3 50 763 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/87da2d2d23b263fabccfae7eb79587b3.pdf 0b569feae6c5e2f174c2b5c8a09e6ca6 PDF Text Text 148 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS DAVID M. CROWE is Professor of History at Elon College in North Carolina. He is a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe and his most recent books include A History of the Gypsies in Eastern Europe and Russia (1994) and The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940 (1993). JAN CHRYZOSTOM CARDINAL KOREC, S.J., is Roman Catholic Bishop of Nitra, Slovakia. Secretly ordained as a Bishop at the tender age of 28 in 1950, he helped create an underground Church during the Communist regime that ruled his homeland from 1948 to 1989. Arrested by the secret police in 1960, he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for his religious activities. Persecuted for many years, and forced to work as a manual labourer, Cardinal Korec outlasted his tormentors and is now working hard to rejuvenate the Roman Catholic Church in Slovakia. STEFAN POLAKOVIC received his Ph.D. from the Lateran University in Rome and was a Professor of Philosophy at the Slovak University in Bratislava during the first Slovak Republic. After the collapse of the Republic, he emigrated to Argentina where he became a successful business entrepreneur. Meanwhile, he published many books and articles pertaining to Slovak national identity and independence, he continued with such activities after the war, and still publishes, whether in the new Slovak Republic, or abroad. �SLOVAKIA 149 M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America and has published widely in the field, including Growing Up on the South Side: Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976 (Lewisburg, PA 1976) and Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (New York, 1989). SPENCER ZIFCAK is Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. In 1995 he was Visiting Professor at the UNESCO Centre for Human Rights Education at Comenius University in Bratislava. He has written extensively in the general fields of Constitutional and Administrative Law and, more recently, on the role of Constitutional Courts in Central Europe. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM is Professor of International Studies and Political Science at York University, Glendon College, in Toronto, Canada. A specialist on Slovak and Central European politics, he is the author of A History of Slovakia. The Struggle for Survival (New York, 1995, 1996), A Historical Dictionary of Slovakia (Lanham, MD, 1998), and many other books and articles. �150 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts of articles should be sent to the editor. Articles should not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length, and should be submitted in triplicate, typed double-spaced, numbered consecutively, and placed at the end of the paper. Text and format should adhere to Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writer.s . Proper ortography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Manuscripts will not be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. Individuals who wish to review books should request them from the editor. They should send a 'curriculum vitae' with their request. ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK, K.S .G., Honorary President Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President JOSEPH J. TALAFOUS, Esq. Vice-President JOHN A. HOLY Secretary-Treasurer ANNE Z. SAROSY Vice-President MICHAL BUCKO Vice-President Executive Board Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, John A Holy, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Thomas M. Hricik, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., George J. Kostelnik, Rita M. Simalchik, David G. Balzek, Frank Rudzik Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATE[ WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 8.00 per issue � 148 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS DAVID M. CROWE is Professor of History at Elon College in North Carolina. He is a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe and his most recent books include A History of the Gypsies in Eastern Europe and Russia (1994) and The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940 (1993). JAN CHRYZOSTOM CARDINAL KOREC, S.J., is Roman Catholic Bishop of Nitra, Slovakia. Secretly ordained as a Bishop at the tender age of 28 in 1950, he helped create an underground Church during the Communist regime that ruled his homeland from 1948 to 1989. Arrested by the secret police in 1960, he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for his religious activities. Persecuted for many years, and forced to work as a manual labourer, Cardinal Korec outlasted his tormentors and is now working hard to rejuvenate the Roman Catholic Church in Slovakia. STEFAN POLAKOVIC received his Ph.D. from the Lateran University in Rome and was a Professor of Philosophy at the Slovak University in Bratislava during the first Slovak Republic. After the collapse of the Republic, he emigrated to Argentina where he became a successful business entrepreneur. Meanwhile, he published many books and articles pertaining to Slovak national identity and independence, he continued with such activities after the war, and still publishes, whether in the new Slovak Republic, or abroad. �SLOVAKIA 149 M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America and has published widely in the field, including Growing Up on the South Side: Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976 (Lewisburg, PA 1976) and Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (New York, 1989). SPENCER ZIFCAK is Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. In 1995 he was Visiting Professor at the UNESCO Centre for Human Rights Education at Comenius University in Bratislava. He has written extensively in the general fields of Constitutional and Administrative Law and, more recently, on the role of Constitutional Courts in Central Europe. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM is Professor of International Studies and Political Science at York University, Glendon College, in Toronto, Canada. A specialist on Slovak and Central European politics, he is the author of A History of Slovakia. The Struggle for Survival (New York, 1995, 1996), A Historical Dictionary of Slovakia (Lanham, MD, 1998), and many other books and articles. �150 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts of articles should be sent to the editor. Articles should not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length, and should be submitted in triplicate, typed double-spaced, numbered consecutively, and placed at the end of the paper. Text and format should adhere to Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writer.s . Proper ortography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Manuscripts will not be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. Individuals who wish to review books should request them from the editor. They should send a 'curriculum vitae' with their request. ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK, K.S .G., Honorary President Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President JOSEPH J. TALAFOUS, Esq. Vice-President JOHN A. HOLY Secretary-Treasurer ANNE Z. SAROSY Vice-President MICHAL BUCKO Vice-President Executive Board Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, John A Holy, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Thomas M. Hricik, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., George J. Kostelnik, Rita M. Simalchik, David G. Balzek, Frank Rudzik Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATE[ WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 8.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1998, Vol. 36 Description An account of the resource Vol. 36 (No. 66-67), 1998. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 148 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS DAVID M. CROWE is Professor of History at Elon College in North Carolina. He is a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe and his most recent books include A History of the Gypsies in Eastern Europe and Russia (1994) and The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940 (1993). JAN CHRYZOSTOM CARDINAL KOREC, S.J., is Roman Catholic Bishop of Nitra, Slovakia. Secretly ordained as a Bishop at the tender age of 28 in 1950, he helped create an underground Church during the Communist regime that ruled his homeland from 1948 to 1989. Arrested by the secret police in 1960, he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for his religious activities. Persecuted for many years, and forced to work as a manual labourer, Cardinal Korec outlasted his tormentors and is now working hard to rejuvenate the Roman Catholic Church in Slovakia. STEFAN POLAKOVIC received his Ph.D. from the Lateran University in Rome and was a Professor of Philosophy at the Slovak University in Bratislava during the first Slovak Republic. After the collapse of the Republic, he emigrated to Argentina where he became a successful business entrepreneur. Meanwhile, he published many books and articles pertaining to Slovak national identity and independence, he continued with such activities after the war, and still publishes, whether in the new Slovak Republic, or abroad. SLOVAKIA 149 M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America and has published widely in the field, including Growing Up on the South Side: Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976 (Lewisburg, PA 1976) and Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (New York, 1989). SPENCER ZIFCAK is Associate Professor of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. In 1995 he was Visiting Professor at the UNESCO Centre for Human Rights Education at Comenius University in Bratislava. He has written extensively in the general fields of Constitutional and Administrative Law and, more recently, on the role of Constitutional Courts in Central Europe. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM is Professor of International Studies and Political Science at York University, Glendon College, in Toronto, Canada. A specialist on Slovak and Central European politics, he is the author of A History of Slovakia. The Struggle for Survival (New York, 1995, 1996), A Historical Dictionary of Slovakia (Lanham, MD, 1998), and many other books and articles. 150 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts of articles should be sent to the editor. Articles should not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length, and should be submitted in triplicate, typed double-spaced, numbered consecutively, and placed at the end of the paper. Text and format should adhere to Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writer.s . Proper ortography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Manuscripts will not be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. Individuals who wish to review books should request them from the editor. They should send a 'curriculum vitae' with their request. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK, K.S .G., Honorary President Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President JOSEPH J. TALAFOUS, Esq. Vice-President JOHN A. HOLY Secretary-Treasurer ANNE Z. SAROSY Vice-President MICHAL BUCKO Vice-President Executive Board Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, John A Holy, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Thomas M. Hricik, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., George J. Kostelnik, Rita M. Simalchik, David G. Balzek, Frank Rudzik Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATE[ WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 8.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 36 (No. 66-67) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5a2fafd7139eef1d2eec0d44618b498c.pdf 7887d46da9598e2b36037e9965fb5875 PDF Text Text 208 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS JAMES R. FELAK is Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington. He is the author of 'At the Price of the Republic': Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, 1929-/938 (Pittsburgh , 1994) which won the 1996 Slovak Studies Association Prize, as well as the Orbis Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. He has al so published many articles in scholarly journals. He specializes in the history of East Central Europe in the 20th century, with a focus on nationalism, communism, and religion. JAN CARNOGURSKY was Slovakia's leading Catholic dissident in the era of 'Normalization ' ( 1969-1989). As an attor- ney he defended fellow -dissidents in communist courts , and , from 1980 on , he published the underground newspaper Bratislavskc listy. Freed from jail during the 'Velvet Revolution' of 1989, Carnog ursky was propelled to the position of Deputy Prime Minister o f the non-communist federal government. He founded and Chaired (until 2002) the Christian Democratic Movement in the spring of 1990. After the June, 1990 elections Carnogursky became Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government and in the spring of I 991 Prime Minister. After the June, 1992 elections he was a Member of Parliament in opposition to the Meciar government. After the 1998 elections he served as Minister of Justice in the Dzurinda government active politics in September of 2002 . until his retirement from �SLOVAKIA 209 PAAL SIGURD HILDE is a doctoral candidate at St. Anthony ' s College, Oxford University . He is writing his dissertation on Slovak nationalism after the collapse of Communism and has published "Slovak Nationalism and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia" . Europe-Asia Studies, 5 (No.2, 1998), 54 7-65. SUSUMU NAGA YO is Associate Professor of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in Tokyo. He has published numerous articles about the Slovak language, literature, history and politics in Japanese, Slovak and American sc holarly journals. He is fluent in Russ ian and Slovak and also teaches those languages at his university . M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of Hi story and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America and has published many books and articles in the field. including Growing Up on the South Side: Three Genera- tions of Slovaks in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. I 880-1976 (1985) and I111111igration a11(/ Urbani7.ation : The Slovak Experience. I 870- I 9 / 8 ( 1989). MARTIN VOTRUBA 1s Director of the Slovak Studies Programme in the Slavic Department of the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches courses in Slovak lan g uage , literature, film. and history. In the past he worked for Radio Free Europe and is still its U.S. correspondent. �210 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for poss ible publication sho uld be sent to th e editor. Articles sho uld not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be submitted in duplicate and typed double -s paced, with generou s margins for copy-editing. Footnotes shou ld be numbered , entered consecutively and placed at the end of the paper. A copy of the paper s ho uld also be submitted on a flopp y disc, either in WordPerfect or MicrosoftWord format. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks mu st be s upplied for all foreign words . Manuscripts will no t be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review arc to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged . Individuals who wish to review books should request th e m from the editor . ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President W. NINA HOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice-presidents: MIKULAS BENO ANNE Z. SAROSY JUSTINE WESNAK Executive Board: Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, W. Nina Holy, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch, John A Holy, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Thomas M. Hricik, Sue Ann M. Seich, Rita M. Simalchik, David G. Balzek, Frank Rudzik Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue � 208 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS JAMES R. FELAK is Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington. He is the author of 'At the Price of the Republic': Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, 1929-/938 (Pittsburgh , 1994) which won the 1996 Slovak Studies Association Prize, as well as the Orbis Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. He has al so published many articles in scholarly journals. He specializes in the history of East Central Europe in the 20th century, with a focus on nationalism, communism, and religion. JAN CARNOGURSKY was Slovakia's leading Catholic dissident in the era of 'Normalization ' ( 1969-1989). As an attor- ney he defended fellow -dissidents in communist courts , and , from 1980 on , he published the underground newspaper Bratislavskc listy. Freed from jail during the 'Velvet Revolution' of 1989, Carnog ursky was propelled to the position of Deputy Prime Minister o f the non-communist federal government. He founded and Chaired (until 2002) the Christian Democratic Movement in the spring of 1990. After the June, 1990 elections Carnogursky became Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government and in the spring of I 991 Prime Minister. After the June, 1992 elections he was a Member of Parliament in opposition to the Meciar government. After the 1998 elections he served as Minister of Justice in the Dzurinda government active politics in September of 2002 . until his retirement from �SLOVAKIA 209 PAAL SIGURD HILDE is a doctoral candidate at St. Anthony ' s College, Oxford University . He is writing his dissertation on Slovak nationalism after the collapse of Communism and has published "Slovak Nationalism and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia" . Europe-Asia Studies, 5 (No.2, 1998), 54 7-65. SUSUMU NAGA YO is Associate Professor of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in Tokyo. He has published numerous articles about the Slovak language, literature, history and politics in Japanese, Slovak and American sc holarly journals. He is fluent in Russ ian and Slovak and also teaches those languages at his university . M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of Hi story and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America and has published many books and articles in the field. including Growing Up on the South Side: Three Genera- tions of Slovaks in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. I 880-1976 (1985) and I111111igration a11(/ Urbani7.ation : The Slovak Experience. I 870- I 9 / 8 ( 1989). MARTIN VOTRUBA 1s Director of the Slovak Studies Programme in the Slavic Department of the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches courses in Slovak lan g uage , literature, film. and history. In the past he worked for Radio Free Europe and is still its U.S. correspondent. �210 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for poss ible publication sho uld be sent to th e editor. Articles sho uld not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be submitted in duplicate and typed double -s paced, with generou s margins for copy-editing. Footnotes shou ld be numbered , entered consecutively and placed at the end of the paper. A copy of the paper s ho uld also be submitted on a flopp y disc, either in WordPerfect or MicrosoftWord format. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks mu st be s upplied for all foreign words . Manuscripts will no t be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review arc to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged . Individuals who wish to review books should request th e m from the editor . ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President W. NINA HOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice-presidents: MIKULAS BENO ANNE Z. SAROSY JUSTINE WESNAK Executive Board: Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, W. Nina Holy, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch, John A Holy, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Thomas M. Hricik, Sue Ann M. Seich, Rita M. Simalchik, David G. Balzek, Frank Rudzik Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003, Vol. 37 Description An account of the resource Vol. 37 (No. 68-69), 2003. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 208 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS JAMES R. FELAK is Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington. He is the author of 'At the Price of the Republic': Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, 1929-/938 (Pittsburgh , 1994) which won the 1996 Slovak Studies Association Prize, as well as the Orbis Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. He has al so published many articles in scholarly journals. He specializes in the history of East Central Europe in the 20th century, with a focus on nationalism, communism, and religion. JAN CARNOGURSKY was Slovakia's leading Catholic dissident in the era of 'Normalization ' ( 1969-1989). As an attor- ney he defended fellow -dissidents in communist courts , and , from 1980 on , he published the underground newspaper Bratislavskc listy. Freed from jail during the 'Velvet Revolution' of 1989, Carnog ursky was propelled to the position of Deputy Prime Minister o f the non-communist federal government. He founded and Chaired (until 2002) the Christian Democratic Movement in the spring of 1990. After the June, 1990 elections Carnogursky became Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government and in the spring of I 991 Prime Minister. After the June, 1992 elections he was a Member of Parliament in opposition to the Meciar government. After the 1998 elections he served as Minister of Justice in the Dzurinda government active politics in September of 2002 . until his retirement from SLOVAKIA 209 PAAL SIGURD HILDE is a doctoral candidate at St. Anthony ' s College, Oxford University . He is writing his dissertation on Slovak nationalism after the collapse of Communism and has published "Slovak Nationalism and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia" . Europe-Asia Studies, 5 (No.2, 1998), 54 7-65. SUSUMU NAGA YO is Associate Professor of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in Tokyo. He has published numerous articles about the Slovak language, literature, history and politics in Japanese, Slovak and American sc holarly journals. He is fluent in Russ ian and Slovak and also teaches those languages at his university . M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of Hi story and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America and has published many books and articles in the field. including Growing Up on the South Side: Three Genera- tions of Slovaks in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. I 880-1976 (1985) and I111111igration a11(/ Urbani7.ation : The Slovak Experience. I 870- I 9 / 8 ( 1989). MARTIN VOTRUBA 1s Director of the Slovak Studies Programme in the Slavic Department of the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches courses in Slovak lan g uage , literature, film. and history. In the past he worked for Radio Free Europe and is still its U.S. correspondent. 210 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for poss ible publication sho uld be sent to th e editor. Articles sho uld not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be submitted in duplicate and typed double -s paced, with generou s margins for copy-editing. Footnotes shou ld be numbered , entered consecutively and placed at the end of the paper. A copy of the paper s ho uld also be submitted on a flopp y disc, either in WordPerfect or MicrosoftWord format. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks mu st be s upplied for all foreign words . Manuscripts will no t be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review arc to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged . Individuals who wish to review books should request th e m from the editor . THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President W. NINA HOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice-presidents: MIKULAS BENO ANNE Z. SAROSY JUSTINE WESNAK Executive Board: Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, W. Nina Holy, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch, John A Holy, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Thomas M. Hricik, Sue Ann M. Seich, Rita M. Simalchik, David G. Balzek, Frank Rudzik Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 37 (No. 68-69) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d9eb9389ef2312723a33acdc8b4e013e.pdf 0f8601081a9f36ecd9e39e74568a7055 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 171 CONTRIBUTORS ELISABETH BAKKE is c urre ntl y e mp loyed as a Post-Doctoral Resea rch Fe ll ow in the Department of Politica l Scie nce, Univers ity of Oslo. She successfully de fe nded her thes is " Doomed To Failure? The C zec hoslovak Nation Project and the Slovak Autonom ist Reaction , 1918- 1938" in Jun e of 1999. She teac hes " Nation ali sm and Centra l European Politi cs" at the postgrad uate leve l. Bakke has publi shed severa l arti c les on Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak question s, a nd ha s rece ntl y ed ited a book in Norwegian o n co nte mporary Central European and Ba lti c politics (2002). JAMES FELAK is Associate Professor of Hi story at th e University of Was hin gton . He is the author of ' A t the Price of the R epublic': Hlinka "s Slovak People's Party, I 929-1938, winner of the 1996 Book Pri ze of the S lovak Studies Assoc iation and the Book Prize for Czech and S lovak Studies. He has contributed artic les to Nation alities Papers. East Centra l Europe and East European Quarterly. PAAL SIGURD HILDE rece ived hi s Ph .D . from the Univers ity of O xford in 2003 . Hi s di sse rtation dea lt with the e me rge nce of nationa li sm in Slovakia betwee n 1989 a nd 1992. He has publi shed severa l arti c les o n thi s subject in leadin g sc hol arl y journa ls. He is c urrentl y e mpl oyed by the Norwegian Mini stry of Defe nse. KONSTANTIN V . LIFANOV is Professor of Slovak Linguistics at the Lo monosov Univers ity of Moscow. He specia li zes in the hi story of Slovak , in c luding the Slovak lang uage in the USA , and mode rn Slovak. He is the author of S lovak M orphology (Moscow, 1999) [in Ru ss ian l, Th e Language of Spiritual Literature of S lovak Catholics from the I 6 th to the 18th Cen twy and B ernolak 's Codification (Moscow , 2000) [in Ru ss ian], Genesis of the S lovak Litera1y L anguage �172 SLOVAKIA (Munich, 2001) [in Russian] and The Language of Eastern Slo vak Publications in the USA from the End of the I <Jh to the Beginning of the 2(/h Century (M unich, 2005) [in Russian]. JAMES W. PETERSON is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. His publications and conference papers center on Czec h and Slovak politics, NATO, and the common foreign and security policy of the EU. He is also editor of The Czech and Slovak History Newsletter. LONE SARAUW rece ived her Ph .D from the University of Aarhus (Denmark) in 2004. Her di ssertation was entitled "Together We Part. Collective Memory , Political Culture and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia." She is now raising two daughters. �SLOVAKIA 173 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manu sc ripts for poss ible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length , should be submitted in duplicate and typed double-spaced, with generous marg ins fo r copy-editin g. Footnotes should be numbered consec uti ve ly and pl aced at the bottom of each page. A copy of the paper sho uld also be submitted on a floppy di sc, either in WordPerfect or MicrosoftWord format. Tex t and format should ad here to the "Chicago Manual of Sty le". Proper orthography and diacritical marks mu st be suppli ed for a ll foreign words. Manu scripts will not be returned unl ess spec ifically requested and postage is provided. Books fo r rev iew are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book rev iews are not enco uraged. Individual s who wi sh to rev iew books should request them from the editor. �����THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President W. NINA HOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice-presidents: MIKULAS BENO ANNE Z. SAROSY JUSTINE WESNAK Executive Board: Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, W. Nina Holy, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch , John A. Holy, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Thomas M. Hricik, Sue Ann M. Seich , Theresa M. Kluchinski, David G. Balzek, John Yuhas Milan Cuba, Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE US AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida ©SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA 171 CONTRIBUTORS ELISABETH BAKKE is c urre ntl y e mp loyed as a Post-Doctoral Resea rch Fe ll ow in the Department of Politica l Scie nce, Univers ity of Oslo. She successfully de fe nded her thes is " Doomed To Failure? The C zec hoslovak Nation Project and the Slovak Autonom ist Reaction , 1918- 1938" in Jun e of 1999. She teac hes " Nation ali sm and Centra l European Politi cs" at the postgrad uate leve l. Bakke has publi shed severa l arti c les on Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak question s, a nd ha s rece ntl y ed ited a book in Norwegian o n co nte mporary Central European and Ba lti c politics (2002). JAMES FELAK is Associate Professor of Hi story at th e University of Was hin gton . He is the author of ' A t the Price of the R epublic': Hlinka "s Slovak People's Party, I 929-1938, winner of the 1996 Book Pri ze of the S lovak Studies Assoc iation and the Book Prize for Czech and S lovak Studies. He has contributed artic les to Nation alities Papers. East Centra l Europe and East European Quarterly. PAAL SIGURD HILDE rece ived hi s Ph .D . from the Univers ity of O xford in 2003 . Hi s di sse rtation dea lt with the e me rge nce of nationa li sm in Slovakia betwee n 1989 a nd 1992. He has publi shed severa l arti c les o n thi s subject in leadin g sc hol arl y journa ls. He is c urrentl y e mpl oyed by the Norwegian Mini stry of Defe nse. KONSTANTIN V . LIFANOV is Professor of Slovak Linguistics at the Lo monosov Univers ity of Moscow. He specia li zes in the hi story of Slovak , in c luding the Slovak lang uage in the USA , and mode rn Slovak. He is the author of S lovak M orphology (Moscow, 1999) [in Ru ss ian l, Th e Language of Spiritual Literature of S lovak Catholics from the I 6 th to the 18th Cen twy and B ernolak 's Codification (Moscow , 2000) [in Ru ss ian], Genesis of the S lovak Litera1y L anguage �172 SLOVAKIA (Munich, 2001) [in Russian] and The Language of Eastern Slo vak Publications in the USA from the End of the I <Jh to the Beginning of the 2(/h Century (M unich, 2005) [in Russian]. JAMES W. PETERSON is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. His publications and conference papers center on Czec h and Slovak politics, NATO, and the common foreign and security policy of the EU. He is also editor of The Czech and Slovak History Newsletter. LONE SARAUW rece ived her Ph .D from the University of Aarhus (Denmark) in 2004. Her di ssertation was entitled "Together We Part. Collective Memory , Political Culture and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia." She is now raising two daughters. �SLOVAKIA 173 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manu sc ripts for poss ible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length , should be submitted in duplicate and typed double-spaced, with generous marg ins fo r copy-editin g. Footnotes should be numbered consec uti ve ly and pl aced at the bottom of each page. A copy of the paper sho uld also be submitted on a floppy di sc, either in WordPerfect or MicrosoftWord format. Tex t and format should ad here to the "Chicago Manual of Sty le". Proper orthography and diacritical marks mu st be suppli ed for a ll foreign words. Manu scripts will not be returned unl ess spec ifically requested and postage is provided. Books fo r rev iew are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book rev iews are not enco uraged. Individual s who wi sh to rev iew books should request them from the editor. �����THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President W. NINA HOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice-presidents: MIKULAS BENO ANNE Z. SAROSY JUSTINE WESNAK Executive Board: Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, W. Nina Holy, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch , John A. Holy, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Thomas M. Hricik, Sue Ann M. Seich , Theresa M. Kluchinski, David G. Balzek, John Yuhas Milan Cuba, Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE US AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida ©SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005, Vol. 38 Description An account of the resource Vol. 38 (No. 70-71), 2005. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 171 CONTRIBUTORS ELISABETH BAKKE is c urre ntl y e mp loyed as a Post-Doctoral Resea rch Fe ll ow in the Department of Politica l Scie nce, Univers ity of Oslo. She successfully de fe nded her thes is " Doomed To Failure? The C zec hoslovak Nation Project and the Slovak Autonom ist Reaction , 1918- 1938" in Jun e of 1999. She teac hes " Nation ali sm and Centra l European Politi cs" at the postgrad uate leve l. Bakke has publi shed severa l arti c les on Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak question s, a nd ha s rece ntl y ed ited a book in Norwegian o n co nte mporary Central European and Ba lti c politics (2002). JAMES FELAK is Associate Professor of Hi story at th e University of Was hin gton . He is the author of ' A t the Price of the R epublic': Hlinka "s Slovak People's Party, I 929-1938, winner of the 1996 Book Pri ze of the S lovak Studies Assoc iation and the Book Prize for Czech and S lovak Studies. He has contributed artic les to Nation alities Papers. East Centra l Europe and East European Quarterly. PAAL SIGURD HILDE rece ived hi s Ph .D . from the Univers ity of O xford in 2003 . Hi s di sse rtation dea lt with the e me rge nce of nationa li sm in Slovakia betwee n 1989 a nd 1992. He has publi shed severa l arti c les o n thi s subject in leadin g sc hol arl y journa ls. He is c urrentl y e mpl oyed by the Norwegian Mini stry of Defe nse. KONSTANTIN V . LIFANOV is Professor of Slovak Linguistics at the Lo monosov Univers ity of Moscow. He specia li zes in the hi story of Slovak , in c luding the Slovak lang uage in the USA , and mode rn Slovak. He is the author of S lovak M orphology (Moscow, 1999) [in Ru ss ian l, Th e Language of Spiritual Literature of S lovak Catholics from the I 6 th to the 18th Cen twy and B ernolak 's Codification (Moscow , 2000) [in Ru ss ian], Genesis of the S lovak Litera1y L anguage 172 SLOVAKIA (Munich, 2001) [in Russian] and The Language of Eastern Slo vak Publications in the USA from the End of the I <Jh to the Beginning of the 2(/h Century (M unich, 2005) [in Russian]. JAMES W. PETERSON is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. His publications and conference papers center on Czec h and Slovak politics, NATO, and the common foreign and security policy of the EU. He is also editor of The Czech and Slovak History Newsletter. LONE SARAUW rece ived her Ph .D from the University of Aarhus (Denmark) in 2004. Her di ssertation was entitled "Together We Part. Collective Memory , Political Culture and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia." She is now raising two daughters. SLOVAKIA 173 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manu sc ripts for poss ible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should not normally exceed twenty-five pages in length , should be submitted in duplicate and typed double-spaced, with generous marg ins fo r copy-editin g. Footnotes should be numbered consec uti ve ly and pl aced at the bottom of each page. A copy of the paper sho uld also be submitted on a floppy di sc, either in WordPerfect or MicrosoftWord format. Tex t and format should ad here to the "Chicago Manual of Sty le". Proper orthography and diacritical marks mu st be suppli ed for a ll foreign words. Manu scripts will not be returned unl ess spec ifically requested and postage is provided. Books fo r rev iew are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book rev iews are not enco uraged. Individual s who wi sh to rev iew books should request them from the editor. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Organized in 1907 Dr. LUDWIG J. PAVLO President W. NINA HOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice-presidents: MIKULAS BENO ANNE Z. SAROSY JUSTINE WESNAK Executive Board: Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, W. Nina Holy, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner, Daniel F. Tanzone, Dr. John Karch , John A. Holy, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Thomas M. Hricik, Sue Ann M. Seich , Theresa M. Kluchinski, David G. Balzek, John Yuhas Milan Cuba, Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE US AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida ©SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 38 (No. 70-71) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6f28d140a4a7671aa310bb9eb9cdca00.pdf 32c11d50197ea3dea58a565151e1be3a PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 141 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN earned his Ph .D. in the history of East Central Europe from the Florida State University. He is an independent scholar who co-authored The National Slovak Society: a JOO Year History (Pittsburgh, 1990), and has published articles on the Slovak role in the Revolutions of 1848-49 and on the Slovak National Uprising. DAVID DOELLINGER is an Assistant Professor of History at Western Oregon University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002. He is currently revising for publication his dissertation: From Prayers to Protests: The Impact of Religiousbased Dissent in the Emergence of Civil Society in Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK is Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Her scholarly presentations and publications have been in Slavic folklore, particularly Russian, Slovak, and Carpatho-Rusyn . IGOR LUKES is a University Professor and a Professor of History and International Affairs at Boston University. He is also an Associate of the Davis Center at Harvard University. Among his many publications is the award-wi nning Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 193O's (New York: Oxford , I 996) and, more recently, Rudolf Slansky: His Trials and Trial (Washington , DC: Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, 2006). PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI is Professor of History and Political Science and holder of the Chair in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the foremost expert on Ru sy ns in the world, having published numerous books and articles about them. He was also research editor of the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1975-1978), and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples ( 1999). �142 SLOVAKIA JAN SIMKO received hi s PhDr. in English from the Slovak University in 1944, and taught this subject, with brief interruptions, at the renamed Comenius University until 1967 . He studied at the Folger Shakespeare Library and, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he remained in the United States, where he taught Slovak at various educational institutions. He is the author of the comprehensive English Slovak Dictionary (Wauconda, II, 1989) and of numerous artic les in Narodny Kalendar (Pittsburgh). M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Cu lture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the hi story of Slovak immigration to North America and has published many books and articles in thi s field, including Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Penn sylvania , 1880-1976 ( 1985 ) and Immigra tion and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience , 1870-1918 ( 1989). He is c urrent ly writing Where i s my Homeland ? A Slovak Odyssey Thmugh the 2(Jh Centwy. MARTIN VOTRUBA is Director of the Slovak Studies Program in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. The image of Janosik is part of hi s current research and teaching projects, which include editing a special iss ue on Slovak filmmaking for KinoKultura and a dictionary for American learners of Slovak. �SLOVAKIA 143 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manu scripts for poss ible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normall y not exceed twenty-five pages in length , should be typed doubl e-s paced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted as one hard copy and one in e lectronic format, using e ither MicrosoftWord or WordPerfec t. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago M anual of Style. Proper orthography and di acritical marks mu st be supplied for all foreign words. Manu sc ripts wi ll not be returned unle ss specifical ly requested and postage is provided. Boo ks for review are to be se nt to the editor. Unsolicited book rev iews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer DANIEL F. TANZONE President Vice Presidents Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner Martha Kana Gabriel Kovac Executive Board Daniel F, Tanzone , W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch , Esq ., Stephanie Seigel , Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, Andrew M. Rajec, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq. , Larry M. Glugosh , Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, John Yuhas, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, Irene J. Drotleff, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN 'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA 141 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN earned his Ph .D. in the history of East Central Europe from the Florida State University. He is an independent scholar who co-authored The National Slovak Society: a JOO Year History (Pittsburgh, 1990), and has published articles on the Slovak role in the Revolutions of 1848-49 and on the Slovak National Uprising. DAVID DOELLINGER is an Assistant Professor of History at Western Oregon University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002. He is currently revising for publication his dissertation: From Prayers to Protests: The Impact of Religiousbased Dissent in the Emergence of Civil Society in Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK is Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Her scholarly presentations and publications have been in Slavic folklore, particularly Russian, Slovak, and Carpatho-Rusyn . IGOR LUKES is a University Professor and a Professor of History and International Affairs at Boston University. He is also an Associate of the Davis Center at Harvard University. Among his many publications is the award-wi nning Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 193O's (New York: Oxford , I 996) and, more recently, Rudolf Slansky: His Trials and Trial (Washington , DC: Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, 2006). PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI is Professor of History and Political Science and holder of the Chair in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the foremost expert on Ru sy ns in the world, having published numerous books and articles about them. He was also research editor of the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1975-1978), and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples ( 1999). �142 SLOVAKIA JAN SIMKO received hi s PhDr. in English from the Slovak University in 1944, and taught this subject, with brief interruptions, at the renamed Comenius University until 1967 . He studied at the Folger Shakespeare Library and, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he remained in the United States, where he taught Slovak at various educational institutions. He is the author of the comprehensive English Slovak Dictionary (Wauconda, II, 1989) and of numerous artic les in Narodny Kalendar (Pittsburgh). M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Cu lture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the hi story of Slovak immigration to North America and has published many books and articles in thi s field, including Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Penn sylvania , 1880-1976 ( 1985 ) and Immigra tion and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience , 1870-1918 ( 1989). He is c urrent ly writing Where i s my Homeland ? A Slovak Odyssey Thmugh the 2(Jh Centwy. MARTIN VOTRUBA is Director of the Slovak Studies Program in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. The image of Janosik is part of hi s current research and teaching projects, which include editing a special iss ue on Slovak filmmaking for KinoKultura and a dictionary for American learners of Slovak. �SLOVAKIA 143 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manu scripts for poss ible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normall y not exceed twenty-five pages in length , should be typed doubl e-s paced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted as one hard copy and one in e lectronic format, using e ither MicrosoftWord or WordPerfec t. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago M anual of Style. Proper orthography and di acritical marks mu st be supplied for all foreign words. Manu sc ripts wi ll not be returned unle ss specifical ly requested and postage is provided. Boo ks for review are to be se nt to the editor. Unsolicited book rev iews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer DANIEL F. TANZONE President Vice Presidents Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner Martha Kana Gabriel Kovac Executive Board Daniel F, Tanzone , W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch , Esq ., Stephanie Seigel , Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, Andrew M. Rajec, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq. , Larry M. Glugosh , Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, John Yuhas, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, Irene J. Drotleff, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN 'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2007, Vol. 39 Description An account of the resource Vol. 39 (No. 72-73), 2007. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 141 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN earned his Ph .D. in the history of East Central Europe from the Florida State University. He is an independent scholar who co-authored The National Slovak Society: a JOO Year History (Pittsburgh, 1990), and has published articles on the Slovak role in the Revolutions of 1848-49 and on the Slovak National Uprising. DAVID DOELLINGER is an Assistant Professor of History at Western Oregon University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002. He is currently revising for publication his dissertation: From Prayers to Protests: The Impact of Religiousbased Dissent in the Emergence of Civil Society in Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK is Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Her scholarly presentations and publications have been in Slavic folklore, particularly Russian, Slovak, and Carpatho-Rusyn . IGOR LUKES is a University Professor and a Professor of History and International Affairs at Boston University. He is also an Associate of the Davis Center at Harvard University. Among his many publications is the award-wi nning Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 193O's (New York: Oxford , I 996) and, more recently, Rudolf Slansky: His Trials and Trial (Washington , DC: Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, 2006). PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI is Professor of History and Political Science and holder of the Chair in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the foremost expert on Ru sy ns in the world, having published numerous books and articles about them. He was also research editor of the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1975-1978), and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples ( 1999). 142 SLOVAKIA JAN SIMKO received hi s PhDr. in English from the Slovak University in 1944, and taught this subject, with brief interruptions, at the renamed Comenius University until 1967 . He studied at the Folger Shakespeare Library and, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he remained in the United States, where he taught Slovak at various educational institutions. He is the author of the comprehensive English Slovak Dictionary (Wauconda, II, 1989) and of numerous artic les in Narodny Kalendar (Pittsburgh). M. MARK STOLARIK is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Cu lture at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the hi story of Slovak immigration to North America and has published many books and articles in thi s field, including Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Penn sylvania , 1880-1976 ( 1985 ) and Immigra tion and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience , 1870-1918 ( 1989). He is c urrent ly writing Where i s my Homeland ? A Slovak Odyssey Thmugh the 2(Jh Centwy. MARTIN VOTRUBA is Director of the Slovak Studies Program in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. The image of Janosik is part of hi s current research and teaching projects, which include editing a special iss ue on Slovak filmmaking for KinoKultura and a dictionary for American learners of Slovak. SLOVAKIA 143 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manu scripts for poss ible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normall y not exceed twenty-five pages in length , should be typed doubl e-s paced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted as one hard copy and one in e lectronic format, using e ither MicrosoftWord or WordPerfec t. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago M anual of Style. Proper orthography and di acritical marks mu st be supplied for all foreign words. Manu sc ripts wi ll not be returned unle ss specifical ly requested and postage is provided. Boo ks for review are to be se nt to the editor. Unsolicited book rev iews are not encouraged. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer DANIEL F. TANZONE President Vice Presidents Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner Martha Kana Gabriel Kovac Executive Board Daniel F, Tanzone , W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch , Esq ., Stephanie Seigel , Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, Andrew M. Rajec, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq. , Larry M. Glugosh , Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, John Yuhas, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, Irene J. Drotleff, Dr. L. P. Hinterbuchner Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN 'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 39 (No. 72-73) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/57771c21abf587901bbc84c916b62e8f.pdf 5ab02c69841d5adf74f6b3535bea90a3 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organi zed 1907 in Cle veland, Ohio.) • Honorary Dr. Peter 1943 W . C' hicago John J . Sirotnak 61U-612 Lincoln Trust Bldg. Sc ran ton 3, Pa. I'r es iJen l P. H letko 48th Street 9, [l]i nois Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Pres id ent Owoss o, :vii ch. Philip A. H r obak P. 0 . Box 150, Middl e town , Pa. Ste phani e 0. Husek Georgian Co ur t Co ll ege Vice-Prei;id e n t L a kewood, N. J. J acob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167 th Street Michael J. Vargovich H ammond, Tnd. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-Pre sident of U . S . A. Julia Krajcovic 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Recording Secre tary Francis H rusovsky 2900 East Boulevard Cleve land 4, Ohio Helen Kocan National President First Catholic Slova k Ladies Union Frank Sobus National P r e sident Slovak Catholic Sokol S ec re ta ry-Tre as u rer Mi la n V. Blazek 4205 W . Cull erton Street Chicago 23, Ill. Stephen J. Tkach National President P e nna. Slovak Union Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P . Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10 , P a . Joseph Prusa 205 Ma dison St.. Pa,ssaic, N. J. SLOVAK John Rozboril National President S lovak Cath olic Cadet Union NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA S cranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland, Ohio. BRATSTVO Wilk es-Ba rre , P a . SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland , Ohio. ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passai c, N . J . SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE. HLASY .\I iddletown, SLO VAK V AMERIK E Whi t ing, Ind . Chicago, m. �.,. ;.i. .:.q .. , ' • t ..,.CA ! ~>. . </ .,,; ., l , ;' r 1f·i~ ''U ;4 i; , '' ' ' ' ~ - .-. . ./ I -<'~· Ruins of Devin Castle (south view) i Slovaikia. History tells that the Slo;vak King Raistishw ruled the Great Moravian Empire from this fortress in the ninth century. � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organi zed 1907 in Cle veland, Ohio.) • Honorary Dr. Peter 1943 W . C' hicago John J . Sirotnak 61U-612 Lincoln Trust Bldg. Sc ran ton 3, Pa. I'r es iJen l P. H letko 48th Street 9, [l]i nois Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Pres id ent Owoss o, :vii ch. Philip A. H r obak P. 0 . Box 150, Middl e town , Pa. Ste phani e 0. Husek Georgian Co ur t Co ll ege Vice-Prei;id e n t L a kewood, N. J. J acob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167 th Street Michael J. Vargovich H ammond, Tnd. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-Pre sident of U . S . A. Julia Krajcovic 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Recording Secre tary Francis H rusovsky 2900 East Boulevard Cleve land 4, Ohio Helen Kocan National President First Catholic Slova k Ladies Union Frank Sobus National P r e sident Slovak Catholic Sokol S ec re ta ry-Tre as u rer Mi la n V. Blazek 4205 W . Cull erton Street Chicago 23, Ill. Stephen J. Tkach National President P e nna. Slovak Union Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P . Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10 , P a . Joseph Prusa 205 Ma dison St.. Pa,ssaic, N. J. SLOVAK John Rozboril National President S lovak Cath olic Cadet Union NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA S cranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland, Ohio. BRATSTVO Wilk es-Ba rre , P a . SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland , Ohio. ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passai c, N . J . SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE. HLASY .\I iddletown, SLO VAK V AMERIK E Whi t ing, Ind . Chicago, m. �.,. ;.i. .:.q .. , ' • t ..,.CA ! ~>. . </ .,,; ., l , ;' r 1f·i~ ''U ;4 i; , '' ' ' ' ~ - .-. . ./ I -<'~· Ruins of Devin Castle (south view) i Slovaikia. History tells that the Slo;vak King Raistishw ruled the Great Moravian Empire from this fortress in the ninth century. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1954, Vol. 4 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 10), March 1954.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 11), June 1954.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organi zed 1907 in Cle veland, Ohio.) • Honorary Dr. Peter 1943 W . C' hicago John J . Sirotnak 61U-612 Lincoln Trust Bldg. Sc ran ton 3, Pa. I'r es iJen l P. H letko 48th Street 9, [l]i nois Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Pres id ent Owoss o, :vii ch. Philip A. H r obak P. 0 . Box 150, Middl e town , Pa. Ste phani e 0. Husek Georgian Co ur t Co ll ege Vice-Prei;id e n t L a kewood, N. J. J acob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167 th Street Michael J. Vargovich H ammond, Tnd. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-Pre sident of U . S . A. Julia Krajcovic 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Recording Secre tary Francis H rusovsky 2900 East Boulevard Cleve land 4, Ohio Helen Kocan National President First Catholic Slova k Ladies Union Frank Sobus National P r e sident Slovak Catholic Sokol S ec re ta ry-Tre as u rer Mi la n V. Blazek 4205 W . Cull erton Street Chicago 23, Ill. Stephen J. Tkach National President P e nna. Slovak Union Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P . Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10 , P a . Joseph Prusa 205 Ma dison St.. Pa,ssaic, N. J. SLOVAK John Rozboril National President S lovak Cath olic Cadet Union NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA S cranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland, Ohio. BRATSTVO Wilk es-Ba rre , P a . SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland , Ohio. ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passai c, N . J . SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE. HLASY .\I iddletown, SLO VAK V AMERIK E Whi t ing, Ind . Chicago, m. .,. ;.i. .:.q .. , ' • t ..,.CA ! ~>. . </ .,,; ., l , ;' r 1f·i~ ''U ;4 i; , '' ' ' ' ~ - .-. . ./ I -<'~· Ruins of Devin Castle (south view) i Slovaikia. History tells that the Slo;vak King Raistishw ruled the Great Moravian Empire from this fortress in the ninth century.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 4, No. 1 (10) Description An account of the resource includes photo of ruins of Devín Castle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1954 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c8967aaa42bc5a289ba209343bfe2261.pdf e5f62adc476fb0b67db9fd19f4af9cef PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organ ized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio.) • Honorary Dr, Peter 1943 W. Chi cago John J. Sirotnak 610-612 L inco ln Trust B ldg. Scranton 3, Pa. President P. Hletko 48th Street 9, Illin ois Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Owosso , Micl1. President Philip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150, Midd letown, Pa. Ste phanie 0. Husek Georgian Court Coll ege Lakewood, N. J. Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167th Street Michael J. Vargov ich Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholi c S lovak Un ion Vice-President of U. S. A. Julia Krajcovlc 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Rec01·d ing Secretary Fra ncis H rusovsky 2900 East Boul evard Cleveland 4, Ohio Frank Sobus National President S lovak Catholi c Sokol Sec re ta ry-Treas u rer Milan V. Blazek 4205 W . Cullerton Street Ch icago 23, 111. EXECUTIVE Helen Kocan National P r es ident F irst Catholi c Slovak Ladies Union Stephen J . Tkach National President Penna. Slovak Union Gabr iela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street P ittsb urgh 10, P a. Joseph Prusa 205 Mad ison St., Passaic, N. J . SLOVAK John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of Amer ica ) JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. SLOVEN SKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. .ZENSKA JEDNOTA BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Oh io. ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KA TOL i CKY SOKO L Passaic, N. J. S VORNOST Wh1taker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill . Cleveland, Ohio. �General Milan R. Stefanik, soldier, statesman and astronomer, whose tragic death occurred May 4, 1919, when his plane was "accidentally" shot down by a Czech garrison near Vajnory, Slovakia. � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organ ized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio.) • Honorary Dr, Peter 1943 W. Chi cago John J. Sirotnak 610-612 L inco ln Trust B ldg. Scranton 3, Pa. President P. Hletko 48th Street 9, Illin ois Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Owosso , Micl1. President Philip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150, Midd letown, Pa. Ste phanie 0. Husek Georgian Court Coll ege Lakewood, N. J. Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167th Street Michael J. Vargov ich Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholi c S lovak Un ion Vice-President of U. S. A. Julia Krajcovlc 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Rec01·d ing Secretary Fra ncis H rusovsky 2900 East Boul evard Cleveland 4, Ohio Frank Sobus National President S lovak Catholi c Sokol Sec re ta ry-Treas u rer Milan V. Blazek 4205 W . Cullerton Street Ch icago 23, 111. EXECUTIVE Helen Kocan National P r es ident F irst Catholi c Slovak Ladies Union Stephen J . Tkach National President Penna. Slovak Union Gabr iela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street P ittsb urgh 10, P a. Joseph Prusa 205 Mad ison St., Passaic, N. J . SLOVAK John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of Amer ica ) JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. SLOVEN SKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. .ZENSKA JEDNOTA BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Oh io. ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KA TOL i CKY SOKO L Passaic, N. J. S VORNOST Wh1taker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill . Cleveland, Ohio. �General Milan R. Stefanik, soldier, statesman and astronomer, whose tragic death occurred May 4, 1919, when his plane was "accidentally" shot down by a Czech garrison near Vajnory, Slovakia. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1954, Vol. 4 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 10), March 1954.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 11), June 1954.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organ ized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio.) • Honorary Dr, Peter 1943 W. Chi cago John J. Sirotnak 610-612 L inco ln Trust B ldg. Scranton 3, Pa. President P. Hletko 48th Street 9, Illin ois Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Owosso , Micl1. President Philip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150, Midd letown, Pa. Ste phanie 0. Husek Georgian Court Coll ege Lakewood, N. J. Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167th Street Michael J. Vargov ich Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholi c S lovak Un ion Vice-President of U. S. A. Julia Krajcovlc 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Rec01·d ing Secretary Fra ncis H rusovsky 2900 East Boul evard Cleveland 4, Ohio Frank Sobus National President S lovak Catholi c Sokol Sec re ta ry-Treas u rer Milan V. Blazek 4205 W . Cullerton Street Ch icago 23, 111. EXECUTIVE Helen Kocan National P r es ident F irst Catholi c Slovak Ladies Union Stephen J . Tkach National President Penna. Slovak Union Gabr iela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street P ittsb urgh 10, P a. Joseph Prusa 205 Mad ison St., Passaic, N. J . SLOVAK John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of Amer ica ) JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. SLOVEN SKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. .ZENSKA JEDNOTA BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Oh io. ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KA TOL i CKY SOKO L Passaic, N. J. S VORNOST Wh1taker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill . Cleveland, Ohio. General Milan R. Stefanik, soldier, statesman and astronomer, whose tragic death occurred May 4, 1919, when his plane was "accidentally" shot down by a Czech garrison near Vajnory, Slovakia.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 4, No. 1 (10) Description An account of the resource includes portrait of Gen. Milan R. Štefánik Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1954 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8e67f5e893ce8286891d56acdce08984.pdf 551042d3dab0dbc48cb2bdd4e9c1b5de PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio.) • John J . S i rotnak 610-612 Lincoln 'l'rust Bldg. Scranton 3, Pa. Honorary President Or. Peter P. H letko 1943 W. 48th Street ( 'h ic:ago 9, Illi no is Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Owosso, Mich. President Ph ilip A. Hrobak P . 0. Box 150. Midd letown, P a. St e phan ie 0. Husek Georgian Court College Vice-President Lakewood, N. J. Jaco b Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 15~7 - 167th Street Michael J . Vargovich Hammond , Ind. National Presid ent First Catholic Slovak Union \'ice-President of U . S. A. J ulia Krajcovlc 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Helen Kocan National President Recording Secretary First Catholic S lovak Fra ncis H rusovsky Ladies Union 2900 East Boulevard Frank Sobus Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretar y-Treas urer Mil an V. Blaze k 4205 W. Cull erton Street Chicago 23, Ill. Stephen ·J . Tkach ational P r esident Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Gabriel-1 E. Vavrek National P r esid ent Ladies Pennsylvania S lovak Union Pa ul P . Jamriska S10 Montooth S treet Pittsb u rgh 10, P a. J oseph Prusa 205 Madison St. , Passaic, N . J. John Rozboril Natioqal President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affil iated with th e Slovak Lea gu e of Am erica) JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland, Ohio BRATST VO Wilk es-Ba rre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVI NY Cleveland , Ohio ZORNICKA Wilk es-Barre. Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKO L Pa~~aic-, N . J . SVORNOST Whi1ak er, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Wh.iting, Ind. �uins of Pusty Hrad (Desolate Castle), originally called Zvolen Castle, aJbove the city of Zvolen, Slovakia. � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio.) • John J . S i rotnak 610-612 Lincoln 'l'rust Bldg. Scranton 3, Pa. Honorary President Or. Peter P. H letko 1943 W. 48th Street ( 'h ic:ago 9, Illi no is Dr. Julius Janci 215 East Mason Street Owosso, Mich. President Ph ilip A. Hrobak P . 0. Box 150. Midd letown, P a. St e phan ie 0. Husek Georgian Court College Vice-President Lakewood, N. J. Jaco b Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL 15~7 - 167th Street Michael J . Vargovich Hammond , Ind. National Presid ent First Catholic Slovak Union \'ice-President of U . S. A. J ulia Krajcovlc 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. Helen Kocan National President Recording Secretary First Catholic S lovak Fra ncis H rusovsky Ladies Union 2900 East Boulevard Frank Sobus Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretar y-Treas urer Mil an V. Blaze k 4205 W. Cull erton Street Chicago 23, Ill. Stephen ·J . Tkach ational P r esident Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Gabriel-1 E. Vavrek National P r esid ent Ladies Pennsylvania S lovak Union Pa ul P . Jamriska S10 Montooth S treet Pittsb u rgh 10, P a. J oseph Prusa 205 Madison St. , Passaic, N . J. John Rozboril Natioqal President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affil iated with th e Slovak Lea gu e of Am erica) JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland, Ohio BRATST VO Wilk es-Ba rre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVI NY Cleveland , Ohio ZORNICKA Wilk es-Barre. Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKO L Pa~~aic-, N . J . SVORNOST Whi1ak er, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Wh.iting, Ind. �uins of Pusty Hrad (Desolate Castle), originally called Zvolen Castle, aJbove the city of Zvolen, Slovakia. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1954, Vol. 4 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 10), March 1954.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 11), June 1954.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Ruins of Pustý Hrad (Desolate Castle), originally called Zvolen Castle, above the city of Zvolen, Slovakia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 4, No. 3-4 (12-13) Description An account of the resource includes photo of ruins of Pustý Hrad (Desolate Castle), originally called Zvolen Castle, above the city of Zvolen, Slovakia Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Sept.-Dec. 1954 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/b4134cbe012ed95da160e500b7f956ce.pdf 5a5fd563ab9b0ecff7c73ad92c80a00b PDF Text Text 120 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS EDITA BOSAK is an Associate Professor of History at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is a specialist in I 8th and 19 th Slovak and Central European history, and she has published many articles in this field, as well as on the contemporary Czech and Slovak Roma. At present she is preparing a monograph on Slovak nationalism and Czech-Slovak relations . SCOTT BROWN received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 2010. He specializes in the Slovak question in the 1960's. He has published articles on such topics as the federalization debate of 1968 and the parallels between the Czechoslovak Spring and the Velvet Divorce. His current research is focused on Communist-era political cartoons in East-Central Europe. JAN CARNOGURSKY was Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic from 1998 to 2002. Educated as an attorney (Comenius University, Bratislava, 1971), he specialized in defending political prisoners in communist Czechoslovakia. Disbarred for political reasons in 1981 , Carnogursky became a taxi driver but in 1987 the government forbade him to do even that. In 1988 he started to publish the underground weekly Bratislavske listy, for which he was arrested in 1989. Freed during the "Velet Revolution" of 1989, he was catapulted to the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia. In March of 1990 he founded the Christian Democratic Movement in Slovakia and Chaired that party until 2002. Meanwhile, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic in 1990-1991 and as Prime Minister from 1991 to 1992. During 19921998 he served (in opposition) as a deputy in the Slovak Parliament. He is now retired from politics and practices law in Bratislava. �SLOVAKIA 121 MIROSLA V CHROMEK received his M.A. from Comenius University in Bratislava in 2008. He wrote his thesis on the Slovak intellectual and politician Jozef Stasko. He hopes to continue doing research on Slovak emigres in the West after World War II. STEFAN KUCIK, Paed.Dr., is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Ruzomberok, Slovak Republic. He specializes in Slovak history and the history of American and Canadian Slovaks. He is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Presov on "The Participation of American and Canadian Slovaks in the Autonomist Movement in Slovakia in 1918 - 1938." JAN PETROVSKY, is an Assistant Lecturer at the Catholic University of Ruzomberok. He wrote his M.A. thesis on Slovak Emigration to North America in the late 19 th and Early 20 th centuries. He is currently teaching English and history at the same university. �122 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted as one hard copy and one in electronic format, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Manuscripts will not be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Gabriel Kovac Martha Kona Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel, Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, Andrew M. Rajec, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Larry M. Glugosh, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, Irene J. Drotleff, Justine Wesnak Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � 120 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS EDITA BOSAK is an Associate Professor of History at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is a specialist in I 8th and 19 th Slovak and Central European history, and she has published many articles in this field, as well as on the contemporary Czech and Slovak Roma. At present she is preparing a monograph on Slovak nationalism and Czech-Slovak relations . SCOTT BROWN received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 2010. He specializes in the Slovak question in the 1960's. He has published articles on such topics as the federalization debate of 1968 and the parallels between the Czechoslovak Spring and the Velvet Divorce. His current research is focused on Communist-era political cartoons in East-Central Europe. JAN CARNOGURSKY was Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic from 1998 to 2002. Educated as an attorney (Comenius University, Bratislava, 1971), he specialized in defending political prisoners in communist Czechoslovakia. Disbarred for political reasons in 1981 , Carnogursky became a taxi driver but in 1987 the government forbade him to do even that. In 1988 he started to publish the underground weekly Bratislavske listy, for which he was arrested in 1989. Freed during the "Velet Revolution" of 1989, he was catapulted to the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia. In March of 1990 he founded the Christian Democratic Movement in Slovakia and Chaired that party until 2002. Meanwhile, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic in 1990-1991 and as Prime Minister from 1991 to 1992. During 19921998 he served (in opposition) as a deputy in the Slovak Parliament. He is now retired from politics and practices law in Bratislava. �SLOVAKIA 121 MIROSLA V CHROMEK received his M.A. from Comenius University in Bratislava in 2008. He wrote his thesis on the Slovak intellectual and politician Jozef Stasko. He hopes to continue doing research on Slovak emigres in the West after World War II. STEFAN KUCIK, Paed.Dr., is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Ruzomberok, Slovak Republic. He specializes in Slovak history and the history of American and Canadian Slovaks. He is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Presov on "The Participation of American and Canadian Slovaks in the Autonomist Movement in Slovakia in 1918 - 1938." JAN PETROVSKY, is an Assistant Lecturer at the Catholic University of Ruzomberok. He wrote his M.A. thesis on Slovak Emigration to North America in the late 19 th and Early 20 th centuries. He is currently teaching English and history at the same university. �122 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted as one hard copy and one in electronic format, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Manuscripts will not be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Gabriel Kovac Martha Kona Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel, Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, Andrew M. Rajec, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Larry M. Glugosh, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, Irene J. Drotleff, Justine Wesnak Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2010, Vol. 40 Description An account of the resource Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 120 SLOVAKIA CONTRIBUTORS EDITA BOSAK is an Associate Professor of History at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is a specialist in I 8th and 19 th Slovak and Central European history, and she has published many articles in this field, as well as on the contemporary Czech and Slovak Roma. At present she is preparing a monograph on Slovak nationalism and Czech-Slovak relations . SCOTT BROWN received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 2010. He specializes in the Slovak question in the 1960's. He has published articles on such topics as the federalization debate of 1968 and the parallels between the Czechoslovak Spring and the Velvet Divorce. His current research is focused on Communist-era political cartoons in East-Central Europe. JAN CARNOGURSKY was Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic from 1998 to 2002. Educated as an attorney (Comenius University, Bratislava, 1971), he specialized in defending political prisoners in communist Czechoslovakia. Disbarred for political reasons in 1981 , Carnogursky became a taxi driver but in 1987 the government forbade him to do even that. In 1988 he started to publish the underground weekly Bratislavske listy, for which he was arrested in 1989. Freed during the "Velet Revolution" of 1989, he was catapulted to the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia. In March of 1990 he founded the Christian Democratic Movement in Slovakia and Chaired that party until 2002. Meanwhile, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic in 1990-1991 and as Prime Minister from 1991 to 1992. During 19921998 he served (in opposition) as a deputy in the Slovak Parliament. He is now retired from politics and practices law in Bratislava. SLOVAKIA 121 MIROSLA V CHROMEK received his M.A. from Comenius University in Bratislava in 2008. He wrote his thesis on the Slovak intellectual and politician Jozef Stasko. He hopes to continue doing research on Slovak emigres in the West after World War II. STEFAN KUCIK, Paed.Dr., is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Ruzomberok, Slovak Republic. He specializes in Slovak history and the history of American and Canadian Slovaks. He is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Presov on "The Participation of American and Canadian Slovaks in the Autonomist Movement in Slovakia in 1918 - 1938." JAN PETROVSKY, is an Assistant Lecturer at the Catholic University of Ruzomberok. He wrote his M.A. thesis on Slovak Emigration to North America in the late 19 th and Early 20 th centuries. He is currently teaching English and history at the same university. 122 SLOVAKIA GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted as one hard copy and one in electronic format, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Manuscripts will not be returned unless specifically requested and postage is provided. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Gabriel Kovac Martha Kona Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel, Dr. Ludwig J. Pavlo, Andrew M. Rajec, Mary Ann S. Johanek, Esq., Larry M. Glugosh, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, Irene J. Drotleff, Justine Wesnak Milan Cuba Youth Director SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA THE SLOVAK GARDEN, INC. Winter Park, Florida SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 40 (No. 74-75) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9d5223666f35faa038e0e3f587566135.pdf e56bc10a6691bf808b66e2627d2cc241 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 209 CONTRIBUTORS KEVIN DEEGAN-KRAUSE has a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Notre Dame and is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University. He is the author of Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, (Stanford University Press, 2006), co-editor of The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe (Routledge, 2010) and co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research 's Political Data Yearbook, with responsibility for its development as an interactive data-driven website. EVGENY F. FIRSOV graduated in history from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1975 and in 1979 was awarded the Candidate in Science degree. He is currently Professor of History at the same university. His research interests include T.G. Masaryk and M.R. Stefanik in Russia, the Czech and Slovak cause in Russia during the First World War, parliamentary democracy in the first Czechoslovak Republic and so on. He is the author of more than 140 articles and book chapters on Czech and Slovak history and some monographs, including Opy t demokratii v CSR pri Tomase Masaryke: koalicionnyj pluralism (1997); and T. G. Masaryk i rossijskaja intellektual'naja sreda. 1-11 (2005 , 2012). JOHN A. GOULD is Associate Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Colorado College. He is author of The Politics of Privatization: Wealth and Power in Postcommunist Europe (Lynne Rienner, 2011 ). He has published articles in Business and Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, Comparative European Politics, Review of International Political Economy and Global Governance. Gould is an associate editor at the Journal of International Relations and Development and a member of the academic advisory board of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. JURAJ HOCMAN, J.D. international law, Safarik University (Kosice), and M.A. , Comenius University (Bratislava), history and archival science; postgraduate diploma in international relations. �210 SLOVAKIA Posted as a diplomat in Rome. M.A., Carleton University (Ottawa), Ph.D. University of Ottawa. He recently published Slovakia from the Downfall of Communism to its Accession into the European Union, 1989-2004: The Re-Emergence of Political Parties and Democratic Institutions (Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang, 2011). He teaches at the Pan-European University in Bratislava. STEFAN KUCiK, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Rufomberok. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Presov. He is the author of Podiel americkych Slow:ikov na autonomistickom hnuti na Slovensku (1918 - 1938) (Martin, 201 I), as well as several articles in scholarly journals. Currently he is working on the international project Slovak and Czech Compatriot Movements in the USA in collaboration with Czech historians. ROMAN LICKO , Ph.D., Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. In 1997 he joined the Department of English and American Studies at the same university. A visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Illinois (2002-2003), he researched the U.S. government's attitudes towards Slovakia and American Slovaks during WWII. In 2008 he published his dissertation- Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb: Americka vlada a slovenska otazka v USA v rokoch 1939 - 1945. His second book, Nevitany host': Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady 1941 - 1944 was published in 2010. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana. She received her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 1979. Among her many publications are National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: the Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988) and The Czech and Slovak Republics: Nation versus State (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997). �SLOVAKIA 211 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel, Dr. Ludovit J. Pavlo, Cynthia M. Maleski, Esq., Andrew M. Rajec, Larry M. Glugosh, Theresa M. Kluchinski, Sue Ann. M. Seich, David M. Blazek, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, F.I.C., Linda M. Strom, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Martha Catalano, Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA 209 CONTRIBUTORS KEVIN DEEGAN-KRAUSE has a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Notre Dame and is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University. He is the author of Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, (Stanford University Press, 2006), co-editor of The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe (Routledge, 2010) and co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research 's Political Data Yearbook, with responsibility for its development as an interactive data-driven website. EVGENY F. FIRSOV graduated in history from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1975 and in 1979 was awarded the Candidate in Science degree. He is currently Professor of History at the same university. His research interests include T.G. Masaryk and M.R. Stefanik in Russia, the Czech and Slovak cause in Russia during the First World War, parliamentary democracy in the first Czechoslovak Republic and so on. He is the author of more than 140 articles and book chapters on Czech and Slovak history and some monographs, including Opy t demokratii v CSR pri Tomase Masaryke: koalicionnyj pluralism (1997); and T. G. Masaryk i rossijskaja intellektual'naja sreda. 1-11 (2005 , 2012). JOHN A. GOULD is Associate Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Colorado College. He is author of The Politics of Privatization: Wealth and Power in Postcommunist Europe (Lynne Rienner, 2011 ). He has published articles in Business and Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, Comparative European Politics, Review of International Political Economy and Global Governance. Gould is an associate editor at the Journal of International Relations and Development and a member of the academic advisory board of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. JURAJ HOCMAN, J.D. international law, Safarik University (Kosice), and M.A. , Comenius University (Bratislava), history and archival science; postgraduate diploma in international relations. �210 SLOVAKIA Posted as a diplomat in Rome. M.A., Carleton University (Ottawa), Ph.D. University of Ottawa. He recently published Slovakia from the Downfall of Communism to its Accession into the European Union, 1989-2004: The Re-Emergence of Political Parties and Democratic Institutions (Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang, 2011). He teaches at the Pan-European University in Bratislava. STEFAN KUCiK, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Rufomberok. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Presov. He is the author of Podiel americkych Slow:ikov na autonomistickom hnuti na Slovensku (1918 - 1938) (Martin, 201 I), as well as several articles in scholarly journals. Currently he is working on the international project Slovak and Czech Compatriot Movements in the USA in collaboration with Czech historians. ROMAN LICKO , Ph.D., Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. In 1997 he joined the Department of English and American Studies at the same university. A visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Illinois (2002-2003), he researched the U.S. government's attitudes towards Slovakia and American Slovaks during WWII. In 2008 he published his dissertation- Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb: Americka vlada a slovenska otazka v USA v rokoch 1939 - 1945. His second book, Nevitany host': Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady 1941 - 1944 was published in 2010. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana. She received her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 1979. Among her many publications are National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: the Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988) and The Czech and Slovak Republics: Nation versus State (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997). �SLOVAKIA 211 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel, Dr. Ludovit J. Pavlo, Cynthia M. Maleski, Esq., Andrew M. Rajec, Larry M. Glugosh, Theresa M. Kluchinski, Sue Ann. M. Seich, David M. Blazek, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, F.I.C., Linda M. Strom, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Martha Catalano, Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2013, Vol. 41 Description An account of the resource Vol. 41 (No. 76-77), 2013. 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 2013 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 209 CONTRIBUTORS KEVIN DEEGAN-KRAUSE has a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Notre Dame and is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University. He is the author of Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, (Stanford University Press, 2006), co-editor of The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe (Routledge, 2010) and co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research 's Political Data Yearbook, with responsibility for its development as an interactive data-driven website. EVGENY F. FIRSOV graduated in history from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1975 and in 1979 was awarded the Candidate in Science degree. He is currently Professor of History at the same university. His research interests include T.G. Masaryk and M.R. Stefanik in Russia, the Czech and Slovak cause in Russia during the First World War, parliamentary democracy in the first Czechoslovak Republic and so on. He is the author of more than 140 articles and book chapters on Czech and Slovak history and some monographs, including Opy t demokratii v CSR pri Tomase Masaryke: koalicionnyj pluralism (1997); and T. G. Masaryk i rossijskaja intellektual'naja sreda. 1-11 (2005 , 2012). JOHN A. GOULD is Associate Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Colorado College. He is author of The Politics of Privatization: Wealth and Power in Postcommunist Europe (Lynne Rienner, 2011 ). He has published articles in Business and Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, Comparative European Politics, Review of International Political Economy and Global Governance. Gould is an associate editor at the Journal of International Relations and Development and a member of the academic advisory board of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. JURAJ HOCMAN, J.D. international law, Safarik University (Kosice), and M.A. , Comenius University (Bratislava), history and archival science; postgraduate diploma in international relations. 210 SLOVAKIA Posted as a diplomat in Rome. M.A., Carleton University (Ottawa), Ph.D. University of Ottawa. He recently published Slovakia from the Downfall of Communism to its Accession into the European Union, 1989-2004: The Re-Emergence of Political Parties and Democratic Institutions (Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang, 2011). He teaches at the Pan-European University in Bratislava. STEFAN KUCiK, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Rufomberok. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Presov. He is the author of Podiel americkych Slow:ikov na autonomistickom hnuti na Slovensku (1918 - 1938) (Martin, 201 I), as well as several articles in scholarly journals. Currently he is working on the international project Slovak and Czech Compatriot Movements in the USA in collaboration with Czech historians. ROMAN LICKO , Ph.D., Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. In 1997 he joined the Department of English and American Studies at the same university. A visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Illinois (2002-2003), he researched the U.S. government's attitudes towards Slovakia and American Slovaks during WWII. In 2008 he published his dissertation- Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb: Americka vlada a slovenska otazka v USA v rokoch 1939 - 1945. His second book, Nevitany host': Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady 1941 - 1944 was published in 2010. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana. She received her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 1979. Among her many publications are National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: the Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988) and The Czech and Slovak Republics: Nation versus State (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997). SLOVAKIA 211 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, John A. Holy, Eileen S. Wilson, John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel, Dr. Ludovit J. Pavlo, Cynthia M. Maleski, Esq., Andrew M. Rajec, Larry M. Glugosh, Theresa M. Kluchinski, Sue Ann. M. Seich, David M. Blazek, Kenneth A. Arendt, Steven M. Pogorelec, F.I.C., Linda M. Strom, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Martha Catalano, Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 41 (No. 76-77) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2013 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/aeda756a5fcd1d40a85e0e254f46199a.pdf 23aed8587408ab251913c8486a378df0 PDF Text Text 148 SLOV AKIA-2015 CONTRIBUTORS REBEKAH KLEIN-PEJSOV A is an Assistant Professor of History at Purdue University specializing in modem Jewish and East Central European History. She is the author of Mapping Jewish Loyalties in lnterwar Slovakia (Indiana University Press, 2015), and articles in the Austrian History Yearbook, and the AJS Review. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her research interests span transnational approaches to the social and political history of East Central European Jewry, comparative nationalism, and refugee studies. STEFAN KUCiK (Ph.D., Presov) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University in Ruzomberok. He is the editor of Mytus a realita : Zbornik prispevkov z medzinarodnej vedeckej konferencie organizovanej Historickym ustavom Katolickej univerzity v Ruiomberku pri prileiitosti steho vyrocia Cernovskej tragedie (Ruzomberok, 2008), the author of Podiel americkych Slovakov na autonomistickom hnuti na Slovensku (1918 - 1938) (Martin, 2011) and co-author of Slovenske a ceske krajanske hnutie v USA (do roku 1918) (Presov, 2014). He has also published a number of articles in scholarly journals. MIROSLAV MICHELA (Ph.D., Komarno) is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Czech and Slovak History at Charles University in Prague and a Senior Researcher at the Institute of History, Slovak Academy of sciences in Bratislava. His research interests include the politics of memory and nationalism in Czechoslovakia and East-Central Europe. He has written many scholarly articles and chapters in books and the monograph Pod hes/om integrity: Slovenska otazka v politike Mad'arska 1918-1921 (Bratislava: Kalligram, 2009). DALIBOR MIKULAS, (PhD . Comenius University) is a linguist who specializes in English. He teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Zilina. He research interests are in English lexicology and lexicography. He has pub- �SLOVAKIA-2015 149 lished over thirty articles and book chapters in his area of expertise. Recently, he has focused his attention on lexicographic works published by Slovak authors in North America. TOM NICHOLSON (M.A. Queen' s University) is an investigative journalist for the daily Sme (Bratislava). He is author of the best-selling non-fiction book Gori/a (2012) and co-editor of the Global Report on Slovakia (1999-2008) . Mr. Nicholson has taught English at various Slovak universities, and teaches investigative journalism and history at the Pan-European University and the University of Economics in Bratislava. He was editor-in-chief and publisher of The Slovak Spectator (Bratislava) from 1998 through 2007. MARIAN MARK STOLARIK, (Ph.D., Minnesota), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. From 1979 to 1991 he was President and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia, and director of its press. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America. He has published nine books and over sixty articles in the field, including Where is my Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America, 1870-2010 (Berne: Peter Lang, 2012). �150 SLOVAKIA-2015 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either Microsofl:Word or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All submitted articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. �Notes �Notes ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W.NINAHOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Jozef Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W.Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , John G. Duch , Esq ., Stephanie Seigel , John A. Holy Cynthia M. Maleski , Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom , Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Martha Catalano , Joseph Goda , Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Beachwood , Ohio First Catholic Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada Independence, Ohio Slovak Catholic Sokol Passaic, New Jersey National Slovak Society of the U.S.A McMurray, Pennsylvania Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania The Slovak Newspapermen's Association of America SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue � 148 SLOV AKIA-2015 CONTRIBUTORS REBEKAH KLEIN-PEJSOV A is an Assistant Professor of History at Purdue University specializing in modem Jewish and East Central European History. She is the author of Mapping Jewish Loyalties in lnterwar Slovakia (Indiana University Press, 2015), and articles in the Austrian History Yearbook, and the AJS Review. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her research interests span transnational approaches to the social and political history of East Central European Jewry, comparative nationalism, and refugee studies. STEFAN KUCiK (Ph.D., Presov) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University in Ruzomberok. He is the editor of Mytus a realita : Zbornik prispevkov z medzinarodnej vedeckej konferencie organizovanej Historickym ustavom Katolickej univerzity v Ruiomberku pri prileiitosti steho vyrocia Cernovskej tragedie (Ruzomberok, 2008), the author of Podiel americkych Slovakov na autonomistickom hnuti na Slovensku (1918 - 1938) (Martin, 2011) and co-author of Slovenske a ceske krajanske hnutie v USA (do roku 1918) (Presov, 2014). He has also published a number of articles in scholarly journals. MIROSLAV MICHELA (Ph.D., Komarno) is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Czech and Slovak History at Charles University in Prague and a Senior Researcher at the Institute of History, Slovak Academy of sciences in Bratislava. His research interests include the politics of memory and nationalism in Czechoslovakia and East-Central Europe. He has written many scholarly articles and chapters in books and the monograph Pod hes/om integrity: Slovenska otazka v politike Mad'arska 1918-1921 (Bratislava: Kalligram, 2009). DALIBOR MIKULAS, (PhD . Comenius University) is a linguist who specializes in English. He teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Zilina. He research interests are in English lexicology and lexicography. He has pub- �SLOVAKIA-2015 149 lished over thirty articles and book chapters in his area of expertise. Recently, he has focused his attention on lexicographic works published by Slovak authors in North America. TOM NICHOLSON (M.A. Queen' s University) is an investigative journalist for the daily Sme (Bratislava). He is author of the best-selling non-fiction book Gori/a (2012) and co-editor of the Global Report on Slovakia (1999-2008) . Mr. Nicholson has taught English at various Slovak universities, and teaches investigative journalism and history at the Pan-European University and the University of Economics in Bratislava. He was editor-in-chief and publisher of The Slovak Spectator (Bratislava) from 1998 through 2007. MARIAN MARK STOLARIK, (Ph.D., Minnesota), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. From 1979 to 1991 he was President and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia, and director of its press. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America. He has published nine books and over sixty articles in the field, including Where is my Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America, 1870-2010 (Berne: Peter Lang, 2012). �150 SLOVAKIA-2015 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either Microsofl:Word or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All submitted articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. �Notes �Notes ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W.NINAHOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Jozef Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W.Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , John G. Duch , Esq ., Stephanie Seigel , John A. Holy Cynthia M. Maleski , Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom , Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Martha Catalano , Joseph Goda , Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Beachwood , Ohio First Catholic Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada Independence, Ohio Slovak Catholic Sokol Passaic, New Jersey National Slovak Society of the U.S.A McMurray, Pennsylvania Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania The Slovak Newspapermen's Association of America SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2015, Vol. 42 Description An account of the resource Vol. 42 (No. 78-79), 2015. 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 2015 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 148 SLOV AKIA-2015 CONTRIBUTORS REBEKAH KLEIN-PEJSOV A is an Assistant Professor of History at Purdue University specializing in modem Jewish and East Central European History. She is the author of Mapping Jewish Loyalties in lnterwar Slovakia (Indiana University Press, 2015), and articles in the Austrian History Yearbook, and the AJS Review. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her research interests span transnational approaches to the social and political history of East Central European Jewry, comparative nationalism, and refugee studies. STEFAN KUCiK (Ph.D., Presov) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Catholic University in Ruzomberok. He is the editor of Mytus a realita : Zbornik prispevkov z medzinarodnej vedeckej konferencie organizovanej Historickym ustavom Katolickej univerzity v Ruiomberku pri prileiitosti steho vyrocia Cernovskej tragedie (Ruzomberok, 2008), the author of Podiel americkych Slovakov na autonomistickom hnuti na Slovensku (1918 - 1938) (Martin, 2011) and co-author of Slovenske a ceske krajanske hnutie v USA (do roku 1918) (Presov, 2014). He has also published a number of articles in scholarly journals. MIROSLAV MICHELA (Ph.D., Komarno) is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Czech and Slovak History at Charles University in Prague and a Senior Researcher at the Institute of History, Slovak Academy of sciences in Bratislava. His research interests include the politics of memory and nationalism in Czechoslovakia and East-Central Europe. He has written many scholarly articles and chapters in books and the monograph Pod hes/om integrity: Slovenska otazka v politike Mad'arska 1918-1921 (Bratislava: Kalligram, 2009). DALIBOR MIKULAS, (PhD . Comenius University) is a linguist who specializes in English. He teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Zilina. He research interests are in English lexicology and lexicography. He has pub- SLOVAKIA-2015 149 lished over thirty articles and book chapters in his area of expertise. Recently, he has focused his attention on lexicographic works published by Slovak authors in North America. TOM NICHOLSON (M.A. Queen' s University) is an investigative journalist for the daily Sme (Bratislava). He is author of the best-selling non-fiction book Gori/a (2012) and co-editor of the Global Report on Slovakia (1999-2008) . Mr. Nicholson has taught English at various Slovak universities, and teaches investigative journalism and history at the Pan-European University and the University of Economics in Bratislava. He was editor-in-chief and publisher of The Slovak Spectator (Bratislava) from 1998 through 2007. MARIAN MARK STOLARIK, (Ph.D., Minnesota), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. From 1979 to 1991 he was President and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia, and director of its press. He specializes in the history of Slovak immigration to North America. He has published nine books and over sixty articles in the field, including Where is my Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America, 1870-2010 (Berne: Peter Lang, 2012). 150 SLOVAKIA-2015 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either Microsofl:Word or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All submitted articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. Notes Notes THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W.NINAHOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Jozef Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W.Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , John G. Duch , Esq ., Stephanie Seigel , John A. Holy Cynthia M. Maleski , Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom , Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Martha Catalano , Joseph Goda , Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Beachwood , Ohio First Catholic Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada Independence, Ohio Slovak Catholic Sokol Passaic, New Jersey National Slovak Society of the U.S.A McMurray, Pennsylvania Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania The Slovak Newspapermen's Association of America SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 42 (No. 78-79) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9b7b2d97fa591717a181b318eaf4b08f.pdf 4c337dc78bfb1987f164a8649be19d65 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA-2017 169 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN, the grandson of a Czechoslovak Legionnaire, received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1982. He wrote his dissertation on "S lovakia's Role in the 1848 Revolutions," which won third prize in the Stephen B. Roman Scholarship competition. His subsequent research on the Polereczky Hussars aroused the interest of the Hungarian government, which gave him a grant to do research in Budapest in 1988. In partnership with Jan Shekitka, Baumgarten so-founded a small cultural foundation known as the "Friends of the Dukla Pass." He taught courses at the Florida State University until 2011 when government cutbacks ended this part of his career. Afterwards, he became disabled and lives on a small pension in Tallahassee, Florida. ALEXANDER BIELICKI is currently the Program Director and lead instructor of Th e New Norway: Globalization, National Identity and the Politics of Belonging, a study-abroad program based at the University of Oslo. He holds degrees in Anthropology (B.A. University of Pittsburgh), Nationalism Studies (M .A. Central European University) and Cultural History/History of Religions (Ph.D. University of Oslo). Having previously focused on Central Europe, especially Slovakia, Bielicki now mainly teaches courses on national identity and belonging, Norwegian society and the Scandinavian Welfare States. DANIEL CERNY finished his doctoral studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where in 2014 he defended his thesis "The History of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church in Canada until the Creation of the Eparchy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. " His main interest is Slovak immigration abroad. For his thesis, he gathered materials in archives in Toronto, Rome, and the Vatican, Prague, and other places . He participated in several scholarly conferences (East Central Europe in Exile Volume, proceedings published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) and published a few articles, most recently in Slavica Slovaca 2/2015. He helped translate Andrej Bacinsky - Mukacevsky biskup (Kosice, 2015). While working for a private company, he continues as an independent historian. �170 SLOVAKIA-2017 MARTY MANOR MULLINS completed her Ph.D. in East Central European History at the University of Washington in 2013. With funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in conjunction with the Fulbright Program , she conducted research for her dissertation in Kosice, Slovakia, where she has lived and worked for seven years. Her published work focuses on Kosice and Eastern Slovakia's experience of Czechoslovakia's 1948 Communist takeover, the 1968 Soviet invasion, and the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Dr. Mullins currently teaches at Flathead Community College in Kalispell, Montana and serves as a Research Associate for the John Jay Institute. KENNETH JANDA is the Payson S. Wild Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northwestern University. He has published in comparative party politics, research methodology, and early use of computer technology in teaching and research, for which he received support from Apple Computer. In 2009, he won the Frank J. Goodnow Award for distinguished service to the American Political Science Association. His most recent books are American Parties in Context (with others, Routledge, 2016) and The Challenge of Democracy (with others, Cengage Learning, 2017). His historical narrative, The Emperor and the Peasant: The Start of the Great War and End of a Great Empire, is schedule to be published by McFarland Books in 2018. It intertwines the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph and Samuel Mozolak, his wife's Slovak grandfather who died in 1918 during the Battle of the Piave River in Italy. JAN RYCHLIK is Professor of Modern Czech and Slovak History at Charles University in Prague and also an External Professor of Modern World History at the Technical University in Liberec. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. His principal publications include R. W. Seton-Watson and His Relations with Czechs and Slovaks. Documents 1906-1951 (two Vols., with Thomas D. Marzik and Miroslav Bielik, 1995-1996), The End of Czechoslovakia (with Jifi Musil and others, 1995), Th e Czechs and Slovaks in the 20th Century (in Czech - 3 editions, Bratislava and Prague, 19971998), and A History of Bulgaria (with Vladimir Pencev, in Czech, 2000,2002,2016) �SLOVAKIA-2017 171 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. �172 NOTES ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W.NINAHOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Jozef Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W.Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel , John A. Holy Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Sue Ann M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Martha Catalano, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Beachwood, Ohio First Catholic Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada Independence, Ohio Slovak Catholic Sokol Passaic, New Jersey National Slovak Society of the U.S.A McMurray, Pennsylvania Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania The Slovak Newspapermen's Association of America SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA-2017 169 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN, the grandson of a Czechoslovak Legionnaire, received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1982. He wrote his dissertation on "S lovakia's Role in the 1848 Revolutions," which won third prize in the Stephen B. Roman Scholarship competition. His subsequent research on the Polereczky Hussars aroused the interest of the Hungarian government, which gave him a grant to do research in Budapest in 1988. In partnership with Jan Shekitka, Baumgarten so-founded a small cultural foundation known as the "Friends of the Dukla Pass." He taught courses at the Florida State University until 2011 when government cutbacks ended this part of his career. Afterwards, he became disabled and lives on a small pension in Tallahassee, Florida. ALEXANDER BIELICKI is currently the Program Director and lead instructor of Th e New Norway: Globalization, National Identity and the Politics of Belonging, a study-abroad program based at the University of Oslo. He holds degrees in Anthropology (B.A. University of Pittsburgh), Nationalism Studies (M .A. Central European University) and Cultural History/History of Religions (Ph.D. University of Oslo). Having previously focused on Central Europe, especially Slovakia, Bielicki now mainly teaches courses on national identity and belonging, Norwegian society and the Scandinavian Welfare States. DANIEL CERNY finished his doctoral studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where in 2014 he defended his thesis "The History of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church in Canada until the Creation of the Eparchy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. " His main interest is Slovak immigration abroad. For his thesis, he gathered materials in archives in Toronto, Rome, and the Vatican, Prague, and other places . He participated in several scholarly conferences (East Central Europe in Exile Volume, proceedings published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) and published a few articles, most recently in Slavica Slovaca 2/2015. He helped translate Andrej Bacinsky - Mukacevsky biskup (Kosice, 2015). While working for a private company, he continues as an independent historian. �170 SLOVAKIA-2017 MARTY MANOR MULLINS completed her Ph.D. in East Central European History at the University of Washington in 2013. With funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in conjunction with the Fulbright Program , she conducted research for her dissertation in Kosice, Slovakia, where she has lived and worked for seven years. Her published work focuses on Kosice and Eastern Slovakia's experience of Czechoslovakia's 1948 Communist takeover, the 1968 Soviet invasion, and the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Dr. Mullins currently teaches at Flathead Community College in Kalispell, Montana and serves as a Research Associate for the John Jay Institute. KENNETH JANDA is the Payson S. Wild Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northwestern University. He has published in comparative party politics, research methodology, and early use of computer technology in teaching and research, for which he received support from Apple Computer. In 2009, he won the Frank J. Goodnow Award for distinguished service to the American Political Science Association. His most recent books are American Parties in Context (with others, Routledge, 2016) and The Challenge of Democracy (with others, Cengage Learning, 2017). His historical narrative, The Emperor and the Peasant: The Start of the Great War and End of a Great Empire, is schedule to be published by McFarland Books in 2018. It intertwines the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph and Samuel Mozolak, his wife's Slovak grandfather who died in 1918 during the Battle of the Piave River in Italy. JAN RYCHLIK is Professor of Modern Czech and Slovak History at Charles University in Prague and also an External Professor of Modern World History at the Technical University in Liberec. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. His principal publications include R. W. Seton-Watson and His Relations with Czechs and Slovaks. Documents 1906-1951 (two Vols., with Thomas D. Marzik and Miroslav Bielik, 1995-1996), The End of Czechoslovakia (with Jifi Musil and others, 1995), Th e Czechs and Slovaks in the 20th Century (in Czech - 3 editions, Bratislava and Prague, 19971998), and A History of Bulgaria (with Vladimir Pencev, in Czech, 2000,2002,2016) �SLOVAKIA-2017 171 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. �172 NOTES ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W.NINAHOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Jozef Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W.Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel , John A. Holy Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Sue Ann M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Martha Catalano, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Beachwood, Ohio First Catholic Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada Independence, Ohio Slovak Catholic Sokol Passaic, New Jersey National Slovak Society of the U.S.A McMurray, Pennsylvania Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania The Slovak Newspapermen's Association of America SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2017, Vol. 43 Description An account of the resource Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA-2017 169 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN, the grandson of a Czechoslovak Legionnaire, received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1982. He wrote his dissertation on "S lovakia's Role in the 1848 Revolutions," which won third prize in the Stephen B. Roman Scholarship competition. His subsequent research on the Polereczky Hussars aroused the interest of the Hungarian government, which gave him a grant to do research in Budapest in 1988. In partnership with Jan Shekitka, Baumgarten so-founded a small cultural foundation known as the "Friends of the Dukla Pass." He taught courses at the Florida State University until 2011 when government cutbacks ended this part of his career. Afterwards, he became disabled and lives on a small pension in Tallahassee, Florida. ALEXANDER BIELICKI is currently the Program Director and lead instructor of Th e New Norway: Globalization, National Identity and the Politics of Belonging, a study-abroad program based at the University of Oslo. He holds degrees in Anthropology (B.A. University of Pittsburgh), Nationalism Studies (M .A. Central European University) and Cultural History/History of Religions (Ph.D. University of Oslo). Having previously focused on Central Europe, especially Slovakia, Bielicki now mainly teaches courses on national identity and belonging, Norwegian society and the Scandinavian Welfare States. DANIEL CERNY finished his doctoral studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where in 2014 he defended his thesis "The History of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church in Canada until the Creation of the Eparchy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. " His main interest is Slovak immigration abroad. For his thesis, he gathered materials in archives in Toronto, Rome, and the Vatican, Prague, and other places . He participated in several scholarly conferences (East Central Europe in Exile Volume, proceedings published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) and published a few articles, most recently in Slavica Slovaca 2/2015. He helped translate Andrej Bacinsky - Mukacevsky biskup (Kosice, 2015). While working for a private company, he continues as an independent historian. 170 SLOVAKIA-2017 MARTY MANOR MULLINS completed her Ph.D. in East Central European History at the University of Washington in 2013. With funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in conjunction with the Fulbright Program , she conducted research for her dissertation in Kosice, Slovakia, where she has lived and worked for seven years. Her published work focuses on Kosice and Eastern Slovakia's experience of Czechoslovakia's 1948 Communist takeover, the 1968 Soviet invasion, and the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Dr. Mullins currently teaches at Flathead Community College in Kalispell, Montana and serves as a Research Associate for the John Jay Institute. KENNETH JANDA is the Payson S. Wild Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northwestern University. He has published in comparative party politics, research methodology, and early use of computer technology in teaching and research, for which he received support from Apple Computer. In 2009, he won the Frank J. Goodnow Award for distinguished service to the American Political Science Association. His most recent books are American Parties in Context (with others, Routledge, 2016) and The Challenge of Democracy (with others, Cengage Learning, 2017). His historical narrative, The Emperor and the Peasant: The Start of the Great War and End of a Great Empire, is schedule to be published by McFarland Books in 2018. It intertwines the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph and Samuel Mozolak, his wife's Slovak grandfather who died in 1918 during the Battle of the Piave River in Italy. JAN RYCHLIK is Professor of Modern Czech and Slovak History at Charles University in Prague and also an External Professor of Modern World History at the Technical University in Liberec. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. His principal publications include R. W. Seton-Watson and His Relations with Czechs and Slovaks. Documents 1906-1951 (two Vols., with Thomas D. Marzik and Miroslav Bielik, 1995-1996), The End of Czechoslovakia (with Jifi Musil and others, 1995), Th e Czechs and Slovaks in the 20th Century (in Czech - 3 editions, Bratislava and Prague, 19971998), and A History of Bulgaria (with Vladimir Pencev, in Czech, 2000,2002,2016) SLOVAKIA-2017 171 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. 172 NOTES THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W.NINAHOLY Secretary-Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2nd Vice President Jozef Kovac 3rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W.Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , John G. Duch, Esq., Stephanie Seigel , John A. Holy Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Sue Ann M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Martha Catalano, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Beachwood, Ohio First Catholic Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada Independence, Ohio Slovak Catholic Sokol Passaic, New Jersey National Slovak Society of the U.S.A McMurray, Pennsylvania Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania The Slovak Newspapermen's Association of America SLOVAKIA $10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 43 (No. 80-81) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/56ea22ad8d0078dc9b4b9c7da02c584a.pdf 12ef72988562beccc44139ee467ae92e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2019 147 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN (Ph.D., Florida State University), is an independent scholar in Florida. He is co-author (with Joseph Stefka) of The National Slovak Society, a JOO Year History, 18901990 (Pittsburgh, 1990) as well as articles in popular and scholarly journals. MICHAEL CUDE (Ph.D. , Colorado) is an Assistant Professor in the history department at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. He does research on Central and Eastern Europe and transatlantic migration, particularly on transatlantic Slovak national identity. FRANK HENSCHEL (Ph.D. , University of Leipzig) wrote his dissertation on multilingualism and magyarization in Kassa/Kosice in the period of dualism in Hungary, and it was published by the Collegium Carolinum in 2017. He is now doing post-doctoral research on the biopolitics of childhood in socialist Czehoslovakia at the University of Kiel. PETR KUBIK (Ph.D., Charles University, Prague) is an independent historian in the Czech Republic who focuses on the Second World War and Czechs and Slovaks in exile. He has published books on Soviet War Crimes (Prague, 2003) and Slovak-Italian Relationships, 1939-1945 (Bratislava, 2009). ELLEN L. PAUL (Ph.D. , University of Kansas), is an Associate Professor of History at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where she teaches modem European history. �148 SLOVAKIA 2019 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles wi ll be sent to an outside reader for evaluation . Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unso li cited book reviews are not encouraged. ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko st 1 Vice President Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3'd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson, Stephanie Seigel, John A. Holy, Cynthia M. Maleski , Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Sue Ann. M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom , Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Martha Catalano, Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA 2019 147 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN (Ph.D., Florida State University), is an independent scholar in Florida. He is co-author (with Joseph Stefka) of The National Slovak Society, a JOO Year History, 18901990 (Pittsburgh, 1990) as well as articles in popular and scholarly journals. MICHAEL CUDE (Ph.D. , Colorado) is an Assistant Professor in the history department at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. He does research on Central and Eastern Europe and transatlantic migration, particularly on transatlantic Slovak national identity. FRANK HENSCHEL (Ph.D. , University of Leipzig) wrote his dissertation on multilingualism and magyarization in Kassa/Kosice in the period of dualism in Hungary, and it was published by the Collegium Carolinum in 2017. He is now doing post-doctoral research on the biopolitics of childhood in socialist Czehoslovakia at the University of Kiel. PETR KUBIK (Ph.D., Charles University, Prague) is an independent historian in the Czech Republic who focuses on the Second World War and Czechs and Slovaks in exile. He has published books on Soviet War Crimes (Prague, 2003) and Slovak-Italian Relationships, 1939-1945 (Bratislava, 2009). ELLEN L. PAUL (Ph.D. , University of Kansas), is an Associate Professor of History at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where she teaches modem European history. �148 SLOVAKIA 2019 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles wi ll be sent to an outside reader for evaluation . Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unso li cited book reviews are not encouraged. ��THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko st 1 Vice President Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3'd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson, Stephanie Seigel, John A. Holy, Cynthia M. Maleski , Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Sue Ann. M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom , Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Martha Catalano, Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2019, Vol. 44 Description An account of the resource Vol. 44 (No. 82-83), 2019. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 2019 147 CONTRIBUTORS R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN (Ph.D., Florida State University), is an independent scholar in Florida. He is co-author (with Joseph Stefka) of The National Slovak Society, a JOO Year History, 18901990 (Pittsburgh, 1990) as well as articles in popular and scholarly journals. MICHAEL CUDE (Ph.D. , Colorado) is an Assistant Professor in the history department at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. He does research on Central and Eastern Europe and transatlantic migration, particularly on transatlantic Slovak national identity. FRANK HENSCHEL (Ph.D. , University of Leipzig) wrote his dissertation on multilingualism and magyarization in Kassa/Kosice in the period of dualism in Hungary, and it was published by the Collegium Carolinum in 2017. He is now doing post-doctoral research on the biopolitics of childhood in socialist Czehoslovakia at the University of Kiel. PETR KUBIK (Ph.D., Charles University, Prague) is an independent historian in the Czech Republic who focuses on the Second World War and Czechs and Slovaks in exile. He has published books on Soviet War Crimes (Prague, 2003) and Slovak-Italian Relationships, 1939-1945 (Bratislava, 2009). ELLEN L. PAUL (Ph.D. , University of Kansas), is an Associate Professor of History at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where she teaches modem European history. 148 SLOVAKIA 2019 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to the editor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format (stolarik@uottawa.ca), using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles wi ll be sent to an outside reader for evaluation . Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unso li cited book reviews are not encouraged. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestry Organized in 1907 W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko st 1 Vice President Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3'd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson, Stephanie Seigel, John A. Holy, Cynthia M. Maleski , Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski, David M. Blazek, Sue Ann. M. Seich , Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Strom , Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Martha Catalano, Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood, Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANADA Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 44 (No. 82-83) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/91748c99a5834b903fa4c7b2a7002bf2.pdf bd85cb4b2e9651aa4f79e9f008eee20b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 165 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD D. CUSTER is a founder of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society ( 1994) and served as editor of its newsletter, The New Rusyn Times, from 1994-2016. He compiled and edited the Rusy n-American Almanac ofthe Carpatho-Rusy n Society 2004-2005. He has presented papers on the topic of Rusyn American history at conventions of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and genealogical and Carpatho-Rusyn conferences. He coauthored the monograph Prikra about his Rusyn grandmother's native village, published in Presov, Slovakia, in 2006. He holds a B.S. degree (Computer Engineering) from Penn State University and MBA and MA (Eastern Europe area studies) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He works for the U.S. government as a web communications manager in Washington, D.C. FREDERICK HALE is an international theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned his doctorates at Johns Hopkins University and eight universities in Scandinavia and South Africa. His career has encompassed teaching and research appointments at universities in the USA, Norway, Sweden, England, China, and South Africa. To date he has published approximately 260 books and journal articles about topics in his main fields and also in music and linguistics. Presently he is Extraordinary Professor at North-West University in South Africa and a fellow of Liverpool Hope University. NICHOLAS HUDAC is a lecturer in film studies and cultural history at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Charles University's Department of Film Studies, where he successfull y defended his PhD thesis, "Picturing the Nation : Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass - Produced Image" in June of 2020. He has contributed artic les to The Eastern European Film Bulletin and I 6x9, as well as presenting his work on Slovak ethnic identity, mass media, contemporary Czechoslovak cultural history, and Czech and Slovak photography at various Slavic and film �166 SLOVAKIA 2021 studies conferences such as ASEEES, BA SEES, AA TSE EL, and N ECS among others. MICHAL KSINAN received his PhD from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he later also lectured (2018- 2019), and from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he currently works. He wrote several books about Milan Rastislav Stefanik and dozens of scholarly papers. Most recently he published l 'homme qui parfait avec !es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik, heros .franco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EUR'Orbem, 2019). His research focuses on memory studies, historiography, international relations and military history. He has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including " Student Personality of Slovakia" in 2011 and a Fulbright Grant in 2014. ROMAN LICKO teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. He was a Fulbri ght scholar in the United States in 2002 - 2003 , and wrote his dissertation on U.S.- Slovak relations during WWII. Among his publications are two monographs on the war-time attitudes of the United States government towards Slovakia: Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb - americka vlada a slo venska otcizka v rokoch I 939 - I 945 (2008) and Nevftany host - Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady v rokoch 1941 1944. MARJAN MARK STOLARIK, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1974), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He has published or edited ten books and over 60 articles, including The Czech and Slovak Republics: Twenty Years of Independence, /993-2003 (Budapest: CEU Press, 20 I 6). Founder of the Slovak Studies Association ( 1977), he also founded and edited the Slovak Studies Newsletter ( 1977-1987), heedits the scholarly annual Slo vakia (since 1982); and he also serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit), the Historicky casopis (Bratislava), and Theologos (Presov). �SLOVAKIA 2021 167 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to theeditor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format to stolarik@uottawa .ca, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestiy Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3 rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , Stephanie Seigel, Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann . M. Seich, Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Stran, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANArn Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � SLOVAKIA 2021 165 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD D. CUSTER is a founder of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society ( 1994) and served as editor of its newsletter, The New Rusyn Times, from 1994-2016. He compiled and edited the Rusy n-American Almanac ofthe Carpatho-Rusy n Society 2004-2005. He has presented papers on the topic of Rusyn American history at conventions of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and genealogical and Carpatho-Rusyn conferences. He coauthored the monograph Prikra about his Rusyn grandmother's native village, published in Presov, Slovakia, in 2006. He holds a B.S. degree (Computer Engineering) from Penn State University and MBA and MA (Eastern Europe area studies) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He works for the U.S. government as a web communications manager in Washington, D.C. FREDERICK HALE is an international theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned his doctorates at Johns Hopkins University and eight universities in Scandinavia and South Africa. His career has encompassed teaching and research appointments at universities in the USA, Norway, Sweden, England, China, and South Africa. To date he has published approximately 260 books and journal articles about topics in his main fields and also in music and linguistics. Presently he is Extraordinary Professor at North-West University in South Africa and a fellow of Liverpool Hope University. NICHOLAS HUDAC is a lecturer in film studies and cultural history at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Charles University's Department of Film Studies, where he successfull y defended his PhD thesis, "Picturing the Nation : Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass - Produced Image" in June of 2020. He has contributed artic les to The Eastern European Film Bulletin and I 6x9, as well as presenting his work on Slovak ethnic identity, mass media, contemporary Czechoslovak cultural history, and Czech and Slovak photography at various Slavic and film �166 SLOVAKIA 2021 studies conferences such as ASEEES, BA SEES, AA TSE EL, and N ECS among others. MICHAL KSINAN received his PhD from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he later also lectured (2018- 2019), and from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he currently works. He wrote several books about Milan Rastislav Stefanik and dozens of scholarly papers. Most recently he published l 'homme qui parfait avec !es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik, heros .franco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EUR'Orbem, 2019). His research focuses on memory studies, historiography, international relations and military history. He has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including " Student Personality of Slovakia" in 2011 and a Fulbright Grant in 2014. ROMAN LICKO teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. He was a Fulbri ght scholar in the United States in 2002 - 2003 , and wrote his dissertation on U.S.- Slovak relations during WWII. Among his publications are two monographs on the war-time attitudes of the United States government towards Slovakia: Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb - americka vlada a slo venska otcizka v rokoch I 939 - I 945 (2008) and Nevftany host - Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady v rokoch 1941 1944. MARJAN MARK STOLARIK, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1974), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He has published or edited ten books and over 60 articles, including The Czech and Slovak Republics: Twenty Years of Independence, /993-2003 (Budapest: CEU Press, 20 I 6). Founder of the Slovak Studies Association ( 1977), he also founded and edited the Slovak Studies Newsletter ( 1977-1987), heedits the scholarly annual Slo vakia (since 1982); and he also serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit), the Historicky casopis (Bratislava), and Theologos (Presov). �SLOVAKIA 2021 167 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to theeditor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format to stolarik@uottawa .ca, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. ���THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestiy Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3 rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , Stephanie Seigel, Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann . M. Seich, Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Stran, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANArn Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 2021 165 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD D. CUSTER is a founder of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society ( 1994) and served as editor of its newsletter, The New Rusyn Times, from 1994-2016. He compiled and edited the Rusy n-American Almanac ofthe Carpatho-Rusy n Society 2004-2005. He has presented papers on the topic of Rusyn American history at conventions of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) and genealogical and Carpatho-Rusyn conferences. He coauthored the monograph Prikra about his Rusyn grandmother's native village, published in Presov, Slovakia, in 2006. He holds a B.S. degree (Computer Engineering) from Penn State University and MBA and MA (Eastern Europe area studies) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He works for the U.S. government as a web communications manager in Washington, D.C. FREDERICK HALE is an international theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned his doctorates at Johns Hopkins University and eight universities in Scandinavia and South Africa. His career has encompassed teaching and research appointments at universities in the USA, Norway, Sweden, England, China, and South Africa. To date he has published approximately 260 books and journal articles about topics in his main fields and also in music and linguistics. Presently he is Extraordinary Professor at North-West University in South Africa and a fellow of Liverpool Hope University. NICHOLAS HUDAC is a lecturer in film studies and cultural history at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Charles University's Department of Film Studies, where he successfull y defended his PhD thesis, "Picturing the Nation : Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass - Produced Image" in June of 2020. He has contributed artic les to The Eastern European Film Bulletin and I 6x9, as well as presenting his work on Slovak ethnic identity, mass media, contemporary Czechoslovak cultural history, and Czech and Slovak photography at various Slavic and film 166 SLOVAKIA 2021 studies conferences such as ASEEES, BA SEES, AA TSE EL, and N ECS among others. MICHAL KSINAN received his PhD from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he later also lectured (2018- 2019), and from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, where he currently works. He wrote several books about Milan Rastislav Stefanik and dozens of scholarly papers. Most recently he published l 'homme qui parfait avec !es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik, heros .franco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EUR'Orbem, 2019). His research focuses on memory studies, historiography, international relations and military history. He has received several prestigious scholarships and awards, including " Student Personality of Slovakia" in 2011 and a Fulbright Grant in 2014. ROMAN LICKO teaches in the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. He was a Fulbri ght scholar in the United States in 2002 - 2003 , and wrote his dissertation on U.S.- Slovak relations during WWII. Among his publications are two monographs on the war-time attitudes of the United States government towards Slovakia: Pod dohl'adom spravodajskych slui ieb - americka vlada a slo venska otcizka v rokoch I 939 - I 945 (2008) and Nevftany host - Milan Hodia v dokumentoch americkej vlady v rokoch 1941 1944. MARJAN MARK STOLARIK, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1974), is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. He has published or edited ten books and over 60 articles, including The Czech and Slovak Republics: Twenty Years of Independence, /993-2003 (Budapest: CEU Press, 20 I 6). Founder of the Slovak Studies Association ( 1977), he also founded and edited the Slovak Studies Newsletter ( 1977-1987), heedits the scholarly annual Slo vakia (since 1982); and he also serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit), the Historicky casopis (Bratislava), and Theologos (Presov). SLOVAKIA 2021 167 GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts for possible publication should be sent to theeditor. Articles should normally not exceed twenty-five pages in length, should be typed double-spaced, should include footnotes at the bottom of the page, and should be submitted in electronic format to stolarik@uottawa .ca, using either MicrosoftWord or WordPerfect. Text and format should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. Proper orthography and diacritical marks must be supplied for all foreign words. All articles will be sent to an outside reader for evaluation. Books for review are to be sent to the editor. Unsolicited book reviews are not encouraged. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA A civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak Ancestiy Organized in 1907 DANIEL F. TANZONE President Dr. Mikulas A. Halko 1st Vice President W. NINA HOLY Secretary - Treasurer Vice Presidents Justine Wesnak 2 nd Vice President Gabriel Kovac 3 rd Vice President Executive Board Daniel F. Tanzone, W. Nina Holy, Dr. Mikulas A. Halko, Eileen S. Wilson , Stephanie Seigel, Cynthia M. Maleski, Andrew M. Rajec, Michael J. Horvath, Theresa M. Kluchinski , David M. Blazek, Sue Ann . M. Seich, Kenneth A. Arendt, Scott T. Pogorelec, Linda M. Stran, Mary Jo Savidge Milan Cuba, Youth Director Dr. Ladislav Korcek, Joseph Goda, Auditors SLOVAK FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK LADIES ASSOCIATION Beachwood , Ohio FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION OF THE U.S.A. AND CANArn Independence, Ohio SLOVAK CATHOLIC SOKOL Passaic, New Jersey NATIONAL SLOVAK SOCIETY OF THE U.S.A. McMurray, Pennsylvania LADIES PENNSYLVANIA SLOVAK CATHOLIC UNION Wilkes - Barre, Pennsylvania THE SLOVAK NEWSPAPERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA $ 10.00 per issue  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85) Description An account of the resource includes Contributors; Guidelines for Manuscripts Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/73211fb74e35c4af309a97a7ffc1c7b8.pdf 31d167ba8598a1ec4055158275c90fba PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (O rganiz ed 1907 in C leveland . Ohio.) • John J . Sirotnak 610-612 Li:lcoln Trust Bl dg. Scranton 3, Pa. Honorar y Presillen1 Dr. Peter P. H letko 1943 W. 4Sth Street Chi cago n. Illinoi s Dr. Julius Janci 215 East ' Mason Street Owoss o, Mich. President Philip A. Hrobak P. O. Dux 150. i\l idd letuwn. Pa. St e phani e 0. H usek Georgian Cour t Co ll ege Vice-Pres ident Lak e wood, N. J . Jacob Kocis A DVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167th Sll eet Mic hae l J . Vargovich Ha mmond , Ind . Nat iona l President First Catholi c Slovak Un ion \'ice-Pr e s ident of U. S. A. Ju Iia K rajcovic 1/i.J W. 18th SL. Chicago 8, m. Helen Kocan National President Re cording Secretary First Catholic Slovak Francis H rusovsky Ladies Union 2900 East Bo ul evard Frank Sobus Cle veland 4, Olli:> National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secr e tary-Tre asurer Milan V. Blazek Stephen J. Tkach 4205 W. Cull erton Street National Presid ent Chicago 23, Ill. Penna. Slovak U ni on Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies P e nnsylvania Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska Sl O Montooth Street PittRhurgh 10, Pa. Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St .. Passaic, N. J . John Rozboril National President S lovak Cath o li c Cfldet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affil ia ted with th e S lovak Lea gue of Amer ica) JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. BRATST VO SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland , Ohio Scrnn ton , P a. Wilk es-Barre, Pa. SL OV ENSKE NOVINY Cleveland , Ohio ZORNICKA Wilke.s -Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Pass ai c, N . J. SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa . OSADNE HLASY Chic,a go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �Ruins of the S!pis Castle from the western side, Spis County, Slovakia. The fortress, built in the 13th century, was destroyed by fire in 1780 . • � Officers of the Slovak League of America (O rganiz ed 1907 in C leveland . Ohio.) • John J . Sirotnak 610-612 Li:lcoln Trust Bl dg. Scranton 3, Pa. Honorar y Presillen1 Dr. Peter P. H letko 1943 W. 4Sth Street Chi cago n. Illinoi s Dr. Julius Janci 215 East ' Mason Street Owoss o, Mich. President Philip A. Hrobak P. O. Dux 150. i\l idd letuwn. Pa. St e phani e 0. H usek Georgian Cour t Co ll ege Vice-Pres ident Lak e wood, N. J . Jacob Kocis A DVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167th Sll eet Mic hae l J . Vargovich Ha mmond , Ind . Nat iona l President First Catholi c Slovak Un ion \'ice-Pr e s ident of U. S. A. Ju Iia K rajcovic 1/i.J W. 18th SL. Chicago 8, m. Helen Kocan National President Re cording Secretary First Catholic Slovak Francis H rusovsky Ladies Union 2900 East Bo ul evard Frank Sobus Cle veland 4, Olli:> National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secr e tary-Tre asurer Milan V. Blazek Stephen J. Tkach 4205 W. Cull erton Street National Presid ent Chicago 23, Ill. Penna. Slovak U ni on Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies P e nnsylvania Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska Sl O Montooth Street PittRhurgh 10, Pa. Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St .. Passaic, N. J . John Rozboril National President S lovak Cath o li c Cfldet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affil ia ted with th e S lovak Lea gue of Amer ica) JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. BRATST VO SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland , Ohio Scrnn ton , P a. Wilk es-Barre, Pa. SL OV ENSKE NOVINY Cleveland , Ohio ZORNICKA Wilke.s -Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Pass ai c, N . J. SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa . OSADNE HLASY Chic,a go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �Ruins of the S!pis Castle from the western side, Spis County, Slovakia. The fortress, built in the 13th century, was destroyed by fire in 1780 . • � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1955, Vol. 5 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 14), March 1955.</li> <li>Issue 2-3 (No. 15-16), June-September 1955.</li> <li>Issue 4 (No. 17), December 1955.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (O rganiz ed 1907 in C leveland . Ohio.) • John J . Sirotnak 610-612 Li:lcoln Trust Bl dg. Scranton 3, Pa. Honorar y Presillen1 Dr. Peter P. H letko 1943 W. 4Sth Street Chi cago n. Illinoi s Dr. Julius Janci 215 East ' Mason Street Owoss o, Mich. President Philip A. Hrobak P. O. Dux 150. i\l idd letuwn. Pa. St e phani e 0. H usek Georgian Cour t Co ll ege Vice-Pres ident Lak e wood, N. J . Jacob Kocis A DVISORY COUNCIL 1547 - 167th Sll eet Mic hae l J . Vargovich Ha mmond , Ind . Nat iona l President First Catholi c Slovak Un ion \'ice-Pr e s ident of U. S. A. Ju Iia K rajcovic 1/i.J W. 18th SL. Chicago 8, m. Helen Kocan National President Re cording Secretary First Catholic Slovak Francis H rusovsky Ladies Union 2900 East Bo ul evard Frank Sobus Cle veland 4, Olli:> National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secr e tary-Tre asurer Milan V. Blazek Stephen J. Tkach 4205 W. Cull erton Street National Presid ent Chicago 23, Ill. Penna. Slovak U ni on Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies P e nnsylvania Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska Sl O Montooth Street PittRhurgh 10, Pa. Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St .. Passaic, N. J . John Rozboril National President S lovak Cath o li c Cfldet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affil ia ted with th e S lovak Lea gue of Amer ica) JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. BRATST VO SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleveland , Ohio Scrnn ton , P a. Wilk es-Barre, Pa. SL OV ENSKE NOVINY Cleveland , Ohio ZORNICKA Wilke.s -Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Pass ai c, N . J. SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa . OSADNE HLASY Chic,a go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. Ruins of the S!pis Castle from the western side, Spis County, Slovakia. The fortress, built in the 13th century, was destroyed by fire in 1780 . •  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 5, No. 1 (14) Description An account of the resource includes photo of ruins of Spiš Castle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1955 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/14d56edbe08d0137ffd15ed7c9a9214b.pdf 564a93caabf378580091ac196aa402af PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio • Honorary Dr. Peter 19-13 W. Chicago Fran ce s L. Mizenko 3756 Lee Road Cl eve l and 2 , Ohio President P. H letko I th Street ~. Illinoi s J President Philip A . Hro ba k P. 0. Box 150, Middl etown, Pa. \'ice-Pre sident Jacob Kocis 15-17 - 167th Street Hammond, Ind. Vice-President Julia Krajcovic 1648 W. L th St., St ephen J . Tka c h 173 N . Main Street Wi l kes-Barre, Pa . A ndre w J . H amrock 61 Woodland Av enue Campbel l , Ohio ADVISORY COUNCIL Mi c hael J . Vargovich National President l•'irst Cathol i c Sl ovak Unio n 'hie-ago 8, Ill. Recording 'ecretary Franc is H rusovsky 2900 East Bou l evard Cleveland I, Ohio H e l en Ko c an .'fationa l Pre sident Fir st Catholic Sl ovak Ladie s 1-nion F ra n k Sobus - :-lational President lovak Cathol i c- Soko l Secretary-Treasurer Milan V . Blazek .J922 S. Lec laire Avenu Chicago 38, Ill. St ephen J . Tkach National President nion Penna . Sl ovak EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph Prusa 205 Madi son St., Passaic, N. J. · Gabri el a E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsy lvania Sl ovak Union Jo h n Rozbor il ~ational President Sl ovak 'atholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliat ed with th e Slova k League of Am erica ) JEDNOTA Middletown , Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleve l and, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi l kes-Barre , Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY C l eve l and, Ohio ZORNICKA Chica.go, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passai c, N. J. SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind . �SLOVAK.IA: Ruins of Bzovik Castle, Hont County, built in the 12th century. It served as a monastery for the Premonstratensians from 1130 until about 1433, when the Czech Hussites took it over and converted it into a fortress. � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio • Honorary Dr. Peter 19-13 W. Chicago Fran ce s L. Mizenko 3756 Lee Road Cl eve l and 2 , Ohio President P. H letko I th Street ~. Illinoi s J President Philip A . Hro ba k P. 0. Box 150, Middl etown, Pa. \'ice-Pre sident Jacob Kocis 15-17 - 167th Street Hammond, Ind. Vice-President Julia Krajcovic 1648 W. L th St., St ephen J . Tka c h 173 N . Main Street Wi l kes-Barre, Pa . A ndre w J . H amrock 61 Woodland Av enue Campbel l , Ohio ADVISORY COUNCIL Mi c hael J . Vargovich National President l•'irst Cathol i c Sl ovak Unio n 'hie-ago 8, Ill. Recording 'ecretary Franc is H rusovsky 2900 East Bou l evard Cleveland I, Ohio H e l en Ko c an .'fationa l Pre sident Fir st Catholic Sl ovak Ladie s 1-nion F ra n k Sobus - :-lational President lovak Cathol i c- Soko l Secretary-Treasurer Milan V . Blazek .J922 S. Lec laire Avenu Chicago 38, Ill. St ephen J . Tkach National President nion Penna . Sl ovak EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph Prusa 205 Madi son St., Passaic, N. J. · Gabri el a E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsy lvania Sl ovak Union Jo h n Rozbor il ~ational President Sl ovak 'atholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliat ed with th e Slova k League of Am erica ) JEDNOTA Middletown , Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleve l and, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi l kes-Barre , Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY C l eve l and, Ohio ZORNICKA Chica.go, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passai c, N. J. SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind . �SLOVAK.IA: Ruins of Bzovik Castle, Hont County, built in the 12th century. It served as a monastery for the Premonstratensians from 1130 until about 1433, when the Czech Hussites took it over and converted it into a fortress. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1955, Vol. 5 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 14), March 1955.</li> <li>Issue 2-3 (No. 15-16), June-September 1955.</li> <li>Issue 4 (No. 17), December 1955.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio • Honorary Dr. Peter 19-13 W. Chicago Fran ce s L. Mizenko 3756 Lee Road Cl eve l and 2 , Ohio President P. H letko I th Street ~. Illinoi s J President Philip A . Hro ba k P. 0. Box 150, Middl etown, Pa. \'ice-Pre sident Jacob Kocis 15-17 - 167th Street Hammond, Ind. Vice-President Julia Krajcovic 1648 W. L th St., St ephen J . Tka c h 173 N . Main Street Wi l kes-Barre, Pa . A ndre w J . H amrock 61 Woodland Av enue Campbel l , Ohio ADVISORY COUNCIL Mi c hael J . Vargovich National President l•'irst Cathol i c Sl ovak Unio n 'hie-ago 8, Ill. Recording 'ecretary Franc is H rusovsky 2900 East Bou l evard Cleveland I, Ohio H e l en Ko c an .'fationa l Pre sident Fir st Catholic Sl ovak Ladie s 1-nion F ra n k Sobus - :-lational President lovak Cathol i c- Soko l Secretary-Treasurer Milan V . Blazek .J922 S. Lec laire Avenu Chicago 38, Ill. St ephen J . Tkach National President nion Penna . Sl ovak EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph Prusa 205 Madi son St., Passaic, N. J. · Gabri el a E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsy lvania Sl ovak Union Jo h n Rozbor il ~ational President Sl ovak 'atholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliat ed with th e Slova k League of Am erica ) JEDNOTA Middletown , Pa. SLOVENSKA OBRANA Scranton, Pa. ZENSKA JEDNOTA Cleve l and, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi l kes-Barre , Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY C l eve l and, Ohio ZORNICKA Chica.go, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passai c, N. J. SVORNOST Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind . SLOVAK.IA: Ruins of Bzovik Castle, Hont County, built in the 12th century. It served as a monastery for the Premonstratensians from 1130 until about 1433, when the Czech Hussites took it over and converted it into a fortress.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 5, No. 2-3 (15-16) Description An account of the resource includes photo of ruins of Bzovík Castle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June-September 1955 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d01df4810d9810f72e330513bc129662.pdf c058f72321a3e992748eda642e65cf85 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Obio • Frances L. Mizenko Honorary President 3756 Lee Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. H letko 1~ 13 W. -18th Street Chicago 9, Ill inois Stephen J. Tkach 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa. !'resident A. Philip Hrobak P. 0. Dox 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael J . Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President Firs t Catholi c Slovak Vice-President Julia Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholi c S lovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Francis nion H rusovsky Fran k 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Sobus National Preside nt Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasu rer Stephen J . Tka ch Milan V. Blaz ek National President nion Penna. Slovak -1922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J. National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �~ N:ddaa:«.w , ......... ~ ~ ~XL ,.<l♦ ><«V;!o,o.;. k 6 - "· Jw♦ jt.fff<l<t. "- t.>'>J~!'°" ,.( .. 4,,'"i, ~....... <>4',~y..,1d.-,mf;>,j><J>><,tt ♦ ><IM ... > '""""'"'J,,,A \,,-:4.?,1 ,i ~<-W.«·:. . ., lw'♦,-.i:,.j>>"l"''"'-"'i-!ml♦ h•<<f~l'I:♦, '-<j ,..,,, ,x,lk). >>.folj ~I>! ~~ 4 --.fl♦lo;·:,:,,.(.>·,, .. ,.11,#lt<P.~<I ><> _, ~tl\okll. l>llt. ~~- •~ ' fl-"' <I< ♦}:' <,y.,, ... ,..:, l~«' , ..,; »·to ~ ♦ !:S~ s.11>»,,.,. «<+~ i .......... , lo -~h'«< ti"'~,;-~, " ' ~ . , . ~ , ..~ -~.,.~ ~y ~""'l, ,-N:4• !I, ; !!l-'4"f~n n:.Ut.~, ~---~"'~" !. Nebudeme sa pred nikym exkuzo·rcti'! I j We heard and read that freedom of the press was guaranteed in the "Czecho-Slovak" democracy of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes. This front page of Sept. 14, 1938, is a typical example of the freedom the Slovaks enjoyed. In the upper left hand corner we see "After confiscation a new, corrected issue." In 1922 alone Slovak newspapers suffered 1498 instances of censorship and confiscation. � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Obio • Frances L. Mizenko Honorary President 3756 Lee Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. H letko 1~ 13 W. -18th Street Chicago 9, Ill inois Stephen J. Tkach 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa. !'resident A. Philip Hrobak P. 0. Dox 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael J . Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President Firs t Catholi c Slovak Vice-President Julia Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholi c S lovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Francis nion H rusovsky Fran k 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Sobus National Preside nt Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasu rer Stephen J . Tka ch Milan V. Blaz ek National President nion Penna. Slovak -1922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J. National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �~ N:ddaa:«.w , ......... ~ ~ ~XL ,.<l♦ ><«V;!o,o.;. k 6 - "· Jw♦ jt.fff<l<t. "- t.>'>J~!'°" ,.( .. 4,,'"i, ~....... <>4',~y..,1d.-,mf;>,j><J>><,tt ♦ ><IM ... > '""""'"'J,,,A \,,-:4.?,1 ,i ~<-W.«·:. . ., lw'♦,-.i:,.j>>"l"''"'-"'i-!ml♦ h•<<f~l'I:♦, '-<j ,..,,, ,x,lk). >>.folj ~I>! ~~ 4 --.fl♦lo;·:,:,,.(.>·,, .. ,.11,#lt<P.~<I ><> _, ~tl\okll. l>llt. ~~- •~ ' fl-"' <I< ♦}:' <,y.,, ... ,..:, l~«' , ..,; »·to ~ ♦ !:S~ s.11>»,,.,. «<+~ i .......... , lo -~h'«< ti"'~,;-~, " ' ~ . , . ~ , ..~ -~.,.~ ~y ~""'l, ,-N:4• !I, ; !!l-'4"f~n n:.Ut.~, ~---~"'~" !. Nebudeme sa pred nikym exkuzo·rcti'! I j We heard and read that freedom of the press was guaranteed in the "Czecho-Slovak" democracy of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes. This front page of Sept. 14, 1938, is a typical example of the freedom the Slovaks enjoyed. In the upper left hand corner we see "After confiscation a new, corrected issue." In 1922 alone Slovak newspapers suffered 1498 instances of censorship and confiscation. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1955, Vol. 5 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 14), March 1955.</li> <li>Issue 2-3 (No. 15-16), June-September 1955.</li> <li>Issue 4 (No. 17), December 1955.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Obio • Frances L. Mizenko Honorary President 3756 Lee Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. H letko 1~ 13 W. -18th Street Chicago 9, Ill inois Stephen J. Tkach 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa. !'resident A. Philip Hrobak P. 0. Dox 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael J . Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President Firs t Catholi c Slovak Vice-President Julia Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholi c S lovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Francis nion H rusovsky Fran k 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Sobus National Preside nt Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasu rer Stephen J . Tka ch Milan V. Blaz ek National President nion Penna. Slovak -1922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Gabriela E. Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J. National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. ~ N:ddaa:«.w , ......... ~ ~ ~XL ,.<l♦ ><«V;!o,o.;. k 6 - "· Jw♦ jt.fff<l<t. "- t.>'>J~!'°" ,.( .. 4,,'"i, ~....... <>4',~y..,1d.-,mf;>,j><J>><,tt ♦ ><IM ... > '""""'"'J,,,A \,,-:4.?,1 ,i ~<-W.«·:. . ., lw'♦,-.i:,.j>>"l"''"'-"'i-!ml♦ h•<<f~l'I:♦, '-<j ,..,,, ,x,lk). >>.folj ~I>! ~~ 4 --.fl♦lo;·:,:,,.(.>·,, .. ,.11,#lt<P.~<I ><> _, ~tl\okll. l>llt. ~~- •~ ' fl-"' <I< ♦}:' <,y.,, ... ,..:, l~«' , ..,; »·to ~ ♦ !:S~ s.11>»,,.,. «<+~ i .......... , lo -~h'«< ti"'~,;-~, " ' ~ . , . ~ , ..~ -~.,.~ ~y ~""'l, ,-N:4• !I, ; !!l-'4"f~n n:.Ut.~, ~---~"'~" !. Nebudeme sa pred nikym exkuzo·rcti'! I j We heard and read that freedom of the press was guaranteed in the "Czecho-Slovak" democracy of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes. This front page of Sept. 14, 1938, is a typical example of the freedom the Slovaks enjoyed. In the upper left hand corner we see "After confiscation a new, corrected issue." In 1922 alone Slovak newspapers suffered 1498 instances of censorship and confiscation.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 5, No. 4 (17) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1955 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/77dd8aa556e9ce42e98b2048de70cd19.pdf 38a8f726cc0e8cced33fb70c732381a7 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Oh io • Franc es L. Mizenko Honorary President 3756 Lee IJload C leveland 28, Ohio Dr. Pet er P . Hletko 1943 W. 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois Stephen J. Tkach 173 N . Main Street Wilkes-Bar re, Pa. President A. Philip Hrobak P. 0 . I..:ox 150, Middletown , Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodlan<! Avenu e Camp bell , Ohio Vice-Presid ent Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Vlichael J . Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind . National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-Presid ent J ulia Krajcovic :-te le n Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Unio n Recording Secretary Francis Hrusovsky Frank Bobus 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-T re asurer Mi l an St ephen J . Tkach V. Blazek National President Penna. Slovak U nion 4922 S. L eclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIV E COMMITT EE Gabriela E . Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvan ia Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . National President Slo vak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAP ERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVEN SKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl etown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cl eveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSK E NOVINY ZORNltKA Chica.go, m. Wilkes-Bar re, P a. Clevela nd, Ohi o KATOLiCK Y SOKOL SVORNOS T OSADNE HLASY Passaic:, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �SLOVAKIA: the ruins of the STARA I'.iUBOVNA above the Poprad Valley. GANSt::R LIBRARY . MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE MILLERSVILLE, PA 17551 � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Oh io • Franc es L. Mizenko Honorary President 3756 Lee IJload C leveland 28, Ohio Dr. Pet er P . Hletko 1943 W. 