers, 3 novices and a growing number of postulants) . The death of 15 priests in the service of God and the community the past 30 years has been a great loss to the Abbey but new vocations are beginning to come in increasing numbers. Perhaps some day St. Andrew's Abbey will send missionary monks to Slovakia to renew Benedictine monastic foundations that once flourished there during the middle ages. The last Benedictine monastery was closed by imperial edict of Joseph II of Austria-Hungary at the end of the eighteenth century. LIT ERA T U R E Frantisek Hrusovsky, Ph.D.: Slovenske re hole v Amerike. Cleveland , Ohio, 1955. Slovenski benediktini. Kalendar J edno ta, Middletown , Pa. 1928; p p. 103-109. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English.  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 Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio (1922-1972) Description An account of the resource Joseph Paučo, Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 92-97 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paučo, Jozef, 1914-1975 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/215285e5c6ce7625141c324686d0b91c.pdf 08d3cb514f45501653b2b41544812895 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 65 British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 19 3 9 I. In Munich, in September 1938, the Western Powers abandoned Central and Eastern Europe to Germany (in the same manner as they were to abandon her in Yalta and Potsdam in 1944-5 to Soviet Russia) and the small countries of this region were compelled to do their best to accommodate themselves to this new change in the balance of power. Mr. Churchill (as he was then) stated this fact quite eloquently in his speech to the House of Commons on October 5th, 1939: "It must now be accepted that all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe will make the best terms they can with the triumphant Nazi power." There is always some good which comes from every catastrophe. The Slovaks - though victims of the territorial aggrandizement of their neighbors (Hungary, Poland and Germany) - succeeded in the post-Munich period in their 20-year struggle for autonomy which was proclaimed on October 6th, 1938. By asserting their national identity through their own government and their own Diet the Slovaks finally overcame the arrogant and dangerous theory of a unitary "Czechoslovak" nation. The centralized pre-Munich Czechoslovakia became the federated state (hyphenated Czecho-Slovakia) of two equal nations. The Czechs had to admit the futility of their misplaced megalomania: they recognized the Slovaks as a separate nation, their language as a separate language. The rest of the world took notice of both the external and the internal changes which befell Czecho-Slovakia. The old myths, fostered and sustained by clever Czech propaganda, were demolished and a more sober political thinking was setting in. It was interesting and quite refreshing to read in the British press (in an article by G. B. Shaw at that) about "the entirely imaginary race called Czechoslovaks'',1 because that's what "Czechoslo- �66 SLOVAKIA vaks" in fact were: a figment of political imagination aimed at the absorption of the Slovak nation into the Czech nation. The subsequent events - which are now judged as the prologue to World War II - were in their day accepted as inevitable facts of life. After Munich Hitler's supremacy over Central Europe was unchallenged, his expansionist moves - even if occasionally condemned and disapproved of - were tacitly and implicitly acquiesced in. Even the disintegration of Czecho-Slovakia and the emergence of an independent Slovak state did not produce that wave of indignation and outrage with which it was to be treated later. The leader article in the "Daily Express" on March 15th , 1939 summed up the general sentiments in the following words : "Why are our heads cooler ( than they were a year ago - F . V.) ? Not because our hearts are hardened. Not because we have no sympathy with the Czechs. No. But we are not shocked by stale news. Munich decided that Germany was the boss in Eastern Europe." 2 In this frame of mind did the British people at large and the British Government view the new situation. II. The British foreign policy approach towards the new territorial and political rearrangement followed two distinct lines. Though reluctant to recognize the German " Protektorat " over Bohemia and Moravia, they saw the position of Slovakia in a different and more acceptable light.3 In a memorandum dated April 17th, 1939 the Foreign Office Central Europe expert, R. M. Makins, summarized the result of long deliberations which led to the following conclusions: "The position of Slovakia is different from that of Bohemia and Moravia and a number of practical questions have rendered it advisable for us to regularise the position of our Consul at Bratislava and to give the new state de facto recognition." 4 Shortly afterwards on May 4th, 1939 the British Consul in Bratislava notified the Slovak Foreign Minister (Dr. F. �SLOVAKIA 67 nurcansky) that the British Government had decided to grant the Slovak state a de facto recognition. The act of recognition was followed by the opening of a Slovak Consulate-General in London with Milan P. Harminc in charge. 5 This happy and promising development was suddenly arrested by the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939. Because of Slovakia's geographical position and treaty relations she had with her protecting power, Germany, Slovakia herself became marginally involved in the German attack on Poland. The situation was further aggravated by the defection of the Slovak Minister in Warsaw, L. Szatmary, and the Slovak Consul in London, M. Harminc. Both issued indignant proclamations - as it happened quite incorrect - alleging that Slovakia was occupied by German troops and deprived of every vestige of national independence.6 At the same time the Czech emigres in the West, led by ex-President Benes, launched their propaganda campaign for the restoration of CzechoSlovakia in its pre-Munich form. The Slovak cause in the West was at a great disadvantage. There was no one to defend it and the lies and intrigues of the adversaries of Slovak independence could go on almost unhindered. Yet it must be said in all fairness that the British attitude towards Slovakia was marked by a measure of consideration and understanding of which the Slovaks were only too infrequently the recipients. The British viewed the position of Slovakia with sensitive appreciation for the problems of a small country in the shadow of a great power. The allegations of emigre politicians - both Czechs and Slovaks - were taken with more than the proverbial grain of salt and were frequently checked against the opinions of knowledgeable experts and men-on-the-spot such as former British Consul in Bratislava Mr. P. Pares. In the British Consul the Slovaks had a severe critic but at the same time a sincere, shrewd and sympathetic observer. His deep knowledge of Slovak affairs enabled him to evaluate the moves and actions of the Slovak Government in their overall context. Already in May 1939 he had pointed out the difficult dilemma facing the Slovak leaders and their efforts to find a solution to their prob- �68 SLOVAKIA lems. Having heard rumors about their clandestine approaches to the Slovak emigres in the West (particularly towards Dr. s. Osusky in Paris), he wrote: "The object of these manoeuvres seems to be to maintain contact with the Western powers whilst pursuing a policy of cooperating with the Germans for as long as is necessary - in other words, the policy of the Czechs before and during the Great War. The Slovaks are growing very apprehensive now about the possibility of war. They do not expect Germany to win, but realize that they are powerless to refuse anything she might ask in the event of war. So they are trying to ensure the good will of the Western powers in advance by secretly approving the plans of the exiles." 7 III. Two days before Britain entered the Second World War the British Foreign Ministry issued an internal memorandum entitled "Our Attitude towards Czechs and Slovaks in Time of War." With respect to Slovaks (in spite of some unflattering remarks about their leadership ) the memorandum stated: "However true it may be that the final defection of the Slovaks last March was the result of German machination and menace and that the present Slovak Government is acting under force majeure in allowing Slovakia to be used as an assembly ground for the German attack on Poland, nevertheless the fact remains that the union of Czechs and Slovaks was not a success and it would be rash to act on the presumption that the Slovaks are now anxious to restore it ... By proclaiming the restoration of Czecho-Slovakia as a war aim, we should be assuming that the Slovaks had repented of their errors and were eager for the reunion with the Czechs. That may be so, but there are yet insufficient grounds for assurance on the point and we should not take at their face value any statements of Slovak emigres on the subject." 8 With regard to ex-President Benes the memorandum had this to say: "The question then arises what recognition we �SLOVAKIA 69 should give to Dr. Benes, if, as is only too likely, he proclaims himself leader of the Czechoslovaks. The question is not an easy one. In the first place it must be admitted that he is far and away the most outstanding Czech figure in the world. His supporters say that Czechs and Slovaks both at home and abroad are now unanimously behind him. So far as those resident abroad are concerned he might be able to produce some adequate proof, but no proof could possibly be forthcoming from those resident in their own countries. All that can be said is that he was not a popular figure in large circles in Slovakia during his presidency, and that the Czechs who assumed power in the Protectorate after his departure made no secret of their condemnation of him and his policy. It may be that they have now changed their minds, but it is difficult to see what proof can be had of the fact, and it is after all the Czechs in the Protectorate and not the emigres who matter most. A further consideration is that Dr . Benes is personally abhorrent in several other states, particularly in Poland and Hungary. All these considerations suggest that we should be wise to walk warily about any official recognition of Dr. Benes, whether as leader of the Czechs or the Czechoslovaks, though in view of his outstanding position we should presumably have no option but to accept him as their de facto spokesman". 9 As the memorandum anticipated Benes spoke out on the very day Britain entered the armed conflict. On September 3rd he wired the following telegram to the British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain: "At this moment in which the British people are obliged to wage a war imposed upon Poland, Great Britain and France by Nazi Germany I wish to express to Your Excellency with the deep and inalterable feeling of sympathy the desire and the decision of the Czechs and Slovaks to join without hesitation your people in this struggle for a free Europe. Our country is invaded and occupied by armed forces of Nazism and the whole nation is suffering under inhuman terror and oppression, its forces, however, both �70 SLOVAKIA moral and physical remain intact. We Czechoslovak citizens consider ourselves as being also in war with the German military forces and we shall march with your people till the final victory and the liberation of our fatherland. Edward Benes, former President of Czechoslovakia." 10 This telegram was carefully studied by its British recipients for hidden claims and pretensions. None was found, but it was noted that Benes spoke on behalf of "the Czechs and the Slovaks" as well as "Czechoslovak citizens". The reply (which was despatched with a six-day delay) carefully avoided any reference to either Slovaks or "Czechoslovaks" and with a studied deliberation indicated to Benes the attitude of the British Government towards him and indirectly toward Slovakia also. It read : " I gratefully acknowledge Your Excellency's generous message of sympathy and support in this grave hour. The sufferings of the Czech nation are not forgotten and we look forwards through the triumph of the principles for which we have taken up arms to the release of the Czech people from foreign domination. Neville Chamberlain." 11 This public exchange of telegrams was to demonstrate urbi et orbi that the British Government did not recognize Benes's claim to speak on behalf of the Slovaks nor were they particularly keen to restore Czecho-Slovakia. This was made explicitly clear in an explanatory letter of September 26th, 1939, sent to the Britiish Minister in Budapest (Mr. 0. St. C. O'Malley) by Sir Orme Sargent who wrote: " ... we are taking care to avoid committing ourselves to anything in the nature of a reconstitution of the old Czecho-Slovak state. In confirmation of this I would draw your attention to the answer, of which I enclose a copy, sel'lt by the Prime Minister on the 9th September to Benes's message of sympathy and support. The Prime Minister was careful to speak only of the future of the Czech people." 12 �SLOVAKIA 71 IV. This public rebuke to Dr. Benes reactivated another emigre politician, Dr. Milan Hodza, former Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia and a bitter antagonist of Dr. Benes. M. Hodza was a Slovak by birth. In his political outlook he was inconsistent and in his political actions unpredictable. Immediately after 1918 he was an ardent exponent of "Czechoslovak unity" and an active opponent of the Slovak autonomists ( whom he used to mock that they did not know the difference between "autonomy" and "automobile") .13 But gradually he realized the futile emptiness of the Czech centralist policies and advocated some measure of autonomy for Slovakia. In the summer of 1938 his proposals were almost identical with those of Andrej Hlinka. 14 But Benes put a stop to Hodza's autonomist plans and schemes and forbade him any further steps in this direction. At the height of the Munich crisis Benes made Hodza a convenient scapegoat for previous Czech mistakes and omissions and on September 22nd, 1938 forced him and his government to resign. Physically and mentally broken M. Hodza retired to France and then to Switzerland. It seemed that he had left politics for good. Unlike Benes he made no pronouncements issued no proclamations when Hitler dismembered Czecho-Slovakia. In the summer of 1939 he moved to London. Here he very quickly realized that official British circles considered the Czecho-Slovak interwar experiment as a mistake which they would be loath to repeat. The exchange of telegrams between Benes and Chamberlain indicated to him very plainly that the British viewed Slovakia not as a political accident but as a permanent feature of the Central European scene. In 1938-9 the British policy-makers realized that the Versailles settlement imposed on Central Europe in 1919 was not satisfactory and created as many new problems as it was supposed to solve. Consequently they were unwilling to advocate any schemes which took no notice of past mistakes. In effect it meant that the Slovaks were not to be forced into any union with the Czechs against their will. The British official circles did their best to clear up the terminological confusion concerning such expressions as Czechs, Slovaks, Czechoslovaks, Czecho- �72 SLOVAKIA Slovaks, nation, people, etc. It is interesting to note that even Mr. Churchill - a tough and consistent opponent of Munich - carefully chose his nouns and adjectives in his speech of November 12th, 1939, when he spoke of "the Polish, Czech and Slovak people". In his original draft he mentioned "the Polish and Czechoslovak nations", but on the advice of a Foreign Office official he accepted the more correct and less offensive terminology .15 V. At the outbreak of World War II the British considered it important to clarify their attitude towards Slovakia. In a message sent to Budapest on September 14th, 1939 we read: "Notification has been issued that Slovakia is to be regarded as territory in German occupation. Effect of this is that Slovakia will be treated as enemy territory for purpose of trading with the enemy, etc., but state of war does not exist between the United Kingdom and Slovakia and Slovaks are not at present to be regarded as enemy nationals in the United Kingdom." 16 But contrary to what was asserted by the defecting Slovak diplomats, Szatmary and Harminc, and apparently believed by the British, Slovakia was not occupied by German troops. Unfortunately after the recall of the British Consul from Bratislava and the defection of the Slovak Consul in London there were no channels of communication between Britain and Slovakia to find out what really went on. On the other hand the enemies of Slovakia and the emigre pretenders of "the oppressed Slovak people" had their field day. By intrigues, half-truths and outright lies they tried to blacken the Slovak record and discredit the idea of Slovak independence. Initially the British Foreign Office did not accept these emigre confidences at face value but passed them for comment to the British Consul P. Pares. Pares' comments and corrections (from Budapest where he had resided from September 1939) are most remarkable documents because it was not often that the Slovak cause found a judicious and objective commentator in a complete foreigner. �SLOVAKIA 73 The type of material forwarded to Mr. Pares for comment consisted mainly of "Weekly summaries" issued by the Political Intelligence Department. The information was collected mainly by R. H. Bruce Lockhart who was a willing and polite listener to many emigre accounts, stories, etc. 17 As a long-standing friend of Jan Masaryk18 and Dr. Benes Bruce Lockhart did more than anybody else towards the promotion of the Czech (i. e. anti-Slovak) interests and towards the acceptance of Dr. Benes as the spokesman for all the "Czechoslovaks". Bruce Lockhart acted in good faith and with sincere conviction but there is no doubt that his credulity was taken for a ride and his official position exploited. Dr. J . Smutny, Benes's secretary and his closest collaborator in London, wrote quite frankly (in March 1940): "Benes is unwilling to participate in the Czech emigre activities except as some sort of 'President' ... As a practical politician he knows that it is not enough for him alone to be of this opinion, but this opinion must be shared by others too. The British Government in particular must accept this view. For this reason every person who comes from the Protectorate and says that the nation stands behind Benes, is carefully put into contact with British circles to give them authentic confirmation. He (the new arrival) does not know about this game, it is all done very cleverly. Every written or verbal message which states the same (i.e. that the nation stands behind Benes) is passed on to the Foreign Office through Mr. Bruce Lockhart." 19 Material "passed on to the Foreign Office through Mr. Bruce Lockhart" formed then the bulk of these "Weekly summaries". But apart from Benes and his hard working staff of informants there were also other intelligence harbingers, such as M. Hodza. Milan Hodza tried his utmost to cast himself in the role of the sole and rightful spokesman for the Slovaks. Benes and Hodza did not see eye to eye with each other but they were of one mind when it came to denouncing and condemning everything which had happened in Slovakia since their inglorious exit. The "Summaries" regularly reported about "the grow- �74 SLOVAKIA ing disillusionment of Slovaks with their 'autonomy'". The British Consul (P. Pares) in his comments refutes this allegation. He points out that the informants and their sources represent but a small discontented group and their views are at variance with those of the majority. And then he singles out an important fact: "The use of the term 'disillusionment' is in itself misleading since from the moment when independence was declared the Slovaks never had any illusions about the difficulties and risks of their situation as a nation of two million people in the centre of Europe. Popular enthusiasm for the declaration of independence was noticeably lacking last March and if there had been any it would have been quickly dispelled by the small war with Hungary which immediately followed. One solid cause for satisfaction still remains in spite of Slovakia's need for dependence on one or other of the stronger neighbouring nations and that is the fact that after one thousand years the internal political administration has at last passed exclusively into the hands of Slovaks. Economic and political dependence on either Germany, the Czechs or Hungary is inevitable so long as Slovakia remains an independent state but the right of full self-administration is a pure gain which is entirely due to the establishment of the Re-public ( of Slovakia) and goes far towards reconciling the Slovaks with the drawbacks of their political position." 20 The "Summaries" invariably harped upon reduced living standards in Slovakia since March 1939. Mr. Pares again was able to point out that the standard of living of the peasantry had not been reduced, while there were "solid (economic) gains of the majority of the middle class". He also refuted the false claims regarding the remittance of the Slovak workers' savings from Germany. Where the Czech-inspired "Summaries" report "that most members of the (Slovak) Government are looked upon as gangsters", Mr. Pares jumps to their defence: "Of the seven ministers, three, namely M. Stano, M. Sivak and M. Pruzinsky are Czechophil moderates belonging to the Hlinka party (M. Sivak was head of �SLOVAKIA 75 the government installed by the Czechs on March 9th when Dr. Tiso was deposed) and all three were members of M. Sidor's Czechophil government which succeeded Sivak's. Of the other three, two (Fritz and Medricky) occupy minor posts, and Dr. Durcansky has travelled far politically since the days when he broadcast against the Czechs over the Vienna wireless.21 All these facts are very well known to Slovaks and it is inconceivable that they should hold the view ascribed to them in the Summary. The general attitude towards Dr. Tuka, the present Prime Minister, is indeed hostile but there is no reason to suppose that this unpopularity extends to the members of his cabinet." Drawing on his local knowledge of the Slovak scene Mr. Pares makes penetrating observations about the end of the Protestant predominance in Slovak political and public affairs: "The Protestant predominance of 1918 has gone for ever and it is useless to seek any sort of accord between Slovaks and Czechs which was opposed to the wishes of the Slovak Catholics. Yet there are no signs that the Czecho-Slovak National Council (i. e. Committee established on November 17th, 1939 in Paris ) has made any progress towards winning over their (i.e. Catholic ) support up to the present." Commenting on the composition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee,22 Mr. Pares expresses his doubts about the credentials of the three Slovak representatives on this body. He writes that the creators of this Committee either neglected to take into account the Catholic majority "or have been unsuccessful in their negotiations with the Catholic leaders." And he continues: "The three Slovak members of the Committee are not only Protestants but have not and never have had any political following. M. Osusky and M. Slavik are career diplomats and have lived for a long time abroad, whilst General Viest is a professional soldier. Though there is evidence to show that they are regarded with sympathy by the Slovak Protestants, it seem doubtful whether they can really claim to represent the political views of the whole Slovak people." �76 SLOVAKIA VI. Early in November 1939 the British Consul in Slovakia (Mr. P. Pares) was asked to comment on a memorandum submitted earlier by B. H. Bruce Lockhart and referring to discussions Mr. Bruce Lockhart had with Dr. Hodfa. In this conversation Hodfa stated that the Slovak population was almost unanimously behind him. He advocated a federalist solution for Slovakia which would keep the Czechs and Slovaks in one state but would grant the Slovaks that degree of autonomy which was secured by the zilina Agreement of October 6th, 1938.23 Hodfa told Bruce Lockhart that independence was virtually forced on the Slovaks and that there was an overwhelming desire for the return to old Czecho-Slovakia. 24 Mr. Pares disagreed with this view almost completely and gave a remarkably accurate interpretation of what had actually happened in March 1939. He mentions the real fears among Slovak politicians "at the end of February 1939 that the Czechs might soon take some opportunity of setting aside the spirit if not the letter of the Slovak autonomy law of October 1938". "Later these fears proved to be justified - writes Mr. Pares - when the Czech Government carried out its coup d 'e tat in Slovakia on March 9th. The effect of this coup was that, at the moment when Dr. Tiso was notified in Berlin that unless Slovakia declared her independence she would be divided between Hungary and Poland after Germany had taken what she needed, the Slovaks were in no mood to risk anything for the sake of the Czechs and therefore agreed to the German demand. Thus the opinion of the majority of people in Slovakia at the time of the declaration of independence was dominated by two main ideas: satisfaction at being rid at least of the Czech bugbear and relief at having saved the Slovak people from a partition which might have led to its complete disappearance as a nation." 25 The claims that the Slovaks were dissatisfied with their state are contradicted by the British Consul who sees the situation in its real and realistic context: �SLOVAKIA 77 "There are . . . good reasons why the Slovaks should be satisfied with this situation despite its drawbacks. Germany's authority is not excercised entirely without regard for Slovak feelings or interests. For instance, the new German Minister who arrived recently is far better liked than his predecessor ( who was removed at Dr. Durcansky's request). . . The conclusion of trade agreements with Poland, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and other countries during the summer ( of 1939) has assured the necessary supply of commodities such as coal, textiles, fruit, lard, coffee, etc. and the exchange of goods with the Protectorate which constituted fourfifths of Slovakia's total export trade was proceeding almost up to the outbreak of war." Mr. Pares also disputes the claims about the German occupation of Slovakia and the allegations of the arrogant behavior of the German soldiers towards native people: "The relations between the Slovak population and the German troops of occupation in the small strip of territory which constituted the military zone, were described to me as excellent by an impartial and reliable American observer as late as the beginning of August. So far as I know German soldiers - except for some deputations of officers who toured the country examining strategic roads, railways and the possibility of requisitioning local supplies - did not move outside the military zone until late in August." The British Consul ridicules the suggestions of M. Hodza that "the Slovak Government functions at the bidding of its German masters and with the support of German bayonets" and that "the Slovaks who are not prepared to accept German money have resigned from their posts" . Mr. Pares comments: "This sort of charge sounds like the kind of generalized accusations which one hears rather frequently from a Central European when he is speaking about his political opponents." In one respect, however, Mr. Pares agrees with the emigre informants: concerning the pro-Czech sentiments among the officers of the Slovak army. And here he makes an astute and surprisingly accurate prediction: "These (pro-Czech) sympathies can be discounted �78 SLOVAKIA for the present, and only when the time comes, and Germany's hold over the Czechs and Slovaks weakens, will this factor assume a real political importance." VII. At the end of 1939 there was already a noticeable shift in the British attitude towards the Slovaks. The earlier signs of a favorable disposition towards Slovakia were gradually corroded away by a conjoint action of three mutually interrelated factors: (i) The continuous stream of vicious anti-Slovak propaganda emanating from the Czech emigre groups around Dr. Benes. (ii) A powerful pro-Czech lobby among British parliamentarians, politicians and influential public figures. (iii) The contagious example of France where on October 2nd, 1939 a military agreement was concluded between the French Government and Minister Dr. E:';. Osusky who signed the agreement "on behalf of the provisional government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic". This act was followed on November 15th, 1939 by the French recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee "as qualified to represent the Czecho-Slovak people and in particular to execute the agreement of October 2nd." Invoking the French precedent Dr. Benes was pressing hard for a similar concession from the British. After a prolonged negotiation he obtained on December 20th, 1939 British recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee "as qualified to represent the Czecho-Slovak people". At the same time, however, it was made very plain to Dr. Benes and all concerned that "no commitments were made at this stage regarding the future of the former territories of the Czecho-Slovak Republic." 26 The fall of France in summer 1940 considerably strengthened Benes's position in London where his Committee was eventually recognized as "the provisional government" (on July 21st, 1940). From this time on if the British attitude towards the Czechs showed some restraint, it was not for the sake of the Slovaks but primarily out of consideration for the feelings of the Poles and Hungarians who too were against the restoration of the pre-Munich Czecho-Slovakia and against Dr. Benes personally. In December 1940 Viscount Halifax left the position �SLOVAKIA 79 of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and his place was taken by Mr. Anthony Eden (now Earl of Avon) . Mr. Eden was a close personal friend of Jan Masaryk and Dr. Benes and was known as an outspoken antagonist of the whole appeasement policies of the Chamberlain Government. With him a new spirit-highly favorable to Czech political aspirations and ambitions-moved into the corridors of the Foreign Ministry. As the hatred and abhorrence of Hitler and his Nazism grew, so did the sympathy towards the Czechs, and the Czech emigres were quick and clever to exploit it fully. No one is going to dispute the fact that the Czechs were victims of the Munich decision, but one is taken aback by the agility with which they made themselves into poor innocent victims of Munich which they certainly were not. By branding the Munich Agreement a 'dictate' they were making dictators not only of Germany and Italy but also of France and Britain. By transferring these semantics into practical politics they shifted their blame for Munich and all the subsequent events on others, including the Western allies. The simple truth is that in the autumn of 1938 the Czech accepted the Munich Agreement with nothing more than a verbal protest when they could and should have opposed Hitler with arms. But by 1940-41 they were able to elevate their shameless capitulation into an act of supreme heroism and noble sacrifice, for which the Western powers owed them a living - Czech style. So one-sided and uncritical was the British support of Benes and his policies that they actively assisted him in the elimination of his political opponents (who had equally impressive records of both democratic tradition and anti-Nazi fighting as Benes himself) such as the Slovaks s. Osusky and M. Hodza, Czechs as L. Prchala, Sudeten Germans as W. Jaksch and many more less-known but not less meritorious antiNazis. In July 1943 Benes's secretary, J . Smutny, wrote with an air of victorious satisfaction: "Morally the greatest success of Dr. Benes lies in the fact that he managed to change Munich and our decision not to fight there and then into a victory of Czechoslovak moral strength and foresight; he was able to throw at the heads of our present allies the responsibility for OUR decision . . ." 27 �80 SLOVAKIA In the light of all this it is not difficult to see Dr. Benes succeeded in making Slovak leaders willing accomplices and in convincing the Western powers the Slovak nation desired nothing more than reunion the Czechs and himself as their president. F. V how Nazi that with n u k, Australia FOOTNOTES 1) "Daily Herald", March 3rd, 1939. 2) "Daily Express", March 15th, 1939, p. 12. 3) F. Vnuk, British Recognition of Independent Slovakia in 1939, in "Slovak Studies (Historica)", Vol. VIII, (Rome, in press). 4) The Foreign Office Archives, Political Correspondence (CzechoSlovakia) 1939-40, No. 371 / 22898/Doc. 17. In following references only volume and document numbers will be given (e. g 22896/ 47) . 5) Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum, Postoj Vel' kej Britanie k Slovenskej Republike, in "Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike" (Middletown, Pa., 1960) , pp. 63-71. 6) The proclamation handed by Dr. L. Szatmary to the Polish Foreign Ministry and subsequently released to the press on September 2nd , 1939 reads: "In the name of the Slovak people and its representatives who, under the pressure of the Third Reich, have been reduced to silence and have been reproached for penetrations exclusively in the interest of Germany, I protest as the representative of the State of Slovakia in Poland against the brutal disarmament of the Slovak army, against the arbitrary occupation of Slovakia by the troops of the Third Reich, against the use of Slovakia as a base for warlike action against the brotherly Polish people. "The Slovak people, whether they be at home or abroad, will never submit to the violence of the Third Reich. "It associates itself with armed resistance against the aggressor to regain the freedom in collaboration with the civilized nations of the world, and in order that it may freely decide its own destiny. "I would be very obliged to your Excellency if the Polish Government would please acknowledge my present communication and if it would support by all its resources and those of its Allies the fight of the Slovak people to save its national honour and fatherland as well as to win true independence." Mr. Harminc's proclamation, published in the British press on September 24th, 1939 has the following to say: "The whole of Slovakia is occupied by Nazi armed forces. The voice of the Slovak people has been temporarily silenced by the ruthless abrogation of all treaties and agreements. "In the name of Slovakia I solemnly protest against this shameful betrayal, and declare that the aims and ideals of Great Britain and France are identical with those of my sorely-tried people. Milan Harminc �SLOVAKIA 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 81 22803/ 338-9 22899/ 14-15 22899/ 17-18 "The Times" (London), Sepember 5th, 1939. "The Times" (London), September 11th, 1939. 22899/ 191-3 To which a Slovak journalist and politician, J . Mudroii, provided the following repartee: "Oh yes, they do know, Mr. Hodui. The automobile is a mechanical instrument which enables the Czechs to move into Slovakia, autonomy is a political instrument which will make them move out of Slovakia." ("Slovak", February 22nd , 1920) . Dr. Michal Mudry, Milan Hodza v Amerike, Chicago, Ill. , 1949, p. 58. 22900/ 27 22900/ 273 Mr. R. H. Bruce Lockhart gives an interesting account of his work at the Political Intelligence Department in his book, Comes the Reckoning, (London, 1947). He is the author of a sympathetic biographical sketch, Jan Masaryk: a personal memoir, (London, 1951). 19) "Acta Occiipationis Bohemiae et Moraviae", Vol. I. (Pra ha, 1966 ), p. 92. 20) This and the following quotations are taken from a memorandum 24290/79-84 which is reprinted in full in Appendix III. 21) In this memorandum Mr. Pares mentions only six out of seven ministers who ,c omprised the Slovak Government. The seventh man, who is left out, is General F. Catlos, the Minister of National Defense. 22) This Czecho-Slovak National Committee consisted of eight members : iDr. E. Benes, Dr. J . Sramek, Gen. S. Ingr, Dr. E. Outrata, Dr. H. Ripka, Dr. S. Osusky, Dr. J . Slavik, Gen. R. Viest. The last three members were Slovaks, but they were pitifully unrepresentative of the Slovak nation. Not only were they all Protestants - as Mr. Pares points out - but one of them, J. Slavik, summed up his nationalist sentiments in a self-revealing phrase: 'I am an unhyphenated Czechoslovak. " 23) In the West M. Hodza liked to put himself forward as a great and dedicated federalist. In 1941 he even published in London a book. " Federation in Central Europe." But a sad fact remains that back home, when he was the second most powerful politician in CzechoSlovakia, he did not try hard enough to implement his federalist ideas within the Czecho-Slovak framework. 24) Dr. Hodfa was asked to put his views down in writing. He did so and his memorandum (22900/ 66-70) is reproduced in full in Appendix I. 25) Mr. Pares' commentaries on Hodfa's accounts of the situation in Slovakia can be found in 22900/74-81 and are given in full in Appendix II. This and the following four quotations are taken from Mr. Pares' comments. �SLOVAKIA 82 26 ) 24288/ 60 27 ) Acta occu.pationis Bohemiae et Moraviae, Vol. I., (Praha, 1966), p. 222. Appendix I. MEMORANDUM BY DR. HODZA ON THE SITUATION IN SLOVAKIA In October 1939 Dr. Milan Hod.fa, former Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, had a lengthy discussion about the political situation in Slovakia with Mr. Robert H. Bruce Lockhart of the British Foreign Office. The summary of this discussion was passed for comment to the former British Consul in Bratislava (Mr. Peter Pares) while Dr. Hodza was requested to put his view:s on paper in the form of a memorandum. In his written submission, handed to Mr. Bruce Lockhart on November 14th 1939, Dr. Hodza was less outspoken especially in his references to Dr. Benes. Even so his memorandum is an unusual document of some historical interest, particularly in its allegation - hitherto not mentioned anywhere - about the new political balance in Slovakia in the autumn of 1939. Dr. Hodza claims here the allegiance of 30 out of 49 Slovak deputies elected in 1935 (and including K. Sidor and M. Sokol). But one has to be sceptical about his mathematics . Hodza's memorandum was prefaced by a letter of Mr. Bruce Lockhart: My dear Roberts, I send you herewith a memorandum which has been given me by Dr. Hodza. It gives a picture of the alleged political line-up among l!he Slovaks. You will see that, as I predicted, the old gentleman has been careful not to put his anti-Benes and antiCzech sentiments on paper. R. H. Bruce Lockhart Yours sincerely, MEMORANDUM BY DR. HOD2A The position in Slovakia is now becoming clearer. Except for a small opportunist minority, Slovakia has never wished for separation from Bohemia and Moravia, and even the Slovak Parliament, elected in the Nazi fashion in December 1938, refused to adopt a resolution to pronounce complete separation from them. This resolution, which at the same time called upon Germany for protection, was only passed after Dr. Tiso and his four friends, who had the full support of the German S . S. and S. A., had declared that, if i,t were not accepted, Slovakia would be occupied by German troops. Up to last August Germany treated Slovakia very tactfully, not only politically but also commercially, so that even the moderate Federalists agreed that there were many advantages in being an �SLOVAK.IA 83 independent country. It was not until the preparations for war were begun in July that the situation suddenly changed, and it became obvious that Germany regarded the Slovak Government merely as a means for forcing upon Slovakia any measure, no matter how un popular. The declaration of war finally opened Slovak eyes. The present political position in Slovakia is as follows: After the cession of territory to Hungary there remained forty-nine of the sixty-four Slovak seats in the former Parliament. After the last free elections twenty-six of these were held by the parties led by Dr. Hodza ( 15), Dr. Sokol, President of the Slovak Parliament and a leader of the Catholic Federalist Group , (8) , and Dr. Jan Pauliny-Toth, leade r of the Federalist Slovak National Party, (2) . On October 3 Dr. Pauliny came to Paris and offered Dr. Hodza the co-operation of his party and of Dr. Sokol and his Catholic Federalists in the reconstitution of the Czechoslovak Republic on a federal basis. In the present ciTcumstances, of course, the co-operation of these groups must be secret. On October 10 a special envoy arrived in Paris with a similar message from M. Sidor, another Catholic Federalist and a former advocate of co-operation with the Germans. He had to resign from the Slovak Government soon after March 10, when he had opposed the German effort to establish a separate Slovakia instead of a federal Republic. His party consists of four deputies. It is thus clear that out of a total of forty-nine, thirty former Slovak deputies are in favour of a federal Republic. The nineteen remaining deputies are: i) six members of the Catholic Federalist Party who possibly still recognise Dr. Tiso as their leader; ii) five Socialist deputies, who although differing from the majority in preferring the restitution of the former semi-centralized Government to the establishment of federal methods, also support the Republic; iii) seven Slovak Communist deputies, two of whose leaders are now in Paris, and who are also in favour of the federal system : and iv) one Hungarian deputy, whose views are not known. II. At a meeting in Paris on October 12, representatives of the thirty deputies decided that the federal Republic should, from the international point of view, be a single political entity. Thus there would be one Head of the Federal State and a central Parliament and Government, with powers over foreign policy, the army, economic reconstruction, communications, and international trade and finance. Local parliaments and local governments would be in charge of education, public works, social welfare, hygiene, housing, interior administration and the police, and, in fact, of all economic problems not dealt with by the central Government and Parliament (agriculture, industry, trade, etc. ). It is desirable that federalisation should not only be the programme of the Slovak majority, but also of the Czechs abroad. If, however, the latter refuse to adopt it, this need not prevent co-operation between the Czechs and Slovaks abroad. The Slovak majority are convinced that in the restored Republic there will always be a Czecho-Slovak majority �84 SLOVAKIA in favour of a federal structure, as was the case in October 1938. The Slovak majority therefore offers to co-operate with the Czechs. There is no doubt about the importance of this collaboration. Geographically Slovakia is of the g reatest importance to Bohemia and Moravia, since it connects them with Central and Danubian Europe. Without this connection they would always be the helpless victims of the German pincers. This co-operation is equally important to Slovaks, as so-called i ndependence would always be fraught with danger for her. Co-operation between the Czech and Slovak representatives in the action abroad has now a quite special importance, as the Czechoslovak army which is to be formed in France will comprise 55, if not 60 % of Slovak agricultural labourers and industrial workers domiciled in France for years. III. The Slovak political representatives have always been unanimous in their conviction that the Czechoslovak Republic will at all times be obliged to work in very close co-operation with Poland and the neighbouring Danubian countries. The Slovaks visualise the future structure of central Europe as a confederation of sovereign states prepared to sacrifice complete sovereignty sufficiently to guarantee them independe nce and security. The basis of this scheme for federalisation may be found partly in pre vious Home Rule schemes of the Slovak Federalists and partly in a scheme which Dr. Hodza, then Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, put forward in Ma y and June 1938. This scheme, finally adopted by several leaders of the parliamentary majority, aimed at the setting up of a local Pa rliament and Government for Slovakia within the framework of a general reconstruction of the Czechoslovak political system. Up to •the end of August, some of the leading officers in the Slovak Army kept in touch with Dr. Benes and some with Dr. Hodza , through the medium of special envoys. Thus the overwhelming majority of the Slovak arm y maintained their Czechoslovak orientation. Among those abroad the former Inspector of the Slovak Army, General Viest, is a non-political soldier. The former chief of the Slovak Air Force, Major Ambrus, is, together with the vast majority of his brother-officers, in favour of Czeoho-Slovak federalism . The minutes attached to Hodza's memorandum(signed by Mr. Roberts) are of some importance as they show what kind of credibility rating Dr. Hodza enjoyed with the British Foreign Office. Mr. Roberts writes: "Dr. Hodza is not only an emigre but he was never really popular in Slovakia, where he was considered to be too closely associated with the Czech Central Government at Prague. This memorandum also clearly shows that he is still thinking in terms of the old political parties which - as Mr. Lockhart has assured me - are now completely discredited. I therefore think that we should not accept Dr. Hodza's views too readily ... " �SLOVAKIA 85 Appendix 11. Comments by Mr. P. Pares on the Bruce Lockhart account of discussions with Dr. M. Hodza. The comments were written at the British Legation in Budapest, where Mr. Pares stayed after his recall from Bratislava in September 1939. In the covering letter the Briti!sh Minister to Hungary (Mr. O'Malley) wrote to Mr. I. Kirkpatrick in London: Dear Kirkpatrick, With reference to your letter of October 19 C 16390/ 12 I enclose a memorandum by Pares commenting on Lockhart's memorandum . As I have not been much in Slovakia I will not add any remarks of my own except to say that on almost every point of which I have any knowledge I must venture to differ from Lockhart. Another golden age for emigres of all descriptions is I suppose about to dawn. It is a pity. Their political views are rarely sound. MEMORANDUM The conclusions reached in the memorandum seem to be on the whole over-simplified. The line of argument appears to be that because the independence of Slovakia was dictated by Germany and because German control of the country has increased since the Slovak State came into existence, the present Slovak government has become unpopular and the majority of Slovaks now wish for a restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. This is perhaps the impression which might be derived from contacts restricted to Slovak emigres, such as General Viest, whose name is mentioned several times in the memorandum. Incidentally General Viest was on the retired list last March and at the time of my arrival in Bratislava during December 1938, the opinion of him in centralist "Czechoslovak" circles there was that he was a mediocrity in spite of the fact that he enjoyed the distinction of being the only Slovak general in the Czechoslovak army. But this interpretation of developments in Slovakia does not place sufficient emphasis on the growing apprehension felt by Dr. Tiso's autonomous Slovak provincial government at the end of February 1939, that the Czechs might soon take some opportunity of setting aside the spirit if not the letter of the Slovak autonomy law of October 1938. Dr. Tiso's opening speech at the first working session of the Slovak Diet in the middle of February made known these feelings quite clearly. Later they were proved to be justified when the Czech government carried out its coup d'etat in Slovakia on March 9. The effect of this coup was that, ait the moment when Dr. Tiso was notified in Berlin that unless Slovakia declared her independence she would be divided between Hungary and Poland after Germany had taken what she needed , the Slovaks were in no mood to risk anything for the sake of the Czechs and therefore agreed to the German demand. Thus the opinion of the majority of people in Slovakia at the time of the declaration of independence was dominated by two main ideas, �86 SLOVAKJA satisfaction at being rid at last of the Czech bugbear and relief at having saved the Slovak people from a partition which might have led to its complete disappearence as a nation. Nobody had any illusion about the difficulties and dangers of the situation and there were hardly any public displays of enthusiasm. The attitude of the middle classes and intelligentsia was either depressed or optimistic. In the first Slovak cabinet constituted afiter March 14, the names of M. Sidor and those of M. Stano and M. Pruzinsky, members of M. Sidor's former provincial government, were included and even that of Sivak, the head of the government installed by Prague after its military coup of March 9. This indicates clearly that the new government was a concentration of all the national political groups and did not represent only the successful pro-German group which ·had carried out the revolution. These points are all worth mentioning because they show that the Slovak people as a whole and their leaders even in March had no illusions about the position. Nothing appears to have occurred since then which could cause any alteration in their estimate of their position or their attitude toward the government of Dr. Tiso. There are on the other hand good reasons why the Slovaks should be satisfied with this situation despite its drawbacks. Germany's authority is not exercised entirely without regard for Slovak feelings or interests. For instance the new German Minister who arrived recently is far better liked than his predecessor (who was removed •a t Dr_ Durcansky's request) and does not make a habit of making frequent peremptory demarches on all manner of non-essential subjects and without the instructions of his government. The conclusion of trade agreements with Poland, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and other countries during the summer has assured the necessary supply of commodities such as coal, textiles, fruit, lard, coffee, etc., and the exchange of goods with the Protectorate which constituted four-fifths of Slovakia's total export trade, was proceeding almost normally up to the outbreak of war. The only economic problems of importance were the accumulation on a relatively large scale of frozen credits in Germany (500 million ct-owns) * and the Protectorate (200 million crowns)* due to the difficulty of obtaining manufactured goods in exchange for deliveries from Slovakia. The midle-classes are now satisfied because employment in Government offices has been opened to them on a large scale. The peasants in Eastern Slovakia have also been conciliated by increased prices for their grain this year and by the prospect of cheaper freight rates for their produce when the construction of the new railway line through Vranov in East Slovakia has been completed. A typical instance of German methods of exploitation in Slovakia is pmvided by the agreement reached between the Slovak and German governments regarding the construction of strategic roads. The Slovak programme was planned to cost 60 million crowns and was to last for two years. The Germans estimated that the cost would be doubled if the work were carried out in three months ,as they wanted, and therefore agreed with ,the Slovaks to give the contracts to German firms who would receive the difference between the Slovak estimate and the • Up to the end of August �SLOVAKIA 87 German estimate in Reichsmarks from the German Government. The labor and also such raw materials as could be supplied by Slovakia were paid for in Slovak currency whilst the machinery and tar were provided by the German contractors and paid for in Germany. The relations between the Slovaik population and the German troops of occupation in the small strip of territory which constituted the military zone, were described to me as excellent by an impartial and reliable American observer as late as the beginning of August. So far as I know German soldiers - except for some deputations of officers who toured the country examining strategic roads, railways and the possibility of requisitioning local supplies - did not move outside the military zone until late in August. When I visited the district of Orava on the Polish frontier, in the middle of May, I stayed with Slovaks and ·h eard no talk of German soldiers in the neighbourhood, though the Orava area lies next door to the Jablunkau district (which was in the military zone) and was actually used by German troops for their advance into Poland in September. The description in the memorandum of the "so-called autonomous government exercising its functions solely at the bidding of its German masters and with the support of German bayonets" does not tally with the account of the state of affairs given above. Nor is it correct, in my experience, •that the Slovaks who are not ,p repared to accept German money have resigned from their posts. I knew very many hard-working and honest officials whilst I was in Bratislava, not one of whom ever received any German money, to judge by their manner of living, or seemed likely to have accepted it, if it had been offered. This sort of charge sounds like the kind of generalized accusation which one hears rather frequently from a Central European when he is speaking about his political opponents. The political administration in Slovakia, though based on authoritarian models was generally reputed to be less stringent than in Germany owing to the easy-going temperament of the Slovaks. Dr. Pauliny Toth, the Slovak Nationalist leader whose name is mentioned in the memorandum, spent some weeks in the detention camp for political prisoners in Ilava and can testify that conditions there are Jess severe than they are said to be in Dachau or other German camps. The delay of punishing the mutinous Slovak regiments last September is another proof of the German willingness to yield to Slovak feelings on questions in which these feelings are really roused and do not conflict with any essential German interest. After the Hlinka party the most powerful single political factor in the Slovak state is perhaps the army and it is definitely "Czechoslovak" in sentiment. This is intelligible since the policy of the CzechoSlovak republic was to use the system of compulsory military service as a means of cementing the union between the two halves of the country which, although closely related from a linguistic point of view, had had no common tradition for a thousand years. In pursuit of this policy Slovak soldiers were sent to serve in Bohemia and Moravia and Czech soldiers were given a taste of the primitive conditions on the Slovak and Ruthenian borders. It is natural therefore that the Czechoslovak tradition should still be strong in the Slovak army. These �88 SLOVAKIA sympathies can be discounted for the present, and only when the time comes, and Germany's hold over the Czechs and Slo•v aks weakens, will this factor assume a real political importance. Summing up, I should say that the situation in Slovakia has not changed very much since the beginning of the country's existence as an independent state and that with the exception of the army, and some of the Lutherans, the people are not violently discontented with German control. They never had many illusions about their international position and after all the country enjoys a fair measure of autonomy with full self-administration. The attitude of the Slovak intelligentsia is on the whole one of passive disap:proV1al but not of active revolt, with the exception of a section of the Lutheran community, which was the great source of strength of the former centralists or "Czechoslovaks" and has suffered with their eclipse. In this case it is sectarian feeling rather than loss of political power which created bitter antagonism to the existing government of Catholic priests. So :fiar as I know the political influence of the Catholic priests has not diminished and I have never heard of anything which proved that they were opposed to Dr. Tiso's government. 'Dhe Slovaks are still rather suspicious of the Czechs but are beginning to see from experience that they are no worse than any other of their neighbours and also to realize that the Czech regime brought considerable benefits to the country. This is certainly a positive development, but it is a long way from this to a desire for the restoration of the Czecho-Slovak State. In my opinion the restoration depends almost entirely on the manner in which the present Czech leaders set about conciliating the proper quarters in Slovakia. By this I mean the rather bigoted Catholic element embodied in the Hlinka Party and not the arrogant Lutheran minority who were formerly the Czechs' supporters and proteges. The conditions for such an attempt are not unfavourable now but a beginning must be made soon or it may be too late. Political revenge will have to be foregone and much patience and tole:riance will be required on the Czech side. It may be asked why, if the majority of Slovaks are satisfied with their independence thus far, should they be ready to help restore the Czecho-Slovak republic. The answer is that they are aware of the dangers which surround them and might therefore be prepared on certain terms to accept union with the .Czechs as a stronger Slav power. Proof of this uneasiness is to be found in the rather maladroit advances of Dr. Durcansky to the Slovak emig:rants in Paris during the summer. More than once I have observed that Slovak officials are perturbed by the fear that Slovakia may find herself on the wrong side at the end of the war and they therefore attempt to ingratiate themselves simultaneously with Germany and with the representatives of the Wes tern powers. The entry of Russia on the Central European scene has introduced a new factor. It is not out of the question that if the Czechs do not come to terms with the Slovaks. quickly, the situation may change so that the rapprochement would no longer be considered desirable by the Slovaks. P. Pares �SLOVAKIA 89 Appendix Ill. MEMORANDUM OF MR. P. PARES ON "WEEKLY SUMMARIES" NO. 10. (These "Weekly Summaries" were surveys of politically significant events in the Protectorate and Slovakia prepared by the Political Intelligence Department of the British Foreign Office and based on information obtained from Czech and Slovak emigres, recent arrivals, press and radio news, etc. In this memorandum Mr. Pares refutes much of the emigre information as biased and unreliable.) Almost every issue of the Weekly Summary has contained reference to the griowing disillusionment of Slovaks with their "autonomy" ( presumably Slovak independence is meant) yet this tendency is not confirmed by the information available here. It must be admitted however that members of the Legation staff have not had opportunities of making contact with Slovaks during the last six weeks owing to Slovaks' fears of falling under the suspicion of the Gestapo. A possible explanation of this differences is that many of the reports reaching London directly may come through the Slovak political emigrants who are nearly all Protestants and not only are opposed to the present Slovak regime themselves but draw their information from Protestant sources in Slovakia which are also in bitter opposition. The number of Catholic Slovaks who have been obliged to go into exile is very small for the obvious reason that the revolution of October 1938 brought the Catholic majority into ;p ower. The use of the term "disillusionment" is in itself misleading since from the moment when independence was declared the Slovaks never had any illusions about the difficulties and risks of their situation as a nation of two million ipeople in the centre of Europe. Popular enthusiasm for the declaratiion of independence was noticeably lacking last March and if ,t here had been ,a ny it would have been quickly dispelled by the small war with Hungary which immediately followed. One solid cause for satisfaction still remains in spite of Slovakia's need for dependence on one or other of the stronger neighbouring nations and that is the fact that after one thousand years the internal political administi,ation has at last passed exclusively into the hands of Slovaks. Economic and political dependence on either Germany, the Czechs or Hungary is inevitable so long as Slovakia remains an independent state but the right of full self-administration is a pure gain which is entirely due to the establishment of the Republic and goes far towards reconciling the Slovaks with the drawbacks of their political position. It is doubtful whether, as the Summary of December 5 (No. 10) suggests, the general standard of living has been reduced. During the summer cost of living bonuses were paid to workers whilst employment and conditions of pay among the "white collar" cl.ass appeared to have improved. The standard of living of the Slovak peasant has always been near the minimum necessary for existence and there have been no signs so far thait it has been reduced. On the contrary prices fixed by the grain monopoly this season were in some districts better than these offered last year under the Czecho-Slovak republic. Among the �90 SLOVAKIA middle class there has been a large transference of wealth due to the laws against Jews and the discriminatory practices against Czechs. Government service has been opened to the Slovak middle class and what this means may be inferred from the fact that even at the end of December 1938 when many Czechs had already returned to Bohemia there were still 36,000 of them in government employment in Slovakia. Slovaks were now also able to assert their predominance in the profession such as the Jaw, medicine etc. Thus there is little reason why the average member of the Slovak middle class should complain. If anybody has suffered through the recent changes it is the comparatively small body of well-to-do landowners and businessmen who have sold large quantities of goods to Germany, and the Protectorate, without being able to get their money owing to Germany's inability to pay cash for what she buys. But the losses of these people are insignificant compared with the solid gains of the majority of the middle class. The statement contained in Summary No. 10 rega1·ding the remittance of Slovak workers' sa vings from Germany is incorrect. According to a recent official announcement the Slovak National Bank has alread y advanced over 90 million crowns to the relatives of Slovak workers employed in Germany and although this arrangement has only shifted the burden of inconvenience from the Slovak workers to the Bank, the former are presumably quite satisfied with it. Only in a few cases have workmen returning from Germany attempted to disregard the regulation by bringing their earnings with them instead of depositing them to a German bank, but so far as I know the Slovak National Bank has been able to smooth out the difficulties which have arisen in their way. There appears to be some exaggeration in the opinion ( page 5 of No. 10 ) that most members of the government are looked upon as gangsters. Of the seven ministers, three, namely M. Stano, M. Sivak and M. Pruzinsky are Czechophil moderates belonging to the Hlinka party (M. Sivak was head of the government installed by the Czechs on March 9 when Dr. Tiso was deposed) and all three were members of M. Sidor's Czechophil government which succeeded Sivak's. Of the other three two occupy minor posts and Dr. Durcansky has travelled far politically since the days when he broadcast against the Czechs over the Viennese wireless. All these facts are very well known to Slovaks and it is inconceivable that they should hold the view ascribed to them in the Summary. The general attitude towards Dr. Tuka, the present Prime Minister, is indeed hostile but there is no reason to suppose that his unpopularity extends to the members of his cabinet. The Summaries do not offer any precise infonnation regarding the attitude of the Slovaks to the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris but on page 5 of No. 10 appears the statement that "were Slovakia free to exercise her choice, there is little doubt that a combination of forces headed by Dr. Hodza and M. Sidor, backed by a small but influential Protestant autonomy party, would command the votes of the vast majority of Slovakia." It is quite true that such a combination would be overwhelming. It is equally true that the support of some of the Catholic leaders of the Hlinka party must be enlisted by the Czecho-Slovak National Council before it can fully establish its claim to represent the Slovak people. The Protestants in Slovakia do not number more than 300,000 and �91 SLOVAKIA though the influence of their community in the economic and cultural life of Slovakia is out of all proportion to the total number of its members, the growing self-consciousness and power of one and a half million Catholics now make the most imrpo:rtant political factor in the Slovak State. The Protestant predominance of 1918 has gone for ever and it is useless to seek any sort of accord between Slovaks and Czechs which was opposed to the wishes of the Slovak Catholics. Yet there are no signs that the Czecho-Slov,a k National Council has made any progress towards winning over their support up to the present. The composition of the present National Council seems to show that its creators have either neglected ·t his point or have been unsuccessful in their negotiations with the Catholic leaders. The three Slovak members of the Council are not only Protestants but have not and never have had any ,p olitical following. M. Osusky and M . Slavik are career diplomats and have lived for a long time abroad whilst General Viest is a professional soldier. Though there is evidence to show that they are regarded with sympathy by the Slovak Protestants, it seems doubtful whether they can really claim to represent the political views of the whole Slovak people. The real political leader of ,t he Slovaks is M. Sidor. He is a good political orator and a good writer on national-political subjects; but his pre-eminence among the Slovak Catholic leaders is assured not only by his personality but by the fact that he stood extremely close to Father Hlinka and is said to be his political heir. The demonstrations in his favour, which continue to occur from time to time although they embarrass him and are dangerous for his supporters, are the best proof of his great popularity. He has remained loyal to the government but is definitely dissatisfied with the present German domination which has forced him and his closest friends to abandon temrporarily their political activities. If a moment ever came when it would be safe for Slovakia to abandon her policy of subservience to Germany, it would be he who would assume the political leadership rather then anyone else. It is therefore •interesting that, according to information derived from one of his personal friends, until recently at least the CzechoSlovak leaders in Paris had been unable to reach any agreement with him. He received friendly overtures from M. Osusky last summer to which he did not reply since (in his words) "he was unwilling to go the road to Canossa." One envoy coming to him from Dr. Hodza early in October was detained by the Hungarian police in Hungary and failed to arrive. Up to this time M. Sidor was not even convinced of the necessity for reviving a federal Czecho-Slovak State, although he was not in principle opposed to it. His precise attitude appeared to be that he preferred the existing state of affairs but would accerpt a federal solution if that was the pdlicy adopted by the Western Powers. So far as is known here then it cannot be said that great progress has been made up to the present ,t owards a solution of the problem of the future relations between Czechs and Slovaks. But if collaboration could be arranged between Dr. Hodza and the Czecho-Slovak National Council on the one hand and M. Sidor and the anti-German group of the Hlinkas paiity on the other, there would be good prospects of arranging a settlement which would be lasting and satisfactory to both p_ Pares sides. 1 � SLOVAKIA 65 British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 19 3 9 I. In Munich, in September 1938, the Western Powers abandoned Central and Eastern Europe to Germany (in the same manner as they were to abandon her in Yalta and Potsdam in 1944-5 to Soviet Russia) and the small countries of this region were compelled to do their best to accommodate themselves to this new change in the balance of power. Mr. Churchill (as he was then) stated this fact quite eloquently in his speech to the House of Commons on October 5th, 1939: "It must now be accepted that all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe will make the best terms they can with the triumphant Nazi power." There is always some good which comes from every catastrophe. The Slovaks - though victims of the territorial aggrandizement of their neighbors (Hungary, Poland and Germany) - succeeded in the post-Munich period in their 20-year struggle for autonomy which was proclaimed on October 6th, 1938. By asserting their national identity through their own government and their own Diet the Slovaks finally overcame the arrogant and dangerous theory of a unitary "Czechoslovak" nation. The centralized pre-Munich Czechoslovakia became the federated state (hyphenated Czecho-Slovakia) of two equal nations. The Czechs had to admit the futility of their misplaced megalomania: they recognized the Slovaks as a separate nation, their language as a separate language. The rest of the world took notice of both the external and the internal changes which befell Czecho-Slovakia. The old myths, fostered and sustained by clever Czech propaganda, were demolished and a more sober political thinking was setting in. It was interesting and quite refreshing to read in the British press (in an article by G. B. Shaw at that) about "the entirely imaginary race called Czechoslovaks'',1 because that's what "Czechoslo- �66 SLOVAKIA vaks" in fact were: a figment of political imagination aimed at the absorption of the Slovak nation into the Czech nation. The subsequent events - which are now judged as the prologue to World War II - were in their day accepted as inevitable facts of life. After Munich Hitler's supremacy over Central Europe was unchallenged, his expansionist moves - even if occasionally condemned and disapproved of - were tacitly and implicitly acquiesced in. Even the disintegration of Czecho-Slovakia and the emergence of an independent Slovak state did not produce that wave of indignation and outrage with which it was to be treated later. The leader article in the "Daily Express" on March 15th , 1939 summed up the general sentiments in the following words : "Why are our heads cooler ( than they were a year ago - F . V.) ? Not because our hearts are hardened. Not because we have no sympathy with the Czechs. No. But we are not shocked by stale news. Munich decided that Germany was the boss in Eastern Europe." 2 In this frame of mind did the British people at large and the British Government view the new situation. II. The British foreign policy approach towards the new territorial and political rearrangement followed two distinct lines. Though reluctant to recognize the German " Protektorat " over Bohemia and Moravia, they saw the position of Slovakia in a different and more acceptable light.3 In a memorandum dated April 17th, 1939 the Foreign Office Central Europe expert, R. M. Makins, summarized the result of long deliberations which led to the following conclusions: "The position of Slovakia is different from that of Bohemia and Moravia and a number of practical questions have rendered it advisable for us to regularise the position of our Consul at Bratislava and to give the new state de facto recognition." 4 Shortly afterwards on May 4th, 1939 the British Consul in Bratislava notified the Slovak Foreign Minister (Dr. F. �SLOVAKIA 67 nurcansky) that the British Government had decided to grant the Slovak state a de facto recognition. The act of recognition was followed by the opening of a Slovak Consulate-General in London with Milan P. Harminc in charge. 