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois Stephen J. Tkach 173 N . Main Street Wilkes-Bar re, Pa. President A. Philip Hrobak P. 0 . I..:ox 150, Middletown , Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodlan<! Avenu e Camp bell , Ohio Vice-Presid ent Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Vlichael J . Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind . National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-Presid ent J ulia Krajcovic :-te le n Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Unio n Recording Secretary Francis Hrusovsky Frank Bobus 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-T re asurer Mi l an St ephen J . Tkach V. Blazek National President Penna. Slovak U nion 4922 S. L eclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIV E COMMITT EE Gabriela E . Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvan ia Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . National President Slo vak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAP ERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVEN SKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl etown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cl eveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSK E NOVINY ZORNltKA Chica.go, m. Wilkes-Bar re, P a. Clevela nd, Ohi o KATOLiCK Y SOKOL SVORNOS T OSADNE HLASY Passaic:, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �SLOVAKIA: the ruins of the STARA I'.iUBOVNA above the Poprad Valley. GANSt::R LIBRARY . MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE MILLERSVILLE, PA 17551 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Oh io • Franc es L. Mizenko Honorary President 3756 Lee IJload C leveland 28, Ohio Dr. Pet er P . Hletko 1943 W. 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois Stephen J. Tkach 173 N . Main Street Wilkes-Bar re, Pa. President A. Philip Hrobak P. 0 . I..:ox 150, Middletown , Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodlan<! Avenu e Camp bell , Ohio Vice-Presid ent Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Vlichael J . Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind . National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-Presid ent J ulia Krajcovic :-te le n Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Unio n Recording Secretary Francis Hrusovsky Frank Bobus 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-T re asurer Mi l an St ephen J . Tkach V. Blazek National President Penna. Slovak U nion 4922 S. L eclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIV E COMMITT EE Gabriela E . Vavrek National President Ladies Pennsylvan ia Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . National President Slo vak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAP ERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVEN SKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl etown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cl eveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSK E NOVINY ZORNltKA Chica.go, m. Wilkes-Bar re, P a. Clevela nd, Ohi o KATOLiCK Y SOKOL SVORNOS T OSADNE HLASY Passaic:, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. SLOVAKIA: the ruins of the STARA I'.iUBOVNA above the Poprad Valley. GANSt::R LIBRARY . MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE MILLERSVILLE, PA 17551  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 6, No. 1 (18) Description An account of the resource includes photo of ruins of Stará Ľubovňa above the Poprad Valley Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1956 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/43a5e633737a1609f4967bb5245a3162.pdf 7d2207eb8924135491f8a0d50f062174 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio • Hono r ary President Franc es L. Mizenko 3756 Lee !Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. Hletko 1943 W. -ISth Street Chicago ~. Illinois IStephen President A . Hroba k Ph i l i p P. 0. Box 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J . Hamrock 61 Wood-land Avenue Campbell , Ohio Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Mic hael J. Vargovi c h 15n -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholic S lornk Cnion Vice-President Julia K rajcovlc Hel en Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, 111. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secreta.ry Fra nc is J . Tkach 173 N. Main Street \ Vilkes-Barre, Pa. H rusovsky 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Pau l Fallat , ational President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V . Blazek National President Penna. S lovak Uni on 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill . EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Cath erine Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pitts burgh 10, Pa. Volosin N ati onaJ President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Uni on John Rozbor i l Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . Nati onal President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Aff il iated with th e Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA :\fiddletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. K ATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADNE HLASY Passaic, N . J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill . Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIK E Whiting, Ind. �1856 - 1956 LOUIS STUR: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism GANSER LIBRAR"Y ·~!~~~~~X!·~~~ ~1:ATE__f9!-1EG£ � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio • Hono r ary President Franc es L. Mizenko 3756 Lee !Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. Hletko 1943 W. -ISth Street Chicago ~. Illinois IStephen President A . Hroba k Ph i l i p P. 0. Box 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J . Hamrock 61 Wood-land Avenue Campbell , Ohio Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Mic hael J. Vargovi c h 15n -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholic S lornk Cnion Vice-President Julia K rajcovlc Hel en Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, 111. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secreta.ry Fra nc is J . Tkach 173 N. Main Street \ Vilkes-Barre, Pa. H rusovsky 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Pau l Fallat , ational President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V . Blazek National President Penna. S lovak Uni on 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill . EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Cath erine Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pitts burgh 10, Pa. Volosin N ati onaJ President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Uni on John Rozbor i l Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . Nati onal President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Aff il iated with th e Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA :\fiddletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. K ATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADNE HLASY Passaic, N . J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill . Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIK E Whiting, Ind. �1856 - 1956 LOUIS STUR: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism GANSER LIBRAR"Y ·~!~~~~~X!·~~~ ~1:ATE__f9!-1EG£ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio • Hono r ary President Franc es L. Mizenko 3756 Lee !Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. Hletko 1943 W. -ISth Street Chicago ~. Illinois IStephen President A . Hroba k Ph i l i p P. 0. Box 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J . Hamrock 61 Wood-land Avenue Campbell , Ohio Vice-President Jacob Kocis ADVISORY COUNCIL Mic hael J. Vargovi c h 15n -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholic S lornk Cnion Vice-President Julia K rajcovlc Hel en Kocan 1648 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, 111. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secreta.ry Fra nc is J . Tkach 173 N. Main Street \ Vilkes-Barre, Pa. H rusovsky 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Pau l Fallat , ational President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V . Blazek National President Penna. S lovak Uni on 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill . EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Cath erine Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pitts burgh 10, Pa. Volosin N ati onaJ President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Uni on John Rozbor i l Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . Nati onal President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Aff il iated with th e Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA :\fiddletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. K ATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADNE HLASY Passaic, N . J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill . Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIK E Whiting, Ind. 1856 - 1956 LOUIS STUR: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism GANSER LIBRAR"Y ·~!~~~~~X!·~~~ ~1:ATE__f9!-1EG£  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 6, No. 2 (19) Description An account of the resource includes drawing of Louis Štúr Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1956 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/24e8fa8553d5868a5dbd5d6161ae2ee5.pdf 87c33b9236be42a4365e2bb736ebe2da PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America 1 (Orwanized 1907 in Cleveland, Oh:io • Honorary President Frances L. Mizenko 37 56 Lee R oad Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. H letko 1!143 W. 48th Street Chica.go 9, lllinois Stephen J . Tkach 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa. President Philip A. Hrobak P . 0 . Box 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodland Avenue Camp bell, Ohio Vice-President Jacob Koci& ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael J. Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-President Julia Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W . 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen 2900 East Boulevard Clevaland 4, Ohio Paul Fallat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secreta.ry-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V. Blazek National President Penna. Slovak Union 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak ational President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . ational President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Pa.ssaic, N . J. Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �GAN'S.ER LIBRARY MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE MfLLERSVILLE, PA. 17551 � Officers of the Slovak League of America 1 (Orwanized 1907 in Cleveland, Oh:io • Honorary President Frances L. Mizenko 37 56 Lee R oad Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. H letko 1!143 W. 48th Street Chica.go 9, lllinois Stephen J . Tkach 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa. President Philip A. Hrobak P . 0 . Box 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodland Avenue Camp bell, Ohio Vice-President Jacob Koci& ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael J. Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-President Julia Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W . 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen 2900 East Boulevard Clevaland 4, Ohio Paul Fallat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secreta.ry-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V. Blazek National President Penna. Slovak Union 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak ational President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . ational President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Pa.ssaic, N . J. Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �GAN'S.ER LIBRARY MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE MfLLERSVILLE, PA. 17551 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America 1 (Orwanized 1907 in Cleveland, Oh:io • Honorary President Frances L. Mizenko 37 56 Lee R oad Cleveland 28, Ohio Dr. Peter P. H letko 1!143 W. 48th Street Chica.go 9, lllinois Stephen J . Tkach 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, Pa. President Philip A. Hrobak P . 0 . Box 150, Middletown, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock 61 Woodland Avenue Camp bell, Ohio Vice-President Jacob Koci& ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael J. Vargovich 1547 -- 167th Street Hammond, Ind. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Vice-President Julia Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W . 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen 2900 East Boulevard Clevaland 4, Ohio Paul Fallat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secreta.ry-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V. Blazek National President Penna. Slovak Union 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak ational President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union Paul P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. John Rozboril Joseph Prusa 205 Madison St., Passaic, N. J . ational President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS ( Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Pa.ssaic, N . J. Whitaker, Pa. OSADNE HLASY Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. GAN'S.ER LIBRARY MILLERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE MfLLERSVILLE, PA. 17551  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 6, No. 3-4 (20-21) Description An account of the resource includes photo of ruins of Spiš Castle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1956 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1f0f9bc599dea6701063b4aebfa243bf.pdf 58cecf62a0a46d604e71bc2cd40df4c8 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presid ent Vice-President Dr. Peter P. Hletko Julia Krajcovic 19-13 W . 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois 16-18 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. llecord ing Secretary President Philip Constantine Culen A. 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Hrob ak P. 0 . !:lox 150, .\liddl etown, Pa. Vice-President Secretary-Treasurer Jacob Kocis l\lilan V. 1517 -- lli7th Street Hammond, Ind. B lazek -1922 S. Leela.ire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Stephen J. Tkach P. Jamriska 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Darre, Pa. SlO Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock Franc es L. Mize nko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio 3756 Lee 'Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Jo seph Prusa 205 l\Iadison St., Passaic, N. J. ADVISORY COUNCIL Stephen J . Tkach l,lichael J. Vargovich National President Penna. Slovak Union :-.ational President First Catholic.: Slovak Union Anna Sotak Helen Kocan National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Paul Fallat John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Sokol National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SL OVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �Benes Defied Last Minute ,.o" 0 " Warning Not to Murder : President Dr. Tiso WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TISO : . Tiso Exec1uion Shocks V. ahcan ,._o.,,,0.~ / ... • B eg Im e i en e 5 R ders Deat h r 0 \VSNY, Schenectady, N. Y.,:! • ;Jic Broadcasts About Tiso : ,- for Fr TI so London 1Pl' I - Edwar1' Bene.A. ~ C Z 10 0 Vat ican C i l ~ _ Jz:i &11 et• ro ~Rve the Rew Dr Joae pb I ► T l!lo " 'l\r -tt m" prP!lden t t>f Slo~ 1...,!orT 1.1un1,.,, _,11rta1or nr i\loarow-made z ('zPcbn-Slnv1'k111 ,..,., 1'Ptermlned lO ru 11rdPr Or J O!t'pb T iso, t be ~ 88 of April 1e Te ll e of An xltty or Slov a k ■ Over Tl ■ o Sbtement . 1so JAU.n'•~¥c;1iT ~ l e ~ t An atm oapberP- , 1N J:.i~ ,....Clf'IU 8U (WHO ~ D DR, 'n.80!) : nso m : MoRIAL MASS Jeolr ~o u,; LAKEWOOD, 1':fsolr.z./JJ:.n o. \]Pmonal Man fo r lb e -THE CAT H O UC UNIVERSE BU LLETIN- MURDER IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA They Killed President Tiso v. ERN Y OLOVAK and Slovak communists dem .MASS FOR TISO ;:,or:;;:r ~~! ~:tec~~~01~~ 1'r d Dr Edward Bene§ obliged. Fa IN PH ILADELPHIA t the 001 of Dr T l10·1 de h PIDLIP JAMES ANTHO:>'Y ~s1dent of wartime ' S l'AUL KOTYA 4 Go • }A.ASS g,~~d...Par ··~:::i.. and··w ··IC."k-J People N HOL Y &EE u ~ CZECH PRESIOENT TO SPAR E HIS LIFS u ~ - : __, to"o and hamlet ot Slov': ·The Murder of Tiso Has Shocked i Tiso More Dangerous Dead Thao Alive; Writer Sums Up • ~ ~ ' ~ "' the Civilized World ..• " ,, 0 ~ 0 ~• , n0NoTA Feeling of Slovaks ~ ~ f c■ NTRAL Eu&~~~~~~a T~NRoauR~~~'~T ~~ pt;:iR~;MPATH v To • . ......... ,,, death WU prooouoced 011 preelden t 8 of Jews and othel"f 11 ~ Q O BY J ~ N E R, ~ By Our (Special CorrupondeP1t, N C. W. C. New, Servic e) Dratlsla \'I, Apri l :?1 . - ''Tiso lli.·i ll be mo re da nse rous dead than ~hl_a · ·.ru the opinion exprl'll~~ MURDER IN -stovAKIA :::;e,"L 01 •Benes Hangs ·Speech ather T•ISO Corre■p0Pldent and about Czech Arr Cen-1 I..o ndon, A pril l0. - The Court, tral European communit y In Great the lncreuett d th' ogance an e , Death of Rev. Joseph Tiso ; -- or HON. ALVIN E. O'ICONSKI of Wisconsin 1n the· -House of Re t&tt w-..1 ~ ·1 A . The r ecent waTe or pollUe&I Tpreeen ves cun~a.y, pril 23, 1947 k.Hl~cga In Eu~op! bu arouaed lh_!I < ' Mr. 0 KOMKI. Mr. Speaker, the NlCellt h&nglng by the E-< Commumsts of CzechoslO\•alda of the bra,•f) and gallant Monsignor J oseph Tiso wao murder In its moot ghaotly aod shameful fonn. Th e bra,·e and gallant Monsignor J oseph Q BRIDGEPORT SLOVAKS Tiso went the way of the immortal General i\liha.llo,;tch a.nd Mi,lrJl,.town, Pa - T he ward , ~ AT MASS FOR TISO the lmmortal Archbish op Stepinac, of Yugoslavia.. of J,ednota llome and the, SJ1uer1 exe< Tho F : 01 o z . . Memorial Mass for Tiso at Jednota Home Bars Mercy • .... .•"" Communist Executions in Slovakia I'••"~-;·•"'<;-.,._.,, ., th_, i,;Execulion of Father Tiso _ _ , Months Mmd Mass Fer """ "C0Sl BeneS ChaDCe l0 w·JD or ~hgr Jose ph Tl.!o. prealdei R_e pu_bl k durln PF:TF:·R p J 't·n'c 11 i K~ --- Tiso. JEO NOT.A. L It f SI k V ti I Th e cold·blood ed execution vak < r,:~lu~~s ~ 1 ;::~~~=c) : !.e_!l~d=?~ .. sio,\~~~...~~.11 g~i~. ,~r -~-~_;~ t:~ mule t.he 1e11tencf' oC death to ]Ur , ..... ~1o .... m,.nt Z ~ P11 tsburgb, 'T'h .. ~'- - .. Pa. Rei· M, B. 11\d eo t of tb ~ C' -~ }Al\SS Oya y O OVa S, Paper Says fOR a can · •!,11'},\0Rl JIL Vllil'l:l,!IQ,~ - ; Am • M ·a1 . .Dr. Tiso Hanged, Goes to.,Plttrr1s0 1N__.. Rome Apr il 19 (NC) The q I encan emon m Gallows in Calm Prayer !~.~:..~ .~~~· "-~~~ Ci:ech governmen~ of Pruldent ;::; Tribute to Tiso ,.oN oT• a Y , . " MAUTHNER "TISO ACTED AND WORKED IN THE INTEREST ~ NATIONAL ;:;;;;£ PLANNED B rat itl av, . ~ The Re, OF THE NATION AND WAS NEVER A TRAITOR.••" , IN HONOR OF SLOVAKIA'S Jo,cph T iso. wartime preside_ -Archbp. Kmetko i5 MARTYR .,,..,, •• to hl o .Administration Scored for .s: ~ Thi" propospd monutr ·- • •· .. . TI SO !IDAORIAL MASS tJ 00 Failure to Make Dr. Tiso IN PERTH AMBOY :;j ' ""' , , ... s,.,.,, , MD.IO RIAL MASS FOR In re\·ered memo ry o r >TI SO IN NEW YORK -=-"-=="-==-=-- 0 ,,,11 ,lwm •• • '"" . Execution Protest h th US What Happened Wit e SLOVAKIA VS. COMM NI M "'"''""'""· Ap, ,, ,sc, Body of Tiso? ;,,: I SPEECH e,:11,•,•:_n Europe to tnsun;:<:~~~~!~~YOUNGSTOWN SLOVAKS ~ 1 OF I• • .... , 'ATTEND MASS FOR TI SO V. ER NY SLOVAK ' ;.> HON. RAV J . !\1 .\DDEN Women Who Paraded for . · '" ~ Apr!! 20th, t he Commlaur!at /i' ~ 1:-1 TRI'. HO I -::-. 1:~~::~E~TU IHS Tiso to Be Sent to Slovak Police Confiscate ::un~~~tiCII ln Brat isl ava 12~: 194 ~ ,u, .. ,,.,y. Jfo,c/, ol. ~EONOT' Labor Camps Issue of Catholic Paper -· Dr. fj;~· ···- :' <I! .... '"' '" impon~"". lo ...... u 0 ~ ~ w,OI d I ;u ~ J~s~ph ,.!1:;icaM;~~D:~i Ub;~;~.\o~fnet::: Prl\gue. ( N ~lo,•ak ~ondi'~;t~~:\~v:~ (~;\\;71\ T:;;~o: h: Priu t, Tuche 0~dcnt ar,d &II· Na. Slovak Ministry to Suppress ; ~o ;~eF:;~ ll~lls:~l~~:r,~~m~a,;~cent _,ac tion by th e Pub_llc P ro! t lo l\.ll Hero o~lov.ak Nation • 0 D- Ji'. l'uto1 omre. J u~tlre or<ic!als co Dr J o11e_ph T iso, war,tlme pre• 0 z Demonstrations for Repertnss1ons n r. 1so;:~:ie~o~-i~~.~.p1;1:;~~~iu~lc~~~ ~ -~ TI SO ME.10RIAL MASS : Dr. Tiso Death Continue 'Czech Police Ape Nazis in ~ERS_,_li_•.x.,_ 1> T'r~guf". (:,; r) - Tb(' Slov;,k ~ Another &1ov.a k Luder Re portec Spying On Sermons . ''JED NOT A' t f 0 l!lfi lrr or the In ter ior, Gen. ,.., £ idled By Ru ul ane -C h Rd M Z 1: Jr nrik . h a11 be t•n ,i:-ranted 11per P rnirne. Though tbt P rague. {:,;'C) - Agent 11 or the zec e S aneUVef to [Tl ,..rr11 tn , 111,prr~JI '°i1\cg111 demi Rev. Or. Joseph Ti so, pres ident 01 Czech pol!ce, beaded by Commuo• K S . d Ca h I' 0 ~ slr:i1i11n•·· fa\nring the releas e ' • ,., ____ ,. ,_ ,. __ ,. ___ \st Minister or I nte rior VaclaT Noeep e1ze t O IC :I: 10 ~ ~~:s~r1: :r -~~~:.:~1 ~11!i1;~;-~~Pontiff Well Acquair.l'cd ~::1~t'.:~-ear~~p~:~1 ~«ee:;ft:~~cr: ~:~ Schools in Slovakia ~ C/l With Slovak Religious "~~;;:;;~; ~~~;~t• "c' _ T,, comm"' '" : 0 JI (A ! (t,.;(') _ 110 • a~ r ~t ;~~~--~;~:;~;;~•·~;;_-ss IN MI L'IIAUJ(E~ -c:i .AN~im.iion1 ~lrN-a~ _,,, AT ;:,:c:n Lllll"f.RrrT· ,.,...,, TISO MASS \loml"'"' T,·,d• u,10, "•"m'"' ,( or Czec hos\oukla bas come l1.P \il1Ll£RSVILLE STATE COLLEGE"' ·,,., fl_LERSVILLE. PA. 17551 � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presid ent Vice-President Dr. Peter P. Hletko Julia Krajcovic 19-13 W . 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois 16-18 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. llecord ing Secretary President Philip Constantine Culen A. 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Hrob ak P. 0 . !:lox 150, .\liddl etown, Pa. Vice-President Secretary-Treasurer Jacob Kocis l\lilan V. 1517 -- lli7th Street Hammond, Ind. B lazek -1922 S. Leela.ire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Stephen J. Tkach P. Jamriska 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Darre, Pa. SlO Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock Franc es L. Mize nko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio 3756 Lee 'Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Jo seph Prusa 205 l\Iadison St., Passaic, N. J. ADVISORY COUNCIL Stephen J . Tkach l,lichael J. Vargovich National President Penna. Slovak Union :-.ational President First Catholic.: Slovak Union Anna Sotak Helen Kocan National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Paul Fallat John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Sokol National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SL OVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �Benes Defied Last Minute ,.o" 0 " Warning Not to Murder : President Dr. Tiso WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TISO : . Tiso Exec1uion Shocks V. ahcan ,._o.,,,0.~ / ... • B eg Im e i en e 5 R ders Deat h r 0 \VSNY, Schenectady, N. Y.,:! • ;Jic Broadcasts About Tiso : ,- for Fr TI so London 1Pl' I - Edwar1' Bene.A. ~ C Z 10 0 Vat ican C i l ~ _ Jz:i &11 et• ro ~Rve the Rew Dr Joae pb I ► T l!lo " 'l\r -tt m" prP!lden t t>f Slo~ 1...,!orT 1.1un1,.,, _,11rta1or nr i\loarow-made z ('zPcbn-Slnv1'k111 ,..,., 1'Ptermlned lO ru 11rdPr Or J O!t'pb T iso, t be ~ 88 of April 1e Te ll e of An xltty or Slov a k ■ Over Tl ■ o Sbtement . 1so JAU.n'•~¥c;1iT ~ l e ~ t An atm oapberP- , 1N J:.i~ ,....Clf'IU 8U (WHO ~ D DR, 'n.80!) : nso m : MoRIAL MASS Jeolr ~o u,; LAKEWOOD, 1':fsolr.z./JJ:.n o. \]Pmonal Man fo r lb e -THE CAT H O UC UNIVERSE BU LLETIN- MURDER IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA They Killed President Tiso v. ERN Y OLOVAK and Slovak communists dem .MASS FOR TISO ;:,or:;;:r ~~! ~:tec~~~01~~ 1'r d Dr Edward Bene§ obliged. Fa IN PH ILADELPHIA t the 001 of Dr T l10·1 de h PIDLIP JAMES ANTHO:>'Y ~s1dent of wartime ' S l'AUL KOTYA 4 Go • }A.ASS g,~~d...Par ··~:::i.. and··w ··IC."k-J People N HOL Y &EE u ~ CZECH PRESIOENT TO SPAR E HIS LIFS u ~ - : __, to"o and hamlet ot Slov': ·The Murder of Tiso Has Shocked i Tiso More Dangerous Dead Thao Alive; Writer Sums Up • ~ ~ ' ~ "' the Civilized World ..• " ,, 0 ~ 0 ~• , n0NoTA Feeling of Slovaks ~ ~ f c■ NTRAL Eu&~~~~~~a T~NRoauR~~~'~T ~~ pt;:iR~;MPATH v To • . ......... ,,, death WU prooouoced 011 preelden t 8 of Jews and othel"f 11 ~ Q O BY J ~ N E R, ~ By Our (Special CorrupondeP1t, N C. W. C. New, Servic e) Dratlsla \'I, Apri l :?1 . - ''Tiso lli.·i ll be mo re da nse rous dead than ~hl_a · ·.ru the opinion exprl'll~~ MURDER IN -stovAKIA :::;e,"L 01 •Benes Hangs ·Speech ather T•ISO Corre■p0Pldent and about Czech Arr Cen-1 I..o ndon, A pril l0. - The Court, tral European communit y In Great the lncreuett d th' ogance an e , Death of Rev. Joseph Tiso ; -- or HON. ALVIN E. O'ICONSKI of Wisconsin 1n the· -House of Re t&tt w-..1 ~ ·1 A . The r ecent waTe or pollUe&I Tpreeen ves cun~a.y, pril 23, 1947 k.Hl~cga In Eu~op! bu arouaed lh_!I < ' Mr. 0 KOMKI. Mr. Speaker, the NlCellt h&nglng by the E-< Commumsts of CzechoslO\•alda of the bra,•f) and gallant Monsignor J oseph Tiso wao murder In its moot ghaotly aod shameful fonn. Th e bra,·e and gallant Monsignor J oseph Q BRIDGEPORT SLOVAKS Tiso went the way of the immortal General i\liha.llo,;tch a.nd Mi,lrJl,.town, Pa - T he ward , ~ AT MASS FOR TISO the lmmortal Archbish op Stepinac, of Yugoslavia.. of J,ednota llome and the, SJ1uer1 exe< Tho F : 01 o z . . Memorial Mass for Tiso at Jednota Home Bars Mercy • .... .•"" Communist Executions in Slovakia I'••"~-;·•"'<;-.,._.,, ., th_, i,;Execulion of Father Tiso _ _ , Months Mmd Mass Fer """ "C0Sl BeneS ChaDCe l0 w·JD or ~hgr Jose ph Tl.!o. prealdei R_e pu_bl k durln PF:TF:·R p J 't·n'c 11 i K~ --- Tiso. JEO NOT.A. L It f SI k V ti I Th e cold·blood ed execution vak < r,:~lu~~s ~ 1 ;::~~~=c) : !.e_!l~d=?~ .. sio,\~~~...~~.11 g~i~. ,~r -~-~_;~ t:~ mule t.he 1e11tencf' oC death to ]Ur , ..... ~1o .... m,.nt Z ~ P11 tsburgb, 'T'h .. ~'- - .. Pa. Rei· M, B. 11\d eo t of tb ~ C' -~ }Al\SS Oya y O OVa S, Paper Says fOR a can · •!,11'},\0Rl JIL Vllil'l:l,!IQ,~ - ; Am • M ·a1 . .Dr. Tiso Hanged, Goes to.,Plttrr1s0 1N__.. Rome Apr il 19 (NC) The q I encan emon m Gallows in Calm Prayer !~.~:..~ .~~~· "-~~~ Ci:ech governmen~ of Pruldent ;::; Tribute to Tiso ,.oN oT• a Y , . " MAUTHNER "TISO ACTED AND WORKED IN THE INTEREST ~ NATIONAL ;:;;;;£ PLANNED B rat itl av, . ~ The Re, OF THE NATION AND WAS NEVER A TRAITOR.••" , IN HONOR OF SLOVAKIA'S Jo,cph T iso. wartime preside_ -Archbp. Kmetko i5 MARTYR .,,..,, •• to hl o .Administration Scored for .s: ~ Thi" propospd monutr ·- • •· .. . TI SO !IDAORIAL MASS tJ 00 Failure to Make Dr. Tiso IN PERTH AMBOY :;j ' ""' , , ... s,.,.,, , MD.IO RIAL MASS FOR In re\·ered memo ry o r >TI SO IN NEW YORK -=-"-=="-==-=-- 0 ,,,11 ,lwm •• • '"" . Execution Protest h th US What Happened Wit e SLOVAKIA VS. COMM NI M "'"''""'""· Ap, ,, ,sc, Body of Tiso? ;,,: I SPEECH e,:11,•,•:_n Europe to tnsun;:<:~~~~!~~YOUNGSTOWN SLOVAKS ~ 1 OF I• • .... , 'ATTEND MASS FOR TI SO V. ER NY SLOVAK ' ;.> HON. RAV J . !\1 .\DDEN Women Who Paraded for . · '" ~ Apr!! 20th, t he Commlaur!at /i' ~ 1:-1 TRI'. HO I -::-. 1:~~::~E~TU IHS Tiso to Be Sent to Slovak Police Confiscate ::un~~~tiCII ln Brat isl ava 12~: 194 ~ ,u, .. ,,.,y. Jfo,c/, ol. ~EONOT' Labor Camps Issue of Catholic Paper -· Dr. fj;~· ···- :' <I! .... '"' '" impon~"". lo ...... u 0 ~ ~ w,OI d I ;u ~ J~s~ph ,.!1:;icaM;~~D:~i Ub;~;~.\o~fnet::: Prl\gue. ( N ~lo,•ak ~ondi'~;t~~:\~v:~ (~;\\;71\ T:;;~o: h: Priu t, Tuche 0~dcnt ar,d &II· Na. Slovak Ministry to Suppress ; ~o ;~eF:;~ ll~lls:~l~~:r,~~m~a,;~cent _,ac tion by th e Pub_llc P ro! t lo l\.ll Hero o~lov.ak Nation • 0 D- Ji'. l'uto1 omre. J u~tlre or<ic!als co Dr J o11e_ph T iso, war,tlme pre• 0 z Demonstrations for Repertnss1ons n r. 1so;:~:ie~o~-i~~.~.p1;1:;~~~iu~lc~~~ ~ -~ TI SO ME.10RIAL MASS : Dr. Tiso Death Continue 'Czech Police Ape Nazis in ~ERS_,_li_•.x.,_ 1> T'r~guf". (:,; r) - Tb(' Slov;,k ~ Another &1ov.a k Luder Re portec Spying On Sermons . ''JED NOT A' t f 0 l!lfi lrr or the In ter ior, Gen. ,.., £ idled By Ru ul ane -C h Rd M Z 1: Jr nrik . h a11 be t•n ,i:-ranted 11per P rnirne. Though tbt P rague. {:,;'C) - Agent 11 or the zec e S aneUVef to [Tl ,..rr11 tn , 111,prr~JI '°i1\cg111 demi Rev. Or. Joseph Ti so, pres ident 01 Czech pol!ce, beaded by Commuo• K S . d Ca h I' 0 ~ slr:i1i11n•·· fa\nring the releas e ' • ,., ____ ,. ,_ ,. __ ,. ___ \st Minister or I nte rior VaclaT Noeep e1ze t O IC :I: 10 ~ ~~:s~r1: :r -~~~:.:~1 ~11!i1;~;-~~Pontiff Well Acquair.l'cd ~::1~t'.:~-ear~~p~:~1 ~«ee:;ft:~~cr: ~:~ Schools in Slovakia ~ C/l With Slovak Religious "~~;;:;;~; ~~~;~t• "c' _ T,, comm"' '" : 0 JI (A ! (t,.;(') _ 110 • a~ r ~t ;~~~--~;~:;~;;~•·~;;_-ss IN MI L'IIAUJ(E~ -c:i .AN~im.iion1 ~lrN-a~ _,,, AT ;:,:c:n Lllll"f.RrrT· ,.,...,, TISO MASS \loml"'"' T,·,d• u,10, "•"m'"' ,( or Czec hos\oukla bas come l1.P \il1Ll£RSVILLE STATE COLLEGE"' ·,,., fl_LERSVILLE. PA. 17551 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 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 Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presid ent Vice-President Dr. Peter P. Hletko Julia Krajcovic 19-13 W . 48th Street Chicago 9, Illinois 16-18 W. 18th St., Chicago 8, Ill. llecord ing Secretary President Philip Constantine Culen A. 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Hrob ak P. 0 . !:lox 150, .\liddl etown, Pa. Vice-President Secretary-Treasurer Jacob Kocis l\lilan V. 1517 -- lli7th Street Hammond, Ind. B lazek -1922 S. Leela.ire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Stephen J. Tkach P. Jamriska 173 N. Main Street Wilkes-Darre, Pa. SlO Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Andrew J. Hamrock Franc es L. Mize nko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio 3756 Lee 'Road Cleveland 28, Ohio Jo seph Prusa 205 l\Iadison St., Passaic, N. J. ADVISORY COUNCIL Stephen J . Tkach l,lichael J. Vargovich National President Penna. Slovak Union :-.ational President First Catholic.: Slovak Union Anna Sotak Helen Kocan National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Paul Fallat John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Sokol National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America ) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLICKY SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SL OVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. Benes Defied Last Minute ,.o" 0 " Warning Not to Murder : President Dr. Tiso WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TISO : . Tiso Exec1uion Shocks V. ahcan ,._o.,,,0.~ / ... • B eg Im e i en e 5 R ders Deat h r 0 \VSNY, Schenectady, N. Y.,:! • ;Jic Broadcasts About Tiso : ,- for Fr TI so London 1Pl' I - Edwar1' Bene.A. ~ C Z 10 0 Vat ican C i l ~ _ Jz:i &11 et• ro ~Rve the Rew Dr Joae pb I ► T l!lo " 'l\r -tt m" prP!lden t t>f Slo~ 1...,!orT 1.1un1,.,, _,11rta1or nr i\loarow-made z ('zPcbn-Slnv1'k111 ,..,., 1'Ptermlned lO ru 11rdPr Or J O!t'pb T iso, t be ~ 88 of April 1e Te ll e of An xltty or Slov a k ■ Over Tl ■ o Sbtement . 1so JAU.n'•~¥c;1iT ~ l e ~ t An atm oapberP- , 1N J:.i~ ,....Clf'IU 8U (WHO ~ D DR, 'n.80!) : nso m : MoRIAL MASS Jeolr ~o u,; LAKEWOOD, 1':fsolr.z./JJ:.n o. \]Pmonal Man fo r lb e -THE CAT H O UC UNIVERSE BU LLETIN- MURDER IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA They Killed President Tiso v. ERN Y OLOVAK and Slovak communists dem .MASS FOR TISO ;:,or:;;:r ~~! ~:tec~~~01~~ 1'r d Dr Edward Bene§ obliged. Fa IN PH ILADELPHIA t the 001 of Dr T l10·1 de h PIDLIP JAMES ANTHO:>'Y ~s1dent of wartime ' S l'AUL KOTYA 4 Go • }A.ASS g,~~d...Par ··~:::i.. and··w ··IC."k-J People N HOL Y &EE u ~ CZECH PRESIOENT TO SPAR E HIS LIFS u ~ - : __, to"o and hamlet ot Slov': ·The Murder of Tiso Has Shocked i Tiso More Dangerous Dead Thao Alive; Writer Sums Up • ~ ~ ' ~ "' the Civilized World ..• " ,, 0 ~ 0 ~• , n0NoTA Feeling of Slovaks ~ ~ f c■ NTRAL Eu&~~~~~~a T~NRoauR~~~'~T ~~ pt;:iR~;MPATH v To • . ......... ,,, death WU prooouoced 011 preelden t 8 of Jews and othel"f 11 ~ Q O BY J ~ N E R, ~ By Our (Special CorrupondeP1t, N C. W. C. New, Servic e) Dratlsla \'I, Apri l :?1 . - ''Tiso lli.·i ll be mo re da nse rous dead than ~hl_a · ·.ru the opinion exprl'll~~ MURDER IN -stovAKIA :::;e,"L 01 •Benes Hangs ·Speech ather T•ISO Corre■p0Pldent and about Czech Arr Cen-1 I..o ndon, A pril l0. - The Court, tral European communit y In Great the lncreuett d th' ogance an e , Death of Rev. Joseph Tiso ; -- or HON. ALVIN E. O'ICONSKI of Wisconsin 1n the· -House of Re t&tt w-..1 ~ ·1 A . The r ecent waTe or pollUe&I Tpreeen ves cun~a.y, pril 23, 1947 k.Hl~cga In Eu~op! bu arouaed lh_!I < ' Mr. 0 KOMKI. Mr. Speaker, the NlCellt h&nglng by the E-< Commumsts of CzechoslO\•alda of the bra,•f) and gallant Monsignor J oseph Tiso wao murder In its moot ghaotly aod shameful fonn. Th e bra,·e and gallant Monsignor J oseph Q BRIDGEPORT SLOVAKS Tiso went the way of the immortal General i\liha.llo,;tch a.nd Mi,lrJl,.town, Pa - T he ward , ~ AT MASS FOR TISO the lmmortal Archbish op Stepinac, of Yugoslavia.. of J,ednota llome and the, SJ1uer1 exe< Tho F : 01 o z . . Memorial Mass for Tiso at Jednota Home Bars Mercy • .... .•"" Communist Executions in Slovakia I'••"~-;·•"'<;-.,._.,, ., th_, i,;Execulion of Father Tiso _ _ , Months Mmd Mass Fer """ "C0Sl BeneS ChaDCe l0 w·JD or ~hgr Jose ph Tl.!o. prealdei R_e pu_bl k durln PF:TF:·R p J 't·n'c 11 i K~ --- Tiso. JEO NOT.A. L It f SI k V ti I Th e cold·blood ed execution vak < r,:~lu~~s ~ 1 ;::~~~=c) : !.e_!l~d=?~ .. sio,\~~~...~~.11 g~i~. ,~r -~-~_;~ t:~ mule t.he 1e11tencf' oC death to ]Ur , ..... ~1o .... m,.nt Z ~ P11 tsburgb, 'T'h .. ~'- - .. Pa. Rei· M, B. 11\d eo t of tb ~ C' -~ }Al\SS Oya y O OVa S, Paper Says fOR a can · •!,11'},\0Rl JIL Vllil'l:l,!IQ,~ - ; Am • M ·a1 . .Dr. Tiso Hanged, Goes to.,Plttrr1s0 1N__.. Rome Apr il 19 (NC) The q I encan emon m Gallows in Calm Prayer !~.~:..~ .~~~· "-~~~ Ci:ech governmen~ of Pruldent ;::; Tribute to Tiso ,.oN oT• a Y , . " MAUTHNER "TISO ACTED AND WORKED IN THE INTEREST ~ NATIONAL ;:;;;;£ PLANNED B rat itl av, . ~ The Re, OF THE NATION AND WAS NEVER A TRAITOR.••" , IN HONOR OF SLOVAKIA'S Jo,cph T iso. wartime preside_ -Archbp. Kmetko i5 MARTYR .,,..,, •• to hl o .Administration Scored for .s: ~ Thi" propospd monutr ·- • •· .. . TI SO !IDAORIAL MASS tJ 00 Failure to Make Dr. Tiso IN PERTH AMBOY :;j ' ""' , , ... s,.,.,, , MD.IO RIAL MASS FOR In re\·ered memo ry o r >TI SO IN NEW YORK -=-"-=="-==-=-- 0 ,,,11 ,lwm •• • '"" . Execution Protest h th US What Happened Wit e SLOVAKIA VS. COMM NI M "'"''""'""· Ap, ,, ,sc, Body of Tiso? ;,,: I SPEECH e,:11,•,•:_n Europe to tnsun;:<:~~~~!~~YOUNGSTOWN SLOVAKS ~ 1 OF I• • .... , 'ATTEND MASS FOR TI SO V. ER NY SLOVAK ' ;.> HON. RAV J . !\1 .\DDEN Women Who Paraded for . · '" ~ Apr!! 20th, t he Commlaur!at /i' ~ 1:-1 TRI'. HO I -::-. 1:~~::~E~TU IHS Tiso to Be Sent to Slovak Police Confiscate ::un~~~tiCII ln Brat isl ava 12~: 194 ~ ,u, .. ,,.,y. Jfo,c/, ol. ~EONOT' Labor Camps Issue of Catholic Paper -· Dr. fj;~· ···- :' <I! .... '"' '" impon~"". lo ...... u 0 ~ ~ w,OI d I ;u ~ J~s~ph ,.!1:;icaM;~~D:~i Ub;~;~.\o~fnet::: Prl\gue. ( N ~lo,•ak ~ondi'~;t~~:\~v:~ (~;\\;71\ T:;;~o: h: Priu t, Tuche 0~dcnt ar,d &II· Na. Slovak Ministry to Suppress ; ~o ;~eF:;~ ll~lls:~l~~:r,~~m~a,;~cent _,ac tion by th e Pub_llc P ro! t lo l\.ll Hero o~lov.ak Nation • 0 D- Ji'. l'uto1 omre. J u~tlre or<ic!als co Dr J o11e_ph T iso, war,tlme pre• 0 z Demonstrations for Repertnss1ons n r. 1so;:~:ie~o~-i~~.~.p1;1:;~~~iu~lc~~~ ~ -~ TI SO ME.10RIAL MASS : Dr. Tiso Death Continue 'Czech Police Ape Nazis in ~ERS_,_li_•.x.,_ 1> T'r~guf". (:,; r) - Tb(' Slov;,k ~ Another &1ov.a k Luder Re portec Spying On Sermons . ''JED NOT A' t f 0 l!lfi lrr or the In ter ior, Gen. ,.., £ idled By Ru ul ane -C h Rd M Z 1: Jr nrik . h a11 be t•n ,i:-ranted 11per P rnirne. Though tbt P rague. {:,;'C) - Agent 11 or the zec e S aneUVef to [Tl ,..rr11 tn , 111,prr~JI '°i1\cg111 demi Rev. Or. Joseph Ti so, pres ident 01 Czech pol!ce, beaded by Commuo• K S . d Ca h I' 0 ~ slr:i1i11n•·· fa\nring the releas e ' • ,., ____ ,. ,_ ,. __ ,. ___ \st Minister or I nte rior VaclaT Noeep e1ze t O IC :I: 10 ~ ~~:s~r1: :r -~~~:.:~1 ~11!i1;~;-~~Pontiff Well Acquair.l'cd ~::1~t'.:~-ear~~p~:~1 ~«ee:;ft:~~cr: ~:~ Schools in Slovakia ~ C/l With Slovak Religious "~~;;:;;~; ~~~;~t• "c' _ T,, comm"' '" : 0 JI (A ! (t,.;(') _ 110 • a~ r ~t ;~~~--~;~:;~;;~•·~;;_-ss IN MI L'IIAUJ(E~ -c:i .AN~im.iion1 ~lrN-a~ _,,, AT ;:,:c:n Lllll"f.RrrT· ,.,...,, TISO MASS \loml"'"' T,·,d• u,10, "•"m'"' ,( or Czec hos\oukla bas come l1.P \il1Ll£RSVILLE STATE COLLEGE"' ·,,., fl_LERSVILLE. PA. 17551  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 7, No. 1 (22) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/efd60932b6a13855399f17a83d34ef80.pdf db6a35610dfc14b132e6358980f88b3c PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J . Hamrock Honorary P r esidents Dr. Pet er P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. ' Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andr ejko President 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Ph i l i p A . Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Rev. John W. Kr i spinsky 2425 W. 11 th Street Cleveland, Ohio Julia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e l en Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Lad ies Union Recor'ding Secretary Constantine Culen Paul Fallat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Mi Ian V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. National President Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph <.. Prusa John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 205 Madison Street Passaic, N . J. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl et own, P a . Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Ba rre, Pa. Cl evel and, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiC"KY SOKOL P as saic, N. J. SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Whitaker, Pa. Chtca.go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �s:tg; rr;;z: rrGn fT1 f'T1 (Tl ~~;o <<r rra5 rr;;:o rr1f'TI):> ~ CJ)~ ~i! ...... -I -...J fTI CJ1-n (Jlo 1-'rr- 8 rr, SLOVAK.IA: General view of Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia, with the Bratislava. Castle in foreground � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J . Hamrock Honorary P r esidents Dr. Pet er P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. ' Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andr ejko President 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Ph i l i p A . Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Rev. John W. Kr i spinsky 2425 W. 11 th Street Cleveland, Ohio Julia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e l en Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Lad ies Union Recor'ding Secretary Constantine Culen Paul Fallat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Mi Ian V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. National President Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph <.. Prusa John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 205 Madison Street Passaic, N . J. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl et own, P a . Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Ba rre, Pa. Cl evel and, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiC"KY SOKOL P as saic, N. J. SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Whitaker, Pa. Chtca.go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �s:tg; rr;;z: rrGn fT1 f'T1 (Tl ~~;o <<r rra5 rr;;:o rr1f'TI):> ~ CJ)~ ~i! ...... -I -...J fTI CJ1-n (Jlo 1-'rr- 8 rr, SLOVAK.IA: General view of Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia, with the Bratislava. Castle in foreground � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 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 Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J . Hamrock Honorary P r esidents Dr. Pet er P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. ' Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andr ejko President 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Ph i l i p A . Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Rev. John W. Kr i spinsky 2425 W. 11 th Street Cleveland, Ohio Julia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e l en Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Lad ies Union Recor'ding Secretary Constantine Culen Paul Fallat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Mi Ian V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. National President Penna. Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Union P. Jamriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Joseph <.. Prusa John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 205 Madison Street Passaic, N . J. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middl et own, P a . Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Ba rre, Pa. Cl evel and, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiC"KY SOKOL P as saic, N. J. SVORNOST OSADN E H LASY Whitaker, Pa. Chtca.go, Ill. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. s:tg; rr;;z: rrGn fT1 f'T1 (Tl ~~;o <<r rra5 rr;;:o rr1f'TI):> ~ CJ)~ ~i! ...... -I -...J fTI CJ1-n (Jlo 1-'rr- 8 rr, SLOVAK.IA: General view of Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia, with the Bratislava. Castle in foreground  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 7, No. 2 (23) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Bratislava with the Bratislava Castle in foreground Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/edfb0e587f6c9ed1f461b555ec3533c1.pdf 3f834d3b18894afbc96d9b5791cfd64a PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents And r ew J. Hamrock Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Car,1pbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E l izab et h Andr ejko President Ph i lip A. Hrobak 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krisp i nsky M ich ael 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju l ia Krajcov ic H e le n K ocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul F <1 llat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J . Tkach Mi Ian V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. Nationa l President Penna. Slov::tk Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvanit_ Slovak Union Pau l P. Jamri ska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb:J.rgh 10, Pa. Josepr, G. Prusa J . Vargovi c National President First Catholic Slovak Union John 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbo r il National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. Scranton. Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Ohio KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Lnd ZORNICKA Chicago, Ill. OSADNE HLASY Chica.go, m �SLOVAKIA: Cathedral of Spisska Kapitul'a and, in the background, the ruins of the Spis Castle � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents And r ew J. Hamrock Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Car,1pbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E l izab et h Andr ejko President Ph i lip A. Hrobak 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krisp i nsky M ich ael 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju l ia Krajcov ic H e le n K ocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul F <1 llat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J . Tkach Mi Ian V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. Nationa l President Penna. Slov::tk Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvanit_ Slovak Union Pau l P. Jamri ska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb:J.rgh 10, Pa. Josepr, G. Prusa J . Vargovi c National President First Catholic Slovak Union John 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbo r il National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. Scranton. Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Ohio KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Lnd ZORNICKA Chicago, Ill. OSADNE HLASY Chica.go, m �SLOVAKIA: Cathedral of Spisska Kapitul'a and, in the background, the ruins of the Spis Castle � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957, Vol. 7 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 22), March 1957.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 23), June 1957.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 24-25), September-December 1957.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 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 Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents And r ew J. Hamrock Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenue Car,1pbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Stephen Dubi el Msgr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E l izab et h Andr ejko President Ph i lip A. Hrobak 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. P. 0. Box 150 Midd letown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krisp i nsky M ich ael 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju l ia Krajcov ic H e le n K ocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul F <1 llat 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J . Tkach Mi Ian V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. Nationa l President Penna. Slov::tk Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvanit_ Slovak Union Pau l P. Jamri ska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb:J.rgh 10, Pa. Josepr, G. Prusa J . Vargovi c National President First Catholic Slovak Union John 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbo r il National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Midd letown, Pa. Scranton. Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wi lkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVENSKE NOVINY Cleveland, Ohio KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOST Passaic, N. J . Whitaker, Pa SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Lnd ZORNICKA Chicago, Ill. OSADNE HLASY Chica.go, m SLOVAKIA: Cathedral of Spisska Kapitul'a and, in the background, the ruins of the Spis Castle  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Cathedral of Spišská Kapituľa and, in the background, the ruins of Spiš Castle Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1957 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/03eeaeda7072db4e699198fa2cb16345.pdf d9889ff31b7499950d1dbae0861f38b6 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J. Hamrock Honora1 y Presidents Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Wood land Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Ste ph en Msgr. F. J . Dubosh, P.A. 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andrejko President 551 Grove Avenue J ohnstown, P a. Philip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 ~iiddletown, Pa . ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krispinsky Michael J. 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju I ia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e len Kocan 1648 W. 18th S tree t Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Re cording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Fallat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach M ila n V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. National President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Dub i el 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio Anna Sotak Nationa l President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union P. Jamriska 810 Montoo th Street Pittsb::rgh 10, Pa. John Josepl, G. Prusa 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozboril ationa l President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown , Pa. S cran ton , Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Clevela nd, Ohio Ch ica.go, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passaic. N . J. SVORNOST OSADNE HLASY Whitaker, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE \Vhilitq; I nn Chicago, [II �SKALICA, SLOVAKIA: A Roman chapel (rotunda) of the 12th century � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J. Hamrock Honora1 y Presidents Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Wood land Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Ste ph en Msgr. F. J . Dubosh, P.A. 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andrejko President 551 Grove Avenue J ohnstown, P a. Philip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 ~iiddletown, Pa . ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krispinsky Michael J. 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju I ia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e len Kocan 1648 W. 18th S tree t Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Re cording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Fallat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach M ila n V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. National President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Dub i el 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio Anna Sotak Nationa l President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union P. Jamriska 810 Montoo th Street Pittsb::rgh 10, Pa. John Josepl, G. Prusa 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozboril ationa l President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown , Pa. S cran ton , Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Clevela nd, Ohio Ch ica.go, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passaic. N . J. SVORNOST OSADNE HLASY Whitaker, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE \Vhilitq; I nn Chicago, [II �SKALICA, SLOVAKIA: A Roman chapel (rotunda) of the 12th century � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Andrew J. Hamrock Honora1 y Presidents Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Wood land Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Ste ph en Msgr. F. J . Dubosh, P.A. 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio Elizab eth Andrejko President 551 Grove Avenue J ohnstown, P a. Philip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 ~iiddletown, Pa . ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W. Krispinsky Michael J. 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio Ju I ia Vargovic National President First Catholic Slovak Union Krajcovic H e len Kocan 1648 W. 18th S tree t Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Re cording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Fallat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach M ila n V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. National President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Dub i el 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio Anna Sotak Nationa l President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union P. Jamriska 810 Montoo th Street Pittsb::rgh 10, Pa. John Josepl, G. Prusa 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozboril ationa l President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown , Pa. S cran ton , Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Clevela nd, Ohio Ch ica.go, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passaic. N . J. SVORNOST OSADNE HLASY Whitaker, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE \Vhilitq; I nn Chicago, [II SKALICA, SLOVAKIA: A Roman chapel (rotunda) of the 12th century  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 8, No. 1 (26) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Skalica, Slovakia: A Roman chapel (rotunda) of the 12th century Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1958 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0ed3ffb9a95a7811650d2078b427ad87.pdf 44cebf2161e6ba0ad838816bee2ef4c9 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) A n drew J. Hamrock Honora1 y Presidents Dr. Pete r P. H l etko 61 Woodland Avenu e C::.rapbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warre~ville, Ill. Steph en Msgr. F. J. Dubosh , P.A. Dubi e l 12210 Detroit Avenu e Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio El izab et h Andrejko P:·esident 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Phil i p A. Hrobak P. n. Box 150 :YJ:iddletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents M icha el J. Vargovi c Rev. John W . Kri spinsky 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio National President First Catholic Slovak Union Julia Kraj covic H elen K ocan 1648 W . 18th Street 2 hicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Re cording Secretary Constantine Cu l en Paul 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Fall at NaLioual President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer St ephen J. Tkach M i lan V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic1,go 38, Ill. :-,, ational President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE An n a Sota~ National President Ladi es Pennsylvania S lovak Catholic Union Pa u l P. Ja mriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb\lrgh 10, Pa. Josept, G. Prusa Joh n 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozboril . ational Presiden t Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVE N SKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA '.\1iddletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Clevelan d, Ohio BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passaic. N. J. SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio· Ch icago , lll SVORNOST OSAONE H 1-ASY Chicag o. Ill Whitaker l'a SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �SLOVAKIA: Ruins of the Topolcany Castle, Nitra County � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) A n drew J. Hamrock Honora1 y Presidents Dr. Pete r P. H l etko 61 Woodland Avenu e C::.rapbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warre~ville, Ill. Steph en Msgr. F. J. Dubosh , P.A. Dubi e l 12210 Detroit Avenu e Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio El izab et h Andrejko P:·esident 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Phil i p A. Hrobak P. n. Box 150 :YJ:iddletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents M icha el J. Vargovi c Rev. John W . Kri spinsky 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio National President First Catholic Slovak Union Julia Kraj covic H elen K ocan 1648 W . 18th Street 2 hicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Re cording Secretary Constantine Cu l en Paul 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Fall at NaLioual President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer St ephen J. Tkach M i lan V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic1,go 38, Ill. :-,, ational President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE An n a Sota~ National President Ladi es Pennsylvania S lovak Catholic Union Pa u l P. Ja mriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb\lrgh 10, Pa. Josept, G. Prusa Joh n 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozboril . ational Presiden t Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVE N SKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA '.\1iddletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Clevelan d, Ohio BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passaic. N. J. SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio· Ch icago , lll SVORNOST OSAONE H 1-ASY Chicag o. Ill Whitaker l'a SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. �SLOVAKIA: Ruins of the Topolcany Castle, Nitra County � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) A n drew J. Hamrock Honora1 y Presidents Dr. Pete r P. H l etko 61 Woodland Avenu e C::.rapbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warre~ville, Ill. Steph en Msgr. F. J. Dubosh , P.A. Dubi e l 12210 Detroit Avenu e Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio El izab et h Andrejko P:·esident 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Phil i p A. Hrobak P. n. Box 150 :YJ:iddletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents M icha el J. Vargovi c Rev. John W . Kri spinsky 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio National President First Catholic Slovak Union Julia Kraj covic H elen K ocan 1648 W . 18th Street 2 hicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Re cording Secretary Constantine Cu l en Paul 2900 East Boulevard Cleveland 4, Ohio Fall at NaLioual President Slovak Catholic Sokol Secretary-Treasurer St ephen J. Tkach M i lan V . Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic1,go 38, Ill. :-,, ational President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE An n a Sota~ National President Ladi es Pennsylvania S lovak Catholic Union Pa u l P. Ja mriska 810 Montooth Street Pittsb\lrgh 10, Pa. Josept, G. Prusa Joh n 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozboril . ational Presiden t Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVE N SKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEONOTA '.\1iddletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Clevelan d, Ohio BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. KATOLiCKY SOKOL Passaic. N. J. SLOVENSKE NOVINY ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio· Ch icago , lll SVORNOST OSAONE H 1-ASY Chicag o. Ill Whitaker l'a SLOVAK V AMERIKE Whiting, Ind. SLOVAKIA: Ruins of the Topolcany Castle, Nitra County  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 8, No. 2 (27) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Ruins of the Topolčany Castle, Nitra County Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1958 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2f9140fdcaa80dc846247fc6d807ad76.pdf 3cf058966a489a6b16735bfdcd602df4 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents Andre w J. Ham r oc k Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Step he n Msgr. F. J . Dubos h, P.A. Dub iel 12210 Detroit Avenu e Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E li zabe th Andrejko President Philip A. Hrobak P. 0 . Box 160 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Middletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W . K ris p i nsky M ich ael J. Va r govic 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio National President First Catholic Slovak Union Ju li a Kraj covi c 1-l elen K oca n 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul 537 Westview Rd. Bedford, Ohio Secretary-Treasu rer M i lan V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. Stephen J . T kach National President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE A nna Sot ak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Pau l P. Ja m r i sk a 536 Marie Ave. Pittsburgh 2, Pa. Josept. G. Pru sa F a l lat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Jo h n 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbor i l National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affil iated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVE NS KA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOV EN SKE N OVIN Y ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOS T OSADNE HLASY Pas.sale, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. SL OV A K V A ME RI KE Middletown, Pa. Chicago, m. �UBRARY WIIJ.ERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE ~fflllERSVILLE, PA 17551 � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents Andre w J. Ham r oc k Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Step he n Msgr. F. J . Dubos h, P.A. Dub iel 12210 Detroit Avenu e Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E li zabe th Andrejko President Philip A. Hrobak P. 0 . Box 160 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Middletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W . K ris p i nsky M ich ael J. Va r govic 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio National President First Catholic Slovak Union Ju li a Kraj covi c 1-l elen K oca n 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul 537 Westview Rd. Bedford, Ohio Secretary-Treasu rer M i lan V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. Stephen J . T kach National President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE A nna Sot ak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Pau l P. Ja m r i sk a 536 Marie Ave. Pittsburgh 2, Pa. Josept. G. Pru sa F a l lat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Jo h n 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbor i l National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affil iated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVE NS KA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOV EN SKE N OVIN Y ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOS T OSADNE HLASY Pas.sale, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. SL OV A K V A ME RI KE Middletown, Pa. Chicago, m. �UBRARY WIIJ.ERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE ~fflllERSVILLE, PA 17551 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary Presidents Andre w J. Ham r oc k Dr. Peter P. H letko 61 Woodland Avenu e Campbell, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 17 Warrenville, Ill. Step he n Msgr. F. J . Dubos h, P.A. Dub iel 12210 Detroit Avenu e Lakewood, Ohio 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, Ohio E li zabe th Andrejko President Philip A. Hrobak P. 0 . Box 160 551 Grove Avenue Johnstown, Pa. Middletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Rev. John W . K ris p i nsky M ich ael J. Va r govic 2425 W. 11th Street Cleveland, Ohio National President First Catholic Slovak Union Ju li a Kraj covi c 1-l elen K oca n 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary Constantine Culen Paul 537 Westview Rd. Bedford, Ohio Secretary-Treasu rer M i lan V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chicago 38, Ill. Stephen J . T kach National President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE A nna Sot ak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Pau l P. Ja m r i sk a 536 Marie Ave. Pittsburgh 2, Pa. Josept. G. Pru sa F a l lat National President Slovak Catholic Sokol Jo h n 205 Madison Street Passaic, N. J. Rozbor i l National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affil iated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA SLOVE NS KA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Middletown, Pa. Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio BRATSTVO Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOV EN SKE N OVIN Y ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKY SOKOL SVORNOS T OSADNE HLASY Pas.sale, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. SL OV A K V A ME RI KE Middletown, Pa. Chicago, m. UBRARY WIIJ.ERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE ~fflllERSVILLE, PA 17551  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 8, No. 3 (28) Description An account of the resource includes photo of Ždiar in Spiš County Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1958 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8ea97d379c7675dd02bb8f78441bccaf.pdf f511cd75d1441c0293b703d38aeff9b9 PDF Text Text Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary President:; John Janosik Msqr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 650 Braddock Ave. Monessen, Pa. 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, hio Stephen Dr. Peter P. H letko Dubiel 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 48 Warrensville, Ill. Joseph Steller P:·nsldent 2879 N. 44th St. Milwaukee 10, Wis. Ph i lip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 ~iddletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Vargovic Joseph Bendik P. 0. Box 230 Uniontown, Pa. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Jul i a Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary John Horecky Paul 2264 Walton Ave. New York 53, N. Y. Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. :--ational President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Paul P. Jamriska 536 Marie Ave. Pittsburgh 2, Pa. Paul C. Kazimer Fallat National Preslden~ Slovak Catholic Sokol John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 1122 Sylvan Ave. Homestead, Pa. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA .\I idriletown, Pa. BRATSTVO SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio SLOVENSKE NOVINV ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKV SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASV Pl\.Ssalc, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Middletown, Pa. �SLOVAKIA: The old castle of Banska Stiavnica (13-16th Cent.) � Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary President:; John Janosik Msqr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 650 Braddock Ave. Monessen, Pa. 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, hio Stephen Dr. Peter P. H letko Dubiel 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 48 Warrensville, Ill. Joseph Steller P:·nsldent 2879 N. 44th St. Milwaukee 10, Wis. Ph i lip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 ~iddletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Vargovic Joseph Bendik P. 0. Box 230 Uniontown, Pa. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Jul i a Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary John Horecky Paul 2264 Walton Ave. New York 53, N. Y. Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. :--ational President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Paul P. Jamriska 536 Marie Ave. Pittsburgh 2, Pa. Paul C. Kazimer Fallat National Preslden~ Slovak Catholic Sokol John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 1122 Sylvan Ave. Homestead, Pa. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA .\I idriletown, Pa. BRATSTVO SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio SLOVENSKE NOVINV ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKV SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASV Pl\.Ssalc, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Middletown, Pa. �SLOVAKIA: The old castle of Banska Stiavnica (13-16th Cent.) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1959, Vol. 9 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 4 [sic] (No. 29), March 1959.</li> <li>Issue 5 [sic] (No. 30), June-December 1959.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Officers of the Slovak League of America (Organized May 26, 1907, Cleveland, Ohio) Honorary President:; John Janosik Msqr. F. J. Dubosh, P.A. 650 Braddock Ave. Monessen, Pa. 12608 Madison Avenue Lakewood 7, hio Stephen Dr. Peter P. H letko Dubiel 12210 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, Ohio Batavia Rd., Box 48 Warrensville, Ill. Joseph Steller P:·nsldent 2879 N. 44th St. Milwaukee 10, Wis. Ph i lip A. Hrobak P. 0. Box 150 ~iddletown, Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL Vice-Presidents Michael J. Vargovic Joseph Bendik P. 0. Box 230 Uniontown, Pa. National President First Catholic Slovak Union Jul i a Krajcovic Helen Kocan 1648 W. 18th Street Chicago 8, Ill. National President First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union Recording Secretary John Horecky Paul 2264 Walton Ave. New York 53, N. Y. Secretary-Treasurer Stephen J. Tkach Milan V. Blazek 4922 S. Leclaire Avenue Chic<tgo 38, Ill. :--ational President Pa. Catholic Slovak Union EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Anna Sotak National President Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union Paul P. Jamriska 536 Marie Ave. Pittsburgh 2, Pa. Paul C. Kazimer Fallat National Preslden~ Slovak Catholic Sokol John Rozboril National President Slovak Catholic Cadet Union 1122 Sylvan Ave. Homestead, Pa. SLOVAK NEWSPAPERS (Affiliated with the Slovak League of America) JEDNOTA .\I idriletown, Pa. BRATSTVO SLOVENSKA OBRANA ZENSKA JEDNOTA Scranton, Pa. Cleveland, Ohio SLOVENSKE NOVINV ZORNICKA Cleveland, Ohio Chicago, Ill. KATOLiCKV SOKOL SVORNOST OSADN E H LASV Pl\.Ssalc, N. J. Whitaker, Pa. Chicago, Ill. Wilkes-Barre, Pa. SLOVAK V AMERIKE Middletown, Pa. SLOVAKIA: The old castle of Banska Stiavnica (13-16th Cent.)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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. 9, No. 5 (30) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June-December 1959 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5a376ab10e6521274535c037bbedd018.pdf 9e28adb30f75dd082e19fee3aeaaed22 PDF Text Text 148 SLOVAKIA Be/ore Life's Stirring ... and Beyond the Grave In one of our loved Slovak folk ballads we sing: Love! 0 Love! Dear God, where do we people get you, Love ? You neither grow on sweeping hillsides nor do they sow you in the planted fields! And when it comes to the subject of a mother's love, there is no beginning nor will there ever be an end to the countless poetic tributes that this topic inspires. It is a love that develops even before a child's conception and it endures long beyond the grave. It is a love that comes closest to the Creator's own ... and closest to the created. Let us briefly consider one of its manifestations. There once lived an ordinary simple Slovak mother who cherished a genuinely profound love of God and neighbor. She had a typically hard life, and she struggled along valiantly, comforted by the privilege of bringing ten children into this world. In the proverbial sweat of her brow and by dint of heroic effort, often at the cost of such extreme self-denial that it bordered on near-starvation, she nurtured her brood, trained her children and brought them up to serve their God and their country faithfully. And all along, day by day, the relentless hardships of life and the taxing demands that were made upon her as a wife and mother began to consume the candle of her life at both ends. She was not unaware of the waning of her energies; she sensed the approach of the last breath of her life, the final beat of that generous heart of hers that had meted out unstinted love, devotion and sacrifice as only an ideal mother can give it. She kept the premonition of her declining a deep personal secret. She felt the approach of death but she bravely fulfilled her daily tasks without complaint until utter exhaustion finally put her to bed where she suffered patiently until death finally snapped the thread of her life. �SLOVAKIA 149 After her funeral, her children found her will. Her weak and trembling hand had written it on a bit of pape;,· in the intimate expression of her own tender eastern Slovak dialect which defies exact translation: My dearest ones-my husband, children and Mother. My limbs grow weak and helpless ... my breath is labored n:>w . . . I lnve no way of knowing whether I shall h:1ve time to bid you all a loving farewell or not. But when I do go, do not mourn for me too greatly, for all of us must one day go beyond the point of return to this life. I ask you, instead, to pray for me. And so, God be with you, good-bye . May the dear Lord bless you. I have fifty dollars saved in the bank. Use that to have Masses offered for my soul. A hundred dollars are saved up in a box at home. Fifty dollars of that is to go for Christine's dowery, and the other fifty is for Tom's high school graduation outfit-a new suit, shoes, shirt, hat, under-clothing and socks. We generally claim that there is no love that can match the extreme or supreme sacrifices often made on behalf of family, children, nation or friend. And what commentary can we offer in the case of the mother whose sentiments are embodied in the lines quoted above? How many of us have ever witnessed a greater love and concern, a lovelier and a fairer sharing of a charmingly modest accumulation of this world's goods, representing the gross sum of hard earned and lovingly reserved savings of a hard lifetime amid scant blessings in material assets? Has there been at death's door another such remembering of significant and memorable events to come in the lives of others? We must admit that it is not often so. Very often we share in glorious eulogies-odes and panegyrics, resounding accounts and distinguished documentation of the Hchievements and deserts of great men-rulers, deserving statesmen, soldiers, philosophers and scholars-all individual~ of renown. Yet this simple great-souled mother excels the merits and the glory of the famed and glorified, of the great figure s of heroic stature. Unassuming and charming, simple and limitless in self-sacrifice in all her lifetime ... she is compellingly beautiful, loving, and most touchingly thoughtful even in the extreme hour of death .. . concerned with R. movingly loving .solicitude and personal measure of sacrifice �SLOVAKIA 150 to make it possible for her dear children to be assured of the extra details that will add to the personally momentous events in their young lives. Even in death, she reaches out with her undying maternal love. It must be added that these were th.e delicate lineaments that distinguished the mother of our late Peter P. Yurchak, former President of the Slovak League of America, an outstanding Slovak jurist earlier in our time. She was Mary Yurchak, one among the many superlatively motherly, solicitous ideals of Slovak womanhood, exemplary in marriage and family ties, eminently outstanding as mothers in their homes-the rare blessing and blessedness with which God has so generously endowed so many of our Slovak young people even to our day. These then are among the rare gifts committed to us by the provident love of our Heavenly Father, but-most unfortunately and regrettably-it is a heart-breaking tragedy of our times that some unthinking modern Slovak young people fail to value and appreciate these crown jewels of God's own goodness and blessing to us. The unchangeable mandate HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER, has a unique applicability and value for children of Slovak parenthood and ancestry. (Translated at Jankola Library) * * * THE AIMS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARE: To promote education among the Slovaks in America; To encourage them to become alert and loyal citizens of the United States; To advance the Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere morally, economically, socially and politically; To promote and support cultural, civic, and charitable projects for the benefit of its members. No member of the communist party or of any organization recognized as subversive under the laws of the United States can become a member of the Slovak League of America. � 148 SLOVAKIA Be/ore Life's Stirring ... and Beyond the Grave In one of our loved Slovak folk ballads we sing: Love! 0 Love! Dear God, where do we people get you, Love ? You neither grow on sweeping hillsides nor do they sow you in the planted fields! And when it comes to the subject of a mother's love, there is no beginning nor will there ever be an end to the countless poetic tributes that this topic inspires. It is a love that develops even before a child's conception and it endures long beyond the grave. It is a love that comes closest to the Creator's own ... and closest to the created. Let us briefly consider one of its manifestations. There once lived an ordinary simple Slovak mother who cherished a genuinely profound love of God and neighbor. She had a typically hard life, and she struggled along valiantly, comforted by the privilege of bringing ten children into this world. In the proverbial sweat of her brow and by dint of heroic effort, often at the cost of such extreme self-denial that it bordered on near-starvation, she nurtured her brood, trained her children and brought them up to serve their God and their country faithfully. And all along, day by day, the relentless hardships of life and the taxing demands that were made upon her as a wife and mother began to consume the candle of her life at both ends. She was not unaware of the waning of her energies; she sensed the approach of the last breath of her life, the final beat of that generous heart of hers that had meted out unstinted love, devotion and sacrifice as only an ideal mother can give it. She kept the premonition of her declining a deep personal secret. She felt the approach of death but she bravely fulfilled her daily tasks without complaint until utter exhaustion finally put her to bed where she suffered patiently until death finally snapped the thread of her life. �SLOVAKIA 149 After her funeral, her children found her will. Her weak and trembling hand had written it on a bit of pape;,· in the intimate expression of her own tender eastern Slovak dialect which defies exact translation: My dearest ones-my husband, children and Mother. My limbs grow weak and helpless ... my breath is labored n:>w . . . I lnve no way of knowing whether I shall h:1ve time to bid you all a loving farewell or not. But when I do go, do not mourn for me too greatly, for all of us must one day go beyond the point of return to this life. I ask you, instead, to pray for me. And so, God be with you, good-bye . May the dear Lord bless you. I have fifty dollars saved in the bank. Use that to have Masses offered for my soul. A hundred dollars are saved up in a box at home. Fifty dollars of that is to go for Christine's dowery, and the other fifty is for Tom's high school graduation outfit-a new suit, shoes, shirt, hat, under-clothing and socks. We generally claim that there is no love that can match the extreme or supreme sacrifices often made on behalf of family, children, nation or friend. And what commentary can we offer in the case of the mother whose sentiments are embodied in the lines quoted above? How many of us have ever witnessed a greater love and concern, a lovelier and a fairer sharing of a charmingly modest accumulation of this world's goods, representing the gross sum of hard earned and lovingly reserved savings of a hard lifetime amid scant blessings in material assets? Has there been at death's door another such remembering of significant and memorable events to come in the lives of others? We must admit that it is not often so. Very often we share in glorious eulogies-odes and panegyrics, resounding accounts and distinguished documentation of the Hchievements and deserts of great men-rulers, deserving statesmen, soldiers, philosophers and scholars-all individual~ of renown. Yet this simple great-souled mother excels the merits and the glory of the famed and glorified, of the great figure s of heroic stature. Unassuming and charming, simple and limitless in self-sacrifice in all her lifetime ... she is compellingly beautiful, loving, and most touchingly thoughtful even in the extreme hour of death .. . concerned with R. movingly loving .solicitude and personal measure of sacrifice �SLOVAKIA 150 to make it possible for her dear children to be assured of the extra details that will add to the personally momentous events in their young lives. Even in death, she reaches out with her undying maternal love. It must be added that these were th.e delicate lineaments that distinguished the mother of our late Peter P. Yurchak, former President of the Slovak League of America, an outstanding Slovak jurist earlier in our time. She was Mary Yurchak, one among the many superlatively motherly, solicitous ideals of Slovak womanhood, exemplary in marriage and family ties, eminently outstanding as mothers in their homes-the rare blessing and blessedness with which God has so generously endowed so many of our Slovak young people even to our day. These then are among the rare gifts committed to us by the provident love of our Heavenly Father, but-most unfortunately and regrettably-it is a heart-breaking tragedy of our times that some unthinking modern Slovak young people fail to value and appreciate these crown jewels of God's own goodness and blessing to us. The unchangeable mandate HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER, has a unique applicability and value for children of Slovak parenthood and ancestry. (Translated at Jankola Library) * * * THE AIMS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARE: To promote education among the Slovaks in America; To encourage them to become alert and loyal citizens of the United States; To advance the Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere morally, economically, socially and politically; To promote and support cultural, civic, and charitable projects for the benefit of its members. No member of the communist party or of any organization recognized as subversive under the laws of the United States can become a member of the Slovak League 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 1975, Vol. 25 Description An account of the resource Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 148 SLOVAKIA Be/ore Life's Stirring ... and Beyond the Grave In one of our loved Slovak folk ballads we sing: Love! 0 Love! Dear God, where do we people get you, Love ? You neither grow on sweeping hillsides nor do they sow you in the planted fields! And when it comes to the subject of a mother's love, there is no beginning nor will there ever be an end to the countless poetic tributes that this topic inspires. It is a love that develops even before a child's conception and it endures long beyond the grave. It is a love that comes closest to the Creator's own ... and closest to the created. Let us briefly consider one of its manifestations. There once lived an ordinary simple Slovak mother who cherished a genuinely profound love of God and neighbor. She had a typically hard life, and she struggled along valiantly, comforted by the privilege of bringing ten children into this world. In the proverbial sweat of her brow and by dint of heroic effort, often at the cost of such extreme self-denial that it bordered on near-starvation, she nurtured her brood, trained her children and brought them up to serve their God and their country faithfully. And all along, day by day, the relentless hardships of life and the taxing demands that were made upon her as a wife and mother began to consume the candle of her life at both ends. She was not unaware of the waning of her energies; she sensed the approach of the last breath of her life, the final beat of that generous heart of hers that had meted out unstinted love, devotion and sacrifice as only an ideal mother can give it. She kept the premonition of her declining a deep personal secret. She felt the approach of death but she bravely fulfilled her daily tasks without complaint until utter exhaustion finally put her to bed where she suffered patiently until death finally snapped the thread of her life. SLOVAKIA 149 After her funeral, her children found her will. Her weak and trembling hand had written it on a bit of pape;,· in the intimate expression of her own tender eastern Slovak dialect which defies exact translation: My dearest ones-my husband, children and Mother. My limbs grow weak and helpless ... my breath is labored n:>w . . . I lnve no way of knowing whether I shall h:1ve time to bid you all a loving farewell or not. But when I do go, do not mourn for me too greatly, for all of us must one day go beyond the point of return to this life. I ask you, instead, to pray for me. And so, God be with you, good-bye . May the dear Lord bless you. I have fifty dollars saved in the bank. Use that to have Masses offered for my soul. A hundred dollars are saved up in a box at home. Fifty dollars of that is to go for Christine's dowery, and the other fifty is for Tom's high school graduation outfit-a new suit, shoes, shirt, hat, under-clothing and socks. We generally claim that there is no love that can match the extreme or supreme sacrifices often made on behalf of family, children, nation or friend. And what commentary can we offer in the case of the mother whose sentiments are embodied in the lines quoted above? How many of us have ever witnessed a greater love and concern, a lovelier and a fairer sharing of a charmingly modest accumulation of this world's goods, representing the gross sum of hard earned and lovingly reserved savings of a hard lifetime amid scant blessings in material assets? Has there been at death's door another such remembering of significant and memorable events to come in the lives of others? We must admit that it is not often so. Very often we share in glorious eulogies-odes and panegyrics, resounding accounts and distinguished documentation of the Hchievements and deserts of great men-rulers, deserving statesmen, soldiers, philosophers and scholars-all individual~ of renown. Yet this simple great-souled mother excels the merits and the glory of the famed and glorified, of the great figure s of heroic stature. Unassuming and charming, simple and limitless in self-sacrifice in all her lifetime ... she is compellingly beautiful, loving, and most touchingly thoughtful even in the extreme hour of death .. . concerned with R. movingly loving .solicitude and personal measure of sacrifice SLOVAKIA 150 to make it possible for her dear children to be assured of the extra details that will add to the personally momentous events in their young lives. Even in death, she reaches out with her undying maternal love. It must be added that these were th.e delicate lineaments that distinguished the mother of our late Peter P. Yurchak, former President of the Slovak League of America, an outstanding Slovak jurist earlier in our time. She was Mary Yurchak, one among the many superlatively motherly, solicitous ideals of Slovak womanhood, exemplary in marriage and family ties, eminently outstanding as mothers in their homes-the rare blessing and blessedness with which God has so generously endowed so many of our Slovak young people even to our day. These then are among the rare gifts committed to us by the provident love of our Heavenly Father, but-most unfortunately and regrettably-it is a heart-breaking tragedy of our times that some unthinking modern Slovak young people fail to value and appreciate these crown jewels of God's own goodness and blessing to us. The unchangeable mandate HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER, has a unique applicability and value for children of Slovak parenthood and ancestry. (Translated at Jankola Library) * * * THE AIMS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARE: To promote education among the Slovaks in America; To encourage them to become alert and loyal citizens of the United States; To advance the Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere morally, economically, socially and politically; To promote and support cultural, civic, and charitable projects for the benefit of its members. No member of the communist party or of any organization recognized as subversive under the laws of the United States can become a member of the Slovak League 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 Before Life's Stirring ... and Beyond the Grave Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 148-150 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/623da38c19a9f333dd7f2d5f223cbdf8.pdf d7ddfad2f08e42c35926a9028bbac367 PDF Text Text 18 SLOVAKIA BEGINNINGS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE IN AMERICA By Constantin Culen All foes of the Slovak national idea shared the same mottoes and techniques. The first of their statements denied the Slovaks nationality status - hence, they had no right, the claim was asserted, to any rights as a nation. They could find happiness only by becoming assimilated in a greater unity with another people. Both the Magyars and Czechs made this assertion. Hurban in the Slovenske Pohl'ady publication noted that the Slovak was considered audacious if he had national pride, a coward if he was not aggressive, if he travelled outside his own country, he was a vagrant but if he stayed at home he was a lazy, shiftless bum. That's the way it was - that's the way it is today. Events proved to the Slovaks themselves that they were better off when they ignored what the state dictated and went ahead doing what other nations did, namely, what was to their own advantage and national interest. 1906 was a momentous year for the Slovaks, for it was in elections for parliamentary seats that year that they supported their own candidates, and they elected seven. The Magyars reacted by starting a political persecution and a series of reprisals sent many to prison. The courts cooperated by meting out sentences ranging from months to several years. Thus many Slovak political leaders were put out of action. The opposition was bitterly directed towards the leading exponents of the Slovak cause, particularly assailing those who by the spoken or written word exerted great influence on the masses struggling for representation and selfgovernment. Andrej Hlinka, a Catholic priest in Ruzomberok, who was not a candidate but who spoke in behalf of Vavro srobar, a candidate, became the prime target of ecclesiastical and political leaders who opposed Slovak participation in politics when it meant the election of their representative to parliament. Biskup Parvy went so far �SLOVAKIA 19 in his chauvinism that he suspended Hlinka and the courts sentenced the Slovak priest to two years in prison. This anti-Slovak outburst in Hungary coincided with a number of political demonstrations by American Slovaks in sympathy with the struggle of their fellow countrymen for political freedom in their native and historic homeland. The speakers (among them many prominent Slovak civic and Church leaders) expressed their willingness to organize an all-Slovak organization, for they deemed the time was ripe for a united front of all Slovaks in the struggle ahead. In the previous century the needs, sufferings and injustices experienced by masses of Slovak workers stimulated the organization of fraternal societies. Now was the time for united action of another kind, namely, to help the Slovak nation fight for its just rights, and it was unanimously agreed that a national united society was obviously essential to carry on the struggle. Hlinka's case, in which both Church and State cooperated in an effort to crush the Slovak spirit by eliminating the great champion of their just rights, stirred the American Slovaks and aroused them to action. Leaders of the Slovak press in America accepted Furdek's invitation for a conference on April 4, 1907. Accordingly, the slogan, "Za tu nasu slovencinu," (For our Slovak Heritage) which was destined to become the battlecry of Slovaks everywhere during and after World War I , was adopted by the following group of Slovak leaders who met in Pittsburgh: Furdek, Mamatey, Feriencik, Straka, Vakulek, Joscak, Polak, Katchmar, Gimesky, Ambrose, Pirhala, Harbula, Karchnak, Husek, Bielek, Orbach, Chudatsik, Marsall, stiasny, Getting, Pankuch, Balent, Rovnianek, Kadlecik, Thomka, Tvrdy, Gessay. A committee for formulating the by-laws of the proposed organization was named. The program unanimously adopted was twofold, namely, to give assistance, culturally, politically, financially and morally to their fellow countrymen in America and in their embattled homeland. May 30, 1907, was the date scheduled to launch the new organization in Cleveland, Ohio. What a coincidence! This date was destined to become, eleven years later, a historic day, for on May 30, �20 SLOVAKIA 1918, the famed Pittsburgh Agreement was signed by the representatives of the American Slovaks and Czechs as a basic agreement for the formation of the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. However, in deference to the Slovak Gymnastic Sokol ( which had meeting or convention at the time) the date was re-scheduled for May 26, 1907. Invitations to this meeting used the term, "Slovak Congress." In 1861 the meeting of Slovak leaders in Turciansky sv. Martin was known as the National Slovak Assembly. It appears that historic events of similar vein, though far removed in time and place, frequently assume the same program and adopt similar nomenclatures, are the same in scope and follow the same pattern. Unification of all existing Slovak societies was the primary aim of the first Slovak Congress in Cleveland, 0., in order to coordinate their activities in a united program designed to give aid to their fellow countrymen in Slovakia. The invitation was signed by the following: First Catholic Slovak Union, National Slovak Society, Slovak Evangelical Union, Sojuz, Slovak Gymnastic Union Sokol, Independent Slovak National Society, Cleveland Slovak Union, Passaic Slovak Union, zivena, First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, Pennsylvania Slovak Ladies Union, Evangelical Slovak Ladies Union. Editors of all the Slovak national newspapers here signed also. Even today a person is thrilled as he reads the inspiring articles and the reports of spirited discussions in the Slovak newspapers of almost half a century ago. Clearly the focus is on Slovakia, their ancestral homeland. Though fully aware of the necessity and inevitability of becoming an integral part of their new life in America, these early Slovak settlers felt it was somehow decreed by Divine Providence that the American Slovaks were destined to save the Slovak nation from extinction at home, and they were convinced this could be accomplished more effectively from America than at home. 'Today,' the newspapers wrote, 'we are sufficiently strong, thank God, to pay our debt to our Motherland where the Slovak nation is struggling for its very existence.' 'Do your duty! As a child is obliged by God's laws to help his parents in time of need, so we American Slovaks, �SLOVAKIA 21 too, though forced to leave home to escape from tyranny, must fulfill our sacred obligation to help defend our native Motherland suffering under the whip lash of a cruel master.' 'Our task is not merely to unmask the tyranny but to give practical aid to our suffering brethren.' "Let us pay our debt to Slovakia" became the united slogan of the new Slovak movement. History proves that this movement remained faithful to its trust by giving invaluable aid through the years, and this despite the sad fact that at times misappropriation of needed funds weakened its position and deprived it of money necessary for additional worthwhile cases. Gray's Armory on Cleveland's East Side became the scene of a great historic gathering of more than 7,000 stalwart Slovaks representing numerous societies, organizations, parishes, newspapers and communities in every part of the country east of the Mississippi. It was an overflow crowd of Slovaks who were inspired by the desire to help their fellow countrymen overseas. On a well faded photograph from the time we can still make out the following pictures of: Furdek, Anton Bielek, Wolf, Martincek, Ambrose, Bosak, Kiesel, Gelhoff, Bielik, Marsall, Gessay, Rovnianek, Feriencik, Pirhala, stiasny and others, well known and less known Slovaks. A Prayer opened the Assembly: 0, Almighty God, Father of All Nations : Inspire in us a high sense of honor and national pride, Fill us with a sacred love of our glorious heritage, Inflame our hearts and strengthen our conscience In this struggle for human liberty. Bless us, 0 Lord, with final victory. Banish all blunders Grant freedom in our native homeland. Amen. Rev. Stefan Furdek then formally opened the session with a brief introduction: "Today we will not complain but instead we will go forward together with one will towards our national goal. It seems to me, said Furdek, that this is the glorious day of the Slovak nation's resurrection. All of us are here because of our common love of our Slovak nation." �22 SLOVAKIA Rovnianek spoke: "This day's demonstration, he said, has ignited a great fire that has smouldered for two decades. It is the answer to the charge that there is no Slovak nation! It is manifest proof, particularly for the doubting Thomases of our Slovak nation, that here in America an unbending tree has grown up for our Slovak nation, a strong tree under whose outspread branches the oppressed Slovaks driven from their homeland can find refuge and shelter." In a beautiful, heartful speech he inspired all present to persevere in the struggle for Slovak freedom. Ambrose, the third speaker, replied to the newspapers that claimed there was freedom in Hungary. The National Slovak Society offered $5,000 and challenged the Magyars to offer the same amount to cover expenses for an investigating commission of 4 Americans, 2 Magyars, 2 Slovaks and a Chairman ( of their own choice) to ascertain the truth. Musket-fire in Cernova (Slovakia) soon afterwards broke out. The offer was repeated but never accepted even when the Slovaks guaranteed to assume all financial obligations if the Magyars could prove that political freedom really existed in Hungary.) Remarks were made briefly by Pirhala, Bielek (A.), Chudatsik, N. Bielik, Getting, Harbula, Uhrin, Burik, M. Bosak and several representatives of various organizations. The by-laws of the new organization, Slovak League of America, were then read and approved by the entire assembly. Stefan Furdek was elected for the President of the League. Emphasis should be placed on the main idea that sparked the Congress, and from the words of the Prayer opening the historic session it was evident that a spirit of great national pride and self-esteem dominated the meeting, as if it were an atonement for all the years of national degradation often caused by the indifference of the Slovaks themselves. It was made clear that nothing contributed to our failures in the past so much as our submissivness, our backing down on basic issues, our timidity, our lack of courage to stand firm, in a word, lack of a healthy, vigorous national pride. As soon as these weaknesses were pointed out and admitted, the Slovaks entered upon a new era by supporting a national movement to improve their lot: politically, socially, culturally and economically. �SLOVAKIA 23 The Slovak League assumed the responsibility of fostering Slovak national pride that was a prerequisite for the spirit of human dignity. Nowhere did this spirit flourish as it did in America. And therefore, when it was proposed that the Slovaks had a right to their national program, it was but natural that for the first time since the death of stur in the mid-19th century the slogan, "We have a rigth to a Slovak state" was again heard, gained headway and soon was popularized. National self-pride leads logically to the formation of a self-governing state. A nation without its own state, though it may be a part of the most progressive and most liberal country, faces ultimate extinction, without a state of its own it cannot reach fulfillment of its cultural, social and national potential. In this particular direction precisely the program of the Slovak League of America reached the zenith of its greatness, for the ideals of freedom inspired its dynamic activity from this very first mass meeting. What undoubtedly was the Slovak League's most significant role in the life of the Slovak nation was that it provided the Slovaks, freed at last from the common traits of backwardness, slavishness and servility so evident in their native homeland, a powerful and resourceful arsenal for the struggle to win national freedom for their home country on the basis of a natural and divine right to enjoy the blessings of freedom. In the exciting years when these events transpired abroad, the spirit at home waned noticeably. The greater the pressure exerted, the more the home folks weakened in their resolve and their demands for their just rights reached a new low. It appeared that if the Magyars had offered the Slovaks a few intermediate schools and had relaxed their political pressure then, and had they allowed restricted use of the Slovak language in the schools and distributed a few minor offices, they probably would have solved the 'Slovak problem'. The Slovak struggle, which had begun as an all-out fight for all the rights the Slovak nation was entitled to, was now but a feeble movement to attain some sort of recognition. It was a far cry from the original demand for Slovak schools throughout the country, for �24 SLOVAKIA Slovak representatives of their own people and the use of the Slovak language as an official language in Slovakia. Ironically, when Slovak spokesmen sought to get even the smallest consideration, their Magyar overlords asked them arrogantly: "Now, wouldn't you like to have your own Slovak state?" Vajansky gave the proper response: "Why not? The natural right of every nation is its birthright to self-government, and we, Slovaks as a full-fledged nation, have all the prerogatives for our own free , self-governing state." (Narodne Noviny, November 15, 1910). At home, however, it was virtually impossible to voice this right to statehood, not to speak of a practical application. But we must never surrender this right because the highest aspiration of any nation is to have its own state. Are we Slovaks to be the lone exception among a long list of advanced nations down through history? No! Was there ever a Slovak who before World War I denied the right of his people to their own free state? Never! And had the opportunity presented itself, every Slovak would have exerted himself to the utmost to establish and maintain a free, self-governing Slovak state. 'Not merely the attainment of some of our rights but all of them' was the battle-cry of the Slovak League as the movement gained momentum among a united American Slovak public. Soon after the founding of the Slovak League, there appeared in the Slovak press here proposals of Slovak statehood. Freedom is a God-given right and we cannot receive it as a gift from other nations. All nations are equal in the sight of God, and hence they have equality of rights. Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky proposed the possibility of a federation of European nations in which each nation would give up a little of its national sovereignity for the common welfare of all fellow members. Studies of the Slovak pronouncements at the time indicate indisputably aspirations for state self-government; though often veiled they were there nevertheless. A closer look proves it. Why, then, did they refrain from coming out and saying so openly? Because the Slovak masses were not yet conditioned to so radical �SLOVAKIA 25 a proposal, namely, outright freedom and self-governing state of their own in their own country. Upon reflection as to the prime requisites for a selfgoverning and independent state, the Slovaks came to the following conclusions: a) They had a living language b) They possessed a common Christian faith which was the national basis of a moral life c) They shared a spirit of unity and national pride On the debit side, they realized that they lacked a strong national organization to set up this political state they vaguely dreamed of at home. But, as they looked westward, the example of the dynamic Slovak League of America gave them the courage they needed, for here actually the Slovaks were organized, ready and able to give them the assistance necessary to establish and maintain their own free, self-governing state. Slovak Independence was in the mind of Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky as he wrote in an editorial: "Slovak freedom will materialize when the political circumstances and a new favorable atmosphere appear in Europe. The Slovaks must await this moment with complete confidence and an ardent national pride. They must aspire to a full, unconditional national fulfillment in a free and independent Slovak state." What vision and courage to have written these prophetic words at the time! "We Slovaks will join that movement that will give us it.he most and surest guarantees of our national liberty. We do not want to be a footstool for any nation. We will cooperate with those who will pledge to respect our aspirations to national freedom . Theoretically, this meant possible aid from the Poles, Romanians, Croatians, and even the Germans and Austrians. "That is why we Slovaks will join our forces with those who not only offer aid to us for the attainment of our legitimate objectives as a nation but who at the same time give us the best guarantees. In politics there is no place for sentiment. We will be friends with those who give us the most advantages, but we will not be their slaves. "There were pessimistic views, then as now, ithait sought to convince the Slovaks of the utter futility of seeking full self-government based on ,t he ridiculous premise that it is far more advantageous to be allied with others more experienced in the art of government ... which, in effect, meant that one should be willing to carry the burden of oppression if only his oppressors lighten the burden somewhat! To these people Husek had only one comment: 'Such rubbish! ' " (Jednota, December 30, 1908) . �26 SLOVAKIA Slovak League leaders and members scoffed at views that were designed to discourage the Slovak nation's aspiration to national freedom and self-government. They called for an all-out struggle for the attainment of all their rights to which they were entitled by nature. It was, indeed, in harmony with what a western Slovak song so aptly expressed: "We only want what is ours, nothing more, nothing less." Liberty is the natural heritage of every nation but no nation can enjoy freedom unless it has its own free, selfgoverning state. One of the greatest services performed by the Slovak League of America in the years when the struggle for the nation's freedom reached a low ebb in the Slovak's historic homeland was to hold high the banner of national freedom and personal liberty. American Slovak immigrants soon came to the conclusion that they, too, were able to conduct their own political affairs and like nations, they, too, had an equal right to their own independent state. Strange as it may seem, the idea of national freedom and independent statehood did not originate in Slovakia but in America where the Slovak pioneers compared themselves to their neighbors of various nationalities and saw that they were not at all an inferior people. On the contrary, they were equals among equals. This discovery encouraged them to adopt a program whose objective was the liberation of the Slovaks from alien domination. The ultimate goal was the establishment of their own free state. "Independent statehood for the Slovak nation must be uppermost in the minds of all Slovaks because the nations of the world, even the least advanced, are seeking independence. Consequently, the Slovaks must not be slaves to any nation." (Slovensky Dennik, Pittsburgh, Pa. , January 21, 1910). Again in the same newspaper of June 3, 1910, we read: "No one can degrade the ideal of freedom because it is won by the sacrifice of human blood and is, therefore, sacred. Moreover, it is founded on the principles of equality, truth and justice." This was the spirit of the founders of the Slovak League as expressed in America, far from the Slovaks' native homeland. It embodied the spirit of personal liberty, human dignity, democracy, national pride. It was based upon the �SLOVAKIA 27 knowledge of God's laws as found in nature and it enkindled the spirit of free enterprise, cooperation and self-confidence. The inner strength of the Slovak nation assured the future national destiny of the Slovak people in their own free and independent state. Spontaneous and prophetic, this spirit inspired the Slovak nation to adopt a clear-cut program towards winning freedom, and if for a time the Slovak nation had been deprived of its freedom the words of I'..udovit stlir and Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky echoed and re-echoed the eternal message: "The ideal of Slovak freedom will never die. Traitors to the Slovak cause will perish but the movement to national freedom will live forever. " In this unique chapter of Slovak history, the Slovak League has a just and major portion because it inspired the struggle, maintained the fight in its day, and is still carrying on that fight because the Slovak nation has been enslaved in our times. Furdek presided at a meeting of the executive committee of the Slovak League on June 13, 1907. The discussions centered on the practical means of giving aid. A suggestion to issue stamps and a commemorative medal for a fund-raising campaign was approved and adopted. Soon a stamp was issued and a medal appeared with the inspiring motto, 'Za tu nasu slovencinu' (For our Slovak Heritage). The new stamp appeared on thousands of letters that circulated throughout the country, and the idea of Slovak freedom caught on everywhere. Some said (prophetically) that in the near future Slovakia would have its own postage stamps! A strong reaction set in overseas. Hungarian authorities returned letters by the thousands to their original mailing-points in America simply because alongside the regular postage stamp there appeared the special Slovak League stamp! They feared the danger of this propaganda medium, namely, the fear of an aroused Slovak public. In America the Slovak League fully exploited the ban by informing America Newspapers of this step. The Slovak League not only intensified its efforts towards national emancipation but gave invaluable aid to orphaned families. �28 SLOVAKLA Correspondence between Slovak political leaders at home and the American Slovaks reveals the solid strength of their fellow countrymen who had emigrated. Every appeal for help was answered. On their part, the American Slovaks were self-sufficient in that they needed no prodding to do what they deemed a sacred duty towards their embattled countrymen. When Count Albert Apponyi visited America in 1911, his mission was to convince the Americans that the Magyars were truly a bastion of democracy in Central Europe. The American Slovaks presented facts, based upon actual experience before they had left their homeland, which convinced the American public that in actuality the Magyars were tyrannical oppressors of the Slovak nation and other nations in Hungary. American census-takers for years had listed Slovaks as "Hungarians" but it was the Slovak League that intervened and set the records straight. From 1910 on, all Slovaks were listed as such officially. War clouds appeared in Europe. In 1914 Count Karolyi appeared suddenly in this country. He, too, had a mission, namely, to unite the nationality groups that had origins in Hungary. It soon became evident, however, that he found it an impossibility to inspire loyalty, for he represented the oppressor and they had been the oppressed. American Slovaks, who had got used to the idea of freedom, now envisioned national freedom and consequently complete separation from Hungary. Accordingly, they had the same reply for the liberal Karolyi as they had given only a short time before to the conservative Apponyi, ie., 'Nothing doing!' This occasion gave the Slovak League the opportunity to make a bold stand against amalgamation with the Magyars, or the Czechs later; under Mamatey's leadership the Slovak League asserted the right of the Slovak nation to determine its own destiny in a free, self-governing state. Count Karolyi's visit to America marked the end of an era, an era of oppression, and the political subjugation of the Slovaks. It was, moreover, the prelude to a new chapter in the Slovak nation's history at the very outbreak of World War I. � 18 SLOVAKIA BEGINNINGS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE IN AMERICA By Constantin Culen All foes of the Slovak national idea shared the same mottoes and techniques. The first of their statements denied the Slovaks nationality status - hence, they had no right, the claim was asserted, to any rights as a nation. They could find happiness only by becoming assimilated in a greater unity with another people. Both the Magyars and Czechs made this assertion. Hurban in the Slovenske Pohl'ady publication noted that the Slovak was considered audacious if he had national pride, a coward if he was not aggressive, if he travelled outside his own country, he was a vagrant but if he stayed at home he was a lazy, shiftless bum. That's the way it was - that's the way it is today. Events proved to the Slovaks themselves that they were better off when they ignored what the state dictated and went ahead doing what other nations did, namely, what was to their own advantage and national interest. 1906 was a momentous year for the Slovaks, for it was in elections for parliamentary seats that year that they supported their own candidates, and they elected seven. The Magyars reacted by starting a political persecution and a series of reprisals sent many to prison. The courts cooperated by meting out sentences ranging from months to several years. Thus many Slovak political leaders were put out of action. The opposition was bitterly directed towards the leading exponents of the Slovak cause, particularly assailing those who by the spoken or written word exerted great influence on the masses struggling for representation and selfgovernment. Andrej Hlinka, a Catholic priest in Ruzomberok, who was not a candidate but who spoke in behalf of Vavro srobar, a candidate, became the prime target of ecclesiastical and political leaders who opposed Slovak participation in politics when it meant the election of their representative to parliament. Biskup Parvy went so far �SLOVAKIA 19 in his chauvinism that he suspended Hlinka and the courts sentenced the Slovak priest to two years in prison. This anti-Slovak outburst in Hungary coincided with a number of political demonstrations by American Slovaks in sympathy with the struggle of their fellow countrymen for political freedom in their native and historic homeland. The speakers (among them many prominent Slovak civic and Church leaders) expressed their willingness to organize an all-Slovak organization, for they deemed the time was ripe for a united front of all Slovaks in the struggle ahead. In the previous century the needs, sufferings and injustices experienced by masses of Slovak workers stimulated the organization of fraternal societies. Now was the time for united action of another kind, namely, to help the Slovak nation fight for its just rights, and it was unanimously agreed that a national united society was obviously essential to carry on the struggle. Hlinka's case, in which both Church and State cooperated in an effort to crush the Slovak spirit by eliminating the great champion of their just rights, stirred the American Slovaks and aroused them to action. Leaders of the Slovak press in America accepted Furdek's invitation for a conference on April 4, 1907. Accordingly, the slogan, "Za tu nasu slovencinu," (For our Slovak Heritage) which was destined to become the battlecry of Slovaks everywhere during and after World War I , was adopted by the following group of Slovak leaders who met in Pittsburgh: Furdek, Mamatey, Feriencik, Straka, Vakulek, Joscak, Polak, Katchmar, Gimesky, Ambrose, Pirhala, Harbula, Karchnak, Husek, Bielek, Orbach, Chudatsik, Marsall, stiasny, Getting, Pankuch, Balent, Rovnianek, Kadlecik, Thomka, Tvrdy, Gessay. A committee for formulating the by-laws of the proposed organization was named. The program unanimously adopted was twofold, namely, to give assistance, culturally, politically, financially and morally to their fellow countrymen in America and in their embattled homeland. May 30, 1907, was the date scheduled to launch the new organization in Cleveland, Ohio. What a coincidence! This date was destined to become, eleven years later, a historic day, for on May 30, �20 SLOVAKIA 1918, the famed Pittsburgh Agreement was signed by the representatives of the American Slovaks and Czechs as a basic agreement for the formation of the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. However, in deference to the Slovak Gymnastic Sokol ( which had meeting or convention at the time) the date was re-scheduled for May 26, 1907. Invitations to this meeting used the term, "Slovak Congress." In 1861 the meeting of Slovak leaders in Turciansky sv. Martin was known as the National Slovak Assembly. It appears that historic events of similar vein, though far removed in time and place, frequently assume the same program and adopt similar nomenclatures, are the same in scope and follow the same pattern. Unification of all existing Slovak societies was the primary aim of the first Slovak Congress in Cleveland, 0., in order to coordinate their activities in a united program designed to give aid to their fellow countrymen in Slovakia. The invitation was signed by the following: First Catholic Slovak Union, National Slovak Society, Slovak Evangelical Union, Sojuz, Slovak Gymnastic Union Sokol, Independent Slovak National Society, Cleveland Slovak Union, Passaic Slovak Union, zivena, First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, Pennsylvania Slovak Ladies Union, Evangelical Slovak Ladies Union. Editors of all the Slovak national newspapers here signed also. Even today a person is thrilled as he reads the inspiring articles and the reports of spirited discussions in the Slovak newspapers of almost half a century ago. Clearly the focus is on Slovakia, their ancestral homeland. Though fully aware of the necessity and inevitability of becoming an integral part of their new life in America, these early Slovak settlers felt it was somehow decreed by Divine Providence that the American Slovaks were destined to save the Slovak nation from extinction at home, and they were convinced this could be accomplished more effectively from America than at home. 'Today,' the newspapers wrote, 'we are sufficiently strong, thank God, to pay our debt to our Motherland where the Slovak nation is struggling for its very existence.' 'Do your duty! As a child is obliged by God's laws to help his parents in time of need, so we American Slovaks, �SLOVAKIA 21 too, though forced to leave home to escape from tyranny, must fulfill our sacred obligation to help defend our native Motherland suffering under the whip lash of a cruel master.' 'Our task is not merely to unmask the tyranny but to give practical aid to our suffering brethren.' "Let us pay our debt to Slovakia" became the united slogan of the new Slovak movement. History proves that this movement remained faithful to its trust by giving invaluable aid through the years, and this despite the sad fact that at times misappropriation of needed funds weakened its position and deprived it of money necessary for additional worthwhile cases. Gray's Armory on Cleveland's East Side became the scene of a great historic gathering of more than 7,000 stalwart Slovaks representing numerous societies, organizations, parishes, newspapers and communities in every part of the country east of the Mississippi. It was an overflow crowd of Slovaks who were inspired by the desire to help their fellow countrymen overseas. On a well faded photograph from the time we can still make out the following pictures of: Furdek, Anton Bielek, Wolf, Martincek, Ambrose, Bosak, Kiesel, Gelhoff, Bielik, Marsall, Gessay, Rovnianek, Feriencik, Pirhala, stiasny and others, well known and less known Slovaks. A Prayer opened the Assembly: 0, Almighty God, Father of All Nations : Inspire in us a high sense of honor and national pride, Fill us with a sacred love of our glorious heritage, Inflame our hearts and strengthen our conscience In this struggle for human liberty. Bless us, 0 Lord, with final victory. Banish all blunders Grant freedom in our native homeland. Amen. Rev. Stefan Furdek then formally opened the session with a brief introduction: "Today we will not complain but instead we will go forward together with one will towards our national goal. It seems to me, said Furdek, that this is the glorious day of the Slovak nation's resurrection. All of us are here because of our common love of our Slovak nation." �22 SLOVAKIA Rovnianek spoke: "This day's demonstration, he said, has ignited a great fire that has smouldered for two decades. It is the answer to the charge that there is no Slovak nation! It is manifest proof, particularly for the doubting Thomases of our Slovak nation, that here in America an unbending tree has grown up for our Slovak nation, a strong tree under whose outspread branches the oppressed Slovaks driven from their homeland can find refuge and shelter." In a beautiful, heartful speech he inspired all present to persevere in the struggle for Slovak freedom. Ambrose, the third speaker, replied to the newspapers that claimed there was freedom in Hungary. The National Slovak Society offered $5,000 and challenged the Magyars to offer the same amount to cover expenses for an investigating commission of 4 Americans, 2 Magyars, 2 Slovaks and a Chairman ( of their own choice) to ascertain the truth. Musket-fire in Cernova (Slovakia) soon afterwards broke out. The offer was repeated but never accepted even when the Slovaks guaranteed to assume all financial obligations if the Magyars could prove that political freedom really existed in Hungary.) Remarks were made briefly by Pirhala, Bielek (A.), Chudatsik, N. Bielik, Getting, Harbula, Uhrin, Burik, M. Bosak and several representatives of various organizations. The by-laws of the new organization, Slovak League of America, were then read and approved by the entire assembly. Stefan Furdek was elected for the President of the League. Emphasis should be placed on the main idea that sparked the Congress, and from the words of the Prayer opening the historic session it was evident that a spirit of great national pride and self-esteem dominated the meeting, as if it were an atonement for all the years of national degradation often caused by the indifference of the Slovaks themselves. It was made clear that nothing contributed to our failures in the past so much as our submissivness, our backing down on basic issues, our timidity, our lack of courage to stand firm, in a word, lack of a healthy, vigorous national pride. As soon as these weaknesses were pointed out and admitted, the Slovaks entered upon a new era by supporting a national movement to improve their lot: politically, socially, culturally and economically. �SLOVAKIA 23 The Slovak League assumed the responsibility of fostering Slovak national pride that was a prerequisite for the spirit of human dignity. Nowhere did this spirit flourish as it did in America. And therefore, when it was proposed that the Slovaks had a right to their national program, it was but natural that for the first time since the death of stur in the mid-19th century the slogan, "We have a rigth to a Slovak state" was again heard, gained headway and soon was popularized. National self-pride leads logically to the formation of a self-governing state. A nation without its own state, though it may be a part of the most progressive and most liberal country, faces ultimate extinction, without a state of its own it cannot reach fulfillment of its cultural, social and national potential. In this particular direction precisely the program of the Slovak League of America reached the zenith of its greatness, for the ideals of freedom inspired its dynamic activity from this very first mass meeting. What undoubtedly was the Slovak League's most significant role in the life of the Slovak nation was that it provided the Slovaks, freed at last from the common traits of backwardness, slavishness and servility so evident in their native homeland, a powerful and resourceful arsenal for the struggle to win national freedom for their home country on the basis of a natural and divine right to enjoy the blessings of freedom. In the exciting years when these events transpired abroad, the spirit at home waned noticeably. The greater the pressure exerted, the more the home folks weakened in their resolve and their demands for their just rights reached a new low. It appeared that if the Magyars had offered the Slovaks a few intermediate schools and had relaxed their political pressure then, and had they allowed restricted use of the Slovak language in the schools and distributed a few minor offices, they probably would have solved the 'Slovak problem'. The Slovak struggle, which had begun as an all-out fight for all the rights the Slovak nation was entitled to, was now but a feeble movement to attain some sort of recognition. It was a far cry from the original demand for Slovak schools throughout the country, for �24 SLOVAKIA Slovak representatives of their own people and the use of the Slovak language as an official language in Slovakia. Ironically, when Slovak spokesmen sought to get even the smallest consideration, their Magyar overlords asked them arrogantly: "Now, wouldn't you like to have your own Slovak state?" Vajansky gave the proper response: "Why not? The natural right of every nation is its birthright to self-government, and we, Slovaks as a full-fledged nation, have all the prerogatives for our own free , self-governing state." (Narodne Noviny, November 15, 1910). At home, however, it was virtually impossible to voice this right to statehood, not to speak of a practical application. But we must never surrender this right because the highest aspiration of any nation is to have its own state. Are we Slovaks to be the lone exception among a long list of advanced nations down through history? No! Was there ever a Slovak who before World War I denied the right of his people to their own free state? Never! And had the opportunity presented itself, every Slovak would have exerted himself to the utmost to establish and maintain a free, self-governing Slovak state. 'Not merely the attainment of some of our rights but all of them' was the battle-cry of the Slovak League as the movement gained momentum among a united American Slovak public. Soon after the founding of the Slovak League, there appeared in the Slovak press here proposals of Slovak statehood. Freedom is a God-given right and we cannot receive it as a gift from other nations. All nations are equal in the sight of God, and hence they have equality of rights. Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky proposed the possibility of a federation of European nations in which each nation would give up a little of its national sovereignity for the common welfare of all fellow members. Studies of the Slovak pronouncements at the time indicate indisputably aspirations for state self-government; though often veiled they were there nevertheless. A closer look proves it. Why, then, did they refrain from coming out and saying so openly? Because the Slovak masses were not yet conditioned to so radical �SLOVAKIA 25 a proposal, namely, outright freedom and self-governing state of their own in their own country. Upon reflection as to the prime requisites for a selfgoverning and independent state, the Slovaks came to the following conclusions: a) They had a living language b) They possessed a common Christian faith which was the national basis of a moral life c) They shared a spirit of unity and national pride On the debit side, they realized that they lacked a strong national organization to set up this political state they vaguely dreamed of at home. But, as they looked westward, the example of the dynamic Slovak League of America gave them the courage they needed, for here actually the Slovaks were organized, ready and able to give them the assistance necessary to establish and maintain their own free, self-governing state. Slovak Independence was in the mind of Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky as he wrote in an editorial: "Slovak freedom will materialize when the political circumstances and a new favorable atmosphere appear in Europe. The Slovaks must await this moment with complete confidence and an ardent national pride. They must aspire to a full, unconditional national fulfillment in a free and independent Slovak state." What vision and courage to have written these prophetic words at the time! "We Slovaks will join that movement that will give us it.he most and surest guarantees of our national liberty. We do not want to be a footstool for any nation. We will cooperate with those who will pledge to respect our aspirations to national freedom . Theoretically, this meant possible aid from the Poles, Romanians, Croatians, and even the Germans and Austrians. "That is why we Slovaks will join our forces with those who not only offer aid to us for the attainment of our legitimate objectives as a nation but who at the same time give us the best guarantees. In politics there is no place for sentiment. We will be friends with those who give us the most advantages, but we will not be their slaves. "There were pessimistic views, then as now, ithait sought to convince the Slovaks of the utter futility of seeking full self-government based on ,t he ridiculous premise that it is far more advantageous to be allied with others more experienced in the art of government ... which, in effect, meant that one should be willing to carry the burden of oppression if only his oppressors lighten the burden somewhat! To these people Husek had only one comment: 'Such rubbish! ' " (Jednota, December 30, 1908) . �26 SLOVAKIA Slovak League leaders and members scoffed at views that were designed to discourage the Slovak nation's aspiration to national freedom and self-government. They called for an all-out struggle for the attainment of all their rights to which they were entitled by nature. It was, indeed, in harmony with what a western Slovak song so aptly expressed: "We only want what is ours, nothing more, nothing less." Liberty is the natural heritage of every nation but no nation can enjoy freedom unless it has its own free, selfgoverning state. One of the greatest services performed by the Slovak League of America in the years when the struggle for the nation's freedom reached a low ebb in the Slovak's historic homeland was to hold high the banner of national freedom and personal liberty. American Slovak immigrants soon came to the conclusion that they, too, were able to conduct their own political affairs and like nations, they, too, had an equal right to their own independent state. Strange as it may seem, the idea of national freedom and independent statehood did not originate in Slovakia but in America where the Slovak pioneers compared themselves to their neighbors of various nationalities and saw that they were not at all an inferior people. On the contrary, they were equals among equals. This discovery encouraged them to adopt a program whose objective was the liberation of the Slovaks from alien domination. The ultimate goal was the establishment of their own free state. "Independent statehood for the Slovak nation must be uppermost in the minds of all Slovaks because the nations of the world, even the least advanced, are seeking independence. Consequently, the Slovaks must not be slaves to any nation." (Slovensky Dennik, Pittsburgh, Pa. , January 21, 1910). Again in the same newspaper of June 3, 1910, we read: "No one can degrade the ideal of freedom because it is won by the sacrifice of human blood and is, therefore, sacred. Moreover, it is founded on the principles of equality, truth and justice." This was the spirit of the founders of the Slovak League as expressed in America, far from the Slovaks' native homeland. It embodied the spirit of personal liberty, human dignity, democracy, national pride. It was based upon the �SLOVAKIA 27 knowledge of God's laws as found in nature and it enkindled the spirit of free enterprise, cooperation and self-confidence. The inner strength of the Slovak nation assured the future national destiny of the Slovak people in their own free and independent state. Spontaneous and prophetic, this spirit inspired the Slovak nation to adopt a clear-cut program towards winning freedom, and if for a time the Slovak nation had been deprived of its freedom the words of I'..udovit stlir and Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky echoed and re-echoed the eternal message: "The ideal of Slovak freedom will never die. Traitors to the Slovak cause will perish but the movement to national freedom will live forever. " In this unique chapter of Slovak history, the Slovak League has a just and major portion because it inspired the struggle, maintained the fight in its day, and is still carrying on that fight because the Slovak nation has been enslaved in our times. Furdek presided at a meeting of the executive committee of the Slovak League on June 13, 1907. The discussions centered on the practical means of giving aid. A suggestion to issue stamps and a commemorative medal for a fund-raising campaign was approved and adopted. Soon a stamp was issued and a medal appeared with the inspiring motto, 'Za tu nasu slovencinu' (For our Slovak Heritage). The new stamp appeared on thousands of letters that circulated throughout the country, and the idea of Slovak freedom caught on everywhere. Some said (prophetically) that in the near future Slovakia would have its own postage stamps! A strong reaction set in overseas. Hungarian authorities returned letters by the thousands to their original mailing-points in America simply because alongside the regular postage stamp there appeared the special Slovak League stamp! They feared the danger of this propaganda medium, namely, the fear of an aroused Slovak public. In America the Slovak League fully exploited the ban by informing America Newspapers of this step. The Slovak League not only intensified its efforts towards national emancipation but gave invaluable aid to orphaned families. �28 SLOVAKLA Correspondence between Slovak political leaders at home and the American Slovaks reveals the solid strength of their fellow countrymen who had emigrated. Every appeal for help was answered. On their part, the American Slovaks were self-sufficient in that they needed no prodding to do what they deemed a sacred duty towards their embattled countrymen. When Count Albert Apponyi visited America in 1911, his mission was to convince the Americans that the Magyars were truly a bastion of democracy in Central Europe. The American Slovaks presented facts, based upon actual experience before they had left their homeland, which convinced the American public that in actuality the Magyars were tyrannical oppressors of the Slovak nation and other nations in Hungary. American census-takers for years had listed Slovaks as "Hungarians" but it was the Slovak League that intervened and set the records straight. From 1910 on, all Slovaks were listed as such officially. War clouds appeared in Europe. In 1914 Count Karolyi appeared suddenly in this country. He, too, had a mission, namely, to unite the nationality groups that had origins in Hungary. It soon became evident, however, that he found it an impossibility to inspire loyalty, for he represented the oppressor and they had been the oppressed. American Slovaks, who had got used to the idea of freedom, now envisioned national freedom and consequently complete separation from Hungary. Accordingly, they had the same reply for the liberal Karolyi as they had given only a short time before to the conservative Apponyi, ie., 'Nothing doing!' This occasion gave the Slovak League the opportunity to make a bold stand against amalgamation with the Magyars, or the Czechs later; under Mamatey's leadership the Slovak League asserted the right of the Slovak nation to determine its own destiny in a free, self-governing state. Count Karolyi's visit to America marked the end of an era, an era of oppression, and the political subjugation of the Slovaks. It was, moreover, the prelude to a new chapter in the Slovak nation's history at the very outbreak of World War I. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1967, Vol. 17 Description An account of the resource Special Issue: Sixty Years of the Slovak League of America Vol. 17 (No. 40), 1967. 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 1967 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 18 SLOVAKIA BEGINNINGS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE IN AMERICA By Constantin Culen All foes of the Slovak national idea shared the same mottoes and techniques. The first of their statements denied the Slovaks nationality status - hence, they had no right, the claim was asserted, to any rights as a nation. They could find happiness only by becoming assimilated in a greater unity with another people. Both the Magyars and Czechs made this assertion. Hurban in the Slovenske Pohl'ady publication noted that the Slovak was considered audacious if he had national pride, a coward if he was not aggressive, if he travelled outside his own country, he was a vagrant but if he stayed at home he was a lazy, shiftless bum. That's the way it was - that's the way it is today. Events proved to the Slovaks themselves that they were better off when they ignored what the state dictated and went ahead doing what other nations did, namely, what was to their own advantage and national interest. 1906 was a momentous year for the Slovaks, for it was in elections for parliamentary seats that year that they supported their own candidates, and they elected seven. The Magyars reacted by starting a political persecution and a series of reprisals sent many to prison. The courts cooperated by meting out sentences ranging from months to several years. Thus many Slovak political leaders were put out of action. The opposition was bitterly directed towards the leading exponents of the Slovak cause, particularly assailing those who by the spoken or written word exerted great influence on the masses struggling for representation and selfgovernment. Andrej Hlinka, a Catholic priest in Ruzomberok, who was not a candidate but who spoke in behalf of Vavro srobar, a candidate, became the prime target of ecclesiastical and political leaders who opposed Slovak participation in politics when it meant the election of their representative to parliament. Biskup Parvy went so far SLOVAKIA 19 in his chauvinism that he suspended Hlinka and the courts sentenced the Slovak priest to two years in prison. This anti-Slovak outburst in Hungary coincided with a number of political demonstrations by American Slovaks in sympathy with the struggle of their fellow countrymen for political freedom in their native and historic homeland. The speakers (among them many prominent Slovak civic and Church leaders) expressed their willingness to organize an all-Slovak organization, for they deemed the time was ripe for a united front of all Slovaks in the struggle ahead. In the previous century the needs, sufferings and injustices experienced by masses of Slovak workers stimulated the organization of fraternal societies. Now was the time for united action of another kind, namely, to help the Slovak nation fight for its just rights, and it was unanimously agreed that a national united society was obviously essential to carry on the struggle. Hlinka's case, in which both Church and State cooperated in an effort to crush the Slovak spirit by eliminating the great champion of their just rights, stirred the American Slovaks and aroused them to action. Leaders of the Slovak press in America accepted Furdek's invitation for a conference on April 4, 1907. Accordingly, the slogan, "Za tu nasu slovencinu," (For our Slovak Heritage) which was destined to become the battlecry of Slovaks everywhere during and after World War I , was adopted by the following group of Slovak leaders who met in Pittsburgh: Furdek, Mamatey, Feriencik, Straka, Vakulek, Joscak, Polak, Katchmar, Gimesky, Ambrose, Pirhala, Harbula, Karchnak, Husek, Bielek, Orbach, Chudatsik, Marsall, stiasny, Getting, Pankuch, Balent, Rovnianek, Kadlecik, Thomka, Tvrdy, Gessay. A committee for formulating the by-laws of the proposed organization was named. The program unanimously adopted was twofold, namely, to give assistance, culturally, politically, financially and morally to their fellow countrymen in America and in their embattled homeland. May 30, 1907, was the date scheduled to launch the new organization in Cleveland, Ohio. What a coincidence! This date was destined to become, eleven years later, a historic day, for on May 30, 20 SLOVAKIA 1918, the famed Pittsburgh Agreement was signed by the representatives of the American Slovaks and Czechs as a basic agreement for the formation of the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. However, in deference to the Slovak Gymnastic Sokol ( which had meeting or convention at the time) the date was re-scheduled for May 26, 1907. Invitations to this meeting used the term, "Slovak Congress." In 1861 the meeting of Slovak leaders in Turciansky sv. Martin was known as the National Slovak Assembly. It appears that historic events of similar vein, though far removed in time and place, frequently assume the same program and adopt similar nomenclatures, are the same in scope and follow the same pattern. Unification of all existing Slovak societies was the primary aim of the first Slovak Congress in Cleveland, 0., in order to coordinate their activities in a united program designed to give aid to their fellow countrymen in Slovakia. The invitation was signed by the following: First Catholic Slovak Union, National Slovak Society, Slovak Evangelical Union, Sojuz, Slovak Gymnastic Union Sokol, Independent Slovak National Society, Cleveland Slovak Union, Passaic Slovak Union, zivena, First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, Pennsylvania Slovak Ladies Union, Evangelical Slovak Ladies Union. Editors of all the Slovak national newspapers here signed also. Even today a person is thrilled as he reads the inspiring articles and the reports of spirited discussions in the Slovak newspapers of almost half a century ago. Clearly the focus is on Slovakia, their ancestral homeland. Though fully aware of the necessity and inevitability of becoming an integral part of their new life in America, these early Slovak settlers felt it was somehow decreed by Divine Providence that the American Slovaks were destined to save the Slovak nation from extinction at home, and they were convinced this could be accomplished more effectively from America than at home. 'Today,' the newspapers wrote, 'we are sufficiently strong, thank God, to pay our debt to our Motherland where the Slovak nation is struggling for its very existence.' 'Do your duty! As a child is obliged by God's laws to help his parents in time of need, so we American Slovaks, SLOVAKIA 21 too, though forced to leave home to escape from tyranny, must fulfill our sacred obligation to help defend our native Motherland suffering under the whip lash of a cruel master.' 'Our task is not merely to unmask the tyranny but to give practical aid to our suffering brethren.' "Let us pay our debt to Slovakia" became the united slogan of the new Slovak movement. History proves that this movement remained faithful to its trust by giving invaluable aid through the years, and this despite the sad fact that at times misappropriation of needed funds weakened its position and deprived it of money necessary for additional worthwhile cases. Gray's Armory on Cleveland's East Side became the scene of a great historic gathering of more than 7,000 stalwart Slovaks representing numerous societies, organizations, parishes, newspapers and communities in every part of the country east of the Mississippi. It was an overflow crowd of Slovaks who were inspired by the desire to help their fellow countrymen overseas. On a well faded photograph from the time we can still make out the following pictures of: Furdek, Anton Bielek, Wolf, Martincek, Ambrose, Bosak, Kiesel, Gelhoff, Bielik, Marsall, Gessay, Rovnianek, Feriencik, Pirhala, stiasny and others, well known and less known Slovaks. A Prayer opened the Assembly: 0, Almighty God, Father of All Nations : Inspire in us a high sense of honor and national pride, Fill us with a sacred love of our glorious heritage, Inflame our hearts and strengthen our conscience In this struggle for human liberty. Bless us, 0 Lord, with final victory. Banish all blunders Grant freedom in our native homeland. Amen. Rev. Stefan Furdek then formally opened the session with a brief introduction: "Today we will not complain but instead we will go forward together with one will towards our national goal. It seems to me, said Furdek, that this is the glorious day of the Slovak nation's resurrection. All of us are here because of our common love of our Slovak nation." 22 SLOVAKIA Rovnianek spoke: "This day's demonstration, he said, has ignited a great fire that has smouldered for two decades. It is the answer to the charge that there is no Slovak nation! It is manifest proof, particularly for the doubting Thomases of our Slovak nation, that here in America an unbending tree has grown up for our Slovak nation, a strong tree under whose outspread branches the oppressed Slovaks driven from their homeland can find refuge and shelter." In a beautiful, heartful speech he inspired all present to persevere in the struggle for Slovak freedom. Ambrose, the third speaker, replied to the newspapers that claimed there was freedom in Hungary. The National Slovak Society offered $5,000 and challenged the Magyars to offer the same amount to cover expenses for an investigating commission of 4 Americans, 2 Magyars, 2 Slovaks and a Chairman ( of their own choice) to ascertain the truth. Musket-fire in Cernova (Slovakia) soon afterwards broke out. The offer was repeated but never accepted even when the Slovaks guaranteed to assume all financial obligations if the Magyars could prove that political freedom really existed in Hungary.) Remarks were made briefly by Pirhala, Bielek (A.), Chudatsik, N. Bielik, Getting, Harbula, Uhrin, Burik, M. Bosak and several representatives of various organizations. The by-laws of the new organization, Slovak League of America, were then read and approved by the entire assembly. Stefan Furdek was elected for the President of the League. Emphasis should be placed on the main idea that sparked the Congress, and from the words of the Prayer opening the historic session it was evident that a spirit of great national pride and self-esteem dominated the meeting, as if it were an atonement for all the years of national degradation often caused by the indifference of the Slovaks themselves. It was made clear that nothing contributed to our failures in the past so much as our submissivness, our backing down on basic issues, our timidity, our lack of courage to stand firm, in a word, lack of a healthy, vigorous national pride. As soon as these weaknesses were pointed out and admitted, the Slovaks entered upon a new era by supporting a national movement to improve their lot: politically, socially, culturally and economically. SLOVAKIA 23 The Slovak League assumed the responsibility of fostering Slovak national pride that was a prerequisite for the spirit of human dignity. Nowhere did this spirit flourish as it did in America. And therefore, when it was proposed that the Slovaks had a right to their national program, it was but natural that for the first time since the death of stur in the mid-19th century the slogan, "We have a rigth to a Slovak state" was again heard, gained headway and soon was popularized. National self-pride leads logically to the formation of a self-governing state. A nation without its own state, though it may be a part of the most progressive and most liberal country, faces ultimate extinction, without a state of its own it cannot reach fulfillment of its cultural, social and national potential. In this particular direction precisely the program of the Slovak League of America reached the zenith of its greatness, for the ideals of freedom inspired its dynamic activity from this very first mass meeting. What undoubtedly was the Slovak League's most significant role in the life of the Slovak nation was that it provided the Slovaks, freed at last from the common traits of backwardness, slavishness and servility so evident in their native homeland, a powerful and resourceful arsenal for the struggle to win national freedom for their home country on the basis of a natural and divine right to enjoy the blessings of freedom. In the exciting years when these events transpired abroad, the spirit at home waned noticeably. The greater the pressure exerted, the more the home folks weakened in their resolve and their demands for their just rights reached a new low. It appeared that if the Magyars had offered the Slovaks a few intermediate schools and had relaxed their political pressure then, and had they allowed restricted use of the Slovak language in the schools and distributed a few minor offices, they probably would have solved the 'Slovak problem'. The Slovak struggle, which had begun as an all-out fight for all the rights the Slovak nation was entitled to, was now but a feeble movement to attain some sort of recognition. It was a far cry from the original demand for Slovak schools throughout the country, for 24 SLOVAKIA Slovak representatives of their own people and the use of the Slovak language as an official language in Slovakia. Ironically, when Slovak spokesmen sought to get even the smallest consideration, their Magyar overlords asked them arrogantly: "Now, wouldn't you like to have your own Slovak state?" Vajansky gave the proper response: "Why not? The natural right of every nation is its birthright to self-government, and we, Slovaks as a full-fledged nation, have all the prerogatives for our own free , self-governing state." (Narodne Noviny, November 15, 1910). At home, however, it was virtually impossible to voice this right to statehood, not to speak of a practical application. But we must never surrender this right because the highest aspiration of any nation is to have its own state. Are we Slovaks to be the lone exception among a long list of advanced nations down through history? No! Was there ever a Slovak who before World War I denied the right of his people to their own free state? Never! And had the opportunity presented itself, every Slovak would have exerted himself to the utmost to establish and maintain a free, self-governing Slovak state. 'Not merely the attainment of some of our rights but all of them' was the battle-cry of the Slovak League as the movement gained momentum among a united American Slovak public. Soon after the founding of the Slovak League, there appeared in the Slovak press here proposals of Slovak statehood. Freedom is a God-given right and we cannot receive it as a gift from other nations. All nations are equal in the sight of God, and hence they have equality of rights. Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky proposed the possibility of a federation of European nations in which each nation would give up a little of its national sovereignity for the common welfare of all fellow members. Studies of the Slovak pronouncements at the time indicate indisputably aspirations for state self-government; though often veiled they were there nevertheless. A closer look proves it. Why, then, did they refrain from coming out and saying so openly? Because the Slovak masses were not yet conditioned to so radical SLOVAKIA 25 a proposal, namely, outright freedom and self-governing state of their own in their own country. Upon reflection as to the prime requisites for a selfgoverning and independent state, the Slovaks came to the following conclusions: a) They had a living language b) They possessed a common Christian faith which was the national basis of a moral life c) They shared a spirit of unity and national pride On the debit side, they realized that they lacked a strong national organization to set up this political state they vaguely dreamed of at home. But, as they looked westward, the example of the dynamic Slovak League of America gave them the courage they needed, for here actually the Slovaks were organized, ready and able to give them the assistance necessary to establish and maintain their own free, self-governing state. Slovak Independence was in the mind of Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky as he wrote in an editorial: "Slovak freedom will materialize when the political circumstances and a new favorable atmosphere appear in Europe. The Slovaks must await this moment with complete confidence and an ardent national pride. They must aspire to a full, unconditional national fulfillment in a free and independent Slovak state." What vision and courage to have written these prophetic words at the time! "We Slovaks will join that movement that will give us it.he most and surest guarantees of our national liberty. We do not want to be a footstool for any nation. We will cooperate with those who will pledge to respect our aspirations to national freedom . Theoretically, this meant possible aid from the Poles, Romanians, Croatians, and even the Germans and Austrians. "That is why we Slovaks will join our forces with those who not only offer aid to us for the attainment of our legitimate objectives as a nation but who at the same time give us the best guarantees. In politics there is no place for sentiment. We will be friends with those who give us the most advantages, but we will not be their slaves. "There were pessimistic views, then as now, ithait sought to convince the Slovaks of the utter futility of seeking full self-government based on ,t he ridiculous premise that it is far more advantageous to be allied with others more experienced in the art of government ... which, in effect, meant that one should be willing to carry the burden of oppression if only his oppressors lighten the burden somewhat! To these people Husek had only one comment: 'Such rubbish! ' " (Jednota, December 30, 1908) . 26 SLOVAKIA Slovak League leaders and members scoffed at views that were designed to discourage the Slovak nation's aspiration to national freedom and self-government. They called for an all-out struggle for the attainment of all their rights to which they were entitled by nature. It was, indeed, in harmony with what a western Slovak song so aptly expressed: "We only want what is ours, nothing more, nothing less." Liberty is the natural heritage of every nation but no nation can enjoy freedom unless it has its own free, selfgoverning state. One of the greatest services performed by the Slovak League of America in the years when the struggle for the nation's freedom reached a low ebb in the Slovak's historic homeland was to hold high the banner of national freedom and personal liberty. American Slovak immigrants soon came to the conclusion that they, too, were able to conduct their own political affairs and like nations, they, too, had an equal right to their own independent state. Strange as it may seem, the idea of national freedom and independent statehood did not originate in Slovakia but in America where the Slovak pioneers compared themselves to their neighbors of various nationalities and saw that they were not at all an inferior people. On the contrary, they were equals among equals. This discovery encouraged them to adopt a program whose objective was the liberation of the Slovaks from alien domination. The ultimate goal was the establishment of their own free state. "Independent statehood for the Slovak nation must be uppermost in the minds of all Slovaks because the nations of the world, even the least advanced, are seeking independence. Consequently, the Slovaks must not be slaves to any nation." (Slovensky Dennik, Pittsburgh, Pa. , January 21, 1910). Again in the same newspaper of June 3, 1910, we read: "No one can degrade the ideal of freedom because it is won by the sacrifice of human blood and is, therefore, sacred. Moreover, it is founded on the principles of equality, truth and justice." This was the spirit of the founders of the Slovak League as expressed in America, far from the Slovaks' native homeland. It embodied the spirit of personal liberty, human dignity, democracy, national pride. It was based upon the SLOVAKIA 27 knowledge of God's laws as found in nature and it enkindled the spirit of free enterprise, cooperation and self-confidence. The inner strength of the Slovak nation assured the future national destiny of the Slovak people in their own free and independent state. Spontaneous and prophetic, this spirit inspired the Slovak nation to adopt a clear-cut program towards winning freedom, and if for a time the Slovak nation had been deprived of its freedom the words of I'..udovit stlir and Tholt Vel'kostiavnicky echoed and re-echoed the eternal message: "The ideal of Slovak freedom will never die. Traitors to the Slovak cause will perish but the movement to national freedom will live forever. " In this unique chapter of Slovak history, the Slovak League has a just and major portion because it inspired the struggle, maintained the fight in its day, and is still carrying on that fight because the Slovak nation has been enslaved in our times. Furdek presided at a meeting of the executive committee of the Slovak League on June 13, 1907. The discussions centered on the practical means of giving aid. A suggestion to issue stamps and a commemorative medal for a fund-raising campaign was approved and adopted. Soon a stamp was issued and a medal appeared with the inspiring motto, 'Za tu nasu slovencinu' (For our Slovak Heritage). The new stamp appeared on thousands of letters that circulated throughout the country, and the idea of Slovak freedom caught on everywhere. Some said (prophetically) that in the near future Slovakia would have its own postage stamps! A strong reaction set in overseas. Hungarian authorities returned letters by the thousands to their original mailing-points in America simply because alongside the regular postage stamp there appeared the special Slovak League stamp! They feared the danger of this propaganda medium, namely, the fear of an aroused Slovak public. In America the Slovak League fully exploited the ban by informing America Newspapers of this step. The Slovak League not only intensified its efforts towards national emancipation but gave invaluable aid to orphaned families. 28 SLOVAKLA Correspondence between Slovak political leaders at home and the American Slovaks reveals the solid strength of their fellow countrymen who had emigrated. Every appeal for help was answered. On their part, the American Slovaks were self-sufficient in that they needed no prodding to do what they deemed a sacred duty towards their embattled countrymen. When Count Albert Apponyi visited America in 1911, his mission was to convince the Americans that the Magyars were truly a bastion of democracy in Central Europe. The American Slovaks presented facts, based upon actual experience before they had left their homeland, which convinced the American public that in actuality the Magyars were tyrannical oppressors of the Slovak nation and other nations in Hungary. American census-takers for years had listed Slovaks as "Hungarians" but it was the Slovak League that intervened and set the records straight. From 1910 on, all Slovaks were listed as such officially. War clouds appeared in Europe. In 1914 Count Karolyi appeared suddenly in this country. He, too, had a mission, namely, to unite the nationality groups that had origins in Hungary. It soon became evident, however, that he found it an impossibility to inspire loyalty, for he represented the oppressor and they had been the oppressed. American Slovaks, who had got used to the idea of freedom, now envisioned national freedom and consequently complete separation from Hungary. Accordingly, they had the same reply for the liberal Karolyi as they had given only a short time before to the conservative Apponyi, ie., 'Nothing doing!' This occasion gave the Slovak League the opportunity to make a bold stand against amalgamation with the Magyars, or the Czechs later; under Mamatey's leadership the Slovak League asserted the right of the Slovak nation to determine its own destiny in a free, self-governing state. Count Karolyi's visit to America marked the end of an era, an era of oppression, and the political subjugation of the Slovaks. It was, moreover, the prelude to a new chapter in the Slovak nation's history at the very outbreak of World War I.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beginnings of The Slovak League of America Description An account of the resource Constantine Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 17 (No. 40), 1967 pp. 18-28 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 1967 Relation A related resource This article is one of five from this special issue republished as a monograph: Paučo, Jozef, ed. 1967. <em>Sixty Years of the Slovak League of America.</em> Middletown Pennsylvania: Slovak League of America. <a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/36616" target="_blank" title="Link to WorldCat" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://worldcat.org/en/title/36616</a> 60years SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d922dbae150a2019dbea52d6546773f4.pdf d435bd9f363ef6e34c7aefadab00c025 PDF Text Text :u SLOVAKIA BENES AND MOSCOW Prague and Moscow are wont to pompously celebrate December 12th of each year; it was on that day in 1943 that the ill-fated Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of friendship, mutual aid and postwar collaJboration was signed. In reality the name of the treaty is not correct; it should be titled the Benes-Soviet Treaty, because Czecho-<Slovak'ia, the duly elected representatives of that state, had nothing to do with it. The Siovaks certainly had no word in it. Furthermore, Benes - having resigned in 1938 - had aJbsolutely no authority to negotiate any treaties. 'Since December 12, 1943, when the treaty was signed in the presence of Dr. Edward Benes, much has changed in the world. The Second World War came to a close and the wartime united nations began to fall apart because of the Soviet Union. Dr. Benes stresses in his MEMOIRS (Pameti, p. 242) that the treaty came about at his request. In March, 1943, he asked Ambassador Bogomolov, among other things, whether Moscow was ready to conclude a treaty with Czecho-Slovakia. The reply was made on April 23rd, when Bogomolov "brought a positive answer in essential points" and said: "The Soviet Government therefore invites you to prepare a draft of the treaty and submit it to the Soviet Government." Dr. Edward Benes then prepared the draft of the treaty with John Masaryk and Dr. Hubert Ripka. This treaty was to dispel any mistrust of the West for the Soviet Union and demonstrate that the Soviet Union does not want to engulf Czecho-Slovakia or any other European states. Furthermore, the treaty could be pointed to "as an example, even in the U. S. A. , and that the Aflies, particularly the greater Powers, would thereby be fundamentally drawn closer together. All unfounded suspicions of the Soviet Union would be allayed or eliminated, and this would help to prepare the ground for what finally took place at both the Allied Conferences in Moscow and Teheran" (Benes's Message to the State Council, London, Feb. 3, 1944: EAST AND WEST, Hubect: Ripka, 1944; p. 135). 