5 This happy and promising development was suddenly arrested by the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939. Because of Slovakia's geographical position and treaty relations she had with her protecting power, Germany, Slovakia herself became marginally involved in the German attack on Poland. The situation was further aggravated by the defection of the Slovak Minister in Warsaw, L. Szatmary, and the Slovak Consul in London, M. Harminc. Both issued indignant proclamations - as it happened quite incorrect - alleging that Slovakia was occupied by German troops and deprived of every vestige of national independence.6 At the same time the Czech emigres in the West, led by ex-President Benes, launched their propaganda campaign for the restoration of CzechoSlovakia in its pre-Munich form. The Slovak cause in the West was at a great disadvantage. There was no one to defend it and the lies and intrigues of the adversaries of Slovak independence could go on almost unhindered. Yet it must be said in all fairness that the British attitude towards Slovakia was marked by a measure of consideration and understanding of which the Slovaks were only too infrequently the recipients. The British viewed the position of Slovakia with sensitive appreciation for the problems of a small country in the shadow of a great power. The allegations of emigre politicians - both Czechs and Slovaks - were taken with more than the proverbial grain of salt and were frequently checked against the opinions of knowledgeable experts and men-on-the-spot such as former British Consul in Bratislava Mr. P. Pares. In the British Consul the Slovaks had a severe critic but at the same time a sincere, shrewd and sympathetic observer. His deep knowledge of Slovak affairs enabled him to evaluate the moves and actions of the Slovak Government in their overall context. Already in May 1939 he had pointed out the difficult dilemma facing the Slovak leaders and their efforts to find a solution to their prob- �68 SLOVAKIA lems. Having heard rumors about their clandestine approaches to the Slovak emigres in the West (particularly towards Dr. s. Osusky in Paris), he wrote: "The object of these manoeuvres seems to be to maintain contact with the Western powers whilst pursuing a policy of cooperating with the Germans for as long as is necessary - in other words, the policy of the Czechs before and during the Great War. The Slovaks are growing very apprehensive now about the possibility of war. They do not expect Germany to win, but realize that they are powerless to refuse anything she might ask in the event of war. So they are trying to ensure the good will of the Western powers in advance by secretly approving the plans of the exiles." 7 III. Two days before Britain entered the Second World War the British Foreign Ministry issued an internal memorandum entitled "Our Attitude towards Czechs and Slovaks in Time of War." With respect to Slovaks (in spite of some unflattering remarks about their leadership ) the memorandum stated: "However true it may be that the final defection of the Slovaks last March was the result of German machination and menace and that the present Slovak Government is acting under force majeure in allowing Slovakia to be used as an assembly ground for the German attack on Poland, nevertheless the fact remains that the union of Czechs and Slovaks was not a success and it would be rash to act on the presumption that the Slovaks are now anxious to restore it ... By proclaiming the restoration of Czecho-Slovakia as a war aim, we should be assuming that the Slovaks had repented of their errors and were eager for the reunion with the Czechs. That may be so, but there are yet insufficient grounds for assurance on the point and we should not take at their face value any statements of Slovak emigres on the subject." 8 With regard to ex-President Benes the memorandum had this to say: "The question then arises what recognition we �SLOVAKIA 69 should give to Dr. Benes, if, as is only too likely, he proclaims himself leader of the Czechoslovaks. The question is not an easy one. In the first place it must be admitted that he is far and away the most outstanding Czech figure in the world. His supporters say that Czechs and Slovaks both at home and abroad are now unanimously behind him. So far as those resident abroad are concerned he might be able to produce some adequate proof, but no proof could possibly be forthcoming from those resident in their own countries. All that can be said is that he was not a popular figure in large circles in Slovakia during his presidency, and that the Czechs who assumed power in the Protectorate after his departure made no secret of their condemnation of him and his policy. It may be that they have now changed their minds, but it is difficult to see what proof can be had of the fact, and it is after all the Czechs in the Protectorate and not the emigres who matter most. A further consideration is that Dr . Benes is personally abhorrent in several other states, particularly in Poland and Hungary. All these considerations suggest that we should be wise to walk warily about any official recognition of Dr. Benes, whether as leader of the Czechs or the Czechoslovaks, though in view of his outstanding position we should presumably have no option but to accept him as their de facto spokesman". 9 As the memorandum anticipated Benes spoke out on the very day Britain entered the armed conflict. On September 3rd he wired the following telegram to the British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain: "At this moment in which the British people are obliged to wage a war imposed upon Poland, Great Britain and France by Nazi Germany I wish to express to Your Excellency with the deep and inalterable feeling of sympathy the desire and the decision of the Czechs and Slovaks to join without hesitation your people in this struggle for a free Europe. Our country is invaded and occupied by armed forces of Nazism and the whole nation is suffering under inhuman terror and oppression, its forces, however, both �70 SLOVAKIA moral and physical remain intact. We Czechoslovak citizens consider ourselves as being also in war with the German military forces and we shall march with your people till the final victory and the liberation of our fatherland. Edward Benes, former President of Czechoslovakia." 10 This telegram was carefully studied by its British recipients for hidden claims and pretensions. None was found, but it was noted that Benes spoke on behalf of "the Czechs and the Slovaks" as well as "Czechoslovak citizens". The reply (which was despatched with a six-day delay) carefully avoided any reference to either Slovaks or "Czechoslovaks" and with a studied deliberation indicated to Benes the attitude of the British Government towards him and indirectly toward Slovakia also. It read : " I gratefully acknowledge Your Excellency's generous message of sympathy and support in this grave hour. The sufferings of the Czech nation are not forgotten and we look forwards through the triumph of the principles for which we have taken up arms to the release of the Czech people from foreign domination. Neville Chamberlain." 11 This public exchange of telegrams was to demonstrate urbi et orbi that the British Government did not recognize Benes's claim to speak on behalf of the Slovaks nor were they particularly keen to restore Czecho-Slovakia. This was made explicitly clear in an explanatory letter of September 26th, 1939, sent to the Britiish Minister in Budapest (Mr. 0. St. C. O'Malley) by Sir Orme Sargent who wrote: " ... we are taking care to avoid committing ourselves to anything in the nature of a reconstitution of the old Czecho-Slovak state. In confirmation of this I would draw your attention to the answer, of which I enclose a copy, sel'lt by the Prime Minister on the 9th September to Benes's message of sympathy and support. The Prime Minister was careful to speak only of the future of the Czech people." 12 �SLOVAKIA 71 IV. This public rebuke to Dr. Benes reactivated another emigre politician, Dr. Milan Hodza, former Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia and a bitter antagonist of Dr. Benes. M. Hodza was a Slovak by birth. In his political outlook he was inconsistent and in his political actions unpredictable. Immediately after 1918 he was an ardent exponent of "Czechoslovak unity" and an active opponent of the Slovak autonomists ( whom he used to mock that they did not know the difference between "autonomy" and "automobile") .13 But gradually he realized the futile emptiness of the Czech centralist policies and advocated some measure of autonomy for Slovakia. In the summer of 1938 his proposals were almost identical with those of Andrej Hlinka. 14 But Benes put a stop to Hodza's autonomist plans and schemes and forbade him any further steps in this direction. At the height of the Munich crisis Benes made Hodza a convenient scapegoat for previous Czech mistakes and omissions and on September 22nd, 1938 forced him and his government to resign. Physically and mentally broken M. Hodza retired to France and then to Switzerland. It seemed that he had left politics for good. Unlike Benes he made no pronouncements issued no proclamations when Hitler dismembered Czecho-Slovakia. In the summer of 1939 he moved to London. Here he very quickly realized that official British circles considered the Czecho-Slovak interwar experiment as a mistake which they would be loath to repeat. The exchange of telegrams between Benes and Chamberlain indicated to him very plainly that the British viewed Slovakia not as a political accident but as a permanent feature of the Central European scene. In 1938-9 the British policy-makers realized that the Versailles settlement imposed on Central Europe in 1919 was not satisfactory and created as many new problems as it was supposed to solve. Consequently they were unwilling to advocate any schemes which took no notice of past mistakes. In effect it meant that the Slovaks were not to be forced into any union with the Czechs against their will. The British official circles did their best to clear up the terminological confusion concerning such expressions as Czechs, Slovaks, Czechoslovaks, Czecho- �72 SLOVAKIA Slovaks, nation, people, etc. It is interesting to note that even Mr. Churchill - a tough and consistent opponent of Munich - carefully chose his nouns and adjectives in his speech of November 12th, 1939, when he spoke of "the Polish, Czech and Slovak people". In his original draft he mentioned "the Polish and Czechoslovak nations", but on the advice of a Foreign Office official he accepted the more correct and less offensive terminology .15 V. At the outbreak of World War II the British considered it important to clarify their attitude towards Slovakia. In a message sent to Budapest on September 14th, 1939 we read: "Notification has been issued that Slovakia is to be regarded as territory in German occupation. Effect of this is that Slovakia will be treated as enemy territory for purpose of trading with the enemy, etc., but state of war does not exist between the United Kingdom and Slovakia and Slovaks are not at present to be regarded as enemy nationals in the United Kingdom." 16 But contrary to what was asserted by the defecting Slovak diplomats, Szatmary and Harminc, and apparently believed by the British, Slovakia was not occupied by German troops. Unfortunately after the recall of the British Consul from Bratislava and the defection of the Slovak Consul in London there were no channels of communication between Britain and Slovakia to find out what really went on. On the other hand the enemies of Slovakia and the emigre pretenders of "the oppressed Slovak people" had their field day. By intrigues, half-truths and outright lies they tried to blacken the Slovak record and discredit the idea of Slovak independence. Initially the British Foreign Office did not accept these emigre confidences at face value but passed them for comment to the British Consul P. Pares. Pares' comments and corrections (from Budapest where he had resided from September 1939) are most remarkable documents because it was not often that the Slovak cause found a judicious and objective commentator in a complete foreigner. �SLOVAKIA 73 The type of material forwarded to Mr. Pares for comment consisted mainly of "Weekly summaries" issued by the Political Intelligence Department. The information was collected mainly by R. H. Bruce Lockhart who was a willing and polite listener to many emigre accounts, stories, etc. 17 As a long-standing friend of Jan Masaryk18 and Dr. Benes Bruce Lockhart did more than anybody else towards the promotion of the Czech (i. e. anti-Slovak) interests and towards the acceptance of Dr. Benes as the spokesman for all the "Czechoslovaks". Bruce Lockhart acted in good faith and with sincere conviction but there is no doubt that his credulity was taken for a ride and his official position exploited. Dr. J . Smutny, Benes's secretary and his closest collaborator in London, wrote quite frankly (in March 1940): "Benes is unwilling to participate in the Czech emigre activities except as some sort of 'President' ... As a practical politician he knows that it is not enough for him alone to be of this opinion, but this opinion must be shared by others too. The British Government in particular must accept this view. For this reason every person who comes from the Protectorate and says that the nation stands behind Benes, is carefully put into contact with British circles to give them authentic confirmation. He (the new arrival) does not know about this game, it is all done very cleverly. Every written or verbal message which states the same (i.e. that the nation stands behind Benes) is passed on to the Foreign Office through Mr. Bruce Lockhart." 19 Material "passed on to the Foreign Office through Mr. Bruce Lockhart" formed then the bulk of these "Weekly summaries". But apart from Benes and his hard working staff of informants there were also other intelligence harbingers, such as M. Hodza. Milan Hodza tried his utmost to cast himself in the role of the sole and rightful spokesman for the Slovaks. Benes and Hodza did not see eye to eye with each other but they were of one mind when it came to denouncing and condemning everything which had happened in Slovakia since their inglorious exit. The "Summaries" regularly reported about "the grow- �74 SLOVAKIA ing disillusionment of Slovaks with their 'autonomy'". The British Consul (P. Pares) in his comments refutes this allegation. He points out that the informants and their sources represent but a small discontented group and their views are at variance with those of the majority. And then he singles out an important fact: "The use of the term 'disillusionment' is in itself misleading since from the moment when independence was declared the Slovaks never had any illusions about the difficulties and risks of their situation as a nation of two million people in the centre of Europe. Popular enthusiasm for the declaration of independence was noticeably lacking last March and if there had been any it would have been quickly dispelled by the small war with Hungary which immediately followed. One solid cause for satisfaction still remains in spite of Slovakia's need for dependence on one or other of the stronger neighbouring nations and that is the fact that after one thousand years the internal political administration has at last passed exclusively into the hands of Slovaks. Economic and political dependence on either Germany, the Czechs or Hungary is inevitable so long as Slovakia remains an independent state but the right of full self-administration is a pure gain which is entirely due to the establishment of the Re-public ( of Slovakia) and goes far towards reconciling the Slovaks with the drawbacks of their political position." 20 The "Summaries" invariably harped upon reduced living standards in Slovakia since March 1939. Mr. Pares again was able to point out that the standard of living of the peasantry had not been reduced, while there were "solid (economic) gains of the majority of the middle class". He also refuted the false claims regarding the remittance of the Slovak workers' savings from Germany. Where the Czech-inspired "Summaries" report "that most members of the (Slovak) Government are looked upon as gangsters", Mr. Pares jumps to their defence: "Of the seven ministers, three, namely M. Stano, M. Sivak and M. Pruzinsky are Czechophil moderates belonging to the Hlinka party (M. Sivak was head of �SLOVAKIA 75 the government installed by the Czechs on March 9th when Dr. Tiso was deposed) and all three were members of M. Sidor's Czechophil government which succeeded Sivak's. Of the other three, two (Fritz and Medricky) occupy minor posts, and Dr. Durcansky has travelled far politically since the days when he broadcast against the Czechs over the Vienna wireless.21 All these facts are very well known to Slovaks and it is inconceivable that they should hold the view ascribed to them in the Summary. The general attitude towards Dr. Tuka, the present Prime Minister, is indeed hostile but there is no reason to suppose that this unpopularity extends to the members of his cabinet." Drawing on his local knowledge of the Slovak scene Mr. Pares makes penetrating observations about the end of the Protestant predominance in Slovak political and public affairs: "The Protestant predominance of 1918 has gone for ever and it is useless to seek any sort of accord between Slovaks and Czechs which was opposed to the wishes of the Slovak Catholics. Yet there are no signs that the Czecho-Slovak National Council (i. e. Committee established on November 17th, 1939 in Paris ) has made any progress towards winning over their (i.e. Catholic ) support up to the present." Commenting on the composition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee,22 Mr. Pares expresses his doubts about the credentials of the three Slovak representatives on this body. He writes that the creators of this Committee either neglected to take into account the Catholic majority "or have been unsuccessful in their negotiations with the Catholic leaders." And he continues: "The three Slovak members of the Committee are not only Protestants but have not and never have had any political following. M. Osusky and M. Slavik are career diplomats and have lived for a long time abroad, whilst General Viest is a professional soldier. Though there is evidence to show that they are regarded with sympathy by the Slovak Protestants, it seem doubtful whether they can really claim to represent the political views of the whole Slovak people." �76 SLOVAKIA VI. Early in November 1939 the British Consul in Slovakia (Mr. P. Pares) was asked to comment on a memorandum submitted earlier by B. H. Bruce Lockhart and referring to discussions Mr. Bruce Lockhart had with Dr. Hodfa. In this conversation Hodfa stated that the Slovak population was almost unanimously behind him. He advocated a federalist solution for Slovakia which would keep the Czechs and Slovaks in one state but would grant the Slovaks that degree of autonomy which was secured by the zilina Agreement of October 6th, 1938.23 Hodfa told Bruce Lockhart that independence was virtually forced on the Slovaks and that there was an overwhelming desire for the return to old Czecho-Slovakia. 24 Mr. Pares disagreed with this view almost completely and gave a remarkably accurate interpretation of what had actually happened in March 1939. He mentions the real fears among Slovak politicians "at the end of February 1939 that the Czechs might soon take some opportunity of setting aside the spirit if not the letter of the Slovak autonomy law of October 1938". "Later these fears proved to be justified - writes Mr. Pares - when the Czech Government carried out its coup d 'e tat in Slovakia on March 9th. The effect of this coup was that, at the moment when Dr. Tiso was notified in Berlin that unless Slovakia declared her independence she would be divided between Hungary and Poland after Germany had taken what she needed, the Slovaks were in no mood to risk anything for the sake of the Czechs and therefore agreed to the German demand. Thus the opinion of the majority of people in Slovakia at the time of the declaration of independence was dominated by two main ideas: satisfaction at being rid at least of the Czech bugbear and relief at having saved the Slovak people from a partition which might have led to its complete disappearance as a nation." 25 The claims that the Slovaks were dissatisfied with their state are contradicted by the British Consul who sees the situation in its real and realistic context: �SLOVAKIA 77 "There are . . . good reasons why the Slovaks should be satisfied with this situation despite its drawbacks. Germany's authority is not excercised entirely without regard for Slovak feelings or interests. For instance, the new German Minister who arrived recently is far better liked than his predecessor ( who was removed at Dr. Durcansky's request). . . The conclusion of trade agreements with Poland, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and other countries during the summer ( of 1939) has assured the necessary supply of commodities such as coal, textiles, fruit, lard, coffee, etc. and the exchange of goods with the Protectorate which constituted fourfifths of Slovakia's total export trade was proceeding almost up to the outbreak of war." Mr. Pares also disputes the claims about the German occupation of Slovakia and the allegations of the arrogant behavior of the German soldiers towards native people: "The relations between the Slovak population and the German troops of occupation in the small strip of territory which constituted the military zone, were described to me as excellent by an impartial and reliable American observer as late as the beginning of August. So far as I know German soldiers - except for some deputations of officers who toured the country examining strategic roads, railways and the possibility of requisitioning local supplies - did not move outside the military zone until late in August." The British Consul ridicules the suggestions of M. Hodza that "the Slovak Government functions at the bidding of its German masters and with the support of German bayonets" and that "the Slovaks who are not prepared to accept German money have resigned from their posts" . Mr. Pares comments: "This sort of charge sounds like the kind of generalized accusations which one hears rather frequently from a Central European when he is speaking about his political opponents." In one respect, however, Mr. Pares agrees with the emigre informants: concerning the pro-Czech sentiments among the officers of the Slovak army. And here he makes an astute and surprisingly accurate prediction: "These (pro-Czech) sympathies can be discounted �78 SLOVAKIA for the present, and only when the time comes, and Germany's hold over the Czechs and Slovaks weakens, will this factor assume a real political importance." VII. At the end of 1939 there was already a noticeable shift in the British attitude towards the Slovaks. The earlier signs of a favorable disposition towards Slovakia were gradually corroded away by a conjoint action of three mutually interrelated factors: (i) The continuous stream of vicious anti-Slovak propaganda emanating from the Czech emigre groups around Dr. Benes. (ii) A powerful pro-Czech lobby among British parliamentarians, politicians and influential public figures. (iii) The contagious example of France where on October 2nd, 1939 a military agreement was concluded between the French Government and Minister Dr. E:';. Osusky who signed the agreement "on behalf of the provisional government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic". This act was followed on November 15th, 1939 by the French recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee "as qualified to represent the Czecho-Slovak people and in particular to execute the agreement of October 2nd." Invoking the French precedent Dr. Benes was pressing hard for a similar concession from the British. After a prolonged negotiation he obtained on December 20th, 1939 British recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee "as qualified to represent the Czecho-Slovak people". At the same time, however, it was made very plain to Dr. Benes and all concerned that "no commitments were made at this stage regarding the future of the former territories of the Czecho-Slovak Republic." 26 The fall of France in summer 1940 considerably strengthened Benes's position in London where his Committee was eventually recognized as "the provisional government" (on July 21st, 1940). From this time on if the British attitude towards the Czechs showed some restraint, it was not for the sake of the Slovaks but primarily out of consideration for the feelings of the Poles and Hungarians who too were against the restoration of the pre-Munich Czecho-Slovakia and against Dr. Benes personally. In December 1940 Viscount Halifax left the position �SLOVAKIA 79 of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and his place was taken by Mr. Anthony Eden (now Earl of Avon) . Mr. Eden was a close personal friend of Jan Masaryk and Dr. Benes and was known as an outspoken antagonist of the whole appeasement policies of the Chamberlain Government. With him a new spirit-highly favorable to Czech political aspirations and ambitions-moved into the corridors of the Foreign Ministry. As the hatred and abhorrence of Hitler and his Nazism grew, so did the sympathy towards the Czechs, and the Czech emigres were quick and clever to exploit it fully. No one is going to dispute the fact that the Czechs were victims of the Munich decision, but one is taken aback by the agility with which they made themselves into poor innocent victims of Munich which they certainly were not. By branding the Munich Agreement a 'dictate' they were making dictators not only of Germany and Italy but also of France and Britain. By transferring these semantics into practical politics they shifted their blame for Munich and all the subsequent events on others, including the Western allies. The simple truth is that in the autumn of 1938 the Czech accepted the Munich Agreement with nothing more than a verbal protest when they could and should have opposed Hitler with arms. But by 1940-41 they were able to elevate their shameless capitulation into an act of supreme heroism and noble sacrifice, for which the Western powers owed them a living - Czech style. So one-sided and uncritical was the British support of Benes and his policies that they actively assisted him in the elimination of his political opponents (who had equally impressive records of both democratic tradition and anti-Nazi fighting as Benes himself) such as the Slovaks s. Osusky and M. Hodza, Czechs as L. Prchala, Sudeten Germans as W. Jaksch and many more less-known but not less meritorious antiNazis. In July 1943 Benes's secretary, J . Smutny, wrote with an air of victorious satisfaction: "Morally the greatest success of Dr. Benes lies in the fact that he managed to change Munich and our decision not to fight there and then into a victory of Czechoslovak moral strength and foresight; he was able to throw at the heads of our present allies the responsibility for OUR decision . . ." 27 �80 SLOVAKIA In the light of all this it is not difficult to see Dr. Benes succeeded in making Slovak leaders willing accomplices and in convincing the Western powers the Slovak nation desired nothing more than reunion the Czechs and himself as their president. F. V how Nazi that with n u k, Australia FOOTNOTES 1) "Daily Herald", March 3rd, 1939. 2) "Daily Express", March 15th, 1939, p. 12. 3) F. Vnuk, British Recognition of Independent Slovakia in 1939, in "Slovak Studies (Historica)", Vol. VIII, (Rome, in press). 4) The Foreign Office Archives, Political Correspondence (CzechoSlovakia) 1939-40, No. 371 / 22898/Doc. 17. In following references only volume and document numbers will be given (e. g 22896/ 47) . 5) Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum, Postoj Vel' kej Britanie k Slovenskej Republike, in "Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike" (Middletown, Pa., 1960) , pp. 63-71. 6) The proclamation handed by Dr. L. Szatmary to the Polish Foreign Ministry and subsequently released to the press on September 2nd , 1939 reads: "In the name of the Slovak people and its representatives who, under the pressure of the Third Reich, have been reduced to silence and have been reproached for penetrations exclusively in the interest of Germany, I protest as the representative of the State of Slovakia in Poland against the brutal disarmament of the Slovak army, against the arbitrary occupation of Slovakia by the troops of the Third Reich, against the use of Slovakia as a base for warlike action against the brotherly Polish people. "The Slovak people, whether they be at home or abroad, will never submit to the violence of the Third Reich. "It associates itself with armed resistance against the aggressor to regain the freedom in collaboration with the civilized nations of the world, and in order that it may freely decide its own destiny. "I would be very obliged to your Excellency if the Polish Government would please acknowledge my present communication and if it would support by all its resources and those of its Allies the fight of the Slovak people to save its national honour and fatherland as well as to win true independence." Mr. Harminc's proclamation, published in the British press on September 24th, 1939 has the following to say: "The whole of Slovakia is occupied by Nazi armed forces. The voice of the Slovak people has been temporarily silenced by the ruthless abrogation of all treaties and agreements. "In the name of Slovakia I solemnly protest against this shameful betrayal, and declare that the aims and ideals of Great Britain and France are identical with those of my sorely-tried people. Milan Harminc �SLOVAKIA 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 81 22803/ 338-9 22899/ 14-15 22899/ 17-18 "The Times" (London), Sepember 5th, 1939. "The Times" (London), September 11th, 1939. 22899/ 191-3 To which a Slovak journalist and politician, J . Mudroii, provided the following repartee: "Oh yes, they do know, Mr. Hodui. The automobile is a mechanical instrument which enables the Czechs to move into Slovakia, autonomy is a political instrument which will make them move out of Slovakia." ("Slovak", February 22nd , 1920) . Dr. Michal Mudry, Milan Hodza v Amerike, Chicago, Ill. , 1949, p. 58. 22900/ 27 22900/ 273 Mr. R. H. Bruce Lockhart gives an interesting account of his work at the Political Intelligence Department in his book, Comes the Reckoning, (London, 1947). He is the author of a sympathetic biographical sketch, Jan Masaryk: a personal memoir, (London, 1951). 19) "Acta Occiipationis Bohemiae et Moraviae", Vol. I. (Pra ha, 1966 ), p. 92. 20) This and the following quotations are taken from a memorandum 24290/79-84 which is reprinted in full in Appendix III. 21) In this memorandum Mr. Pares mentions only six out of seven ministers who ,c omprised the Slovak Government. The seventh man, who is left out, is General F. Catlos, the Minister of National Defense. 22) This Czecho-Slovak National Committee consisted of eight members : iDr. E. Benes, Dr. J . Sramek, Gen. S. Ingr, Dr. E. Outrata, Dr. H. Ripka, Dr. S. Osusky, Dr. J . Slavik, Gen. R. Viest. The last three members were Slovaks, but they were pitifully unrepresentative of the Slovak nation. Not only were they all Protestants - as Mr. Pares points out - but one of them, J. Slavik, summed up his nationalist sentiments in a self-revealing phrase: 'I am an unhyphenated Czechoslovak. " 23) In the West M. Hodza liked to put himself forward as a great and dedicated federalist. In 1941 he even published in London a book. " Federation in Central Europe." But a sad fact remains that back home, when he was the second most powerful politician in CzechoSlovakia, he did not try hard enough to implement his federalist ideas within the Czecho-Slovak framework. 24) Dr. Hodfa was asked to put his views down in writing. He did so and his memorandum (22900/ 66-70) is reproduced in full in Appendix I. 25) Mr. Pares' commentaries on Hodfa's accounts of the situation in Slovakia can be found in 22900/74-81 and are given in full in Appendix II. This and the following four quotations are taken from Mr. Pares' comments. �SLOVAKIA 82 26 ) 24288/ 60 27 ) Acta occu.pationis Bohemiae et Moraviae, Vol. I., (Praha, 1966), p. 222. Appendix I. MEMORANDUM BY DR. HODZA ON THE SITUATION IN SLOVAKIA In October 1939 Dr. Milan Hod.fa, former Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, had a lengthy discussion about the political situation in Slovakia with Mr. Robert H. Bruce Lockhart of the British Foreign Office. The summary of this discussion was passed for comment to the former British Consul in Bratislava (Mr. Peter Pares) while Dr. Hodza was requested to put his view:s on paper in the form of a memorandum. In his written submission, handed to Mr. Bruce Lockhart on November 14th 1939, Dr. Hodza was less outspoken especially in his references to Dr. Benes. Even so his memorandum is an unusual document of some historical interest, particularly in its allegation - hitherto not mentioned anywhere - about the new political balance in Slovakia in the autumn of 1939. Dr. Hodza claims here the allegiance of 30 out of 49 Slovak deputies elected in 1935 (and including K. Sidor and M. Sokol). But one has to be sceptical about his mathematics . Hodza's memorandum was prefaced by a letter of Mr. Bruce Lockhart: My dear Roberts, I send you herewith a memorandum which has been given me by Dr. Hodza. It gives a picture of the alleged political line-up among l!he Slovaks. You will see that, as I predicted, the old gentleman has been careful not to put his anti-Benes and antiCzech sentiments on paper. R. H. Bruce Lockhart Yours sincerely, MEMORANDUM BY DR. HOD2A The position in Slovakia is now becoming clearer. Except for a small opportunist minority, Slovakia has never wished for separation from Bohemia and Moravia, and even the Slovak Parliament, elected in the Nazi fashion in December 1938, refused to adopt a resolution to pronounce complete separation from them. This resolution, which at the same time called upon Germany for protection, was only passed after Dr. Tiso and his four friends, who had the full support of the German S . S. and S. A., had declared that, if i,t were not accepted, Slovakia would be occupied by German troops. Up to last August Germany treated Slovakia very tactfully, not only politically but also commercially, so that even the moderate Federalists agreed that there were many advantages in being an �SLOVAK.IA 83 independent country. It was not until the preparations for war were begun in July that the situation suddenly changed, and it became obvious that Germany regarded the Slovak Government merely as a means for forcing upon Slovakia any measure, no matter how un popular. The declaration of war finally opened Slovak eyes. The present political position in Slovakia is as follows: After the cession of territory to Hungary there remained forty-nine of the sixty-four Slovak seats in the former Parliament. After the last free elections twenty-six of these were held by the parties led by Dr. Hodza ( 15), Dr. Sokol, President of the Slovak Parliament and a leader of the Catholic Federalist Group , (8) , and Dr. Jan Pauliny-Toth, leade r of the Federalist Slovak National Party, (2) . On October 3 Dr. Pauliny came to Paris and offered Dr. Hodza the co-operation of his party and of Dr. Sokol and his Catholic Federalists in the reconstitution of the Czechoslovak Republic on a federal basis. In the present ciTcumstances, of course, the co-operation of these groups must be secret. On October 10 a special envoy arrived in Paris with a similar message from M. Sidor, another Catholic Federalist and a former advocate of co-operation with the Germans. He had to resign from the Slovak Government soon after March 10, when he had opposed the German effort to establish a separate Slovakia instead of a federal Republic. His party consists of four deputies. It is thus clear that out of a total of forty-nine, thirty former Slovak deputies are in favour of a federal Republic. The nineteen remaining deputies are: i) six members of the Catholic Federalist Party who possibly still recognise Dr. Tiso as their leader; ii) five Socialist deputies, who although differing from the majority in preferring the restitution of the former semi-centralized Government to the establishment of federal methods, also support the Republic; iii) seven Slovak Communist deputies, two of whose leaders are now in Paris, and who are also in favour of the federal system : and iv) one Hungarian deputy, whose views are not known. II. At a meeting in Paris on October 12, representatives of the thirty deputies decided that the federal Republic should, from the international point of view, be a single political entity. Thus there would be one Head of the Federal State and a central Parliament and Government, with powers over foreign policy, the army, economic reconstruction, communications, and international trade and finance. Local parliaments and local governments would be in charge of education, public works, social welfare, hygiene, housing, interior administration and the police, and, in fact, of all economic problems not dealt with by the central Government and Parliament (agriculture, industry, trade, etc. ). It is desirable that federalisation should not only be the programme of the Slovak majority, but also of the Czechs abroad. If, however, the latter refuse to adopt it, this need not prevent co-operation between the Czechs and Slovaks abroad. The Slovak majority are convinced that in the restored Republic there will always be a Czecho-Slovak majority �84 SLOVAKIA in favour of a federal structure, as was the case in October 1938. The Slovak majority therefore offers to co-operate with the Czechs. There is no doubt about the importance of this collaboration. Geographically Slovakia is of the g reatest importance to Bohemia and Moravia, since it connects them with Central and Danubian Europe. Without this connection they would always be the helpless victims of the German pincers. This co-operation is equally important to Slovaks, as so-called i ndependence would always be fraught with danger for her. Co-operation between the Czech and Slovak representatives in the action abroad has now a quite special importance, as the Czechoslovak army which is to be formed in France will comprise 55, if not 60 % of Slovak agricultural labourers and industrial workers domiciled in France for years. III. The Slovak political representatives have always been unanimous in their conviction that the Czechoslovak Republic will at all times be obliged to work in very close co-operation with Poland and the neighbouring Danubian countries. The Slovaks visualise the future structure of central Europe as a confederation of sovereign states prepared to sacrifice complete sovereignty sufficiently to guarantee them independe nce and security. The basis of this scheme for federalisation may be found partly in pre vious Home Rule schemes of the Slovak Federalists and partly in a scheme which Dr. Hodza, then Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, put forward in Ma y and June 1938. This scheme, finally adopted by several leaders of the parliamentary majority, aimed at the setting up of a local Pa rliament and Government for Slovakia within the framework of a general reconstruction of the Czechoslovak political system. Up to •the end of August, some of the leading officers in the Slovak Army kept in touch with Dr. Benes and some with Dr. Hodza , through the medium of special envoys. Thus the overwhelming majority of the Slovak arm y maintained their Czechoslovak orientation. Among those abroad the former Inspector of the Slovak Army, General Viest, is a non-political soldier. The former chief of the Slovak Air Force, Major Ambrus, is, together with the vast majority of his brother-officers, in favour of Czeoho-Slovak federalism . The minutes attached to Hodza's memorandum(signed by Mr. Roberts) are of some importance as they show what kind of credibility rating Dr. Hodza enjoyed with the British Foreign Office. Mr. Roberts writes: "Dr. Hodza is not only an emigre but he was never really popular in Slovakia, where he was considered to be too closely associated with the Czech Central Government at Prague. This memorandum also clearly shows that he is still thinking in terms of the old political parties which - as Mr. Lockhart has assured me - are now completely discredited. I therefore think that we should not accept Dr. Hodza's views too readily ... " �SLOVAKIA 85 Appendix 11. Comments by Mr. P. Pares on the Bruce Lockhart account of discussions with Dr. M. Hodza. The comments were written at the British Legation in Budapest, where Mr. Pares stayed after his recall from Bratislava in September 1939. In the covering letter the Briti!sh Minister to Hungary (Mr. O'Malley) wrote to Mr. I. Kirkpatrick in London: Dear Kirkpatrick, With reference to your letter of October 19 C 16390/ 12 I enclose a memorandum by Pares commenting on Lockhart's memorandum . As I have not been much in Slovakia I will not add any remarks of my own except to say that on almost every point of which I have any knowledge I must venture to differ from Lockhart. Another golden age for emigres of all descriptions is I suppose about to dawn. It is a pity. Their political views are rarely sound. MEMORANDUM The conclusions reached in the memorandum seem to be on the whole over-simplified. The line of argument appears to be that because the independence of Slovakia was dictated by Germany and because German control of the country has increased since the Slovak State came into existence, the present Slovak government has become unpopular and the majority of Slovaks now wish for a restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. This is perhaps the impression which might be derived from contacts restricted to Slovak emigres, such as General Viest, whose name is mentioned several times in the memorandum. Incidentally General Viest was on the retired list last March and at the time of my arrival in Bratislava during December 1938, the opinion of him in centralist "Czechoslovak" circles there was that he was a mediocrity in spite of the fact that he enjoyed the distinction of being the only Slovak general in the Czechoslovak army. But this interpretation of developments in Slovakia does not place sufficient emphasis on the growing apprehension felt by Dr. Tiso's autonomous Slovak provincial government at the end of February 1939, that the Czechs might soon take some opportunity of setting aside the spirit if not the letter of the Slovak autonomy law of October 1938. Dr. Tiso's opening speech at the first working session of the Slovak Diet in the middle of February made known these feelings quite clearly. Later they were proved to be justified when the Czech government carried out its coup d'etat in Slovakia on March 9. The effect of this coup was that, ait the moment when Dr. Tiso was notified in Berlin that unless Slovakia declared her independence she would be divided between Hungary and Poland after Germany had taken what she needed , the Slovaks were in no mood to risk anything for the sake of the Czechs and therefore agreed to the German demand. Thus the opinion of the majority of people in Slovakia at the time of the declaration of independence was dominated by two main ideas, �86 SLOVAKJA satisfaction at being rid at last of the Czech bugbear and relief at having saved the Slovak people from a partition which might have led to its complete disappearence as a nation. Nobody had any illusion about the difficulties and dangers of the situation and there were hardly any public displays of enthusiasm. The attitude of the middle classes and intelligentsia was either depressed or optimistic. In the first Slovak cabinet constituted afiter March 14, the names of M. Sidor and those of M. Stano and M. Pruzinsky, members of M. Sidor's former provincial government, were included and even that of Sivak, the head of the government installed by Prague after its military coup of March 9. This indicates clearly that the new government was a concentration of all the national political groups and did not represent only the successful pro-German group which ·had carried out the revolution. These points are all worth mentioning because they show that the Slovak people as a whole and their leaders even in March had no illusions about the position. Nothing appears to have occurred since then which could cause any alteration in their estimate of their position or their attitude toward the government of Dr. Tiso. There are on the other hand good reasons why the Slovaks should be satisfied with this situation despite its drawbacks. Germany's authority is not exercised entirely without regard for Slovak feelings or interests. For instance the new German Minister who arrived recently is far better liked than his predecessor (who was removed •a t Dr_ Durcansky's request) and does not make a habit of making frequent peremptory demarches on all manner of non-essential subjects and without the instructions of his government. The conclusion of trade agreements with Poland, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and other countries during the summer has assured the necessary supply of commodities such as coal, textiles, fruit, lard, coffee, etc., and the exchange of goods with the Protectorate which constituted four-fifths of Slovakia's total export trade, was proceeding almost normally up to the outbreak of war. The only economic problems of importance were the accumulation on a relatively large scale of frozen credits in Germany (500 million ct-owns) * and the Protectorate (200 million crowns)* due to the difficulty of obtaining manufactured goods in exchange for deliveries from Slovakia. The midle-classes are now satisfied because employment in Government offices has been opened to them on a large scale. The peasants in Eastern Slovakia have also been conciliated by increased prices for their grain this year and by the prospect of cheaper freight rates for their produce when the construction of the new railway line through Vranov in East Slovakia has been completed. A typical instance of German methods of exploitation in Slovakia is pmvided by the agreement reached between the Slovak and German governments regarding the construction of strategic roads. The Slovak programme was planned to cost 60 million crowns and was to last for two years. The Germans estimated that the cost would be doubled if the work were carried out in three months ,as they wanted, and therefore agreed with ,the Slovaks to give the contracts to German firms who would receive the difference between the Slovak estimate and the • Up to the end of August �SLOVAKIA 87 German estimate in Reichsmarks from the German Government. The labor and also such raw materials as could be supplied by Slovakia were paid for in Slovak currency whilst the machinery and tar were provided by the German contractors and paid for in Germany. The relations between the Slovaik population and the German troops of occupation in the small strip of territory which constituted the military zone, were described to me as excellent by an impartial and reliable American observer as late as the beginning of August. So far as I know German soldiers - except for some deputations of officers who toured the country examining strategic roads, railways and the possibility of requisitioning local supplies - did not move outside the military zone until late in August. When I visited the district of Orava on the Polish frontier, in the middle of May, I stayed with Slovaks and ·h eard no talk of German soldiers in the neighbourhood, though the Orava area lies next door to the Jablunkau district (which was in the military zone) and was actually used by German troops for their advance into Poland in September. The description in the memorandum of the "so-called autonomous government exercising its functions solely at the bidding of its German masters and with the support of German bayonets" does not tally with the account of the state of affairs given above. Nor is it correct, in my experience, •that the Slovaks who are not ,p repared to accept German money have resigned from their posts. I knew very many hard-working and honest officials whilst I was in Bratislava, not one of whom ever received any German money, to judge by their manner of living, or seemed likely to have accepted it, if it had been offered. This sort of charge sounds like the kind of generalized accusation which one hears rather frequently from a Central European when he is speaking about his political opponents. The political administration in Slovakia, though based on authoritarian models was generally reputed to be less stringent than in Germany owing to the easy-going temperament of the Slovaks. Dr. Pauliny Toth, the Slovak Nationalist leader whose name is mentioned in the memorandum, spent some weeks in the detention camp for political prisoners in Ilava and can testify that conditions there are Jess severe than they are said to be in Dachau or other German camps. The delay of punishing the mutinous Slovak regiments last September is another proof of the German willingness to yield to Slovak feelings on questions in which these feelings are really roused and do not conflict with any essential German interest. After the Hlinka party the most powerful single political factor in the Slovak state is perhaps the army and it is definitely "Czechoslovak" in sentiment. This is intelligible since the policy of the CzechoSlovak republic was to use the system of compulsory military service as a means of cementing the union between the two halves of the country which, although closely related from a linguistic point of view, had had no common tradition for a thousand years. In pursuit of this policy Slovak soldiers were sent to serve in Bohemia and Moravia and Czech soldiers were given a taste of the primitive conditions on the Slovak and Ruthenian borders. It is natural therefore that the Czechoslovak tradition should still be strong in the Slovak army. These �88 SLOVAKIA sympathies can be discounted for the present, and only when the time comes, and Germany's hold over the Czechs and Slo•v aks weakens, will this factor assume a real political importance. Summing up, I should say that the situation in Slovakia has not changed very much since the beginning of the country's existence as an independent state and that with the exception of the army, and some of the Lutherans, the people are not violently discontented with German control. They never had many illusions about their international position and after all the country enjoys a fair measure of autonomy with full self-administration. The attitude of the Slovak intelligentsia is on the whole one of passive disap:proV1al but not of active revolt, with the exception of a section of the Lutheran community, which was the great source of strength of the former centralists or "Czechoslovaks" and has suffered with their eclipse. In this case it is sectarian feeling rather than loss of political power which created bitter antagonism to the existing government of Catholic priests. So :fiar as I know the political influence of the Catholic priests has not diminished and I have never heard of anything which proved that they were opposed to Dr. Tiso's government. 'Dhe Slovaks are still rather suspicious of the Czechs but are beginning to see from experience that they are no worse than any other of their neighbours and also to realize that the Czech regime brought considerable benefits to the country. This is certainly a positive development, but it is a long way from this to a desire for the restoration of the Czecho-Slovak State. In my opinion the restoration depends almost entirely on the manner in which the present Czech leaders set about conciliating the proper quarters in Slovakia. By this I mean the rather bigoted Catholic element embodied in the Hlinka Party and not the arrogant Lutheran minority who were formerly the Czechs' supporters and proteges. The conditions for such an attempt are not unfavourable now but a beginning must be made soon or it may be too late. Political revenge will have to be foregone and much patience and tole:riance will be required on the Czech side. It may be asked why, if the majority of Slovaks are satisfied with their independence thus far, should they be ready to help restore the Czecho-Slovak republic. The answer is that they are aware of the dangers which surround them and might therefore be prepared on certain terms to accept union with the .Czechs as a stronger Slav power. Proof of this uneasiness is to be found in the rather maladroit advances of Dr. Durcansky to the Slovak emig:rants in Paris during the summer. More than once I have observed that Slovak officials are perturbed by the fear that Slovakia may find herself on the wrong side at the end of the war and they therefore attempt to ingratiate themselves simultaneously with Germany and with the representatives of the Wes tern powers. The entry of Russia on the Central European scene has introduced a new factor. It is not out of the question that if the Czechs do not come to terms with the Slovaks. quickly, the situation may change so that the rapprochement would no longer be considered desirable by the Slovaks. P. Pares �SLOVAKIA 89 Appendix Ill. MEMORANDUM OF MR. P. PARES ON "WEEKLY SUMMARIES" NO. 10. (These "Weekly Summaries" were surveys of politically significant events in the Protectorate and Slovakia prepared by the Political Intelligence Department of the British Foreign Office and based on information obtained from Czech and Slovak emigres, recent arrivals, press and radio news, etc. In this memorandum Mr. Pares refutes much of the emigre information as biased and unreliable.) Almost every issue of the Weekly Summary has contained reference to the griowing disillusionment of Slovaks with their "autonomy" ( presumably Slovak independence is meant) yet this tendency is not confirmed by the information available here. It must be admitted however that members of the Legation staff have not had opportunities of making contact with Slovaks during the last six weeks owing to Slovaks' fears of falling under the suspicion of the Gestapo. A possible explanation of this differences is that many of the reports reaching London directly may come through the Slovak political emigrants who are nearly all Protestants and not only are opposed to the present Slovak regime themselves but draw their information from Protestant sources in Slovakia which are also in bitter opposition. The number of Catholic Slovaks who have been obliged to go into exile is very small for the obvious reason that the revolution of October 1938 brought the Catholic majority into ;p ower. The use of the term "disillusionment" is in itself misleading since from the moment when independence was declared the Slovaks never had any illusions about the difficulties and risks of their situation as a nation of two million ipeople in the centre of Europe. Popular enthusiasm for the declaratiion of independence was noticeably lacking last March and if ,t here had been ,a ny it would have been quickly dispelled by the small war with Hungary which immediately followed. One solid cause for satisfaction still remains in spite of Slovakia's need for dependence on one or other of the stronger neighbouring nations and that is the fact that after one thousand years the internal political administi,ation has at last passed exclusively into the hands of Slovaks. Economic and political dependence on either Germany, the Czechs or Hungary is inevitable so long as Slovakia remains an independent state but the right of full self-administration is a pure gain which is entirely due to the establishment of the Republic and goes far towards reconciling the Slovaks with the drawbacks of their political position. It is doubtful whether, as the Summary of December 5 (No. 10) suggests, the general standard of living has been reduced. During the summer cost of living bonuses were paid to workers whilst employment and conditions of pay among the "white collar" cl.ass appeared to have improved. The standard of living of the Slovak peasant has always been near the minimum necessary for existence and there have been no signs so far thait it has been reduced. On the contrary prices fixed by the grain monopoly this season were in some districts better than these offered last year under the Czecho-Slovak republic. Among the �90 SLOVAKIA middle class there has been a large transference of wealth due to the laws against Jews and the discriminatory practices against Czechs. Government service has been opened to the Slovak middle class and what this means may be inferred from the fact that even at the end of December 1938 when many Czechs had already returned to Bohemia there were still 36,000 of them in government employment in Slovakia. Slovaks were now also able to assert their predominance in the profession such as the Jaw, medicine etc. Thus there is little reason why the average member of the Slovak middle class should complain. If anybody has suffered through the recent changes it is the comparatively small body of well-to-do landowners and businessmen who have sold large quantities of goods to Germany, and the Protectorate, without being able to get their money owing to Germany's inability to pay cash for what she buys. But the losses of these people are insignificant compared with the solid gains of the majority of the middle class. The statement contained in Summary No. 10 rega1·ding the remittance of Slovak workers' sa vings from Germany is incorrect. According to a recent official announcement the Slovak National Bank has alread y advanced over 90 million crowns to the relatives of Slovak workers employed in Germany and although this arrangement has only shifted the burden of inconvenience from the Slovak workers to the Bank, the former are presumably quite satisfied with it. Only in a few cases have workmen returning from Germany attempted to disregard the regulation by bringing their earnings with them instead of depositing them to a German bank, but so far as I know the Slovak National Bank has been able to smooth out the difficulties which have arisen in their way. There appears to be some exaggeration in the opinion ( page 5 of No. 10 ) that most members of the government are looked upon as gangsters. Of the seven ministers, three, namely M. Stano, M. Sivak and M. Pruzinsky are Czechophil moderates belonging to the Hlinka party (M. Sivak was head of the government installed by the Czechs on March 9 when Dr. Tiso was deposed) and all three were members of M. Sidor's Czechophil government which succeeded Sivak's. Of the other three two occupy minor posts and Dr. Durcansky has travelled far politically since the days when he broadcast against the Czechs over the Viennese wireless. All these facts are very well known to Slovaks and it is inconceivable that they should hold the view ascribed to them in the Summary. The general attitude towards Dr. Tuka, the present Prime Minister, is indeed hostile but there is no reason to suppose that his unpopularity extends to the members of his cabinet. The Summaries do not offer any precise infonnation regarding the attitude of the Slovaks to the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris but on page 5 of No. 10 appears the statement that "were Slovakia free to exercise her choice, there is little doubt that a combination of forces headed by Dr. Hodza and M. Sidor, backed by a small but influential Protestant autonomy party, would command the votes of the vast majority of Slovakia." It is quite true that such a combination would be overwhelming. It is equally true that the support of some of the Catholic leaders of the Hlinka party must be enlisted by the Czecho-Slovak National Council before it can fully establish its claim to represent the Slovak people. The Protestants in Slovakia do not number more than 300,000 and �91 SLOVAKIA though the influence of their community in the economic and cultural life of Slovakia is out of all proportion to the total number of its members, the growing self-consciousness and power of one and a half million Catholics now make the most imrpo:rtant political factor in the Slovak State. The Protestant predominance of 1918 has gone for ever and it is useless to seek any sort of accord between Slovaks and Czechs which was opposed to the wishes of the Slovak Catholics. Yet there are no signs that the Czecho-Slov,a k National Council has made any progress towards winning over their support up to the present. The composition of the present National Council seems to show that its creators have either neglected ·t his point or have been unsuccessful in their negotiations with the Catholic leaders. The three Slovak members of the Council are not only Protestants but have not and never have had any ,p olitical following. M. Osusky and M . Slavik are career diplomats and have lived for a long time abroad whilst General Viest is a professional soldier. Though there is evidence to show that they are regarded with sympathy by the Slovak Protestants, it seems doubtful whether they can really claim to represent the political views of the whole Slovak people. The real political leader of ,t he Slovaks is M. Sidor. He is a good political orator and a good writer on national-political subjects; but his pre-eminence among the Slovak Catholic leaders is assured not only by his personality but by the fact that he stood extremely close to Father Hlinka and is said to be his political heir. The demonstrations in his favour, which continue to occur from time to time although they embarrass him and are dangerous for his supporters, are the best proof of his great popularity. He has remained loyal to the government but is definitely dissatisfied with the present German domination which has forced him and his closest friends to abandon temrporarily their political activities. If a moment ever came when it would be safe for Slovakia to abandon her policy of subservience to Germany, it would be he who would assume the political leadership rather then anyone else. It is therefore •interesting that, according to information derived from one of his personal friends, until recently at least the CzechoSlovak leaders in Paris had been unable to reach any agreement with him. He received friendly overtures from M. Osusky last summer to which he did not reply since (in his words) "he was unwilling to go the road to Canossa." One envoy coming to him from Dr. Hodza early in October was detained by the Hungarian police in Hungary and failed to arrive. Up to this time M. Sidor was not even convinced of the necessity for reviving a federal Czecho-Slovak State, although he was not in principle opposed to it. His precise attitude appeared to be that he preferred the existing state of affairs but would accerpt a federal solution if that was the pdlicy adopted by the Western Powers. So far as is known here then it cannot be said that great progress has been made up to the present ,t owards a solution of the problem of the future relations between Czechs and Slovaks. But if collaboration could be arranged between Dr. Hodza and the Czecho-Slovak National Council on the one hand and M. Sidor and the anti-German group of the Hlinkas paiity on the other, there would be good prospects of arranging a settlement which would be lasting and satisfactory to both p_ Pares sides. 1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 65 British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 19 3 9 I. In Munich, in September 1938, the Western Powers abandoned Central and Eastern Europe to Germany (in the same manner as they were to abandon her in Yalta and Potsdam in 1944-5 to Soviet Russia) and the small countries of this region were compelled to do their best to accommodate themselves to this new change in the balance of power. Mr. Churchill (as he was then) stated this fact quite eloquently in his speech to the House of Commons on October 5th, 1939: "It must now be accepted that all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe will make the best terms they can with the triumphant Nazi power." There is always some good which comes from every catastrophe. The Slovaks - though victims of the territorial aggrandizement of their neighbors (Hungary, Poland and Germany) - succeeded in the post-Munich period in their 20-year struggle for autonomy which was proclaimed on October 6th, 1938. By asserting their national identity through their own government and their own Diet the Slovaks finally overcame the arrogant and dangerous theory of a unitary "Czechoslovak" nation. The centralized pre-Munich Czechoslovakia became the federated state (hyphenated Czecho-Slovakia) of two equal nations. The Czechs had to admit the futility of their misplaced megalomania: they recognized the Slovaks as a separate nation, their language as a separate language. The rest of the world took notice of both the external and the internal changes which befell Czecho-Slovakia. The old myths, fostered and sustained by clever Czech propaganda, were demolished and a more sober political thinking was setting in. It was interesting and quite refreshing to read in the British press (in an article by G. B. Shaw at that) about "the entirely imaginary race called Czechoslovaks'',1 because that's what "Czechoslo- 66 SLOVAKIA vaks" in fact were: a figment of political imagination aimed at the absorption of the Slovak nation into the Czech nation. The subsequent events - which are now judged as the prologue to World War II - were in their day accepted as inevitable facts of life. After Munich Hitler's supremacy over Central Europe was unchallenged, his expansionist moves - even if occasionally condemned and disapproved of - were tacitly and implicitly acquiesced in. Even the disintegration of Czecho-Slovakia and the emergence of an independent Slovak state did not produce that wave of indignation and outrage with which it was to be treated later. The leader article in the "Daily Express" on March 15th , 1939 summed up the general sentiments in the following words : "Why are our heads cooler ( than they were a year ago - F . V.) ? Not because our hearts are hardened. Not because we have no sympathy with the Czechs. No. But we are not shocked by stale news. Munich decided that Germany was the boss in Eastern Europe." 2 In this frame of mind did the British people at large and the British Government view the new situation. II. The British foreign policy approach towards the new territorial and political rearrangement followed two distinct lines. Though reluctant to recognize the German " Protektorat " over Bohemia and Moravia, they saw the position of Slovakia in a different and more acceptable light.3 In a memorandum dated April 17th, 1939 the Foreign Office Central Europe expert, R. M. Makins, summarized the result of long deliberations which led to the following conclusions: "The position of Slovakia is different from that of Bohemia and Moravia and a number of practical questions have rendered it advisable for us to regularise the position of our Consul at Bratislava and to give the new state de facto recognition." 4 Shortly afterwards on May 4th, 1939 the British Consul in Bratislava notified the Slovak Foreign Minister (Dr. F. SLOVAKIA 67 nurcansky) that the British Government had decided to grant the Slovak state a de facto recognition. The act of recognition was followed by the opening of a Slovak Consulate-General in London with Milan P. Harminc in charge. 5 This happy and promising development was suddenly arrested by the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939. Because of Slovakia's geographical position and treaty relations she had with her protecting power, Germany, Slovakia herself became marginally involved in the German attack on Poland. The situation was further aggravated by the defection of the Slovak Minister in Warsaw, L. Szatmary, and the Slovak Consul in London, M. Harminc. Both issued indignant proclamations - as it happened quite incorrect - alleging that Slovakia was occupied by German troops and deprived of every vestige of national independence.6 At the same time the Czech emigres in the West, led by ex-President Benes, launched their propaganda campaign for the restoration of CzechoSlovakia in its pre-Munich form. The Slovak cause in the West was at a great disadvantage. There was no one to defend it and the lies and intrigues of the adversaries of Slovak independence could go on almost unhindered. Yet it must be said in all fairness that the British attitude towards Slovakia was marked by a measure of consideration and understanding of which the Slovaks were only too infrequently the recipients. The British viewed the position of Slovakia with sensitive appreciation for the problems of a small country in the shadow of a great power. The allegations of emigre politicians - both Czechs and Slovaks - were taken with more than the proverbial grain of salt and were frequently checked against the opinions of knowledgeable experts and men-on-the-spot such as former British Consul in Bratislava Mr. P. Pares. In the British Consul the Slovaks had a severe critic but at the same time a sincere, shrewd and sympathetic observer. His deep knowledge of Slovak affairs enabled him to evaluate the moves and actions of the Slovak Government in their overall context. Already in May 1939 he had pointed out the difficult dilemma facing the Slovak leaders and their efforts to find a solution to their prob- 68 SLOVAKIA lems. Having heard rumors about their clandestine approaches to the Slovak emigres in the West (particularly towards Dr. s. Osusky in Paris), he wrote: "The object of these manoeuvres seems to be to maintain contact with the Western powers whilst pursuing a policy of cooperating with the Germans for as long as is necessary - in other words, the policy of the Czechs before and during the Great War. The Slovaks are growing very apprehensive now about the possibility of war. They do not expect Germany to win, but realize that they are powerless to refuse anything she might ask in the event of war. So they are trying to ensure the good will of the Western powers in advance by secretly approving the plans of the exiles." 7 III. Two days before Britain entered the Second World War the British Foreign Ministry issued an internal memorandum entitled "Our Attitude towards Czechs and Slovaks in Time of War." With respect to Slovaks (in spite of some unflattering remarks about their leadership ) the memorandum stated: "However true it may be that the final defection of the Slovaks last March was the result of German machination and menace and that the present Slovak Government is acting under force majeure in allowing Slovakia to be used as an assembly ground for the German attack on Poland, nevertheless the fact remains that the union of Czechs and Slovaks was not a success and it would be rash to act on the presumption that the Slovaks are now anxious to restore it ... By proclaiming the restoration of Czecho-Slovakia as a war aim, we should be assuming that the Slovaks had repented of their errors and were eager for the reunion with the Czechs. That may be so, but there are yet insufficient grounds for assurance on the point and we should not take at their face value any statements of Slovak emigres on the subject." 8 With regard to ex-President Benes the memorandum had this to say: "The question then arises what recognition we SLOVAKIA 69 should give to Dr. Benes, if, as is only too likely, he proclaims himself leader of the Czechoslovaks. The question is not an easy one. In the first place it must be admitted that he is far and away the most outstanding Czech figure in the world. His supporters say that Czechs and Slovaks both at home and abroad are now unanimously behind him. So far as those resident abroad are concerned he might be able to produce some adequate proof, but no proof could possibly be forthcoming from those resident in their own countries. All that can be said is that he was not a popular figure in large circles in Slovakia during his presidency, and that the Czechs who assumed power in the Protectorate after his departure made no secret of their condemnation of him and his policy. It may be that they have now changed their minds, but it is difficult to see what proof can be had of the fact, and it is after all the Czechs in the Protectorate and not the emigres who matter most. A further consideration is that Dr . Benes is personally abhorrent in several other states, particularly in Poland and Hungary. All these considerations suggest that we should be wise to walk warily about any official recognition of Dr. Benes, whether as leader of the Czechs or the Czechoslovaks, though in view of his outstanding position we should presumably have no option but to accept him as their de facto spokesman". 9 As the memorandum anticipated Benes spoke out on the very day Britain entered the armed conflict. On September 3rd he wired the following telegram to the British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain: "At this moment in which the British people are obliged to wage a war imposed upon Poland, Great Britain and France by Nazi Germany I wish to express to Your Excellency with the deep and inalterable feeling of sympathy the desire and the decision of the Czechs and Slovaks to join without hesitation your people in this struggle for a free Europe. Our country is invaded and occupied by armed forces of Nazism and the whole nation is suffering under inhuman terror and oppression, its forces, however, both 70 SLOVAKIA moral and physical remain intact. We Czechoslovak citizens consider ourselves as being also in war with the German military forces and we shall march with your people till the final victory and the liberation of our fatherland. Edward Benes, former President of Czechoslovakia." 10 This telegram was carefully studied by its British recipients for hidden claims and pretensions. None was found, but it was noted that Benes spoke on behalf of "the Czechs and the Slovaks" as well as "Czechoslovak citizens". The reply (which was despatched with a six-day delay) carefully avoided any reference to either Slovaks or "Czechoslovaks" and with a studied deliberation indicated to Benes the attitude of the British Government towards him and indirectly toward Slovakia also. It read : " I gratefully acknowledge Your Excellency's generous message of sympathy and support in this grave hour. The sufferings of the Czech nation are not forgotten and we look forwards through the triumph of the principles for which we have taken up arms to the release of the Czech people from foreign domination. Neville Chamberlain." 