1 �22 SLOVAKIA According to Ripka, it is not only Czeoho-Slovakia that benefits by the Treaty, but also the Soviet Union: "But its value assuredly resides also in its very significant bearings on the interests of the Soviet Union; on the one hand it very effectively promotes the security of the Soviet Union against the aggressive designs of Germany, which, as far as Central Europe is concerned, are countered first and foremost by Czecho-Slovakia as a truly powerful bastion, and on the other hand it grants at the same time a definite guarantee that in this area there is no possibility for the creation of a sufficiently powerful bloc which could seriously menace Soviet secu.rity" ('Ri'Pkia: pp. l,Wl.25). Thereby, too, "an end had been made to all attempts, the folly of which might long ago have been clear, seeking to bring a-bout the isolation of the Soviet Union from the rest of Europe by some confederated middle zone, in which it was only too plain that the former anti-Soviet cordon sanitaire was to be restored to life. I may add in passing that all such scihemes were impossi•ble to put into effect for the sole reason that Czecho-Slovakia would never have participated in them" (Ripka: p. 113). There is no doubt that Czech politicians knowingly and intentionally worked to get the nations of central Europe within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. Benes's wish was fulfilled: the treaJty became a model for Moscow to attain this end. Accordingly similar treaties were concluded with the rest of the nations of this part of Europe : with Yugoslavia on April 11, 1945; with Poland on April 21, 1945; with Rumania on February 4, 1948; with Hungary on February 18, 1948; with Bulgaria on March 18, 1948, and with Finland on April 6, 1948. Within the framework of this allied system treaties were negotiated between the individual satellite states: between Poland and Yugoslavia on March 18, 1946; between Yugoslavia and Czecho-Slovakia on May 9, 1946; between Albania and Yugoslavia on July 9, 1946; between CzechoSlovakia and Poland on March 10, 1947; between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia on November 27, 1947; between Hungary and Yugoslavia on December 8, 1947; between Altb ania and Bulgaria on December 16, 1947; between Rumania and Yugoslavia on December 19, 1947; between Bulgaria and Rumania on January 16, 1948; between Hungary and Ru- �SLOVAKIA 23 mania on January 24, 1948; between Czecho-Slovakia and Bulgaria on April 23, 1948. Therefore Dr. Edward Benes and his collaborators not only tJheoretically but also practically to the very last moment did everything to strengthen the sphere of influence of Moscow in central Europe. The pro-Soviet policy of Benes was accepted by the Czechs without any reservations. This was the political line of the Czech leaders who directed the destiny of the Slovak and Czech nations after 1945. Dr. Ivo Duchacek expressed the mind of the Czech politicians on March 8, 1946, when he said in the Provisional National Parliament: "It is not, therefore, just a phrase when we say that our alliance with the Soviet Union is the pillar of our foreign policy. What other pillar, if it is not to be created ou,t of paper, could we possibly have? Our paGt with the Soviet Union, guarantees us immed,i ate help of the Red Army in case we are threatened. The pact with brotherly Russia, whiGh is the foundation of our foreign and military policy is, it is true, also an expression of our joilllt efforts and in,t erests. "Therefore the Czecho-Slovak People's Party {Sramek's CZECH Populist Party), whose chairman contributed in such a significant way to conclude the treaty with Russia even before the end of the war, even though certain elements of the West were against this, fully agrees with the theme th.it this alliance with Russia must not be a subject of partisan discussions, and must not be dragged into the pre-election campaign. The alliance with Russia is the affair of all the parties of the Na,tion~I Front, i,t is the result of their joint effort, it is the affair of the entire nation and not the affair of one party. If the treaty is a common affair, then the meri,ts for co~luding this trea,t y are also a joint matter. N'o party has the right to claim exclusive credit for it. This treaty was prepared after due discussion by Sramek's governmen,t in London. The Communists, we know, were not members of the governmen,t and, therefore, have no direct participation in, the treaty, nevertheless the Communists col• laborated with the government within the framework of the State Council; and the politicians who emigra,t ed to Moscow undoubtedly also helped the successful course of negotiations with their conversations with Soviet leaders. Therefore, even though the Communists were not in the London government, which discussed and cor-=luded the treaty, the credit for concluding this historic treaty reaUy belongs to all of us, to all the parties of the Na,t ional Front. Finally, this competition for the credit of concluding the treaty with the Soviet Union is not in substance a sickly sign. It really proves and again confirms that all the people of this country really stand behind this treaty." �24 SLOVAKIA According to Dr. V. Bernard, who also spoke in the Czech parliament on March 8, 1946, "the Czecho..Slova:kSoviet Treaty must continue to remain the nucleus of our foreign policy, because the alliance with the Soviet Union is the most reliable guarantee of the independence of our Republic and the assurance against any attack in the future. Our alliance with the Soviet Union in the end is not the object of any internal political quarrel, and everyone concerned with the security of the Republic, observing the development in the world with open eyes, must be a sincere adherent of this orientation in our foreign policy." It is assuredly noteworthy that Dr. Edward Benes and his co-workers, most of whom today are refugees in the West, saw in the treaty of alliance with Soviet Russia not only the means of attaining an international goal, but also envisioned the realization of Pan-Slavistic and socialistic goals. Dr. Benes himself expressed this clearly on various occasions. And Dr. V. Bernard, too, is concerned with ideological reasons, inasmuch as he said. "we cannot help but see the connection of international policy with the relationship between the forces of decadent capitalism and progressive socialism in universal extent." Czech politicians labored to attain their chauvinistic aims so that with the aid of this treaty they could assure for the Czech nation hegemony over Slovakia in their conflict with the Slovak people, and also so that they could realize the expulsion of .the Sudeten Germans and thus to Czechize the Sudetenland. This was stressed by both Dr. Hubert Ripka in his statement to the State Council in London on May 15, 1943, and also by Dr. Edward Benes in his Moscow broadcast of December 21, 1943. This treaty expresses the thinking of Czech politicians and their partners from Slovakia. On various occasions they consistently and in varied forms did not hesitate to remind us that, in the case of misunderstanding arising between the East and West, they would remain on the side of the East. At that time they ruled with Benes by the grace of Stalin. They (Kocvara, Zenkl, Lettrich, F. Hodfa, Duchacek, Taborsky, etc.) suddenly became "anti-commu- �SLOVAKIA 25 nist" after F~bruary 25, 1948. But up to that time they faithfully followed Benes's pro-Soviet line ad nuseam. ~hey were not the victims of a mistake, nor were they deceived. They knew what they were doing without regard to the development of world politics. And what about the eventuality of the West collaborating with the Germans as a defense against Soviet aggression? The Czechs also thought about that, as Ripka so clearly stated in 1944: "Some Centr'al and Eastern-European politicians ... assume that Britain and America will be unable to suffer Russia to be predominant on the con,tin.e n,t of Europe and that, although the Anglo-Saxon countries may not no•w be able to prevent Rus!.ia from realizing her territorial or other claims, they will strive, after the war, to curt&il her power and later to effect a 'reasonable adjustment' of the Soviet 'a nnexations.' Anyone cherishing hopes of this nature is simply speculating on a new world war; and the realization of such plans neces• sarily presupposes an alliance between the Anglo.Saxon coun,t ries and Germany, since without Germany they cannot be put into effect" (Hulbert Rip~a : EAST AND WEST, Lond'On, 1944; p. 62). It is obvious that between the aims of Soviet policy and the aims of the policy of Dr. Edward Benes and his followers, who today are in emigration, there were no basic differences. That they could not continue at home in their efforts is not because they changed their political line, but simply because Moscow no longer had any interest to collaborate with Peter Zenk!, Hube:r,t Ripka, Joseph Lettrich, Fedor Hodza, Adolph Prochazka, Vaclav Majer. It did nothing to prevent their departure to the West. In fact it facilitated it by making the necessary provisions so they could "escape" without any difficulty to promote their political line in the main cities of the West. They are still against the arming of West Germany and for the Russian Empire, discouraging the union of the West against Moscow imperialism. The people joined together in the "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia" have consistently followed the line formulated by Dr. A. Klatkovsky: "We are united with the Soviet Union for life and unto death. ... Not ony because we have a common eastern boundary with our greatest ally, but more so because on our western border stands our greatest enemy. The guarantee of the greatest gain of our history _ �SLOVAKIA 26 the expulsion of the Germans - is the might of the Soviet Union, whose merit it also is that the expulsion was carried out so thoroughly. Our entire future is based on the expulsion of the Germans; ally change in this direction would be our ruin •..• If war would come between the East and the West, and the East would be defeated, we would be as its ally hit the hardest, nay even ruined because the Germans would return to us. However, if in such a conflict we should stand with the West - even though this is practically un· thinkable - we still would not escape the fate of the return of Germans. Therefo.re, the theme that we are united with the Soviet Union for life and unto death is a self-evident axiom of our foreign policy, whether anyone likes it or not. And, therefore, no government of ours can make anti-Soviet foreign policy. This would be suicidal politics and such a government would immediately be swept out by the people." The Czechs have not changed. They still act like Schweiks on occasions, but they are still allied with Moscow more than with the West and its interests. In a word, the Czechs are still promoting Benes's ruinous policy which made enemies of all non-Czech citizens in Czecho-Slovakia and enemiei:;, of all neighboring countries. Because of that the Czech Schweiks now tell the world: We are forced to hang with Russia! (a'he Slovak original of this article was published in the SLOVENiSKA REPUBLIKA, Orgrun of the Slovak Lilber'ation Committee, Vol. VI; No. 1, (60), J'anuary, 1954.) ALL LAND in Slova'kita, Moravia, and Bohemi!a haJS been nationa'1ized. However, in Slovakia (predominantly an agricultural region) the farmers have shown more stubborn resista,nee to the new order, parti'CulaTly in their fighlt to retain ownershiip of their cows. I.Jaitest availaible reports have it that abO'llt 50 per cent of all cows in Slovaki,a are still indi>Vlidually owned. Increased mechanlization and stricter Party con:t>rol is in evlidence eiverywhere. 3{l 3{l 3{l of Czecho~lovakia has produced the first four records of a s'ertl.es oa'lled "Musica Nova Bohemica et Slov,e nica." !included is the Balladic Suite (Su,a 10046) of ARTIA Eugen Suchoil., eminenlt Sl'ov•ak composer. Datling £rom 1936, it is a lengthy opus for a large orchestra, "foll of bri'lliant orehestral devices and strong melddirc ideas," according to Alan Rkh of The New York Tomes. Noting that Sachoil. is a composer well worth investigation, Mr. Rich adds that Suchon's Balladic Suite, "while its h•armonic sty;le is no more sitaTtling than that of the late Dvorak, Suchoii at least has the aibfil.ty to operate freely and quite soocess'fu'lly within the framework of a bygone la,ngu1age." SrUJchoil. also composed "The Whirlpool," -a powerlul tragi,c opera, and the "Psalm of the Carpa1lhian Country," a brtl.lliarn large sea-le choral work. � :u SLOVAKIA BENES AND MOSCOW Prague and Moscow are wont to pompously celebrate December 12th of each year; it was on that day in 1943 that the ill-fated Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of friendship, mutual aid and postwar collaJboration was signed. In reality the name of the treaty is not correct; it should be titled the Benes-Soviet Treaty, because Czecho-<Slovak'ia, the duly elected representatives of that state, had nothing to do with it. The Siovaks certainly had no word in it. Furthermore, Benes - having resigned in 1938 - had aJbsolutely no authority to negotiate any treaties. 'Since December 12, 1943, when the treaty was signed in the presence of Dr. Edward Benes, much has changed in the world. The Second World War came to a close and the wartime united nations began to fall apart because of the Soviet Union. Dr. Benes stresses in his MEMOIRS (Pameti, p. 242) that the treaty came about at his request. In March, 1943, he asked Ambassador Bogomolov, among other things, whether Moscow was ready to conclude a treaty with Czecho-Slovakia. The reply was made on April 23rd, when Bogomolov "brought a positive answer in essential points" and said: "The Soviet Government therefore invites you to prepare a draft of the treaty and submit it to the Soviet Government." Dr. Edward Benes then prepared the draft of the treaty with John Masaryk and Dr. Hubert Ripka. This treaty was to dispel any mistrust of the West for the Soviet Union and demonstrate that the Soviet Union does not want to engulf Czecho-Slovakia or any other European states. Furthermore, the treaty could be pointed to "as an example, even in the U. S. A. , and that the Aflies, particularly the greater Powers, would thereby be fundamentally drawn closer together. All unfounded suspicions of the Soviet Union would be allayed or eliminated, and this would help to prepare the ground for what finally took place at both the Allied Conferences in Moscow and Teheran" (Benes's Message to the State Council, London, Feb. 3, 1944: EAST AND WEST, Hubect: Ripka, 1944; p. 135). 1 �22 SLOVAKIA According to Ripka, it is not only Czeoho-Slovakia that benefits by the Treaty, but also the Soviet Union: "But its value assuredly resides also in its very significant bearings on the interests of the Soviet Union; on the one hand it very effectively promotes the security of the Soviet Union against the aggressive designs of Germany, which, as far as Central Europe is concerned, are countered first and foremost by Czecho-Slovakia as a truly powerful bastion, and on the other hand it grants at the same time a definite guarantee that in this area there is no possibility for the creation of a sufficiently powerful bloc which could seriously menace Soviet secu.rity" ('Ri'Pkia: pp. l,Wl.25). Thereby, too, "an end had been made to all attempts, the folly of which might long ago have been clear, seeking to bring a-bout the isolation of the Soviet Union from the rest of Europe by some confederated middle zone, in which it was only too plain that the former anti-Soviet cordon sanitaire was to be restored to life. I may add in passing that all such scihemes were impossi•ble to put into effect for the sole reason that Czecho-Slovakia would never have participated in them" (Ripka: p. 113). There is no doubt that Czech politicians knowingly and intentionally worked to get the nations of central Europe within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. Benes's wish was fulfilled: the treaJty became a model for Moscow to attain this end. Accordingly similar treaties were concluded with the rest of the nations of this part of Europe : with Yugoslavia on April 11, 1945; with Poland on April 21, 1945; with Rumania on February 4, 1948; with Hungary on February 18, 1948; with Bulgaria on March 18, 1948, and with Finland on April 6, 1948. Within the framework of this allied system treaties were negotiated between the individual satellite states: between Poland and Yugoslavia on March 18, 1946; between Yugoslavia and Czecho-Slovakia on May 9, 1946; between Albania and Yugoslavia on July 9, 1946; between CzechoSlovakia and Poland on March 10, 1947; between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia on November 27, 1947; between Hungary and Yugoslavia on December 8, 1947; between Altb ania and Bulgaria on December 16, 1947; between Rumania and Yugoslavia on December 19, 1947; between Bulgaria and Rumania on January 16, 1948; between Hungary and Ru- �SLOVAKIA 23 mania on January 24, 1948; between Czecho-Slovakia and Bulgaria on April 23, 1948. Therefore Dr. Edward Benes and his collaborators not only tJheoretically but also practically to the very last moment did everything to strengthen the sphere of influence of Moscow in central Europe. The pro-Soviet policy of Benes was accepted by the Czechs without any reservations. This was the political line of the Czech leaders who directed the destiny of the Slovak and Czech nations after 1945. Dr. Ivo Duchacek expressed the mind of the Czech politicians on March 8, 1946, when he said in the Provisional National Parliament: "It is not, therefore, just a phrase when we say that our alliance with the Soviet Union is the pillar of our foreign policy. What other pillar, if it is not to be created ou,t of paper, could we possibly have? Our paGt with the Soviet Union, guarantees us immed,i ate help of the Red Army in case we are threatened. The pact with brotherly Russia, whiGh is the foundation of our foreign and military policy is, it is true, also an expression of our joilllt efforts and in,t erests. "Therefore the Czecho-Slovak People's Party {Sramek's CZECH Populist Party), whose chairman contributed in such a significant way to conclude the treaty with Russia even before the end of the war, even though certain elements of the West were against this, fully agrees with the theme th.it this alliance with Russia must not be a subject of partisan discussions, and must not be dragged into the pre-election campaign. The alliance with Russia is the affair of all the parties of the Na,tion~I Front, i,t is the result of their joint effort, it is the affair of the entire nation and not the affair of one party. If the treaty is a common affair, then the meri,ts for co~luding this trea,t y are also a joint matter. N'o party has the right to claim exclusive credit for it. This treaty was prepared after due discussion by Sramek's governmen,t in London. The Communists, we know, were not members of the governmen,t and, therefore, have no direct participation in, the treaty, nevertheless the Communists col• laborated with the government within the framework of the State Council; and the politicians who emigra,t ed to Moscow undoubtedly also helped the successful course of negotiations with their conversations with Soviet leaders. Therefore, even though the Communists were not in the London government, which discussed and cor-=luded the treaty, the credit for concluding this historic treaty reaUy belongs to all of us, to all the parties of the Na,t ional Front. Finally, this competition for the credit of concluding the treaty with the Soviet Union is not in substance a sickly sign. It really proves and again confirms that all the people of this country really stand behind this treaty." �24 SLOVAKIA According to Dr. V. Bernard, who also spoke in the Czech parliament on March 8, 1946, "the Czecho..Slova:kSoviet Treaty must continue to remain the nucleus of our foreign policy, because the alliance with the Soviet Union is the most reliable guarantee of the independence of our Republic and the assurance against any attack in the future. Our alliance with the Soviet Union in the end is not the object of any internal political quarrel, and everyone concerned with the security of the Republic, observing the development in the world with open eyes, must be a sincere adherent of this orientation in our foreign policy." It is assuredly noteworthy that Dr. Edward Benes and his co-workers, most of whom today are refugees in the West, saw in the treaty of alliance with Soviet Russia not only the means of attaining an international goal, but also envisioned the realization of Pan-Slavistic and socialistic goals. Dr. Benes himself expressed this clearly on various occasions. And Dr. V. Bernard, too, is concerned with ideological reasons, inasmuch as he said. "we cannot help but see the connection of international policy with the relationship between the forces of decadent capitalism and progressive socialism in universal extent." Czech politicians labored to attain their chauvinistic aims so that with the aid of this treaty they could assure for the Czech nation hegemony over Slovakia in their conflict with the Slovak people, and also so that they could realize the expulsion of .the Sudeten Germans and thus to Czechize the Sudetenland. This was stressed by both Dr. Hubert Ripka in his statement to the State Council in London on May 15, 1943, and also by Dr. Edward Benes in his Moscow broadcast of December 21, 1943. This treaty expresses the thinking of Czech politicians and their partners from Slovakia. On various occasions they consistently and in varied forms did not hesitate to remind us that, in the case of misunderstanding arising between the East and West, they would remain on the side of the East. At that time they ruled with Benes by the grace of Stalin. They (Kocvara, Zenkl, Lettrich, F. Hodfa, Duchacek, Taborsky, etc.) suddenly became "anti-commu- �SLOVAKIA 25 nist" after F~bruary 25, 1948. But up to that time they faithfully followed Benes's pro-Soviet line ad nuseam. ~hey were not the victims of a mistake, nor were they deceived. They knew what they were doing without regard to the development of world politics. And what about the eventuality of the West collaborating with the Germans as a defense against Soviet aggression? The Czechs also thought about that, as Ripka so clearly stated in 1944: "Some Centr'al and Eastern-European politicians ... assume that Britain and America will be unable to suffer Russia to be predominant on the con,tin.e n,t of Europe and that, although the Anglo-Saxon countries may not no•w be able to prevent Rus!.ia from realizing her territorial or other claims, they will strive, after the war, to curt&il her power and later to effect a 'reasonable adjustment' of the Soviet 'a nnexations.' Anyone cherishing hopes of this nature is simply speculating on a new world war; and the realization of such plans neces• sarily presupposes an alliance between the Anglo.Saxon coun,t ries and Germany, since without Germany they cannot be put into effect" (Hulbert Rip~a : EAST AND WEST, Lond'On, 1944; p. 62). It is obvious that between the aims of Soviet policy and the aims of the policy of Dr. Edward Benes and his followers, who today are in emigration, there were no basic differences. That they could not continue at home in their efforts is not because they changed their political line, but simply because Moscow no longer had any interest to collaborate with Peter Zenk!, Hube:r,t Ripka, Joseph Lettrich, Fedor Hodza, Adolph Prochazka, Vaclav Majer. It did nothing to prevent their departure to the West. In fact it facilitated it by making the necessary provisions so they could "escape" without any difficulty to promote their political line in the main cities of the West. They are still against the arming of West Germany and for the Russian Empire, discouraging the union of the West against Moscow imperialism. The people joined together in the "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia" have consistently followed the line formulated by Dr. A. Klatkovsky: "We are united with the Soviet Union for life and unto death. ... Not ony because we have a common eastern boundary with our greatest ally, but more so because on our western border stands our greatest enemy. The guarantee of the greatest gain of our history _ �SLOVAKIA 26 the expulsion of the Germans - is the might of the Soviet Union, whose merit it also is that the expulsion was carried out so thoroughly. Our entire future is based on the expulsion of the Germans; ally change in this direction would be our ruin •..• If war would come between the East and the West, and the East would be defeated, we would be as its ally hit the hardest, nay even ruined because the Germans would return to us. However, if in such a conflict we should stand with the West - even though this is practically un· thinkable - we still would not escape the fate of the return of Germans. Therefo.re, the theme that we are united with the Soviet Union for life and unto death is a self-evident axiom of our foreign policy, whether anyone likes it or not. And, therefore, no government of ours can make anti-Soviet foreign policy. This would be suicidal politics and such a government would immediately be swept out by the people." The Czechs have not changed. They still act like Schweiks on occasions, but they are still allied with Moscow more than with the West and its interests. In a word, the Czechs are still promoting Benes's ruinous policy which made enemies of all non-Czech citizens in Czecho-Slovakia and enemiei:;, of all neighboring countries. Because of that the Czech Schweiks now tell the world: We are forced to hang with Russia! (a'he Slovak original of this article was published in the SLOVENiSKA REPUBLIKA, Orgrun of the Slovak Lilber'ation Committee, Vol. VI; No. 1, (60), J'anuary, 1954.) ALL LAND in Slova'kita, Moravia, and Bohemi!a haJS been nationa'1ized. However, in Slovakia (predominantly an agricultural region) the farmers have shown more stubborn resista,nee to the new order, parti'CulaTly in their fighlt to retain ownershiip of their cows. I.Jaitest availaible reports have it that abO'llt 50 per cent of all cows in Slovaki,a are still indi>Vlidually owned. Increased mechanlization and stricter Party con:t>rol is in evlidence eiverywhere. 3{l 3{l 3{l of Czecho~lovakia has produced the first four records of a s'ertl.es oa'lled "Musica Nova Bohemica et Slov,e nica." !included is the Balladic Suite (Su,a 10046) of ARTIA Eugen Suchoil., eminenlt Sl'ov•ak composer. Datling £rom 1936, it is a lengthy opus for a large orchestra, "foll of bri'lliant orehestral devices and strong melddirc ideas," according to Alan Rkh of The New York Tomes. Noting that Sachoil. is a composer well worth investigation, Mr. Rich adds that Suchon's Balladic Suite, "while its h•armonic sty;le is no more sitaTtling than that of the late Dvorak, Suchoii at least has the aibfil.ty to operate freely and quite soocess'fu'lly within the framework of a bygone la,ngu1age." SrUJchoil. also composed "The Whirlpool," -a powerlul tragi,c opera, and the "Psalm of the Carpa1lhian Country," a brtl.lliarn large sea-le choral work. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1961, Vol. 11 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 33), March-June 1961.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 34), September-December June 1961.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1961 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 :u SLOVAKIA BENES AND MOSCOW Prague and Moscow are wont to pompously celebrate December 12th of each year; it was on that day in 1943 that the ill-fated Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of friendship, mutual aid and postwar collaJboration was signed. In reality the name of the treaty is not correct; it should be titled the Benes-Soviet Treaty, because Czecho-<Slovak'ia, the duly elected representatives of that state, had nothing to do with it. The Siovaks certainly had no word in it. Furthermore, Benes - having resigned in 1938 - had aJbsolutely no authority to negotiate any treaties. 'Since December 12, 1943, when the treaty was signed in the presence of Dr. Edward Benes, much has changed in the world. The Second World War came to a close and the wartime united nations began to fall apart because of the Soviet Union. Dr. Benes stresses in his MEMOIRS (Pameti, p. 242) that the treaty came about at his request. In March, 1943, he asked Ambassador Bogomolov, among other things, whether Moscow was ready to conclude a treaty with Czecho-Slovakia. The reply was made on April 23rd, when Bogomolov "brought a positive answer in essential points" and said: "The Soviet Government therefore invites you to prepare a draft of the treaty and submit it to the Soviet Government." Dr. Edward Benes then prepared the draft of the treaty with John Masaryk and Dr. Hubert Ripka. This treaty was to dispel any mistrust of the West for the Soviet Union and demonstrate that the Soviet Union does not want to engulf Czecho-Slovakia or any other European states. Furthermore, the treaty could be pointed to "as an example, even in the U. S. A. , and that the Aflies, particularly the greater Powers, would thereby be fundamentally drawn closer together. All unfounded suspicions of the Soviet Union would be allayed or eliminated, and this would help to prepare the ground for what finally took place at both the Allied Conferences in Moscow and Teheran" (Benes's Message to the State Council, London, Feb. 3, 1944: EAST AND WEST, Hubect: Ripka, 1944; p. 135). 1 22 SLOVAKIA According to Ripka, it is not only Czeoho-Slovakia that benefits by the Treaty, but also the Soviet Union: "But its value assuredly resides also in its very significant bearings on the interests of the Soviet Union; on the one hand it very effectively promotes the security of the Soviet Union against the aggressive designs of Germany, which, as far as Central Europe is concerned, are countered first and foremost by Czecho-Slovakia as a truly powerful bastion, and on the other hand it grants at the same time a definite guarantee that in this area there is no possibility for the creation of a sufficiently powerful bloc which could seriously menace Soviet secu.rity" ('Ri'Pkia: pp. l,Wl.25). Thereby, too, "an end had been made to all attempts, the folly of which might long ago have been clear, seeking to bring a-bout the isolation of the Soviet Union from the rest of Europe by some confederated middle zone, in which it was only too plain that the former anti-Soviet cordon sanitaire was to be restored to life. I may add in passing that all such scihemes were impossi•ble to put into effect for the sole reason that Czecho-Slovakia would never have participated in them" (Ripka: p. 113). There is no doubt that Czech politicians knowingly and intentionally worked to get the nations of central Europe within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. Benes's wish was fulfilled: the treaJty became a model for Moscow to attain this end. Accordingly similar treaties were concluded with the rest of the nations of this part of Europe : with Yugoslavia on April 11, 1945; with Poland on April 21, 1945; with Rumania on February 4, 1948; with Hungary on February 18, 1948; with Bulgaria on March 18, 1948, and with Finland on April 6, 1948. Within the framework of this allied system treaties were negotiated between the individual satellite states: between Poland and Yugoslavia on March 18, 1946; between Yugoslavia and Czecho-Slovakia on May 9, 1946; between Albania and Yugoslavia on July 9, 1946; between CzechoSlovakia and Poland on March 10, 1947; between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia on November 27, 1947; between Hungary and Yugoslavia on December 8, 1947; between Altb ania and Bulgaria on December 16, 1947; between Rumania and Yugoslavia on December 19, 1947; between Bulgaria and Rumania on January 16, 1948; between Hungary and Ru- SLOVAKIA 23 mania on January 24, 1948; between Czecho-Slovakia and Bulgaria on April 23, 1948. Therefore Dr. Edward Benes and his collaborators not only tJheoretically but also practically to the very last moment did everything to strengthen the sphere of influence of Moscow in central Europe. The pro-Soviet policy of Benes was accepted by the Czechs without any reservations. This was the political line of the Czech leaders who directed the destiny of the Slovak and Czech nations after 1945. Dr. Ivo Duchacek expressed the mind of the Czech politicians on March 8, 1946, when he said in the Provisional National Parliament: "It is not, therefore, just a phrase when we say that our alliance with the Soviet Union is the pillar of our foreign policy. What other pillar, if it is not to be created ou,t of paper, could we possibly have? Our paGt with the Soviet Union, guarantees us immed,i ate help of the Red Army in case we are threatened. The pact with brotherly Russia, whiGh is the foundation of our foreign and military policy is, it is true, also an expression of our joilllt efforts and in,t erests. "Therefore the Czecho-Slovak People's Party {Sramek's CZECH Populist Party), whose chairman contributed in such a significant way to conclude the treaty with Russia even before the end of the war, even though certain elements of the West were against this, fully agrees with the theme th.it this alliance with Russia must not be a subject of partisan discussions, and must not be dragged into the pre-election campaign. The alliance with Russia is the affair of all the parties of the Na,tion~I Front, i,t is the result of their joint effort, it is the affair of the entire nation and not the affair of one party. If the treaty is a common affair, then the meri,ts for co~luding this trea,t y are also a joint matter. N'o party has the right to claim exclusive credit for it. This treaty was prepared after due discussion by Sramek's governmen,t in London. The Communists, we know, were not members of the governmen,t and, therefore, have no direct participation in, the treaty, nevertheless the Communists col• laborated with the government within the framework of the State Council; and the politicians who emigra,t ed to Moscow undoubtedly also helped the successful course of negotiations with their conversations with Soviet leaders. Therefore, even though the Communists were not in the London government, which discussed and cor-=luded the treaty, the credit for concluding this historic treaty reaUy belongs to all of us, to all the parties of the Na,t ional Front. Finally, this competition for the credit of concluding the treaty with the Soviet Union is not in substance a sickly sign. It really proves and again confirms that all the people of this country really stand behind this treaty." 24 SLOVAKIA According to Dr. V. Bernard, who also spoke in the Czech parliament on March 8, 1946, "the Czecho..Slova:kSoviet Treaty must continue to remain the nucleus of our foreign policy, because the alliance with the Soviet Union is the most reliable guarantee of the independence of our Republic and the assurance against any attack in the future. Our alliance with the Soviet Union in the end is not the object of any internal political quarrel, and everyone concerned with the security of the Republic, observing the development in the world with open eyes, must be a sincere adherent of this orientation in our foreign policy." It is assuredly noteworthy that Dr. Edward Benes and his co-workers, most of whom today are refugees in the West, saw in the treaty of alliance with Soviet Russia not only the means of attaining an international goal, but also envisioned the realization of Pan-Slavistic and socialistic goals. Dr. Benes himself expressed this clearly on various occasions. And Dr. V. Bernard, too, is concerned with ideological reasons, inasmuch as he said. "we cannot help but see the connection of international policy with the relationship between the forces of decadent capitalism and progressive socialism in universal extent." Czech politicians labored to attain their chauvinistic aims so that with the aid of this treaty they could assure for the Czech nation hegemony over Slovakia in their conflict with the Slovak people, and also so that they could realize the expulsion of .the Sudeten Germans and thus to Czechize the Sudetenland. This was stressed by both Dr. Hubert Ripka in his statement to the State Council in London on May 15, 1943, and also by Dr. Edward Benes in his Moscow broadcast of December 21, 1943. This treaty expresses the thinking of Czech politicians and their partners from Slovakia. On various occasions they consistently and in varied forms did not hesitate to remind us that, in the case of misunderstanding arising between the East and West, they would remain on the side of the East. At that time they ruled with Benes by the grace of Stalin. They (Kocvara, Zenkl, Lettrich, F. Hodfa, Duchacek, Taborsky, etc.) suddenly became "anti-commu- SLOVAKIA 25 nist" after F~bruary 25, 1948. But up to that time they faithfully followed Benes's pro-Soviet line ad nuseam. ~hey were not the victims of a mistake, nor were they deceived. They knew what they were doing without regard to the development of world politics. And what about the eventuality of the West collaborating with the Germans as a defense against Soviet aggression? The Czechs also thought about that, as Ripka so clearly stated in 1944: "Some Centr'al and Eastern-European politicians ... assume that Britain and America will be unable to suffer Russia to be predominant on the con,tin.e n,t of Europe and that, although the Anglo-Saxon countries may not no•w be able to prevent Rus!.ia from realizing her territorial or other claims, they will strive, after the war, to curt&il her power and later to effect a 'reasonable adjustment' of the Soviet 'a nnexations.' Anyone cherishing hopes of this nature is simply speculating on a new world war; and the realization of such plans neces• sarily presupposes an alliance between the Anglo.Saxon coun,t ries and Germany, since without Germany they cannot be put into effect" (Hulbert Rip~a : EAST AND WEST, Lond'On, 1944; p. 62). It is obvious that between the aims of Soviet policy and the aims of the policy of Dr. Edward Benes and his followers, who today are in emigration, there were no basic differences. That they could not continue at home in their efforts is not because they changed their political line, but simply because Moscow no longer had any interest to collaborate with Peter Zenk!, Hube:r,t Ripka, Joseph Lettrich, Fedor Hodza, Adolph Prochazka, Vaclav Majer. It did nothing to prevent their departure to the West. In fact it facilitated it by making the necessary provisions so they could "escape" without any difficulty to promote their political line in the main cities of the West. They are still against the arming of West Germany and for the Russian Empire, discouraging the union of the West against Moscow imperialism. The people joined together in the "Council of Free Czecho-Slovakia" have consistently followed the line formulated by Dr. A. Klatkovsky: "We are united with the Soviet Union for life and unto death. ... Not ony because we have a common eastern boundary with our greatest ally, but more so because on our western border stands our greatest enemy. The guarantee of the greatest gain of our history _ SLOVAKIA 26 the expulsion of the Germans - is the might of the Soviet Union, whose merit it also is that the expulsion was carried out so thoroughly. Our entire future is based on the expulsion of the Germans; ally change in this direction would be our ruin •..• If war would come between the East and the West, and the East would be defeated, we would be as its ally hit the hardest, nay even ruined because the Germans would return to us. However, if in such a conflict we should stand with the West - even though this is practically un· thinkable - we still would not escape the fate of the return of Germans. Therefo.re, the theme that we are united with the Soviet Union for life and unto death is a self-evident axiom of our foreign policy, whether anyone likes it or not. And, therefore, no government of ours can make anti-Soviet foreign policy. This would be suicidal politics and such a government would immediately be swept out by the people." The Czechs have not changed. They still act like Schweiks on occasions, but they are still allied with Moscow more than with the West and its interests. In a word, the Czechs are still promoting Benes's ruinous policy which made enemies of all non-Czech citizens in Czecho-Slovakia and enemiei:;, of all neighboring countries. Because of that the Czech Schweiks now tell the world: We are forced to hang with Russia! (a'he Slovak original of this article was published in the SLOVENiSKA REPUBLIKA, Orgrun of the Slovak Lilber'ation Committee, Vol. VI; No. 1, (60), J'anuary, 1954.) ALL LAND in Slova'kita, Moravia, and Bohemi!a haJS been nationa'1ized. However, in Slovakia (predominantly an agricultural region) the farmers have shown more stubborn resista,nee to the new order, parti'CulaTly in their fighlt to retain ownershiip of their cows. I.Jaitest availaible reports have it that abO'llt 50 per cent of all cows in Slovaki,a are still indi>Vlidually owned. Increased mechanlization and stricter Party con:t>rol is in evlidence eiverywhere. 3{l 3{l 3{l of Czecho~lovakia has produced the first four records of a s'ertl.es oa'lled "Musica Nova Bohemica et Slov,e nica." !included is the Balladic Suite (Su,a 10046) of ARTIA Eugen Suchoil., eminenlt Sl'ov•ak composer. Datling £rom 1936, it is a lengthy opus for a large orchestra, "foll of bri'lliant orehestral devices and strong melddirc ideas," according to Alan Rkh of The New York Tomes. Noting that Sachoil. is a composer well worth investigation, Mr. Rich adds that Suchon's Balladic Suite, "while its h•armonic sty;le is no more sitaTtling than that of the late Dvorak, Suchoii at least has the aibfil.ty to operate freely and quite soocess'fu'lly within the framework of a bygone la,ngu1age." SrUJchoil. also composed "The Whirlpool," -a powerlul tragi,c opera, and the "Psalm of the Carpa1lhian Country," a brtl.lliarn large sea-le choral work.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beneš and Moscow Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 11, No. 2 (34), September-December 1961 pp. 21-26 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1961 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1b62d65dd649731e1634db4030fb37a9.pdf 9982b85f8258a9e4ad33b42d361d5457 PDF Text Text 40 SLOVAKIA BENES AND THE COMMUNIZATION OF CZECHO-SWVAKIA John B. Fox The foreign policy of our country, from the Monroe Doctrine till the late nineteen-forties, was aimed at the greatest .possi1ble isolation. This was e specially true, because of the principles laid down in the mentioned Monroe Doctrine, as far as the Eastern hemisphere was concerned. Thus, afteir World War U, the call to leadership of the democratic world found us. in many respects unprepared. Suddenly we •l earned that our knowledge of the rest of the world, especially Europe, was quite limited. We set about with known American assiduousness to tackle the .great tasik thrust upon us. Realizing that in order to present real leadership we must know our allies, we commenced to accumulate information about the various nations, sea rching eJVery aspect of their national lives . In pursuing this, our leaders solicited the aid of exiled politicians and also that of the various n8Jti-onal organizations in this country. Though we have made tremendous progress in the above undertaking, in many instances, especially as far as some small nations are concerned, we have hardly started the job. To state a case where our Administration, mostly due to complexity of the situation, has hardly obtained a true picture, we mention Czecho-Slovakia. The foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia from 1918-1948 was molded by Eduard Benes and his political aide s. During those thirty yea-rs !Benes was a virtual dictator a s far as the foreign affairs of his countr,y were concerned. In addition to that, he did more than any other politician outside the USSR to make the SOIViet Union acceptable to the West and gain admission to the League of Nations. Benes is now deceased, ibut his disciples, many of whom are in this country, carry ·on in his work. They are acting as consultants to our Administration, exercising influence on Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, Congress, etc . 1 �SLOVAKIA il It seems worth-.while, therefore, to examine Benes's political relationship to the USSR. In doing so, we will not repeat Sir Winston Churchill's condemning opinion of Benes, stated in one of his present books, but will quote from a neat little boo'k published by the Czech-American National Alliance in 1944 entitled, "Eduard Benes in His Own Words." Therein friends of Mr. Benes did us a favor in selecting f,vom the mass of his speeches and publications statements expressing his stand on major political issues in chronoilogical order from 1914~1944. The following, then, are quotes from "Eduard Benes in His Own Words" pertaining to the USSR, giving the date when they were made: 1917: Our revolutionary action welcomed the Russian Revolution openly and sincerely . . . 1918: The Allies tried to use our soldiers in Russia for intervention, •but .this was o,pposed . . . H-.'.O: We refute t'he assertion that if decisive steps had been taken in time against the Bolsheviks, they could have been de.;;tl"'Oyed. In connection with Russia it was our (i.e., Czecho-SJovak) government, almost the only one in the whole of Europe, that understood the situation and foresaw corroctly the evolution of events .... .AIS to Russia, we must and shall help her, so far as it is in our powe r . . . . 1921: Our position on Russian problems, which we often det'ended with difficulty, but which our government executed, is today generally and fully ,accepted. The Allies and the whole European public opinion turned away from the idea of intervention in Russia. Our Republic has been following this policy honestly and consistently for more than three years and is therefore now in a strong moral position. 1922: In the future . . . it will be a struggle for a federalistic, democratic Russia. We believe in the future of this Russia. Our relations to the Russian .peo,ple are proved by our tra,dition and our whole policy. The Czecho-Slov,ak government feels sati'sfaction in having followed for five years a policy in Russian affairs that was fully justified even in the struggle for that policy in Geneva. We shall continue on this course ,also in the future without change. 1923: Our affection for and interest in Russia must be preserved and deepened. Without Russia, European politics and European peace are not imaginable; we have therefore tried, so far as -possible, to open the doors for the mutual contact of Russia and Europe. This Russia simply b:y its existence will be a. rea.l safeguard to our national independence. I have faith in this future democratic Russia and therefore do not worry about our fate. �42 SLOVAKIA 1924: The natural conclusion of this evolution is ,a defini.te de jure ,r ecognition of Russia by all states and the establishme1tt of normal relations with the Soviet Union . . . . 1925: Perhaps 1t will not be long before we shall achieve a second Locarno when the Whole of Europe comes to an understanding with Russia. This will be for the good and well-bein,g of Russia as well as of Europe. . . . 1926: Our policy toward Russia was always guided, by the b elief that we should be p.repared for the moment when Russia would take up her position in Europe . . . . 1933: . . . also the policy of Soviet Russia has displayed certain symptoms of changed orientation. Russia bas sihown great understanding of the needs of peace, having concluded pacts of non-ag. gression with her neighbors, Poland and the Little Entente. 1934: The return of Russia to European politics ,vm facilitate the creation of r eal equilibrium ,a mong the powers in Europe. The policy of rapprochement between ours elves and Soviet Russia is proceeding along normal lines. . . . 1935: Efforts for the strengthening of peace for the good of all the countries of Europe lay at the bottom of the cooperation between Russia .and Czecho-Slovakia. 1937: Soviet Russia is devoting herself more to her internal affairs. A great deficiency in the political systems of Europe after the last war was that that Soviet Un.ion had not been invited ,t o cooperate in its foundation and direction, but only in 1934, when it was already late, became involved in its c ollective defense. 1938: Russia remains faithful to us to the very last; I know that . . . . 1939: If -Soviet Russia were again excluded from the organization of Europe the new collaboration of the o,rganized ,political uni.ts would again lose their equilibrium. This would also inevitably lead to attempts to isoiate Soviet Europe from European influences. Geographically and politically European Russia belongs to Europe. This is an inescapable fact . . . . 1942: Russia is fighting not only for herself, but for all of us. And none of us can contemplate another two decades in which Soviet Russi.a would be isolated from the affairs of Europe. Immediaitely after .t he assault on the Soviet Union by Germany, we ente,red into official negotiations for the resumption of our old friendly and allied relations w.ith the Soviet Union, as they existed before Munich. These negotiations were proceeding without any difficulties and in the .spirit of our former friendship. On July 18, 1941, a treaty of alliance was signed, which contained a full recognition of us, without any reservations. [ wish to state objectively that our relations with the Soviet Union are really friendly and loyal; there is today between us the same rela;tion,s hip of alliance as was before Munich, ·a nd it is our conv.i-ction and wish this remain so after the war. II am certain the collaboration of Europe with the Soviet Union will again make for ,t he -cooperation of the Union with Europe, tJhat confidence and friendship will result and develop, that there will be an equil!b,rium of forces . . . . �SLOVAKIA 43 In Czec-ho-Slovakia, we had for twenty years worked for collabo1-a,tion between the West and the East of Europe . . . . The 1United. Nations are determined today to ,c reate a new system of collective security in Europe s oon after the war . . . I suppor,t the conception of Anglo-American-Soviet collaboration. 1943: For my ·part I have a,n ,a;biding confidence in the Russians . They will fulfill scrupulously .t he Teheran decisions so as to safeguard future ipeace. Between the Soviet ,U nion and Czec,ho-Slovakia all fundamental and important questions relating .to their mutual relations have •b een settled. 'Ilhis fact has great political significance for the future . . . . -Much o,f what is now being appreciated about the Soviet Union, I saw during my fkst V\isit to Moscow in 1935; for this reason, I have trusted the Soviet Union in the present war. Certain modifications in the Soviet Union that have recently surprised the rest of the world are natural consequences, partly of the war ,a nd partly of the changes associated •w ith its world position (the a bolition of the Internation,al, the new attitude ,towards religion, intensified Soviet :patriotic feeling and the r ecent changes in the Soviet Constitution to the. ,adv,a n.tage of the F ederated Republics) . . I see in it the natumJ attitude of a successful evolution of the victorious revolution, that !has to be polHically stabiUzed and that is simply progresssing in accordance with its own laws. Hence, from 1922 on I strove for a rapprochement between Europe and the Soviets . . . . 1944: Lt seemed to me that if full unders.tandin,g were reached between ourselves and t'he Soviets, and if there were also complete and mutual trust among us, it would be possi ble to point to this very achievement as an example, even in ithe United States, and that the Allies, particularly the greater powers, would thereby be fundamentally drawn closer together. Thus Mr. Benes and his ipolitical co-workers preached to the world for thirty years. It is evident that this was not just a spell of fleeting enthusiasm for the seemingly humanitarian element in Soviet propaganda, but rather the life: wo.rk of po-liticians who, for some reason or other, are still recognized in some circles. Mr. Benes and hrs government-in-exile were granted asylum in England during World War ll. In 1945 Benes went to Moscow for instructions before returning to Cze. cho ..Stlorvakia. ,I n violation of the principles of the United Nations Declaration, somewhere in the shuffle, Ruthenia, which had b,een part of Czecho~Slovakia between the wars, was lost, apparently offered up as a token of good will to the iKremlin chieif. Certainly Benes made other major concessions a:bout which few were informed, so that he might retmn as "president" to Czecho-Slovakia. It is our contention thait Czecho-Slovakia after World �44 SLOVAKIA Wair JiI could hardly be considered a free agent. The entire police power throughout the country was in Communist hands from the very beginning. Still Mr. B enes decided to play his hand till the end. IH e, as "president," shortly after the "liberation," nationalized the greater part of Czecho..,Slovruk indust:r,y by mere presidential decree, thus paralyzing the oountry's, economy. And none of Stalin's agents did a better joib of eliminating all anti-Communists and anti-Socialistic elements from politics than did Benes. Afiter Benes and his co-wovkers had achieved their long-sought goal, the entrance of the Soviets into the Eurnpean political arena, they could not possibly be of any further sel'IVice to the Communists. Thus, when the latter took ()IVer complete control of Czecho-:S lovakia in February, 19·48, Benes was demoted from the presidency and Jan Masaryk, his foreign minister in despair killed himself by jumping from a window. Dorothy Thompson, on the margin of the Ozecho--Slovak disaster, in a magazine article summed up the situation with the comment that "such is the fate of collaborators " Today the co-wonkers of the same Benes, with a ounningness approaching that of a Talleyrand, are still presen ting themselves to our Administrntion as representatives of the Ozech and Slovak peoples. One can imagine how the Czechs and Sfovaks behind the 'Iron Curtaiin feel, when they hear the same ;voices which over a period of thirty years advocated the 'Soviet cause, now being broadcast over the waves of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe: the same politicians who contributed to the en_ slaivement oif their country! Today the whole democratic world is suffering from what Mr. Benes ·and his collaborato!'.s advocated and helped bring about. And the oppressed and persecuted Czechr:; and Sloivaks might turn to Shakespeare and utter with Mark Anthony: "the evil that men do lives after them. " • • • (JUTche.k $3.00; SWVAK FOR BEGINNERS" (Books I~) $1.50 (the set); "Hirobak's English-Sl01VaJk Dictionary" $4.00; "SLOVAK I...ESSONS" (IHrobak) $3.50. REOOMMENDED BOOKS: "The Slovaks" � 40 SLOVAKIA BENES AND THE COMMUNIZATION OF CZECHO-SWVAKIA John B. Fox The foreign policy of our country, from the Monroe Doctrine till the late nineteen-forties, was aimed at the greatest .possi1ble isolation. This was e specially true, because of the principles laid down in the mentioned Monroe Doctrine, as far as the Eastern hemisphere was concerned. Thus, afteir World War U, the call to leadership of the democratic world found us. in many respects unprepared. Suddenly we •l earned that our knowledge of the rest of the world, especially Europe, was quite limited. We set about with known American assiduousness to tackle the .great tasik thrust upon us. Realizing that in order to present real leadership we must know our allies, we commenced to accumulate information about the various nations, sea rching eJVery aspect of their national lives . In pursuing this, our leaders solicited the aid of exiled politicians and also that of the various n8Jti-onal organizations in this country. Though we have made tremendous progress in the above undertaking, in many instances, especially as far as some small nations are concerned, we have hardly started the job. To state a case where our Administration, mostly due to complexity of the situation, has hardly obtained a true picture, we mention Czecho-Slovakia. The foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia from 1918-1948 was molded by Eduard Benes and his political aide s. During those thirty yea-rs !Benes was a virtual dictator a s far as the foreign affairs of his countr,y were concerned. In addition to that, he did more than any other politician outside the USSR to make the SOIViet Union acceptable to the West and gain admission to the League of Nations. Benes is now deceased, ibut his disciples, many of whom are in this country, carry ·on in his work. They are acting as consultants to our Administration, exercising influence on Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, Congress, etc . 1 �SLOVAKIA il It seems worth-.while, therefore, to examine Benes's political relationship to the USSR. In doing so, we will not repeat Sir Winston Churchill's condemning opinion of Benes, stated in one of his present books, but will quote from a neat little boo'k published by the Czech-American National Alliance in 1944 entitled, "Eduard Benes in His Own Words." Therein friends of Mr. Benes did us a favor in selecting f,vom the mass of his speeches and publications statements expressing his stand on major political issues in chronoilogical order from 1914~1944. The following, then, are quotes from "Eduard Benes in His Own Words" pertaining to the USSR, giving the date when they were made: 1917: Our revolutionary action welcomed the Russian Revolution openly and sincerely . . . 1918: The Allies tried to use our soldiers in Russia for intervention, •but .this was o,pposed . . . H-.'.O: We refute t'he assertion that if decisive steps had been taken in time against the Bolsheviks, they could have been de.;;tl"'Oyed. In connection with Russia it was our (i.e., Czecho-SJovak) government, almost the only one in the whole of Europe, that understood the situation and foresaw corroctly the evolution of events .... .AIS to Russia, we must and shall help her, so far as it is in our powe r . . . . 1921: Our position on Russian problems, which we often det'ended with difficulty, but which our government executed, is today generally and fully ,accepted. The Allies and the whole European public opinion turned away from the idea of intervention in Russia. Our Republic has been following this policy honestly and consistently for more than three years and is therefore now in a strong moral position. 1922: In the future . . . it will be a struggle for a federalistic, democratic Russia. We believe in the future of this Russia. Our relations to the Russian .peo,ple are proved by our tra,dition and our whole policy. The Czecho-Slov,ak government feels sati'sfaction in having followed for five years a policy in Russian affairs that was fully justified even in the struggle for that policy in Geneva. We shall continue on this course ,also in the future without change. 1923: Our affection for and interest in Russia must be preserved and deepened. Without Russia, European politics and European peace are not imaginable; we have therefore tried, so far as -possible, to open the doors for the mutual contact of Russia and Europe. This Russia simply b:y its existence will be a. rea.l safeguard to our national independence. I have faith in this future democratic Russia and therefore do not worry about our fate. �42 SLOVAKIA 1924: The natural conclusion of this evolution is ,a defini.te de jure ,r ecognition of Russia by all states and the establishme1tt of normal relations with the Soviet Union . . . . 1925: Perhaps 1t will not be long before we shall achieve a second Locarno when the Whole of Europe comes to an understanding with Russia. This will be for the good and well-bein,g of Russia as well as of Europe. . . . 1926: Our policy toward Russia was always guided, by the b elief that we should be p.repared for the moment when Russia would take up her position in Europe . . . . 1933: . . . also the policy of Soviet Russia has displayed certain symptoms of changed orientation. Russia bas sihown great understanding of the needs of peace, having concluded pacts of non-ag. gression with her neighbors, Poland and the Little Entente. 1934: The return of Russia to European politics ,vm facilitate the creation of r eal equilibrium ,a mong the powers in Europe. The policy of rapprochement between ours elves and Soviet Russia is proceeding along normal lines. . . . 1935: Efforts for the strengthening of peace for the good of all the countries of Europe lay at the bottom of the cooperation between Russia .and Czecho-Slovakia. 1937: Soviet Russia is devoting herself more to her internal affairs. A great deficiency in the political systems of Europe after the last war was that that Soviet Un.ion had not been invited ,t o cooperate in its foundation and direction, but only in 1934, when it was already late, became involved in its c ollective defense. 1938: Russia remains faithful to us to the very last; I know that . . . . 1939: If -Soviet Russia were again excluded from the organization of Europe the new collaboration of the o,rganized ,political uni.ts would again lose their equilibrium. This would also inevitably lead to attempts to isoiate Soviet Europe from European influences. Geographically and politically European Russia belongs to Europe. This is an inescapable fact . . . . 1942: Russia is fighting not only for herself, but for all of us. And none of us can contemplate another two decades in which Soviet Russi.a would be isolated from the affairs of Europe. Immediaitely after .t he assault on the Soviet Union by Germany, we ente,red into official negotiations for the resumption of our old friendly and allied relations w.ith the Soviet Union, as they existed before Munich. These negotiations were proceeding without any difficulties and in the .spirit of our former friendship. On July 18, 1941, a treaty of alliance was signed, which contained a full recognition of us, without any reservations. [ wish to state objectively that our relations with the Soviet Union are really friendly and loyal; there is today between us the same rela;tion,s hip of alliance as was before Munich, ·a nd it is our conv.i-ction and wish this remain so after the war. II am certain the collaboration of Europe with the Soviet Union will again make for ,t he -cooperation of the Union with Europe, tJhat confidence and friendship will result and develop, that there will be an equil!b,rium of forces . . . . �SLOVAKIA 43 In Czec-ho-Slovakia, we had for twenty years worked for collabo1-a,tion between the West and the East of Europe . . . . The 1United. Nations are determined today to ,c reate a new system of collective security in Europe s oon after the war . . . I suppor,t the conception of Anglo-American-Soviet collaboration. 1943: For my ·part I have a,n ,a;biding confidence in the Russians . They will fulfill scrupulously .t he Teheran decisions so as to safeguard future ipeace. Between the Soviet ,U nion and Czec,ho-Slovakia all fundamental and important questions relating .to their mutual relations have •b een settled. 'Ilhis fact has great political significance for the future . . . . -Much o,f what is now being appreciated about the Soviet Union, I saw during my fkst V\isit to Moscow in 1935; for this reason, I have trusted the Soviet Union in the present war. Certain modifications in the Soviet Union that have recently surprised the rest of the world are natural consequences, partly of the war ,a nd partly of the changes associated •w ith its world position (the a bolition of the Internation,al, the new attitude ,towards religion, intensified Soviet :patriotic feeling and the r ecent changes in the Soviet Constitution to the. ,adv,a n.tage of the F ederated Republics) . . I see in it the natumJ attitude of a successful evolution of the victorious revolution, that !has to be polHically stabiUzed and that is simply progresssing in accordance with its own laws. Hence, from 1922 on I strove for a rapprochement between Europe and the Soviets . . . . 1944: Lt seemed to me that if full unders.tandin,g were reached between ourselves and t'he Soviets, and if there were also complete and mutual trust among us, it would be possi ble to point to this very achievement as an example, even in ithe United States, and that the Allies, particularly the greater powers, would thereby be fundamentally drawn closer together. Thus Mr. Benes and his ipolitical co-workers preached to the world for thirty years. It is evident that this was not just a spell of fleeting enthusiasm for the seemingly humanitarian element in Soviet propaganda, but rather the life: wo.rk of po-liticians who, for some reason or other, are still recognized in some circles. Mr. Benes and hrs government-in-exile were granted asylum in England during World War ll. In 1945 Benes went to Moscow for instructions before returning to Cze. cho ..Stlorvakia. ,I n violation of the principles of the United Nations Declaration, somewhere in the shuffle, Ruthenia, which had b,een part of Czecho~Slovakia between the wars, was lost, apparently offered up as a token of good will to the iKremlin chieif. Certainly Benes made other major concessions a:bout which few were informed, so that he might retmn as "president" to Czecho-Slovakia. It is our contention thait Czecho-Slovakia after World �44 SLOVAKIA Wair JiI could hardly be considered a free agent. The entire police power throughout the country was in Communist hands from the very beginning. Still Mr. B enes decided to play his hand till the end. IH e, as "president," shortly after the "liberation," nationalized the greater part of Czecho..,Slovruk indust:r,y by mere presidential decree, thus paralyzing the oountry's, economy. And none of Stalin's agents did a better joib of eliminating all anti-Communists and anti-Socialistic elements from politics than did Benes. Afiter Benes and his co-wovkers had achieved their long-sought goal, the entrance of the Soviets into the Eurnpean political arena, they could not possibly be of any further sel'IVice to the Communists. Thus, when the latter took ()IVer complete control of Czecho-:S lovakia in February, 19·48, Benes was demoted from the presidency and Jan Masaryk, his foreign minister in despair killed himself by jumping from a window. Dorothy Thompson, on the margin of the Ozecho--Slovak disaster, in a magazine article summed up the situation with the comment that "such is the fate of collaborators " Today the co-wonkers of the same Benes, with a ounningness approaching that of a Talleyrand, are still presen ting themselves to our Administrntion as representatives of the Ozech and Slovak peoples. One can imagine how the Czechs and Sfovaks behind the 'Iron Curtaiin feel, when they hear the same ;voices which over a period of thirty years advocated the 'Soviet cause, now being broadcast over the waves of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe: the same politicians who contributed to the en_ slaivement oif their country! Today the whole democratic world is suffering from what Mr. Benes ·and his collaborato!'.s advocated and helped bring about. And the oppressed and persecuted Czechr:; and Sloivaks might turn to Shakespeare and utter with Mark Anthony: "the evil that men do lives after them. " • • • (JUTche.k $3.00; SWVAK FOR BEGINNERS" (Books I~) $1.50 (the set); "Hirobak's English-Sl01VaJk Dictionary" $4.00; "SLOVAK I...ESSONS" (IHrobak) $3.50. REOOMMENDED BOOKS: "The Slovaks" � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 40 SLOVAKIA BENES AND THE COMMUNIZATION OF CZECHO-SWVAKIA John B. Fox The foreign policy of our country, from the Monroe Doctrine till the late nineteen-forties, was aimed at the greatest .possi1ble isolation. This was e specially true, because of the principles laid down in the mentioned Monroe Doctrine, as far as the Eastern hemisphere was concerned. Thus, afteir World War U, the call to leadership of the democratic world found us. in many respects unprepared. Suddenly we •l earned that our knowledge of the rest of the world, especially Europe, was quite limited. We set about with known American assiduousness to tackle the .great tasik thrust upon us. Realizing that in order to present real leadership we must know our allies, we commenced to accumulate information about the various nations, sea rching eJVery aspect of their national lives . In pursuing this, our leaders solicited the aid of exiled politicians and also that of the various n8Jti-onal organizations in this country. Though we have made tremendous progress in the above undertaking, in many instances, especially as far as some small nations are concerned, we have hardly started the job. To state a case where our Administration, mostly due to complexity of the situation, has hardly obtained a true picture, we mention Czecho-Slovakia. The foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia from 1918-1948 was molded by Eduard Benes and his political aide s. During those thirty yea-rs !Benes was a virtual dictator a s far as the foreign affairs of his countr,y were concerned. In addition to that, he did more than any other politician outside the USSR to make the SOIViet Union acceptable to the West and gain admission to the League of Nations. Benes is now deceased, ibut his disciples, many of whom are in this country, carry ·on in his work. They are acting as consultants to our Administration, exercising influence on Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, Congress, etc . 1 SLOVAKIA il It seems worth-.while, therefore, to examine Benes's political relationship to the USSR. In doing so, we will not repeat Sir Winston Churchill's condemning opinion of Benes, stated in one of his present books, but will quote from a neat little boo'k published by the Czech-American National Alliance in 1944 entitled, "Eduard Benes in His Own Words." Therein friends of Mr. Benes did us a favor in selecting f,vom the mass of his speeches and publications statements expressing his stand on major political issues in chronoilogical order from 1914~1944. The following, then, are quotes from "Eduard Benes in His Own Words" pertaining to the USSR, giving the date when they were made: 1917: Our revolutionary action welcomed the Russian Revolution openly and sincerely . . . 1918: The Allies tried to use our soldiers in Russia for intervention, •but .this was o,pposed . . . H-.'.O: We refute t'he assertion that if decisive steps had been taken in time against the Bolsheviks, they could have been de.;;tl"'Oyed. In connection with Russia it was our (i.e., Czecho-SJovak) government, almost the only one in the whole of Europe, that understood the situation and foresaw corroctly the evolution of events .... .AIS to Russia, we must and shall help her, so far as it is in our powe r . . . . 1921: Our position on Russian problems, which we often det'ended with difficulty, but which our government executed, is today generally and fully ,accepted. The Allies and the whole European public opinion turned away from the idea of intervention in Russia. Our Republic has been following this policy honestly and consistently for more than three years and is therefore now in a strong moral position. 1922: In the future . . . it will be a struggle for a federalistic, democratic Russia. We believe in the future of this Russia. Our relations to the Russian .peo,ple are proved by our tra,dition and our whole policy. The Czecho-Slov,ak government feels sati'sfaction in having followed for five years a policy in Russian affairs that was fully justified even in the struggle for that policy in Geneva. We shall continue on this course ,also in the future without change. 1923: Our affection for and interest in Russia must be preserved and deepened. Without Russia, European politics and European peace are not imaginable; we have therefore tried, so far as -possible, to open the doors for the mutual contact of Russia and Europe. This Russia simply b:y its existence will be a. rea.l safeguard to our national independence. I have faith in this future democratic Russia and therefore do not worry about our fate. 42 SLOVAKIA 1924: The natural conclusion of this evolution is ,a defini.te de jure ,r ecognition of Russia by all states and the establishme1tt of normal relations with the Soviet Union . . . . 1925: Perhaps 1t will not be long before we shall achieve a second Locarno when the Whole of Europe comes to an understanding with Russia. This will be for the good and well-bein,g of Russia as well as of Europe. . . . 1926: Our policy toward Russia was always guided, by the b elief that we should be p.repared for the moment when Russia would take up her position in Europe . . . . 1933: . . . also the policy of Soviet Russia has displayed certain symptoms of changed orientation. Russia bas sihown great understanding of the needs of peace, having concluded pacts of non-ag. gression with her neighbors, Poland and the Little Entente. 1934: The return of Russia to European politics ,vm facilitate the creation of r eal equilibrium ,a mong the powers in Europe. The policy of rapprochement between ours elves and Soviet Russia is proceeding along normal lines. . . . 1935: Efforts for the strengthening of peace for the good of all the countries of Europe lay at the bottom of the cooperation between Russia .and Czecho-Slovakia. 1937: Soviet Russia is devoting herself more to her internal affairs. A great deficiency in the political systems of Europe after the last war was that that Soviet Un.ion had not been invited ,t o cooperate in its foundation and direction, but only in 1934, when it was already late, became involved in its c ollective defense. 1938: Russia remains faithful to us to the very last; I know that . . . . 1939: If -Soviet Russia were again excluded from the organization of Europe the new collaboration of the o,rganized ,political uni.ts would again lose their equilibrium. This would also inevitably lead to attempts to isoiate Soviet Europe from European influences. Geographically and politically European Russia belongs to Europe. This is an inescapable fact . . . . 1942: Russia is fighting not only for herself, but for all of us. And none of us can contemplate another two decades in which Soviet Russi.a would be isolated from the affairs of Europe. Immediaitely after .t he assault on the Soviet Union by Germany, we ente,red into official negotiations for the resumption of our old friendly and allied relations w.ith the Soviet Union, as they existed before Munich. These negotiations were proceeding without any difficulties and in the .spirit of our former friendship. On July 18, 1941, a treaty of alliance was signed, which contained a full recognition of us, without any reservations. [ wish to state objectively that our relations with the Soviet Union are really friendly and loyal; there is today between us the same rela;tion,s hip of alliance as was before Munich, ·a nd it is our conv.i-ction and wish this remain so after the war. II am certain the collaboration of Europe with the Soviet Union will again make for ,t he -cooperation of the Union with Europe, tJhat confidence and friendship will result and develop, that there will be an equil!b,rium of forces . . . . SLOVAKIA 43 In Czec-ho-Slovakia, we had for twenty years worked for collabo1-a,tion between the West and the East of Europe . . . . The 1United. Nations are determined today to ,c reate a new system of collective security in Europe s oon after the war . . . I suppor,t the conception of Anglo-American-Soviet collaboration. 1943: For my ·part I have a,n ,a;biding confidence in the Russians . They will fulfill scrupulously .t he Teheran decisions so as to safeguard future ipeace. Between the Soviet ,U nion and Czec,ho-Slovakia all fundamental and important questions relating .to their mutual relations have •b een settled. 'Ilhis fact has great political significance for the future . . . . -Much o,f what is now being appreciated about the Soviet Union, I saw during my fkst V\isit to Moscow in 1935; for this reason, I have trusted the Soviet Union in the present war. Certain modifications in the Soviet Union that have recently surprised the rest of the world are natural consequences, partly of the war ,a nd partly of the changes associated •w ith its world position (the a bolition of the Internation,al, the new attitude ,towards religion, intensified Soviet :patriotic feeling and the r ecent changes in the Soviet Constitution to the. ,adv,a n.tage of the F ederated Republics) . . I see in it the natumJ attitude of a successful evolution of the victorious revolution, that !has to be polHically stabiUzed and that is simply progresssing in accordance with its own laws. Hence, from 1922 on I strove for a rapprochement between Europe and the Soviets . . . . 1944: Lt seemed to me that if full unders.tandin,g were reached between ourselves and t'he Soviets, and if there were also complete and mutual trust among us, it would be possi ble to point to this very achievement as an example, even in ithe United States, and that the Allies, particularly the greater powers, would thereby be fundamentally drawn closer together. Thus Mr. Benes and his ipolitical co-workers preached to the world for thirty years. It is evident that this was not just a spell of fleeting enthusiasm for the seemingly humanitarian element in Soviet propaganda, but rather the life: wo.rk of po-liticians who, for some reason or other, are still recognized in some circles. Mr. Benes and hrs government-in-exile were granted asylum in England during World War ll. In 1945 Benes went to Moscow for instructions before returning to Cze. cho ..Stlorvakia. ,I n violation of the principles of the United Nations Declaration, somewhere in the shuffle, Ruthenia, which had b,een part of Czecho~Slovakia between the wars, was lost, apparently offered up as a token of good will to the iKremlin chieif. Certainly Benes made other major concessions a:bout which few were informed, so that he might retmn as "president" to Czecho-Slovakia. It is our contention thait Czecho-Slovakia after World 44 SLOVAKIA Wair JiI could hardly be considered a free agent. The entire police power throughout the country was in Communist hands from the very beginning. Still Mr. B enes decided to play his hand till the end. IH e, as "president," shortly after the "liberation," nationalized the greater part of Czecho..,Slovruk indust:r,y by mere presidential decree, thus paralyzing the oountry's, economy. And none of Stalin's agents did a better joib of eliminating all anti-Communists and anti-Socialistic elements from politics than did Benes. Afiter Benes and his co-wovkers had achieved their long-sought goal, the entrance of the Soviets into the Eurnpean political arena, they could not possibly be of any further sel'IVice to the Communists. Thus, when the latter took ()IVer complete control of Czecho-:S lovakia in February, 19·48, Benes was demoted from the presidency and Jan Masaryk, his foreign minister in despair killed himself by jumping from a window. Dorothy Thompson, on the margin of the Ozecho--Slovak disaster, in a magazine article summed up the situation with the comment that "such is the fate of collaborators " Today the co-wonkers of the same Benes, with a ounningness approaching that of a Talleyrand, are still presen ting themselves to our Administrntion as representatives of the Ozech and Slovak peoples. One can imagine how the Czechs and Sfovaks behind the 'Iron Curtaiin feel, when they hear the same ;voices which over a period of thirty years advocated the 'Soviet cause, now being broadcast over the waves of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe: the same politicians who contributed to the en_ slaivement oif their country! Today the whole democratic world is suffering from what Mr. Benes ·and his collaborato!'.s advocated and helped bring about. And the oppressed and persecuted Czechr:; and Sloivaks might turn to Shakespeare and utter with Mark Anthony: "the evil that men do lives after them. " • • • (JUTche.k $3.00; SWVAK FOR BEGINNERS" (Books I~) $1.50 (the set); "Hirobak's English-Sl01VaJk Dictionary" $4.00; "SLOVAK I...ESSONS" (IHrobak) $3.50. REOOMMENDED BOOKS: "The Slovaks"  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beneš and the Communization of Czecho-Slovakia Description An account of the resource John B. Fox Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 3-4 (20-21), September-December 1956 pp. 40-44 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Fox, John B. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1956 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/af2fdc2a646a90d08f95570fbd4a822d.pdf 5b12f46826b779824e8506f23cba600b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 63 BENEš: KING OF POUTICAL CHEATS At the meeting of the Czech-Sudeten German Federal Commlttee at Bonn, last December, General Prchala, chairman of the Czech Natlonal Commlttee in London, declared that he considered the expu\sion of Sudeten Germans from their motherland as tbe darkest cbapter in Czecb bistory. It wa.s a dark cbapter, a crime equalled only by H itler's attempt to exterminate the J ews. About half a million Sudeten Germans lost tbeir lives. T he Czech R evolutionary Guards, composed of youngsters whose parents were lmprlsoned or executed by the Gestapo durlng the war, e mployed a thoroughly Nazi brutality against the Sudeten Germans. These wlld youngsters were glven a free hand by t he Bene/:í Government in Prague. They committed such atroclties, mostly on innocent people, that lt is disgustlng even to write about lt. It was beyond understanding h ow the Brltlsh and U. S . Governm ents, whlch were responsible for the existence of the s o-called Czechoslovakian exiled Government, could give their approval to the tarbarous expulslon of Sudeten Germans, who in 1918 b ecame Czechoslovaklan citizens against their will. A young Czech student of history, Mr. S. Brzobohaty, took the trouble to flnd out why and when tbe Western Allies gave thelr cousent to such barb arity. And he discover ed that it neve r happened. The story of this political fraud is as follows: In 1942, Mr. Beneš, who was personally a very revengeful man and believed that the Sudeten Germans were tbe principal reason of his misfortune wbich deprived him of the Presidency of Czechoslo• vakia, asked the Britlsh Forelgn Offlce to approve his pian to expel Germa n Nazis from Czechoslovakia a fter the war. The British Forelgn Office had nothing against th e expulslon of German Nazis trom Czechoslovak ia. Th en Beneš vlsited the Soviet Russian Ambassador to the Czechoslovakian exiled Government and asked h!m for permisslon to expe\ Germans from Czechoslovakia, and informed him that the B r ltish had agreed to it. Bogomilov informed bis Government in Moscow but the Russ!an Bolsh eviks refused to agree with the Beneš pian, for at that Ume they stm believed that there migbt be some posslbllity of a separate peace with Ger many, and tberefore they did not wlsb to provoke the Germans too much. In June 1943, Beneš left for Washington, wbere he had a 30 mlnute talk with President Roosevelt. H e asked bim for permission to expel Germans frrm Czechoslovakia, an d assured Roosevel t that t he Bri t i sh and Ru ssians h ad g iven t heir f ull consent t o the pian. Roosevelt answered that he would not oppose a pian approved by bis allies. Then Beneš returned to London, called aga!n on Bogomllov, and informed bim that the British and U. S. Governments had given thei r c onsent t o the expu lsion of Germans, and that on l y the Russi ans wer e opposi ng i t . Bogomilov agaln !nformed his Government in Moscow. In the meantime the German military sltuation had worsened, so tbat Moscow hoped for complete vlctory In Europe. And because London �54 SLOVAKIA and Washington took the responsibllity for the expulsion of Sudeten Germans, Moscow also gave its consent. But later, polltical experts in the U. S. State Department came aero.ss the Beneš pian and dlsa.g reed. In the material which Stettinius prepared for Roosevelt for Yalta, it was expressly etated that no expulsion of national groups should be permitted. Yalta, however, ended In d lscord, and thls question never came up on the program. The a sser• tlon of Beneš -and hls followers now organlzed in the so·called Councll ot Free Czecho.slovakla in Washington that thelr allles a pproved the expuls ion of Sudeten Germans 1s nothing but a colossal polltlcal fraud. Thle was not the firet political fraud perpetrated by Benei. His whole political career wae based upon lies and frauds. Czechoslovakia itself was brought into exilltence by a political fraud. The Czechs never wanted an independent state, having fought for a century for a reorganization of the Hapsburg Monarchy into a federal state of nations. Masaryk and Beneš had no followers for their adventure in the First World War, at leaat not among Czechs. AII the Czech politic.il partie& and legally elected representatives of the Czech nation, durlng the war, formed the Czech National Committee in Prague, which alone had the right to 11peak in the name of the Czech nation. On the 14th of January, 1917, this Committee iasued a declaration, condemning the war, and Masaryk's adventure abroad, and advocating the autonomous existence of the Czech nation within the Hapsburg Monarchy. After the flrst war, In 1925, Beneš publlshed hls book, "T,he World War and Our Revolutlon," in whlch he remarked concerning this declaration of .the representatlves of the Czech nation: "The rejection of our policy was solemn, without any reaervation, and de.::isive." lt really was so, because the Czechs did not wish to have anything to do with Masaryk and Beneš. But Mr. Beneš managed it otherwlse. On page 449 of the same book Beneš says: "Although this declaration rejected our policy, we managed to explain it in our favor to the public in the ENTENTE. We suppressed the passage about autonon,y within the framework of the Hapsburg Monarchy, publishing and emphasizing the paasages again11t the war and for the right of the independent existence of the Czech nation." Thls Ie what Beneš stated himself publicly about his politlcal methods. H e was a po\it!cal cheat and he was proud to be a polltlcal cheat. He possessed boundless arrogance in lylng and was tlreless in cheatlng. When the Britlsh Prime Minister, at the Peace Treaty Conference In 1919, asked about the three milllon Sudeten Germans. lleneš promlsed most solemnly that Czechoslovakia would be organlzed on t he Swiss model, thus glvlng autonomy to each national group. Hardly was the treaty signed than Czech s oldiers were ordered to shoot at Sudeten Germans who demanded autonomy. Slovakla was in• corporated lnto Czechoslovakla on the basls of a most solemn promise that it should be a federal state with full Slovakian autonomy, and when the Slovakian leaders asked for the fulflllment of tlils promlse they were imprlsoned for hlgh treason. At the Conference at Genoa, in 1922, Beneš swore eternal fidelity to his French and British benefactora and, behind their backs, and without the knowledge of the Czechoalovakian Government, concluded �SLOVAKU 66 a Treaty with the Ruaalan Bol1hevlk1. H 11 fame abroad waa based on money he paid out from the fund1 of the Czechoslov aklan Forelgn Mini1try to foreign journallats who made propaganda for hi1 per1on. When the German Nazl1 occupied Prague, the archlvea of the Czechoslovaklan Forelgn Miniatry fe ll lnto their handa. They publlahed a book contain ing a list of Frenc h, British and American per1onallt le1, who were paid by Benei durlng Czechoslov akia' a twenty year1' exlatence; and photocopiea of the recelpt1 slgned by theae people were alao publlahed - for Beneš never gave away a penny without demandlng a receipt, thus keeplng hla foreign agenta to hee l. The Brltiah Fore ign Office certain ly has a copy of thl1 book, and so ha■ the State Department in Wa1hington . Beneš proclalmed hlmself Czechoslov aklan Presldent In 1940, and unfortunate ly recelved the support ot some prominent Brltish people. In order to secure for hlmself t be asslstance ot the Russian Bolsbevlks he rendered tbem lnvaluable servlces durlng tbe war. lt waa he who, In 1939, auggested to Roo1evelt the Idea that Stalln wished to democratiz e hla regime. He brought and introduced into France, Great Britaln, and the U. S. the large1t Bolshevik F lfth Column, dl1gul1ed as "democrati c Czechoalov aklan refugees." The present Czechoslov akian Minister ot tbe lnterlor, Nosek, was durlng the war counsellor to tbe Beneš Governmen t In London and was paid trom tbe pockets of Brltlsb taxpayers to tbe tune of 70 pounds Sterllng a month, tax free. The present ch,ef of the Bolshevlk mllitary e1pionage again1t Britain, General Laatovicka, was in the . B. B. C. durlng the war. Also here were Belheller, Slan1ky, Sllnck, and a hundred other Bol1hevik agenta, all dl1guised a■ Czechoalov akia n democrata, and all pald by the Briti1h taxpayer. AII the Czecbs and Slovaks bere wbo were an obstacle to thls great fraud of Beneš and bis followers were falsely denounced as proNazl and, wltbout investlgatlo n, were lmprlsoned by tbe Britlsh police. The followers ot Beneš are now organlzed In the so-called Councll of Free Czechoslov akla, whose headquarte rs ls In Washington, Czechs, who know thls soclety and, therf'fore, do not wisb to have anythlng to do wlth it, are organlzed In the Czech Natlonal CommlttE>e in London. In the retugee camp at Murnau, Bavarla (U. S. Zone}. tbere are some adherents or Benei!; the remalnder of the refugees are adberents of the Czeoh Natlonal Comm.ittee . In one year, the Beneš .1dherent.s made 241 denunciatio n1 to the U. S. authorltie1 agalnst thelr opponenta. The U. S. authoritie1 lnve1tlgate d all the1e denunciatlon1 and they all proved to be false. The U. S. authorltles know the adherents of tbe Councll of Free Czechoslov akla pretty well by now, and they are fed up wltb them, desplte the protectlon accorded them by certaln personalltl es In tbe U. S. But, unrortunate ly, lt 1s not necessary to go as far as Oermany or the U. S. to experlenre the worklngs or the new "dJplomacy by denunclatlo n." I could draw upon my own experlence s to prove lt. 'ľbe Brltlsb securlty servlres a.ppear to be poUUcal\y uneducated however errtclent they may be In other respects and, as long as tbls 1s llO, our King of Fraud or, at \east, bis Trojan Horee, tbe Fren Czechos lovaklan Flfth Column. wlll contlnue to graze unharmerl In our mld.c;t. - (The Czec h "Pravda," London, January 1951 ). � SLOVAKIA 63 BENEš: KING OF POUTICAL CHEATS At the meeting of the Czech-Sudeten German Federal Commlttee at Bonn, last December, General Prchala, chairman of the Czech Natlonal Commlttee in London, declared that he considered the expu\sion of Sudeten Germans from their motherland as tbe darkest cbapter in Czecb bistory. It wa.s a dark cbapter, a crime equalled only by H itler's attempt to exterminate the J ews. About half a million Sudeten Germans lost tbeir lives. T he Czech R evolutionary Guards, composed of youngsters whose parents were lmprlsoned or executed by the Gestapo durlng the war, e mployed a thoroughly Nazi brutality against the Sudeten Germans. These wlld youngsters were glven a free hand by t he Bene/:í Government in Prague. They committed such atroclties, mostly on innocent people, that lt is disgustlng even to write about lt. It was beyond understanding h ow the Brltlsh and U. S . Governm ents, whlch were responsible for the existence of the s o-called Czechoslovakian exiled Government, could give their approval to the tarbarous expulslon of Sudeten Germans, who in 1918 b ecame Czechoslovaklan citizens against their will. A young Czech student of history, Mr. S. Brzobohaty, took the trouble to flnd out why and when tbe Western Allies gave thelr cousent to such barb arity. And he discover ed that it neve r happened. The story of this political fraud is as follows: In 1942, Mr. Beneš, who was personally a very revengeful man and believed that the Sudeten Germans were tbe principal reason of his misfortune wbich deprived him of the Presidency of Czechoslo• vakia, asked the Britlsh Forelgn Offlce to approve his pian to expel Germa n Nazis from Czechoslovakia a fter the war. The British Forelgn Office had nothing against th e expulslon of German Nazis trom Czechoslovak ia. Th en Beneš vlsited the Soviet Russian Ambassador to the Czechoslovakian exiled Government and asked h!m for permisslon to expe\ Germans from Czechoslovakia, and informed him that the B r ltish had agreed to it. Bogomilov informed bis Government in Moscow but the Russ!an Bolsh eviks refused to agree with the Beneš pian, for at that Ume they stm believed that there migbt be some posslbllity of a separate peace with Ger many, and tberefore they did not wlsb to provoke the Germans too much. In June 1943, Beneš left for Washington, wbere he had a 30 mlnute talk with President Roosevelt. H e asked bim for permission to expel Germans frrm Czechoslovakia, an d assured Roosevel t that t he Bri t i sh and Ru ssians h ad g iven t heir f ull consent t o the pian. Roosevelt answered that he would not oppose a pian approved by bis allies. Then Beneš returned to London, called aga!n on Bogomllov, and informed bim that the British and U. S. Governments had given thei r c onsent t o the expu lsion of Germans, and that on l y the Russi ans wer e opposi ng i t . Bogomilov agaln !nformed his Government in Moscow. In the meantime the German military sltuation had worsened, so tbat Moscow hoped for complete vlctory In Europe. And because London �54 SLOVAKIA and Washington took the responsibllity for the expulsion of Sudeten Germans, Moscow also gave its consent. But later, polltical experts in the U. S. State Department came aero.ss the Beneš pian and dlsa.g reed. In the material which Stettinius prepared for Roosevelt for Yalta, it was expressly etated that no expulsion of national groups should be permitted. Yalta, however, ended In d lscord, and thls question never came up on the program. The a sser• tlon of Beneš -and hls followers now organlzed in the so·called Councll ot Free Czecho.slovakla in Washington that thelr allles a pproved the expuls ion of Sudeten Germans 1s nothing but a colossal polltlcal fraud. Thle was not the firet political fraud perpetrated by Benei. His whole political career wae based upon lies and frauds. Czechoslovakia itself was brought into exilltence by a political fraud. The Czechs never wanted an independent state, having fought for a century for a reorganization of the Hapsburg Monarchy into a federal state of nations. Masaryk and Beneš had no followers for their adventure in the First World War, at leaat not among Czechs. AII the Czech politic.il partie& and legally elected representatives of the Czech nation, durlng the war, formed the Czech National Committee in Prague, which alone had the right to 11peak in the name of the Czech nation. On the 14th of January, 1917, this Committee iasued a declaration, condemning the war, and Masaryk's adventure abroad, and advocating the autonomous existence of the Czech nation within the Hapsburg Monarchy. After the flrst war, In 1925, Beneš publlshed hls book, "T,he World War and Our Revolutlon," in whlch he remarked concerning this declaration of .the representatlves of the Czech nation: "The rejection of our policy was solemn, without any reaervation, and de.::isive." lt really was so, because the Czechs did not wish to have anything to do with Masaryk and Beneš. But Mr. Beneš managed it otherwlse. On page 449 of the same book Beneš says: "Although this declaration rejected our policy, we managed to explain it in our favor to the public in the ENTENTE. We suppressed the passage about autonon,y within the framework of the Hapsburg Monarchy, publishing and emphasizing the paasages again11t the war and for the right of the independent existence of the Czech nation." Thls Ie what Beneš stated himself publicly about his politlcal methods. H e was a po\it!cal cheat and he was proud to be a polltlcal cheat. He possessed boundless arrogance in lylng and was tlreless in cheatlng. When the Britlsh Prime Minister, at the Peace Treaty Conference In 1919, asked about the three milllon Sudeten Germans. lleneš promlsed most solemnly that Czechoslovakia would be organlzed on t he Swiss model, thus glvlng autonomy to each national group. Hardly was the treaty signed than Czech s oldiers were ordered to shoot at Sudeten Germans who demanded autonomy. Slovakla was in• corporated lnto Czechoslovakla on the basls of a most solemn promise that it should be a federal state with full Slovakian autonomy, and when the Slovakian leaders asked for the fulflllment of tlils promlse they were imprlsoned for hlgh treason. At the Conference at Genoa, in 1922, Beneš swore eternal fidelity to his French and British benefactora and, behind their backs, and without the knowledge of the Czechoalovakian Government, concluded �SLOVAKU 66 a Treaty with the Ruaalan Bol1hevlk1. H 11 fame abroad waa based on money he paid out from the fund1 of the Czechoslov aklan Forelgn Mini1try to foreign journallats who made propaganda for hi1 per1on. When the German Nazl1 occupied Prague, the archlvea of the Czechoslovaklan Forelgn Miniatry fe ll lnto their handa. They publlahed a book contain ing a list of Frenc h, British and American per1onallt le1, who were paid by Benei durlng Czechoslov akia' a twenty year1' exlatence; and photocopiea of the recelpt1 slgned by theae people were alao publlahed - for Beneš never gave away a penny without demandlng a receipt, thus keeplng hla foreign agenta to hee l. The Brltiah Fore ign Office certain ly has a copy of thl1 book, and so ha■ the State Department in Wa1hington . Beneš proclalmed hlmself Czechoslov aklan Presldent In 1940, and unfortunate ly recelved the support ot some prominent Brltish people. In order to secure for hlmself t be asslstance ot the Russian Bolsbevlks he rendered tbem lnvaluable servlces durlng tbe war. lt waa he who, In 1939, auggested to Roo1evelt the Idea that Stalln wished to democratiz e hla regime. He brought and introduced into France, Great Britaln, and the U. S. the large1t Bolshevik F lfth Column, dl1gul1ed as "democrati c Czechoalov aklan refugees." The present Czechoslov akian Minister ot tbe lnterlor, Nosek, was durlng the war counsellor to tbe Beneš Governmen t In London and was paid trom tbe pockets of Brltlsb taxpayers to tbe tune of 70 pounds Sterllng a month, tax free. The present ch,ef of the Bolshevlk mllitary e1pionage again1t Britain, General Laatovicka, was in the . B. B. C. durlng the war. Also here were Belheller, Slan1ky, Sllnck, and a hundred other Bol1hevik agenta, all dl1guised a■ Czechoalov akia n democrata, and all pald by the Briti1h taxpayer. AII the Czecbs and Slovaks bere wbo were an obstacle to thls great fraud of Beneš and bis followers were falsely denounced as proNazl and, wltbout investlgatlo n, were lmprlsoned by tbe Britlsh police. The followers ot Beneš are now organlzed In the so-called Councll of Free Czechoslov akla, whose headquarte rs ls In Washington, Czechs, who know thls soclety and, therf'fore, do not wisb to have anythlng to do wlth it, are organlzed In the Czech Natlonal CommlttE>e in London. In the retugee camp at Murnau, Bavarla (U. S. Zone}. tbere are some adherents or Benei!; the remalnder of the refugees are adberents of the Czeoh Natlonal Comm.ittee . In one year, the Beneš .1dherent.s made 241 denunciatio n1 to the U. S. authorltie1 agalnst thelr opponenta. The U. S. authoritie1 lnve1tlgate d all the1e denunciatlon1 and they all proved to be false. The U. S. authorltles know the adherents of tbe Councll of Free Czechoslov akla pretty well by now, and they are fed up wltb them, desplte the protectlon accorded them by certaln personalltl es In tbe U. S. But, unrortunate ly, lt 1s not necessary to go as far as Oermany or the U. S. to experlenre the worklngs or the new "dJplomacy by denunclatlo n." I could draw upon my own experlence s to prove lt. 'ľbe Brltlsb securlty servlres a.ppear to be poUUcal\y uneducated however errtclent they may be In other respects and, as long as tbls 1s llO, our King of Fraud or, at \east, bis Trojan Horee, tbe Fren Czechos lovaklan Flfth Column. wlll contlnue to graze unharmerl In our mld.c;t. - (The Czec h "Pravda," London, January 1951 ). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1952, Vol. 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1952 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 3), March 1952.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 4), August 1952.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 5), December 1952.</li> </ul> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 63 BENEš: KING OF POUTICAL CHEATS At the meeting of the Czech-Sudeten German Federal Commlttee at Bonn, last December, General Prchala, chairman of the Czech Natlonal Commlttee in London, declared that he considered the expu\sion of Sudeten Germans from their motherland as tbe darkest cbapter in Czecb bistory. It wa.s a dark cbapter, a crime equalled only by H itler's attempt to exterminate the J ews. About half a million Sudeten Germans lost tbeir lives. T he Czech R evolutionary Guards, composed of youngsters whose parents were lmprlsoned or executed by the Gestapo durlng the war, e mployed a thoroughly Nazi brutality against the Sudeten Germans. These wlld youngsters were glven a free hand by t he Bene/:í Government in Prague. They committed such atroclties, mostly on innocent people, that lt is disgustlng even to write about lt. It was beyond understanding h ow the Brltlsh and U. S . Governm ents, whlch were responsible for the existence of the s o-called Czechoslovakian exiled Government, could give their approval to the tarbarous expulslon of Sudeten Germans, who in 1918 b ecame Czechoslovaklan citizens against their will. A young Czech student of history, Mr. S. Brzobohaty, took the trouble to flnd out why and when tbe Western Allies gave thelr cousent to such barb arity. And he discover ed that it neve r happened. The story of this political fraud is as follows: In 1942, Mr. Beneš, who was personally a very revengeful man and believed that the Sudeten Germans were tbe principal reason of his misfortune wbich deprived him of the Presidency of Czechoslo• vakia, asked the Britlsh Forelgn Offlce to approve his pian to expel Germa n Nazis from Czechoslovakia a fter the war. The British Forelgn Office had nothing against th e expulslon of German Nazis trom Czechoslovak ia. Th en Beneš vlsited the Soviet Russian Ambassador to the Czechoslovakian exiled Government and asked h!m for permisslon to expe\ Germans from Czechoslovakia, and informed him that the B r ltish had agreed to it. Bogomilov informed bis Government in Moscow but the Russ!an Bolsh eviks refused to agree with the Beneš pian, for at that Ume they stm believed that there migbt be some posslbllity of a separate peace with Ger many, and tberefore they did not wlsb to provoke the Germans too much. In June 1943, Beneš left for Washington, wbere he had a 30 mlnute talk with President Roosevelt. H e asked bim for permission to expel Germans frrm Czechoslovakia, an d assured Roosevel t that t he Bri t i sh and Ru ssians h ad g iven t heir f ull consent t o the pian. Roosevelt answered that he would not oppose a pian approved by bis allies. Then Beneš returned to London, called aga!n on Bogomllov, and informed bim that the British and U. S. Governments had given thei r c onsent t o the expu lsion of Germans, and that on l y the Russi ans wer e opposi ng i t . Bogomilov agaln !nformed his Government in Moscow. In the meantime the German military sltuation had worsened, so tbat Moscow hoped for complete vlctory In Europe. And because London 54 SLOVAKIA and Washington took the responsibllity for the expulsion of Sudeten Germans, Moscow also gave its consent. But later, polltical experts in the U. S. State Department came aero.ss the Beneš pian and dlsa.g reed. In the material which Stettinius prepared for Roosevelt for Yalta, it was expressly etated that no expulsion of national groups should be permitted. Yalta, however, ended In d lscord, and thls question never came up on the program. The a sser• tlon of Beneš -and hls followers now organlzed in the so·called Councll ot Free Czecho.slovakla in Washington that thelr allles a pproved the expuls ion of Sudeten Germans 1s nothing but a colossal polltlcal fraud. Thle was not the firet political fraud perpetrated by Benei. His whole political career wae based upon lies and frauds. Czechoslovakia itself was brought into exilltence by a political fraud. The Czechs never wanted an independent state, having fought for a century for a reorganization of the Hapsburg Monarchy into a federal state of nations. Masaryk and Beneš had no followers for their adventure in the First World War, at leaat not among Czechs. AII the Czech politic.il partie& and legally elected representatives of the Czech nation, durlng the war, formed the Czech National Committee in Prague, which alone had the right to 11peak in the name of the Czech nation. On the 14th of January, 1917, this Committee iasued a declaration, condemning the war, and Masaryk's adventure abroad, and advocating the autonomous existence of the Czech nation within the Hapsburg Monarchy. After the flrst war, In 1925, Beneš publlshed hls book, "T,he World War and Our Revolutlon," in whlch he remarked concerning this declaration of .the representatlves of the Czech nation: "The rejection of our policy was solemn, without any reaervation, and de.::isive." lt really was so, because the Czechs did not wish to have anything to do with Masaryk and Beneš. But Mr. Beneš managed it otherwlse. On page 449 of the same book Beneš says: "Although this declaration rejected our policy, we managed to explain it in our favor to the public in the ENTENTE. We suppressed the passage about autonon,y within the framework of the Hapsburg Monarchy, publishing and emphasizing the paasages again11t the war and for the right of the independent existence of the Czech nation." Thls Ie what Beneš stated himself publicly about his politlcal methods. H e was a po\it!cal cheat and he was proud to be a polltlcal cheat. He possessed boundless arrogance in lylng and was tlreless in cheatlng. When the Britlsh Prime Minister, at the Peace Treaty Conference In 1919, asked about the three milllon Sudeten Germans. lleneš promlsed most solemnly that Czechoslovakia would be organlzed on t he Swiss model, thus glvlng autonomy to each national group. Hardly was the treaty signed than Czech s oldiers were ordered to shoot at Sudeten Germans who demanded autonomy. Slovakla was in• corporated lnto Czechoslovakla on the basls of a most solemn promise that it should be a federal state with full Slovakian autonomy, and when the Slovakian leaders asked for the fulflllment of tlils promlse they were imprlsoned for hlgh treason. At the Conference at Genoa, in 1922, Beneš swore eternal fidelity to his French and British benefactora and, behind their backs, and without the knowledge of the Czechoalovakian Government, concluded SLOVAKU 66 a Treaty with the Ruaalan Bol1hevlk1. H 11 fame abroad waa based on money he paid out from the fund1 of the Czechoslov aklan Forelgn Mini1try to foreign journallats who made propaganda for hi1 per1on. When the German Nazl1 occupied Prague, the archlvea of the Czechoslovaklan Forelgn Miniatry fe ll lnto their handa. They publlahed a book contain ing a list of Frenc h, British and American per1onallt le1, who were paid by Benei durlng Czechoslov akia' a twenty year1' exlatence; and photocopiea of the recelpt1 slgned by theae people were alao publlahed - for Beneš never gave away a penny without demandlng a receipt, thus keeplng hla foreign agenta to hee l. The Brltiah Fore ign Office certain ly has a copy of thl1 book, and so ha■ the State Department in Wa1hington . Beneš proclalmed hlmself Czechoslov aklan Presldent In 1940, and unfortunate ly recelved the support ot some prominent Brltish people. In order to secure for hlmself t be asslstance ot the Russian Bolsbevlks he rendered tbem lnvaluable servlces durlng tbe war. lt waa he who, In 1939, auggested to Roo1evelt the Idea that Stalln wished to democratiz e hla regime. He brought and introduced into France, Great Britaln, and the U. S. the large1t Bolshevik F lfth Column, dl1gul1ed as "democrati c Czechoalov aklan refugees." The present Czechoslov akian Minister ot tbe lnterlor, Nosek, was durlng the war counsellor to tbe Beneš Governmen t In London and was paid trom tbe pockets of Brltlsb taxpayers to tbe tune of 70 pounds Sterllng a month, tax free. The present ch,ef of the Bolshevlk mllitary e1pionage again1t Britain, General Laatovicka, was in the . B. B. C. durlng the war. Also here were Belheller, Slan1ky, Sllnck, and a hundred other Bol1hevik agenta, all dl1guised a■ Czechoalov akia n democrata, and all pald by the Briti1h taxpayer. AII the Czecbs and Slovaks bere wbo were an obstacle to thls great fraud of Beneš and bis followers were falsely denounced as proNazl and, wltbout investlgatlo n, were lmprlsoned by tbe Britlsh police. The followers ot Beneš are now organlzed In the so-called Councll of Free Czechoslov akla, whose headquarte rs ls In Washington, Czechs, who know thls soclety and, therf'fore, do not wisb to have anythlng to do wlth it, are organlzed In the Czech Natlonal CommlttE>e in London. In the retugee camp at Murnau, Bavarla (U. S. Zone}. tbere are some adherents or Benei!; the remalnder of the refugees are adberents of the Czeoh Natlonal Comm.ittee . In one year, the Beneš .1dherent.s made 241 denunciatio n1 to the U. S. authorltie1 agalnst thelr opponenta. The U. S. authoritie1 lnve1tlgate d all the1e denunciatlon1 and they all proved to be false. The U. S. authorltles know the adherents of tbe Councll of Free Czechoslov akla pretty well by now, and they are fed up wltb them, desplte the protectlon accorded them by certaln personalltl es In tbe U. S. But, unrortunate ly, lt 1s not necessary to go as far as Oermany or the U. S. to experlenre the worklngs or the new "dJplomacy by denunclatlo n." I could draw upon my own experlence s to prove lt. 'ľbe Brltlsb securlty servlres a.ppear to be poUUcal\y uneducated however errtclent they may be In other respects and, as long as tbls 1s llO, our King of Fraud or, at \east, bis Trojan Horee, tbe Fren Czechos lovaklan Flfth Column. wlll contlnue to graze unharmerl In our mld.c;t. - (The Czec h "Pravda," London, January 1951 ).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beneš: King of Political Cheats Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 1 (3), March 1952 pp. 53-55 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1952 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/fde68cf3e2a138c471cf9a7af8a0f1b8.pdf 422c447b0c47a3b463fa9461a996b44b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 49 13. See V. J agic, Entstehungsg eschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache, Vjenna, 1900. 14. Annales Fuldenses and Annales r egni Francorum mention '·Sclavos Marabenses" . . . "duces Sclavorum circa Danubiu m habitantium .. ." or "legationes Marvanorum . . ." distingui>shin,g them fro m "legaitiones !Beheimorum," i.e., C2Jechs. In the Reg,e nsburg continuation of Annales Fuldenses we find only "Maravi, M·aravaui, Marehenses, Marabi, Marahav.i," etc. 15. ,see !Dr. J an Dekan, Slovenske dejiny, Iii, Bratislava, 1951, p. 42. 16. J . SkuJ.tety already in 1926 writes in this regard: "With the ,d evelopment of science, particularly Slavonic ph ilology, talk of Carpatho,Danubian and Pannonian Slavs w:ill cease, -a nd t!he SloveneSlovaks w'il'l be def,i nitely m entioned . When it is once clear that ihe inhabitants of present-day Moravia were nothing but Slovaks, t h e nation of Rastislav and Svatopluk will not be called Moravlans .a nd Slovaks, but persistently and definitely Slovaks" (Sketches from Slovak History, p. 30). 17. See Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 42 . 18. See Chapter, Kievan Russia and Central Europe, p. 236-261. 19. See Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 10-14. 20. Pogorielov s•a ys em ph a ti cally th at t he Slovakisms in the Slavonic text of th e H oly Scriptures are th e work of Gorazd and calls Gorazd the third h oly apos tl e of Slavdom . 21. Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 14. 22. K. J . Grot, Karpato-dunajs kija zemli v sud'bach slavianstva, 1905, p. 18, and Metodijevskij jubilejnij sbornik, W arsaiw, 1885, p. 5. • • • BENES'S 'JIRiiP TO MOSCOW AND CZECHOSLOVAK PROPAGANDA Dr. Michael Zibrin Benes admits in his Memoirs that Eden made some forJ mal objecUons aigainst his 1943 trip to Moscow, yet he tries to mmimti:ze the opposition of the IDnglish cabinet . Benes pr.opaJgandists of today, h owever, do not admit ev~ this faot and t hey praiise the Benes t rip to Moscow as something by which Benes greatly ,helped the Allies and to which Washington and London consented. Anyone who heard Dr. Ripka's report before the CzechoJSlovak State Council in London, July 26, 19'43 when he talked aib,out the preparaUons for Benes's trip to Moscow, made in a;greement with Ozecho.;S1ov,ak Communists, and how Dr. Benes was expected in Moscow in any case - has an entirely different picture rubout the �50 SLOVAKIA trip. Lausman and Uhlir, too, iboth of whom had just returned foom Moscow, stressed the necessity of the trip. A different view of the tTirp is held also ,b y those who were at the meetings of the Council during September and Octoiber, 1943, or those who read the minutes of these meetings, or even those who in the fall of 11943 read Ripka's mouthpiece in London, the "Czeichoslovak' and the "Nova Doha." In these minutes and newspapers, the Benes trip to Moscow appears in quite a dilfferent light from that the Benes followers present it now. Communist Vafo !best characterized the situation in his speech when he declared that Benes must go to Moscow whether the Englishmen liked it or not. If they do not Hke it, he said, "we shO'Uild leave England." The Ozecho-lSlovak State Council unanimously decided to ask Benes to go to Moscow as soon as possible. Dr. Riipka brought the Council's decision to iBenes and procured the traivel means for him and his 0om,pany. Dr. Papanek and Zenk~ •a t a co:mmemomtion of Benes's birthday praised Benes's decision to go. to Moscow. Their present writings about Benes's trip, however, disrugree with what they wrote in 1943 and with the official news of the Ozecho-Slov8Jk news rugency. The Ozech newspaper Denni lllasatel for August lrJ., 1943, puiblished a report from !Moscow that ,says, "Pravda, the Communist organ, ::received a report from London that the President of the Czecho-1Slaviak go,v eTnment, Dr. Benes, was forced to postpone his long-planned trip to Moscow 'because of the oppos~tion of English ci11cles." On Octolber 4, 1943, the same Denni masatel carried this report: • "The Cizecho-.Slovak govemment-in-e:x.Ue announced today that it wishes to enter a paict of muitua:J. heip and defense with Soviet Russia despite the demand of Foreign Minister Eden and of the PoiJ.ish govermnOOJt...in.-exiJ.e that the debate about the pact 'be postponed. . . Eden asked Dr. Edward Benes, president of the Czecho~Slovak government-in-exile, to ipostrpone his trip to Moscow. . . " This re-• port was issued for news agencies as well as for the Cze cho~Slovak press by iD:r. Ripka himself, as the' ~esult of the Council's decision. In the United States the report �SLOVAKIA 51 was published by IDr. Papanek. The Christian Science Monitor for October 13, 1943, had a long article aJbout Benes's tr1p to !Moscow, and Denni Hlasatel, reprinting it in abbreviated form on October 14, said: "The postponement is being e,cplained probrubly by the official British action resulting from Eden's declaration in Parliament on September 22 this year, in which IDden stated that British intervention - for postponement of Benes's trip - resulted f-rom discussion held du'l'ing Molotov's visit to London in 1942 . .. His Majesty's Government, said Eden thinks that both governments are of the, opinion that it will be better for them at present not to conclude such a paot.. ." The pasS8Jges a.re from Eden's speech. How then could Dr. Ripka state in his book "Cze,ehoslovakia Enslaved" that Dr. Benes went to iMoscow with the consent of the Allies? How can .t he other members of the Council of Free Ozecho-1Slovakia say that Benes went to Moscow to sign an alli,ance with the USSR with the con~ sent of Was-hington and London? Yes, it was they who asked Benes in 1943 to go to Moscow even a;gainst the will of the British Government. This is a matter orf record. Yet today in America the same people from the Oouncil of Free Ozecho-·Slov~kia have the impudence to propagate in official Washington exactly the opposite of the truth. In 1943 the twenty-fifth anniversary of c~echo-Slovakia's creation was commemorated in radio broadcasts and artides. In America bvoadcasts were made by Jan Masaryk and Francis Nemec, and in London by Ripka, Slavik and Sramek. AJl were inspired by Benes's planned trip .to Moscow; they were very much in favor of it Their speeches were published in the officiial Ozecho-S~ovak publications as well as in Denni Hlasatel from October 27. 1943, and through the first week of November. It is of interest to note here that during this same time Denni masatel, as well as other Czecho-SJ:ovak papers, reprinted the texts of various proclamations from the Czecho-Slovak National Oouncil in Paris from October 18, 1918, and also the text of the so-caJ.led "Washington De .. claration. " On these documents we find the name of Gen.. eral Dr. Milan R. Stefanik rus a signer. At that time, how- �52 SLOVAKIA ever, General Stefanik was in Russia; therefore he could not sign any declaration in October, 1918, eiitJher in Washington or in Paris. When Stefa·n ik learned aboot these documents,. according to the memoirs of Fre:noh General Janin, he not onJy did not aJgree with them, but also ,protested through General Janin that his. signature ,w as used without his knowledge iand authorriity. I am referring to this incident in order to show that the Czecho-Slovak politicians did nort change. 'Dhey misrepresented the truth and forged signatures during the first exile (World War I), they did the same during the second exile (World Wax l[) and today diUTing the socalled thi·r d exile, they deny even what they themselves had published earlier througih the Czecho-Slovak press agency. One could document this. rkhly from 1'94·3 British newspapers, the records of the British Parliament, and particularly the Polish pulblications from 1943. I purposely cited only the reference of Dr. Zenkl and Ripka from new:sprupers. This material was ,p ublished at the same time in New York in 'both of Papanek's newspapers, the New Yorksky Dennik and New Yorkske Listy. It is important to note· •t hat Dr. Benes'·s trip to Moscow in 1943 restclted in hiis signing an alliance with the Soviet Union without the approval of the nations at home. DulI'ing this trip he promised Stia1in to cede Ruthenia, which had been part of Czecho-lS lovakia before 19138. The fulfillment of Bene.s's promise materialized on June 2,9, 1945, when Benes formally ceded Ruthenia to the Soviet Union by treaty without consulting the will of its people and in flagrant violation of th e Constitution. As a matter of fact, Benes's dealings anent R.uthenia began earlier than 1943. According to the official report handled lby the chiefs of the Ozecho-1Slovaft{ press agencies in London and New Yovk, Dr. Ripka and Dr. IPaJpaneik, Benes had a conference with ,So-wet Ambassador Majsky in London on September 19, 19319, a:bout the matter of a common boundary to be estalblished between the USS'.R and Czecho-lSlovakia. Benes a:ssured Majsky that as far as Ruthenia wa,s concerned he and StaJlin would come to an agreement between themsel,v es, as this was an internal �SLOVAKIA 53 question. Benes himself admits this fact in his Memoirs on page 207. Jaromir Smutny, who accompanied Benes to Moscow, in his publication The Case of Ruthenia (pubJished by Benes's Institute in London), writes on page 34: "When Benes in Moscow talked about Ruthenia he basically agreed that Ozecho--Sl,ovrukia will not and cannot be against the annexation of Ruthenia by t_h e USSR if the population will wish it." rm January, 19145, Dr. Fierlinger showed me his re-· cords of Benes's ta:llks in Moscow. Dr. Fierlinger was at that time Benes's amib assador in Moscow and together with Smutny ,a ccompanied Benes during his Moscow conferences. Also Dr. Taborsky, then Benes's secretary, states that Benes said ,o n August 28, 1941, when he conferred with .Amlbaissador Majsky: "'Ruthema cannot remain with the Hungarians; the Poles carmot have it; that pr{)!Vince can only belong either to, Ozecho-Slovakia or to ,R:us,sia." Despite aJll these commitments, the Benes proprugandists, particularly Papanek in Washington and Ripka in London, were declaring that Stalin recogni,z ed pre-war Czecho~1Slov~a in its origin.al boundaries, Ruthenia included. It was very important to them to assure everyone of Stalin's "good intentions." On December 1, 1944, when Nemec was acting •a s Benes's representative in Ruthenia, he received from the regional convention of national councils its dedsion that Rutheniia was no lornger a part of Czecho~Slo,vaJldia, and that the National Council of Ruthenia being estaJblished, Nemec IliO '1ongeT represented Ruthenia. This decision was signed 'b y Nemec's adviser Turjanic, who with Communists Pctruscak and Valo had been assigned to Nemec by Benes. It wa:s then that the Czecho-iSlova;k government protested. When Fierlinger on behalf of his government submitted olbjections to what was going on in Ruthenia, Stalin wrote a letter to Benes on January 23, 1945. I was in the office of Ambassadoir Fierlinger in Moscow. In his letter Stalin Uipbraided Benes, saying: "You yourself told me in Moscow of your willingness to give R:uthenia to the So~ viet Union." This quotation is according to the official 1 �54 SLOVAKIA Czech embassy record. Dr. Fierlinger himself assrured me there that Stalin was right and that Benes and his government in London were playing a comedy, because they were afraid of the consequences. Wthen Benes replied to Stalin on Feb.vuaJry 1, he did not deny to Stalin his earlier statement rubout iRuthenria; he also conf:h med ,h is talks with Miajsky, thus: ",J: did not .c hange my stand on this question from that moment when I udked a;bout it fOT the first time with your ,a mbassado:r I. Majsky in London in Sep~ tember, 1939, no,r wiU I ,change it in the futUTe." Stalin, therefore, came west of the Oar:pathi:ans according t9 a previous agreement aJbout whicih official circles in London and Washington did not know. They were informed to the contrary, namely, that "the USSR recognizes and leaves Czecho~lov;akia in its former boundaries, and that Stalin does not have any territorial demands." It wais so that Benes informed Roosevelt in 1943 while an a visit in Washington, and so ,he talked in America and Canada. ThUS; also tJhe memlbers of the present Council of Free Ozecho ..Slovaikia ibroadcast home over the BBC in 1943 and 1944, ,praising Benes as a "lilberator." They lied in 'b oth instances, for neither Washington nor London gave consent to Benes's tri:p to MoS<!OIW, nor did they know anythinig rubout Benes':s promise to Stalin to cede IRuthenia to the 1So.viet Union. Nobody wanted this to haJPPen except 'Stalin, Benes, and their foHowers. 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "Thus if we can a;void Sociwlism, we escape Communism. On the contrary, if we surrender to Socia1ism, we surrender to Communism at the same time. But what is Socialism? Socialism is government control, government operation and government ownership of the Nation's business. Socialism thus caill!s for the continu'OU:s ex:pansion and cenitraili:zation otf governmental power over prirvat.e production, privat.e property, private employment and privat.e life. Under Socialism a11 'business becomes public 'business, all property 1b ecomes public properl:y, all employees become public employees, and thl\IS, all privacy is abolished." (Dean Clarence Ma;nion, MlBC, 1-16-05). � SLOVAKIA 49 13. See V. J agic, Entstehungsg eschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache, Vjenna, 1900. 14. Annales Fuldenses and Annales r egni Francorum mention '·Sclavos Marabenses" . . . "duces Sclavorum circa Danubiu m habitantium .. ." or "legationes Marvanorum . . ." distingui>shin,g them fro m "legaitiones !Beheimorum," i.e., C2Jechs. In the Reg,e nsburg continuation of Annales Fuldenses we find only "Maravi, M·aravaui, Marehenses, Marabi, Marahav.i," etc. 15. ,see !Dr. J an Dekan, Slovenske dejiny, Iii, Bratislava, 1951, p. 42. 16. J . SkuJ.tety already in 1926 writes in this regard: "With the ,d evelopment of science, particularly Slavonic ph ilology, talk of Carpatho,Danubian and Pannonian Slavs w:ill cease, -a nd t!he SloveneSlovaks w'il'l be def,i nitely m entioned . When it is once clear that ihe inhabitants of present-day Moravia were nothing but Slovaks, t h e nation of Rastislav and Svatopluk will not be called Moravlans .a nd Slovaks, but persistently and definitely Slovaks" (Sketches from Slovak History, p. 30). 17. See Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 42 . 18. See Chapter, Kievan Russia and Central Europe, p. 236-261. 19. See Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 10-14. 20. Pogorielov s•a ys em ph a ti cally th at t he Slovakisms in the Slavonic text of th e H oly Scriptures are th e work of Gorazd and calls Gorazd the third h oly apos tl e of Slavdom . 21. Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 14. 22. K. J . Grot, Karpato-dunajs kija zemli v sud'bach slavianstva, 1905, p. 18, and Metodijevskij jubilejnij sbornik, W arsaiw, 1885, p. 5. • • • BENES'S 'JIRiiP TO MOSCOW AND CZECHOSLOVAK PROPAGANDA Dr. Michael Zibrin Benes admits in his Memoirs that Eden made some forJ mal objecUons aigainst his 1943 trip to Moscow, yet he tries to mmimti:ze the opposition of the IDnglish cabinet . Benes pr.opaJgandists of today, h owever, do not admit ev~ this faot and t hey praiise the Benes t rip to Moscow as something by which Benes greatly ,helped the Allies and to which Washington and London consented. Anyone who heard Dr. Ripka's report before the CzechoJSlovak State Council in London, July 26, 19'43 when he talked aib,out the preparaUons for Benes's trip to Moscow, made in a;greement with Ozecho.;S1ov,ak Communists, and how Dr. Benes was expected in Moscow in any case - has an entirely different picture rubout the �50 SLOVAKIA trip. Lausman and Uhlir, too, iboth of whom had just returned foom Moscow, stressed the necessity of the trip. A different view of the tTirp is held also ,b y those who were at the meetings of the Council during September and Octoiber, 1943, or those who read the minutes of these meetings, or even those who in the fall of 11943 read Ripka's mouthpiece in London, the "Czeichoslovak' and the "Nova Doha." In these minutes and newspapers, the Benes trip to Moscow appears in quite a dilfferent light from that the Benes followers present it now. Communist Vafo !best characterized the situation in his speech when he declared that Benes must go to Moscow whether the Englishmen liked it or not. If they do not Hke it, he said, "we shO'Uild leave England." The Ozecho-lSlovak State Council unanimously decided to ask Benes to go to Moscow as soon as possible. Dr. Riipka brought the Council's decision to iBenes and procured the traivel means for him and his 0om,pany. Dr. Papanek and Zenk~ •a t a co:mmemomtion of Benes's birthday praised Benes's decision to go. to Moscow. Their present writings about Benes's trip, however, disrugree with what they wrote in 1943 and with the official news of the Ozecho-Slov8Jk news rugency. The Ozech newspaper Denni lllasatel for August lrJ., 1943, puiblished a report from !Moscow that ,says, "Pravda, the Communist organ, ::received a report from London that the President of the Czecho-1Slaviak go,v eTnment, Dr. Benes, was forced to postpone his long-planned trip to Moscow 'because of the oppos~tion of English ci11cles." On Octolber 4, 1943, the same Denni masatel carried this report: • "The Cizecho-.Slovak govemment-in-e:x.Ue announced today that it wishes to enter a paict of muitua:J. heip and defense with Soviet Russia despite the demand of Foreign Minister Eden and of the PoiJ.ish govermnOOJt...in.-exiJ.e that the debate about the pact 'be postponed. . . Eden asked Dr. Edward Benes, president of the Czecho~Slovak government-in-exile, to ipostrpone his trip to Moscow. . . " This re-• port was issued for news agencies as well as for the Cze cho~Slovak press by iD:r. Ripka himself, as the' ~esult of the Council's decision. In the United States the report �SLOVAKIA 51 was published by IDr. Papanek. The Christian Science Monitor for October 13, 1943, had a long article aJbout Benes's tr1p to !Moscow, and Denni Hlasatel, reprinting it in abbreviated form on October 14, said: "The postponement is being e,cplained probrubly by the official British action resulting from Eden's declaration in Parliament on September 22 this year, in which IDden stated that British intervention - for postponement of Benes's trip - resulted f-rom discussion held du'l'ing Molotov's visit to London in 1942 . .. His Majesty's Government, said Eden thinks that both governments are of the, opinion that it will be better for them at present not to conclude such a paot.. ." The pasS8Jges a.re from Eden's speech. How then could Dr. Ripka state in his book "Cze,ehoslovakia Enslaved" that Dr. Benes went to iMoscow with the consent of the Allies? How can .t he other members of the Council of Free Ozecho-1Slovakia say that Benes went to Moscow to sign an alli,ance with the USSR with the con~ sent of Was-hington and London? Yes, it was they who asked Benes in 1943 to go to Moscow even a;gainst the will of the British Government. This is a matter orf record. Yet today in America the same people from the Oouncil of Free Ozecho-·Slov~kia have the impudence to propagate in official Washington exactly the opposite of the truth. In 1943 the twenty-fifth anniversary of c~echo-Slovakia's creation was commemorated in radio broadcasts and artides. In America bvoadcasts were made by Jan Masaryk and Francis Nemec, and in London by Ripka, Slavik and Sramek. AJl were inspired by Benes's planned trip .to Moscow; they were very much in favor of it Their speeches were published in the officiial Ozecho-S~ovak publications as well as in Denni Hlasatel from October 27. 1943, and through the first week of November. It is of interest to note here that during this same time Denni masatel, as well as other Czecho-SJ:ovak papers, reprinted the texts of various proclamations from the Czecho-Slovak National Oouncil in Paris from October 18, 1918, and also the text of the so-caJ.led "Washington De .. claration. " On these documents we find the name of Gen.. eral Dr. Milan R. Stefanik rus a signer. At that time, how- �52 SLOVAKIA ever, General Stefanik was in Russia; therefore he could not sign any declaration in October, 1918, eiitJher in Washington or in Paris. When Stefa·n ik learned aboot these documents,. according to the memoirs of Fre:noh General Janin, he not onJy did not aJgree with them, but also ,protested through General Janin that his. signature ,w as used without his knowledge iand authorriity. I am referring to this incident in order to show that the Czecho-Slovak politicians did nort change. 'Dhey misrepresented the truth and forged signatures during the first exile (World War I), they did the same during the second exile (World Wax l[) and today diUTing the socalled thi·r d exile, they deny even what they themselves had published earlier througih the Czecho-Slovak press agency. One could document this. rkhly from 1'94·3 British newspapers, the records of the British Parliament, and particularly the Polish pulblications from 1943. I purposely cited only the reference of Dr. Zenkl and Ripka from new:sprupers. This material was ,p ublished at the same time in New York in 'both of Papanek's newspapers, the New Yorksky Dennik and New Yorkske Listy. It is important to note· •t hat Dr. Benes'·s trip to Moscow in 1943 restclted in hiis signing an alliance with the Soviet Union without the approval of the nations at home. DulI'ing this trip he promised Stia1in to cede Ruthenia, which had been part of Czecho-lS lovakia before 19138. The fulfillment of Bene.s's promise materialized on June 2,9, 1945, when Benes formally ceded Ruthenia to the Soviet Union by treaty without consulting the will of its people and in flagrant violation of th e Constitution. As a matter of fact, Benes's dealings anent R.uthenia began earlier than 1943. According to the official report handled lby the chiefs of the Ozecho-1Slovaft{ press agencies in London and New Yovk, Dr. Ripka and Dr. IPaJpaneik, Benes had a conference with ,So-wet Ambassador Majsky in London on September 19, 19319, a:bout the matter of a common boundary to be estalblished between the USS'.R and Czecho-lSlovakia. Benes a:ssured Majsky that as far as Ruthenia wa,s concerned he and StaJlin would come to an agreement between themsel,v es, as this was an internal �SLOVAKIA 53 question. Benes himself admits this fact in his Memoirs on page 207. Jaromir Smutny, who accompanied Benes to Moscow, in his publication The Case of Ruthenia (pubJished by Benes's Institute in London), writes on page 34: "When Benes in Moscow talked about Ruthenia he basically agreed that Ozecho--Sl,ovrukia will not and cannot be against the annexation of Ruthenia by t_h e USSR if the population will wish it." rm January, 19145, Dr. Fierlinger showed me his re-· cords of Benes's ta:llks in Moscow. Dr. Fierlinger was at that time Benes's amib assador in Moscow and together with Smutny ,a ccompanied Benes during his Moscow conferences. Also Dr. Taborsky, then Benes's secretary, states that Benes said ,o n August 28, 1941, when he conferred with .Amlbaissador Majsky: "'Ruthema cannot remain with the Hungarians; the Poles carmot have it; that pr{)!Vince can only belong either to, Ozecho-Slovakia or to ,R:us,sia." Despite aJll these commitments, the Benes proprugandists, particularly Papanek in Washington and Ripka in London, were declaring that Stalin recogni,z ed pre-war Czecho~1Slov~a in its origin.al boundaries, Ruthenia included. It was very important to them to assure everyone of Stalin's "good intentions." On December 1, 1944, when Nemec was acting •a s Benes's representative in Ruthenia, he received from the regional convention of national councils its dedsion that Rutheniia was no lornger a part of Czecho~Slo,vaJldia, and that the National Council of Ruthenia being estaJblished, Nemec IliO '1ongeT represented Ruthenia. This decision was signed 'b y Nemec's adviser Turjanic, who with Communists Pctruscak and Valo had been assigned to Nemec by Benes. It wa:s then that the Czecho-iSlova;k government protested. When Fierlinger on behalf of his government submitted olbjections to what was going on in Ruthenia, Stalin wrote a letter to Benes on January 23, 1945. I was in the office of Ambassadoir Fierlinger in Moscow. In his letter Stalin Uipbraided Benes, saying: "You yourself told me in Moscow of your willingness to give R:uthenia to the So~ viet Union." This quotation is according to the official 1 �54 SLOVAKIA Czech embassy record. Dr. Fierlinger himself assrured me there that Stalin was right and that Benes and his government in London were playing a comedy, because they were afraid of the consequences. Wthen Benes replied to Stalin on Feb.vuaJry 1, he did not deny to Stalin his earlier statement rubout iRuthenria; he also conf:h med ,h is talks with Miajsky, thus: ",J: did not .c hange my stand on this question from that moment when I udked a;bout it fOT the first time with your ,a mbassado:r I. Majsky in London in Sep~ tember, 1939, no,r wiU I ,change it in the futUTe." Stalin, therefore, came west of the Oar:pathi:ans according t9 a previous agreement aJbout whicih official circles in London and Washington did not know. They were informed to the contrary, namely, that "the USSR recognizes and leaves Czecho~lov;akia in its former boundaries, and that Stalin does not have any territorial demands." It wais so that Benes informed Roosevelt in 1943 while an a visit in Washington, and so ,he talked in America and Canada. ThUS; also tJhe memlbers of the present Council of Free Ozecho ..Slovaikia ibroadcast home over the BBC in 1943 and 1944, ,praising Benes as a "lilberator." They lied in 'b oth instances, for neither Washington nor London gave consent to Benes's tri:p to MoS<!OIW, nor did they know anythinig rubout Benes':s promise to Stalin to cede IRuthenia to the 1So.viet Union. Nobody wanted this to haJPPen except 'Stalin, Benes, and their foHowers. 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "Thus if we can a;void Sociwlism, we escape Communism. On the contrary, if we surrender to Socia1ism, we surrender to Communism at the same time. But what is Socialism? Socialism is government control, government operation and government ownership of the Nation's business. Socialism thus caill!s for the continu'OU:s ex:pansion and cenitraili:zation otf governmental power over prirvat.e production, privat.e property, private employment and privat.e life. Under Socialism a11 'business becomes public 'business, all property 1b ecomes public properl:y, all employees become public employees, and thl\IS, all privacy is abolished." (Dean Clarence Ma;nion, MlBC, 1-16-05). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1955, Vol. 5 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 14), March 1955.</li> <li>Issue 2-3 (No. 15-16), June-September 1955.</li> <li>Issue 4 (No. 17), December 1955.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 49 13. See V. J agic, Entstehungsg eschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache, Vjenna, 1900. 14. Annales Fuldenses and Annales r egni Francorum mention '·Sclavos Marabenses" . . . "duces Sclavorum circa Danubiu m habitantium .. ." or "legationes Marvanorum . . ." distingui>shin,g them fro m "legaitiones !Beheimorum," i.e., C2Jechs. In the Reg,e nsburg continuation of Annales Fuldenses we find only "Maravi, M·aravaui, Marehenses, Marabi, Marahav.i," etc. 15. ,see !Dr. J an Dekan, Slovenske dejiny, Iii, Bratislava, 1951, p. 42. 16. J . SkuJ.tety already in 1926 writes in this regard: "With the ,d evelopment of science, particularly Slavonic ph ilology, talk of Carpatho,Danubian and Pannonian Slavs w:ill cease, -a nd t!he SloveneSlovaks w'il'l be def,i nitely m entioned . When it is once clear that ihe inhabitants of present-day Moravia were nothing but Slovaks, t h e nation of Rastislav and Svatopluk will not be called Moravlans .a nd Slovaks, but persistently and definitely Slovaks" (Sketches from Slovak History, p. 30). 17. See Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 42 . 18. See Chapter, Kievan Russia and Central Europe, p. 236-261. 19. See Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 10-14. 20. Pogorielov s•a ys em ph a ti cally th at t he Slovakisms in the Slavonic text of th e H oly Scriptures are th e work of Gorazd and calls Gorazd the third h oly apos tl e of Slavdom . 21. Kultura starych Slovakov, p. 14. 22. K. J . Grot, Karpato-dunajs kija zemli v sud'bach slavianstva, 1905, p. 18, and Metodijevskij jubilejnij sbornik, W arsaiw, 1885, p. 5. • • • BENES'S 'JIRiiP TO MOSCOW AND CZECHOSLOVAK PROPAGANDA Dr. Michael Zibrin Benes admits in his Memoirs that Eden made some forJ mal objecUons aigainst his 1943 trip to Moscow, yet he tries to mmimti:ze the opposition of the IDnglish cabinet . Benes pr.opaJgandists of today, h owever, do not admit ev~ this faot and t hey praiise the Benes t rip to Moscow as something by which Benes greatly ,helped the Allies and to which Washington and London consented. Anyone who heard Dr. Ripka's report before the CzechoJSlovak State Council in London, July 26, 19'43 when he talked aib,out the preparaUons for Benes's trip to Moscow, made in a;greement with Ozecho.;S1ov,ak Communists, and how Dr. Benes was expected in Moscow in any case - has an entirely different picture rubout the 50 SLOVAKIA trip. Lausman and Uhlir, too, iboth of whom had just returned foom Moscow, stressed the necessity of the trip. A different view of the tTirp is held also ,b y those who were at the meetings of the Council during September and Octoiber, 1943, or those who read the minutes of these meetings, or even those who in the fall of 11943 read Ripka's mouthpiece in London, the "Czeichoslovak' and the "Nova Doha." In these minutes and newspapers, the Benes trip to Moscow appears in quite a dilfferent light from that the Benes followers present it now. Communist Vafo !best characterized the situation in his speech when he declared that Benes must go to Moscow whether the Englishmen liked it or not. If they do not Hke it, he said, "we shO'Uild leave England." The Ozecho-lSlovak State Council unanimously decided to ask Benes to go to Moscow as soon as possible. Dr. Riipka brought the Council's decision to iBenes and procured the traivel means for him and his 0om,pany. Dr. Papanek and Zenk~ •a t a co:mmemomtion of Benes's birthday praised Benes's decision to go. to Moscow. Their present writings about Benes's trip, however, disrugree with what they wrote in 1943 and with the official news of the Ozecho-Slov8Jk news rugency. The Ozech newspaper Denni lllasatel for August lrJ., 1943, puiblished a report from !Moscow that ,says, "Pravda, the Communist organ, ::received a report from London that the President of the Czecho-1Slaviak go,v eTnment, Dr. Benes, was forced to postpone his long-planned trip to Moscow 'because of the oppos~tion of English ci11cles." On Octolber 4, 1943, the same Denni masatel carried this report: • "The Cizecho-.Slovak govemment-in-e:x.Ue announced today that it wishes to enter a paict of muitua:J. heip and defense with Soviet Russia despite the demand of Foreign Minister Eden and of the PoiJ.ish govermnOOJt...in.-exiJ.e that the debate about the pact 'be postponed. . . Eden asked Dr. Edward Benes, president of the Czecho~Slovak government-in-exile, to ipostrpone his trip to Moscow. . . " This re-• port was issued for news agencies as well as for the Cze cho~Slovak press by iD:r. Ripka himself, as the' ~esult of the Council's decision. In the United States the report SLOVAKIA 51 was published by IDr. Papanek. The Christian Science Monitor for October 13, 1943, had a long article aJbout Benes's tr1p to !Moscow, and Denni Hlasatel, reprinting it in abbreviated form on October 14, said: "The postponement is being e,cplained probrubly by the official British action resulting from Eden's declaration in Parliament on September 22 this year, in which IDden stated that British intervention - for postponement of Benes's trip - resulted f-rom discussion held du'l'ing Molotov's visit to London in 1942 . .. His Majesty's Government, said Eden thinks that both governments are of the, opinion that it will be better for them at present not to conclude such a paot.. ." The pasS8Jges a.re from Eden's speech. How then could Dr. Ripka state in his book "Cze,ehoslovakia Enslaved" that Dr. Benes went to iMoscow with the consent of the Allies? How can .t he other members of the Council of Free Ozecho-1Slovakia say that Benes went to Moscow to sign an alli,ance with the USSR with the con~ sent of Was-hington and London? Yes, it was they who asked Benes in 1943 to go to Moscow even a;gainst the will of the British Government. This is a matter orf record. Yet today in America the same people from the Oouncil of Free Ozecho-·Slov~kia have the impudence to propagate in official Washington exactly the opposite of the truth. In 1943 the twenty-fifth anniversary of c~echo-Slovakia's creation was commemorated in radio broadcasts and artides. In America bvoadcasts were made by Jan Masaryk and Francis Nemec, and in London by Ripka, Slavik and Sramek. AJl were inspired by Benes's planned trip .to Moscow; they were very much in favor of it Their speeches were published in the officiial Ozecho-S~ovak publications as well as in Denni Hlasatel from October 27. 1943, and through the first week of November. It is of interest to note here that during this same time Denni masatel, as well as other Czecho-SJ:ovak papers, reprinted the texts of various proclamations from the Czecho-Slovak National Oouncil in Paris from October 18, 1918, and also the text of the so-caJ.led "Washington De .. claration. " On these documents we find the name of Gen.. eral Dr. Milan R. Stefanik rus a signer. At that time, how- 52 SLOVAKIA ever, General Stefanik was in Russia; therefore he could not sign any declaration in October, 1918, eiitJher in Washington or in Paris. When Stefa·n ik learned aboot these documents,. according to the memoirs of Fre:noh General Janin, he not onJy did not aJgree with them, but also ,protested through General Janin that his. signature ,w as used without his knowledge iand authorriity. I am referring to this incident in order to show that the Czecho-Slovak politicians did nort change. 'Dhey misrepresented the truth and forged signatures during the first exile (World War I), they did the same during the second exile (World Wax l[) and today diUTing the socalled thi·r d exile, they deny even what they themselves had published earlier througih the Czecho-Slovak press agency. One could document this. rkhly from 1'94·3 British newspapers, the records of the British Parliament, and particularly the Polish pulblications from 1943. I purposely cited only the reference of Dr. Zenkl and Ripka from new:sprupers. This material was ,p ublished at the same time in New York in 'both of Papanek's newspapers, the New Yorksky Dennik and New Yorkske Listy. It is important to note· •t hat Dr. Benes'·s trip to Moscow in 1943 restclted in hiis signing an alliance with the Soviet Union without the approval of the nations at home. DulI'ing this trip he promised Stia1in to cede Ruthenia, which had been part of Czecho-lS lovakia before 19138. The fulfillment of Bene.s's promise materialized on June 2,9, 1945, when Benes formally ceded Ruthenia to the Soviet Union by treaty without consulting the will of its people and in flagrant violation of th e Constitution. As a matter of fact, Benes's dealings anent R.uthenia began earlier than 1943. According to the official report handled lby the chiefs of the Ozecho-1Slovaft{ press agencies in London and New Yovk, Dr. Ripka and Dr. IPaJpaneik, Benes had a conference with ,So-wet Ambassador Majsky in London on September 19, 19319, a:bout the matter of a common boundary to be estalblished between the USS'.R and Czecho-lSlovakia. Benes a:ssured Majsky that as far as Ruthenia wa,s concerned he and StaJlin would come to an agreement between themsel,v es, as this was an internal SLOVAKIA 53 question. Benes himself admits this fact in his Memoirs on page 207. Jaromir Smutny, who accompanied Benes to Moscow, in his publication The Case of Ruthenia (pubJished by Benes's Institute in London), writes on page 34: "When Benes in Moscow talked about Ruthenia he basically agreed that Ozecho--Sl,ovrukia will not and cannot be against the annexation of Ruthenia by t_h e USSR if the population will wish it." rm January, 19145, Dr. Fierlinger showed me his re-· cords of Benes's ta:llks in Moscow. Dr. Fierlinger was at that time Benes's amib assador in Moscow and together with Smutny ,a ccompanied Benes during his Moscow conferences. Also Dr. Taborsky, then Benes's secretary, states that Benes said ,o n August 28, 1941, when he conferred with .Amlbaissador Majsky: "'Ruthema cannot remain with the Hungarians; the Poles carmot have it; that pr{)!Vince can only belong either to, Ozecho-Slovakia or to ,R:us,sia." Despite aJll these commitments, the Benes proprugandists, particularly Papanek in Washington and Ripka in London, were declaring that Stalin recogni,z ed pre-war Czecho~1Slov~a in its origin.al boundaries, Ruthenia included. It was very important to them to assure everyone of Stalin's "good intentions." On December 1, 1944, when Nemec was acting •a s Benes's representative in Ruthenia, he received from the regional convention of national councils its dedsion that Rutheniia was no lornger a part of Czecho~Slo,vaJldia, and that the National Council of Ruthenia being estaJblished, Nemec IliO '1ongeT represented Ruthenia. This decision was signed 'b y Nemec's adviser Turjanic, who with Communists Pctruscak and Valo had been assigned to Nemec by Benes. It wa:s then that the Czecho-iSlova;k government protested. When Fierlinger on behalf of his government submitted olbjections to what was going on in Ruthenia, Stalin wrote a letter to Benes on January 23, 1945. I was in the office of Ambassadoir Fierlinger in Moscow. In his letter Stalin Uipbraided Benes, saying: "You yourself told me in Moscow of your willingness to give R:uthenia to the So~ viet Union." This quotation is according to the official 1 54 SLOVAKIA Czech embassy record. Dr. Fierlinger himself assrured me there that Stalin was right and that Benes and his government in London were playing a comedy, because they were afraid of the consequences. Wthen Benes replied to Stalin on Feb.vuaJry 1, he did not deny to Stalin his earlier statement rubout iRuthenria; he also conf:h med ,h is talks with Miajsky, thus: ",J: did not .c hange my stand on this question from that moment when I udked a;bout it fOT the first time with your ,a mbassado:r I. Majsky in London in Sep~ tember, 1939, no,r wiU I ,change it in the futUTe." Stalin, therefore, came west of the Oar:pathi:ans according t9 a previous agreement aJbout whicih official circles in London and Washington did not know. They were informed to the contrary, namely, that "the USSR recognizes and leaves Czecho~lov;akia in its former boundaries, and that Stalin does not have any territorial demands." It wais so that Benes informed Roosevelt in 1943 while an a visit in Washington, and so ,he talked in America and Canada. ThUS; also tJhe memlbers of the present Council of Free Ozecho ..Slovaikia ibroadcast home over the BBC in 1943 and 1944, ,praising Benes as a "lilberator." They lied in 'b oth instances, for neither Washington nor London gave consent to Benes's tri:p to MoS<!OIW, nor did they know anythinig rubout Benes':s promise to Stalin to cede IRuthenia to the 1So.viet Union. Nobody wanted this to haJPPen except 'Stalin, Benes, and their foHowers. 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "Thus if we can a;void Sociwlism, we escape Communism. On the contrary, if we surrender to Socia1ism, we surrender to Communism at the same time. But what is Socialism? Socialism is government control, government operation and government ownership of the Nation's business. Socialism thus caill!s for the continu'OU:s ex:pansion and cenitraili:zation otf governmental power over prirvat.e production, privat.e property, private employment and privat.e life. Under Socialism a11 'business becomes public 'business, all property 1b ecomes public properl:y, all employees become public employees, and thl\IS, all privacy is abolished." (Dean Clarence Ma;nion, MlBC, 1-16-05).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beneš's Trip to Moscow and Czecho-Slovak Propaganda Description An account of the resource Dr. Michael Zibrin Slovakia, Vol. 5, No. 4 (17), December 1955 pp. 49-54 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Zibrín, Michal, 1899-1968 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1955 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2b8aa9baaf206146d98754fc24025177.pdf e15f32c5dc1cf13cc3a1d9a02d354a18 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 119 Book Reviews Robin Okey. Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to Communism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 . 264 pp . Attempting to write a general survey of Eastern European history is no m ean task . Indeed, a comprehensive overview within the confines of a book numbering less than three hundred pages is altogether impossible. Robin Okey offers an alternative to this dilemma in the form of an interpretive stud y . The author indicates that his purpose is to " present a perspecti ve rather than tell a story. " Focusing on the twin themes of modernization and na tionalism , he traces the evolution of the Central and Eastern European lands through two ce nturies of economic , political, and social change . It is his thesis that Eastern European nationalism arose as a response to the area ' s comparative backwardness in relation to the W est. In approaching thi s theme, Okey notes that feudalism came relatively late to this general area , and suggests that - at least until the sixteenth century - Eastern Europe enjoyed the potential of parallel development with W estern Europe. H e states, however , that dom estic fe udal forces were strong enough to reverse thi s trend . External forces - the Turkish invasion of the Balka ns a nd Hun gary a nd the H a bsburg conquest of rebelliou s Bohemia - are also cited as instrument al facto rs. Ei ghtee nth -century Eastern Europe is ch a racterized as havin g regimes which were ineffi cient even by feudal standards . The peasantry bore the brunt of resulta nt defi ciencies, but thriving popul ar cultures provided an impetu s for future revival. Okey states catego rically that the penetrati on of the Enli ghtenm ent represe nt s the first stages of ra pprochem ent with the W est. In a number of in sta nces th e process was characteri zed by reform from a bove, althou gh the role of th e cl ergy is also cited . In the latter case, the auth or specificall y mention s th e P ole K on a rski and th e Serb Obrad ovic; it is wo rth notin g th a t Bern ola k's contribution to th e Slovak rev ival is omitted . T he Eastern Eu ro pean Enli gh te nment faced the dil emm a th at the socia l premi ses of an al ternative order we re incomplete. Con sequentl y, conservatives were more ext reme and reformers more revolutionary tha n their cou n terpa rt s in the West. �120 SLOVAKIA Liberalism in Eastern Europe differed from the West insofar as members of the nobility were heavily involved in a process which put them in opposition to their own social strata. Okey characterizes Eastern European liberalism as "an elusive, complex creed"; it shared the heavy emotionalism of ideas from other lands , but was only partially emancipated from native traditions. He objects to the Marxist view of nationalism as a creed devised by ambitious bourgeois elements; instead, he cites the role of professional scholars as the vanguard of the national movements . The 1848 revolutionary experience led to a clash between liberalism and nationalism; the former was instrumental in abolishing the last vestiges of serfdom, but also failed to satisfy the national aspirations of subject peoples . The balance of the nineteenth century is treated as a period of ideological fragmentation. The advance of industrial capitalism caused a reaction against liberalism on the part of the Right as well as the Left , and the continued rise of mass nationalism splintered existing political parties along ethnic lines. In assessing the downfall of the old order during World War I , Okey concedes that not all tendencies could be related to the national question. But h e hastens to add that "only nationalism had a magnetism strong enough to draw the dislocated elements into an alternative political order the pattern of nation-states . '' Promoters of the new nation-states viewed their emergence as the culmination of humanist principles. Okey disagrees, and cites three general causes for the failure of Western-style liberalism in the interwar period . Most obviously, one of them is the continuity of ethnic conflict within the new states. Second, the Eastern European nations remained economically de pendent on foreign capital. Finally, both the leaders of the new states and their opponents repudiated democracy in their approach to the outstanding problems of the times. Okey views interwar nationalism as "short-sighted rather than fundamentall y misguided"; the outsider Hitler bore the greatest responsibility for the demise of these states. The author implies that national Communism was most successful in those countries where the Party remained in effective control of public life, and failed in Czechoslovakia because the regime capitulated ideologicall y to non-Party gro ups. Finally, Okey states that the rise of a mass int elli ge nt sia and the emerge nce of common social problem s with the West is indicative of a greater degree of syncopat ion. For the student of Slovak hi story, this book might prove disappointing. Indeed, a genuine weakness may be found in the fact that Okey cites so few examples of the Slovak experien ce which provide important contrasts with certain patterns. Okey ' s contention that Eastern European soc iety had already become "brutali zed" during World War II , and that the Communists were tailor-made representatives of the new age , borders on conjecture. Although the position of the J ews in Slovakia was precarious during the war , they were �SLOVAKIA 121 nevertheless afforded a certain "breathing space" denied to their kin smen in Poland, and the average citizen of the Slovak R epublic was by no m ean s terrorized. It was only during the 1944 risin g - in which Communists played a major role - that "brutalization" on a broad scale was affected . Okey's treatment of the " Prague Spring" also provides a case of omission: He correctly cites the straightj acket command economy model as a major facto r in Novotny's demise, but mentions the Slovak opposition only as merely inciden tal. But insofar as Slovakia may be viewed as an integral part of an Eastern European whole, this book has definite merit. It provides the reader with a concise, refreshing overview of the past two centuries, and the author skillfully employs anecdotal examples to compare and contrast specific national experiences. Okey's book is helpful to the student already well-grounded in general Eastern European history; it can also be useful to the instructor who wishes to co nvey a certain sense of ideological conflict inherent in the region . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Easley, South Carolin a East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Edited by Milorad M. Drachkovitch. Stanford, Calif.: H oover Institution Press, 1982 . 41 7 pp . Thirteen of the seventeen papers contained in this volume were presented at a conferen ce organized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in January , 1980 . Due to the events in Poland in August , 1980 , publication of the symposium's proceedings was delayed so that individual authors could revise their contributions. According to the editor, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, readers of the book "will not find in it a ny pred ictions " and "will be offered facts and explan ations of recent events" (p. xi). This is true of most but not all of the essays. The latte r are largely analyt ical and of uneven quality. Among th e excellent contributions are Drachkovitch 's survey of the postwar political and economic developm ents in Yu goslavia, Leszek Kolakowski's " Ideology in Eastern Europe ," and the essays by J ohn Erickson, Hugh Seton-Watson, Peter J. Wiles, and Richard F. Staar. Also superb is the overview of developments in East Central Europe , " Present Situation and Principal Trends ," by Robert F. Byrnes. H e points out that '' the opinions of even our most expe rienced an alysts often reflect shallow hi stori cal knowledge , flight y analysis, and the ass umpti on that peoples of this area are far less in terested in independence and self-government than a re West �122 SLOVAKIA Europeans and Americans '' (p. 20). The flip-flops of George K ennan are cited as an example. Byrnes is a very perceptive observer who notices the connection between the election of Pope John Paul II , his visit to P oland in 1979, and the subsequent d evelopments in that country. In contrast , the essay on Poland by Jan T omasz Gross, " What Is Yet To Come," appears to be a rather superficial d escription of events leading up to the establishment of Solidarity in 1980 , claiming that " the impossible was inevitable " (p. 32 1). In the last section of the essay Gross sketches two different scenarios: first , Soviet military intervention ; second, the devolution of the Soviet imperium for which the price would be " m ost likely " the " ne utralization of Germany through unification and detachment from the Atlantic Alliance " (p. 325). As it happened , the imposition of martial law in D ecember 1981 proved his (and man y other observers') projections incorrect. On Alexander Dubcek 's behavior in 1968 Hugh Seton-Watson comments by asking a rhetorical question : How could the United States "defend people who would not defend themselves?" (p . 178). In contrast to it , Zdenek L. Suda, while concentrating mostly on the events in 1968 , is very a pologetic. H e writes: " The peaceful counterrevolution in the ve ry core of the Czechoslovak system must have caused more pani c in Moscow than the armed insurgency of Hungarian workers and soldiers in O ctober 1956 " (p. 258). Suda's cl aim is an undocumented assumption without an y foundation, and so is his interpretation of the events in Czechoslovkia when he writes that " the whole reform movement of 1968 could be defined simply as the application of rules and laws that long had been dead letters, but nt>:vertheless existed. It was precisely this greater respect for legality and constitutionality that sounded an alarm in the Soviet power center and triggered the intervention" (p. 256). Accordin g to Suda, "the Czechoslovak case differs from the Polish case because the Polish reform experim ent initiated in 1956 fa iled without direct Soviet intervent ion " (p. 252). Suda does not differentiate between intervention and in vasion . Soviet military presence in Poland ever since the end of World War II has constituted inter vention and h as m ade in vasion unnecessary. In fact, an invasion would have been cou nterproductive from the Soviet point of view. In contrast to it , by in vading Czechoslovakia in 1968 the Soviets h ave attained their military and strategic objecti ves. The "temporary" stationing of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia has become " permanent. " The even ts in Poland in the earl y 1980s corroborate the view th at the Soviets had military a nd strategic reasons for the 1968 in vasion and that the in ternal de velopments , which certainly did not amount to a "counterrevoluti on" as Sud a and the Sov iets claim, were merely a pretext for the action whose a im was to extract a "consent " from the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders to the stati oning of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. L abeling people as " neo -Stalinists " a nd "dogmati cs," as �SLOVAKIA 123 Suda does, is meaningless. His lack of knowledge of history is reflected in the essay. For example, he writes that " the division of the world between the two superpowers into spheres of interest - made the eventual integration of Czechoslovakia into the system controlled by the Soviets virtually inevitable'' (p. 244). However , nothing was " inevitable" about the arrangements that Edvard Benes made in Moscow in D ecember , 1943 . It was his decision to sign the trea ty with the Soviet Union and to promise the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders in Moscow that their party would be the strongest element in the new regime and that he would always support it. Indeed , Professor Byrnes' comment on the " shallow historical knowledge" and " flighty analysis," cited above , is applicable to the two essays by the two sociologists on Czechoslovakia and Poland published in this volume . j OSEF KAL YODA Saint Joseph College W est H artford, Connecticut Rudolf Krajcovic. Svedectvo dejfn o slovencine . 2nd edition, corrected. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980 . 