11 This public exchange of telegrams was to demonstrate urbi et orbi that the British Government did not recognize Benes's claim to speak on behalf of the Slovaks nor were they particularly keen to restore Czecho-Slovakia. This was made explicitly clear in an explanatory letter of September 26th, 1939, sent to the Britiish Minister in Budapest (Mr. 0. St. C. O'Malley) by Sir Orme Sargent who wrote: " ... we are taking care to avoid committing ourselves to anything in the nature of a reconstitution of the old Czecho-Slovak state. In confirmation of this I would draw your attention to the answer, of which I enclose a copy, sel'lt by the Prime Minister on the 9th September to Benes's message of sympathy and support. The Prime Minister was careful to speak only of the future of the Czech people." 12 SLOVAKIA 71 IV. This public rebuke to Dr. Benes reactivated another emigre politician, Dr. Milan Hodza, former Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia and a bitter antagonist of Dr. Benes. M. Hodza was a Slovak by birth. In his political outlook he was inconsistent and in his political actions unpredictable. Immediately after 1918 he was an ardent exponent of "Czechoslovak unity" and an active opponent of the Slovak autonomists ( whom he used to mock that they did not know the difference between "autonomy" and "automobile") .13 But gradually he realized the futile emptiness of the Czech centralist policies and advocated some measure of autonomy for Slovakia. In the summer of 1938 his proposals were almost identical with those of Andrej Hlinka. 14 But Benes put a stop to Hodza's autonomist plans and schemes and forbade him any further steps in this direction. At the height of the Munich crisis Benes made Hodza a convenient scapegoat for previous Czech mistakes and omissions and on September 22nd, 1938 forced him and his government to resign. Physically and mentally broken M. Hodza retired to France and then to Switzerland. It seemed that he had left politics for good. Unlike Benes he made no pronouncements issued no proclamations when Hitler dismembered Czecho-Slovakia. In the summer of 1939 he moved to London. Here he very quickly realized that official British circles considered the Czecho-Slovak interwar experiment as a mistake which they would be loath to repeat. The exchange of telegrams between Benes and Chamberlain indicated to him very plainly that the British viewed Slovakia not as a political accident but as a permanent feature of the Central European scene. In 1938-9 the British policy-makers realized that the Versailles settlement imposed on Central Europe in 1919 was not satisfactory and created as many new problems as it was supposed to solve. Consequently they were unwilling to advocate any schemes which took no notice of past mistakes. In effect it meant that the Slovaks were not to be forced into any union with the Czechs against their will. The British official circles did their best to clear up the terminological confusion concerning such expressions as Czechs, Slovaks, Czechoslovaks, Czecho- 72 SLOVAKIA Slovaks, nation, people, etc. It is interesting to note that even Mr. Churchill - a tough and consistent opponent of Munich - carefully chose his nouns and adjectives in his speech of November 12th, 1939, when he spoke of "the Polish, Czech and Slovak people". In his original draft he mentioned "the Polish and Czechoslovak nations", but on the advice of a Foreign Office official he accepted the more correct and less offensive terminology .15 V. At the outbreak of World War II the British considered it important to clarify their attitude towards Slovakia. In a message sent to Budapest on September 14th, 1939 we read: "Notification has been issued that Slovakia is to be regarded as territory in German occupation. Effect of this is that Slovakia will be treated as enemy territory for purpose of trading with the enemy, etc., but state of war does not exist between the United Kingdom and Slovakia and Slovaks are not at present to be regarded as enemy nationals in the United Kingdom." 16 But contrary to what was asserted by the defecting Slovak diplomats, Szatmary and Harminc, and apparently believed by the British, Slovakia was not occupied by German troops. Unfortunately after the recall of the British Consul from Bratislava and the defection of the Slovak Consul in London there were no channels of communication between Britain and Slovakia to find out what really went on. On the other hand the enemies of Slovakia and the emigre pretenders of "the oppressed Slovak people" had their field day. By intrigues, half-truths and outright lies they tried to blacken the Slovak record and discredit the idea of Slovak independence. Initially the British Foreign Office did not accept these emigre confidences at face value but passed them for comment to the British Consul P. Pares. Pares' comments and corrections (from Budapest where he had resided from September 1939) are most remarkable documents because it was not often that the Slovak cause found a judicious and objective commentator in a complete foreigner. SLOVAKIA 73 The type of material forwarded to Mr. Pares for comment consisted mainly of "Weekly summaries" issued by the Political Intelligence Department. The information was collected mainly by R. H. Bruce Lockhart who was a willing and polite listener to many emigre accounts, stories, etc. 17 As a long-standing friend of Jan Masaryk18 and Dr. Benes Bruce Lockhart did more than anybody else towards the promotion of the Czech (i. e. anti-Slovak) interests and towards the acceptance of Dr. Benes as the spokesman for all the "Czechoslovaks". Bruce Lockhart acted in good faith and with sincere conviction but there is no doubt that his credulity was taken for a ride and his official position exploited. Dr. J . Smutny, Benes's secretary and his closest collaborator in London, wrote quite frankly (in March 1940): "Benes is unwilling to participate in the Czech emigre activities except as some sort of 'President' ... As a practical politician he knows that it is not enough for him alone to be of this opinion, but this opinion must be shared by others too. The British Government in particular must accept this view. For this reason every person who comes from the Protectorate and says that the nation stands behind Benes, is carefully put into contact with British circles to give them authentic confirmation. He (the new arrival) does not know about this game, it is all done very cleverly. Every written or verbal message which states the same (i.e. that the nation stands behind Benes) is passed on to the Foreign Office through Mr. Bruce Lockhart." 19 Material "passed on to the Foreign Office through Mr. Bruce Lockhart" formed then the bulk of these "Weekly summaries". But apart from Benes and his hard working staff of informants there were also other intelligence harbingers, such as M. Hodza. Milan Hodza tried his utmost to cast himself in the role of the sole and rightful spokesman for the Slovaks. Benes and Hodza did not see eye to eye with each other but they were of one mind when it came to denouncing and condemning everything which had happened in Slovakia since their inglorious exit. The "Summaries" regularly reported about "the grow- 74 SLOVAKIA ing disillusionment of Slovaks with their 'autonomy'". The British Consul (P. Pares) in his comments refutes this allegation. He points out that the informants and their sources represent but a small discontented group and their views are at variance with those of the majority. And then he singles out an important fact: "The use of the term 'disillusionment' is in itself misleading since from the moment when independence was declared the Slovaks never had any illusions about the difficulties and risks of their situation as a nation of two million people in the centre of Europe. Popular enthusiasm for the declaration of independence was noticeably lacking last March and if there had been any it would have been quickly dispelled by the small war with Hungary which immediately followed. One solid cause for satisfaction still remains in spite of Slovakia's need for dependence on one or other of the stronger neighbouring nations and that is the fact that after one thousand years the internal political administration has at last passed exclusively into the hands of Slovaks. Economic and political dependence on either Germany, the Czechs or Hungary is inevitable so long as Slovakia remains an independent state but the right of full self-administration is a pure gain which is entirely due to the establishment of the Re-public ( of Slovakia) and goes far towards reconciling the Slovaks with the drawbacks of their political position." 20 The "Summaries" invariably harped upon reduced living standards in Slovakia since March 1939. Mr. Pares again was able to point out that the standard of living of the peasantry had not been reduced, while there were "solid (economic) gains of the majority of the middle class". He also refuted the false claims regarding the remittance of the Slovak workers' savings from Germany. Where the Czech-inspired "Summaries" report "that most members of the (Slovak) Government are looked upon as gangsters", Mr. Pares jumps to their defence: "Of the seven ministers, three, namely M. Stano, M. Sivak and M. Pruzinsky are Czechophil moderates belonging to the Hlinka party (M. Sivak was head of SLOVAKIA 75 the government installed by the Czechs on March 9th when Dr. Tiso was deposed) and all three were members of M. Sidor's Czechophil government which succeeded Sivak's. Of the other three, two (Fritz and Medricky) occupy minor posts, and Dr. Durcansky has travelled far politically since the days when he broadcast against the Czechs over the Vienna wireless.21 All these facts are very well known to Slovaks and it is inconceivable that they should hold the view ascribed to them in the Summary. The general attitude towards Dr. Tuka, the present Prime Minister, is indeed hostile but there is no reason to suppose that this unpopularity extends to the members of his cabinet." Drawing on his local knowledge of the Slovak scene Mr. Pares makes penetrating observations about the end of the Protestant predominance in Slovak political and public affairs: "The Protestant predominance of 1918 has gone for ever and it is useless to seek any sort of accord between Slovaks and Czechs which was opposed to the wishes of the Slovak Catholics. Yet there are no signs that the Czecho-Slovak National Council (i. e. Committee established on November 17th, 1939 in Paris ) has made any progress towards winning over their (i.e. Catholic ) support up to the present." Commenting on the composition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee,22 Mr. Pares expresses his doubts about the credentials of the three Slovak representatives on this body. He writes that the creators of this Committee either neglected to take into account the Catholic majority "or have been unsuccessful in their negotiations with the Catholic leaders." And he continues: "The three Slovak members of the Committee are not only Protestants but have not and never have had any political following. M. Osusky and M. Slavik are career diplomats and have lived for a long time abroad, whilst General Viest is a professional soldier. Though there is evidence to show that they are regarded with sympathy by the Slovak Protestants, it seem doubtful whether they can really claim to represent the political views of the whole Slovak people." 76 SLOVAKIA VI. Early in November 1939 the British Consul in Slovakia (Mr. P. Pares) was asked to comment on a memorandum submitted earlier by B. H. Bruce Lockhart and referring to discussions Mr. Bruce Lockhart had with Dr. Hodfa. In this conversation Hodfa stated that the Slovak population was almost unanimously behind him. He advocated a federalist solution for Slovakia which would keep the Czechs and Slovaks in one state but would grant the Slovaks that degree of autonomy which was secured by the zilina Agreement of October 6th, 1938.23 Hodfa told Bruce Lockhart that independence was virtually forced on the Slovaks and that there was an overwhelming desire for the return to old Czecho-Slovakia. 24 Mr. Pares disagreed with this view almost completely and gave a remarkably accurate interpretation of what had actually happened in March 1939. He mentions the real fears among Slovak politicians "at the end of February 1939 that the Czechs might soon take some opportunity of setting aside the spirit if not the letter of the Slovak autonomy law of October 1938". "Later these fears proved to be justified - writes Mr. Pares - when the Czech Government carried out its coup d 'e tat in Slovakia on March 9th. The effect of this coup was that, at the moment when Dr. Tiso was notified in Berlin that unless Slovakia declared her independence she would be divided between Hungary and Poland after Germany had taken what she needed, the Slovaks were in no mood to risk anything for the sake of the Czechs and therefore agreed to the German demand. Thus the opinion of the majority of people in Slovakia at the time of the declaration of independence was dominated by two main ideas: satisfaction at being rid at least of the Czech bugbear and relief at having saved the Slovak people from a partition which might have led to its complete disappearance as a nation." 25 The claims that the Slovaks were dissatisfied with their state are contradicted by the British Consul who sees the situation in its real and realistic context: SLOVAKIA 77 "There are . . . good reasons why the Slovaks should be satisfied with this situation despite its drawbacks. Germany's authority is not excercised entirely without regard for Slovak feelings or interests. For instance, the new German Minister who arrived recently is far better liked than his predecessor ( who was removed at Dr. Durcansky's request). . . The conclusion of trade agreements with Poland, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and other countries during the summer ( of 1939) has assured the necessary supply of commodities such as coal, textiles, fruit, lard, coffee, etc. and the exchange of goods with the Protectorate which constituted fourfifths of Slovakia's total export trade was proceeding almost up to the outbreak of war." Mr. Pares also disputes the claims about the German occupation of Slovakia and the allegations of the arrogant behavior of the German soldiers towards native people: "The relations between the Slovak population and the German troops of occupation in the small strip of territory which constituted the military zone, were described to me as excellent by an impartial and reliable American observer as late as the beginning of August. So far as I know German soldiers - except for some deputations of officers who toured the country examining strategic roads, railways and the possibility of requisitioning local supplies - did not move outside the military zone until late in August." The British Consul ridicules the suggestions of M. Hodza that "the Slovak Government functions at the bidding of its German masters and with the support of German bayonets" and that "the Slovaks who are not prepared to accept German money have resigned from their posts" . Mr. Pares comments: "This sort of charge sounds like the kind of generalized accusations which one hears rather frequently from a Central European when he is speaking about his political opponents." In one respect, however, Mr. Pares agrees with the emigre informants: concerning the pro-Czech sentiments among the officers of the Slovak army. And here he makes an astute and surprisingly accurate prediction: "These (pro-Czech) sympathies can be discounted 78 SLOVAKIA for the present, and only when the time comes, and Germany's hold over the Czechs and Slovaks weakens, will this factor assume a real political importance." VII. At the end of 1939 there was already a noticeable shift in the British attitude towards the Slovaks. The earlier signs of a favorable disposition towards Slovakia were gradually corroded away by a conjoint action of three mutually interrelated factors: (i) The continuous stream of vicious anti-Slovak propaganda emanating from the Czech emigre groups around Dr. Benes. (ii) A powerful pro-Czech lobby among British parliamentarians, politicians and influential public figures. (iii) The contagious example of France where on October 2nd, 1939 a military agreement was concluded between the French Government and Minister Dr. E:';. Osusky who signed the agreement "on behalf of the provisional government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic". This act was followed on November 15th, 1939 by the French recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee "as qualified to represent the Czecho-Slovak people and in particular to execute the agreement of October 2nd." Invoking the French precedent Dr. Benes was pressing hard for a similar concession from the British. After a prolonged negotiation he obtained on December 20th, 1939 British recognition of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee "as qualified to represent the Czecho-Slovak people". At the same time, however, it was made very plain to Dr. Benes and all concerned that "no commitments were made at this stage regarding the future of the former territories of the Czecho-Slovak Republic." 26 The fall of France in summer 1940 considerably strengthened Benes's position in London where his Committee was eventually recognized as "the provisional government" (on July 21st, 1940). From this time on if the British attitude towards the Czechs showed some restraint, it was not for the sake of the Slovaks but primarily out of consideration for the feelings of the Poles and Hungarians who too were against the restoration of the pre-Munich Czecho-Slovakia and against Dr. Benes personally. In December 1940 Viscount Halifax left the position SLOVAKIA 79 of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and his place was taken by Mr. Anthony Eden (now Earl of Avon) . Mr. Eden was a close personal friend of Jan Masaryk and Dr. Benes and was known as an outspoken antagonist of the whole appeasement policies of the Chamberlain Government. With him a new spirit-highly favorable to Czech political aspirations and ambitions-moved into the corridors of the Foreign Ministry. As the hatred and abhorrence of Hitler and his Nazism grew, so did the sympathy towards the Czechs, and the Czech emigres were quick and clever to exploit it fully. No one is going to dispute the fact that the Czechs were victims of the Munich decision, but one is taken aback by the agility with which they made themselves into poor innocent victims of Munich which they certainly were not. By branding the Munich Agreement a 'dictate' they were making dictators not only of Germany and Italy but also of France and Britain. By transferring these semantics into practical politics they shifted their blame for Munich and all the subsequent events on others, including the Western allies. The simple truth is that in the autumn of 1938 the Czech accepted the Munich Agreement with nothing more than a verbal protest when they could and should have opposed Hitler with arms. But by 1940-41 they were able to elevate their shameless capitulation into an act of supreme heroism and noble sacrifice, for which the Western powers owed them a living - Czech style. So one-sided and uncritical was the British support of Benes and his policies that they actively assisted him in the elimination of his political opponents (who had equally impressive records of both democratic tradition and anti-Nazi fighting as Benes himself) such as the Slovaks s. Osusky and M. Hodza, Czechs as L. Prchala, Sudeten Germans as W. Jaksch and many more less-known but not less meritorious antiNazis. In July 1943 Benes's secretary, J . Smutny, wrote with an air of victorious satisfaction: "Morally the greatest success of Dr. Benes lies in the fact that he managed to change Munich and our decision not to fight there and then into a victory of Czechoslovak moral strength and foresight; he was able to throw at the heads of our present allies the responsibility for OUR decision . . ." 27 80 SLOVAKIA In the light of all this it is not difficult to see Dr. Benes succeeded in making Slovak leaders willing accomplices and in convincing the Western powers the Slovak nation desired nothing more than reunion the Czechs and himself as their president. F. V how Nazi that with n u k, Australia FOOTNOTES 1) "Daily Herald", March 3rd, 1939. 2) "Daily Express", March 15th, 1939, p. 12. 3) F. Vnuk, British Recognition of Independent Slovakia in 1939, in "Slovak Studies (Historica)", Vol. VIII, (Rome, in press). 4) The Foreign Office Archives, Political Correspondence (CzechoSlovakia) 1939-40, No. 371 / 22898/Doc. 17. In following references only volume and document numbers will be given (e. g 22896/ 47) . 5) Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum, Postoj Vel' kej Britanie k Slovenskej Republike, in "Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike" (Middletown, Pa., 1960) , pp. 63-71. 6) The proclamation handed by Dr. L. Szatmary to the Polish Foreign Ministry and subsequently released to the press on September 2nd , 1939 reads: "In the name of the Slovak people and its representatives who, under the pressure of the Third Reich, have been reduced to silence and have been reproached for penetrations exclusively in the interest of Germany, I protest as the representative of the State of Slovakia in Poland against the brutal disarmament of the Slovak army, against the arbitrary occupation of Slovakia by the troops of the Third Reich, against the use of Slovakia as a base for warlike action against the brotherly Polish people. "The Slovak people, whether they be at home or abroad, will never submit to the violence of the Third Reich. "It associates itself with armed resistance against the aggressor to regain the freedom in collaboration with the civilized nations of the world, and in order that it may freely decide its own destiny. "I would be very obliged to your Excellency if the Polish Government would please acknowledge my present communication and if it would support by all its resources and those of its Allies the fight of the Slovak people to save its national honour and fatherland as well as to win true independence." Mr. Harminc's proclamation, published in the British press on September 24th, 1939 has the following to say: "The whole of Slovakia is occupied by Nazi armed forces. The voice of the Slovak people has been temporarily silenced by the ruthless abrogation of all treaties and agreements. "In the name of Slovakia I solemnly protest against this shameful betrayal, and declare that the aims and ideals of Great Britain and France are identical with those of my sorely-tried people. Milan Harminc SLOVAKIA 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 81 22803/ 338-9 22899/ 14-15 22899/ 17-18 "The Times" (London), Sepember 5th, 1939. "The Times" (London), September 11th, 1939. 22899/ 191-3 To which a Slovak journalist and politician, J . Mudroii, provided the following repartee: "Oh yes, they do know, Mr. Hodui. The automobile is a mechanical instrument which enables the Czechs to move into Slovakia, autonomy is a political instrument which will make them move out of Slovakia." ("Slovak", February 22nd , 1920) . Dr. Michal Mudry, Milan Hodza v Amerike, Chicago, Ill. , 1949, p. 58. 22900/ 27 22900/ 273 Mr. R. H. Bruce Lockhart gives an interesting account of his work at the Political Intelligence Department in his book, Comes the Reckoning, (London, 1947). He is the author of a sympathetic biographical sketch, Jan Masaryk: a personal memoir, (London, 1951). 19) "Acta Occiipationis Bohemiae et Moraviae", Vol. I. (Pra ha, 1966 ), p. 92. 20) This and the following quotations are taken from a memorandum 24290/79-84 which is reprinted in full in Appendix III. 21) In this memorandum Mr. Pares mentions only six out of seven ministers who ,c omprised the Slovak Government. The seventh man, who is left out, is General F. Catlos, the Minister of National Defense. 22) This Czecho-Slovak National Committee consisted of eight members : iDr. E. Benes, Dr. J . Sramek, Gen. S. Ingr, Dr. E. Outrata, Dr. H. Ripka, Dr. S. Osusky, Dr. J . Slavik, Gen. R. Viest. The last three members were Slovaks, but they were pitifully unrepresentative of the Slovak nation. Not only were they all Protestants - as Mr. Pares points out - but one of them, J. Slavik, summed up his nationalist sentiments in a self-revealing phrase: 'I am an unhyphenated Czechoslovak. " 23) In the West M. Hodza liked to put himself forward as a great and dedicated federalist. In 1941 he even published in London a book. " Federation in Central Europe." But a sad fact remains that back home, when he was the second most powerful politician in CzechoSlovakia, he did not try hard enough to implement his federalist ideas within the Czecho-Slovak framework. 24) Dr. Hodfa was asked to put his views down in writing. He did so and his memorandum (22900/ 66-70) is reproduced in full in Appendix I. 25) Mr. Pares' commentaries on Hodfa's accounts of the situation in Slovakia can be found in 22900/74-81 and are given in full in Appendix II. This and the following four quotations are taken from Mr. Pares' comments. SLOVAKIA 82 26 ) 24288/ 60 27 ) Acta occu.pationis Bohemiae et Moraviae, Vol. I., (Praha, 1966), p. 222. Appendix I. MEMORANDUM BY DR. HODZA ON THE SITUATION IN SLOVAKIA In October 1939 Dr. Milan Hod.fa, former Prime Minister of Czecho-Slovakia, had a lengthy discussion about the political situation in Slovakia with Mr. Robert H. Bruce Lockhart of the British Foreign Office. The summary of this discussion was passed for comment to the former British Consul in Bratislava (Mr. Peter Pares) while Dr. Hodza was requested to put his view:s on paper in the form of a memorandum. In his written submission, handed to Mr. Bruce Lockhart on November 14th 1939, Dr. Hodza was less outspoken especially in his references to Dr. Benes. Even so his memorandum is an unusual document of some historical interest, particularly in its allegation - hitherto not mentioned anywhere - about the new political balance in Slovakia in the autumn of 1939. Dr. Hodza claims here the allegiance of 30 out of 49 Slovak deputies elected in 1935 (and including K. Sidor and M. Sokol). But one has to be sceptical about his mathematics . Hodza's memorandum was prefaced by a letter of Mr. Bruce Lockhart: My dear Roberts, I send you herewith a memorandum which has been given me by Dr. Hodza. It gives a picture of the alleged political line-up among l!he Slovaks. You will see that, as I predicted, the old gentleman has been careful not to put his anti-Benes and antiCzech sentiments on paper. R. H. Bruce Lockhart Yours sincerely, MEMORANDUM BY DR. HOD2A The position in Slovakia is now becoming clearer. Except for a small opportunist minority, Slovakia has never wished for separation from Bohemia and Moravia, and even the Slovak Parliament, elected in the Nazi fashion in December 1938, refused to adopt a resolution to pronounce complete separation from them. This resolution, which at the same time called upon Germany for protection, was only passed after Dr. Tiso and his four friends, who had the full support of the German S . S. and S. A., had declared that, if i,t were not accepted, Slovakia would be occupied by German troops. Up to last August Germany treated Slovakia very tactfully, not only politically but also commercially, so that even the moderate Federalists agreed that there were many advantages in being an SLOVAK.IA 83 independent country. It was not until the preparations for war were begun in July that the situation suddenly changed, and it became obvious that Germany regarded the Slovak Government merely as a means for forcing upon Slovakia any measure, no matter how un popular. The declaration of war finally opened Slovak eyes. The present political position in Slovakia is as follows: After the cession of territory to Hungary there remained forty-nine of the sixty-four Slovak seats in the former Parliament. After the last free elections twenty-six of these were held by the parties led by Dr. Hodza ( 15), Dr. Sokol, President of the Slovak Parliament and a leader of the Catholic Federalist Group , (8) , and Dr. Jan Pauliny-Toth, leade r of the Federalist Slovak National Party, (2) . On October 3 Dr. Pauliny came to Paris and offered Dr. Hodza the co-operation of his party and of Dr. Sokol and his Catholic Federalists in the reconstitution of the Czechoslovak Republic on a federal basis. In the present ciTcumstances, of course, the co-operation of these groups must be secret. On October 10 a special envoy arrived in Paris with a similar message from M. Sidor, another Catholic Federalist and a former advocate of co-operation with the Germans. He had to resign from the Slovak Government soon after March 10, when he had opposed the German effort to establish a separate Slovakia instead of a federal Republic. His party consists of four deputies. It is thus clear that out of a total of forty-nine, thirty former Slovak deputies are in favour of a federal Republic. The nineteen remaining deputies are: i) six members of the Catholic Federalist Party who possibly still recognise Dr. Tiso as their leader; ii) five Socialist deputies, who although differing from the majority in preferring the restitution of the former semi-centralized Government to the establishment of federal methods, also support the Republic; iii) seven Slovak Communist deputies, two of whose leaders are now in Paris, and who are also in favour of the federal system : and iv) one Hungarian deputy, whose views are not known. II. At a meeting in Paris on October 12, representatives of the thirty deputies decided that the federal Republic should, from the international point of view, be a single political entity. Thus there would be one Head of the Federal State and a central Parliament and Government, with powers over foreign policy, the army, economic reconstruction, communications, and international trade and finance. Local parliaments and local governments would be in charge of education, public works, social welfare, hygiene, housing, interior administration and the police, and, in fact, of all economic problems not dealt with by the central Government and Parliament (agriculture, industry, trade, etc. ). It is desirable that federalisation should not only be the programme of the Slovak majority, but also of the Czechs abroad. If, however, the latter refuse to adopt it, this need not prevent co-operation between the Czechs and Slovaks abroad. The Slovak majority are convinced that in the restored Republic there will always be a Czecho-Slovak majority 84 SLOVAKIA in favour of a federal structure, as was the case in October 1938. The Slovak majority therefore offers to co-operate with the Czechs. There is no doubt about the importance of this collaboration. Geographically Slovakia is of the g reatest importance to Bohemia and Moravia, since it connects them with Central and Danubian Europe. Without this connection they would always be the helpless victims of the German pincers. This co-operation is equally important to Slovaks, as so-called i ndependence would always be fraught with danger for her. Co-operation between the Czech and Slovak representatives in the action abroad has now a quite special importance, as the Czechoslovak army which is to be formed in France will comprise 55, if not 60 % of Slovak agricultural labourers and industrial workers domiciled in France for years. III. The Slovak political representatives have always been unanimous in their conviction that the Czechoslovak Republic will at all times be obliged to work in very close co-operation with Poland and the neighbouring Danubian countries. The Slovaks visualise the future structure of central Europe as a confederation of sovereign states prepared to sacrifice complete sovereignty sufficiently to guarantee them independe nce and security. The basis of this scheme for federalisation may be found partly in pre vious Home Rule schemes of the Slovak Federalists and partly in a scheme which Dr. Hodza, then Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, put forward in Ma y and June 1938. This scheme, finally adopted by several leaders of the parliamentary majority, aimed at the setting up of a local Pa rliament and Government for Slovakia within the framework of a general reconstruction of the Czechoslovak political system. Up to •the end of August, some of the leading officers in the Slovak Army kept in touch with Dr. Benes and some with Dr. Hodza , through the medium of special envoys. Thus the overwhelming majority of the Slovak arm y maintained their Czechoslovak orientation. Among those abroad the former Inspector of the Slovak Army, General Viest, is a non-political soldier. The former chief of the Slovak Air Force, Major Ambrus, is, together with the vast majority of his brother-officers, in favour of Czeoho-Slovak federalism . The minutes attached to Hodza's memorandum(signed by Mr. Roberts) are of some importance as they show what kind of credibility rating Dr. Hodza enjoyed with the British Foreign Office. Mr. Roberts writes: "Dr. Hodza is not only an emigre but he was never really popular in Slovakia, where he was considered to be too closely associated with the Czech Central Government at Prague. This memorandum also clearly shows that he is still thinking in terms of the old political parties which - as Mr. Lockhart has assured me - are now completely discredited. I therefore think that we should not accept Dr. Hodza's views too readily ... " SLOVAKIA 85 Appendix 11. Comments by Mr. P. Pares on the Bruce Lockhart account of discussions with Dr. M. Hodza. The comments were written at the British Legation in Budapest, where Mr. Pares stayed after his recall from Bratislava in September 1939. In the covering letter the Briti!sh Minister to Hungary (Mr. O'Malley) wrote to Mr. I. Kirkpatrick in London: Dear Kirkpatrick, With reference to your letter of October 19 C 16390/ 12 I enclose a memorandum by Pares commenting on Lockhart's memorandum . As I have not been much in Slovakia I will not add any remarks of my own except to say that on almost every point of which I have any knowledge I must venture to differ from Lockhart. Another golden age for emigres of all descriptions is I suppose about to dawn. It is a pity. Their political views are rarely sound. MEMORANDUM The conclusions reached in the memorandum seem to be on the whole over-simplified. The line of argument appears to be that because the independence of Slovakia was dictated by Germany and because German control of the country has increased since the Slovak State came into existence, the present Slovak government has become unpopular and the majority of Slovaks now wish for a restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. This is perhaps the impression which might be derived from contacts restricted to Slovak emigres, such as General Viest, whose name is mentioned several times in the memorandum. Incidentally General Viest was on the retired list last March and at the time of my arrival in Bratislava during December 1938, the opinion of him in centralist "Czechoslovak" circles there was that he was a mediocrity in spite of the fact that he enjoyed the distinction of being the only Slovak general in the Czechoslovak army. But this interpretation of developments in Slovakia does not place sufficient emphasis on the growing apprehension felt by Dr. Tiso's autonomous Slovak provincial government at the end of February 1939, that the Czechs might soon take some opportunity of setting aside the spirit if not the letter of the Slovak autonomy law of October 1938. Dr. Tiso's opening speech at the first working session of the Slovak Diet in the middle of February made known these feelings quite clearly. Later they were proved to be justified when the Czech government carried out its coup d'etat in Slovakia on March 9. The effect of this coup was that, ait the moment when Dr. Tiso was notified in Berlin that unless Slovakia declared her independence she would be divided between Hungary and Poland after Germany had taken what she needed , the Slovaks were in no mood to risk anything for the sake of the Czechs and therefore agreed to the German demand. Thus the opinion of the majority of people in Slovakia at the time of the declaration of independence was dominated by two main ideas, 86 SLOVAKJA satisfaction at being rid at last of the Czech bugbear and relief at having saved the Slovak people from a partition which might have led to its complete disappearence as a nation. Nobody had any illusion about the difficulties and dangers of the situation and there were hardly any public displays of enthusiasm. The attitude of the middle classes and intelligentsia was either depressed or optimistic. In the first Slovak cabinet constituted afiter March 14, the names of M. Sidor and those of M. Stano and M. Pruzinsky, members of M. Sidor's former provincial government, were included and even that of Sivak, the head of the government installed by Prague after its military coup of March 9. This indicates clearly that the new government was a concentration of all the national political groups and did not represent only the successful pro-German group which ·had carried out the revolution. These points are all worth mentioning because they show that the Slovak people as a whole and their leaders even in March had no illusions about the position. Nothing appears to have occurred since then which could cause any alteration in their estimate of their position or their attitude toward the government of Dr. Tiso. There are on the other hand good reasons why the Slovaks should be satisfied with this situation despite its drawbacks. Germany's authority is not exercised entirely without regard for Slovak feelings or interests. For instance the new German Minister who arrived recently is far better liked than his predecessor (who was removed •a t Dr_ Durcansky's request) and does not make a habit of making frequent peremptory demarches on all manner of non-essential subjects and without the instructions of his government. The conclusion of trade agreements with Poland, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and other countries during the summer has assured the necessary supply of commodities such as coal, textiles, fruit, lard, coffee, etc., and the exchange of goods with the Protectorate which constituted four-fifths of Slovakia's total export trade, was proceeding almost normally up to the outbreak of war. The only economic problems of importance were the accumulation on a relatively large scale of frozen credits in Germany (500 million ct-owns) * and the Protectorate (200 million crowns)* due to the difficulty of obtaining manufactured goods in exchange for deliveries from Slovakia. The midle-classes are now satisfied because employment in Government offices has been opened to them on a large scale. The peasants in Eastern Slovakia have also been conciliated by increased prices for their grain this year and by the prospect of cheaper freight rates for their produce when the construction of the new railway line through Vranov in East Slovakia has been completed. A typical instance of German methods of exploitation in Slovakia is pmvided by the agreement reached between the Slovak and German governments regarding the construction of strategic roads. The Slovak programme was planned to cost 60 million crowns and was to last for two years. The Germans estimated that the cost would be doubled if the work were carried out in three months ,as they wanted, and therefore agreed with ,the Slovaks to give the contracts to German firms who would receive the difference between the Slovak estimate and the • Up to the end of August SLOVAKIA 87 German estimate in Reichsmarks from the German Government. The labor and also such raw materials as could be supplied by Slovakia were paid for in Slovak currency whilst the machinery and tar were provided by the German contractors and paid for in Germany. The relations between the Slovaik population and the German troops of occupation in the small strip of territory which constituted the military zone, were described to me as excellent by an impartial and reliable American observer as late as the beginning of August. So far as I know German soldiers - except for some deputations of officers who toured the country examining strategic roads, railways and the possibility of requisitioning local supplies - did not move outside the military zone until late in August. When I visited the district of Orava on the Polish frontier, in the middle of May, I stayed with Slovaks and ·h eard no talk of German soldiers in the neighbourhood, though the Orava area lies next door to the Jablunkau district (which was in the military zone) and was actually used by German troops for their advance into Poland in September. The description in the memorandum of the "so-called autonomous government exercising its functions solely at the bidding of its German masters and with the support of German bayonets" does not tally with the account of the state of affairs given above. Nor is it correct, in my experience, •that the Slovaks who are not ,p repared to accept German money have resigned from their posts. I knew very many hard-working and honest officials whilst I was in Bratislava, not one of whom ever received any German money, to judge by their manner of living, or seemed likely to have accepted it, if it had been offered. This sort of charge sounds like the kind of generalized accusation which one hears rather frequently from a Central European when he is speaking about his political opponents. The political administration in Slovakia, though based on authoritarian models was generally reputed to be less stringent than in Germany owing to the easy-going temperament of the Slovaks. Dr. Pauliny Toth, the Slovak Nationalist leader whose name is mentioned in the memorandum, spent some weeks in the detention camp for political prisoners in Ilava and can testify that conditions there are Jess severe than they are said to be in Dachau or other German camps. The delay of punishing the mutinous Slovak regiments last September is another proof of the German willingness to yield to Slovak feelings on questions in which these feelings are really roused and do not conflict with any essential German interest. After the Hlinka party the most powerful single political factor in the Slovak state is perhaps the army and it is definitely "Czechoslovak" in sentiment. This is intelligible since the policy of the CzechoSlovak republic was to use the system of compulsory military service as a means of cementing the union between the two halves of the country which, although closely related from a linguistic point of view, had had no common tradition for a thousand years. In pursuit of this policy Slovak soldiers were sent to serve in Bohemia and Moravia and Czech soldiers were given a taste of the primitive conditions on the Slovak and Ruthenian borders. It is natural therefore that the Czechoslovak tradition should still be strong in the Slovak army. These 88 SLOVAKIA sympathies can be discounted for the present, and only when the time comes, and Germany's hold over the Czechs and Slo•v aks weakens, will this factor assume a real political importance. Summing up, I should say that the situation in Slovakia has not changed very much since the beginning of the country's existence as an independent state and that with the exception of the army, and some of the Lutherans, the people are not violently discontented with German control. They never had many illusions about their international position and after all the country enjoys a fair measure of autonomy with full self-administration. The attitude of the Slovak intelligentsia is on the whole one of passive disap:proV1al but not of active revolt, with the exception of a section of the Lutheran community, which was the great source of strength of the former centralists or "Czechoslovaks" and has suffered with their eclipse. In this case it is sectarian feeling rather than loss of political power which created bitter antagonism to the existing government of Catholic priests. So :fiar as I know the political influence of the Catholic priests has not diminished and I have never heard of anything which proved that they were opposed to Dr. Tiso's government. 'Dhe Slovaks are still rather suspicious of the Czechs but are beginning to see from experience that they are no worse than any other of their neighbours and also to realize that the Czech regime brought considerable benefits to the country. This is certainly a positive development, but it is a long way from this to a desire for the restoration of the Czecho-Slovak State. In my opinion the restoration depends almost entirely on the manner in which the present Czech leaders set about conciliating the proper quarters in Slovakia. By this I mean the rather bigoted Catholic element embodied in the Hlinka Party and not the arrogant Lutheran minority who were formerly the Czechs' supporters and proteges. The conditions for such an attempt are not unfavourable now but a beginning must be made soon or it may be too late. Political revenge will have to be foregone and much patience and tole:riance will be required on the Czech side. It may be asked why, if the majority of Slovaks are satisfied with their independence thus far, should they be ready to help restore the Czecho-Slovak republic. The answer is that they are aware of the dangers which surround them and might therefore be prepared on certain terms to accept union with the .Czechs as a stronger Slav power. Proof of this uneasiness is to be found in the rather maladroit advances of Dr. Durcansky to the Slovak emig:rants in Paris during the summer. More than once I have observed that Slovak officials are perturbed by the fear that Slovakia may find herself on the wrong side at the end of the war and they therefore attempt to ingratiate themselves simultaneously with Germany and with the representatives of the Wes tern powers. The entry of Russia on the Central European scene has introduced a new factor. It is not out of the question that if the Czechs do not come to terms with the Slovaks. quickly, the situation may change so that the rapprochement would no longer be considered desirable by the Slovaks. P. Pares SLOVAKIA 89 Appendix Ill. MEMORANDUM OF MR. P. PARES ON "WEEKLY SUMMARIES" NO. 10. (These "Weekly Summaries" were surveys of politically significant events in the Protectorate and Slovakia prepared by the Political Intelligence Department of the British Foreign Office and based on information obtained from Czech and Slovak emigres, recent arrivals, press and radio news, etc. In this memorandum Mr. Pares refutes much of the emigre information as biased and unreliable.) Almost every issue of the Weekly Summary has contained reference to the griowing disillusionment of Slovaks with their "autonomy" ( presumably Slovak independence is meant) yet this tendency is not confirmed by the information available here. It must be admitted however that members of the Legation staff have not had opportunities of making contact with Slovaks during the last six weeks owing to Slovaks' fears of falling under the suspicion of the Gestapo. A possible explanation of this differences is that many of the reports reaching London directly may come through the Slovak political emigrants who are nearly all Protestants and not only are opposed to the present Slovak regime themselves but draw their information from Protestant sources in Slovakia which are also in bitter opposition. The number of Catholic Slovaks who have been obliged to go into exile is very small for the obvious reason that the revolution of October 1938 brought the Catholic majority into ;p ower. The use of the term "disillusionment" is in itself misleading since from the moment when independence was declared the Slovaks never had any illusions about the difficulties and risks of their situation as a nation of two million ipeople in the centre of Europe. Popular enthusiasm for the declaratiion of independence was noticeably lacking last March and if ,t here had been ,a ny it would have been quickly dispelled by the small war with Hungary which immediately followed. One solid cause for satisfaction still remains in spite of Slovakia's need for dependence on one or other of the stronger neighbouring nations and that is the fact that after one thousand years the internal political administi,ation has at last passed exclusively into the hands of Slovaks. Economic and political dependence on either Germany, the Czechs or Hungary is inevitable so long as Slovakia remains an independent state but the right of full self-administration is a pure gain which is entirely due to the establishment of the Republic and goes far towards reconciling the Slovaks with the drawbacks of their political position. It is doubtful whether, as the Summary of December 5 (No. 10) suggests, the general standard of living has been reduced. During the summer cost of living bonuses were paid to workers whilst employment and conditions of pay among the "white collar" cl.ass appeared to have improved. The standard of living of the Slovak peasant has always been near the minimum necessary for existence and there have been no signs so far thait it has been reduced. On the contrary prices fixed by the grain monopoly this season were in some districts better than these offered last year under the Czecho-Slovak republic. Among the 90 SLOVAKIA middle class there has been a large transference of wealth due to the laws against Jews and the discriminatory practices against Czechs. Government service has been opened to the Slovak middle class and what this means may be inferred from the fact that even at the end of December 1938 when many Czechs had already returned to Bohemia there were still 36,000 of them in government employment in Slovakia. Slovaks were now also able to assert their predominance in the profession such as the Jaw, medicine etc. Thus there is little reason why the average member of the Slovak middle class should complain. If anybody has suffered through the recent changes it is the comparatively small body of well-to-do landowners and businessmen who have sold large quantities of goods to Germany, and the Protectorate, without being able to get their money owing to Germany's inability to pay cash for what she buys. But the losses of these people are insignificant compared with the solid gains of the majority of the middle class. The statement contained in Summary No. 10 rega1·ding the remittance of Slovak workers' sa vings from Germany is incorrect. According to a recent official announcement the Slovak National Bank has alread y advanced over 90 million crowns to the relatives of Slovak workers employed in Germany and although this arrangement has only shifted the burden of inconvenience from the Slovak workers to the Bank, the former are presumably quite satisfied with it. Only in a few cases have workmen returning from Germany attempted to disregard the regulation by bringing their earnings with them instead of depositing them to a German bank, but so far as I know the Slovak National Bank has been able to smooth out the difficulties which have arisen in their way. There appears to be some exaggeration in the opinion ( page 5 of No. 10 ) that most members of the government are looked upon as gangsters. Of the seven ministers, three, namely M. Stano, M. Sivak and M. Pruzinsky are Czechophil moderates belonging to the Hlinka party (M. Sivak was head of the government installed by the Czechs on March 9 when Dr. Tiso was deposed) and all three were members of M. Sidor's Czechophil government which succeeded Sivak's. Of the other three two occupy minor posts and Dr. Durcansky has travelled far politically since the days when he broadcast against the Czechs over the Viennese wireless. All these facts are very well known to Slovaks and it is inconceivable that they should hold the view ascribed to them in the Summary. The general attitude towards Dr. Tuka, the present Prime Minister, is indeed hostile but there is no reason to suppose that his unpopularity extends to the members of his cabinet. The Summaries do not offer any precise infonnation regarding the attitude of the Slovaks to the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris but on page 5 of No. 10 appears the statement that "were Slovakia free to exercise her choice, there is little doubt that a combination of forces headed by Dr. Hodza and M. Sidor, backed by a small but influential Protestant autonomy party, would command the votes of the vast majority of Slovakia." It is quite true that such a combination would be overwhelming. It is equally true that the support of some of the Catholic leaders of the Hlinka party must be enlisted by the Czecho-Slovak National Council before it can fully establish its claim to represent the Slovak people. The Protestants in Slovakia do not number more than 300,000 and 91 SLOVAKIA though the influence of their community in the economic and cultural life of Slovakia is out of all proportion to the total number of its members, the growing self-consciousness and power of one and a half million Catholics now make the most imrpo:rtant political factor in the Slovak State. The Protestant predominance of 1918 has gone for ever and it is useless to seek any sort of accord between Slovaks and Czechs which was opposed to the wishes of the Slovak Catholics. Yet there are no signs that the Czecho-Slov,a k National Council has made any progress towards winning over their support up to the present. The composition of the present National Council seems to show that its creators have either neglected ·t his point or have been unsuccessful in their negotiations with the Catholic leaders. The three Slovak members of the Council are not only Protestants but have not and never have had any ,p olitical following. M. Osusky and M . Slavik are career diplomats and have lived for a long time abroad whilst General Viest is a professional soldier. Though there is evidence to show that they are regarded with sympathy by the Slovak Protestants, it seems doubtful whether they can really claim to represent the political views of the whole Slovak people. The real political leader of ,t he Slovaks is M. Sidor. He is a good political orator and a good writer on national-political subjects; but his pre-eminence among the Slovak Catholic leaders is assured not only by his personality but by the fact that he stood extremely close to Father Hlinka and is said to be his political heir. The demonstrations in his favour, which continue to occur from time to time although they embarrass him and are dangerous for his supporters, are the best proof of his great popularity. He has remained loyal to the government but is definitely dissatisfied with the present German domination which has forced him and his closest friends to abandon temrporarily their political activities. If a moment ever came when it would be safe for Slovakia to abandon her policy of subservience to Germany, it would be he who would assume the political leadership rather then anyone else. It is therefore •interesting that, according to information derived from one of his personal friends, until recently at least the CzechoSlovak leaders in Paris had been unable to reach any agreement with him. He received friendly overtures from M. Osusky last summer to which he did not reply since (in his words) "he was unwilling to go the road to Canossa." One envoy coming to him from Dr. Hodza early in October was detained by the Hungarian police in Hungary and failed to arrive. Up to this time M. Sidor was not even convinced of the necessity for reviving a federal Czecho-Slovak State, although he was not in principle opposed to it. His precise attitude appeared to be that he preferred the existing state of affairs but would accerpt a federal solution if that was the pdlicy adopted by the Western Powers. So far as is known here then it cannot be said that great progress has been made up to the present ,t owards a solution of the problem of the future relations between Czechs and Slovaks. But if collaboration could be arranged between Dr. Hodza and the Czecho-Slovak National Council on the one hand and M. Sidor and the anti-German group of the Hlinkas paiity on the other, there would be good prospects of arranging a settlement which would be lasting and satisfactory to both p_ Pares sides. 1  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource British Attitude Towards Independent Slovakia in 1939 Description An account of the resource F. Vnuk Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 65-91 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vnuk, František, 1926- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/3a3b70e418e8fecabcbff543a4ab1131.pdf a1c42c72d6453d5e5b376d901fd1430c PDF Text Text 62 SLOVAKIA Michael Novak on White Ethnics As a reader of Michael Novak's books, author and scholar of Slovak origin, I had great pleasure in finding his article "White Ethnic" in the September 1971 issue of Harper's Magazine. There is wit, clarity and accuracy in it. It is delightful to see that someone can properly express the feeling of ethnics and immigrants in America who do not always find it easy to adjust themselves to. what is being offered to them as the American way of life. Even though I have spent the longest span of my mature age here, as an American citizen I am only a "teenager". Since my arrival in 1952, I have never ceased admiring the American federal system whose example might have solved the political problem of Central Europe where I was born. Yet, the human aspect of American life has been more puzzling. Technology and marketable values seem to have priority over human values. The abrupt homogeneization of society of diverse origins and civilizations implies as uprootal of individuals. Many Americans of non-Anglo-Saxon descent suffer from historical amnesia. They lack a larger trajectory, the wings which sustain human beings on their flight and add an important dimension to human life. The ethnics who came to America with strong religious background, like Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc., have found in religion a stabilizing factor of highest importance. Many white nativists who were reprived of those roots are slipping to the level of civil unconsciousness. They use drugs, regale themselves with pornography, indulge in swinging parties, draft card burning, and riots. The official doctrine which has relegated religion as an entirely private affair to a negligible corner of human endeavor, contributes without doubt to the state of restlessness, to the philosophy of nothingness that seems to have so much influenced the younger generation. This is all the more serious that the questionable writings of some fashionable, but ultramontane apostles, such as Jean Paul �SLOVAKIA 63 Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, will have an adverse effect on the future not only of that generation, but on the future of the country. However great and economically powerful the United States may be, it can ignore higher values and motivations only to its own detriment. We do not live on an exclusive planet. We are being exposed to the hostility and pressure of other, less liberal, systems. Consequently, those groups which stick to their traditional values, including religion, are more in agreement with the basic interests of the country than those which prefer to swim with the stream. A disturbing indifference to values is visible in some other fields. Pragmatism, that allegedly "typical" American philosophy, frequently allows our policy-makers to do with the right hand something different from what they try to do with their left hand. Examples? Our attitude to Pakistan. While we have been sending armaments to West Pakistan, we indulge in charities toward Bangladesh. Our Social Science is dominated by the school of "causalists". However, while causality a.s a method interpreting the interdependence of phenomena is proper in Natural Science, it is false in Social Science which since Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas has been the proper realm of teleology, i.e., of objectives and means. The lack of higher goals, metaphysical, international or simply national, is undoubtedly a result of this improper methodology. Legal Science in America is the guarded domain of the sociological school trying to explain criminality as a consequence of environmental conditions. Thus, the law has been losing its normative character. Not so much intentions, but statistics determine judicial sentences. More frequent crimes are being accepted as a sort of national fatality. Whereas in our economic system inflationary trends are being curbed by a higher interest-rate, inflationary trend in criminality are being acted by a more moderate sentencing. Who can see any logic in that? The freedom of judges under the common law system is excessive and, therefore arbitrary. The sentencing of Martin Luther King's assassin to 99 years in prison throws a doubt on the seriousness of our justice. The United States whose population �SLOVAKIA 64 is of various origins and cultures should have abandoned the common law many decades ago. This country needs codification more than an increase in the number of policemen. The second amendment to the Constitution, passed under different circumstances and allowing the individual to be judge in his own cause, is absolete. We need, consequently, to overcome the incipient "state of nature" by stricter, codified rules that would deter potential criminals. The law would then play its preventive and dissuasive role. The existing problem of ethnicity in America requires restatement of our philosophy and revision of our practices. Ethnic federalism would bring an improvement. Something has to be done to enhance the standing of some forgotten ethnic grounds; to put them on an equal footing with others; to render human dignity to them. "The Ethnic Heritage Studies Centers Act" of 1971, just passed by the Senate, may perhaps bring some remedy to the present situation. Washington, D. C. Prof. Joseph A . Mikus ' M .C.L.,J.D. Slovak Martyrs Father Anton salat lectured and wrote against the Communists. Consequently, the partisans caught him in the first week of the "uprising" in August 1944, at the rectory of Hajniky, and led him to the bridge on the River Hron. Father salat begged permission at least to go to confession, but his request was denied. The partisans shot him, took his gold watch and gold teeth, and cast the body into the Hron. Father Seda, in Liptov, suffered an even more agonizing death. The Communists, while he was still alive, cut belts of hide from his back, cut his privates, and left him to die a slow and inhuman death. � 62 SLOVAKIA Michael Novak on White Ethnics As a reader of Michael Novak's books, author and scholar of Slovak origin, I had great pleasure in finding his article "White Ethnic" in the September 1971 issue of Harper's Magazine. There is wit, clarity and accuracy in it. It is delightful to see that someone can properly express the feeling of ethnics and immigrants in America who do not always find it easy to adjust themselves to. what is being offered to them as the American way of life. Even though I have spent the longest span of my mature age here, as an American citizen I am only a "teenager". Since my arrival in 1952, I have never ceased admiring the American federal system whose example might have solved the political problem of Central Europe where I was born. Yet, the human aspect of American life has been more puzzling. Technology and marketable values seem to have priority over human values. The abrupt homogeneization of society of diverse origins and civilizations implies as uprootal of individuals. Many Americans of non-Anglo-Saxon descent suffer from historical amnesia. They lack a larger trajectory, the wings which sustain human beings on their flight and add an important dimension to human life. The ethnics who came to America with strong religious background, like Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc., have found in religion a stabilizing factor of highest importance. Many white nativists who were reprived of those roots are slipping to the level of civil unconsciousness. They use drugs, regale themselves with pornography, indulge in swinging parties, draft card burning, and riots. The official doctrine which has relegated religion as an entirely private affair to a negligible corner of human endeavor, contributes without doubt to the state of restlessness, to the philosophy of nothingness that seems to have so much influenced the younger generation. This is all the more serious that the questionable writings of some fashionable, but ultramontane apostles, such as Jean Paul �SLOVAKIA 63 Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, will have an adverse effect on the future not only of that generation, but on the future of the country. However great and economically powerful the United States may be, it can ignore higher values and motivations only to its own detriment. We do not live on an exclusive planet. We are being exposed to the hostility and pressure of other, less liberal, systems. Consequently, those groups which stick to their traditional values, including religion, are more in agreement with the basic interests of the country than those which prefer to swim with the stream. A disturbing indifference to values is visible in some other fields. Pragmatism, that allegedly "typical" American philosophy, frequently allows our policy-makers to do with the right hand something different from what they try to do with their left hand. Examples? Our attitude to Pakistan. While we have been sending armaments to West Pakistan, we indulge in charities toward Bangladesh. Our Social Science is dominated by the school of "causalists". However, while causality a.s a method interpreting the interdependence of phenomena is proper in Natural Science, it is false in Social Science which since Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas has been the proper realm of teleology, i.e., of objectives and means. The lack of higher goals, metaphysical, international or simply national, is undoubtedly a result of this improper methodology. Legal Science in America is the guarded domain of the sociological school trying to explain criminality as a consequence of environmental conditions. Thus, the law has been losing its normative character. Not so much intentions, but statistics determine judicial sentences. More frequent crimes are being accepted as a sort of national fatality. Whereas in our economic system inflationary trends are being curbed by a higher interest-rate, inflationary trend in criminality are being acted by a more moderate sentencing. Who can see any logic in that? The freedom of judges under the common law system is excessive and, therefore arbitrary. The sentencing of Martin Luther King's assassin to 99 years in prison throws a doubt on the seriousness of our justice. The United States whose population �SLOVAKIA 64 is of various origins and cultures should have abandoned the common law many decades ago. This country needs codification more than an increase in the number of policemen. The second amendment to the Constitution, passed under different circumstances and allowing the individual to be judge in his own cause, is absolete. We need, consequently, to overcome the incipient "state of nature" by stricter, codified rules that would deter potential criminals. The law would then play its preventive and dissuasive role. The existing problem of ethnicity in America requires restatement of our philosophy and revision of our practices. Ethnic federalism would bring an improvement. Something has to be done to enhance the standing of some forgotten ethnic grounds; to put them on an equal footing with others; to render human dignity to them. "The Ethnic Heritage Studies Centers Act" of 1971, just passed by the Senate, may perhaps bring some remedy to the present situation. Washington, D. C. Prof. Joseph A . Mikus ' M .C.L.,J.D. Slovak Martyrs Father Anton salat lectured and wrote against the Communists. Consequently, the partisans caught him in the first week of the "uprising" in August 1944, at the rectory of Hajniky, and led him to the bridge on the River Hron. Father salat begged permission at least to go to confession, but his request was denied. The partisans shot him, took his gold watch and gold teeth, and cast the body into the Hron. Father Seda, in Liptov, suffered an even more agonizing death. The Communists, while he was still alive, cut belts of hide from his back, cut his privates, and left him to die a slow and inhuman 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 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 62 SLOVAKIA Michael Novak on White Ethnics As a reader of Michael Novak's books, author and scholar of Slovak origin, I had great pleasure in finding his article "White Ethnic" in the September 1971 issue of Harper's Magazine. There is wit, clarity and accuracy in it. It is delightful to see that someone can properly express the feeling of ethnics and immigrants in America who do not always find it easy to adjust themselves to. what is being offered to them as the American way of life. Even though I have spent the longest span of my mature age here, as an American citizen I am only a "teenager". Since my arrival in 1952, I have never ceased admiring the American federal system whose example might have solved the political problem of Central Europe where I was born. Yet, the human aspect of American life has been more puzzling. Technology and marketable values seem to have priority over human values. The abrupt homogeneization of society of diverse origins and civilizations implies as uprootal of individuals. Many Americans of non-Anglo-Saxon descent suffer from historical amnesia. They lack a larger trajectory, the wings which sustain human beings on their flight and add an important dimension to human life. The ethnics who came to America with strong religious background, like Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc., have found in religion a stabilizing factor of highest importance. Many white nativists who were reprived of those roots are slipping to the level of civil unconsciousness. They use drugs, regale themselves with pornography, indulge in swinging parties, draft card burning, and riots. The official doctrine which has relegated religion as an entirely private affair to a negligible corner of human endeavor, contributes without doubt to the state of restlessness, to the philosophy of nothingness that seems to have so much influenced the younger generation. This is all the more serious that the questionable writings of some fashionable, but ultramontane apostles, such as Jean Paul SLOVAKIA 63 Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, will have an adverse effect on the future not only of that generation, but on the future of the country. However great and economically powerful the United States may be, it can ignore higher values and motivations only to its own detriment. We do not live on an exclusive planet. We are being exposed to the hostility and pressure of other, less liberal, systems. Consequently, those groups which stick to their traditional values, including religion, are more in agreement with the basic interests of the country than those which prefer to swim with the stream. A disturbing indifference to values is visible in some other fields. Pragmatism, that allegedly "typical" American philosophy, frequently allows our policy-makers to do with the right hand something different from what they try to do with their left hand. Examples? Our attitude to Pakistan. While we have been sending armaments to West Pakistan, we indulge in charities toward Bangladesh. Our Social Science is dominated by the school of "causalists". However, while causality a.s a method interpreting the interdependence of phenomena is proper in Natural Science, it is false in Social Science which since Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas has been the proper realm of teleology, i.e., of objectives and means. The lack of higher goals, metaphysical, international or simply national, is undoubtedly a result of this improper methodology. Legal Science in America is the guarded domain of the sociological school trying to explain criminality as a consequence of environmental conditions. Thus, the law has been losing its normative character. Not so much intentions, but statistics determine judicial sentences. More frequent crimes are being accepted as a sort of national fatality. Whereas in our economic system inflationary trends are being curbed by a higher interest-rate, inflationary trend in criminality are being acted by a more moderate sentencing. Who can see any logic in that? The freedom of judges under the common law system is excessive and, therefore arbitrary. The sentencing of Martin Luther King's assassin to 99 years in prison throws a doubt on the seriousness of our justice. The United States whose population SLOVAKIA 64 is of various origins and cultures should have abandoned the common law many decades ago. This country needs codification more than an increase in the number of policemen. The second amendment to the Constitution, passed under different circumstances and allowing the individual to be judge in his own cause, is absolete. We need, consequently, to overcome the incipient "state of nature" by stricter, codified rules that would deter potential criminals. The law would then play its