268 pp. The second edi tion of Krajcovic's collection of linguistic eviden ce for the Slovak language is essentially the same as the first of 1977 . In these two edition s, the compiler strives to offer proof that the Slovak language has its own long and distinctive history. He is intent on demonstrating that Slovak is a " language of written documents ." He traces Slovak from the period of the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century throu gh the "twilight of Hungarian feudalism" in the nineteenth century. For the conclusion of his stud y, Krajcovic gives examples of present-day dialectical variations of the Slovak lan guage. There are photographs of d ocuments u sed as evidence. Especially when documents are in script, Krajcovic has the writings reproduced in printed form for easier appreciat ion. Interspersed among the evidence are bl ac k a nd white as well as colored illu stration s of folk articles and pa intings on a folk theme. The illu st ra tions a re the better to con vey the a tmosphere and period of the docum ents presented. Documen ta ry evidence from the early periods , n a mel y from that of the Great M orav ia n Empire through that of the fifteenth century , is not really extensive. A hi storical lin gui st would find the m aterial interesti ng, perh a ps even intrigu ing , but not conclu sive or even substantial for a judgm ent. From the sixteenth century onwards , the material offered as evidence is increasin gly more substanti ve. Indeed , Krajcovic him self notes th at the m aterial from the sixtee nth ce ntury is of" great significance," because thi s was "when Slovak was �124 SLOVAKIA for the first time committed to written form." The expression " written form " is perhaps a poor choice of phrasing. (The expression is found in the brief Slovak, Russian, as well as English introductions to the documentary evidence for this period.) For virtually all the examples of Slovak in this book are written . By the expression "written form," Krajcovic's probably means that the extant documentary instances of Slovak become more extensive and so more able to be appreciated linguistically. In focusing on this poor phrasing and its alleged implication , I do not intend to impugn the long history and distinctiveness of Slovak that Krajcovic desires so clearly to demonstrate in his book. The reader, nonetheless, cannot help feeling that Krajcovic is straining very hard to do this. On the whole, the book is more a nicely illustrated survey of the Slovak language for the layperson rather than a serious academic study for the specialist. With the Slovak language and its related culture appreciated so little outside of Slovakia and the Czech lands, Krajcovic' s book could enhance to some degree a better understanding of this language and culture . This second edition is a ''corrected '' version of the first . This correcting involves stylistic and typographical errors, but especially a few attributions that include additions, deletions, or actual corrections. For example, Krajfovic has deleted the attribution of the 1648 Trnava dictionary as one used for Virgil's Aeneid. The attribution ofa folk article as coming from Kovafova pri Zvolene has been changed to Kral'ova. Krajcovic has added the name of the Austrian author of Klimko's rendition of Krizant und Daria - Gottfried Uhlich, rendered by Krajcovic as Ulrich . Also, the English text has at times questionable diction and stylistic phrasing. The Russian text has been improved for this edition in various places. Neither language should offer problems in Slovakia, for there are native speakers as well as numerous specialists who could be consulted for a third edition . Finally, the bibliography for this edition has been expanded by one item. The price of this survey of the Slovak language has remained the same as for the earlier edition . This should make the book a readily purchasable acquisition for any individual or institution. G ERALD] . SABO , S.J . John Carroll University Cleveland, Ohio I'.udovft Novak. K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka . Bratislava: Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej adademie vied, 1980 . 352 pp. This important study of the earliest history of the Slovak language evolved out of a plan by I'.udovft Novak in the 1930s to supply the most up-to-date , complete, and detailed presentation of Slovak phonology from its earliest begin- �SLOVAKIA 125 nings . Methods of structu ral analysis were to be applied to the reconstructed phonologies of Slovak dialects . The origi nal ve rsion was begun in the last months of 1938 and earl y 1939 , a period of political turbulence. Over the intervening years, materials added to the original accumulated into several essays, thus resulting in two works. By reason of the a mount of accu mulated m ate rials , a recent decision to publi sh this monograph from just the original alone was ca rried out . The val ue of the original as a linguistic la ndm ark of the structural method in Slovakia was the deciding factor. Novak 's later theories are to be published in a separate volume which will be entitled "Vznik Praslovanov a ich jazyka. '' Four chapters in the book under review provide the most important linguistic phenomena in the d evelopment of the Slovak sou nd system , from the earliest period after the collapse of Common Slavic into the dialect differentiations of the Slovak area. They are: (a) the Slovak reflexes rat-, lat- from P ro to-Slavic *ort- , *oft -; (b) alterat ions in the consonant clusters dl, tl, and dn ; (c) reduced vowel "yer"-changes , the contraction phenomena, and the depalatalization of e( e)»a; and (d) the reconstruction of sound systems of Slovak dialects after the period of liquidation of Common Slavic co rrelations of '' syllabic soft ening. '' Novak is interested in whether (a) can be termed a "Yugoslavism" relating to a theory of colonization of Central Slovakia from the south . With respect to (b) he quotes rare documents of ancient dialect litera ture, gives phonetic a nd phonological ex plana tions , with examples of geographic ex tension of changes in W estern Slovak, and compares this with pa rallel types of like consonantal quantitat ive correlation s in a non-Slavic la nguage. For ( c) the a uthor defines the rapport of Central Slovak especially with East and Central Slavic languages, and refers to the chronology and locali zation of alterations in the Common Slavic dialect dom ai n. R egarding (d) he concen trates first on the contrac tion phenomena in Central Slovak with its chronology a nd that of other Slavic dialects, and then of other West Slavic la nguages . H e provides a n argu m ent for the explanation of the zenou-feminine-instrumental-singular type and a criticism of other theories. Most of the phonological changes in Old Slovak are viewed as occurring due to certain influences of external lan guages or of internal dialects. Hi s terminology illu strates certain developing periods of Old Slovak , for example, turkicizing, mongolization. The aut hor maintains one of several possible theories in lin guistic development. Hi s is an attempt to overcome difficulties connected with the immane nt development of the Slovak language. ova.k's structural approach as innovative and successful in the earl y period of lin gu ist ics is appla uded by colleagues m entioned in the foreword. H owever, his earl y theory is criticized as "one-sided" for three main reasons : fai lure to �126 SLOVAKIA calculate the comparison of internal contradictions; overemphasis on phonology without consideration of grammatical, morphemi c, morphological, or wordbuilding structures as lingui stic units; and finally a lack of regard for sociolin guistic chan ges . I'.udovft Novak is referred to as th e " Nestor of Slovak Linguistics " (p. 9) . This original work is viewed as a monument in the evolution of Slovak lin gu istics a nd is noteworthy, especially considering the period of its composition, the structural methods applied, with its new theoreti cal thought and insights. It is rightly considered the first synthetic conception of the earliest history of Slovak language founded on the development of the dialect sound systems. The dedication of the book is symbolic of its apparent inherent worth. Honored are three famous contributors to Slovak linguistics: to the history of the Slovak language (Trubetzkoy); to the comparative history of Slovak and Czech languages (Travnfcek), and to the foundation of modern Slovak linguistic geography with its Slovak historical dialectology (Vazny). Novak has provided the first synth etic method of structu ral applicat ion to the historical phonology of Slovak , a structural lin gui st ic milestone in Slovak lan guage study. JOHN M . KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsyl vania Frantisek Kalesny. Habani na Slovensku. Bratislava: Tatran, 198 1. 376 pp. Scattered today over the prairies of the United States and Canada can be found settlements of a people known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. The Brethren still retain the German language of their forefathers and practice a st ri ctly communitarian way of life. Their mode of collective farming is not th e outcome of economi c calculation ; it results from the Hutterit es' belief that Christ calls on his followers to renounce private property and have all things common . The H utterites originated in th e earl y 1530s as part of the Anabaptist movement that had begun in Central Europe around 1525. The M ennon ites tod ay also claim spiritual descent from this movement which represe nted a left wing of the Protestant R eformation. While onl y the Hutterites esta bli shed community o f goods, all its adherents practiced adult ba ptism (hence the n ame they acqu ired, Anabaptists) in order to stress the volunta ry character of their beli eve rs' church, in which only grown persons could participate meaningfull y. As Dr. Kales ny remarks in the preface to hi s fascinating study of Hutterite hi story, few Slovaks know about th e connection betwee n the Hutterites a nd Slovakia, where they li ved for over two hundred year . The descendants of those Hutterites, who in the mid -e ighteenth century acce pted forced �SLOVAKIA 127 recatholicization rather than have to emigrate, eve ntually lost their German speech and a re today completely assimilated to the Slovak popula tion. If memories of the Hutterites grew dim, the name which their Slovak neighbors gave these German settlers , " H abans " (Habani, H abaner) , has become widely known on acco unt of the beautiful ceramics produced by the Hutterite communities and their successors. These are now valued possessions of the museums of Czechoslovakia a nd Hun gary, and examples of the art form are also to be fo und elsewhere. H a ban folk a rt , according to K alesny (p.12), should be reckoned as an important asse t of Slovak '' n at ion al culture,'' for it was produced on the soil of Slovakia by people who, although of foreign origin , had put down deep roots there. The book , which is a wo rk of scholarship even though it lac ks footnotes, is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the Hutterite communities from their inception down to the present d ay, with m ost a ttention given to their soj ourn in northwest Hungary (present -day Slovakia) . They first set up comm unities there around 1545: Their chief settlement a nd the seat of their " bi sh op" was a t Sobotiste. As in Moravia where the sect had started, h ere too it s ad herents we re welcomed by the landown ing nobility, Catholic as well as Protestant, who valued the Hu tterites as h ardworking and profitable tenants and consequently were prepared to overlook their religiou s peculiarities. After the battle of White Mountain in 1620 the H absburg ruler drove them out of M oravia, but the Moravian brethren also found a refuge on the estates of friendly Hun garia n landown ers. The endemic warfare of the seve nteenth century when Turkish, H absburg, and kuru c forces ravaged the Slovak countryside inflicted terrible suffering on the local population , including the Hutterites . On the eve of the disaster of 1620 the Hutterites in M oravia and Slovakia had numbered abo ut 25,000 persons, a tenfold increase sin ce 1545, which was due to the steady stream of newcomers from the T yrol a nd ot her pa rts of Ce n tral Europe seeking to join the brotherhood. Almost all these were of German speech , but a few adherents were of local origin. On page 46 , fo r instance, K alesny m entions "Wendel H olba ein Schlawak (Ve ndel H olba, Slovak)," who even becam e a Hu tterite minister. Whereas in north Hun gary the Hutterites abandoned their communitarian wa y of life in 1685 a nd were recatholicized under Maria Theresa in the nex t century (w hile still retaining for some time their separate legal identit y as H abaner), in Transylvania - where some Hutterites had settled in 1621 - they contin ued to lead the same life as before, until finally in 1767 the aut horit ies expelled those who would not conform . Ka les ny ch ron icles briefly their subseq uent wanderings, first via Wall ac hia to the Ukraine where they arrived in 1770 and then in 1874 across the Atlantic and on to the American West. After World War I most of the Hutterites moved across the border into Canada . Their later mi grat ions stemmed not from �128 SLOVAKIA religious persecution but from the threat posed to their pacifist principles by the introduction of universal miliary service. Kalesny prefaces his historical narrative, which for the most part does not add to what we already know , by an interestin g discussion of the name haban , the first authenticated m ention of which occurs in a document of 1667 now in the municipal archives of Bratislava. Originally a d erogatory term , it eventually lost its pejorative connotation and became the accepted way of describing the descendants of the former comm unitarians . Concerning the origin of the word no consensus exists among scholars. The latest theory is that of a German scholar who derives it from the H ebrew. D espite what the resumes say, Kalesn y seems to be somewhat sceptical about this. If the author deals rather briefly with the religious aspects of the Hutteri te way of life, h e devotes almost the whole of th e second part of the book to their social organization. The overwhelming majority of community m embers were artisans: Over forty crafts were bei ng practiced when the communities were at their peak. Of course, they also engaged in farming, which today is the chief occupation of the Hutterites. A strict discipline was imposed on members , expulsion from the brotherhood being the final sanction against those who did not conform. But this was not usually necessary since the brethren recognized the advantages of communal living over those of the outside world, despite any momentary attraction they might feel toward the latter. " The Hutterites had succeeded in creating an ordered society, socially egalitarian and materially secure, with high moral principles based on the community'' (p. 169) . Children of both sexes were taught at least to read and write - in an age when illiteracy prevailed among the masses . Great care was taken, too, to provide for the sick and aged, for pregnant women and for children of preschool age . The culture was perhaps narrow and th e aut horit y of the elders excessive, but this must be judged within the context of the times. Purely aesthetic values found no place among Hutterites. Yet their craftsmen succeeded in creatin g countless objects of beauty either for domestic use or for sale: Their pottery became famous throughout east central Europe and was eage rly bought up by the nobility a nd wealthy townspeople of the area. Kalesny, whose specialty is folk a rt , devotes th e third part of hi s book to the history and technology of'' H aban '' pottery. The making of faience , their most hi gly prized produ ct , had bee n introdu ced into th e Hutterite communit ies around 1580 by An a baptist immigra nts from northeas t Italy. Kales ny has included at the end I 09 full-page colored illu strat ion s of ceramics emanating from " H aban" workshops. The bibliography includes man y items in Slovak, Czech, a nd Hungarian that are unknown to North Ameri can scholars who have written on the Hutterites. Man y of these pi eces, it is true , deal with " Haban" ce ramics, but some �SLOVAKIA 129 are of more general interest. K alesny, on the other h and, h as obviously had difficulty in gaining access to sch olarship in the W est. He knows the work of the M ennonite sociologist , J ohn A. H ostetler. But h e does not, for example , appear to be acquainted either with the valua ble study by another M ennonite scholar , Victor J . Peters, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life (Minneapoli s, 1965) , or with the numerous articles published in the United States by the leading authority on Hutterite history and culture, the late Robert Friedmann . Many of them were reprinted in his Hutterite Studies (Goshen , Indian a , 1961) . L et us hope that in future closer contacts can be established in the field of Hutterite studies between North American scholars and those working in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. K alesny is perhaps lucky in dealing with a group like the Hutterites who , while deeply religiou s, have at the same time been dedicated "communists," albeit of the Utopian variety. The T at ran press was able (so to speak) to roll out the red carpet for him . It h as published a volume that , with its excellent pa per, numerou s illu stration s, and tasteful design , is indeed a credit to book production in Slovakia. PETER BROCK University of T oronto Toronto , Canada August A. Skodacek. Lutherans in Slovakia . Pittsburgh : Slavia Printing Company, 1982. 242 pp. This acco unt of the rise and development of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia from the Reformation to the present redresses the oversight of many concern in g the role of the Lutheran Church in the historical development of Slovakia. This may b e a fl aw. The author would have us understand that Slovakia 's history in modern times is a con sequen ce n ot onl y of the R eformation but also of the influence of Lutheranism in Slovak social and political struggles. However, Skodacek does not su ffic ientl y analyze the historical facts a nd ci rcum stances to judge whether hi s claim , that without Lutheranism m od ern Slovakia would not be , is warranted. Skodacek chronciles the fa te and fort une of Lutherani sm in term s of fates and fortun es of the group's leaders. As they fared, so fared their group . Thus, this is a hi story of an in stitution al church and its great m en from a perspective of within the gro up . It uses synodical records to illu strate th e respon se of the Lutheran C hurch in Slovakia to outside social and political forces, na m ely the Roman Catholic C hu rch , the J esuits, and the variou s rulers allied with those two groups. Since there is little in -depth an alysis, thi s essay does not offer a ny new insights into the causes of man y of the events ch ro nicled. �130 SLOVAKIA In the main, it is a hagiographic account extolling historical individuals for their virtues and deeds done in the name of the cause. In describing the influences of a Thurzo , Lani , or Krman and others, Skodacek, interestingly enough, sees them as the real descendants of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Just as Cyril and Methodius introduced the Slavs to Christianity and hence to civilization ( of a kind) , so too the followers of Luther reintroduced Christianity and civilization to Slovakia even to the point of generating and maintaining a consciousness of Slovak nationalism. To this point, Skodacek writes that "the R eformation activated a conversion in Slovakia which gradually brought into the open a Slovak nationality; it spread the reformational ideology in an understandable native language and a democratic religious life'' (p. 66). Be this as it may, the book is a good source for anyone who wishes to do research in Slovak history but who does not know th e necessary languages. The volume provides translations of records and documents of the various synodical events which figured large in the life of the Slovak Lutheran Church. This point not withstanding, it is unfortunate that Skodacek did not see fit to describe and analyze the historical dynamics of the sociocultural and political forces beyond the activities of the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. Not everyone, despite Skodacek's claim, was either a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Some were Greek Catholic and some were Calvinists. These are never mentioned . Also, not everyone living in Slovakia was either a Slovak or a German . Another missing analytical point is that of socioeconomic class; from what class did the Lutheran leadership come? It is on these points that Skodacek could have given us some insight; perhaps he will irt another book . Although this vol ume is a good in-house version of a historical period and of what happened to the Lutherans in Slovakia , the lack of analysis of the sociocultural and political dynamics limits its effectiveness. ROBERT j. SKOVIRA Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania Paul R obert Magocsi . The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1978 . 650 pp. P aul R. Magocsi. The Rusyn -Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey . Vienna: Wilhelm Braumi.iller Universitats-Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1983. 94 pp . The first of Professor Magocsi ' s books is the one we all dream of writing . The fruit of years of research, it is encyclopedic in its description of the cul- �SLOVAKIA 131 tu ral a nd political development of the territory which m ad e up Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the first C zechoslovak Republic. H e has used a rich array of sources - archives, published statistics, interviews , and most books and articles relating to the subj ect. It will stand for d ecades to com e as the basic referen ce work . Graduate students will be surpr ised to find a detached , obj ective approach in a volume devoted to an East European nationality group of less tha n a million people. It will be a required presence in the library of eve ryo ne who calls himself an Eas t European historian . Slovakists , in particular, will welcome Magocsi ' s dispassiona te understa ndin g of the sensibilities of the ripening Slovak national identity in Eastern Slovakia. The tex t is di vided into three parts. The first cove rs political and cultural hi story un til 19 18 . The second examines history, la nguage, literature , education , and reli gion between 19 18 and 1944. The final part discusses the political hi story from the end of W orld W ar I to the incorporation of the territory into the U krainia n Soviet R epublic at the end of W orld W ar II. This is followed by 4 a ppendices (82 pages), notes ( 106 pages), and bibliography ( 122 pages) . In his introduct ion , M agocsi promises to analyze how one ethnic group was exposed to na tionalism and how its leaders presen ted this new ideology to their people. H e points out that the leaders in what he calls " an embryonic sta te of na tional d evelopment " still did not agree on which national orientation to follow - Ru syn , Hun gari an , Slovak (and/o r C zech), Ukra inian , or Russian. H e then describes the elimination of each alternative until only Ukrainia n was left. With such a rich and well-organized presentation of d ata, it must seem churlish for a reviewer to take issue with the author . And ye t one has the impression tha t the author ' s desire to incl ude every las t piece of info rm ation has di st racted him fro m his original inte ntion of trying to discover the underl ying reaso ns fo r the fi nal victory of the U kra inia n orientation . The book becom es fi nall y a trad itional approach to East Eu ro pean history, albeit without the partisan coloring wh ich usually characterizes such work . H e outlines the failure of leaders of certa in national orien tations to attrac t adherents, or their willingness to sacrifice national fo r political gain. H e find s external factors decisive in dete rmining that the territory wo uld eventu ally become Ukrainian . In an area with such a n embryo nic ethnic and national identity, it seems odd tha t M agocsi limited his book terri to rially, acco rding to political bound aries which existed for onl y two decades . The fa ult m ay lie in his d efinition of ethn ic group as a popul ation that " in m ost cases possesses a distinct territory, com m on traditions, and related dialects. " Although he pays homage to the theories of K a rl D eutsch on natio nalism and social communicatio n , he fa il s in large pa rt to apply them . H e looks a t the intelligentsia in action , but not the intelligen tsia in formatio n . It would �132 SLOVAKIA have been possible, for instance, to examine the changing national composition of the students in the high schools (gymnazia) over time and through the various grades. This might have suggested underlying trends in national identification. Magocsi is quite right in saying it is impossible to explain why individuals join differing national orientations, but the totality of the changes can be very informative. It is quite conceivable that the socioeconomic development in the interwar period showed a trend toward a Ukrainian identity. This would help explain why the Soviet regime met so little opposition when it assigned a Ukrainian identification to the population at the end of the war. After the depth of research and evaluation which characterized the first book , the second volume is a disappointment. While those interested in Slovak history will find useful material here on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of what Magocsi calls the "Rusyn-Ukrainians" of Czechoslovakia, there also is a disappointing tendency to blame every difficulty faced by this national grouping on national discrimination. This stands in considerable contrast to his conclusion (p . 270) in the larger volume . OWEN V . JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington , Indiana Jubilea Matice slovenskej. Compiled by Vojtech Sarluska. "Seria: Monografie - Vyskum dejfn Matice slovenskej, zv. 9." Martin: Matica slovenska, 1980. 130 pp . The volume under review is a compendium of articles resulting from a seminar devoted to the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Matica slovenska's reconstitution ( 1919) and its silver anniversary as the Slovak National Library ( 1954 ). The essays discuss various aspects of the Matica's present contributions in the fields of research and education. Themes analyzed include : the Matica ' s efforts in library acquisition, preservation, and dissemination; planning and organization of its activities and resources; bibliographic development over the past quarter century; activities of the Literary Archives; programs of the Literary Museum; efforts of the Biographical Office; activities of the Matica's Office of Slovaks Abroad ; and the Matica ' s publishing activities. The section prepared by Stefan Krivus, the Matica' s present director , sets the tone for the other essays . Krivus traces the Matica's history through interwar Czechoslovakia, its activities during World War II, its place in the resurrected R epublic, and its role in Socialist Slovakia. He describes each period as a step in the Matica's maturation process. Both Krivus and the other contributors make it quite clear that the Matica of 1979 is not the Matica of 1919 ; �SLOVAKIA 133 it has continually changed in response to the demands placed on it as Slovakia' s premier national cultural institution. It is a pity that this publication , which offers much valuable information on the Matica slovenska's vital role in past and contemporary Slovak cultural life , was printed in a limited edition and "only for internal use" by professional scholars, thus making it unavailable to the much wider readership which it deserves . JOHN A . BERTA Middletown, Pennsylvania I1 mondo slavo. Saggi e contributi slavistici a cura del Centro Studi Europ a Orientale di Padova . Volume VIII. Edited by Milan S. Durica. Padova: CESEO-Liviana, 1982 . 318 pp. Professor Milan S. Durica has taken the opportunity of his editorship of this volume of I1 mondo slavo to present a number of studies which help to identify Slovak ethnic consciousness in its language and history and to distinguish it clearly from assimilative Czechoslovak linguistic and political tendencies. In his own article, which offers a historical-philological profile of the Slovak language, he traces the evolution of the Slovak language in Slavic ethnogeny. The Slovak glottogenetic process of isoglosses is delineable on Slovak ethnic territory . This position is butressed by (1) Slovakocentricity - the expression of geometric distance proportional to linguistic elements and (2) the most recent studies on fundamental Slavic lexical patrimony revealing its highest in Slovak . Durica' s ' profile' establishes that the research of historical and comparative lexicology fortifies the theory of the Slovak proto-Slavic glottogenesis. His synthesis of recent· research is a valuable contribution to the thesis that Slovak is an independent Slavic language . Stefan V ragas presents historical and linguistic highlights of the development of the Slovak literary language from 1918 to 1979. A significant portion of his article centers on the linguistic politics of "Czechoslovakism ," i.e. , the linguistic and political claim of one Czechoslovak language and nation , in opposition to any contention of on e separate and individual Slovak language and nation . The author demonstrates that Slovak experts succeeded in counteracting the opposition by applying the facts of history to linguistics and courageously weathering political humiliations as did , for example, Eudovft Novak , author of K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka. Vragas must be commended for his definition of Czechoslovakism and for his timely exposition of some generally unknown linguistic-political humiliations of Slovak scholars, especially in the 1950s a nd part of the 1960s. �134 SLOVAKIA The history of Slovak translations on Slovak ethnic territory to 1939 is the subject of the article by Agostino Visco. Brief mention is made of translations into contemporary Slavic during the Great Moravian era and some initial translations into Latin . It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that extensive translation was made from Latin into the Slovak national language, mainly by Catholics. From Greek and Latin some classics and religious works were translated: ancient poetry, meditations, the Bible . Later, translations began from West European authors, then from East European ones, until the abortive years 1848-1849, when translations declined . After 1918 and in the early twentieth century translations resumed . They steadily progressed after 1933, when the Matica slovenska established a translation group , thus institutionalizing and perfecting translations. Visco considers the Slovak R epublic era (1939-1945) as the most important period for translations . Inasmuch as translations have so much influenced both Slovak poetry and prose, they represent an important facet of Slovak literature. Mirella De Martini Tihany examines the emigration of Italian laborers from Venetia and Lombardy to Slovakia in the second half of the nineteenth century . Parish registers of Slovak localities along the main railroad line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Bohumfn (Moravia) are the principal sources of research, especially those found in the State and District Archives of Bytca. Because of mineral transports from central Slovakia, railroads were needed in Slovakia . Historically, the Kosice-Bohumfn line construction in 1870 was urgent for connecting eastern Slovakia with Berlin . In this construction , the temporary Italian immigration initially entered . For some workers it meant death from epidemic , for others it was an occasion for marriage and baptisms. In her article Tihanyi provides a brief insight into Slovak interaction with the emigrants and also a sad commentary on the plight of Italian workers neglected by their non-Slovak contractors . Finally , Lisa Guarda Nardini considers the sole syndicate in Czechoslovakia, the "ROH" - Revolutionary Trade Union Movement. It is studied as an exemplary illustration of the statute of the organization which institutionally represents all workers in a country which claims that labor is paramount and the workers govern . The author proceeds from a relatively brief introduction about members , duties, structure, and other considerations to a translation of the ROH statute with its fifty articles. The m erit of this article is the translation of the ROH statute into Italian from Slovak. Volume III of IJ mondo slavo can be recommended to the readers of Slovakia for its wealth of information on fascinating Slovak topics. JOHN M. KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsylvania �SLOVAKIA 135 Josef Korbel. Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History. New York: Columbia University Press , 1977 . 346 pp. A rich and varied background prepared the late Professor Josef Korbel for this twentieth-century history of a small country in Central Europe . He was closely associated with the University of Denver, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School oflnternational Studies, Director of the Social Science Foundation , and Andrew W . Mellon Professor of International Studies. He was the author of several books on Central Europe. Prior to his academic career, Korbel had been the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia . He also had held a number of other important diplomatic posts and was a personal acquaintance of both Edvard Benes and Jan Masaryk . Twentieth -Century Czechoslovakia begins with the Hussite period. By tracing the "roots" of Czech thought from Jan Hus to the subsequent suppression by the Catholic Habsburgs, and through the era of the Enlightenment, the author demonstrates how the Czech ideal of humanity evolved. He compares concepts derived from Frantisek Palacky and Karel Havlfcek to Tomas G. Masaryk's "Czech humanism. " All three were witnesses to the Hussite influence . A quick glance at opposing interpretations of Czech history by Josef Pekar and Ferdinand Peroutka and their criticism ofT.G. Masaryk's philosophy leads Korbel to the observation that " in times of assured statehood the Czech people strove for the ideals of humanity; in times of peril, they lowered their heads to save the national body" (p. 24). Korbel expands this thought throughout the rest of the book. Beginning with July 6, 1915, the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus , Tomas G. Masaryk is depicted as voicing a vision about to become a reality. As the author discusses the historical formation of Czechoslovakia, he dwells primarily on the Czech leadership. He skillfully paints portraits of national hopes , problems of administration, mistakes in judgment, and fears for the future. Throughout the twenties and thirties these events led to the final breakup of the first Czechoslovakia. By analyzing the Munich crisis and World War II as it affected this Central European victim state, Korbel clearly shows that the Czechs " lowered their heads to save the national body." As he searches for the mea ning of the postwar years in the revitalized Czechoslovak state, he refers to them as " The Sisyphean Years," the title of his last and perhaps most intriguing chapter. With T.G . M asaryk, he believes that " the nation will take up again its active role in mankind's neyer-ending struggle for freedom and social justice" (p. 320). Written in an engaging style, Korbel's story of Czechoslovakia's rise and fall will fascinate not only the student of history but also a ny reader interested �136 SLOVAKIA in learning about Central Europe during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the author does exhibit a bias against the Slovaks. This is especially apparent in his reference to the well-loved and respected Slovak leader Father Andrej Hlinka as being "fanatic. " Furthermore, while the Czechoslovak state could not exist without the Slovaks, Korbel devotes a mere 25-30 pages to them in a book of 346 pages. His admiration for Tomas G. Masaryk is deep, his respect for Jan Masaryk is genuine, and his evaluation of Edvard Benes appears objective. Had it been possible to apply historical honesty to all aspects of Czechoslovakia's growth from its inception to its dissolution and rebirth, such an account might have added significantly to the rapidly increasing literature in that area of research. One can only conclude that this historical account was written from the so-called Czechoslovak point of view. If this is understood, the reader will enjoy Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia but will continue to look for "The Meanings of Its History" in other books dealing far more adequately with Slovakia and the Slovaks . M. EVANGELA LUBEK, 0 .S.B. Bishop Noll Institute Hammond, Indiana Martin R . Myant. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 302 pp. The three years that preceded the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War have been generally understood in the West as a lull in which all the indications of what would happen in February 1948 were present. Although Martin Myant does not contradict this approach, he offers in this study, above all, an examination of the political situation in Czechoslovakia in which the Communist Party was just one of many players until mid-194 7, when a power struggle erupted leading to the Communist victory a few months later. What we have here, according to the author, is a polity which sought to achieve a socialist society by democratic means. It is an interesting thesis that reflects to a great extent the approach that Communist scholars took to this period in the 1960s and which found some sympathy among Western scholars. The book is divided into ten chapters that begin with a rapid overview of the development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The next five chapters are devoted to an analysis of the political situation in the Czech lands, with one chapter on Slovakia . In three more chapters the author looks at the power struggle which culminated in the February crisis . The final chapter �SLOVAKIA 137 examines post-February Czechoslovakia, in particular those events that announced the imposition of a more radical line by the Kremlin . It is clear from Myant 's story that World War II had brought about major changes in the Czech lands. In the postwar world, Czech political life reflected a general consensus that Czech society wanted its government to implement socialist changes because the prewar order had been destroyed during the hostilities . As an organized resistance group, the Communists played a major part in setting the framework for a socialist transformation . They were by far the most cohesive and organized party. Until mid-1947 they were also willing to collaborate - and indeed did so - with the non-Communist parties in implem enting new policies . The author gives a thorough analysis not only of the platforms of all parties, but also of the political activities of the Communist Party. When the struggle for power broke out, the Communists aimed at nothing more than victory and then used whatever means they could get away with to achieve that end. But for Myant - unlike for Paul Zinner and Josef Korbel, who also wrote on this period - the interest lies in the pre-mid 1947 period where, as he writes, "for all its faults, the National Front system established in May 1945 provided a possible basis for the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia" (p. 242). Despite the author's thorough analysis, this reviewer is not convinced that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia could have played according to democratic rules in an advanced society. Although Myant attributes the shift that occurred in mid-1947 to the international situation and Cominform directives , the fact remains that the Communist Party was willing in the last analysis to abandon democratic means in favor of one-party rule. There is no evidence that the Party offered the Kremlin any resistance . Had its commitment to democracy really existed, it could have defied Moscow since there were no Soviet troops in the country and it is doubtful that Moscow would have risked a war to impose its will . The pre-mid-1947 experience may be interesting for those who still hanker after a form of" democratic socialism"; for m e it merely shows that a Communist Party will also play the democratic game if it brings it closer to its goal of total power, but it does not show a commitment to democracy . The author's treatment of Slovakia is inadequate . He approaches it from the same point of view as the Czech lands , namely that the Slovaks were also headed for socialist transformation. To take this approach is to ignore not only the legacy of prewar Slovak politics, but also the major impact the Slovak R epublic had on the Slovaks. His accusation that Slovakia was backward is both unfair and unfortunate; it is a Czech point of view that was arti~ulated quite openly from 1945 on, especially in the Communist Party. This view was also imposed on Slovak Communists, who accepted it after their defeat in the May 1946 elections. The author does, however, point out that the Communist �138 SLOVAKIA Party was unwilling to embark on a different and distinct Slovak policy, if only not to alienate its Czech constituency. The position of Slovakia in postwar Czechoslovakia was very critical. Forced without consultation into a state where they would be a minority, Slovaks then saw most instruments of autonomous government progressively taken away from them . The non-Communist leadership was weak and faced not only Communist opposition but also Czech resistance to any status beyond minimal autonomy . Thus Slovak political life centered once again on Slovakia ' s role in Czechoslovakia, not on socialist transformation . As time went on, it was clear to most Slovaks that they mattered very little in Czechoslovak politics and were expected to be merely compliant to Prague . In this respect, Myant writes unfairly about President Tiso's execution in 1947 that "its announcement in Slovakia was met with no visible unrest" (p. 158). The truth of the matter is that the army and Czech police had been sent to Slovakia to make sure that there was no unrest. For the same reason the attempted Communist coup in Bratislava failed that autumn. The game had to be played out in Prague. This is a well-researched study that is thorough in its presentation for the Czech lands . It is highly unsatisfactory for Slovakia. For this reason, as well as the author's ideological predelictions, it is regrettably incomplete and, therefore, disappointing. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Leon Noel. La Tchecoslovaquie d'avant Munich. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 1982. 208 pp. J.F.N. Bradley. Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1971. Washington, D.C .: University Press of America, 1981. 225 pp. There are few Central European states that have had as turbulent a history as Czechoslovakia. It was created by the Western Powers on the morrow of World War I, only to be abandoned two decades later to German expansionism and another ten years later to Soviet imperialism. Paradoxically, Western scholarship has yet to produce a good history on either the First Republic or on the postwar Communist period. The two volumes under review, while they seek to give us an overview of each period, are also unsatisfactory. Leon Noel was France's Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1935. His book constitutes a sort of memoir of the three years he spent in Prague. To this account he added a few chapters that deal with the origins of the state , �SLOVAKIA 139 some of its leading personalities, the Slovaks, the Germans and the Hungarians, the Catholic Church, and the political parties . None is very good , and the chapters on the Slovaks and the political parties are particularly poor. It becomes quickly very clear that this French diplomat understood very little the country in which he represented France . The main impression that one gets is that he was interested above all in maintaining excellent diplomatic relations between Prague and Paris . This he seems to have done, given the number of positive comments about himself by Czechoslovakia's leaders that he quotes . But one does not get any idea what were the main currents in FrancoCzechoslovak relations. It is only when he evaluates the leading personalities in Prague of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks that he is interesting. That is one of the redeeming features of his book . If this book is at all interesting , it is becau se it reflects French perceptions of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The state was to a great extent a French creation, and Czechoslovakia's centralist system of government was modelled on that of France. Paris supported Prague on the German and the Slovak questions with the result that neither French diplomats nor French scholars paid any attention to anyone but the Czechs and accepted everything Prague told them. Noel ' s book is therefore not different from those published in the interwar years. It is a pity that he did not learn from subsequent events about which much has been written to give us a more critical appreciation of the country where he clearly spent three interesting years of his life . The Bradley volume is more in line with contemporary scholarship. But it is a peculiar book. The author has done some thorough research in a number of areas, yet he does not succeed in giving us an adequate overall picture of Communist politics in Czechoslovakia. The greatest flaw is his lack of treatment of the Slovak question, which he does not seem to have understood at all. There are two them es to the book: government and politics. The author gives a thorough description of Czechoslovakia's Communist government structure , examining in turn its constitutions, parliaments , governments, the judiciary , and security. Hi s chapter on the central government for 1948-1968 is rather good . He analyzes well the main problems of any Communist government, namely political domination and efficient administration. As he points out: "Even the most capable administrators among these politicans would have found it impossible to run central ministries efficiently with the politicallyreliable but admi nistratively unfit officials at their disposal" (p. 123) . When it comes to analyzing Communist politics , the author devotes only two chapters, one on the Dubcek era and the other on the Husak period of normalization. Both are somewhat disappointing. The overall result is that at the end of the book the reader is still left wondering what Czechoslovak politics were all about for the period 1948-1971. �140 SLOVAKIA The major flaw of Bradley's book is its treatment of the Slovak question. Clearly the author belongs to that category of Western scholars who do not consider Czech-Slovak relations to have been, and still to be, the focal point of the survival of the common state of these two nations. It is not surprising to come across such a statement as : "The Slovaks, who had apparently been enjoying equality and autonomy since 1948, began to voice their demands for new constitutional arrangements within the Czechoslovak Republic" (p. 183), with no further explanation. The final chapter, on Husak's federalism , is also inadequate in analyzing the new relationship between the two nations, let alone explaining why this formerly centralist state had been transformed into a federation . Neither book fulfills the mission its title suggests . Nevertheless in each there are some aspects of interest which may help the specialist and the interested reader on Czechoslovakia to get a better insight into this troubled common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Zdenek L. Suda. Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press , 1980 . 412 pp . This first history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in English, from its beginnings in November, 1917 , in Revolutionary Russia and its foundation in November , 1921, up to the late 1970s, is an impressive achievement. Professor Suda, a sociologist at the University in Pittsburgh, selected some of the best scholarly works written in the West on various topics or periods of his target and complemented them with a few basic books and articles published at different times in Czechoslovakia. Although his opus is based almost exclusively on secondary sources and, surprisingly, does not even mention authors whose work should have been consulted (e .g ., Machonin, Borkenau, Taborsky, Zinner, Horak , Jancar, Korbel, Tigrid) , it is worth reading and including in private as well as public libraries. It is a solid work and excels in its capable and systematic review of major events in the history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Its organization is clear, and the writer consistently pays attention to domestic developments as well as to Soviet or other Communist parties' history . In Suda' s concluding words , what matters is "the development of the Soviet core to which the CPCS, for the greater part of its existence, has only been peripheral" (p. 380). �SLOVAKIA 141 Suda's main contribution is to be found in his judicious summary of some sixty years in the life of a movement, in his sensible comments, and in his perspicuous analysis. One half of the book is devoted to the Party's history before it came to power in 1945 . There is a certain imbalance in Suda's treatment of the foundation of the CPCS (50 pages) or of its history until 1929 (70 pages) and his discussion of the crucial year of 1968 (only 20 pages) . The later story is much better known that the first two so that it does not constitute any major weakness, especially since the author keeps stressing interesting parallels between different periods of Party history . Basically, it was and is a foreign element brought into a state whose traditions , both cultural and political, have been .at variance with it . Suda devotes a substantial part of his book to developments in the Communist Party of Slovakia and to its asymmetric position in a basically centralist party and state. He rightly considers the unsolved problems of national minorities - and many Slovaks refused to think of themselves as equal partners in a "Czechoslovak" nation - to be the weak point of the whole edifice . The German problem is also systematically studied, and so are the Hungarian and Ruthenian ethnic communities. Paradoxically, even the establishment of a federal state in 1968 did not put an end to Prague centralism, although the general secretary of the Party since 1968 has been a Slovak. The lack of a detailed study of primary sources and of many crucial scholarly works , unfortunately , is responsible for some, mostly minor, mistakes in an otherwise well-printed and well-proofread work. For instance, Trotsky's secret message to disarm the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia is not mentioned; Tomas G . Masaryk is wrongly characterized as "never a socialist" (p. 12); the important role of G eneral Vlasov and his armed units in the Prague uprising in 1945 is omitted; for some reason, the Cominform and Comintern are both spelled with a ' K '; there is nothing on substantial workers' unrest in 1948 and 1949 ; Richta's leadership of a scientific Party commission is assigned to Mlynar , who was in charge of another one about whose existence the author does not seem to have known (p. 328); the Manifesto of 2000 Words was published simultaneously in four Prague papers and not just in one (p. 391) - a fact which was important for the Soviet audience since the pressure group was clearly well organized! Furthermore, the periodical Listy was not a "bimonthly" (p. 367) but rather appeared monthly. In disagreement with the author's statement on page 261, Zapotocky was criticized at Politboro meetings for his relaxation of forced collectivization of agriculture . What is more important, Suda sometimes accepts the terminology of his Communist sources and then refers, for instance , to the "progressive elite " (p. 120) when he discusses individuals who were responsible for bringing shame and enslave- �142 SLOVAKIA ment upon their own nations. Although the author believes that only a small minority of Social Democrats refused to join the CPCS in the year of forced amalgamation (p. 225), the truth is that less than one third of them joined the Communist Party! Also, his description of workers' acceptance of the Slansky trial is only partially true because, according even to Communist sources, after the initial passage of favorable resolutions, there was resolute criticism of the whole Party and state leadership, often calling for their dismissal. Finally , the 1968 meetings at Cierna nad Tisou did not take place in the Soviet train (p . 340) but - with the exception of Dubcek's visit to the "ailing" Brezhev in a railwaymen's club on Czechoslovak territory. There is a good analysis of voting patterns in 1925 but, somewhat surprisingly for a sociologist, the author does not include any analysis and statistics (which are available) of the social or class composition of the CPCS in its period of absolute power. All these and a few other errors and omissions can be easily corrected in an eventual second edition of this pioneering and generally very successful work . PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Perth , Australia Frantisek Bielik a kolektfv. Slovaci vo svete. Volume II. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980. 320 pp . This second volume of Slovaci vo svete is a general survey of pre-World War II Slovak immigration to countries throughout the world. It is a collaborative effort. However, except for the separate sections on Slovak immigrant culture and involvement in labor activities in the United States and the Slovak immigration to Canada and France , Frantisek Bielik is the principal author of the book. Bielik first discusses the general causes of Slovak emigration and its impact on Hungary and later Czechoslovakia. The work is then divided into geographical categories by country. Within each geographical division, the authors adopt a standard, almost monotonous , procedure of chronicling the formation and sporadic activities of various Slovak organizations . They provide brief descriptions of Slovak fraternal societies , schools, newspapers, labor organizations, and cultural associations . In addition, they discuss the political and labor activities of some Slovak immigrants in the different countries. Slovaci vo svete is a useful addition to the literature on Slovak immigration, because it contains tables and statistics as well as literary material that have not been readily available in a single source. The inclusion of sources would have improved the usefulness of the tables. The work is also important �SLOVAKIA 143 because it offers some different perspectives on the Slovak immigration experience . For example, Bielik properly stresses that the United States was the major but not the sole destination of Slovak emigrants . To emphasize this point, the book includes brief sketches of Slovak immigration to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa - countries not commonly associated with the Slovak emigration movement. Also, by discussing Slovak involvement in labor unions and Socialist organizations, the authors offer a different profile of Slovak immigrant laborers than that depicted in earlier literature. Ivan Poljak and Eva Fordinalova, who contributed the segment on Slovak union and work-related activities in the United States, would agree with Victor Greene that Slovak workers were not simply meek laborers whose docility prevented them from becoming actively involved in labor unions and strife. Moreover, their religiosity did not prevent all Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere from flirting with Socialist or Communist ideas and joining Socialist or Communist parties. Despite such points, Slovaci vo svete is marred by serious weaknesses. As a synthesis , the book is far too general and institutionally oriented. Even the lengthier discussion of Slovak immigrants in the United States is primarily a chronicle narrative of various immigrant organizations and newspapers. The treatment of Slovak immigration to other countries serves little more than as a reminder that the United States was not the sole destination of this immigrant group. No attempt is made to offer a comparative analysis of Slovak adjustment to various countries. Rather, Bielik and the other contributors seem content to resort to perfunctory , isolated discussions of Slovaks and their organizations in the several countries. While they are to be commended for the attempt to describe the work life of Slovak laborers, the discussions of this topic suffer from overgeneralizations, oversimplifications, and factual and interpretive errors. The· authors try desperately to show that Slovaks almost naturally harbor Socialist sympathies . They use the participation by Slovaks in labor unions or strikes as examples of these natural sympathies. Typically the authors do not provide sufficient or convincing evidence for their generalizations. For example, they make no attempt even to estimate the number of Slovaks actually involved in the various " Socialist " and labor activities they describe . Unfortunately, Slovaci vo svete is further harmed because the authors overlook some obviously important aspects of Slovak immigrant life in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. Despite the claim that the book is offering a description of immigrant life , much of the material actually focuses on the activities of prominent Slovaks, not ordinary immigrants . Slovak churches and their role in American Slovak communities are ignored. Overall, Slovaci vo svete is too brief to treat adequately the complex aspects of Slovak immigration to the United States and to other countries. Still, this work does raise questions that merit closer analysis b y students of Slovak �144 SLOVAKIA immigration and of labor and political history. The contributors also do provide a general, institutional history of Slovak immigration throughout the world. This volume does not rank as the definitive study of Slovak immigration, but it is a synthesis that scholars in Czechoslovakia and in those countries where Slovak immigrants have gone will find useful. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Elena Jakesova . Vyst'ahovalectvo Slovakov do Kanady. Bratislava : Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1981. 160 pp . In recent years there has been a great renewed interest in ethnic and immigration history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To the growing list of scholarly studies in this field can be added Elenajakesova's present monograph . Jakesova presents a concise, statistical account of Slovak immigration to Canada from the 1870s to 1938. The book is divided into two sections, one covering the years from the 18 70s to 1914, and the second from 1922 to 1938 . She gives the reasons for Slovak immigration from Hungary, and later from Czechoslovakia, and also an excellent outline of the individual Slovak settlements in Canada. Other chapters or sections are devoted to the development of the Slovak press in Canada and to the rise of Slovak fraternal societies. Separate sections describe Slovak mining settlements in Western Canada, agricultural communities in Central Canada, and urban settlements in Eastern Canada in later years . This is a well-organized and well-written book . The research and documentation are most impressive . The author made use of archival material from Slovak district archives in Slovakia, from the Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, and from the Magyar Orszagos Leveltar in Budapest. Most of the periodical literature and monographic studies dealing with Canadian Slovaks were also used. In short, few stones were left unturned . The volume is also enriched by graphs and charts which help clarify the history of Slovak immigration to Canada. Even the illustrations were well selected and add interest to the subject. , Two serious shortcomings of the book arejakesova's treatment of Canadian Slovak societies and churches. Among societies the importance of the Slovak workers' movement was overemphasized . Her account of it was informative and interesting, but the movement itself was of decidedly minor significance. The Canadian Slovak League and Canadian-Slovak Support Society were and remain the largest Canadian-Slovak organizations . More should �SLOVAKIA 145 have been said about these groups and the great work and sacrifices of such individuals as Andrej Kucera and Andrej Potocky, founders of the Canadian Slovak League . In general, more attention should have been devoted to the experiences of Canadian Slovaks - their joys and sufferings - and to the history of their churches, which were not covered at all. Aside from these drawbacks , the work has many merits and can be recomm ended to anyone seeking a general survey of Slovak immigration to Canada. X. SUTHERLAND Stoney Point, New York ANTHONY Engelbert Zobl and Hertha A. Zobl. Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei. Vienna : Fachjournalverlagsgesellschaft, 1978. 92 pp. This unpretentious little paperback volume bears witness to what seems to be a growing interest among enthusiasts in western Europe to " uncover " the art of traditional wooden architecture in the Carpathian region of Slovakia. H ence, since the appearance of the book under review , two more ambitious volumes have appeared: Wooden Churches in th e Carpathians: The Photographic Legacy of Florian Zapletal (Vienna, 1982) by Paul R. Magoci and the monumental Wooden Churches of Eastern Europe (Cambridge , 1981) by David Buxton , both of which contain numerous photograp hs of structures in northeastern Slovakia. In contrast to these two subsequent works , the book by Engelbert and Hertha Zobl seems more of an architectural travel reportage put together as a guide for Austrian and West German tourists who still flock each summer to Czechoslovakia in search of the ostensibly more exotic cultural stimuli of the "east." This is not to suggest that such popular books are without value or that the Zobls have not done a competent job . In fact, as is evident from the albeit self-indulgent autobiographical data (complete with photographs of the whole family), the husband and wife Zobl team have degrees, respectively , in architecture and the a pplied arts. And as the lavishly-illustrated book reveals , they both have a keen sensitivity for the aesthetic as well as technical aspects of their subject. The book is basically divided into five chapters : belfries, wooden churches, wooden crosses, secular wooden architecture, and architectural ornamentation. The appendices include a list of all belfries and churches with their date of construct ion (in most , but not all instances); a map showing the travel route fo llowed by the authors in 1976 with each place indicated that appears in the book ; an index of placenames; and a brief bibliography . The latter indicates a few basi c German, Czech, and Slovak works, but omi ts two recent �146 SLOVAKIA Ukraini an-langu age studies from C zechoslovakia th at deal with the subj ect: an encyclopedia of wooden churches (past and present) in northeastern Slovakia by B. K ovafo vyfova-Puskarova and I. Pu skar , D erev 'jani cerk vy schidnoho obrjadu na Slo vaccyni (Bratislava and Presov, 1971) and a survey of secular architecture in the same region by M . Sopolyha , Narodn a architektura ukrajinciv Schidnoji Slovaccyn y (Svidnfk, 1976) . Each chapter in the book by the Zobls is preceded by a very brief introduction , and each of the 110 photograph s carries a caption. There are also 41 line drawings of structures and ground plans. By far , the largest portion of the book - a to tal of 72 illu strations - d epicts structures from villages inhabited by C a rpatho-Ru syns in the very northea stern part of Slovakia. Thi s is not surprising, since that area had economicall y always been the m ost underdeveloped and , therefore, traditional life-style and architecture have been preserved there the longest. Also , the authors seem ed to have become enchanted by the clusters of wood en churches north of Svidnfk and northea st of Snina, whose almost perfect form a nd balance m ake them stand out aesthetically, in particular when juxta posed to wooden architecture throughout all of eastern Europe, as is evident from the compara tive survey b y David Buxton mentioned above. The photographs are, in fact , the highlight of the Zobl ' s book . They were all ta ken in 1976, were well executed and often provide different views of a given structure, and have been reproduced clearly in the printing process. With the exception of a few iconostases in side Byzantine-rite churches, the photographs are almost all exterior shots. Pa rti cul arl y striking are 39 photograph s in color , am ong the best of which a re the wooden church in Mi rol'a, the cem etary crosses in D etva, and the decoration on hou ses in Zdi ar . All in all , W ooden Architecture in Slovakia is an excellent introd uction to the beauties of trad itional cultu re that still can be found in Slovaki a tod ay. As a serious guide for tourists, it would be pa rticula rl y useful if a n E ngli sh ed ition could be p repa red fo r the increasin g numbers of Am ericans of Slovak a nd Carpatho-Ru syn descent who visit the ancestral hom eland . P AUL R . M AGOCSI Uni versity of T oronto T oronto, Ca nada A tlas CSSR . Brat islava: Slove nska kartografi a, 1980 . This school atlas is obviously intended for student s at about the hi gh school level. It has no accompan yin g text or explana tory m a terial and is even devoid of a n introdu ction. Con sequentl y, the u ser is give n no idea regardin g the in tended audience or the goal s of thi s volume of m aps. �SLOVAKIA 147 There are 42 pages of maps; there are more actual maps, howeve r , because numerous inset (larger scale) maps are displayed on various themes. The first quarter of the atlas is d evoted to physical/environmental subjects temperature, precipitation , geological structure , soils, forests , etc. The remainder of the volume contains social, cultural, and especially economic maps . The physical maps are of standard type, although the last of this group is an interesting map of conservation sites, such as parks and botanical stations. The demographic maps (pages 12 to 15) are interesting because included are maps on density , fertility , mortality , national population growth rates , labor force, and the nationalities. Most of the m aps suffer as a result of the inappropriate scale employed and poor use of color. The nationalities sheet is particularly poor because the combination of colors and patterns to locate and quantify minority groups is a total failure. The economic maps (pages 16-27) again are standard and include maps of minerals , manufacturing, agriculture , crops , transport and more for the entire country. Detailed political/ physical maps of the Czech and Slovak R epublics are then followed by similar economic maps for the two areas. The atlas is rounded out with a set of maps of "regional types" at the micro-scale. There are six of these, including types such as the High Tatra a rea and a section of industrial Ostrava. There are also 10 exam ples of "settlement types," including Nitra and a Czech resort town. The final three maps are interesting cultural maps, including one of higher and middle schools, medical institutions, and historical/cultural monuments. Unfortunately , these maps are of very limited use because they are drawn at a scale ( 1 :4,000,000) which obliterates any detail. In general, the Atlas CSSR is an adequate school level tool. It would have been much better and useful, however , if sharper color had been used and if more reasonable scales had been chosen for many of the maps. The bulkiness (23 cm. x 55 cm .) and the inferior quality of the binding also detract from the Atlas ' value. In sum , a poten tiall y lively collection of maps has bee n rendered into a disappointing volume of no particular distinction. GEORGE J. D EMKO U.S. Department of State W ashington , D .C. Peter Balaz, Miloslav Darovec, and H eather Trebaticka. Slovak for Slavicists . Brat islava: Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1976. 302 pp. Students who have some background in another Slavic langu age, as well as those who possess a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak , will find this text- �148 SLOVAKIA book useful. It was written for the intermediate classes at the Studia Academica Slovaca (Summer Seminar of Slovak Language and Culture in Bratislava), and was also intended for use as a textbook in university-level courses abroad . The authors point out in the preface that it is not a handbook for those studying Slovak without a teacher ; however , it can be used in this way if the student's goal is to gain only a reading knowledge of Slovak, and particularly if Slovak is not his/ her first Slavic language. The book contains 27 lessons in addition to the Slovak-English/English-Slovak glossaries . The bilingual d esignation of the section headings in the table of contents and in the lessons themselves is a very desirable feature of the book . It serves the immediate pedagogical purpose of teaching these items in Slovak as well as enabling the student who wishes to augment the explanations in the textbook with those from Slovak sources to find easily the desired items in the Slovak books . Lesson 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation . The Slovak letters ii, c, dz, s, z, t', d', 1' are characterized as palatalized consonants (p. 17) , which might well confuse those students who have studied Ru ssian . They would be better described in English as palatals. Furthermore, since regressive voice assimilatio n before nasals and liquids characterizes Slovak sandhi rules in contrast to some of the other Slavic languages, it would be well to include that information in the section on pronunciation . The remaining lessons have the following general format : introductory text , questions , vocabulary, grammatical section , exercises , grammatical section, exercises, translation exercise, and pronunciation exercise. The exercises a re well constructed and provide immediate reinforcement of the concepts just introduced . The notes and notice markers which call attention to exceptions or to features which differ significantly in English are also very effective . R eview exercises, spaced at appropriate intervals throughout the book which would combine the information presented in the various grammatical sections up to that point , would enhance the efficacy of the textbook (e.g., inclusion of a review exercise following Lesson 6 after most declensional paradigms have been introduced) . The introductory texts conta in a vocabulary which is very useful for those students who will be in Bratislava . Howeve r, to those who have never been there , as well as to the newly arrived , certain words such as miestenka are mystifying and a note of explanation would be helpful. Lesson 8 has an informal letter to a friend as the introductory text. The forms of ty are correctly capitalized. H owever , there is no note of explanation on how vy (polite singular/plural) should be written. Since this is one of the areas in which the Slavic languages differ , it would be well to include a note on T /V capitalization in letters. It might be more useful to include a thank- yo u note or a formal letter for exam- �SLOVAKIA 149 pie, to a professor requesting a consultation, because these are the kinds of letters that a more advanced student is likely to be writing . In general the texts are of a very practical nature and provide the student with an adequate vocabulary for functioning in Slovak society. They could be made more effective by deleting some, such as Lesson 4, or editing them, so that they would be more appropriate for and interesting to university students. While it is possible to draw up a list of additions that one would wish to insert into the book, that in no way detracts from its value. It is certainly the best textbook available today for teaching Slovak to English-speaking students at the university level, and we can only hope that it will be expanded and enlarged in future editions. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana JozefMistrfk . Basic Slovak . Bratislava : Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1981. 160 pp . This textbook is designed for English-speaking students who want to learn the fundamental grammatical phenomena and 800 of the most frequently occurring vocabularly items in Slovak without wading through the complexities that most traditional grammars present. Its focus is on learning to speak Slovak (American speakers of English should be forewarned that the pronunciation equivalents between English and Slovak given in Lesson 1 are based on British English), not on gaining a passive reading knowledge of the language, and it is not designed to be used without a teacher . Therefore, rules are given but exceptions to the rules are introduced into the discussion only when they occur frequently . This approach is based on the theory that second language acquisition, like first language acquisition, requires a knowledge of the productive grammatical rules of a language, i.e. , those patterns that a learner encounters over and over again in everyday usage. Since this textbook is designed for the one-month Studia Academica Slovaca summer school course as an introductory textbook, it alone would not suffice for a traditional American two-year college program; however, even in a more extended course, the texts which begin each chapter , as well as the exercises at the ends of the lessons, could serve as useful supplementary material . The book contains fifteen lessons , paradigm tables, Slovak-English and English-Slovak vocabularies, and a dictionary of linguistic terms . Beginning with the second, each lesson consists of four parts : text, vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The texts are interest ing from the sociolinguistic point of view because they frequently have as their themes social events which a re common �150 SLOVAKIA in contemporary Slovak life, such as presenting flowers to someone arriving at the station, waiting in line to buy things, the extended family living together, friends sharing their experiences over a glass of wine . These texts serve to familiarize American students with Slovak culture and appropriate language usage in that culture. Each text introduces the vocabulary items which are listed just after it. This section is followed by grammatical explanations which are simple and concise, and are easily understood by learners with a minimal background in traditional grammar . The exercises require the student to create new forms based on the rules and data presented in the preceding sections . In addition to fillin g in blanks , the students are required to form sentences. Since a bilingual text is given in all of the lessons after the fifth , the student is able to check his/her progress in sentence construction . Features of Slovak which are absent in English and are, therefore , troublesome for English-speaking students are re-introduced in the texts or exercises of subsequent lessons; for example, the prefixed forms of ist' are introduced in Lesson 10 and are exemplified in the exercises in Lesson 12 . The last item in the exercises is a list of words to be read aloud for pronunciation purposes. These words do not appear in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary does possess an attr~ctive feature: It indicates after every word the number of the lesson in which the word was introdu ced . As is usual in a first printing , some errors are to be found in the book (e.g., a few of the r ' s in th e glossary have been deleted , and some of the s's have been transposed into the s section). There are also minor errors in the English text : " present " in stead of " represent" (p. 11) ; "shorting" instead of " shortening" (p . 66) ; "The both forms are possible" (p . 74 ). one of these lead s to misunderstanding ; however, occasionally, as in " byvam dlho h are" (p . 3 1) ( = " not to sleep"), the E nglish m eaning is not immedia tely clear. On the whole , P rofessor Mi strfk 's book successfully fulfills the goals which he set in writing it , and any teacher or student of Slovak will find it a u seful addition to his/her library. L OU ISE B . HAMM ER Blooming ton , Indian a Abel Kral'. Slovenska vyslovn ost'. Banska Bys trica: U cebne pomocky, 1979. 8 stereo phonograph records with accom pan ying text , 173 pp. These high-quality recordings were produced by Abel Kral' , the head of the Phonetics D epartment a t Com enius University, and national artist V . Zaborsky , for u se in seconda ry schools and la ngu age institutes in Slovakia in �SLOVAKIA 151 order to teach students the neutral pronunciation style of standard literary Slovak . In the introduction Kral' explains the theoretical assumptions on which the presentation is based and suggests various ways in which the records can be used effectively. The recordings contain sections on the vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters . In addition there are excellent exercises on gemminated consonants, rhythmic shortening, and particularly on voicing assimilation in the various environments. The last record has a well-exemplifed discussion of sentence intonation. Each section begins with an introduction in which the terminology is defined, the particular sound or sounds under consideration are d escribed, and incorrect pronunciation is sometimes identified. Then the correct pronunciation is given. It is repeated twice with pauses between the utterances so that the student is able to practice the pronunciation and compare it to the record. These sections would be valuable for beginning students, while the more advanced students would additionally gain from hearing the spoken Slovak of the explanations as well as from their content. These recordings would be a very useful teaching aid for non-native speakers who teach Slovak or for Slovaks who speak a dialect and would like to acquire the standard pronunciation . Every student of Slovak who wishes to acquire a good speaking command of the language will benefit from the use of these recordings. They are in fact a very solid course in Slovak phonetics, and selections from the recordings would be ideal material for the pronunciation section of a typical language course. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana Vojtech Mihalik . Erotikon. Subor l'ubostn ej lyriky. Bratislava : Slovensky spisovatel' , 1981. Vojtech Mihalik is the grand old m an of Czechoslovak letters , and specifically of Slovak poetry, if this title could apply to a m a n who is only 55 years old. He is undoubtedly the most outstanding poet of the generation which came to the fore after the Second World War. Born in 1926 , Michalik for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the main publishing house in Bra tislava . A former long-time president of the Association of Slovak Writers, he is at presen t the director of the publi shing house Slovensky spisovatel'. His first selection of poems appeared shortly after the war. H e has published 13 more volumes of poetry as well as numerous essays a nd translations. In 1978 he received the title of Nat ion al Artist, one of the highest literary honors in Czechoslovakia. �152 SLOVAKIA This, his latest volume, contains a selection of poems written at various periods of the author's life. As far as the erotic content of the book is concerned, it is much smaller than could be expected by Western standards . Mihalik is prima rily a romantic poet , a poet of love and emotion . H e puts less stress on the physical aspects of passion than would most of his W estern colleagues . In this he remains firmly rooted in the native Slovak tradition, where the appeal is to the feeling and sentiment , and where the exploitation of sexual aspects is subdued by a sense of decorum. Thus Mihalik ' s main effort in his love is to capture the fl eeting moments of love: the minute of mutual silence, a tree rising against the sun as the lovers embrace , the sorrows and the ecstasies of deep emotion. Mihalik is ve ry conscious of nature . Like most Slovak poets, he lives spiritually in the countryside , with its peasant cottages, lush gardens, orchards full of ripe fruit, meadows suffused by the rays of sun . His erotic imagery refers almost exclu sively to nature. A lonely lover is compared to earth which gave away its beautiful perfume to strolling winds. Lovemaking is perceived by the author in term s of entering a rose garden , searching for a star in the silent sky, or walking unharmed in the midst of a swarm of bees . The metaphors are so intricately ornate that they would be reminiscent of oriental poetry, were it not for the absence of explicitness so characteristic of Arabic and Persian verse. Each poem is a parable of nature sustained to the very end , where in the last lines it unravels into a love poem . If it were not for the last couple of lines, an inexperienced reader might take the poems at their face value of m elancholy or ecstatic descriptions of landscape . Each poem is thus a higly complex and elegantly written puzzle, the m eaning of which has to be d eciphered on two levels , the natural and the erotic. Mihalik 's poems are usually short. His favorite form is the sonnet, whose stylish elegance suits perfectly his method of expression . Some of the poem s are cast in the form of a dialogue, which is a mode deeply rooted in Slovak folk poetry. Mihalik m ay be a romantic lover accordin g to the Slovak tradition , but he is by no means a patient one. If hi s passion does not m eet with a quick response , he rebels. H e sees love as a confusing passion because there is so little understanding between man and woman. Woman is always an outsider in hi s poems. She may be courted, coveted , responsive, submi ssive, or cold , but she always remain s incomprehen sible. Mihalik 's attitude toward women is quite traditional . They are the ones who suffer, who bear the burden of broken relationships, and who carry the whole burden of parental responsibility. Mih alik admires women , feels sorry for them, but he seems to accept their lot as a na tural thing. A s he gets older, Mihalik finds it increasingly difficult to accept the new �SLOVAKIA 153 world around him . It is a world where the traditional values become rejected, where children of living parents become orphans because of desertion , where wives are leaving incompatible husbands , where families becom e broken for no apparent reason. The poet sees the world around him as full of suffering and unhappiness which he can only record, without being able to alleviate them . H e becomes a witness for a new generation that is growing up unloved and unlovable . His poems lose their spontaneous enchantment with life, as life becomes increasingly complex and difficult and as the poet finds he cannot turn to love to provide him with a sense of the m eaning of existence. The only an swer that seem s to emerge from Mihalik 's later poems is the implicit message to endure , to go on, and to do one's best. And in this message, as in so many aspects of hi s poetry, Mihalik shows himself again as the true son of his peopl e, the patient, enduring, and long-suffering people of Slovakia. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Downsview, Canada Vincent Sikula. Liesky. Bratislava: Smena, 1980. The novelette Liesky is in many respects firml y embedded in the Slovak literary tradition. Like so many books produced in Slovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it describes the trials and tribulations of a country boy on his way toward education and recognition. The chief character is a student at the conservatory who hopes to become a forest horn player and who persists in hi s path in spite of loneliness and abject poverty. The form of the novelette is also an old favorite, a first person narrative. The genre itself has been successfully transplanted from the Russian literature of the Golden Age and has fl ourished in Czechoslovakia since there was a favorable ground for its reception in Czech and Slovak folklore . What saves the story from becoming a typical hardship case narration , so characteristic of Slovak literature, is Sikula's humorous approach. The humor is intensified by the aut hor's use of the skaz technique. The predicam ents of the hero m ay be pathetic, but they are at the same time highly amusing. When the hero describes his family, we learn that his parents had so many children that the y hardly noticed if several of them were missing. The young man 's landlady can carry a conversation only with her cat - she is stone deaf. The hero has to practice music by drumming on the table because he cannot afford an instrument. When he finally gets the opportunity to practice on a real piano, he ruefully notes that it does not sou nd to him as good as the table. The narration thus proceeds at a lively pace, in a jolly animated style, �154 SLOVAKIA full of slan g, colloquiali sm s, and peasant speech m annerism s. It m akes fo r ea sy and pleasant readin g. Yet Sikula is mu ch m ore th an a skillful na rrator . Hi s m astery of style is evident as the story gradually reveals the narrator 's character , his a rtistic strivings , and his sexu al awakening. Sikula possesses a superb sense of n ature. M an is never alone in hi s book. All his ac tion s and feelings ta ke place in a na tural setting of which he is a n integral part. N a ture blends with the action , and the cha n ge of seasons accompanies ch a n ges of life . Thus the story starts with a beautiful description of winter and ends with an equally beautiful episode of picking fresh twigs from bu sh es. The story is deliberatel y left unfinished since Sikula aim s a t portrayin g but one stage in th e hero 's life . W e will never learn what is goin g to ha ppen in the future to the human twig picked from the bu sh of country life, a nd we are not m eant to know. Sikula presen ts u s with a vignette of life in the m a kin g. W e a re expected to enj oy the beaut y and the immediacy of the vignette portrayed b y an exquisite painter and not to look beyond it. Sikula has both the talen t of a pa inter a nd a poe t. Althou gh the story is written in p rose, it read s like a poem , di splayin g the author 's rem arka ble powe r ove r la nguage. Its m easured cad en ces a nd sen se of rhythm give the reader a unique poetic experience. It is the beaut y of style which gives to Liesk y its most definite imprin t. YVONNE G R ABOWS KI Y ork Uni versity D own sview, C anada �SLOVAKIA 155 BOOK NOTE Charles Wojatsek . From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award: The Hungarian Minority in th e First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938. Montreal: Institute of Comparative Civilizations, 1981. 229 pp . Time and time again Mr. Wojatsek attempted to publish his manuscript through academic and commercial presses , only to have it repea tedly rejected because of its poor quality . Finally, when nothing else could be done, he published the book him self, under the spu rious auspices of the " In stitute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal." This book is not worth serious consideration. It was written with the patriotic fervor of a true believer, and its reading makes for cruel and unusual punishment, deserved only by other nationalists of Wojatsek's type. This reviewer wishes to warn the unsu specting public: Beware 1 You may jeopardize your time, your money, and your nerves! Y ESHA Y AHU JELINEK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheba, Israel �� SLOVAKIA 119 Book Reviews Robin Okey. Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to Communism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 . 264 pp . Attempting to write a general survey of Eastern European history is no m ean task . Indeed, a comprehensive overview within the confines of a book numbering less than three hundred pages is altogether impossible. Robin Okey offers an alternative to this dilemma in the form of an interpretive stud y . The author indicates that his purpose is to " present a perspecti ve rather than tell a story. " Focusing on the twin themes of modernization and na tionalism , he traces the evolution of the Central and Eastern European lands through two ce nturies of economic , political, and social change . It is his thesis that Eastern European nationalism arose as a response to the area ' s comparative backwardness in relation to the W est. In approaching thi s theme, Okey notes that feudalism came relatively late to this general area , and suggests that - at least until the sixteenth century - Eastern Europe enjoyed the potential of parallel development with W estern Europe. H e states, however , that dom estic fe udal forces were strong enough to reverse thi s trend . External forces - the Turkish invasion of the Balka ns a nd Hun gary a nd the H a bsburg conquest of rebelliou s Bohemia - are also cited as instrument al facto rs. Ei ghtee nth -century Eastern Europe is ch a racterized as havin g regimes which were ineffi cient even by feudal standards . The peasantry bore the brunt of resulta nt defi ciencies, but thriving popul ar cultures provided an impetu s for future revival. Okey states catego rically that the penetrati on of the Enli ghtenm ent represe nt s the first stages of ra pprochem ent with the W est. In a number of in sta nces th e process was characteri zed by reform from a bove, althou gh the role of th e cl ergy is also cited . In the latter case, the auth or specificall y mention s th e P ole K on a rski and th e Serb Obrad ovic; it is wo rth notin g th a t Bern ola k's contribution to th e Slovak rev ival is omitted . T he Eastern Eu ro pean Enli gh te nment faced the dil emm a th at the socia l premi ses of an al ternative order we re incomplete. Con sequentl y, conservatives were more ext reme and reformers more revolutionary tha n their cou n terpa rt s in the West. �120 SLOVAKIA Liberalism in Eastern Europe differed from the West insofar as members of the nobility were heavily involved in a process which put them in opposition to their own social strata. Okey characterizes Eastern European liberalism as "an elusive, complex creed"; it shared the heavy emotionalism of ideas from other lands , but was only partially emancipated from native traditions. He objects to the Marxist view of nationalism as a creed devised by ambitious bourgeois elements; instead, he cites the role of professional scholars as the vanguard of the national movements . The 1848 revolutionary experience led to a clash between liberalism and nationalism; the former was instrumental in abolishing the last vestiges of serfdom, but also failed to satisfy the national aspirations of subject peoples . The balance of the nineteenth century is treated as a period of ideological fragmentation. The advance of industrial capitalism caused a reaction against liberalism on the part of the Right as well as the Left , and the continued rise of mass nationalism splintered existing political parties along ethnic lines. In assessing the downfall of the old order during World War I , Okey concedes that not all tendencies could be related to the national question. But h e hastens to add that "only nationalism had a magnetism strong enough to draw the dislocated elements into an alternative political order the pattern of nation-states . '' Promoters of the new nation-states viewed their emergence as the culmination of humanist principles. Okey disagrees, and cites three general causes for the failure of Western-style liberalism in the interwar period . Most obviously, one of them is the continuity of ethnic conflict within the new states. Second, the Eastern European nations remained economically de pendent on foreign capital. Finally, both the leaders of the new states and their opponents repudiated democracy in their approach to the outstanding problems of the times. Okey views interwar nationalism as "short-sighted rather than fundamentall y misguided"; the outsider Hitler bore the greatest responsibility for the demise of these states. The author implies that national Communism was most successful in those countries where the Party remained in effective control of public life, and failed in Czechoslovakia because the regime capitulated ideologicall y to non-Party gro ups. Finally, Okey states that the rise of a mass int elli ge nt sia and the emerge nce of common social problem s with the West is indicative of a greater degree of syncopat ion. For the student of Slovak hi story, this book might prove disappointing. Indeed, a genuine weakness may be found in the fact that Okey cites so few examples of the Slovak experien ce which provide important contrasts with certain patterns. Okey ' s contention that Eastern European soc iety had already become "brutali zed" during World War II , and that the Communists were tailor-made representatives of the new age , borders on conjecture. Although the position of the J ews in Slovakia was precarious during the war , they were �SLOVAKIA 121 nevertheless afforded a certain "breathing space" denied to their kin smen in Poland, and the average citizen of the Slovak R epublic was by no m ean s terrorized. It was only during the 1944 risin g - in which Communists played a major role - that "brutalization" on a broad scale was affected . Okey's treatment of the " Prague Spring" also provides a case of omission: He correctly cites the straightj acket command economy model as a major facto r in Novotny's demise, but mentions the Slovak opposition only as merely inciden tal. But insofar as Slovakia may be viewed as an integral part of an Eastern European whole, this book has definite merit. It provides the reader with a concise, refreshing overview of the past two centuries, and the author skillfully employs anecdotal examples to compare and contrast specific national experiences. Okey's book is helpful to the student already well-grounded in general Eastern European history; it can also be useful to the instructor who wishes to co nvey a certain sense of ideological conflict inherent in the region . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Easley, South Carolin a East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Edited by Milorad M. Drachkovitch. Stanford, Calif.: H oover Institution Press, 1982 . 41 7 pp . Thirteen of the seventeen papers contained in this volume were presented at a conferen ce organized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in January , 1980 . Due to the events in Poland in August , 1980 , publication of the symposium's proceedings was delayed so that individual authors could revise their contributions. According to the editor, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, readers of the book "will not find in it a ny pred ictions " and "will be offered facts and explan ations of recent events" (p. xi). This is true of most but not all of the essays. The latte r are largely analyt ical and of uneven quality. Among th e excellent contributions are Drachkovitch 's survey of the postwar political and economic developm ents in Yu goslavia, Leszek Kolakowski's " Ideology in Eastern Europe ," and the essays by J ohn Erickson, Hugh Seton-Watson, Peter J. Wiles, and Richard F. Staar. Also superb is the overview of developments in East Central Europe , " Present Situation and Principal Trends ," by Robert F. Byrnes. H e points out that '' the opinions of even our most expe rienced an alysts often reflect shallow hi stori cal knowledge , flight y analysis, and the ass umpti on that peoples of this area are far less in terested in independence and self-government than a re West �122 SLOVAKIA Europeans and Americans '' (p. 20). The flip-flops of George K ennan are cited as an example. Byrnes is a very perceptive observer who notices the connection between the election of Pope John Paul II , his visit to P oland in 1979, and the subsequent d evelopments in that country. In contrast , the essay on Poland by Jan T omasz Gross, " What Is Yet To Come," appears to be a rather superficial d escription of events leading up to the establishment of Solidarity in 1980 , claiming that " the impossible was inevitable " (p. 32 1). In the last section of the essay Gross sketches two different scenarios: first , Soviet military intervention ; second, the devolution of the Soviet imperium for which the price would be " m ost likely " the " ne utralization of Germany through unification and detachment from the Atlantic Alliance " (p. 325). As it happened , the imposition of martial law in D ecember 1981 proved his (and man y other observers') projections incorrect. On Alexander Dubcek 's behavior in 1968 Hugh Seton-Watson comments by asking a rhetorical question : How could the United States "defend people who would not defend themselves?" (p . 178). In contrast to it , Zdenek L. Suda, while concentrating mostly on the events in 1968 , is very a pologetic. H e writes: " The peaceful counterrevolution in the ve ry core of the Czechoslovak system must have caused more pani c in Moscow than the armed insurgency of Hungarian workers and soldiers in O ctober 1956 " (p. 258). Suda's cl aim is an undocumented assumption without an y foundation, and so is his interpretation of the events in Czechoslovkia when he writes that " the whole reform movement of 1968 could be defined simply as the application of rules and laws that long had been dead letters, but nt>:vertheless existed. It was precisely this greater respect for legality and constitutionality that sounded an alarm in the Soviet power center and triggered the intervention" (p. 256). Accordin g to Suda, "the Czechoslovak case differs from the Polish case because the Polish reform experim ent initiated in 1956 fa iled without direct Soviet intervent ion " (p. 252). Suda does not differentiate between intervention and in vasion . Soviet military presence in Poland ever since the end of World War II has constituted inter vention and h as m ade in vasion unnecessary. In fact, an invasion would have been cou nterproductive from the Soviet point of view. In contrast to it , by in vading Czechoslovakia in 1968 the Soviets h ave attained their military and strategic objecti ves. The "temporary" stationing of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia has become " permanent. " The even ts in Poland in the earl y 1980s corroborate the view th at the Soviets had military a nd strategic reasons for the 1968 in vasion and that the in ternal de velopments , which certainly did not amount to a "counterrevoluti on" as Sud a and the Sov iets claim, were merely a pretext for the action whose a im was to extract a "consent " from the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders to the stati oning of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. L abeling people as " neo -Stalinists " a nd "dogmati cs," as �SLOVAKIA 123 Suda does, is meaningless. His lack of knowledge of history is reflected in the essay. For example, he writes that " the division of the world between the two superpowers into spheres of interest - made the eventual integration of Czechoslovakia into the system controlled by the Soviets virtually inevitable'' (p. 244). However , nothing was " inevitable" about the arrangements that Edvard Benes made in Moscow in D ecember , 1943 . It was his decision to sign the trea ty with the Soviet Union and to promise the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders in Moscow that their party would be the strongest element in the new regime and that he would always support it. Indeed , Professor Byrnes' comment on the " shallow historical knowledge" and " flighty analysis," cited above , is applicable to the two essays by the two sociologists on Czechoslovakia and Poland published in this volume . j OSEF KAL YODA Saint Joseph College W est H artford, Connecticut Rudolf Krajcovic. Svedectvo dejfn o slovencine . 2nd edition, corrected. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980 . 268 pp. The second edi tion of Krajcovic's collection of linguistic eviden ce for the Slovak language is essentially the same as the first of 1977 . In these two edition s, the compiler strives to offer proof that the Slovak language has its own long and distinctive history. He is intent on demonstrating that Slovak is a " language of written documents ." He traces Slovak from the period of the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century throu gh the "twilight of Hungarian feudalism" in the nineteenth century. For the conclusion of his stud y, Krajcovic gives examples of present-day dialectical variations of the Slovak lan guage. There are photographs of d ocuments u sed as evidence. Especially when documents are in script, Krajcovic has the writings reproduced in printed form for easier appreciat ion. Interspersed among the evidence are bl ac k a nd white as well as colored illu stration s of folk articles and pa intings on a folk theme. The illu st ra tions a re the better to con vey the a tmosphere and period of the docum ents presented. Documen ta ry evidence from the early periods , n a mel y from that of the Great M orav ia n Empire through that of the fifteenth century , is not really extensive. A hi storical lin gui st would find the m aterial interesti ng, perh a ps even intrigu ing , but not conclu sive or even substantial for a judgm ent. From the sixteenth century onwards , the material offered as evidence is increasin gly more substanti ve. Indeed , Krajcovic him self notes th at the m aterial from the sixtee nth ce ntury is of" great significance," because thi s was "when Slovak was �124 SLOVAKIA for the first time committed to written form." The expression " written form " is perhaps a poor choice of phrasing. (The expression is found in the brief Slovak, Russian, as well as English introductions to the documentary evidence for this period.) For virtually all the examples of Slovak in this book are written . By the expression "written form," Krajcovic's probably means that the extant documentary instances of Slovak become more extensive and so more able to be appreciated linguistically. In focusing on this poor phrasing and its alleged implication , I do not intend to impugn the long history and distinctiveness of Slovak that Krajcovic desires so clearly to demonstrate in his book. The reader, nonetheless, cannot help feeling that Krajcovic is straining very hard to do this. On the whole, the book is more a nicely illustrated survey of the Slovak language for the layperson rather than a serious academic study for the specialist. With the Slovak language and its related culture appreciated so little outside of Slovakia and the Czech lands, Krajcovic' s book could enhance to some degree a better understanding of this language and culture . This second edition is a ''corrected '' version of the first . This correcting involves stylistic and typographical errors, but especially a few attributions that include additions, deletions, or actual corrections. For example, Krajfovic has deleted the attribution of the 1648 Trnava dictionary as one used for Virgil's Aeneid. The attribution ofa folk article as coming from Kovafova pri Zvolene has been changed to Kral'ova. Krajcovic has added the name of the Austrian author of Klimko's rendition of Krizant und Daria - Gottfried Uhlich, rendered by Krajcovic as Ulrich . Also, the English text has at times questionable diction and stylistic phrasing. The Russian text has been improved for this edition in various places. Neither language should offer problems in Slovakia, for there are native speakers as well as numerous specialists who could be consulted for a third edition . Finally, the bibliography for this edition has been expanded by one item. The price of this survey of the Slovak language has remained the same as for the earlier edition . This should make the book a readily purchasable acquisition for any individual or institution. G ERALD] . SABO , S.J . John Carroll University Cleveland, Ohio I'.udovft Novak. K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka . Bratislava: Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej adademie vied, 1980 . 352 pp. This important study of the earliest history of the Slovak language evolved out of a plan by I'.udovft Novak in the 1930s to supply the most up-to-date , complete, and detailed presentation of Slovak phonology from its earliest begin- �SLOVAKIA 125 nings . Methods of structu ral analysis were to be applied to the reconstructed phonologies of Slovak dialects . The origi nal ve rsion was begun in the last months of 1938 and earl y 1939 , a period of political turbulence. Over the intervening years, materials added to the original accumulated into several essays, thus resulting in two works. By reason of the a mount of accu mulated m ate rials , a recent decision to publi sh this monograph from just the original alone was ca rried out . The val ue of the original as a linguistic la ndm ark of the structural method in Slovakia was the deciding factor. Novak 's later theories are to be published in a separate volume which will be entitled "Vznik Praslovanov a ich jazyka. '' Four chapters in the book under review provide the most important linguistic phenomena in the d evelopment of the Slovak sou nd system , from the earliest period after the collapse of Common Slavic into the dialect differentiations of the Slovak area. They are: (a) the Slovak reflexes rat-, lat- from P ro to-Slavic *ort- , *oft -; (b) alterat ions in the consonant clusters dl, tl, and dn ; (c) reduced vowel "yer"-changes , the contraction phenomena, and the depalatalization of e( e)»a; and (d) the reconstruction of sound systems of Slovak dialects after the period of liquidation of Common Slavic co rrelations of '' syllabic soft ening. '' Novak is interested in whether (a) can be termed a "Yugoslavism" relating to a theory of colonization of Central Slovakia from the south . With respect to (b) he quotes rare documents of ancient dialect litera ture, gives phonetic a nd phonological ex plana tions , with examples of geographic ex tension of changes in W estern Slovak, and compares this with pa rallel types of like consonantal quantitat ive correlation s in a non-Slavic la nguage. For ( c) the a uthor defines the rapport of Central Slovak especially with East and Central Slavic languages, and refers to the chronology and locali zation of alterations in the Common Slavic dialect dom ai n. R egarding (d) he concen trates first on the contrac tion phenomena in Central Slovak with its chronology a nd that of other Slavic dialects, and then of other West Slavic la nguages . H e provides a n argu m ent for the explanation of the zenou-feminine-instrumental-singular type and a criticism of other theories. Most of the phonological changes in Old Slovak are viewed as occurring due to certain influences of external lan guages or of internal dialects. Hi s terminology illu strates certain developing periods of Old Slovak , for example, turkicizing, mongolization. The aut hor maintains one of several possible theories in lin guistic development. Hi s is an attempt to overcome difficulties connected with the immane nt development of the Slovak language. ova.k's structural approach as innovative and successful in the earl y period of lin gu ist ics is appla uded by colleagues m entioned in the foreword. H owever, his earl y theory is criticized as "one-sided" for three main reasons : fai lure to �126 SLOVAKIA calculate the comparison of internal contradictions; overemphasis on phonology without consideration of grammatical, morphemi c, morphological, or wordbuilding structures as lingui stic units; and finally a lack of regard for sociolin guistic chan ges . I'.udovft Novak is referred to as th e " Nestor of Slovak Linguistics " (p. 9) . This original work is viewed as a monument in the evolution of Slovak lin gu istics a nd is noteworthy, especially considering the period of its composition, the structural methods applied, with its new theoreti cal thought and insights. It is rightly considered the first synthetic conception of the earliest history of Slovak language founded on the development of the dialect sound systems. The dedication of the book is symbolic of its apparent inherent worth. Honored are three famous contributors to Slovak linguistics: to the history of the Slovak language (Trubetzkoy); to the comparative history of Slovak and Czech languages (Travnfcek), and to the foundation of modern Slovak linguistic geography with its Slovak historical dialectology (Vazny). Novak has provided the first synth etic method of structu ral applicat ion to the historical phonology of Slovak , a structural lin gui st ic milestone in Slovak lan guage study. JOHN M . KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsyl vania Frantisek Kalesny. Habani na Slovensku. Bratislava: Tatran, 198 1. 376 pp. Scattered today over the prairies of the United States and Canada can be found settlements of a people known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. The Brethren still retain the German language of their forefathers and practice a st ri ctly communitarian way of life. Their mode of collective farming is not th e outcome of economi c calculation ; it results from the Hutterit es' belief that Christ calls on his followers to renounce private property and have all things common . The H utterites originated in th e earl y 1530s as part of the Anabaptist movement that had begun in Central Europe around 1525. The M ennon ites tod ay also claim spiritual descent from this movement which represe nted a left wing of the Protestant R eformation. While onl y the Hutterites esta bli shed community o f goods, all its adherents practiced adult ba ptism (hence the n ame they acqu ired, Anabaptists) in order to stress the volunta ry character of their beli eve rs' church, in which only grown persons could participate meaningfull y. As Dr. Kales ny remarks in the preface to hi s fascinating study of Hutterite hi story, few Slovaks know about th e connection betwee n the Hutterites a nd Slovakia, where they li ved for over two hundred year . The descendants of those Hutterites, who in the mid -e ighteenth century acce pted forced �SLOVAKIA 127 recatholicization rather than have to emigrate, eve ntually lost their German speech and a re today completely assimilated to the Slovak popula tion. If memories of the Hutterites grew dim, the name which their Slovak neighbors gave these German settlers , " H abans " (Habani, H abaner) , has become widely known on acco unt of the beautiful ceramics produced by the Hutterite communities and their successors. These are now valued possessions of the museums of Czechoslovakia a nd Hun gary, and examples of the art form are also to be fo und elsewhere. H a ban folk a rt , according to K alesny (p.12), should be reckoned as an important asse t of Slovak '' n at ion al culture,'' for it was produced on the soil of Slovakia by people who, although of foreign origin , had put down deep roots there. The book , which is a wo rk of scholarship even though it lac ks footnotes, is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the Hutterite communities from their inception down to the present d ay, with m ost a ttention given to their soj ourn in northwest Hungary (present -day Slovakia) . They first set up comm unities there around 1545: Their chief settlement a nd the seat of their " bi sh op" was a t Sobotiste. As in Moravia where the sect had started, h ere too it s ad herents we re welcomed by the landown ing nobility, Catholic as well as Protestant, who valued the Hu tterites as h ardworking and profitable tenants and consequently were prepared to overlook their religiou s peculiarities. After the battle of White Mountain in 1620 the H absburg ruler drove them out of M oravia, but the Moravian brethren also found a refuge on the estates of friendly Hun garia n landown ers. The endemic warfare of the seve nteenth century when Turkish, H absburg, and kuru c forces ravaged the Slovak countryside inflicted terrible suffering on the local population , including the Hutterites . On the eve of the disaster of 1620 the Hutterites in M oravia and Slovakia had numbered abo ut 25,000 persons, a tenfold increase sin ce 1545, which was due to the steady stream of newcomers from the T yrol a nd ot her pa rts of Ce n tral Europe seeking to join the brotherhood. Almost all these were of German speech , but a few adherents were of local origin. On page 46 , fo r instance, K alesny m entions "Wendel H olba ein Schlawak (Ve ndel H olba, Slovak)," who even becam e a Hu tterite minister. Whereas in north Hun gary the Hutterites abandoned their communitarian wa y of life in 1685 a nd were recatholicized under Maria Theresa in the nex t century (w hile still retaining for some time their separate legal identit y as H abaner), in Transylvania - where some Hutterites had settled in 1621 - they contin ued to lead the same life as before, until finally in 1767 the aut horit ies expelled those who would not conform . Ka les ny ch ron icles briefly their subseq uent wanderings, first via Wall ac hia to the Ukraine where they arrived in 1770 and then in 1874 across the Atlantic and on to the American West. After World War I most of the Hutterites moved across the border into Canada . Their later mi grat ions stemmed not from �128 SLOVAKIA religious persecution but from the threat posed to their pacifist principles by the introduction of universal miliary service. Kalesny prefaces his historical narrative, which for the most part does not add to what we already know , by an interestin g discussion of the name haban , the first authenticated m ention of which occurs in a document of 1667 now in the municipal archives of Bratislava. Originally a d erogatory term , it eventually lost its pejorative connotation and became the accepted way of describing the descendants of the former comm unitarians . Concerning the origin of the word no consensus exists among scholars. The latest theory is that of a German scholar who derives it from the H ebrew. D espite what the resumes say, Kalesn y seems to be somewhat sceptical about this. If the author deals rather briefly with the religious aspects of the Hutteri te way of life, h e devotes almost the whole of th e second part of the book to their social organization. The overwhelming majority of community m embers were artisans: Over forty crafts were bei ng practiced when the communities were at their peak. Of course, they also engaged in farming, which today is the chief occupation of the Hutterites. A strict discipline was imposed on members , expulsion from the brotherhood being the final sanction against those who did not conform. But this was not usually necessary since the brethren recognized the advantages of communal living over those of the outside world, despite any momentary attraction they might feel toward the latter. " The Hutterites had succeeded in creating an ordered society, socially egalitarian and materially secure, with high moral principles based on the community'' (p. 169) . Children of both sexes were taught at least to read and write - in an age when illiteracy prevailed among the masses . Great care was taken, too, to provide for the sick and aged, for pregnant women and for children of preschool age . The culture was perhaps narrow and th e aut horit y of the elders excessive, but this must be judged within the context of the times. Purely aesthetic values found no place among Hutterites. Yet their craftsmen succeeded in creatin g countless objects of beauty either for domestic use or for sale: Their pottery became famous throughout east central Europe and was eage rly bought up by the nobility a nd wealthy townspeople of the area. Kalesny, whose specialty is folk a rt , devotes th e third part of hi s book to the history and technology of'' H aban '' pottery. The making of faience , their most hi gly prized produ ct , had bee n introdu ced into th e Hutterite communit ies around 1580 by An a baptist immigra nts from northeas t Italy. Kales ny has included at the end I 09 full-page colored illu strat ion s of ceramics emanating from " H aban" workshops. The bibliography includes man y items in Slovak, Czech, a nd Hungarian that are unknown to North Ameri can scholars who have written on the Hutterites. Man y of these pi eces, it is true , deal with " Haban" ce ramics, but some �SLOVAKIA 129 are of more general interest. K alesny, on the other h and, h as obviously had difficulty in gaining access to sch olarship in the W est. He knows the work of the M ennonite sociologist , J ohn A. H ostetler. But h e does not, for example , appear to be acquainted either with the valua ble study by another M ennonite scholar , Victor J . Peters, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life (Minneapoli s, 1965) , or with the numerous articles published in the United States by the leading authority on Hutterite history and culture, the late Robert Friedmann . Many of them were reprinted in his Hutterite Studies (Goshen , Indian a , 1961) . L et us hope that in future closer contacts can be established in the field of Hutterite studies between North American scholars and those working in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. K alesny is perhaps lucky in dealing with a group like the Hutterites who , while deeply religiou s, have at the same time been dedicated "communists," albeit of the Utopian variety. The T at ran press was able (so to speak) to roll out the red carpet for him . It h as published a volume that , with its excellent pa per, numerou s illu stration s, and tasteful design , is indeed a credit to book production in Slovakia. PETER BROCK University of T oronto Toronto , Canada August A. Skodacek. Lutherans in Slovakia . Pittsburgh : Slavia Printing Company, 1982. 242 pp. This acco unt of the rise and development of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia from the Reformation to the present redresses the oversight of many concern in g the role of the Lutheran Church in the historical development of Slovakia. This may b e a fl aw. The author would have us understand that Slovakia 's history in modern times is a con sequen ce n ot onl y of the R eformation but also of the influence of Lutheranism in Slovak social and political struggles. However, Skodacek does not su ffic ientl y analyze the historical facts a nd ci rcum stances to judge whether hi s claim , that without Lutheranism m od ern Slovakia would not be , is warranted. Skodacek chronciles the fa te and fort une of Lutherani sm in term s of fates and fortun es of the group's leaders. As they fared, so fared their group . Thus, this is a hi story of an in stitution al church and its great m en from a perspective of within the gro up . It uses synodical records to illu strate th e respon se of the Lutheran C hurch in Slovakia to outside social and political forces, na m ely the Roman Catholic C hu rch , the J esuits, and the variou s rulers allied with those two groups. Since there is little in -depth an alysis, thi s essay does not offer a ny new insights into the causes of man y of the events ch ro nicled. �130 SLOVAKIA In the main, it is a hagiographic account extolling historical individuals for their virtues and deeds done in the name of the cause. In describing the influences of a Thurzo , Lani , or Krman and others, Skodacek, interestingly enough, sees them as the real descendants of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Just as Cyril and Methodius introduced the Slavs to Christianity and hence to civilization ( of a kind) , so too the followers of Luther reintroduced Christianity and civilization to Slovakia even to the point of generating and maintaining a consciousness of Slovak nationalism. To this point, Skodacek writes that "the R eformation activated a conversion in Slovakia which gradually brought into the open a Slovak nationality; it spread the reformational ideology in an understandable native language and a democratic religious life'' (p. 66). Be this as it may, the book is a good source for anyone who wishes to do research in Slovak history but who does not know th e necessary languages. The volume provides translations of records and documents of the various synodical events which figured large in the life of the Slovak Lutheran Church. This point not withstanding, it is unfortunate that Skodacek did not see fit to describe and analyze the historical dynamics of the sociocultural and political forces beyond the activities of the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. Not everyone, despite Skodacek's claim, was either a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Some were Greek Catholic and some were Calvinists. These are never mentioned . Also, not everyone living in Slovakia was either a Slovak or a German . Another missing analytical point is that of socioeconomic class; from what class did the Lutheran leadership come? It is on these points that Skodacek could have given us some insight; perhaps he will irt another book . Although this vol ume is a good in-house version of a historical period and of what happened to the Lutherans in Slovakia , the lack of analysis of the sociocultural and political dynamics limits its effectiveness. ROBERT j. SKOVIRA Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania Paul R obert Magocsi . The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1978 . 650 pp. P aul R. Magocsi. The Rusyn -Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey . Vienna: Wilhelm Braumi.iller Universitats-Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1983. 94 pp . The first of Professor Magocsi ' s books is the one we all dream of writing . The fruit of years of research, it is encyclopedic in its description of the cul- �SLOVAKIA 131 tu ral a nd political development of the territory which m ad e up Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the first C zechoslovak Republic. H e has used a rich array of sources - archives, published statistics, interviews , and most books and articles relating to the subj ect. It will stand for d ecades to com e as the basic referen ce work . Graduate students will be surpr ised to find a detached , obj ective approach in a volume devoted to an East European nationality group of less tha n a million people. It will be a required presence in the library of eve ryo ne who calls himself an Eas t European historian . Slovakists , in particular, will welcome Magocsi ' s dispassiona te understa ndin g of the sensibilities of the ripening Slovak national identity in Eastern Slovakia. The tex t is di vided into three parts. The first cove rs political and cultural hi story un til 19 18 . The second examines history, la nguage, literature , education , and reli gion between 19 18 and 1944. The final part discusses the political hi story from the end of W orld W ar I to the incorporation of the territory into the U krainia n Soviet R epublic at the end of W orld W ar II. This is followed by 4 a ppendices (82 pages), notes ( 106 pages), and bibliography ( 122 pages) . In his introduct ion , M agocsi promises to analyze how one ethnic group was exposed to na tionalism and how its leaders presen ted this new ideology to their people. H e points out that the leaders in what he calls " an embryonic sta te of na tional d evelopment " still did not agree on which national orientation to follow - Ru syn , Hun gari an , Slovak (and/o r C zech), Ukra inian , or Russian. H e then describes the elimination of each alternative until only Ukrainia n was left. With such a rich and well-organized presentation of d ata, it must seem churlish for a reviewer to take issue with the author . And ye t one has the impression tha t the author ' s desire to incl ude every las t piece of info rm ation has di st racted him fro m his original inte ntion of trying to discover the underl ying reaso ns fo r the fi nal victory of the U kra inia n orientation . The book becom es fi nall y a trad itional approach to East Eu ro pean history, albeit without the partisan coloring wh ich usually characterizes such work . H e outlines the failure of leaders of certa in national orien tations to attrac t adherents, or their willingness to sacrifice national fo r political gain. H e find s external factors decisive in dete rmining that the territory wo uld eventu ally become Ukrainian . In an area with such a n embryo nic ethnic and national identity, it seems odd tha t M agocsi limited his book terri to rially, acco rding to political bound aries which existed for onl y two decades . The fa ult m ay lie in his d efinition of ethn ic group as a popul ation that " in m ost cases possesses a distinct territory, com m on traditions, and related dialects. " Although he pays homage to the theories of K a rl D eutsch on natio nalism and social communicatio n , he fa il s in large pa rt to apply them . H e looks a t the intelligentsia in action , but not the intelligen tsia in formatio n . It would �132 SLOVAKIA have been possible, for instance, to examine the changing national composition of the students in the high schools (gymnazia) over time and through the various grades. This might have suggested underlying trends in national identification. Magocsi is quite right in saying it is impossible to explain why individuals join differing national orientations, but the totality of the changes can be very informative. It is quite conceivable that the socioeconomic development in the interwar period showed a trend toward a Ukrainian identity. This would help explain why the Soviet regime met so little opposition when it assigned a Ukrainian identification to the population at the end of the war. After the depth of research and evaluation which characterized the first book , the second volume is a disappointment. While those interested in Slovak history will find useful material here on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of what Magocsi calls the "Rusyn-Ukrainians" of Czechoslovakia, there also is a disappointing tendency to blame every difficulty faced by this national grouping on national discrimination. This stands in considerable contrast to his conclusion (p . 270) in the larger volume . OWEN V . JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington , Indiana Jubilea Matice slovenskej. Compiled by Vojtech Sarluska. "Seria: Monografie - Vyskum dejfn Matice slovenskej, zv. 9." Martin: Matica slovenska, 1980. 130 pp . The volume under review is a compendium of articles resulting from a seminar devoted to the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Matica slovenska's reconstitution ( 1919) and its silver anniversary as the Slovak National Library ( 1954 ). The essays discuss various aspects of the Matica's present contributions in the fields of research and education. Themes analyzed include : the Matica ' s efforts in library acquisition, preservation, and dissemination; planning and organization of its activities and resources; bibliographic development over the past quarter century; activities of the Literary Archives; programs of the Literary Museum; efforts of the Biographical Office; activities of the Matica's Office of Slovaks Abroad ; and the Matica ' s publishing activities. The section prepared by Stefan Krivus, the Matica' s present director , sets the tone for the other essays . Krivus traces the Matica's history through interwar Czechoslovakia, its activities during World War II, its place in the resurrected R epublic, and its role in Socialist Slovakia. He describes each period as a step in the Matica's maturation process. Both Krivus and the other contributors make it quite clear that the Matica of 1979 is not the Matica of 1919 ; �SLOVAKIA 133 it has continually changed in response to the demands placed on it as Slovakia' s premier national cultural institution. It is a pity that this publication , which offers much valuable information on the Matica slovenska's vital role in past and contemporary Slovak cultural life , was printed in a limited edition and "only for internal use" by professional scholars, thus making it unavailable to the much wider readership which it deserves . JOHN A . BERTA Middletown, Pennsylvania I1 mondo slavo. Saggi e contributi slavistici a cura del Centro Studi Europ a Orientale di Padova . Volume VIII. Edited by Milan S. Durica. Padova: CESEO-Liviana, 1982 . 318 pp. Professor Milan S. Durica has taken the opportunity of his editorship of this volume of I1 mondo slavo to present a number of studies which help to identify Slovak ethnic consciousness in its language and history and to distinguish it clearly from assimilative Czechoslovak linguistic and political tendencies. In his own article, which offers a historical-philological profile of the Slovak language, he traces the evolution of the Slovak language in Slavic ethnogeny. The Slovak glottogenetic process of isoglosses is delineable on Slovak ethnic territory . This position is butressed by (1) Slovakocentricity - the expression of geometric distance proportional to linguistic elements and (2) the most recent studies on fundamental Slavic lexical patrimony revealing its highest in Slovak . Durica' s ' profile' establishes that the research of historical and comparative lexicology fortifies the theory of the Slovak proto-Slavic glottogenesis. His synthesis of recent· research is a valuable contribution to the thesis that Slovak is an independent Slavic language . Stefan V ragas presents historical and linguistic highlights of the development of the Slovak literary language from 1918 to 1979. A significant portion of his article centers on the linguistic politics of "Czechoslovakism ," i.e. , the linguistic and political claim of one Czechoslovak language and nation , in opposition to any contention of on e separate and individual Slovak language and nation . The author demonstrates that Slovak experts succeeded in counteracting the opposition by applying the facts of history to linguistics and courageously weathering political humiliations as did , for example, Eudovft Novak , author of K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka. Vragas must be commended for his definition of Czechoslovakism and for his timely exposition of some generally unknown linguistic-political humiliations of Slovak scholars, especially in the 1950s a nd part of the 1960s. �134 SLOVAKIA The history of Slovak translations on Slovak ethnic territory to 1939 is the subject of the article by Agostino Visco. Brief mention is made of translations into contemporary Slavic during the Great Moravian era and some initial translations into Latin . It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that extensive translation was made from Latin into the Slovak national language, mainly by Catholics. From Greek and Latin some classics and religious works were translated: ancient poetry, meditations, the Bible . Later, translations began from West European authors, then from East European ones, until the abortive years 1848-1849, when translations declined . After 1918 and in the early twentieth century translations resumed . They steadily progressed after 1933, when the Matica slovenska established a translation group , thus institutionalizing and perfecting translations. Visco considers the Slovak R epublic era (1939-1945) as the most important period for translations . Inasmuch as translations have so much influenced both Slovak poetry and prose, they represent an important facet of Slovak literature. Mirella De Martini Tihany examines the emigration of Italian laborers from Venetia and Lombardy to Slovakia in the second half of the nineteenth century . Parish registers of Slovak localities along the main railroad line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Bohumfn (Moravia) are the principal sources of research, especially those found in the State and District Archives of Bytca. Because of mineral transports from central Slovakia, railroads were needed in Slovakia . Historically, the Kosice-Bohumfn line construction in 1870 was urgent for connecting eastern Slovakia with Berlin . In this construction , the temporary Italian immigration initially entered . For some workers it meant death from epidemic , for others it was an occasion for marriage and baptisms. In her article Tihanyi provides a brief insight into Slovak interaction with the emigrants and also a sad commentary on the plight of Italian workers neglected by their non-Slovak contractors . Finally , Lisa Guarda Nardini considers the sole syndicate in Czechoslovakia, the "ROH" - Revolutionary Trade Union Movement. It is studied as an exemplary illustration of the statute of the organization which institutionally represents all workers in a country which claims that labor is paramount and the workers govern . The author proceeds from a relatively brief introduction about members , duties, structure, and other considerations to a translation of the ROH statute with its fifty articles. The m erit of this article is the translation of the ROH statute into Italian from Slovak. Volume III of IJ mondo slavo can be recommended to the readers of Slovakia for its wealth of information on fascinating Slovak topics. JOHN M. KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsylvania �SLOVAKIA 135 Josef Korbel. Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History. New York: Columbia University Press , 1977 . 346 pp. A rich and varied background prepared the late Professor Josef Korbel for this twentieth-century history of a small country in Central Europe . He was closely associated with the University of Denver, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School oflnternational Studies, Director of the Social Science Foundation , and Andrew W . Mellon Professor of International Studies. He was the author of several books on Central Europe. Prior to his academic career, Korbel had been the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia . He also had held a number of other important diplomatic posts and was a personal acquaintance of both Edvard Benes and Jan Masaryk . Twentieth -Century Czechoslovakia begins with the Hussite period. By tracing the "roots" of Czech thought from Jan Hus to the subsequent suppression by the Catholic Habsburgs, and through the era of the Enlightenment, the author demonstrates how the Czech ideal of humanity evolved. He compares concepts derived from Frantisek Palacky and Karel Havlfcek to Tomas G. Masaryk's "Czech humanism. " All three were witnesses to the Hussite influence . A quick glance at opposing interpretations of Czech history by Josef Pekar and Ferdinand Peroutka and their criticism ofT.G. Masaryk's philosophy leads Korbel to the observation that " in times of assured statehood the Czech people strove for the ideals of humanity; in times of peril, they lowered their heads to save the national body" (p. 24). Korbel expands this thought throughout the rest of the book. Beginning with July 6, 1915, the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus , Tomas G. Masaryk is depicted as voicing a vision about to become a reality. As the author discusses the historical formation of Czechoslovakia, he dwells primarily on the Czech leadership. He skillfully paints portraits of national hopes , problems of administration, mistakes in judgment, and fears for the future. Throughout the twenties and thirties these events led to the final breakup of the first Czechoslovakia. By analyzing the Munich crisis and World War II as it affected this Central European victim state, Korbel clearly shows that the Czechs " lowered their heads to save the national body." As he searches for the mea ning of the postwar years in the revitalized Czechoslovak state, he refers to them as " The Sisyphean Years," the title of his last and perhaps most intriguing chapter. With T.G . M asaryk, he believes that " the nation will take up again its active role in mankind's neyer-ending struggle for freedom and social justice" (p. 320). Written in an engaging style, Korbel's story of Czechoslovakia's rise and fall will fascinate not only the student of history but also a ny reader interested �136 SLOVAKIA in learning about Central Europe during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the author does exhibit a bias against the Slovaks. This is especially apparent in his reference to the well-loved and respected Slovak leader Father Andrej Hlinka as being "fanatic. " Furthermore, while the Czechoslovak state could not exist without the Slovaks, Korbel devotes a mere 25-30 pages to them in a book of 346 pages. His admiration for Tomas G. Masaryk is deep, his respect for Jan Masaryk is genuine, and his evaluation of Edvard Benes appears objective. Had it been possible to apply historical honesty to all aspects of Czechoslovakia's growth from its inception to its dissolution and rebirth, such an account might have added significantly to the rapidly increasing literature in that area of research. One can only conclude that this historical account was written from the so-called Czechoslovak point of view. If this is understood, the reader will enjoy Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia but will continue to look for "The Meanings of Its History" in other books dealing far more adequately with Slovakia and the Slovaks . M. EVANGELA LUBEK, 0 .S.B. Bishop Noll Institute Hammond, Indiana Martin R . Myant. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 302 pp. The three years that preceded the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War have been generally understood in the West as a lull in which all the indications of what would happen in February 1948 were present. Although Martin Myant does not contradict this approach, he offers in this study, above all, an examination of the political situation in Czechoslovakia in which the Communist Party was just one of many players until mid-194 7, when a power struggle erupted leading to the Communist victory a few months later. What we have here, according to the author, is a polity which sought to achieve a socialist society by democratic means. It is an interesting thesis that reflects to a great extent the approach that Communist scholars took to this period in the 1960s and which found some sympathy among Western scholars. The book is divided into ten chapters that begin with a rapid overview of the development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The next five chapters are devoted to an analysis of the political situation in the Czech lands, with one chapter on Slovakia . In three more chapters the author looks at the power struggle which culminated in the February crisis . The final chapter �SLOVAKIA 137 examines post-February Czechoslovakia, in particular those events that announced the imposition of a more radical line by the Kremlin . It is clear from Myant 's story that World War II had brought about major changes in the Czech lands. In the postwar world, Czech political life reflected a general consensus that Czech society wanted its government to implement socialist changes because the prewar order had been destroyed during the hostilities . As an organized resistance group, the Communists played a major part in setting the framework for a socialist transformation . They were by far the most cohesive and organized party. Until mid-1947 they were also willing to collaborate - and indeed did so - with the non-Communist parties in implem enting new policies . The author gives a thorough analysis not only of the platforms of all parties, but also of the political activities of the Communist Party. When the struggle for power broke out, the Communists aimed at nothing more than victory and then used whatever means they could get away with to achieve that end. But for Myant - unlike for Paul Zinner and Josef Korbel, who also wrote on this period - the interest lies in the pre-mid 1947 period where, as he writes, "for all its faults, the National Front system established in May 1945 provided a possible basis for the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia" (p. 242). Despite the author's thorough analysis, this reviewer is not convinced that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia could have played according to democratic rules in an advanced society. Although Myant attributes the shift that occurred in mid-1947 to the international situation and Cominform directives , the fact remains that the Communist Party was willing in the last analysis to abandon democratic means in favor of one-party rule. There is no evidence that the Party offered the Kremlin any resistance . Had its commitment to democracy really existed, it could have defied Moscow since there were no Soviet troops in the country and it is doubtful that Moscow would have risked a war to impose its will . The pre-mid-1947 experience may be interesting for those who still hanker after a form of" democratic socialism"; for m e it merely shows that a Communist Party will also play the democratic game if it brings it closer to its goal of total power, but it does not show a commitment to democracy . The author's treatment of Slovakia is inadequate . He approaches it from the same point of view as the Czech lands , namely that the Slovaks were also headed for socialist transformation. To take this approach is to ignore not only the legacy of prewar Slovak politics, but also the major impact the Slovak R epublic had on the Slovaks. His accusation that Slovakia was backward is both unfair and unfortunate; it is a Czech point of view that was arti~ulated quite openly from 1945 on, especially in the Communist Party. This view was also imposed on Slovak Communists, who accepted it after their defeat in the May 1946 elections. The author does, however, point out that the Communist �138 SLOVAKIA Party was unwilling to embark on a different and distinct Slovak policy, if only not to alienate its Czech constituency. The position of Slovakia in postwar Czechoslovakia was very critical. Forced without consultation into a state where they would be a minority, Slovaks then saw most instruments of autonomous government progressively taken away from them . The non-Communist leadership was weak and faced not only Communist opposition but also Czech resistance to any status beyond minimal autonomy . Thus Slovak political life centered once again on Slovakia ' s role in Czechoslovakia, not on socialist transformation . As time went on, it was clear to most Slovaks that they mattered very little in Czechoslovak politics and were expected to be merely compliant to Prague . In this respect, Myant writes unfairly about President Tiso's execution in 1947 that "its announcement in Slovakia was met with no visible unrest" (p. 158). The truth of the matter is that the army and Czech police had been sent to Slovakia to make sure that there was no unrest. For the same reason the attempted Communist coup in Bratislava failed that autumn. The game had to be played out in Prague. This is a well-researched study that is thorough in its presentation for the Czech lands . It is highly unsatisfactory for Slovakia. For this reason, as well as the author's ideological predelictions, it is regrettably incomplete and, therefore, disappointing. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Leon Noel. La Tchecoslovaquie d'avant Munich. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 1982. 208 pp. J.F.N. Bradley. Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1971. Washington, D.C .: University Press of America, 1981. 225 pp. There are few Central European states that have had as turbulent a history as Czechoslovakia. It was created by the Western Powers on the morrow of World War I, only to be abandoned two decades later to German expansionism and another ten years later to Soviet imperialism. Paradoxically, Western scholarship has yet to produce a good history on either the First Republic or on the postwar Communist period. The two volumes under review, while they seek to give us an overview of each period, are also unsatisfactory. Leon Noel was France's Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1935. His book constitutes a sort of memoir of the three years he spent in Prague. To this account he added a few chapters that deal with the origins of the state , �SLOVAKIA 139 some of its leading personalities, the Slovaks, the Germans and the Hungarians, the Catholic Church, and the political parties . None is very good , and the chapters on the Slovaks and the political parties are particularly poor. It becomes quickly very clear that this French diplomat understood very little the country in which he represented France . The main impression that one gets is that he was interested above all in maintaining excellent diplomatic relations between Prague and Paris . This he seems to have done, given the number of positive comments about himself by Czechoslovakia's leaders that he quotes . But one does not get any idea what were the main currents in FrancoCzechoslovak relations. It is only when he evaluates the leading personalities in Prague of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks that he is interesting. That is one of the redeeming features of his book . If this book is at all interesting , it is becau se it reflects French perceptions of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The state was to a great extent a French creation, and Czechoslovakia's centralist system of government was modelled on that of France. Paris supported Prague on the German and the Slovak questions with the result that neither French diplomats nor French scholars paid any attention to anyone but the Czechs and accepted everything Prague told them. Noel ' s book is therefore not different from those published in the interwar years. It is a pity that he did not learn from subsequent events about which much has been written to give us a more critical appreciation of the country where he clearly spent three interesting years of his life . The Bradley volume is more in line with contemporary scholarship. But it is a peculiar book. The author has done some thorough research in a number of areas, yet he does not succeed in giving us an adequate overall picture of Communist politics in Czechoslovakia. The greatest flaw is his lack of treatment of the Slovak question, which he does not seem to have understood at all. There are two them es to the book: government and politics. The author gives a thorough description of Czechoslovakia's Communist government structure , examining in turn its constitutions, parliaments , governments, the judiciary , and security. Hi s chapter on the central government for 1948-1968 is rather good . He analyzes well the main problems of any Communist government, namely political domination and efficient administration. As he points out: "Even the most capable administrators among these politicans would have found it impossible to run central ministries efficiently with the politicallyreliable but admi nistratively unfit officials at their disposal" (p. 123) . When it comes to analyzing Communist politics , the author devotes only two chapters, one on the Dubcek era and the other on the Husak period of normalization. Both are somewhat disappointing. The overall result is that at the end of the book the reader is still left wondering what Czechoslovak politics were all about for the period 1948-1971. �140 SLOVAKIA The major flaw of Bradley's book is its treatment of the Slovak question. Clearly the author belongs to that category of Western scholars who do not consider Czech-Slovak relations to have been, and still to be, the focal point of the survival of the common state of these two nations. It is not surprising to come across such a statement as : "The Slovaks, who had apparently been enjoying equality and autonomy since 1948, began to voice their demands for new constitutional arrangements within the Czechoslovak Republic" (p. 183), with no further explanation. The final chapter, on Husak's federalism , is also inadequate in analyzing the new relationship between the two nations, let alone explaining why this formerly centralist state had been transformed into a federation . Neither book fulfills the mission its title suggests . Nevertheless in each there are some aspects of interest which may help the specialist and the interested reader on Czechoslovakia to get a better insight into this troubled common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Zdenek L. Suda. Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press , 1980 . 412 pp . This first history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in English, from its beginnings in November, 1917 , in Revolutionary Russia and its foundation in November , 1921, up to the late 1970s, is an impressive achievement. Professor Suda, a sociologist at the University in Pittsburgh, selected some of the best scholarly works written in the West on various topics or periods of his target and complemented them with a few basic books and articles published at different times in Czechoslovakia. Although his opus is based almost exclusively on secondary sources and, surprisingly, does not even mention authors whose work should have been consulted (e .g ., Machonin, Borkenau, Taborsky, Zinner, Horak , Jancar, Korbel, Tigrid) , it is worth reading and including in private as well as public libraries. It is a solid work and excels in its capable and systematic review of major events in the history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Its organization is clear, and the writer consistently pays attention to domestic developments as well as to Soviet or other Communist parties' history . In Suda' s concluding words , what matters is "the development of the Soviet core to which the CPCS, for the greater part of its existence, has only been peripheral" (p. 380). �SLOVAKIA 141 Suda's main contribution is to be found in his judicious summary of some sixty years in the life of a movement, in his sensible comments, and in his perspicuous analysis. One half of the book is devoted to the Party's history before it came to power in 1945 . There is a certain imbalance in Suda's treatment of the foundation of the CPCS (50 pages) or of its history until 1929 (70 pages) and his discussion of the crucial year of 1968 (only 20 pages) . The later story is much better known that the first two so that it does not constitute any major weakness, especially since the author keeps stressing interesting parallels between different periods of Party history . Basically, it was and is a foreign element brought into a state whose traditions , both cultural and political, have been .at variance with it . Suda devotes a substantial part of his book to developments in the Communist Party of Slovakia and to its asymmetric position in a basically centralist party and state. He rightly considers the unsolved problems of national minorities - and many Slovaks refused to think of themselves as equal partners in a "Czechoslovak" nation - to be the weak point of the whole edifice . The German problem is also systematically studied, and so are the Hungarian and Ruthenian ethnic communities. Paradoxically, even the establishment of a federal state in 1968 did not put an end to Prague centralism, although the general secretary of the Party since 1968 has been a Slovak. The lack of a detailed study of primary sources and of many crucial scholarly works , unfortunately , is responsible for some, mostly minor, mistakes in an otherwise well-printed and well-proofread work. For instance, Trotsky's secret message to disarm the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia is not mentioned; Tomas G . Masaryk is wrongly characterized as "never a socialist" (p. 12); the important role of G eneral Vlasov and his armed units in the Prague uprising in 1945 is omitted; for some reason, the Cominform and Comintern are both spelled with a ' K '; there is nothing on substantial workers' unrest in 1948 and 1949 ; Richta's leadership of a scientific Party commission is assigned to Mlynar , who was in charge of another one about whose existence the author does not seem to have known (p. 328); the Manifesto of 2000 Words was published simultaneously in four Prague papers and not just in one (p. 391) - a fact which was important for the Soviet audience since the pressure group was clearly well organized! Furthermore, the periodical Listy was not a "bimonthly" (p. 367) but rather appeared monthly. In disagreement with the author's statement on page 261, Zapotocky was criticized at Politboro meetings for his relaxation of forced collectivization of agriculture . What is more important, Suda sometimes accepts the terminology of his Communist sources and then refers, for instance , to the "progressive elite " (p. 120) when he discusses individuals who were responsible for bringing shame and enslave- �142 SLOVAKIA ment upon their own nations. Although the author believes that only a small minority of Social Democrats refused to join the CPCS in the year of forced amalgamation (p. 225), the truth is that less than one third of them joined the Communist Party! Also, his description of workers' acceptance of the Slansky trial is only partially true because, according even to Communist sources, after the initial passage of favorable resolutions, there was resolute criticism of the whole Party and state leadership, often calling for their dismissal. Finally , the 1968 meetings at Cierna nad Tisou did not take place in the Soviet train (p . 340) but - with the exception of Dubcek's visit to the "ailing" Brezhev in a railwaymen's club on Czechoslovak territory. There is a good analysis of voting patterns in 1925 but, somewhat surprisingly for a sociologist, the author does not include any analysis and statistics (which are available) of the social or class composition of the CPCS in its period of absolute power. All these and a few other errors and omissions can be easily corrected in an eventual second edition of this pioneering and generally very successful work . PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Perth , Australia Frantisek Bielik a kolektfv. Slovaci vo svete. Volume II. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980. 320 pp . This second volume of Slovaci vo svete is a general survey of pre-World War II Slovak immigration to countries throughout the world. It is a collaborative effort. However, except for the separate sections on Slovak immigrant culture and involvement in labor activities in the United States and the Slovak immigration to Canada and France , Frantisek Bielik is the principal author of the book. Bielik first discusses the general causes of Slovak emigration and its impact on Hungary and later Czechoslovakia. The work is then divided into geographical categories by country. Within each geographical division, the authors adopt a standard, almost monotonous , procedure of chronicling the formation and sporadic activities of various Slovak organizations . They provide brief descriptions of Slovak fraternal societies , schools, newspapers, labor organizations, and cultural associations . In addition, they discuss the political and labor activities of some Slovak immigrants in the different countries. Slovaci vo svete is a useful addition to the literature on Slovak immigration, because it contains tables and statistics as well as literary material that have not been readily available in a single source. The inclusion of sources would have improved the usefulness of the tables. The work is also important �SLOVAKIA 143 because it offers some different perspectives on the Slovak immigration experience . For example, Bielik properly stresses that the United States was the major but not the sole destination of Slovak emigrants . To emphasize this point, the book includes brief sketches of Slovak immigration to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa - countries not commonly associated with the Slovak emigration movement. Also, by discussing Slovak involvement in labor unions and Socialist organizations, the authors offer a different profile of Slovak immigrant laborers than that depicted in earlier literature. Ivan Poljak and Eva Fordinalova, who contributed the segment on Slovak union and work-related activities in the United States, would agree with Victor Greene that Slovak workers were not simply meek laborers whose docility prevented them from becoming actively involved in labor unions and strife. Moreover, their religiosity did not prevent all Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere from flirting with Socialist or Communist ideas and joining Socialist or Communist parties. Despite such points, Slovaci vo svete is marred by serious weaknesses. As a synthesis , the book is far too general and institutionally oriented. Even the lengthier discussion of Slovak immigrants in the United States is primarily a chronicle narrative of various immigrant organizations and newspapers. The treatment of Slovak immigration to other countries serves little more than as a reminder that the United States was not the sole destination of this immigrant group. No attempt is made to offer a comparative analysis of Slovak adjustment to various countries. Rather, Bielik and the other contributors seem content to resort to perfunctory , isolated discussions of Slovaks and their organizations in the several countries. While they are to be commended for the attempt to describe the work life of Slovak laborers, the discussions of this topic suffer from overgeneralizations, oversimplifications, and factual and interpretive errors. The· authors try desperately to show that Slovaks almost naturally harbor Socialist sympathies . They use the participation by Slovaks in labor unions or strikes as examples of these natural sympathies. Typically the authors do not provide sufficient or convincing evidence for their generalizations. For example, they make no attempt even to estimate the number of Slovaks actually involved in the various " Socialist " and labor activities they describe . Unfortunately, Slovaci vo svete is further harmed because the authors overlook some obviously important aspects of Slovak immigrant life in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. Despite the claim that the book is offering a description of immigrant life , much of the material actually focuses on the activities of prominent Slovaks, not ordinary immigrants . Slovak churches and their role in American Slovak communities are ignored. Overall, Slovaci vo svete is too brief to treat adequately the complex aspects of Slovak immigration to the United States and to other countries. Still, this work does raise questions that merit closer analysis b y students of Slovak �144 SLOVAKIA immigration and of labor and political history. The contributors also do provide a general, institutional history of Slovak immigration throughout the world. This volume does not rank as the definitive study of Slovak immigration, but it is a synthesis that scholars in Czechoslovakia and in those countries where Slovak immigrants have gone will find useful. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Elena Jakesova . Vyst'ahovalectvo Slovakov do Kanady. Bratislava : Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1981. 160 pp . In recent years there has been a great renewed interest in ethnic and immigration history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To the growing list of scholarly studies in this field can be added Elenajakesova's present monograph . Jakesova presents a concise, statistical account of Slovak immigration to Canada from the 1870s to 1938. The book is divided into two sections, one covering the years from the 18 70s to 1914, and the second from 1922 to 1938 . She gives the reasons for Slovak immigration from Hungary, and later from Czechoslovakia, and also an excellent outline of the individual Slovak settlements in Canada. Other chapters or sections are devoted to the development of the Slovak press in Canada and to the rise of Slovak fraternal societies. Separate sections describe Slovak mining settlements in Western Canada, agricultural communities in Central Canada, and urban settlements in Eastern Canada in later years . This is a well-organized and well-written book . The research and documentation are most impressive . The author made use of archival material from Slovak district archives in Slovakia, from the Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, and from the Magyar Orszagos Leveltar in Budapest. Most of the periodical literature and monographic studies dealing with Canadian Slovaks were also used. In short, few stones were left unturned . The volume is also enriched by graphs and charts which help clarify the history of Slovak immigration to Canada. Even the illustrations were well selected and add interest to the subject. , Two serious shortcomings of the book arejakesova's treatment of Canadian Slovak societies and churches. Among societies the importance of the Slovak workers' movement was overemphasized . Her account of it was informative and interesting, but the movement itself was of decidedly minor significance. The Canadian Slovak League and Canadian-Slovak Support Society were and remain the largest Canadian-Slovak organizations . More should �SLOVAKIA 145 have been said about these groups and the great work and sacrifices of such individuals as Andrej Kucera and Andrej Potocky, founders of the Canadian Slovak League . In general, more attention should have been devoted to the experiences of Canadian Slovaks - their joys and sufferings - and to the history of their churches, which were not covered at all. Aside from these drawbacks , the work has many merits and can be recomm ended to anyone seeking a general survey of Slovak immigration to Canada. X. SUTHERLAND Stoney Point, New York ANTHONY Engelbert Zobl and Hertha A. Zobl. Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei. Vienna : Fachjournalverlagsgesellschaft, 1978. 92 pp. This unpretentious little paperback volume bears witness to what seems to be a growing interest among enthusiasts in western Europe to " uncover " the art of traditional wooden architecture in the Carpathian region of Slovakia. H ence, since the appearance of the book under review , two more ambitious volumes have appeared: Wooden Churches in th e Carpathians: The Photographic Legacy of Florian Zapletal (Vienna, 1982) by Paul R. Magoci and the monumental Wooden Churches of Eastern Europe (Cambridge , 1981) by David Buxton , both of which contain numerous photograp hs of structures in northeastern Slovakia. In contrast to these two subsequent works , the book by Engelbert and Hertha Zobl seems more of an architectural travel reportage put together as a guide for Austrian and West German tourists who still flock each summer to Czechoslovakia in search of the ostensibly more exotic cultural stimuli of the "east." This is not to suggest that such popular books are without value or that the Zobls have not done a competent job . In fact, as is evident from the albeit self-indulgent autobiographical data (complete with photographs of the whole family), the husband and wife Zobl team have degrees, respectively , in architecture and the a pplied arts. And as the lavishly-illustrated book reveals , they both have a keen sensitivity for the aesthetic as well as technical aspects of their subject. The book is basically divided into five chapters : belfries, wooden churches, wooden crosses, secular wooden architecture, and architectural ornamentation. The appendices include a list of all belfries and churches with their date of construct ion (in most , but not all instances); a map showing the travel route fo llowed by the authors in 1976 with each place indicated that appears in the book ; an index of placenames; and a brief bibliography . The latter indicates a few basi c German, Czech, and Slovak works, but omi ts two recent �146 SLOVAKIA Ukraini an-langu age studies from C zechoslovakia th at deal with the subj ect: an encyclopedia of wooden churches (past and present) in northeastern Slovakia by B. K ovafo vyfova-Puskarova and I. Pu skar , D erev 'jani cerk vy schidnoho obrjadu na Slo vaccyni (Bratislava and Presov, 1971) and a survey of secular architecture in the same region by M . Sopolyha , Narodn a architektura ukrajinciv Schidnoji Slovaccyn y (Svidnfk, 1976) . Each chapter in the book by the Zobls is preceded by a very brief introduction , and each of the 110 photograph s carries a caption. There are also 41 line drawings of structures and ground plans. By far , the largest portion of the book - a to tal of 72 illu strations - d epicts structures from villages inhabited by C a rpatho-Ru syns in the very northea stern part of Slovakia. Thi s is not surprising, since that area had economicall y always been the m ost underdeveloped and , therefore, traditional life-style and architecture have been preserved there the longest. Also , the authors seem ed to have become enchanted by the clusters of wood en churches north of Svidnfk and northea st of Snina, whose almost perfect form a nd balance m ake them stand out aesthetically, in particular when juxta posed to wooden architecture throughout all of eastern Europe, as is evident from the compara tive survey b y David Buxton mentioned above. The photographs are, in fact , the highlight of the Zobl ' s book . They were all ta ken in 1976, were well executed and often provide different views of a given structure, and have been reproduced clearly in the printing process. With the exception of a few iconostases in side Byzantine-rite churches, the photographs are almost all exterior shots. Pa rti cul arl y striking are 39 photograph s in color , am ong the best of which a re the wooden church in Mi rol'a, the cem etary crosses in D etva, and the decoration on hou ses in Zdi ar . All in all , W ooden Architecture in Slovakia is an excellent introd uction to the beauties of trad itional cultu re that still can be found in Slovaki a tod ay. As a serious guide for tourists, it would be pa rticula rl y useful if a n E ngli sh ed ition could be p repa red fo r the increasin g numbers of Am ericans of Slovak a nd Carpatho-Ru syn descent who visit the ancestral hom eland . P AUL R . M AGOCSI Uni versity of T oronto T oronto, Ca nada A tlas CSSR . Brat islava: Slove nska kartografi a, 1980 . This school atlas is obviously intended for student s at about the hi gh school level. It has no accompan yin g text or explana tory m a terial and is even devoid of a n introdu ction. Con sequentl y, the u ser is give n no idea regardin g the in tended audience or the goal s of thi s volume of m aps. �SLOVAKIA 147 There are 42 pages of maps; there are more actual maps, howeve r , because numerous inset (larger scale) maps are displayed on various themes. The first quarter of the atlas is d evoted to physical/environmental subjects temperature, precipitation , geological structure , soils, forests , etc. The remainder of the volume contains social, cultural, and especially economic maps . The physical maps are of standard type, although the last of this group is an interesting map of conservation sites, such as parks and botanical stations. The demographic maps (pages 12 to 15) are interesting because included are maps on density , fertility , mortality , national population growth rates , labor force, and the nationalities. Most of the m aps suffer as a result of the inappropriate scale employed and poor use of color. The nationalities sheet is particularly poor because the combination of colors and patterns to locate and quantify minority groups is a total failure. The economic maps (pages 16-27) again are standard and include maps of minerals , manufacturing, agriculture , crops , transport and more for the entire country. Detailed political/ physical maps of the Czech and Slovak R epublics are then followed by similar economic maps for the two areas. The atlas is rounded out with a set of maps of "regional types" at the micro-scale. There are six of these, including types such as the High Tatra a rea and a section of industrial Ostrava. There are also 10 exam ples of "settlement types," including Nitra and a Czech resort town. The final three maps are interesting cultural maps, including one of higher and middle schools, medical institutions, and historical/cultural monuments. Unfortunately , these maps are of very limited use because they are drawn at a scale ( 1 :4,000,000) which obliterates any detail. In general, the Atlas CSSR is an adequate school level tool. It would have been much better and useful, however , if sharper color had been used and if more reasonable scales had been chosen for many of the maps. The bulkiness (23 cm. x 55 cm .) and the inferior quality of the binding also detract from the Atlas ' value. In sum , a poten tiall y lively collection of maps has bee n rendered into a disappointing volume of no particular distinction. GEORGE J. D EMKO U.S. Department of State W ashington , D .C. Peter Balaz, Miloslav Darovec, and H eather Trebaticka. Slovak for Slavicists . Brat islava: Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1976. 