preventive and dissuasive role. The existing problem of ethnicity in America requires restatement of our philosophy and revision of our practices. Ethnic federalism would bring an improvement. Something has to be done to enhance the standing of some forgotten ethnic grounds; to put them on an equal footing with others; to render human dignity to them. "The Ethnic Heritage Studies Centers Act" of 1971, just passed by the Senate, may perhaps bring some remedy to the present situation. Washington, D. C. Prof. Joseph A . Mikus ' M .C.L.,J.D. Slovak Martyrs Father Anton salat lectured and wrote against the Communists. Consequently, the partisans caught him in the first week of the "uprising" in August 1944, at the rectory of Hajniky, and led him to the bridge on the River Hron. Father salat begged permission at least to go to confession, but his request was denied. The partisans shot him, took his gold watch and gold teeth, and cast the body into the Hron. Father Seda, in Liptov, suffered an even more agonizing death. The Communists, while he was still alive, cut belts of hide from his back, cut his privates, and left him to die a slow and inhuman 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 Michael Novak on White Ethnics Description An account of the resource Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L., J.D. also: Slovak Martyrs, Fr. Anton Šalát Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 62-64 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mikuš, Joseph A., 1909-2005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/dbde9d29d97125296684855753e3b11b.pdf b79bbc59e21388cbb51d6e021352d1be PDF Text Text 60 SLOVAK.IA Prof. Stanislav Meciar (1910-1971)-ln Memoriam With a group of writers and poets who left Slovakia before the advancing Soviet armies in 1945, with the intention to fight for Slovak freedom and independence in the West, there were also literary critics and literary historians with established reputations. Among them, Prof. Stanislav Meciar, born on March 21, 1910, in Prievidza, was one of the most outstanding. His untimely death on November 23, 1971, in Buenos Aires , Argentina, has been . therefore, regretted with great sorrow everywhere in the free world where Slovaks live. In Stanislav Meciar, Slovak literary history and criticism had a well educated, eclectic literary critic, essayist and evaluator of Slovak cultural life. Meciar studied at the Universities of Bratislava, Prague, Leipzig and Warsaw, specializing in Slavic and German literatures and philology. Equipped with a solid academic preparation and a strong ambition to elevate Slovak literary and cultural life to European standards, he occupied during the War the prestigious position of the editor of Slovenske Pohl'ady and made it a tribune of intellectual ferment and struggle for national goals. His patriotism and nationalistic fervor marked not only the contents of Slovenske Pohl'ady but also his whole literary work. Like many other writers and literary critics, Meciar appeared on the literary scene first as a writer of literary comments, book reviews, short novels and verses. Subsequently he moved into the field of comparative literature and translations from Slavic, especially Polish, poetry and prose. By 1936 he emerged as a literary critic and aesthete with a solid knowledge of Slovak literature always bearing in mind specific hlstorical and cultural development of the Slovak people. His published works : Poetry and L i f e (1936 ); Unknown Verses of Janka Kral' (1938 ) ; Hviezdoslav's Forester's Wife (1939), and Beniak's Zofia (1941 ) proved that Meciar was a mature, erudite literary critic who applied scholarly methods in his evaluation of Slovak literature. �SLOVAKIA 61 On the basis of these literary works and Meciar's academic background, the President of the Slovak Republic nominated him in 1944 Professor at the University of Bratislava. The Soviet occupation of Slovakia prevented him, however, from contributing to Slovak scholarship at university level. Meciar's patriotism and nationalistic fervor grew even stronger in exile which can be easily understood if one takes into account that Slovaks, after a few years of independent cultural development, had to see their dreams of independence crashed and their traditional values destroyed by Communism imposed upon them from outside. He became an "ecrivain engage" opposed to any compromise in the Slovak national struggle. From 1949 to 1952 he edited the most nationalistic of all Slovak periodicals abroad Slovenskd Republika, a series of books "Slovenskd slobodnd kultura" (Slovak Free Culture, 1951-60) and Letopisy (Archives, 1963), the latter published by the Zahranicnd Matica Slovenskd which was organized in Buenos Aires by J. C. Hronsky with Meciar as secretary. Besides his many contributions to Slovak emigre newspapers on cultural and political matters, Meciar did not fail, however, to continue his scholarly work. His main literary achievement in exile has been two volume work on Martin Kukucin (Kukucin zivy, Buenos Aires, 1958-1960), the best Slovak novelist of the period of realism in Slovak literature, who also spent his life outside of his native country and died in Argentina. In the literary journals and almanacs (Most, Almanach Slovdka v Amerike, and in the symposium Vo Vyhnanstve), Meciar published essays on Slovak culture, on the leading Slovak post-war novelist Milo Urban, and on the most outstanding Slovak poets, Jan Holly and P. 0. Hviezdoslav. An intellectual with a proud national consciousness and dedicated to the struggle for freedom of the Slovak people, Meciar never hesitated to display his uncompromising attitude towards the foes of the Slovak striving for a free and independent cultural and political development. His death created a gap in the ranks of Slovak intellectuals abroad which will be very hard to fill. Slovak culture lost in Prof. Meciar a proud representative of a generation which helped the dream of Slovak independence to come true. J. M. Ki rs c h b au m � 60 SLOVAK.IA Prof. Stanislav Meciar (1910-1971)-ln Memoriam With a group of writers and poets who left Slovakia before the advancing Soviet armies in 1945, with the intention to fight for Slovak freedom and independence in the West, there were also literary critics and literary historians with established reputations. Among them, Prof. Stanislav Meciar, born on March 21, 1910, in Prievidza, was one of the most outstanding. His untimely death on November 23, 1971, in Buenos Aires , Argentina, has been . therefore, regretted with great sorrow everywhere in the free world where Slovaks live. In Stanislav Meciar, Slovak literary history and criticism had a well educated, eclectic literary critic, essayist and evaluator of Slovak cultural life. Meciar studied at the Universities of Bratislava, Prague, Leipzig and Warsaw, specializing in Slavic and German literatures and philology. Equipped with a solid academic preparation and a strong ambition to elevate Slovak literary and cultural life to European standards, he occupied during the War the prestigious position of the editor of Slovenske Pohl'ady and made it a tribune of intellectual ferment and struggle for national goals. His patriotism and nationalistic fervor marked not only the contents of Slovenske Pohl'ady but also his whole literary work. Like many other writers and literary critics, Meciar appeared on the literary scene first as a writer of literary comments, book reviews, short novels and verses. Subsequently he moved into the field of comparative literature and translations from Slavic, especially Polish, poetry and prose. By 1936 he emerged as a literary critic and aesthete with a solid knowledge of Slovak literature always bearing in mind specific hlstorical and cultural development of the Slovak people. His published works : Poetry and L i f e (1936 ); Unknown Verses of Janka Kral' (1938 ) ; Hviezdoslav's Forester's Wife (1939), and Beniak's Zofia (1941 ) proved that Meciar was a mature, erudite literary critic who applied scholarly methods in his evaluation of Slovak literature. �SLOVAKIA 61 On the basis of these literary works and Meciar's academic background, the President of the Slovak Republic nominated him in 1944 Professor at the University of Bratislava. The Soviet occupation of Slovakia prevented him, however, from contributing to Slovak scholarship at university level. Meciar's patriotism and nationalistic fervor grew even stronger in exile which can be easily understood if one takes into account that Slovaks, after a few years of independent cultural development, had to see their dreams of independence crashed and their traditional values destroyed by Communism imposed upon them from outside. He became an "ecrivain engage" opposed to any compromise in the Slovak national struggle. From 1949 to 1952 he edited the most nationalistic of all Slovak periodicals abroad Slovenskd Republika, a series of books "Slovenskd slobodnd kultura" (Slovak Free Culture, 1951-60) and Letopisy (Archives, 1963), the latter published by the Zahranicnd Matica Slovenskd which was organized in Buenos Aires by J. C. Hronsky with Meciar as secretary. Besides his many contributions to Slovak emigre newspapers on cultural and political matters, Meciar did not fail, however, to continue his scholarly work. His main literary achievement in exile has been two volume work on Martin Kukucin (Kukucin zivy, Buenos Aires, 1958-1960), the best Slovak novelist of the period of realism in Slovak literature, who also spent his life outside of his native country and died in Argentina. In the literary journals and almanacs (Most, Almanach Slovdka v Amerike, and in the symposium Vo Vyhnanstve), Meciar published essays on Slovak culture, on the leading Slovak post-war novelist Milo Urban, and on the most outstanding Slovak poets, Jan Holly and P. 0. Hviezdoslav. An intellectual with a proud national consciousness and dedicated to the struggle for freedom of the Slovak people, Meciar never hesitated to display his uncompromising attitude towards the foes of the Slovak striving for a free and independent cultural and political development. His death created a gap in the ranks of Slovak intellectuals abroad which will be very hard to fill. Slovak culture lost in Prof. Meciar a proud representative of a generation which helped the dream of Slovak independence to come true. J. M. Ki rs c h b au m � 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 60 SLOVAK.IA Prof. Stanislav Meciar (1910-1971)-ln Memoriam With a group of writers and poets who left Slovakia before the advancing Soviet armies in 1945, with the intention to fight for Slovak freedom and independence in the West, there were also literary critics and literary historians with established reputations. Among them, Prof. Stanislav Meciar, born on March 21, 1910, in Prievidza, was one of the most outstanding. His untimely death on November 23, 1971, in Buenos Aires , Argentina, has been . therefore, regretted with great sorrow everywhere in the free world where Slovaks live. In Stanislav Meciar, Slovak literary history and criticism had a well educated, eclectic literary critic, essayist and evaluator of Slovak cultural life. Meciar studied at the Universities of Bratislava, Prague, Leipzig and Warsaw, specializing in Slavic and German literatures and philology. Equipped with a solid academic preparation and a strong ambition to elevate Slovak literary and cultural life to European standards, he occupied during the War the prestigious position of the editor of Slovenske Pohl'ady and made it a tribune of intellectual ferment and struggle for national goals. His patriotism and nationalistic fervor marked not only the contents of Slovenske Pohl'ady but also his whole literary work. Like many other writers and literary critics, Meciar appeared on the literary scene first as a writer of literary comments, book reviews, short novels and verses. Subsequently he moved into the field of comparative literature and translations from Slavic, especially Polish, poetry and prose. By 1936 he emerged as a literary critic and aesthete with a solid knowledge of Slovak literature always bearing in mind specific hlstorical and cultural development of the Slovak people. His published works : Poetry and L i f e (1936 ); Unknown Verses of Janka Kral' (1938 ) ; Hviezdoslav's Forester's Wife (1939), and Beniak's Zofia (1941 ) proved that Meciar was a mature, erudite literary critic who applied scholarly methods in his evaluation of Slovak literature. SLOVAKIA 61 On the basis of these literary works and Meciar's academic background, the President of the Slovak Republic nominated him in 1944 Professor at the University of Bratislava. The Soviet occupation of Slovakia prevented him, however, from contributing to Slovak scholarship at university level. Meciar's patriotism and nationalistic fervor grew even stronger in exile which can be easily understood if one takes into account that Slovaks, after a few years of independent cultural development, had to see their dreams of independence crashed and their traditional values destroyed by Communism imposed upon them from outside. He became an "ecrivain engage" opposed to any compromise in the Slovak national struggle. From 1949 to 1952 he edited the most nationalistic of all Slovak periodicals abroad Slovenskd Republika, a series of books "Slovenskd slobodnd kultura" (Slovak Free Culture, 1951-60) and Letopisy (Archives, 1963), the latter published by the Zahranicnd Matica Slovenskd which was organized in Buenos Aires by J. C. Hronsky with Meciar as secretary. Besides his many contributions to Slovak emigre newspapers on cultural and political matters, Meciar did not fail, however, to continue his scholarly work. His main literary achievement in exile has been two volume work on Martin Kukucin (Kukucin zivy, Buenos Aires, 1958-1960), the best Slovak novelist of the period of realism in Slovak literature, who also spent his life outside of his native country and died in Argentina. In the literary journals and almanacs (Most, Almanach Slovdka v Amerike, and in the symposium Vo Vyhnanstve), Meciar published essays on Slovak culture, on the leading Slovak post-war novelist Milo Urban, and on the most outstanding Slovak poets, Jan Holly and P. 0. Hviezdoslav. An intellectual with a proud national consciousness and dedicated to the struggle for freedom of the Slovak people, Meciar never hesitated to display his uncompromising attitude towards the foes of the Slovak striving for a free and independent cultural and political development. His death created a gap in the ranks of Slovak intellectuals abroad which will be very hard to fill. Slovak culture lost in Prof. Meciar a proud representative of a generation which helped the dream of Slovak independence to come true. J. M. Ki rs c h b au m  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 Prof. Stanislav Mečiar (1910-1971) - In Memoriam Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 60-61 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/e09c413c8ec993b1f87997223d7f3734.pdf af7d988263d437dd4ebed5d111b657bd PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 57 IN HIS 70TH YEAR Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks By Joseph C. Krajsa In the course of the history of a people or a nation come individual men, who by the force of their personalities and their endeavors shape and determine the form and direction of the church, their people, their nation and their country. These are men who are dreamers and some who are doers. But the great ones are those who are both--dreamers and doers. They are the one who set alight their hope and hearts upon the heights they seek to scale. They are the ones who light bright fires of their aspirations and give heart and direction to those who follow . Dr. Peter P. Hletko, in his 70th year, is such a man! Peter Paul Hletko, M. D., physician-surgeon, now semiretired, was born June 26, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Martin and Catherine Hargas Hletko. His home is in Warrenville, Illinois and his office is at 2740 W. 55th Street, Chicago. In 1938 he married Anna E. Remijas. EDUCATION Hletko received his elementary education at Saint Michael's School (1908-1915), Chicago. He attended St. Procopius Academy (1915-1919), Lisle, Illinois, and St. Procopius College (1919-1921 ) . He attended De Paul University in Chicago from 1921 to 1923 and received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. In 1927 he received his Medical Degree (M. D.) from Loyola University, Chicago. PROFESSIONAL Dr. Hletko served on the resident staff of Cook County Hospital, Chicago from 1927 to 1928. Besides his private practice, he was an instructor in clinical neurology a t Loyola University Medical School from 1931 to 1935. �58 SLOVAK.IA He served as medical examiner of many insurance companies. From 1934 to 1939 he served as Supreme Medical Examiner for the National Slovak Society and he serves in this capacity today. From 1927 to 1964 he served as Supreme Medical Examiner of the Slovak Catholic Sokol and today is Honorary Medical Examiner for the Society. Dr. Hletko is a member of the American Medical Association; Illinois Medical Association; Chicago Medical Association; and Medical Examiner of Municipal Court and Law Department Benefit and Pension Fund, Chicago, ( 19361961). CIVIC AND CULTURAL In 1938 Dr. Hletko led a Slovak League of America delegation to Czecho-Slovakia in behalf of gaining recognition of the Pittsburgh Pact. Over 100,000 Slovaks gathered in Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia, as he and Msgr. Andrew Hlinka unveiled the original of the Pittsburgh Pact-an agreement that was to guarantee autonomy for the Slovak nation. The vast crowd roared: "Hlinka, Hletko daju vsetko" ( Hlinka and Hletko will give everything!). The rest of his services for the Slovak people in a span of more than four decades reads like a special "Who's Who": President of the Slovak League of America (1935-1939) and ( 1963-64); Honorary President and Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak League of America ( 1938-); Vice President of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America ( 1934) ; Supreme Officer of the Slovak Catholic Sokol and the National Slovak Society; a Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak Catholic Sokol; organizer and first President of 'Club Furdek' - ( a Catholic Slovak Cultural Society, Chicago, 1929); and President of the Gage Park Savings and Loan Association, Chicago, since 1935. AUTHOR-JOURN ALIST Today, Dr. Hletko has a vast collection of manuscripts, documentary material, books, complete volumes of publications, newspapers, and annuals. To many of these he was a contributor, a columnist, editor, or author. The �SLOVAKIA 59 Dr. Peter P. Hletko ( second from the right ) with Ms~:ir- A·ndrew Hlinka (at Hletko's right ) , leader oif the S l ovak Popu li st Party , and Karol SidOf' (right), former Premier of Slovakia, at the 1938 event in Bratislava when the delegati'on of the Slova~ League of .America c-ame to Slovakia with the origi-nal of the Pittsburgh Pac:t. following is a list of Dr. Hletko's literary efforts: Author: "The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact" (1934 ) ; wrote "Iskry"-a reprint of satiro-comic column in the Osadne Hlasy ( Slovak Parish News, 1931); edited the "Slovak Catholic Sokol Cook Book", 1964; was a contributing editor of Osadne Hlasy (Chicago Parish News, 1927-1963 ); editor of "Jaro" (Spring), English supplement to JEDNOTA. official publication of the First Catholic Slovak Union, 1927-1936; eclitor of "Chicagsky Dennik" (Chicago Slovak Daily News, 1926-1927 ); presently serves as the Chairman of the Literary Committee of the National Slovak Society; and is President of the Slovak Newspapermen's Association in America. In honor of his 70th birthday, the Slovak League of America labeled 1972 "Dr. Peter Hletko Year" and designated a special award to him at the Slovak League of America Congress in Chicago in the spring of this year. REFERENCES Slovakia 1965, Published by the Slovak League of America, Middletown, Pennsylvania. " Slovaci a ich zivot", Jedtnota, 3/ 17/ 1971, p. 11, by Dr. Joseph Pauco. � SLOVAKIA 57 IN HIS 70TH YEAR Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks By Joseph C. Krajsa In the course of the history of a people or a nation come individual men, who by the force of their personalities and their endeavors shape and determine the form and direction of the church, their people, their nation and their country. These are men who are dreamers and some who are doers. But the great ones are those who are both--dreamers and doers. They are the one who set alight their hope and hearts upon the heights they seek to scale. They are the ones who light bright fires of their aspirations and give heart and direction to those who follow . Dr. Peter P. Hletko, in his 70th year, is such a man! Peter Paul Hletko, M. D., physician-surgeon, now semiretired, was born June 26, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Martin and Catherine Hargas Hletko. His home is in Warrenville, Illinois and his office is at 2740 W. 55th Street, Chicago. In 1938 he married Anna E. Remijas. EDUCATION Hletko received his elementary education at Saint Michael's School (1908-1915), Chicago. He attended St. Procopius Academy (1915-1919), Lisle, Illinois, and St. Procopius College (1919-1921 ) . He attended De Paul University in Chicago from 1921 to 1923 and received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. In 1927 he received his Medical Degree (M. D.) from Loyola University, Chicago. PROFESSIONAL Dr. Hletko served on the resident staff of Cook County Hospital, Chicago from 1927 to 1928. Besides his private practice, he was an instructor in clinical neurology a t Loyola University Medical School from 1931 to 1935. �58 SLOVAK.IA He served as medical examiner of many insurance companies. From 1934 to 1939 he served as Supreme Medical Examiner for the National Slovak Society and he serves in this capacity today. From 1927 to 1964 he served as Supreme Medical Examiner of the Slovak Catholic Sokol and today is Honorary Medical Examiner for the Society. Dr. Hletko is a member of the American Medical Association; Illinois Medical Association; Chicago Medical Association; and Medical Examiner of Municipal Court and Law Department Benefit and Pension Fund, Chicago, ( 19361961). CIVIC AND CULTURAL In 1938 Dr. Hletko led a Slovak League of America delegation to Czecho-Slovakia in behalf of gaining recognition of the Pittsburgh Pact. Over 100,000 Slovaks gathered in Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia, as he and Msgr. Andrew Hlinka unveiled the original of the Pittsburgh Pact-an agreement that was to guarantee autonomy for the Slovak nation. The vast crowd roared: "Hlinka, Hletko daju vsetko" ( Hlinka and Hletko will give everything!). The rest of his services for the Slovak people in a span of more than four decades reads like a special "Who's Who": President of the Slovak League of America (1935-1939) and ( 1963-64); Honorary President and Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak League of America ( 1938-); Vice President of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America ( 1934) ; Supreme Officer of the Slovak Catholic Sokol and the National Slovak Society; a Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak Catholic Sokol; organizer and first President of 'Club Furdek' - ( a Catholic Slovak Cultural Society, Chicago, 1929); and President of the Gage Park Savings and Loan Association, Chicago, since 1935. AUTHOR-JOURN ALIST Today, Dr. Hletko has a vast collection of manuscripts, documentary material, books, complete volumes of publications, newspapers, and annuals. To many of these he was a contributor, a columnist, editor, or author. The �SLOVAKIA 59 Dr. Peter P. Hletko ( second from the right ) with Ms~:ir- A·ndrew Hlinka (at Hletko's right ) , leader oif the S l ovak Popu li st Party , and Karol SidOf' (right), former Premier of Slovakia, at the 1938 event in Bratislava when the delegati'on of the Slova~ League of .America c-ame to Slovakia with the origi-nal of the Pittsburgh Pac:t. following is a list of Dr. Hletko's literary efforts: Author: "The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact" (1934 ) ; wrote "Iskry"-a reprint of satiro-comic column in the Osadne Hlasy ( Slovak Parish News, 1931); edited the "Slovak Catholic Sokol Cook Book", 1964; was a contributing editor of Osadne Hlasy (Chicago Parish News, 1927-1963 ); editor of "Jaro" (Spring), English supplement to JEDNOTA. official publication of the First Catholic Slovak Union, 1927-1936; eclitor of "Chicagsky Dennik" (Chicago Slovak Daily News, 1926-1927 ); presently serves as the Chairman of the Literary Committee of the National Slovak Society; and is President of the Slovak Newspapermen's Association in America. In honor of his 70th birthday, the Slovak League of America labeled 1972 "Dr. Peter Hletko Year" and designated a special award to him at the Slovak League of America Congress in Chicago in the spring of this year. REFERENCES Slovakia 1965, Published by the Slovak League of America, Middletown, Pennsylvania. " Slovaci a ich zivot", Jedtnota, 3/ 17/ 1971, p. 11, by Dr. Joseph Pauco. � 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 57 IN HIS 70TH YEAR Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks By Joseph C. Krajsa In the course of the history of a people or a nation come individual men, who by the force of their personalities and their endeavors shape and determine the form and direction of the church, their people, their nation and their country. These are men who are dreamers and some who are doers. But the great ones are those who are both--dreamers and doers. They are the one who set alight their hope and hearts upon the heights they seek to scale. They are the ones who light bright fires of their aspirations and give heart and direction to those who follow . Dr. Peter P. Hletko, in his 70th year, is such a man! Peter Paul Hletko, M. D., physician-surgeon, now semiretired, was born June 26, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Martin and Catherine Hargas Hletko. His home is in Warrenville, Illinois and his office is at 2740 W. 55th Street, Chicago. In 1938 he married Anna E. Remijas. EDUCATION Hletko received his elementary education at Saint Michael's School (1908-1915), Chicago. He attended St. Procopius Academy (1915-1919), Lisle, Illinois, and St. Procopius College (1919-1921 ) . He attended De Paul University in Chicago from 1921 to 1923 and received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. In 1927 he received his Medical Degree (M. D.) from Loyola University, Chicago. PROFESSIONAL Dr. Hletko served on the resident staff of Cook County Hospital, Chicago from 1927 to 1928. Besides his private practice, he was an instructor in clinical neurology a t Loyola University Medical School from 1931 to 1935. 58 SLOVAK.IA He served as medical examiner of many insurance companies. From 1934 to 1939 he served as Supreme Medical Examiner for the National Slovak Society and he serves in this capacity today. From 1927 to 1964 he served as Supreme Medical Examiner of the Slovak Catholic Sokol and today is Honorary Medical Examiner for the Society. Dr. Hletko is a member of the American Medical Association; Illinois Medical Association; Chicago Medical Association; and Medical Examiner of Municipal Court and Law Department Benefit and Pension Fund, Chicago, ( 19361961). CIVIC AND CULTURAL In 1938 Dr. Hletko led a Slovak League of America delegation to Czecho-Slovakia in behalf of gaining recognition of the Pittsburgh Pact. Over 100,000 Slovaks gathered in Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia, as he and Msgr. Andrew Hlinka unveiled the original of the Pittsburgh Pact-an agreement that was to guarantee autonomy for the Slovak nation. The vast crowd roared: "Hlinka, Hletko daju vsetko" ( Hlinka and Hletko will give everything!). The rest of his services for the Slovak people in a span of more than four decades reads like a special "Who's Who": President of the Slovak League of America (1935-1939) and ( 1963-64); Honorary President and Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak League of America ( 1938-); Vice President of the Slovak Catholic Federation of America ( 1934) ; Supreme Officer of the Slovak Catholic Sokol and the National Slovak Society; a Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak Catholic Sokol; organizer and first President of 'Club Furdek' - ( a Catholic Slovak Cultural Society, Chicago, 1929); and President of the Gage Park Savings and Loan Association, Chicago, since 1935. AUTHOR-JOURN ALIST Today, Dr. Hletko has a vast collection of manuscripts, documentary material, books, complete volumes of publications, newspapers, and annuals. To many of these he was a contributor, a columnist, editor, or author. The SLOVAKIA 59 Dr. Peter P. Hletko ( second from the right ) with Ms~:ir- A·ndrew Hlinka (at Hletko's right ) , leader oif the S l ovak Popu li st Party , and Karol SidOf' (right), former Premier of Slovakia, at the 1938 event in Bratislava when the delegati'on of the Slova~ League of .America c-ame to Slovakia with the origi-nal of the Pittsburgh Pac:t. following is a list of Dr. Hletko's literary efforts: Author: "The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact" (1934 ) ; wrote "Iskry"-a reprint of satiro-comic column in the Osadne Hlasy ( Slovak Parish News, 1931); edited the "Slovak Catholic Sokol Cook Book", 1964; was a contributing editor of Osadne Hlasy (Chicago Parish News, 1927-1963 ); editor of "Jaro" (Spring), English supplement to JEDNOTA. official publication of the First Catholic Slovak Union, 1927-1936; eclitor of "Chicagsky Dennik" (Chicago Slovak Daily News, 1926-1927 ); presently serves as the Chairman of the Literary Committee of the National Slovak Society; and is President of the Slovak Newspapermen's Association in America. In honor of his 70th birthday, the Slovak League of America labeled 1972 "Dr. Peter Hletko Year" and designated a special award to him at the Slovak League of America Congress in Chicago in the spring of this year. REFERENCES Slovakia 1965, Published by the Slovak League of America, Middletown, Pennsylvania. " Slovaci a ich zivot", Jedtnota, 3/ 17/ 1971, p. 11, by Dr. Joseph Pauco.  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 Dr. Peter P. Hletko Most Elite of American Slovaks Description An account of the resource Joseph C. Krajsa Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 57-59 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Krajsa, Joseph C. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2747f933a62a7f150798c00cc4cb29e5.pdf 107816a44fd98f85db66c1f289bd1ab9 PDF Text Text 50 SLOVAKIA Dr. Jozef Tiso His Political Creed (EXCERPT FROM HIS DEFENSE SPEECH PRESENTED ON MARCH 17, 1947 IN THE POLITICAL TRIAL CONDUCTED BY THE· SO-CALLED SLOVAK NATIONAL COURT IN BRATISLAVA.) My political involvement cannot be examined or judged by the usual norms of political critique because essentially it was not governed by typically prevalent political techniques. I undertake this representation of the motivation and impelling force that prompted my political involvement because as a Catholic priest I feel bound to this formal deposition of testimony not only by the circumstance of my clerical status but also out of regard for a universal Christian outlook. Both of these considerations are cherished as top-ranking principles in my political life, but under some spurious forms of evaluation, my political endeavors could easily be fixed in a very misleading light. The estimable attitude with which the Slovak Catholic clergy is regarded and even more importantly, the exalted position of a universal Christian outlook rightfully expect that I shall make a public statement specifically directed to those who may very likely conclude that in my person they will also humiliate or confound those intrinsic values that always reside above and beyond the person of an individual; in this case, those values that exceed my very person or individual self. When I appeal or draw attention to the reality of my priestly rank and when I testify that all my political activity was guided solely by Christian principles which are always consonant with sound policy making in public affairs whether the active agent be a priest or a lay Christian statesman, I do so with no intent or need to extenuate a fault or disguise a failing. Just as I reprehend denying a priest the right to function in politics simply because of the fact that he is a priest, so do I not condone any theorizing that a priest's �SLOVAKIA . 51 responsibility in public affairs is other than that of any accountable citizen, for after all, that is just what a priest is-a responsible and accountable citizen who is entitled to all the rights of a citizen and is bound by the same sacred obligations and duties that bind every citizen in the land. My reference to the fact that I am a priest sterns from one desire only: let it ever be kept in mind that I engaged in politics as a priest active in politics and for that reason it is imperative that my position and my participation in politics at all times be grasped and assessed as a priest's conscious involvement. Consequently, there must be imputed to my public life that specific type of motivation that is invariably associated with the character of a priest committed to public interests and civic obligation. Open reference to my priestly status is, then, eminently desirable in order to open the way to the clear and only proper and authentic mode of understanding my part in politics. On the other hand, I am thoroughly convinced that a correct appraisal of my political career can never be made by anyone who does not first of all bring attention to bear this special priestly feature of mine, by anyone who does not admit the worthiness of priestly motivation on my part-these attributes ( especially when they are associated with one's public condu~t in matters of state) which can contribute clarification for a line of conduct that otherwise can be construed as incomprehensible or even less than favorable when judged in the light of the average scale of norms, and can focus it into a clearly understandable and acceptable program of responsible action. The life of a goal-conscious individual-and do pardon my saying without any smacking of arrogance or conceit that I consider myself such a one; I assert that I am a goal-conscious person because I know just what it is that I want-the life of such a one is much like a work of art executed with a definite point of view in mind. a given sighting angle for valid critical evaluation that will assure its total appreciation. If a specific work lacks this feature, we can stand before it as before a charmed castle to which we hold no key. There are artistic creations upon which we can look from several varying angles, estimate their merits with critical eye, and yet fail to appreciate them justly and honestly unless we approach �52 SLOVAKIA them from their given point of vantage. This kind of talisman for an unbiased understanding of my public life and activities is my priestly character with all its intrinsic dynamics and principles which have been appointed by the determinants of Christian doctrine on behalf of public service and public servants. It follows very naturally then, that one does not apply the same norms in evaluating the merits of a public minister or a politician who has never subscribed to these tenets. But the fact that such circumstances must be taken into account in judging a politician who does profess this adherence and evidences it in his conduct, this is an indispensable ingredient to that sense of objectivity on which every public court of justice prides itself. And this situation prevails even in cases where the law itself does not concur with given motivating factors or identity with the principles that enter into a specific case. Nevertheless, in the juridical trial of the accused, these circumstances must of necessity be taken into consideration and they must be examined as the intention which influenced and helped to coordinate the motives and the endeavors of the accused. Otherwise a commitment which is not marked with some form of self-interest or some element of redounding glory remains forever incomprehensible or forever doomed to false interpretation of some kind. This, of course, is wholly inadmissible in a totally objective approach to truth. My politics was politics of a unique kind precisely because it was undertaken by an individual who is a priest. All my life's training and preparation was for a career in the priesthood and not in politics. The goal of all my schooling-formal schooling as well as self-education-was directed to spiritual leadership. I dedicated myself to serve God, the Church and the people of whom I was born and among whom I hoped to bring my priestly vocation to fruition. The ringing principles: For God and Nation! With the people and for the people! were no hollow slogans that I had later acquired somehow, absorbed by magnetic acclaim, and appropriated as guiding mottoes in my life. They are and they have ever been universally valid fundamentals. Only by and through these concepts could I have hoped to attain the sublime ultimate objective of all my life: The glory of God first and foremost, and then the common good of the people. �SLOVAKIA 53 This outlook and focus of perspectives in my life was in no way conditioned by demagoguery or a political platform of any kind; it was rooted in my very life's commitment and in my pastoral ethics which mandates my identification with the faithful of my flock together with a complete negation of all self-interest and vain concerns. The logical sequel to such ministerial canons culminates in the moral conviction to represent the valid interests and needs of the people, to further what is of benefit for the people in general, and to support their common welfare. These are the basics which formulated the patent guidelines of all my priestly functioning, my official ministry which was never circumscribed merely to aspects of immediate church and school matters but which, by the ramification of its social and organizational commitments and as concomitant of these,. extended generally into the cultural, social and economic life of my people. I did, of course, further this rule of life theoretically also, acting in my capacity as educator and formation director of a younger priestly generation. In this office I sought to imbue every young cleric who came within the sphere of my influence with this ideal: With the people and on behalf of the people! Later on, in 1918, when the world of politics unmistakably summoned me into active participation, I further elaborated my philosophy of life on the basis of this fundamental principle and I oriented all my political involvement toward it. In this frame of mind and with this sense of dedication, I undertook a role in political service and this principle alone characterized my contribution to the building of the Czecho-Slovak republic. Here again it was concern for the people that urged me on, for by the very dictates of the natural law I reasoned that it will be far better for the Slovak people to co-exist in a federated union with the Czech brother-nation rather than to become allied in a foreign state with a non-Slavic nation, and I moved toward mature diplomatic functioning, especially after the Czechs repudiated any implementing of the Pittsburgh Agreement. After the harsh reality of the first experiences of disenchantment with this arrangement and the increasingly corrupt disregard of the Slovak people as public and state positions were being filled, the more the tempo of political �54 SLOVAKIA activity mounted, the more clearly did I delineate my own course of action in accord with sound norms of Christian ethics and the more readily did I gain acquaintance with state jurisprudence . Let no one be taken aback on realizing that I had had no formal academic schooling in law or diplomacy. I managed to compensate for this lack by relying on applicable theses from Christian doctrine-a practice which was very effective and rewarding. And it was a thoroughly correct procedure, for Christian truth is a fount of principles for public life, all drawn from that same natural law on which solid juristic political science is also founded . On the other hand, too, Christian doctrine with its tenets from the natural law, all precisely formulated, afforded me wholly reliable foundations for outlining and coordinating my line of conduct in my service on behalf of the Slovak state and its rights as well as for its welfare and progress. Christian doctrine advoc~tes that well-recognized hierarchy of values governing right order in matters of natural vital rank : the individual, the family, the nation. God has endowed all three with distinctive individuality and freedom so that each of these entities might within itself and for itself put its energies to good use in order to advance its own development. The duty not only to preserve intact the individuality and freedom of these three but even to secure for each whatever help may be needed that they might attain their life's objective devolves upon them as well as upon the public powers or authorities. Consequently , when Christian teaching develops the principles, rights and duties of these three agents, it likewise establishes norms for the discharge of public power whose responsibility it is to promote the development of all three agents rather than to suppress them in any way. It is from these teachings of Christian doctrine that I have drawn enlightenmen t on the true meaning of various elements in juridical terminology; e. g., the nation, the state, autonomy, concern for the whole; the concern of an individual or of a part, as well as sanctioned means and methods for realizing these principles-a ll this being both morally and politically commendable . Much of my thinking was consistently devoted to this topic and on July 5, 1939, I even chose it as the central theme of an address which I presented at the mass meeting of Slovak Catholic �SLOVAKIA 55 students' organization. And the more deeply I reached into the treasure store of Christian teaching on this score. the more satisfactory did I grasp the authentic concept of the words: nation, state, private and public interests , etc. With these developments I all the more tenaciously adhered to the outlined program for autonomy, for in it I saw clear fulfillment of the natural law. I perceived in it as well the lasting guarantee of peaceful coexistence on the part of the Czechs and the Slovaks within the totality of one state largely because this program which encompassed self-determination was intended to guarantee to the Slovak nation its own national individuality, its proper identity and its free right to regulate its life so that its cultural, social and economic evolvement would be in no way impeded by anyone or anything. The scope of Christian teaching, then, was for me not only an interpreter of the natural law but through its specialized directives for public affairs it became as well an effective moderating factor in my political endeavors, guiding me at all times to act with due regard for presciptions fixed by natural law. So it is no personal credit of mine that I advocated that type of political involvement that was characterized as moderate autonomous politics, for this way was distinctly marked out for me by Christian thought and principle under whose influence I was wholesomely indoctrinated to put the interests of the wholethat is, the interest of the entire nation-before any other less universal interest, for the general good can be effective only when the interests of the entire nation suffer no impairment of any kind. I chose to adopt a branch of political science founded on such principles, motivated as I was, by no personal interest or self-seeking, not looking for return in power or glory but rather endeavoring in every undertaking to attain and secure the general welfare of the Slovak nation. Working from the key points of an autonomy program, we set ourselves to formulate a state organism or structure of the kind which Christian principles regard as an instrument in the hands of a nation, a force under whose aegis it may work out its ultimate welfare and progress. It was this kind of distinctively Christian-founded politics �56 SLOVAKIA that I had in view both on March 14, 1939 and throughout the years of Slovak independent statehood. A change was brought about in the situation as the nation lived its life, moving from one segment of time to another. It was not our endeavors or doings that brought about crises or changes; the principles of natural claims or rights-or strictly speaking, the principles of Christian truth-remained unalterable and it was our bounden duty and the burden of our political position to make these norms very much alive and effective in every situation as it developed. We did not create the situation but we were conscience-charged on every occasion as it presented itself to us, to represent and to champion those immutable principles which are destined to come to the fore in the interests of a nation. Today it is this aspect of politics that stands before this legal bench, embodied in my person, though I am improperly charged, for politics is entirely out of place before this tribunal, especially that category of political activity to which I was dedicated in my public life. Translated by Sister M. Constance Yakubov , SS.C.M. Danville, Pennsylvania "Monsignor Tiso's execution was a travesty of justice. The fact that he could have remained president of the Slovak nation if he had only bent his knee to the communist tyrant makes him a martyr of the cause of freedom and religion. Although the Slovaks have suffered much from their political oppressors for centuries, this is the greatest crime against them in their historic struggle for national freedom. His tragic death cannot help but inspire SlovalG for centuries to come to defend their God-given political and religious rights."-Abbot Theodor e Kojis, O.S.B., Cleveland, Ohio, April 30, 1947. "Eduard Bene~, murderer of the freedom of the Slovak nation, kJ.lled a g,ood man, a zealous priest of Christ, a loyal Slovak patriot, the first president of the Slovak Republic elected by the Slovak nation. The crime of murderer Benes is worse, uglier and more wicked than ~e crime of Cain." - Peter Pridavok, President Slovak National Gouncil, London, England, April 30, 1947. � 50 SLOVAKIA Dr. Jozef Tiso His Political Creed (EXCERPT FROM HIS DEFENSE SPEECH PRESENTED ON MARCH 17, 1947 IN THE POLITICAL TRIAL CONDUCTED BY THE· SO-CALLED SLOVAK NATIONAL COURT IN BRATISLAVA.) My political involvement cannot be examined or judged by the usual norms of political critique because essentially it was not governed by typically prevalent political techniques. I undertake this representation of the motivation and impelling force that prompted my political involvement because as a Catholic priest I feel bound to this formal deposition of testimony not only by the circumstance of my clerical status but also out of regard for a universal Christian outlook. Both of these considerations are cherished as top-ranking principles in my political life, but under some spurious forms of evaluation, my political endeavors could easily be fixed in a very misleading light. The estimable attitude with which the Slovak Catholic clergy is regarded and even more importantly, the exalted position of a universal Christian outlook rightfully expect that I shall make a public statement specifically directed to those who may very likely conclude that in my person they will also humiliate or confound those intrinsic values that always reside above and beyond the person of an individual; in this case, those values that exceed my very person or individual self. When I appeal or draw attention to the reality of my priestly rank and when I testify that all my political activity was guided solely by Christian principles which are always consonant with sound policy making in public affairs whether the active agent be a priest or a lay Christian statesman, I do so with no intent or need to extenuate a fault or disguise a failing. Just as I reprehend denying a priest the right to function in politics simply because of the fact that he is a priest, so do I not condone any theorizing that a priest's �SLOVAKIA . 51 responsibility in public affairs is other than that of any accountable citizen, for after all, that is just what a priest is-a responsible and accountable citizen who is entitled to all the rights of a citizen and is bound by the same sacred obligations and duties that bind every citizen in the land. My reference to the fact that I am a priest sterns from one desire only: let it ever be kept in mind that I engaged in politics as a priest active in politics and for that reason it is imperative that my position and my participation in politics at all times be grasped and assessed as a priest's conscious involvement. Consequently, there must be imputed to my public life that specific type of motivation that is invariably associated with the character of a priest committed to public interests and civic obligation. Open reference to my priestly status is, then, eminently desirable in order to open the way to the clear and only proper and authentic mode of understanding my part in politics. On the other hand, I am thoroughly convinced that a correct appraisal of my political career can never be made by anyone who does not first of all bring attention to bear this special priestly feature of mine, by anyone who does not admit the worthiness of priestly motivation on my part-these attributes ( especially when they are associated with one's public condu~t in matters of state) which can contribute clarification for a line of conduct that otherwise can be construed as incomprehensible or even less than favorable when judged in the light of the average scale of norms, and can focus it into a clearly understandable and acceptable program of responsible action. The life of a goal-conscious individual-and do pardon my saying without any smacking of arrogance or conceit that I consider myself such a one; I assert that I am a goal-conscious person because I know just what it is that I want-the life of such a one is much like a work of art executed with a definite point of view in mind. a given sighting angle for valid critical evaluation that will assure its total appreciation. If a specific work lacks this feature, we can stand before it as before a charmed castle to which we hold no key. There are artistic creations upon which we can look from several varying angles, estimate their merits with critical eye, and yet fail to appreciate them justly and honestly unless we approach �52 SLOVAKIA them from their given point of vantage. This kind of talisman for an unbiased understanding of my public life and activities is my priestly character with all its intrinsic dynamics and principles which have been appointed by the determinants of Christian doctrine on behalf of public service and public servants. It follows very naturally then, that one does not apply the same norms in evaluating the merits of a public minister or a politician who has never subscribed to these tenets. But the fact that such circumstances must be taken into account in judging a politician who does profess this adherence and evidences it in his conduct, this is an indispensable ingredient to that sense of objectivity on which every public court of justice prides itself. And this situation prevails even in cases where the law itself does not concur with given motivating factors or identity with the principles that enter into a specific case. Nevertheless, in the juridical trial of the accused, these circumstances must of necessity be taken into consideration and they must be examined as the intention which influenced and helped to coordinate the motives and the endeavors of the accused. Otherwise a commitment which is not marked with some form of self-interest or some element of redounding glory remains forever incomprehensible or forever doomed to false interpretation of some kind. This, of course, is wholly inadmissible in a totally objective approach to truth. My politics was politics of a unique kind precisely because it was undertaken by an individual who is a priest. All my life's training and preparation was for a career in the priesthood and not in politics. The goal of all my schooling-formal schooling as well as self-education-was directed to spiritual leadership. I dedicated myself to serve God, the Church and the people of whom I was born and among whom I hoped to bring my priestly vocation to fruition. The ringing principles: For God and Nation! With the people and for the people! were no hollow slogans that I had later acquired somehow, absorbed by magnetic acclaim, and appropriated as guiding mottoes in my life. They are and they have ever been universally valid fundamentals. Only by and through these concepts could I have hoped to attain the sublime ultimate objective of all my life: The glory of God first and foremost, and then the common good of the people. �SLOVAKIA 53 This outlook and focus of perspectives in my life was in no way conditioned by demagoguery or a political platform of any kind; it was rooted in my very life's commitment and in my pastoral ethics which mandates my identification with the faithful of my flock together with a complete negation of all self-interest and vain concerns. The logical sequel to such ministerial canons culminates in the moral conviction to represent the valid interests and needs of the people, to further what is of benefit for the people in general, and to support their common welfare. These are the basics which formulated the patent guidelines of all my priestly functioning, my official ministry which was never circumscribed merely to aspects of immediate church and school matters but which, by the ramification of its social and organizational commitments and as concomitant of these,. extended generally into the cultural, social and economic life of my people. I did, of course, further this rule of life theoretically also, acting in my capacity as educator and formation director of a younger priestly generation. In this office I sought to imbue every young cleric who came within the sphere of my influence with this ideal: With the people and on behalf of the people! Later on, in 1918, when the world of politics unmistakably summoned me into active participation, I further elaborated my philosophy of life on the basis of this fundamental principle and I oriented all my political involvement toward it. In this frame of mind and with this sense of dedication, I undertook a role in political service and this principle alone characterized my contribution to the building of the Czecho-Slovak republic. Here again it was concern for the people that urged me on, for by the very dictates of the natural law I reasoned that it will be far better for the Slovak people to co-exist in a federated union with the Czech brother-nation rather than to become allied in a foreign state with a non-Slavic nation, and I moved toward mature diplomatic functioning, especially after the Czechs repudiated any implementing of the Pittsburgh Agreement. After the harsh reality of the first experiences of disenchantment with this arrangement and the increasingly corrupt disregard of the Slovak people as public and state positions were being filled, the more the tempo of political �54 SLOVAKIA activity mounted, the more clearly did I delineate my own course of action in accord with sound norms of Christian ethics and the more readily did I gain acquaintance with state jurisprudence . Let no one be taken aback on realizing that I had had no formal academic schooling in law or diplomacy. I managed to compensate for this lack by relying on applicable theses from Christian doctrine-a practice which was very effective and rewarding. And it was a thoroughly correct procedure, for Christian truth is a fount of principles for public life, all drawn from that same natural law on which solid juristic political science is also founded . On the other hand, too, Christian doctrine with its tenets from the natural law, all precisely formulated, afforded me wholly reliable foundations for outlining and coordinating my line of conduct in my service on behalf of the Slovak state and its rights as well as for its welfare and progress. Christian doctrine advoc~tes that well-recognized hierarchy of values governing right order in matters of natural vital rank : the individual, the family, the nation. God has endowed all three with distinctive individuality and freedom so that each of these entities might within itself and for itself put its energies to good use in order to advance its own development. The duty not only to preserve intact the individuality and freedom of these three but even to secure for each whatever help may be needed that they might attain their life's objective devolves upon them as well as upon the public powers or authorities. Consequently , when Christian teaching develops the principles, rights and duties of these three agents, it likewise establishes norms for the discharge of public power whose responsibility it is to promote the development of all three agents rather than to suppress them in any way. It is from these teachings of Christian doctrine that I have drawn enlightenmen t on the true meaning of various elements in juridical terminology; e. g., the nation, the state, autonomy, concern for the whole; the concern of an individual or of a part, as well as sanctioned means and methods for realizing these principles-a ll this being both morally and politically commendable . Much of my thinking was consistently devoted to this topic and on July 5, 1939, I even chose it as the central theme of an address which I presented at the mass meeting of Slovak Catholic �SLOVAKIA 55 students' organization. And the more deeply I reached into the treasure store of Christian teaching on this score. the more satisfactory did I grasp the authentic concept of the words: nation, state, private and public interests , etc. With these developments I all the more tenaciously adhered to the outlined program for autonomy, for in it I saw clear fulfillment of the natural law. I perceived in it as well the lasting guarantee of peaceful coexistence on the part of the Czechs and the Slovaks within the totality of one state largely because this program which encompassed self-determination was intended to guarantee to the Slovak nation its own national individuality, its proper identity and its free right to regulate its life so that its cultural, social and economic evolvement would be in no way impeded by anyone or anything. The scope of Christian teaching, then, was for me not only an interpreter of the natural law but through its specialized directives for public affairs it became as well an effective moderating factor in my political endeavors, guiding me at all times to act with due regard for presciptions fixed by natural law. So it is no personal credit of mine that I advocated that type of political involvement that was characterized as moderate autonomous politics, for this way was distinctly marked out for me by Christian thought and principle under whose influence I was wholesomely indoctrinated to put the interests of the wholethat is, the interest of the entire nation-before any other less universal interest, for the general good can be effective only when the interests of the entire nation suffer no impairment of any kind. I chose to adopt a branch of political science founded on such principles, motivated as I was, by no personal interest or self-seeking, not looking for return in power or glory but rather endeavoring in every undertaking to attain and secure the general welfare of the Slovak nation. Working from the key points of an autonomy program, we set ourselves to formulate a state organism or structure of the kind which Christian principles regard as an instrument in the hands of a nation, a force under whose aegis it may work out its ultimate welfare and progress. It was this kind of distinctively Christian-founded politics �56 SLOVAKIA that I had in view both on March 14, 1939 and throughout the years of Slovak independent statehood. A change was brought about in the situation as the nation lived its life, moving from one segment of time to another. It was not our endeavors or doings that brought about crises or changes; the principles of natural claims or rights-or strictly speaking, the principles of Christian truth-remained unalterable and it was our bounden duty and the burden of our political position to make these norms very much alive and effective in every situation as it developed. We did not create the situation but we were conscience-charged on every occasion as it presented itself to us, to represent and to champion those immutable principles which are destined to come to the fore in the interests of a nation. Today it is this aspect of politics that stands before this legal bench, embodied in my person, though I am improperly charged, for politics is entirely out of place before this tribunal, especially that category of political activity to which I was dedicated in my public life. Translated by Sister M. Constance Yakubov , SS.C.M. Danville, Pennsylvania "Monsignor Tiso's execution was a travesty of justice. The fact that he could have remained president of the Slovak nation if he had only bent his knee to the communist tyrant makes him a martyr of the cause of freedom and religion. Although the Slovaks have suffered much from their political oppressors for centuries, this is the greatest crime against them in their historic struggle for national freedom. His tragic death cannot help but inspire SlovalG for centuries to come to defend their God-given political and religious rights."-Abbot Theodor e Kojis, O.S.B., Cleveland, Ohio, April 30, 1947. "Eduard Bene~, murderer of the freedom of the Slovak nation, kJ.lled a g,ood man, a zealous priest of Christ, a loyal Slovak patriot, the first president of the Slovak Republic elected by the Slovak nation. The crime of murderer Benes is worse, uglier and more wicked than ~e crime of Cain." - Peter Pridavok, President Slovak National Gouncil, London, England, April 30, 1947. � 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 50 SLOVAKIA Dr. Jozef Tiso His Political Creed (EXCERPT FROM HIS DEFENSE SPEECH PRESENTED ON MARCH 17, 1947 IN THE POLITICAL TRIAL CONDUCTED BY THE· SO-CALLED SLOVAK NATIONAL COURT IN BRATISLAVA.) My political involvement cannot be examined or judged by the usual norms of political critique because essentially it was not governed by typically prevalent political techniques. I undertake this representation of the motivation and impelling force that prompted my political involvement because as a Catholic priest I feel bound to this formal deposition of testimony not only by the circumstance of my clerical status but also out of regard for a universal Christian outlook. Both of these considerations are cherished as top-ranking principles in my political life, but under some spurious forms of evaluation, my political endeavors could easily be fixed in a very misleading light. The estimable attitude with which the Slovak Catholic clergy is regarded and even more importantly, the exalted position of a universal Christian outlook rightfully expect that I shall make a public statement specifically directed to those who may very likely conclude that in my person they will also humiliate or confound those intrinsic values that always reside above and beyond the person of an individual; in this case, those values that exceed my very person or individual self. When I appeal or draw attention to the reality of my priestly rank and when I testify that all my political activity was guided solely by Christian principles which are always consonant with sound policy making in public affairs whether the active agent be a priest or a lay Christian statesman, I do so with no intent or need to extenuate a fault or disguise a failing. Just as I reprehend denying a priest the right to function in politics simply because of the fact that he is a priest, so do I not condone any theorizing that a priest's SLOVAKIA . 51 responsibility in public affairs is other than that of any accountable citizen, for after all, that is just what a priest is-a responsible and accountable citizen who is entitled to all the rights of a citizen and is bound by the same sacred obligations and duties that bind every citizen in the land. My reference to the fact that I am a priest sterns from one desire only: let it ever be kept in mind that I engaged in politics as a priest active in politics and for that reason it is imperative that my position and my participation in politics at all times be grasped and assessed as a priest's conscious involvement. Consequently, there must be imputed to my public life that specific type of motivation that is invariably associated with the character of a priest committed to public interests and civic obligation. Open reference to my priestly status is, then, eminently desirable in order to open the way to the clear and only proper and authentic mode of understanding my part in politics. On the other hand, I am thoroughly convinced that a correct appraisal of my political career can never be made by anyone who does not first of all bring attention to bear this special priestly feature of mine, by anyone who does not admit the worthiness of priestly motivation on my part-these attributes ( especially when they are associated with one's public condu~t in matters of state) which can contribute clarification for a line of conduct that otherwise can be construed as incomprehensible or even less than favorable when judged in the light of the average scale of norms, and can focus it into a clearly understandable and acceptable program of responsible action. The life of a goal-conscious individual-and do pardon my saying without any smacking of arrogance or conceit that I consider myself such a one; I assert that I am a goal-conscious person because I know just what it is that I want-the life of such a one is much like a work of art executed with a definite point of view in mind. a given sighting angle for valid critical evaluation that will assure its total appreciation. If a specific work lacks this feature, we can stand before it as before a charmed castle to which we hold no key. There are artistic creations upon which we can look from several varying angles, estimate their merits with critical eye, and yet fail to appreciate them justly and honestly unless we approach 52 SLOVAKIA them from their given point of vantage. This kind of talisman for an unbiased understanding of my public life and activities is my priestly character with all its intrinsic dynamics and principles which have been appointed by the determinants of Christian doctrine on behalf of public service and public servants. It follows very naturally then, that one does not apply the same norms in evaluating the merits of a public minister or a politician who has never subscribed to these tenets. But the fact that such circumstances must be taken into account in judging a politician who does profess this adherence and evidences it in his conduct, this is an indispensable ingredient to that sense of objectivity on which every public court of justice prides itself. And this situation prevails even in cases where the law itself does not concur with given motivating factors or identity with the principles that enter into a specific case. Nevertheless, in the juridical trial of the accused, these circumstances must of necessity be taken into consideration and they must be examined as the intention which influenced and helped to coordinate the motives and the endeavors of the accused. Otherwise a commitment which is not marked with some form of self-interest or some element of redounding glory remains forever incomprehensible or forever doomed to false interpretation of some kind. This, of course, is wholly inadmissible in a totally objective approach to truth. My politics was politics of a unique kind precisely because it was undertaken by an individual who is a priest. All my life's training and preparation was for a career in the priesthood and not in politics. The goal of all my schooling-formal schooling as well as self-education-was directed to spiritual leadership. I dedicated myself to serve God, the Church and the people of whom I was born and among whom I hoped to bring my priestly vocation to fruition. The ringing principles: For God and Nation! With the people and for the people! were no hollow slogans that I had later acquired somehow, absorbed by magnetic acclaim, and appropriated as guiding mottoes in my life. They are and they have ever been universally valid fundamentals. Only by and through these concepts could I have hoped to attain the sublime ultimate objective of all my life: The glory of God first and foremost, and then the common good of the people. SLOVAKIA 53 This outlook and focus of perspectives in my life was in no way conditioned by demagoguery or a political platform of any kind; it was rooted in my very life's commitment and in my pastoral ethics which mandates my identification with the faithful of my flock together with a complete negation of all self-interest and vain concerns. The logical sequel to such ministerial canons culminates in the moral conviction to represent the valid interests and needs of the people, to further what is of benefit for the people in general, and to support their common welfare. These are the basics which formulated the patent guidelines of all my priestly functioning, my official ministry which was never circumscribed merely to aspects of immediate church and school matters but which, by the ramification of its social and organizational commitments and as concomitant of these,. extended generally into the cultural, social and economic life of my people. I did, of course, further this rule of life theoretically also, acting in my capacity as educator and formation director of a younger priestly generation. In this office I sought to imbue every young cleric who came within the sphere of my influence with this ideal: With the people and on behalf of the people! Later on, in 1918, when the world of politics unmistakably summoned me into active participation, I further elaborated my philosophy of life on the basis of this fundamental principle and I oriented all my political involvement toward it. In this frame of mind and with this sense of dedication, I undertook a role in political service and this principle alone characterized my contribution to the building of the Czecho-Slovak republic. Here again it was concern for the people that urged me on, for by the very dictates of the natural law I reasoned that it will be far better for the Slovak people to co-exist in a federated union with the Czech brother-nation rather than to become allied in a foreign state with a non-Slavic nation, and I moved toward mature diplomatic functioning, especially after the Czechs repudiated any implementing of the Pittsburgh Agreement. After the harsh reality of the first experiences of disenchantment with this arrangement and the increasingly corrupt disregard of the Slovak people as public and state positions were being filled, the more the tempo of political 54 SLOVAKIA activity mounted, the more clearly did I delineate my own course of action in accord with sound norms of Christian ethics and the more readily did I gain acquaintance with state jurisprudence . Let no one be taken aback on realizing that I had had no formal academic schooling in law or diplomacy. I managed to compensate for this lack by relying on applicable theses from Christian doctrine-a practice which was very effective and rewarding. And it was a thoroughly correct procedure, for Christian truth is a fount of principles for public life, all drawn from that same natural law on which solid juristic political science is also founded . On the other hand, too, Christian doctrine with its tenets from the natural law, all precisely formulated, afforded me wholly reliable foundations for outlining and coordinating my line of conduct in my service on behalf of the Slovak state and its rights as well as for its welfare and progress. Christian doctrine advoc~tes that well-recognized hierarchy of values governing right order in matters of natural vital rank : the individual, the family, the nation. God has endowed all three with distinctive individuality and freedom so that each of these entities might within itself and for itself put its energies to good use in order to advance its own development. The duty not only to preserve intact the individuality and freedom of these three but even to secure for each whatever help may be needed that they might attain their life's objective devolves upon them as well as upon the public powers or authorities. Consequently , when Christian teaching develops the principles, rights and duties of these three agents, it likewise establishes norms for the discharge of public power whose responsibility it is to promote the development of all three agents rather than to suppress them in any way. It is from these teachings of Christian doctrine that I have drawn enlightenmen t on the true meaning of various elements in juridical terminology; e. g., the nation, the state, autonomy, concern for the whole; the concern of an individual or of a part, as well as sanctioned means and methods for realizing these principles-a ll this being both morally and politically commendable . Much of my thinking was consistently devoted to this topic and on July 5, 1939, I even chose it as the central theme of an address which I presented at the mass meeting of Slovak Catholic SLOVAKIA 55 students' organization. And the more deeply I reached into the treasure store of Christian teaching on this score. the more satisfactory did I grasp the authentic concept of the words: nation, state, private and public interests , etc. With these developments I all the more tenaciously adhered to the outlined program for autonomy, for in it I saw clear fulfillment of the natural law. I perceived in it as well the lasting guarantee of peaceful coexistence on the part of the Czechs and the Slovaks within the totality of one state largely because this program which encompassed self-determination was intended to guarantee to the Slovak nation its own national individuality, its proper identity and its free right to regulate its life so that its cultural, social and economic evolvement would be in no way impeded by anyone or anything. The scope of Christian teaching, then, was for me not only an interpreter of the natural law but through its specialized directives for public affairs it became as well an effective moderating factor in my political endeavors, guiding me at all times to act with due regard for presciptions fixed by natural law. So it is no personal credit of mine that I advocated that type of political involvement that was characterized as moderate autonomous politics, for this way was distinctly marked out for me by Christian thought and principle under whose influence I was wholesomely indoctrinated to put the interests of the wholethat is, the interest of the entire nation-before any other less universal interest, for the general good can be effective only when the interests of the entire nation suffer no impairment of any kind. I chose to adopt a branch of political science founded on such principles, motivated as I was, by no personal interest or self-seeking, not looking for return in power or glory but rather endeavoring in every undertaking to attain and secure the general welfare of the Slovak nation. Working from the key points of an autonomy program, we set ourselves to formulate a state organism or structure of the kind which Christian principles regard as an instrument in the hands of a nation, a force under whose aegis it may work out its ultimate welfare and progress. It was this kind of distinctively Christian-founded politics 56 SLOVAKIA that I had in view both on March 14, 1939 and throughout the years of Slovak independent statehood. A change was brought about in the situation as the nation lived its life, moving from one segment of time to another. It was not our endeavors or doings that brought about crises or changes; the principles of natural claims or rights-or strictly speaking, the principles of Christian truth-remained unalterable and it was our bounden duty and the burden of our political position to make these norms very much alive and effective in every situation as it developed. We did not create the situation but we were conscience-charged on every occasion as it presented itself to us, to represent and to champion those immutable principles which are destined to come to the fore in the interests of a nation. Today it is this aspect of politics that stands before this legal bench, embodied in my person, though I am improperly charged, for politics is entirely out of place before this tribunal, especially that category of political activity to which I was dedicated in my public life. Translated by Sister M. Constance Yakubov , SS.C.M. Danville, Pennsylvania "Monsignor Tiso's execution was a travesty of justice. The fact that he could have remained president of the Slovak nation if he had only bent his knee to the communist tyrant makes him a martyr of the cause of freedom and religion. Although the Slovaks have suffered much from their political oppressors for centuries, this is the greatest crime against them in their historic struggle for national freedom. His tragic death cannot help but inspire SlovalG for centuries to come to defend their God-given political and religious rights."