302 pp. Students who have some background in another Slavic langu age, as well as those who possess a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak , will find this text- �148 SLOVAKIA book useful. It was written for the intermediate classes at the Studia Academica Slovaca (Summer Seminar of Slovak Language and Culture in Bratislava), and was also intended for use as a textbook in university-level courses abroad . The authors point out in the preface that it is not a handbook for those studying Slovak without a teacher ; however , it can be used in this way if the student's goal is to gain only a reading knowledge of Slovak, and particularly if Slovak is not his/ her first Slavic language. The book contains 27 lessons in addition to the Slovak-English/English-Slovak glossaries . The bilingual d esignation of the section headings in the table of contents and in the lessons themselves is a very desirable feature of the book . It serves the immediate pedagogical purpose of teaching these items in Slovak as well as enabling the student who wishes to augment the explanations in the textbook with those from Slovak sources to find easily the desired items in the Slovak books . Lesson 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation . The Slovak letters ii, c, dz, s, z, t', d', 1' are characterized as palatalized consonants (p. 17) , which might well confuse those students who have studied Ru ssian . They would be better described in English as palatals. Furthermore, since regressive voice assimilatio n before nasals and liquids characterizes Slovak sandhi rules in contrast to some of the other Slavic languages, it would be well to include that information in the section on pronunciation . The remaining lessons have the following general format : introductory text , questions , vocabulary, grammatical section , exercises , grammatical section, exercises, translation exercise, and pronunciation exercise. The exercises a re well constructed and provide immediate reinforcement of the concepts just introduced . The notes and notice markers which call attention to exceptions or to features which differ significantly in English are also very effective . R eview exercises, spaced at appropriate intervals throughout the book which would combine the information presented in the various grammatical sections up to that point , would enhance the efficacy of the textbook (e.g., inclusion of a review exercise following Lesson 6 after most declensional paradigms have been introduced) . The introductory texts conta in a vocabulary which is very useful for those students who will be in Bratislava . Howeve r, to those who have never been there , as well as to the newly arrived , certain words such as miestenka are mystifying and a note of explanation would be helpful. Lesson 8 has an informal letter to a friend as the introductory text. The forms of ty are correctly capitalized. H owever , there is no note of explanation on how vy (polite singular/plural) should be written. Since this is one of the areas in which the Slavic languages differ , it would be well to include a note on T /V capitalization in letters. It might be more useful to include a thank- yo u note or a formal letter for exam- �SLOVAKIA 149 pie, to a professor requesting a consultation, because these are the kinds of letters that a more advanced student is likely to be writing . In general the texts are of a very practical nature and provide the student with an adequate vocabulary for functioning in Slovak society. They could be made more effective by deleting some, such as Lesson 4, or editing them, so that they would be more appropriate for and interesting to university students. While it is possible to draw up a list of additions that one would wish to insert into the book, that in no way detracts from its value. It is certainly the best textbook available today for teaching Slovak to English-speaking students at the university level, and we can only hope that it will be expanded and enlarged in future editions. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana JozefMistrfk . Basic Slovak . Bratislava : Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1981. 160 pp . This textbook is designed for English-speaking students who want to learn the fundamental grammatical phenomena and 800 of the most frequently occurring vocabularly items in Slovak without wading through the complexities that most traditional grammars present. Its focus is on learning to speak Slovak (American speakers of English should be forewarned that the pronunciation equivalents between English and Slovak given in Lesson 1 are based on British English), not on gaining a passive reading knowledge of the language, and it is not designed to be used without a teacher . Therefore, rules are given but exceptions to the rules are introduced into the discussion only when they occur frequently . This approach is based on the theory that second language acquisition, like first language acquisition, requires a knowledge of the productive grammatical rules of a language, i.e. , those patterns that a learner encounters over and over again in everyday usage. Since this textbook is designed for the one-month Studia Academica Slovaca summer school course as an introductory textbook, it alone would not suffice for a traditional American two-year college program; however, even in a more extended course, the texts which begin each chapter , as well as the exercises at the ends of the lessons, could serve as useful supplementary material . The book contains fifteen lessons , paradigm tables, Slovak-English and English-Slovak vocabularies, and a dictionary of linguistic terms . Beginning with the second, each lesson consists of four parts : text, vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The texts are interest ing from the sociolinguistic point of view because they frequently have as their themes social events which a re common �150 SLOVAKIA in contemporary Slovak life, such as presenting flowers to someone arriving at the station, waiting in line to buy things, the extended family living together, friends sharing their experiences over a glass of wine . These texts serve to familiarize American students with Slovak culture and appropriate language usage in that culture. Each text introduces the vocabulary items which are listed just after it. This section is followed by grammatical explanations which are simple and concise, and are easily understood by learners with a minimal background in traditional grammar . The exercises require the student to create new forms based on the rules and data presented in the preceding sections . In addition to fillin g in blanks , the students are required to form sentences. Since a bilingual text is given in all of the lessons after the fifth , the student is able to check his/her progress in sentence construction . Features of Slovak which are absent in English and are, therefore , troublesome for English-speaking students are re-introduced in the texts or exercises of subsequent lessons; for example, the prefixed forms of ist' are introduced in Lesson 10 and are exemplified in the exercises in Lesson 12 . The last item in the exercises is a list of words to be read aloud for pronunciation purposes. These words do not appear in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary does possess an attr~ctive feature: It indicates after every word the number of the lesson in which the word was introdu ced . As is usual in a first printing , some errors are to be found in the book (e.g., a few of the r ' s in th e glossary have been deleted , and some of the s's have been transposed into the s section). There are also minor errors in the English text : " present " in stead of " represent" (p. 11) ; "shorting" instead of " shortening" (p . 66) ; "The both forms are possible" (p . 74 ). one of these lead s to misunderstanding ; however, occasionally, as in " byvam dlho h are" (p . 3 1) ( = " not to sleep"), the E nglish m eaning is not immedia tely clear. On the whole , P rofessor Mi strfk 's book successfully fulfills the goals which he set in writing it , and any teacher or student of Slovak will find it a u seful addition to his/her library. L OU ISE B . HAMM ER Blooming ton , Indian a Abel Kral'. Slovenska vyslovn ost'. Banska Bys trica: U cebne pomocky, 1979. 8 stereo phonograph records with accom pan ying text , 173 pp. These high-quality recordings were produced by Abel Kral' , the head of the Phonetics D epartment a t Com enius University, and national artist V . Zaborsky , for u se in seconda ry schools and la ngu age institutes in Slovakia in �SLOVAKIA 151 order to teach students the neutral pronunciation style of standard literary Slovak . In the introduction Kral' explains the theoretical assumptions on which the presentation is based and suggests various ways in which the records can be used effectively. The recordings contain sections on the vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters . In addition there are excellent exercises on gemminated consonants, rhythmic shortening, and particularly on voicing assimilation in the various environments. The last record has a well-exemplifed discussion of sentence intonation. Each section begins with an introduction in which the terminology is defined, the particular sound or sounds under consideration are d escribed, and incorrect pronunciation is sometimes identified. Then the correct pronunciation is given. It is repeated twice with pauses between the utterances so that the student is able to practice the pronunciation and compare it to the record. These sections would be valuable for beginning students, while the more advanced students would additionally gain from hearing the spoken Slovak of the explanations as well as from their content. These recordings would be a very useful teaching aid for non-native speakers who teach Slovak or for Slovaks who speak a dialect and would like to acquire the standard pronunciation . Every student of Slovak who wishes to acquire a good speaking command of the language will benefit from the use of these recordings. They are in fact a very solid course in Slovak phonetics, and selections from the recordings would be ideal material for the pronunciation section of a typical language course. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana Vojtech Mihalik . Erotikon. Subor l'ubostn ej lyriky. Bratislava : Slovensky spisovatel' , 1981. Vojtech Mihalik is the grand old m an of Czechoslovak letters , and specifically of Slovak poetry, if this title could apply to a m a n who is only 55 years old. He is undoubtedly the most outstanding poet of the generation which came to the fore after the Second World War. Born in 1926 , Michalik for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the main publishing house in Bra tislava . A former long-time president of the Association of Slovak Writers, he is at presen t the director of the publi shing house Slovensky spisovatel'. His first selection of poems appeared shortly after the war. H e has published 13 more volumes of poetry as well as numerous essays a nd translations. In 1978 he received the title of Nat ion al Artist, one of the highest literary honors in Czechoslovakia. �152 SLOVAKIA This, his latest volume, contains a selection of poems written at various periods of the author's life. As far as the erotic content of the book is concerned, it is much smaller than could be expected by Western standards . Mihalik is prima rily a romantic poet , a poet of love and emotion . H e puts less stress on the physical aspects of passion than would most of his W estern colleagues . In this he remains firmly rooted in the native Slovak tradition, where the appeal is to the feeling and sentiment , and where the exploitation of sexual aspects is subdued by a sense of decorum. Thus Mihalik ' s main effort in his love is to capture the fl eeting moments of love: the minute of mutual silence, a tree rising against the sun as the lovers embrace , the sorrows and the ecstasies of deep emotion. Mihalik is ve ry conscious of nature . Like most Slovak poets, he lives spiritually in the countryside , with its peasant cottages, lush gardens, orchards full of ripe fruit, meadows suffused by the rays of sun . His erotic imagery refers almost exclu sively to nature. A lonely lover is compared to earth which gave away its beautiful perfume to strolling winds. Lovemaking is perceived by the author in term s of entering a rose garden , searching for a star in the silent sky, or walking unharmed in the midst of a swarm of bees . The metaphors are so intricately ornate that they would be reminiscent of oriental poetry, were it not for the absence of explicitness so characteristic of Arabic and Persian verse. Each poem is a parable of nature sustained to the very end , where in the last lines it unravels into a love poem . If it were not for the last couple of lines, an inexperienced reader might take the poems at their face value of m elancholy or ecstatic descriptions of landscape . Each poem is thus a higly complex and elegantly written puzzle, the m eaning of which has to be d eciphered on two levels , the natural and the erotic. Mihalik 's poems are usually short. His favorite form is the sonnet, whose stylish elegance suits perfectly his method of expression . Some of the poem s are cast in the form of a dialogue, which is a mode deeply rooted in Slovak folk poetry. Mihalik m ay be a romantic lover accordin g to the Slovak tradition , but he is by no means a patient one. If hi s passion does not m eet with a quick response , he rebels. H e sees love as a confusing passion because there is so little understanding between man and woman. Woman is always an outsider in hi s poems. She may be courted, coveted , responsive, submi ssive, or cold , but she always remain s incomprehen sible. Mihalik 's attitude toward women is quite traditional . They are the ones who suffer, who bear the burden of broken relationships, and who carry the whole burden of parental responsibility. Mih alik admires women , feels sorry for them, but he seems to accept their lot as a na tural thing. A s he gets older, Mihalik finds it increasingly difficult to accept the new �SLOVAKIA 153 world around him . It is a world where the traditional values become rejected, where children of living parents become orphans because of desertion , where wives are leaving incompatible husbands , where families becom e broken for no apparent reason. The poet sees the world around him as full of suffering and unhappiness which he can only record, without being able to alleviate them . H e becomes a witness for a new generation that is growing up unloved and unlovable . His poems lose their spontaneous enchantment with life, as life becomes increasingly complex and difficult and as the poet finds he cannot turn to love to provide him with a sense of the m eaning of existence. The only an swer that seem s to emerge from Mihalik 's later poems is the implicit message to endure , to go on, and to do one's best. And in this message, as in so many aspects of hi s poetry, Mihalik shows himself again as the true son of his peopl e, the patient, enduring, and long-suffering people of Slovakia. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Downsview, Canada Vincent Sikula. Liesky. Bratislava: Smena, 1980. The novelette Liesky is in many respects firml y embedded in the Slovak literary tradition. Like so many books produced in Slovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it describes the trials and tribulations of a country boy on his way toward education and recognition. The chief character is a student at the conservatory who hopes to become a forest horn player and who persists in hi s path in spite of loneliness and abject poverty. The form of the novelette is also an old favorite, a first person narrative. The genre itself has been successfully transplanted from the Russian literature of the Golden Age and has fl ourished in Czechoslovakia since there was a favorable ground for its reception in Czech and Slovak folklore . What saves the story from becoming a typical hardship case narration , so characteristic of Slovak literature, is Sikula's humorous approach. The humor is intensified by the aut hor's use of the skaz technique. The predicam ents of the hero m ay be pathetic, but they are at the same time highly amusing. When the hero describes his family, we learn that his parents had so many children that the y hardly noticed if several of them were missing. The young man 's landlady can carry a conversation only with her cat - she is stone deaf. The hero has to practice music by drumming on the table because he cannot afford an instrument. When he finally gets the opportunity to practice on a real piano, he ruefully notes that it does not sou nd to him as good as the table. The narration thus proceeds at a lively pace, in a jolly animated style, �154 SLOVAKIA full of slan g, colloquiali sm s, and peasant speech m annerism s. It m akes fo r ea sy and pleasant readin g. Yet Sikula is mu ch m ore th an a skillful na rrator . Hi s m astery of style is evident as the story gradually reveals the narrator 's character , his a rtistic strivings , and his sexu al awakening. Sikula possesses a superb sense of n ature. M an is never alone in hi s book. All his ac tion s and feelings ta ke place in a na tural setting of which he is a n integral part. N a ture blends with the action , and the cha n ge of seasons accompanies ch a n ges of life . Thus the story starts with a beautiful description of winter and ends with an equally beautiful episode of picking fresh twigs from bu sh es. The story is deliberatel y left unfinished since Sikula aim s a t portrayin g but one stage in th e hero 's life . W e will never learn what is goin g to ha ppen in the future to the human twig picked from the bu sh of country life, a nd we are not m eant to know. Sikula presen ts u s with a vignette of life in the m a kin g. W e a re expected to enj oy the beaut y and the immediacy of the vignette portrayed b y an exquisite painter and not to look beyond it. Sikula has both the talen t of a pa inter a nd a poe t. Althou gh the story is written in p rose, it read s like a poem , di splayin g the author 's rem arka ble powe r ove r la nguage. Its m easured cad en ces a nd sen se of rhythm give the reader a unique poetic experience. It is the beaut y of style which gives to Liesk y its most definite imprin t. YVONNE G R ABOWS KI Y ork Uni versity D own sview, C anada �SLOVAKIA 155 BOOK NOTE Charles Wojatsek . From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award: The Hungarian Minority in th e First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938. Montreal: Institute of Comparative Civilizations, 1981. 229 pp . Time and time again Mr. Wojatsek attempted to publish his manuscript through academic and commercial presses , only to have it repea tedly rejected because of its poor quality . Finally, when nothing else could be done, he published the book him self, under the spu rious auspices of the " In stitute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal." This book is not worth serious consideration. It was written with the patriotic fervor of a true believer, and its reading makes for cruel and unusual punishment, deserved only by other nationalists of Wojatsek's type. This reviewer wishes to warn the unsu specting public: Beware 1 You may jeopardize your time, your money, and your nerves! Y ESHA Y AHU JELINEK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheba, Israel �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1984, Vol. 31 Description An account of the resource Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 119 Book Reviews Robin Okey. Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to Communism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 . 264 pp . Attempting to write a general survey of Eastern European history is no m ean task . Indeed, a comprehensive overview within the confines of a book numbering less than three hundred pages is altogether impossible. Robin Okey offers an alternative to this dilemma in the form of an interpretive stud y . The author indicates that his purpose is to " present a perspecti ve rather than tell a story. " Focusing on the twin themes of modernization and na tionalism , he traces the evolution of the Central and Eastern European lands through two ce nturies of economic , political, and social change . It is his thesis that Eastern European nationalism arose as a response to the area ' s comparative backwardness in relation to the W est. In approaching thi s theme, Okey notes that feudalism came relatively late to this general area , and suggests that - at least until the sixteenth century - Eastern Europe enjoyed the potential of parallel development with W estern Europe. H e states, however , that dom estic fe udal forces were strong enough to reverse thi s trend . External forces - the Turkish invasion of the Balka ns a nd Hun gary a nd the H a bsburg conquest of rebelliou s Bohemia - are also cited as instrument al facto rs. Ei ghtee nth -century Eastern Europe is ch a racterized as havin g regimes which were ineffi cient even by feudal standards . The peasantry bore the brunt of resulta nt defi ciencies, but thriving popul ar cultures provided an impetu s for future revival. Okey states catego rically that the penetrati on of the Enli ghtenm ent represe nt s the first stages of ra pprochem ent with the W est. In a number of in sta nces th e process was characteri zed by reform from a bove, althou gh the role of th e cl ergy is also cited . In the latter case, the auth or specificall y mention s th e P ole K on a rski and th e Serb Obrad ovic; it is wo rth notin g th a t Bern ola k's contribution to th e Slovak rev ival is omitted . T he Eastern Eu ro pean Enli gh te nment faced the dil emm a th at the socia l premi ses of an al ternative order we re incomplete. Con sequentl y, conservatives were more ext reme and reformers more revolutionary tha n their cou n terpa rt s in the West. 120 SLOVAKIA Liberalism in Eastern Europe differed from the West insofar as members of the nobility were heavily involved in a process which put them in opposition to their own social strata. Okey characterizes Eastern European liberalism as "an elusive, complex creed"; it shared the heavy emotionalism of ideas from other lands , but was only partially emancipated from native traditions. He objects to the Marxist view of nationalism as a creed devised by ambitious bourgeois elements; instead, he cites the role of professional scholars as the vanguard of the national movements . The 1848 revolutionary experience led to a clash between liberalism and nationalism; the former was instrumental in abolishing the last vestiges of serfdom, but also failed to satisfy the national aspirations of subject peoples . The balance of the nineteenth century is treated as a period of ideological fragmentation. The advance of industrial capitalism caused a reaction against liberalism on the part of the Right as well as the Left , and the continued rise of mass nationalism splintered existing political parties along ethnic lines. In assessing the downfall of the old order during World War I , Okey concedes that not all tendencies could be related to the national question. But h e hastens to add that "only nationalism had a magnetism strong enough to draw the dislocated elements into an alternative political order the pattern of nation-states . '' Promoters of the new nation-states viewed their emergence as the culmination of humanist principles. Okey disagrees, and cites three general causes for the failure of Western-style liberalism in the interwar period . Most obviously, one of them is the continuity of ethnic conflict within the new states. Second, the Eastern European nations remained economically de pendent on foreign capital. Finally, both the leaders of the new states and their opponents repudiated democracy in their approach to the outstanding problems of the times. Okey views interwar nationalism as "short-sighted rather than fundamentall y misguided"; the outsider Hitler bore the greatest responsibility for the demise of these states. The author implies that national Communism was most successful in those countries where the Party remained in effective control of public life, and failed in Czechoslovakia because the regime capitulated ideologicall y to non-Party gro ups. Finally, Okey states that the rise of a mass int elli ge nt sia and the emerge nce of common social problem s with the West is indicative of a greater degree of syncopat ion. For the student of Slovak hi story, this book might prove disappointing. Indeed, a genuine weakness may be found in the fact that Okey cites so few examples of the Slovak experien ce which provide important contrasts with certain patterns. Okey ' s contention that Eastern European soc iety had already become "brutali zed" during World War II , and that the Communists were tailor-made representatives of the new age , borders on conjecture. Although the position of the J ews in Slovakia was precarious during the war , they were SLOVAKIA 121 nevertheless afforded a certain "breathing space" denied to their kin smen in Poland, and the average citizen of the Slovak R epublic was by no m ean s terrorized. It was only during the 1944 risin g - in which Communists played a major role - that "brutalization" on a broad scale was affected . Okey's treatment of the " Prague Spring" also provides a case of omission: He correctly cites the straightj acket command economy model as a major facto r in Novotny's demise, but mentions the Slovak opposition only as merely inciden tal. But insofar as Slovakia may be viewed as an integral part of an Eastern European whole, this book has definite merit. It provides the reader with a concise, refreshing overview of the past two centuries, and the author skillfully employs anecdotal examples to compare and contrast specific national experiences. Okey's book is helpful to the student already well-grounded in general Eastern European history; it can also be useful to the instructor who wishes to co nvey a certain sense of ideological conflict inherent in the region . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Easley, South Carolin a East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Edited by Milorad M. Drachkovitch. Stanford, Calif.: H oover Institution Press, 1982 . 41 7 pp . Thirteen of the seventeen papers contained in this volume were presented at a conferen ce organized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in January , 1980 . Due to the events in Poland in August , 1980 , publication of the symposium's proceedings was delayed so that individual authors could revise their contributions. According to the editor, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, readers of the book "will not find in it a ny pred ictions " and "will be offered facts and explan ations of recent events" (p. xi). This is true of most but not all of the essays. The latte r are largely analyt ical and of uneven quality. Among th e excellent contributions are Drachkovitch 's survey of the postwar political and economic developm ents in Yu goslavia, Leszek Kolakowski's " Ideology in Eastern Europe ," and the essays by J ohn Erickson, Hugh Seton-Watson, Peter J. Wiles, and Richard F. Staar. Also superb is the overview of developments in East Central Europe , " Present Situation and Principal Trends ," by Robert F. Byrnes. H e points out that '' the opinions of even our most expe rienced an alysts often reflect shallow hi stori cal knowledge , flight y analysis, and the ass umpti on that peoples of this area are far less in terested in independence and self-government than a re West 122 SLOVAKIA Europeans and Americans '' (p. 20). The flip-flops of George K ennan are cited as an example. Byrnes is a very perceptive observer who notices the connection between the election of Pope John Paul II , his visit to P oland in 1979, and the subsequent d evelopments in that country. In contrast , the essay on Poland by Jan T omasz Gross, " What Is Yet To Come," appears to be a rather superficial d escription of events leading up to the establishment of Solidarity in 1980 , claiming that " the impossible was inevitable " (p. 32 1). In the last section of the essay Gross sketches two different scenarios: first , Soviet military intervention ; second, the devolution of the Soviet imperium for which the price would be " m ost likely " the " ne utralization of Germany through unification and detachment from the Atlantic Alliance " (p. 325). As it happened , the imposition of martial law in D ecember 1981 proved his (and man y other observers') projections incorrect. On Alexander Dubcek 's behavior in 1968 Hugh Seton-Watson comments by asking a rhetorical question : How could the United States "defend people who would not defend themselves?" (p . 178). In contrast to it , Zdenek L. Suda, while concentrating mostly on the events in 1968 , is very a pologetic. H e writes: " The peaceful counterrevolution in the ve ry core of the Czechoslovak system must have caused more pani c in Moscow than the armed insurgency of Hungarian workers and soldiers in O ctober 1956 " (p. 258). Suda's cl aim is an undocumented assumption without an y foundation, and so is his interpretation of the events in Czechoslovkia when he writes that " the whole reform movement of 1968 could be defined simply as the application of rules and laws that long had been dead letters, but nt>:vertheless existed. It was precisely this greater respect for legality and constitutionality that sounded an alarm in the Soviet power center and triggered the intervention" (p. 256). Accordin g to Suda, "the Czechoslovak case differs from the Polish case because the Polish reform experim ent initiated in 1956 fa iled without direct Soviet intervent ion " (p. 252). Suda does not differentiate between intervention and in vasion . Soviet military presence in Poland ever since the end of World War II has constituted inter vention and h as m ade in vasion unnecessary. In fact, an invasion would have been cou nterproductive from the Soviet point of view. In contrast to it , by in vading Czechoslovakia in 1968 the Soviets h ave attained their military and strategic objecti ves. The "temporary" stationing of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia has become " permanent. " The even ts in Poland in the earl y 1980s corroborate the view th at the Soviets had military a nd strategic reasons for the 1968 in vasion and that the in ternal de velopments , which certainly did not amount to a "counterrevoluti on" as Sud a and the Sov iets claim, were merely a pretext for the action whose a im was to extract a "consent " from the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders to the stati oning of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. L abeling people as " neo -Stalinists " a nd "dogmati cs," as SLOVAKIA 123 Suda does, is meaningless. His lack of knowledge of history is reflected in the essay. For example, he writes that " the division of the world between the two superpowers into spheres of interest - made the eventual integration of Czechoslovakia into the system controlled by the Soviets virtually inevitable'' (p. 244). However , nothing was " inevitable" about the arrangements that Edvard Benes made in Moscow in D ecember , 1943 . It was his decision to sign the trea ty with the Soviet Union and to promise the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders in Moscow that their party would be the strongest element in the new regime and that he would always support it. Indeed , Professor Byrnes' comment on the " shallow historical knowledge" and " flighty analysis," cited above , is applicable to the two essays by the two sociologists on Czechoslovakia and Poland published in this volume . j OSEF KAL YODA Saint Joseph College W est H artford, Connecticut Rudolf Krajcovic. Svedectvo dejfn o slovencine . 2nd edition, corrected. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980 . 268 pp. The second edi tion of Krajcovic's collection of linguistic eviden ce for the Slovak language is essentially the same as the first of 1977 . In these two edition s, the compiler strives to offer proof that the Slovak language has its own long and distinctive history. He is intent on demonstrating that Slovak is a " language of written documents ." He traces Slovak from the period of the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century throu gh the "twilight of Hungarian feudalism" in the nineteenth century. For the conclusion of his stud y, Krajcovic gives examples of present-day dialectical variations of the Slovak lan guage. There are photographs of d ocuments u sed as evidence. Especially when documents are in script, Krajcovic has the writings reproduced in printed form for easier appreciat ion. Interspersed among the evidence are bl ac k a nd white as well as colored illu stration s of folk articles and pa intings on a folk theme. The illu st ra tions a re the better to con vey the a tmosphere and period of the docum ents presented. Documen ta ry evidence from the early periods , n a mel y from that of the Great M orav ia n Empire through that of the fifteenth century , is not really extensive. A hi storical lin gui st would find the m aterial interesti ng, perh a ps even intrigu ing , but not conclu sive or even substantial for a judgm ent. From the sixteenth century onwards , the material offered as evidence is increasin gly more substanti ve. Indeed , Krajcovic him self notes th at the m aterial from the sixtee nth ce ntury is of" great significance," because thi s was "when Slovak was 124 SLOVAKIA for the first time committed to written form." The expression " written form " is perhaps a poor choice of phrasing. (The expression is found in the brief Slovak, Russian, as well as English introductions to the documentary evidence for this period.) For virtually all the examples of Slovak in this book are written . By the expression "written form," Krajcovic's probably means that the extant documentary instances of Slovak become more extensive and so more able to be appreciated linguistically. In focusing on this poor phrasing and its alleged implication , I do not intend to impugn the long history and distinctiveness of Slovak that Krajcovic desires so clearly to demonstrate in his book. The reader, nonetheless, cannot help feeling that Krajcovic is straining very hard to do this. On the whole, the book is more a nicely illustrated survey of the Slovak language for the layperson rather than a serious academic study for the specialist. With the Slovak language and its related culture appreciated so little outside of Slovakia and the Czech lands, Krajcovic' s book could enhance to some degree a better understanding of this language and culture . This second edition is a ''corrected '' version of the first . This correcting involves stylistic and typographical errors, but especially a few attributions that include additions, deletions, or actual corrections. For example, Krajfovic has deleted the attribution of the 1648 Trnava dictionary as one used for Virgil's Aeneid. The attribution ofa folk article as coming from Kovafova pri Zvolene has been changed to Kral'ova. Krajcovic has added the name of the Austrian author of Klimko's rendition of Krizant und Daria - Gottfried Uhlich, rendered by Krajcovic as Ulrich . Also, the English text has at times questionable diction and stylistic phrasing. The Russian text has been improved for this edition in various places. Neither language should offer problems in Slovakia, for there are native speakers as well as numerous specialists who could be consulted for a third edition . Finally, the bibliography for this edition has been expanded by one item. The price of this survey of the Slovak language has remained the same as for the earlier edition . This should make the book a readily purchasable acquisition for any individual or institution. G ERALD] . SABO , S.J . John Carroll University Cleveland, Ohio I'.udovft Novak. K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka . Bratislava: Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej adademie vied, 1980 . 352 pp. This important study of the earliest history of the Slovak language evolved out of a plan by I'.udovft Novak in the 1930s to supply the most up-to-date , complete, and detailed presentation of Slovak phonology from its earliest begin- SLOVAKIA 125 nings . Methods of structu ral analysis were to be applied to the reconstructed phonologies of Slovak dialects . The origi nal ve rsion was begun in the last months of 1938 and earl y 1939 , a period of political turbulence. Over the intervening years, materials added to the original accumulated into several essays, thus resulting in two works. By reason of the a mount of accu mulated m ate rials , a recent decision to publi sh this monograph from just the original alone was ca rried out . The val ue of the original as a linguistic la ndm ark of the structural method in Slovakia was the deciding factor. Novak 's later theories are to be published in a separate volume which will be entitled "Vznik Praslovanov a ich jazyka. '' Four chapters in the book under review provide the most important linguistic phenomena in the d evelopment of the Slovak sou nd system , from the earliest period after the collapse of Common Slavic into the dialect differentiations of the Slovak area. They are: (a) the Slovak reflexes rat-, lat- from P ro to-Slavic *ort- , *oft -; (b) alterat ions in the consonant clusters dl, tl, and dn ; (c) reduced vowel "yer"-changes , the contraction phenomena, and the depalatalization of e( e)»a; and (d) the reconstruction of sound systems of Slovak dialects after the period of liquidation of Common Slavic co rrelations of '' syllabic soft ening. '' Novak is interested in whether (a) can be termed a "Yugoslavism" relating to a theory of colonization of Central Slovakia from the south . With respect to (b) he quotes rare documents of ancient dialect litera ture, gives phonetic a nd phonological ex plana tions , with examples of geographic ex tension of changes in W estern Slovak, and compares this with pa rallel types of like consonantal quantitat ive correlation s in a non-Slavic la nguage. For ( c) the a uthor defines the rapport of Central Slovak especially with East and Central Slavic languages, and refers to the chronology and locali zation of alterations in the Common Slavic dialect dom ai n. R egarding (d) he concen trates first on the contrac tion phenomena in Central Slovak with its chronology a nd that of other Slavic dialects, and then of other West Slavic la nguages . H e provides a n argu m ent for the explanation of the zenou-feminine-instrumental-singular type and a criticism of other theories. Most of the phonological changes in Old Slovak are viewed as occurring due to certain influences of external lan guages or of internal dialects. Hi s terminology illu strates certain developing periods of Old Slovak , for example, turkicizing, mongolization. The aut hor maintains one of several possible theories in lin guistic development. Hi s is an attempt to overcome difficulties connected with the immane nt development of the Slovak language. ova.k's structural approach as innovative and successful in the earl y period of lin gu ist ics is appla uded by colleagues m entioned in the foreword. H owever, his earl y theory is criticized as "one-sided" for three main reasons : fai lure to 126 SLOVAKIA calculate the comparison of internal contradictions; overemphasis on phonology without consideration of grammatical, morphemi c, morphological, or wordbuilding structures as lingui stic units; and finally a lack of regard for sociolin guistic chan ges . I'.udovft Novak is referred to as th e " Nestor of Slovak Linguistics " (p. 9) . This original work is viewed as a monument in the evolution of Slovak lin gu istics a nd is noteworthy, especially considering the period of its composition, the structural methods applied, with its new theoreti cal thought and insights. It is rightly considered the first synthetic conception of the earliest history of Slovak language founded on the development of the dialect sound systems. The dedication of the book is symbolic of its apparent inherent worth. Honored are three famous contributors to Slovak linguistics: to the history of the Slovak language (Trubetzkoy); to the comparative history of Slovak and Czech languages (Travnfcek), and to the foundation of modern Slovak linguistic geography with its Slovak historical dialectology (Vazny). Novak has provided the first synth etic method of structu ral applicat ion to the historical phonology of Slovak , a structural lin gui st ic milestone in Slovak lan guage study. JOHN M . KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsyl vania Frantisek Kalesny. Habani na Slovensku. Bratislava: Tatran, 198 1. 376 pp. Scattered today over the prairies of the United States and Canada can be found settlements of a people known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. The Brethren still retain the German language of their forefathers and practice a st ri ctly communitarian way of life. Their mode of collective farming is not th e outcome of economi c calculation ; it results from the Hutterit es' belief that Christ calls on his followers to renounce private property and have all things common . The H utterites originated in th e earl y 1530s as part of the Anabaptist movement that had begun in Central Europe around 1525. The M ennon ites tod ay also claim spiritual descent from this movement which represe nted a left wing of the Protestant R eformation. While onl y the Hutterites esta bli shed community o f goods, all its adherents practiced adult ba ptism (hence the n ame they acqu ired, Anabaptists) in order to stress the volunta ry character of their beli eve rs' church, in which only grown persons could participate meaningfull y. As Dr. Kales ny remarks in the preface to hi s fascinating study of Hutterite hi story, few Slovaks know about th e connection betwee n the Hutterites a nd Slovakia, where they li ved for over two hundred year . The descendants of those Hutterites, who in the mid -e ighteenth century acce pted forced SLOVAKIA 127 recatholicization rather than have to emigrate, eve ntually lost their German speech and a re today completely assimilated to the Slovak popula tion. If memories of the Hutterites grew dim, the name which their Slovak neighbors gave these German settlers , " H abans " (Habani, H abaner) , has become widely known on acco unt of the beautiful ceramics produced by the Hutterite communities and their successors. These are now valued possessions of the museums of Czechoslovakia a nd Hun gary, and examples of the art form are also to be fo und elsewhere. H a ban folk a rt , according to K alesny (p.12), should be reckoned as an important asse t of Slovak '' n at ion al culture,'' for it was produced on the soil of Slovakia by people who, although of foreign origin , had put down deep roots there. The book , which is a wo rk of scholarship even though it lac ks footnotes, is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the Hutterite communities from their inception down to the present d ay, with m ost a ttention given to their soj ourn in northwest Hungary (present -day Slovakia) . They first set up comm unities there around 1545: Their chief settlement a nd the seat of their " bi sh op" was a t Sobotiste. As in Moravia where the sect had started, h ere too it s ad herents we re welcomed by the landown ing nobility, Catholic as well as Protestant, who valued the Hu tterites as h ardworking and profitable tenants and consequently were prepared to overlook their religiou s peculiarities. After the battle of White Mountain in 1620 the H absburg ruler drove them out of M oravia, but the Moravian brethren also found a refuge on the estates of friendly Hun garia n landown ers. The endemic warfare of the seve nteenth century when Turkish, H absburg, and kuru c forces ravaged the Slovak countryside inflicted terrible suffering on the local population , including the Hutterites . On the eve of the disaster of 1620 the Hutterites in M oravia and Slovakia had numbered abo ut 25,000 persons, a tenfold increase sin ce 1545, which was due to the steady stream of newcomers from the T yrol a nd ot her pa rts of Ce n tral Europe seeking to join the brotherhood. Almost all these were of German speech , but a few adherents were of local origin. On page 46 , fo r instance, K alesny m entions "Wendel H olba ein Schlawak (Ve ndel H olba, Slovak)," who even becam e a Hu tterite minister. Whereas in north Hun gary the Hutterites abandoned their communitarian wa y of life in 1685 a nd were recatholicized under Maria Theresa in the nex t century (w hile still retaining for some time their separate legal identit y as H abaner), in Transylvania - where some Hutterites had settled in 1621 - they contin ued to lead the same life as before, until finally in 1767 the aut horit ies expelled those who would not conform . Ka les ny ch ron icles briefly their subseq uent wanderings, first via Wall ac hia to the Ukraine where they arrived in 1770 and then in 1874 across the Atlantic and on to the American West. After World War I most of the Hutterites moved across the border into Canada . Their later mi grat ions stemmed not from 128 SLOVAKIA religious persecution but from the threat posed to their pacifist principles by the introduction of universal miliary service. Kalesny prefaces his historical narrative, which for the most part does not add to what we already know , by an interestin g discussion of the name haban , the first authenticated m ention of which occurs in a document of 1667 now in the municipal archives of Bratislava. Originally a d erogatory term , it eventually lost its pejorative connotation and became the accepted way of describing the descendants of the former comm unitarians . Concerning the origin of the word no consensus exists among scholars. The latest theory is that of a German scholar who derives it from the H ebrew. D espite what the resumes say, Kalesn y seems to be somewhat sceptical about this. If the author deals rather briefly with the religious aspects of the Hutteri te way of life, h e devotes almost the whole of th e second part of the book to their social organization. The overwhelming majority of community m embers were artisans: Over forty crafts were bei ng practiced when the communities were at their peak. Of course, they also engaged in farming, which today is the chief occupation of the Hutterites. A strict discipline was imposed on members , expulsion from the brotherhood being the final sanction against those who did not conform. But this was not usually necessary since the brethren recognized the advantages of communal living over those of the outside world, despite any momentary attraction they might feel toward the latter. " The Hutterites had succeeded in creating an ordered society, socially egalitarian and materially secure, with high moral principles based on the community'' (p. 169) . Children of both sexes were taught at least to read and write - in an age when illiteracy prevailed among the masses . Great care was taken, too, to provide for the sick and aged, for pregnant women and for children of preschool age . The culture was perhaps narrow and th e aut horit y of the elders excessive, but this must be judged within the context of the times. Purely aesthetic values found no place among Hutterites. Yet their craftsmen succeeded in creatin g countless objects of beauty either for domestic use or for sale: Their pottery became famous throughout east central Europe and was eage rly bought up by the nobility a nd wealthy townspeople of the area. Kalesny, whose specialty is folk a rt , devotes th e third part of hi s book to the history and technology of'' H aban '' pottery. The making of faience , their most hi gly prized produ ct , had bee n introdu ced into th e Hutterite communit ies around 1580 by An a baptist immigra nts from northeas t Italy. Kales ny has included at the end I 09 full-page colored illu strat ion s of ceramics emanating from " H aban" workshops. The bibliography includes man y items in Slovak, Czech, a nd Hungarian that are unknown to North Ameri can scholars who have written on the Hutterites. Man y of these pi eces, it is true , deal with " Haban" ce ramics, but some SLOVAKIA 129 are of more general interest. K alesny, on the other h and, h as obviously had difficulty in gaining access to sch olarship in the W est. He knows the work of the M ennonite sociologist , J ohn A. H ostetler. But h e does not, for example , appear to be acquainted either with the valua ble study by another M ennonite scholar , Victor J . Peters, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life (Minneapoli s, 1965) , or with the numerous articles published in the United States by the leading authority on Hutterite history and culture, the late Robert Friedmann . Many of them were reprinted in his Hutterite Studies (Goshen , Indian a , 1961) . L et us hope that in future closer contacts can be established in the field of Hutterite studies between North American scholars and those working in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. K alesny is perhaps lucky in dealing with a group like the Hutterites who , while deeply religiou s, have at the same time been dedicated "communists," albeit of the Utopian variety. The T at ran press was able (so to speak) to roll out the red carpet for him . It h as published a volume that , with its excellent pa per, numerou s illu stration s, and tasteful design , is indeed a credit to book production in Slovakia. PETER BROCK University of T oronto Toronto , Canada August A. Skodacek. Lutherans in Slovakia . Pittsburgh : Slavia Printing Company, 1982. 242 pp. This acco unt of the rise and development of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia from the Reformation to the present redresses the oversight of many concern in g the role of the Lutheran Church in the historical development of Slovakia. This may b e a fl aw. The author would have us understand that Slovakia 's history in modern times is a con sequen ce n ot onl y of the R eformation but also of the influence of Lutheranism in Slovak social and political struggles. However, Skodacek does not su ffic ientl y analyze the historical facts a nd ci rcum stances to judge whether hi s claim , that without Lutheranism m od ern Slovakia would not be , is warranted. Skodacek chronciles the fa te and fort une of Lutherani sm in term s of fates and fortun es of the group's leaders. As they fared, so fared their group . Thus, this is a hi story of an in stitution al church and its great m en from a perspective of within the gro up . It uses synodical records to illu strate th e respon se of the Lutheran C hurch in Slovakia to outside social and political forces, na m ely the Roman Catholic C hu rch , the J esuits, and the variou s rulers allied with those two groups. Since there is little in -depth an alysis, thi s essay does not offer a ny new insights into the causes of man y of the events ch ro nicled. 130 SLOVAKIA In the main, it is a hagiographic account extolling historical individuals for their virtues and deeds done in the name of the cause. In describing the influences of a Thurzo , Lani , or Krman and others, Skodacek, interestingly enough, sees them as the real descendants of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Just as Cyril and Methodius introduced the Slavs to Christianity and hence to civilization ( of a kind) , so too the followers of Luther reintroduced Christianity and civilization to Slovakia even to the point of generating and maintaining a consciousness of Slovak nationalism. To this point, Skodacek writes that "the R eformation activated a conversion in Slovakia which gradually brought into the open a Slovak nationality; it spread the reformational ideology in an understandable native language and a democratic religious life'' (p. 66). Be this as it may, the book is a good source for anyone who wishes to do research in Slovak history but who does not know th e necessary languages. The volume provides translations of records and documents of the various synodical events which figured large in the life of the Slovak Lutheran Church. This point not withstanding, it is unfortunate that Skodacek did not see fit to describe and analyze the historical dynamics of the sociocultural and political forces beyond the activities of the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. Not everyone, despite Skodacek's claim, was either a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Some were Greek Catholic and some were Calvinists. These are never mentioned . Also, not everyone living in Slovakia was either a Slovak or a German . Another missing analytical point is that of socioeconomic class; from what class did the Lutheran leadership come? It is on these points that Skodacek could have given us some insight; perhaps he will irt another book . Although this vol ume is a good in-house version of a historical period and of what happened to the Lutherans in Slovakia , the lack of analysis of the sociocultural and political dynamics limits its effectiveness. ROBERT j. SKOVIRA Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania Paul R obert Magocsi . The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1978 . 650 pp. P aul R. Magocsi. The Rusyn -Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey . Vienna: Wilhelm Braumi.iller Universitats-Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1983. 94 pp . The first of Professor Magocsi ' s books is the one we all dream of writing . The fruit of years of research, it is encyclopedic in its description of the cul- SLOVAKIA 131 tu ral a nd political development of the territory which m ad e up Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the first C zechoslovak Republic. H e has used a rich array of sources - archives, published statistics, interviews , and most books and articles relating to the subj ect. It will stand for d ecades to com e as the basic referen ce work . Graduate students will be surpr ised to find a detached , obj ective approach in a volume devoted to an East European nationality group of less tha n a million people. It will be a required presence in the library of eve ryo ne who calls himself an Eas t European historian . Slovakists , in particular, will welcome Magocsi ' s dispassiona te understa ndin g of the sensibilities of the ripening Slovak national identity in Eastern Slovakia. The tex t is di vided into three parts. The first cove rs political and cultural hi story un til 19 18 . The second examines history, la nguage, literature , education , and reli gion between 19 18 and 1944. The final part discusses the political hi story from the end of W orld W ar I to the incorporation of the territory into the U krainia n Soviet R epublic at the end of W orld W ar II. This is followed by 4 a ppendices (82 pages), notes ( 106 pages), and bibliography ( 122 pages) . In his introduct ion , M agocsi promises to analyze how one ethnic group was exposed to na tionalism and how its leaders presen ted this new ideology to their people. H e points out that the leaders in what he calls " an embryonic sta te of na tional d evelopment " still did not agree on which national orientation to follow - Ru syn , Hun gari an , Slovak (and/o r C zech), Ukra inian , or Russian. H e then describes the elimination of each alternative until only Ukrainia n was left. With such a rich and well-organized presentation of d ata, it must seem churlish for a reviewer to take issue with the author . And ye t one has the impression tha t the author ' s desire to incl ude every las t piece of info rm ation has di st racted him fro m his original inte ntion of trying to discover the underl ying reaso ns fo r the fi nal victory of the U kra inia n orientation . The book becom es fi nall y a trad itional approach to East Eu ro pean history, albeit without the partisan coloring wh ich usually characterizes such work . H e outlines the failure of leaders of certa in national orien tations to attrac t adherents, or their willingness to sacrifice national fo r political gain. H e find s external factors decisive in dete rmining that the territory wo uld eventu ally become Ukrainian . In an area with such a n embryo nic ethnic and national identity, it seems odd tha t M agocsi limited his book terri to rially, acco rding to political bound aries which existed for onl y two decades . The fa ult m ay lie in his d efinition of ethn ic group as a popul ation that " in m ost cases possesses a distinct territory, com m on traditions, and related dialects. " Although he pays homage to the theories of K a rl D eutsch on natio nalism and social communicatio n , he fa il s in large pa rt to apply them . H e looks a t the intelligentsia in action , but not the intelligen tsia in formatio n . It would 132 SLOVAKIA have been possible, for instance, to examine the changing national composition of the students in the high schools (gymnazia) over time and through the various grades. This might have suggested underlying trends in national identification. Magocsi is quite right in saying it is impossible to explain why individuals join differing national orientations, but the totality of the changes can be very informative. It is quite conceivable that the socioeconomic development in the interwar period showed a trend toward a Ukrainian identity. This would help explain why the Soviet regime met so little opposition when it assigned a Ukrainian identification to the population at the end of the war. After the depth of research and evaluation which characterized the first book , the second volume is a disappointment. While those interested in Slovak history will find useful material here on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of what Magocsi calls the "Rusyn-Ukrainians" of Czechoslovakia, there also is a disappointing tendency to blame every difficulty faced by this national grouping on national discrimination. This stands in considerable contrast to his conclusion (p . 270) in the larger volume . OWEN V . JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington , Indiana Jubilea Matice slovenskej. Compiled by Vojtech Sarluska. "Seria: Monografie - Vyskum dejfn Matice slovenskej, zv. 9." Martin: Matica slovenska, 1980. 130 pp . The volume under review is a compendium of articles resulting from a seminar devoted to the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Matica slovenska's reconstitution ( 1919) and its silver anniversary as the Slovak National Library ( 1954 ). The essays discuss various aspects of the Matica's present contributions in the fields of research and education. Themes analyzed include : the Matica ' s efforts in library acquisition, preservation, and dissemination; planning and organization of its activities and resources; bibliographic development over the past quarter century; activities of the Literary Archives; programs of the Literary Museum; efforts of the Biographical Office; activities of the Matica's Office of Slovaks Abroad ; and the Matica ' s publishing activities. The section prepared by Stefan Krivus, the Matica' s present director , sets the tone for the other essays . Krivus traces the Matica's history through interwar Czechoslovakia, its activities during World War II, its place in the resurrected R epublic, and its role in Socialist Slovakia. He describes each period as a step in the Matica's maturation process. Both Krivus and the other contributors make it quite clear that the Matica of 1979 is not the Matica of 1919 ; SLOVAKIA 133 it has continually changed in response to the demands placed on it as Slovakia' s premier national cultural institution. It is a pity that this publication , which offers much valuable information on the Matica slovenska's vital role in past and contemporary Slovak cultural life , was printed in a limited edition and "only for internal use" by professional scholars, thus making it unavailable to the much wider readership which it deserves . JOHN A . BERTA Middletown, Pennsylvania I1 mondo slavo. Saggi e contributi slavistici a cura del Centro Studi Europ a Orientale di Padova . Volume VIII. Edited by Milan S. Durica. Padova: CESEO-Liviana, 1982 . 318 pp. Professor Milan S. Durica has taken the opportunity of his editorship of this volume of I1 mondo slavo to present a number of studies which help to identify Slovak ethnic consciousness in its language and history and to distinguish it clearly from assimilative Czechoslovak linguistic and political tendencies. In his own article, which offers a historical-philological profile of the Slovak language, he traces the evolution of the Slovak language in Slavic ethnogeny. The Slovak glottogenetic process of isoglosses is delineable on Slovak ethnic territory . This position is butressed by (1) Slovakocentricity - the expression of geometric distance proportional to linguistic elements and (2) the most recent studies on fundamental Slavic lexical patrimony revealing its highest in Slovak . Durica' s ' profile' establishes that the research of historical and comparative lexicology fortifies the theory of the Slovak proto-Slavic glottogenesis. His synthesis of recent· research is a valuable contribution to the thesis that Slovak is an independent Slavic language . Stefan V ragas presents historical and linguistic highlights of the development of the Slovak literary language from 1918 to 1979. A significant portion of his article centers on the linguistic politics of "Czechoslovakism ," i.e. , the linguistic and political claim of one Czechoslovak language and nation , in opposition to any contention of on e separate and individual Slovak language and nation . The author demonstrates that Slovak experts succeeded in counteracting the opposition by applying the facts of history to linguistics and courageously weathering political humiliations as did , for example, Eudovft Novak , author of K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka. Vragas must be commended for his definition of Czechoslovakism and for his timely exposition of some generally unknown linguistic-political humiliations of Slovak scholars, especially in the 1950s a nd part of the 1960s. 134 SLOVAKIA The history of Slovak translations on Slovak ethnic territory to 1939 is the subject of the article by Agostino Visco. Brief mention is made of translations into contemporary Slavic during the Great Moravian era and some initial translations into Latin . It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that extensive translation was made from Latin into the Slovak national language, mainly by Catholics. From Greek and Latin some classics and religious works were translated: ancient poetry, meditations, the Bible . Later, translations began from West European authors, then from East European ones, until the abortive years 1848-1849, when translations declined . After 1918 and in the early twentieth century translations resumed . They steadily progressed after 1933, when the Matica slovenska established a translation group , thus institutionalizing and perfecting translations. Visco considers the Slovak R epublic era (1939-1945) as the most important period for translations . Inasmuch as translations have so much influenced both Slovak poetry and prose, they represent an important facet of Slovak literature. Mirella De Martini Tihany examines the emigration of Italian laborers from Venetia and Lombardy to Slovakia in the second half of the nineteenth century . Parish registers of Slovak localities along the main railroad line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Bohumfn (Moravia) are the principal sources of research, especially those found in the State and District Archives of Bytca. Because of mineral transports from central Slovakia, railroads were needed in Slovakia . Historically, the Kosice-Bohumfn line construction in 1870 was urgent for connecting eastern Slovakia with Berlin . In this construction , the temporary Italian immigration initially entered . For some workers it meant death from epidemic , for others it was an occasion for marriage and baptisms. In her article Tihanyi provides a brief insight into Slovak interaction with the emigrants and also a sad commentary on the plight of Italian workers neglected by their non-Slovak contractors . Finally , Lisa Guarda Nardini considers the sole syndicate in Czechoslovakia, the "ROH" - Revolutionary Trade Union Movement. It is studied as an exemplary illustration of the statute of the organization which institutionally represents all workers in a country which claims that labor is paramount and the workers govern . The author proceeds from a relatively brief introduction about members , duties, structure, and other considerations to a translation of the ROH statute with its fifty articles. The m erit of this article is the translation of the ROH statute into Italian from Slovak. Volume III of IJ mondo slavo can be recommended to the readers of Slovakia for its wealth of information on fascinating Slovak topics. JOHN M. KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsylvania SLOVAKIA 135 Josef Korbel. Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History. New York: Columbia University Press , 1977 . 346 pp. A rich and varied background prepared the late Professor Josef Korbel for this twentieth-century history of a small country in Central Europe . He was closely associated with the University of Denver, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School oflnternational Studies, Director of the Social Science Foundation , and Andrew W . Mellon Professor of International Studies. He was the author of several books on Central Europe. Prior to his academic career, Korbel had been the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia . He also had held a number of other important diplomatic posts and was a personal acquaintance of both Edvard Benes and Jan Masaryk . Twentieth -Century Czechoslovakia begins with the Hussite period. By tracing the "roots" of Czech thought from Jan Hus to the subsequent suppression by the Catholic Habsburgs, and through the era of the Enlightenment, the author demonstrates how the Czech ideal of humanity evolved. He compares concepts derived from Frantisek Palacky and Karel Havlfcek to Tomas G. Masaryk's "Czech humanism. " All three were witnesses to the Hussite influence . A quick glance at opposing interpretations of Czech history by Josef Pekar and Ferdinand Peroutka and their criticism ofT.G. Masaryk's philosophy leads Korbel to the observation that " in times of assured statehood the Czech people strove for the ideals of humanity; in times of peril, they lowered their heads to save the national body" (p. 24). Korbel expands this thought throughout the rest of the book. Beginning with July 6, 1915, the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus , Tomas G. Masaryk is depicted as voicing a vision about to become a reality. As the author discusses the historical formation of Czechoslovakia, he dwells primarily on the Czech leadership. He skillfully paints portraits of national hopes , problems of administration, mistakes in judgment, and fears for the future. Throughout the twenties and thirties these events led to the final breakup of the first Czechoslovakia. By analyzing the Munich crisis and World War II as it affected this Central European victim state, Korbel clearly shows that the Czechs " lowered their heads to save the national body." As he searches for the mea ning of the postwar years in the revitalized Czechoslovak state, he refers to them as " The Sisyphean Years," the title of his last and perhaps most intriguing chapter. With T.G . M asaryk, he believes that " the nation will take up again its active role in mankind's neyer-ending struggle for freedom and social justice" (p. 320). Written in an engaging style, Korbel's story of Czechoslovakia's rise and fall will fascinate not only the student of history but also a ny reader interested 136 SLOVAKIA in learning about Central Europe during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the author does exhibit a bias against the Slovaks. This is especially apparent in his reference to the well-loved and respected Slovak leader Father Andrej Hlinka as being "fanatic. " Furthermore, while the Czechoslovak state could not exist without the Slovaks, Korbel devotes a mere 25-30 pages to them in a book of 346 pages. His admiration for Tomas G. Masaryk is deep, his respect for Jan Masaryk is genuine, and his evaluation of Edvard Benes appears objective. Had it been possible to apply historical honesty to all aspects of Czechoslovakia's growth from its inception to its dissolution and rebirth, such an account might have added significantly to the rapidly increasing literature in that area of research. One can only conclude that this historical account was written from the so-called Czechoslovak point of view. If this is understood, the reader will enjoy Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia but will continue to look for "The Meanings of Its History" in other books dealing far more adequately with Slovakia and the Slovaks . M. EVANGELA LUBEK, 0 .S.B. Bishop Noll Institute Hammond, Indiana Martin R . Myant. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 302 pp. The three years that preceded the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War have been generally understood in the West as a lull in which all the indications of what would happen in February 1948 were present. Although Martin Myant does not contradict this approach, he offers in this study, above all, an examination of the political situation in Czechoslovakia in which the Communist Party was just one of many players until mid-194 7, when a power struggle erupted leading to the Communist victory a few months later. What we have here, according to the author, is a polity which sought to achieve a socialist society by democratic means. It is an interesting thesis that reflects to a great extent the approach that Communist scholars took to this period in the 1960s and which found some sympathy among Western scholars. The book is divided into ten chapters that begin with a rapid overview of the development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The next five chapters are devoted to an analysis of the political situation in the Czech lands, with one chapter on Slovakia . In three more chapters the author looks at the power struggle which culminated in the February crisis . The final chapter SLOVAKIA 137 examines post-February Czechoslovakia, in particular those events that announced the imposition of a more radical line by the Kremlin . It is clear from Myant 's story that World War II had brought about major changes in the Czech lands. In the postwar world, Czech political life reflected a general consensus that Czech society wanted its government to implement socialist changes because the prewar order had been destroyed during the hostilities . As an organized resistance group, the Communists played a major part in setting the framework for a socialist transformation . They were by far the most cohesive and organized party. Until mid-1947 they were also willing to collaborate - and indeed did so - with the non-Communist parties in implem enting new policies . The author gives a thorough analysis not only of the platforms of all parties, but also of the political activities of the Communist Party. When the struggle for power broke out, the Communists aimed at nothing more than victory and then used whatever means they could get away with to achieve that end. But for Myant - unlike for Paul Zinner and Josef Korbel, who also wrote on this period - the interest lies in the pre-mid 1947 period where, as he writes, "for all its faults, the National Front system established in May 1945 provided a possible basis for the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia" (p. 242). Despite the author's thorough analysis, this reviewer is not convinced that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia could have played according to democratic rules in an advanced society. Although Myant attributes the shift that occurred in mid-1947 to the international situation and Cominform directives , the fact remains that the Communist Party was willing in the last analysis to abandon democratic means in favor of one-party rule. There is no evidence that the Party offered the Kremlin any resistance . Had its commitment to democracy really existed, it could have defied Moscow since there were no Soviet troops in the country and it is doubtful that Moscow would have risked a war to impose its will . The pre-mid-1947 experience may be interesting for those who still hanker after a form of" democratic socialism"; for m e it merely shows that a Communist Party will also play the democratic game if it brings it closer to its goal of total power, but it does not show a commitment to democracy . The author's treatment of Slovakia is inadequate . He approaches it from the same point of view as the Czech lands , namely that the Slovaks were also headed for socialist transformation. To take this approach is to ignore not only the legacy of prewar Slovak politics, but also the major impact the Slovak R epublic had on the Slovaks. His accusation that Slovakia was backward is both unfair and unfortunate; it is a Czech point of view that was arti~ulated quite openly from 1945 on, especially in the Communist Party. This view was also imposed on Slovak Communists, who accepted it after their defeat in the May 1946 elections. The author does, however, point out that the Communist 138 SLOVAKIA Party was unwilling to embark on a different and distinct Slovak policy, if only not to alienate its Czech constituency. The position of Slovakia in postwar Czechoslovakia was very critical. Forced without consultation into a state where they would be a minority, Slovaks then saw most instruments of autonomous government progressively taken away from them . The non-Communist leadership was weak and faced not only Communist opposition but also Czech resistance to any status beyond minimal autonomy . Thus Slovak political life centered once again on Slovakia ' s role in Czechoslovakia, not on socialist transformation . As time went on, it was clear to most Slovaks that they mattered very little in Czechoslovak politics and were expected to be merely compliant to Prague . In this respect, Myant writes unfairly about President Tiso's execution in 1947 that "its announcement in Slovakia was met with no visible unrest" (p. 158). The truth of the matter is that the army and Czech police had been sent to Slovakia to make sure that there was no unrest. For the same reason the attempted Communist coup in Bratislava failed that autumn. The game had to be played out in Prague. This is a well-researched study that is thorough in its presentation for the Czech lands . It is highly unsatisfactory for Slovakia. For this reason, as well as the author's ideological predelictions, it is regrettably incomplete and, therefore, disappointing. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Leon Noel. La Tchecoslovaquie d'avant Munich. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 1982. 208 pp. J.F.N. Bradley. Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1971. Washington, D.C .: University Press of America, 1981. 225 pp. There are few Central European states that have had as turbulent a history as Czechoslovakia. It was created by the Western Powers on the morrow of World War I, only to be abandoned two decades later to German expansionism and another ten years later to Soviet imperialism. Paradoxically, Western scholarship has yet to produce a good history on either the First Republic or on the postwar Communist period. The two volumes under review, while they seek to give us an overview of each period, are also unsatisfactory. Leon Noel was France's Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1935. His book constitutes a sort of memoir of the three years he spent in Prague. To this account he added a few chapters that deal with the origins of the state , SLOVAKIA 139 some of its leading personalities, the Slovaks, the Germans and the Hungarians, the Catholic Church, and the political parties . None is very good , and the chapters on the Slovaks and the political parties are particularly poor. It becomes quickly very clear that this French diplomat understood very little the country in which he represented France . The main impression that one gets is that he was interested above all in maintaining excellent diplomatic relations between Prague and Paris . This he seems to have done, given the number of positive comments about himself by Czechoslovakia's leaders that he quotes . But one does not get any idea what were the main currents in FrancoCzechoslovak relations. It is only when he evaluates the leading personalities in Prague of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks that he is interesting. That is one of the redeeming features of his book . If this book is at all interesting , it is becau se it reflects French perceptions of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The state was to a great extent a French creation, and Czechoslovakia's centralist system of government was modelled on that of France. Paris supported Prague on the German and the Slovak questions with the result that neither French diplomats nor French scholars paid any attention to anyone but the Czechs and accepted everything Prague told them. Noel ' s book is therefore not different from those published in the interwar years. It is a pity that he did not learn from subsequent events about which much has been written to give us a more critical appreciation of the country where he clearly spent three interesting years of his life . The Bradley volume is more in line with contemporary scholarship. But it is a peculiar book. The author has done some thorough research in a number of areas, yet he does not succeed in giving us an adequate overall picture of Communist politics in Czechoslovakia. The greatest flaw is his lack of treatment of the Slovak question, which he does not seem to have understood at all. There are two them es to the book: government and politics. The author gives a thorough description of Czechoslovakia's Communist government structure , examining in turn its constitutions, parliaments , governments, the judiciary , and security. Hi s chapter on the central government for 1948-1968 is rather good . He analyzes well the main problems of any Communist government, namely political domination and efficient administration. As he points out: "Even the most capable administrators among these politicans would have found it impossible to run central ministries efficiently with the politicallyreliable but admi nistratively unfit officials at their disposal" (p. 123) . When it comes to analyzing Communist politics , the author devotes only two chapters, one on the Dubcek era and the other on the Husak period of normalization. Both are somewhat disappointing. The overall result is that at the end of the book the reader is still left wondering what Czechoslovak politics were all about for the period 1948-1971. 140 SLOVAKIA The major flaw of Bradley's book is its treatment of the Slovak question. Clearly the author belongs to that category of Western scholars who do not consider Czech-Slovak relations to have been, and still to be, the focal point of the survival of the common state of these two nations. It is not surprising to come across such a statement as : "The Slovaks, who had apparently been enjoying equality and autonomy since 1948, began to voice their demands for new constitutional arrangements within the Czechoslovak Republic" (p. 183), with no further explanation. The final chapter, on Husak's federalism , is also inadequate in analyzing the new relationship between the two nations, let alone explaining why this formerly centralist state had been transformed into a federation . Neither book fulfills the mission its title suggests . Nevertheless in each there are some aspects of interest which may help the specialist and the interested reader on Czechoslovakia to get a better insight into this troubled common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Zdenek L. Suda. Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press , 1980 . 412 pp . This first history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in English, from its beginnings in November, 1917 , in Revolutionary Russia and its foundation in November , 1921, up to the late 1970s, is an impressive achievement. Professor Suda, a sociologist at the University in Pittsburgh, selected some of the best scholarly works written in the West on various topics or periods of his target and complemented them with a few basic books and articles published at different times in Czechoslovakia. Although his opus is based almost exclusively on secondary sources and, surprisingly, does not even mention authors whose work should have been consulted (e .g ., Machonin, Borkenau, Taborsky, Zinner, Horak , Jancar, Korbel, Tigrid) , it is worth reading and including in private as well as public libraries. It is a solid work and excels in its capable and systematic review of major events in the history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Its organization is clear, and the writer consistently pays attention to domestic developments as well as to Soviet or other Communist parties' history . In Suda' s concluding words , what matters is "the development of the Soviet core to which the CPCS, for the greater part of its existence, has only been peripheral" (p. 380). SLOVAKIA 141 Suda's main contribution is to be found in his judicious summary of some sixty years in the life of a movement, in his sensible comments, and in his perspicuous analysis. One half of the book is devoted to the Party's history before it came to power in 1945 . There is a certain imbalance in Suda's treatment of the foundation of the CPCS (50 pages) or of its history until 1929 (70 pages) and his discussion of the crucial year of 1968 (only 20 pages) . The later story is much better known that the first two so that it does not constitute any major weakness, especially since the author keeps stressing interesting parallels between different periods of Party history . Basically, it was and is a foreign element brought into a state whose traditions , both cultural and political, have been .at variance with it . Suda devotes a substantial part of his book to developments in the Communist Party of Slovakia and to its asymmetric position in a basically centralist party and state. He rightly considers the unsolved problems of national minorities - and many Slovaks refused to think of themselves as equal partners in a "Czechoslovak" nation - to be the weak point of the whole edifice . The German problem is also systematically studied, and so are the Hungarian and Ruthenian ethnic communities. Paradoxically, even the establishment of a federal state in 1968 did not put an end to Prague centralism, although the general secretary of the Party since 1968 has been a Slovak. The lack of a detailed study of primary sources and of many crucial scholarly works , unfortunately , is responsible for some, mostly minor, mistakes in an otherwise well-printed and well-proofread work. For instance, Trotsky's secret message to disarm the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia is not mentioned; Tomas G . Masaryk is wrongly characterized as "never a socialist" (p. 12); the important role of G eneral Vlasov and his armed units in the Prague uprising in 1945 is omitted; for some reason, the Cominform and Comintern are both spelled with a ' K '; there is nothing on substantial workers' unrest in 1948 and 1949 ; Richta's leadership of a scientific Party commission is assigned to Mlynar , who was in charge of another one about whose existence the author does not seem to have known (p. 328); the Manifesto of 2000 Words was published simultaneously in four Prague papers and not just in one (p. 391) - a fact which was important for the Soviet audience since the pressure group was clearly well organized! Furthermore, the periodical Listy was not a "bimonthly" (p. 367) but rather appeared monthly. In disagreement with the author's statement on page 261, Zapotocky was criticized at Politboro meetings for his relaxation of forced collectivization of agriculture . What is more important, Suda sometimes accepts the terminology of his Communist sources and then refers, for instance , to the "progressive elite " (p. 120) when he discusses individuals who were responsible for bringing shame and enslave- 142 SLOVAKIA ment upon their own nations. Although the author believes that only a small minority of Social Democrats refused to join the CPCS in the year of forced amalgamation (p. 225), the truth is that less than one third of them joined the Communist Party! Also, his description of workers' acceptance of the Slansky trial is only partially true because, according even to Communist sources, after the initial passage of favorable resolutions, there was resolute criticism of the whole Party and state leadership, often calling for their dismissal. Finally , the 1968 meetings at Cierna nad Tisou did not take place in the Soviet train (p . 340) but - with the exception of Dubcek's visit to the "ailing" Brezhev in a railwaymen's club on Czechoslovak territory. There is a good analysis of voting patterns in 1925 but, somewhat surprisingly for a sociologist, the author does not include any analysis and statistics (which are available) of the social or class composition of the CPCS in its period of absolute power. All these and a few other errors and omissions can be easily corrected in an eventual second edition of this pioneering and generally very successful work . PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Perth , Australia Frantisek Bielik a kolektfv. Slovaci vo svete. Volume II. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980. 320 pp . This second volume of Slovaci vo svete is a general survey of pre-World War II Slovak immigration to countries throughout the world. It is a collaborative effort. However, except for the separate sections on Slovak immigrant culture and involvement in labor activities in the United States and the Slovak immigration to Canada and France , Frantisek Bielik is the principal author of the book. Bielik first discusses the general causes of Slovak emigration and its impact on Hungary and later Czechoslovakia. The work is then divided into geographical categories by country. Within each geographical division, the authors adopt a standard, almost monotonous , procedure of chronicling the formation and sporadic activities of various Slovak organizations . They provide brief descriptions of Slovak fraternal societies , schools, newspapers, labor organizations, and cultural associations . In addition, they discuss the political and labor activities of some Slovak immigrants in the different countries. Slovaci vo svete is a useful addition to the literature on Slovak immigration, because it contains tables and statistics as well as literary material that have not been readily available in a single source. The inclusion of sources would have improved the usefulness of the tables. The work is also important SLOVAKIA 143 because it offers some different perspectives on the Slovak immigration experience . For example, Bielik properly stresses that the United States was the major but not the sole destination of Slovak emigrants . To emphasize this point, the book includes brief sketches of Slovak immigration to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa - countries not commonly associated with the Slovak emigration movement. Also, by discussing Slovak involvement in labor unions and Socialist organizations, the authors offer a different profile of Slovak immigrant laborers than that depicted in earlier literature. Ivan Poljak and Eva Fordinalova, who contributed the segment on Slovak union and work-related activities in the United States, would agree with Victor Greene that Slovak workers were not simply meek laborers whose docility prevented them from becoming actively involved in labor unions and strife. Moreover, their religiosity did not prevent all Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere from flirting with Socialist or Communist ideas and joining Socialist or Communist parties. Despite such points, Slovaci vo svete is marred by serious weaknesses. As a synthesis , the book is far too general and institutionally oriented. Even the lengthier discussion of Slovak immigrants in the United States is primarily a chronicle narrative of various immigrant organizations and newspapers. The treatment of Slovak immigration to other countries serves little more than as a reminder that the United States was not the sole destination of this immigrant group. No attempt is made to offer a comparative analysis of Slovak adjustment to various countries. Rather, Bielik and the other contributors seem content to resort to perfunctory , isolated discussions of Slovaks and their organizations in the several countries. While they are to be commended for the attempt to describe the work life of Slovak laborers, the discussions of this topic suffer from overgeneralizations, oversimplifications, and factual and interpretive errors. The· authors try desperately to show that Slovaks almost naturally harbor Socialist sympathies . They use the participation by Slovaks in labor unions or strikes as examples of these natural sympathies. Typically the authors do not provide sufficient or convincing evidence for their generalizations. For example, they make no attempt even to estimate the number of Slovaks actually involved in the various " Socialist " and labor activities they describe . Unfortunately, Slovaci vo svete is further harmed because the authors overlook some obviously important aspects of Slovak immigrant life in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. Despite the claim that the book is offering a description of immigrant life , much of the material actually focuses on the activities of prominent Slovaks, not ordinary immigrants . Slovak churches and their role in American Slovak communities are ignored. Overall, Slovaci vo svete is too brief to treat adequately the complex aspects of Slovak immigration to the United States and to other countries. Still, this work does raise questions that merit closer analysis b y students of Slovak 144 SLOVAKIA immigration and of labor and political history. The contributors also do provide a general, institutional history of Slovak immigration throughout the world. This volume does not rank as the definitive study of Slovak immigration, but it is a synthesis that scholars in Czechoslovakia and in those countries where Slovak immigrants have gone will find useful. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Elena Jakesova . Vyst'ahovalectvo Slovakov do Kanady. Bratislava : Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1981. 160 pp . In recent years there has been a great renewed interest in ethnic and immigration history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To the growing list of scholarly studies in this field can be added Elenajakesova's present monograph . Jakesova presents a concise, statistical account of Slovak immigration to Canada from the 1870s to 1938. The book is divided into two sections, one covering the years from the 18 70s to 1914, and the second from 1922 to 1938 . She gives the reasons for Slovak immigration from Hungary, and later from Czechoslovakia, and also an excellent outline of the individual Slovak settlements in Canada. Other chapters or sections are devoted to the development of the Slovak press in Canada and to the rise of Slovak fraternal societies. Separate sections describe Slovak mining settlements in Western Canada, agricultural communities in Central Canada, and urban settlements in Eastern Canada in later years . This is a well-organized and well-written book . The research and documentation are most impressive . The author made use of archival material from Slovak district archives in Slovakia, from the Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, and from the Magyar Orszagos Leveltar in Budapest. Most of the periodical literature and monographic studies dealing with Canadian Slovaks were also used. In short, few stones were left unturned . The volume is also enriched by graphs and charts which help clarify the history of Slovak immigration to Canada. Even the illustrations were well selected and add interest to the subject. , Two serious shortcomings of the book arejakesova's treatment of Canadian Slovak societies and churches. Among societies the importance of the Slovak workers' movement was overemphasized . Her account of it was informative and interesting, but the movement itself was of decidedly minor significance. The Canadian Slovak League and Canadian-Slovak Support Society were and remain the largest Canadian-Slovak organizations . More should SLOVAKIA 145 have been said about these groups and the great work and sacrifices of such individuals as Andrej Kucera and Andrej Potocky, founders of the Canadian Slovak League . In general, more attention should have been devoted to the experiences of Canadian Slovaks - their joys and sufferings - and to the history of their churches, which were not covered at all. Aside from these drawbacks , the work has many merits and can be recomm ended to anyone seeking a general survey of Slovak immigration to Canada. X. SUTHERLAND Stoney Point, New York ANTHONY Engelbert Zobl and Hertha A. Zobl. Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei. Vienna : Fachjournalverlagsgesellschaft, 1978. 92 pp. This unpretentious little paperback volume bears witness to what seems to be a growing interest among enthusiasts in western Europe to " uncover " the art of traditional wooden architecture in the Carpathian region of Slovakia. H ence, since the appearance of the book under review , two more ambitious volumes have appeared: Wooden Churches in th e Carpathians: The Photographic Legacy of Florian Zapletal (Vienna, 1982) by Paul R. Magoci and the monumental Wooden Churches of Eastern Europe (Cambridge , 1981) by David Buxton , both of which contain numerous photograp hs of structures in northeastern Slovakia. In contrast to these two subsequent works , the book by Engelbert and Hertha Zobl seems more of an architectural travel reportage put together as a guide for Austrian and West German tourists who still flock each summer to Czechoslovakia in search of the ostensibly more exotic cultural stimuli of the "east." This is not to suggest that such popular books are without value or that the Zobls have not done a competent job . In fact, as is evident from the albeit self-indulgent autobiographical data (complete with photographs of the whole family), the husband and wife Zobl team have degrees, respectively , in architecture and the a pplied arts. And as the lavishly-illustrated book reveals , they both have a keen sensitivity for the aesthetic as well as technical aspects of their subject. The book is basically divided into five chapters : belfries, wooden churches, wooden crosses, secular wooden architecture, and architectural ornamentation. The appendices include a list of all belfries and churches with their date of construct ion (in most , but not all instances); a map showing the travel route fo llowed by the authors in 1976 with each place indicated that appears in the book ; an index of placenames; and a brief bibliography . The latter indicates a few basi c German, Czech, and Slovak works, but omi ts two recent 146 SLOVAKIA Ukraini an-langu age studies from C zechoslovakia th at deal with the subj ect: an encyclopedia of wooden churches (past and present) in northeastern Slovakia by B. K ovafo vyfova-Puskarova and I. Pu skar , D erev 'jani cerk vy schidnoho obrjadu na Slo vaccyni (Bratislava and Presov, 1971) and a survey of secular architecture in the same region by M . Sopolyha , Narodn a architektura ukrajinciv Schidnoji Slovaccyn y (Svidnfk, 1976) . Each chapter in the book by the Zobls is preceded by a very brief introduction , and each of the 110 photograph s carries a caption. There are also 41 line drawings of structures and ground plans. By far , the largest portion of the book - a to tal of 72 illu strations - d epicts structures from villages inhabited by C a rpatho-Ru syns in the very northea stern part of Slovakia. Thi s is not surprising, since that area had economicall y always been the m ost underdeveloped and , therefore, traditional life-style and architecture have been preserved there the longest. Also , the authors seem ed to have become enchanted by the clusters of wood en churches north of Svidnfk and northea st of Snina, whose almost perfect form a nd balance m ake them stand out aesthetically, in particular when juxta posed to wooden architecture throughout all of eastern Europe, as is evident from the compara tive survey b y David Buxton mentioned above. The photographs are, in fact , the highlight of the Zobl ' s book . They were all ta ken in 1976, were well executed and often provide different views of a given structure, and have been reproduced clearly in the printing process. With the exception of a few iconostases in side Byzantine-rite churches, the photographs are almost all exterior shots. Pa rti cul arl y striking are 39 photograph s in color , am ong the best of which a re the wooden church in Mi rol'a, the cem etary crosses in D etva, and the decoration on hou ses in Zdi ar . All in all , W ooden Architecture in Slovakia is an excellent introd uction to the beauties of trad itional cultu re that still can be found in Slovaki a tod ay. As a serious guide for tourists, it would be pa rticula rl y useful if a n E ngli sh ed ition could be p repa red fo r the increasin g numbers of Am ericans of Slovak a nd Carpatho-Ru syn descent who visit the ancestral hom eland . P AUL R . M AGOCSI Uni versity of T oronto T oronto, Ca nada A tlas CSSR . Brat islava: Slove nska kartografi a, 1980 . This school atlas is obviously intended for student s at about the hi gh school level. It has no accompan yin g text or explana tory m a terial and is even devoid of a n introdu ction. Con sequentl y, the u ser is give n no idea regardin g the in tended audience or the goal s of thi s volume of m aps. SLOVAKIA 147 There are 42 pages of maps; there are more actual maps, howeve r , because numerous inset (larger scale) maps are displayed on various themes. The first quarter of the atlas is d evoted to physical/environmental subjects temperature, precipitation , geological structure , soils, forests , etc. The remainder of the volume contains social, cultural, and especially economic maps . The physical maps are of standard type, although the last of this group is an interesting map of conservation sites, such as parks and botanical stations. The demographic maps (pages 12 to 15) are interesting because included are maps on density , fertility , mortality , national population growth rates , labor force, and the nationalities. Most of the m aps suffer as a result of the inappropriate scale employed and poor use of color. The nationalities sheet is particularly poor because the combination of colors and patterns to locate and quantify minority groups is a total failure. The economic maps (pages 16-27) again are standard and include maps of minerals , manufacturing, agriculture , crops , transport and more for the entire country. Detailed political/ physical maps of the Czech and Slovak R epublics are then followed by similar economic maps for the two areas. The atlas is rounded out with a set of maps of "regional types" at the micro-scale. There are six of these, including types such as the High Tatra a rea and a section of industrial Ostrava. There are also 10 exam ples of "settlement types," including Nitra and a Czech resort town. The final three maps are interesting cultural maps, including one of higher and middle schools, medical institutions, and historical/cultural monuments. Unfortunately , these maps are of very limited use because they are drawn at a scale ( 1 :4,000,000) which obliterates any detail. In general, the Atlas CSSR is an adequate school level tool. It would have been much better and useful, however , if sharper color had been used and if more reasonable scales had been chosen for many of the maps. The bulkiness (23 cm. x 55 cm .) and the inferior quality of the binding also detract from the Atlas ' value. In sum , a poten tiall y lively collection of maps has bee n rendered into a disappointing volume of no particular distinction. GEORGE J. D EMKO U.S. Department of State W ashington , D .C. Peter Balaz, Miloslav Darovec, and H eather Trebaticka. Slovak for Slavicists . Brat islava: Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1976. 302 pp. Students who have some background in another Slavic langu age, as well as those who possess a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak , will find this text- 148 SLOVAKIA book useful. It was written for the intermediate classes at the Studia Academica Slovaca (Summer Seminar of Slovak Language and Culture in Bratislava), and was also intended for use as a textbook in university-level courses abroad . The authors point out in the preface that it is not a handbook for those studying Slovak without a teacher ; however , it can be used in this way if the student's goal is to gain only a reading knowledge of Slovak, and particularly if Slovak is not his/ her first Slavic language. The book contains 27 lessons in addition to the Slovak-English/English-Slovak glossaries . The bilingual d esignation of the section headings in the table of contents and in the lessons themselves is a very desirable feature of the book . It serves the immediate pedagogical purpose of teaching these items in Slovak as well as enabling the student who wishes to augment the explanations in the textbook with those from Slovak sources to find easily the desired items in the Slovak books . Lesson 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation . The Slovak letters ii, c, dz, s, z, t', d', 1' are characterized as palatalized consonants (p. 17) , which might well confuse those students who have studied Ru ssian . They would be better described in English as palatals. Furthermore, since regressive voice assimilatio n before nasals and liquids characterizes Slovak sandhi rules in contrast to some of the other Slavic languages, it would be well to include that information in the section on pronunciation . The remaining lessons have the following general format : introductory text , questions , vocabulary, grammatical section , exercises , grammatical section, exercises, translation exercise, and pronunciation exercise. The exercises a re well constructed and provide immediate reinforcement of the concepts just introduced . The notes and notice markers which call attention to exceptions or to features which differ significantly in English are also very effective . R eview exercises, spaced at appropriate intervals throughout the book which would combine the information presented in the various grammatical sections up to that point , would enhance the efficacy of the textbook (e.g., inclusion of a review exercise following Lesson 6 after most declensional paradigms have been introduced) . The introductory texts conta in a vocabulary which is very useful for those students who will be in Bratislava . Howeve r, to those who have never been there , as well as to the newly arrived , certain words such as miestenka are mystifying and a note of explanation would be helpful. Lesson 8 has an informal letter to a friend as the introductory text. The forms of ty are correctly capitalized. H owever , there is no note of explanation on how vy (polite singular/plural) should be written. Since this is one of the areas in which the Slavic languages differ , it would be well to include a note on T /V capitalization in letters. It might be more useful to include a thank- yo u note or a formal letter for exam- SLOVAKIA 149 pie, to a professor requesting a consultation, because these are the kinds of letters that a more advanced student is likely to be writing . In general the texts are of a very practical nature and provide the student with an adequate vocabulary for functioning in Slovak society. They could be made more effective by deleting some, such as Lesson 4, or editing them, so that they would be more appropriate for and interesting to university students. While it is possible to draw up a list of additions that one would wish to insert into the book, that in no way detracts from its value. It is certainly the best textbook available today for teaching Slovak to English-speaking students at the university level, and we can only hope that it will be expanded and enlarged in future editions. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana JozefMistrfk . Basic Slovak . Bratislava : Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1981. 160 pp . This textbook is designed for English-speaking students who want to learn the fundamental grammatical phenomena and 800 of the most frequently occurring vocabularly items in Slovak without wading through the complexities that most traditional grammars present. Its focus is on learning to speak Slovak (American speakers of English should be forewarned that the pronunciation equivalents between English and Slovak given in Lesson 1 are based on British English), not on gaining a passive reading knowledge of the language, and it is not designed to be used without a teacher . Therefore, rules are given but exceptions to the rules are introduced into the discussion only when they occur frequently . This approach is based on the theory that second language acquisition, like first language acquisition, requires a knowledge of the productive grammatical rules of a language, i.e. , those patterns that a learner encounters over and over again in everyday usage. Since this textbook is designed for the one-month Studia Academica Slovaca summer school course as an introductory textbook, it alone would not suffice for a traditional American two-year college program; however, even in a more extended course, the texts which begin each chapter , as well as the exercises at the ends of the lessons, could serve as useful supplementary material . The book contains fifteen lessons , paradigm tables, Slovak-English and English-Slovak vocabularies, and a dictionary of linguistic terms . Beginning with the second, each lesson consists of four parts : text, vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The texts are interest ing from the sociolinguistic point of view because they frequently have as their themes social events which a re common 150 SLOVAKIA in contemporary Slovak life, such as presenting flowers to someone arriving at the station, waiting in line to buy things, the extended family living together, friends sharing their experiences over a glass of wine . These texts serve to familiarize American students with Slovak culture and appropriate language usage in that culture. Each text introduces the vocabulary items which are listed just after it. This section is followed by grammatical explanations which are simple and concise, and are easily understood by learners with a minimal background in traditional grammar . The exercises require the student to create new forms based on the rules and data presented in the preceding sections . In addition to fillin g in blanks , the students are required to form sentences. Since a bilingual text is given in all of the lessons after the fifth , the student is able to check his/her progress in sentence construction . Features of Slovak which are absent in English and are, therefore , troublesome for English-speaking students are re-introduced in the texts or exercises of subsequent lessons; for example, the prefixed forms of ist' are introduced in Lesson 10 and are exemplified in the exercises in Lesson 12 . The last item in the exercises is a list of words to be read aloud for pronunciation purposes. These words do not appear in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary does possess an attr~ctive feature: It indicates after every word the number of the lesson in which the word was introdu ced . As is usual in a first printing , some errors are to be found in the book (e.g., a few of the r ' s in th e glossary have been deleted , and some of the s's have been transposed into the s section). There are also minor errors in the English text : " present " in stead of " represent" (p. 11) ; "shorting" instead of " shortening" (p . 66) ; "The both forms are possible" (p . 74 ). one of these lead s to misunderstanding ; however, occasionally, as in " byvam dlho h are" (p . 3 1) ( = " not to sleep"), the E nglish m eaning is not immedia tely clear. On the whole , P rofessor Mi strfk 's book successfully fulfills the goals which he set in writing it , and any teacher or student of Slovak will find it a u seful addition to his/her library. L OU ISE B . HAMM ER Blooming ton , Indian a Abel Kral'. Slovenska vyslovn ost'. Banska Bys trica: U cebne pomocky, 1979. 8 stereo phonograph records with accom pan ying text , 173 pp. These high-quality recordings were produced by Abel Kral' , the head of the Phonetics D epartment a t Com enius University, and national artist V . Zaborsky , for u se in seconda ry schools and la ngu age institutes in Slovakia in SLOVAKIA 151 order to teach students the neutral pronunciation style of standard literary Slovak . In the introduction Kral' explains the theoretical assumptions on which the presentation is based and suggests various ways in which the records can be used effectively. The recordings contain sections on the vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters . In addition there are excellent exercises on gemminated consonants, rhythmic shortening, and particularly on voicing assimilation in the various environments. The last record has a well-exemplifed discussion of sentence intonation. Each section begins with an introduction in which the terminology is defined, the particular sound or sounds under consideration are d escribed, and incorrect pronunciation is sometimes identified. Then the correct pronunciation is given. It is repeated twice with pauses between the utterances so that the student is able to practice the pronunciation and compare it to the record. These sections would be valuable for beginning students, while the more advanced students would additionally gain from hearing the spoken Slovak of the explanations as well as from their content. These recordings would be a very useful teaching aid for non-native speakers who teach Slovak or for Slovaks who speak a dialect and would like to acquire the standard pronunciation . Every student of Slovak who wishes to acquire a good speaking command of the language will benefit from the use of these recordings. They are in fact a very solid course in Slovak phonetics, and selections from the recordings would be ideal material for the pronunciation section of a typical language course. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana Vojtech Mihalik . Erotikon. Subor l'ubostn ej lyriky. Bratislava : Slovensky spisovatel' , 1981. Vojtech Mihalik is the grand old m an of Czechoslovak letters , and specifically of Slovak poetry, if this title could apply to a m a n who is only 55 years old. He is undoubtedly the most outstanding poet of the generation which came to the fore after the Second World War. Born in 1926 , Michalik for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the main publishing house in Bra tislava . A former long-time president of the Association of Slovak Writers, he is at presen t the director of the publi shing house Slovensky spisovatel'. His first selection of poems appeared shortly after the war. H e has published 13 more volumes of poetry as well as numerous essays a nd translations. In 1978 he received the title of Nat ion al Artist, one of the highest literary honors in Czechoslovakia. 152 SLOVAKIA This, his latest volume, contains a selection of poems written at various periods of the author's life. As far as the erotic content of the book is concerned, it is much smaller than could be expected by Western standards . Mihalik is prima rily a romantic poet , a poet of love and emotion . H e puts less stress on the physical aspects of passion than would most of his W estern colleagues . In this he remains firmly rooted in the native Slovak tradition, where the appeal is to the feeling and sentiment , and where the exploitation of sexual aspects is subdued by a sense of decorum. Thus Mihalik ' s main effort in his love is to capture the fl eeting moments of love: the minute of mutual silence, a tree rising against the sun as the lovers embrace , the sorrows and the ecstasies of deep emotion. Mihalik is ve ry conscious of nature . Like most Slovak poets, he lives spiritually in the countryside , with its peasant cottages, lush gardens, orchards full of ripe fruit, meadows suffused by the rays of sun . His erotic imagery refers almost exclu sively to nature. A lonely lover is compared to earth which gave away its beautiful perfume to strolling winds. Lovemaking is perceived by the author in term s of entering a rose garden , searching for a star in the silent sky, or walking unharmed in the midst of a swarm of bees . The metaphors are so intricately ornate that they would be reminiscent of oriental poetry, were it not for the absence of explicitness so characteristic of Arabic and Persian verse. Each poem is a parable of nature sustained to the very end , where in the last lines it unravels into a love poem . If it were not for the last couple of lines, an inexperienced reader might take the poems at their face value of m elancholy or ecstatic descriptions of landscape . Each poem is thus a higly complex and elegantly written puzzle, the m eaning of which has to be d eciphered on two levels , the natural and the erotic. Mihalik 's poems are usually short. His favorite form is the sonnet, whose stylish elegance suits perfectly his method of expression . Some of the poem s are cast in the form of a dialogue, which is a mode deeply rooted in Slovak folk poetry. Mihalik m ay be a romantic lover accordin g to the Slovak tradition , but he is by no means a patient one. If hi s passion does not m eet with a quick response , he rebels. H e sees love as a confusing passion because there is so little understanding between man and woman. Woman is always an outsider in hi s poems. She may be courted, coveted , responsive, submi ssive, or cold , but she always remain s incomprehen sible. Mihalik 's attitude toward women is quite traditional . They are the ones who suffer, who bear the burden of broken relationships, and who carry the whole burden of parental responsibility. Mih alik admires women , feels sorry for them, but he seems to accept their lot as a na tural thing. A s he gets older, Mihalik finds it increasingly difficult to accept the new SLOVAKIA 153 world around him . It is a world where the traditional values become rejected, where children of living parents become orphans because of desertion , where wives are leaving incompatible husbands , where families becom e broken for no apparent reason. The poet sees the world around him as full of suffering and unhappiness which he can only record, without being able to alleviate them . H e becomes a witness for a new generation that is growing up unloved and unlovable . His poems lose their spontaneous enchantment with life, as life becomes increasingly complex and difficult and as the poet finds he cannot turn to love to provide him with a sense of the m eaning of existence. The only an swer that seem s to emerge from Mihalik 's later poems is the implicit message to endure , to go on, and to do one's best. And in this message, as in so many aspects of hi s poetry, Mihalik shows himself again as the true son of his peopl e, the patient, enduring, and long-suffering people of Slovakia. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Downsview, Canada Vincent Sikula. Liesky. Bratislava: Smena, 1980. The novelette Liesky is in many respects firml y embedded in the Slovak literary tradition. Like so many books produced in Slovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it describes the trials and tribulations of a country boy on his way toward education and recognition. The chief character is a student at the conservatory who hopes to become a forest horn player and who persists in hi s path in spite of loneliness and abject poverty. The form of the novelette is also an old favorite, a first person narrative. The genre itself has been successfully transplanted from the Russian literature of the Golden Age and has fl ourished in Czechoslovakia since there was a favorable ground for its reception in Czech and Slovak folklore . What saves the story from becoming a typical hardship case narration , so characteristic of Slovak literature, is Sikula's humorous approach. The humor is intensified by the aut hor's use of the skaz technique. The predicam ents of the hero m ay be pathetic, but they are at the same time highly amusing. When the hero describes his family, we learn that his parents had so many children that the y hardly noticed if several of them were missing. The young man 's landlady can carry a conversation only with her cat - she is stone deaf. The hero has to practice music by drumming on the table because he cannot afford an instrument. When he finally gets the opportunity to practice on a real piano, he ruefully notes that it does not sou nd to him as good as the table. The narration thus proceeds at a lively pace, in a jolly animated style, 154 SLOVAKIA full of slan g, colloquiali sm s, and peasant speech m annerism s. It m akes fo r ea sy and pleasant readin g. Yet Sikula is mu ch m ore th an a skillful na rrator . Hi s m astery of style is evident as the story gradually reveals the narrator 's character , his a rtistic strivings , and his sexu al awakening. Sikula possesses a superb sense of n ature. M an is never alone in hi s book. All his ac tion s and feelings ta ke place in a na tural setting of which he is a n integral part. N a ture blends with the action , and the cha n ge of seasons accompanies ch a n ges of life . Thus the story starts with a beautiful description of winter and ends with an equally beautiful episode of picking fresh twigs from bu sh es. The story is deliberatel y left unfinished since Sikula aim s a t portrayin g but one stage in th e hero 's life . W e will never learn what is goin g to ha ppen in the future to the human twig picked from the bu sh of country life, a nd we are not m eant to know. Sikula presen ts u s with a vignette of life in the m a kin g. W e a re expected to enj oy the beaut y and the immediacy of the vignette portrayed b y an exquisite painter and not to look beyond it. Sikula has both the talen t of a pa inter a nd a poe t. Althou gh the story is written in p rose, it read s like a poem , di splayin g the author 's rem arka ble powe r ove r la nguage. Its m easured cad en ces a nd sen se of rhythm give the reader a unique poetic experience. It is the beaut y of style which gives to Liesk y its most definite imprin t. YVONNE G R ABOWS KI Y ork Uni versity D own sview, C anada SLOVAKIA 155 BOOK NOTE Charles Wojatsek . From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award: The Hungarian Minority in th e First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938. Montreal: Institute of Comparative Civilizations, 1981. 229 pp . Time and time again Mr. Wojatsek attempted to publish his manuscript through academic and commercial presses , only to have it repea tedly rejected because of its poor quality . Finally, when nothing else could be done, he published the book him self, under the spu rious auspices of the " In stitute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal." This book is not worth serious consideration. It was written with the patriotic fervor of a true believer, and its reading makes for cruel and unusual punishment, deserved only by other nationalists of Wojatsek's type. This reviewer wishes to warn the unsu specting public: Beware 1 You may jeopardize your time, your money, and your nerves! Y ESHA Y AHU JELINEK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheba, Israel  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 31 (No. 57) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Robin Okey, <em>Eastern Europe, 1740-1980</em> (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 119</li> <li>Milorad M. Drachkovitch, ed., <em>East Central Europe</em> (Josef Kalvoda), p. 121</li> <li>Rudolf Krajčovič, <em>Svedectvo dejín o slovenčine</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 123</li> <li>Ľudovít Novák, <em>K najstarším dejinám slovenského jazyka</em> (John M. Kochik), p. 124</li> <li>František Kalesný, <em>Habáni na Slovensku</em> (Peter Brock), p. 126</li> <li>August A. Skodacek, <em>Lutherans in Slovakia</em> (Robert J. Skovira), p. 129</li> <li>Paul Robert Magocsi, <em>The Shaping of a National Identity and The Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia</em> (Owen V. Johnson), p. 130</li> <li>Vojtech Šarluška, comp., <em>Jubileá Matice slovenskej</em> (John A. Berta), p. 132</li> <li>Milan S. Ďurica, ed., <em>Il mondo slavo</em>. Volume VIII. (John M. Kochik), p. 133</li> <li>Josef Korbel, <em>Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia</em> (M. Evangela Lubek), p. 135</li> <li>Martin R. Myant, <em>Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 136</li> <li>Léon Noël, <em>La Tchécoslovaquie ďavant Munich and J.F.N. Bradley, Politics in Czechoslovakia</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 138</li> <li>Zdenek L. Suda, <em>Zealots and Rebels</em> (Peter R. Hruby), p. 140</li> <li>František Bielik, et. al., <em>Slováci vo svete</em>. Volume II. (June Granatir Alexander), p. 142</li> <li>Elena Jakešová, <em>Vysťahovalectvo Slovákov do Kanady</em> (Anthony X. Sutherland), p. 144</li> <li>Engelbert and Hertha Zobl, <em>Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei</em> (Paul R. Magocsi), p. 145</li> <li><em>Atlas ČSSR</em> (George J. Demko), p. 146</li> <li>Peter Baláž et. al., <em>Slovak for Slavicists</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 147</li> <li>Jozef Mistrík, <em>Basic Slovak</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 149</li> <li>Ábel Kráľ, <em>Slovenská výslovnosť</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 150</li> <li>Vojtech Mihálik, <em>Erotikon</em> (Yvonne Grabowski), p. 151</li> <li>Vincent Šikula, <em>Liesky</em> (Yvonne Grabowski), p. 153</li> <li>Charles Wojatsek, <em>From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award</em> (Yeshayahu Jelinek), p. 155</li> </ul> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alexander, June Granatir, 1948- Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Berta, John A. Brock, Peter, 1920-2006 Demko, George J., 1933- Grabowski, Yvonne, 1929-1989 Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Hrubý, Petr, 1921-2017 Jelínek, Yešhayahu A., 1933-2016 Johnson, Owen V. Kalvoda, Josef, 1923-1999 Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Kochik, John Michael Lubek, Sister M. Evangela, SS.C.M. Magocsi, Paul Robert, 1945- Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Skovira, Robert J. Sutherland, Anthony X. (Anthony Xavier) LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9d48306a8ca309774f8d2a6e7d9d6320.pdf 00f7397f1994292a5a91d360a97d92c0 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 83 ��SLOVAKIA 85 Historicky casopis, 33 , 2 (1 985) . "K vel 'komoravskemu vyrociu. " Bratislava: Veda, 19 8 5. Anna Holla. Metod - ucitel' Slovienov. K 1100 vfrrociu umrtia {885-1985}. Martin: Matica slovenska , 1985 . THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. Pittsburgh , Pennsyl vania As the year 1985 approached , Slovak Christians both in Czechoslovakia and abroad wondered in what manner the 1, 100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius would be observed in Slovakia. The two publications under review provide partial answers to that question. · Historicky casopis , the official organ of the Ustav historickych vied Slovenskej akademie vied , devoted an entire issue to the ' 'Great Moravian Anniversary. ' ' In their introduction, the editors concede that Methodius was ' 'the most important personality in the cultural history of Great Moravia." Further, they note that ''Marxist historiography values highly the work of Constantine and Methodius, who laid the foundations for the development of Slavic literature, which thereafter prevailed among the majority of the South and East Slavs ." However , they also maintain that although Marxist historiography cannot overstate the importance of these two men, it cannot view them only as " evangelizers of the faith." The cultural elements of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage are, of course, undeniable. But it is equally undeniable that that legacy also - and primarily - includes tremendous religiou s significance for the Slavs in general and the Slovaks in particular. What this reviewer finds especially objectionable in this issue of Historicky casopis is the attempt to minimize the importance of the evangelical activity of Sts . Cyril and Methodius and to neglect the religious dimensions of their work. The cultural achievements of the saintly brothers were the result of their primary goal: to complete the Christianization of the Slavic peoples. This main goal of their mission is never properly recognized by the authors, and the names of Sts . Cyril and Methodius are never mentioned with their title of reverence , " Saint. " Furthermore, not a single arti- �86 SLOVAKIA cle is devoted specifically to St. Methodius in what is supposed to be a commemoration of the anniversary of his death! The first article , by Matus Kucera, assesses Great Moravia and the beginnings of Slovak national history. Although Kucera writes extensively about the era of Rastislav and Svatopluk, he fails to mention Sts. Cyril and Methodius by name as the founders of Christian civilization among the ancestors of the Slovaks. In his article on "fictions and facts" concerning the territorial development of Great Moravia, Peter Ratkos refutes the claims of Imre Boba and other historians that the territory of Great Moravia was situated around the Morava River in Serbia. According to Ratkos , Sirmium was probably not the actual see of Archbishop Methodius , because at that time Sirmium belonged to Bulgaria. Richard Marsina examines the diplomatic documents relating to the history of Great Moravia and their value as sources. He acknowledges the authenticity of seventeen diplomatic texts, mostly the preserved letters of Popes Adrian II, John VIII, Stephen V, and John IX, and eighteen lost documents (deperdita) mentioned in the authentic diplomatic papers and other reliable historical sources. The article which deals the most with St. Cyril is the one by Alexander Avenarius on the contribution of Byzantium to Great Moravian culture. The author explains St. Cyril's philosophy, classifies him as a liberal in his opposition to iconoclasm, and places him in the camp of the liberal patriarch Photius. Avenarius also describes the influence of Byzantine monasticism in Bohemia and Slovakia after the death of Svatopluk. The last two articles are not directly concerned with the work of Sts. Cyril and Metodius . Bohuslav Chropovsky and Alexander Ruttkay evaluate the most recent archeological excavations and situate geographically the extent of the Slovak ethnic group. Finally, Rudolf Krajcovic examines the very complicated issue of language in Great Moravia and its continuity with Slovak. The publication of the Matica slovenska, Metod - ucitel' Slovienov, is more germane to the commemoration of St. Methodius' anniversary than the articles in the Historicky casopis issue. It contains nineteen pages of printed text by Anna Holla and thirty-two photographic reproductions of archeological findings from the �SLOVAKIA 87 Great Moravian era, copies of some Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and newer Slovak literary and pictorial works related to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Holla's brief survey of St. Methodius and the whole CyrilloMethodian legacy in Czechoslovakia is a popular version based on contemporary scholarship. It reflects, not surprisingly, the distortions of present official Marxist historiography concerning the Great Moravian period. Holla characterizes Great Moravia as the first state common to the Czechs and Slovaks; and she emphasizes the cultural, social, and political activity of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and excludes or minimizes their missio.nary efforts. Holla' s assertion that Great Moravia was the first joint state of the Czechs and Slovaks is of dubious historical validity. By military force Svatopluk occupied the adjacent Slavic territories, among them Bohemia, and annexed them to his realm, but he did not incorporate them organically into Great Moravia. After his death in 894, the people in these occupied territories hastened to separate themselves from Great Moravia, searching for independence or joining new political alliances. The annexation of Bohemia to Great Moravia lasted less than twenty years, and after Svatopluk's death the Czechs found themselves again in the orbit of the Eastern Frankish (German) Empire. This reviewer must also take exception to Holla's statement that ''The basis of the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius in the Great Moravian Empire was their legal work, by which they eradicated Frankish church law and the unwritten common law of Great Moravia and substituted for it a strong legal order" (p. 6}. As has been mentioned, the basis of the CyrilloMethodian mission was the evangelization of the Slavs. Sts. Cyril and Methodius did not eliminate the church law which had been brought to the territory of Great Moravia by Irish-Scottish, Acquilean (Italian), and Bavarian missionaries; and they did not abolish the unwritten indigenous laws as long as they did not deviate from either Latin or Byzantine church and civil laws. In conclusion, the jubilee issue of Historicky casopis and the text by Anna Holla in the Matica slovenska publication suffer from gross deficiencies and omissions which stem from the antireligious bias of official Marxist historiography toward the legacy �88 SLOVAKIA of Sts. Cyril and Methodius . Only the Matica slovenska publication, with its well-selected, beautiful reproductions , can in a sense be considered as a tribute to the memory of St. Methodius in Slovakia. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy v slovensky ch kniiniciach. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, I]. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1981. 304 pp. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie v Mad'arsku av Rumunsku. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, II). Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982. 400 pp. GERALD J. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This two-volume catalogue of codices comprises a listing of all extant medieval manuscripts produced on Slovak territory. Most were written in Latin and are similar to those found throughout medieval Europe. The subject matter pertains, for the most part, to religious faith and practice, and philosophy. Bibles, missals , antiphonaries , graduals , chant collections , sermons and related bilingual dictionaries, rules of a religious order, commentaries on religious topics, and philosophical studies are the kinds of writings found in these manuscripts. Occasionally among them are " secular" - non-religious or philosophical - texts , such as Gesta Romanorum (Feats of the Romans), Chronicon Dubnicense (The History of Dubnica), or Codex Justinian us: Digesta - Excerpta (Justinian's Law Code: Summaries and Excerpts) . Some of these manuscripts are preserved in Slovak archival repositories, while others are found in Hungary and Romania. In the two introductions of the first volume in Slovak and Latin , Sopko considers briefly the emergence and development of libraries and scriptoria on Slovak territory as well as the history of manuscript collections and their present status. He discusses the role of certain religious orders in the execution and collection of such manuscripts; among these are the Benedictines, Fran- �SLOVAKIA 89 ciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Premonstratensians (also known as Norbertines). Sopko also mentions the significant activity of the cathedral chapters in Nitra, Bratislava, and Spis that fostered the composing of manuscripts. Thirteen Slovak areas are listed as locations of repositories for such manuscripts: Banska Bystrica, Bardejov, Bratislava, Dolny Kubin, Jasov, Kezmarok, Kosice, Kremnica, Martin, Nitra, Presov, Spisska Kapitula , and Spisske Vlachy. These cities and towns, institutions in Bratislava and Kremnica contain the overwhelming majority of the 200 medieval manuscripts found on Slovak territory today. In Bratislava, the cathedral chapter library alone contains 82 such codices of the 135 found in the 6 repositories of this city. In Kremnica, the parish library contains 25 of 26 medieval codices in the city. In the second volume , 86 of 88 manuscripts preserved in Hungary are found in Budapest; the remaining 130 of the total 418 listed' in the two volumes are found in Alba Julia, Romania, in the former Batthyany library collection. In his introductions Sopko mentions the art of manuscript illumination that was well developed on Slovak territory . He includes at the end of both volumes photographic reproductions of some manuscripts, usually rendered in color, many of which also exemplify the art of illumination. One of the outstanding examples of manuscript writing and illumination is the ''Bratislava Missal,' ' which today is preserved in Alba Julia, Romania, as part of the former Batthyany library collection. This missal is described in the second volume of the catalogue (#400), and a color reproduction of one of its folio pages can be found at the end among the supplementary illustrations . (A book that presents the illumination aspect of medieval manuscripts in the Slovak area and that would complement this catalogue well is Stredoveka kniina mal 'ba na Slovensku by Alzbeta Giintherova and Jan Misianik published in two editions [1961 and 1977] by Tatran of Bratislava.) Sopko concludes each of the volumes with four lists: concordance of signatures , dated codices, first words of a codex, and a name and topic index. This two-volume catalogue by Sopko is primarily aimed at libraries and specialists in medieval culture and history. It presents �90 SLOVAKIA well the scholarly work that is often produced under the auspices of the Matica slovenska. Vysady miest a mesteciek na Slovensku {1238-1350}, I. Edited by L'ubomir Juck. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. 199 pp. Narodnostny vyvoj miest na Slovensku do roku 1918. K 600. vyrociu vydania vysad pre zilinskych Slovakov Edited by Richard Marsina. Martin: Osveta, 1984 . 275 pp. DAVID P. DANIEL ConcorcJti.a Seminary St. Louis, Missouri These two volumes reflect the breadth and depth of Slovak historical urban studies. They are both welcome additions to the growing body of scholarship on the history of urban life in Slovakia in the late medieval and early modern eras. The first, ''Privileges of the Cities and Towns in Slovakia (1238-1350)" was prepared as part of a long-term project planned by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the 1950's and early 1960's which set as its goal the editing and publication of historical documents from the earliest eras of Slovak history. This volume is the first dealing specifically with the charters and grants of legal privileges made to the emerging cities during the High Middle Ages, primarily by Hungarian monarchs. Information concerning the documents which have disappeared and/or the texts of those preserved were drawn from materials in the archives of Slovakia and throughout Central Europe. The volume begins with a general introduction indicating the methodological principles utilized in preparing it and some general comments on the types of documents included . The bulk of the book is devoted to a catalogue, in chronological order, of all the grants of privileges discovered; a brief description of their contents and context in Slovak; the text of the document, in so far as it is known in the original language of composition, Latin; and finally a listing of the provenance of each document. As such , this volume provides a fascinating and accessible entrance into �SLOVAKIA 91 the historical development of the cities and towns which emerged on the territory of modern-day Slovakia during the High Middle Ages. They show that the economic strength of the towns grew in conjunction with the grants of economic and political privileges extended to them by the Hungarian monarchs. The towns sought to develop and protect their economic basis, manufacture, and trade by securing from the kings extensive rights of selfadministration and governance. The second volume, "Nationality Development of Cities in Slovakia to the Year 1918," is a collection of essays arranged according to the three thematic sections of the book: ''Nationality Development in Zilina"; "Nationality Development in the Towns of Slovakia''; and ''Nationality Development in Czech and Moravian Towns in the Middle Ages." However, despite the title, all but four of the sixteen studies treat the medieval and early modern periods. In the first section Marsina himself analyzes the privileges given to the Slovaks in Zilina in 1381; Julius Sopko attempts to identify the various individuals who made entries into the city record book of Zilina; Izidor Kotulic evaluates the language of the Zilina record book and other historical documents in Slovak; and Rudolf Kuchar examines the family names which appear in the Zilina record book. The studies of Peter Stansky on the structuring of nationalities in Zilina up to 1918 and of Pavol Hapak on the economic life and workers movement in Zilina during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude the section devoted specifically to the history of Zilina. In the second section Ferdinand Ulicny investigates the national groupings within the medieval cities of Slovakia; Jan Dorul'a examines the use of Slovak in the cities between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; Anton Spiesz provides an analysis of Slovak artisan activity during the so-called later feudal period, the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; and Jozef Vozaf evaluates the relationship between ethnic groups in the so-called montana or mining cities of central Slovakia during the same era. Ivan Chalupecky provides an analysis of ethnic relationships in the towns of Spis county for the century between 1550 to 1650, and Jana Skladana examines the oldest city books in Banovec nad Bebravou, dating from the sixteenth through the early eighteenth �92 SLOVAKIA centuries. Milan Podrimavsky concludes this section with an examination of the cities in Slovakia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . The third section is made up of just three essays: Frantisek Smahel's review of findings and perspectives of the research into ethnic relationships in Bohemian cities during the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries); Ludmila Sulitkova's investigation of the ethnic relationships in the Moravian cities, especially the royal cities, during the Late Middle Ages; and Josef Zemlicka' s essay on the countryside , ethnicity, and the late medieval Bohemian cities. While it is impossible to examine these essays individually, it should be noted that not only do they reveal how much urban studies have come to dominate Slovak late medieval/early modern history research , but also the complexities of ethnic relationships in Slovakia during the same era. Slovaks took an active, if not always an appreciated, role in the life of the cities of Slovakia during the Middle Ages and were, especially but not merely in the smaller towns , significant in their economic and political life. It is to be hoped that these volumes will encourage American scholars to become much more active in more fully investigating late medieval and early modern Slovak history. Juraj Zudel. Stolice na Slovensku. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984. 200 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee , Florida This book was written to provide a generaLhistory of the counties of Slovakia until 1849, when a modern centralized administration was imposed by Imperial decree in the so-called "Bach era". It may consequently be subtitled "Patterns of Feudalism''. Zudel summarizes characteristics common to all the Slovak districts, and then depicts both individual and regional peculiarities. The main theme is an analysis of the evolution of the counties under the feudal order. In the introductory section, Zudel points out that originally individual Slovak counties had �SLOVAKIA 93 their own codes of law, but in all cases , in greater or lesser measure, these were eventually supplanted by more centralized government. Particular mention is made of the efforts of the Habsburgs, especially in the case of the Josephine reforms of the eighteenth century, to provide a uniform code of law for Hungary. These endeavors were only partially successful, and many of them were undone following the death of the King-Emperor in 1790 . Only in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution was it possible for enduring institutions of modern government to be established. Zudel points out that the 1848 experience may be characterized as a ''conflict of popular sovereignty''. The Hungarian reyolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth sought to protect the jealously-guarded privileges of individual counties, while at the same time using them as instruments of Magyarization in Upper Hungary. By contrast, the more conservative Hungarian reformer Istvan Szechenyi considered the county structure as antiquated, yet he opposed forced Magyarization. The archival sources consulted by the author are listed at the end of the introductory section, and a more general bibliography is included at the conclusion of the text. Zudel's introduction is followed by a survey of each individual county. These surveys include a summary of the territorial boundaries of each administration, the patterns of settlement and habitation , agricultural conditions, and cultural traditions . In cases where a county has been inhabited by more than one ethnic group, an additional section concerning ethnic relations is added . Although Zudel's presentation summarizes the counties in alphabetical order, any attempts at comparison and contrast are best served by examining the counties from a regional perspective. Two of the counties - Bratislava and Abauj - contained Slovakia's major metropolitan centers . In the case of the western county Bratislava, Zudel stresses its strategic location at the point where the Morava and Danube rivers converge. This location guaranteed that Bratislava was affected by the Hussite invasion. The author also mentions the presence of a Croatian element since the time of the Turkish wars. In the case of Abauj, which contains the eastern metropolis, Zudel indicates that the city of Kosice �94 SLOVAKIA was noteworthy for its traditionally oligarchical form of government. The southern Slovak counties of Gerner, Hant , Komarno , and Novohrad had the common denominators of all being ethnically mixed areas, plus serving as frontier zones in the HabsburgOttoman wars. Much the same treatment is accorded to Ostrihom, although the author also cites the latter for its significance in the Catholic Counterreformation. In the case of northern counties the author mentions that Liptov had lingering anti-feudal traditions, and also served as a stronghold for Slovak nationalism. Orava, in spite of its close geographic proximity to Liptov, evolved in the more traditional feudal pattern. Among central counties Nitra is particularly noted for having had a state organization which pre-dated the kingdom of Hungary; Tekov and Trencin are treated in a similar manner. In the case of the latter, Zudel also mentions the importance of the city of Zilina as a center of Slovak trade with the Czech lands, Silesia, and Prussia. Zvolen is noteworthy for its strategic location in defense of the fertile lowlands of southern Slovakia; the author also· mentions the influence of the Czech immigration following the Thirty Years War. Turiec is especially noted for having separated itself from Rakoczi's rising in the early eighteenth century . The author might have given this event more than passing treatment had he chosen to do so . The eastern counties of Slovakia present some of the most noteworthy peculiarities of all. Mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian king Sigismund mortgaged certain cities of Spis to Poland in the fifteenth century; they were returned to Hungary in the eighteenth. In spite of the fact that Saris was a major focal point for the Magyarization campaign, Zudel points out that the native Slovak nobility played a prominent role in public life. In the case of Zemplin county , the author mentions that the nobles long maintained a sense of autonomy , and consequently supported the Transylvanian rebels in the latter's struggle against the Habsburgs . Zudel also briefly summarizes the history of less " traditional" Slovak countries . After World War II much of the territory of Uz �SLOVAKIA 95 county was transferred to the Ukrainian S.S.R., and the population of the area is today classified as Ukrainian. Zudel, however, mentions the role of the Slovak element in siding with the Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings. Turn.a is treated as an extension of Abauj county (with which it was long affiliated) , although the influence of political patterns emanating from Gerner is also mentioned. In his concluding chapter Zudel summarizes administrative realignments dating from Bach's regime in the 1850s. Since the terms stolica and zupa are often used interchangeably, the author makes a distinction here between velzupa , containing more than one stolica, and zupa, constituting a single district. This distinction is an important one, and the author would hav~ served his readers better by mentioning it in the earlier portion of the text. Although the text conveys the ideological spirit common to contemporary Czechoslovakia, the historical facts are presented in a straightforward manner. Zudel points out that contemporary Hungarian Marxist historiography is more favorably disposed towards Slovak demographic claims in Upper Hungary, and he makes liberal use of Hungarian source materials. The major weakness of the book lies less in what is said than in what remains unsaid. In reference to Abauj county, Zudel cites the Mongol invasion as a determining factor in population distribution; he fails to mention that Kosice was temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of Transylvania by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. One especially glaring contradiction is found in the case of Saris. The author mentions a "pestilental epidemic" in the eighteenth century, but no mention is made of the cholera epidemic which convulsed Saris and other eastern Slovak counties in 1831. Since the latter event was accompanied by a peasant rising which greatly undermined feudal society, the omission is a particularly serious one . For the student who is already well-grounded in Slovak history , Stolice presents little that is original. But is serves as an adequate text within the limits which have been mentioned , and is especially useful as a reference guide to the individual districts . �96 SLOVAKIA Tvorcovia noveho Slovenska/ The Shaping of Modern Slovakia. Festschrift to the Seventieth Birthday of Dr. Joseph A. Mikus . Edited by Joseph Stasko. Cambridge, Canada: Friends of Good Books, 1982 . xv . 271 pp . GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton, Australia This collection of articles by Imrich Kruzliak, Joseph Stasko , Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Frantisek Vnuk, and the celebrant can be looked upon from two different perspectives . The first is readily apparent . Kruzliak's interpretive account of Slovak history from 1918 to 1948; Stasko's soul-searching reflections on the meaning of the Slovak national heritage; Kirschbaum's examination of Slovak student organizations and their aims in the interwar period; and Vnuk's analysis of Slovak diplomacy before the Salzburg event of 1940 all have one common denominator: either the role played by, or the contemporary views held by , Joseph A. Mikus. Mikus's own article , "The International System in Transition,'' is a study of the moral and legal principles underlying the pre~ent system of (soverign or not) states and nations , as well as an application and projection into the future of his own ideas, summarized by the view that "not territorially defined states , particularly multinational structures or empires, but nations in the ethnic and cultural sense are the real members of the international community.'' The other perspective becomes more apparent only after one has finished reading the book. With the exception of Vnuk, the authors have all by now reached, or almost reached , their seventieth birthdays. They are all well-known emigre writers ; political commentators, and interpreters of the Slovak cultural heritage . And - again perhaps with the exception of Vnuk - all the contributions are representative of the particular author's " Slovak creed .' ' They read as a personal legacy to the generation to follow. No Slovak intellectual of the younger generation can afford to ignore what they have to say. Politically and territorially, of course, there is only one Slovakia. But spiritually and culturally there is �SLOVAKIA 97 also an alternative Slovakia, a Slovakia that many of us in the West (as well as some non-conformists in Slovakia) are proud to belong to , a Slovakia that would be unthinkable without its pioneers, and now seniors, like Mikus and Stasko, Kirschbaum, and Kruzliak. Thus it seems to me that - at least from the point of view of the new generation - the title of the book should have been something like " The Shape of a Slovakia We are Inheriting," meaning the spiritual and cultural shape of unofficial Slovakia forced to ''live in exile.'' To summarize: If one cannot read Slovak, it might be preferable to obtain just a reprint of Mikus' s English article rather than buy the whole book. But if one can read Slovak and is interested in Slovak matters, this book is a must. Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M . Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. ClevelandRome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 381 pp. GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton , Australia This Festschrift dedicated to Joseph M. Kirschbaum offers nine articles on various political themes from Slovak history ranging from 1882 to about 1948 . It includes a brief appraisal of the celebrant's life and his contribution to Slovak politics by Charles Murin and a " select bibliography" of Kirschbaum 's publications written in exile. In the first article Edita Bosak deals with Czech-Slovak relations from 1882 to 1914, focusing on the student organization Detvan in Prague. Bosak sees Detvan "as a springboard and nursery for the young Slovak inteligentsia" as opposed to the "conservative Martin leadership ." Although she admits that "the amount of co-operation between Detvan and the Czechs was limited,'' she recognizes the resulting journal Hlas as "progressive," giving "wide distribution to many of the ideas that the students had already worked out in the debates in Detvan, �98 SLOVAKIA especially the idea of Czech-Slovak reciprocity." A comprehensive and unbiased study of Milan Hodza and his original political thinking (contrasted by his often controversial political associations that ended so sadly) is still missing from Slovak political literature . The article by Susan Mikula comes a long way toward such a study, but unfortunately it does not go beyond the year 1914. Still, her account of Hodza's Belvedere orientation and his attitude toward Magyars and Czechs seems to support those political thinkers who see him as the harbinger of contemporary Slovak aspirations toward Central European, or Danubian, Confederation. The contribution by Manfred Alexander is based on a study of the reports from the German Mission in Prague to the Foreign Office of the German Reich from 1918 to 1921. It contains over fifty pages of original documents related to Slovakia, published for the first time. Somehow, the documents make more interesting reading then the article itself. At least in one place the author's conclusions are hard to follow: It is true that Document 13 illustrates in many details the fact that Czech anti-clericalism was at the core of early Czech-Slovak frictions; and that it was the Catholic priests in Slovakia who raised the alarm, and often overreacted. But it seems to be a rather sweeping statement to claim that this is ',!valuable information indicating that the efforts made by the Slovak people to obtain autonomy did not originate spontaneously but were stirred up through agitation.'' Stanislav J. Kirschbaum's study of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party should certainly be read in conjunction with the German documents referred to above, especially by a non-specialist. It throws light on some points raised in the preceding article, and its systematic and more detached account well complements the subjectiveness and immediacy of the documents. The constitution of the Slovak Republic is analyzed by Karin Schmid. She comes to some mixed conclusions, perhaps best expressed in her own words: "If we consider every aspect of the Slovak Constitution - especially the role of the party on one hand, and on the other the control of the government by Parliament (although Parliament itself, in turn, was composed of only one party) - a comparison with what is known as 'socialist democracy' �SLOVAKIA 99 suggests itself. It is tempting, on the model of this concept, to coin the term 'fascist democracy.' However, if we wish to avoid jargon and if we bear in mind that fascism completely rejects the concept of democracy, then the Slovak system can be best described as an authoritarian system with rather surprising democratic features." Lisa Guarda Nardini examines President Tiso's political program. The person of Dr. Jozef Tiso, more so than the Slovak Republic as such, symbolizes the Slovak tragedy during and after World War II: After forty years, most Slovaks are by now resigned to the fact that, given all the circumstances, there was not much chance for the six years of the Slovak Republic to end' differently. But only a few will maintain that Dr. Tiso did not deserve a better fate, a fairer treatment and trial, and less prejudice connected with his place in Slovak history. The article and its discerningly apologetic tone have to be seen in this light. To a certain extent, the same atmosphere permeates the next article on the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic by Milan S. Durica. Of special interest is the section on relations with the Holy See. Durica does not hesitate to state explicitly that "the sharpest dispute between the Slovak Government and the Vatican arose over the Jewish question." Stanislav J. Kirschbaum tackles the extremely complicated and controversial Slovak revolt of 1944. He points out two options that the Slovaks faced by the end of World War II. The first was "to remain true to their state" not excluding "the taking of whatever means were necessary, including changing the regime and the political system'' and hoping that ''the victorious powers would realize that independence was indeed what the nation desired.'' The second option was to return to the Czechoslovak Republic. He is realistic enought to admit that the first option called for an acute sense of timing, exceptional diplomacy, faith on the part of people, and above all capable leadership at the top. But even given the second option, Kirschbaum observes that ''had Benes not been so prejudiced against the Slovaks, but rather had taken into account the evolution of the Slovak nation ... much of the tragedy that befell the Slovak people from 1944 on might have been avoided.'' �100 SLOVAKIA Frantisek Vnuk elaborates on this theme in his article on Slovak-Czech relations between 1945 and 1948. It describes the situation and events in Slovakia prior to February 1948, and it makes very sad reading. As one has come to expect from Vnuk, it is thoroughly documented. But it is also concise and comprehensive enough to be recommended to all - notably younger generation Slovaks, but also Czechs - who wish to understand the reasons behind Slovak resentments and political distrust of their Czech neighbors . In this reviewer's opinion, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive, critical study of Slovak political history from 1918 to 1968 written by a younger generation of scholars free of the compulsion either to fit that story into prescribed ideological frames or to justify a posteriori one's own role or moral position. The publication under review has perhaps so far come closest to fulfilling that need. Frantisek Vnuk. Zivotopis Konstantina Culena. Cleveland: Slovak Institute , 1984. 247 pp. OWEN V. JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana For several years I have been trying to persuade several important Slovak figures representing different political persuasions to write their memoirs, to give us an intimate perspective on their youth, their education, and the development of their careers. Each of the three has resisted , perhaps fearing that to write memoirs means to declare one's public life to be over. This is unfortunate because when I have stumbled onto memoir material , such as a dozen unpublished essays by as many interwar and wartime Slovak journalists, they have been a rich mine of information that their authors could never have realized would be so important. Other than oral interviews, the second best source of personal information is the biography . From that perspective, this book about Konstantin Culen is to be welcomed. Published with the �SLOVAKIA 101 support of Slovak-American activist Jan Beliansky a dozen years after completion of the manuscript, it traces the career of the headstrong Slovak publicist, amateur historian, diplomat, government official and emigre journalist. The author draws on his twenty-year correspondence with Culen, Culen's autobiographical "Posedenia," published in the early 1960s, and 15 short chapters that were parts of Culen's various unsuccessful efforts to write an autobiography. Vnuk makes no claim that this is a careful , complete, or scholarly biography. Nor does he promise any neutral and objective point-of-view, stating in the opening pages his respect and admiration for Culen. Vnuk asserts that the heart of the work is the la.s t section which describes Culen's work in exile - because it is the period he knows best. The historian will disagree. It is the first part (describing his youth and education) and to a lesser degree the second part (describing his twenty-year career in Slovakia) that more effectively transport the reader into the life of the periods they describe. This is so because it is precisely for those periods that Culen provided more of his own testimony about his life and times. We are reminded, for instance, that even though their eventual political views became quite different , many members of the Slovak intelligentsia initially were good friends of each other. Among Culen's early friends were such a diverse group as Vladimir Clementis, Julius Sefranek, Jan Golian, Ferdinand Jurgia, and Florian Tomanek. There are several references, too, to how important connections - Slovak or Czech - were in finding gainful employment. Particularly interesting is Vnuk's description of Culen's short career as a writer and reporter for Slovak, the daily Hlinkist organ. As with other institutions of the Slovak People 's Party, the newspaper staff reflected the splits among the different wings of the party. Eventually the splits led to Culen's dismissal from the staff. It foreshadowed his later ouster from the Slovak Government in July , 1940. The tragedy of Culen is that these divisions continued in emigration, and because he continued to be first and foremost a publicist, he became their victim. Despite a decade of service to �102 SLOVAKIA the Slovak press in North America, he was eventually forced out of all fulltime work in that area. During the last few years, Vnuk reports , Culen struggled to find gainful employment, eventually winding up as superintendent of a Brooklyn apartment house. He died in 1964. Miroslav Kropilak a kolektiv. Dejiny Slovenska V {1918-1945). Bratislava: Veda , 1985 . 612 pp. JAMES R. FELAK Bloomington, Indiana It would be hard to find a quarter century in Slovak history more eventful than the period from 1918 to 1945 . These years saw the creation, destruction , and re-creation of the Czechoslovak Republic , the emergence and disappearance of an independent Slovak state , a great economic crisis , and a world war. In this fifth volume of the new Dejiny Slovenska, a team of Slovak Marxist scholars provides the most extensive and detailed discussion of this period available in any language. Dejiny Slovenska Vis composed of two parts. The first covers Slovakia within the interwar Czechoslovak Republic; the second deals with the Slovak state and World War II. Each part is divided into chronologically based chapters, which in turn contain subchapters on themes like politics, foreign affairs , economics, social unrest, and developments within the Communist Party. In analyzing the interwar period, the authors focus on the so-called Slovak Question, that is , the place of Slovakia and the Slovak nation in a Czechoslovak state. This question involves a complex of political, economic , social , and cultural factors that gave rise to tensions between Slovaks and Czechs. The Czechoslovak government's failure to ease these tensions contributed mightily to the shape that the First Republic's demise took in 1938-39. In discussing this failure , the authors contend that only the Communist Party was capable of solving the problems that caused social and national dissatisfaction in Slovakia. The authors consider Slovak discontent as essentially a product of the ''bourgeois-democratic , capitalist system'' of the First �SLOVAKIA 103 Republic, with the Czech bourgeoisie as the main perpetrators of this discontent. This ruling class is accused of economically exploiting Slovakia, repressing manifestations of Slovak dissatisfaction, and ruling the country on the basis of centralism, with a complete disregard for Slovakia's special conditions and problems . To help rule Slovakia, this " ruling Czech bourgeoisie " fostered the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is, the notion that the Slovaks were not a distinct nation but rather members of a Czechdominated "Czechoslovak" nation. The authors sharply criticize Czechoslovakism, which they see as a reactionary ideology serving only to fan the flames of Slovak nationalism and to hamper Czechoslovak state unity in the face of the external threats of the 1930s. As allies of the ''ruling Czech bourgeoisie,' ' the so-called centralist parties in Slovakia, above all the Social Democrats and the Agrarians , come under attack in this volume. The Social Democrats are strongly criticized for their so-called reformist approach to Slovakia's social and economic ills , for placing the interests of the state ahead of the interests of the working class , and for staunchly supporting centralism and Czechoslovakism. The Agrarians are reproached for similar reasons, including an economic policy that favored the rural middle class of the expense of the working class and poorer peasants. The authors indeed point out that many Slovak Agrarians were lukewarm in their support for centralism and Czechoslovakism and tried to advance Slovakia's interests under the guise of "silent revision of centralism" or "regionalism." Nevertheless, the authors believe that by failing to distance themselves effectively from Prague and to solve Slovakia's economic problems, the centralist parties drove many Slovaks into the camp of Hlinka 's Slovak People 's Party (HSPP or L'udaks). The authors do not condemn the HSPP for its autonomist program and political opposition, but rather for " catering to the reactionary classes" at home and seeking ties with Czechoslovakia's enemies abroad. In their Marxist interpretation, the authors see the HSPP as the representative of those bourgeois elements that were dissatisfied with their political and economic position in Czechoslovakia. The fact that the HSPP had broad popular appeal �104 SLOVAKIA cutting across class boundaries is explained by the party's ability to exploit Slovakia's economic ills and national discontent demagogically in order to win votes. Although the authors condemn the HSPP's leadership, they are more lenient toward its rankand-file, whom they characterize as justly disaffected by the social and national situation in Slovakia but misled by L'udak propaganda. If the L'udaks were too reactionary to solve the Slovak Question, and the centralist parties too reformist and ''Czechoslovak,'' the Communist Party alone , according to this work, possessed the correct formula. In the authors' interpretation, the Communist Party was committed both to the distinctiveness of the Slovak nation and the integrity of the Czechoslovak state, which, after a socialist revolution and installation of a dictatorship of the proletariat, was to be set up on the basis of national equality and mutual respect between the Czech and Slovak nations. The party did not hold this position consistently from 1918 to 1945, but did take this stance during the Slovak National Uprising. The book depicts, although somewhat opaquely, the shifts in the party's nationality policy in the period under discussion and presents the party's position during the Uprising not as a mere tactical move but rather as the culmination of twenty-five years of Communist thinking al}d experience regarding the Slovak Question. Although the portrayal of the Communist Party in this volume is overwhelmingly positive , there is some criticism, especially of party centralism. The authors clearly side with those Slovak Communists, above all the Davists, who preferred a party that was more responsive to Slovak conditions to one that rigidly applied directives from the leadership in Prague. While centralism and "dogmatism" may be reproached, however, the authors never question the Communist Party's fundamental goals. The second part of this work deals with the Slovak state and World War II. This period is presented dichotomously. On the negative side is the Slovak state. Although the authors deem it "an acceptable alternative for the majority of the Slovak population in 1939-1941 from the constitutional point of view," they portray its L'udak leaders as fascists and opportunists, tools of German imperalism who tried but ultimately failed to win over the �SLOVAKIA 105 Slovak population via social demagoguery and exaggerated nationalism. On the positive side is the Slovak resistance movement, manifested above all in the Slovak National Uprising. According to the authors, the Uprising represented the progressive majority of the Slovak population. They claim that the Uprising was never defeated politically or militarily, but rather won out as the first stage of a democratic and national revolution in Slovakia. Although the authors acknowledge the role played by nonCommunists in the Slovak resistance, they repeatedly assert that Communist influence was paramount. The party gets credit forsuccessfully helping bring down the L'udak regime while at the same time resisting efforts of the Benes government in London to restore the pre-Munich Republic on its old sociopolitical bases. Not surprisingly, the authors also credit the Soviet Union with greatly assisting the Uprising. The authors have considerable sympathy for the selfdetermination of the Slovak nation, as their condemnation of centralism and Czechoslovakism attests . However , when this sympathy comes into conflict with their orthodox Marxist-Leninst line, the latter wins out. For example, the occupation of Slovakia by Bela Kun's army in 1919 is portrayed as a totally positive event for the Slovak population, and any suggestions that they may have constituted a restoration of Hungarian rule over the Slovaks are dismissed as myth. To the volume's credit, it provides an informative survey of social and economic developments in Slovakia. In addition, it devotes much attention to cultural history, including discussions of the growth of Slovak education, literature, art, and even film and radio. It also treats the cultural affairs of Slovakia's German , Magyar, and Ukrainian minorities. On the debit side, there is very little biographical information offered regarding the key figures in Slovak political life , the subchapters on diplomatic developments are completely and unequivocally pro-Soviet, and several important Western publications are absent from the relatively lengthly bibliography. As a comprehensive survey of some of the most crucial years in Slovak history, this installment of Dejiny Slovenska should interest all scholars of twentieth-century Slovak history . Not only �106 SLOVAKIA is it a source of much information, but it also presents the most up-to-date official view on controversial issues such as the Slovak Question, the Slovak state, and the Slovak National Uprising. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists, 1918-1948. "East European Monographs, No. CXXX. " Boulder, CO: East European Monographs , 1983. xi , 185 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. ROBERT K. EVANSON University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Students of Slovak history are greatly indebted to Yeshayahu Jelinek for his painstaking dissection of the response of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) to ''the Slovak Question'' during the 1918-1948 period. Jelinek trudges admirably through the bewildering zigs and zags and general confusion of Communist nationality policies during the First, Second, and Third Czechoslovak Republics and the wartime Slovak Republic. It is well known that the political tasks of Czechoslovak Communism have often been complicated by the subjection of the KSC to Soviet supervision and interference. Slovak Communists faced an even tougher road in their efforts to expand their base of popular support within Slovakia, in part because their mentors in Prague were even more overbearing and less sensitive to Slovak national aspirations than were the Soviets. Czech Communist leaders tended to view Slovak nationalism as either an obstacle or a vehicle to their achievement of pow~r in Prague, depending on the moment. Their lack of understanding or respect for Slovak feelings was, of course, (ypical of Czech politicians of almost all ideological stripes. Not that Slovak Communists possessed any clear idea of how to handle the national question. Pulled in different directions by nationalist feelings and a desire to win popular support on the one hand , and by loyalty to the KSC and Moscow on the other, they adopted an array of "solutions" which were, as Jelinek notes, testimony to the failure of Communist ideology to address effec- �SLOVAKIA 107 tively the nationalist phenomenon. Different Slovak Communist spokesmen variously proposed the creation of a Slovak-Hungarian Soviet Republic, incorporation of Slovakia into the Soviet Union, complete independence, autonomous federative status within a unified Czechoslovakia, equality without autonomy , and extreme centralization under Prague 's control. Jelinek 's discussion provides essential background reading to Czech-Slovak tensions since 1948, including the tragic persecution of Slovak Communists during the 1950s and the renewal of Slovak demands for genuine federalism during the 1960s. Nationalism has been ·'a powerful force in Slovak Communism throughout the history of Czechoslovakia, and there is little reason to believe that the current quasi-federal formula will permanently sweep the issue of Slovak-Czech relations under the rug. Despite Jelinek 's yeoman service in delineating these matters , the book contains a number of typographical and some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor. Rudolf Slansky, for example, is twice identified as "Josef Slansky" (pp. 36, 72); and Viliam Siroky seems to be identified as a Czech - the language is ambiguous - on p . 40 , although later on he is characterized correctly as a Magyarized Slovak. On a more general level , this reviewer has two criticisms, one minor and one major. The period and events described by Jelinek are so complex that he could have helped the reader by more often stepping back to address the confusion and reorder the facts in summary form. Whenever such a broad overview is absent, the narrative unavoidably gets bogged down in the myraid of individuals, factions , and endless changes in party line that defined Communist nationality policies during the thirty years in question. When the author chooses to summarize , as in his excellent passage on the war years (pp. 40-41) and in his fine concluding chapter, the reader is greatly enlightened . More serious is Jelinek's tendency to lump all Communists together in his insistence that they regard nationalism as " a mere tool to achieve [power] " (p . 1). This is the author 's major thesis , but his book's evidence suggests rather that many Communists were confused about the Slovak issue and failed to reach a consensus about nationality policies . While Czech centralizers were �108 SLOVAKIA inclined to be cynical or fearful of Slovak nationalism, many Slovaks were genuine nationalists who took considerable risks to advocate their people's cause. Jelinek explicitly recognizes this fact on several occasions, as in his fascinating discussion of Communist cooperation with the rightwing L'udaks, and in his description of the Slovak National Uprising, neither of which can be regarded as a mere power tactic. The author's general thesis, therefore, is at odds with his narrative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable and original contribution to the study of Slovak Communism. M. Mark Stolarik. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1985. 147 pp. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio In the preface to this work, M . Mark Stolarik states "that it is the responsibility of professional historians to also write the histories of particular ethnic groups for those groups'' and warns his readers that Growing Up on the South Side was written "only incidentally for fellow academics" (p. 13). Indeed, his research was partially supported by funds bequeathed for the purpose of writing a history of Bethlehem Slovaks for Bethlehem Slovaks. Growing Up on the South Side is too brief to offer an in-depth analysis of the Bethlehem Slovak population over a lengthy ninetysix-year period. Still, Stolarik touches upon important aspects of the history of that ethnic communtiy . He relies extensively on material generated by the Slovak community: fraternal and church records and publications, newspapers, and short histories written by Slovaks . He skillfully blends these sources with oral interviews with second- and third-generation Slovaks. Stolarik overlooks, however , the newspapers Narodne noviny and, with one minor exception, Slovensky hlasnik. His bibliography is somewhat dated because he does not cite relevant works, including his own, published after 1981. �SLOVAKIA 109 Although the author does not burden his narrative with statistics, tables, or theories , he generally succeeds in achieving his objective of writing for a more general , rather than an academic audience . On several occasions, either in the narrative or footnotes , he corrects factual errors that apparently heretofore have been accepted by Bethlehem Slovaks . However, by trying to avoid becoming bogged down in scholarly analysis , Stolarik, at times, forgets his responsibility to the general public as a professional historian. Indeed , he misses opportunities to use his scholarly expertise to investigate the veracity of some popularly-held beliefs or attitudes and is not always careful to use solid evidence to support some generalizations. For example , Stolarik rather nonchalantly refers to "the Irish police" as stopping fights at Slovak weddings (p. 82) . Were all the policemen in Bethlehem Irish , or were only Irish policemen sent to quiet down rowdy Slovak celebrations? Here statistics and footnotes are needed. Stolarik's nice composite picture of Slovak fraternal meetings drawn from the minutes of different lodges includes the suggestion that women disrupted meetings when they attended in their husbands' stead. This was a popular view held by Slovak males who opposed accepting females into lodges in the early twentieth century. How " often" did women actually delay meetings? Stolarik observes that secular lodges opened with the presidents warning '' all in attendance to behave themselves" (p . 40) . This presumably included both men and women present. Can women, then , be singled out as a particular problem? In both instances just cited , Stolarik's descriptions may be accurate, but statements by a professional historian that confirm ethnic and sexual stereotypes in the minds of a general audience require more concrete, explicit evidence . At times , Stolarik is also confusing because his discussion is too brief. For example , he relates that several factors gave rise to a large number of Slovak lodges in Bethlehem. Some lodges were formed on the basis of geographic origins, while the membership of others , he explains, reflected social standing in the Slovak community. Does this mean that Slovaks who joined the same lodge as fellow villagers but then subsequently attained a different social status in the community switched lodges? If this was the case, it has strong implications for further exploring the emergence �110 SLOVAKIA of class divisions within ethnic communities. The discussion of female occupations should also be expanded and clarified . It is not clear if the second- and third-generation working women he discusses (pp. 113, 115-17) were married or single . Did married women routinely work outside of the home? Such clarifications would have enhanced his discussion of the acculturation process among American-Slovaks. Also, since formal affiliation of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1902) with the Missouri Synod did not occur until 1908, Stolarik's passing reference to 1902 as the date when Slovak Lutherans affiliated with that conservative body can create confusion. Finally, some Bethlehem Slovaks as well as scholars will surely disagree with some of Stolarik's generalizations about the Slovak experience in general and the Bethlehem experience in particular. Although Stolarik was concerned primarily with writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks, his work does touch on issues of interest to professional scholars. His discussions of politics and social mobility support those scholars who suggest that social mobility in America can be gauged on different levels. While some Slovaks did not achieve social prominence in American society, they did achieve such prominence within their own ethnic community. His analysis of politics offers some insight into how immigrants dealt with, adjusted to, and influenced America's political structure. Overall, the author remains faithful to his objective of writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks. In doing so, he avoids the trappings of filiopietism often evident in such ethnic histories. While careful not to offend their descendants, Stolarik, on occasion, provides critical judgments of individuals. Additionally, while he clearly regrets the ongoing demise of Slovak culture and the waning of ethnic identity that has taken place among Bethlehem Slovaks, he does not reduce his study to one of "Slovak contributions" and a celebration of Slovak culture in a propagan distic effort to stir ethnocentrism among second- and thirdgeneration Slovaks. Thus, w hile scholars will likely agree with Stolarik's own assessment that " traditional concerns of historians" generally remain beyond the scope of Growing Up on the South Side , Bethlehem Slovaks will find that Stolarik has done what he set out to do: write a readable English-language history for them. �SLOVAKIA 111 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution - A Quarter of a Century After. London: George Allen & Unwin , 1983 . xviii, 174 pp. PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Bentley, Australia The authors of this book left Hungary in 1977. Since then they have published a remarkable series of books, especially (together with George Markus) Dictatorship over Needs: A Study of Soviet Societies, also in 1983 . The present volume is a well written and passionately argued attempt to interpret the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a leftist and socialist radical point of view. The authors' thesis on the revolution is divided into two parts: its impact on the world, and on Hungary. There is hardly any doubt that the revolution was felt all over the world. Equally correct is the writers' conviction that because no substantial help was offered to the revolutionaries from the West , "the result was a major loss of face for the Western powers, a second moral Munich" (p. 15) . More questionable is their often repeated affirmation that the Hungarians rebelled equally against the Soviets as against the West, because during World War II the latter allowed Central and Eastern Europe to be incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Only Istvan Bib6 and his " Draft of a compromise solution of the Hungarian question'' can be quoted in support of such a surprising assertion. Sure enough, most Central and East Europeans did not like the overwhelming Soviets interest and the shocking Western lack of interest in their fate and territories, but it is stretching the point to claim that ''the Hungarian revolution was a revolt against all signatories of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements" (p. 16) . Feher and Heller are on safer grounds when they assert that in 1956 the Americans lost a great opportunity by not offering to the Soviets a compromise by which Hungary would have been granted neutrality and the Soviet Union an end to the Cold War. The Soviet leaders were for a few crucial days divided about how to deal with the crisis, and the authors believe that the Soviets would have considered such an offer. �112 SLOVAKIA There follows a good discussion of "national communism, " and in this context Yugoslav leaders are blamed for their opportunist attitude toward the Hungarian revolution. Western Communist parties lost many members, fellow-travellers, and prestige in the process: "The events of October 1956 [sounded] the deathknell of the Popular Front policy" (p. 44). In their review of other East European Communist parties' reaction to the revolution, the writers express their support for "the idea of a confederation between the free nations of the region" (p. 62). In the second part of the book the authors stress the lack of democratic and liberal traditions in their native country. Several times they point out that only in Czechoslovakia was there a successful marriage of nationalism with such progressive tendencies. Although they believe that after both the First and Second World Wars Hungary was treated too harshly by the victors, they contend that only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a democratic, liberal, and socialist model being created in their country. One of the major points of the message should be seen in that historical development. Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller would also like their readers to believe that after a long series of failed heroes of Hungarian history Imre Nagy should be accepted as a genuine hero , "forger, arbiter , martyr and symbol of a murdered revolution" (pp . 15 7-8). What fascinated this reviewers most was the obvious learning process experienced by extreme leftist radicals about the real substance of 'Soviet Commu nism and of its betrayal of the working people. The authors castigate not only Lenin, Trotsky , and Stalin, but also Deutscher and Sartre , among others, for trusting professional revolutionaries and manipulators more than the masses. From the authors ' arguments it is also clear that they themselves had to be transformed from typical radical intellectuals' positions of misuse of the wage earners to admiration for their democratic and pluralist hopes . They admit that only several years after the revolution were some of the w ishes and actions of the Hungarian people understood and accepted by them (e.g ., p . 92). The last pages of the volume are devoted to an excellent analysis of Kadarism and of the modernized sophisticated terror which is also well known in Czechoslovakia. �SLOVAKIA 113 Slovak readers will find occasional reference to Hungarian "bereft territories" (p. 149) and of the Hungarians expelled from Slovakia (pp. 50 -51). They might wonder who are the "Slovakians" (p . 51). Of much greater interest is the insight into the way leftist radical socialists inside of Hungary view the past and the future and what can be expected from them and their nation . Jozef Ciger-Hronsky. Jozef Mak. Translated by Andrew Cincura. Afterword by Peter Petro. Columbus: Slavica, 1984. 232 pp. WILLIAM E. HARKINS Columbia University New York, New York This volume is the first in a series of works of Slovak literature slated to be published by Slavica Publishers in Columbus, Ohio. Currently projected for publication are volumes by Hugolin Gavlovic and Bozena Timrava, as well as a volume of folk ballads. The project represents a notable break-through for the cause of Slovak literature in translation in this country . Jozef Ciger (1894-1960), who published under the pseudonym of Hronsky, is one of the great writers of Modern Slovak Literature, one comparatively neglected , presumably for ideological reasons. A village school teacher , Hronsky knew the Slovak peasants as perhaps no other Slovak writer did; in particular, he understood the mysticism of the peasantry and portrayed it in his works : During World War II he supported the nationalistic Tiso regime , and in 1945 emigrated to Argentina. Under the new Czechoslovak republic he was never mentioned, not to say published, along with a number of other nationalist writers . In 1970 his contemporary, the critic Alexander Matuska , published a monograph devoted to him. Jozef Mak was published in 1933. It is a novel of the Slovak village in the period of Hungarian oppression and the time of emigration to America. Maryarization and Emigration are portrayed as twin perils and twin temptations , for both seem to pro- �114 SLOVAKIA mise political or economic salvation to the poverty-ridden peasantry. The novel represents a unique blend of realism and symbolism, one hardly to be found among contemporary Czech writers, for instance, or even among other Slovak writers. Those aspects of the novel that pertain to individual characters and their fates are more symbolic, while the public and social facets of the story are realistic. The first are richer in metaphors , certainly while the latter are richer in metonyms. The blending of the two strains gave the author considerable difficulty , and it is the private, symbolic novel that is more memorable for the reader . The term "symbolic" is customarily used for fiction in the style of Jozef Mak , but the novel is actually as much mythic as symbolic. (Of course the two styles are closely interrelated.) The leading characters are archetypes who draw much of their being from an idealized metaphorical world close to folklore. Jozef Mak himself is an image of the alienated orphan, denied his inheritance, material as well as spiritual. The novel ends without his having found himself or his true destiny. Jozef Mak is born the illegitimate son of a poor peasant woman, to be ousted from the house and land by his worthless older, legitimate half brother. Still he grows up honest, hard working, and resourceful. He finally marries a crippled woman whom he seduces, a wife who provides a spiritual guide for him throughout his married life . But, exhausted from the weight of burdens, physical and spiritual, his wife Jula dies . Jozef is left alone at the end of the novel to endure and to plot his path through life alone. The wife Jula is certainly one of the great characters in Slovak literature. Her piety and meekness , and her endurance of her husband's deceptions, are entirely believable , as is the aura of spiritual beauty (in spite of physical deformity) with which the author invests her. The author's conception of such a character required great artistic imagination; Mak himself is hardly so successful. Perhaps his position as central character (and also as perceiving subject) in so much of the novel has precluded the writer from developing a firm, coherent image of him. Less sharp are the characters involved, positively or negative- �SLOVAKIA 115 ly , in their nation's political struggle , and it is evident that Hronsky had difficulties with the realistic side of the novel , partly because the struggle in question corresponds to the time of his boyhood, when he hardly could have succeeded in grasping its meaning. Thus the mythic, symbolic , mystical side of the novel is the stronger, and makes a powerful nostalgic imprint on the reader. Pavol Stevcek. Contemporary Slovak Literature . Translated by Ol 'ga Horska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1980. 122 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights , Ohio Contemporary Slovak literature is often an unfamiliar area even to Slavic literary specialists, whereas writings of contemporary Czech authors from the same country are internationally known. Perhaps it is true , as one Slovak specialist in North America has stated , that Slovak literature is a Cinderella among the literatures of Europe that awaits the discovery of her true worth. The study under review is an attempt to dispel some of this unfamiliarity for an English-reading audience. In this book Stevcek discusses twenty-three writers of the post-1945 era. Twenty-one men are presented as poets and writers of prose and children's literature, but only two women are discussed and that in the area of children 's literature. Among the poets are Pavol Horov, Jan Kostra, Ladislav Novomesky, Milan Rufus, Jan Smrek, and Miroslav Valek; among the prose writers are Alfonz Bednar, Peter Jaros , Vladimir Minac, Vincent Sikula, and Frantisek Svantner. The first of six chapters sets the context for appreciating the work of these writers. In describing the development of this modern era in literature Stevcek employs a Marxist interpretation and even discusses briefly the features of literature written according to such a viewpoint. (The English here is rather stilted and contrived; if the translation is at fault, it is probably because it is a literal rendition of the author's diction and style , which in Slovak may be appropriate for such a work but becomes at times opaque in English translation .) In the remaining five �116 SLOVAKIA chapters, Stevcek considers respectively writers of poetry, prose, children's literature, drama, and literary studies and theoretical presentations. At the end of the chapters on poetry and prose, the author presents brief commentary on a number of other such contemporary writers in order to round out the presentation for these areas . In the chapter on poetry Stevcek fails to include Masa Hal 'amova. Why? Does not a poet who was at the time of this study an "Artist of Merit" deserve mention? (At the present time, she holds the title "National Artist.") This is a significant omission, especially as consideration of Hal'amova would also have increased the number of women presented . In the chapter on children's literature Stevcek includes two women, one of whom, Klara Jarunkova, could just as well have been discussed in the prose chapter. Indeed, she could have been included in both chapters . Likewise , L'ubomir Feldek should have been discussed for more than his contribution to children's literature. Some commentary on or at least mention of L'udo Zubek and Dominik Tatarka would also have been quite justified. Such additions to this study would certainly not have increased its size by much, and yet would have definitely enhanced its benefit to Slavic scholars and anyone interested in Slovak literature. Contemporary Slovak Literature is a noteworthy contribution from Slovakia that provides some basic information on a large number of writers. Such a publication in English is crucial if Slovak literature is to be able to assume its proper place in modern world literature . Given the paucity of such publications , this study should be helpful not only to specialists but also libraries. Given also the excellent literary specialists now writing in Slovakia, more such publications as the one above, with style and English rendition improved , should be rightly expected and published in the future. � SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 83 ��SLOVAKIA 85 Historicky casopis, 33 , 2 (1 985) . "K vel 'komoravskemu vyrociu. " Bratislava: Veda, 19 8 5. Anna Holla. Metod - ucitel' Slovienov. K 1100 vfrrociu umrtia {885-1985}. Martin: Matica slovenska , 1985 . THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. Pittsburgh , Pennsyl vania As the year 1985 approached , Slovak Christians both in Czechoslovakia and abroad wondered in what manner the 1, 100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius would be observed in Slovakia. The two publications under review provide partial answers to that question. · Historicky casopis , the official organ of the Ustav historickych vied Slovenskej akademie vied , devoted an entire issue to the ' 'Great Moravian Anniversary. ' ' In their introduction, the editors concede that Methodius was ' 'the most important personality in the cultural history of Great Moravia." Further, they note that ''Marxist historiography values highly the work of Constantine and Methodius, who laid the foundations for the development of Slavic literature, which thereafter prevailed among the majority of the South and East Slavs ." However , they also maintain that although Marxist historiography cannot overstate the importance of these two men, it cannot view them only as " evangelizers of the faith." The cultural elements of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage are, of course, undeniable. But it is equally undeniable that that legacy also - and primarily - includes tremendous religiou s significance for the Slavs in general and the Slovaks in particular. What this reviewer finds especially objectionable in this issue of Historicky casopis is the attempt to minimize the importance of the evangelical activity of Sts . Cyril and Methodius and to neglect the religious dimensions of their work. The cultural achievements of the saintly brothers were the result of their primary goal: to complete the Christianization of the Slavic peoples. This main goal of their mission is never properly recognized by the authors, and the names of Sts . Cyril and Methodius are never mentioned with their title of reverence , " Saint. " Furthermore, not a single arti- �86 SLOVAKIA cle is devoted specifically to St. Methodius in what is supposed to be a commemoration of the anniversary of his death! The first article , by Matus Kucera, assesses Great Moravia and the beginnings of Slovak national history. Although Kucera writes extensively about the era of Rastislav and Svatopluk, he fails to mention Sts. Cyril and Methodius by name as the founders of Christian civilization among the ancestors of the Slovaks. In his article on "fictions and facts" concerning the territorial development of Great Moravia, Peter Ratkos refutes the claims of Imre Boba and other historians that the territory of Great Moravia was situated around the Morava River in Serbia. According to Ratkos , Sirmium was probably not the actual see of Archbishop Methodius , because at that time Sirmium belonged to Bulgaria. Richard Marsina examines the diplomatic documents relating to the history of Great Moravia and their value as sources. He acknowledges the authenticity of seventeen diplomatic texts, mostly the preserved letters of Popes Adrian II, John VIII, Stephen V, and John IX, and eighteen lost documents (deperdita) mentioned in the authentic diplomatic papers and other reliable historical sources. The article which deals the most with St. Cyril is the one by Alexander Avenarius on the contribution of Byzantium to Great Moravian culture. The author explains St. Cyril's philosophy, classifies him as a liberal in his opposition to iconoclasm, and places him in the camp of the liberal patriarch Photius. Avenarius also describes the influence of Byzantine monasticism in Bohemia and Slovakia after the death of Svatopluk. The last two articles are not directly concerned with the work of Sts. Cyril and Metodius . Bohuslav Chropovsky and Alexander Ruttkay evaluate the most recent archeological excavations and situate geographically the extent of the Slovak ethnic group. Finally, Rudolf Krajcovic examines the very complicated issue of language in Great Moravia and its continuity with Slovak. The publication of the Matica slovenska, Metod - ucitel' Slovienov, is more germane to the commemoration of St. Methodius' anniversary than the articles in the Historicky casopis issue. It contains nineteen pages of printed text by Anna Holla and thirty-two photographic reproductions of archeological findings from the �SLOVAKIA 87 Great Moravian era, copies of some Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and newer Slovak literary and pictorial works related to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Holla's brief survey of St. Methodius and the whole CyrilloMethodian legacy in Czechoslovakia is a popular version based on contemporary scholarship. It reflects, not surprisingly, the distortions of present official Marxist historiography concerning the Great Moravian period. Holla characterizes Great Moravia as the first state common to the Czechs and Slovaks; and she emphasizes the cultural, social, and political activity of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and excludes or minimizes their missio.nary efforts. Holla' s assertion that Great Moravia was the first joint state of the Czechs and Slovaks is of dubious historical validity. By military force Svatopluk occupied the adjacent Slavic territories, among them Bohemia, and annexed them to his realm, but he did not incorporate them organically into Great Moravia. After his death in 894, the people in these occupied territories hastened to separate themselves from Great Moravia, searching for independence or joining new political alliances. The annexation of Bohemia to Great Moravia lasted less than twenty years, and after Svatopluk's death the Czechs found themselves again in the orbit of the Eastern Frankish (German) Empire. This reviewer must also take exception to Holla's statement that ''The basis of the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius in the Great Moravian Empire was their legal work, by which they eradicated Frankish church law and the unwritten common law of Great Moravia and substituted for it a strong legal order" (p. 6}. As has been mentioned, the basis of the CyrilloMethodian mission was the evangelization of the Slavs. Sts. Cyril and Methodius did not eliminate the church law which had been brought to the territory of Great Moravia by Irish-Scottish, Acquilean (Italian), and Bavarian missionaries; and they did not abolish the unwritten indigenous laws as long as they did not deviate from either Latin or Byzantine church and civil laws. In conclusion, the jubilee issue of Historicky casopis and the text by Anna Holla in the Matica slovenska publication suffer from gross deficiencies and omissions which stem from the antireligious bias of official Marxist historiography toward the legacy �88 SLOVAKIA of Sts. Cyril and Methodius . Only the Matica slovenska publication, with its well-selected, beautiful reproductions , can in a sense be considered as a tribute to the memory of St. Methodius in Slovakia. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy v slovensky ch kniiniciach. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, I]. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1981. 304 pp. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie v Mad'arsku av Rumunsku. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, II). Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982. 400 pp. GERALD J. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This two-volume catalogue of codices comprises a listing of all extant medieval manuscripts produced on Slovak territory. Most were written in Latin and are similar to those found throughout medieval Europe. The subject matter pertains, for the most part, to religious faith and practice, and philosophy. Bibles, missals , antiphonaries , graduals , chant collections , sermons and related bilingual dictionaries, rules of a religious order, commentaries on religious topics, and philosophical studies are the kinds of writings found in these manuscripts. Occasionally among them are " secular" - non-religious or philosophical - texts , such as Gesta Romanorum (Feats of the Romans), Chronicon Dubnicense (The History of Dubnica), or Codex Justinian us: Digesta - Excerpta (Justinian's Law Code: Summaries and Excerpts) . Some of these manuscripts are preserved in Slovak archival repositories, while others are found in Hungary and Romania. In the two introductions of the first volume in Slovak and Latin , Sopko considers briefly the emergence and development of libraries and scriptoria on Slovak territory as well as the history of manuscript collections and their present status. He discusses the role of certain religious orders in the execution and collection of such manuscripts; among these are the Benedictines, Fran- �SLOVAKIA 89 ciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Premonstratensians (also known as Norbertines). Sopko also mentions the significant activity of the cathedral chapters in Nitra, Bratislava, and Spis that fostered the composing of manuscripts. Thirteen Slovak areas are listed as locations of repositories for such manuscripts: Banska Bystrica, Bardejov, Bratislava, Dolny Kubin, Jasov, Kezmarok, Kosice, Kremnica, Martin, Nitra, Presov, Spisska Kapitula , and Spisske Vlachy. These cities and towns, institutions in Bratislava and Kremnica contain the overwhelming majority of the 200 medieval manuscripts found on Slovak territory today. In Bratislava, the cathedral chapter library alone contains 82 such codices of the 135 found in the 6 repositories of this city. In Kremnica, the parish library contains 25 of 26 medieval codices in the city. In the second volume , 86 of 88 manuscripts preserved in Hungary are found in Budapest; the remaining 130 of the total 418 listed' in the two volumes are found in Alba Julia, Romania, in the former Batthyany library collection. In his introductions Sopko mentions the art of manuscript illumination that was well developed on Slovak territory . He includes at the end of both volumes photographic reproductions of some manuscripts, usually rendered in color, many of which also exemplify the art of illumination. One of the outstanding examples of manuscript writing and illumination is the ''Bratislava Missal,' ' which today is preserved in Alba Julia, Romania, as part of the former Batthyany library collection. This missal is described in the second volume of the catalogue (#400), and a color reproduction of one of its folio pages can be found at the end among the supplementary illustrations . (A book that presents the illumination aspect of medieval manuscripts in the Slovak area and that would complement this catalogue well is Stredoveka kniina mal 'ba na Slovensku by Alzbeta Giintherova and Jan Misianik published in two editions [1961 and 1977] by Tatran of Bratislava.) Sopko concludes each of the volumes with four lists: concordance of signatures , dated codices, first words of a codex, and a name and topic index. This two-volume catalogue by Sopko is primarily aimed at libraries and specialists in medieval culture and history. It presents �90 SLOVAKIA well the scholarly work that is often produced under the auspices of the Matica slovenska. Vysady miest a mesteciek na Slovensku {1238-1350}, I. Edited by L'ubomir Juck. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. 199 pp. Narodnostny vyvoj miest na Slovensku do roku 1918. K 600. vyrociu vydania vysad pre zilinskych Slovakov Edited by Richard Marsina. Martin: Osveta, 1984 . 275 pp. DAVID P. DANIEL ConcorcJti.a Seminary St. Louis, Missouri These two volumes reflect the breadth and depth of Slovak historical urban studies. They are both welcome additions to the growing body of scholarship on the history of urban life in Slovakia in the late medieval and early modern eras. The first, ''Privileges of the Cities and Towns in Slovakia (1238-1350)" was prepared as part of a long-term project planned by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the 1950's and early 1960's which set as its goal the editing and publication of historical documents from the earliest eras of Slovak history. This volume is the first dealing specifically with the charters and grants of legal privileges made to the emerging cities during the High Middle Ages, primarily by Hungarian monarchs. Information concerning the documents which have disappeared and/or the texts of those preserved were drawn from materials in the archives of Slovakia and throughout Central Europe. The volume begins with a general introduction indicating the methodological principles utilized in preparing it and some general comments on the types of documents included . The bulk of the book is devoted to a catalogue, in chronological order, of all the grants of privileges discovered; a brief description of their contents and context in Slovak; the text of the document, in so far as it is known in the original language of composition, Latin; and finally a listing of the provenance of each document. As such , this volume provides a fascinating and accessible entrance into �SLOVAKIA 91 the historical development of the cities and towns which emerged on the territory of modern-day Slovakia during the High Middle Ages. They show that the economic strength of the towns grew in conjunction with the grants of economic and political privileges extended to them by the Hungarian monarchs. The towns sought to develop and protect their economic basis, manufacture, and trade by securing from the kings extensive rights of selfadministration and governance. The second volume, "Nationality Development of Cities in Slovakia to the Year 1918," is a collection of essays arranged according to the three thematic sections of the book: ''Nationality Development in Zilina"; "Nationality Development in the Towns of Slovakia''; and ''Nationality Development in Czech and Moravian Towns in the Middle Ages." However, despite the title, all but four of the sixteen studies treat the medieval and early modern periods. In the first section Marsina himself analyzes the privileges given to the Slovaks in Zilina in 1381; Julius Sopko attempts to identify the various individuals who made entries into the city record book of Zilina; Izidor Kotulic evaluates the language of the Zilina record book and other historical documents in Slovak; and Rudolf Kuchar examines the family names which appear in the Zilina record book. The studies of Peter Stansky on the structuring of nationalities in Zilina up to 1918 and of Pavol Hapak on the economic life and workers movement in Zilina during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude the section devoted specifically to the history of Zilina. In the second section Ferdinand Ulicny investigates the national groupings within the medieval cities of Slovakia; Jan Dorul'a examines the use of Slovak in the cities between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; Anton Spiesz provides an analysis of Slovak artisan activity during the so-called later feudal period, the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; and Jozef Vozaf evaluates the relationship between ethnic groups in the so-called montana or mining cities of central Slovakia during the same era. Ivan Chalupecky provides an analysis of ethnic relationships in the towns of Spis county for the century between 1550 to 1650, and Jana Skladana examines the oldest city books in Banovec nad Bebravou, dating from the sixteenth through the early eighteenth �92 SLOVAKIA centuries. Milan Podrimavsky concludes this section with an examination of the cities in Slovakia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . The third section is made up of just three essays: Frantisek Smahel's review of findings and perspectives of the research into ethnic relationships in Bohemian cities during the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries); Ludmila Sulitkova's investigation of the ethnic relationships in the Moravian cities, especially the royal cities, during the Late Middle Ages; and Josef Zemlicka' s essay on the countryside , ethnicity, and the late medieval Bohemian cities. While it is impossible to examine these essays individually, it should be noted that not only do they reveal how much urban studies have come to dominate Slovak late medieval/early modern history research , but also the complexities of ethnic relationships in Slovakia during the same era. Slovaks took an active, if not always an appreciated, role in the life of the cities of Slovakia during the Middle Ages and were, especially but not merely in the smaller towns , significant in their economic and political life. It is to be hoped that these volumes will encourage American scholars to become much more active in more fully investigating late medieval and early modern Slovak history. Juraj Zudel. Stolice na Slovensku. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984. 200 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee , Florida This book was written to provide a generaLhistory of the counties of Slovakia until 1849, when a modern centralized administration was imposed by Imperial decree in the so-called "Bach era". It may consequently be subtitled "Patterns of Feudalism''. Zudel summarizes characteristics common to all the Slovak districts, and then depicts both individual and regional peculiarities. The main theme is an analysis of the evolution of the counties under the feudal order. In the introductory section, Zudel points out that originally individual Slovak counties had �SLOVAKIA 93 their own codes of law, but in all cases , in greater or lesser measure, these were eventually supplanted by more centralized government. Particular mention is made of the efforts of the Habsburgs, especially in the case of the Josephine reforms of the eighteenth century, to provide a uniform code of law for Hungary. These endeavors were only partially successful, and many of them were undone following the death of the King-Emperor in 1790 . Only in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution was it possible for enduring institutions of modern government to be established. Zudel points out that the 1848 experience may be characterized as a ''conflict of popular sovereignty''. The Hungarian reyolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth sought to protect the jealously-guarded privileges of individual counties, while at the same time using them as instruments of Magyarization in Upper Hungary. By contrast, the more conservative Hungarian reformer Istvan Szechenyi considered the county structure as antiquated, yet he opposed forced Magyarization. The archival sources consulted by the author are listed at the end of the introductory section, and a more general bibliography is included at the conclusion of the text. Zudel's introduction is followed by a survey of each individual county. These surveys include a summary of the territorial boundaries of each administration, the patterns of settlement and habitation , agricultural conditions, and cultural traditions . In cases where a county has been inhabited by more than one ethnic group, an additional section concerning ethnic relations is added . Although Zudel's presentation summarizes the counties in alphabetical order, any attempts at comparison and contrast are best served by examining the counties from a regional perspective. Two of the counties - Bratislava and Abauj - contained Slovakia's major metropolitan centers . In the case of the western county Bratislava, Zudel stresses its strategic location at the point where the Morava and Danube rivers converge. This location guaranteed that Bratislava was affected by the Hussite invasion. The author also mentions the presence of a Croatian element since the time of the Turkish wars. In the case of Abauj, which contains the eastern metropolis, Zudel indicates that the city of Kosice �94 SLOVAKIA was noteworthy for its traditionally oligarchical form of government. The southern Slovak counties of Gerner, Hant , Komarno , and Novohrad had the common denominators of all being ethnically mixed areas, plus serving as frontier zones in the HabsburgOttoman wars. Much the same treatment is accorded to Ostrihom, although the author also cites the latter for its significance in the Catholic Counterreformation. In the case of northern counties the author mentions that Liptov had lingering anti-feudal traditions, and also served as a stronghold for Slovak nationalism. Orava, in spite of its close geographic proximity to Liptov, evolved in the more traditional feudal pattern. Among central counties Nitra is particularly noted for having had a state organization which pre-dated the kingdom of Hungary; Tekov and Trencin are treated in a similar manner. In the case of the latter, Zudel also mentions the importance of the city of Zilina as a center of Slovak trade with the Czech lands, Silesia, and Prussia. Zvolen is noteworthy for its strategic location in defense of the fertile lowlands of southern Slovakia; the author also· mentions the influence of the Czech immigration following the Thirty Years War. Turiec is especially noted for having separated itself from Rakoczi's rising in the early eighteenth century . The author might have given this event more than passing treatment had he chosen to do so . The eastern counties of Slovakia present some of the most noteworthy peculiarities of all. Mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian king Sigismund mortgaged certain cities of Spis to Poland in the fifteenth century; they were returned to Hungary in the eighteenth. In spite of the fact that Saris was a major focal point for the Magyarization campaign, Zudel points out that the native Slovak nobility played a prominent role in public life. In the case of Zemplin county , the author mentions that the nobles long maintained a sense of autonomy , and consequently supported the Transylvanian rebels in the latter's struggle against the Habsburgs . Zudel also briefly summarizes the history of less " traditional" Slovak countries . After World War II much of the territory of Uz �SLOVAKIA 95 county was transferred to the Ukrainian S.S.R., and the population of the area is today classified as Ukrainian. Zudel, however, mentions the role of the Slovak element in siding with the Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings. Turn.a is treated as an extension of Abauj county (with which it was long affiliated) , although the influence of political patterns emanating from Gerner is also mentioned. In his concluding chapter Zudel summarizes administrative realignments dating from Bach's regime in the 1850s. Since the terms stolica and zupa are often used interchangeably, the author makes a distinction here between velzupa , containing more than one stolica, and zupa, constituting a single district. This distinction is an important one, and the author would hav~ served his readers better by mentioning it in the earlier portion of the text. Although the text conveys the ideological spirit common to contemporary Czechoslovakia, the historical facts are presented in a straightforward manner. Zudel points out that contemporary Hungarian Marxist historiography is more favorably disposed towards Slovak demographic claims in Upper Hungary, and he makes liberal use of Hungarian source materials. The major weakness of the book lies less in what is said than in what remains unsaid. In reference to Abauj county, Zudel cites the Mongol invasion as a determining factor in population distribution; he fails to mention that Kosice was temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of Transylvania by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. One especially glaring contradiction is found in the case of Saris. The author mentions a "pestilental epidemic" in the eighteenth century, but no mention is made of the cholera epidemic which convulsed Saris and other eastern Slovak counties in 1831. Since the latter event was accompanied by a peasant rising which greatly undermined feudal society, the omission is a particularly serious one . For the student who is already well-grounded in Slovak history , Stolice presents little that is original. But is serves as an adequate text within the limits which have been mentioned , and is especially useful as a reference guide to the individual districts . �96 SLOVAKIA Tvorcovia noveho Slovenska/ The Shaping of Modern Slovakia. Festschrift to the Seventieth Birthday of Dr. Joseph A. Mikus . Edited by Joseph Stasko. Cambridge, Canada: Friends of Good Books, 1982 . xv . 271 pp . GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton, Australia This collection of articles by Imrich Kruzliak, Joseph Stasko , Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Frantisek Vnuk, and the celebrant can be looked upon from two different perspectives . The first is readily apparent . Kruzliak's interpretive account of Slovak history from 1918 to 1948; Stasko's soul-searching reflections on the meaning of the Slovak national heritage; Kirschbaum's examination of Slovak student organizations and their aims in the interwar period; and Vnuk's analysis of Slovak diplomacy before the Salzburg event of 1940 all have one common denominator: either the role played by, or the contemporary views held by , Joseph A. Mikus. Mikus's own article , "The International System in Transition,'' is a study of the moral and legal principles underlying the pre~ent system of (soverign or not) states and nations , as well as an application and projection into the future of his own ideas, summarized by the view that "not territorially defined states , particularly multinational structures or empires, but nations in the ethnic and cultural sense are the real members of the international community.'' The other perspective becomes more apparent only after one has finished reading the book. With the exception of Vnuk, the authors have all by now reached, or almost reached , their seventieth birthdays. They are all well-known emigre writers ; political commentators, and interpreters of the Slovak cultural heritage . And - again perhaps with the exception of Vnuk - all the contributions are representative of the particular author's " Slovak creed .' ' They read as a personal legacy to the generation to follow. No Slovak intellectual of the younger generation can afford to ignore what they have to say. Politically and territorially, of course, there is only one Slovakia. But spiritually and culturally there is �SLOVAKIA 97 also an alternative Slovakia, a Slovakia that many of us in the West (as well as some non-conformists in Slovakia) are proud to belong to , a Slovakia that would be unthinkable without its pioneers, and now seniors, like Mikus and Stasko, Kirschbaum, and Kruzliak. Thus it seems to me that - at least from the point of view of the new generation - the title of the book should have been something like " The Shape of a Slovakia We are Inheriting," meaning the spiritual and cultural shape of unofficial Slovakia forced to ''live in exile.'' To summarize: If one cannot read Slovak, it might be preferable to obtain just a reprint of Mikus' s English article rather than buy the whole book. But if one can read Slovak and is interested in Slovak matters, this book is a must. Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M . Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. ClevelandRome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 381 pp. GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton , Australia This Festschrift dedicated to Joseph M. Kirschbaum offers nine articles on various political themes from Slovak history ranging from 1882 to about 1948 . It includes a brief appraisal of the celebrant's life and his contribution to Slovak politics by Charles Murin and a " select bibliography" of Kirschbaum 's publications written in exile. In the first article Edita Bosak deals with Czech-Slovak relations from 1882 to 1914, focusing on the student organization Detvan in Prague. Bosak sees Detvan "as a springboard and nursery for the young Slovak inteligentsia" as opposed to the "conservative Martin leadership ." Although she admits that "the amount of co-operation between Detvan and the Czechs was limited,'' she recognizes the resulting journal Hlas as "progressive," giving "wide distribution to many of the ideas that the students had already worked out in the debates in Detvan, �98 SLOVAKIA especially the idea of Czech-Slovak reciprocity." A comprehensive and unbiased study of Milan Hodza and his original political thinking (contrasted by his often controversial political associations that ended so sadly) is still missing from Slovak political literature . The article by Susan Mikula comes a long way toward such a study, but unfortunately it does not go beyond the year 1914. Still, her account of Hodza's Belvedere orientation and his attitude toward Magyars and Czechs seems to support those political thinkers who see him as the harbinger of contemporary Slovak aspirations toward Central European, or Danubian, Confederation. The contribution by Manfred Alexander is based on a study of the reports from the German Mission in Prague to the Foreign Office of the German Reich from 1918 to 1921. It contains over fifty pages of original documents related to Slovakia, published for the first time. Somehow, the documents make more interesting reading then the article itself. At least in one place the author's conclusions are hard to follow: It is true that Document 13 illustrates in many details the fact that Czech anti-clericalism was at the core of early Czech-Slovak frictions; and that it was the Catholic priests in Slovakia who raised the alarm, and often overreacted. But it seems to be a rather sweeping statement to claim that this is ',!valuable information indicating that the efforts made by the Slovak people to obtain autonomy did not originate spontaneously but were stirred up through agitation.'' Stanislav J. Kirschbaum's study of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party should certainly be read in conjunction with the German documents referred to above, especially by a non-specialist. It throws light on some points raised in the preceding article, and its systematic and more detached account well complements the subjectiveness and immediacy of the documents. The constitution of the Slovak Republic is analyzed by Karin Schmid. She comes to some mixed conclusions, perhaps best expressed in her own words: "If we consider every aspect of the Slovak Constitution - especially the role of the party on one hand, and on the other the control of the government by Parliament (although Parliament itself, in turn, was composed of only one party) - a comparison with what is known as 'socialist democracy' �SLOVAKIA 99 suggests itself. It is tempting, on the model of this concept, to coin the term 'fascist democracy.' However, if we wish to avoid jargon and if we bear in mind that fascism completely rejects the concept of democracy, then the Slovak system can be best described as an authoritarian system with rather surprising democratic features." Lisa Guarda Nardini examines President Tiso's political program. The person of Dr. Jozef Tiso, more so than the Slovak Republic as such, symbolizes the Slovak tragedy during and after World War II: After forty years, most Slovaks are by now resigned to the fact that, given all the circumstances, there was not much chance for the six years of the Slovak Republic to end' differently. But only a few will maintain that Dr. Tiso did not deserve a better fate, a fairer treatment and trial, and less prejudice connected with his place in Slovak history. The article and its discerningly apologetic tone have to be seen in this light. To a certain extent, the same atmosphere permeates the next article on the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic by Milan S. Durica. Of special interest is the section on relations with the Holy See. Durica does not hesitate to state explicitly that "the sharpest dispute between the Slovak Government and the Vatican arose over the Jewish question." Stanislav J. Kirschbaum tackles the extremely complicated and controversial Slovak revolt of 1944. He points out two options that the Slovaks faced by the end of World War II. The first was "to remain true to their state" not excluding "the taking of whatever means were necessary, including changing the regime and the political system'' and hoping that ''the victorious powers would realize that independence was indeed what the nation desired.'' The second option was to return to the Czechoslovak Republic. He is realistic enought to admit that the first option called for an acute sense of timing, exceptional diplomacy, faith on the part of people, and above all capable leadership at the top. But even given the second option, Kirschbaum observes that ''had Benes not been so prejudiced against the Slovaks, but rather had taken into account the evolution of the Slovak nation ... much of the tragedy that befell the Slovak people from 1944 on might have been avoided.'' �100 SLOVAKIA Frantisek Vnuk elaborates on this theme in his article on Slovak-Czech relations between 1945 and 1948. It describes the situation and events in Slovakia prior to February 1948, and it makes very sad reading. As one has come to expect from Vnuk, it is thoroughly documented. But it is also concise and comprehensive enough to be recommended to all - notably younger generation Slovaks, but also Czechs - who wish to understand the reasons behind Slovak resentments and political distrust of their Czech neighbors . In this reviewer's opinion, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive, critical study of Slovak political history from 1918 to 1968 written by a younger generation of scholars free of the compulsion either to fit that story into prescribed ideological frames or to justify a posteriori one's own role or moral position. The publication under review has perhaps so far come closest to fulfilling that need. Frantisek Vnuk. Zivotopis Konstantina Culena. Cleveland: Slovak Institute , 1984. 247 pp. OWEN V. JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana For several years I have been trying to persuade several important Slovak figures representing different political persuasions to write their memoirs, to give us an intimate perspective on their youth, their education, and the development of their careers. Each of the three has resisted , perhaps fearing that to write memoirs means to declare one's public life to be over. This is unfortunate because when I have stumbled onto memoir material , such as a dozen unpublished essays by as many interwar and wartime Slovak journalists, they have been a rich mine of information that their authors could never have realized would be so important. Other than oral interviews, the second best source of personal information is the biography . From that perspective, this book about Konstantin Culen is to be welcomed. Published with the �SLOVAKIA 101 support of Slovak-American activist Jan Beliansky a dozen years after completion of the manuscript, it traces the career of the headstrong Slovak publicist, amateur historian, diplomat, government official and emigre journalist. The author draws on his twenty-year correspondence with Culen, Culen's autobiographical "Posedenia," published in the early 1960s, and 15 short chapters that were parts of Culen's various unsuccessful efforts to write an autobiography. Vnuk makes no claim that this is a careful , complete, or scholarly biography. Nor does he promise any neutral and objective point-of-view, stating in the opening pages his respect and admiration for Culen. Vnuk asserts that the heart of the work is the la.s t section which describes Culen's work in exile - because it is the period he knows best. The historian will disagree. It is the first part (describing his youth and education) and to a lesser degree the second part (describing his twenty-year career in Slovakia) that more effectively transport the reader into the life of the periods they describe. This is so because it is precisely for those periods that Culen provided more of his own testimony about his life and times. We are reminded, for instance, that even though their eventual political views became quite different , many members of the Slovak intelligentsia initially were good friends of each other. Among Culen's early friends were such a diverse group as Vladimir Clementis, Julius Sefranek, Jan Golian, Ferdinand Jurgia, and Florian Tomanek. There are several references, too, to how important connections - Slovak or Czech - were in finding gainful employment. Particularly interesting is Vnuk's description of Culen's short career as a writer and reporter for Slovak, the daily Hlinkist organ. As with other institutions of the Slovak People 's Party, the newspaper staff reflected the splits among the different wings of the party. Eventually the splits led to Culen's dismissal from the staff. It foreshadowed his later ouster from the Slovak Government in July , 1940. The tragedy of Culen is that these divisions continued in emigration, and because he continued to be first and foremost a publicist, he became their victim. Despite a decade of service to �102 SLOVAKIA the Slovak press in North America, he was eventually forced out of all fulltime work in that area. During the last few years, Vnuk reports , Culen struggled to find gainful employment, eventually winding up as superintendent of a Brooklyn apartment house. He died in 1964. Miroslav Kropilak a kolektiv. Dejiny Slovenska V {1918-1945). Bratislava: Veda , 1985 . 612 pp. JAMES R. FELAK Bloomington, Indiana It would be hard to find a quarter century in Slovak history more eventful than the period from 1918 to 1945 . These years saw the creation, destruction , and re-creation of the Czechoslovak Republic , the emergence and disappearance of an independent Slovak state , a great economic crisis , and a world war. In this fifth volume of the new Dejiny Slovenska, a team of Slovak Marxist scholars provides the most extensive and detailed discussion of this period available in any language. Dejiny Slovenska Vis composed of two parts. The first covers Slovakia within the interwar Czechoslovak Republic; the second deals with the Slovak state and World War II. Each part is divided into chronologically based chapters, which in turn contain subchapters on themes like politics, foreign affairs , economics, social unrest, and developments within the Communist Party. In analyzing the interwar period, the authors focus on the so-called Slovak Question, that is , the place of Slovakia and the Slovak nation in a Czechoslovak state. This question involves a complex of political, economic , social , and cultural factors that gave rise to tensions between Slovaks and Czechs. The Czechoslovak government's failure to ease these tensions contributed mightily to the shape that the First Republic's demise took in 1938-39. In discussing this failure , the authors contend that only the Communist Party was capable of solving the problems that caused social and national dissatisfaction in Slovakia. The authors consider Slovak discontent as essentially a product of the ''bourgeois-democratic , capitalist system'' of the First �SLOVAKIA 103 Republic, with the Czech bourgeoisie as the main perpetrators of this discontent. This ruling class is accused of economically exploiting Slovakia, repressing manifestations of Slovak dissatisfaction, and ruling the country on the basis of centralism, with a complete disregard for Slovakia's special conditions and problems . To help rule Slovakia, this " ruling Czech bourgeoisie " fostered the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is, the notion that the Slovaks were not a distinct nation but rather members of a Czechdominated "Czechoslovak" nation. The authors sharply criticize Czechoslovakism, which they see as a reactionary ideology serving only to fan the flames of Slovak nationalism and to hamper Czechoslovak state unity in the face of the external threats of the 1930s. As allies of the ''ruling Czech bourgeoisie,' ' the so-called centralist parties in Slovakia, above all the Social Democrats and the Agrarians , come under attack in this volume. The Social Democrats are strongly criticized for their so-called reformist approach to Slovakia's social and economic ills , for placing the interests of the state ahead of the interests of the working class , and for staunchly supporting centralism and Czechoslovakism. The Agrarians are reproached for similar reasons, including an economic policy that favored the rural middle class of the expense of the working class and poorer peasants. The authors indeed point out that many Slovak Agrarians were lukewarm in their support for centralism and Czechoslovakism and tried to advance Slovakia's interests under the guise of "silent revision of centralism" or "regionalism." Nevertheless, the authors believe that by failing to distance themselves effectively from Prague and to solve Slovakia's economic problems, the centralist parties drove many Slovaks into the camp of Hlinka 's Slovak People 's Party (HSPP or L'udaks). The authors do not condemn the HSPP for its autonomist program and political opposition, but rather for " catering to the reactionary classes" at home and seeking ties with Czechoslovakia's enemies abroad. In their Marxist interpretation, the authors see the HSPP as the representative of those bourgeois elements that were dissatisfied with their political and economic position in Czechoslovakia. The fact that the HSPP had broad popular appeal �104 SLOVAKIA cutting across class boundaries is explained by the party's ability to exploit Slovakia's economic ills and national discontent demagogically in order to win votes. Although the authors condemn the HSPP's leadership, they are more lenient toward its rankand-file, whom they characterize as justly disaffected by the social and national situation in Slovakia but misled by L'udak propaganda. If the L'udaks were too reactionary to solve the Slovak Question, and the centralist parties too reformist and ''Czechoslovak,'' the Communist Party alone , according to this work, possessed the correct formula. In the authors' interpretation, the Communist Party was committed both to the distinctiveness of the Slovak nation and the integrity of the Czechoslovak state, which, after a socialist revolution and installation of a dictatorship of the proletariat, was to be set up on the basis of national equality and mutual respect between the Czech and Slovak nations. The party did not hold this position consistently from 1918 to 1945, but did take this stance during the Slovak National Uprising. The book depicts, although somewhat opaquely, the shifts in the party's nationality policy in the period under discussion and presents the party's position during the Uprising not as a mere tactical move but rather as the culmination of twenty-five years of Communist thinking al}d experience regarding the Slovak Question. Although the portrayal of the Communist Party in this volume is overwhelmingly positive , there is some criticism, especially of party centralism. The authors clearly side with those Slovak Communists, above all the Davists, who preferred a party that was more responsive to Slovak conditions to one that rigidly applied directives from the leadership in Prague. While centralism and "dogmatism" may be reproached, however, the authors never question the Communist Party's fundamental goals. The second part of this work deals with the Slovak state and World War II. This period is presented dichotomously. On the negative side is the Slovak state. Although the authors deem it "an acceptable alternative for the majority of the Slovak population in 1939-1941 from the constitutional point of view," they portray its L'udak leaders as fascists and opportunists, tools of German imperalism who tried but ultimately failed to win over the �SLOVAKIA 105 Slovak population via social demagoguery and exaggerated nationalism. On the positive side is the Slovak resistance movement, manifested above all in the Slovak National Uprising. According to the authors, the Uprising represented the progressive majority of the Slovak population. They claim that the Uprising was never defeated politically or militarily, but rather won out as the first stage of a democratic and national revolution in Slovakia. Although the authors acknowledge the role played by nonCommunists in the Slovak resistance, they repeatedly assert that Communist influence was paramount. The party gets credit forsuccessfully helping bring down the L'udak regime while at the same time resisting efforts of the Benes government in London to restore the pre-Munich Republic on its old sociopolitical bases. Not surprisingly, the authors also credit the Soviet Union with greatly assisting the Uprising. The authors have considerable sympathy for the selfdetermination of the Slovak nation, as their condemnation of centralism and Czechoslovakism attests . However , when this sympathy comes into conflict with their orthodox Marxist-Leninst line, the latter wins out. For example, the occupation of Slovakia by Bela Kun's army in 1919 is portrayed as a totally positive event for the Slovak population, and any suggestions that they may have constituted a restoration of Hungarian rule over the Slovaks are dismissed as myth. To the volume's credit, it provides an informative survey of social and economic developments in Slovakia. In addition, it devotes much attention to cultural history, including discussions of the growth of Slovak education, literature, art, and even film and radio. It also treats the cultural affairs of Slovakia's German , Magyar, and Ukrainian minorities. On the debit side, there is very little biographical information offered regarding the key figures in Slovak political life , the subchapters on diplomatic developments are completely and unequivocally pro-Soviet, and several important Western publications are absent from the relatively lengthly bibliography. As a comprehensive survey of some of the most crucial years in Slovak history, this installment of Dejiny Slovenska should interest all scholars of twentieth-century Slovak history . Not only �106 SLOVAKIA is it a source of much information, but it also presents the most up-to-date official view on controversial issues such as the Slovak Question, the Slovak state, and the Slovak National Uprising. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists, 1918-1948. "East European Monographs, No. CXXX. " Boulder, CO: East European Monographs , 1983. xi , 185 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. ROBERT K. EVANSON University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Students of Slovak history are greatly indebted to Yeshayahu Jelinek for his painstaking dissection of the response of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) to ''the Slovak Question'' during the 1918-1948 period. Jelinek trudges admirably through the bewildering zigs and zags and general confusion of Communist nationality policies during the First, Second, and Third Czechoslovak Republics and the wartime Slovak Republic. It is well known that the political tasks of Czechoslovak Communism have often been complicated by the subjection of the KSC to Soviet supervision and interference. Slovak Communists faced an even tougher road in their efforts to expand their base of popular support within Slovakia, in part because their mentors in Prague were even more overbearing and less sensitive to Slovak national aspirations than were the Soviets. Czech Communist leaders tended to view Slovak nationalism as either an obstacle or a vehicle to their achievement of pow~r in Prague, depending on the moment. Their lack of understanding or respect for Slovak feelings was, of course, (ypical of Czech politicians of almost all ideological stripes. Not that Slovak Communists possessed any clear idea of how to handle the national question. Pulled in different directions by nationalist feelings and a desire to win popular support on the one hand , and by loyalty to the KSC and Moscow on the other, they adopted an array of "solutions" which were, as Jelinek notes, testimony to the failure of Communist ideology to address effec- �SLOVAKIA 107 tively the nationalist phenomenon. Different Slovak Communist spokesmen variously proposed the creation of a Slovak-Hungarian Soviet Republic, incorporation of Slovakia into the Soviet Union, complete independence, autonomous federative status within a unified Czechoslovakia, equality without autonomy , and extreme centralization under Prague 's control. Jelinek 's discussion provides essential background reading to Czech-Slovak tensions since 1948, including the tragic persecution of Slovak Communists during the 1950s and the renewal of Slovak demands for genuine federalism during the 1960s. Nationalism has been ·'a powerful force in Slovak Communism throughout the history of Czechoslovakia, and there is little reason to believe that the current quasi-federal formula will permanently sweep the issue of Slovak-Czech relations under the rug. Despite Jelinek 's yeoman service in delineating these matters , the book contains a number of typographical and some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor. Rudolf Slansky, for example, is twice identified as "Josef Slansky" (pp. 36, 72); and Viliam Siroky seems to be identified as a Czech - the language is ambiguous - on p . 40 , although later on he is characterized correctly as a Magyarized Slovak. On a more general level , this reviewer has two criticisms, one minor and one major. The period and events described by Jelinek are so complex that he could have helped the reader by more often stepping back to address the confusion and reorder the facts in summary form. Whenever such a broad overview is absent, the narrative unavoidably gets bogged down in the myraid of individuals, factions , and endless changes in party line that defined Communist nationality policies during the thirty years in question. When the author chooses to summarize , as in his excellent passage on the war years (pp. 40-41) and in his fine concluding chapter, the reader is greatly enlightened . More serious is Jelinek's tendency to lump all Communists together in his insistence that they regard nationalism as " a mere tool to achieve [power] " (p . 1). This is the author 's major thesis , but his book's evidence suggests rather that many Communists were confused about the Slovak issue and failed to reach a consensus about nationality policies . While Czech centralizers were �108 SLOVAKIA inclined to be cynical or fearful of Slovak nationalism, many Slovaks were genuine nationalists who took considerable risks to advocate their people's cause. Jelinek explicitly recognizes this fact on several occasions, as in his fascinating discussion of Communist cooperation with the rightwing L'udaks, and in his description of the Slovak National Uprising, neither of which can be regarded as a mere power tactic. The author's general thesis, therefore, is at odds with his narrative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable and original contribution to the study of Slovak Communism. M. Mark Stolarik. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1985. 147 pp. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio In the preface to this work, M . Mark Stolarik states "that it is the responsibility of professional historians to also write the histories of particular ethnic groups for those groups'' and warns his readers that Growing Up on the South Side was written "only incidentally for fellow academics" (p. 13). Indeed, his research was partially supported by funds bequeathed for the purpose of writing a history of Bethlehem Slovaks for Bethlehem Slovaks. Growing Up on the South Side is too brief to offer an in-depth analysis of the Bethlehem Slovak population over a lengthy ninetysix-year period. Still, Stolarik touches upon important aspects of the history of that ethnic communtiy . He relies extensively on material generated by the Slovak community: fraternal and church records and publications, newspapers, and short histories written by Slovaks . He skillfully blends these sources with oral interviews with second- and third-generation Slovaks. Stolarik overlooks, however , the newspapers Narodne noviny and, with one minor exception, Slovensky hlasnik. His bibliography is somewhat dated because he does not cite relevant works, including his own, published after 1981. �SLOVAKIA 109 Although the author does not burden his narrative with statistics, tables, or theories , he generally succeeds in achieving his objective of writing for a more general , rather than an academic audience . On several occasions, either in the narrative or footnotes , he corrects factual errors that apparently heretofore have been accepted by Bethlehem Slovaks . However, by trying to avoid becoming bogged down in scholarly analysis , Stolarik, at times, forgets his responsibility to the general public as a professional historian. Indeed , he misses opportunities to use his scholarly expertise to investigate the veracity of some popularly-held beliefs or attitudes and is not always careful to use solid evidence to support some generalizations. For example , Stolarik rather nonchalantly refers to "the Irish police" as stopping fights at Slovak weddings (p. 82) . Were all the policemen in Bethlehem Irish , or were only Irish policemen sent to quiet down rowdy Slovak celebrations? Here statistics and footnotes are needed. Stolarik's nice composite picture of Slovak fraternal meetings drawn from the minutes of different lodges includes the suggestion that women disrupted meetings when they attended in their husbands' stead. This was a popular view held by Slovak males who opposed accepting females into lodges in the early twentieth century. How " often" did women actually delay meetings? Stolarik observes that secular lodges opened with the presidents warning '' all in attendance to behave themselves" (p . 40) . This presumably included both men and women present. Can women, then , be singled out as a particular problem? In both instances just cited , Stolarik's descriptions may be accurate, but statements by a professional historian that confirm ethnic and sexual stereotypes in the minds of a general audience require more concrete, explicit evidence . At times , Stolarik is also confusing because his discussion is too brief. For example , he relates that several factors gave rise to a large number of Slovak lodges in Bethlehem. Some lodges were formed on the basis of geographic origins, while the membership of others , he explains, reflected social standing in the Slovak community. Does this mean that Slovaks who joined the same lodge as fellow villagers but then subsequently attained a different social status in the community switched lodges? If this was the case, it has strong implications for further exploring the emergence �110 SLOVAKIA of class divisions within ethnic communities. The discussion of female occupations should also be expanded and clarified . It is not clear if the second- and third-generation working women he discusses (pp. 113, 115-17) were married or single . Did married women routinely work outside of the home? Such clarifications would have enhanced his discussion of the acculturation process among American-Slovaks. Also, since formal affiliation of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1902) with the Missouri Synod did not occur until 1908, Stolarik's passing reference to 1902 as the date when Slovak Lutherans affiliated with that conservative body can create confusion. Finally, some Bethlehem Slovaks as well as scholars will surely disagree with some of Stolarik's generalizations about the Slovak experience in general and the Bethlehem experience in particular. Although Stolarik was concerned primarily with writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks, his work does touch on issues of interest to professional scholars. His discussions of politics and social mobility support those scholars who suggest that social mobility in America can be gauged on different levels. While some Slovaks did not achieve social prominence in American society, they did achieve such prominence within their own ethnic community. His analysis of politics offers some insight into how immigrants dealt with, adjusted to, and influenced America's political structure. Overall, the author remains faithful to his objective of writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks. In doing so, he avoids the trappings of filiopietism often evident in such ethnic histories. While careful not to offend their descendants, Stolarik, on occasion, provides critical judgments of individuals. Additionally, while he clearly regrets the ongoing demise of Slovak culture and the waning of ethnic identity that has taken place among Bethlehem Slovaks, he does not reduce his study to one of "Slovak contributions" and a celebration of Slovak culture in a propagan distic effort to stir ethnocentrism among second- and thirdgeneration Slovaks. Thus, w hile scholars will likely agree with Stolarik's own assessment that " traditional concerns of historians" generally remain beyond the scope of Growing Up on the South Side , Bethlehem Slovaks will find that Stolarik has done what he set out to do: write a readable English-language history for them. �SLOVAKIA 111 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution - A Quarter of a Century After. London: George Allen & Unwin , 1983 . xviii, 174 pp. PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Bentley, Australia The authors of this book left Hungary in 1977. Since then they have published a remarkable series of books, especially (together with George Markus) Dictatorship over Needs: A Study of Soviet Societies, also in 1983 . The present volume is a well written and passionately argued attempt to interpret the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a leftist and socialist radical point of view. The authors' thesis on the revolution is divided into two parts: its impact on the world, and on Hungary. There is hardly any doubt that the revolution was felt all over the world. Equally correct is the writers' conviction that because no substantial help was offered to the revolutionaries from the West , "the result was a major loss of face for the Western powers, a second moral Munich" (p. 15) . More questionable is their often repeated affirmation that the Hungarians rebelled equally against the Soviets as against the West, because during World War II the latter allowed Central and Eastern Europe to be incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Only Istvan Bib6 and his " Draft of a compromise solution of the Hungarian question'' can be quoted in support of such a surprising assertion. Sure enough, most Central and East Europeans did not like the overwhelming Soviets interest and the shocking Western lack of interest in their fate and territories, but it is stretching the point to claim that ''the Hungarian revolution was a revolt against all signatories of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements" (p. 16) . Feher and Heller are on safer grounds when they assert that in 1956 the Americans lost a great opportunity by not offering to the Soviets a compromise by which Hungary would have been granted neutrality and the Soviet Union an end to the Cold War. The Soviet leaders were for a few crucial days divided about how to deal with the crisis, and the authors believe that the Soviets would have considered such an offer. �112 SLOVAKIA There follows a good discussion of "national communism, " and in this context Yugoslav leaders are blamed for their opportunist attitude toward the Hungarian revolution. Western Communist parties lost many members, fellow-travellers, and prestige in the process: "The events of October 1956 [sounded] the deathknell of the Popular Front policy" (p. 44). In their review of other East European Communist parties' reaction to the revolution, the writers express their support for "the idea of a confederation between the free nations of the region" (p. 62). In the second part of the book the authors stress the lack of democratic and liberal traditions in their native country. Several times they point out that only in Czechoslovakia was there a successful marriage of nationalism with such progressive tendencies. Although they believe that after both the First and Second World Wars Hungary was treated too harshly by the victors, they contend that only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a democratic, liberal, and socialist model being created in their country. One of the major points of the message should be seen in that historical development. Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller would also like their readers to believe that after a long series of failed heroes of Hungarian history Imre Nagy should be accepted as a genuine hero , "forger, arbiter , martyr and symbol of a murdered revolution" (pp . 15 7-8). What fascinated this reviewers most was the obvious learning process experienced by extreme leftist radicals about the real substance of 'Soviet Commu nism and of its betrayal of the working people. The authors castigate not only Lenin, Trotsky , and Stalin, but also Deutscher and Sartre , among others, for trusting professional revolutionaries and manipulators more than the masses. From the authors ' arguments it is also clear that they themselves had to be transformed from typical radical intellectuals' positions of misuse of the wage earners to admiration for their democratic and pluralist hopes . They admit that only several years after the revolution were some of the w ishes and actions of the Hungarian people understood and accepted by them (e.g ., p . 92). The last pages of the volume are devoted to an excellent analysis of Kadarism and of the modernized sophisticated terror which is also well known in Czechoslovakia. �SLOVAKIA 113 Slovak readers will find occasional reference to Hungarian "bereft territories" (p. 149) and of the Hungarians expelled from Slovakia (pp. 50 -51). They might wonder who are the "Slovakians" (p . 51). Of much greater interest is the insight into the way leftist radical socialists inside of Hungary view the past and the future and what can be expected from them and their nation . Jozef Ciger-Hronsky. Jozef Mak. Translated by Andrew Cincura. Afterword by Peter Petro. Columbus: Slavica, 1984. 232 pp. WILLIAM E. HARKINS Columbia University New York, New York This volume is the first in a series of works of Slovak literature slated to be published by Slavica Publishers in Columbus, Ohio. Currently projected for publication are volumes by Hugolin Gavlovic and Bozena Timrava, as well as a volume of folk ballads. The project represents a notable break-through for the cause of Slovak literature in translation in this country . Jozef Ciger (1894-1960), who published under the pseudonym of Hronsky, is one of the great writers of Modern Slovak Literature, one comparatively neglected , presumably for ideological reasons. A village school teacher , Hronsky knew the Slovak peasants as perhaps no other Slovak writer did; in particular, he understood the mysticism of the peasantry and portrayed it in his works : During World War II he supported the nationalistic Tiso regime , and in 1945 emigrated to Argentina. Under the new Czechoslovak republic he was never mentioned, not to say published, along with a number of other nationalist writers . In 1970 his contemporary, the critic Alexander Matuska , published a monograph devoted to him. Jozef Mak was published in 1933. It is a novel of the Slovak village in the period of Hungarian oppression and the time of emigration to America. Maryarization and Emigration are portrayed as twin perils and twin temptations , for both seem to pro- �114 SLOVAKIA mise political or economic salvation to the poverty-ridden peasantry. The novel represents a unique blend of realism and symbolism, one hardly to be found among contemporary Czech writers, for instance, or even among other Slovak writers. Those aspects of the novel that pertain to individual characters and their fates are more symbolic, while the public and social facets of the story are realistic. The first are richer in metaphors , certainly while the latter are richer in metonyms. The blending of the two strains gave the author considerable difficulty , and it is the private, symbolic novel that is more memorable for the reader . The term "symbolic" is customarily used for fiction in the style of Jozef Mak , but the novel is actually as much mythic as symbolic. (Of course the two styles are closely interrelated.) The leading characters are archetypes who draw much of their being from an idealized metaphorical world close to folklore. Jozef Mak himself is an image of the alienated orphan, denied his inheritance, material as well as spiritual. The novel ends without his having found himself or his true destiny. Jozef Mak is born the illegitimate son of a poor peasant woman, to be ousted from the house and land by his worthless older, legitimate half brother. Still he grows up honest, hard working, and resourceful. He finally marries a crippled woman whom he seduces, a wife who provides a spiritual guide for him throughout his married life . But, exhausted from the weight of burdens, physical and spiritual, his wife Jula dies . Jozef is left alone at the end of the novel to endure and to plot his path through life alone. The wife Jula is certainly one of the great characters in Slovak literature. Her piety and meekness , and her endurance of her husband's deceptions, are entirely believable , as is the aura of spiritual beauty (in spite of physical deformity) with which the author invests her. The author's conception of such a character required great artistic imagination; Mak himself is hardly so successful. Perhaps his position as central character (and also as perceiving subject) in so much of the novel has precluded the writer from developing a firm, coherent image of him. Less sharp are the characters involved, positively or negative- �SLOVAKIA 115 ly , in their nation's political struggle , and it is evident that Hronsky had difficulties with the realistic side of the novel , partly because the struggle in question corresponds to the time of his boyhood, when he hardly could have succeeded in grasping its meaning. Thus the mythic, symbolic , mystical side of the novel is the stronger, and makes a powerful nostalgic imprint on the reader. Pavol Stevcek. Contemporary Slovak Literature . Translated by Ol 'ga Horska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1980. 122 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights , Ohio Contemporary Slovak literature is often an unfamiliar area even to Slavic literary specialists, whereas writings of contemporary Czech authors from the same country are internationally known. Perhaps it is true , as one Slovak specialist in North America has stated , that Slovak literature is a Cinderella among the literatures of Europe that awaits the discovery of her true worth. The study under review is an attempt to dispel some of this unfamiliarity for an English-reading audience. In this book Stevcek discusses twenty-three writers of the post-1945 era. Twenty-one men are presented as poets and writers of prose and children's literature, but only two women are discussed and that in the area of children 's literature. Among the poets are Pavol Horov, Jan Kostra, Ladislav Novomesky, Milan Rufus, Jan Smrek, and Miroslav Valek; among the prose writers are Alfonz Bednar, Peter Jaros , Vladimir Minac, Vincent Sikula, and Frantisek Svantner. The first of six chapters sets the context for appreciating the work of these writers. In describing the development of this modern era in literature Stevcek employs a Marxist interpretation and even discusses briefly the features of literature written according to such a viewpoint. (The English here is rather stilted and contrived; if the translation is at fault, it is probably because it is a literal rendition of the author's diction and style , which in Slovak may be appropriate for such a work but becomes at times opaque in English translation .) In the remaining five �116 SLOVAKIA chapters, Stevcek considers respectively writers of poetry, prose, children's literature, drama, and literary studies and theoretical presentations. At the end of the chapters on poetry and prose, the author presents brief commentary on a number of other such contemporary writers in order to round out the presentation for these areas . In the chapter on poetry Stevcek fails to include Masa Hal 'amova. Why? Does not a poet who was at the time of this study an "Artist of Merit" deserve mention? (At the present time, she holds the title "National Artist.") This is a significant omission, especially as consideration of Hal'amova would also have increased the number of women presented . In the chapter on children's literature Stevcek includes two women, one of whom, Klara Jarunkova, could just as well have been discussed in the prose chapter. Indeed, she could have been included in both chapters . Likewise , L'ubomir Feldek should have been discussed for more than his contribution to children's literature. Some commentary on or at least mention of L'udo Zubek and Dominik Tatarka would also have been quite justified. Such additions to this study would certainly not have increased its size by much, and yet would have definitely enhanced its benefit to Slavic scholars and anyone interested in Slovak literature. Contemporary Slovak Literature is a noteworthy contribution from Slovakia that provides some basic information on a large number of writers. Such a publication in English is crucial if Slovak literature is to be able to assume its proper place in modern world literature . Given the paucity of such publications , this study should be helpful not only to specialists but also libraries. Given also the excellent literary specialists now writing in Slovakia, more such publications as the one above, with style and English rendition improved , should be rightly expected and published in the future. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1985-86, Vol. 32 Description An account of the resource Vol. 32 (No. 58-59), 1985-86. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-86 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 83 SLOVAKIA 85 Historicky casopis, 33 , 2 (1 985) . "K vel 'komoravskemu vyrociu. " Bratislava: Veda, 19 8 5. Anna Holla. Metod - ucitel' Slovienov. K 1100 vfrrociu umrtia {885-1985}. Martin: Matica slovenska , 1985 . THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. Pittsburgh , Pennsyl vania As the year 1985 approached , Slovak Christians both in Czechoslovakia and abroad wondered in what manner the 1, 100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius would be observed in Slovakia. The two publications under review provide partial answers to that question. · Historicky casopis , the official organ of the Ustav historickych vied Slovenskej akademie vied , devoted an entire issue to the ' 'Great Moravian Anniversary. ' ' In their introduction, the editors concede that Methodius was ' 'the most important personality in the cultural history of Great Moravia." Further, they note that ''Marxist historiography values highly the work of Constantine and Methodius, who laid the foundations for the development of Slavic literature, which thereafter prevailed among the majority of the South and East Slavs ." However , they also maintain that although Marxist historiography cannot overstate the importance of these two men, it cannot view them only as " evangelizers of the faith." The cultural elements of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage are, of course, undeniable. But it is equally undeniable that that legacy also - and primarily - includes tremendous religiou s significance for the Slavs in general and the Slovaks in particular. What this reviewer finds especially objectionable in this issue of Historicky casopis is the attempt to minimize the importance of the evangelical activity of Sts . Cyril and Methodius and to neglect the religious dimensions of their work. The cultural achievements of the saintly brothers were the result of their primary goal: to complete the Christianization of the Slavic peoples. This main goal of their mission is never properly recognized by the authors, and the names of Sts . Cyril and Methodius are never mentioned with their title of reverence , " Saint. " Furthermore, not a single arti- 86 SLOVAKIA cle is devoted specifically to St. Methodius in what is supposed to be a commemoration of the anniversary of his death! The first article , by Matus Kucera, assesses Great Moravia and the beginnings of Slovak national history. Although Kucera writes extensively about the era of Rastislav and Svatopluk, he fails to mention Sts. Cyril and Methodius by name as the founders of Christian civilization among the ancestors of the Slovaks. In his article on "fictions and facts" concerning the territorial development of Great Moravia, Peter Ratkos refutes the claims of Imre Boba and other historians that the territory of Great Moravia was situated around the Morava River in Serbia. According to Ratkos , Sirmium was probably not the actual see of Archbishop Methodius , because at that time Sirmium belonged to Bulgaria. Richard Marsina examines the diplomatic documents relating to the history of Great Moravia and their value as sources. He acknowledges the authenticity of seventeen diplomatic texts, mostly the preserved letters of Popes Adrian II, John VIII, Stephen V, and John IX, and eighteen lost documents (deperdita) mentioned in the authentic diplomatic papers and other reliable historical sources. The article which deals the most with St. Cyril is the one by Alexander Avenarius on the contribution of Byzantium to Great Moravian culture. The author explains St. Cyril's philosophy, classifies him as a liberal in his opposition to iconoclasm, and places him in the camp of the liberal patriarch Photius. Avenarius also describes the influence of Byzantine monasticism in Bohemia and Slovakia after the death of Svatopluk. The last two articles are not directly concerned with the work of Sts. Cyril and Metodius . Bohuslav Chropovsky and Alexander Ruttkay evaluate the most recent archeological excavations and situate geographically the extent of the Slovak ethnic group. Finally, Rudolf Krajcovic examines the very complicated issue of language in Great Moravia and its continuity with Slovak. The publication of the Matica slovenska, Metod - ucitel' Slovienov, is more germane to the commemoration of St. Methodius' anniversary than the articles in the Historicky casopis issue. It contains nineteen pages of printed text by Anna Holla and thirty-two photographic reproductions of archeological findings from the SLOVAKIA 87 Great Moravian era, copies of some Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and newer Slovak literary and pictorial works related to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Holla's brief survey of St. Methodius and the whole CyrilloMethodian legacy in Czechoslovakia is a popular version based on contemporary scholarship. It reflects, not surprisingly, the distortions of present official Marxist historiography concerning the Great Moravian period. Holla characterizes Great Moravia as the first state common to the Czechs and Slovaks; and she emphasizes the cultural, social, and political activity of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and excludes or minimizes their missio.nary efforts. Holla' s assertion that Great Moravia was the first joint state of the Czechs and Slovaks is of dubious historical validity. By military force Svatopluk occupied the adjacent Slavic territories, among them Bohemia, and annexed them to his realm, but he did not incorporate them organically into Great Moravia. After his death in 894, the people in these occupied territories hastened to separate themselves from Great Moravia, searching for independence or joining new political alliances. The annexation of Bohemia to Great Moravia lasted less than twenty years, and after Svatopluk's death the Czechs found themselves again in the orbit of the Eastern Frankish (German) Empire. This reviewer must also take exception to Holla's statement that ''The basis of the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius in the Great Moravian Empire was their legal work, by which they eradicated Frankish church law and the unwritten common law of Great Moravia and substituted for it a strong legal order" (p. 6}. As has been mentioned, the basis of the CyrilloMethodian mission was the evangelization of the Slavs. Sts. Cyril and Methodius did not eliminate the church law which had been brought to the territory of Great Moravia by Irish-Scottish, Acquilean (Italian), and Bavarian missionaries; and they did not abolish the unwritten indigenous laws as long as they did not deviate from either Latin or Byzantine church and civil laws. In conclusion, the jubilee issue of Historicky casopis and the text by Anna Holla in the Matica slovenska publication suffer from gross deficiencies and omissions which stem from the antireligious bias of official Marxist historiography toward the legacy 88 SLOVAKIA of Sts. Cyril and Methodius . Only the Matica slovenska publication, with its well-selected, beautiful reproductions , can in a sense be considered as a tribute to the memory of St. Methodius in Slovakia. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy v slovensky ch kniiniciach. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, I]. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1981. 304 pp. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie v Mad'arsku av Rumunsku. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, II). Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982. 400 pp. GERALD J. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This two-volume catalogue of codices comprises a listing of all extant medieval manuscripts produced on Slovak territory. Most were written in Latin and are similar to those found throughout medieval Europe. The subject matter pertains, for the most part, to religious faith and practice, and philosophy. Bibles, missals , antiphonaries , graduals , chant collections , sermons and related bilingual dictionaries, rules of a religious order, commentaries on religious topics, and philosophical studies are the kinds of writings found in these manuscripts. Occasionally among them are " secular" - non-religious or philosophical - texts , such as Gesta Romanorum (Feats of the Romans), Chronicon Dubnicense (The History of Dubnica), or Codex Justinian us: Digesta - Excerpta (Justinian's Law Code: Summaries and Excerpts) . Some of these manuscripts are preserved in Slovak archival repositories, while others are found in Hungary and Romania. In the two introductions of the first volume in Slovak and Latin , Sopko considers briefly the emergence and development of libraries and scriptoria on Slovak territory as well as the history of manuscript collections and their present status. He discusses the role of certain religious orders in the execution and collection of such manuscripts; among these are the Benedictines, Fran- SLOVAKIA 89 ciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Premonstratensians (also known as Norbertines). Sopko also mentions the significant activity of the cathedral chapters in Nitra, Bratislava, and Spis that fostered the composing of manuscripts. Thirteen Slovak areas are listed as locations of repositories for such manuscripts: Banska Bystrica, Bardejov, Bratislava, Dolny Kubin, Jasov, Kezmarok, Kosice, Kremnica, Martin, Nitra, Presov, Spisska Kapitula , and Spisske Vlachy. These cities and towns, institutions in Bratislava and Kremnica contain the overwhelming majority of the 200 medieval manuscripts found on Slovak territory today. In Bratislava, the cathedral chapter library alone contains 82 such codices of the 135 found in the 6 repositories of this city. In Kremnica, the parish library contains 25 of 26 medieval codices in the city. In the second volume , 86 of 88 manuscripts preserved in Hungary are found in Budapest; the remaining 130 of the total 418 listed' in the two volumes are found in Alba Julia, Romania, in the former Batthyany library collection. In his introductions Sopko mentions the art of manuscript illumination that was well developed on Slovak territory . He includes at the end of both volumes photographic reproductions of some manuscripts, usually rendered in color, many of which also exemplify the art of illumination. One of the outstanding examples of manuscript writing and illumination is the ''Bratislava Missal,' ' which today is preserved in Alba Julia, Romania, as part of the former Batthyany library collection. This missal is described in the second volume of the catalogue (#400), and a color reproduction of one of its folio pages can be found at the end among the supplementary illustrations . (A book that presents the illumination aspect of medieval manuscripts in the Slovak area and that would complement this catalogue well is Stredoveka kniina mal 'ba na Slovensku by Alzbeta Giintherova and Jan Misianik published in two editions [1961 and 1977] by Tatran of Bratislava.) Sopko concludes each of the volumes with four lists: concordance of signatures , dated codices, first words of a codex, and a name and topic index. This two-volume catalogue by Sopko is primarily aimed at libraries and specialists in medieval culture and history. It presents 90 SLOVAKIA well the scholarly work that is often produced under the auspices of the Matica slovenska. Vysady miest a mesteciek na Slovensku {1238-1350}, I. Edited by L'ubomir Juck. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. 199 pp. Narodnostny vyvoj miest na Slovensku do roku 1918. K 600. vyrociu vydania vysad pre zilinskych Slovakov Edited by Richard Marsina. Martin: Osveta, 1984 . 275 pp. DAVID P. DANIEL ConcorcJti.a Seminary St. Louis, Missouri These two volumes reflect the breadth and depth of Slovak historical urban studies. They are both welcome additions to the growing body of scholarship on the history of urban life in Slovakia in the late medieval and early modern eras. The first, ''Privileges of the Cities and Towns in Slovakia (1238-1350)" was prepared as part of a long-term project planned by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the 1950's and early 1960's which set as its goal the editing and publication of historical documents from the earliest eras of Slovak history. This volume is the first dealing specifically with the charters and grants of legal privileges made to the emerging cities during the High Middle Ages, primarily by Hungarian monarchs. Information concerning the documents which have disappeared and/or the texts of those preserved were drawn from materials in the archives of Slovakia and throughout Central Europe. The volume begins with a general introduction indicating the methodological principles utilized in preparing it and some general comments on the types of documents included . The bulk of the book is devoted to a catalogue, in chronological order, of all the grants of privileges discovered; a brief description of their contents and context in Slovak; the text of the document, in so far as it is known in the original language of composition, Latin; and finally a listing of the provenance of each document. As such , this volume provides a fascinating and accessible entrance into SLOVAKIA 91 the historical development of the cities and towns which emerged on the territory of modern-day Slovakia during the High Middle Ages. They show that the economic strength of the towns grew in conjunction with the grants of economic and political privileges extended to them by the Hungarian monarchs. The towns sought to develop and protect their economic basis, manufacture, and trade by securing from the kings extensive rights of selfadministration and governance. The second volume, "Nationality Development of Cities in Slovakia to the Year 1918," is a collection of essays arranged according to the three thematic sections of the book: ''Nationality Development in Zilina"; "Nationality Development in the Towns of Slovakia''; and ''Nationality Development in Czech and Moravian Towns in the Middle Ages." However, despite the title, all but four of the sixteen studies treat the medieval and early modern periods. In the first section Marsina himself analyzes the privileges given to the Slovaks in Zilina in 1381; Julius Sopko attempts to identify the various individuals who made entries into the city record book of Zilina; Izidor Kotulic evaluates the language of the Zilina record book and other historical documents in Slovak; and Rudolf Kuchar examines the family names which appear in the Zilina record book. The studies of Peter Stansky on the structuring of nationalities in Zilina up to 1918 and of Pavol Hapak on the economic life and workers movement in Zilina during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude the section devoted specifically to the history of Zilina. In the second section Ferdinand Ulicny investigates the national groupings within the medieval cities of Slovakia; Jan Dorul'a examines the use of Slovak in the cities between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; Anton Spiesz provides an analysis of Slovak artisan activity during the so-called later feudal period, the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; and Jozef Vozaf evaluates the relationship between ethnic groups in the so-called montana or mining cities of central Slovakia during the same era. Ivan Chalupecky provides an analysis of ethnic relationships in the towns of Spis county for the century between 1550 to 1650, and Jana Skladana examines the oldest city books in Banovec nad Bebravou, dating from the sixteenth through the early eighteenth 92 SLOVAKIA centuries. Milan Podrimavsky concludes this section with an examination of the cities in Slovakia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . The third section is made up of just three essays: Frantisek Smahel's review of findings and perspectives of the research into ethnic relationships in Bohemian cities during the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries); Ludmila Sulitkova's investigation of the ethnic relationships in the Moravian cities, especially the royal cities, during the Late Middle Ages; and Josef Zemlicka' s essay on the countryside , ethnicity, and the late medieval Bohemian cities. While it is impossible to examine these essays individually, it should be noted that not only do they reveal how much urban studies have come to dominate Slovak late medieval/early modern history research , but also the complexities of ethnic relationships in Slovakia during the same era. Slovaks took an active, if not always an appreciated, role in the life of the cities of Slovakia during the Middle Ages and were, especially but not merely in the smaller towns , significant in their economic and political life. It is to be hoped that these volumes will encourage American scholars to become much more active in more fully investigating late medieval and early modern Slovak history. Juraj Zudel. Stolice na Slovensku. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984. 200 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee , Florida This book was written to provide a generaLhistory of the counties of Slovakia until 1849, when a modern centralized administration was imposed by Imperial decree in the so-called "Bach era". It may consequently be subtitled "Patterns of Feudalism''. Zudel summarizes characteristics common to all the Slovak districts, and then depicts both individual and regional peculiarities. The main theme is an analysis of the evolution of the counties under the feudal order. In the introductory section, Zudel points out that originally individual Slovak counties had SLOVAKIA 93 their own codes of law, but in all cases , in greater or lesser measure, these were eventually supplanted by more centralized government. Particular mention is made of the efforts of the Habsburgs, especially in the case of the Josephine reforms of the eighteenth century, to provide a uniform code of law for Hungary. These endeavors were only partially successful, and many of them were undone following the death of the King-Emperor in 1790 . Only in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution was it possible for enduring institutions of modern government to be established. Zudel points out that the 1848 experience may be characterized as a ''conflict of popular sovereignty''. The Hungarian reyolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth sought to protect the jealously-guarded privileges of individual counties, while at the same time using them as instruments of Magyarization in Upper Hungary. By contrast, the more conservative Hungarian reformer Istvan Szechenyi considered the county structure as antiquated, yet he opposed forced Magyarization. The archival sources consulted by the author are listed at the end of the introductory section, and a more general bibliography is included at the conclusion of the text. Zudel's introduction is followed by a survey of each individual county. These surveys include a summary of the territorial boundaries of each administration, the patterns of settlement and habitation , agricultural conditions, and cultural traditions . In cases where a county has been inhabited by more than one ethnic group, an additional section concerning ethnic relations is added . Although Zudel's presentation summarizes the counties in alphabetical order, any attempts at comparison and contrast are best served by examining the counties from a regional perspective. Two of the counties - Bratislava and Abauj - contained Slovakia's major metropolitan centers . In the case of the western county Bratislava, Zudel stresses its strategic location at the point where the Morava and Danube rivers converge. This location guaranteed that Bratislava was affected by the Hussite invasion. The author also mentions the presence of a Croatian element since the time of the Turkish wars. In the case of Abauj, which contains the eastern metropolis, Zudel indicates that the city of Kosice 94 SLOVAKIA was noteworthy for its traditionally oligarchical form of government. The southern Slovak counties of Gerner, Hant , Komarno , and Novohrad had the common denominators of all being ethnically mixed areas, plus serving as frontier zones in the HabsburgOttoman wars. Much the same treatment is accorded to Ostrihom, although the author also cites the latter for its significance in the Catholic Counterreformation. In the case of northern counties the author mentions that Liptov had lingering anti-feudal traditions, and also served as a stronghold for Slovak nationalism. Orava, in spite of its close geographic proximity to Liptov, evolved in the more traditional feudal pattern. Among central counties Nitra is particularly noted for having had a state organization which pre-dated the kingdom of Hungary; Tekov and Trencin are treated in a similar manner. In the case of the latter, Zudel also mentions the importance of the city of Zilina as a center of Slovak trade with the Czech lands, Silesia, and Prussia. Zvolen is noteworthy for its strategic location in defense of the fertile lowlands of southern Slovakia; the author also· mentions the influence of the Czech immigration following the Thirty Years War. Turiec is especially noted for having separated itself from Rakoczi's rising in the early eighteenth century . The author might have given this event more than passing treatment had he chosen to do so . The eastern counties of Slovakia present some of the most noteworthy peculiarities of all. Mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian king Sigismund mortgaged certain cities of Spis to Poland in the fifteenth century; they were returned to Hungary in the eighteenth. In spite of the fact that Saris was a major focal point for the Magyarization campaign, Zudel points out that the native Slovak nobility played a prominent role in public life. In the case of Zemplin county , the author mentions that the nobles long maintained a sense of autonomy , and consequently supported the Transylvanian rebels in the latter's struggle against the Habsburgs . Zudel also briefly summarizes the history of less " traditional" Slovak countries . After World War II much of the territory of Uz SLOVAKIA 95 county was transferred to the Ukrainian S.S.R., and the population of the area is today classified as Ukrainian. Zudel, however, mentions the role of the Slovak element in siding with the Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings. Turn.a is treated as an extension of Abauj county (with which it was long affiliated) , although the influence of political patterns emanating from Gerner is also mentioned. In his concluding chapter Zudel summarizes administrative realignments dating from Bach's regime in the 1850s. Since the terms stolica and zupa are often used interchangeably, the author makes a distinction here between velzupa , containing more than one stolica, and zupa, constituting a single district. This distinction is an important one, and the author would hav~ served his readers better by mentioning it in the earlier portion of the text. Although the text conveys the ideological spirit common to contemporary Czechoslovakia, the historical facts are presented in a straightforward manner. Zudel points out that contemporary Hungarian Marxist historiography is more favorably disposed towards Slovak demographic claims in Upper Hungary, and he makes liberal use of Hungarian source materials. The major weakness of the book lies less in what is said than in what remains unsaid. In reference to Abauj county, Zudel cites the Mongol invasion as a determining factor in population distribution; he fails to mention that Kosice was temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of Transylvania by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. One especially glaring contradiction is found in the case of Saris. The author mentions a "pestilental epidemic" in the eighteenth century, but no mention is made of the cholera epidemic which convulsed Saris and other eastern Slovak counties in 1831. Since the latter event was accompanied by a peasant rising which greatly undermined feudal society, the omission is a particularly serious one . For the student who is already well-grounded in Slovak history , Stolice presents little that is original. But is serves as an adequate text within the limits which have been mentioned , and is especially useful as a reference guide to the individual districts . 96 SLOVAKIA Tvorcovia noveho Slovenska/ The Shaping of Modern Slovakia. Festschrift to the Seventieth Birthday of Dr. Joseph A. Mikus . Edited by Joseph Stasko. Cambridge, Canada: Friends of Good Books, 1982 . xv . 271 pp . GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton, Australia This collection of articles by Imrich Kruzliak, Joseph Stasko , Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Frantisek Vnuk, and the celebrant can be looked upon from two different perspectives . The first is readily apparent . Kruzliak's interpretive account of Slovak history from 1918 to 1948; Stasko's soul-searching reflections on the meaning of the Slovak national heritage; Kirschbaum's examination of Slovak student organizations and their aims in the interwar period; and Vnuk's analysis of Slovak diplomacy before the Salzburg event of 1940 all have one common denominator: either the role played by, or the contemporary views held by , Joseph A. Mikus. Mikus's own article , "The International System in Transition,'' is a study of the moral and legal principles underlying the pre~ent system of (soverign or not) states and nations , as well as an application and projection into the future of his own ideas, summarized by the view that "not territorially defined states , particularly multinational structures or empires, but nations in the ethnic and cultural sense are the real members of the international community.'' The other perspective becomes more apparent only after one has finished reading the book. With the exception of Vnuk, the authors have all by now reached, or almost reached , their seventieth birthdays. They are all well-known emigre writers ; political commentators, and interpreters of the Slovak cultural heritage . And - again perhaps with the exception of Vnuk - all the contributions are representative of the particular author's " Slovak creed .' ' They read as a personal legacy to the generation to follow. No Slovak intellectual of the younger generation can afford to ignore what they have to say. Politically and territorially, of course, there is only one Slovakia. But spiritually and culturally there is SLOVAKIA 97 also an alternative Slovakia, a Slovakia that many of us in the West (as well as some non-conformists in Slovakia) are proud to belong to , a Slovakia that would be unthinkable without its pioneers, and now seniors, like Mikus and Stasko, Kirschbaum, and Kruzliak. Thus it seems to me that - at least from the point of view of the new generation - the title of the book should have been something like " The Shape of a Slovakia We are Inheriting," meaning the spiritual and cultural shape of unofficial Slovakia forced to ''live in exile.'' To summarize: If one cannot read Slovak, it might be preferable to obtain just a reprint of Mikus' s English article rather than buy the whole book. But if one can read Slovak and is interested in Slovak matters, this book is a must. Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M . Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. ClevelandRome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 381 pp. GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton , Australia This Festschrift dedicated to Joseph M. Kirschbaum offers nine articles on various political themes from Slovak history ranging from 1882 to about 1948 . It includes a brief appraisal of the celebrant's life and his contribution to Slovak politics by Charles Murin and a " select bibliography" of Kirschbaum 's publications written in exile. In the first article Edita Bosak deals with Czech-Slovak relations from 1882 to 1914, focusing on the student organization Detvan in Prague. Bosak sees Detvan "as a springboard and nursery for the young Slovak inteligentsia" as opposed to the "conservative Martin leadership ." Although she admits that "the amount of co-operation between Detvan and the Czechs was limited,'' she recognizes the resulting journal Hlas as "progressive," giving "wide distribution to many of the ideas that the students had already worked out in the debates in Detvan, 98 SLOVAKIA especially the idea of Czech-Slovak reciprocity." A comprehensive and unbiased study of Milan Hodza and his original political thinking (contrasted by his often controversial political associations that ended so sadly) is still missing from Slovak political literature . The article by Susan Mikula comes a long way toward such a study, but unfortunately it does not go beyond the year 1914. Still, her account of Hodza's Belvedere orientation and his attitude toward Magyars and Czechs seems to support those political thinkers who see him as the harbinger of contemporary Slovak aspirations toward Central European, or Danubian, Confederation. The contribution by Manfred Alexander is based on a study of the reports from the German Mission in Prague to the Foreign Office of the German Reich from 1918 to 1921. It contains over fifty pages of original documents related to Slovakia, published for the first time. Somehow, the documents make more interesting reading then the article itself. At least in one place the author's conclusions are hard to follow: It is true that Document 13 illustrates in many details the fact that Czech anti-clericalism was at the core of early Czech-Slovak frictions; and that it was the Catholic priests in Slovakia who raised the alarm, and often overreacted. But it seems to be a rather sweeping statement to claim that this is ',!valuable information indicating that the efforts made by the Slovak people to obtain autonomy did not originate spontaneously but were stirred up through agitation.'' Stanislav J. Kirschbaum's study of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party should certainly be read in conjunction with the German documents referred to above, especially by a non-specialist. It throws light on some points raised in the preceding article, and its systematic and more detached account well complements the subjectiveness and immediacy of the documents. The constitution of the Slovak Republic is analyzed by Karin Schmid. She comes to some mixed conclusions, perhaps best expressed in her own words: "If we consider every aspect of the Slovak Constitution - especially the role of the party on one hand, and on the other the control of the government by Parliament (although Parliament itself, in turn, was composed of only one party) - a comparison with what is known as 'socialist democracy' SLOVAKIA 99 suggests itself. It is tempting, on the model of this concept, to coin the term 'fascist democracy.' However, if we wish to avoid jargon and if we bear in mind that fascism completely rejects the concept of democracy, then the Slovak system can be best described as an authoritarian system with rather surprising democratic features." Lisa Guarda Nardini examines President Tiso's political program. The person of Dr. Jozef Tiso, more so than the Slovak Republic as such, symbolizes the Slovak tragedy during and after World War II: After forty years, most Slovaks are by now resigned to the fact that, given all the circumstances, there was not much chance for the six years of the Slovak Republic to end' differently. But only a few will maintain that Dr. Tiso did not deserve a better fate, a fairer treatment and trial, and less prejudice connected with his place in Slovak history. The article and its discerningly apologetic tone have to be seen in this light. To a certain extent, the same atmosphere permeates the next article on the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic by Milan S. Durica. Of special interest is the section on relations with the Holy See. Durica does not hesitate to state explicitly that "the sharpest dispute between the Slovak Government and the Vatican arose over the Jewish question." Stanislav J. Kirschbaum tackles the extremely complicated and controversial Slovak revolt of 1944. He points out two options that the Slovaks faced by the end of World War II. The first was "to remain true to their state" not excluding "the taking of whatever means were necessary, including changing the regime and the political system'' and hoping that ''the victorious powers would realize that independence was indeed what the nation desired.'' The second option was to return to the Czechoslovak Republic. He is realistic enought to admit that the first option called for an acute sense of timing, exceptional diplomacy, faith on the part of people, and above all capable leadership at the top. But even given the second option, Kirschbaum observes that ''had Benes not been so prejudiced against the Slovaks, but rather had taken into account the evolution of the Slovak nation ... much of the tragedy that befell the Slovak people from 1944 on might have been avoided.'' 100 SLOVAKIA Frantisek Vnuk elaborates on this theme in his article on Slovak-Czech relations between 1945 and 1948. It describes the situation and events in Slovakia prior to February 1948, and it makes very sad reading. As one has come to expect from Vnuk, it is thoroughly documented. But it is also concise and comprehensive enough to be recommended to all - notably younger generation Slovaks, but also Czechs - who wish to understand the reasons behind Slovak resentments and political distrust of their Czech neighbors . In this reviewer's opinion, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive, critical study of Slovak political history from 1918 to 1968 written by a younger generation of scholars free of the compulsion either to fit that story into prescribed ideological frames or to justify a posteriori one's own role or moral position. The publication under review has perhaps so far come closest to fulfilling that need. Frantisek Vnuk. Zivotopis Konstantina Culena. Cleveland: Slovak Institute , 1984. 247 pp. OWEN V. JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana For several years I have been trying to persuade several important Slovak figures representing different political persuasions to write their memoirs, to give us an intimate perspective on their youth, their education, and the development of their careers. Each of the three has resisted , perhaps fearing that to write memoirs means to declare one's public life to be over. This is unfortunate because when I have stumbled onto memoir material , such as a dozen unpublished essays by as many interwar and wartime Slovak journalists, they have been a rich mine of information that their authors could never have realized would be so important. Other than oral interviews, the second best source of personal information is the biography . From that perspective, this book about Konstantin Culen is to be welcomed. Published with the SLOVAKIA 101 support of Slovak-American activist Jan Beliansky a dozen years after completion of the manuscript, it traces the career of the headstrong Slovak publicist, amateur historian, diplomat, government official and emigre journalist. The author draws on his twenty-year correspondence with Culen, Culen's autobiographical "Posedenia," published in the early 1960s, and 15 short chapters that were parts of Culen's various unsuccessful efforts to write an autobiography. Vnuk makes no claim that this is a careful , complete, or scholarly biography. Nor does he promise any neutral and objective point-of-view, stating in the opening pages his respect and admiration for Culen. Vnuk asserts that the heart of the work is the la.s t section which describes Culen's work in exile - because it is the period he knows best. The historian will disagree. It is the first part (describing his youth and education) and to a lesser degree the second part (describing his twenty-year career in Slovakia) that more effectively transport the reader into the life of the periods they describe. This is so because it is precisely for those periods that Culen provided more of his own testimony about his life and times. We are reminded, for instance, that even though their eventual political views became quite different , many members of the Slovak intelligentsia initially were good friends of each other. Among Culen's early friends were such a diverse group as Vladimir Clementis, Julius Sefranek, Jan Golian, Ferdinand Jurgia, and Florian Tomanek. There are several references, too, to how important connections - Slovak or Czech - were in finding gainful employment. Particularly interesting is Vnuk's description of Culen's short career as a writer and reporter for Slovak, the daily Hlinkist organ. As with other institutions of the Slovak People 's Party, the newspaper staff reflected the splits among the different wings of the party. Eventually the splits led to Culen's dismissal from the staff. It foreshadowed his later ouster from the Slovak Government in July , 1940. The tragedy of Culen is that these divisions continued in emigration, and because he continued to be first and foremost a publicist, he became their victim. Despite a decade of service to 102 SLOVAKIA the Slovak press in North America, he was eventually forced out of all fulltime work in that area. During the last few years, Vnuk reports , Culen struggled to find gainful employment, eventually winding up as superintendent of a Brooklyn apartment house. He died in 1964. Miroslav Kropilak a kolektiv. Dejiny Slovenska V {1918-1945). Bratislava: Veda , 1985 . 612 pp. JAMES R. FELAK Bloomington, Indiana It would be hard to find a quarter century in Slovak history more eventful than the period from 1918 to 1945 . These years saw the creation, destruction , and re-creation of the Czechoslovak Republic , the emergence and disappearance of an independent Slovak state , a great economic crisis , and a world war. In this fifth volume of the new Dejiny Slovenska, a team of Slovak Marxist scholars provides the most extensive and detailed discussion of this period available in any language. Dejiny Slovenska Vis composed of two parts. The first covers Slovakia within the interwar Czechoslovak Republic; the second deals with the Slovak state and World War II. Each part is divided into chronologically based chapters, which in turn contain subchapters on themes like politics, foreign affairs , economics, social unrest, and developments within the Communist Party. In analyzing the interwar period, the authors focus on the so-called Slovak Question, that is , the place of Slovakia and the Slovak nation in a Czechoslovak state. This question involves a complex of political, economic , social , and cultural factors that gave rise to tensions between Slovaks and Czechs. The Czechoslovak government's failure to ease these tensions contributed mightily to the shape that the First Republic's demise took in 1938-39. In discussing this failure , the authors contend that only the Communist Party was capable of solving the problems that caused social and national dissatisfaction in Slovakia. The authors consider Slovak discontent as essentially a product of the ''bourgeois-democratic , capitalist system'' of the First SLOVAKIA 103 Republic, with the Czech bourgeoisie as the main perpetrators of this discontent. This ruling class is accused of economically exploiting Slovakia, repressing manifestations of Slovak dissatisfaction, and ruling the country on the basis of centralism, with a complete disregard for Slovakia's special conditions and problems . To help rule Slovakia, this " ruling Czech bourgeoisie " fostered the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is, the notion that the Slovaks were not a distinct nation but rather members of a Czechdominated "Czechoslovak" nation. The authors sharply criticize Czechoslovakism, which they see as a reactionary ideology serving only to fan the flames of Slovak nationalism and to hamper Czechoslovak state unity in the face of the external threats of the 1930s. As allies of the ''ruling Czech bourgeoisie,' ' the so-called centralist parties in Slovakia, above all the Social Democrats and the Agrarians , come under attack in this volume. The Social Democrats are strongly criticized for their so-called reformist approach to Slovakia's social and economic ills , for placing the interests of the state ahead of the interests of the working class , and for staunchly supporting centralism and Czechoslovakism. The Agrarians are reproached for similar reasons, including an economic policy that favored the rural middle class of the expense of the working class and poorer peasants. The authors indeed point out that many Slovak Agrarians were lukewarm in their support for centralism and Czechoslovakism and tried to advance Slovakia's interests under the guise of "silent revision of centralism" or "regionalism." Nevertheless, the authors believe that by failing to distance themselves effectively from Prague and to solve Slovakia's economic problems, the centralist parties drove many Slovaks into the camp of Hlinka 's Slovak People 's Party (HSPP or L'udaks). The authors do not condemn the HSPP for its autonomist program and political opposition, but rather for " catering to the reactionary classes" at home and seeking ties with Czechoslovakia's enemies abroad. In their Marxist interpretation, the authors see the HSPP as the representative of those bourgeois elements that were dissatisfied with their political and economic position in Czechoslovakia. The fact that the HSPP had broad popular appeal 104 SLOVAKIA cutting across class boundaries is explained by the party's ability to exploit Slovakia's economic ills and national discontent demagogically in order to win votes. Although the authors condemn the HSPP's leadership, they are more lenient toward its rankand-file, whom they characterize as justly disaffected by the social and national situation in Slovakia but misled by L'udak propaganda. If the L'udaks were too reactionary to solve the Slovak Question, and the centralist parties too reformist and ''Czechoslovak,'' the Communist Party alone , according to this work, possessed the correct formula. In the authors' interpretation, the Communist Party was committed both to the distinctiveness of the Slovak nation and the integrity of the Czechoslovak state, which, after a socialist revolution and installation of a dictatorship of the proletariat, was to be set up on the basis of national equality and mutual respect between the Czech and Slovak nations. The party did not hold this position consistently from 1918 to 1945, but did take this stance during the Slovak National Uprising. The book depicts, although somewhat opaquely, the shifts in the party's nationality policy in the period under discussion and presents the party's position during the Uprising not as a mere tactical move but rather as the culmination of twenty-five years of Communist thinking al}d experience regarding the Slovak Question. Although the portrayal of the Communist Party in this volume is overwhelmingly positive , there is some criticism, especially of party centralism. The authors clearly side with those Slovak Communists, above all the Davists, who preferred a party that was more responsive to Slovak conditions to one that rigidly applied directives from the leadership in Prague. While centralism and "dogmatism" may be reproached, however, the authors never question the Communist Party's fundamental goals. The second part of this work deals with the Slovak state and World War II. This period is presented dichotomously. On the negative side is the Slovak state. Although the authors deem it "an acceptable alternative for the majority of the Slovak population in 1939-1941 from the constitutional point of view," they portray its L'udak leaders as fascists and opportunists, tools of German imperalism who tried but ultimately failed to win over the SLOVAKIA 105 Slovak population via social demagoguery and exaggerated nationalism. On the positive side is the Slovak resistance movement, manifested above all in the Slovak National Uprising. According to the authors, the Uprising represented the progressive majority of the Slovak population. They claim that the Uprising was never defeated politically or militarily, but rather won out as the first stage of a democratic and national revolution in Slovakia. Although the authors acknowledge the role played by nonCommunists in the Slovak resistance, they repeatedly assert that Communist influence was paramount. The party gets credit forsuccessfully helping bring down the L'udak regime while at the same time resisting efforts of the Benes government in London to restore the pre-Munich Republic on its old sociopolitical bases. Not surprisingly, the authors also credit the Soviet Union with greatly assisting the Uprising. The authors have considerable sympathy for the selfdetermination of the Slovak nation, as their condemnation of centralism and Czechoslovakism attests . However , when this sympathy comes into conflict with their orthodox Marxist-Leninst line, the latter wins out. For example, the occupation of Slovakia by Bela Kun's army in 1919 is portrayed as a totally positive event for the Slovak population, and any suggestions that they may have constituted a restoration of Hungarian rule over the Slovaks are dismissed as myth. To the volume's credit, it provides an informative survey of social and economic developments in Slovakia. In addition, it devotes much attention to cultural history, including discussions of the growth of Slovak education, literature, art, and even film and radio. It also treats the cultural affairs of Slovakia's German , Magyar, and Ukrainian minorities. On the debit side, there is very little biographical information offered regarding the key figures in Slovak political life , the subchapters on diplomatic developments are completely and unequivocally pro-Soviet, and several important Western publications are absent from the relatively lengthly bibliography. As a comprehensive survey of some of the most crucial years in Slovak history, this installment of Dejiny Slovenska should interest all scholars of twentieth-century Slovak history . Not only 106 SLOVAKIA is it a source of much information, but it also presents the most up-to-date official view on controversial issues such as the Slovak Question, the Slovak state, and the Slovak National Uprising. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists, 1918-1948. "East European Monographs, No. CXXX. " Boulder, CO: East European Monographs , 1983. xi , 185 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. ROBERT K. EVANSON University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Students of Slovak history are greatly indebted to Yeshayahu Jelinek for his painstaking dissection of the response of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) to ''the Slovak Question'' during the 1918-1948 period. Jelinek trudges admirably through the bewildering zigs and zags and general confusion of Communist nationality policies during the First, Second, and Third Czechoslovak Republics and the wartime Slovak Republic. It is well known that the political tasks of Czechoslovak Communism have often been complicated by the subjection of the KSC to Soviet supervision and interference. Slovak Communists faced an even tougher road in their efforts to expand their base of popular support within Slovakia, in part because their mentors in Prague were even more overbearing and less sensitive to Slovak national aspirations than were the Soviets. Czech Communist leaders tended to view Slovak nationalism as either an obstacle or a vehicle to their achievement of pow~r in Prague, depending on the moment. Their lack of understanding or respect for Slovak feelings was, of course, (ypical of Czech politicians of almost all ideological stripes. Not that Slovak Communists possessed any clear idea of how to handle the national question. Pulled in different directions by nationalist feelings and a desire to win popular support on the one hand , and by loyalty to the KSC and Moscow on the other, they adopted an array of "solutions" which were, as Jelinek notes, testimony to the failure of Communist ideology to address effec- SLOVAKIA 107 tively the nationalist phenomenon. Different Slovak Communist spokesmen variously proposed the creation of a Slovak-Hungarian Soviet Republic, incorporation of Slovakia into the Soviet Union, complete independence, autonomous federative status within a unified Czechoslovakia, equality without autonomy , and extreme centralization under Prague 's control. Jelinek 's discussion provides essential background reading to Czech-Slovak tensions since 1948, including the tragic persecution of Slovak Communists during the 1950s and the renewal of Slovak demands for genuine federalism during the 1960s. Nationalism has been ·'a powerful force in Slovak Communism throughout the history of Czechoslovakia, and there is little reason to believe that the current quasi-federal formula will permanently sweep the issue of Slovak-Czech relations under the rug. Despite Jelinek 's yeoman service in delineating these matters , the book contains a number of typographical and some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor. Rudolf Slansky, for example, is twice identified as "Josef Slansky" (pp. 36, 72); and Viliam Siroky seems to be identified as a Czech - the language is ambiguous - on p . 40 , although later on he is characterized correctly as a Magyarized Slovak. On a more general level , this reviewer has two criticisms, one minor and one major. The period and events described by Jelinek are so complex that he could have helped the reader by more often stepping back to address the confusion and reorder the facts in summary form. Whenever such a broad overview is absent, the narrative unavoidably gets bogged down in the myraid of individuals, factions , and endless changes in party line that defined Communist nationality policies during the thirty years in question. When the author chooses to summarize , as in his excellent passage on the war years (pp. 40-41) and in his fine concluding chapter, the reader is greatly enlightened . More serious is Jelinek's tendency to lump all Communists together in his insistence that they regard nationalism as " a mere tool to achieve [power] " (p . 1). This is the author 's major thesis , but his book's evidence suggests rather that many Communists were confused about the Slovak issue and failed to reach a consensus about nationality policies . While Czech centralizers were 108 SLOVAKIA inclined to be cynical or fearful of Slovak nationalism, many Slovaks were genuine nationalists who took considerable risks to advocate their people's cause. Jelinek explicitly recognizes this fact on several occasions, as in his fascinating discussion of Communist cooperation with the rightwing L'udaks, and in his description of the Slovak National Uprising, neither of which can be regarded as a mere power tactic. The author's general thesis, therefore, is at odds with his narrative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable and original contribution to the study of Slovak Communism. M. Mark Stolarik. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1985. 147 pp. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio In the preface to this work, M . Mark Stolarik states "that it is the responsibility of professional historians to also write the histories of particular ethnic groups for those groups'' and warns his readers that Growing Up on the South Side was written "only incidentally for fellow academics" (p. 13). Indeed, his research was partially supported by funds bequeathed for the purpose of writing a history of Bethlehem Slovaks for Bethlehem Slovaks. Growing Up on the South Side is too brief to offer an in-depth analysis of the Bethlehem Slovak population over a lengthy ninetysix-year period. Still, Stolarik touches upon important aspects of the history of that ethnic communtiy . He relies extensively on material generated by the Slovak community: fraternal and church records and publications, newspapers, and short histories written by Slovaks . He skillfully blends these sources with oral interviews with second- and third-generation Slovaks. Stolarik overlooks, however , the newspapers Narodne noviny and, with one minor exception, Slovensky hlasnik. His bibliography is somewhat dated because he does not cite relevant works, including his own, published after 1981. SLOVAKIA 109 Although the author does not burden his narrative with statistics, tables, or theories , he generally succeeds in achieving his objective of writing for a more general , rather than an academic audience . On several occasions, either in the narrative or footnotes , he corrects factual errors that apparently heretofore have been accepted by Bethlehem Slovaks . However, by trying to avoid becoming bogged down in scholarly analysis , Stolarik, at times, forgets his responsibility to the general public as a professional historian. Indeed , he misses opportunities to use his scholarly expertise to investigate the veracity of some popularly-held beliefs or attitudes and is not always careful to use solid evidence to support some generalizations. For example , Stolarik rather nonchalantly refers to "the Irish police" as stopping fights at Slovak weddings (p. 82) . Were all the policemen in Bethlehem Irish , or were only Irish policemen sent to quiet down rowdy Slovak celebrations? Here statistics and footnotes are needed. Stolarik's nice composite picture of Slovak fraternal meetings drawn from the minutes of different lodges includes the suggestion that women disrupted meetings when they attended in their husbands' stead. This was a popular view held by Slovak males who opposed accepting females into lodges in the early twentieth century. How " often" did women actually delay meetings? Stolarik observes that secular lodges opened with the presidents warning '' all in attendance to behave themselves" (p . 40) . This presumably included both men and women present. Can women, then , be singled out as a particular problem? In both instances just cited , Stolarik's descriptions may be accurate, but statements by a professional historian that confirm ethnic and sexual stereotypes in the minds of a general audience require more concrete, explicit evidence . At times , Stolarik is also confusing because his discussion is too brief. For example , he relates that several factors gave rise to a large number of Slovak lodges in Bethlehem. Some lodges were formed on the basis of geographic origins, while the membership of others , he explains, reflected social standing in the Slovak community. Does this mean that Slovaks who joined the same lodge as fellow villagers but then subsequently attained a different social status in the community switched lodges? If this was the case, it has strong implications for further exploring the emergence 110 SLOVAKIA of class divisions within ethnic communities. The discussion of female occupations should also be expanded and clarified . It is not clear if the second- and third-generation working women he discusses (pp. 113, 115-17) were married or single . Did married women routinely work outside of the home? Such clarifications would have enhanced his discussion of the acculturation process among American-Slovaks. Also, since formal affiliation of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1902) with the Missouri Synod did not occur until 1908, Stolarik's passing reference to 1902 as the date when Slovak Lutherans affiliated with that conservative body can create confusion. Finally, some Bethlehem Slovaks as well as scholars will surely disagree with some of Stolarik's generalizations about the Slovak experience in general and the Bethlehem experience in particular. Although Stolarik was concerned primarily with writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks, his work does touch on issues of interest to professional scholars. His discussions of politics and social mobility support those scholars who suggest that social mobility in America can be gauged on different levels. While some Slovaks did not achieve social prominence in American society, they did achieve such prominence within their own ethnic community. His analysis of politics offers some insight into how immigrants dealt with, adjusted to, and influenced America's political structure. Overall, the author remains faithful to his objective of writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks. In doing so, he avoids the trappings of filiopietism often evident in such ethnic histories. While careful not to offend their descendants, Stolarik, on occasion, provides critical judgments of individuals. Additionally, while he clearly regrets the ongoing demise of Slovak culture and the waning of ethnic identity that has taken place among Bethlehem Slovaks, he does not reduce his study to one of "Slovak contributions" and a celebration of Slovak culture in a propagan distic effort to stir ethnocentrism among second- and thirdgeneration Slovaks. Thus, w hile scholars will likely agree with Stolarik's own assessment that " traditional concerns of historians" generally remain beyond the scope of Growing Up on the South Side , Bethlehem Slovaks will find that Stolarik has done what he set out to do: write a readable English-language history for them. SLOVAKIA 111 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution - A Quarter of a Century After. London: George Allen & Unwin , 1983 . xviii, 174 pp. PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Bentley, Australia The authors of this book left Hungary in 1977. Since then they have published a remarkable series of books, especially (together with George Markus) Dictatorship over Needs: A Study of Soviet Societies, also in 1983 . The present volume is a well written and passionately argued attempt to interpret the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a leftist and socialist radical point of view. The authors' thesis on the revolution is divided into two parts: its impact on the world, and on Hungary. There is hardly any doubt that the revolution was felt all over the world. Equally correct is the writers' conviction that because no substantial help was offered to the revolutionaries from the West , "the result was a major loss of face for the Western powers, a second moral Munich" (p. 15) . More questionable is their often repeated affirmation that the Hungarians rebelled equally against the Soviets as against the West, because during World War II the latter allowed Central and Eastern Europe to be incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Only Istvan Bib6 and his " Draft of a compromise solution of the Hungarian question'' can be quoted in support of such a surprising assertion. Sure enough, most Central and East Europeans did not like the overwhelming Soviets interest and the shocking Western lack of interest in their fate and territories, but it is stretching the point to claim that ''the Hungarian revolution was a revolt against all signatories of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements" (p. 16) . Feher and Heller are on safer grounds when they assert that in 1956 the Americans lost a great opportunity by not offering to the Soviets a compromise by which Hungary would have been granted neutrality and the Soviet Union an end to the Cold War. The Soviet leaders were for a few crucial days divided about how to deal with the crisis, and the authors believe that the Soviets would have considered such an offer. 112 SLOVAKIA There follows a good discussion of "national communism, " and in this context Yugoslav leaders are blamed for their opportunist attitude toward the Hungarian revolution. Western Communist parties lost many members, fellow-travellers, and prestige in the process: "The events of October 1956 [sounded] the deathknell of the Popular Front policy" (p. 44). In their review of other East European Communist parties' reaction to the revolution, the writers express their support for "the idea of a confederation between the free nations of the region" (p. 62). In the second part of the book the authors stress the lack of democratic and liberal traditions in their native country. Several times they point out that only in Czechoslovakia was there a successful marriage of nationalism with such progressive tendencies. Although they believe that after both the First and Second World Wars Hungary was treated too harshly by the victors, they contend that only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a democratic, liberal, and socialist model being created in their country. One of the major points of the message should be seen in that historical development. Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller would also like their readers to believe that after a long series of failed heroes of Hungarian history Imre Nagy should be accepted as a genuine hero , "forger, arbiter , martyr and symbol of a murdered revolution" (pp . 15 7-8). What fascinated this reviewers most was the obvious learning process experienced by extreme leftist radicals about the real substance of 'Soviet Commu nism and of its betrayal of the working people. The authors castigate not only Lenin, Trotsky , and Stalin, but also Deutscher and Sartre , among others, for trusting professional revolutionaries and manipulators more than the masses. From the authors ' arguments it is also clear that they themselves had to be transformed from typical radical intellectuals' positions of misuse of the wage earners to admiration for their democratic and pluralist hopes . They admit that only several years after the revolution were some of the w ishes and actions of the Hungarian people understood and accepted by them (e.g ., p . 