-Abbot Theodor e Kojis, O.S.B., Cleveland, Ohio, April 30, 1947. "Eduard Bene~, murderer of the freedom of the Slovak nation, kJ.lled a g,ood man, a zealous priest of Christ, a loyal Slovak patriot, the first president of the Slovak Republic elected by the Slovak nation. The crime of murderer Benes is worse, uglier and more wicked than ~e crime of Cain." - Peter Pridavok, President Slovak National Gouncil, London, England, April 30, 1947.  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 Dr. Jozef Tiso - His Political Creed Description An account of the resource trans. Sister M. Constance Yakubov, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 50-56 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Yakubov, Sister M. Constance, SS.C.M. 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/9c5a91b4d81ccee7ea296689cadfafca.pdf a3cf960c15ff0b7080d4617154213bf3 PDF Text Text 48 SLOVAK.IA Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Dr. Joseph Tiso, war-time president of the Slovak Republic, was born October 13, 1887, in Vel'ka Bytca, Slovakia. After completing his elementary training, he studied in zilina and Nitra, then completed his theological studies in Vienna. He was ordained priest in 1910 and a year later attained the degree of Doctor of Theology. Father Tiso served as chaplain in Oscadnica, Rajec and Banovce. In 1914 he served in the army as field chaplain and in 1915 was named spiritual director of the seminary at Nitra and professor of religion at the college and high school there. In 1918 he was appointed professor of theology. In 1921, he was honored by the Holy Father with the title of Monsignor. Dr. Joseph Tiso was very active as an organizer and writer. He was imprisoned twice by the government for "anti-state" activities, the general term for anything that did not coincide with the political ideology of the government. While incarcerated Dr. Tiso tranlated several apologetic works into Slovak. Father Tiso was truly a man of his people and for his people. He strained every effort to elevate them spiritually and materially. In 1924 Dr. Joseph Tiso became pastor of the church at Banovce and served the spiritual and temporal needs of the people there until he was imprisoned in 1945. As a member of Hlinka's People's Party, he was elected to parliament in 1925 and in 1927 was appointed Minister of Health and Physical Culture by the Masaryk regime. Dr . Tiso visited America only once; that was in 1937 when he came as a member of a delegation of the Society of St. Adalbert, Slovakia's greatest Catholic publishing house. When Slovakia was granted autonomy on October 6, 1938, the Prague government named Dr. Tiso premier of the autonomous Slovak government. The following year, when Czecho-Slovakia collapsed completely, the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 49 parliament declared the independence of Slovakia on March 14. The parliament elected Dr. Joseph Tiso president of the independent Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Under Tiso's guidance Slovakia fared quite well even during the war years. He saved whatever he could for his nation. Even his political enemies admit that. When the wild Red armies tore toward Bratislava, Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Slovak government withdrew to Kremsmtinster. Austria, where they formally surrendered to the U.S. Army. At the insistence of the provisional Czecho-Slovak government, the U. S Department of State ordered the U.S. Army authorities in Austria to surrender Dr. Tiso and his group to the Czecho-Slovak War Crimes Commission. In November 1945 Dr. Tiso and members of the Slovak government were delivered to Czecho-Slovak authorities though their status was never investigated by the U. S. authorities. From Prague Dr. Tiso and several of his group were sent to Bratislava to stand trial before the Slovak National Court. The trial began December 2, 1946, and ended March 14, 1947. Sentence was pronounced by the Court on April 15, and Father Tiso, reciting the rosary out loud, was led to the gallows at 5.30 A.M. on April 18, 1947; he was pronounced dead seven minutes later. Slovaks the world over agree with Father Tiso's aged mother: Dr. Tiso died a martyr for the cause of his people and his Church. Bratislav a. It has been noted that representatives of foreign news agencies who "covered" the first days of the trial left Bratislava about ten days ago and r eturned to Prague where they obtained information on the progress of the trial from second-hand sources. In view of these conditions it appears doubtful to observers personally present at the trial whether foreign public opinion is being enabled to gain an authentic and objective view of the defense presented by Dr. Tiso against the 113 charges in the 212-page indictment. - J an Mauthner Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 1. 1947. "Dr. Tiso died for his Church and his nation. He always did and ever shall belong to us. We bow our heads to his memory and pray for his soul that his martyr's death encourage us to greater sacrifices for genuine freedom according to the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. " - Msgr. S. J . Krasula, New York City, April 30, 1947. � 48 SLOVAK.IA Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Dr. Joseph Tiso, war-time president of the Slovak Republic, was born October 13, 1887, in Vel'ka Bytca, Slovakia. After completing his elementary training, he studied in zilina and Nitra, then completed his theological studies in Vienna. He was ordained priest in 1910 and a year later attained the degree of Doctor of Theology. Father Tiso served as chaplain in Oscadnica, Rajec and Banovce. In 1914 he served in the army as field chaplain and in 1915 was named spiritual director of the seminary at Nitra and professor of religion at the college and high school there. In 1918 he was appointed professor of theology. In 1921, he was honored by the Holy Father with the title of Monsignor. Dr. Joseph Tiso was very active as an organizer and writer. He was imprisoned twice by the government for "anti-state" activities, the general term for anything that did not coincide with the political ideology of the government. While incarcerated Dr. Tiso tranlated several apologetic works into Slovak. Father Tiso was truly a man of his people and for his people. He strained every effort to elevate them spiritually and materially. In 1924 Dr. Joseph Tiso became pastor of the church at Banovce and served the spiritual and temporal needs of the people there until he was imprisoned in 1945. As a member of Hlinka's People's Party, he was elected to parliament in 1925 and in 1927 was appointed Minister of Health and Physical Culture by the Masaryk regime. Dr . Tiso visited America only once; that was in 1937 when he came as a member of a delegation of the Society of St. Adalbert, Slovakia's greatest Catholic publishing house. When Slovakia was granted autonomy on October 6, 1938, the Prague government named Dr. Tiso premier of the autonomous Slovak government. The following year, when Czecho-Slovakia collapsed completely, the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 49 parliament declared the independence of Slovakia on March 14. The parliament elected Dr. Joseph Tiso president of the independent Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Under Tiso's guidance Slovakia fared quite well even during the war years. He saved whatever he could for his nation. Even his political enemies admit that. When the wild Red armies tore toward Bratislava, Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Slovak government withdrew to Kremsmtinster. Austria, where they formally surrendered to the U.S. Army. At the insistence of the provisional Czecho-Slovak government, the U. S Department of State ordered the U.S. Army authorities in Austria to surrender Dr. Tiso and his group to the Czecho-Slovak War Crimes Commission. In November 1945 Dr. Tiso and members of the Slovak government were delivered to Czecho-Slovak authorities though their status was never investigated by the U. S. authorities. From Prague Dr. Tiso and several of his group were sent to Bratislava to stand trial before the Slovak National Court. The trial began December 2, 1946, and ended March 14, 1947. Sentence was pronounced by the Court on April 15, and Father Tiso, reciting the rosary out loud, was led to the gallows at 5.30 A.M. on April 18, 1947; he was pronounced dead seven minutes later. Slovaks the world over agree with Father Tiso's aged mother: Dr. Tiso died a martyr for the cause of his people and his Church. Bratislav a. It has been noted that representatives of foreign news agencies who "covered" the first days of the trial left Bratislava about ten days ago and r eturned to Prague where they obtained information on the progress of the trial from second-hand sources. In view of these conditions it appears doubtful to observers personally present at the trial whether foreign public opinion is being enabled to gain an authentic and objective view of the defense presented by Dr. Tiso against the 113 charges in the 212-page indictment. - J an Mauthner Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 1. 1947. "Dr. Tiso died for his Church and his nation. He always did and ever shall belong to us. We bow our heads to his memory and pray for his soul that his martyr's death encourage us to greater sacrifices for genuine freedom according to the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. " - Msgr. S. J . Krasula, New York City, April 30, 1947. � 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 48 SLOVAK.IA Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Dr. Joseph Tiso, war-time president of the Slovak Republic, was born October 13, 1887, in Vel'ka Bytca, Slovakia. After completing his elementary training, he studied in zilina and Nitra, then completed his theological studies in Vienna. He was ordained priest in 1910 and a year later attained the degree of Doctor of Theology. Father Tiso served as chaplain in Oscadnica, Rajec and Banovce. In 1914 he served in the army as field chaplain and in 1915 was named spiritual director of the seminary at Nitra and professor of religion at the college and high school there. In 1918 he was appointed professor of theology. In 1921, he was honored by the Holy Father with the title of Monsignor. Dr. Joseph Tiso was very active as an organizer and writer. He was imprisoned twice by the government for "anti-state" activities, the general term for anything that did not coincide with the political ideology of the government. While incarcerated Dr. Tiso tranlated several apologetic works into Slovak. Father Tiso was truly a man of his people and for his people. He strained every effort to elevate them spiritually and materially. In 1924 Dr. Joseph Tiso became pastor of the church at Banovce and served the spiritual and temporal needs of the people there until he was imprisoned in 1945. As a member of Hlinka's People's Party, he was elected to parliament in 1925 and in 1927 was appointed Minister of Health and Physical Culture by the Masaryk regime. Dr . Tiso visited America only once; that was in 1937 when he came as a member of a delegation of the Society of St. Adalbert, Slovakia's greatest Catholic publishing house. When Slovakia was granted autonomy on October 6, 1938, the Prague government named Dr. Tiso premier of the autonomous Slovak government. The following year, when Czecho-Slovakia collapsed completely, the Slovak SLOVAKIA 49 parliament declared the independence of Slovakia on March 14. The parliament elected Dr. Joseph Tiso president of the independent Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Under Tiso's guidance Slovakia fared quite well even during the war years. He saved whatever he could for his nation. Even his political enemies admit that. When the wild Red armies tore toward Bratislava, Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Slovak government withdrew to Kremsmtinster. Austria, where they formally surrendered to the U.S. Army. At the insistence of the provisional Czecho-Slovak government, the U. S Department of State ordered the U.S. Army authorities in Austria to surrender Dr. Tiso and his group to the Czecho-Slovak War Crimes Commission. In November 1945 Dr. Tiso and members of the Slovak government were delivered to Czecho-Slovak authorities though their status was never investigated by the U. S. authorities. From Prague Dr. Tiso and several of his group were sent to Bratislava to stand trial before the Slovak National Court. The trial began December 2, 1946, and ended March 14, 1947. Sentence was pronounced by the Court on April 15, and Father Tiso, reciting the rosary out loud, was led to the gallows at 5.30 A.M. on April 18, 1947; he was pronounced dead seven minutes later. Slovaks the world over agree with Father Tiso's aged mother: Dr. Tiso died a martyr for the cause of his people and his Church. Bratislav a. It has been noted that representatives of foreign news agencies who "covered" the first days of the trial left Bratislava about ten days ago and r eturned to Prague where they obtained information on the progress of the trial from second-hand sources. In view of these conditions it appears doubtful to observers personally present at the trial whether foreign public opinion is being enabled to gain an authentic and objective view of the defense presented by Dr. Tiso against the 113 charges in the 212-page indictment. - J an Mauthner Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 1. 1947. "Dr. Tiso died for his Church and his nation. He always did and ever shall belong to us. We bow our heads to his memory and pray for his soul that his martyr's death encourage us to greater sacrifices for genuine freedom according to the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. " - Msgr. S. J . Krasula, New York City, April 30, 1947.  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 Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 48-49 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9b9b3c6eab5d3f9227a036adee4be991.pdf 8384edaaf1e310b34172cfe6933180ee PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Paul KO 43 t Va : Who Killed Dr. Tiso? The sentence of death was pronounc ed on presiden t Dr. Joseph Tiso "in the name of the Republic and the Slovak nation." Logically then, the responsib ility for the execution of the sentence falls on the Czecho-S lovak republic and the Slovak nation. In this case who was the "Republi c?" Nobody else but Dr. Edward Benes. And in this case who was the "Slovak nation"? Nobody else but the Slovak National Council (SNC) in Bratislav a, which was, accordin g to the Prague Agreement of June 1, 1945, not only the authorize d represen tative of the self-exist ence of the Slovak nation, but also the bearer of state power (legislativ e, administ rative and executive ) in Slovak territory ." This, then, is quite clear: the "Republi c" was Dr. Edward Benes, and the "Slovak nation" was the Slovak National Council. GEORGE DID IT! But nobody wanted to take the responsib ility for the ignomini ous death of Dr. Joseph Tiso. In the central organ of the Democra tic Party, "CAS" (Time), dated April 23, 1947, there appeared the article entitled "What Actually Happene d?" wherein the blackgua rds, who did their black and filthy duty, are cleansing themselv es. They want to shake of all responsib ility and place the whole blame on Prague, as if the sentence of death was pronounc ed against Tiso only "in the name of the Republic ," and not also "in the name of the Slovak nation." Dr. Tiso had appealed for mercy with the express remark, that he was asking it "only on moral grounds. " The newspap er "Cas" says that the chief prosecut or recommend ed the appeal for mercy to the National Court. But the National Court, with Dr. Daxner presiding , decided : "not to recomme nd mercy for Tiso." "The fate of the condemn ed Tiso," says "Cas", "was thus sealed; the execution was to follow in 48 hours.'' �44 SLOVAKIA THE PARAGRAPHS On the basis of what paragraphs was the fate of Tiso sealed? "Cas" tells us that it was on the basis of paragraph 19 of decree number 33-1945 of the Slovak National Council, in the sense of decree No. 57-1946 of the Colection of Decrees of the Slovak National Council. Therefore the Slovak National Council was responsible for the fact that Dr. Tiso had to be executed within 48 hours, because it had written, accepted and proclaimed such decrees and such paragraphs as the valid law in Slovak territory. The guilty party, then, was and still is the Slovak National Council. The Slovak National Council must have realized this, even though rather late, and its brain suddenly began to function. The gentlemen, proud of their paragraphs, had a concrete case before them: the life or death of Dr. Tiso. And it was then that their own paragraphs began to displease them. "According to the valid law," says CAS, "there now was no ground whereby anyone except the president of the Republic, might deal with the question of mercy." In this case the paragraphs of the SNC decrees, mentioned above, were responsible for that situation. THE SNC PEOPLE But the gentlemen of the Slovak National Council disregarded this fact and acted as if they actually were very much concerned with the saving of the life of Dr. Tiso. Without any legal foundation the National Court presented this appeal to the Trustee (Commissar) of the Judiciary (Dr. Stefanik), who in turn without any legal basis sent it on to the presidency of the SNC. And so it happened that the executive committee of the SNC had a session the day after sentence was pronounced, on April 16, and began to deliberate. It was then ascertained that "the views of the representatives of the Democratic and Communist parties were completely divergent on the question of granting mercy." The Democrats were for granting mercy and the Communists against. So the matter was returned to the Justice of the Supreme Court, whowithout any legal basis-prepared the motion in which he recommended the granting of mercy. �SLOVAKIA 45 In the meantime the 48 hours were almost expended. The presidency of the Slovak National Council quickly took the Trustee's motion and sent it on to the central Government in Prague without adding a single word of recommendation. Let Prague plague itself with the whole case! Annas too once sent Christ to Caiphas, and Caiphas in turn sent him to Pilate. Everybody wanted to shake off all responsibility. PRAGUE: NO MERCY! The central Government in Prague thus received the Slovak motion: the Trustee of the Judiciary recommends mercy for Tiso; the presidency of the Slovak National Council presents this motion, but adds no comment to it for the central Government. "Cas" now wants to suggest to its readers what it forgot to suggest to the central Government, namely, that "The Trustee's presentation of the official notice to the Government to grant mercy is in accord also with the recommendation of the presidency of the Slovak National Council." The Pharisees in Prague, that is the central Government, convened at 5 p. m. on April 16th and debated whether they should present the plea for mercy to president Benes or not. The issue was balloted. The Ministers of the Democratic Party and sramek's Party (the Czech Catholic People's Party) voted for mercy, but the Communists, Social-Democratic Ministers, as well as those of Benes's Party (the Czech Nazi Party), voted against it. Since the Democrats and the followers of Sramek cast only 6 votes, they remained in the minority, and the motion of the majority of the central Government come to Benes: not to grant mercy to Tiso. DR. LETTRICH: NO CONTACT It was at this time that the president of the Slovak National Council, Dr. Joseph Lettrich, began to act-but again without any legal basis. "Cas" writes that "there were also many serious, non-political factoiis, for example, both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church," that were for the granting of mercy. Our information, therefore, that not only the Catholic but even the Evangelical Bishops intervened to save Tiso's life, proved to be correct. On purely partisan-political grounds even Dr. Lettrich heeded �46 SLOVAKIA this pressure and personally began to intervene by calling directly to Benes's office. "Dr. Lettrich," writes CAS, "urgently called the president of the Republic, Benes, five times in the evening of April 16th so that he could explain to him just how the Democratic Party stow on the issue. The message was taken by the personal secretary of the President, Dr. skarvan." Thus, "the representative" of the Slovak nation, the president of the Slovak National Council, Dr. Lettrich, in an urgent matter, a matter in which both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical church were intervening, called the representative of the Republic, Dr. Benes, five times by phone. But "CAS" conveniently forgets to report just how many of those times Dr. Lettrich got Benes personally to the phone. "CAS" modestly reports that the "representative" of the Slovak nation spoke with the personal secretary of "Mr. President," Dr. i:3karvan. Behold the heights attained by the "representative" of the Slovak nation! He could tell young skarvan "how the Democratic Party stood on the issue" but he could not tell it to Benes! That really was a miserable and pitiful situation to be in. It shows how Dr. Benes, the representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, regards and values Dr. Lettrich, the representative of the Slovak nation. How different things were when Slovakia was represented by the Slovak autonomists! At that time president Dr. Emil Ha.cha set in Benes's place in the Prague Castle. Slovakia had two prime ministers, first Dr. Joseph Tiso, and then Karol Sidor. When Dr. Tiso or Sidor in Bratislava wanted to talk with president Ha.cha in Prague, they lifted the telephone receiver and forthwith had president Ha.cha on the other end of the telephone. There were no "personal secretaries" in between. The representatives of Slovakia spoke directly and without delay with the representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. We read in the proceedings of the Tiso trial that Dr. Tiso, as late as March 13, 1939, called Dr. Ha.cha from Berlin and spoke to him over the telephone personally. And here Lettrich calls president Benes five times, who does not answer him once, but leaves that matter to his personal secretary, Dr. skarvan . . . �SLOVAKIA 47 DECREES MADE TO KILL Who, then, is responsible for the death of president Dr. Tiso? Blame it on the paragraphs, the decrees of the Slovak National Council. And who wrote those paragraphs? Dr. Lettrich and all the members of the SNC, therefore both the Democrats and the Communists who voted for them. These paragraphs were compiled to kill and not to protect Slovak lives. How many Slovaks already paid with their lives and how many hundreds of years of imprisonment were meted out to Slovaks on the basis of these paragraphs!? That, all of that, is the merit of the present representatives of Slovakia who wrote, accepted and voted for these paragraphs. Added to all of this, they themselves surrendered the right to grant mercy to those who shall be condemned on the basis of these, their paragraphs. When it became clear that Dr. Tiso would be tried, a new Prague Agreement was quickly concluded on April 11,1946. Its first article, point b) says: "The President of the Republic (Dr. Benes ) grants mercy even in Slovakia and that even in matters pertaining to the people's courts and the National Court." Dr. Martin Kvetko, in his book "Agreements" (issued in 1947 in Bratislava ) says the following about that paragraph on page 57: "Up to the time of this agreement-i. e. up to April 11, 1946-appeals of the convicted were decided by the presidency of the Slovak National Council. By the agreement the authority is correctly ( ! ! ) transferred to the President, so that even in this case the validity of the Constitution be renewed as the basis of state unity." So the gentlemen of the SNC were renewing "the validity of the Constitution" of 1920 that was centralistic and anti-Slovak; they were making "the foundation of state unity," so they surrendered, in the interests of Benes, the right to grant mercy to convicted Slovaks, and so they themselves destroyed the legal balSis, on the strength of which, up to April 11 , 1946, they could save the life of Dr. Tiso and the lives of so many other Slovaks without Benes and without the central Government, nay even against the will of Benes and against the will of the central Government! (April, 1947 ) � SLOVAKIA Paul KO 43 t Va : Who Killed Dr. Tiso? The sentence of death was pronounc ed on presiden t Dr. Joseph Tiso "in the name of the Republic and the Slovak nation." Logically then, the responsib ility for the execution of the sentence falls on the Czecho-S lovak republic and the Slovak nation. In this case who was the "Republi c?" Nobody else but Dr. Edward Benes. And in this case who was the "Slovak nation"? Nobody else but the Slovak National Council (SNC) in Bratislav a, which was, accordin g to the Prague Agreement of June 1, 1945, not only the authorize d represen tative of the self-exist ence of the Slovak nation, but also the bearer of state power (legislativ e, administ rative and executive ) in Slovak territory ." This, then, is quite clear: the "Republi c" was Dr. Edward Benes, and the "Slovak nation" was the Slovak National Council. GEORGE DID IT! But nobody wanted to take the responsib ility for the ignomini ous death of Dr. Joseph Tiso. In the central organ of the Democra tic Party, "CAS" (Time), dated April 23, 1947, there appeared the article entitled "What Actually Happene d?" wherein the blackgua rds, who did their black and filthy duty, are cleansing themselv es. They want to shake of all responsib ility and place the whole blame on Prague, as if the sentence of death was pronounc ed against Tiso only "in the name of the Republic ," and not also "in the name of the Slovak nation." Dr. Tiso had appealed for mercy with the express remark, that he was asking it "only on moral grounds. " The newspap er "Cas" says that the chief prosecut or recommend ed the appeal for mercy to the National Court. But the National Court, with Dr. Daxner presiding , decided : "not to recomme nd mercy for Tiso." "The fate of the condemn ed Tiso," says "Cas", "was thus sealed; the execution was to follow in 48 hours.'' �44 SLOVAKIA THE PARAGRAPHS On the basis of what paragraphs was the fate of Tiso sealed? "Cas" tells us that it was on the basis of paragraph 19 of decree number 33-1945 of the Slovak National Council, in the sense of decree No. 57-1946 of the Colection of Decrees of the Slovak National Council. Therefore the Slovak National Council was responsible for the fact that Dr. Tiso had to be executed within 48 hours, because it had written, accepted and proclaimed such decrees and such paragraphs as the valid law in Slovak territory. The guilty party, then, was and still is the Slovak National Council. The Slovak National Council must have realized this, even though rather late, and its brain suddenly began to function. The gentlemen, proud of their paragraphs, had a concrete case before them: the life or death of Dr. Tiso. And it was then that their own paragraphs began to displease them. "According to the valid law," says CAS, "there now was no ground whereby anyone except the president of the Republic, might deal with the question of mercy." In this case the paragraphs of the SNC decrees, mentioned above, were responsible for that situation. THE SNC PEOPLE But the gentlemen of the Slovak National Council disregarded this fact and acted as if they actually were very much concerned with the saving of the life of Dr. Tiso. Without any legal foundation the National Court presented this appeal to the Trustee (Commissar) of the Judiciary (Dr. Stefanik), who in turn without any legal basis sent it on to the presidency of the SNC. And so it happened that the executive committee of the SNC had a session the day after sentence was pronounced, on April 16, and began to deliberate. It was then ascertained that "the views of the representatives of the Democratic and Communist parties were completely divergent on the question of granting mercy." The Democrats were for granting mercy and the Communists against. So the matter was returned to the Justice of the Supreme Court, whowithout any legal basis-prepared the motion in which he recommended the granting of mercy. �SLOVAKIA 45 In the meantime the 48 hours were almost expended. The presidency of the Slovak National Council quickly took the Trustee's motion and sent it on to the central Government in Prague without adding a single word of recommendation. Let Prague plague itself with the whole case! Annas too once sent Christ to Caiphas, and Caiphas in turn sent him to Pilate. Everybody wanted to shake off all responsibility. PRAGUE: NO MERCY! The central Government in Prague thus received the Slovak motion: the Trustee of the Judiciary recommends mercy for Tiso; the presidency of the Slovak National Council presents this motion, but adds no comment to it for the central Government. "Cas" now wants to suggest to its readers what it forgot to suggest to the central Government, namely, that "The Trustee's presentation of the official notice to the Government to grant mercy is in accord also with the recommendation of the presidency of the Slovak National Council." The Pharisees in Prague, that is the central Government, convened at 5 p. m. on April 16th and debated whether they should present the plea for mercy to president Benes or not. The issue was balloted. The Ministers of the Democratic Party and sramek's Party (the Czech Catholic People's Party) voted for mercy, but the Communists, Social-Democratic Ministers, as well as those of Benes's Party (the Czech Nazi Party), voted against it. Since the Democrats and the followers of Sramek cast only 6 votes, they remained in the minority, and the motion of the majority of the central Government come to Benes: not to grant mercy to Tiso. DR. LETTRICH: NO CONTACT It was at this time that the president of the Slovak National Council, Dr. Joseph Lettrich, began to act-but again without any legal basis. "Cas" writes that "there were also many serious, non-political factoiis, for example, both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church," that were for the granting of mercy. Our information, therefore, that not only the Catholic but even the Evangelical Bishops intervened to save Tiso's life, proved to be correct. On purely partisan-political grounds even Dr. Lettrich heeded �46 SLOVAKIA this pressure and personally began to intervene by calling directly to Benes's office. "Dr. Lettrich," writes CAS, "urgently called the president of the Republic, Benes, five times in the evening of April 16th so that he could explain to him just how the Democratic Party stow on the issue. The message was taken by the personal secretary of the President, Dr. skarvan." Thus, "the representative" of the Slovak nation, the president of the Slovak National Council, Dr. Lettrich, in an urgent matter, a matter in which both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical church were intervening, called the representative of the Republic, Dr. Benes, five times by phone. But "CAS" conveniently forgets to report just how many of those times Dr. Lettrich got Benes personally to the phone. "CAS" modestly reports that the "representative" of the Slovak nation spoke with the personal secretary of "Mr. President," Dr. i:3karvan. Behold the heights attained by the "representative" of the Slovak nation! He could tell young skarvan "how the Democratic Party stood on the issue" but he could not tell it to Benes! That really was a miserable and pitiful situation to be in. It shows how Dr. Benes, the representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, regards and values Dr. Lettrich, the representative of the Slovak nation. How different things were when Slovakia was represented by the Slovak autonomists! At that time president Dr. Emil Ha.cha set in Benes's place in the Prague Castle. Slovakia had two prime ministers, first Dr. Joseph Tiso, and then Karol Sidor. When Dr. Tiso or Sidor in Bratislava wanted to talk with president Ha.cha in Prague, they lifted the telephone receiver and forthwith had president Ha.cha on the other end of the telephone. There were no "personal secretaries" in between. The representatives of Slovakia spoke directly and without delay with the representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. We read in the proceedings of the Tiso trial that Dr. Tiso, as late as March 13, 1939, called Dr. Ha.cha from Berlin and spoke to him over the telephone personally. And here Lettrich calls president Benes five times, who does not answer him once, but leaves that matter to his personal secretary, Dr. skarvan . . . �SLOVAKIA 47 DECREES MADE TO KILL Who, then, is responsible for the death of president Dr. Tiso? Blame it on the paragraphs, the decrees of the Slovak National Council. And who wrote those paragraphs? Dr. Lettrich and all the members of the SNC, therefore both the Democrats and the Communists who voted for them. These paragraphs were compiled to kill and not to protect Slovak lives. How many Slovaks already paid with their lives and how many hundreds of years of imprisonment were meted out to Slovaks on the basis of these paragraphs!? That, all of that, is the merit of the present representatives of Slovakia who wrote, accepted and voted for these paragraphs. Added to all of this, they themselves surrendered the right to grant mercy to those who shall be condemned on the basis of these, their paragraphs. When it became clear that Dr. Tiso would be tried, a new Prague Agreement was quickly concluded on April 11,1946. Its first article, point b) says: "The President of the Republic (Dr. Benes ) grants mercy even in Slovakia and that even in matters pertaining to the people's courts and the National Court." Dr. Martin Kvetko, in his book "Agreements" (issued in 1947 in Bratislava ) says the following about that paragraph on page 57: "Up to the time of this agreement-i. e. up to April 11, 1946-appeals of the convicted were decided by the presidency of the Slovak National Council. By the agreement the authority is correctly ( ! ! ) transferred to the President, so that even in this case the validity of the Constitution be renewed as the basis of state unity." So the gentlemen of the SNC were renewing "the validity of the Constitution" of 1920 that was centralistic and anti-Slovak; they were making "the foundation of state unity," so they surrendered, in the interests of Benes, the right to grant mercy to convicted Slovaks, and so they themselves destroyed the legal balSis, on the strength of which, up to April 11 , 1946, they could save the life of Dr. Tiso and the lives of so many other Slovaks without Benes and without the central Government, nay even against the will of Benes and against the will of the central Government! (April, 1947 ) � 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 Paul KO 43 t Va : Who Killed Dr. Tiso? The sentence of death was pronounc ed on presiden t Dr. Joseph Tiso "in the name of the Republic and the Slovak nation." Logically then, the responsib ility for the execution of the sentence falls on the Czecho-S lovak republic and the Slovak nation. In this case who was the "Republi c?" Nobody else but Dr. Edward Benes. And in this case who was the "Slovak nation"? Nobody else but the Slovak National Council (SNC) in Bratislav a, which was, accordin g to the Prague Agreement of June 1, 1945, not only the authorize d represen tative of the self-exist ence of the Slovak nation, but also the bearer of state power (legislativ e, administ rative and executive ) in Slovak territory ." This, then, is quite clear: the "Republi c" was Dr. Edward Benes, and the "Slovak nation" was the Slovak National Council. GEORGE DID IT! But nobody wanted to take the responsib ility for the ignomini ous death of Dr. Joseph Tiso. In the central organ of the Democra tic Party, "CAS" (Time), dated April 23, 1947, there appeared the article entitled "What Actually Happene d?" wherein the blackgua rds, who did their black and filthy duty, are cleansing themselv es. They want to shake of all responsib ility and place the whole blame on Prague, as if the sentence of death was pronounc ed against Tiso only "in the name of the Republic ," and not also "in the name of the Slovak nation." Dr. Tiso had appealed for mercy with the express remark, that he was asking it "only on moral grounds. " The newspap er "Cas" says that the chief prosecut or recommend ed the appeal for mercy to the National Court. But the National Court, with Dr. Daxner presiding , decided : "not to recomme nd mercy for Tiso." "The fate of the condemn ed Tiso," says "Cas", "was thus sealed; the execution was to follow in 48 hours.'' 44 SLOVAKIA THE PARAGRAPHS On the basis of what paragraphs was the fate of Tiso sealed? "Cas" tells us that it was on the basis of paragraph 19 of decree number 33-1945 of the Slovak National Council, in the sense of decree No. 57-1946 of the Colection of Decrees of the Slovak National Council. Therefore the Slovak National Council was responsible for the fact that Dr. Tiso had to be executed within 48 hours, because it had written, accepted and proclaimed such decrees and such paragraphs as the valid law in Slovak territory. The guilty party, then, was and still is the Slovak National Council. The Slovak National Council must have realized this, even though rather late, and its brain suddenly began to function. The gentlemen, proud of their paragraphs, had a concrete case before them: the life or death of Dr. Tiso. And it was then that their own paragraphs began to displease them. "According to the valid law," says CAS, "there now was no ground whereby anyone except the president of the Republic, might deal with the question of mercy." In this case the paragraphs of the SNC decrees, mentioned above, were responsible for that situation. THE SNC PEOPLE But the gentlemen of the Slovak National Council disregarded this fact and acted as if they actually were very much concerned with the saving of the life of Dr. Tiso. Without any legal foundation the National Court presented this appeal to the Trustee (Commissar) of the Judiciary (Dr. Stefanik), who in turn without any legal basis sent it on to the presidency of the SNC. And so it happened that the executive committee of the SNC had a session the day after sentence was pronounced, on April 16, and began to deliberate. It was then ascertained that "the views of the representatives of the Democratic and Communist parties were completely divergent on the question of granting mercy." The Democrats were for granting mercy and the Communists against. So the matter was returned to the Justice of the Supreme Court, whowithout any legal basis-prepared the motion in which he recommended the granting of mercy. SLOVAKIA 45 In the meantime the 48 hours were almost expended. The presidency of the Slovak National Council quickly took the Trustee's motion and sent it on to the central Government in Prague without adding a single word of recommendation. Let Prague plague itself with the whole case! Annas too once sent Christ to Caiphas, and Caiphas in turn sent him to Pilate. Everybody wanted to shake off all responsibility. PRAGUE: NO MERCY! The central Government in Prague thus received the Slovak motion: the Trustee of the Judiciary recommends mercy for Tiso; the presidency of the Slovak National Council presents this motion, but adds no comment to it for the central Government. "Cas" now wants to suggest to its readers what it forgot to suggest to the central Government, namely, that "The Trustee's presentation of the official notice to the Government to grant mercy is in accord also with the recommendation of the presidency of the Slovak National Council." The Pharisees in Prague, that is the central Government, convened at 5 p. m. on April 16th and debated whether they should present the plea for mercy to president Benes or not. The issue was balloted. The Ministers of the Democratic Party and sramek's Party (the Czech Catholic People's Party) voted for mercy, but the Communists, Social-Democratic Ministers, as well as those of Benes's Party (the Czech Nazi Party), voted against it. Since the Democrats and the followers of Sramek cast only 6 votes, they remained in the minority, and the motion of the majority of the central Government come to Benes: not to grant mercy to Tiso. DR. LETTRICH: NO CONTACT It was at this time that the president of the Slovak National Council, Dr. Joseph Lettrich, began to act-but again without any legal basis. "Cas" writes that "there were also many serious, non-political factoiis, for example, both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church," that were for the granting of mercy. Our information, therefore, that not only the Catholic but even the Evangelical Bishops intervened to save Tiso's life, proved to be correct. On purely partisan-political grounds even Dr. Lettrich heeded 46 SLOVAKIA this pressure and personally began to intervene by calling directly to Benes's office. "Dr. Lettrich," writes CAS, "urgently called the president of the Republic, Benes, five times in the evening of April 16th so that he could explain to him just how the Democratic Party stow on the issue. The message was taken by the personal secretary of the President, Dr. skarvan." Thus, "the representative" of the Slovak nation, the president of the Slovak National Council, Dr. Lettrich, in an urgent matter, a matter in which both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical church were intervening, called the representative of the Republic, Dr. Benes, five times by phone. But "CAS" conveniently forgets to report just how many of those times Dr. Lettrich got Benes personally to the phone. "CAS" modestly reports that the "representative" of the Slovak nation spoke with the personal secretary of "Mr. President," Dr. i:3karvan. Behold the heights attained by the "representative" of the Slovak nation! He could tell young skarvan "how the Democratic Party stood on the issue" but he could not tell it to Benes! That really was a miserable and pitiful situation to be in. It shows how Dr. Benes, the representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, regards and values Dr. Lettrich, the representative of the Slovak nation. How different things were when Slovakia was represented by the Slovak autonomists! At that time president Dr. Emil Ha.cha set in Benes's place in the Prague Castle. Slovakia had two prime ministers, first Dr. Joseph Tiso, and then Karol Sidor. When Dr. Tiso or Sidor in Bratislava wanted to talk with president Ha.cha in Prague, they lifted the telephone receiver and forthwith had president Ha.cha on the other end of the telephone. There were no "personal secretaries" in between. The representatives of Slovakia spoke directly and without delay with the representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. We read in the proceedings of the Tiso trial that Dr. Tiso, as late as March 13, 1939, called Dr. Ha.cha from Berlin and spoke to him over the telephone personally. And here Lettrich calls president Benes five times, who does not answer him once, but leaves that matter to his personal secretary, Dr. skarvan . . . SLOVAKIA 47 DECREES MADE TO KILL Who, then, is responsible for the death of president Dr. Tiso? Blame it on the paragraphs, the decrees of the Slovak National Council. And who wrote those paragraphs? Dr. Lettrich and all the members of the SNC, therefore both the Democrats and the Communists who voted for them. These paragraphs were compiled to kill and not to protect Slovak lives. How many Slovaks already paid with their lives and how many hundreds of years of imprisonment were meted out to Slovaks on the basis of these paragraphs!? That, all of that, is the merit of the present representatives of Slovakia who wrote, accepted and voted for these paragraphs. Added to all of this, they themselves surrendered the right to grant mercy to those who shall be condemned on the basis of these, their paragraphs. When it became clear that Dr. Tiso would be tried, a new Prague Agreement was quickly concluded on April 11,1946. Its first article, point b) says: "The President of the Republic (Dr. Benes ) grants mercy even in Slovakia and that even in matters pertaining to the people's courts and the National Court." Dr. Martin Kvetko, in his book "Agreements" (issued in 1947 in Bratislava ) says the following about that paragraph on page 57: "Up to the time of this agreement-i. e. up to April 11, 1946-appeals of the convicted were decided by the presidency of the Slovak National Council. By the agreement the authority is correctly ( ! ! ) transferred to the President, so that even in this case the validity of the Constitution be renewed as the basis of state unity." So the gentlemen of the SNC were renewing "the validity of the Constitution" of 1920 that was centralistic and anti-Slovak; they were making "the foundation of state unity," so they surrendered, in the interests of Benes, the right to grant mercy to convicted Slovaks, and so they themselves destroyed the legal balSis, on the strength of which, up to April 11 , 1946, they could save the life of Dr. Tiso and the lives of so many other Slovaks without Benes and without the central Government, nay even against the will of Benes and against the will of the central Government! (April, 1947 )  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 Who Killed Dr. Tiso? Description An account of the resource Karol Sidor, writing as Paul Kotva Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 43-47 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sidor, Karol, 1901-1953 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/879ef97a8ddef8efe5a17a597364edab.pdf 37ea45531a30003441660b3ff95649be PDF Text Text 40 SLOVAKIA Slovak Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso (In view of the trial of Msgr. Joseph Tiso, former President of Slovakia, the following letter addressed January 8, 1946 by the Bishops of Slovakia to the Slovak National Council is of particulad interest. ) N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE In the course of recent years, the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia have often pleaded with government authorities on behalf of all who suffered, were imprisoned or persecuted. They did so for all, Catholics and non-Catholics. The example of the Divine Samaritan and His positive command inspired us and urged us to raise our protective voice in the interest of people who suffered pernecution for political reasons or even because of their race. We did so at a time when we had to expect nothing but various inconveniences for our intervention. In taking the liberty today of graciously recommending to your good will the fate of the former president Dr. Joseph Tiso, we do so inspired by the most noble example of all history, the command given in the Gospel and which we also have before us at the present hour. We are motivated not only by the fact that the case concerns a priest of the Catholic Church, but also because the disposition of his personal problem is bound to have a deep effect upon the sentiment and conduct of a part of the Slovak nation with regard to reconstituted CzechoSlovakia and her representatives. We are also urged to take this action by the reality, that is generally known and admitted by every objective observer, that Dr. Joseph Tiso has always been a zealous priest of unimpeachable character. In his extensive labors he always endeavored to work for the common good and never enriched himself thereby. The exercise of justice is one of the most difficult tasks of state authority. Experience teaches that this task, difficult enough in itself becomes an even more delicate one when it is concerned with political delicts. History shows �SLOVAKIA 4.1 how many burdensome fateful errors have been made particularly at political trials, since it is a most difficult task to judge impartially the activities of a political opponent. It is, therefore, by no means a rare occurence that after severe sentences were pronounced in political trials, a demand for their revision arose sooner or later. In judging the activities of a statesman, even his intentions must also be taken into consideration. The predominant majority of the Slovak people shares our convictions that Dr. Joseph Tiso in his public activity was animated by the best intentions. No doubt, mistakes were made. At the time, the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia did not hesitate to call them to his attention. However, we must disregard the well-known fact that even the shrewdest politicians can commit very serious errors. Yet the unprejudiced observer, be he a contemporary or historian, can render objective judgment only if he takes into consideration the good and positive (elements) in the activities of a statesman. And this factor will often outweigh the errors committed by politicians as the result of their weakness. It will not be irrelevant to consider from another point of view the errors charged to Dr. Tiso. We graciously point at least to some of their circumstances. Recent declarations by the present governmental representatives make the incidents of zilina of October 1938* appear in a light different from that which party propaganda seeks to spread among the public. Even the press has shown that practically all Slovak political parties participated in these political changes. Attention must also be called to the important document which has been made public in the course of the Nuremberg trial, viz. the letter sent to Berlin by the former Magyar leader of the empire, Horthy, on March 13, 1939.** This important circumstance, too, throws a different light on the decisions made by Tiso and his regime on March 14, 1939. We must think what would have been the fate of the Slovak people if Horthy's plan had been carried through. We also know that after the publication of the antiJewish laws, Dr. Tiso was willing to resign the presidency. That he did not do so happened only because he tried to �42 SLOVAKIA hamper and alleviate the consequen ces of these decrees and also to prevent a greater evil. It is worth considerin g the fact that Tiso was unable to prevent what the government chief of Hungary, a country far larger and more independen t than Slovakia, equally failed to prevent. After considerin g all the circumstan ces it may also be possible to evaluate the other errors charged to Dr. Tiso (for instance, the war in the east, the events of August 29, 1944,***) in a manner different from that employed by a prejudiced propagand a. The entire Slovak public is following the developme nt situation concerning Dr. Tiso with keen interest, the of and the great majority is taking a negative stand to the efforts that would incite hatred against his person. This is bound to increase the unfortunat e division of the nation, which now should be united and exerting all its strength for reconstruc tion. A settlement of the Tiso case in a spirit of understand ing and without any unscrupulo us severity would be an accomplish ment of political vision and will greatly serve the peace of the nation. These higher motives prompt us to graciously ask you to consider our request and act favorably on it. Signatures : Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko of Nitra; Bishop Joseph C<irsky of Kosice; Bishop Andrej skr<ibik, Banska Bystrica; Bishop Joseph Toman6cy, Bishop Karol Jantausch, and Bishop Edward Necsey, Auxiliary of Nitra. * On October 6, 1938, all parties except the Communists and Social Democrats, joined forces at 2ilina to demand emphatically the political autonomy of Slovakia, as it had been repeatedly stipulated in several agreements concluded between Czechs and Slovaks since 1914, v. i.: The Pittsburgh Agreement, etc. ** In the letter Horthy demanded the split-up of Slovakia among Germany, Hungary and Poland. *** The date referred to marks the "partisan" uprising in Slovakia which Dr. Tiso is accused of having failed to support. "The execution of Dr. Joseph Tiso, who loved his people and served them conscientious ly throughout his life, will undoubtedly inspire thousands of his brethren to continue the fight for the inherent and God-given rights of the Slovak nation." - John Sabol, Secretary First Catholic Slovak Union, Cleveland, Ohio, April 30, 1947. � 40 SLOVAKIA Slovak Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso (In view of the trial of Msgr. Joseph Tiso, former President of Slovakia, the following letter addressed January 8, 1946 by the Bishops of Slovakia to the Slovak National Council is of particulad interest. ) N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE In the course of recent years, the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia have often pleaded with government authorities on behalf of all who suffered, were imprisoned or persecuted. They did so for all, Catholics and non-Catholics. The example of the Divine Samaritan and His positive command inspired us and urged us to raise our protective voice in the interest of people who suffered pernecution for political reasons or even because of their race. We did so at a time when we had to expect nothing but various inconveniences for our intervention. In taking the liberty today of graciously recommending to your good will the fate of the former president Dr. Joseph Tiso, we do so inspired by the most noble example of all history, the command given in the Gospel and which we also have before us at the present hour. We are motivated not only by the fact that the case concerns a priest of the Catholic Church, but also because the disposition of his personal problem is bound to have a deep effect upon the sentiment and conduct of a part of the Slovak nation with regard to reconstituted CzechoSlovakia and her representatives. We are also urged to take this action by the reality, that is generally known and admitted by every objective observer, that Dr. Joseph Tiso has always been a zealous priest of unimpeachable character. In his extensive labors he always endeavored to work for the common good and never enriched himself thereby. The exercise of justice is one of the most difficult tasks of state authority. Experience teaches that this task, difficult enough in itself becomes an even more delicate one when it is concerned with political delicts. History shows �SLOVAKIA 4.1 how many burdensome fateful errors have been made particularly at political trials, since it is a most difficult task to judge impartially the activities of a political opponent. It is, therefore, by no means a rare occurence that after severe sentences were pronounced in political trials, a demand for their revision arose sooner or later. In judging the activities of a statesman, even his intentions must also be taken into consideration. The predominant majority of the Slovak people shares our convictions that Dr. Joseph Tiso in his public activity was animated by the best intentions. No doubt, mistakes were made. At the time, the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia did not hesitate to call them to his attention. However, we must disregard the well-known fact that even the shrewdest politicians can commit very serious errors. Yet the unprejudiced observer, be he a contemporary or historian, can render objective judgment only if he takes into consideration the good and positive (elements) in the activities of a statesman. And this factor will often outweigh the errors committed by politicians as the result of their weakness. It will not be irrelevant to consider from another point of view the errors charged to Dr. Tiso. We graciously point at least to some of their circumstances. Recent declarations by the present governmental representatives make the incidents of zilina of October 1938* appear in a light different from that which party propaganda seeks to spread among the public. Even the press has shown that practically all Slovak political parties participated in these political changes. Attention must also be called to the important document which has been made public in the course of the Nuremberg trial, viz. the letter sent to Berlin by the former Magyar leader of the empire, Horthy, on March 13, 1939.** This important circumstance, too, throws a different light on the decisions made by Tiso and his regime on March 14, 1939. We must think what would have been the fate of the Slovak people if Horthy's plan had been carried through. We also know that after the publication of the antiJewish laws, Dr. Tiso was willing to resign the presidency. That he did not do so happened only because he tried to �42 SLOVAKIA hamper and alleviate the consequen ces of these decrees and also to prevent a greater evil. It is worth considerin g the fact that Tiso was unable to prevent what the government chief of Hungary, a country far larger and more independen t than Slovakia, equally failed to prevent. After considerin g all the circumstan ces it may also be possible to evaluate the other errors charged to Dr. Tiso (for instance, the war in the east, the events of August 29, 1944,***) in a manner different from that employed by a prejudiced propagand a. The entire Slovak public is following the developme nt situation concerning Dr. Tiso with keen interest, the of and the great majority is taking a negative stand to the efforts that would incite hatred against his person. This is bound to increase the unfortunat e division of the nation, which now should be united and exerting all its strength for reconstruc tion. A settlement of the Tiso case in a spirit of understand ing and without any unscrupulo us severity would be an accomplish ment of political vision and will greatly serve the peace of the nation. These higher motives prompt us to graciously ask you to consider our request and act favorably on it. Signatures : Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko of Nitra; Bishop Joseph C<irsky of Kosice; Bishop Andrej skr<ibik, Banska Bystrica; Bishop Joseph Toman6cy, Bishop Karol Jantausch, and Bishop Edward Necsey, Auxiliary of Nitra. * On October 6, 1938, all parties except the Communists and Social Democrats, joined forces at 2ilina to demand emphatically the political autonomy of Slovakia, as it had been repeatedly stipulated in several agreements concluded between Czechs and Slovaks since 1914, v. i.: The Pittsburgh Agreement, etc. ** In the letter Horthy demanded the split-up of Slovakia among Germany, Hungary and Poland. *** The date referred to marks the "partisan" uprising in Slovakia which Dr. Tiso is accused of having failed to support. "The execution of Dr. Joseph Tiso, who loved his people and served them conscientious ly throughout his life, will undoubtedly inspire thousands of his brethren to continue the fight for the inherent and God-given rights of the Slovak nation." - John Sabol, Secretary First Catholic Slovak Union, Cleveland, Ohio, April 30, 1947. � 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 40 SLOVAKIA Slovak Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso (In view of the trial of Msgr. Joseph Tiso, former President of Slovakia, the following letter addressed January 8, 1946 by the Bishops of Slovakia to the Slovak National Council is of particulad interest. ) N.C.W.C. NEWS SERVICE In the course of recent years, the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia have often pleaded with government authorities on behalf of all who suffered, were imprisoned or persecuted. They did so for all, Catholics and non-Catholics. The example of the Divine Samaritan and His positive command inspired us and urged us to raise our protective voice in the interest of people who suffered pernecution for political reasons or even because of their race. We did so at a time when we had to expect nothing but various inconveniences for our intervention. In taking the liberty today of graciously recommending to your good will the fate of the former president Dr. Joseph Tiso, we do so inspired by the most noble example of all history, the command given in the Gospel and which we also have before us at the present hour. We are motivated not only by the fact that the case concerns a priest of the Catholic Church, but also because the disposition of his personal problem is bound to have a deep effect upon the sentiment and conduct of a part of the Slovak nation with regard to reconstituted CzechoSlovakia and her representatives. We are also urged to take this action by the reality, that is generally known and admitted by every objective observer, that Dr. Joseph Tiso has always been a zealous priest of unimpeachable character. In his extensive labors he always endeavored to work for the common good and never enriched himself thereby. The exercise of justice is one of the most difficult tasks of state authority. Experience teaches that this task, difficult enough in itself becomes an even more delicate one when it is concerned with political delicts. History shows SLOVAKIA 4.1 how many burdensome fateful errors have been made particularly at political trials, since it is a most difficult task to judge impartially the activities of a political opponent. It is, therefore, by no means a rare occurence that after severe sentences were pronounced in political trials, a demand for their revision arose sooner or later. In judging the activities of a statesman, even his intentions must also be taken into consideration. The predominant majority of the Slovak people shares our convictions that Dr. Joseph Tiso in his public activity was animated by the best intentions. No doubt, mistakes were made. At the time, the Catholic Bishops of Slovakia did not hesitate to call them to his attention. However, we must disregard the well-known fact that even the shrewdest politicians can commit very serious errors. Yet the unprejudiced observer, be he a contemporary or historian, can render objective judgment only if he takes into consideration the good and positive (elements) in the activities of a statesman. And this factor will often outweigh the errors committed by politicians as the result of their weakness. It will not be irrelevant to consider from another point of view the errors charged to Dr. Tiso. We graciously point at least to some of their circumstances. Recent declarations by the present governmental representatives make the incidents of zilina of October 1938* appear in a light different from that which party propaganda seeks to spread among the public. Even the press has shown that practically all Slovak political parties participated in these political changes. Attention must also be called to the important document which has been made public in the course of the Nuremberg trial, viz. the letter sent to Berlin by the former Magyar leader of the empire, Horthy, on March 13, 1939.** This important circumstance, too, throws a different light on the decisions made by Tiso and his regime on March 14, 1939. We must think what would have been the fate of the Slovak people if Horthy's plan had been carried through. We also know that after the publication of the antiJewish laws, Dr. Tiso was willing to resign the presidency. That he did not do so happened only because he tried to 42 SLOVAKIA hamper and alleviate the consequen ces of these decrees and also to prevent a greater evil. It is worth considerin g the fact that Tiso was unable to prevent what the government chief of Hungary, a country far larger and more independen t than Slovakia, equally failed to prevent. After considerin g all the circumstan ces it may also be possible to evaluate the other errors charged to Dr. Tiso (for instance, the war in the east, the events of August 29, 1944,***) in a manner different from that employed by a prejudiced propagand a. The entire Slovak public is following the developme nt situation concerning Dr. Tiso with keen interest, the of and the great majority is taking a negative stand to the efforts that would incite hatred against his person. This is bound to increase the unfortunat e division of the nation, which now should be united and exerting all its strength for reconstruc tion. A settlement of the Tiso case in a spirit of understand ing and without any unscrupulo us severity would be an accomplish ment of political vision and will greatly serve the peace of the nation. These higher motives prompt us to graciously ask you to consider our request and act favorably on it. Signatures : Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko of Nitra; Bishop Joseph C<irsky of Kosice; Bishop Andrej skr<ibik, Banska Bystrica; Bishop Joseph Toman6cy, Bishop Karol Jantausch, and Bishop Edward Necsey, Auxiliary of Nitra. * On October 6, 1938, all parties except the Communists and Social Democrats, joined forces at 2ilina to demand emphatically the political autonomy of Slovakia, as it had been repeatedly stipulated in several agreements concluded between Czechs and Slovaks since 1914, v. i.: The Pittsburgh Agreement, etc. ** In the letter Horthy demanded the split-up of Slovakia among Germany, Hungary and Poland. *** The date referred to marks the "partisan" uprising in Slovakia which Dr. Tiso is accused of having failed to support. "The execution of Dr. Joseph Tiso, who loved his people and served them conscientious ly throughout his life, will undoubtedly inspire thousands of his brethren to continue the fight for the inherent and God-given rights of the Slovak nation." - John Sabol, Secretary First Catholic Slovak Union, Cleveland, Ohio, April 30, 1947.  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 Bishops Appeal on Behalf of President Tiso Description An account of the resource N.C.W.C. News Service Letter by the Bishops of Slovakia to the Slovak National Council, January 8, 1946 Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 40-42 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4ec8e11c8b1fc6f94ef01661cfe32a13.pdf 52ccc3d69708367c24a03977de30ef70 PDF Text Text 36 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Murder in Slovakia SPEECH OF HON. ALVINE. O'KONSKI OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 23, 1947 Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czecho-Slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastly and shameful form. The brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso went the way of the immortal General Mihailovitch and the immortal Archbishop Stepinac, of Yugoslavia. On trumped-up charges, the Communists disposed of these brave men because they dared to oppose communism among their respective people. These murders will set the pattern of what will happen to all who have opposed communism wherever communism takes over. On trumped-up charges, they held a farce of a trial and sentenced Monsignor Tiso to be hanged. Imagine the joy in the hearts of the Communists when they succeeded and used the Czechoslovakian Government as a puppet to do their dirty murder for them. Yes; this is a modem tragedy, but there will be more like it as time goes on. 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 on. Our Government gave the Czecho-Slovak Government hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them millions of dollars more. Yet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czecho-Slovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against the murder by the Soviets. All of this leads me to believe that the leaders 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. He was murdered. While he was murdered America was silent. The day is not very distant when these American leaders will regret their �SLOVAKIA 37 silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent will be treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Archbishop Stepinac and General Mihailovitch were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it will be too late. Frankly, I do not think America could 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 miracle such a protest might have at least postponed the execution. Here in America our officials grant our basest criminals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done is file a plea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom - Monsignor Tiso - whose only crime was that he hated communism just as he hated nazism. But America remains silent and murder has free sway. SPEECH OF HON. RAY J. MADDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, March 31, 1947 Mr. MADDEN. Mr. Speaker, America and all libertyloving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is as essential for smaller countries as it is for the larger nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and future peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again been launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal �38 SLOVAKIA organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, 1,1nless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspapers cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newpapers have been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr . Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy in Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President, Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: "Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his election as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches." It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will unboubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intellect. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovakian situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can aisk is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. �SLOVAKIA 39 In supporting President Truman's International program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100 million Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obligation to voice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the .trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial , vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided the opportunity by being placed in charge of the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost upanimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this. injustice. We might well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H . Jackson: "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. • • • You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt. * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." "The execution of Msgr. Joseph Tiso of Slovakia is an attempt to execute the principles of Christian democracy. It is supposed to be the death knell :for Slovak freedom. Msgr. Tiso was executed for defending the inherent rights of his people. Tiso shall go down in history as a martyr and Dr. Bene~ as a modern Pilate." - Rt. Rev. Msgr. F. J . D u bosh, Lakewood , Ohio, April 30, 1947. � 36 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Murder in Slovakia SPEECH OF HON. ALVINE. O'KONSKI OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 23, 1947 Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czecho-Slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastly and shameful form. The brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso went the way of the immortal General Mihailovitch and the immortal Archbishop Stepinac, of Yugoslavia. On trumped-up charges, the Communists disposed of these brave men because they dared to oppose communism among their respective people. These murders will set the pattern of what will happen to all who have opposed communism wherever communism takes over. On trumped-up charges, they held a farce of a trial and sentenced Monsignor Tiso to be hanged. Imagine the joy in the hearts of the Communists when they succeeded and used the Czechoslovakian Government as a puppet to do their dirty murder for them. Yes; this is a modem tragedy, but there will be more like it as time goes on. 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 on. Our Government gave the Czecho-Slovak Government hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them millions of dollars more. Yet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czecho-Slovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against the murder by the Soviets. All of this leads me to believe that the leaders 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. He was murdered. While he was murdered America was silent. The day is not very distant when these American leaders will regret their �SLOVAKIA 37 silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent will be treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Archbishop Stepinac and General Mihailovitch were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it will be too late. Frankly, I do not think America could 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 miracle such a protest might have at least postponed the execution. Here in America our officials grant our basest criminals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done is file a plea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom - Monsignor Tiso - whose only crime was that he hated communism just as he hated nazism. But America remains silent and murder has free sway. SPEECH OF HON. RAY J. MADDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, March 31, 1947 Mr. MADDEN. Mr. Speaker, America and all libertyloving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is as essential for smaller countries as it is for the larger nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and future peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again been launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal �38 SLOVAKIA organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, 1,1nless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspapers cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newpapers have been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr . Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy in Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President, Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: "Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his election as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches." It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will unboubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intellect. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovakian situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can aisk is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. �SLOVAKIA 39 In supporting President Truman's International program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100 million Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obligation to voice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the .trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial , vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided the opportunity by being placed in charge of the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost upanimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this. injustice. We might well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H . Jackson: "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. • • • You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt. * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." "The execution of Msgr. Joseph Tiso of Slovakia is an attempt to execute the principles of Christian democracy. It is supposed to be the death knell :for Slovak freedom. Msgr. Tiso was executed for defending the inherent rights of his people. Tiso shall go down in history as a martyr and Dr. Bene~ as a modern Pilate." - Rt. Rev. Msgr. F. J . D u bosh, Lakewood , Ohio, April 30, 1947. � 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 36 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Murder in Slovakia SPEECH OF HON. ALVINE. O'KONSKI OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 23, 1947 Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czecho-Slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastly and shameful form. The brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso went the way of the immortal General Mihailovitch and the immortal Archbishop Stepinac, of Yugoslavia. On trumped-up charges, the Communists disposed of these brave men because they dared to oppose communism among their respective people. These murders will set the pattern of what will happen to all who have opposed communism wherever communism takes over. On trumped-up charges, they held a farce of a trial and sentenced Monsignor Tiso to be hanged. Imagine the joy in the hearts of the Communists when they succeeded and used the Czechoslovakian Government as a puppet to do their dirty murder for them. Yes; this is a modem tragedy, but there will be more like it as time goes on. 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 on. Our Government gave the Czecho-Slovak Government hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them millions of dollars more. Yet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czecho-Slovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against the murder by the Soviets. All of this leads me to believe that the leaders 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. He was murdered. While he was murdered America was silent. The day is not very distant when these American leaders will regret their SLOVAKIA 37 silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent will be treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Archbishop Stepinac and General Mihailovitch were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it will be too late. Frankly, I do not think America could 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 miracle such a protest might have at least postponed the execution. Here in America our officials grant our basest criminals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done is file a plea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom - Monsignor Tiso - whose only crime was that he hated communism just as he hated nazism. But America remains silent and murder has free sway. SPEECH OF HON. RAY J. MADDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, March 31, 1947 Mr. MADDEN. Mr. Speaker, America and all libertyloving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is as essential for smaller countries as it is for the larger nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and future peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again been launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal 38 SLOVAKIA organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, 1,1nless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspapers cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newpapers have been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr . Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy in Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President, Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: "Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his election as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches." It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will unboubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intellect. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovakian situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can aisk is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. SLOVAKIA 39 In supporting President Truman's International program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100 million Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obligation to voice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the .trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial , vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided the opportunity by being placed in charge of the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost upanimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this. injustice. We might well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H . Jackson: "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. • • • You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt. * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." "The execution of Msgr. Joseph Tiso of Slovakia is an attempt to execute the principles of Christian democracy. It is supposed to be the death knell :for Slovak freedom. Msgr. Tiso was executed for defending the inherent rights of his people. Tiso shall go down in history as a martyr and Dr. Bene~ as a modern Pilate." - Rt. Rev. Msgr. F. J . D u bosh, Lakewood , Ohio, April 30, 1947.  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 Murder in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Speech of Hon. Alvin E. O'Konski of Wisconsin in the House of Representatives, April 23, 1947; Speech of Hon. Ray J. Madden of Indiana in the House of Representatives, March 31, 1947 Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 36-39 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource O'Konski, Alvin E. (Alvin Edward), 1904-1987 Madden, Ray J. (Ray John), 1892-1987 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/12fbcd8e208aada60c83b04755363215.pdf adece9da441311731c67bae9a61dec0e PDF Text Text 26 SLOVAKIA Msgr. Joseph Tiso By Fran{;Ois d 'O r Ci Val ( This is the English translation of Mr. FranQois d'Orcival's article originally published in French, in the July 1971 issue of the magazine "Miroir de l'Histoire", Paris. The young French political writer has dealt with the cause of Slovak independence in his book " Le Danube etait noir" (The Danube was black), La Table Ronde, Paris 1968. In France, he represents a realistic trend seeking to de-mythologize European history. Ed.) At dawn on April 18, 1947 the bridge over the Danube was shrouded in fog as Msgr. Joseph Tiso concluded his prayer in the central prison of Bratislava and donned his black serge robe with the prisoner's red armband and the churchman's white collar. He had been condemned to death on April 15 and on April 17 reprieve had been denied. A Franciscan father had been sent to accompany him on his final journey. Msgr. Tiso was 59. He had been born in Bytca in the valley of the Vah, which cuts through the Carpathians and where the mountains and the forest always wear autumn color. He was a sturdy, well-built man with broad shoulders, closely-cropped hair and a serene expression, with the rough-hewn features of a solid man of the people. He had been the leader of an autonomous Slovak government from October 6, 1938 to March 10, 1939, then head of independent Slovakia from March 14, 1939 to Easter of 1945. That year when spring returned to the Tatras the bells of Rome were silent. Malinovsky's forces were scouring the countryside. In Bohemia the Wehrmacht was retreating. Msgr. Tiso and his government distributed to their people the flour remaining in the state granaries, then went into exile. The Americans arrested Msgr. Tiso in October 1945, extradited him from Austria and turned him over to Dr. Edward Benes, who had once again become Czecho-Slovakia's leader. �SLOVAKIA 27 The preliminary examination in the Tiso trial began December 3. The bill of indictment contained 230 pages and was prepared by three attorneys specializing in general matters, political guestions and military affairs. 42 witnesses were subpoenaed by the prosecution. Igor Daxner, a Protestant Slovak communist, was selected to preside over the people's court, assisted by Bedrna, a Czech communist. Five of the seven members of the court were communists. The first day of the hearing the authorities, fearing street demonstratio ns and riots, ringed Bratislava with soldiers; they also controlled access to public buildings and took strong security precautions at the Palace of Justice. At first the press was allowed to report the testimony of witnesses and some of Msgr. Tiso's statements but soon, realizing that popular sentiment remained too favorable to the former president of independent Slovakia, the government censored all news reports of the trial. The Catholic bishops, evidencing outstanding courage, published on January 3, 1946 a petition in the prisoner's behalf. "His fate", they declared, "will strongly influence a portion of the Slovak population in its attitude towards the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak Republic." The majority of the nation concurs with its bishops in believing Dr. Tiso's intentions to have been pure and good. The prosecutor summoned Karol Kmet'ko, archbishop of Slovakia, who paused to shake hands with the defendant on his way to the witness stand to answer the prosecutor's questions. "What did the Slovak state accomplish for the people?" he was asked. "Can you think of any nation which does not long for independence ?" replied archbishop Kmet'ko and continued: "Can you imagine an unfortunate people who would not rather have their own homes than depend on others?" "But", the prosecutor insisted, "this independence was actually dependence!" "No!" replied archbishop Kmet'ko. "It was ten times less damaging than the Protectorate ( of Bohemia and Moravia)!" "How could you approve of Msgr. Tiso's assumption of office?" the prosecutor then asked, and the archbishop �28 SLOVAKIA responded: "When the independence of the Slovak state was proclaimed I can affirm that the country and its people were 90 % in favor of it. We rediscovered the independence and the freedom which had been lost since the time of King Svatopluk." For those with the borders of the German and Slovak world that story goes back to the early period of the Middle Ages. In a study entitled "The Slovaks: A People; A Nation" Professor Joseph A. Mikus, one of the youngest diplomats of the independent Slovak state and currently professor in an American college, writes: It was Prince Pribina in the year 830 iwho conquered the West Slovak tribes and governed them from his castle in Nitra. His successors, Mojmir, Rastislav and Svatopluk extended their rule over the neighboring ,t erritories. In the second half of the ninth century the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were also subjugated by the Slovak king, Svatopluk. However, shortly thereafter the Czechs appealed to the German monarchs for help and were able to free themselves from Greater Moravia. After a c,o alition of Germans and Hungarians had defeated Mojmir II near Bratislava in 906, Slovakia was occupied by the Hungarians while the Czechs full under the domination of the Germans. Although Slovakia became an integral part of the Hungarian realm, the Premyslides rwere able to elevate the principality of Bohemia to a kingdom whose ruler became one of the electors of the German Empire. During the Turkish invasions Slovakia or Upper Hungary became the impregnable fortress of the realm. The Hungarian parliaments were still meeting in Bratislava during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was here, too, in Saint Martin's cathedral that the coronation of the Hungarian kings took place. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Czech Protestants at the White Mountain in 1620, the kingdom of Bohemia became an integral part of Austria's hereditary possessions. Even after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the Czechs remained under Austrian control and the Slovaks under Hungarian rule. Thus Czechs and Slovaks had never been united under one government before 1918. They were separated by the Carpathians. Bohemia was Protestant; Slovakia Catholic. The Czechs and the Germans had made Prague, the Bohemian capitol, one of the most cultured cities of Europe. The Slovaks, by contrast, boasted neither elite nor aristocracy; they were peasants and good soldiers. Although they lacked lords and commanders, the Slovaks nevertheless had their churchmen. One of these, �SLOVAKIA 29 Father Hlinka, born in 1864, was pastor at Ruzomberok, a big market-town situated in northern Slovakia between the Fatras and the Lower Tatras. He began his political ministry in 1905, fought for the autonomy of Slovakia, and founded the Slovak Populist party. In Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 a Belgrade high school student assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. On the same day in Prague the cry arose: "Down with the Hapsburgs! Down with AustriaHungary!" This was the cry of two atheist Czech socialists: the first a sociology professor at the University of Prague and leftist deputy to the Diet of Vienna, 64 year old Thomas Masaryk and the second, his 30 year old disciple, Edward Benes, doctor of laws. Of the 534 deputies representing all the nationalities of the empire the Czechs numbered 107, yet not one took up the cry of Masaryk and Benes. Repudiated, the two delegates left Prague secretly for Paris and London, where they founded a Czech National Committee, which in 1917 was transformed into a provisional government. A year later the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, attacked from within. In Slovakia Father Hlinka declared in 1918: "Our thousand-year marriage with the Magyars is ending in disaster. We must sever our ties with them!" The Slovaks were welcomed by the Czechs, who promised them freedom. The official birth of Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918. It was the triumph of Masaryk and Benes after four years of exile. According to international law Czecho-Slovakia did not come into being until the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919. Comprising Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Slovakia and Lower Subcarpathian Ukraine in the east, the country had an area of 140,000 square kilometers. The population was 13.6 million, of whom 6.5 million were Czech, 2.5 million Slovak, 3.3 million German and the rest Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. It was a mosaic of nationalities. In dismembering Austria-Hungary the western diplomats at Saint-Germain-en-Laye hoped to isolate Germany from Russia by a "cordon sanitaire" composed of newly allied states: Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Jugoslavia. But the Hapsburg dynasty, the unifying influence over all these states, was gone; the Danube countries of Europe �30 SLOVAKIA were destined once again to become the battleground of endless struggles. Masaryk and Benes had another plan. Realizing that they could not expect to found an independent Bohemia with only 6.5 million Czechs in a territory including 3.3 million Germans, they invented the fiction of a state which joined together the Czechs and Slovaks, a Czecho-Slovak state with 9 million inhabitants, who counterbalanced the 3 million Germans. The Slovaks accepted the new state on condition that it be federated and Benes assured them: "The Czecho-Slovakia of tomorrow will be the Switzerland of Central Europe. I guarantee it." However, from late 1918 onward Czech soldiers occupied Slovak territory to maintain order and Slovakia was not federated but annexed. After the soldiers came the bureaucrats. All the former Czech officials of the Empire, dismissed from Vienna and Budapest, descended on Bratislava. New teachers appeared in Slovak schools to teach Czech, which incited antiCatholic demonstrations in the villages. In September 1919 Father Hlinka, leader of the Catholic Populist party, went to the Paris peace conference with a long memorandum which began with these words: "Never has a nation been so cruelly deceived in its hopes as the Slovak nation." The Czech army also intervened energetically in Bohemia, but against the Sudeten Germans this time. (The Sudeten mountains are located in northern BohemiaMoravia.) As in Slovakia the Czech central government proceeded with an intense "czechization" of the administration, the economy, the schools and the police of the German regions. In the elections of 1935 the autonomists polled a majority in Slovakia, while in Bohemia the Germans had organized their own party. Their leader, Henlein, made contact with Hitler, who soon used the Sudeten Germans as one of the principal points of the propaganda. The German action and the diplomatic intervention of the British brought about a meeting in Munich of the four great powers of the time (Germany, Italy, Britain and France) on the Sudeten question. Through the Munich agreement the Germans of Czecho-Slovakia obtained on September 30, 1938 the right to regain their German �SLOVAKIA 31 fatherland. This development caused the loss of a strip of 25,000 square kilometers on the north-west frontier of the Czecho-Slovak state and a simultaneous loss of nearly 4 million inhabitants. As a consequence of this defeat Dr. Edward Benes, leader of the Czech government, resigned on October 5, 1938 and left Prague. The next day, October 6, at zilina, a little town situated in western Slovakia quite far from Prague, the leaders of Slovak parties assembled to proclaim the autonomy of their land, claiming the right defined in the Munich agreement-the right of nations to determine their own destiny. Father Hlinka's successor as head of the Populist and Autonomist party announced: "The Munich agreement has profoundly altered the political positions and the relations of the different states of central Europe. We Slovaks desire the freedom to determine our future, particularly in respect to the administration of our state." That very evening the first autonomous Slovak government was formed and its presidency entrusted to the new leader of the autonomous Populist party, Msgr. Tiso. zilina was a town Msgr. Tiso knew well, for in its schools he had learned to read and write. He had then enrolled in the seminary at Nitra, where in the year 833 Prince Pribina had erected the first Christian Church in Slovakia at the base of the Slovak central mountains. Joseph Tiso had completed his studies of ethics and theology at the University of Vienna. He was ordained July 14, 1910 and the same year received the degree of doctor of theology. In 1914 he became military chaplain. The following year he wa.s called back to Nitra to teach during the absence of professors who had gone to war. About 1920 he joined Father Hlinka, the founder of the Autonomist party and was assigned to the parish at Banovce, which is on the Bebrava river at the southern point of the hills of the Patras. Here began his public life. He was always to be a man of his word, loyal to his faith and to his land. To his parishioners he was a protector against the devil, as in ancient times. General Sirovy, head of the central government of Prague since the departure of Dr. Benes, assented to the setting-up of the Slovak cabinet. For Msgr. Tiso the most �32 SLOVAKIA difficult problem involved the frontiers, for the Magyars were making claims, as were the Poles and the Germans. On November 2, 1938 in Vienna an agreement was signed. The Magyars received the regions of Slovakia where the majority of the people were Magyar, the Poles received Teschen, and the Germans received a suburb of Petrzalka near Bratislava on the Danube. Elections took place in Slovakia on November 18, 1938 and the Autonomist candidates received 97 .5 ~c of the vote. The first Czecho-Slovak Republic having died at Munich two months previously, a second Republic came into being on November 30, federated and under the presidency of Dr. Ha.cha, a slight, 66 year old man in delicate health, who spoke with a marked Bohemian accent. In spite of the creation of a federated Republic, the relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not improve. A latent crisis kept them in conflict until February 1939, when the real crisis began. The Slovaks needed credit, but the Czechs refused it on the pretext that the Slovaks were disloyal to the republic. Finally on March 9, 1939 Dr. Ha.cha ousted Msgr. Tiso and his colleagues from their positions and at dawn on March 10, 1939 Slovakia was occupied by Czech police and soldiers-that is, by the "federals". Martial law was proclaimed; the local militia was dissolved. Msgr. Tiso withdrew to his rectory in Banovce and waited. German diplomacy, which had been very active since the departure of Dr. Benes, intervened, trying to crush the Czech coup in Slovakia so that the Slovaks would clearly separate themselves from the Czechs and put an end to the existence of this unified country situated in the heart of the German Reich. After several vain attempts the Reich representatives in Vienna, Seyss-Inquart and Buerckel, made contact with Msgr. Tiso; two of their secret agents came to Banovce the night of March 12 to 13, 1939 to extend an invitation from Hitler. Msgr . Tiso, waking with a start, was at first stunned, suspecting a trap. Then he acquiesced but requested a delay. Hitler frightened him and yet he knew that Berlin was the city of destiny at that moment. Finally, after conferring with his friends, he flew to Berlin. Even after 6 months of heading an �SLOVAKIA 33 autonomous government he had remained essentially a fighter-priest of the country and now resembled a Poujadist cleric on his way to see Dracula. On the evening of March 13 Hitler and Tiso agreed that Slovakia would declare her independence the next day. Hitler, moreover, convinced of an impending assault by Benes to regain power in Prague, had already decided to invade Bohemia on March 15. Msgr. Tiso hesitated at length before being convinced. He returned to Bratislava, convened the Assembly and formed a new cabinet. His cabinet ministers were not appointed by the Reich ambassadors but were simply those who had been Autonomist Slovak leaders for the previous ten or twenty years. At noon on Tuesday, March 14 the Assembly by unanimous vote severed Slovakia from the rest of Czech nation. This declaration had been accelerated by the German action but would have been less effective without the Czech coup on March 10. Dr. Ha.cha reached Berlin the same day in a state of exhaustion to entreat the Fuhrer on behalf of his people but the Fuhrer did not yield. On March 15, two hours before the first columns of the Wehrmacht re '.:'.ched Bohemia, President Ha.cha signed the capitulation: "The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic has confidently placed the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech lands in the hands of the Fuhrer of the German Reich ... " On March 16, while the German protectorate was being established in Bohemia-Moravia, Msgr. Tiso, leader of independent Slovakia, sought the protection of the Reich and signed a treaty which, without specifying occupation of Slovak territory, rendered the country a satellite. Hungary, with the support of Italy, invaded Subcarpathian Ukraine and a strip along the eastern border of Slovakia. Thus was the Czecho-Slovakia of 1919 stricken from the map. During the 5 years of the war Msgr. Tiso did not involve the country in the conflict ( except for sending volunteers to the Polish front). He declared his sympathy for the Reich while pursuing a neutral policy in Rome in order to protect his exports and his country's uncertain future. Msgr. Tiso's Slovakia was a curiously sad spectacle, encircled by Germany, protected by the Vatican, never �34 SLOVAKIA truly free but never quite occupied. Until 1944 she was indeed the Switzerland of the Danube basin, the "marketplace of Provence" of the Carpathian region. In August 1944 the internal calm was shattered by ill-matched squads, who set in motion an insurrection against the presence of the Germans. One group was directed from Moscow, the other (by Benes) from London. Armed bands were in conflict everywhere, but the Germans put down the rebellion within two months. The red army to the east looked on idly, reasoning that the Germans would suppress the entire Slovak resistance movement, which would facilitate an eventual communist takeover . Six months after the uprising the reds entered Slovakia and Slovak independence was at an end. On April 5, 1945 Dr. Edward Benes in company with the communist. Klement Gottwald, came to Kosice on the Slovak border, where he was met by Gustav Husak, a 32 year old communist leader. Husak said: "The first Czecho-Slovak Republic is dead. Gone is its centralism as well as its false political democracy. The new Republic will be a socialist federation of two nations equal under the law, the Czech nation and the Slovak nation." But the voice of Gustav Husak was not heard; it was the Czech communists who were in power. On March 17 and 18 in 1947 Msgr. Tiso's trial was coming to an end. The former head of the Slovak government drew up his own defense. "Mine was an unusual policy because the man who executed it was a priest", he began. "I had prepared for and intended to follow the duties of holy priesthood, not those of public office. As a priest I was committed to the service of God, the Church and the country of my birth, in which I was serving my ministry. Hence the mottoes 'for God, for country', 'with the people, for the people', were the expression of a guiding principle valid everywhere and under all conditions. They were not political slogans invented later to suit the circumstances." The death sentence was pronounced April 15, 1947 and was received calmly by Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The recital of the bill of indictment had lasted several hours. The communist jury had found the Slovak leader guilty on 97 �SLOVAKIA 35 out of 113 counts. The two principal crimes were: collaboration with Germany and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Benes and Klement Gottwald refused clemency. "I promise to intercede before God, the supreme master of this world", wrote Msgr. Tiso in his final message to the Slovaks, "that He keep the Slovak nation forever in His holy care, that He bless her in her struggle and that He grant she remain forever faithful to the Church of Christ." No one knows where the priest is buried. The interment was carried out in secrecy to prevent memorial demonstrations. But in St. Martin's cemetery a tomb was discovered where the earth was still loose and it was soon covered with the fowers of the faithful. There is an epilogue to this story. At the end of August 1968 the Russians began to speculate on whether or not they should separate Slovakia from Bohemia again. They decided against it but later, for greater security, they appointed Gustav Husak, the Slovak communist, to the leadership of the central government. Bratislava. - Dr. Joseph Tiso, former president of Siovakia, who is now on trial for his life before the Slovak People's Court here, gave startling testimony to the effect that early in 1945 he rejected a written suggestion submitted to him by an agent to proclaim Slovakia as a Soviet republic. He also disclaimed any personal responsibility for Slovakia 's participation in the war against Poland and Russia and the alleged maltreatment of political and war prisoners. - Jan Mauthner, Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 11 , 1947 . . Tiso's attorney was prevented from defending his client. Tiso was not allowed to make any notes on the trial. Tiso was accused on 113 counts, each of which carried the death sentence. No one is surprised that the final verdict of this long trial is death by hanging for Dr. Tiso. Try to imagine a similar situation in this country: Put President Truman on trial by order of Gromyko and let Gerard Eisler be the judge. Let Truman have no attorney and let both Gromyko and Eisler state publicly before the trial that the defendant will be hanged . - WGAR Clevelan d Radio Station, April 20, 1947, by Commentator Rev. Francis F ergus, Professor at St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, Ohio. � 26 SLOVAKIA Msgr. Joseph Tiso By Fran{;Ois d 'O r Ci Val ( This is the English translation of Mr. FranQois d'Orcival's article originally published in French, in the July 1971 issue of the magazine "Miroir de l'Histoire", Paris. The young French political writer has dealt with the cause of Slovak independence in his book " Le Danube etait noir" (The Danube was black), La Table Ronde, Paris 1968. In France, he represents a realistic trend seeking to de-mythologize European history. Ed.) At dawn on April 18, 1947 the bridge over the Danube was shrouded in fog as Msgr. Joseph Tiso concluded his prayer in the central prison of Bratislava and donned his black serge robe with the prisoner's red armband and the churchman's white collar. He had been condemned to death on April 15 and on April 17 reprieve had been denied. A Franciscan father had been sent to accompany him on his final journey. Msgr. Tiso was 59. He had been born in Bytca in the valley of the Vah, which cuts through the Carpathians and where the mountains and the forest always wear autumn color. He was a sturdy, well-built man with broad shoulders, closely-cropped hair and a serene expression, with the rough-hewn features of a solid man of the people. He had been the leader of an autonomous Slovak government from October 6, 1938 to March 10, 1939, then head of independent Slovakia from March 14, 1939 to Easter of 1945. That year when spring returned to the Tatras the bells of Rome were silent. Malinovsky's forces were scouring the countryside. In Bohemia the Wehrmacht was retreating. Msgr. Tiso and his government distributed to their people the flour remaining in the state granaries, then went into exile. The Americans arrested Msgr. Tiso in October 1945, extradited him from Austria and turned him over to Dr. Edward Benes, who had once again become Czecho-Slovakia's leader. �SLOVAKIA 27 The preliminary examination in the Tiso trial began December 3. The bill of indictment contained 230 pages and was prepared by three attorneys specializing in general matters, political guestions and military affairs. 42 witnesses were subpoenaed by the prosecution. Igor Daxner, a Protestant Slovak communist, was selected to preside over the people's court, assisted by Bedrna, a Czech communist. Five of the seven members of the court were communists. The first day of the hearing the authorities, fearing street demonstratio ns and riots, ringed Bratislava with soldiers; they also controlled access to public buildings and took strong security precautions at the Palace of Justice. At first the press was allowed to report the testimony of witnesses and some of Msgr. Tiso's statements but soon, realizing that popular sentiment remained too favorable to the former president of independent Slovakia, the government censored all news reports of the trial. The Catholic bishops, evidencing outstanding courage, published on January 3, 1946 a petition in the prisoner's behalf. "His fate", they declared, "will strongly influence a portion of the Slovak population in its attitude towards the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak Republic." The majority of the nation concurs with its bishops in believing Dr. Tiso's intentions to have been pure and good. The prosecutor summoned Karol Kmet'ko, archbishop of Slovakia, who paused to shake hands with the defendant on his way to the witness stand to answer the prosecutor's questions. "What did the Slovak state accomplish for the people?" he was asked. "Can you think of any nation which does not long for independence ?" replied archbishop Kmet'ko and continued: "Can you imagine an unfortunate people who would not rather have their own homes than depend on others?" "But", the prosecutor insisted, "this independence was actually dependence!" "No!" replied archbishop Kmet'ko. "It was ten times less damaging than the Protectorate ( of Bohemia and Moravia)!" "How could you approve of Msgr. Tiso's assumption of office?" the prosecutor then asked, and the archbishop �28 SLOVAKIA responded: "When the independence of the Slovak state was proclaimed I can affirm that the country and its people were 90 % in favor of it. We rediscovered the independence and the freedom which had been lost since the time of King Svatopluk." For those with the borders of the German and Slovak world that story goes back to the early period of the Middle Ages. In a study entitled "The Slovaks: A People; A Nation" Professor Joseph A. Mikus, one of the youngest diplomats of the independent Slovak state and currently professor in an American college, writes: It was Prince Pribina in the year 830 iwho conquered the West Slovak tribes and governed them from his castle in Nitra. His successors, Mojmir, Rastislav and Svatopluk extended their rule over the neighboring ,t erritories. In the second half of the ninth century the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were also subjugated by the Slovak king, Svatopluk. However, shortly thereafter the Czechs appealed to the German monarchs for help and were able to free themselves from Greater Moravia. After a c,o alition of Germans and Hungarians had defeated Mojmir II near Bratislava in 906, Slovakia was occupied by the Hungarians while the Czechs full under the domination of the Germans. Although Slovakia became an integral part of the Hungarian realm, the Premyslides rwere able to elevate the principality of Bohemia to a kingdom whose ruler became one of the electors of the German Empire. During the Turkish invasions Slovakia or Upper Hungary became the impregnable fortress of the realm. The Hungarian parliaments were still meeting in Bratislava during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was here, too, in Saint Martin's cathedral that the coronation of the Hungarian kings took place. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Czech Protestants at the White Mountain in 1620, the kingdom of Bohemia became an integral part of Austria's hereditary possessions. Even after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the Czechs remained under Austrian control and the Slovaks under Hungarian rule. Thus Czechs and Slovaks had never been united under one government before 1918. They were separated by the Carpathians. Bohemia was Protestant; Slovakia Catholic. The Czechs and the Germans had made Prague, the Bohemian capitol, one of the most cultured cities of Europe. The Slovaks, by contrast, boasted neither elite nor aristocracy; they were peasants and good soldiers. Although they lacked lords and commanders, the Slovaks nevertheless had their churchmen. One of these, �SLOVAKIA 29 Father Hlinka, born in 1864, was pastor at Ruzomberok, a big market-town situated in northern Slovakia between the Fatras and the Lower Tatras. He began his political ministry in 1905, fought for the autonomy of Slovakia, and founded the Slovak Populist party. In Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 a Belgrade high school student assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. On the same day in Prague the cry arose: "Down with the Hapsburgs! Down with AustriaHungary!" This was the cry of two atheist Czech socialists: the first a sociology professor at the University of Prague and leftist deputy to the Diet of Vienna, 64 year old Thomas Masaryk and the second, his 30 year old disciple, Edward Benes, doctor of laws. Of the 534 deputies representing all the nationalities of the empire the Czechs numbered 107, yet not one took up the cry of Masaryk and Benes. Repudiated, the two delegates left Prague secretly for Paris and London, where they founded a Czech National Committee, which in 1917 was transformed into a provisional government. A year later the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, attacked from within. In Slovakia Father Hlinka declared in 1918: "Our thousand-year marriage with the Magyars is ending in disaster. We must sever our ties with them!" The Slovaks were welcomed by the Czechs, who promised them freedom. The official birth of Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918. It was the triumph of Masaryk and Benes after four years of exile. According to international law Czecho-Slovakia did not come into being until the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919. Comprising Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Slovakia and Lower Subcarpathian Ukraine in the east, the country had an area of 140,000 square kilometers. The population was 13.6 million, of whom 6.5 million were Czech, 2.5 million Slovak, 3.3 million German and the rest Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. It was a mosaic of nationalities. In dismembering Austria-Hungary the western diplomats at Saint-Germain-en-Laye hoped to isolate Germany from Russia by a "cordon sanitaire" composed of newly allied states: Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Jugoslavia. But the Hapsburg dynasty, the unifying influence over all these states, was gone; the Danube countries of Europe �30 SLOVAKIA were destined once again to become the battleground of endless struggles. Masaryk and Benes had another plan. Realizing that they could not expect to found an independent Bohemia with only 6.5 million Czechs in a territory including 3.3 million Germans, they invented the fiction of a state which joined together the Czechs and Slovaks, a Czecho-Slovak state with 9 million inhabitants, who counterbalanced the 3 million Germans. The Slovaks accepted the new state on condition that it be federated and Benes assured them: "The Czecho-Slovakia of tomorrow will be the Switzerland of Central Europe. I guarantee it." However, from late 1918 onward Czech soldiers occupied Slovak territory to maintain order and Slovakia was not federated but annexed. After the soldiers came the bureaucrats. All the former Czech officials of the Empire, dismissed from Vienna and Budapest, descended on Bratislava. New teachers appeared in Slovak schools to teach Czech, which incited antiCatholic demonstrations in the villages. In September 1919 Father Hlinka, leader of the Catholic Populist party, went to the Paris peace conference with a long memorandum which began with these words: "Never has a nation been so cruelly deceived in its hopes as the Slovak nation." The Czech army also intervened energetically in Bohemia, but against the Sudeten Germans this time. (The Sudeten mountains are located in northern BohemiaMoravia.) As in Slovakia the Czech central government proceeded with an intense "czechization" of the administration, the economy, the schools and the police of the German regions. In the elections of 1935 the autonomists polled a majority in Slovakia, while in Bohemia the Germans had organized their own party. Their leader, Henlein, made contact with Hitler, who soon used the Sudeten Germans as one of the principal points of the propaganda. The German action and the diplomatic intervention of the British brought about a meeting in Munich of the four great powers of the time (Germany, Italy, Britain and France) on the Sudeten question. Through the Munich agreement the Germans of Czecho-Slovakia obtained on September 30, 1938 the right to regain their German �SLOVAKIA 31 fatherland. This development caused the loss of a strip of 25,000 square kilometers on the north-west frontier of the Czecho-Slovak state and a simultaneous loss of nearly 4 million inhabitants. As a consequence of this defeat Dr. Edward Benes, leader of the Czech government, resigned on October 5, 1938 and left Prague. The next day, October 6, at zilina, a little town situated in western Slovakia quite far from Prague, the leaders of Slovak parties assembled to proclaim the autonomy of their land, claiming the right defined in the Munich agreement-the right of nations to determine their own destiny. Father Hlinka's successor as head of the Populist and Autonomist party announced: "The Munich agreement has profoundly altered the political positions and the relations of the different states of central Europe. We Slovaks desire the freedom to determine our future, particularly in respect to the administration of our state." That very evening the first autonomous Slovak government was formed and its presidency entrusted to the new leader of the autonomous Populist party, Msgr. Tiso. zilina was a town Msgr. Tiso knew well, for in its schools he had learned to read and write. He had then enrolled in the seminary at Nitra, where in the year 833 Prince Pribina had erected the first Christian Church in Slovakia at the base of the Slovak central mountains. Joseph Tiso had completed his studies of ethics and theology at the University of Vienna. He was ordained July 14, 1910 and the same year received the degree of doctor of theology. In 1914 he became military chaplain. The following year he wa.s called back to Nitra to teach during the absence of professors who had gone to war. About 1920 he joined Father Hlinka, the founder of the Autonomist party and was assigned to the parish at Banovce, which is on the Bebrava river at the southern point of the hills of the Patras. Here began his public life. He was always to be a man of his word, loyal to his faith and to his land. To his parishioners he was a protector against the devil, as in ancient times. General Sirovy, head of the central government of Prague since the departure of Dr. Benes, assented to the setting-up of the Slovak cabinet. For Msgr. Tiso the most �32 SLOVAKIA difficult problem involved the frontiers, for the Magyars were making claims, as were the Poles and the Germans. On November 2, 1938 in Vienna an agreement was signed. The Magyars received the regions of Slovakia where the majority of the people were Magyar, the Poles received Teschen, and the Germans received a suburb of Petrzalka near Bratislava on the Danube. Elections took place in Slovakia on November 18, 1938 and the Autonomist candidates received 97 .5 ~c of the vote. The first Czecho-Slovak Republic having died at Munich two months previously, a second Republic came into being on November 30, federated and under the presidency of Dr. Ha.cha, a slight, 66 year old man in delicate health, who spoke with a marked Bohemian accent. In spite of the creation of a federated Republic, the relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not improve. A latent crisis kept them in conflict until February 1939, when the real crisis began. The Slovaks needed credit, but the Czechs refused it on the pretext that the Slovaks were disloyal to the republic. Finally on March 9, 1939 Dr. Ha.cha ousted Msgr. Tiso and his colleagues from their positions and at dawn on March 10, 1939 Slovakia was occupied by Czech police and soldiers-that is, by the "federals". Martial law was proclaimed; the local militia was dissolved. Msgr. Tiso withdrew to his rectory in Banovce and waited. German diplomacy, which had been very active since the departure of Dr. Benes, intervened, trying to crush the Czech coup in Slovakia so that the Slovaks would clearly separate themselves from the Czechs and put an end to the existence of this unified country situated in the heart of the German Reich. After several vain attempts the Reich representatives in Vienna, Seyss-Inquart and Buerckel, made contact with Msgr. Tiso; two of their secret agents came to Banovce the night of March 12 to 13, 1939 to extend an invitation from Hitler. Msgr . Tiso, waking with a start, was at first stunned, suspecting a trap. Then he acquiesced but requested a delay. Hitler frightened him and yet he knew that Berlin was the city of destiny at that moment. Finally, after conferring with his friends, he flew to Berlin. Even after 6 months of heading an �SLOVAKIA 33 autonomous government he had remained essentially a fighter-priest of the country and now resembled a Poujadist cleric on his way to see Dracula. On the evening of March 13 Hitler and Tiso agreed that Slovakia would declare her independence the next day. Hitler, moreover, convinced of an impending assault by Benes to regain power in Prague, had already decided to invade Bohemia on March 15. Msgr. Tiso hesitated at length before being convinced. He returned to Bratislava, convened the Assembly and formed a new cabinet. His cabinet ministers were not appointed by the Reich ambassadors but were simply those who had been Autonomist Slovak leaders for the previous ten or twenty years. At noon on Tuesday, March 14 the Assembly by unanimous vote severed Slovakia from the rest of Czech nation. This declaration had been accelerated by the German action but would have been less effective without the Czech coup on March 10. Dr. Ha.cha reached Berlin the same day in a state of exhaustion to entreat the Fuhrer on behalf of his people but the Fuhrer did not yield. On March 15, two hours before the first columns of the Wehrmacht re '.:'.ched Bohemia, President Ha.cha signed the capitulation: "The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic has confidently placed the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech lands in the hands of the Fuhrer of the German Reich ... " On March 16, while the German protectorate was being established in Bohemia-Moravia, Msgr. Tiso, leader of independent Slovakia, sought the protection of the Reich and signed a treaty which, without specifying occupation of Slovak territory, rendered the country a satellite. Hungary, with the support of Italy, invaded Subcarpathian Ukraine and a strip along the eastern border of Slovakia. Thus was the Czecho-Slovakia of 1919 stricken from the map. During the 5 years of the war Msgr. Tiso did not involve the country in the conflict ( except for sending volunteers to the Polish front). He declared his sympathy for the Reich while pursuing a neutral policy in Rome in order to protect his exports and his country's uncertain future. Msgr. Tiso's Slovakia was a curiously sad spectacle, encircled by Germany, protected by the Vatican, never �34 SLOVAKIA truly free but never quite occupied. Until 1944 she was indeed the Switzerland of the Danube basin, the "marketplace of Provence" of the Carpathian region. In August 1944 the internal calm was shattered by ill-matched squads, who set in motion an insurrection against the presence of the Germans. One group was directed from Moscow, the other (by Benes) from London. Armed bands were in conflict everywhere, but the Germans put down the rebellion within two months. The red army to the east looked on idly, reasoning that the Germans would suppress the entire Slovak resistance movement, which would facilitate an eventual communist takeover . Six months after the uprising the reds entered Slovakia and Slovak independence was at an end. On April 5, 1945 Dr. Edward Benes in company with the communist. Klement Gottwald, came to Kosice on the Slovak border, where he was met by Gustav Husak, a 32 year old communist leader. Husak said: "The first Czecho-Slovak Republic is dead. Gone is its centralism as well as its false political democracy. The new Republic will be a socialist federation of two nations equal under the law, the Czech nation and the Slovak nation." But the voice of Gustav Husak was not heard; it was the Czech communists who were in power. On March 17 and 18 in 1947 Msgr. Tiso's trial was coming to an end. The former head of the Slovak government drew up his own defense. "Mine was an unusual policy because the man who executed it was a priest", he began. "I had prepared for and intended to follow the duties of holy priesthood, not those of public office. As a priest I was committed to the service of God, the Church and the country of my birth, in which I was serving my ministry. Hence the mottoes 'for God, for country', 'with the people, for the people', were the expression of a guiding principle valid everywhere and under all conditions. They were not political slogans invented later to suit the circumstances." The death sentence was pronounced April 15, 1947 and was received calmly by Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The recital of the bill of indictment had lasted several hours. The communist jury had found the Slovak leader guilty on 97 �SLOVAKIA 35 out of 113 counts. The two principal crimes were: collaboration with Germany and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Benes and Klement Gottwald refused clemency. "I promise to intercede before God, the supreme master of this world", wrote Msgr. Tiso in his final message to the Slovaks, "that He keep the Slovak nation forever in His holy care, that He bless her in her struggle and that He grant she remain forever faithful to the Church of Christ." No one knows where the priest is buried. The interment was carried out in secrecy to prevent memorial demonstrations. But in St. Martin's cemetery a tomb was discovered where the earth was still loose and it was soon covered with the fowers of the faithful. There is an epilogue to this story. At the end of August 1968 the Russians began to speculate on whether or not they should separate Slovakia from Bohemia again. They decided against it but later, for greater security, they appointed Gustav Husak, the Slovak communist, to the leadership of the central government. Bratislava. - Dr. Joseph Tiso, former president of Siovakia, who is now on trial for his life before the Slovak People's Court here, gave startling testimony to the effect that early in 1945 he rejected a written suggestion submitted to him by an agent to proclaim Slovakia as a Soviet republic. He also disclaimed any personal responsibility for Slovakia 's participation in the war against Poland and Russia and the alleged maltreatment of political and war prisoners. - Jan Mauthner, Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 11 , 1947 . . Tiso's attorney was prevented from defending his client. Tiso was not allowed to make any notes on the trial. Tiso was accused on 113 counts, each of which carried the death sentence. No one is surprised that the final verdict of this long trial is death by hanging for Dr. Tiso. Try to imagine a similar situation in this country: Put President Truman on trial by order of Gromyko and let Gerard Eisler be the judge. Let Truman have no attorney and let both Gromyko and Eisler state publicly before the trial that the defendant will be hanged . - WGAR Clevelan d Radio Station, April 20, 1947, by Commentator Rev. Francis F ergus, Professor at St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, Ohio. � 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 26 SLOVAKIA Msgr. Joseph Tiso By Fran{;Ois d 'O r Ci Val ( This is the English translation of Mr. FranQois d'Orcival's article originally published in French, in the July 1971 issue of the magazine "Miroir de l'Histoire", Paris. The young French political writer has dealt with the cause of Slovak independence in his book " Le Danube etait noir" (The Danube was black), La Table Ronde, Paris 1968. In France, he represents a realistic trend seeking to de-mythologize European history. Ed.) At dawn on April 18, 1947 the bridge over the Danube was shrouded in fog as Msgr. Joseph Tiso concluded his prayer in the central prison of Bratislava and donned his black serge robe with the prisoner's red armband and the churchman's white collar. He had been condemned to death on April 15 and on April 17 reprieve had been denied. A Franciscan father had been sent to accompany him on his final journey. Msgr. Tiso was 59. He had been born in Bytca in the valley of the Vah, which cuts through the Carpathians and where the mountains and the forest always wear autumn color. He was a sturdy, well-built man with broad shoulders, closely-cropped hair and a serene expression, with the rough-hewn features of a solid man of the people. He had been the leader of an autonomous Slovak government from October 6, 1938 to March 10, 1939, then head of independent Slovakia from March 14, 1939 to Easter of 1945. That year when spring returned to the Tatras the bells of Rome were silent. Malinovsky's forces were scouring the countryside. In Bohemia the Wehrmacht was retreating. Msgr. Tiso and his government distributed to their people the flour remaining in the state granaries, then went into exile. The Americans arrested Msgr. Tiso in October 1945, extradited him from Austria and turned him over to Dr. Edward Benes, who had once again become Czecho-Slovakia's leader. SLOVAKIA 27 The preliminary examination in the Tiso trial began December 3. The bill of indictment contained 230 pages and was prepared by three attorneys specializing in general matters, political guestions and military affairs. 42 witnesses were subpoenaed by the prosecution. Igor Daxner, a Protestant Slovak communist, was selected to preside over the people's court, assisted by Bedrna, a Czech communist. Five of the seven members of the court were communists. The first day of the hearing the authorities, fearing street demonstratio ns and riots, ringed Bratislava with soldiers; they also controlled access to public buildings and took strong security precautions at the Palace of Justice. At first the press was allowed to report the testimony of witnesses and some of Msgr. Tiso's statements but soon, realizing that popular sentiment remained too favorable to the former president of independent Slovakia, the government censored all news reports of the trial. The Catholic bishops, evidencing outstanding courage, published on January 3, 1946 a petition in the prisoner's behalf. "His fate", they declared, "will strongly influence a portion of the Slovak population in its attitude towards the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak Republic." The majority of the nation concurs with its bishops in believing Dr. Tiso's intentions to have been pure and good. The prosecutor summoned Karol Kmet'ko, archbishop of Slovakia, who paused to shake hands with the defendant on his way to the witness stand to answer the prosecutor's questions. "What did the Slovak state accomplish for the people?" he was asked. "Can you think of any nation which does not long for independence ?" replied archbishop Kmet'ko and continued: "Can you imagine an unfortunate people who would not rather have their own homes than depend on others?" "But", the prosecutor insisted, "this independence was actually dependence!" "No!" replied archbishop Kmet'ko. "It was ten times less damaging than the Protectorate ( of Bohemia and Moravia)!" "How could you approve of Msgr. Tiso's assumption of office?" the prosecutor then asked, and the archbishop 28 SLOVAKIA responded: "When the independence of the Slovak state was proclaimed I can affirm that the country and its people were 90 % in favor of it. We rediscovered the independence and the freedom which had been lost since the time of King Svatopluk." For those with the borders of the German and Slovak world that story goes back to the early period of the Middle Ages. In a study entitled "The Slovaks: A People; A Nation" Professor Joseph A. Mikus, one of the youngest diplomats of the independent Slovak state and currently professor in an American college, writes: It was Prince Pribina in the year 830 iwho conquered the West Slovak tribes and governed them from his castle in Nitra. His successors, Mojmir, Rastislav and Svatopluk extended their rule over the neighboring ,t erritories. In the second half of the ninth century the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were also subjugated by the Slovak king, Svatopluk. However, shortly thereafter the Czechs appealed to the German monarchs for help and were able to free themselves from Greater Moravia. After a c,o alition of Germans and Hungarians had defeated Mojmir II near Bratislava in 906, Slovakia was occupied by the Hungarians while the Czechs full under the domination of the Germans. Although Slovakia became an integral part of the Hungarian realm, the Premyslides rwere able to elevate the principality of Bohemia to a kingdom whose ruler became one of the electors of the German Empire. During the Turkish invasions Slovakia or Upper Hungary became the impregnable fortress of the realm. The Hungarian parliaments were still meeting in Bratislava during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was here, too, in Saint Martin's cathedral that the coronation of the Hungarian kings took place. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Czech Protestants at the White Mountain in 1620, the kingdom of Bohemia became an integral part of Austria's hereditary possessions. Even after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the Czechs remained under Austrian control and the Slovaks under Hungarian rule. Thus Czechs and Slovaks had never been united under one government before 1918. They were separated by the Carpathians. Bohemia was Protestant; Slovakia Catholic. The Czechs and the Germans had made Prague, the Bohemian capitol, one of the most cultured cities of Europe. The Slovaks, by contrast, boasted neither elite nor aristocracy; they were peasants and good soldiers. Although they lacked lords and commanders, the Slovaks nevertheless had their churchmen. One of these, SLOVAKIA 29 Father Hlinka, born in 1864, was pastor at Ruzomberok, a big market-town situated in northern Slovakia between the Fatras and the Lower Tatras. He began his political ministry in 1905, fought for the autonomy of Slovakia, and founded the Slovak Populist party. In Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 a Belgrade high school student assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. On the same day in Prague the cry arose: "Down with the Hapsburgs! Down with AustriaHungary!" This was the cry of two atheist Czech socialists: the first a sociology professor at the University of Prague and leftist deputy to the Diet of Vienna, 64 year old Thomas Masaryk and the second, his 30 year old disciple, Edward Benes, doctor of laws. Of the 534 deputies representing all the nationalities of the empire the Czechs numbered 107, yet not one took up the cry of Masaryk and Benes. Repudiated, the two delegates left Prague secretly for Paris and London, where they founded a Czech National Committee, which in 1917 was transformed into a provisional government. A year later the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, attacked from within. In Slovakia Father Hlinka declared in 1918: "Our thousand-year marriage with the Magyars is ending in disaster. We must sever our ties with them!" The Slovaks were welcomed by the Czechs, who promised them freedom. The official birth of Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918. It was the triumph of Masaryk and Benes after four years of exile. According to international law Czecho-Slovakia did not come into being until the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919. Comprising Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Slovakia and Lower Subcarpathian Ukraine in the east, the country had an area of 140,000 square kilometers. The population was 13.6 million, of whom 6.5 million were Czech, 2.5 million Slovak, 3.3 million German and the rest Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. It was a mosaic of nationalities. In dismembering Austria-Hungary the western diplomats at Saint-Germain-en-Laye hoped to isolate Germany from Russia by a "cordon sanitaire" composed of newly allied states: Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Jugoslavia. But the Hapsburg dynasty, the unifying influence over all these states, was gone; the Danube countries of Europe 30 SLOVAKIA were destined once again to become the battleground of endless struggles. Masaryk and Benes had another plan. Realizing that they could not expect to found an independent Bohemia with only 6.5 million Czechs in a territory including 3.3 million Germans, they invented the fiction of a state which joined together the Czechs and Slovaks, a Czecho-Slovak state with 9 million inhabitants, who counterbalanced the 3 million Germans. The Slovaks accepted the new state on condition that it be federated and Benes assured them: "The Czecho-Slovakia of tomorrow will be the Switzerland of Central Europe. I guarantee it." However, from late 1918 onward Czech soldiers occupied Slovak territory to maintain order and Slovakia was not federated but annexed. After the soldiers came the bureaucrats. All the former Czech officials of the Empire, dismissed from Vienna and Budapest, descended on Bratislava. New teachers appeared in Slovak schools to teach Czech, which incited antiCatholic demonstrations in the villages. In September 1919 Father Hlinka, leader of the Catholic Populist party, went to the Paris peace conference with a long memorandum which began with these words: "Never has a nation been so cruelly deceived in its hopes as the Slovak nation." The Czech army also intervened energetically in Bohemia, but against the Sudeten Germans this time. (The Sudeten mountains are located in northern BohemiaMoravia.) As in Slovakia the Czech central government proceeded with an intense "czechization" of the administration, the economy, the schools and the police of the German regions. In the elections of 1935 the autonomists polled a majority in Slovakia, while in Bohemia the Germans had organized their own party. Their leader, Henlein, made contact with Hitler, who soon used the Sudeten Germans as one of the principal points of the propaganda. The German action and the diplomatic intervention of the British brought about a meeting in Munich of the four great powers of the time (Germany, Italy, Britain and France) on the Sudeten question. Through the Munich agreement the Germans of Czecho-Slovakia obtained on September 30, 1938 the right to regain their German SLOVAKIA 31 fatherland. This development caused the loss of a strip of 25,000 square kilometers on the north-west frontier of the Czecho-Slovak state and a simultaneous loss of nearly 4 million inhabitants. As a consequence of this defeat Dr. Edward Benes, leader of the Czech government, resigned on October 5, 1938 and left Prague. The next day, October 6, at zilina, a little town situated in western Slovakia quite far from Prague, the leaders of Slovak parties assembled to proclaim the autonomy of their land, claiming the right defined in the Munich agreement-the right of nations to determine their own destiny. Father Hlinka's successor as head of the Populist and Autonomist party announced: "The Munich agreement has profoundly altered the political positions and the relations of the different states of central Europe. We Slovaks desire the freedom to determine our future, particularly in respect to the administration of our state." That very evening the first autonomous Slovak government was formed and its presidency entrusted to the new leader of the autonomous Populist party, Msgr. Tiso. zilina was a town Msgr. Tiso knew well, for in its schools he had learned to read and write. He had then enrolled in the seminary at Nitra, where in the year 833 Prince Pribina had erected the first Christian Church in Slovakia at the base of the Slovak central mountains. Joseph Tiso had completed his studies of ethics and theology at the University of Vienna. He was ordained July 14, 1910 and the same year received the degree of doctor of theology. In 1914 he became military chaplain. The following year he wa.s called back to Nitra to teach during the absence of professors who had gone to war. About 1920 he joined Father Hlinka, the founder of the Autonomist party and was assigned to the parish at Banovce, which is on the Bebrava river at the southern point of the hills of the Patras. Here began his public life. He was always to be a man of his word, loyal to his faith and to his land. To his parishioners he was a protector against the devil, as in ancient times. General Sirovy, head of the central government of Prague since the departure of Dr. Benes, assented to the setting-up of the Slovak cabinet. For Msgr. Tiso the most 32 SLOVAKIA difficult problem involved the frontiers, for the Magyars were making claims, as were the Poles and the Germans. On November 2, 1938 in Vienna an agreement was signed. The Magyars received the regions of Slovakia where the majority of the people were Magyar, the Poles received Teschen, and the Germans received a suburb of Petrzalka near Bratislava on the Danube. Elections took place in Slovakia on November 18, 1938 and the Autonomist candidates received 97 .5 ~c of the vote. The first Czecho-Slovak Republic having died at Munich two months previously, a second Republic came into being on November 30, federated and under the presidency of Dr. Ha.cha, a slight, 66 year old man in delicate health, who spoke with a marked Bohemian accent. In spite of the creation of a federated Republic, the relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not improve. A latent crisis kept them in conflict until February 1939, when the real crisis began. The Slovaks needed credit, but the Czechs refused it on the pretext that the Slovaks were disloyal to the republic. Finally on March 9, 1939 Dr. Ha.cha ousted Msgr. Tiso and his colleagues from their positions and at dawn on March 10, 1939 Slovakia was occupied by Czech police and soldiers-that is, by the "federals". Martial law was proclaimed; the local militia was dissolved. Msgr. Tiso withdrew to his rectory in Banovce and waited. German diplomacy, which had been very active since the departure of Dr. Benes, intervened, trying to crush the Czech coup in Slovakia so that the Slovaks would clearly separate themselves from the Czechs and put an end to the existence of this unified country situated in the heart of the German Reich. After several vain attempts the Reich representatives in Vienna, Seyss-Inquart and Buerckel, made contact with Msgr. Tiso; two of their secret agents came to Banovce the night of March 12 to 13, 1939 to extend an invitation from Hitler. Msgr . Tiso, waking with a start, was at first stunned, suspecting a trap. Then he acquiesced but requested a delay. Hitler frightened him and yet he knew that Berlin was the city of destiny at that moment. Finally, after conferring with his friends, he flew to Berlin. Even after 6 months of heading an SLOVAKIA 33 autonomous government he had remained essentially a fighter-priest of the country and now resembled a Poujadist cleric on his way to see Dracula. On the evening of March 13 Hitler and Tiso agreed that Slovakia would declare her independence the next day. Hitler, moreover, convinced of an impending assault by Benes to regain power in Prague, had already decided to invade Bohemia on March 15. Msgr. Tiso hesitated at length before being convinced. He returned to Bratislava, convened the Assembly and formed a new cabinet. His cabinet ministers were not appointed by the Reich ambassadors but were simply those who had been Autonomist Slovak leaders for the previous ten or twenty years. At noon on Tuesday, March 14 the Assembly by unanimous vote severed Slovakia from the rest of Czech nation. This declaration had been accelerated by the German action but would have been less effective without the Czech coup on March 10. Dr. Ha.cha reached Berlin the same day in a state of exhaustion to entreat the Fuhrer on behalf of his people but the Fuhrer did not yield. On March 15, two hours before the first columns of the Wehrmacht re '.:'.ched Bohemia, President Ha.cha signed the capitulation: "The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic has confidently placed the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech lands in the hands of the Fuhrer of the German Reich ... " On March 16, while the German protectorate was being established in Bohemia-Moravia, Msgr. Tiso, leader of independent Slovakia, sought the protection of the Reich and signed a treaty which, without specifying occupation of Slovak territory, rendered the country a satellite. Hungary, with the support of Italy, invaded Subcarpathian Ukraine and a strip along the eastern border of Slovakia. Thus was the Czecho-Slovakia of 1919 stricken from the map. During the 5 years of the war Msgr. Tiso did not involve the country in the conflict ( except for sending volunteers to the Polish front). He declared his sympathy for the Reich while pursuing a neutral policy in Rome in order to protect his exports and his country's uncertain future. Msgr. Tiso's Slovakia was a curiously sad spectacle, encircled by Germany, protected by the Vatican, never 34 SLOVAKIA truly free but never quite occupied. Until 1944 she was indeed the Switzerland of the Danube basin, the "marketplace of Provence" of the Carpathian region. In August 1944 the internal calm was shattered by ill-matched squads, who set in motion an insurrection against the presence of the Germans. One group was directed from Moscow, the other (by Benes) from London. Armed bands were in conflict everywhere, but the Germans put down the rebellion within two months. The red army to the east looked on idly, reasoning that the Germans would suppress the entire Slovak resistance movement, which would facilitate an eventual communist takeover . Six months after the uprising the reds entered Slovakia and Slovak independence was at an end. On April 5, 1945 Dr. Edward Benes in company with the communist. Klement Gottwald, came to Kosice on the Slovak border, where he was met by Gustav Husak, a 32 year old communist leader. Husak said: "The first Czecho-Slovak Republic is dead. Gone is its centralism as well as its false political democracy. The new Republic will be a socialist federation of two nations equal under the law, the Czech nation and the Slovak nation." But the voice of Gustav Husak was not heard; it was the Czech communists who were in power. On March 17 and 18 in 1947 Msgr. Tiso's trial was coming to an end. The former head of the Slovak government drew up his own defense. "Mine was an unusual policy because the man who executed it was a priest", he began. "I had prepared for and intended to follow the duties of holy priesthood, not those of public office. As a priest I was committed to the service of God, the Church and the country of my birth, in which I was serving my ministry. Hence the mottoes 'for God, for country', 'with the people, for the people', were the expression of a guiding principle valid everywhere and under all conditions. They were not political slogans invented later to suit the circumstances." The death sentence was pronounced April 15, 1947 and was received calmly by Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The recital of the bill of indictment had lasted several hours. The communist jury had found the Slovak leader guilty on 97 SLOVAKIA 35 out of 113 counts. The two principal crimes were: collaboration with Germany and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Benes and Klement Gottwald refused clemency. "I promise to intercede before God, the supreme master of this world", wrote Msgr. Tiso in his final message to the Slovaks, "that He keep the Slovak nation forever in His holy care, that He bless her in her struggle and that He grant she remain forever faithful to the Church of Christ." No one knows where the priest is buried. The interment was carried out in secrecy to prevent memorial demonstrations. But in St. Martin's cemetery a tomb was discovered where the earth was still loose and it was soon covered with the fowers of the faithful. There is an epilogue to this story. At the end of August 1968 the Russians began to speculate on whether or not they should separate Slovakia from Bohemia again. They decided against it but later, for greater security, they appointed Gustav Husak, the Slovak communist, to the leadership of the central government. Bratislava. - Dr. Joseph Tiso, former president of Siovakia, who is now on trial for his life before the Slovak People's Court here, gave startling testimony to the effect that early in 1945 he rejected a written suggestion submitted to him by an agent to proclaim Slovakia as a Soviet republic. He also disclaimed any personal responsibility for Slovakia 's participation in the war against Poland and Russia and the alleged maltreatment of political and war prisoners. - Jan Mauthner, Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 11 , 1947 . . Tiso's attorney was prevented from defending his client. Tiso was not allowed to make any notes on the trial. Tiso was accused on 113 counts, each of which carried the death sentence. No one is surprised that the final verdict of this long trial is death by hanging for Dr. Tiso. Try to imagine a similar situation in this country: Put President Truman on trial by order of Gromyko and let Gerard Eisler be the judge. Let Truman have no attorney and let both Gromyko and Eisler state publicly before the trial that the defendant will be hanged . - WGAR Clevelan d Radio Station, April 20, 1947, by Commentator Rev. Francis F ergus, Professor at St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, Ohio.  