92). The last pages of the volume are devoted to an excellent analysis of Kadarism and of the modernized sophisticated terror which is also well known in Czechoslovakia. SLOVAKIA 113 Slovak readers will find occasional reference to Hungarian "bereft territories" (p. 149) and of the Hungarians expelled from Slovakia (pp. 50 -51). They might wonder who are the "Slovakians" (p . 51). Of much greater interest is the insight into the way leftist radical socialists inside of Hungary view the past and the future and what can be expected from them and their nation . Jozef Ciger-Hronsky. Jozef Mak. Translated by Andrew Cincura. Afterword by Peter Petro. Columbus: Slavica, 1984. 232 pp. WILLIAM E. HARKINS Columbia University New York, New York This volume is the first in a series of works of Slovak literature slated to be published by Slavica Publishers in Columbus, Ohio. Currently projected for publication are volumes by Hugolin Gavlovic and Bozena Timrava, as well as a volume of folk ballads. The project represents a notable break-through for the cause of Slovak literature in translation in this country . Jozef Ciger (1894-1960), who published under the pseudonym of Hronsky, is one of the great writers of Modern Slovak Literature, one comparatively neglected , presumably for ideological reasons. A village school teacher , Hronsky knew the Slovak peasants as perhaps no other Slovak writer did; in particular, he understood the mysticism of the peasantry and portrayed it in his works : During World War II he supported the nationalistic Tiso regime , and in 1945 emigrated to Argentina. Under the new Czechoslovak republic he was never mentioned, not to say published, along with a number of other nationalist writers . In 1970 his contemporary, the critic Alexander Matuska , published a monograph devoted to him. Jozef Mak was published in 1933. It is a novel of the Slovak village in the period of Hungarian oppression and the time of emigration to America. Maryarization and Emigration are portrayed as twin perils and twin temptations , for both seem to pro- 114 SLOVAKIA mise political or economic salvation to the poverty-ridden peasantry. The novel represents a unique blend of realism and symbolism, one hardly to be found among contemporary Czech writers, for instance, or even among other Slovak writers. Those aspects of the novel that pertain to individual characters and their fates are more symbolic, while the public and social facets of the story are realistic. The first are richer in metaphors , certainly while the latter are richer in metonyms. The blending of the two strains gave the author considerable difficulty , and it is the private, symbolic novel that is more memorable for the reader . The term "symbolic" is customarily used for fiction in the style of Jozef Mak , but the novel is actually as much mythic as symbolic. (Of course the two styles are closely interrelated.) The leading characters are archetypes who draw much of their being from an idealized metaphorical world close to folklore. Jozef Mak himself is an image of the alienated orphan, denied his inheritance, material as well as spiritual. The novel ends without his having found himself or his true destiny. Jozef Mak is born the illegitimate son of a poor peasant woman, to be ousted from the house and land by his worthless older, legitimate half brother. Still he grows up honest, hard working, and resourceful. He finally marries a crippled woman whom he seduces, a wife who provides a spiritual guide for him throughout his married life . But, exhausted from the weight of burdens, physical and spiritual, his wife Jula dies . Jozef is left alone at the end of the novel to endure and to plot his path through life alone. The wife Jula is certainly one of the great characters in Slovak literature. Her piety and meekness , and her endurance of her husband's deceptions, are entirely believable , as is the aura of spiritual beauty (in spite of physical deformity) with which the author invests her. The author's conception of such a character required great artistic imagination; Mak himself is hardly so successful. Perhaps his position as central character (and also as perceiving subject) in so much of the novel has precluded the writer from developing a firm, coherent image of him. Less sharp are the characters involved, positively or negative- SLOVAKIA 115 ly , in their nation's political struggle , and it is evident that Hronsky had difficulties with the realistic side of the novel , partly because the struggle in question corresponds to the time of his boyhood, when he hardly could have succeeded in grasping its meaning. Thus the mythic, symbolic , mystical side of the novel is the stronger, and makes a powerful nostalgic imprint on the reader. Pavol Stevcek. Contemporary Slovak Literature . Translated by Ol 'ga Horska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1980. 122 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights , Ohio Contemporary Slovak literature is often an unfamiliar area even to Slavic literary specialists, whereas writings of contemporary Czech authors from the same country are internationally known. Perhaps it is true , as one Slovak specialist in North America has stated , that Slovak literature is a Cinderella among the literatures of Europe that awaits the discovery of her true worth. The study under review is an attempt to dispel some of this unfamiliarity for an English-reading audience. In this book Stevcek discusses twenty-three writers of the post-1945 era. Twenty-one men are presented as poets and writers of prose and children's literature, but only two women are discussed and that in the area of children 's literature. Among the poets are Pavol Horov, Jan Kostra, Ladislav Novomesky, Milan Rufus, Jan Smrek, and Miroslav Valek; among the prose writers are Alfonz Bednar, Peter Jaros , Vladimir Minac, Vincent Sikula, and Frantisek Svantner. The first of six chapters sets the context for appreciating the work of these writers. In describing the development of this modern era in literature Stevcek employs a Marxist interpretation and even discusses briefly the features of literature written according to such a viewpoint. (The English here is rather stilted and contrived; if the translation is at fault, it is probably because it is a literal rendition of the author's diction and style , which in Slovak may be appropriate for such a work but becomes at times opaque in English translation .) In the remaining five 116 SLOVAKIA chapters, Stevcek considers respectively writers of poetry, prose, children's literature, drama, and literary studies and theoretical presentations. At the end of the chapters on poetry and prose, the author presents brief commentary on a number of other such contemporary writers in order to round out the presentation for these areas . In the chapter on poetry Stevcek fails to include Masa Hal 'amova. Why? Does not a poet who was at the time of this study an "Artist of Merit" deserve mention? (At the present time, she holds the title "National Artist.") This is a significant omission, especially as consideration of Hal'amova would also have increased the number of women presented . In the chapter on children's literature Stevcek includes two women, one of whom, Klara Jarunkova, could just as well have been discussed in the prose chapter. Indeed, she could have been included in both chapters . Likewise , L'ubomir Feldek should have been discussed for more than his contribution to children's literature. Some commentary on or at least mention of L'udo Zubek and Dominik Tatarka would also have been quite justified. Such additions to this study would certainly not have increased its size by much, and yet would have definitely enhanced its benefit to Slavic scholars and anyone interested in Slovak literature. Contemporary Slovak Literature is a noteworthy contribution from Slovakia that provides some basic information on a large number of writers. Such a publication in English is crucial if Slovak literature is to be able to assume its proper place in modern world literature . Given the paucity of such publications , this study should be helpful not only to specialists but also libraries. Given also the excellent literary specialists now writing in Slovakia, more such publications as the one above, with style and English rendition improved , should be rightly expected and published in the future.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 32 (No. 58-59) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li><em>Historický časopis</em>, 33, 2 (1985), "K Veľkomoravskému výročiu," and Anna Hollá, <em>Metod - učiteľ Slovienov. K 1100 výročiu úmrtia (885-1985)</em> (Theodoric F. Zubek), p. 85</li> <li>Július Sopko, <em>Stredoveké latinské kódexy v slovenských knižniciach</em>, and <em>Stredoveké latinské kodexy slovenskej proveniencie v Maďarsku a v Rumunsku</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 88</li> <li>Ľubomír Juck, ed., <em>Výsady miest a mestečiek na Slovensku</em>, and Richard Marsina, ed., <em>Národnostný vývoj miest na Slovensku</em> (David P. Daniel), p. 90</li> <li>Juraj Žudel, Stolice na Slovensku (R. Vladimir Baumgerten), p. 92</li> <li>Joseph Stasko, ed., <em>Tvorcovia nového Slovenskať - The Shaping of Modern Slovakia</em> (George Virsik), p. 96</li> <li>Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, ed., <em>Slovak Politics</em> (George Virsik), p. 97</li> <li>František Vnuk, <em>Životopis Konštantina Čulena</em> (Owen V. Johnson), p. 100</li> <li>Miroslav Kropilák a kolektív, <em>Dejiny Slovenska</em> V (James R. Felak), p. 102</li> <li>Yeshayahu A. Jelinek, <em>The Lust for Power</em> (Robert K. Evanson), p. 106</li> <li>M. Mark Stolarik, <em>Growing Up on the South Side</em> (June G. Alexander), p. 108</li> <li>Ferenc Féher &amp; Ágnes Heller, <em>Hungary 1956 Revisited</em> (Peter R. Hruby), p. 111</li> <li>Jozef Ciger-Hronský, <em>Jozef Mak</em> (William E. Harkins), p. 113</li> <li>Pavol Števček, <em>Contemporary Slovak Literature</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 115</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alexander, June Granatir, 1948- Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Daniel, David P., 1940-2020 Evanson, Robert Kent, 1944- Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Harkins, William Edward, 1921-2014 Hrubý, Petr, 1921-2017 Johnson, Owen V. Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Virsik, George Zúbek, Teodorik J., 1914-1988 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-86 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/27a23a4d6968a40a1bf4ba992eb69ad3.pdf 5fc2abf9c66d5887ff4803f7b869e5e6 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 87 ��SLOVAKIA 89 Vojtech Kopcan. Turecke nebezpecenstvo a Slovensko. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 217 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This beautifully illustrated work presents an overview of Slovakia's position in the wars between the Turkish Ottomans and the Austrian Habsburgs. For purposes of convenience the author divides this historic conflict into several periods. The first period began with the Ottoman advance through the Balk~ns in the fifteenth century and climaxed with the historic battle of Mohac in 1526. The battle effectively broke the power of the old Hungarian kingdom, and marked the first attempt of the Habsburgs to gain the crown of Saint Stephen. Habsburg efforts were temporarily thwarted by Hungary's last national king Janos Zapolya (whose name is Slovakized by the author to Zapol'sky), but the kingdom was partitioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. At this point the Habsburgs gained western and northern Hungary, and the Slovak counties became a definite buffer against further Ottoman advance. Slovakia was only indirectly influenced by the Turkish wars in the first-mentioned phase, although Kopcan points to this period as a time when many Croats migrated to the Slovak counties. But the period between the partition of 1541 and the peace treaty of Edirne of 1568 entailed dramatic changes: an additional noble exodus from Turkish-occupied Hungary strengthened feudalism in the Slovak lands, and the Turks made increasing inroads into the mountain districts. The resumption of hostilities in the following two decades saw the rise of pro-Habsburg magnates - particularly the Pa.Iffy and Forgach families - who later played key roles in the history of Habsburg Hungary. By the early seventeenth century Transylvania was likewise making an impact on Upper Hungary. The principality's Protestant rulers, paying nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Porte, frequently sought and gained the support of the latter in their struggles against the Habsburgs. The Transylvanian forays brought great devastation to Slovakia, and also saw the transfer of Kosice and �90 SLOVAKIA the eastern Slovak counties to Transylvania's jurisdiction by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. An attempt by Transylvanian elements to shift to the Habsburg orbit in 1663 led directly to the high-tide mark of Turkish advance into Slovakia; the subsequent peace left the southern counties under direct Ottoman control. Habsburg misrule, the greed of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa , and the ambitions of Transylvanian leader Imre Thokoly are all cited as factors in the campaign culminating in the great siege of Vienna in 1683. Most knowledgeable historians credit the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the real turning point of Ottoman fortunes, and Kopcan himself alludes to the significance of the event at the beginning of Chapter Four. But for Central Europe, including Slovakia, the breaking of the siege of Vienna was indeed a turning point. The intervention of Poland was decisive in driving the Turks from southern Slovakia and marked the retreat of Transylvanian power in the eastern counties. In keeping with official Czechoslovak historiography, Kopcan treats the liberation of Nave Zamky as a positive event, and, indeed, the book was written to mark the three hundredth anniversary. The results can scarcely be termed "socially progressive:" feudalism was not weakened, Habsburg absolutism was actually strengthened, and the cause of religious toleration received a severe setback. Kopcan's line of reasoning may be found in Chapter Nine, which serves as a kind of "balance sheet" of the Ottoman presence. The occupied ten:itories were viewed primarily as military frontier zones, and the heavy demands imposed upon the government reflected the same purpose. At least the Mohammedan invaders were replaced by rulers less foreign to the Slovaks , and the war shifted considerably further to the south. A number of the weaknesses of the book are scarcely those of the author's making. The complex course of events creates difficulties in distinguishing between one period and the next. The Slovak lands are treated as mere pawns in the struggle between the contesting powers - and this was indeed the case. But although Kopcan occasionally cites the roles of individual Slovak personalities, he might have given the counties greater attention. In large measure this weakness stems from his choice of source materials . Notes are applied liberally at the end of each chapter, �SLOVAKIA 91 and the sources consulted boast of fine studies emanating from numerous countries. But Kopcan might easily have relied more on contemporary Slovak county records. An examination of the Imperial War Archives in Vienna might also have yielded something genuinely original. For advanced students of Slovak history, the Habsburgs, and the Ottoman Empire alike, Turecke nebezpecenstvo presents no great revelations. But Kopcan masterfully ties together several interrelated themes, and the main topic has thus far received little attention in the West. The book may therefore serve as a springboard to more intensive studies of Slovakia's position durng the Turkish wars. Matej Bel: doba-iivot-dielo. Edited by Jan Tibensky. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 414 pp. Pamatnica z oslav dvojsteho vyrocia Jana Holleho. Edited by Juraj Chovan. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1985 . 472 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Matej Bel is a collection of scholarly papers presented at a conference on Bel (1684-1749) in December, 1983. The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Society for the History of Science and Technology co-sponsored the conference, which was planned in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Matej Bel , an event highlighted in the UNESCO calendar for 1984. Bel was a prominent and talented Slovak scholar in many areas , as well as a Lutheran minister and promoter of Pietism. His role in Slovak and Magyar/Hungarian cultural history is well known in Central European scholarly circles. Regrettably , Bel is virtually unknown outside of them . The format of this volume continues to insure his inaccessibility to a wider scholarly or general audience. Indeed, this volume contrasts sharply and somewhat unfavorably with the memorial book on the Bernolak-Slovak poet Jan Holly. �92 SLOVAKIA The book on Holly was published under the auspices of the Matica slovenska in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Holly's birth as noted by UNESCO in its 1985 calendar. Jan Holly (1785-1849) was a Roman Catholic priest and the outstanding poet of what is known as Bernolak-Slovak. This version of literary Slovak was codified by Anton Bernolak, another Catholic priest, in the late 1780's and early 1790's. Employing this codification, which became the writing form of Catholic Slovaks until sometime in the 1850's, Holly first translated classical poets and later created his own poetry in it. This book includes a chronology of Holly's life and works, written accounts of various celebrations in his honor, scholarly papers from a conference about him, and varia. It is a fitting tribute to a writer long neglected in contemporary Slovakia and but very recently properly heralded. The Holly memorial has some rather distinctive features. The Slovak text is usually followed by English and French summaries of varying length , with shorter Russian and German summaries of everything at the end of the volume. Such linguistic variety makes this book accessible to a very wide audience; this is not a typical Slovak publishing practice. By contrast, the Bel volume is completely in Slovak, with no summaries in any other language. Furthermore , the Holly memorial has sixteen color photographs while the reproductions in the Bel volume are all in black and white. Both books have colored dust jackets, but the Holly book, unlike the Bel volume, has reproduced on the inside cover, front and back, some well-known historic scenes. One is of Bernolak presenting his codification to the Trnava primate and to the Catholic seminarians in Bratislava; the other has the Lutheran pastor and scholar I.:udovit Shir and his followers presenting their codification ideas to Holly. Such elaborate binding was not really necessary but it indicates the degree to which contemporary Slovak cultured society wished to honor Holly. The books were also published in disproportionate numbers: 7,500 Holly books versus only 800 on Bel. Unlike the Bel volume, the Holly book includes indices that enhance its scholarly value. The final contrast is even more striking. The Holly conference was held in 1985 �SLOVAKIA 93 and the memorial book appeared in the same year! The Bel conference took place in 1983 and the papers were not published until 1987. In spite of the publisher's slights, the Bel volume is excellent, as one might expect from its editor, the distinguished historian Jan Tibensky. This collection of papers is divided into six main topic areas among which are distributed forty-four presentations of varying size. The topic areas are: the era, life, and world view of Matej Bel; Bel as a pedagogue; the great counry-wide project of Matej Bel and his attempts at organizing the scholarly life of the Hungarian state; the Notitia and Adparatus as realizations of Matej Bel's country-wide program; the peoples of the old Hungarian state in his writings; and his final message and bequest. In addition to some introductory comments, Jan Tibensky contributed five of the articles; the remaining 39 are primarily by Slovak specialists from many fields. For some strange reason the authors are noted on the bottom of the first page of their articles, and not in the Table of Contents. There is also a laudable wealth of material in the Holly memorial book. One section contains 23 scholarly papers from the conference on Holly, plus introductory and concluding comments by Karol Rosenbaum. Of greatest interest to me in literature and cultural history were the following: Jan Tibensky's paper on the great Moravian and Cyrillomethodian tradition in the writings of Jan Holly; Zdenka Sojkova's discussion of Holly's reception and influence in the Czech lands; Viliam Turcany's consideration of Holly's poetic language; as well as that of Frantisek Straus, and Katarina Habovstiakova's discussion of Holly and BernolakSlovak. The appendices - a select bibliography, a listing of Holly's manuscripts, a name and place index - will be helpful to interested readers. The scholar fortunate enough to obtain copies of both books, especially the smaller Bel volume , will possess an abundance of material on Slovak cultural history of the 18th and 19th, and even of the 20th centuries. Such high-quality books are not often found in Slovak studies. Their respective editors and contributors are to be commended for making two prominent cultural figures more accessible to the Slavic scholarly community. �94 SLOVAKIA Hugolin Gavlovic {1712-1787}. Introduction by Michal Elias. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 17 photographs, 11 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This fotosubor was published in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugolin Gavlovic, a Franciscan priest who was a major Slovak writer of the eighteenth century. Michal Elias' introduction is written in a popular, somewhat scholarly style in order to make his comments accessible to a wideranging reading public. Highlighted is Gavlovic's Valaska Skala, an extensive poem of some eighteen thousand verses . Gavlovic and his writings are presented in the context of other Franciscans of his time as well as of those active in the Pruske Franciscan house, not far from Trencin, where Gavlovic wrote many of his works. It is praiseworthy that Matica slovenska has sought to distinguish Gavlovic, none of whose writings have been published accurately or in their entirety - even some very small ones in Slovakia at the present time. Certainly, it adds to his distinction by UNESCO, which incorporated the anniversary of Gavlovic's death into its 1987 calendar. The difficulty is that some of Elias' material is confusing and inaccurate or not as complete as it might have been. Certain writings - Adamowa Promena and Katechyzmus, for example - attributed traditionally to Gavlovic and so noted by Elias - are today no longer believed to have been written by Gavlovic. Just a half year after the publication of this fotosubor, Gizela Slavkovska-Gafrikova published a listing of Gavlovic's writings and a rather detailed biography, more complete and accurate than that of Elias , in "Zivotopisne a bibliograficke otazniky Hugolina Gavlovica," Slovenska literatura , Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 348-361. It is regrettable that these two specialists could not have collaborated on Gavlovic's biographical data. Then perhaps there would have been expressed at least some reservation about whether Gavlovic was a tutor for the Madocany children near the end of his life; that he was so is still claimed without any real �SLOVAKIA 95 substantiation. Qualifications even in so popularly written a work as Elias' have a definite place. In his citations from Valaska Skala, Elias, like every other modern Slovak editor including Slavkovska-Gafrikova, has a text with a dlien , something that Gavlovic never used in his writings, and in places that certainly do not correspond with modern Slovak usage. Since the autographs of all of Gavlovic's extant writings are preserved at Matica slovenska in Martin, Elias should have consulted these originals before producing the texts in the fotosubor. Even Slavkovska-Gafrikova, in her June, 1987 publication Hugolin Gavlovic Naucenia o Dobrych Mravoch r does no better though she should certainly have been very familiar with the autographs of Gavlovic. Why modern Slovak editors like Elias and Slavkovska-Gafrikova persist in such reproduction of Gavlovic's writings is baffling . Indeed, photographs of various Gavlovic autographs included in the fotosubor are clear evidence that Gavlovic did not use a dlien, and a miikcen only irregularly with a "t" or "n." Whatever the nature of the intended audience, the original text accompanied by a modern rendition is preferable where so little of the autograph(s) is cited. The cover of the fotosubor is a striking watercolor by the outstanding contemporary painter Albin Brunovsky, some of whose paintings and drawings have been on exhibit in various American locations during 1988. The photographs related directly to Gavlovic's life and writings are good and give the reader a reasonable acquaintance with so important a writer. Matica slovenska, and Dr. Elias, are to be commended for their efforts in producing this fotosubor and , hopefully in the future, may correct some of its inadequacies. Dejiny Slovenska, JV, (ad konca 19. star. do roku 1918} Pavel Hapak, et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 534 pp. MICHAEL J. KOPANIC , JR. University of Akron , Ohio This is the fourth in the series entitled Dejiny Slovenska , which is the most recent multi-volume survey of Slovak history �96 SLOVAKIA to come out of the Slovak Socialist Republic. A group of leading Slovak scholars authored this book which is woven together fairly coherently for a collaborative effort. Volume IV outlines the major trends in Slovak politics, society, culture , and the economy from 1900 until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918. The authors also attempt to place Slovak history in the international setting of a Europe on the brink of revolutionary changes . Some of the strongest sections in the book are the summaries of the macroeconomic and microeconomic development of prewar industries, financial institutions, services, and agriculture in Slovakia. Useful tables and statistics are included. Likewise, the authors provide an analysis of each social class and the nationalities (except for the Carpathian Germans). In politics, the authors (especially J. Butvin) stress the disunity of the Slovak parties which prevented a common front to counter the strong Magyarization pressures that accelerated after the passage of the Apponyi Education Acts of 1907. Despite the authors' noteworthy achievements, the volume is not without its shortcomings. In the bibliography there is an obvious neglect of post-World War II Western studies and emigre literature on Slovakia (for example, Hrusovsky, Kirschbaum, Mikula, and others). Emigration to America, and elsewhere, could have been more carefully analyzed, especially its impact on political self-awareness in Slovakia. The wave of emigration, communications with friends and relatives, and the return of Slovaks from America to their homeland gradually raised the national and political consciousness of common folk throughout Slovakia and helped propel the movement to seek an alternative state in association with the Czechs. As in many other studies from contemporary Czechoslovakia, there is a marked emphasis upon Slovak labor history and the influence of the working class both before and during World War I. The authors (especially Pavel Hapak) underline the rising significance of the Slovak Social Democratic Party, the trade unions, and the impact of such organizations as spevokoly (singing societies) in promoting Slovak national awareness and class consciousness. The authors aptly illustrate the nationality con- �SLOVAKIA 97 flicts of Magyar chauvinism among Hungarian Social Democratic leaders. However, the reader must be wary of any tendency to overexaggerate the significance of the workers' movement. As Pavel Hapak points out (p. 258), no more than 6,346 Slovaks belonged to the Slovak Social Democratic organization in Hungary at its peak in 1907. More Slovaks were organizing in larger cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but we still lack detailed studies of these experiences. These pre-war experiences reached a fruition in the latter stages of World War I and resulted in a surge of political and labor activism which is described in the 1917-18 period. As in many other Marxist histories, the authors ascribe too much influence to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 rather than to the March Russian Revolution which marked the beginning of the end for the old regimes of Europe. Despite the concerns of the authors with the lower classes, they do not provide a good sense of what it was like to be a worker, a peasant, or a migratory laborer. Too often the authors stress social history more from an institutional and statistical angle, rather than presenting us with a close-up of what life was really like for the average person in Slovakia. Most obvious is the neglect of the Slovak people's association with their churches, the center of village life. What did Slovak people value most highly in their hierarchy of priorities, and how and why were these values changing? The authors do not tell us. In a book which concentrates on a such narrow period, the authors could have presented a much better portrait of some of the leading personalities in Slovakia such as Pavel Blaho, Andrej Hlinka, or Emanuel Lehocky. Frequently, the reader obtains only a one-dimensional aspect of a person's life, usually his political or labor movement activities. A sense of what the total person was like is missing . Although the book contains a good bibliography of published books and articles and a bibliographic essay, the authors did not footnote their work. Footnotes would have been a useful addition for students of modern Slovak history. The book also lacks maps and a subject index (only a name and place index are included) which should accompany a work of this nature . �98 SLOVAKIA Finally, the authors did not attempt to write any conclusions about the meaning of Slovak history in the period covered. Although such a task is always difficult in a collaborative work, this would have given the study more unity . If there is any common theme which pervades the study, it is the alliance of Magyar financial capital with a noble ruling class which was bent on Magyarizing and exploiting Slovak peasants and blue-collar workers. These criticisms should not discourage one from obtaining the volume. The book is a valuable and useful reference tool for the library of any scholar of Slovak history. Many topics such as literature, labor, economic, and political history are well summarized in a readable style, and the interpretations are more objective than many earlier Marxist studies. This is surely the best available detailed survey of Slovakia in the early twentieth century. Stephan Parak. Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat. Bern: Peter Lang (Europaische Hochschulschriften Ill/339), 1987, 308 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada Once in a while , a pearl is dropped on the lap of scholars. All the necessary ingredients are there: a relatively unknown topic, thorough research, a scholarly approach, the proper use of references, balanced conclusions and a challenge to conventional wisdom. Such is Stephan Parak's study of the political and economic relations between two small states in wartime, Slovakia and Switzerland. It is not necessary to belabour the point that the Slovak Republic does not generally enjoy a good reputation in Western scholarship. Created at a time when Germany was bent on redrawing the map of Central Europe, allied to it in war, involved in the persecution of the Jews and occupied in the end by one of the Allied powers , the Slovak state belonged to the camp of the van- �SLOVAKIA 99 quished and suffered as a result the inevitable consequences of unconditional defeat. This outcome has guided many scholars who see more virtue in triumphalism than in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Whatever may be the merits of the debate whether the Slovak Diet should have proclaimed Slovakia's independence on 14 March 1939, the fact is that on that day a new state appeared on the political map of Europe. Its leaders were determined to use the opportunity not only to safeguard the well-being of the nation , but also to ensure its growth and development. That there was great German pressure in Slovak political life, that the Slovak leaders took decisions contrary to the Christian philosophy of their party, that the Slovak economy fuelled the German war effort were all facts of the political life of this small state next to an expansionist ideological regime; equally true is the fact that this state sought to withstand and diminish some of these pressures and to lead the life of a small country which needs good relations with others to survive and thrive . Parak's study looks at both of these themes in his examination of the relations between Slovakia and Switzerland. The first influenced the question of the diplomatic recognition of Slovakia. It was settled as much by the Swiss interpretation of international law as by Bern's appraisal of the power constellation in Europe in 1939 . The Swiss " tacit recognition" of Slovakia reflected this as did the break of relations in 1945 and the recognition of the renewed state of Czechoslovakia. On the Slovak side, it was clearly most important to achieve the best diplomatic status possible , something which the Swiss were unwilling to grant, especially in wartime. Parak documents and analyzes this question not only thoroughly, but in an intelligent and balanced way. The diplomatic tug-of-war between these two states did not prevent on the other hand important economic and cultural relations. A good part of this study concentrates on the scope and the benefits of these relations to both states. It makes all the more fascinating reading as these relations were being carried out while the rest of Europe was at war. The extent to which Slovakia could exist as an independent state is made quite clear by these relations. The author also devotes an entire chapter on the role of �100 SLOVAKIA Switzerland in the fate of the Slovak Jews. His approach is factual and sensitive. He notes that in 1942, neither the Swiss government, nor the Red Cross lodged a protest against the deportations of Slovak Jews to Poland. Yet Swiss representatives in Slovakia were also very active in protecting Jews who were important for economic and commercial reasons and they intervened with Slovak authorities to see that presidential exceptions were granted to them. After the 1944 revolt the situation was reversed. The meaning of the German Final Solution was then clear; the Swiss government and the Red Cross lodged protects against the deportations. But neither they nor the Slovak government could do anything - even protect those who had been granted presidential exceptions - as the Germans were now in control in Slovakia. Nevertheless many Swiss, including diplomatic representatives, with the support of the Slovak Red Cross and Church circles , were able personally to extend refuge to individual Jews . In the light of this record Parak asks whether the Swiss might have had more success if they had been more active on the official diplomatic level. He concludes: "One is left with the impression that on the Swiss side not all available opportunities were exhausted to save Slovak Jews in the Second World War" (p . 215). In his overall conclusion Parak considers that the relations between these two states, like those of great powers, were determined by national interest as well as by their perception of the international situation. This is an interesting conclusion, not for Switzerland where to most it must seem self-evident, but for Slovakia where a perception still lingers among scholars that its policies and activities were dictated entirely by Berlin. Yet such a challenge to conventional wisdom is the normal outcome of this study. That is not the least of its merits. This is a published doctoral dissertation as required by European universities (in this case the University of Basel) for the obtaining of the degree. Given its excellence, it should be translated into English; it needs very few modifications . Above all , it certainly deserves to be read by as wide a public as possible . �SLOVAKIA 101 Carol Skalnik Leff. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. xi, 304 pp. JAMES FELAK Bloomington, Indiana A persistent theme in the history of Czechoslovakia has been the Slovak quest for autonomy. In her book National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1917, Carol Skalnik Leff examines this crucial issue from 1918 to the present. She deals above all with the Slovak question as manifested in the First Czechoslovak Republic and in the Communist state between 1948 and 1968, stressing similarities in how both the democratic and the Communist regimes handled the issue of autonomy. In the interwar democracy as well as the postwar Communist state, Leff sees certain impediments to autonomy. In both states, Czechoslovakia's leaders believed that modernization, not autonomy, would solve the Slovak question. In the First Republic, Masaryk and other Czechoslovak leaders explained Slovak discontent as the product of Hungarian influence and believed that one only had to develop Slovakia culturally in order for the Slovaks to assimilate to a ''Czechoslovak'' nation. The Communist regime saw Slovakia's backwardness as a function of economics. It believed that economic modernization would solve the Slovak question by effecting a zblizenie, a drawing together of Czechs and Slovaks in a comon culture. Both attempts failed. All they did was raise Slovak expectations and produce a more skilled and sophisticated nationalist leadership, better able to articulate Slovak discontent. Another similarity between the two regimes, according to Leff, was the systemic obstacles they presented to autonomy. Although the First Republic's parliamentary system and relative freedom of expression gave the autonomist Slovak People's Party a public and parliamentary podium from which to advocate its autonomist program, the structure of the system guaranteed that autonomist concerns would not be addressed seriously by the �102 SLOVAKIA government. The system of proportional representation, reflected in the so-called Petka, meant that the chances for the opposition to come to power were slim and that the government's main priority was those issues that could potentially affect the viability of the coalition. The government had little incentive to take up disruptive issues advocated only by parties outside the coalition. Although it officially recognized the Slovak nation, Communist Czechoslovakia likewise presented impediments for the Slovak autonomy movement. The liquidation of organized opposition and free expression, an ideological commitment to centralism, and bureaucratic rigidity all had a negative influence on the prospects for Slovak autonomy . Leff ascribes persistent tensions between Czechs and Slovaks to an '' ethos of mutual betrayal''. Because Slovak nationalists had little hope for realizing autonomy under the interwar and post-1948 regimes, they sought to further their aims during times of crisis. Autonomist Slovaks took advantage of the periods when Prague, under fire from without, needed to consolidate its position at home. However, because the Slovaks got autonomy in the wake of the Munich agreement and federation in the wake of the Soviet invasion, many Czechs regarded the Slovaks as doubledealers willing to exploit the republic's troubles and do business with its external enemies for their own selfish ends. This, coupled with a perceived ingratitude on the part of the Slovaks, who seemed not to appreciate the Czech contributions to Slovakia's cultural and economic advancement, led Czechs to accuse Slovaks of betrayal. Many Slovaks, on the other hand, resented what they saw as a string of broken promises and a patronizing attitude toward them on the part of the Czechs. Leff gives a mixed review of the post-1968 federalist Czechoslovakia. She claims it has not fully solved the Slovak question, which remains "deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, woven into the fabric of Czechoslovak politics as usual.'' One might ask whether Slovaks can ever enjoy autonomy in a system that gives the population no control over who its leaders are or what policies those leaders pursue. . There are two drawbacks with Leff' s work that ought to be · pointed out. First, although she correctly mentions that �SLOVAKIA 103 · geopolitical factors played a role in the Czech refusal to grant Slovakia autonomy, she fails to elaborate sufficiently on this important point. Secondly, her use of sociological jargon and attempt to test certain social science theories sometimes tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate the question at hand. These shortcomings aside, Leff has presented a thoughtful analysis of a very complicated problem. Her work is balanced and insightful and she advances a number of valid arguments. Leff has confirmed the fact that it is possible to do worthwbile research on twentieth century Czechoslovakia without a visit to Czech and Slovak archives . Her book is recommended reading for those interested in the Slovak question and Czechoslovakia's history and politics in general. Pavol Petruf. USA a studena vojna (Politika americkeho imperializmu v Europe 1945-1949. Bratislava: Pravda, 1985. 280 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada One's first impression after reading this book is that the American school of historical revisionism has found a positive echo among Marxist scholars in Eastern Europe. This detailed study of American foreign policy in the immediate post-war years will, therefore, interest readers and students behind the Iron Curtain for whom access to Western scholarship is still restricted. It may also be seen as an indication of an attempt at openness in scholarship, certainly among Slovak Marxist academics, even though the first footnote is to a Soviet source (the Great Soviet Encyclopedia no less), a practice that was de rigueur during the Stalinist years. However, the Western reader will find nothing new and certainly no original interpretation of the origins of the Cold War. Unlike many revisionist historians, Petruf has not produced a study based primarily, if not uniquely, on documentary evidence. Rather, his sources are a mixture of published American �104 SLOVAKIA documents, Soviet and Czech volumes of documents, and Marxist and Western studies. A few American authors are favored and even quoted extensively. Unfortunately there are some liberties with the translations, which does not do credit to the book. But this is a minor problem which is attenuated by the detailed presentation of American foreign policy during the years 1944-1949. Petruf's central thesis is that during the war governing circles in the United States had worked out a strategic plan that would enable the United States to control most of the planet in the postwar world. The United States would use economic, social and political means to establish this hegemony. Their only obstacle was the Soviet Unon, which had come out of the war as a superpower and whose foreign policy was one that emphasized democracy and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state. Accordingly, American foreign policy became bitterly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. In the Cold War which ensued the aim of Washington was not only to contain the Soviet Union, but also to hold back the Moscow-led world revolutionary movement which had arisen after the war. The result, according to Petruf, was that ''war - whether as a threat or reality - became firmly anchored in the minds of the people as an inevitable aspect of life in the 20th century .... [But] It did not prevent the growth of the strength ahd international authority of the Soviet Union, the appearance of a world socialist system and the development of the world revolutionary and national liberation movement" (pp. 269-270). In six chapters the author unfolds his thesis by looking at American policy toward Central and Southeastern Europe; the shift from cooperaton to confrontaton between the USA and the USSR; the question of Germany; the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment; the preparations, essence and goals of the Marshall plan; and the creation of NATO. The discussion in each chapter is thorough , even if presented with a certain slant. Among the main actors the author holds reponsible for the Cold War are Truman, Kennan , Acheson, Byrnes, Forrestal and Churchill. According to Petruf, these men had moved away from Roosevelt's policy of cooperation with the USSR and , backed by American �SLOVAKIA 105 right-wing circles, opted for a hard line policy toward the Soviet Union. The book's main weakness, which disqualifies it as a work of serious scholarship, is not only the author's strident tone towards the United States, but also his adulatory approach to the Soviet Union. Not only is there no criticism of Soviet policy, but Kremlin decisions and actions which did more than just contribute to the unfolding of the Cold War are deliberately ignored. For example , in his discussion of the reasons for the reversal of Czechoslovakia's decision to partake in the discussions on the Marshall Plan, he does not mention that on 9 July 1947 a-Czechoslovak delegation composed of Gottwald , Drtina and Masaryk was in Moscow where Stalin informed them that the Czechoslovak acceptance of the Marshall Plan would be considered as an action hostile to the USSR. Petruf writes: "When in the meantime it became clear that the Marshall Plan was essentially directed at the independence and sovereignty of the participating countries, Czechoslovakia revised its initial decision and withdrew its participation in the Paris discussions" (p . 229) . It is a pity that such a thorough study had to be spoiled because of ideological predilections. Marxist scholars will not convince anyone of the validity of their point of view as long as they continue to be unable to take a broader critical look at the events they examine. June Granatir Alexander. The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press , 1987. xxxii , 198 pp. M. MARK STOLARIK The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Philadelphia , Pennsylvania In this revised Ph.D. dissertation, June Alexander set out "to bring to light the complex interplay of factors that led to the creation of ethnic parishes in American cities at the turn of the century" (p. xviii). �106 SLOVAKIA The essence of the book is that Roman Catholic Slovaks, while experiencing some local and internal problems while establishing their churches, had basically no quarrels with the local church hierarchy, whereas Lutheran Slovaks experienced major problems with their clerical leaders because the latter tried to impose a new orthodoxy upon their parishioners. To prove her point Alexander focused upon the four Roman Catholic and one Lutheran parish founded by Slovak immigrants in Pittsburgh between 1895 and 1915. She gave a bit of the religious background of the immigrants, told how they established fraternals in the United States and how these , in turn, led in establishing the parishes , and then traced the actual story of each parish to 1915. Meanwhile, she also discussed the rise of lay initiative among Slovak immigrants, their regionalism and nationalism (or lack of it) , and how these kept the various communities divided. Alexander concluded that the story of Slovak immigration to Pittsburgh is one of coming together to form fraternals and parishes. While the immigrants achieved these goals they did so differently, with the Roman Catholics acting rather harmoniously while the Lutherans were rent by dogmatic divisions. The net result was that the five parishes became communities unto themselves, divided ultimately by regionalism , dialectical and religious differences. While this is a competent study of the creation of five immigrant parishes over a twenty year period at the turn of the century , it has serious limitations . Alexander either did not realize (or chose to ignore) that when one studies ethnic parishes , one has to do so within the context of the local church body. For instance, when dealing with Pittsburgh Slovak Roman Catholics , she should have looked at their story within the diocese of Pittsburgh, which is the natural religious boundary of the area, not the borders of the city . Had she done so she might have noticed that two Slovak Roman Catholic parishes within the diocese (St . Anne 's in Homestead , in 1909, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in McKeesport, in 1922) seceded from the Roman Catholic Church and joined the independent Polish National Catholic Church. Since there were only a half dozen such secessions among Slovak �SLOVAKIA 107 Roman Catholic parishes in the United States at the turn of the century, there had to be plenty of problems between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and Slovak immigrants in the Pittsburgh diocese. That is why Alexander's characterizaiton of Slovak Catholic immigrant relations with the local Hierarchy as being ones of "assertive deference" rings very false. Furthermore, Alexander makes certain assertions about the Old World experience of Slovaks which rest upon shaky evidence. In denying lay involvement in parish affairs in Slovakia, or OldWorld experiences of fraternalism, she relies too much on the contemporary observations of secular leaders, who were voicing uninformed opinions, or on the questionable memories of eleven informants, some of whom were born in America and others who must have been children when they immigrated here. How could such people possibly know anything about such complicated subjects as lay initiative or lodge creation in Slovakia? Indeed, there is to date no professional history of the various religions in Slovakia, nor has anyone covered the history of fraternal-benefit societies in Slovakia, which, contrary to Alexander's assertions, did exist there and can be traced back to 1460 A .D. Unfortunately, in today's Communist Slovakia those historians who are still allowed to practice their craft cannot write about the Churches (except in a pejorative way), nor can they focus on non-socialist movements. The only scholars who have touched upon these sensitive matters are Timothy L. Smith and his students and Alexander has chosen to either ignore their work, which was based upon solid research in Slovak archives, or she has chosen to disagree with their findings, without any substantial proof to refute them. Thus, while Alexander's book provides us with a glimpse of Slovak parish and community life in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh , it suffers from too narrow a perspective that ultimately distorts the larger picture of both Slovak and Slovak-American history . �108 SLOVAKIA Kratky slovnik slovenskeho jazyka. Jan Kacala, Maria Pisarcikova et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 592 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Arizona This invaluable reference work is presented by SA V - the Slovak Academy of Sciences through its I:udovft Stur Linguistics Institute as the second in its series of Slovak language lexicons in a new single-volume. It is intended for the professional as well as for the average user as a source of information about the vocabularly of present-day Slovak, and as it evolved over the past forty years of its socialist development. This single-volume is labeled "short (kratky)/concise (strucny)" in contrast with SA Vs earlier multi-volume dictionary. The first five-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (1959-68) has been sold out. The core of the new Slovnik is the more than 500 pages devoted to its A to Z vocabulary numbering more than 50,000 entries. The information derives not only from the 5,000,000 citations available from the SA V Linguistics Institute's card-catalog but also from others collected since the publication of the first academic Slovnik and still more gleaned from belles lettres, special literature, publications, as well as the results of vast research in contemporary Slovak linguistics. The prepifratory material - those pages preceding the A to Z vocabulary - contains two sections: The Basic Principles of Lexicography, and Abbreviations & Symbols. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the incorporation and domestication of loan-words in what is termed the process of "internationalization'' (p. 11) of the language. To illustrate this flooding process, five words-in-a-row listed (p. 9) are: dzinsy "jeans," blue- , dzip "jeep," dziu-dzicu "jiu-kitsu," dzob "job," dzokej "jockey," horse- . Among others are (here paginated): bonsaj "banzai" miniature-tree /Japanese/ (51), kibic "kibitz," in cards /Yiddish/ (152), zardiniera "giardiniera" wide flower-pot /Italian/ (582). Among the unexpectedly unexplainable omissions is: ukrajinsky ''Ukrainian,'' whereas the following are listed in the text: �SLOVAKIA 109 bielorusky "Bielorussian" (47), estonsky "Estonian" (98), litovsky "Lithuanian" (184), lotyssky "Latvian" (185), polabsky "Polabian" (306) . The Slovnfk is the product of a collaborative effort by SA V's experts mentioned opposite the main title-page. Those who assiduously prepared this long-awaited lexicon can be proud of their achievements. The Slovnik is an invaluable, readable, handy reference work of contemporary Slovak language. Another, the second, step forward in Slovak lexicography. Apart from its precious contents, the book's binding is disappointingly fragile and.'brittle! Ludvik Patera. Alexander Matuska. Praha: Melantrich, 1985, 440 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Slovak literary critic Alexander Matuska (1910-1975) is known to American students of Czech and Slovak literature for his essay on Karel Capek, Clovek proti skaze (1963), which was published in English as Man Against Destruction (1981) , and for his book J.C. Hronsky (1970) published in Bratislava. Matuska's participation in Slovak intellectual and literary life began in the nineteen thirties and continued throughout his life. His Vy brane spisy (1972-1978) were published in four volumes in Bratislava. As one of the leading literary critics in Czechoslovakia, Matuska had an abiding interest in both Slovak and Czech literature, and was cognizant of the connection between national literatures and world literature. The knowledgeable Czech Slovakist Ludvik Patera, who teaches Slovak literature at Charles University, has written the first monograph on Matuska. Patera 's treatise appears as the seventysixth volume in the series Odkazu pokrokovych osobnisti nasi minulosti. The book consists of two main parts: the first (265 pages) contains Patera's well documented and reliable presenta- �110 SLOVAKIA tion of the chronological development of Matuska's life and work; the second presents a selection of Matuska's writings, which have been translated into Czech. Separating these two parts are thirtytwo pages of photographs, which include facsimiles ofMatuska's published work, manuscripts and letters. The totality of Matuska's activity emerges through Patera's method of combining biographical and literary data. Interspersed among the excerpts from Matuska's critical works are quotes from interviews with him that were published in Slovenske pohl'ady in the seventies . Patera skillfully weaves these quotations into his text, and allows the reader to learn of the life experiences that influenced Matuska' s development as a human being and as a literary critic. Patera 's research on Matuska's student years in Prague increases our understanding of the societal forces that had a great impact on young intellectuals during the inter-war period. While enrolled at Charles University , Matuska was associated with the group R10 (along with Jan Kostra, Dobroslav Chrobak, Michal Chorvath and others). This group was known as " The Young Davists, " the name stemming from their journal Dav, to which they actively contributed. During his student days , Matuska was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Czech critic and artist, F .X. Salda. They found common ground on various points. Neither supported the official view of that time, which claimed the existence of a Czechoslovak language with two versions, the Czech version and the Slovak version (pp. 27-28). They agreed that merging the two languages would only weaken and impoverish them both. As various scholars have pointed out, Slovak was at a disadvantage in the linguistic relationship between Czech and Slovak during the inter-war period , since efforts to bring the two languages together habitually led in the direction of Czech, to the detriment of Slovak. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout this well written and richly documented book. It is a welcome contribution to the field of literary history and criticism. In addition , Patera's book contains useful bibliographic information on Matuska's work, corrections of errors that appeared in some earlier editions , and an index of names at the end. �SLOVAKIA 111 Il'ja Cicvak. Vyvolavanie slnka. Ottawa, Canada: Spolocnost' priatel'ov slovenskej literatury, 1984. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Toronto, Canada This is a very attractively-presented volume. The motto of the book, taken from Plato, illustrates the author's conviction that people strive for ideals which are most often unattainable. The same idea is expressed in the title of the novel - The Summoning of the Sun - and reinforced by an excellent illustration on the title page by Miro Malis, representing a modern day Sisyphus pushing the sun up the mountain. This Platonic view of the world is fundamentally opposed to the Marxist concept of the universe. It is most probably this difference of perception that accounts for the fact that Cicvak now lives and writes in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The novel tells us of the attempts made by individuals, and especially the main character James, to evoke the sun, to find a modicum of happiness in a totalitarian, cruel society. And it is a sad comment on this society that when the sun finally appears at the end of the novel, James cannot enjoy the magnificent view because he has died from the effects of a bullet he received during a peaceful political demonstration. However, in Cicvak's novel, life's frustrations are not limited to James. Every character that appears in the book has been affected one way or another, thwarted in his aspirations, mocked in his most sacred beliefs, slandered, unjustly imprisoned or exploited. Only utter opportunists seem to be able to survive somehow in this climate. Cicvak portrays human lives that are spent looking for peace and happiness, unable to successfully accomplish this quest. Fate, circumstances, or other people always intervene to warp human hopes and expectations . Older people know this truth, but the young approach life with great intensity and a naive trust which gets cruelly deceived in the end. Cicvak's novel is more than a story about the suffering of people in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. It is also a sad �112 SLOVAKIA parable about life's unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. In the end it does not matter that the unnamed "statnik" in the novel has been deprived of his lucrative position - the system that produced him will stay on and life will continue essentially as before. This conclusion finds its reinforcement in the previous events of the novel where the injustices that have been committed against the generation of the parents are repeated in the generation of their sons and daughters. Several recurring motifs in the novel reinforce the unity and central idea of the plot. The main one is, of course, the motif of the sun - a potent symbol - which appears only too rarely throughout the story. Time also plays an important part in the book. All through the novel we became intensely aware of its passing, and the passing of history. Loneliness is another strong theme. People closest to the characters are rarely near when needed. Those that are around are incapable of relating totally. This is a sad book, but a very well-written one. It skillfully unites the plot and the imagery to imbue us with the sense of shattered young dreams and impending death. � SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 87 ��SLOVAKIA 89 Vojtech Kopcan. Turecke nebezpecenstvo a Slovensko. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 217 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This beautifully illustrated work presents an overview of Slovakia's position in the wars between the Turkish Ottomans and the Austrian Habsburgs. For purposes of convenience the author divides this historic conflict into several periods. The first period began with the Ottoman advance through the Balk~ns in the fifteenth century and climaxed with the historic battle of Mohac in 1526. The battle effectively broke the power of the old Hungarian kingdom, and marked the first attempt of the Habsburgs to gain the crown of Saint Stephen. Habsburg efforts were temporarily thwarted by Hungary's last national king Janos Zapolya (whose name is Slovakized by the author to Zapol'sky), but the kingdom was partitioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. At this point the Habsburgs gained western and northern Hungary, and the Slovak counties became a definite buffer against further Ottoman advance. Slovakia was only indirectly influenced by the Turkish wars in the first-mentioned phase, although Kopcan points to this period as a time when many Croats migrated to the Slovak counties. But the period between the partition of 1541 and the peace treaty of Edirne of 1568 entailed dramatic changes: an additional noble exodus from Turkish-occupied Hungary strengthened feudalism in the Slovak lands, and the Turks made increasing inroads into the mountain districts. The resumption of hostilities in the following two decades saw the rise of pro-Habsburg magnates - particularly the Pa.Iffy and Forgach families - who later played key roles in the history of Habsburg Hungary. By the early seventeenth century Transylvania was likewise making an impact on Upper Hungary. The principality's Protestant rulers, paying nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Porte, frequently sought and gained the support of the latter in their struggles against the Habsburgs. The Transylvanian forays brought great devastation to Slovakia, and also saw the transfer of Kosice and �90 SLOVAKIA the eastern Slovak counties to Transylvania's jurisdiction by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. An attempt by Transylvanian elements to shift to the Habsburg orbit in 1663 led directly to the high-tide mark of Turkish advance into Slovakia; the subsequent peace left the southern counties under direct Ottoman control. Habsburg misrule, the greed of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa , and the ambitions of Transylvanian leader Imre Thokoly are all cited as factors in the campaign culminating in the great siege of Vienna in 1683. Most knowledgeable historians credit the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the real turning point of Ottoman fortunes, and Kopcan himself alludes to the significance of the event at the beginning of Chapter Four. But for Central Europe, including Slovakia, the breaking of the siege of Vienna was indeed a turning point. The intervention of Poland was decisive in driving the Turks from southern Slovakia and marked the retreat of Transylvanian power in the eastern counties. In keeping with official Czechoslovak historiography, Kopcan treats the liberation of Nave Zamky as a positive event, and, indeed, the book was written to mark the three hundredth anniversary. The results can scarcely be termed "socially progressive:" feudalism was not weakened, Habsburg absolutism was actually strengthened, and the cause of religious toleration received a severe setback. Kopcan's line of reasoning may be found in Chapter Nine, which serves as a kind of "balance sheet" of the Ottoman presence. The occupied ten:itories were viewed primarily as military frontier zones, and the heavy demands imposed upon the government reflected the same purpose. At least the Mohammedan invaders were replaced by rulers less foreign to the Slovaks , and the war shifted considerably further to the south. A number of the weaknesses of the book are scarcely those of the author's making. The complex course of events creates difficulties in distinguishing between one period and the next. The Slovak lands are treated as mere pawns in the struggle between the contesting powers - and this was indeed the case. But although Kopcan occasionally cites the roles of individual Slovak personalities, he might have given the counties greater attention. In large measure this weakness stems from his choice of source materials . Notes are applied liberally at the end of each chapter, �SLOVAKIA 91 and the sources consulted boast of fine studies emanating from numerous countries. But Kopcan might easily have relied more on contemporary Slovak county records. An examination of the Imperial War Archives in Vienna might also have yielded something genuinely original. For advanced students of Slovak history, the Habsburgs, and the Ottoman Empire alike, Turecke nebezpecenstvo presents no great revelations. But Kopcan masterfully ties together several interrelated themes, and the main topic has thus far received little attention in the West. The book may therefore serve as a springboard to more intensive studies of Slovakia's position durng the Turkish wars. Matej Bel: doba-iivot-dielo. Edited by Jan Tibensky. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 414 pp. Pamatnica z oslav dvojsteho vyrocia Jana Holleho. Edited by Juraj Chovan. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1985 . 472 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Matej Bel is a collection of scholarly papers presented at a conference on Bel (1684-1749) in December, 1983. The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Society for the History of Science and Technology co-sponsored the conference, which was planned in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Matej Bel , an event highlighted in the UNESCO calendar for 1984. Bel was a prominent and talented Slovak scholar in many areas , as well as a Lutheran minister and promoter of Pietism. His role in Slovak and Magyar/Hungarian cultural history is well known in Central European scholarly circles. Regrettably , Bel is virtually unknown outside of them . The format of this volume continues to insure his inaccessibility to a wider scholarly or general audience. Indeed, this volume contrasts sharply and somewhat unfavorably with the memorial book on the Bernolak-Slovak poet Jan Holly. �92 SLOVAKIA The book on Holly was published under the auspices of the Matica slovenska in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Holly's birth as noted by UNESCO in its 1985 calendar. Jan Holly (1785-1849) was a Roman Catholic priest and the outstanding poet of what is known as Bernolak-Slovak. This version of literary Slovak was codified by Anton Bernolak, another Catholic priest, in the late 1780's and early 1790's. Employing this codification, which became the writing form of Catholic Slovaks until sometime in the 1850's, Holly first translated classical poets and later created his own poetry in it. This book includes a chronology of Holly's life and works, written accounts of various celebrations in his honor, scholarly papers from a conference about him, and varia. It is a fitting tribute to a writer long neglected in contemporary Slovakia and but very recently properly heralded. The Holly memorial has some rather distinctive features. The Slovak text is usually followed by English and French summaries of varying length , with shorter Russian and German summaries of everything at the end of the volume. Such linguistic variety makes this book accessible to a very wide audience; this is not a typical Slovak publishing practice. By contrast, the Bel volume is completely in Slovak, with no summaries in any other language. Furthermore , the Holly memorial has sixteen color photographs while the reproductions in the Bel volume are all in black and white. Both books have colored dust jackets, but the Holly book, unlike the Bel volume, has reproduced on the inside cover, front and back, some well-known historic scenes. One is of Bernolak presenting his codification to the Trnava primate and to the Catholic seminarians in Bratislava; the other has the Lutheran pastor and scholar I.:udovit Shir and his followers presenting their codification ideas to Holly. Such elaborate binding was not really necessary but it indicates the degree to which contemporary Slovak cultured society wished to honor Holly. The books were also published in disproportionate numbers: 7,500 Holly books versus only 800 on Bel. Unlike the Bel volume, the Holly book includes indices that enhance its scholarly value. The final contrast is even more striking. The Holly conference was held in 1985 �SLOVAKIA 93 and the memorial book appeared in the same year! The Bel conference took place in 1983 and the papers were not published until 1987. In spite of the publisher's slights, the Bel volume is excellent, as one might expect from its editor, the distinguished historian Jan Tibensky. This collection of papers is divided into six main topic areas among which are distributed forty-four presentations of varying size. The topic areas are: the era, life, and world view of Matej Bel; Bel as a pedagogue; the great counry-wide project of Matej Bel and his attempts at organizing the scholarly life of the Hungarian state; the Notitia and Adparatus as realizations of Matej Bel's country-wide program; the peoples of the old Hungarian state in his writings; and his final message and bequest. In addition to some introductory comments, Jan Tibensky contributed five of the articles; the remaining 39 are primarily by Slovak specialists from many fields. For some strange reason the authors are noted on the bottom of the first page of their articles, and not in the Table of Contents. There is also a laudable wealth of material in the Holly memorial book. One section contains 23 scholarly papers from the conference on Holly, plus introductory and concluding comments by Karol Rosenbaum. Of greatest interest to me in literature and cultural history were the following: Jan Tibensky's paper on the great Moravian and Cyrillomethodian tradition in the writings of Jan Holly; Zdenka Sojkova's discussion of Holly's reception and influence in the Czech lands; Viliam Turcany's consideration of Holly's poetic language; as well as that of Frantisek Straus, and Katarina Habovstiakova's discussion of Holly and BernolakSlovak. The appendices - a select bibliography, a listing of Holly's manuscripts, a name and place index - will be helpful to interested readers. The scholar fortunate enough to obtain copies of both books, especially the smaller Bel volume , will possess an abundance of material on Slovak cultural history of the 18th and 19th, and even of the 20th centuries. Such high-quality books are not often found in Slovak studies. Their respective editors and contributors are to be commended for making two prominent cultural figures more accessible to the Slavic scholarly community. �94 SLOVAKIA Hugolin Gavlovic {1712-1787}. Introduction by Michal Elias. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 17 photographs, 11 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This fotosubor was published in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugolin Gavlovic, a Franciscan priest who was a major Slovak writer of the eighteenth century. Michal Elias' introduction is written in a popular, somewhat scholarly style in order to make his comments accessible to a wideranging reading public. Highlighted is Gavlovic's Valaska Skala, an extensive poem of some eighteen thousand verses . Gavlovic and his writings are presented in the context of other Franciscans of his time as well as of those active in the Pruske Franciscan house, not far from Trencin, where Gavlovic wrote many of his works. It is praiseworthy that Matica slovenska has sought to distinguish Gavlovic, none of whose writings have been published accurately or in their entirety - even some very small ones in Slovakia at the present time. Certainly, it adds to his distinction by UNESCO, which incorporated the anniversary of Gavlovic's death into its 1987 calendar. The difficulty is that some of Elias' material is confusing and inaccurate or not as complete as it might have been. Certain writings - Adamowa Promena and Katechyzmus, for example - attributed traditionally to Gavlovic and so noted by Elias - are today no longer believed to have been written by Gavlovic. Just a half year after the publication of this fotosubor, Gizela Slavkovska-Gafrikova published a listing of Gavlovic's writings and a rather detailed biography, more complete and accurate than that of Elias , in "Zivotopisne a bibliograficke otazniky Hugolina Gavlovica," Slovenska literatura , Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 348-361. It is regrettable that these two specialists could not have collaborated on Gavlovic's biographical data. Then perhaps there would have been expressed at least some reservation about whether Gavlovic was a tutor for the Madocany children near the end of his life; that he was so is still claimed without any real �SLOVAKIA 95 substantiation. Qualifications even in so popularly written a work as Elias' have a definite place. In his citations from Valaska Skala, Elias, like every other modern Slovak editor including Slavkovska-Gafrikova, has a text with a dlien , something that Gavlovic never used in his writings, and in places that certainly do not correspond with modern Slovak usage. Since the autographs of all of Gavlovic's extant writings are preserved at Matica slovenska in Martin, Elias should have consulted these originals before producing the texts in the fotosubor. Even Slavkovska-Gafrikova, in her June, 1987 publication Hugolin Gavlovic Naucenia o Dobrych Mravoch r does no better though she should certainly have been very familiar with the autographs of Gavlovic. Why modern Slovak editors like Elias and Slavkovska-Gafrikova persist in such reproduction of Gavlovic's writings is baffling . Indeed, photographs of various Gavlovic autographs included in the fotosubor are clear evidence that Gavlovic did not use a dlien, and a miikcen only irregularly with a "t" or "n." Whatever the nature of the intended audience, the original text accompanied by a modern rendition is preferable where so little of the autograph(s) is cited. The cover of the fotosubor is a striking watercolor by the outstanding contemporary painter Albin Brunovsky, some of whose paintings and drawings have been on exhibit in various American locations during 1988. The photographs related directly to Gavlovic's life and writings are good and give the reader a reasonable acquaintance with so important a writer. Matica slovenska, and Dr. Elias, are to be commended for their efforts in producing this fotosubor and , hopefully in the future, may correct some of its inadequacies. Dejiny Slovenska, JV, (ad konca 19. star. do roku 1918} Pavel Hapak, et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 534 pp. MICHAEL J. KOPANIC , JR. University of Akron , Ohio This is the fourth in the series entitled Dejiny Slovenska , which is the most recent multi-volume survey of Slovak history �96 SLOVAKIA to come out of the Slovak Socialist Republic. A group of leading Slovak scholars authored this book which is woven together fairly coherently for a collaborative effort. Volume IV outlines the major trends in Slovak politics, society, culture , and the economy from 1900 until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918. The authors also attempt to place Slovak history in the international setting of a Europe on the brink of revolutionary changes . Some of the strongest sections in the book are the summaries of the macroeconomic and microeconomic development of prewar industries, financial institutions, services, and agriculture in Slovakia. Useful tables and statistics are included. Likewise, the authors provide an analysis of each social class and the nationalities (except for the Carpathian Germans). In politics, the authors (especially J. Butvin) stress the disunity of the Slovak parties which prevented a common front to counter the strong Magyarization pressures that accelerated after the passage of the Apponyi Education Acts of 1907. Despite the authors' noteworthy achievements, the volume is not without its shortcomings. In the bibliography there is an obvious neglect of post-World War II Western studies and emigre literature on Slovakia (for example, Hrusovsky, Kirschbaum, Mikula, and others). Emigration to America, and elsewhere, could have been more carefully analyzed, especially its impact on political self-awareness in Slovakia. The wave of emigration, communications with friends and relatives, and the return of Slovaks from America to their homeland gradually raised the national and political consciousness of common folk throughout Slovakia and helped propel the movement to seek an alternative state in association with the Czechs. As in many other studies from contemporary Czechoslovakia, there is a marked emphasis upon Slovak labor history and the influence of the working class both before and during World War I. The authors (especially Pavel Hapak) underline the rising significance of the Slovak Social Democratic Party, the trade unions, and the impact of such organizations as spevokoly (singing societies) in promoting Slovak national awareness and class consciousness. The authors aptly illustrate the nationality con- �SLOVAKIA 97 flicts of Magyar chauvinism among Hungarian Social Democratic leaders. However, the reader must be wary of any tendency to overexaggerate the significance of the workers' movement. As Pavel Hapak points out (p. 258), no more than 6,346 Slovaks belonged to the Slovak Social Democratic organization in Hungary at its peak in 1907. More Slovaks were organizing in larger cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but we still lack detailed studies of these experiences. These pre-war experiences reached a fruition in the latter stages of World War I and resulted in a surge of political and labor activism which is described in the 1917-18 period. As in many other Marxist histories, the authors ascribe too much influence to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 rather than to the March Russian Revolution which marked the beginning of the end for the old regimes of Europe. Despite the concerns of the authors with the lower classes, they do not provide a good sense of what it was like to be a worker, a peasant, or a migratory laborer. Too often the authors stress social history more from an institutional and statistical angle, rather than presenting us with a close-up of what life was really like for the average person in Slovakia. Most obvious is the neglect of the Slovak people's association with their churches, the center of village life. What did Slovak people value most highly in their hierarchy of priorities, and how and why were these values changing? The authors do not tell us. In a book which concentrates on a such narrow period, the authors could have presented a much better portrait of some of the leading personalities in Slovakia such as Pavel Blaho, Andrej Hlinka, or Emanuel Lehocky. Frequently, the reader obtains only a one-dimensional aspect of a person's life, usually his political or labor movement activities. A sense of what the total person was like is missing . Although the book contains a good bibliography of published books and articles and a bibliographic essay, the authors did not footnote their work. Footnotes would have been a useful addition for students of modern Slovak history. The book also lacks maps and a subject index (only a name and place index are included) which should accompany a work of this nature . �98 SLOVAKIA Finally, the authors did not attempt to write any conclusions about the meaning of Slovak history in the period covered. Although such a task is always difficult in a collaborative work, this would have given the study more unity . If there is any common theme which pervades the study, it is the alliance of Magyar financial capital with a noble ruling class which was bent on Magyarizing and exploiting Slovak peasants and blue-collar workers. These criticisms should not discourage one from obtaining the volume. The book is a valuable and useful reference tool for the library of any scholar of Slovak history. Many topics such as literature, labor, economic, and political history are well summarized in a readable style, and the interpretations are more objective than many earlier Marxist studies. This is surely the best available detailed survey of Slovakia in the early twentieth century. Stephan Parak. Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat. Bern: Peter Lang (Europaische Hochschulschriften Ill/339), 1987, 308 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada Once in a while , a pearl is dropped on the lap of scholars. All the necessary ingredients are there: a relatively unknown topic, thorough research, a scholarly approach, the proper use of references, balanced conclusions and a challenge to conventional wisdom. Such is Stephan Parak's study of the political and economic relations between two small states in wartime, Slovakia and Switzerland. It is not necessary to belabour the point that the Slovak Republic does not generally enjoy a good reputation in Western scholarship. Created at a time when Germany was bent on redrawing the map of Central Europe, allied to it in war, involved in the persecution of the Jews and occupied in the end by one of the Allied powers , the Slovak state belonged to the camp of the van- �SLOVAKIA 99 quished and suffered as a result the inevitable consequences of unconditional defeat. This outcome has guided many scholars who see more virtue in triumphalism than in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Whatever may be the merits of the debate whether the Slovak Diet should have proclaimed Slovakia's independence on 14 March 1939, the fact is that on that day a new state appeared on the political map of Europe. Its leaders were determined to use the opportunity not only to safeguard the well-being of the nation , but also to ensure its growth and development. That there was great German pressure in Slovak political life, that the Slovak leaders took decisions contrary to the Christian philosophy of their party, that the Slovak economy fuelled the German war effort were all facts of the political life of this small state next to an expansionist ideological regime; equally true is the fact that this state sought to withstand and diminish some of these pressures and to lead the life of a small country which needs good relations with others to survive and thrive . Parak's study looks at both of these themes in his examination of the relations between Slovakia and Switzerland. The first influenced the question of the diplomatic recognition of Slovakia. It was settled as much by the Swiss interpretation of international law as by Bern's appraisal of the power constellation in Europe in 1939 . The Swiss " tacit recognition" of Slovakia reflected this as did the break of relations in 1945 and the recognition of the renewed state of Czechoslovakia. On the Slovak side, it was clearly most important to achieve the best diplomatic status possible , something which the Swiss were unwilling to grant, especially in wartime. Parak documents and analyzes this question not only thoroughly, but in an intelligent and balanced way. The diplomatic tug-of-war between these two states did not prevent on the other hand important economic and cultural relations. A good part of this study concentrates on the scope and the benefits of these relations to both states. It makes all the more fascinating reading as these relations were being carried out while the rest of Europe was at war. The extent to which Slovakia could exist as an independent state is made quite clear by these relations. The author also devotes an entire chapter on the role of �100 SLOVAKIA Switzerland in the fate of the Slovak Jews. His approach is factual and sensitive. He notes that in 1942, neither the Swiss government, nor the Red Cross lodged a protest against the deportations of Slovak Jews to Poland. Yet Swiss representatives in Slovakia were also very active in protecting Jews who were important for economic and commercial reasons and they intervened with Slovak authorities to see that presidential exceptions were granted to them. After the 1944 revolt the situation was reversed. The meaning of the German Final Solution was then clear; the Swiss government and the Red Cross lodged protects against the deportations. But neither they nor the Slovak government could do anything - even protect those who had been granted presidential exceptions - as the Germans were now in control in Slovakia. Nevertheless many Swiss, including diplomatic representatives, with the support of the Slovak Red Cross and Church circles , were able personally to extend refuge to individual Jews . In the light of this record Parak asks whether the Swiss might have had more success if they had been more active on the official diplomatic level. He concludes: "One is left with the impression that on the Swiss side not all available opportunities were exhausted to save Slovak Jews in the Second World War" (p . 215). In his overall conclusion Parak considers that the relations between these two states, like those of great powers, were determined by national interest as well as by their perception of the international situation. This is an interesting conclusion, not for Switzerland where to most it must seem self-evident, but for Slovakia where a perception still lingers among scholars that its policies and activities were dictated entirely by Berlin. Yet such a challenge to conventional wisdom is the normal outcome of this study. That is not the least of its merits. This is a published doctoral dissertation as required by European universities (in this case the University of Basel) for the obtaining of the degree. Given its excellence, it should be translated into English; it needs very few modifications . Above all , it certainly deserves to be read by as wide a public as possible . �SLOVAKIA 101 Carol Skalnik Leff. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. xi, 304 pp. JAMES FELAK Bloomington, Indiana A persistent theme in the history of Czechoslovakia has been the Slovak quest for autonomy. In her book National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1917, Carol Skalnik Leff examines this crucial issue from 1918 to the present. She deals above all with the Slovak question as manifested in the First Czechoslovak Republic and in the Communist state between 1948 and 1968, stressing similarities in how both the democratic and the Communist regimes handled the issue of autonomy. In the interwar democracy as well as the postwar Communist state, Leff sees certain impediments to autonomy. In both states, Czechoslovakia's leaders believed that modernization, not autonomy, would solve the Slovak question. In the First Republic, Masaryk and other Czechoslovak leaders explained Slovak discontent as the product of Hungarian influence and believed that one only had to develop Slovakia culturally in order for the Slovaks to assimilate to a ''Czechoslovak'' nation. The Communist regime saw Slovakia's backwardness as a function of economics. It believed that economic modernization would solve the Slovak question by effecting a zblizenie, a drawing together of Czechs and Slovaks in a comon culture. Both attempts failed. All they did was raise Slovak expectations and produce a more skilled and sophisticated nationalist leadership, better able to articulate Slovak discontent. Another similarity between the two regimes, according to Leff, was the systemic obstacles they presented to autonomy. Although the First Republic's parliamentary system and relative freedom of expression gave the autonomist Slovak People's Party a public and parliamentary podium from which to advocate its autonomist program, the structure of the system guaranteed that autonomist concerns would not be addressed seriously by the �102 SLOVAKIA government. The system of proportional representation, reflected in the so-called Petka, meant that the chances for the opposition to come to power were slim and that the government's main priority was those issues that could potentially affect the viability of the coalition. The government had little incentive to take up disruptive issues advocated only by parties outside the coalition. Although it officially recognized the Slovak nation, Communist Czechoslovakia likewise presented impediments for the Slovak autonomy movement. The liquidation of organized opposition and free expression, an ideological commitment to centralism, and bureaucratic rigidity all had a negative influence on the prospects for Slovak autonomy . Leff ascribes persistent tensions between Czechs and Slovaks to an '' ethos of mutual betrayal''. Because Slovak nationalists had little hope for realizing autonomy under the interwar and post-1948 regimes, they sought to further their aims during times of crisis. Autonomist Slovaks took advantage of the periods when Prague, under fire from without, needed to consolidate its position at home. However, because the Slovaks got autonomy in the wake of the Munich agreement and federation in the wake of the Soviet invasion, many Czechs regarded the Slovaks as doubledealers willing to exploit the republic's troubles and do business with its external enemies for their own selfish ends. This, coupled with a perceived ingratitude on the part of the Slovaks, who seemed not to appreciate the Czech contributions to Slovakia's cultural and economic advancement, led Czechs to accuse Slovaks of betrayal. Many Slovaks, on the other hand, resented what they saw as a string of broken promises and a patronizing attitude toward them on the part of the Czechs. Leff gives a mixed review of the post-1968 federalist Czechoslovakia. She claims it has not fully solved the Slovak question, which remains "deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, woven into the fabric of Czechoslovak politics as usual.'' One might ask whether Slovaks can ever enjoy autonomy in a system that gives the population no control over who its leaders are or what policies those leaders pursue. . There are two drawbacks with Leff' s work that ought to be · pointed out. First, although she correctly mentions that �SLOVAKIA 103 · geopolitical factors played a role in the Czech refusal to grant Slovakia autonomy, she fails to elaborate sufficiently on this important point. Secondly, her use of sociological jargon and attempt to test certain social science theories sometimes tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate the question at hand. These shortcomings aside, Leff has presented a thoughtful analysis of a very complicated problem. Her work is balanced and insightful and she advances a number of valid arguments. Leff has confirmed the fact that it is possible to do worthwbile research on twentieth century Czechoslovakia without a visit to Czech and Slovak archives . Her book is recommended reading for those interested in the Slovak question and Czechoslovakia's history and politics in general. Pavol Petruf. USA a studena vojna (Politika americkeho imperializmu v Europe 1945-1949. Bratislava: Pravda, 1985. 280 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada One's first impression after reading this book is that the American school of historical revisionism has found a positive echo among Marxist scholars in Eastern Europe. This detailed study of American foreign policy in the immediate post-war years will, therefore, interest readers and students behind the Iron Curtain for whom access to Western scholarship is still restricted. It may also be seen as an indication of an attempt at openness in scholarship, certainly among Slovak Marxist academics, even though the first footnote is to a Soviet source (the Great Soviet Encyclopedia no less), a practice that was de rigueur during the Stalinist years. However, the Western reader will find nothing new and certainly no original interpretation of the origins of the Cold War. Unlike many revisionist historians, Petruf has not produced a study based primarily, if not uniquely, on documentary evidence. Rather, his sources are a mixture of published American �104 SLOVAKIA documents, Soviet and Czech volumes of documents, and Marxist and Western studies. A few American authors are favored and even quoted extensively. Unfortunately there are some liberties with the translations, which does not do credit to the book. But this is a minor problem which is attenuated by the detailed presentation of American foreign policy during the years 1944-1949. Petruf's central thesis is that during the war governing circles in the United States had worked out a strategic plan that would enable the United States to control most of the planet in the postwar world. The United States would use economic, social and political means to establish this hegemony. Their only obstacle was the Soviet Unon, which had come out of the war as a superpower and whose foreign policy was one that emphasized democracy and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state. Accordingly, American foreign policy became bitterly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. In the Cold War which ensued the aim of Washington was not only to contain the Soviet Union, but also to hold back the Moscow-led world revolutionary movement which had arisen after the war. The result, according to Petruf, was that ''war - whether as a threat or reality - became firmly anchored in the minds of the people as an inevitable aspect of life in the 20th century .... [But] It did not prevent the growth of the strength ahd international authority of the Soviet Union, the appearance of a world socialist system and the development of the world revolutionary and national liberation movement" (pp. 269-270). In six chapters the author unfolds his thesis by looking at American policy toward Central and Southeastern Europe; the shift from cooperaton to confrontaton between the USA and the USSR; the question of Germany; the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment; the preparations, essence and goals of the Marshall plan; and the creation of NATO. The discussion in each chapter is thorough , even if presented with a certain slant. Among the main actors the author holds reponsible for the Cold War are Truman, Kennan , Acheson, Byrnes, Forrestal and Churchill. According to Petruf, these men had moved away from Roosevelt's policy of cooperation with the USSR and , backed by American �SLOVAKIA 105 right-wing circles, opted for a hard line policy toward the Soviet Union. The book's main weakness, which disqualifies it as a work of serious scholarship, is not only the author's strident tone towards the United States, but also his adulatory approach to the Soviet Union. Not only is there no criticism of Soviet policy, but Kremlin decisions and actions which did more than just contribute to the unfolding of the Cold War are deliberately ignored. For example , in his discussion of the reasons for the reversal of Czechoslovakia's decision to partake in the discussions on the Marshall Plan, he does not mention that on 9 July 1947 a-Czechoslovak delegation composed of Gottwald , Drtina and Masaryk was in Moscow where Stalin informed them that the Czechoslovak acceptance of the Marshall Plan would be considered as an action hostile to the USSR. Petruf writes: "When in the meantime it became clear that the Marshall Plan was essentially directed at the independence and sovereignty of the participating countries, Czechoslovakia revised its initial decision and withdrew its participation in the Paris discussions" (p . 229) . It is a pity that such a thorough study had to be spoiled because of ideological predilections. Marxist scholars will not convince anyone of the validity of their point of view as long as they continue to be unable to take a broader critical look at the events they examine. June Granatir Alexander. The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press , 1987. xxxii , 198 pp. M. MARK STOLARIK The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Philadelphia , Pennsylvania In this revised Ph.D. dissertation, June Alexander set out "to bring to light the complex interplay of factors that led to the creation of ethnic parishes in American cities at the turn of the century" (p. xviii). �106 SLOVAKIA The essence of the book is that Roman Catholic Slovaks, while experiencing some local and internal problems while establishing their churches, had basically no quarrels with the local church hierarchy, whereas Lutheran Slovaks experienced major problems with their clerical leaders because the latter tried to impose a new orthodoxy upon their parishioners. To prove her point Alexander focused upon the four Roman Catholic and one Lutheran parish founded by Slovak immigrants in Pittsburgh between 1895 and 1915. She gave a bit of the religious background of the immigrants, told how they established fraternals in the United States and how these , in turn, led in establishing the parishes , and then traced the actual story of each parish to 1915. Meanwhile, she also discussed the rise of lay initiative among Slovak immigrants, their regionalism and nationalism (or lack of it) , and how these kept the various communities divided. Alexander concluded that the story of Slovak immigration to Pittsburgh is one of coming together to form fraternals and parishes. While the immigrants achieved these goals they did so differently, with the Roman Catholics acting rather harmoniously while the Lutherans were rent by dogmatic divisions. The net result was that the five parishes became communities unto themselves, divided ultimately by regionalism , dialectical and religious differences. While this is a competent study of the creation of five immigrant parishes over a twenty year period at the turn of the century , it has serious limitations . Alexander either did not realize (or chose to ignore) that when one studies ethnic parishes , one has to do so within the context of the local church body. For instance, when dealing with Pittsburgh Slovak Roman Catholics , she should have looked at their story within the diocese of Pittsburgh, which is the natural religious boundary of the area, not the borders of the city . Had she done so she might have noticed that two Slovak Roman Catholic parishes within the diocese (St . Anne 's in Homestead , in 1909, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in McKeesport, in 1922) seceded from the Roman Catholic Church and joined the independent Polish National Catholic Church. Since there were only a half dozen such secessions among Slovak �SLOVAKIA 107 Roman Catholic parishes in the United States at the turn of the century, there had to be plenty of problems between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and Slovak immigrants in the Pittsburgh diocese. That is why Alexander's characterizaiton of Slovak Catholic immigrant relations with the local Hierarchy as being ones of "assertive deference" rings very false. Furthermore, Alexander makes certain assertions about the Old World experience of Slovaks which rest upon shaky evidence. In denying lay involvement in parish affairs in Slovakia, or OldWorld experiences of fraternalism, she relies too much on the contemporary observations of secular leaders, who were voicing uninformed opinions, or on the questionable memories of eleven informants, some of whom were born in America and others who must have been children when they immigrated here. How could such people possibly know anything about such complicated subjects as lay initiative or lodge creation in Slovakia? Indeed, there is to date no professional history of the various religions in Slovakia, nor has anyone covered the history of fraternal-benefit societies in Slovakia, which, contrary to Alexander's assertions, did exist there and can be traced back to 1460 A .D. Unfortunately, in today's Communist Slovakia those historians who are still allowed to practice their craft cannot write about the Churches (except in a pejorative way), nor can they focus on non-socialist movements. The only scholars who have touched upon these sensitive matters are Timothy L. Smith and his students and Alexander has chosen to either ignore their work, which was based upon solid research in Slovak archives, or she has chosen to disagree with their findings, without any substantial proof to refute them. Thus, while Alexander's book provides us with a glimpse of Slovak parish and community life in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh , it suffers from too narrow a perspective that ultimately distorts the larger picture of both Slovak and Slovak-American history . �108 SLOVAKIA Kratky slovnik slovenskeho jazyka. Jan Kacala, Maria Pisarcikova et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 592 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Arizona This invaluable reference work is presented by SA V - the Slovak Academy of Sciences through its I:udovft Stur Linguistics Institute as the second in its series of Slovak language lexicons in a new single-volume. It is intended for the professional as well as for the average user as a source of information about the vocabularly of present-day Slovak, and as it evolved over the past forty years of its socialist development. This single-volume is labeled "short (kratky)/concise (strucny)" in contrast with SA Vs earlier multi-volume dictionary. The first five-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (1959-68) has been sold out. The core of the new Slovnik is the more than 500 pages devoted to its A to Z vocabulary numbering more than 50,000 entries. The information derives not only from the 5,000,000 citations available from the SA V Linguistics Institute's card-catalog but also from others collected since the publication of the first academic Slovnik and still more gleaned from belles lettres, special literature, publications, as well as the results of vast research in contemporary Slovak linguistics. The prepifratory material - those pages preceding the A to Z vocabulary - contains two sections: The Basic Principles of Lexicography, and Abbreviations & Symbols. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the incorporation and domestication of loan-words in what is termed the process of "internationalization'' (p. 11) of the language. To illustrate this flooding process, five words-in-a-row listed (p. 9) are: dzinsy "jeans," blue- , dzip "jeep," dziu-dzicu "jiu-kitsu," dzob "job," dzokej "jockey," horse- . Among others are (here paginated): bonsaj "banzai" miniature-tree /Japanese/ (51), kibic "kibitz," in cards /Yiddish/ (152), zardiniera "giardiniera" wide flower-pot /Italian/ (582). Among the unexpectedly unexplainable omissions is: ukrajinsky ''Ukrainian,'' whereas the following are listed in the text: �SLOVAKIA 109 bielorusky "Bielorussian" (47), estonsky "Estonian" (98), litovsky "Lithuanian" (184), lotyssky "Latvian" (185), polabsky "Polabian" (306) . The Slovnfk is the product of a collaborative effort by SA V's experts mentioned opposite the main title-page. Those who assiduously prepared this long-awaited lexicon can be proud of their achievements. The Slovnik is an invaluable, readable, handy reference work of contemporary Slovak language. Another, the second, step forward in Slovak lexicography. Apart from its precious contents, the book's binding is disappointingly fragile and.'brittle! Ludvik Patera. Alexander Matuska. Praha: Melantrich, 1985, 440 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Slovak literary critic Alexander Matuska (1910-1975) is known to American students of Czech and Slovak literature for his essay on Karel Capek, Clovek proti skaze (1963), which was published in English as Man Against Destruction (1981) , and for his book J.C. Hronsky (1970) published in Bratislava. Matuska's participation in Slovak intellectual and literary life began in the nineteen thirties and continued throughout his life. His Vy brane spisy (1972-1978) were published in four volumes in Bratislava. As one of the leading literary critics in Czechoslovakia, Matuska had an abiding interest in both Slovak and Czech literature, and was cognizant of the connection between national literatures and world literature. The knowledgeable Czech Slovakist Ludvik Patera, who teaches Slovak literature at Charles University, has written the first monograph on Matuska. Patera 's treatise appears as the seventysixth volume in the series Odkazu pokrokovych osobnisti nasi minulosti. The book consists of two main parts: the first (265 pages) contains Patera's well documented and reliable presenta- �110 SLOVAKIA tion of the chronological development of Matuska's life and work; the second presents a selection of Matuska's writings, which have been translated into Czech. Separating these two parts are thirtytwo pages of photographs, which include facsimiles ofMatuska's published work, manuscripts and letters. The totality of Matuska's activity emerges through Patera's method of combining biographical and literary data. Interspersed among the excerpts from Matuska's critical works are quotes from interviews with him that were published in Slovenske pohl'ady in the seventies . Patera skillfully weaves these quotations into his text, and allows the reader to learn of the life experiences that influenced Matuska' s development as a human being and as a literary critic. Patera 's research on Matuska's student years in Prague increases our understanding of the societal forces that had a great impact on young intellectuals during the inter-war period. While enrolled at Charles University , Matuska was associated with the group R10 (along with Jan Kostra, Dobroslav Chrobak, Michal Chorvath and others). This group was known as " The Young Davists, " the name stemming from their journal Dav, to which they actively contributed. During his student days , Matuska was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Czech critic and artist, F .X. Salda. They found common ground on various points. Neither supported the official view of that time, which claimed the existence of a Czechoslovak language with two versions, the Czech version and the Slovak version (pp. 27-28). They agreed that merging the two languages would only weaken and impoverish them both. As various scholars have pointed out, Slovak was at a disadvantage in the linguistic relationship between Czech and Slovak during the inter-war period , since efforts to bring the two languages together habitually led in the direction of Czech, to the detriment of Slovak. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout this well written and richly documented book. It is a welcome contribution to the field of literary history and criticism. In addition , Patera's book contains useful bibliographic information on Matuska's work, corrections of errors that appeared in some earlier editions , and an index of names at the end. �SLOVAKIA 111 Il'ja Cicvak. Vyvolavanie slnka. Ottawa, Canada: Spolocnost' priatel'ov slovenskej literatury, 1984. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Toronto, Canada This is a very attractively-presented volume. The motto of the book, taken from Plato, illustrates the author's conviction that people strive for ideals which are most often unattainable. The same idea is expressed in the title of the novel - The Summoning of the Sun - and reinforced by an excellent illustration on the title page by Miro Malis, representing a modern day Sisyphus pushing the sun up the mountain. This Platonic view of the world is fundamentally opposed to the Marxist concept of the universe. It is most probably this difference of perception that accounts for the fact that Cicvak now lives and writes in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The novel tells us of the attempts made by individuals, and especially the main character James, to evoke the sun, to find a modicum of happiness in a totalitarian, cruel society. And it is a sad comment on this society that when the sun finally appears at the end of the novel, James cannot enjoy the magnificent view because he has died from the effects of a bullet he received during a peaceful political demonstration. However, in Cicvak's novel, life's frustrations are not limited to James. Every character that appears in the book has been affected one way or another, thwarted in his aspirations, mocked in his most sacred beliefs, slandered, unjustly imprisoned or exploited. Only utter opportunists seem to be able to survive somehow in this climate. Cicvak portrays human lives that are spent looking for peace and happiness, unable to successfully accomplish this quest. Fate, circumstances, or other people always intervene to warp human hopes and expectations . Older people know this truth, but the young approach life with great intensity and a naive trust which gets cruelly deceived in the end. Cicvak's novel is more than a story about the suffering of people in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. It is also a sad �112 SLOVAKIA parable about life's unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. In the end it does not matter that the unnamed "statnik" in the novel has been deprived of his lucrative position - the system that produced him will stay on and life will continue essentially as before. This conclusion finds its reinforcement in the previous events of the novel where the injustices that have been committed against the generation of the parents are repeated in the generation of their sons and daughters. Several recurring motifs in the novel reinforce the unity and central idea of the plot. The main one is, of course, the motif of the sun - a potent symbol - which appears only too rarely throughout the story. Time also plays an important part in the book. All through the novel we became intensely aware of its passing, and the passing of history. Loneliness is another strong theme. People closest to the characters are rarely near when needed. Those that are around are incapable of relating totally. This is a sad book, but a very well-written one. It skillfully unites the plot and the imagery to imbue us with the sense of shattered young dreams and impending death. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1987-88, Vol. 33 Description An account of the resource Vol. 33 (No. 60-61), 1987-88. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-88 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 87 SLOVAKIA 89 Vojtech Kopcan. Turecke nebezpecenstvo a Slovensko. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 217 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This beautifully illustrated work presents an overview of Slovakia's position in the wars between the Turkish Ottomans and the Austrian Habsburgs. For purposes of convenience the author divides this historic conflict into several periods. The first period began with the Ottoman advance through the Balk~ns in the fifteenth century and climaxed with the historic battle of Mohac in 1526. The battle effectively broke the power of the old Hungarian kingdom, and marked the first attempt of the Habsburgs to gain the crown of Saint Stephen. Habsburg efforts were temporarily thwarted by Hungary's last national king Janos Zapolya (whose name is Slovakized by the author to Zapol'sky), but the kingdom was partitioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. At this point the Habsburgs gained western and northern Hungary, and the Slovak counties became a definite buffer against further Ottoman advance. Slovakia was only indirectly influenced by the Turkish wars in the first-mentioned phase, although Kopcan points to this period as a time when many Croats migrated to the Slovak counties. But the period between the partition of 1541 and the peace treaty of Edirne of 1568 entailed dramatic changes: an additional noble exodus from Turkish-occupied Hungary strengthened feudalism in the Slovak lands, and the Turks made increasing inroads into the mountain districts. The resumption of hostilities in the following two decades saw the rise of pro-Habsburg magnates - particularly the Pa.Iffy and Forgach families - who later played key roles in the history of Habsburg Hungary. By the early seventeenth century Transylvania was likewise making an impact on Upper Hungary. The principality's Protestant rulers, paying nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Porte, frequently sought and gained the support of the latter in their struggles against the Habsburgs. The Transylvanian forays brought great devastation to Slovakia, and also saw the transfer of Kosice and 90 SLOVAKIA the eastern Slovak counties to Transylvania's jurisdiction by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. An attempt by Transylvanian elements to shift to the Habsburg orbit in 1663 led directly to the high-tide mark of Turkish advance into Slovakia; the subsequent peace left the southern counties under direct Ottoman control. Habsburg misrule, the greed of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa , and the ambitions of Transylvanian leader Imre Thokoly are all cited as factors in the campaign culminating in the great siege of Vienna in 1683. Most knowledgeable historians credit the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the real turning point of Ottoman fortunes, and Kopcan himself alludes to the significance of the event at the beginning of Chapter Four. But for Central Europe, including Slovakia, the breaking of the siege of Vienna was indeed a turning point. The intervention of Poland was decisive in driving the Turks from southern Slovakia and marked the retreat of Transylvanian power in the eastern counties. In keeping with official Czechoslovak historiography, Kopcan treats the liberation of Nave Zamky as a positive event, and, indeed, the book was written to mark the three hundredth anniversary. The results can scarcely be termed "socially progressive:" feudalism was not weakened, Habsburg absolutism was actually strengthened, and the cause of religious toleration received a severe setback. Kopcan's line of reasoning may be found in Chapter Nine, which serves as a kind of "balance sheet" of the Ottoman presence. The occupied ten:itories were viewed primarily as military frontier zones, and the heavy demands imposed upon the government reflected the same purpose. At least the Mohammedan invaders were replaced by rulers less foreign to the Slovaks , and the war shifted considerably further to the south. A number of the weaknesses of the book are scarcely those of the author's making. The complex course of events creates difficulties in distinguishing between one period and the next. The Slovak lands are treated as mere pawns in the struggle between the contesting powers - and this was indeed the case. But although Kopcan occasionally cites the roles of individual Slovak personalities, he might have given the counties greater attention. In large measure this weakness stems from his choice of source materials . Notes are applied liberally at the end of each chapter, SLOVAKIA 91 and the sources consulted boast of fine studies emanating from numerous countries. But Kopcan might easily have relied more on contemporary Slovak county records. An examination of the Imperial War Archives in Vienna might also have yielded something genuinely original. For advanced students of Slovak history, the Habsburgs, and the Ottoman Empire alike, Turecke nebezpecenstvo presents no great revelations. But Kopcan masterfully ties together several interrelated themes, and the main topic has thus far received little attention in the West. The book may therefore serve as a springboard to more intensive studies of Slovakia's position durng the Turkish wars. Matej Bel: doba-iivot-dielo. Edited by Jan Tibensky. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 414 pp. Pamatnica z oslav dvojsteho vyrocia Jana Holleho. Edited by Juraj Chovan. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1985 . 472 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Matej Bel is a collection of scholarly papers presented at a conference on Bel (1684-1749) in December, 1983. The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Society for the History of Science and Technology co-sponsored the conference, which was planned in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Matej Bel , an event highlighted in the UNESCO calendar for 1984. Bel was a prominent and talented Slovak scholar in many areas , as well as a Lutheran minister and promoter of Pietism. His role in Slovak and Magyar/Hungarian cultural history is well known in Central European scholarly circles. Regrettably , Bel is virtually unknown outside of them . The format of this volume continues to insure his inaccessibility to a wider scholarly or general audience. Indeed, this volume contrasts sharply and somewhat unfavorably with the memorial book on the Bernolak-Slovak poet Jan Holly. 92 SLOVAKIA The book on Holly was published under the auspices of the Matica slovenska in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Holly's birth as noted by UNESCO in its 1985 calendar. Jan Holly (1785-1849) was a Roman Catholic priest and the outstanding poet of what is known as Bernolak-Slovak. This version of literary Slovak was codified by Anton Bernolak, another Catholic priest, in the late 1780's and early 1790's. Employing this codification, which became the writing form of Catholic Slovaks until sometime in the 1850's, Holly first translated classical poets and later created his own poetry in it. This book includes a chronology of Holly's life and works, written accounts of various celebrations in his honor, scholarly papers from a conference about him, and varia. It is a fitting tribute to a writer long neglected in contemporary Slovakia and but very recently properly heralded. The Holly memorial has some rather distinctive features. The Slovak text is usually followed by English and French summaries of varying length , with shorter Russian and German summaries of everything at the end of the volume. Such linguistic variety makes this book accessible to a very wide audience; this is not a typical Slovak publishing practice. By contrast, the Bel volume is completely in Slovak, with no summaries in any other language. Furthermore , the Holly memorial has sixteen color photographs while the reproductions in the Bel volume are all in black and white. Both books have colored dust jackets, but the Holly book, unlike the Bel volume, has reproduced on the inside cover, front and back, some well-known historic scenes. One is of Bernolak presenting his codification to the Trnava primate and to the Catholic seminarians in Bratislava; the other has the Lutheran pastor and scholar I.:udovit Shir and his followers presenting their codification ideas to Holly. Such elaborate binding was not really necessary but it indicates the degree to which contemporary Slovak cultured society wished to honor Holly. The books were also published in disproportionate numbers: 7,500 Holly books versus only 800 on Bel. Unlike the Bel volume, the Holly book includes indices that enhance its scholarly value. The final contrast is even more striking. The Holly conference was held in 1985 SLOVAKIA 93 and the memorial book appeared in the same year! The Bel conference took place in 1983 and the papers were not published until 1987. In spite of the publisher's slights, the Bel volume is excellent, as one might expect from its editor, the distinguished historian Jan Tibensky. This collection of papers is divided into six main topic areas among which are distributed forty-four presentations of varying size. The topic areas are: the era, life, and world view of Matej Bel; Bel as a pedagogue; the great counry-wide project of Matej Bel and his attempts at organizing the scholarly life of the Hungarian state; the Notitia and Adparatus as realizations of Matej Bel's country-wide program; the peoples of the old Hungarian state in his writings; and his final message and bequest. In addition to some introductory comments, Jan Tibensky contributed five of the articles; the remaining 39 are primarily by Slovak specialists from many fields. For some strange reason the authors are noted on the bottom of the first page of their articles, and not in the Table of Contents. There is also a laudable wealth of material in the Holly memorial book. One section contains 23 scholarly papers from the conference on Holly, plus introductory and concluding comments by Karol Rosenbaum. Of greatest interest to me in literature and cultural history were the following: Jan Tibensky's paper on the great Moravian and Cyrillomethodian tradition in the writings of Jan Holly; Zdenka Sojkova's discussion of Holly's reception and influence in the Czech lands; Viliam Turcany's consideration of Holly's poetic language; as well as that of Frantisek Straus, and Katarina Habovstiakova's discussion of Holly and BernolakSlovak. The appendices - a select bibliography, a listing of Holly's manuscripts, a name and place index - will be helpful to interested readers. The scholar fortunate enough to obtain copies of both books, especially the smaller Bel volume , will possess an abundance of material on Slovak cultural history of the 18th and 19th, and even of the 20th centuries. Such high-quality books are not often found in Slovak studies. Their respective editors and contributors are to be commended for making two prominent cultural figures more accessible to the Slavic scholarly community. 94 SLOVAKIA Hugolin Gavlovic {1712-1787}. Introduction by Michal Elias. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 17 photographs, 11 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This fotosubor was published in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugolin Gavlovic, a Franciscan priest who was a major Slovak writer of the eighteenth century. Michal Elias' introduction is written in a popular, somewhat scholarly style in order to make his comments accessible to a wideranging reading public. Highlighted is Gavlovic's Valaska Skala, an extensive poem of some eighteen thousand verses . Gavlovic and his writings are presented in the context of other Franciscans of his time as well as of those active in the Pruske Franciscan house, not far from Trencin, where Gavlovic wrote many of his works. It is praiseworthy that Matica slovenska has sought to distinguish Gavlovic, none of whose writings have been published accurately or in their entirety - even some very small ones in Slovakia at the present time. Certainly, it adds to his distinction by UNESCO, which incorporated the anniversary of Gavlovic's death into its 1987 calendar. The difficulty is that some of Elias' material is confusing and inaccurate or not as complete as it might have been. Certain writings - Adamowa Promena and Katechyzmus, for example - attributed traditionally to Gavlovic and so noted by Elias - are today no longer believed to have been written by Gavlovic. Just a half year after the publication of this fotosubor, Gizela Slavkovska-Gafrikova published a listing of Gavlovic's writings and a rather detailed biography, more complete and accurate than that of Elias , in "Zivotopisne a bibliograficke otazniky Hugolina Gavlovica," Slovenska literatura , Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 348-361. It is regrettable that these two specialists could not have collaborated on Gavlovic's biographical data. Then perhaps there would have been expressed at least some reservation about whether Gavlovic was a tutor for the Madocany children near the end of his life; that he was so is still claimed without any real SLOVAKIA 95 substantiation. Qualifications even in so popularly written a work as Elias' have a definite place. In his citations from Valaska Skala, Elias, like every other modern Slovak editor including Slavkovska-Gafrikova, has a text with a dlien , something that Gavlovic never used in his writings, and in places that certainly do not correspond with modern Slovak usage. Since the autographs of all of Gavlovic's extant writings are preserved at Matica slovenska in Martin, Elias should have consulted these originals before producing the texts in the fotosubor. Even Slavkovska-Gafrikova, in her June, 1987 publication Hugolin Gavlovic Naucenia o Dobrych Mravoch r does no better though she should certainly have been very familiar with the autographs of Gavlovic. Why modern Slovak editors like Elias and Slavkovska-Gafrikova persist in such reproduction of Gavlovic's writings is baffling . Indeed, photographs of various Gavlovic autographs included in the fotosubor are clear evidence that Gavlovic did not use a dlien, and a miikcen only irregularly with a "t" or "n." Whatever the nature of the intended audience, the original text accompanied by a modern rendition is preferable where so little of the autograph(s) is cited. The cover of the fotosubor is a striking watercolor by the outstanding contemporary painter Albin Brunovsky, some of whose paintings and drawings have been on exhibit in various American locations during 1988. The photographs related directly to Gavlovic's life and writings are good and give the reader a reasonable acquaintance with so important a writer. Matica slovenska, and Dr. Elias, are to be commended for their efforts in producing this fotosubor and , hopefully in the future, may correct some of its inadequacies. Dejiny Slovenska, JV, (ad konca 19. star. do roku 1918} Pavel Hapak, et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 534 pp. MICHAEL J. KOPANIC , JR. University of Akron , Ohio This is the fourth in the series entitled Dejiny Slovenska , which is the most recent multi-volume survey of Slovak history 96 SLOVAKIA to come out of the Slovak Socialist Republic. A group of leading Slovak scholars authored this book which is woven together fairly coherently for a collaborative effort. Volume IV outlines the major trends in Slovak politics, society, culture , and the economy from 1900 until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918. The authors also attempt to place Slovak history in the international setting of a Europe on the brink of revolutionary changes . Some of the strongest sections in the book are the summaries of the macroeconomic and microeconomic development of prewar industries, financial institutions, services, and agriculture in Slovakia. Useful tables and statistics are included. Likewise, the authors provide an analysis of each social class and the nationalities (except for the Carpathian Germans). In politics, the authors (especially J. Butvin) stress the disunity of the Slovak parties which prevented a common front to counter the strong Magyarization pressures that accelerated after the passage of the Apponyi Education Acts of 1907. Despite the authors' noteworthy achievements, the volume is not without its shortcomings. In the bibliography there is an obvious neglect of post-World War II Western studies and emigre literature on Slovakia (for example, Hrusovsky, Kirschbaum, Mikula, and others). Emigration to America, and elsewhere, could have been more carefully analyzed, especially its impact on political self-awareness in Slovakia. The wave of emigration, communications with friends and relatives, and the return of Slovaks from America to their homeland gradually raised the national and political consciousness of common folk throughout Slovakia and helped propel the movement to seek an alternative state in association with the Czechs. As in many other studies from contemporary Czechoslovakia, there is a marked emphasis upon Slovak labor history and the influence of the working class both before and during World War I. The authors (especially Pavel Hapak) underline the rising significance of the Slovak Social Democratic Party, the trade unions, and the impact of such organizations as spevokoly (singing societies) in promoting Slovak national awareness and class consciousness. The authors aptly illustrate the nationality con- SLOVAKIA 97 flicts of Magyar chauvinism among Hungarian Social Democratic leaders. However, the reader must be wary of any tendency to overexaggerate the significance of the workers' movement. As Pavel Hapak points out (p. 258), no more than 6,346 Slovaks belonged to the Slovak Social Democratic organization in Hungary at its peak in 1907. More Slovaks were organizing in larger cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but we still lack detailed studies of these experiences. These pre-war experiences reached a fruition in the latter stages of World War I and resulted in a surge of political and labor activism which is described in the 1917-18 period. As in many other Marxist histories, the authors ascribe too much influence to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 rather than to the March Russian Revolution which marked the beginning of the end for the old regimes of Europe. Despite the concerns of the authors with the lower classes, they do not provide a good sense of what it was like to be a worker, a peasant, or a migratory laborer. Too often the authors stress social history more from an institutional and statistical angle, rather than presenting us with a close-up of what life was really like for the average person in Slovakia. Most obvious is the neglect of the Slovak people's association with their churches, the center of village life. What did Slovak people value most highly in their hierarchy of priorities, and how and why were these values changing? The authors do not tell us. In a book which concentrates on a such narrow period, the authors could have presented a much better portrait of some of the leading personalities in Slovakia such as Pavel Blaho, Andrej Hlinka, or Emanuel Lehocky. Frequently, the reader obtains only a one-dimensional aspect of a person's life, usually his political or labor movement activities. A sense of what the total person was like is missing . Although the book contains a good bibliography of published books and articles and a bibliographic essay, the authors did not footnote their work. Footnotes would have been a useful addition for students of modern Slovak history. The book also lacks maps and a subject index (only a name and place index are included) which should accompany a work of this nature . 98 SLOVAKIA Finally, the authors did not attempt to write any conclusions about the meaning of Slovak history in the period covered. Although such a task is always difficult in a collaborative work, this would have given the study more unity . If there is any common theme which pervades the study, it is the alliance of Magyar financial capital with a noble ruling class which was bent on Magyarizing and exploiting Slovak peasants and blue-collar workers. These criticisms should not discourage one from obtaining the volume. The book is a valuable and useful reference tool for the library of any scholar of Slovak history. Many topics such as literature, labor, economic, and political history are well summarized in a readable style, and the interpretations are more objective than many earlier Marxist studies. This is surely the best available detailed survey of Slovakia in the early twentieth century. Stephan Parak. Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat. Bern: Peter Lang (Europaische Hochschulschriften Ill/339), 1987, 308 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada Once in a while , a pearl is dropped on the lap of scholars. All the necessary ingredients are there: a relatively unknown topic, thorough research, a scholarly approach, the proper use of references, balanced conclusions and a challenge to conventional wisdom. Such is Stephan Parak's study of the political and economic relations between two small states in wartime, Slovakia and Switzerland. It is not necessary to belabour the point that the Slovak Republic does not generally enjoy a good reputation in Western scholarship. Created at a time when Germany was bent on redrawing the map of Central Europe, allied to it in war, involved in the persecution of the Jews and occupied in the end by one of the Allied powers , the Slovak state belonged to the camp of the van- SLOVAKIA 99 quished and suffered as a result the inevitable consequences of unconditional defeat. This outcome has guided many scholars who see more virtue in triumphalism than in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Whatever may be the merits of the debate whether the Slovak Diet should have proclaimed Slovakia's independence on 14 March 1939, the fact is that on that day a new state appeared on the political map of Europe. Its leaders were determined to use the opportunity not only to safeguard the well-being of the nation , but also to ensure its growth and development. That there was great German pressure in Slovak political life, that the Slovak leaders took decisions contrary to the Christian philosophy of their party, that the Slovak economy fuelled the German war effort were all facts of the political life of this small state next to an expansionist ideological regime; equally true is the fact that this state sought to withstand and diminish some of these pressures and to lead the life of a small country which needs good relations with others to survive and thrive . Parak's study looks at both of these themes in his examination of the relations between Slovakia and Switzerland. The first influenced the question of the diplomatic recognition of Slovakia. It was settled as much by the Swiss interpretation of international law as by Bern's appraisal of the power constellation in Europe in 1939 . The Swiss " tacit recognition" of Slovakia reflected this as did the break of relations in 1945 and the recognition of the renewed state of Czechoslovakia. On the Slovak side, it was clearly most important to achieve the best diplomatic status possible , something which the Swiss were unwilling to grant, especially in wartime. Parak documents and analyzes this question not only thoroughly, but in an intelligent and balanced way. The diplomatic tug-of-war between these two states did not prevent on the other hand important economic and cultural relations. A good part of this study concentrates on the scope and the benefits of these relations to both states. It makes all the more fascinating reading as these relations were being carried out while the rest of Europe was at war. The extent to which Slovakia could exist as an independent state is made quite clear by these relations. The author also devotes an entire chapter on the role of 100 SLOVAKIA Switzerland in the fate of the Slovak Jews. His approach is factual and sensitive. He notes that in 1942, neither the Swiss government, nor the Red Cross lodged a protest against the deportations of Slovak Jews to Poland. Yet Swiss representatives in Slovakia were also very active in protecting Jews who were important for economic and commercial reasons and they intervened with Slovak authorities to see that presidential exceptions were granted to them. After the 1944 revolt the situation was reversed. The meaning of the German Final Solution was then clear; the Swiss government and the Red Cross lodged protects against the deportations. But neither they nor the Slovak government could do anything - even protect those who had been granted presidential exceptions - as the Germans were now in control in Slovakia. Nevertheless many Swiss, including diplomatic representatives, with the support of the Slovak Red Cross and Church circles , were able personally to extend refuge to individual Jews . In the light of this record Parak asks whether the Swiss might have had more success if they had been more active on the official diplomatic level. He concludes: "One is left with the impression that on the Swiss side not all available opportunities were exhausted to save Slovak Jews in the Second World War" (p . 215). In his overall conclusion Parak considers that the relations between these two states, like those of great powers, were determined by national interest as well as by their perception of the international situation. This is an interesting conclusion, not for Switzerland where to most it must seem self-evident, but for Slovakia where a perception still lingers among scholars that its policies and activities were dictated entirely by Berlin. Yet such a challenge to conventional wisdom is the normal outcome of this study. That is not the least of its merits. This is a published doctoral dissertation as required by European universities (in this case the University of Basel) for the obtaining of the degree. Given its excellence, it should be translated into English; it needs very few modifications . Above all , it certainly deserves to be read by as wide a public as possible . SLOVAKIA 101 Carol Skalnik Leff. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. xi, 304 pp. JAMES FELAK Bloomington, Indiana A persistent theme in the history of Czechoslovakia has been the Slovak quest for autonomy. In her book National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1917, Carol Skalnik Leff examines this crucial issue from 1918 to the present. She deals above all with the Slovak question as manifested in the First Czechoslovak Republic and in the Communist state between 1948 and 1968, stressing similarities in how both the democratic and the Communist regimes handled the issue of autonomy. In the interwar democracy as well as the postwar Communist state, Leff sees certain impediments to autonomy. In both states, Czechoslovakia's leaders believed that modernization, not autonomy, would solve the Slovak question. In the First Republic, Masaryk and other Czechoslovak leaders explained Slovak discontent as the product of Hungarian influence and believed that one only had to develop Slovakia culturally in order for the Slovaks to assimilate to a ''Czechoslovak'' nation. The Communist regime saw Slovakia's backwardness as a function of economics. It believed that economic modernization would solve the Slovak question by effecting a zblizenie, a drawing together of Czechs and Slovaks in a comon culture. Both attempts failed. All they did was raise Slovak expectations and produce a more skilled and sophisticated nationalist leadership, better able to articulate Slovak discontent. Another similarity between the two regimes, according to Leff, was the systemic obstacles they presented to autonomy. Although the First Republic's parliamentary system and relative freedom of expression gave the autonomist Slovak People's Party a public and parliamentary podium from which to advocate its autonomist program, the structure of the system guaranteed that autonomist concerns would not be addressed seriously by the 102 SLOVAKIA government. The system of proportional representation, reflected in the so-called Petka, meant that the chances for the opposition to come to power were slim and that the government's main priority was those issues that could potentially affect the viability of the coalition. The government had little incentive to take up disruptive issues advocated only by parties outside the coalition. Although it officially recognized the Slovak nation, Communist Czechoslovakia likewise presented impediments for the Slovak autonomy movement. The liquidation of organized opposition and free expression, an ideological commitment to centralism, and bureaucratic rigidity all had a negative influence on the prospects for Slovak autonomy . Leff ascribes persistent tensions between Czechs and Slovaks to an '' ethos of mutual betrayal''. Because Slovak nationalists had little hope for realizing autonomy under the interwar and post-1948 regimes, they sought to further their aims during times of crisis. Autonomist Slovaks took advantage of the periods when Prague, under fire from without, needed to consolidate its position at home. However, because the Slovaks got autonomy in the wake of the Munich agreement and federation in the wake of the Soviet invasion, many Czechs regarded the Slovaks as doubledealers willing to exploit the republic's troubles and do business with its external enemies for their own selfish ends. This, coupled with a perceived ingratitude on the part of the Slovaks, who seemed not to appreciate the Czech contributions to Slovakia's cultural and economic advancement, led Czechs to accuse Slovaks of betrayal. Many Slovaks, on the other hand, resented what they saw as a string of broken promises and a patronizing attitude toward them on the part of the Czechs. Leff gives a mixed review of the post-1968 federalist Czechoslovakia. She claims it has not fully solved the Slovak question, which remains "deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, woven into the fabric of Czechoslovak politics as usual.'' One might ask whether Slovaks can ever enjoy autonomy in a system that gives the population no control over who its leaders are or what policies those leaders pursue. . There are two drawbacks with Leff' s work that ought to be · pointed out. First, although she correctly mentions that SLOVAKIA 103 · geopolitical factors played a role in the Czech refusal to grant Slovakia autonomy, she fails to elaborate sufficiently on this important point. Secondly, her use of sociological jargon and attempt to test certain social science theories sometimes tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate the question at hand. These shortcomings aside, Leff has presented a thoughtful analysis of a very complicated problem. Her work is balanced and insightful and she advances a number of valid arguments. Leff has confirmed the fact that it is possible to do worthwbile research on twentieth century Czechoslovakia without a visit to Czech and Slovak archives . Her book is recommended reading for those interested in the Slovak question and Czechoslovakia's history and politics in general. Pavol Petruf. USA a studena vojna (Politika americkeho imperializmu v Europe 1945-1949. Bratislava: Pravda, 1985. 280 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada One's first impression after reading this book is that the American school of historical revisionism has found a positive echo among Marxist scholars in Eastern Europe. This detailed study of American foreign policy in the immediate post-war years will, therefore, interest readers and students behind the Iron Curtain for whom access to Western scholarship is still restricted. It may also be seen as an indication of an attempt at openness in scholarship, certainly among Slovak Marxist academics, even though the first footnote is to a Soviet source (the Great Soviet Encyclopedia no less), a practice that was de rigueur during the Stalinist years. However, the Western reader will find nothing new and certainly no original interpretation of the origins of the Cold War. Unlike many revisionist historians, Petruf has not produced a study based primarily, if not uniquely, on documentary evidence. Rather, his sources are a mixture of published American 104 SLOVAKIA documents, Soviet and Czech volumes of documents, and Marxist and Western studies. A few American authors are favored and even quoted extensively. Unfortunately there are some liberties with the translations, which does not do credit to the book. But this is a minor problem which is attenuated by the detailed presentation of American foreign policy during the years 1944-1949. Petruf's central thesis is that during the war governing circles in the United States had worked out a strategic plan that would enable the United States to control most of the planet in the postwar world. The United States would use economic, social and political means to establish this hegemony. Their only obstacle was the Soviet Unon, which had come out of the war as a superpower and whose foreign policy was one that emphasized democracy and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state. Accordingly, American foreign policy became bitterly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. In the Cold War which ensued the aim of Washington was not only to contain the Soviet Union, but also to hold back the Moscow-led world revolutionary movement which had arisen after the war. The result, according to Petruf, was that ''war - whether as a threat or reality - became firmly anchored in the minds of the people as an inevitable aspect of life in the 20th century .... [But] It did not prevent the growth of the strength ahd international authority of the Soviet Union, the appearance of a world socialist system and the development of the world revolutionary and national liberation movement" (pp. 269-270). In six chapters the author unfolds his thesis by looking at American policy toward Central and Southeastern Europe; the shift from cooperaton to confrontaton between the USA and the USSR; the question of Germany; the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment; the preparations, essence and goals of the Marshall plan; and the creation of NATO. The discussion in each chapter is thorough , even if presented with a certain slant. Among the main actors the author holds reponsible for the Cold War are Truman, Kennan , Acheson, Byrnes, Forrestal and Churchill. According to Petruf, these men had moved away from Roosevelt's policy of cooperation with the USSR and , backed by American SLOVAKIA 105 right-wing circles, opted for a hard line policy toward the Soviet Union. The book's main weakness, which disqualifies it as a work of serious scholarship, is not only the author's strident tone towards the United States, but also his adulatory approach to the Soviet Union. Not only is there no criticism of Soviet policy, but Kremlin decisions and actions which did more than just contribute to the unfolding of the Cold War are deliberately ignored. For example , in his discussion of the reasons for the reversal of Czechoslovakia's decision to partake in the discussions on the Marshall Plan, he does not mention that on 9 July 1947 a-Czechoslovak delegation composed of Gottwald , Drtina and Masaryk was in Moscow where Stalin informed them that the Czechoslovak acceptance of the Marshall Plan would be considered as an action hostile to the USSR. Petruf writes: "When in the meantime it became clear that the Marshall Plan was essentially directed at the independence and sovereignty of the participating countries, Czechoslovakia revised its initial decision and withdrew its participation in the Paris discussions" (p . 229) . It is a pity that such a thorough study had to be spoiled because of ideological predilections. Marxist scholars will not convince anyone of the validity of their point of view as long as they continue to be unable to take a broader critical look at the events they examine. June Granatir Alexander. The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press , 1987. xxxii , 198 pp. M. MARK STOLARIK The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Philadelphia , Pennsylvania In this revised Ph.D. dissertation, June Alexander set out "to bring to light the complex interplay of factors that led to the creation of ethnic parishes in American cities at the turn of the century" (p. xviii). 106 SLOVAKIA The essence of the book is that Roman Catholic Slovaks, while experiencing some local and internal problems while establishing their churches, had basically no quarrels with the local church hierarchy, whereas Lutheran Slovaks experienced major problems with their clerical leaders because the latter tried to impose a new orthodoxy upon their parishioners. To prove her point Alexander focused upon the four Roman Catholic and one Lutheran parish founded by Slovak immigrants in Pittsburgh between 1895 and 1915. She gave a bit of the religious background of the immigrants, told how they established fraternals in the United States and how these , in turn, led in establishing the parishes , and then traced the actual story of each parish to 1915. Meanwhile, she also discussed the rise of lay initiative among Slovak immigrants, their regionalism and nationalism (or lack of it) , and how these kept the various communities divided. Alexander concluded that the story of Slovak immigration to Pittsburgh is one of coming together to form fraternals and parishes. While the immigrants achieved these goals they did so differently, with the Roman Catholics acting rather harmoniously while the Lutherans were rent by dogmatic divisions. The net result was that the five parishes became communities unto themselves, divided ultimately by regionalism , dialectical and religious differences. While this is a competent study of the creation of five immigrant parishes over a twenty year period at the turn of the century , it has serious limitations . Alexander either did not realize (or chose to ignore) that when one studies ethnic parishes , one has to do so within the context of the local church body. For instance, when dealing with Pittsburgh Slovak Roman Catholics , she should have looked at their story within the diocese of Pittsburgh, which is the natural religious boundary of the area, not the borders of the city . Had she done so she might have noticed that two Slovak Roman Catholic parishes within the diocese (St . Anne 's in Homestead , in 1909, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in McKeesport, in 1922) seceded from the Roman Catholic Church and joined the independent Polish National Catholic Church. Since there were only a half dozen such secessions among Slovak SLOVAKIA 107 Roman Catholic parishes in the United States at the turn of the century, there had to be plenty of problems between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and Slovak immigrants in the Pittsburgh diocese. That is why Alexander's characterizaiton of Slovak Catholic immigrant relations with the local Hierarchy as being ones of "assertive deference" rings very false. Furthermore, Alexander makes certain assertions about the Old World experience of Slovaks which rest upon shaky evidence. In denying lay involvement in parish affairs in Slovakia, or OldWorld experiences of fraternalism, she relies too much on the contemporary observations of secular leaders, who were voicing uninformed opinions, or on the questionable memories of eleven informants, some of whom were born in America and others who must have been children when they immigrated here. How could such people possibly know anything about such complicated subjects as lay initiative or lodge creation in Slovakia? Indeed, there is to date no professional history of the various religions in Slovakia, nor has anyone covered the history of fraternal-benefit societies in Slovakia, which, contrary to Alexander's assertions, did exist there and can be traced back to 1460 A .D. Unfortunately, in today's Communist Slovakia those historians who are still allowed to practice their craft cannot write about the Churches (except in a pejorative way), nor can they focus on non-socialist movements. The only scholars who have touched upon these sensitive matters are Timothy L. Smith and his students and Alexander has chosen to either ignore their work, which was based upon solid research in Slovak archives, or she has chosen to disagree with their findings, without any substantial proof to refute them. Thus, while Alexander's book provides us with a glimpse of Slovak parish and community life in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh , it suffers from too narrow a perspective that ultimately distorts the larger picture of both Slovak and Slovak-American history . 108 SLOVAKIA Kratky slovnik slovenskeho jazyka. Jan Kacala, Maria Pisarcikova et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 592 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Arizona This invaluable reference work is presented by SA V - the Slovak Academy of Sciences through its I:udovft Stur Linguistics Institute as the second in its series of Slovak language lexicons in a new single-volume. It is intended for the professional as well as for the average user as a source of information about the vocabularly of present-day Slovak, and as it evolved over the past forty years of its socialist development. This single-volume is labeled "short (kratky)/concise (strucny)" in contrast with SA Vs earlier multi-volume dictionary. The first five-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (1959-68) has been sold out. The core of the new Slovnik is the more than 500 pages devoted to its A to Z vocabulary numbering more than 50,000 entries. The information derives not only from the 5,000,000 citations available from the SA V Linguistics Institute's card-catalog but also from others collected since the publication of the first academic Slovnik and still more gleaned from belles lettres, special literature, publications, as well as the results of vast research in contemporary Slovak linguistics. The prepifratory material - those pages preceding the A to Z vocabulary - contains two sections: The Basic Principles of Lexicography, and Abbreviations & Symbols. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the incorporation and domestication of loan-words in what is termed the process of "internationalization'' (p. 11) of the language. To illustrate this flooding process, five words-in-a-row listed (p. 9) are: dzinsy "jeans," blue- , dzip "jeep," dziu-dzicu "jiu-kitsu," dzob "job," dzokej "jockey," horse- . Among others are (here paginated): bonsaj "banzai" miniature-tree /Japanese/ (51), kibic "kibitz," in cards /Yiddish/ (152), zardiniera "giardiniera" wide flower-pot /Italian/ (582). Among the unexpectedly unexplainable omissions is: ukrajinsky ''Ukrainian,'' whereas the following are listed in the text: SLOVAKIA 109 bielorusky "Bielorussian" (47), estonsky "Estonian" (98), litovsky "Lithuanian" (184), lotyssky "Latvian" (185), polabsky "Polabian" (306) . The Slovnfk is the product of a collaborative effort by SA V's experts mentioned opposite the main title-page. Those who assiduously prepared this long-awaited lexicon can be proud of their achievements. The Slovnik is an invaluable, readable, handy reference work of contemporary Slovak language. Another, the second, step forward in Slovak lexicography. Apart from its precious contents, the book's binding is disappointingly fragile and.'brittle! Ludvik Patera. Alexander Matuska. Praha: Melantrich, 1985, 440 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Slovak literary critic Alexander Matuska (1910-1975) is known to American students of Czech and Slovak literature for his essay on Karel Capek, Clovek proti skaze (1963), which was published in English as Man Against Destruction (1981) , and for his book J.C. Hronsky (1970) published in Bratislava. Matuska's participation in Slovak intellectual and literary life began in the nineteen thirties and continued throughout his life. His Vy brane spisy (1972-1978) were published in four volumes in Bratislava. As one of the leading literary critics in Czechoslovakia, Matuska had an abiding interest in both Slovak and Czech literature, and was cognizant of the connection between national literatures and world literature. The knowledgeable Czech Slovakist Ludvik Patera, who teaches Slovak literature at Charles University, has written the first monograph on Matuska. Patera 's treatise appears as the seventysixth volume in the series Odkazu pokrokovych osobnisti nasi minulosti. The book consists of two main parts: the first (265 pages) contains Patera's well documented and reliable presenta- 110 SLOVAKIA tion of the chronological development of Matuska's life and work; the second presents a selection of Matuska's writings, which have been translated into Czech. Separating these two parts are thirtytwo pages of photographs, which include facsimiles ofMatuska's published work, manuscripts and letters. The totality of Matuska's activity emerges through Patera's method of combining biographical and literary data. Interspersed among the excerpts from Matuska's critical works are quotes from interviews with him that were published in Slovenske pohl'ady in the seventies . Patera skillfully weaves these quotations into his text, and allows the reader to learn of the life experiences that influenced Matuska' s development as a human being and as a literary critic. Patera 's research on Matuska's student years in Prague increases our understanding of the societal forces that had a great impact on young intellectuals during the inter-war period. While enrolled at Charles University , Matuska was associated with the group R10 (along with Jan Kostra, Dobroslav Chrobak, Michal Chorvath and others). This group was known as " The Young Davists, " the name stemming from their journal Dav, to which they actively contributed. During his student days , Matuska was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Czech critic and artist, F .X. Salda. They found common ground on various points. Neither supported the official view of that time, which claimed the existence of a Czechoslovak language with two versions, the Czech version and the Slovak version (pp. 27-28). They agreed that merging the two languages would only weaken and impoverish them both. As various scholars have pointed out, Slovak was at a disadvantage in the linguistic relationship between Czech and Slovak during the inter-war period , since efforts to bring the two languages together habitually led in the direction of Czech, to the detriment of Slovak. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout this well written and richly documented book. It is a welcome contribution to the field of literary history and criticism. In addition , Patera's book contains useful bibliographic information on Matuska's work, corrections of errors that appeared in some earlier editions , and an index of names at the end. SLOVAKIA 111 Il'ja Cicvak. Vyvolavanie slnka. Ottawa, Canada: Spolocnost' priatel'ov slovenskej literatury, 1984. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Toronto, Canada This is a very attractively-presented volume. The motto of the book, taken from Plato, illustrates the author's conviction that people strive for ideals which are most often unattainable. The same idea is expressed in the title of the novel - The Summoning of the Sun - and reinforced by an excellent illustration on the title page by Miro Malis, representing a modern day Sisyphus pushing the sun up the mountain. This Platonic view of the world is fundamentally opposed to the Marxist concept of the universe. It is most probably this difference of perception that accounts for the fact that Cicvak now lives and writes in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The novel tells us of the attempts made by individuals, and especially the main character James, to evoke the sun, to find a modicum of happiness in a totalitarian, cruel society. And it is a sad comment on this society that when the sun finally appears at the end of the novel, James cannot enjoy the magnificent view because he has died from the effects of a bullet he received during a peaceful political demonstration. However, in Cicvak's novel, life's frustrations are not limited to James. Every character that appears in the book has been affected one way or another, thwarted in his aspirations, mocked in his most sacred beliefs, slandered, unjustly imprisoned or exploited. Only utter opportunists seem to be able to survive somehow in this climate. Cicvak portrays human lives that are spent looking for peace and happiness, unable to successfully accomplish this quest. Fate, circumstances, or other people always intervene to warp human hopes and expectations . Older people know this truth, but the young approach life with great intensity and a naive trust which gets cruelly deceived in the end. Cicvak's novel is more than a story about the suffering of people in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. It is also a sad 112 SLOVAKIA parable about life's unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. In the end it does not matter that the unnamed "statnik" in the novel has been deprived of his lucrative position - the system that produced him will stay on and life will continue essentially as before. This conclusion finds its reinforcement in the previous events of the novel where the injustices that have been committed against the generation of the parents are repeated in the generation of their sons and daughters. Several recurring motifs in the novel reinforce the unity and central idea of the plot. The main one is, of course, the motif of the sun - a potent symbol - which appears only too rarely throughout the story. Time also plays an important part in the book. All through the novel we became intensely aware of its passing, and the passing of history. Loneliness is another strong theme. People closest to the characters are rarely near when needed. Those that are around are incapable of relating totally. This is a sad book, but a very well-written one. It skillfully unites the plot and the imagery to imbue us with the sense of shattered young dreams and impending death.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 33 (No. 60-61) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Vojtech Kopčan, <em>Turecké nebezpečenstvo a Slovensko</em> (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 89</li> <li>Ján Tibenský, ed., <em>Matej Bel: doba-život-dielo, and Juraj Chovan, Pamätnica z osláv dvojstého výročia Jána Hollého</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 91</li> <li>Michal Eliáš, <em>Hugolín Gavlovič (1712-1787)</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 94</li> <li>Pavel Hapák, <em>Dejiny Slovenska</em>, IV (Michael J. Kopanic, Jr.), p. 95</li> <li>Stephan Parak, <em>Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 98</li> <li>Carol Skalnik Leff, <em>National Conflict in Czechoslovakia</em> (James Felak), p. 101</li> <li>Pavol Petruf, <em>USA a studená vojna</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 103</li> <li>June Granatir Alexander, <em>The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915</em> (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 105</li> <li>Ján Kačala et. al., <em>Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka</em> (John M. Kochik), p. 108</li> <li>Ludvík Patera, <em>Alexander Matuška</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 109</li> <li>Iľja Čičvák. <em>Vyvolávanie slnka</em> (Yvonne Grabowski), p. 111</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Grabowski, Yvonne, 1929-1989 Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Kochik, John Michael Kopanic, Michael, Jr Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-88 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ddbf521e29430576fb8bfde09cfed516.pdf 3855b9b1cb4cc90365fb67cf483a703b PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 161 Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848). Vladimir Matula, Jozef Vozar et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 846 pp. GAVIN LEWIS John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York This is the second of a six-volume series sponsored by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The series was conceived and realized in the days when the Marxist orientation of Slovak historical scholarship was taken for granted; and it was intended to provide a detailed, scholarly, and authoritative handbook, superseding all earlier accounts, both "bourgeois" and Marxist, of all aspects of the history of the Slovak land and people from prehistory to the present. The authors of the volume under review have succeeded so well that it should serve its purpose even in the new era that began in 1989. The authors of Volume II, covering the early modern period, have had a particularly difficult task. Their period, running from 1526 to 1848, is both long and complex, including a great many closely interrelated developments. The Turkish conquest and the Habsburg reconquest of much of Hungary; the efforts of the Habsburgs to absorb the Hungarian kingdom into their hereditary territories and the varying responses of the Hungarian nobility to .these efforts; the evolution of serfdom and seigneurialism, urban life and the mining industry; the Reformation and CounterReformation, the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and finally, the complex cultural and social phenomenon of the National Awakening; all these had to be discussed both individually and in their relation to each other. The authors have accomplished this task to an impressive extent. Though the book is of course written from a Marxist viewpoint, the omissions and distortions typical of vulgar Marxism have been avoided. The importance of religious belief, and the leading role of the Catholic and Protestant clergy in early modern Slovak history, are given due weight. The leaders of the National Awakening, though discussed in terms of the Marxist schema, are treated �162 SLOVAKIA as real historical actors and not as mere puppets of the "transition from feudalism to capitalism." Some of the lengthy discussions on topics such as the evolution of prices and wages or the structure of internal trade may seem too detailed to those who are not convinced of the metaphysical importance of such matters, but on the whole the Marxist stress on economic and social themes has led to increased understanding of the development of the Slovak nation. Perhaps the most significant single achievement of this volume is to lay to rest for ever the myth of the pre-nineteenth century Slovaks as a slumbering nation of peasants and shepherds with no elite other than a sprinkling of clergy. The sections dealing with social structure, education and culture, and national development from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries make the following facts abundantly clear. 