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 Msgr. Joseph Tiso Description An account of the resource François d'Orcival orig. in French, publ. in Miroir de l'Histoire, July 1971 Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 26-35 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Orcival, François d' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4b3dfb1be510791b953c7ba1bf686763.pdf 1bd60abcbe147ef63cc1b2e4b7d2a222 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 21 I Met President Tiso E. L. Delaney Periodically some senators and representatives arise in the halls of Congress to eloquently deplore the plight of those people in what we rightly regard as the "Captive Nations". Apart from expressions of synthetic sympathy nothing meaningful is done to effect the liberation of those captives in the Soviet-communist combine. The short-lived Republic of Slovakia is one of those unfortunate victims. Thirty three years ago-March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava-in accordance with the CzechoSlovak constitution - unanimously proclaimed the independence of the Slovak Republic. With its population of about 4,400,000 and an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometers, Slovakia is in the heart of Eastern Europe . In the 9th and 10th centuries it was the first political, cultural and Christian center in that part of the world . But it was not until March of 1939 that Slovakia's duly elected political representatives proclaimed their right of self-determination. In March 1939 there was no war in Europe and none was imminent. Practically all European countries officially recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic or consular relations with the new political entity-including our wartime allies, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The fact that pernicious influences in our Washington administration succeeded in withholding recognition of the new Republic does not alter the indisputable fact that it did exist. Non-European countries with representation in Bratislava, the capital, were: Japan, Manchuria, Siam, China, Costa Rica and Equador. It is appropriate to mention that the Soviet had approximately 200 persons attached to its embassy in Bratislava. Other countries could operate with 10 or 12 people. But undoubtedly large staffs are �22 SLOVAEJA needed for propaganda, subversion and espionage, in which the Soviet is always engaged. During World War II, when a large part of Europe was plagued by want, Slovakia was rightfully regarded as an oasis of peace, prosperity and plenty. This paradise in war-rationed Europe had existed over three years before I had an opportunity to enjoy it. A few days after my arrival in Bratislava, the capital, I was invited to a dinner party where I met Jozef Mracna. He had been Consul for Czecho-Slovakia in New York. We soon discovered that we had many mutual friends there. He returned to Slovakia when it became a self-governing republic and was an official of the administration. I asked him if he could arrange for me to interview the President. He said he could-and did. On my arrival at the presidential palace at the appointed time I met Dr. Karol Murin, personal secretary of Msgr. Tiso who escorted me into the President's private study. Msgr. Tiso, or President Tiso as he was then, greeted me with a hearty hand-shake and a few words of English -his entire vocabulary in that language, as he laughingly admitted. He spoke Slovak, Czech, German and Hungarian, so our interview was conducted in German. His black hair was sprinkled with a few strands of grey and his dark blue eyes resembled those of the Irish. I mentioned to the President that a learned professor in Banska Bystrica told me that the Slovaks and Irish are both of Celtic origin. Msgr. Tiso observed that there is some similarity between Slovakia and Ireland; both countries are predominently Christian and have been for centuries; both are largely agrarian and both have more of their countrymen in America than in Europe. Our discussion touched on various subjects. For generations Slovakia had been a farming community but now they were promoting various industries. "A major problem confronting us," said the President, "is in getting teachers and technical instructors for the projects we hope to develop." When Slovakia was part of Czecho-Slovakia, the Czechs �SLOVAKIA 23 contrived to keep all industries in their part of the country. Now Slovakia, as the President observed, was endeavoring to encourage and develop its resources without too much reliance on Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or Russians. As the time came for me to leave, I mentioned to his Excellency that there was a twinkle of humor in his eyes and would it be quite proper for me to send him a little reminder of our visit? "What-for instance?" he asked. "I'm sure that during these winter nights it is quite cold in this ages-old palace. So I thought - that for medicinal purpose, of course, you might appreciate a half dozen bottles of good Canadian whisky." He laughed heartily and said, "I'll be glad to get it." The gift was sent. Some time later I was asked to again visit the palace when the President gave me a beautiful example of the artistic needle work that is done by many of the Slovak women and girls. That treasure is still in my possession. Little did I surmise that we were to be together several more times-but under vastly different circumstances. In the so-called histories and recordings of important events in Central and Eastern Europe during the latter weeks of World War II-much is purposely omitted. There is no mention of the unprecedented proposal made by the Soviet communists to recognize Slovakia as a sovereign state and to retain Msgr. Tiso as President. That proposal was made through diplomatic channels and told me by Stefan Tiso, then prime minister of Slovakia and confirmed by the former foreign minister of Slovakia, Dr. Ferdinand f>urcansky, presently residing in Munich, Germany. Of all the captive nations under the thraldom of Soviet communism, none would be more incongruous than a communist Slovakia with a Catholic monsignor as its president. Of course the Kremlin's proposal was curtly rejected by the Tiso administration. When the Red army advanced from Budapest toward Bratislava, President Tiso and his cabinet together with many others fled to Kremsmuenster, Austria. They expected and rightly so, that the United States forces would occupy �24 SLOVAKIA that part of Eastern Europe. The Slovak "colony" arrived in Austria April 1, 1945. (This writer left Slovakia the following day.) Although regarded as "top secret" it was known that the former president of Czecho-Slovakia, Eduard Benes, with the aid of Franklin Roosevelt had flown to Moscow where he betrayed his country to the communists, with the understanding that he would be the "president" of the republic we now know as Czecho-Slovakia. On May 8, 1945, the refugee Slovak government in Austria signed a surrender document which was co-signed by Brig. General W. A. Collier of the US Army; Col. T. 0. Curtis and Capt. David W. Allard of the US Army. General Collier assured the Slovak refugees that they would not be delivered to the communists. Like some of the other pledges of proper treatment that were made by American officialdom to the anticommunists in certain European countries, such assurances were flagrantly violated. President Tiso, with his cabinet members, private secretary and another priest were transferred from Austria to an internment establishment in Freising, Bavaria, which was maintained by the U.S. Army . In Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum's book "Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe" is noted on page 311 a caption: Denial By U.S. War Department." (as follows) "Washington, D. C. February 7, 1947. "There is no record in the files of this office which shows that Monsignor Tiso was ever held by the American Forces or delivered to the Czechoslovakian authorities from American custody. Daniel Noce, Major General, O.S.C . Chief Civil Affairs Div." That statement of General Noce was either due to lamentable and inexcusable ignorance of fact or deliberate lie. I was with Msgr. Tiso many hours of many days when he and his fellow Slovaks were imprisoned by the American military forces in barracks at Freising. The charge against me was that I "had written anti-communist articles during the war." The charge was correct. I had written anti-communist, anti-Soviet articles. I dared, in fact cordially invited the �SLOVAKIA 25 Justice Department officials to make such formal indictment against me. If anti-Soviet and anti-communist was regarded as un-American and a criminal offense, I wanted it publicized in an American court. For obvious reasons the Justice Department found it convenient not to invite such exposure of aid to communist causes of which certain departments of the administration were guilty. All were shocked one morning when word was received at the Freising barracks that the Slovaks were to be delivered to the communist regime of Eduard Benes. I went to those betrayed Slovaks and assured them that it was not real Americans who were violating every pledge given them. Among the armed guards who were to deliver the Slovaks to the communist torturers were European born refugees in American uniforms . The testimony of those Slovaks who endured that transfer from Freising into the territory of the Czech regime of communist-aiding Eduard Benes-is a matter of indisputable record. We recall with shame the barbarian brutalities suffered recently by the Lithuanian seaman who sought refuge on an American Coast Guard vessel. Equally as brutal treatment was the lot of those Slovaks whe were beaten, kicked and tortured unmercifully by the alien element in American uniforms, then delivered to the communists. During the sham "trial" in Bratislava of Msgr. Tiso the communist prosecutor endeavored to force reference by Tiso of that ordeal. But Tiso refused to speak of it. His fate was pre-ordained. Death by hanging. Because he had served his God and his beloved people to the best of his ability-he was sentenced to death. Two hours before his execution he wrote a message for his people and for all Western Christian civilization. He wrote-in part: "I consider myself a martyr in defense c:>f Christianity against Bolshevism-against which the nation must defend itself in all possible ways, not only in the spirit of its Christian character but in the interests of its future." I recall that Msgr. Tiso once impressed on me the truth that "you cannot compromise with communism." That truism should be impressed on those who now urge cooperation with communism. � SLOVAKIA 21 I Met President Tiso E. L. Delaney Periodically some senators and representatives arise in the halls of Congress to eloquently deplore the plight of those people in what we rightly regard as the "Captive Nations". Apart from expressions of synthetic sympathy nothing meaningful is done to effect the liberation of those captives in the Soviet-communist combine. The short-lived Republic of Slovakia is one of those unfortunate victims. Thirty three years ago-March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava-in accordance with the CzechoSlovak constitution - unanimously proclaimed the independence of the Slovak Republic. With its population of about 4,400,000 and an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometers, Slovakia is in the heart of Eastern Europe . In the 9th and 10th centuries it was the first political, cultural and Christian center in that part of the world . But it was not until March of 1939 that Slovakia's duly elected political representatives proclaimed their right of self-determination. In March 1939 there was no war in Europe and none was imminent. Practically all European countries officially recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic or consular relations with the new political entity-including our wartime allies, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The fact that pernicious influences in our Washington administration succeeded in withholding recognition of the new Republic does not alter the indisputable fact that it did exist. Non-European countries with representation in Bratislava, the capital, were: Japan, Manchuria, Siam, China, Costa Rica and Equador. It is appropriate to mention that the Soviet had approximately 200 persons attached to its embassy in Bratislava. Other countries could operate with 10 or 12 people. But undoubtedly large staffs are �22 SLOVAEJA needed for propaganda, subversion and espionage, in which the Soviet is always engaged. During World War II, when a large part of Europe was plagued by want, Slovakia was rightfully regarded as an oasis of peace, prosperity and plenty. This paradise in war-rationed Europe had existed over three years before I had an opportunity to enjoy it. A few days after my arrival in Bratislava, the capital, I was invited to a dinner party where I met Jozef Mracna. He had been Consul for Czecho-Slovakia in New York. We soon discovered that we had many mutual friends there. He returned to Slovakia when it became a self-governing republic and was an official of the administration. I asked him if he could arrange for me to interview the President. He said he could-and did. On my arrival at the presidential palace at the appointed time I met Dr. Karol Murin, personal secretary of Msgr. Tiso who escorted me into the President's private study. Msgr. Tiso, or President Tiso as he was then, greeted me with a hearty hand-shake and a few words of English -his entire vocabulary in that language, as he laughingly admitted. He spoke Slovak, Czech, German and Hungarian, so our interview was conducted in German. His black hair was sprinkled with a few strands of grey and his dark blue eyes resembled those of the Irish. I mentioned to the President that a learned professor in Banska Bystrica told me that the Slovaks and Irish are both of Celtic origin. Msgr. Tiso observed that there is some similarity between Slovakia and Ireland; both countries are predominently Christian and have been for centuries; both are largely agrarian and both have more of their countrymen in America than in Europe. Our discussion touched on various subjects. For generations Slovakia had been a farming community but now they were promoting various industries. "A major problem confronting us," said the President, "is in getting teachers and technical instructors for the projects we hope to develop." When Slovakia was part of Czecho-Slovakia, the Czechs �SLOVAKIA 23 contrived to keep all industries in their part of the country. Now Slovakia, as the President observed, was endeavoring to encourage and develop its resources without too much reliance on Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or Russians. As the time came for me to leave, I mentioned to his Excellency that there was a twinkle of humor in his eyes and would it be quite proper for me to send him a little reminder of our visit? "What-for instance?" he asked. "I'm sure that during these winter nights it is quite cold in this ages-old palace. So I thought - that for medicinal purpose, of course, you might appreciate a half dozen bottles of good Canadian whisky." He laughed heartily and said, "I'll be glad to get it." The gift was sent. Some time later I was asked to again visit the palace when the President gave me a beautiful example of the artistic needle work that is done by many of the Slovak women and girls. That treasure is still in my possession. Little did I surmise that we were to be together several more times-but under vastly different circumstances. In the so-called histories and recordings of important events in Central and Eastern Europe during the latter weeks of World War II-much is purposely omitted. There is no mention of the unprecedented proposal made by the Soviet communists to recognize Slovakia as a sovereign state and to retain Msgr. Tiso as President. That proposal was made through diplomatic channels and told me by Stefan Tiso, then prime minister of Slovakia and confirmed by the former foreign minister of Slovakia, Dr. Ferdinand f>urcansky, presently residing in Munich, Germany. Of all the captive nations under the thraldom of Soviet communism, none would be more incongruous than a communist Slovakia with a Catholic monsignor as its president. Of course the Kremlin's proposal was curtly rejected by the Tiso administration. When the Red army advanced from Budapest toward Bratislava, President Tiso and his cabinet together with many others fled to Kremsmuenster, Austria. They expected and rightly so, that the United States forces would occupy �24 SLOVAKIA that part of Eastern Europe. The Slovak "colony" arrived in Austria April 1, 1945. (This writer left Slovakia the following day.) Although regarded as "top secret" it was known that the former president of Czecho-Slovakia, Eduard Benes, with the aid of Franklin Roosevelt had flown to Moscow where he betrayed his country to the communists, with the understanding that he would be the "president" of the republic we now know as Czecho-Slovakia. On May 8, 1945, the refugee Slovak government in Austria signed a surrender document which was co-signed by Brig. General W. A. Collier of the US Army; Col. T. 0. Curtis and Capt. David W. Allard of the US Army. General Collier assured the Slovak refugees that they would not be delivered to the communists. Like some of the other pledges of proper treatment that were made by American officialdom to the anticommunists in certain European countries, such assurances were flagrantly violated. President Tiso, with his cabinet members, private secretary and another priest were transferred from Austria to an internment establishment in Freising, Bavaria, which was maintained by the U.S. Army . In Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum's book "Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe" is noted on page 311 a caption: Denial By U.S. War Department." (as follows) "Washington, D. C. February 7, 1947. "There is no record in the files of this office which shows that Monsignor Tiso was ever held by the American Forces or delivered to the Czechoslovakian authorities from American custody. Daniel Noce, Major General, O.S.C . Chief Civil Affairs Div." That statement of General Noce was either due to lamentable and inexcusable ignorance of fact or deliberate lie. I was with Msgr. Tiso many hours of many days when he and his fellow Slovaks were imprisoned by the American military forces in barracks at Freising. The charge against me was that I "had written anti-communist articles during the war." The charge was correct. I had written anti-communist, anti-Soviet articles. I dared, in fact cordially invited the �SLOVAKIA 25 Justice Department officials to make such formal indictment against me. If anti-Soviet and anti-communist was regarded as un-American and a criminal offense, I wanted it publicized in an American court. For obvious reasons the Justice Department found it convenient not to invite such exposure of aid to communist causes of which certain departments of the administration were guilty. All were shocked one morning when word was received at the Freising barracks that the Slovaks were to be delivered to the communist regime of Eduard Benes. I went to those betrayed Slovaks and assured them that it was not real Americans who were violating every pledge given them. Among the armed guards who were to deliver the Slovaks to the communist torturers were European born refugees in American uniforms . The testimony of those Slovaks who endured that transfer from Freising into the territory of the Czech regime of communist-aiding Eduard Benes-is a matter of indisputable record. We recall with shame the barbarian brutalities suffered recently by the Lithuanian seaman who sought refuge on an American Coast Guard vessel. Equally as brutal treatment was the lot of those Slovaks whe were beaten, kicked and tortured unmercifully by the alien element in American uniforms, then delivered to the communists. During the sham "trial" in Bratislava of Msgr. Tiso the communist prosecutor endeavored to force reference by Tiso of that ordeal. But Tiso refused to speak of it. His fate was pre-ordained. Death by hanging. Because he had served his God and his beloved people to the best of his ability-he was sentenced to death. Two hours before his execution he wrote a message for his people and for all Western Christian civilization. He wrote-in part: "I consider myself a martyr in defense c:>f Christianity against Bolshevism-against which the nation must defend itself in all possible ways, not only in the spirit of its Christian character but in the interests of its future." I recall that Msgr. Tiso once impressed on me the truth that "you cannot compromise with communism." That truism should be impressed on those who now urge cooperation with communism. � 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 21 I Met President Tiso E. L. Delaney Periodically some senators and representatives arise in the halls of Congress to eloquently deplore the plight of those people in what we rightly regard as the "Captive Nations". Apart from expressions of synthetic sympathy nothing meaningful is done to effect the liberation of those captives in the Soviet-communist combine. The short-lived Republic of Slovakia is one of those unfortunate victims. Thirty three years ago-March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava-in accordance with the CzechoSlovak constitution - unanimously proclaimed the independence of the Slovak Republic. With its population of about 4,400,000 and an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometers, Slovakia is in the heart of Eastern Europe . In the 9th and 10th centuries it was the first political, cultural and Christian center in that part of the world . But it was not until March of 1939 that Slovakia's duly elected political representatives proclaimed their right of self-determination. In March 1939 there was no war in Europe and none was imminent. Practically all European countries officially recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic or consular relations with the new political entity-including our wartime allies, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The fact that pernicious influences in our Washington administration succeeded in withholding recognition of the new Republic does not alter the indisputable fact that it did exist. Non-European countries with representation in Bratislava, the capital, were: Japan, Manchuria, Siam, China, Costa Rica and Equador. It is appropriate to mention that the Soviet had approximately 200 persons attached to its embassy in Bratislava. Other countries could operate with 10 or 12 people. But undoubtedly large staffs are 22 SLOVAEJA needed for propaganda, subversion and espionage, in which the Soviet is always engaged. During World War II, when a large part of Europe was plagued by want, Slovakia was rightfully regarded as an oasis of peace, prosperity and plenty. This paradise in war-rationed Europe had existed over three years before I had an opportunity to enjoy it. A few days after my arrival in Bratislava, the capital, I was invited to a dinner party where I met Jozef Mracna. He had been Consul for Czecho-Slovakia in New York. We soon discovered that we had many mutual friends there. He returned to Slovakia when it became a self-governing republic and was an official of the administration. I asked him if he could arrange for me to interview the President. He said he could-and did. On my arrival at the presidential palace at the appointed time I met Dr. Karol Murin, personal secretary of Msgr. Tiso who escorted me into the President's private study. Msgr. Tiso, or President Tiso as he was then, greeted me with a hearty hand-shake and a few words of English -his entire vocabulary in that language, as he laughingly admitted. He spoke Slovak, Czech, German and Hungarian, so our interview was conducted in German. His black hair was sprinkled with a few strands of grey and his dark blue eyes resembled those of the Irish. I mentioned to the President that a learned professor in Banska Bystrica told me that the Slovaks and Irish are both of Celtic origin. Msgr. Tiso observed that there is some similarity between Slovakia and Ireland; both countries are predominently Christian and have been for centuries; both are largely agrarian and both have more of their countrymen in America than in Europe. Our discussion touched on various subjects. For generations Slovakia had been a farming community but now they were promoting various industries. "A major problem confronting us," said the President, "is in getting teachers and technical instructors for the projects we hope to develop." When Slovakia was part of Czecho-Slovakia, the Czechs SLOVAKIA 23 contrived to keep all industries in their part of the country. Now Slovakia, as the President observed, was endeavoring to encourage and develop its resources without too much reliance on Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or Russians. As the time came for me to leave, I mentioned to his Excellency that there was a twinkle of humor in his eyes and would it be quite proper for me to send him a little reminder of our visit? "What-for instance?" he asked. "I'm sure that during these winter nights it is quite cold in this ages-old palace. So I thought - that for medicinal purpose, of course, you might appreciate a half dozen bottles of good Canadian whisky." He laughed heartily and said, "I'll be glad to get it." The gift was sent. Some time later I was asked to again visit the palace when the President gave me a beautiful example of the artistic needle work that is done by many of the Slovak women and girls. That treasure is still in my possession. Little did I surmise that we were to be together several more times-but under vastly different circumstances. In the so-called histories and recordings of important events in Central and Eastern Europe during the latter weeks of World War II-much is purposely omitted. There is no mention of the unprecedented proposal made by the Soviet communists to recognize Slovakia as a sovereign state and to retain Msgr. Tiso as President. That proposal was made through diplomatic channels and told me by Stefan Tiso, then prime minister of Slovakia and confirmed by the former foreign minister of Slovakia, Dr. Ferdinand f>urcansky, presently residing in Munich, Germany. Of all the captive nations under the thraldom of Soviet communism, none would be more incongruous than a communist Slovakia with a Catholic monsignor as its president. Of course the Kremlin's proposal was curtly rejected by the Tiso administration. When the Red army advanced from Budapest toward Bratislava, President Tiso and his cabinet together with many others fled to Kremsmuenster, Austria. They expected and rightly so, that the United States forces would occupy 24 SLOVAKIA that part of Eastern Europe. The Slovak "colony" arrived in Austria April 1, 1945. (This writer left Slovakia the following day.) Although regarded as "top secret" it was known that the former president of Czecho-Slovakia, Eduard Benes, with the aid of Franklin Roosevelt had flown to Moscow where he betrayed his country to the communists, with the understanding that he would be the "president" of the republic we now know as Czecho-Slovakia. On May 8, 1945, the refugee Slovak government in Austria signed a surrender document which was co-signed by Brig. General W. A. Collier of the US Army; Col. T. 0. Curtis and Capt. David W. Allard of the US Army. General Collier assured the Slovak refugees that they would not be delivered to the communists. Like some of the other pledges of proper treatment that were made by American officialdom to the anticommunists in certain European countries, such assurances were flagrantly violated. President Tiso, with his cabinet members, private secretary and another priest were transferred from Austria to an internment establishment in Freising, Bavaria, which was maintained by the U.S. Army . In Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum's book "Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe" is noted on page 311 a caption: Denial By U.S. War Department." (as follows) "Washington, D. C. February 7, 1947. "There is no record in the files of this office which shows that Monsignor Tiso was ever held by the American Forces or delivered to the Czechoslovakian authorities from American custody. Daniel Noce, Major General, O.S.C . Chief Civil Affairs Div." That statement of General Noce was either due to lamentable and inexcusable ignorance of fact or deliberate lie. I was with Msgr. Tiso many hours of many days when he and his fellow Slovaks were imprisoned by the American military forces in barracks at Freising. The charge against me was that I "had written anti-communist articles during the war." The charge was correct. I had written anti-communist, anti-Soviet articles. I dared, in fact cordially invited the SLOVAKIA 25 Justice Department officials to make such formal indictment against me. If anti-Soviet and anti-communist was regarded as un-American and a criminal offense, I wanted it publicized in an American court. For obvious reasons the Justice Department found it convenient not to invite such exposure of aid to communist causes of which certain departments of the administration were guilty. All were shocked one morning when word was received at the Freising barracks that the Slovaks were to be delivered to the communist regime of Eduard Benes. I went to those betrayed Slovaks and assured them that it was not real Americans who were violating every pledge given them. Among the armed guards who were to deliver the Slovaks to the communist torturers were European born refugees in American uniforms . The testimony of those Slovaks who endured that transfer from Freising into the territory of the Czech regime of communist-aiding Eduard Benes-is a matter of indisputable record. We recall with shame the barbarian brutalities suffered recently by the Lithuanian seaman who sought refuge on an American Coast Guard vessel. Equally as brutal treatment was the lot of those Slovaks whe were beaten, kicked and tortured unmercifully by the alien element in American uniforms, then delivered to the communists. During the sham "trial" in Bratislava of Msgr. Tiso the communist prosecutor endeavored to force reference by Tiso of that ordeal. But Tiso refused to speak of it. His fate was pre-ordained. Death by hanging. Because he had served his God and his beloved people to the best of his ability-he was sentenced to death. Two hours before his execution he wrote a message for his people and for all Western Christian civilization. He wrote-in part: "I consider myself a martyr in defense c:>f Christianity against Bolshevism-against which the nation must defend itself in all possible ways, not only in the spirit of its Christian character but in the interests of its future." I recall that Msgr. Tiso once impressed on me the truth that "you cannot compromise with communism." That truism should be impressed on those who now urge cooperation with communism.  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 Met President Tiso Description An account of the resource E. L. Delaney Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 21-25 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Delaney, Edward L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/58b55ccc80d01f8f164dc7ee1430c6ab.pdf 6a33bd58852659e830704638b78c6719 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 5 Dr. Joseph Tiso The Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People J. M. Ki rs C h b au m Most wars in history have ended with the morally doubtful "vae victis"; the Second World War was no exception. Twenty-five years ago on April 18th in Bratislava, the picturesque site of the medieval University and later the crowning city of the Hapsburgs as kings of Hungary, a Catholic prelate with rosary in hand was led to the gallows and executed. Fearing German reprisals against the Slovak population, he had refused the Soviet demand to turn against the Germans, as the king of Rumania has done, and thus lost the first chance to save his life. By refusing to recommend Communism to his people and renounce their right to independence , he lost the last chance. It was an early chilling morning on the slopes of the Carpathians and on the shores of the Danube where Bratislava is situated. Only Czech troops and police detachment sent by Prague circulated the city to prevent an uprising or an attempt at freeing the incarcerated prelate. The country had been in a tense and grim mood for several months. Nothing except promises by the government composed of Communists and members of the Democratic Party that Dr. Tiso, President of the short-lived Slovak Republic, would be sentenced but not hanged, kept the population from revolting. Dr. E. Benes, President of the restored Czecho-Slova kia, refused, however, to spare the life of Dr. Tiso because, as he publicly said, "two Presidents could not live in one country," especially when the preferred one in Slovakia was not him but the incarcerated Dr. Tiso. When the news about the execution spread throughout the country, there was anger, sorrow and fear among the population. It was the first time that in Slovakia's long history a political leader had died on the gallows �6 SLOVAKIA for his convictions. Even during the Second World War no execution had been carried out in Slovakia because Dr. Tiso, as a priest, would not sign the order of execution. However, the shock was caused not only by the fact that the Slovaks were deceived, horrified and humiliated in their national pride. Dr. Tiso-until now little known abroad or presented in a distorted light-was the first President the Slovaks ever had. His policy could have been hard to understand or even abhorent to many people in the West, but the Slovak people looked at it from a different angle. He saved them from a division among their neighbors and from an occupation by the German Reich. He led his small Slovak Republic during the calamities of the Second World War without much damage and secured for the population the highest living standards in Europe, including neutral Switzerland. Furthermore, he was a Catholic prelate in a conservative and deeply religious land with over 80 ~'" of the population being devoted Catholics. The vast majority of the Slovak population considered, therefore, the execution as an act of political vengeance. In fact, the members of the government who represented the Democratic Party which, in the 1946 elections had won a 62 ~f, majority, urged Dr. Benes to give amnesty to Dr. Tiso. Only the Communists and the Prague government insisted on his execution. Dr. Tiso was accused of treason and collaboration with Germany. Since Czecho-Slovakia originated with the dismemberment of Austrio-Hungary by the activities of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Benes during the First World War, nobody in Slovakia could take seriously the charge of treason. Dismemberment of Czechoslovakia was not as much the result of the activities of Dr. Tiso, as of the international situation. Besides T. G. Masaryk himself, accused of treason, refuted as preposterous any charge of treason for activities leading to independence of an oppressed people. There are some learned paragraphs in his writings about this subject. 1 On the other side, the "collaboration" of Dr. Tiso with Berlin was not that of conspiracy or voluntary acceptance either of German supremacy in Central Europe, or of German Nazi ideology. He went for the first time to Berlin in order to defend Slovakia against Magyar territorial �SLOVAKIA 7 claims and saw Hitler for the first time on March 13, 1939, on the invitation of Hitler and with the consent of the Presidium of the Slovak parliament and the Slovak provincial government. His mission in Berlin was to save Slovakia from dismemberment and occupation and not to ask for German supremacy or for the introduction of the Nazi ideology in Slovakia. In fact, he opposed the introduction of Nazism into Slovakia, proof of which can be found in many official German documents published by the American and British governments.2 During the war Dr. Tiso publicly proclaimed that Slovak participation in the war was symbolic and that Slovakia fought Communism and Soviet expansion and not the Russian people. For these pronouncements he had difficulties with Berlin. His envoy in Rome in 1940 informed through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the British government that Slovakia desired to remain neutral. 3 The Secretary-General of the ruling Party of which Dr. Tiso was chairman, spoke publicly against the introduction of foreign ideologies and insisted on keeping Slovakia out of the conflict of the Great Powers. The pressure of Berlin, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany was, however, too strong to be fully resisted and Dr. Tiso had to deal with a government in Slovakia in which some members were acquiescent to the demands of the Third Reich, especially in solving some internal problems such as the Jewish problem. In this case Dr. Tiso did his best and saved many thousands of Slovak Jews. The international Red Cross report acknowledged that Slovakia had been at times a haven for the Jews of Poland. 4 But those who were saved, and even less Dr. Benes, were willing to consider the real situation in Slovakia during the Second World War. The speeches and addresses Dr. Tiso made during the war were those of a patriot, tempered by the realistic evaluation of Slovakia's situation, by his long political experience and knowledge of the Slovak mentality and, of course, by the precarious conditions of the war and German distrust. 5 According to all who knew Dr. Tiso, political power had no corrupting effect on this quiet, solidly build figure, whose goal in life was to serve God and his nation and who repeatedly proclaimed himself ready to retire to his �8 SLOVAKIA parish if it would serve the interests of his people. He remained what he always had been-a fighter for his beliefs on the pattern of Central European national leaders who combined strong patriotism with their religious vocation and intellectual distinction. 6 His distaste for democratic politics as practised between the two wars in CzechoSlovakia should be judged by taking into account the situation in Slovakia during the 20 years after the First World War. Ruled from Prague, with political power divided between some 30 splinter parties, Slovakia was certainly not happy 7 under a regime where democracy was often nothing less than a series of noisy and incoherent promise, impossible demands and hot-potch of unfortunate ideas and impractical plans. Dr. Tiso was not against criticism or opposition and even less against free discussion, but the war situation everywhere in the world imposed brakes on the democratic way of life. In addition, in Ttso's view, public opinion should have been formed on the basis of solid arguments and knowledge of indisputable and properly interpreted facts and disinterested attitudes, and not on the basis of passions and distortions of truth. He repeated this in many of his speeches and addresses which were based on the doctrine of the Papal encyclicals and works of Western and European sociologists with a mixture of patriotic ideas deeply rooted in Slovak tradition. He wanted to rally his fellow citizens to have them respond to an invocation of national destiny great enough to jolt them out of their passivity and submissivness. If he praised the Germans, as he sometimes did, it was because he felt that such was the price which would have to be paid for his people's salvation from German occupation and division among Slovakia's neighbors. He also had to do it in order to prevent subservient elements from taking into their hands complete power in Slovakia . German ambassadors in Bratislava sent many reports to Berlin against Tiso's politics and tried hard to have put in his place a man who would have been more obedient and more subservient to German demands and pressure.8 There was, in fact, a time when they tried to remove him by an attempt on his life. As a result, Tiso looks in historical perspective more as a Slovak Petain than as any other head �SLOVAKIA 9 of state who during the war had to be on the German side either because of geo-political reasons or by compulsion. II. DR. TISO'S CONCEPT OF SLOVAK POLITICS Dr. Tiso left no compact work about his views on Slovak national life or on the ideological foundations of Slovak politics. Always in the middle of obstinate struggles for the rights of the Slovak people and their national survival, in which he played the foremost role from 1918 on, Dr. Tiso had little time to write books. He postponed the task for a time when he would depart from the political arena, but this was denied him by his execution. Although he formulated the goals of the Slovak national struggle between 1920-1945 and in countless speeches and addresses developed the fundamental principles of a Slovak national ideology more systematically than any other Slovak leader had in this century or in the past, a systematic explanation of Tiso's political views and principles still awaits the efforts of a serious scholar. The first step in this direction was made by Dr. Stefan Polakovic during the lifetime of Dr. Tiso, when he expertly and systematically collected in the work Tiso's Doctrine and From Tiso 's Struggle9 the fundamental concepts of Dr. Tiso's views on the nation, nationalism, the state, religion, and social order. Even though the volumes bear the imprints of war conditions in Slovakia, they remain thus far, along with the final speech of Dr. Tiso before the Bratislava Court, which was edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco,10 the main source of knowledge of the fundamental ideas, aims, and efforts of Slovak political life in the first half of this century. In Slovakia and abroad, Dr. Tiso was accused after the Second World War of being against democracy, favoring dictatorship and of introducing during the war a fascist regime and immitating German Nazi ideology. The perusal of the articles, studies, parliamentary speeches and presidential messages make all these accusations not only foundless, but testify to the fact that Dr. Tiso's ideology was anchored in Papal Encyclicals, in Natural Law, in modern sociological thought. His ideal was a true democracy which he called Christian democracy. German pres- �SLOVAKIA sure, the circumstances of a war which seriously curtailed democracy in England, the U.S.A. or Canada, and many problems of a specific nature facing a new state in a precarious geo-political situation, did not allow Dr. Tiso to implement all his ideas. Furthermore, Dr. Tiso was a president with powers strictly defined by the Constitution of the Slovak Republic 11 and executive powers were vested largely in the hands of the government. Dr. Tiso pointed out this important fact in his last eloquent pladoyer before the Bratislava Court, but it was apparently overlooked by all foreign writers who wrote about Dr. Tiso and wartime Slovakia. As a cabinet minister in pre-war Czecho-Slovakia as well as one of the principal leaders of the Slovak Populist Party which fought for political autonomy within CzechoSlovakia, Dr. Tiso made numerous speeches on democracy and dictatorship, not only a long time before Hitler came to power but also when the Fuehrer's impact on European politics was strong and found imitators and sympathizers in many European countries. In 1936, when democracy in Europe and especially in Central Europe was passing through a crisis, Dr. Tiso, speaking on behalf of the Slovak Populist Party, proclaimed: We Slovaks are adherents of Christian democracy from the depth of our hearts and condemn any dictatorship regardless of its name. We have always been for democracy but a true democracy. We are criticizing our mystified (falsified) democracy exactly for the reaso n that at present, democracy in Czecho-Slovakia, by its methods, actually discredits democracy. At home it shatters faith in democracy in the hearts of the people, and elsewhere, especially abroad , it gives to the adversaries of democracy an efficient weapon against our democracy. We are for such a democracy which is blsed on equal rights for everybody, for a true and sincere democracy which serves the public and protects interests of the nation as a whole. 12 His adverse stand against the ideological principles of Nazism (national socialism) was expressed as late as 1942, when Germany ruled over Europe and tried to impose an ideological "Gleichaltung." In an address to diplomats accredited in Bratislava, Dr. Tiso as President of the Slovak Republic, said among other things: "We cannot accept and implement the political part of national socialism, but its economic and social goals and methods we can follow, because they are in accordance with Natural Law." 13 �SLOVAKIA 11 Social problems, especially just rewards for workers and the equitable distribution of national income were close to the heart of Dr. Tiso during his whole political career. It was apparently his life ambition to implement the social ideas and principles of the Papal Encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno" in the economic and social system of Slovakia. Certain social measures, especially those aiming at improving the lot of the working class, which the Germans had introduced in the late 1930's, were the economic and social goals which Dr. Tiso thought worthwhile to accept from national socialism. In fact, during his term of office, several reforms were introduced such as paid holidays for workers, family wages and a bill introducing the participation of workers on the profits of industrial enterprise. From his deep feeling for social justice stemmed also Dr. Tiso's views on the role of the capital and capitalists in Slovakia: The new Slovakia is not against capital, but she is against the unscrupulous capitalists who would like to continue exploiting Slovakia. Not every,body who has a lot of money is a capitalist in the bad sense of the word. A capitalist is a man who uses his money for personal enrichment and not for the common good. I did not abandon Ohristian principles when I declared that from the invested capital either in industry or in commerce or agriculture the owner can obtain only 10% and the rest he must use for improvement of the enterprise and mainly for the !improvement of the social standards of the employees. The profits should be divided in such a way that not only the investor but also the enterprise and the employees would obtain a proper share of it. This is Christian philosophy.14 Not only Tiso's views regarding social justice and the role of capital but his ideology in a broad sense was anchored in the philosophy of Natural Law and in Christian ethics. In a narrower sense, Slovak national traditions permeated with expressions of patriotism and a selfless dedication to the struggle for national rights, as defined in the political thought of European philosophers and ideologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, were other components of his political philosophy. As if following the Old Testament prophets, Dr. Tiso spoke of his approach to Slovak politics: In profound humility we are ,p aying tribute to our good Lord for the light we receive from the principles of Natural Law, �12 SLOVAKIA according to which we conducted ourselves in the fight for independence, as well as in our work of building our State. A return to the Natural Law can be the only foundation upon which a new world can be built, a world of contentment, order, and permanent peace.15 A practical manifestation of the Natural Law is and shall remain our old goal: Slovakia for the Slovaks. Slovakia in its entirety, indivisible and without reservations in the legal, cultural, economical, and social iields, so that the inde,p endent Slovak nation might be the living bearer of all power and the consumer of all that the Slovak country contains and represents. Placing the foundation of Slovak politics on Natural Law, Dr. Tiso on March 16, 1939, defined the ethical basis of Slovak politics as follows: Our Slovak State was not born out of hatred, but out of our great love for our homeland. Let us above all else be led by this thought: no hatred toward anyone, but love, and ardent love for our State, which inspires us to work and sacrifice .. _16 "Not force, but law which is founded on truth," was the philosophy of Dr. Joseph Tiso, and he followed it in the full sense of the word throughout his life, because he believed that "no one will be mistaken who builds on the nation and always has only the interests of his nation in mind. We have taken over this thesis from stirring times for the future so that we might strengthen ourselves in the old convictions that individuals pass away but the nation remains, and the person who, separated completely from his own interests, stands unconditionally in the service of the nation, knows how to hold his ground and is the only one fit to lead and to speak in the name of the nation." Regarding politics as a service to the nation, Dr. Tiso during his many years of political activity pleaded that political leaders learn to give priority to the interests of the nation over their own interests. His understanding of politics was that "the interest of the nation is the highest directive of political work." Politics is not supposed to be: A medium for several individuals to conceal their own materialistic interests. Politics serves the nation. The politician, more than any one else, must be the guardian of the traditional values of the nation and must be the ever ready intepreter of Natural Law in any given situation. Should any one lack the one or the other, he is not fit to be the representative ,of the nation, because he will either become a figure tossed about by contemporary political or social currents which have no connection with the living body of the nation, or else he will be a museum guardian of the nation who �SLOVAKIA 13 stands afar from contemporary routes along which life flows and on which the fate of the future of the nation is determined. Whoever boasts that he is a loyal son of the nation must also ponder what he is giving to his nation: an ideological infection which causes a fever, or bacteria which causes decay and can bring the nation to the grave; or does he contribute labor which shall forever remain in the nation as a cell of healthy social and cultural development. As Dr. Tiso saw it, "the State should serve the nation, therefore, it has the right to existence only insofar as it does not threaten the interests of the nation." As far as State order is concerned, this must "be subordinated to the principles of morality and law; the State must respect the rights of the individual, the family, society, and hold sacred the right of parents to educate their children, the right of conscience and religious affiliation; it guarantees the right of private ownership and safeguards the peaceful co-existence of labor and capital, of employer and employee." Every loyal son of the Slovak nation, according to Tiso, "sanctifies his nationalism with a Christian spirit, so that nationalism does not remain a slogan or a mantle of dubious aims, but an internal motivating force to create values for the benefit of the national whole. Love for the nation is a religious precept, and a person sins against the Fourth Commandment who does not love his nation. He bears a stigma not only as an earthly traitor, but also as a transgressor who does not keep the Divine Commandment. A nation whose sons do not know how to bear a blow and personal sacrifices, such a nation will not get far. The nation lives, the national whole lives, only by the fight and work of individuals." From the above quotations, it is quite evident that the main principles of Dr. Tiso's ideology were: 1) Natural Law; 2) Love in place of hatred; 3) Right in.stead of violence; 4) Respect for morality; 5) Nation above the State; 6) Loyalty to traditions; 7) The personal selflessness and sacrifice of political leaders; 8) Nationalism sanctified by Christianity; 9) Social justice, and 10) Religious tolerance. During the decades of his political activity, Dr. Tiso developed these ideas not only in his popular speeches to the people, but also in his addresses, parliamentary speeches, and presidential messages, so that a scholar �14 SLOVAKIA will have little difficulty in elaborating Dr. Tiso's ideology. Dr. Tiso himself indicated Christianity as the basis of his ideas, especially the philosophy of St. Thomas 17 and, in the social sphere, the Papal Encyclicals. On the question of nationalism Tiso said that "the symbol of Slovak nationalism was stur," 18 because "stur's nationalism was the dynamic force in individuals whom he prompted to work and sacrifice for the nation; it was the connecting link of individuals into a rock-firm whole with a united aim a united will . . ." 19 A study of Dr. Tiso's political speeches reveals that he frequently tied in his talks with the spiritual-political heritage of the followers of Louis stur, the 19th century Slovak patriot and the "father of modern Slovak nationalism." Dr. Tiso did this consciously to preserve the continuity in Slovak ideological-political development and so that the Slovaks could build on traditions. If we compare the basic ideas of stur's political and philosophical writing and speeches which are dealt with in several published works 20 with Tiso's, the latter, of course, shows more elaborate concepts and deeper sociological insights. Preserving ideological continuity with former Slovak generations, Dr. Tiso draws deeply from a Christian world outlook on the individual and his relation to the State, nation, family and society. His ideology is firmly founded on the principles of modern sociology and political science; it has solid philosophical foundations and a strictly logical system; it emanates from an idea and stresses the primacy of spirituality, but it depends on and respects the reality of life. Tiso's ideology is the result of long years study and political experience, drawn from daily contact with the people and from the unceasing struggle with Slovakia's adversaries. As a result, it is, as it were, an ideology forged in the fire of battles and tested in confrontation with the actual life of the nation in the phase of its political formation, but also in the phase of struggles for its natural rights, and, finally, also in the period of building its own state. In comparison with the ideology of :r.. stur and his followers, we are concerned in Tiso's case with an ideology whose foundations are not only broader but one which was more thought out, mature and tested by life. Dr. Tiso's �SLOVAKIA 15 political activity had almost been as long as Stu.r's entire life 0815-1856) and hence he could see the ideas which he professed and for which he labored and fought, materialized in national life. If we should compare Dr. Tiso as a politician and ideologue with other leaders of Slovak life, then objectively it can be said that during the last 100 year,s there was no political leader in Slovakia who could compare with his thorough preparation for political activity, either theoretically or from parliamentary experience. III. WRITINGS ON PRESIDENT TISO IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES In many West European countries, the President of the Slovak Republic was presented after the war in a distorted way. Journalists and scholars accepted Czech propaganda and Communist accusations and wrote about Slovakia and her President with a definite bias. After 25 years, this trend is changing, as all of us, who knew that the adverse propaganda was not based on facts, believed from the very beginning that it would. In books, periodicals and newpapers, the personality of Dr. Tiso and his politics appear today in a much different light than was the case immediately after the war. European Scholars About Msgr. Tiso In this respect, two recent articles deserve our attention. The French historian, Francois d'Orcival, who published an interesting book on Slovakia about three years ago under the title Le Danube Etait Noir, contributed to the periodical Miroir de l'Histoire (July 1971, No. 259), a lengthy essay in which he set the records straight and presented Dr. Tiso and his politics objectively. Dr. Tiso appears to the French historian as a patriot who did everything possible to save his people from disaster and who applied in his politics as many Christian and humanist principles as the intricate situation of the Second World War allowed him. The essay gives a brief historical background of Slovakia during the centuries and deals with the political events from 1918 to the proclamation of Slovakia's independence, ending with the execution of Msgr. Tiso in 1947. �16 SLOVAKIA The second article "Premesse ideologiche del Federalismo ceco-slovacco (La dottrina politico-sociale di Jozef Tiso)" appeared in Italy in the periodical fl Mondo Slavo (Vol. 2), published by the Centro di Studi Sull' Europa Orientale in Padova. It deals with the political and social doctrines of President Tiso, and was written by Lisa Guarda Nardini. It is a well-written analysis of the politics and ideology of Dr. Tiso. The author of the article also gives many biographical data on the President and dwells on his doctrine about the individual, the family, the nation and the State. The article is written on the basis of many sources published in English, German and Italian languages by foreign or Slovak authors. Writings by Slovak Authors in Foreign Languages Slovak writers, journalists and scholars published during the past 25 years scores of articles in the quarterlies Slovakia and Slowakei, or chapters in books dealing generally with Slovak history. The former Minister of External Affairs, Dr. F . t>urcansky, left some valuable information on Dr. Tiso in his contributions to German historical periodicals. In 1967 two publications appeared, one by Prof. Francis Vnuk and another by Prof. Milan S. Durica. Prof. Vnuk's publication, Dr. Jozef Tiso - President of the Slovak Republic (The Association of Australian Slovaks, Sydney, 1967), is a well-balanced and well-written presentation of Dr. Tiso and his political career. After writing hundreds of articles and two books on political and cultural topics from modern Slovak history, Vnuk had become one of the best qualified persons to seriously tackle the subject. He displays a considerable knowledge of foreign and domestic sources on the crucial years of Slovakia's modern history and uses it with skill and good judgment in summarizing Dr. Tiso's achievements, his role in the struggle of the Slovak people for equality of rights in Czecho-Slovakia and finally for national independence in the troubled period before and during the Second World War. In the sub-title of his work, Prof. Vnuk mentions that it was published " In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of his (Dr. Tiso's ) death at the hands of his �SLOVAKIA 17 enemies of Slovak independence," but it is not a current commemorative booklet. The author gives the reader in a nutshell a serious and well-documented analysis not only of Dr. Tiso's political life struggle, but also an excellent survey of Slovak politics and the treacheries and perfidy of the adversaries of Slovak independence. The booklet is divided into 15 chapters and also includes several photographs and a map of Slovakia. There could hardly be a better concised presentation of "the case of Tiso," as it has been done by Vnuk. In equally sober manner is written Prof. M. St. i'.>urica's analysis of Slovak politics "in the light of Tiso's political thought and teaching" - Die Slowakische Politik 1938/ 39 im Lichte der Staatslehre Tiso 's (Emil Semmel Verlag, Bonn) , 1967. Both i'.>urica and Vnuk belong to the younger generation of Slovak scholars in the Free World and while they lived in Slovakia during the crucial years of her history, they were too young to be involved personally in politics, which is undoubtedly an advantage. Nobody can seriously accuse them of speaking "pro domo sua," as the adversaries of Slovakia's aspirations for freedom used to do with regard to other Slovak writers on political subjects. i'.>urica also has a thorough preparation for his work and is equipped with probably the best knowledge of German and other European diplomatic sources on Slovakia, as his Italian book and numerous studies in other languages indicate. The present publication is actually his lecture at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat in Bonn to the students of all Faculties on June 12, 1967. Like Vnuk, i'.>urica also gives first a survey of Slovak history to make his subject more intelligible to his readers. Then he speaks about the political thought (he uses the word Lehre-teaching) of Dr. Tiso and about the crisis of 1938/ 39. There are all the elements of a serious study in i'.>urica's publication, and it presents Dr. Tiso and Slovak politics to the Western world in an objective light, fighting only indirectly all the distortions and political propaganda which were spread by the Communists and non-Communists who adopted Czech and anti-Slovak conceptions about modern Slovak history. �18 SLOVAKIA The bulk of writings in the English language will be, of course, found in the American Slovak newspapers especially in Jednota and in the quarterly Oater annual) Slovakia. The late Philip Hrobak, editor of both Slovakia and Jednota was one of the most courageous defenders of the President of the Slovak Republic and there are many articles written by him personally and scores of essays which he translated and published. Some will be a valuable source for historians since they were written by persons who either knew President Tiso personally and worked in some political or cultural institution during the time he was President, or were acquainted with his trial and tragic and as politicians of the restored Czecho-Slovakia under the Soviet tutelage. Of documentary value will especially be two articles by President Tiso's Personal Secretary, Prof. Charles Murin: "Eight Fatal Days in the Life of Dr. Joseph Tiso," Slovakia, Vol. III, March 1957, pp. 13-18, and "A Belated Report," Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 31-36. Prof. Murin was Private Secretary to Dr. Tiso from 1938 until the latter's capture in Austria and extradition to Czecho-Slovakia, and the closest person in the President's entourage. The value of Prof. Murin's articles lies, in addition, in his intergrity and desire to portray the situation objectively. Another article of documentary value was written by an opponent of Slovakia's independence and indirectly of Dr. Tiso, Dr. Michael Zibrin, a member of Prague Parliament, under the title The Case of Dr. Joseph Tiso, Vol. II, August 1952, pp. 1-24. For historians, two articles will be of interest, one by Prof. J. Zubek, O.F.M., S.T.D., Monsignor Jozef TisoControversial Personality, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 1-8, and the other by Prof. Milan St. !>urica Dr'. Joseph Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia, Vol. VII, SeptemberDecember 1957, pp. 1-22. Neither Prof. Zubek nor Prof. !>urica were active in politics and their articles are a result of serious scholarly research. Among the articles by Slovaks who were close to some �SLOVAKIA 19 time to Dr. Tiso during the years 1938-1945, there are two by Dr. J. M. Kirschbaum The Tenth Anniversary of Dr. Joseph Tiso's Execution, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 1-8, and Facts and Events Behind the Scenes of Slovakia's Declaration of Independence, Vol. IX, March 1959, pp. 1-7, and two by Dr. Joseph Pauco Dr. Joseph Tiso: Christian Democrat, Vol. VII, June 1957, pp. 37-49, and / was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 9-13. The quarterly Slovakia published many other articles which in one way or another shed further information on the personality and politics of Dr. Tiso. In 1957, an entire volume was devoted to the memory of Dr. Tiso and many articles were published in previous or in the following years. At least some of them should be mentioned: The First President of the Slovak Republic, by Dr. Joseph Cieker, Vol. II, March 1952, pp. 1-29. Dr. Joseph Tiso: Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero of the Slovak Nation, Vol. II, March 1952, pp. 45-46. Anniversary of a Murder, Vol. III, April 1953, pp. 28-30, and Dr. Joseph Tiso in Memoriam, Vol. XI, September-December 1961, pp. 1-2. Slovakia: Trial of Dr. Joseph Tiso, March 1957, pp. 19-21. All these writings are an important source of information not only for foreign historians interested in Eastern Europe, but also for the new generation of Slovaks. Nevertheless, there is still need for a comprehensive work on the remarkable personality of Dr. Tiso and his politics during the crucial years before and during the Second World War, as well as on his place in the history of Slovakia. If written without prejudice by an able historian, such a book can be of great service to the Slovak nation and of great value for understanding not only the struggle of a small nation between two great powers, but also of the Communist methods of enslaving people with old traditions and love of freedom and democracy. See T. G. Masaryk, Das neue Europa and Der Agramer Hock- verratsprozess, both published during his struggle fo r the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. 2) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series 'D', Vol. IX-X. 3) Ibid, Vol. X, No. 205. 1) 4) See the report of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Revue Internationale de la Croix Rouge, Geneva, 1947, pp. 957- �20 SLOVAKIA 959, and Milan St. !>urica, "Dr, Jozef Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia," Slovakia, Vol. VII, No. 3-4, 1957. See Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso - President of the Slovak Republic. (Sydney, 1967) and Th. J Zubek, "Monsignor J . Tiso-Controversial Personality," Slovakia, Vol. Vil, March, 1957. 6 ) See quotations from his speeches and addresses in this article, Part II. 7) See Watson Klrkconnell, Canada, Europe and Hitler (Toronto, 1939) , pp. 47-48. 8) See J . M. Klrschbaum, Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe (Speller & Sons, New York, 1960), p. 280-283, F . Vnuk, op. cit. , and Francois d'Orcival, Le Danube etait noir, (Paris, 1967 ) and his article in Mirroir de l'Histoire, (No. 259, July 1971). 5) 9 ) Dr. Stefan Polakovic, Tisova Nauka (Tiso's Political Philosophy), and Z Tisovho Boja (From Tiso's Struggle) , Bratislava, 1941. 10) Dr. Jozef Tiso o se be, edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J . 1952. 11) On Slovak Constitution, see Kirschbaum, Slov aki11r-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, (Speller, New York, 1960) . 12) Published in the daily Slovak, No. 177-178, Bratislava, 1936. 13) Quoted from Dr. J . Pauco, op cit. , p. 243. 14) Polakovic, Tisova Nauka, op. cit., p. 324. Originally published in the daily Slovak, No. 283 , 1938. 15) This and the following quotations are taken from the books by Polakovic and Pauco. 16) See Polakovic, Z Tisovho Boja, op. cit. , p. 236-237. 17) "All who recall our thesis that 'the nation is the substance and the state only the form' should know that its state-political formula is the practical consequence of rtihe state-political theory which is built on the foundations of Thomistic philosophy ." - SLOVAK, 1935. 18 ) See "Prve posolstvo" (The First Message), Ruzomberok, August 16, 1939. Already in 1936 Dr. Tiso had proclaimed: "It is this amount of Louis Stur, built in the Banovce county, that shall be the visible proof of the fact that we have progressed so far that only we, Slovak Catholics, have not forgotten our Slovak past and we pay our respects to the memory of our national awakeners even when they are Evangelical (Lutherans) , as was Stur."-SLOVAK, 1936. 19) Dr. Tiso also characterized Stur's nationalism in this manner: " Stur's nationalism-built on the foundation of the independent Slovak nation and the genuine Slovak language, ,b ecause it acknowledges the law of God and the law .of nature-was the natural foundation of the life of the Slovak nation."-SLOVAK, 1936. 20 ) See the works by Profess.or Dr. Cizevsky, Stefan Polakovic, Dr. Samuel S. Osusky, Daniel Rapant, Joseph Pauco, and J . M. Kirschbaum's, ~udovit Slur and His Place in the Slavic World, (Slovak Institute, Cleveland, Ohio), 1956. � SLOVAKIA 5 Dr. Joseph Tiso The Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People J. M. Ki rs C h b au m Most wars in history have ended with the morally doubtful "vae victis"; the Second World War was no exception. Twenty-five years ago on April 18th in Bratislava, the picturesque site of the medieval University and later the crowning city of the Hapsburgs as kings of Hungary, a Catholic prelate with rosary in hand was led to the gallows and executed. Fearing German reprisals against the Slovak population, he had refused the Soviet demand to turn against the Germans, as the king of Rumania has done, and thus lost the first chance to save his life. By refusing to recommend Communism to his people and renounce their right to independence , he lost the last chance. It was an early chilling morning on the slopes of the Carpathians and on the shores of the Danube where Bratislava is situated. Only Czech troops and police detachment sent by Prague circulated the city to prevent an uprising or an attempt at freeing the incarcerated prelate. The country had been in a tense and grim mood for several months. Nothing except promises by the government composed of Communists and members of the Democratic Party that Dr. Tiso, President of the short-lived Slovak Republic, would be sentenced but not hanged, kept the population from revolting. Dr. E. Benes, President of the restored Czecho-Slova kia, refused, however, to spare the life of Dr. Tiso because, as he publicly said, "two Presidents could not live in one country," especially when the preferred one in Slovakia was not him but the incarcerated Dr. Tiso. When the news about the execution spread throughout the country, there was anger, sorrow and fear among the population. It was the first time that in Slovakia's long history a political leader had died on the gallows �6 SLOVAKIA for his convictions. Even during the Second World War no execution had been carried out in Slovakia because Dr. Tiso, as a priest, would not sign the order of execution. However, the shock was caused not only by the fact that the Slovaks were deceived, horrified and humiliated in their national pride. Dr. Tiso-until now little known abroad or presented in a distorted light-was the first President the Slovaks ever had. His policy could have been hard to understand or even abhorent to many people in the West, but the Slovak people looked at it from a different angle. He saved them from a division among their neighbors and from an occupation by the German Reich. He led his small Slovak Republic during the calamities of the Second World War without much damage and secured for the population the highest living standards in Europe, including neutral Switzerland. Furthermore, he was a Catholic prelate in a conservative and deeply religious land with over 80 ~'" of the population being devoted Catholics. The vast majority of the Slovak population considered, therefore, the execution as an act of political vengeance. In fact, the members of the government who represented the Democratic Party which, in the 1946 elections had won a 62 ~f, majority, urged Dr. Benes to give amnesty to Dr. Tiso. Only the Communists and the Prague government insisted on his execution. Dr. Tiso was accused of treason and collaboration with Germany. Since Czecho-Slovakia originated with the dismemberment of Austrio-Hungary by the activities of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Benes during the First World War, nobody in Slovakia could take seriously the charge of treason. Dismemberment of Czechoslovakia was not as much the result of the activities of Dr. Tiso, as of the international situation. Besides T. G. Masaryk himself, accused of treason, refuted as preposterous any charge of treason for activities leading to independence of an oppressed people. There are some learned paragraphs in his writings about this subject. 1 On the other side, the "collaboration" of Dr. Tiso with Berlin was not that of conspiracy or voluntary acceptance either of German supremacy in Central Europe, or of German Nazi ideology. He went for the first time to Berlin in order to defend Slovakia against Magyar territorial �SLOVAKIA 7 claims and saw Hitler for the first time on March 13, 1939, on the invitation of Hitler and with the consent of the Presidium of the Slovak parliament and the Slovak provincial government. His mission in Berlin was to save Slovakia from dismemberment and occupation and not to ask for German supremacy or for the introduction of the Nazi ideology in Slovakia. In fact, he opposed the introduction of Nazism into Slovakia, proof of which can be found in many official German documents published by the American and British governments.2 During the war Dr. Tiso publicly proclaimed that Slovak participation in the war was symbolic and that Slovakia fought Communism and Soviet expansion and not the Russian people. For these pronouncements he had difficulties with Berlin. His envoy in Rome in 1940 informed through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the British government that Slovakia desired to remain neutral. 3 The Secretary-General of the ruling Party of which Dr. Tiso was chairman, spoke publicly against the introduction of foreign ideologies and insisted on keeping Slovakia out of the conflict of the Great Powers. The pressure of Berlin, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany was, however, too strong to be fully resisted and Dr. Tiso had to deal with a government in Slovakia in which some members were acquiescent to the demands of the Third Reich, especially in solving some internal problems such as the Jewish problem. In this case Dr. Tiso did his best and saved many thousands of Slovak Jews. The international Red Cross report acknowledged that Slovakia had been at times a haven for the Jews of Poland. 4 But those who were saved, and even less Dr. Benes, were willing to consider the real situation in Slovakia during the Second World War. The speeches and addresses Dr. Tiso made during the war were those of a patriot, tempered by the realistic evaluation of Slovakia's situation, by his long political experience and knowledge of the Slovak mentality and, of course, by the precarious conditions of the war and German distrust. 5 According to all who knew Dr. Tiso, political power had no corrupting effect on this quiet, solidly build figure, whose goal in life was to serve God and his nation and who repeatedly proclaimed himself ready to retire to his �8 SLOVAKIA parish if it would serve the interests of his people. He remained what he always had been-a fighter for his beliefs on the pattern of Central European national leaders who combined strong patriotism with their religious vocation and intellectual distinction. 6 His distaste for democratic politics as practised between the two wars in CzechoSlovakia should be judged by taking into account the situation in Slovakia during the 20 years after the First World War. Ruled from Prague, with political power divided between some 30 splinter parties, Slovakia was certainly not happy 7 under a regime where democracy was often nothing less than a series of noisy and incoherent promise, impossible demands and hot-potch of unfortunate ideas and impractical plans. Dr. Tiso was not against criticism or opposition and even less against free discussion, but the war situation everywhere in the world imposed brakes on the democratic way of life. In addition, in Ttso's view, public opinion should have been formed on the basis of solid arguments and knowledge of indisputable and properly interpreted facts and disinterested attitudes, and not on the basis of passions and distortions of truth. He repeated this in many of his speeches and addresses which were based on the doctrine of the Papal encyclicals and works of Western and European sociologists with a mixture of patriotic ideas deeply rooted in Slovak tradition. He wanted to rally his fellow citizens to have them respond to an invocation of national destiny great enough to jolt them out of their passivity and submissivness. If he praised the Germans, as he sometimes did, it was because he felt that such was the price which would have to be paid for his people's salvation from German occupation and division among Slovakia's neighbors. He also had to do it in order to prevent subservient elements from taking into their hands complete power in Slovakia . German ambassadors in Bratislava sent many reports to Berlin against Tiso's politics and tried hard to have put in his place a man who would have been more obedient and more subservient to German demands and pressure.8 There was, in fact, a time when they tried to remove him by an attempt on his life. As a result, Tiso looks in historical perspective more as a Slovak Petain than as any other head �SLOVAKIA 9 of state who during the war had to be on the German side either because of geo-political reasons or by compulsion. II. DR. TISO'S CONCEPT OF SLOVAK POLITICS Dr. Tiso left no compact work about his views on Slovak national life or on the ideological foundations of Slovak politics. Always in the middle of obstinate struggles for the rights of the Slovak people and their national survival, in which he played the foremost role from 1918 on, Dr. Tiso had little time to write books. He postponed the task for a time when he would depart from the political arena, but this was denied him by his execution. Although he formulated the goals of the Slovak national struggle between 1920-1945 and in countless speeches and addresses developed the fundamental principles of a Slovak national ideology more systematically than any other Slovak leader had in this century or in the past, a systematic explanation of Tiso's political views and principles still awaits the efforts of a serious scholar. The first step in this direction was made by Dr. Stefan Polakovic during the lifetime of Dr. Tiso, when he expertly and systematically collected in the work Tiso's Doctrine and From Tiso 's Struggle9 the fundamental concepts of Dr. Tiso's views on the nation, nationalism, the state, religion, and social order. Even though the volumes bear the imprints of war conditions in Slovakia, they remain thus far, along with the final speech of Dr. Tiso before the Bratislava Court, which was edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco,10 the main source of knowledge of the fundamental ideas, aims, and efforts of Slovak political life in the first half of this century. In Slovakia and abroad, Dr. Tiso was accused after the Second World War of being against democracy, favoring dictatorship and of introducing during the war a fascist regime and immitating German Nazi ideology. The perusal of the articles, studies, parliamentary speeches and presidential messages make all these accusations not only foundless, but testify to the fact that Dr. Tiso's ideology was anchored in Papal Encyclicals, in Natural Law, in modern sociological thought. His ideal was a true democracy which he called Christian democracy. German pres- �SLOVAKIA sure, the circumstances of a war which seriously curtailed democracy in England, the U.S.A. or Canada, and many problems of a specific nature facing a new state in a precarious geo-political situation, did not allow Dr. Tiso to implement all his ideas. Furthermore, Dr. Tiso was a president with powers strictly defined by the Constitution of the Slovak Republic 11 and executive powers were vested largely in the hands of the government. Dr. Tiso pointed out this important fact in his last eloquent pladoyer before the Bratislava Court, but it was apparently overlooked by all foreign writers who wrote about Dr. Tiso and wartime Slovakia. As a cabinet minister in pre-war Czecho-Slovakia as well as one of the principal leaders of the Slovak Populist Party which fought for political autonomy within CzechoSlovakia, Dr. Tiso made numerous speeches on democracy and dictatorship, not only a long time before Hitler came to power but also when the Fuehrer's impact on European politics was strong and found imitators and sympathizers in many European countries. In 1936, when democracy in Europe and especially in Central Europe was passing through a crisis, Dr. Tiso, speaking on behalf of the Slovak Populist Party, proclaimed: We Slovaks are adherents of Christian democracy from the depth of our hearts and condemn any dictatorship regardless of its name. We have always been for democracy but a true democracy. We are criticizing our mystified (falsified) democracy exactly for the reaso n that at present, democracy in Czecho-Slovakia, by its methods, actually discredits democracy. At home it shatters faith in democracy in the hearts of the people, and elsewhere, especially abroad , it gives to the adversaries of democracy an efficient weapon against our democracy. We are for such a democracy which is blsed on equal rights for everybody, for a true and sincere democracy which serves the public and protects interests of the nation as a whole. 12 His adverse stand against the ideological principles of Nazism (national socialism) was expressed as late as 1942, when Germany ruled over Europe and tried to impose an ideological "Gleichaltung." In an address to diplomats accredited in Bratislava, Dr. Tiso as President of the Slovak Republic, said among other things: "We cannot accept and implement the political part of national socialism, but its economic and social goals and methods we can follow, because they are in accordance with Natural Law." 13 �SLOVAKIA 11 Social problems, especially just rewards for workers and the equitable distribution of national income were close to the heart of Dr. Tiso during his whole political career. It was apparently his life ambition to implement the social ideas and principles of the Papal Encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno" in the economic and social system of Slovakia. Certain social measures, especially those aiming at improving the lot of the working class, which the Germans had introduced in the late 1930's, were the economic and social goals which Dr. Tiso thought worthwhile to accept from national socialism. In fact, during his term of office, several reforms were introduced such as paid holidays for workers, family wages and a bill introducing the participation of workers on the profits of industrial enterprise. From his deep feeling for social justice stemmed also Dr. Tiso's views on the role of the capital and capitalists in Slovakia: The new Slovakia is not against capital, but she is against the unscrupulous capitalists who would like to continue exploiting Slovakia. Not every,body who has a lot of money is a capitalist in the bad sense of the word. A capitalist is a man who uses his money for personal enrichment and not for the common good. I did not abandon Ohristian principles when I declared that from the invested capital either in industry or in commerce or agriculture the owner can obtain only 10% and the rest he must use for improvement of the enterprise and mainly for the !improvement of the social standards of the employees. The profits should be divided in such a way that not only the investor but also the enterprise and the employees would obtain a proper share of it. This is Christian philosophy.14 Not only Tiso's views regarding social justice and the role of capital but his ideology in a broad sense was anchored in the philosophy of Natural Law and in Christian ethics. In a narrower sense, Slovak national traditions permeated with expressions of patriotism and a selfless dedication to the struggle for national rights, as defined in the political thought of European philosophers and ideologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, were other components of his political philosophy. As if following the Old Testament prophets, Dr. Tiso spoke of his approach to Slovak politics: In profound humility we are ,p aying tribute to our good Lord for the light we receive from the principles of Natural Law, �12 SLOVAKIA according to which we conducted ourselves in the fight for independence, as well as in our work of building our State. A return to the Natural Law can be the only foundation upon which a new world can be built, a world of contentment, order, and permanent peace.15 A practical manifestation of the Natural Law is and shall remain our old goal: Slovakia for the Slovaks. Slovakia in its entirety, indivisible and without reservations in the legal, cultural, economical, and social iields, so that the inde,p endent Slovak nation might be the living bearer of all power and the consumer of all that the Slovak country contains and represents. Placing the foundation of Slovak politics on Natural Law, Dr. Tiso on March 16, 1939, defined the ethical basis of Slovak politics as follows: Our Slovak State was not born out of hatred, but out of our great love for our homeland. Let us above all else be led by this thought: no hatred toward anyone, but love, and ardent love for our State, which inspires us to work and sacrifice .. _16 "Not force, but law which is founded on truth," was the philosophy of Dr. Joseph Tiso, and he followed it in the full sense of the word throughout his life, because he believed that "no one will be mistaken who builds on the nation and always has only the interests of his nation in mind. We have taken over this thesis from stirring times for the future so that we might strengthen ourselves in the old convictions that individuals pass away but the nation remains, and the person who, separated completely from his own interests, stands unconditionally in the service of the nation, knows how to hold his ground and is the only one fit to lead and to speak in the name of the nation." Regarding politics as a service to the nation, Dr. Tiso during his many years of political activity pleaded that political leaders learn to give priority to the interests of the nation over their own interests. His understanding of politics was that "the interest of the nation is the highest directive of political work." Politics is not supposed to be: A medium for several individuals to conceal their own materialistic interests. Politics serves the nation. The politician, more than any one else, must be the guardian of the traditional values of the nation and must be the ever ready intepreter of Natural Law in any given situation. Should any one lack the one or the other, he is not fit to be the representative ,of the nation, because he will either become a figure tossed about by contemporary political or social currents which have no connection with the living body of the nation, or else he will be a museum guardian of the nation who �SLOVAKIA 13 stands afar from contemporary routes along which life flows and on which the fate of the future of the nation is determined. Whoever boasts that he is a loyal son of the nation must also ponder what he is giving to his nation: an ideological infection which causes a fever, or bacteria which causes decay and can bring the nation to the grave; or does he contribute labor which shall forever remain in the nation as a cell of healthy social and cultural development. As Dr. Tiso saw it, "the State should serve the nation, therefore, it has the right to existence only insofar as it does not threaten the interests of the nation." As far as State order is concerned, this must "be subordinated to the principles of morality and law; the State must respect the rights of the individual, the family, society, and hold sacred the right of parents to educate their children, the right of conscience and religious affiliation; it guarantees the right of private ownership and safeguards the peaceful co-existence of labor and capital, of employer and employee." Every loyal son of the Slovak nation, according to Tiso, "sanctifies his nationalism with a Christian spirit, so that nationalism does not remain a slogan or a mantle of dubious aims, but an internal motivating force to create values for the benefit of the national whole. Love for the nation is a religious precept, and a person sins against the Fourth Commandment who does not love his nation. He bears a stigma not only as an earthly traitor, but also as a transgressor who does not keep the Divine Commandment. A nation whose sons do not know how to bear a blow and personal sacrifices, such a nation will not get far. The nation lives, the national whole lives, only by the fight and work of individuals." From the above quotations, it is quite evident that the main principles of Dr. Tiso's ideology were: 1) Natural Law; 2) Love in place of hatred; 3) Right in.stead of violence; 4) Respect for morality; 5) Nation above the State; 6) Loyalty to traditions; 7) The personal selflessness and sacrifice of political leaders; 8) Nationalism sanctified by Christianity; 9) Social justice, and 10) Religious tolerance. During the decades of his political activity, Dr. Tiso developed these ideas not only in his popular speeches to the people, but also in his addresses, parliamentary speeches, and presidential messages, so that a scholar �14 SLOVAKIA will have little difficulty in elaborating Dr. Tiso's ideology. Dr. Tiso himself indicated Christianity as the basis of his ideas, especially the philosophy of St. Thomas 17 and, in the social sphere, the Papal Encyclicals. On the question of nationalism Tiso said that "the symbol of Slovak nationalism was stur," 18 because "stur's nationalism was the dynamic force in individuals whom he prompted to work and sacrifice for the nation; it was the connecting link of individuals into a rock-firm whole with a united aim a united will . . ." 19 A study of Dr. Tiso's political speeches reveals that he frequently tied in his talks with the spiritual-political heritage of the followers of Louis stur, the 19th century Slovak patriot and the "father of modern Slovak nationalism." Dr. Tiso did this consciously to preserve the continuity in Slovak ideological-political development and so that the Slovaks could build on traditions. If we compare the basic ideas of stur's political and philosophical writing and speeches which are dealt with in several published works 20 with Tiso's, the latter, of course, shows more elaborate concepts and deeper sociological insights. Preserving ideological continuity with former Slovak generations, Dr. Tiso draws deeply from a Christian world outlook on the individual and his relation to the State, nation, family and society. His ideology is firmly founded on the principles of modern sociology and political science; it has solid philosophical foundations and a strictly logical system; it emanates from an idea and stresses the primacy of spirituality, but it depends on and respects the reality of life. Tiso's ideology is the result of long years study and political experience, drawn from daily contact with the people and from the unceasing struggle with Slovakia's adversaries. As a result, it is, as it were, an ideology forged in the fire of battles and tested in confrontation with the actual life of the nation in the phase of its political formation, but also in the phase of struggles for its natural rights, and, finally, also in the period of building its own state. In comparison with the ideology of :r.. stur and his followers, we are concerned in Tiso's case with an ideology whose foundations are not only broader but one which was more thought out, mature and tested by life. Dr. Tiso's �SLOVAKIA 15 political activity had almost been as long as Stu.r's entire life 0815-1856) and hence he could see the ideas which he professed and for which he labored and fought, materialized in national life. If we should compare Dr. Tiso as a politician and ideologue with other leaders of Slovak life, then objectively it can be said that during the last 100 year,s there was no political leader in Slovakia who could compare with his thorough preparation for political activity, either theoretically or from parliamentary experience. III. WRITINGS ON PRESIDENT TISO IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES In many West European countries, the President of the Slovak Republic was presented after the war in a distorted way. Journalists and scholars accepted Czech propaganda and Communist accusations and wrote about Slovakia and her President with a definite bias. After 25 years, this trend is changing, as all of us, who knew that the adverse propaganda was not based on facts, believed from the very beginning that it would. In books, periodicals and newpapers, the personality of Dr. Tiso and his politics appear today in a much different light than was the case immediately after the war. European Scholars About Msgr. Tiso In this respect, two recent articles deserve our attention. The French historian, Francois d'Orcival, who published an interesting book on Slovakia about three years ago under the title Le Danube Etait Noir, contributed to the periodical Miroir de l'Histoire (July 1971, No. 259), a lengthy essay in which he set the records straight and presented Dr. Tiso and his politics objectively. Dr. Tiso appears to the French historian as a patriot who did everything possible to save his people from disaster and who applied in his politics as many Christian and humanist principles as the intricate situation of the Second World War allowed him. The essay gives a brief historical background of Slovakia during the centuries and deals with the political events from 1918 to the proclamation of Slovakia's independence, ending with the execution of Msgr. Tiso in 1947. �16 SLOVAKIA The second article "Premesse ideologiche del Federalismo ceco-slovacco (La dottrina politico-sociale di Jozef Tiso)" appeared in Italy in the periodical fl Mondo Slavo (Vol. 2), published by the Centro di Studi Sull' Europa Orientale in Padova. It deals with the political and social doctrines of President Tiso, and was written by Lisa Guarda Nardini. It is a well-written analysis of the politics and ideology of Dr. Tiso. The author of the article also gives many biographical data on the President and dwells on his doctrine about the individual, the family, the nation and the State. The article is written on the basis of many sources published in English, German and Italian languages by foreign or Slovak authors. Writings by Slovak Authors in Foreign Languages Slovak writers, journalists and scholars published during the past 25 years scores of articles in the quarterlies Slovakia and Slowakei, or chapters in books dealing generally with Slovak history. The former Minister of External Affairs, Dr. F . t>urcansky, left some valuable information on Dr. Tiso in his contributions to German historical periodicals. In 1967 two publications appeared, one by Prof. Francis Vnuk and another by Prof. Milan S. Durica. Prof. Vnuk's publication, Dr. Jozef Tiso - President of the Slovak Republic (The Association of Australian Slovaks, Sydney, 1967), is a well-balanced and well-written presentation of Dr. Tiso and his political career. After writing hundreds of articles and two books on political and cultural topics from modern Slovak history, Vnuk had become one of the best qualified persons to seriously tackle the subject. He displays a considerable knowledge of foreign and domestic sources on the crucial years of Slovakia's modern history and uses it with skill and good judgment in summarizing Dr. Tiso's achievements, his role in the struggle of the Slovak people for equality of rights in Czecho-Slovakia and finally for national independence in the troubled period before and during the Second World War. In the sub-title of his work, Prof. Vnuk mentions that it was published " In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of his (Dr. Tiso's ) death at the hands of his �SLOVAKIA 17 enemies of Slovak independence," but it is not a current commemorative booklet. The author gives the reader in a nutshell a serious and well-documented analysis not only of Dr. Tiso's political life struggle, but also an excellent survey of Slovak politics and the treacheries and perfidy of the adversaries of Slovak independence. The booklet is divided into 15 chapters and also includes several photographs and a map of Slovakia. There could hardly be a better concised presentation of "the case of Tiso," as it has been done by Vnuk. In equally sober manner is written Prof. M. St. i'.>urica's analysis of Slovak politics "in the light of Tiso's political thought and teaching" - Die Slowakische Politik 1938/ 39 im Lichte der Staatslehre Tiso 's (Emil Semmel Verlag, Bonn) , 1967. Both i'.>urica and Vnuk belong to the younger generation of Slovak scholars in the Free World and while they lived in Slovakia during the crucial years of her history, they were too young to be involved personally in politics, which is undoubtedly an advantage. Nobody can seriously accuse them of speaking "pro domo sua," as the adversaries of Slovakia's aspirations for freedom used to do with regard to other Slovak writers on political subjects. i'.>urica also has a thorough preparation for his work and is equipped with probably the best knowledge of German and other European diplomatic sources on Slovakia, as his Italian book and numerous studies in other languages indicate. The present publication is actually his lecture at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat in Bonn to the students of all Faculties on June 12, 1967. Like Vnuk, i'.>urica also gives first a survey of Slovak history to make his subject more intelligible to his readers. Then he speaks about the political thought (he uses the word Lehre-teaching) of Dr. Tiso and about the crisis of 1938/ 39. There are all the elements of a serious study in i'.>urica's publication, and it presents Dr. Tiso and Slovak politics to the Western world in an objective light, fighting only indirectly all the distortions and political propaganda which were spread by the Communists and non-Communists who adopted Czech and anti-Slovak conceptions about modern Slovak history. �18 SLOVAKIA The bulk of writings in the English language will be, of course, found in the American Slovak newspapers especially in Jednota and in the quarterly Oater annual) Slovakia. The late Philip Hrobak, editor of both Slovakia and Jednota was one of the most courageous defenders of the President of the Slovak Republic and there are many articles written by him personally and scores of essays which he translated and published. Some will be a valuable source for historians since they were written by persons who either knew President Tiso personally and worked in some political or cultural institution during the time he was President, or were acquainted with his trial and tragic and as politicians of the restored Czecho-Slovakia under the Soviet tutelage. Of documentary value will especially be two articles by President Tiso's Personal Secretary, Prof. Charles Murin: "Eight Fatal Days in the Life of Dr. Joseph Tiso," Slovakia, Vol. III, March 1957, pp. 13-18, and "A Belated Report," Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 31-36. Prof. Murin was Private Secretary to Dr. Tiso from 1938 until the latter's capture in Austria and extradition to Czecho-Slovakia, and the closest person in the President's entourage. The value of Prof. Murin's articles lies, in addition, in his intergrity and desire to portray the situation objectively. Another article of documentary value was written by an opponent of Slovakia's independence and indirectly of Dr. Tiso, Dr. Michael Zibrin, a member of Prague Parliament, under the title The Case of Dr. Joseph Tiso, Vol. II, August 1952, pp. 1-24. For historians, two articles will be of interest, one by Prof. J. Zubek, O.F.M., S.T.D., Monsignor Jozef TisoControversial Personality, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 1-8, and the other by Prof. Milan St. !>urica Dr'. Joseph Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia, Vol. VII, SeptemberDecember 1957, pp. 1-22. Neither Prof. Zubek nor Prof. !>urica were active in politics and their articles are a result of serious scholarly research. Among the articles by Slovaks who were close to some �SLOVAKIA 19 time to Dr. Tiso during the years 1938-1945, there are two by Dr. J. M. Kirschbaum The Tenth Anniversary of Dr. Joseph Tiso's Execution, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 1-8, and Facts and Events Behind the Scenes of Slovakia's Declaration of Independence, Vol. IX, March 1959, pp. 1-7, and two by Dr. Joseph Pauco Dr. Joseph Tiso: Christian Democrat, Vol. VII, June 1957, pp. 37-49, and / was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 9-13. The quarterly Slovakia published many other articles which in one way or another shed further information on the personality and politics of Dr. Tiso. In 1957, an entire volume was devoted to the memory of Dr. Tiso and many articles were published in previous or in the following years. At least some of them should be mentioned: The First President of the Slovak Republic, by Dr. Joseph Cieker, Vol. II, March 1952, pp. 1-29. Dr. Joseph Tiso: Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero of the Slovak Nation, Vol. II, March 1952, pp. 45-46. Anniversary of a Murder, Vol. III, April 1953, pp. 28-30, and Dr. Joseph Tiso in Memoriam, Vol. XI, September-December 1961, pp. 1-2. Slovakia: Trial of Dr. Joseph Tiso, March 1957, pp. 19-21. All these writings are an important source of information not only for foreign historians interested in Eastern Europe, but also for the new generation of Slovaks. Nevertheless, there is still need for a comprehensive work on the remarkable personality of Dr. Tiso and his politics during the crucial years before and during the Second World War, as well as on his place in the history of Slovakia. If written without prejudice by an able historian, such a book can be of great service to the Slovak nation and of great value for understanding not only the struggle of a small nation between two great powers, but also of the Communist methods of enslaving people with old traditions and love of freedom and democracy. See T. G. Masaryk, Das neue Europa and Der Agramer Hock- verratsprozess, both published during his struggle fo r the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. 2) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series 'D', Vol. IX-X. 3) Ibid, Vol. X, No. 205. 1) 4) See the report of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Revue Internationale de la Croix Rouge, Geneva, 1947, pp. 957- �20 SLOVAKIA 959, and Milan St. !>urica, "Dr, Jozef Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia," Slovakia, Vol. VII, No. 3-4, 1957. See Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso - President of the Slovak Republic. (Sydney, 1967) and Th. J Zubek, "Monsignor J . Tiso-Controversial Personality," Slovakia, Vol. Vil, March, 1957. 6 ) See quotations from his speeches and addresses in this article, Part II. 7) See Watson Klrkconnell, Canada, Europe and Hitler (Toronto, 1939) , pp. 47-48. 8) See J . M. Klrschbaum, Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe (Speller & Sons, New York, 1960), p. 280-283, F . Vnuk, op. cit. , and Francois d'Orcival, Le Danube etait noir, (Paris, 1967 ) and his article in Mirroir de l'Histoire, (No. 259, July 1971). 5) 9 ) Dr. Stefan Polakovic, Tisova Nauka (Tiso's Political Philosophy), and Z Tisovho Boja (From Tiso's Struggle) , Bratislava, 1941. 10) Dr. Jozef Tiso o se be, edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J . 1952. 11) On Slovak Constitution, see Kirschbaum, Slov aki11r-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, (Speller, New York, 1960) . 12) Published in the daily Slovak, No. 177-178, Bratislava, 1936. 13) Quoted from Dr. J . Pauco, op cit. , p. 243. 14) Polakovic, Tisova Nauka, op. cit., p. 324. Originally published in the daily Slovak, No. 283 , 1938. 15) This and the following quotations are taken from the books by Polakovic and Pauco. 16) See Polakovic, Z Tisovho Boja, op. cit. , p. 236-237. 17) "All who recall our thesis that 'the nation is the substance and the state only the form' should know that its state-political formula is the practical consequence of rtihe state-political theory which is built on the foundations of Thomistic philosophy ." - SLOVAK, 1935. 18 ) See "Prve posolstvo" (The First Message), Ruzomberok, August 16, 1939. Already in 1936 Dr. Tiso had proclaimed: "It is this amount of Louis Stur, built in the Banovce county, that shall be the visible proof of the fact that we have progressed so far that only we, Slovak Catholics, have not forgotten our Slovak past and we pay our respects to the memory of our national awakeners even when they are Evangelical (Lutherans) , as was Stur."-SLOVAK, 1936. 19) Dr. Tiso also characterized Stur's nationalism in this manner: " Stur's nationalism-built on the foundation of the independent Slovak nation and the genuine Slovak language, ,b ecause it acknowledges the law of God and the law .of nature-was the natural foundation of the life of the Slovak nation."-SLOVAK, 1936. 20 ) See the works by Profess.or Dr. Cizevsky, Stefan Polakovic, Dr. Samuel S. Osusky, Daniel Rapant, Joseph Pauco, and J . M. Kirschbaum's, ~udovit Slur and His Place in the Slavic World, (Slovak Institute, Cleveland, Ohio), 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 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 5 Dr. Joseph Tiso The Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People J. M. Ki rs C h b au m Most wars in history have ended with the morally doubtful "vae victis"; the Second World War was no exception. Twenty-five years ago on April 18th in Bratislava, the picturesque site of the medieval University and later the crowning city of the Hapsburgs as kings of Hungary, a Catholic prelate with rosary in hand was led to the gallows and executed. Fearing German reprisals against the Slovak population, he had refused the Soviet demand to turn against the Germans, as the king of Rumania has done, and thus lost the first chance to save his life. By refusing to recommend Communism to his people and renounce their right to independence , he lost the last chance. It was an early chilling morning on the slopes of the Carpathians and on the shores of the Danube where Bratislava is situated. Only Czech troops and police detachment sent by Prague circulated the city to prevent an uprising or an attempt at freeing the incarcerated prelate. The country had been in a tense and grim mood for several months. Nothing except promises by the government composed of Communists and members of the Democratic Party that Dr. Tiso, President of the short-lived Slovak Republic, would be sentenced but not hanged, kept the population from revolting. Dr. E. Benes, President of the restored Czecho-Slova kia, refused, however, to spare the life of Dr. Tiso because, as he publicly said, "two Presidents could not live in one country," especially when the preferred one in Slovakia was not him but the incarcerated Dr. Tiso. When the news about the execution spread throughout the country, there was anger, sorrow and fear among the population. It was the first time that in Slovakia's long history a political leader had died on the gallows 6 SLOVAKIA for his convictions. Even during the Second World War no execution had been carried out in Slovakia because Dr. Tiso, as a priest, would not sign the order of execution. However, the shock was caused not only by the fact that the Slovaks were deceived, horrified and humiliated in their national pride. Dr. Tiso-until now little known abroad or presented in a distorted light-was the first President the Slovaks ever had. His policy could have been hard to understand or even abhorent to many people in the West, but the Slovak people looked at it from a different angle. He saved them from a division among their neighbors and from an occupation by the German Reich. He led his small Slovak Republic during the calamities of the Second World War without much damage and secured for the population the highest living standards in Europe, including neutral Switzerland. Furthermore, he was a Catholic prelate in a conservative and deeply religious land with over 80 ~'" of the population being devoted Catholics. The vast majority of the Slovak population considered, therefore, the execution as an act of political vengeance. In fact, the members of the government who represented the Democratic Party which, in the 1946 elections had won a 62 ~f, majority, urged Dr. Benes to give amnesty to Dr. Tiso. Only the Communists and the Prague government insisted on his execution. Dr. Tiso was accused of treason and collaboration with Germany. Since Czecho-Slovakia originated with the dismemberment of Austrio-Hungary by the activities of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Benes during the First World War, nobody in Slovakia could take seriously the charge of treason. Dismemberment of Czechoslovakia was not as much the result of the activities of Dr. Tiso, as of the international situation. Besides T. G. Masaryk himself, accused of treason, refuted as preposterous any charge of treason for activities leading to independence of an oppressed people. There are some learned paragraphs in his writings about this subject. 1 On the other side, the "collaboration" of Dr. Tiso with Berlin was not that of conspiracy or voluntary acceptance either of German supremacy in Central Europe, or of German Nazi ideology. He went for the first time to Berlin in order to defend Slovakia against Magyar territorial SLOVAKIA 7 claims and saw Hitler for the first time on March 13, 1939, on the invitation of Hitler and with the consent of the Presidium of the Slovak parliament and the Slovak provincial government. His mission in Berlin was to save Slovakia from dismemberment and occupation and not to ask for German supremacy or for the introduction of the Nazi ideology in Slovakia. In fact, he opposed the introduction of Nazism into Slovakia, proof of which can be found in many official German documents published by the American and British governments.2 During the war Dr. Tiso publicly proclaimed that Slovak participation in the war was symbolic and that Slovakia fought Communism and Soviet expansion and not the Russian people. For these pronouncements he had difficulties with Berlin. His envoy in Rome in 1940 informed through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the British government that Slovakia desired to remain neutral. 3 The Secretary-General of the ruling Party of which Dr. Tiso was chairman, spoke publicly against the introduction of foreign ideologies and insisted on keeping Slovakia out of the conflict of the Great Powers. The pressure of Berlin, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany was, however, too strong to be fully resisted and Dr. Tiso had to deal with a government in Slovakia in which some members were acquiescent to the demands of the Third Reich, especially in solving some internal problems such as the Jewish problem. In this case Dr. Tiso did his best and saved many thousands of Slovak Jews. The international Red Cross report acknowledged that Slovakia had been at times a haven for the Jews of Poland. 4 But those who were saved, and even less Dr. Benes, were willing to consider the real situation in Slovakia during the Second World War. The speeches and addresses Dr. Tiso made during the war were those of a patriot, tempered by the realistic evaluation of Slovakia's situation, by his long political experience and knowledge of the Slovak mentality and, of course, by the precarious conditions of the war and German distrust. 5 According to all who knew Dr. Tiso, political power had no corrupting effect on this quiet, solidly build figure, whose goal in life was to serve God and his nation and who repeatedly proclaimed himself ready to retire to his 8 SLOVAKIA parish if it would serve the interests of his people. He remained what he always had been-a fighter for his beliefs on the pattern of Central European national leaders who combined strong patriotism with their religious vocation and intellectual distinction. 6 His distaste for democratic politics as practised between the two wars in CzechoSlovakia should be judged by taking into account the situation in Slovakia during the 20 years after the First World War. Ruled from Prague, with political power divided between some 30 splinter parties, Slovakia was certainly not happy 7 under a regime where democracy was often nothing less than a series of noisy and incoherent promise, impossible demands and hot-potch of unfortunate ideas and impractical plans. Dr. Tiso was not against criticism or opposition and even less against free discussion, but the war situation everywhere in the world imposed brakes on the democratic way of life. In addition, in Ttso's view, public opinion should have been formed on the basis of solid arguments and knowledge of indisputable and properly interpreted facts and disinterested attitudes, and not on the basis of passions and distortions of truth. He repeated this in many of his speeches and addresses which were based on the doctrine of the Papal encyclicals and works of Western and European sociologists with a mixture of patriotic ideas deeply rooted in Slovak tradition. He wanted to rally his fellow citizens to have them respond to an invocation of national destiny great enough to jolt them out of their passivity and submissivness. If he praised the Germans, as he sometimes did, it was because he felt that such was the price which would have to be paid for his people's salvation from German occupation and division among Slovakia's neighbors. He also had to do it in order to prevent subservient elements from taking into their hands complete power in Slovakia . German ambassadors in Bratislava sent many reports to Berlin against Tiso's politics and tried hard to have put in his place a man who would have been more obedient and more subservient to German demands and pressure.8 There was, in fact, a time when they tried to remove him by an attempt on his life. As a result, Tiso looks in historical perspective more as a Slovak Petain than as any other head SLOVAKIA 9 of state who during the war had to be on the German side either because of geo-political reasons or by compulsion. II. DR. TISO'S CONCEPT OF SLOVAK POLITICS Dr. Tiso left no compact work about his views on Slovak national life or on the ideological foundations of Slovak politics. Always in the middle of obstinate struggles for the rights of the Slovak people and their national survival, in which he played the foremost role from 1918 on, Dr. Tiso had little time to write books. He postponed the task for a time when he would depart from the political arena, but this was denied him by his execution. Although he formulated the goals of the Slovak national struggle between 1920-1945 and in countless speeches and addresses developed the fundamental principles of a Slovak national ideology more systematically than any other Slovak leader had in this century or in the past, a systematic explanation of Tiso's political views and principles still awaits the efforts of a serious scholar. The first step in this direction was made by Dr. Stefan Polakovic during the lifetime of Dr. Tiso, when he expertly and systematically collected in the work Tiso's Doctrine and From Tiso 's Struggle9 the fundamental concepts of Dr. Tiso's views on the nation, nationalism, the state, religion, and social order. Even though the volumes bear the imprints of war conditions in Slovakia, they remain thus far, along with the final speech of Dr. Tiso before the Bratislava Court, which was edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco,10 the main source of knowledge of the fundamental ideas, aims, and efforts of Slovak political life in the first half of this century. In Slovakia and abroad, Dr. Tiso was accused after the Second World War of being against democracy, favoring dictatorship and of introducing during the war a fascist regime and immitating German Nazi ideology. The perusal of the articles, studies, parliamentary speeches and presidential messages make all these accusations not only foundless, but testify to the fact that Dr. Tiso's ideology was anchored in Papal Encyclicals, in Natural Law, in modern sociological thought. His ideal was a true democracy which he called Christian democracy. German pres- SLOVAKIA sure, the circumstances of a war which seriously curtailed democracy in England, the U.S.A. or Canada, and many problems of a specific nature facing a new state in a precarious geo-political situation, did not allow Dr. Tiso to implement all his ideas. Furthermore, Dr. Tiso was a president with powers strictly defined by the Constitution of the Slovak Republic 11 and executive powers were vested largely in the hands of the government. Dr. Tiso pointed out this important fact in his last eloquent pladoyer before the Bratislava Court, but it was apparently overlooked by all foreign writers who wrote about Dr. Tiso and wartime Slovakia. As a cabinet minister in pre-war Czecho-Slovakia as well as one of the principal leaders of the Slovak Populist Party which fought for political autonomy within CzechoSlovakia, Dr. Tiso made numerous speeches on democracy and dictatorship, not only a long time before Hitler came to power but also when the Fuehrer's impact on European politics was strong and found imitators and sympathizers in many European countries. In 1936, when democracy in Europe and especially in Central Europe was passing through a crisis, Dr. Tiso, speaking on behalf of the Slovak Populist Party, proclaimed: We Slovaks are adherents of Christian democracy from the depth of our hearts and condemn any dictatorship regardless of its name. We have always been for democracy but a true democracy. We are criticizing our mystified (falsified) democracy exactly for the reaso n that at present, democracy in Czecho-Slovakia, by its methods, actually discredits democracy. At home it shatters faith in democracy in the hearts of the people, and elsewhere, especially abroad , it gives to the adversaries of democracy an efficient weapon against our democracy. We are for such a democracy which is blsed on equal rights for everybody, for a true and sincere democracy which serves the public and protects interests of the nation as a whole. 12 His adverse stand against the ideological principles of Nazism (national socialism) was expressed as late as 1942, when Germany ruled over Europe and tried to impose an ideological "Gleichaltung." In an address to diplomats accredited in Bratislava, Dr. Tiso as President of the Slovak Republic, said among other things: "We cannot accept and implement the political part of national socialism, but its economic and social goals and methods we can follow, because they are in accordance with Natural Law." 13 SLOVAKIA 11 Social problems, especially just rewards for workers and the equitable distribution of national income were close to the heart of Dr. Tiso during his whole political career. It was apparently his life ambition to implement the social ideas and principles of the Papal Encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno" in the economic and social system of Slovakia. Certain social measures, especially those aiming at improving the lot of the working class, which the Germans had introduced in the late 1930's, were the economic and social goals which Dr. Tiso thought worthwhile to accept from national socialism. In fact, during his term of office, several reforms were introduced such as paid holidays for workers, family wages and a bill introducing the participation of workers on the profits of industrial enterprise. From his deep feeling for social justice stemmed also Dr. Tiso's views on the role of the capital and capitalists in Slovakia: The new Slovakia is not against capital, but she is against the unscrupulous capitalists who would like to continue exploiting Slovakia. Not every,body who has a lot of money is a capitalist in the bad sense of the word. A capitalist is a man who uses his money for personal enrichment and not for the common good. I did not abandon Ohristian principles when I declared that from the invested capital either in industry or in commerce or agriculture the owner can obtain only 10% and the rest he must use for improvement of the enterprise and mainly for the !improvement of the social standards of the employees. The profits should be divided in such a way that not only the investor but also the enterprise and the employees would obtain a proper share of it. This is Christian philosophy.14 Not only Tiso's views regarding social justice and the role of capital but his ideology in a broad sense was anchored in the philosophy of Natural Law and in Christian ethics. In a narrower sense, Slovak national traditions permeated with expressions of patriotism and a selfless dedication to the struggle for national rights, as defined in the political thought of European philosophers and ideologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, were other components of his political philosophy. As if following the Old Testament prophets, Dr. Tiso spoke of his approach to Slovak politics: In profound humility we are ,p aying tribute to our good Lord for the light we receive from the principles of Natural Law, 12 SLOVAKIA according to which we conducted ourselves in the fight for independence, as well as in our work of building our State. A return to the Natural Law can be the only foundation upon which a new world can be built, a world of contentment, order, and permanent peace.15 A practical manifestation of the Natural Law is and shall remain our old goal: Slovakia for the Slovaks. Slovakia in its entirety, indivisible and without reservations in the legal, cultural, economical, and social iields, so that the inde,p endent Slovak nation might be the living bearer of all power and the consumer of all that the Slovak country contains and represents. Placing the foundation of Slovak politics on Natural Law, Dr. Tiso on March 16, 1939, defined the ethical basis of Slovak politics as follows: Our Slovak State was not born out of hatred, but out of our great love for our homeland. Let us above all else be led by this thought: no hatred toward anyone, but love, and ardent love for our State, which inspires us to work and sacrifice .. _16 "Not force, but law which is founded on truth," was the philosophy of Dr. Joseph Tiso, and he followed it in the full sense of the word throughout his life, because he believed that "no one will be mistaken who builds on the nation and always has only the interests of his nation in mind. We have taken over this thesis from stirring times for the future so that we might strengthen ourselves in the old convictions that individuals pass away but the nation remains, and the person who, separated completely from his own interests, stands unconditionally in the service of the nation, knows how to hold his ground and is the only one fit to lead and to speak in the name of the nation." Regarding politics as a service to the nation, Dr. Tiso during his many years of political activity pleaded that political leaders learn to give priority to the interests of the nation over their own interests. His understanding of politics was that "the interest of the nation is the highest directive of political work." Politics is not supposed to be: A medium for several individuals to conceal their own materialistic interests. Politics serves the nation. The politician, more than any one else, must be the guardian of the traditional values of the nation and must be the ever ready intepreter of Natural Law in any given situation. Should any one lack the one or the other, he is not fit to be the representative ,of the nation, because he will either become a figure tossed about by contemporary political or social currents which have no connection with the living body of the nation, or else he will be a museum guardian of the nation who SLOVAKIA 13 stands afar from contemporary routes along which life flows and on which the fate of the future of the nation is determined. Whoever boasts that he is a loyal son of the nation must also ponder what he is giving to his nation: an ideological infection which causes a fever, or bacteria which causes decay and can bring the nation to the grave; or does he contribute labor which shall forever remain in the nation as a cell of healthy social and cultural development. As Dr. Tiso saw it, "the State should serve the nation, therefore, it has the right to existence only insofar as it does not threaten the interests of the nation." As far as State order is concerned, this must "be subordinated to the principles of morality and law; the State must respect the rights of the individual, the family, society, and hold sacred the right of parents to educate their children, the right of conscience and religious affiliation; it guarantees the right of private ownership and safeguards the peaceful co-existence of labor and capital, of employer and employee." Every loyal son of the Slovak nation, according to Tiso, "sanctifies his nationalism with a Christian spirit, so that nationalism does not remain a slogan or a mantle of dubious aims, but an internal motivating force to create values for the benefit of the national whole. Love for the nation is a religious precept, and a person sins against the Fourth Commandment who does not love his nation. He bears a stigma not only as an earthly traitor, but also as a transgressor who does not keep the Divine Commandment. A nation whose sons do not know how to bear a blow and personal sacrifices, such a nation will not get far. The nation lives, the national whole lives, only by the fight and work of individuals." From the above quotations, it is quite evident that the main principles of Dr. Tiso's ideology were: 1) Natural Law; 2) Love in place of hatred; 3) Right in.stead of violence; 4) Respect for morality; 5) Nation above the State; 6) Loyalty to traditions; 7) The personal selflessness and sacrifice of political leaders; 8) Nationalism sanctified by Christianity; 9) Social justice, and 10) Religious tolerance. During the decades of his political activity, Dr. Tiso developed these ideas not only in his popular speeches to the people, but also in his addresses, parliamentary speeches, and presidential messages, so that a scholar 14 SLOVAKIA will have little difficulty in elaborating Dr. Tiso's ideology. Dr. Tiso himself indicated Christianity as the basis of his ideas, especially the philosophy of St. Thomas 17 and, in the social sphere, the Papal Encyclicals. On the question of nationalism Tiso said that "the symbol of Slovak nationalism was stur," 18 because "stur's nationalism was the dynamic force in individuals whom he prompted to work and sacrifice for the nation; it was the connecting link of individuals into a rock-firm whole with a united aim a united will . . ." 19 A study of Dr. Tiso's political speeches reveals that he frequently tied in his talks with the spiritual-political heritage of the followers of Louis stur, the 19th century Slovak patriot and the "father of modern Slovak nationalism." Dr. Tiso did this consciously to preserve the continuity in Slovak ideological-political development and so that the Slovaks could build on traditions. If we compare the basic ideas of stur's political and philosophical writing and speeches which are dealt with in several published works 20 with Tiso's, the latter, of course, shows more elaborate concepts and deeper sociological insights. Preserving ideological continuity with former Slovak generations, Dr. Tiso draws deeply from a Christian world outlook on the individual and his relation to the State, nation, family and society. His ideology is firmly founded on the principles of modern sociology and political science; it has solid philosophical foundations and a strictly logical system; it emanates from an idea and stresses the primacy of spirituality, but it depends on and respects the reality of life. Tiso's ideology is the result of long years study and political experience, drawn from daily contact with the people and from the unceasing struggle with Slovakia's adversaries. As a result, it is, as it were, an ideology forged in the fire of battles and tested in confrontation with the actual life of the nation in the phase of its political formation, but also in the phase of struggles for its natural rights, and, finally, also in the period of building its own state. In comparison with the ideology of :r.. stur and his followers, we are concerned in Tiso's case with an ideology whose foundations are not only broader but one which was more thought out, mature and tested by life. Dr. Tiso's SLOVAKIA 15 political activity had almost been as long as Stu.r's entire life 0815-1856) and hence he could see the ideas which he professed and for which he labored and fought, materialized in national life. If we should compare Dr. Tiso as a politician and ideologue with other leaders of Slovak life, then objectively it can be said that during the last 100 year,s there was no political leader in Slovakia who could compare with his thorough preparation for political activity, either theoretically or from parliamentary experience. III. WRITINGS ON PRESIDENT TISO IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES In many West European countries, the President of the Slovak Republic was presented after the war in a distorted way. Journalists and scholars accepted Czech propaganda and Communist accusations and wrote about Slovakia and her President with a definite bias. After 25 years, this trend is changing, as all of us, who knew that the adverse propaganda was not based on facts, believed from the very beginning that it would. In books, periodicals and newpapers, the personality of Dr. Tiso and his politics appear today in a much different light than was the case immediately after the war. European Scholars About Msgr. Tiso In this respect, two recent articles deserve our attention. The French historian, Francois d'Orcival, who published an interesting book on Slovakia about three years ago under the title Le Danube Etait Noir, contributed to the periodical Miroir de l'Histoire (July 1971, No. 259), a lengthy essay in which he set the records straight and presented Dr. Tiso and his politics objectively. Dr. Tiso appears to the French historian as a patriot who did everything possible to save his people from disaster and who applied in his politics as many Christian and humanist principles as the intricate situation of the Second World War allowed him. The essay gives a brief historical background of Slovakia during the centuries and deals with the political events from 1918 to the proclamation of Slovakia's independence, ending with the execution of Msgr. Tiso in 1947. 16 SLOVAKIA The second article "Premesse ideologiche del Federalismo ceco-slovacco (La dottrina politico-sociale di Jozef Tiso)" appeared in Italy in the periodical fl Mondo Slavo (Vol. 2), published by the Centro di Studi Sull' Europa Orientale in Padova. It deals with the political and social doctrines of President Tiso, and was written by Lisa Guarda Nardini. It is a well-written analysis of the politics and ideology of Dr. Tiso. The author of the article also gives many biographical data on the President and dwells on his doctrine about the individual, the family, the nation and the State. The article is written on the basis of many sources published in English, German and Italian languages by foreign or Slovak authors. Writings by Slovak Authors in Foreign Languages Slovak writers, journalists and scholars published during the past 25 years scores of articles in the quarterlies Slovakia and Slowakei, or chapters in books dealing generally with Slovak history. The former Minister of External Affairs, Dr. F . t>urcansky, left some valuable information on Dr. Tiso in his contributions to German historical periodicals. In 1967 two publications appeared, one by Prof. Francis Vnuk and another by Prof. Milan S. Durica. Prof. Vnuk's publication, Dr. Jozef Tiso - President of the Slovak Republic (The Association of Australian Slovaks, Sydney, 1967), is a well-balanced and well-written presentation of Dr. Tiso and his political career. After writing hundreds of articles and two books on political and cultural topics from modern Slovak history, Vnuk had become one of the best qualified persons to seriously tackle the subject. He displays a considerable knowledge of foreign and domestic sources on the crucial years of Slovakia's modern history and uses it with skill and good judgment in summarizing Dr. Tiso's achievements, his role in the struggle of the Slovak people for equality of rights in Czecho-Slovakia and finally for national independence in the troubled period before and during the Second World War. In the sub-title of his work, Prof. Vnuk mentions that it was published " In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of his (Dr. Tiso's ) death at the hands of his SLOVAKIA 17 enemies of Slovak independence," but it is not a current commemorative booklet. The author gives the reader in a nutshell a serious and well-documented analysis not only of Dr. Tiso's political life struggle, but also an excellent survey of Slovak politics and the treacheries and perfidy of the adversaries of Slovak independence. The booklet is divided into 15 chapters and also includes several photographs and a map of Slovakia. There could hardly be a better concised presentation of "the case of Tiso," as it has been done by Vnuk. In equally sober manner is written Prof. M. St. i'.>urica's analysis of Slovak politics "in the light of Tiso's political thought and teaching" - Die Slowakische Politik 1938/ 39 im Lichte der Staatslehre Tiso 's (Emil Semmel Verlag, Bonn) , 1967. Both i'.>urica and Vnuk belong to the younger generation of Slovak scholars in the Free World and while they lived in Slovakia during the crucial years of her history, they were too young to be involved personally in politics, which is undoubtedly an advantage. Nobody can seriously accuse them of speaking "pro domo sua," as the adversaries of Slovakia's aspirations for freedom used to do with regard to other Slovak writers on political subjects. i'.>urica also has a thorough preparation for his work and is equipped with probably the best knowledge of German and other European diplomatic sources on Slovakia, as his Italian book and numerous studies in other languages indicate. The present publication is actually his lecture at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat in Bonn to the students of all Faculties on June 12, 1967. Like Vnuk, i'.>urica also gives first a survey of Slovak history to make his subject more intelligible to his readers. Then he speaks about the political thought (he uses the word Lehre-teaching) of Dr. Tiso and about the crisis of 1938/ 39. There are all the elements of a serious study in i'.>urica's publication, and it presents Dr. Tiso and Slovak politics to the Western world in an objective light, fighting only indirectly all the distortions and political propaganda which were spread by the Communists and non-Communists who adopted Czech and anti-Slovak conceptions about modern Slovak history. 18 SLOVAKIA The bulk of writings in the English language will be, of course, found in the American Slovak newspapers especially in Jednota and in the quarterly Oater annual) Slovakia. The late Philip Hrobak, editor of both Slovakia and Jednota was one of the most courageous defenders of the President of the Slovak Republic and there are many articles written by him personally and scores of essays which he translated and published. Some will be a valuable source for historians since they were written by persons who either knew President Tiso personally and worked in some political or cultural institution during the time he was President, or were acquainted with his trial and tragic and as politicians of the restored Czecho-Slovakia under the Soviet tutelage. Of documentary value will especially be two articles by President Tiso's Personal Secretary, Prof. Charles Murin: "Eight Fatal Days in the Life of Dr. Joseph Tiso," Slovakia, Vol. III, March 1957, pp. 13-18, and "A Belated Report," Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 31-36. Prof. Murin was Private Secretary to Dr. Tiso from 1938 until the latter's capture in Austria and extradition to Czecho-Slovakia, and the closest person in the President's entourage. The value of Prof. Murin's articles lies, in addition, in his intergrity and desire to portray the situation objectively. Another article of documentary value was written by an opponent of Slovakia's independence and indirectly of Dr. Tiso, Dr. Michael Zibrin, a member of Prague Parliament, under the title The Case of Dr. Joseph Tiso, Vol. II, August 1952, pp. 1-24. For historians, two articles will be of interest, one by Prof. J. Zubek, O.F.M., S.T.D., Monsignor Jozef TisoControversial Personality, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 1-8, and the other by Prof. Milan St. !>urica Dr'. Joseph Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia, Vol. VII, SeptemberDecember 1957, pp. 1-22. Neither Prof. Zubek nor Prof. !>urica were active in politics and their articles are a result of serious scholarly research. Among the articles by Slovaks who were close to some SLOVAKIA 19 time to Dr. Tiso during the years 1938-1945, there are two by Dr. J. M. Kirschbaum The Tenth Anniversary of Dr. Joseph Tiso's Execution, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 1-8, and Facts and Events Behind the Scenes of Slovakia's Declaration of Independence, Vol. IX, March 1959, pp. 1-7, and two by Dr. Joseph Pauco Dr. Joseph Tiso: Christian Democrat, Vol. VII, June 1957, pp. 37-49, and / was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper, Vol. VII, March 1957, pp. 9-13. The quarterly Slovakia published many other articles which in one way or another shed further information on the personality and politics of Dr. Tiso. In 1957, an entire volume was devoted to the memory of Dr. Tiso and many articles were published in previous or in the following years. At least some of them should be mentioned: The First President of the Slovak Republic, by Dr. Joseph Cieker, Vol. II, March 1952, pp. 1-29. Dr. Joseph Tiso: Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero of the Slovak Nation, Vol. II, March 1952, pp. 45-46. Anniversary of a Murder, Vol. III, April 1953, pp. 28-30, and Dr. Joseph Tiso in Memoriam, Vol. XI, September-December 1961, pp. 1-2. Slovakia: Trial of Dr. Joseph Tiso, March 1957, pp. 19-21. All these writings are an important source of information not only for foreign historians interested in Eastern Europe, but also for the new generation of Slovaks. Nevertheless, there is still need for a comprehensive work on the remarkable personality of Dr. Tiso and his politics during the crucial years before and during the Second World War, as well as on his place in the history of Slovakia. If written without prejudice by an able historian, such a book can be of great service to the Slovak nation and of great value for understanding not only the struggle of a small nation between two great powers, but also of the Communist methods of enslaving people with old traditions and love of freedom and democracy. See T. G. Masaryk, Das neue Europa and Der Agramer Hock- verratsprozess, both published during his struggle fo r the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. 2) See Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series 'D', Vol. IX-X. 3) Ibid, Vol. X, No. 205. 1) 4) See the report of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Revue Internationale de la Croix Rouge, Geneva, 1947, pp. 957- 20 SLOVAKIA 959, and Milan St. !>urica, "Dr, Jozef Tiso and the Jewish Problem in Slovakia," Slovakia, Vol. VII, No. 3-4, 1957. See Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso - President of the Slovak Republic. (Sydney, 1967) and Th. J Zubek, "Monsignor J . Tiso-Controversial Personality," Slovakia, Vol. Vil, March, 1957. 6 ) See quotations from his speeches and addresses in this article, Part II. 7) See Watson Klrkconnell, Canada, Europe and Hitler (Toronto, 1939) , pp. 47-48. 8) See J . M. Klrschbaum, Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe (Speller & Sons, New York, 1960), p. 280-283, F . Vnuk, op. cit. , and Francois d'Orcival, Le Danube etait noir, (Paris, 1967 ) and his article in Mirroir de l'Histoire, (No. 259, July 1971). 5) 9 ) Dr. Stefan Polakovic, Tisova Nauka (Tiso's Political Philosophy), and Z Tisovho Boja (From Tiso's Struggle) , Bratislava, 1941. 10) Dr. Jozef Tiso o se be, edited by Dr. Joseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J . 1952. 11) On Slovak Constitution, see Kirschbaum, Slov aki11r-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, (Speller, New York, 1960) . 12) Published in the daily Slovak, No. 177-178, Bratislava, 1936. 13) Quoted from Dr. J . Pauco, op cit. , p. 243. 14) Polakovic, Tisova Nauka, op. cit., p. 324. Originally published in the daily Slovak, No. 283 , 1938. 15) This and the following quotations are taken from the books by Polakovic and Pauco. 16) See Polakovic, Z Tisovho Boja, op. cit. , p. 236-237. 17) "All who recall our thesis that 'the nation is the substance and the state only the form' should know that its state-political formula is the practical consequence of rtihe state-political theory which is built on the foundations of Thomistic philosophy ." - SLOVAK, 1935. 18 ) See "Prve posolstvo" (The First Message), Ruzomberok, August 16, 1939. Already in 1936 Dr. Tiso had proclaimed: "It is this amount of Louis Stur, built in the Banovce county, that shall be the visible proof of the fact that we have progressed so far that only we, Slovak Catholics, have not forgotten our Slovak past and we pay our respects to the memory of our national awakeners even when they are Evangelical (Lutherans) , as was Stur."-SLOVAK, 1936. 19) Dr. Tiso also characterized Stur's nationalism in this manner: " Stur's nationalism-built on the foundation of the independent Slovak nation and the genuine Slovak language, ,b ecause it acknowledges the law of God and the law .of nature-was the natural foundation of the life of the Slovak nation."-SLOVAK, 1936. 20 ) See the works by Profess.or Dr. Cizevsky, Stefan Polakovic, Dr. Samuel S. Osusky, Daniel Rapant, Joseph Pauco, and J . M. Kirschbaum's, ~udovit Slur and His Place in the Slavic World, (Slovak Institute, Cleveland, Ohio), 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 Dr. Joseph Tiso: The Prelate-Politician who Died on the Gallows for His People Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 5-20 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 SNK