1) The Slovaks had a substantial elite of nobles and townsmen as well as priests and ministers, indeed the secular elite formed the milieu that enabled the clergy to operate. 2) This elite was open to the influences of Renaissance humanism and its descendants, the emerging historical scholarship of the seventeenth century, as well as to the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Baroque. 3) Under these intellectual, cultural, and religious influences, the Slovak elite built up a pre-modern national self-awareness comparable with that of other eastern European nations in the early modern period. This understanding of the early modern Slovak nation is not only of importance in itself, it is also of significance for explaining more recent periods of Slovak history. The National Awakening becomes easier to understand when one realizes that it did not come from nowhere, but was rather a phase - albeit a decisive and innovative one - in a continuing social and cultural development. Likewise, the nineteenth-century development of the awakening acquires a new dimension when one realizes that it took place against the background of the crumbling of the traditional Slovak elite under the onslaught of Magyarization: one of the main tasks of the leaders of the awakening was that of mobilization, to rally what was left of the elite so as to ensure the survival of the nation . The section of the book dealing with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - that is the National Awakening itself, �SLOVAKIA 163 the final decades of seigneurialism, and the beginnings of national conflict within the Hungarian state - are in some ways less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Individual chapters are thorough and informative, and there is the same complete coverage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual developments. But there is less sense than in the first half of the book of the interrelatedness of the various developments. In particular, the very detailed discussion of the viewpoints, activities, and disputes of the various leaders of the awakening proceeds to some extent in isolation from the social background. How did the leaders react to the defection of much of the traditional Slovak elite, and how did they mobilize those who were left? To what extent was the National Awakening a response of the nationally "loyal" elite to pressures to Magyarize? In general, what determined individual members of the elite either to Magyarize or to support the awakening? In spite of a number of fascinating glimpses - in particular, the section on the rise of the Slovak intelligentsia and village notables (pp. 579-84) - one gets surprisingly little sense of the National Awakening as a movement apart from its leading personalities . In spite of these criticisms, the book as a whole deserves to be widely read . It provides an excellent guide for students and point of departure for scholars, and can and should be used in this way even under the new order of things in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Appearing as it did in 1987, the volume summarizes the achievements of the era of Marxist domination in the early modern field of Slovak historical scholarship. One must give credit where credit is due, and admit that at least in this field, Slovak Marxist scholars over the last forty years have contributed significantly to their nation's understanding of itself. Viliam Cicaj. Knizna kultura na strednom Slovensku v 16. -18. storoci. Bratislava : Veda, 1985. 133 pp . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This book outlines the development of literary culture in central Slovakia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, focus- �164 SLOVAKIA ing on the towns of Banska Bystrica, Banska Stiavnica, and Kremnica. It is divided among an introduction, a quantitative analysis of "private" (non-archival) literature of the region, the thematic structure of such literature, and the relationship of the literary culture of central Slovakia with the later Middle Ages. In the introductory section C:icaj points out that, while other Slovak areas were producing literature in this period, the region of Banska Bystrica-Banska Stiavnica-Kremnica was far more prolific in sheer output. He elaborates on this point in Part One, employing statistical charts very liberally. In addition to publications in the Czech language (used extensively by the Protestants since the Hussite emigration from Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War) and the Central Slovak dialect, there were also numerous publications in Latin and German. Latin was at that time the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the Germans in the central mining towns were using their language to introduce the works of Martin Luther. The period was consequently marked by lively literary interactions between the Protestants of Upper Hungary and Lutheran centers of learning in Germany . In Part Two, where C:icaj discusses the thematic structures of this literary awakening, he reveals several facts which are somewhat surprising and certainly revealing in light of their historical importance. Quite naturally Lutheran theology was the focus of a large percentage of the publications, but works dealing with history, political science, and geography (the last-named social science included books about places as remote as Jamaica and Japan) were also produced. One criticism of Luther offered by Catholic apologists was that, in rerferring to Aristotle as " a dog of a philosopher,'' the father of Protestantiasm disrupted the centuriesold dialogue between Christian and classical (pagan, pre-Christian) civilization. Slovak Lutherans may justifiably exempt themselves from such a charge. Publications emanating from the central Slovak towns represented not only Aristotle and the Greeks, but also Boccaccio, Petrarach, and Italian humanists of the Renaissance period. Such a state of affairs reflects the ecumenical nature of Upper Hungary in this period. Catholics and Lutherans in the central Slovak towns lived together amicably when Habsburg pressure was not applied . �SLOVAKIA 165 Cicaj attempts to elaborate on this point in Part Three, pointing out that the Catholic Erasmus and the Protestant Luther each contributed to a general advancement of education in the face of a feudal order. But here Cicaj falls short of the mark. Having demonstrated that the Central Slovak region was cosmopolitan in the literary sense, he does not follow through by demonstrating its impact on the later Slovak national awakening. Part of the problem here may stem from the very exclusiveness of his study; he might have formulated his conclusions more completely by not simply concentrating on three towns. Even so, he could have integrated this study into the general framework of this period in Slovak and Hungarian history. It was not only the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was also a time when the Turks occupied the middle Danube region (sometimes making incursions into the highlands), and when Transylvanian nobles invaded the area in their struggles against the Habsburgs. Citing contemporary literature regarding the impressions produced by these events might have strengthened the author' s case. Knizna kultura is dry reading, but it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the study of Slovak literary history. The author clearly demonstrates that the Central Slovak region's contribution to literary culture precedes the national awakening, and he makes liberal use of footnotes to support his case. This book is primarily useful for literary historians. Viera Urbancova, Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci: Vyvoj nazorov na slovensky l'ud. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 436 pp. MAGDA ZELINSKA FERL Los Angeles, California Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci is an ambitious work which examines the evolution of ethnography in Slovakia, specifically the trends which contributed to the eventual development of a separate discipline during the 19th century. Viera Urbancova' s thesis is that Slovak ethnography as a discipline evolved through stages and was influenced by social and political activities. �166 SLOVAKIA Her work is organized according to the notions which influenced the various stages of the discipline's development, from the backward and irrational view of the folk to the idealized. These notions coincided with the interests of the intelligentia in such causes as the "fight against superstition," which was thought to prevent social progress, the promotion of national self-awareness, the struggle to codify the Slovak language, and the attempts to establish ethnography as an independent discipline. Urbancova points out some practical reasons for interest in the folk. Mass education, according to her, was instituted by capitalists during the period of industrialization for the purpose of developing a better worker and increasing productivity. The folk needed to be re-educated regarding their customs and beliefs which were thought to hamper progress. The first ethnographic work began with the premise that the folk who believed in superstitions should be studied so they could be re-educated and, thereby, elevated to a level where they could contribute to the welfare of the nation . Matej Bel's work, Notitia, is mentioned as important to the ethnographic research of the 19th century. The author also deals with the romantic notion of the folk which, in Slovakia, was influenced by Herder and Hegel's philosophy . The historical past was seen in terms of pride and love for the language: Bernolak' s followers saw it in a Slovak language, while the Lutheran intelligentia beheld it in the language of the Kralice Bible. Kollar and Safarik were important at this time in promoting interest in folk culture, which to them was oral literature. They collected songs, proverbs, and beliefs which pointed to the ancient character of the nation . This state in the development of Slovak ethnography is characterized by the hypothesis, initiated by linguists, that Slavs can trace their culture to Inda-European origins. During the 1840' s and the 1850' s there was wide acceptance of the view that folklore expressions were survivals of ancient culture. Such assumptions contributed to the notion that folklore was dying out and, therefore, needed to be collected and recorded. Gustav, Reuss, a physician, was very influential during this period in promoting the collection of tales. In his historical work concerning the development of regions, how they were populated, �SLOVAKIA 167 how people secured food, etc., he supported his conclusions with information extracted from folk culture, especially local legends. During the period of the 1860' s there was a sentiment to view ethnography from a scientific perspective, promoting a systematic approach to collecting. Pavol Dobsinsky published instructions on how to collect ethnographic materials. His greatest contribution was expanding the collected genres; for example, he called for the inclusion of material culture which he referred to as "prostonarodne poklady" (folk treasures .) He also encouraged a geographical approach to the study of such occupations as lacemakers, boatwrights, and tinkers, and stressed the importance of noting the tools and their use. Lastly, Urbancova points to the trend of increased interest in mythology. The work of the brothers Grimm in Germany contributed to the view that myths are the survivals of ancient rituals and, consequently, Reuss and others believed that myths collected in Slovakia reflected not only old Slovak culture but also Slavic cultures. Folk life was romanticized and looked upon as the basis of the nation's culture which needed to be preserved for future generations. The work of Dobsinsky became very popular and influential. The first part of his Prostondrodne obycaje, zvyky a povery is structured according to the natural life cycle: birth, marriage and death. He describes family, village and commercial life in detail. Unfortunately, the attempt to cover such a large span of time results in a book which has no depth to its analysis or interpretations. One is left feeling that, despite copious notes and an extensive bibliography, the book is somehow incomplete, lacking a clear thesis. However, this is a rather comprehensive work of Slovak ethnographic scholarship concerning the 19th century. Implicitly, it offers an interesting explanation concerning changes in the approach to ethnography which actually relate to the major European trends of the 19th century. �168 SLOVAKIA Narodna svetlica: Vyber dokumentov k dejinam Matice slovenskej. Edited by Michal Elias and Vojtech Sarluska. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1988. 321 pp. JOHN A. BERTA Methodist College Fayetteville, North Carolina Although Narodna svetlica offers nothing new to the professional study of the Matica slovenska, it is of value to the average individual interested in the history of this institution and Slovak culture . The book comes at an opportune time. Slovaks abroad, particularly in the United States and Canada, have a growing interest in Slovak culture, and many perceive the Matica as the primary vehicle for engaging in cultural exchanges. The work is also important for contemporary Slovakia since many Slovaks there have little or no knowledge of the Matica' s history and function. Narodna svetlica is divided into three segments which discuss the Matica's role in a particular period. The first era, 1863-1875, deals with the Matica's beginnings, and the legacy left to Slovak history and culture after its forced closure by the Magyar authorities. The second period, 1919-1954, concerns the task the resurrected Matica sought to fulfill as the ethnic and cultural guardian of the Slovak people. The final segment, 1954 to the present, involves a period when the Matica assumed functions which could equate it to the National Archives and Library of Congress in the United States. The book is a compilation of excerpts from proclamations, the minutes of Matica board meetings and assemblies, articles, books, pamphlets, personal correspondence and photographs which pertain to the evolution of this institution, and the role it has played in the preservation of Slovak culture and ethnicity in Slovakia and abroad. The documents reproduced in each section were selected to impress upon the Slovak reader the importance of the Matica slovenska as a symbol of his/her national identity and culture, and as an active participant in daily Slovak life . The drawback to this otherwise skillfully edited work is that it was published solely in Slovak. Only those with a working �SLOVAKIA 169 knowledge of the language can make use of its wealth of information. The two-page English summary provides the reader with just a hint of what is in the body of the work. If the Matica slovenska could make this and similar publications available in English, it could have an impact on rejuvenating ethnic awareness among those who are on the verge of being assimilated into another culture. Also missing is the wealth of correspondence regarding how Slovaks abroad relate to this symbol of their Slovak heritage. Jan Kmec, Jugoslovensko-slovacke slavisticke veze. Novi Sad: Vojvodjanska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1987. 549 p. JAN FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia The author of this work traces the relations of the South Slavs with the Slovaks from the time of the early Slavic migrations to Central Europe and the Balkans to the present. He explores the same geographic and topographic names preserved to this day in Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Other proof of close contacts are so called "yugoslavisms" which Pannonian Slavs accepted from the South Slavs and which are preserved in the contemporary Slovak literary language. Further, he refers to the activities of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Cyrilomethodian culture which originated from direct social and cultural efforts and productive contacts of the forefathers of the Slovaks and the Yugoslavs . Although the author wrote that Pannonian Slavs were very often different from South Slavs, he did not realize that this long separation conditioned also gradual national differences between the forefathers of today's Slovaks and the South Slavs . He used only the term "staroslovansky" contrary to the recognized term starosloviensky After the extinction of Great Moravia and the rise of Hungary, the greatest avenue for cooperation between West and South Slavs was the Catholic Church. In Hungary the Church accepted a group of Czech missionaries and through their contacts and exchange of 11 11 • �170 SLOVAKIA priests, created the possibility for spiritual and cultural communication, which produced cultural, literary and artistic works. The author devotes the third part of his book to the period of Turkish rule in Central Europe (1526-1683). Many refugees from Croat regions came to Bratislava and settled in the southern parts of Slovakia and Moravia. New Yugoslav-Slovak spiritual, cultural and literary relations blossomed. These were strengthened through the Hungarian Catholic center in Trnava, where the Jesuit university accepted Croat students and professors. The fourth part covers the period from the origins of the Protestant lyceum in Bratislava (1615) to the establishment of the Serbian grammar school in Sremski Karlovci (1791) . The lyceum became a center of Yugoslav-Slovak relations from the first half of the 18th century. Many Serbs studied in Bratislava and in other schools in Slovakia, especially when they emigrated from southern and middle Serbia in the Hungarian portion of the Austrian Empire (1690). Also Slovaks started to move to the Vojvodina from the year 1745. As a defense against Catholic presure, and in an effort to build their own cultural institutions and schools, the Serbs needed their own educated people. Many educated Slovaks worked among Serbs for this reason . In the first twenty years of the 19th century a new period in Yugoslav-Slovak relations began. The national revival of both peoples led to greater mutual cooperation. The awakening of national consciousness among the Slavic nations manifested itself as well with the idea of Slavic reciprocity. An association of " Lovers of Slovak Language and Literature" in Pest was also a center of cooperation with Czechs, Croats, Serbs and Russians and a center of research in Slavic languages . In the last part of his work Kmec covers the time from the 1848 revolution to the present. He pays attention to Shir's views, to the differences between Stur and Kollar, to relations between Njegos and Stur, and to Yugoslav motifs and subjects in Slovak literature. Under the pressure of the Hungarian government, Yugoslav-Slovak relations became very strained, and student organizations had to move to Prague . Slovaks from Vojvoina, with the center in Backi Petrovac, became a bridge between Slovaks and Serbs in Hungary. In the period between the two wars of the 20th century, the author �SLOVAKIA 171 mentions Slovak authors in Vojvodina, translators, and some political events. The work of professor Krnec is a solid contribution in the areas of Slavic reciprocity. The author buttressed his work with many footnotes and with the biographies of many authors . While this did not reduce the worth of the work, it unnecessarily widened it and the author deflected from his theme. Serbian-Slovak relations, about which Slovaks and Serbes have written a lot, is compiled in detail, but less attention is paid to Croat-Slovak relations. Incomprehensible to me is why the author presented the number of votes in the elections of 1920, and also why he gives the number of members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Slovak towns in the Vojvodina, and also why he lists the names and jobs of some Slovaks, members of the Communist Party, who emigrated to Slovakia. All of this detracts from an otherwise worthy book. Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1986. 673 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland This massive work is certainly a must for anyone interested in the study of the formation of the Czechoslovak state. It is obvious that the author has spent extensive periods of time researching this subject at archives in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Kalvoda should be commended for his use of innumerable memoirs, journals, newspapers, and secondary sources published in Czech, English, French, German, Russian, and Slovak. As a result, the author presents a well thought-out and thoroughly synthesized portrayal of the events and people involved in the intensive four year quest for national independence. The author provides great detail concerning this struggle both in Austria-Hungary and abroad in England, France, Russia, and the United States, while accomplishing his goal of examining and evaluating the three theses �172 SLOVAKIA regarding the success of the liberation movement: 1) the work of exiles, 2) the Bolshevik Revolution, and 3) the resistance at home. Kalvoda's book proves all three were factors leading to Czechoslovak independence. Kalvoda definitively characterizes the major personalities involved in the movement to create an independent state, among these Edvard Benes, Josef Diirich, Karel Kramaf, Milan Stefanik, and Tomas G. Masaryk. The author in particular, provides a very provocative description of Masaryk, the "Liberator-President" of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk left Bohemia in 1914 as a relatively insignificant political leader. Despite later assertions that he had a mandate for his mission, in reality Masaryk lacked any significant support at home. Masaryk schemed and plotted to become the leader of the liberation movement, subverting the authority of Diirich, who had been sent abroad to represent Czech interests in foreign capitals . To achieve his goals the ruthless Masaryk worked to destroy the reputations, careers, and influence of others, such as Diirich and Kramaf, when their opinions and activities were contrary to his and those of the Czecho-Slovak National Council . Masaryk thus is shown as an opportunist who, despite his later claims, adroitly changed his ideas and statements when it became politically expedient. In his account of the origins of the Czechoslovak-Bolshevik conflict, Kalvoda reveals that both Masaryk's insistence on the neutrality of the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russian internal affairs, and his attempts to gain western recogniiton of Lenin almost caused the loss of Allied support for Czechoslovak statehood. The activities of the Legions in Siberia when the local situation dictated an independent course of action in support of anti-Bolshevik forces, although contrary to the orders of Masaryk, ultimately preserved Masaryk's position in the west. It is a bit disappointing that Kalvoda does not analyze more thoroughly events within Slovakia and the role which Sovak emigres, particularly in the United States, played in the creation of the state . Also, his examination of how Ruthenia became part of the republic is almost non-existent. The author's discussion of pre-war Slovak political life in Hungary, mentioning neither the political parties nor the voting irregularities which kept the number �SLOVAKIA 173 of Slovak deputies at a minimum, is highly abbreviated. This commentary seems almost to be an afterthought to Kalvoda's overview of Czech political life in Austria. As well, his treatment of the Masaryk-Pekar controversies, which weighs the first chapter down, is entirely out of proportion to their significance. This book is not for the novice in the history of the Czechs and Slovaks. Without a firm understanding of the past of these two peoples, the reader would quickly become confused. Although Kalvoda ' s narrative provides excellent detail, at times it appears as if he included all material he had found regarding a particular topic, thereby clouding the issue. One such example occurs when Masaryk recommends the Tsarevich as the commander of the Czecho-Slovak Legions (p . 97). It is difficult to believe that Masaryk or any rational person in the modern age would want an elevenor twelve-year-old boy to lead troops. A more discriminating choice of material would have been sufficient in many cases . There are numerous minor factual flaws which should have been caught in the editing process, including the statement that Francis Joseph ruled for 64 years (p. 159); and that an Austrian archduke was a "Grand Duke" (p. 78). In giving his estimates on the number of Slovak and Czech immigrants in the United States, the author relied too heavily upon secondary sources. A quick referral to the documents of the Census Bureau and/or the Department of Labor would have provided a more accurate count. However, the greatest drawback of this work is the overall inattentive editing. This has resulted in missing footnote citations, wrong chapter headings, and numerous errors including transposed as well as missing letters. It appears almost as if no one bothered to proofread this volume. Although a one page "Errata " is included, it also contains errors, and is wholly inadequate. The informed reader can usually correct these mistakes, but it is a slow and tedious task causing the cohesiveness of this work to suffer . Despite these shortcomings, Kalvoda' s book is a welcome addition to the study of Czechoslovak statehood . In the years to come it will remain a fundamental reference source in English for the study of this complex issue. �174 SLOVAKIA Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960). Michael Baranovsky et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1988. 549 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada It would have been difficult to review this volume with any degree of equanimity or detachment even before the events of November and December 1989 which ended the Communist monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia and laid bare the bankruptcy of the ideology, the economic and political system, not to mention the tragedies that it left in its wake. The triumphalist tone, the selfdeluding interpretations of social and individual progress, the everpresent statistics and the cowed reverence to the Soviet Union are characteristics not of scholarship, but of crass political partisanship. The authors divide the history of the period under consideration into two parts. First they look at what is referred to as the national and democratic revolution and its transformation into a socialist one. This is basically a year by year presentation of events from the end of the Second World War to the Communist coup d'Etat in February 1948. In the second part of the book, also chronologically divided, they examine the various aspects involved in building socialism. The volume is filled with statistics on economic development and other indicators of social and cultural activity. The study ends with the proclamation of the achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia with the Constitution of 1960. The interpretation that is offered follows the line adopted after federalization and Gustav Husak' s accession to the position of Secretary General of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. The Marxist approach to history and politics is based on the concept of the class struggle. There is no doubt that there was a class struggle in Slovakia in the period under consideration; but it was one that was imposed on that society by those whom Milovan Djilas very quickly identified as members of a new class, the Communist Party, their mentors and their allies. That is not all. The Communists were also bent on changing the social and economic �SLOVAKIA 175 structures of the country; change them they did, but not in the way portrayed. The essays in this volume by historians, members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, outline their perceptions of how the Communists went about achieving their objectives. In the case of Slovakia, this involved industrialization in order to raise it to the level of the Czech Lands, and the exercise of political power supposedly by the working class during a period which was to pave the way for the establishment of a socialist society. The essays stress particularly the industrialization process, the collectivization of agriculture and the transformation of the political system into a oneparty state . In fact, what the Communists did was to eliminate all political or class opponents, allow Slovakia to be ruled from Prague, set into motion its forced industrialization, establish a political, cultural and economic dictatorship, create privileges for themselves, and rule over a population which they cowed into submission by the extensive use of terror. This is the story that this book does not tell . Equally unsatisfactory is the way the authors deal with some of the problems, often in direct contradiction to their proclaimed principles, which arose from the policies of the Communists. A good example is the way Barnovsky handles what he calls the national question: "The beginning of the industrialization of Slovakia led to the elimination of the existing inequality of the Sovak nation. Despite this positive result, the mutual relations between Czechs and Slovaks were not solved along Leninist principles . .. This reality negatively influenced political life in Slovakia and slowed down the development of socialist relations between the two brotherly nations " (p . 226). No explanation is given for such a conclusion; no analysis of Slovak political life is offered. Indeed there is no indication of the contents of the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, let alone their socialist relations, whatever that means. Jirf St'astny, author of the last chapter, writes in conclusion: " The fifties and sixties were a turning point for Slovak society; it acquired all the characteristics of a society which went through revolutionary changes and built the bases of socialism. However, this does not mean that all of the tasks for the passage from capitalism to socialism were fulfilled " (p. 507) . Given the revolution of 1989, it is more accurate to conclude that probably none of �176 SLOVAKIA the tasks were in fact fulfilled and that the bases of socialism were not laid. It is now also doubtful that socialism, whatever it is supposed to be, can ever be built. The task that Slovak historians face henceforth is to define and analyze exactly what happened and what was built in this period. The answers to these questions will not be found in this volume. Jim and Susan Borchert. Lakewood: The First Hundred Years . Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company for the Lakewood Historical Society, 1989. 191 pp. CAROL TOW ARNICKY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Every year the eighth graders at Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lakewood, Ohio, were given a special job. At Christmastime we were to deliver the small boxes of church collection envelopes and - pro-rated for each family - several wafers each of oplatky for use at the Christmas Eve vilija . I was to deliver to the block of upper Clarence A venue, where nearly every family belonged to "Cyril's." I had a few extra oplatky at my discretion, but it wasn' t nearly enough to suit the grandmothers who demanded more . Sorry, they'd have to get them after Mass on Sunday. I said it politely, of course, but probably somewhat officiously, too . . . . It was a very long time before I realized that most children in America never delivered oplatky door-to-door. Actually, it was a very long time before I wasn't startled to meet an older person who spoke un-accented English. In the Lakewood, Ohio where I grew up, all grandparents came from Slovakia. Lakewood, Ohio, was a place where it was possible, even into the 1960s, to live secure in a world apart . I actually grew up thinking that, no matter what I saw on TV, most people in the word were Slovak-Americans . Imagine my surprise. " Lakewood: The First Hundred Years," the new book by Jim and Susan Borchert prepared for my hometown's centennial last �SLOVAKIA 177 year, accents the feelings of those small islands in the streetcar suburb next to Cleveland. As experts in urban and ethnic life the Borcherts have produced far more than the standard coffee-table picture book. They have explained why things were the way they were . As we used to say, all Lakewood was divided into three parts, and they had hardly anything to do with each other. There was the area along Lake Erie where the rich W ASPs lived (they had fenced off most of the lakefront for themselves) . We had hardly any contact with them. There was "middle Lakewood, " of the middle class, which consisted of marvelous, prosperous housing. (The Borcherts point out that much of it was built from kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck!) Middle Lakewood is where the kids who called us "greenhorns" were from. We had no idea what "greenhorns" were, of course (and they probably didn't, either.) . So we mostly were puzzled, rather than insulted. And then there was home, " Birdtown" and environs. The nickname came from the fact that many of the streets in this oldworld enclave were named for birds - Plover, Quail, Lark, Thrush. The Borcherts say that the people who lived there called it The Village, but I never heard anyone call it that. Perhaps they called it that in Slovak, which most people of my generation never learned. In their book the Borcherts have chosen to focus on each of these parts of Lakewood individually, and the result is a mirror of how it actually was - each group pursuing its destiny pretty much in isolation from the others, mostly coexisting, but never meshing. There were the founders, the captains of industry, who named the streets not only after their family names, but after their children 's first names - the Nicholsons and Wagars and Wintons, and the children named Grace and Clarence and Charles. They carved estates from the wilderness, planted orchards, and lived a life of High Society. One of my favorite pictures in " Lakewood" is that of Marion Campbell, the third Mrs . Alexander Winton, dressed in Native American dress as the lead in " the Seminole," an opera she presented in her back yard! �178 SLOVAKIA There were the middle Lakewoodites, the merchants and the others a couple rungs up the assimilation ladder. And there were the Slovak-Americans, who built their little world around the factories which hired immigrant labor - National Carbon Company, Empire Brass ... Once again, I am impressed at the industriousness and dedication of our ancestors. Starting with nothing, they created a space for themselves. Their frugality was legendary. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church was paid for in record time, as were its renovations. I can still remember, as a school child, using pencil erasers to remove heel marks from the expensive new linoleum floors put in the school in the 50s. But the story of "Lakewood" also emphasized how fragmented even the "Village" was. In the book the Borcherts quote from the chronicle of Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood by Jan Pankuch, a newspaperman and historian. Pankuch came to Lakewood in 1917, so his history drew on the memories of the earliest settlers from around the turn of the century. They came seeking work, built homes to be near it, then founded their churches, their savings and loans, and their clubs. But when I was growing up in Lakewood I knew none of this, and I suspect it was because Jan Pankuch was a Lutheran, who helped found Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, at the corner of my street, Grace Avenue . Back then - and it's really not so long ago, is it? - the Roman Catholics had nothing to do with the Greek Catholics at St. Gregory' s or the Orthodox or the - heavens! Slovak Calvinists in the little white church. It was a time of suspicion, and because of it, something important was missed. It's why today I can meet someone from Lakewood about my own age but from one of the different " parts," and realize that he/she literally grew up in a different town. Jim and Susan Borchert have done a masterful job of drawing together those separate threads. �SLOVAKIA 179 Abel KraY. Pravidla slovenskej vyslovnosti. 2nd ed. Bratislava: SPN, 1988. 632 pp. LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The author of PSV is a phonetician at Comenius University in Bratislava, and he has an international reputation for his work in phonetics. This book has now become a standard reference work on Slovak pronunciation. The first edition of PSV was published in 1984. It is an orthoepic codification of Slovak and has been approved by the Orthoepic Commission of the Linguistics Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. PSV sets forth the linguistic norm for spoken Slovak, and is used for teaching standard Slovak pronunciation in the schools in Slovakia, as well as providing guidelines for people who speak professionally, such as broadcasters, singers and actors . English speakers may not be familiar with the role of academies in standardizing languages, since no such institution exists for the English language. In fact, the English language has several national standards, e.g., British English, American English, Australian English. Pronunciation is the least standardized component of English, and these national standards reflect the pronunciation patterns in use by the speakers. In contrast, countries that have academies appoint linguistic commissions whose job is to compile rules, a codification, which show how the language should be used . France and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic are among the countries that regulate their language usage in this manner . It is not uncommon for an educated speaker of Slovak to speak in a way that does not conform to the rules set forth in the PSV. For example, a native of Bratislava, which is in the Western Slovak dialect area, would probably speak without diphthongs or the rhythmic law, since these features are not found in that dialect area . The speech of such a person would not be an example of "correct' ' Slovak pronunciation from an orthoepic point of view . As Jan Bosak pointed out in his review of the first edition of �180 SLOVAKIA this book, the relationship of orthoepy to phonetics and phonology, as propounded by Abel Kral', was a point of contention between Kral' and some linguists who have other theoretical points of view. 1 Specialists may also disagree about the pronunciations of particular words, and discussions of various points that are raised in this pioneering work will doubtless continue . In the theoretical section of the first part of the book (pp. 11-35), Abel Kral' expands the definition of orthoepy, and compares his orthoepic codification of the spoken language to an orthographic codification of the written language. He is concerned with language cultivation (jazykova kultura) and recognizes that stylistic differences dictate different pronunciation styles. He discusses the high and neutral styles, but not the low, which to him borders on the substandard. What Kral' describes in the book is the neutral style, the public speech of educated people from the Central Slovak dialect area . The neutral style is distinguished from the high style by various features. For linguists, one of the most important is the pronunciation of the [a] as the e in the English word 'set, ' and not as the a in the English 'bat.' The high style is now primarily relegated to use in the classical theatre. The phonetics section of the first part of the book (pp . 37-88) deals with phonetic transcription and with the phonetic classification of the sounds of Slovak and their correct production. The illustrations in this section are excellent visual aids when teaching Slovak pronunciation. The first section of the second part of the book (pp. 89-103) systematically describes the pronunciations of the vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Slovak in combination. This section contains an excellent exposition of voicing assimilation. It is followed by a section on the suprasegmental characteristics of Slovak (pp. 163-189). Then come texts with their phonetic transcription and the author's comments (pp . 191-200). The largest section of the book is taken up by the orthoepic dictionary (pp. 201-626) . The orthographic form of the word appears in boldface, and it is followed by the phonetic transcription. The words that Kral' selected for inclusion are those whose pronunciation cannot be deduced from their written form, or foreign words that may not yet follow the pronunciation rules of Slovak. �SLOVAKIA 181 Masculine nouns that end in obstruents, which are subject to voicing assimilation, are given with both the voiceless and voiced variants. The nominative form is followed, in many instances, by the genitive case form, e.g., baladik - baladi{klg], - {ka]. Other cases are given when appropriate, such as, the genitive plural for some feminine and neuter nouns. PSV has been written with precision and care . It is indispensible to teachers of the Slovak language, and belongs in the library of every Slovak specialist . 1 5/ovenska rec, 51, 1986 No. 6, pp. 371-374. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 161 Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848). Vladimir Matula, Jozef Vozar et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 846 pp. GAVIN LEWIS John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York This is the second of a six-volume series sponsored by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The series was conceived and realized in the days when the Marxist orientation of Slovak historical scholarship was taken for granted; and it was intended to provide a detailed, scholarly, and authoritative handbook, superseding all earlier accounts, both "bourgeois" and Marxist, of all aspects of the history of the Slovak land and people from prehistory to the present. The authors of the volume under review have succeeded so well that it should serve its purpose even in the new era that began in 1989. The authors of Volume II, covering the early modern period, have had a particularly difficult task. Their period, running from 1526 to 1848, is both long and complex, including a great many closely interrelated developments. The Turkish conquest and the Habsburg reconquest of much of Hungary; the efforts of the Habsburgs to absorb the Hungarian kingdom into their hereditary territories and the varying responses of the Hungarian nobility to .these efforts; the evolution of serfdom and seigneurialism, urban life and the mining industry; the Reformation and CounterReformation, the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and finally, the complex cultural and social phenomenon of the National Awakening; all these had to be discussed both individually and in their relation to each other. The authors have accomplished this task to an impressive extent. Though the book is of course written from a Marxist viewpoint, the omissions and distortions typical of vulgar Marxism have been avoided. The importance of religious belief, and the leading role of the Catholic and Protestant clergy in early modern Slovak history, are given due weight. The leaders of the National Awakening, though discussed in terms of the Marxist schema, are treated �162 SLOVAKIA as real historical actors and not as mere puppets of the "transition from feudalism to capitalism." Some of the lengthy discussions on topics such as the evolution of prices and wages or the structure of internal trade may seem too detailed to those who are not convinced of the metaphysical importance of such matters, but on the whole the Marxist stress on economic and social themes has led to increased understanding of the development of the Slovak nation. Perhaps the most significant single achievement of this volume is to lay to rest for ever the myth of the pre-nineteenth century Slovaks as a slumbering nation of peasants and shepherds with no elite other than a sprinkling of clergy. The sections dealing with social structure, education and culture, and national development from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries make the following facts abundantly clear. 1) The Slovaks had a substantial elite of nobles and townsmen as well as priests and ministers, indeed the secular elite formed the milieu that enabled the clergy to operate. 2) This elite was open to the influences of Renaissance humanism and its descendants, the emerging historical scholarship of the seventeenth century, as well as to the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Baroque. 3) Under these intellectual, cultural, and religious influences, the Slovak elite built up a pre-modern national self-awareness comparable with that of other eastern European nations in the early modern period. This understanding of the early modern Slovak nation is not only of importance in itself, it is also of significance for explaining more recent periods of Slovak history. The National Awakening becomes easier to understand when one realizes that it did not come from nowhere, but was rather a phase - albeit a decisive and innovative one - in a continuing social and cultural development. Likewise, the nineteenth-century development of the awakening acquires a new dimension when one realizes that it took place against the background of the crumbling of the traditional Slovak elite under the onslaught of Magyarization: one of the main tasks of the leaders of the awakening was that of mobilization, to rally what was left of the elite so as to ensure the survival of the nation . The section of the book dealing with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - that is the National Awakening itself, �SLOVAKIA 163 the final decades of seigneurialism, and the beginnings of national conflict within the Hungarian state - are in some ways less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Individual chapters are thorough and informative, and there is the same complete coverage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual developments. But there is less sense than in the first half of the book of the interrelatedness of the various developments. In particular, the very detailed discussion of the viewpoints, activities, and disputes of the various leaders of the awakening proceeds to some extent in isolation from the social background. How did the leaders react to the defection of much of the traditional Slovak elite, and how did they mobilize those who were left? To what extent was the National Awakening a response of the nationally "loyal" elite to pressures to Magyarize? In general, what determined individual members of the elite either to Magyarize or to support the awakening? In spite of a number of fascinating glimpses - in particular, the section on the rise of the Slovak intelligentsia and village notables (pp. 579-84) - one gets surprisingly little sense of the National Awakening as a movement apart from its leading personalities . In spite of these criticisms, the book as a whole deserves to be widely read . It provides an excellent guide for students and point of departure for scholars, and can and should be used in this way even under the new order of things in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Appearing as it did in 1987, the volume summarizes the achievements of the era of Marxist domination in the early modern field of Slovak historical scholarship. One must give credit where credit is due, and admit that at least in this field, Slovak Marxist scholars over the last forty years have contributed significantly to their nation's understanding of itself. Viliam Cicaj. Knizna kultura na strednom Slovensku v 16. -18. storoci. Bratislava : Veda, 1985. 133 pp . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This book outlines the development of literary culture in central Slovakia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, focus- �164 SLOVAKIA ing on the towns of Banska Bystrica, Banska Stiavnica, and Kremnica. It is divided among an introduction, a quantitative analysis of "private" (non-archival) literature of the region, the thematic structure of such literature, and the relationship of the literary culture of central Slovakia with the later Middle Ages. In the introductory section C:icaj points out that, while other Slovak areas were producing literature in this period, the region of Banska Bystrica-Banska Stiavnica-Kremnica was far more prolific in sheer output. He elaborates on this point in Part One, employing statistical charts very liberally. In addition to publications in the Czech language (used extensively by the Protestants since the Hussite emigration from Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War) and the Central Slovak dialect, there were also numerous publications in Latin and German. Latin was at that time the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the Germans in the central mining towns were using their language to introduce the works of Martin Luther. The period was consequently marked by lively literary interactions between the Protestants of Upper Hungary and Lutheran centers of learning in Germany . In Part Two, where C:icaj discusses the thematic structures of this literary awakening, he reveals several facts which are somewhat surprising and certainly revealing in light of their historical importance. Quite naturally Lutheran theology was the focus of a large percentage of the publications, but works dealing with history, political science, and geography (the last-named social science included books about places as remote as Jamaica and Japan) were also produced. One criticism of Luther offered by Catholic apologists was that, in rerferring to Aristotle as " a dog of a philosopher,'' the father of Protestantiasm disrupted the centuriesold dialogue between Christian and classical (pagan, pre-Christian) civilization. Slovak Lutherans may justifiably exempt themselves from such a charge. Publications emanating from the central Slovak towns represented not only Aristotle and the Greeks, but also Boccaccio, Petrarach, and Italian humanists of the Renaissance period. Such a state of affairs reflects the ecumenical nature of Upper Hungary in this period. Catholics and Lutherans in the central Slovak towns lived together amicably when Habsburg pressure was not applied . �SLOVAKIA 165 Cicaj attempts to elaborate on this point in Part Three, pointing out that the Catholic Erasmus and the Protestant Luther each contributed to a general advancement of education in the face of a feudal order. But here Cicaj falls short of the mark. Having demonstrated that the Central Slovak region was cosmopolitan in the literary sense, he does not follow through by demonstrating its impact on the later Slovak national awakening. Part of the problem here may stem from the very exclusiveness of his study; he might have formulated his conclusions more completely by not simply concentrating on three towns. Even so, he could have integrated this study into the general framework of this period in Slovak and Hungarian history. It was not only the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was also a time when the Turks occupied the middle Danube region (sometimes making incursions into the highlands), and when Transylvanian nobles invaded the area in their struggles against the Habsburgs. Citing contemporary literature regarding the impressions produced by these events might have strengthened the author' s case. Knizna kultura is dry reading, but it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the study of Slovak literary history. The author clearly demonstrates that the Central Slovak region's contribution to literary culture precedes the national awakening, and he makes liberal use of footnotes to support his case. This book is primarily useful for literary historians. Viera Urbancova, Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci: Vyvoj nazorov na slovensky l'ud. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 436 pp. MAGDA ZELINSKA FERL Los Angeles, California Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci is an ambitious work which examines the evolution of ethnography in Slovakia, specifically the trends which contributed to the eventual development of a separate discipline during the 19th century. Viera Urbancova' s thesis is that Slovak ethnography as a discipline evolved through stages and was influenced by social and political activities. �166 SLOVAKIA Her work is organized according to the notions which influenced the various stages of the discipline's development, from the backward and irrational view of the folk to the idealized. These notions coincided with the interests of the intelligentia in such causes as the "fight against superstition," which was thought to prevent social progress, the promotion of national self-awareness, the struggle to codify the Slovak language, and the attempts to establish ethnography as an independent discipline. Urbancova points out some practical reasons for interest in the folk. Mass education, according to her, was instituted by capitalists during the period of industrialization for the purpose of developing a better worker and increasing productivity. The folk needed to be re-educated regarding their customs and beliefs which were thought to hamper progress. The first ethnographic work began with the premise that the folk who believed in superstitions should be studied so they could be re-educated and, thereby, elevated to a level where they could contribute to the welfare of the nation . Matej Bel's work, Notitia, is mentioned as important to the ethnographic research of the 19th century. The author also deals with the romantic notion of the folk which, in Slovakia, was influenced by Herder and Hegel's philosophy . The historical past was seen in terms of pride and love for the language: Bernolak' s followers saw it in a Slovak language, while the Lutheran intelligentia beheld it in the language of the Kralice Bible. Kollar and Safarik were important at this time in promoting interest in folk culture, which to them was oral literature. They collected songs, proverbs, and beliefs which pointed to the ancient character of the nation . This state in the development of Slovak ethnography is characterized by the hypothesis, initiated by linguists, that Slavs can trace their culture to Inda-European origins. During the 1840' s and the 1850' s there was wide acceptance of the view that folklore expressions were survivals of ancient culture. Such assumptions contributed to the notion that folklore was dying out and, therefore, needed to be collected and recorded. Gustav, Reuss, a physician, was very influential during this period in promoting the collection of tales. In his historical work concerning the development of regions, how they were populated, �SLOVAKIA 167 how people secured food, etc., he supported his conclusions with information extracted from folk culture, especially local legends. During the period of the 1860' s there was a sentiment to view ethnography from a scientific perspective, promoting a systematic approach to collecting. Pavol Dobsinsky published instructions on how to collect ethnographic materials. His greatest contribution was expanding the collected genres; for example, he called for the inclusion of material culture which he referred to as "prostonarodne poklady" (folk treasures .) He also encouraged a geographical approach to the study of such occupations as lacemakers, boatwrights, and tinkers, and stressed the importance of noting the tools and their use. Lastly, Urbancova points to the trend of increased interest in mythology. The work of the brothers Grimm in Germany contributed to the view that myths are the survivals of ancient rituals and, consequently, Reuss and others believed that myths collected in Slovakia reflected not only old Slovak culture but also Slavic cultures. Folk life was romanticized and looked upon as the basis of the nation's culture which needed to be preserved for future generations. The work of Dobsinsky became very popular and influential. The first part of his Prostondrodne obycaje, zvyky a povery is structured according to the natural life cycle: birth, marriage and death. He describes family, village and commercial life in detail. Unfortunately, the attempt to cover such a large span of time results in a book which has no depth to its analysis or interpretations. One is left feeling that, despite copious notes and an extensive bibliography, the book is somehow incomplete, lacking a clear thesis. However, this is a rather comprehensive work of Slovak ethnographic scholarship concerning the 19th century. Implicitly, it offers an interesting explanation concerning changes in the approach to ethnography which actually relate to the major European trends of the 19th century. �168 SLOVAKIA Narodna svetlica: Vyber dokumentov k dejinam Matice slovenskej. Edited by Michal Elias and Vojtech Sarluska. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1988. 321 pp. JOHN A. BERTA Methodist College Fayetteville, North Carolina Although Narodna svetlica offers nothing new to the professional study of the Matica slovenska, it is of value to the average individual interested in the history of this institution and Slovak culture . The book comes at an opportune time. Slovaks abroad, particularly in the United States and Canada, have a growing interest in Slovak culture, and many perceive the Matica as the primary vehicle for engaging in cultural exchanges. The work is also important for contemporary Slovakia since many Slovaks there have little or no knowledge of the Matica' s history and function. Narodna svetlica is divided into three segments which discuss the Matica's role in a particular period. The first era, 1863-1875, deals with the Matica's beginnings, and the legacy left to Slovak history and culture after its forced closure by the Magyar authorities. The second period, 1919-1954, concerns the task the resurrected Matica sought to fulfill as the ethnic and cultural guardian of the Slovak people. The final segment, 1954 to the present, involves a period when the Matica assumed functions which could equate it to the National Archives and Library of Congress in the United States. The book is a compilation of excerpts from proclamations, the minutes of Matica board meetings and assemblies, articles, books, pamphlets, personal correspondence and photographs which pertain to the evolution of this institution, and the role it has played in the preservation of Slovak culture and ethnicity in Slovakia and abroad. The documents reproduced in each section were selected to impress upon the Slovak reader the importance of the Matica slovenska as a symbol of his/her national identity and culture, and as an active participant in daily Slovak life . The drawback to this otherwise skillfully edited work is that it was published solely in Slovak. Only those with a working �SLOVAKIA 169 knowledge of the language can make use of its wealth of information. The two-page English summary provides the reader with just a hint of what is in the body of the work. If the Matica slovenska could make this and similar publications available in English, it could have an impact on rejuvenating ethnic awareness among those who are on the verge of being assimilated into another culture. Also missing is the wealth of correspondence regarding how Slovaks abroad relate to this symbol of their Slovak heritage. Jan Kmec, Jugoslovensko-slovacke slavisticke veze. Novi Sad: Vojvodjanska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1987. 549 p. JAN FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia The author of this work traces the relations of the South Slavs with the Slovaks from the time of the early Slavic migrations to Central Europe and the Balkans to the present. He explores the same geographic and topographic names preserved to this day in Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Other proof of close contacts are so called "yugoslavisms" which Pannonian Slavs accepted from the South Slavs and which are preserved in the contemporary Slovak literary language. Further, he refers to the activities of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Cyrilomethodian culture which originated from direct social and cultural efforts and productive contacts of the forefathers of the Slovaks and the Yugoslavs . Although the author wrote that Pannonian Slavs were very often different from South Slavs, he did not realize that this long separation conditioned also gradual national differences between the forefathers of today's Slovaks and the South Slavs . He used only the term "staroslovansky" contrary to the recognized term starosloviensky After the extinction of Great Moravia and the rise of Hungary, the greatest avenue for cooperation between West and South Slavs was the Catholic Church. In Hungary the Church accepted a group of Czech missionaries and through their contacts and exchange of 11 11 • �170 SLOVAKIA priests, created the possibility for spiritual and cultural communication, which produced cultural, literary and artistic works. The author devotes the third part of his book to the period of Turkish rule in Central Europe (1526-1683). Many refugees from Croat regions came to Bratislava and settled in the southern parts of Slovakia and Moravia. New Yugoslav-Slovak spiritual, cultural and literary relations blossomed. These were strengthened through the Hungarian Catholic center in Trnava, where the Jesuit university accepted Croat students and professors. The fourth part covers the period from the origins of the Protestant lyceum in Bratislava (1615) to the establishment of the Serbian grammar school in Sremski Karlovci (1791) . The lyceum became a center of Yugoslav-Slovak relations from the first half of the 18th century. Many Serbs studied in Bratislava and in other schools in Slovakia, especially when they emigrated from southern and middle Serbia in the Hungarian portion of the Austrian Empire (1690). Also Slovaks started to move to the Vojvodina from the year 1745. As a defense against Catholic presure, and in an effort to build their own cultural institutions and schools, the Serbs needed their own educated people. Many educated Slovaks worked among Serbs for this reason . In the first twenty years of the 19th century a new period in Yugoslav-Slovak relations began. The national revival of both peoples led to greater mutual cooperation. The awakening of national consciousness among the Slavic nations manifested itself as well with the idea of Slavic reciprocity. An association of " Lovers of Slovak Language and Literature" in Pest was also a center of cooperation with Czechs, Croats, Serbs and Russians and a center of research in Slavic languages . In the last part of his work Kmec covers the time from the 1848 revolution to the present. He pays attention to Shir's views, to the differences between Stur and Kollar, to relations between Njegos and Stur, and to Yugoslav motifs and subjects in Slovak literature. Under the pressure of the Hungarian government, Yugoslav-Slovak relations became very strained, and student organizations had to move to Prague . Slovaks from Vojvoina, with the center in Backi Petrovac, became a bridge between Slovaks and Serbs in Hungary. In the period between the two wars of the 20th century, the author �SLOVAKIA 171 mentions Slovak authors in Vojvodina, translators, and some political events. The work of professor Krnec is a solid contribution in the areas of Slavic reciprocity. The author buttressed his work with many footnotes and with the biographies of many authors . While this did not reduce the worth of the work, it unnecessarily widened it and the author deflected from his theme. Serbian-Slovak relations, about which Slovaks and Serbes have written a lot, is compiled in detail, but less attention is paid to Croat-Slovak relations. Incomprehensible to me is why the author presented the number of votes in the elections of 1920, and also why he gives the number of members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Slovak towns in the Vojvodina, and also why he lists the names and jobs of some Slovaks, members of the Communist Party, who emigrated to Slovakia. All of this detracts from an otherwise worthy book. Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1986. 673 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland This massive work is certainly a must for anyone interested in the study of the formation of the Czechoslovak state. It is obvious that the author has spent extensive periods of time researching this subject at archives in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Kalvoda should be commended for his use of innumerable memoirs, journals, newspapers, and secondary sources published in Czech, English, French, German, Russian, and Slovak. As a result, the author presents a well thought-out and thoroughly synthesized portrayal of the events and people involved in the intensive four year quest for national independence. The author provides great detail concerning this struggle both in Austria-Hungary and abroad in England, France, Russia, and the United States, while accomplishing his goal of examining and evaluating the three theses �172 SLOVAKIA regarding the success of the liberation movement: 1) the work of exiles, 2) the Bolshevik Revolution, and 3) the resistance at home. Kalvoda's book proves all three were factors leading to Czechoslovak independence. Kalvoda definitively characterizes the major personalities involved in the movement to create an independent state, among these Edvard Benes, Josef Diirich, Karel Kramaf, Milan Stefanik, and Tomas G. Masaryk. The author in particular, provides a very provocative description of Masaryk, the "Liberator-President" of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk left Bohemia in 1914 as a relatively insignificant political leader. Despite later assertions that he had a mandate for his mission, in reality Masaryk lacked any significant support at home. Masaryk schemed and plotted to become the leader of the liberation movement, subverting the authority of Diirich, who had been sent abroad to represent Czech interests in foreign capitals . To achieve his goals the ruthless Masaryk worked to destroy the reputations, careers, and influence of others, such as Diirich and Kramaf, when their opinions and activities were contrary to his and those of the Czecho-Slovak National Council . Masaryk thus is shown as an opportunist who, despite his later claims, adroitly changed his ideas and statements when it became politically expedient. In his account of the origins of the Czechoslovak-Bolshevik conflict, Kalvoda reveals that both Masaryk's insistence on the neutrality of the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russian internal affairs, and his attempts to gain western recogniiton of Lenin almost caused the loss of Allied support for Czechoslovak statehood. The activities of the Legions in Siberia when the local situation dictated an independent course of action in support of anti-Bolshevik forces, although contrary to the orders of Masaryk, ultimately preserved Masaryk's position in the west. It is a bit disappointing that Kalvoda does not analyze more thoroughly events within Slovakia and the role which Sovak emigres, particularly in the United States, played in the creation of the state . Also, his examination of how Ruthenia became part of the republic is almost non-existent. The author's discussion of pre-war Slovak political life in Hungary, mentioning neither the political parties nor the voting irregularities which kept the number �SLOVAKIA 173 of Slovak deputies at a minimum, is highly abbreviated. This commentary seems almost to be an afterthought to Kalvoda's overview of Czech political life in Austria. As well, his treatment of the Masaryk-Pekar controversies, which weighs the first chapter down, is entirely out of proportion to their significance. This book is not for the novice in the history of the Czechs and Slovaks. Without a firm understanding of the past of these two peoples, the reader would quickly become confused. Although Kalvoda ' s narrative provides excellent detail, at times it appears as if he included all material he had found regarding a particular topic, thereby clouding the issue. One such example occurs when Masaryk recommends the Tsarevich as the commander of the Czecho-Slovak Legions (p . 97). It is difficult to believe that Masaryk or any rational person in the modern age would want an elevenor twelve-year-old boy to lead troops. A more discriminating choice of material would have been sufficient in many cases . There are numerous minor factual flaws which should have been caught in the editing process, including the statement that Francis Joseph ruled for 64 years (p. 159); and that an Austrian archduke was a "Grand Duke" (p. 78). In giving his estimates on the number of Slovak and Czech immigrants in the United States, the author relied too heavily upon secondary sources. A quick referral to the documents of the Census Bureau and/or the Department of Labor would have provided a more accurate count. However, the greatest drawback of this work is the overall inattentive editing. This has resulted in missing footnote citations, wrong chapter headings, and numerous errors including transposed as well as missing letters. It appears almost as if no one bothered to proofread this volume. Although a one page "Errata " is included, it also contains errors, and is wholly inadequate. The informed reader can usually correct these mistakes, but it is a slow and tedious task causing the cohesiveness of this work to suffer . Despite these shortcomings, Kalvoda' s book is a welcome addition to the study of Czechoslovak statehood . In the years to come it will remain a fundamental reference source in English for the study of this complex issue. �174 SLOVAKIA Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960). Michael Baranovsky et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1988. 549 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada It would have been difficult to review this volume with any degree of equanimity or detachment even before the events of November and December 1989 which ended the Communist monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia and laid bare the bankruptcy of the ideology, the economic and political system, not to mention the tragedies that it left in its wake. The triumphalist tone, the selfdeluding interpretations of social and individual progress, the everpresent statistics and the cowed reverence to the Soviet Union are characteristics not of scholarship, but of crass political partisanship. The authors divide the history of the period under consideration into two parts. First they look at what is referred to as the national and democratic revolution and its transformation into a socialist one. This is basically a year by year presentation of events from the end of the Second World War to the Communist coup d'Etat in February 1948. In the second part of the book, also chronologically divided, they examine the various aspects involved in building socialism. The volume is filled with statistics on economic development and other indicators of social and cultural activity. The study ends with the proclamation of the achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia with the Constitution of 1960. The interpretation that is offered follows the line adopted after federalization and Gustav Husak' s accession to the position of Secretary General of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. The Marxist approach to history and politics is based on the concept of the class struggle. There is no doubt that there was a class struggle in Slovakia in the period under consideration; but it was one that was imposed on that society by those whom Milovan Djilas very quickly identified as members of a new class, the Communist Party, their mentors and their allies. That is not all. The Communists were also bent on changing the social and economic �SLOVAKIA 175 structures of the country; change them they did, but not in the way portrayed. The essays in this volume by historians, members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, outline their perceptions of how the Communists went about achieving their objectives. In the case of Slovakia, this involved industrialization in order to raise it to the level of the Czech Lands, and the exercise of political power supposedly by the working class during a period which was to pave the way for the establishment of a socialist society. The essays stress particularly the industrialization process, the collectivization of agriculture and the transformation of the political system into a oneparty state . In fact, what the Communists did was to eliminate all political or class opponents, allow Slovakia to be ruled from Prague, set into motion its forced industrialization, establish a political, cultural and economic dictatorship, create privileges for themselves, and rule over a population which they cowed into submission by the extensive use of terror. This is the story that this book does not tell . Equally unsatisfactory is the way the authors deal with some of the problems, often in direct contradiction to their proclaimed principles, which arose from the policies of the Communists. A good example is the way Barnovsky handles what he calls the national question: "The beginning of the industrialization of Slovakia led to the elimination of the existing inequality of the Sovak nation. Despite this positive result, the mutual relations between Czechs and Slovaks were not solved along Leninist principles . .. This reality negatively influenced political life in Slovakia and slowed down the development of socialist relations between the two brotherly nations " (p . 226). No explanation is given for such a conclusion; no analysis of Slovak political life is offered. Indeed there is no indication of the contents of the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, let alone their socialist relations, whatever that means. Jirf St'astny, author of the last chapter, writes in conclusion: " The fifties and sixties were a turning point for Slovak society; it acquired all the characteristics of a society which went through revolutionary changes and built the bases of socialism. However, this does not mean that all of the tasks for the passage from capitalism to socialism were fulfilled " (p. 507) . Given the revolution of 1989, it is more accurate to conclude that probably none of �176 SLOVAKIA the tasks were in fact fulfilled and that the bases of socialism were not laid. It is now also doubtful that socialism, whatever it is supposed to be, can ever be built. The task that Slovak historians face henceforth is to define and analyze exactly what happened and what was built in this period. The answers to these questions will not be found in this volume. Jim and Susan Borchert. Lakewood: The First Hundred Years . Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company for the Lakewood Historical Society, 1989. 191 pp. CAROL TOW ARNICKY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Every year the eighth graders at Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lakewood, Ohio, were given a special job. At Christmastime we were to deliver the small boxes of church collection envelopes and - pro-rated for each family - several wafers each of oplatky for use at the Christmas Eve vilija . I was to deliver to the block of upper Clarence A venue, where nearly every family belonged to "Cyril's." I had a few extra oplatky at my discretion, but it wasn' t nearly enough to suit the grandmothers who demanded more . Sorry, they'd have to get them after Mass on Sunday. I said it politely, of course, but probably somewhat officiously, too . . . . It was a very long time before I realized that most children in America never delivered oplatky door-to-door. Actually, it was a very long time before I wasn't startled to meet an older person who spoke un-accented English. In the Lakewood, Ohio where I grew up, all grandparents came from Slovakia. Lakewood, Ohio, was a place where it was possible, even into the 1960s, to live secure in a world apart . I actually grew up thinking that, no matter what I saw on TV, most people in the word were Slovak-Americans . Imagine my surprise. " Lakewood: The First Hundred Years," the new book by Jim and Susan Borchert prepared for my hometown's centennial last �SLOVAKIA 177 year, accents the feelings of those small islands in the streetcar suburb next to Cleveland. As experts in urban and ethnic life the Borcherts have produced far more than the standard coffee-table picture book. They have explained why things were the way they were . As we used to say, all Lakewood was divided into three parts, and they had hardly anything to do with each other. There was the area along Lake Erie where the rich W ASPs lived (they had fenced off most of the lakefront for themselves) . We had hardly any contact with them. There was "middle Lakewood, " of the middle class, which consisted of marvelous, prosperous housing. (The Borcherts point out that much of it was built from kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck!) Middle Lakewood is where the kids who called us "greenhorns" were from. We had no idea what "greenhorns" were, of course (and they probably didn't, either.) . So we mostly were puzzled, rather than insulted. And then there was home, " Birdtown" and environs. The nickname came from the fact that many of the streets in this oldworld enclave were named for birds - Plover, Quail, Lark, Thrush. The Borcherts say that the people who lived there called it The Village, but I never heard anyone call it that. Perhaps they called it that in Slovak, which most people of my generation never learned. In their book the Borcherts have chosen to focus on each of these parts of Lakewood individually, and the result is a mirror of how it actually was - each group pursuing its destiny pretty much in isolation from the others, mostly coexisting, but never meshing. There were the founders, the captains of industry, who named the streets not only after their family names, but after their children 's first names - the Nicholsons and Wagars and Wintons, and the children named Grace and Clarence and Charles. They carved estates from the wilderness, planted orchards, and lived a life of High Society. One of my favorite pictures in " Lakewood" is that of Marion Campbell, the third Mrs . Alexander Winton, dressed in Native American dress as the lead in " the Seminole," an opera she presented in her back yard! �178 SLOVAKIA There were the middle Lakewoodites, the merchants and the others a couple rungs up the assimilation ladder. And there were the Slovak-Americans, who built their little world around the factories which hired immigrant labor - National Carbon Company, Empire Brass ... Once again, I am impressed at the industriousness and dedication of our ancestors. Starting with nothing, they created a space for themselves. Their frugality was legendary. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church was paid for in record time, as were its renovations. I can still remember, as a school child, using pencil erasers to remove heel marks from the expensive new linoleum floors put in the school in the 50s. But the story of "Lakewood" also emphasized how fragmented even the "Village" was. In the book the Borcherts quote from the chronicle of Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood by Jan Pankuch, a newspaperman and historian. Pankuch came to Lakewood in 1917, so his history drew on the memories of the earliest settlers from around the turn of the century. They came seeking work, built homes to be near it, then founded their churches, their savings and loans, and their clubs. But when I was growing up in Lakewood I knew none of this, and I suspect it was because Jan Pankuch was a Lutheran, who helped found Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, at the corner of my street, Grace Avenue . Back then - and it's really not so long ago, is it? - the Roman Catholics had nothing to do with the Greek Catholics at St. Gregory' s or the Orthodox or the - heavens! Slovak Calvinists in the little white church. It was a time of suspicion, and because of it, something important was missed. It's why today I can meet someone from Lakewood about my own age but from one of the different " parts," and realize that he/she literally grew up in a different town. Jim and Susan Borchert have done a masterful job of drawing together those separate threads. �SLOVAKIA 179 Abel KraY. Pravidla slovenskej vyslovnosti. 2nd ed. Bratislava: SPN, 1988. 632 pp. LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The author of PSV is a phonetician at Comenius University in Bratislava, and he has an international reputation for his work in phonetics. This book has now become a standard reference work on Slovak pronunciation. The first edition of PSV was published in 1984. It is an orthoepic codification of Slovak and has been approved by the Orthoepic Commission of the Linguistics Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. PSV sets forth the linguistic norm for spoken Slovak, and is used for teaching standard Slovak pronunciation in the schools in Slovakia, as well as providing guidelines for people who speak professionally, such as broadcasters, singers and actors . English speakers may not be familiar with the role of academies in standardizing languages, since no such institution exists for the English language. In fact, the English language has several national standards, e.g., British English, American English, Australian English. Pronunciation is the least standardized component of English, and these national standards reflect the pronunciation patterns in use by the speakers. In contrast, countries that have academies appoint linguistic commissions whose job is to compile rules, a codification, which show how the language should be used . France and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic are among the countries that regulate their language usage in this manner . It is not uncommon for an educated speaker of Slovak to speak in a way that does not conform to the rules set forth in the PSV. For example, a native of Bratislava, which is in the Western Slovak dialect area, would probably speak without diphthongs or the rhythmic law, since these features are not found in that dialect area . The speech of such a person would not be an example of "correct' ' Slovak pronunciation from an orthoepic point of view . As Jan Bosak pointed out in his review of the first edition of �180 SLOVAKIA this book, the relationship of orthoepy to phonetics and phonology, as propounded by Abel Kral', was a point of contention between Kral' and some linguists who have other theoretical points of view. 1 Specialists may also disagree about the pronunciations of particular words, and discussions of various points that are raised in this pioneering work will doubtless continue . In the theoretical section of the first part of the book (pp. 11-35), Abel Kral' expands the definition of orthoepy, and compares his orthoepic codification of the spoken language to an orthographic codification of the written language. He is concerned with language cultivation (jazykova kultura) and recognizes that stylistic differences dictate different pronunciation styles. He discusses the high and neutral styles, but not the low, which to him borders on the substandard. What Kral' describes in the book is the neutral style, the public speech of educated people from the Central Slovak dialect area . The neutral style is distinguished from the high style by various features. For linguists, one of the most important is the pronunciation of the [a] as the e in the English word 'set, ' and not as the a in the English 'bat.' The high style is now primarily relegated to use in the classical theatre. The phonetics section of the first part of the book (pp . 37-88) deals with phonetic transcription and with the phonetic classification of the sounds of Slovak and their correct production. The illustrations in this section are excellent visual aids when teaching Slovak pronunciation. The first section of the second part of the book (pp. 89-103) systematically describes the pronunciations of the vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Slovak in combination. This section contains an excellent exposition of voicing assimilation. It is followed by a section on the suprasegmental characteristics of Slovak (pp. 163-189). Then come texts with their phonetic transcription and the author's comments (pp . 191-200). The largest section of the book is taken up by the orthoepic dictionary (pp. 201-626) . The orthographic form of the word appears in boldface, and it is followed by the phonetic transcription. The words that Kral' selected for inclusion are those whose pronunciation cannot be deduced from their written form, or foreign words that may not yet follow the pronunciation rules of Slovak. �SLOVAKIA 181 Masculine nouns that end in obstruents, which are subject to voicing assimilation, are given with both the voiceless and voiced variants. The nominative form is followed, in many instances, by the genitive case form, e.g., baladik - baladi{klg], - {ka]. Other cases are given when appropriate, such as, the genitive plural for some feminine and neuter nouns. PSV has been written with precision and care . It is indispensible to teachers of the Slovak language, and belongs in the library of every Slovak specialist . 1 5/ovenska rec, 51, 1986 No. 6, pp. 371-374. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1989-90, Vol. 34 Description An account of the resource Vol. 34 (No. 62-63), 1989-90. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-90 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 161 Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848). Vladimir Matula, Jozef Vozar et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 846 pp. GAVIN LEWIS John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York This is the second of a six-volume series sponsored by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The series was conceived and realized in the days when the Marxist orientation of Slovak historical scholarship was taken for granted; and it was intended to provide a detailed, scholarly, and authoritative handbook, superseding all earlier accounts, both "bourgeois" and Marxist, of all aspects of the history of the Slovak land and people from prehistory to the present. The authors of the volume under review have succeeded so well that it should serve its purpose even in the new era that began in 1989. The authors of Volume II, covering the early modern period, have had a particularly difficult task. Their period, running from 1526 to 1848, is both long and complex, including a great many closely interrelated developments. The Turkish conquest and the Habsburg reconquest of much of Hungary; the efforts of the Habsburgs to absorb the Hungarian kingdom into their hereditary territories and the varying responses of the Hungarian nobility to .these efforts; the evolution of serfdom and seigneurialism, urban life and the mining industry; the Reformation and CounterReformation, the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and finally, the complex cultural and social phenomenon of the National Awakening; all these had to be discussed both individually and in their relation to each other. The authors have accomplished this task to an impressive extent. Though the book is of course written from a Marxist viewpoint, the omissions and distortions typical of vulgar Marxism have been avoided. The importance of religious belief, and the leading role of the Catholic and Protestant clergy in early modern Slovak history, are given due weight. The leaders of the National Awakening, though discussed in terms of the Marxist schema, are treated 162 SLOVAKIA as real historical actors and not as mere puppets of the "transition from feudalism to capitalism." Some of the lengthy discussions on topics such as the evolution of prices and wages or the structure of internal trade may seem too detailed to those who are not convinced of the metaphysical importance of such matters, but on the whole the Marxist stress on economic and social themes has led to increased understanding of the development of the Slovak nation. Perhaps the most significant single achievement of this volume is to lay to rest for ever the myth of the pre-nineteenth century Slovaks as a slumbering nation of peasants and shepherds with no elite other than a sprinkling of clergy. The sections dealing with social structure, education and culture, and national development from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries make the following facts abundantly clear. 1) The Slovaks had a substantial elite of nobles and townsmen as well as priests and ministers, indeed the secular elite formed the milieu that enabled the clergy to operate. 2) This elite was open to the influences of Renaissance humanism and its descendants, the emerging historical scholarship of the seventeenth century, as well as to the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Baroque. 3) Under these intellectual, cultural, and religious influences, the Slovak elite built up a pre-modern national self-awareness comparable with that of other eastern European nations in the early modern period. This understanding of the early modern Slovak nation is not only of importance in itself, it is also of significance for explaining more recent periods of Slovak history. The National Awakening becomes easier to understand when one realizes that it did not come from nowhere, but was rather a phase - albeit a decisive and innovative one - in a continuing social and cultural development. Likewise, the nineteenth-century development of the awakening acquires a new dimension when one realizes that it took place against the background of the crumbling of the traditional Slovak elite under the onslaught of Magyarization: one of the main tasks of the leaders of the awakening was that of mobilization, to rally what was left of the elite so as to ensure the survival of the nation . The section of the book dealing with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - that is the National Awakening itself, SLOVAKIA 163 the final decades of seigneurialism, and the beginnings of national conflict within the Hungarian state - are in some ways less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Individual chapters are thorough and informative, and there is the same complete coverage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual developments. But there is less sense than in the first half of the book of the interrelatedness of the various developments. In particular, the very detailed discussion of the viewpoints, activities, and disputes of the various leaders of the awakening proceeds to some extent in isolation from the social background. How did the leaders react to the defection of much of the traditional Slovak elite, and how did they mobilize those who were left? To what extent was the National Awakening a response of the nationally "loyal" elite to pressures to Magyarize? In general, what determined individual members of the elite either to Magyarize or to support the awakening? In spite of a number of fascinating glimpses - in particular, the section on the rise of the Slovak intelligentsia and village notables (pp. 579-84) - one gets surprisingly little sense of the National Awakening as a movement apart from its leading personalities . In spite of these criticisms, the book as a whole deserves to be widely read . It provides an excellent guide for students and point of departure for scholars, and can and should be used in this way even under the new order of things in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Appearing as it did in 1987, the volume summarizes the achievements of the era of Marxist domination in the early modern field of Slovak historical scholarship. One must give credit where credit is due, and admit that at least in this field, Slovak Marxist scholars over the last forty years have contributed significantly to their nation's understanding of itself. Viliam Cicaj. Knizna kultura na strednom Slovensku v 16. -18. storoci. Bratislava : Veda, 1985. 133 pp . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This book outlines the development of literary culture in central Slovakia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, focus- 164 SLOVAKIA ing on the towns of Banska Bystrica, Banska Stiavnica, and Kremnica. It is divided among an introduction, a quantitative analysis of "private" (non-archival) literature of the region, the thematic structure of such literature, and the relationship of the literary culture of central Slovakia with the later Middle Ages. In the introductory section C:icaj points out that, while other Slovak areas were producing literature in this period, the region of Banska Bystrica-Banska Stiavnica-Kremnica was far more prolific in sheer output. He elaborates on this point in Part One, employing statistical charts very liberally. In addition to publications in the Czech language (used extensively by the Protestants since the Hussite emigration from Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War) and the Central Slovak dialect, there were also numerous publications in Latin and German. Latin was at that time the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the Germans in the central mining towns were using their language to introduce the works of Martin Luther. The period was consequently marked by lively literary interactions between the Protestants of Upper Hungary and Lutheran centers of learning in Germany . In Part Two, where C:icaj discusses the thematic structures of this literary awakening, he reveals several facts which are somewhat surprising and certainly revealing in light of their historical importance. Quite naturally Lutheran theology was the focus of a large percentage of the publications, but works dealing with history, political science, and geography (the last-named social science included books about places as remote as Jamaica and Japan) were also produced. One criticism of Luther offered by Catholic apologists was that, in rerferring to Aristotle as " a dog of a philosopher,'' the father of Protestantiasm disrupted the centuriesold dialogue between Christian and classical (pagan, pre-Christian) civilization. Slovak Lutherans may justifiably exempt themselves from such a charge. Publications emanating from the central Slovak towns represented not only Aristotle and the Greeks, but also Boccaccio, Petrarach, and Italian humanists of the Renaissance period. Such a state of affairs reflects the ecumenical nature of Upper Hungary in this period. Catholics and Lutherans in the central Slovak towns lived together amicably when Habsburg pressure was not applied . SLOVAKIA 165 Cicaj attempts to elaborate on this point in Part Three, pointing out that the Catholic Erasmus and the Protestant Luther each contributed to a general advancement of education in the face of a feudal order. But here Cicaj falls short of the mark. Having demonstrated that the Central Slovak region was cosmopolitan in the literary sense, he does not follow through by demonstrating its impact on the later Slovak national awakening. Part of the problem here may stem from the very exclusiveness of his study; he might have formulated his conclusions more completely by not simply concentrating on three towns. Even so, he could have integrated this study into the general framework of this period in Slovak and Hungarian history. It was not only the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was also a time when the Turks occupied the middle Danube region (sometimes making incursions into the highlands), and when Transylvanian nobles invaded the area in their struggles against the Habsburgs. Citing contemporary literature regarding the impressions produced by these events might have strengthened the author' s case. Knizna kultura is dry reading, but it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the study of Slovak literary history. The author clearly demonstrates that the Central Slovak region's contribution to literary culture precedes the national awakening, and he makes liberal use of footnotes to support his case. This book is primarily useful for literary historians. Viera Urbancova, Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci: Vyvoj nazorov na slovensky l'ud. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 436 pp. MAGDA ZELINSKA FERL Los Angeles, California Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci is an ambitious work which examines the evolution of ethnography in Slovakia, specifically the trends which contributed to the eventual development of a separate discipline during the 19th century. Viera Urbancova' s thesis is that Slovak ethnography as a discipline evolved through stages and was influenced by social and political activities. 166 SLOVAKIA Her work is organized according to the notions which influenced the various stages of the discipline's development, from the backward and irrational view of the folk to the idealized. These notions coincided with the interests of the intelligentia in such causes as the "fight against superstition," which was thought to prevent social progress, the promotion of national self-awareness, the struggle to codify the Slovak language, and the attempts to establish ethnography as an independent discipline. Urbancova points out some practical reasons for interest in the folk. Mass education, according to her, was instituted by capitalists during the period of industrialization for the purpose of developing a better worker and increasing productivity. The folk needed to be re-educated regarding their customs and beliefs which were thought to hamper progress. The first ethnographic work began with the premise that the folk who believed in superstitions should be studied so they could be re-educated and, thereby, elevated to a level where they could contribute to the welfare of the nation . Matej Bel's work, Notitia, is mentioned as important to the ethnographic research of the 19th century. The author also deals with the romantic notion of the folk which, in Slovakia, was influenced by Herder and Hegel's philosophy . The historical past was seen in terms of pride and love for the language: Bernolak' s followers saw it in a Slovak language, while the Lutheran intelligentia beheld it in the language of the Kralice Bible. Kollar and Safarik were important at this time in promoting interest in folk culture, which to them was oral literature. They collected songs, proverbs, and beliefs which pointed to the ancient character of the nation . This state in the development of Slovak ethnography is characterized by the hypothesis, initiated by linguists, that Slavs can trace their culture to Inda-European origins. During the 1840' s and the 1850' s there was wide acceptance of the view that folklore expressions were survivals of ancient culture. Such assumptions contributed to the notion that folklore was dying out and, therefore, needed to be collected and recorded. Gustav, Reuss, a physician, was very influential during this period in promoting the collection of tales. In his historical work concerning the development of regions, how they were populated, SLOVAKIA 167 how people secured food, etc., he supported his conclusions with information extracted from folk culture, especially local legends. During the period of the 1860' s there was a sentiment to view ethnography from a scientific perspective, promoting a systematic approach to collecting. Pavol Dobsinsky published instructions on how to collect ethnographic materials. His greatest contribution was expanding the collected genres; for example, he called for the inclusion of material culture which he referred to as "prostonarodne poklady" (folk treasures .) He also encouraged a geographical approach to the study of such occupations as lacemakers, boatwrights, and tinkers, and stressed the importance of noting the tools and their use. Lastly, Urbancova points to the trend of increased interest in mythology. The work of the brothers Grimm in Germany contributed to the view that myths are the survivals of ancient rituals and, consequently, Reuss and others believed that myths collected in Slovakia reflected not only old Slovak culture but also Slavic cultures. Folk life was romanticized and looked upon as the basis of the nation's culture which needed to be preserved for future generations. The work of Dobsinsky became very popular and influential. The first part of his Prostondrodne obycaje, zvyky a povery is structured according to the natural life cycle: birth, marriage and death. He describes family, village and commercial life in detail. Unfortunately, the attempt to cover such a large span of time results in a book which has no depth to its analysis or interpretations. One is left feeling that, despite copious notes and an extensive bibliography, the book is somehow incomplete, lacking a clear thesis. However, this is a rather comprehensive work of Slovak ethnographic scholarship concerning the 19th century. Implicitly, it offers an interesting explanation concerning changes in the approach to ethnography which actually relate to the major European trends of the 19th century. 168 SLOVAKIA Narodna svetlica: Vyber dokumentov k dejinam Matice slovenskej. Edited by Michal Elias and Vojtech Sarluska. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1988. 321 pp. JOHN A. BERTA Methodist College Fayetteville, North Carolina Although Narodna svetlica offers nothing new to the professional study of the Matica slovenska, it is of value to the average individual interested in the history of this institution and Slovak culture . The book comes at an opportune time. Slovaks abroad, particularly in the United States and Canada, have a growing interest in Slovak culture, and many perceive the Matica as the primary vehicle for engaging in cultural exchanges. The work is also important for contemporary Slovakia since many Slovaks there have little or no knowledge of the Matica' s history and function. Narodna svetlica is divided into three segments which discuss the Matica's role in a particular period. The first era, 1863-1875, deals with the Matica's beginnings, and the legacy left to Slovak history and culture after its forced closure by the Magyar authorities. The second period, 1919-1954, concerns the task the resurrected Matica sought to fulfill as the ethnic and cultural guardian of the Slovak people. The final segment, 1954 to the present, involves a period when the Matica assumed functions which could equate it to the National Archives and Library of Congress in the United States. The book is a compilation of excerpts from proclamations, the minutes of Matica board meetings and assemblies, articles, books, pamphlets, personal correspondence and photographs which pertain to the evolution of this institution, and the role it has played in the preservation of Slovak culture and ethnicity in Slovakia and abroad. The documents reproduced in each section were selected to impress upon the Slovak reader the importance of the Matica slovenska as a symbol of his/her national identity and culture, and as an active participant in daily Slovak life . The drawback to this otherwise skillfully edited work is that it was published solely in Slovak. Only those with a working SLOVAKIA 169 knowledge of the language can make use of its wealth of information. The two-page English summary provides the reader with just a hint of what is in the body of the work. If the Matica slovenska could make this and similar publications available in English, it could have an impact on rejuvenating ethnic awareness among those who are on the verge of being assimilated into another culture. Also missing is the wealth of correspondence regarding how Slovaks abroad relate to this symbol of their Slovak heritage. Jan Kmec, Jugoslovensko-slovacke slavisticke veze. Novi Sad: Vojvodjanska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1987. 549 p. JAN FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia The author of this work traces the relations of the South Slavs with the Slovaks from the time of the early Slavic migrations to Central Europe and the Balkans to the present. He explores the same geographic and topographic names preserved to this day in Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Other proof of close contacts are so called "yugoslavisms" which Pannonian Slavs accepted from the South Slavs and which are preserved in the contemporary Slovak literary language. Further, he refers to the activities of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Cyrilomethodian culture which originated from direct social and cultural efforts and productive contacts of the forefathers of the Slovaks and the Yugoslavs . Although the author wrote that Pannonian Slavs were very often different from South Slavs, he did not realize that this long separation conditioned also gradual national differences between the forefathers of today's Slovaks and the South Slavs . He used only the term "staroslovansky" contrary to the recognized term starosloviensky After the extinction of Great Moravia and the rise of Hungary, the greatest avenue for cooperation between West and South Slavs was the Catholic Church. In Hungary the Church accepted a group of Czech missionaries and through their contacts and exchange of 11 11 • 170 SLOVAKIA priests, created the possibility for spiritual and cultural communication, which produced cultural, literary and artistic works. The author devotes the third part of his book to the period of Turkish rule in Central Europe (1526-1683). Many refugees from Croat regions came to Bratislava and settled in the southern parts of Slovakia and Moravia. New Yugoslav-Slovak spiritual, cultural and literary relations blossomed. These were strengthened through the Hungarian Catholic center in Trnava, where the Jesuit university accepted Croat students and professors. The fourth part covers the period from the origins of the Protestant lyceum in Bratislava (1615) to the establishment of the Serbian grammar school in Sremski Karlovci (1791) . The lyceum became a center of Yugoslav-Slovak relations from the first half of the 18th century. Many Serbs studied in Bratislava and in other schools in Slovakia, especially when they emigrated from southern and middle Serbia in the Hungarian portion of the Austrian Empire (1690). Also Slovaks started to move to the Vojvodina from the year 1745. As a defense against Catholic presure, and in an effort to build their own cultural institutions and schools, the Serbs needed their own educated people. Many educated Slovaks worked among Serbs for this reason . In the first twenty years of the 19th century a new period in Yugoslav-Slovak relations began. The national revival of both peoples led to greater mutual cooperation. The awakening of national consciousness among the Slavic nations manifested itself as well with the idea of Slavic reciprocity. An association of " Lovers of Slovak Language and Literature" in Pest was also a center of cooperation with Czechs, Croats, Serbs and Russians and a center of research in Slavic languages . In the last part of his work Kmec covers the time from the 1848 revolution to the present. He pays attention to Shir's views, to the differences between Stur and Kollar, to relations between Njegos and Stur, and to Yugoslav motifs and subjects in Slovak literature. Under the pressure of the Hungarian government, Yugoslav-Slovak relations became very strained, and student organizations had to move to Prague . Slovaks from Vojvoina, with the center in Backi Petrovac, became a bridge between Slovaks and Serbs in Hungary. In the period between the two wars of the 20th century, the author SLOVAKIA 171 mentions Slovak authors in Vojvodina, translators, and some political events. The work of professor Krnec is a solid contribution in the areas of Slavic reciprocity. The author buttressed his work with many footnotes and with the biographies of many authors . While this did not reduce the worth of the work, it unnecessarily widened it and the author deflected from his theme. Serbian-Slovak relations, about which Slovaks and Serbes have written a lot, is compiled in detail, but less attention is paid to Croat-Slovak relations. Incomprehensible to me is why the author presented the number of votes in the elections of 1920, and also why he gives the number of members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Slovak towns in the Vojvodina, and also why he lists the names and jobs of some Slovaks, members of the Communist Party, who emigrated to Slovakia. All of this detracts from an otherwise worthy book. Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1986. 673 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland This massive work is certainly a must for anyone interested in the study of the formation of the Czechoslovak state. It is obvious that the author has spent extensive periods of time researching this subject at archives in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Kalvoda should be commended for his use of innumerable memoirs, journals, newspapers, and secondary sources published in Czech, English, French, German, Russian, and Slovak. As a result, the author presents a well thought-out and thoroughly synthesized portrayal of the events and people involved in the intensive four year quest for national independence. The author provides great detail concerning this struggle both in Austria-Hungary and abroad in England, France, Russia, and the United States, while accomplishing his goal of examining and evaluating the three theses 172 SLOVAKIA regarding the success of the liberation movement: 1) the work of exiles, 2) the Bolshevik Revolution, and 3) the resistance at home. Kalvoda's book proves all three were factors leading to Czechoslovak independence. Kalvoda definitively characterizes the major personalities involved in the movement to create an independent state, among these Edvard Benes, Josef Diirich, Karel Kramaf, Milan Stefanik, and Tomas G. Masaryk. The author in particular, provides a very provocative description of Masaryk, the "Liberator-President" of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk left Bohemia in 1914 as a relatively insignificant political leader. Despite later assertions that he had a mandate for his mission, in reality Masaryk lacked any significant support at home. Masaryk schemed and plotted to become the leader of the liberation movement, subverting the authority of Diirich, who had been sent abroad to represent Czech interests in foreign capitals . To achieve his goals the ruthless Masaryk worked to destroy the reputations, careers, and influence of others, such as Diirich and Kramaf, when their opinions and activities were contrary to his and those of the Czecho-Slovak National Council . Masaryk thus is shown as an opportunist who, despite his later claims, adroitly changed his ideas and statements when it became politically expedient. In his account of the origins of the Czechoslovak-Bolshevik conflict, Kalvoda reveals that both Masaryk's insistence on the neutrality of the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russian internal affairs, and his attempts to gain western recogniiton of Lenin almost caused the loss of Allied support for Czechoslovak statehood. The activities of the Legions in Siberia when the local situation dictated an independent course of action in support of anti-Bolshevik forces, although contrary to the orders of Masaryk, ultimately preserved Masaryk's position in the west. It is a bit disappointing that Kalvoda does not analyze more thoroughly events within Slovakia and the role which Sovak emigres, particularly in the United States, played in the creation of the state . Also, his examination of how Ruthenia became part of the republic is almost non-existent. The author's discussion of pre-war Slovak political life in Hungary, mentioning neither the political parties nor the voting irregularities which kept the number SLOVAKIA 173 of Slovak deputies at a minimum, is highly abbreviated. This commentary seems almost to be an afterthought to Kalvoda's overview of Czech political life in Austria. As well, his treatment of the Masaryk-Pekar controversies, which weighs the first chapter down, is entirely out of proportion to their significance. This book is not for the novice in the history of the Czechs and Slovaks. Without a firm understanding of the past of these two peoples, the reader would quickly become confused. Although Kalvoda ' s narrative provides excellent detail, at times it appears as if he included all material he had found regarding a particular topic, thereby clouding the issue. One such example occurs when Masaryk recommends the Tsarevich as the commander of the Czecho-Slovak Legions (p . 97). It is difficult to believe that Masaryk or any rational person in the modern age would want an elevenor twelve-year-old boy to lead troops. A more discriminating choice of material would have been sufficient in many cases . There are numerous minor factual flaws which should have been caught in the editing process, including the statement that Francis Joseph ruled for 64 years (p. 159); and that an Austrian archduke was a "Grand Duke" (p. 78). In giving his estimates on the number of Slovak and Czech immigrants in the United States, the author relied too heavily upon secondary sources. A quick referral to the documents of the Census Bureau and/or the Department of Labor would have provided a more accurate count. However, the greatest drawback of this work is the overall inattentive editing. This has resulted in missing footnote citations, wrong chapter headings, and numerous errors including transposed as well as missing letters. It appears almost as if no one bothered to proofread this volume. Although a one page "Errata " is included, it also contains errors, and is wholly inadequate. The informed reader can usually correct these mistakes, but it is a slow and tedious task causing the cohesiveness of this work to suffer . Despite these shortcomings, Kalvoda' s book is a welcome addition to the study of Czechoslovak statehood . In the years to come it will remain a fundamental reference source in English for the study of this complex issue. 174 SLOVAKIA Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960). Michael Baranovsky et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1988. 549 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada It would have been difficult to review this volume with any degree of equanimity or detachment even before the events of November and December 1989 which ended the Communist monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia and laid bare the bankruptcy of the ideology, the economic and political system, not to mention the tragedies that it left in its wake. The triumphalist tone, the selfdeluding interpretations of social and individual progress, the everpresent statistics and the cowed reverence to the Soviet Union are characteristics not of scholarship, but of crass political partisanship. The authors divide the history of the period under consideration into two parts. First they look at what is referred to as the national and democratic revolution and its transformation into a socialist one. This is basically a year by year presentation of events from the end of the Second World War to the Communist coup d'Etat in February 1948. In the second part of the book, also chronologically divided, they examine the various aspects involved in building socialism. The volume is filled with statistics on economic development and other indicators of social and cultural activity. The study ends with the proclamation of the achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia with the Constitution of 1960. The interpretation that is offered follows the line adopted after federalization and Gustav Husak' s accession to the position of Secretary General of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. The Marxist approach to history and politics is based on the concept of the class struggle. There is no doubt that there was a class struggle in Slovakia in the period under consideration; but it was one that was imposed on that society by those whom Milovan Djilas very quickly identified as members of a new class, the Communist Party, their mentors and their allies. That is not all. The Communists were also bent on changing the social and economic SLOVAKIA 175 structures of the country; change them they did, but not in the way portrayed. The essays in this volume by historians, members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, outline their perceptions of how the Communists went about achieving their objectives. In the case of Slovakia, this involved industrialization in order to raise it to the level of the Czech Lands, and the exercise of political power supposedly by the working class during a period which was to pave the way for the establishment of a socialist society. The essays stress particularly the industrialization process, the collectivization of agriculture and the transformation of the political system into a oneparty state . In fact, what the Communists did was to eliminate all political or class opponents, allow Slovakia to be ruled from Prague, set into motion its forced industrialization, establish a political, cultural and economic dictatorship, create privileges for themselves, and rule over a population which they cowed into submission by the extensive use of terror. This is the story that this book does not tell . Equally unsatisfactory is the way the authors deal with some of the problems, often in direct contradiction to their proclaimed principles, which arose from the policies of the Communists. A good example is the way Barnovsky handles what he calls the national question: "The beginning of the industrialization of Slovakia led to the elimination of the existing inequality of the Sovak nation. Despite this positive result, the mutual relations between Czechs and Slovaks were not solved along Leninist principles . .. This reality negatively influenced political life in Slovakia and slowed down the development of socialist relations between the two brotherly nations " (p . 226). No explanation is given for such a conclusion; no analysis of Slovak political life is offered. Indeed there is no indication of the contents of the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, let alone their socialist relations, whatever that means. Jirf St'astny, author of the last chapter, writes in conclusion: " The fifties and sixties were a turning point for Slovak society; it acquired all the characteristics of a society which went through revolutionary changes and built the bases of socialism. However, this does not mean that all of the tasks for the passage from capitalism to socialism were fulfilled " (p. 507) . Given the revolution of 1989, it is more accurate to conclude that probably none of 176 SLOVAKIA the tasks were in fact fulfilled and that the bases of socialism were not laid. It is now also doubtful that socialism, whatever it is supposed to be, can ever be built. The task that Slovak historians face henceforth is to define and analyze exactly what happened and what was built in this period. The answers to these questions will not be found in this volume. Jim and Susan Borchert. Lakewood: The First Hundred Years . Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company for the Lakewood Historical Society, 1989. 191 pp. CAROL TOW ARNICKY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Every year the eighth graders at Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lakewood, Ohio, were given a special job. At Christmastime we were to deliver the small boxes of church collection envelopes and - pro-rated for each family - several wafers each of oplatky for use at the Christmas Eve vilija . I was to deliver to the block of upper Clarence A venue, where nearly every family belonged to "Cyril's." I had a few extra oplatky at my discretion, but it wasn' t nearly enough to suit the grandmothers who demanded more . Sorry, they'd have to get them after Mass on Sunday. I said it politely, of course, but probably somewhat officiously, too . . . . It was a very long time before I realized that most children in America never delivered oplatky door-to-door. Actually, it was a very long time before I wasn't startled to meet an older person who spoke un-accented English. In the Lakewood, Ohio where I grew up, all grandparents came from Slovakia. Lakewood, Ohio, was a place where it was possible, even into the 1960s, to live secure in a world apart . I actually grew up thinking that, no matter what I saw on TV, most people in the word were Slovak-Americans . Imagine my surprise. " Lakewood: The First Hundred Years," the new book by Jim and Susan Borchert prepared for my hometown's centennial last SLOVAKIA 177 year, accents the feelings of those small islands in the streetcar suburb next to Cleveland. As experts in urban and ethnic life the Borcherts have produced far more than the standard coffee-table picture book. They have explained why things were the way they were . As we used to say, all Lakewood was divided into three parts, and they had hardly anything to do with each other. There was the area along Lake Erie where the rich W ASPs lived (they had fenced off most of the lakefront for themselves) . We had hardly any contact with them. There was "middle Lakewood, " of the middle class, which consisted of marvelous, prosperous housing. (The Borcherts point out that much of it was built from kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck!) Middle Lakewood is where the kids who called us "greenhorns" were from. We had no idea what "greenhorns" were, of course (and they probably didn't, either.) . So we mostly were puzzled, rather than insulted. And then there was home, " Birdtown" and environs. The nickname came from the fact that many of the streets in this oldworld enclave were named for birds - Plover, Quail, Lark, Thrush. The Borcherts say that the people who lived there called it The Village, but I never heard anyone call it that. Perhaps they called it that in Slovak, which most people of my generation never learned. In their book the Borcherts have chosen to focus on each of these parts of Lakewood individually, and the result is a mirror of how it actually was - each group pursuing its destiny pretty much in isolation from the others, mostly coexisting, but never meshing. There were the founders, the captains of industry, who named the streets not only after their family names, but after their children 's first names - the Nicholsons and Wagars and Wintons, and the children named Grace and Clarence and Charles. They carved estates from the wilderness, planted orchards, and lived a life of High Society. One of my favorite pictures in " Lakewood" is that of Marion Campbell, the third Mrs . Alexander Winton, dressed in Native American dress as the lead in " the Seminole," an opera she presented in her back yard! 178 SLOVAKIA There were the middle Lakewoodites, the merchants and the others a couple rungs up the assimilation ladder. And there were the Slovak-Americans, who built their little world around the factories which hired immigrant labor - National Carbon Company, Empire Brass ... Once again, I am impressed at the industriousness and dedication of our ancestors. Starting with nothing, they created a space for themselves. Their frugality was legendary. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church was paid for in record time, as were its renovations. I can still remember, as a school child, using pencil erasers to remove heel marks from the expensive new linoleum floors put in the school in the 50s. But the story of "Lakewood" also emphasized how fragmented even the "Village" was. In the book the Borcherts quote from the chronicle of Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood by Jan Pankuch, a newspaperman and historian. Pankuch came to Lakewood in 1917, so his history drew on the memories of the earliest settlers from around the turn of the century. They came seeking work, built homes to be near it, then founded their churches, their savings and loans, and their clubs. But when I was growing up in Lakewood I knew none of this, and I suspect it was because Jan Pankuch was a Lutheran, who helped found Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, at the corner of my street, Grace Avenue . Back then - and it's really not so long ago, is it? - the Roman Catholics had nothing to do with the Greek Catholics at St. Gregory' s or the Orthodox or the - heavens! Slovak Calvinists in the little white church. It was a time of suspicion, and because of it, something important was missed. It's why today I can meet someone from Lakewood about my own age but from one of the different " parts," and realize that he/she literally grew up in a different town. Jim and Susan Borchert have done a masterful job of drawing together those separate threads. SLOVAKIA 179 Abel KraY. Pravidla slovenskej vyslovnosti. 2nd ed. Bratislava: SPN, 1988. 632 pp. LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The author of PSV is a phonetician at Comenius University in Bratislava, and he has an international reputation for his work in phonetics. This book has now become a standard reference work on Slovak pronunciation. The first edition of PSV was published in 1984. It is an orthoepic codification of Slovak and has been approved by the Orthoepic Commission of the Linguistics Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. PSV sets forth the linguistic norm for spoken Slovak, and is used for teaching standard Slovak pronunciation in the schools in Slovakia, as well as providing guidelines for people who speak professionally, such as broadcasters, singers and actors . English speakers may not be familiar with the role of academies in standardizing languages, since no such institution exists for the English language. In fact, the English language has several national standards, e.g., British English, American English, Australian English. Pronunciation is the least standardized component of English, and these national standards reflect the pronunciation patterns in use by the speakers. In contrast, countries that have academies appoint linguistic commissions whose job is to compile rules, a codification, which show how the language should be used . France and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic are among the countries that regulate their language usage in this manner . It is not uncommon for an educated speaker of Slovak to speak in a way that does not conform to the rules set forth in the PSV. For example, a native of Bratislava, which is in the Western Slovak dialect area, would probably speak without diphthongs or the rhythmic law, since these features are not found in that dialect area . The speech of such a person would not be an example of "correct' ' Slovak pronunciation from an orthoepic point of view . As Jan Bosak pointed out in his review of the first edition of 180 SLOVAKIA this book, the relationship of orthoepy to phonetics and phonology, as propounded by Abel Kral', was a point of contention between Kral' and some linguists who have other theoretical points of view. 1 Specialists may also disagree about the pronunciations of particular words, and discussions of various points that are raised in this pioneering work will doubtless continue . In the theoretical section of the first part of the book (pp. 11-35), Abel Kral' expands the definition of orthoepy, and compares his orthoepic codification of the spoken language to an orthographic codification of the written language. He is concerned with language cultivation (jazykova kultura) and recognizes that stylistic differences dictate different pronunciation styles. He discusses the high and neutral styles, but not the low, which to him borders on the substandard. What Kral' describes in the book is the neutral style, the public speech of educated people from the Central Slovak dialect area . The neutral style is distinguished from the high style by various features. For linguists, one of the most important is the pronunciation of the [a] as the e in the English word 'set, ' and not as the a in the English 'bat.' The high style is now primarily relegated to use in the classical theatre. The phonetics section of the first part of the book (pp . 37-88) deals with phonetic transcription and with the phonetic classification of the sounds of Slovak and their correct production. The illustrations in this section are excellent visual aids when teaching Slovak pronunciation. The first section of the second part of the book (pp. 89-103) systematically describes the pronunciations of the vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Slovak in combination. This section contains an excellent exposition of voicing assimilation. It is followed by a section on the suprasegmental characteristics of Slovak (pp. 163-189). Then come texts with their phonetic transcription and the author's comments (pp . 191-200). The largest section of the book is taken up by the orthoepic dictionary (pp. 201-626) . The orthographic form of the word appears in boldface, and it is followed by the phonetic transcription. The words that Kral' selected for inclusion are those whose pronunciation cannot be deduced from their written form, or foreign words that may not yet follow the pronunciation rules of Slovak. SLOVAKIA 181 Masculine nouns that end in obstruents, which are subject to voicing assimilation, are given with both the voiceless and voiced variants. The nominative form is followed, in many instances, by the genitive case form, e.g., baladik - baladi{klg], - {ka]. Other cases are given when appropriate, such as, the genitive plural for some feminine and neuter nouns. PSV has been written with precision and care . It is indispensible to teachers of the Slovak language, and belongs in the library of every Slovak specialist . 1 5/ovenska rec, 51, 1986 No. 6, pp. 371-374.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 34 (No. 62-63) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Vladimír Matula, Jozef Vozár et al., Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848) (Gavin Lewis), p. 161</li> <li>Viliam Čičaj, Knižná kultúra na strednom Slovensku v 16.-18. storočí (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 163</li> <li>Viera Urbancová, Slovenská etnografia v 19. storočí: Vývoj názorov na slovenský ľud (Magda Zelinska Ferl), p. 165</li> <li>Michal Eliáš and Vojtech Šarluška, ed., Národná svetlica: Výber dokumentov k dejinám Matice slovenskej (John A. Berta), p. 168</li> <li>Jan Kmeč, Jugoslovensko-slovačke slavističke veze (Ján Frýdecký), p. 169</li> <li>Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia (Gregory C. Ference), p. 171</li> <li>Michael Baranovský et. al., Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960) (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 174</li> <li>Jim and Susan Borchert, Lakewood: The First Hundred Year (Carol Towarnicky), p. 176</li> <li>Ábel Kráľ, Pravidlá slovenskej výslovnosti (Louise B. Hammer), p. 179</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Berta, John A. Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Frýdecký, Ján Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Lewis, Gavin E.H., 1943-2019 Towarnicky, Carol Zelinska Ferl, Magda Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-90 LCNAF name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/818242efd611985542705ab776577ba8.pdf a3b0dfe3e642679f62f9c236dd991acd PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 125 Hugolfn Gavlovic . Valaska Skala . Edited with a commentary by Gerald J. Sabo, and a linguistic commentary by Cubomir Durovic . Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1987 (1988). 730 pp. JAN F. FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia Hugolfn Gavlovic is one of the most important authors of the older Slovak literature. He was born in Cami Dunajec (in Poland) in 1712, grew up in northern Orava and lived in the Povazie region. In 1733 he was ordained a Franciscan priest and he died in 1787 in Horovce. Gavlovic's "Valaska skola" was finished in 1755. It is the largest work of the older Slovak literature, not only in length, but also because of its artistic value. It is a treasure of practical wisdom in which the author instructs the reader about all that interests him and what he needs in life. The author covers not only personal problems and private life, but also addresses public problems. It is in fact a didactic poem and Sabo has made an exact transcription of almost 18,000 lines with 27 illustrations. "Valaska skola" consists of an introduction in verses, then the main body of the poems in 22 "noty" (parts) and finally a two part "Konec": "On Death" and "On Judgement" . Every note begins with a shepherd's song about some biblical event of the Old Testament. Because 18th century society was very interested in sheepherding, every event was for the author a reason to think about the life of shepherds and peasants. Every note after a shepherd's song contains 59 moral exhortations. Durovic's excellent study (pp . 655-730) pays attention to the language of "V alaska skola". The real use and interest of this edition is linguistic. A previous edition by Michal Resetka (1830-31) left out some lines and transcribed the spelling into Bernolak's codification and so he ruined the rhymes and the whole construction of the work. The second edition by Rudolf Krajcovic (1971) presented the work as a literary monument of Slovak cultural history. His edition was substantially abbreviated. �126 SLOVAKIA Durovic shows that Gavlovic's language is half-way between the work of Pavel Dolefal's "Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica" (1746) and Anton Bernolak's "Gramatica slavica" (1790). The publishing of Gavlovic's "Shepherd's School" has enormous importance for Slovak cultural history of the 18th century. It was a precursor of Anton Bernolak's "Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum" (1787), which signaled the beginning of the codification of the Slovak language. Gavlovic's work was published on the occasion of the bicentennial of two important events in Slovak cultural history of the 18th century: the death of Hugolfn Gavlovic, and the publishing of the work of Anton bernolak. Gerald J. Sabo and I.:'ubomfr Durovic have contributed greatly to explaining the cultural history of Slovakia in the 18th century. Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Vols. I and 2, edited by Max Domarus. Waucondia, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990 and 1992. 611 pp. and 1367 pp. BRIAN L. VILLA University of Ottawa In 1945 the Allies were preparing to mete out severe justice, not just to Nazi Party members but to all Germans, arguing that they were guilty by complicity, by reason of having all heard Hitler's clearly articulated murderous program. This argument, which seemed persuasive in its day, is now something of an embarassment to historians, for it could also be turned against all the Western leaders who, after all, also had acces to Hitler's speeches and yet for many years indulged in appeasing him. For that matter, when Stalin made his pact with Hitler, he knew as much or more than the German public did of Hitler's intentions. There was another flaw in the argumentation and this was that Hitler mixed veiled threats and bombastic verbal terrorism with mild-sounding musings about peace and esctatic smiling at babies. �SLOVAKIA 127 Germans, and foreign observers , were thus faced with the problem of sorting out which was the real Hitler, and which was not. Yearning for a better world after the horrors of World War I, not suprisingly the hearts of this generation were ruled by wishful thinking. The consequences of Hitler's programme did not stand starkly revealed until May of 1945, as the world gazed on the lunar landscape of German cities. Most had failed miserably to perceive what his program entailed. But we will never be able to judge properly this issue of the public perception and misperception until we have a complete collection of all of Hitler's recorded utterances, public and private. Any selection prejudges the issue a bit. While the work by Max Domarus , of which the first two volumes in English translation are now in print, is a magnificentlycrafted and documented collection, it is still a selection and a number of speeches are represented only by a single sentence. Still, this is likely to be the most ambitious compilation we are likely to see in our lifetime. Accompanied by solid historical narrative and commentary, carefully documented and well-edited, this is an invaluable tool for the study of the Nazi era. Distateful as it is to put Hitler's speeches up upon the shelves of institutions devoted to truth, this is a mandatory purchase for almost any better library. Certainly it is necessary reading for those who would study the mad delusion of a nation, not to say of a generation. The picture that emerges in Domarus' masterful collection and skillful aditing is that of Hitler as a skilled concert-master calling upon the positive and the negative in his audience, blending, twisting, distorting, so that what had ever been true and false was imposible even to remember. A particularly notworthy revelation of these volumes is the brilliance with which Hitler's staff employed his time. Appearing here and there in a dizzying schedule, building a complex riddle, he climbed to power by purposefully confusing his audience. There is obviously a good book to be written about his handlers, his working staff, and how well they created the monster that eventually escaped so completely from their control. Such a study, as must almost any study of Hitler, will gain immeasurably from a careful study of this indispensable source. �128 SLOVAKIA Jozef Jablonicky. Povstanie bez legiend. Bratislava: Obzor, 1990. 357 pp. STANISLA V J. KIRSCHBAUM York University Those who are interested in a detailed account of the 1944 revolt in Slovakia will find this book useful. It is well-documented and well-writen. Furthermore, the author loses no opportunity to contradict in detail various interpretations that were published during Gustav Husak's regime. It is a valuable addition to Slovak historiography. However, the significance of Jozef Jablonicky" s book lies not so much in the history of what the Communist regime and Marxist historians dubbed the "Slovak National Uprising", as in the reasons why yet another book on those events was published, especially after the fall of Communism in 1989. In fact, this book belongs to the Communist period; it is in its own way a reflection of it. That it was published when freedom of the press was restored merely helps to underline this very fact. As the publishers indicate in the foreword: "The author does not deny that in today's changed social and political conditions, he would formulate many things differently, more openly and more directly; however, he preferred to publish his work as it had been written, under conditions when the opportunity for scientific discussion was replaced by police interrogations" (p. 7). Jablonicky is one of the scholars of the 1960s who published histories of the 1944 events (for example, Z ilegality do povstania, 1969; there are also memoirs, Husak's in particular, and edited volumes) in response to the distorted accounts of the 1950s. However, his writings, like most from the Communist period were hampered either by restricted access to documents, by censorship, or by both. When Husak came to power in 1969, in the footsteps of his predecessors, but also perhaps because he had been the object of earlier falsification himself, he began to alter the historical record, or put simply to falsify history. Jablonicky found that once again he �SLOVAKIA 129 had to set the record straight, a task for which he paid a personal pnce. He became a 'persona non grata' under Husak, was expelled from the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciencies in 1974, and from 1976 on was subjected to police harassment, or, as he put it, "primitive persecution". Even though his manuscripts were confiscated, he continued to write and to do research on the topic of the 1944 events. In 1984 the Husak regime published the fivevolume series Dejiny Slovenskeho narodneho povstania. As Jablonicky writes: "I considered it my professional responsibility to counter this literature critically. However, I also tried not to repeat my own errors and defects which are to be found in my earlier works" (p. 9) . His response began to appear in "samizdat" in 1988; this volume is that response. There is one theme that this study does not examine, namely the importance of the 1944 events in Slovak history. There is no doubt that they had far-reaching consequences for the Slovak nation . Jablonicky tells us how they happened, but not why. Nor does he explain their ultimate consequences. One can understand why they were celebrated under Communism: they gave the regime some sort of legitimacy. But that regime has now disappeared, as has the outcome which the 1944 revolt produced: the common state with the Czechs. This begs the question of their role and importance even more than before. For the moment, Jablonicky has chosen to eschew such questions. Yet as a professional historian, now able to express himself freely, he should accept the fact that he has a responsibility greater than that of merely chronicling these events. Others will no doubt tackle these questions; were Jablonicky also to do so, the history of the 1944 events might yet be written without any legends. �130 SLOVAKIA Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia. New York: Pergammon Press, 1988. XI-97 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This short work deals with a little-known aspect of Slovak and World War II history. French prisoners-of-war, escaping from camps in Germany and Hungary, made their way to Slovakia and were sheltered by the Slovak Resistance. Led by Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien, these Frenchmen fought as part of the Stefanik Brigade in the uprising of 1944. The Stefanik Brigade was under Soviet partisan command, while the Czechoslovak General Staff in Banska Bystrica insisted that the French be subordinate to its own command structure. De Lannurien's unit was able to exploit this jurisdictional dispute, gain concessions from both sides, and assure for itself a measure of operational independence. The French partisans were instrumental in thwarting the German drive on Strecno in September 1944 and aided in the recapture of Janeva Lehota. After the German suppresion of the uprising in October, de Lannurien's Frenchmen - along with Slovak soldiers and Soviet partisans - retreated into the Tatras and continued resisting as guerrillas. They were joyfully greeted by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and were at last permitted to return home. The author's narrative is supplemented by the accounts of partisans who remembered the Frenchmen. The introduction mentions that the author was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union and became Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1971. As a Husak"s appointee, Chnoupek rather naturally treats the Slovak National Rising as a popular event. Correspondingly, the Slovak Republic is labelled as a "fascist state". Supporters of the Tiso regime maintain that the president-priest never signed any death warrants. Chnoupek, however, alludes to death sentences being passed in absentia on deserters from the Eastern front. �SLOVAKIA 131 Yet Chiioupek inadvertedly extends some credit to the Slovak state in the case of Ga~par Maco. Maco refused to heed his call-up orders for the Slovak Army in September 1939, proceeded to France, and served in the Czechoslovak Legion within the French Army. After France's military collapse in 1940, Maco returned to Slovakia and was arrested. The author admits that Maco's youth and frank confession were taken as "mitigating circumstances" (p. 49), and he was given only a six-month sentence. Moreover, he was released one month early for health reasons. Such leniency would not have been forthcoming in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was under direct Nazi domination. Despite the author's diplomatic backround, his narrative is written in a plain, even folksy style. Interactions between French and Slovak partisans are treated as frequently humorous and occasionally poignant. Especially noteworthy is the description of Christmas Eve 1944, when Slovak partisans invited their French comrades to join them in celebration. This invitation was practical as well as idealistic: The French had captured a herd of sheep from a retreating Hungarian detachment, and now had meat to spare. The Frenchmen were asked to sing the Marseillaise; they did so to the acoustical backround of Soviet artillery, as the front was drawing near. Unknown to them, on the previous day in liberated Paris, General de Gaulle approved de Lannurien's promotion. Given the author's ideological affiliation, it is sometimes easy to forget that Slovak Communists were themselves dissidents during the Novotny years, when many aspects of the Slovak uprising were considered taboo topics. Chnoupek's research was given only the briefest coverage in the newspapers for the tenth anniversary of the uprising. Years later, while laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he was warmly greeted by French veterans of the Slovak partisan struggle. It was then that Chnoupek decided to continue his work and affect a "breaking of seals". The work is the author's own contribution to improved East-West relations. But Chnoupek nontheless conforms to the historiographical standards of Husak's Czechoslovakia, characterized by glaring omis- �132 SLOVAKIA sions of anything potentially embarrassing. Soviet partisan commander Peter Velitchko is depicted in an altogether favorable light, notwithstanding the fact that his rash actions brought full-scale German intervention, caused the rising to be launched prematurely, and thus resulted in tragic consequences. Soviet historians describe this occurance as unfortunate, but they have yet to account for their country's role in it. In post-Husak Czechoslovakia, a more genuine "breaking of seals" regarding topics concerning the 1944 revolt is at last possible. Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho. Edited by Jan Smolec. Bratislava: Tatrapress, 1990. 254 pp. JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington Concomitant with the current revival of national feelings in Slovakia is a reevaluation of those figures from the Slovak past who were either ignored or vilified during the communist era. Most noteworthy among such figures is Jozef Tiso, the president of the wartime Slovak Republic who was executed as a war criminal in 1947. Process dr. J. Tisom, Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho, is an important contribution to that reevaluation. The book consists of the memoirs of Anton Rasla, one of the prosecutors at Tiso's trial, and Ernest Zabkay, Tiso's chief defense attorney. In addition to the reminiscences of these men, the book includes excerpts from their concluding speeches at Tiso's trial , as well as the text of the trial's verdict. In Zabkay's testimony, two important assertions dominate - that Tiso did not receive a fair trial and that Tiso was not guilty as charged. In support of his first assertion, Zabkay cites the political nature of the trial , the open bias agains Tiso of the presiding judge, Igor Daxner, the denial of certain documentation to the defense, and the harassment of defense lawyers by the police, prompting one �SLOVAKIA 133 defender to resign. In Tiso's defense, Zabkay portrays him as a victim of circumstances who could not withstand the irresistible pressure from Nazi Germany nor control her allies in the radical wing of his own party, who either did not know about or was unable to prevent the atrocities commited under his regime, and whose close relations with Hitler's Germany were a matter of necessity, the only way to preserve his small nation from a Hungarian or German occupation. Rasla, who believes that Tiso was indeed guilty of war crimes, nevertheless has sharp words for Daxner and for the prosecution's approach during the trial. Against Rasla's recommendation that the prosecution limit its attention to Tiso's wartime collaboration with Hitler and his role in the crimes against humanity, the prosecution pursued a number of dubious charges, for example, that Tiso supported the interests of Horthyite Hungary. Such charges helped damage the trial's credibility in the eyes of the Slovak public. Proces s dr. J. Tisom leaves us with some important considerations for a reevaluation of Tiso. First, the historian must be careful to distinguish between the moral responsibility and the legal responsisbility of his subject, keeping both in mind but avoiding the conflation of the two that one so often finds in issues concerning war crimes. Second, there is a need to exonerate Tiso where exoneration is due, that is, to avoid reading his wartime collaboration with the Nazis back into the prewar past. For example, it is both untrue and unjust to charge Tiso, as his prosecutors did, with deliberately seeking the destruction of the First Czechoslovak Republic in accordance with Nazi plans in the years preceding the Munich Agreement. Third, there is a need to condemn Tiso where condemnation is due - as the head of a state that deported tens of thousands of Jews to the Third Reich, who gave a violently anti-Semitic speech at the height of the Holocaust, who was one of only sixteen people to receive Nazi Germany's highest decoration, and who, in a case of perverse moral reasoning, professed that Slovakia was fighting on Hitler's side in the Second World War for the "honor of the Slovak nation". �134 SLOVAKIA Owing to the emotions and political pressures of the immediate post-war period, Jozef Tiso did not receive a fair trial. A reevaluation of his trial and his place in Slovak history is long overdue, and the memoirs of Rasla and Zabkay are a welcome step in this direction. Nevertheless, given the current nationalist passions in Slovakia, an objective evaluation of Tiso in his native land may be difficult to realize for some time to come. Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus'. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992. Lii - 296pp. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul, Minnesota This book was originally published in Ukrainian in 1967. It was translated by Marta Skorupsky as part of a series of "Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Scholarship" coordinated by Patricia A. Krafcik and Paul Robert Magocsi. The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' is primarily an ecclesiastical history, but it also provides enough political and social context to allow a secular historian to place the· work in the more familiar secular framework. Pekar focused his attention on the Greek Catholic Church in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (Northeastern Hungary until 1918). His study began with the "union" movement which culminated with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Pekar gave even coverage to each period, bringing it up to the post-World War II era with a final chapter: "In the Immigration" which examined the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The author had acces to special collections not readily available to secular scholars, especially, the Archivum Secretum Vatican um (Secret Archive of the Vatican). He has treated those sources with a proper historian's respect so that other historians may feel confident �SLOVAKIA 135 in citing his work, but he also approached his topic with an obvious Vatican perspective or bias. Pekar was very critical of the Slovaks. This bias is curious and revealing. The Slovaks have a long history of cooperating with the Rusyns as they jointly resisted Magyarization. It is true that some contemporary Slovaks in the 1960s pressured Rusyns in Eastern Slovakia to identify with the Slovak national movement, but contemporary everits should not distort a historian's analysis of past cooperation. Pekar suggested that the Vatican was constantly fighting to protect the Uniate Church. These attempts were only partially successful in both Hungary and in America. In both places the Latin Church won considerable advantages over the Uniate Church. In his discussion of the Greek Catholic Church in America with its many defections, Pekar was critical of the American bishops for demanding a single rite, the Hungarian government for resisting Leo XIII's efforts to unite the Galician and Sub-Carpathian Rusyns into a single diocese in America, and the leaders of the Greek Catholic Union for resisting the guidance of Rome as the Vatican demanded changes in the Greek Catholic rite. The people, whom Pekar viewed as sheep, reacted against any affront to their rite, and the Greek Catholic Union provided them with the organization necessary to stand up to the forces that would deprive them of those traditions. Pekar's treatment of the actors as villains and heroes , accounts for the greatest weakness of his work. The Vatican was not always the hero. This reviewer would suggest that the Vatican compliantly yielded to Latin Church interest at the expense of the Uniate Church in both Hungary and in America. Pekar also treated the Rusyns as sheep in need of a shepherd. Such an attitude has been traditional with Rome, but it shows disregard for people and democratic principles, and occasionally turns heroes into villians. �136 SLOVAKIA Volodymyr Fedynysynec', Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays. Presov: Rusinska Obroda, 1992. 110 pp. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK Evergreen State College Olympia, Washington Our Peaceful Rusyn Way is a slim volume containing two lenghty essays by Subcarpathian poet and writer Volodymir Fedynysynec'. These essays reflect the author's perception of the current status of the Rusyn national revival in Europe, particularly in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The first, "Be a Rusyn So That Rusyns Will Survive", describes the enormous impact of the scholarly work of Dr. Paul R. Magocsi and the First World Congress of Rusyns (March 1991) on Rusyn historical awareness and revival. Fedynysynec' calls this essay his "objective and subjective notes and reflections" on both the congress and a scholarly seminar on Rusyns held in Uzhorod prior to the congress. In the second, "I am a Rusyn, My Son is a Rusyn: Some Social and Literary Dreams of a Rusyn Writer", Fedynysynec' discusses the significance of the nineteenthcentury Rusyn national awakener, Alexander Duchnovic, and why the creation of a new standard literary language is the key to the survival of Rusyns as a people. Fedynysynec' was born in 1943 and raised in the Rusynspeaking Carpathian mountain village of Repynne in the central region of Subcarpathian Rus', a former autonomous region of Czechoslovakia forcibly annexed to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin in 1945. He was subsequently acculturated as an Ukrainian after the Soviet regime officialy declared all Rusyns in the region to be Ukrainians. Graduating with a degree in Ukrainian language and literature from Uzhorod State University in 1966, he worked as a journalist and also as a researcher at the Museum of Ethnography in Uzhorod. He has been a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine since 1983. Until recently he was a member of the executive board of the Society of Subcarpathian Rusyns, established in Uzhorod in �SLOVAKIA 137 1990, and was founding editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Podkarpatska Rus'. Fedynysynec' has also published several volumes of poetry in Ukrainian. To appreciate fully the value of Fedynysynec's inspiration and insights, the reader should understand that the Rusyn movement in Central Europe (Poland's Lemko Region, Eastern Slovakia's Presov Region, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and former Yugoslavia's historic Backa Region) is genuine and flourishing. The nineteenth-century process of national awakening and struggle which led to the formation of sovereign Central European states was, in the Rusyns' case, impeded by many factors. Only now are significant elements of that process occurring among the Rusyns, such as the establishment of a standard literary language, the publication of literature and historical texts, and public recognition of Rusyns as a distinct people. These are all addressed in Fedynysynec's essays. In approaching these essays, one ought to remember that Fedynysynec' is first and foremost a poet who experienced psychological and national repression under the totalitarian Soviet regime. Although known as a Ukrainian writer and poet, he never lost an elemental awareness of his Rusyn identity. This theme resonates ecstatically throughout the two essays: "I am a Rusyn ! We are Rusyns! And we will be Rusyns forever!", "And I don't have to look around me at those who will whisper curses at me. I can even shout above the Beskyds: I am a Rusyn!" Although informative, the essays are clearly not intended as historical or scholarly treatises. Fedynysynec' speaks rather with the passionate voice of an inspired poet and the vigor of an enlightened Rusyn patriot. His prose sometimes verges on stream-of-consciousness and his view of history occasionally borders on the romantic, such as his insistence that "Rusynism is two thousand years old". In the wake of the Gorbachev era, which he acknowledges as a fresh and liberating age, he recognizes a first-time opportunity to speak out on such forbidden subjects as national roots and pride: "Rusyn feelings have made their presence known ... like a kind of whirling sea within shores that were too narrow." What readers might lose in strictly historical fact, they gain through his psycho- �138 SLOVAKIA logical and emotional insight into the reality of a people who were held under a curse of silence for the past 45 years. The floodgates have opened and Fedynysynec's essays seem to pour forth expressing all the vitality of the Rusyn national movement. Fedynysynec' wrote his essays in Ukrainian (he has begun writing seriously in Rusyn only in the past two years). They appear here in the Presov Region Rusyn dialect and in Slovak and English translations. The book is neatly formated , with only a few minor misprints, and is the first publication of Rusfnska Obroda (The Rusyn Renaissance Society) based in Presov . The volume of contemporary literature on Rusyns is growing. Students of Slavic and ethnic studies can only hope that Rusfnska Obroda and other publishing enterprises will undertake to make Rusyn literature available both in the original language and in English translation to reach as wide an audience as possible. Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 19'Jl. 285pp, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. XVI-320 pp. MARIA FURIMSKY-LACKOV A Ottawa, Canada These two recently-published books by Norma L. Rudinsky are very welcome for several reasons: apart from dealing with topics which complement each other, both books provide a rare opportunity to read works of Slovak literature in probably the best translations available in the English language. Both describe the interesting place of Slovak women in the national movement at the tum of the 19th century and, most importantly, both fill a gap, at least partially, in the field of Slavic scholarship in North America. The first book is part history and part anthology. According to Rudinsky, it was initialy intended to be only an introduction for the second book, consisting of a translation of six stories by Slovak �SLOVAKIA 139 writer Bozena Slancikova, who published her prose fiction under the pen name Timrava. However, it became a close study of journal articles, letters and poetry showing nationalism and feminism among the Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. The desperate position of Slovak women is traced here in three parts and six chapters. The first part deals with "Woman As Inspiration" in poetic works of Slovak male writers Jan Kollar, Jan Holy, Janko Kraf and Andrej Sladkovic, among others. The second part, titled "Women As Help", describes Slovak women as founders of women's nationalist organizations and magazines, and in the third part "Women As Women" they are depicted as incipient feminist writers of the turn of the century. Heroines of Elena Soltesova, the schoolteacher spinsters of Cudmila Podjavorinska and Timrava's fighting and agonizing female characters are proud and obstinate, consumed by hopeless love and passion. They are compared by Rudinsky to the reform heroins of English and American novelists, such as Jane Austin. Especially interesting is the Appendix of 123 poems in Slovak, formerly scattered in short-lived journals or manuscripts, and collected by Marianna Prfdavkova-Minarikova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. These poems range from a moralistic hymn in 1798 exhorting young ladies to beware of seducers, to several poems in the 1860s and 1870s equating the nation with a human lover and resolving to became a mystical bride of the nation. Available biographical data of Slovak poets, though many are still not fully indentified, are given in English. Two long essays advocating women's education are translated in full from Slovak into English and frequent comparision is made to Czech, Croatian and Magyar nationalist movements. At the end of the book is a thorough index and useful bibliography. Incipient Feminists is a very carefully-edited book with only a few misprints: e. g. the word "interesting" has an "m" in it (second line of preface); "Klastor pod Zvievom", (p. 40), should be " ... Znievom", and some diacritical marks are missing, e.g. on "zvlasr'' (p. 128). The actual names of the "two small towns in southeast Slovakia" where Timrava lived her whole life and which appear in her more than fifty stories and novellas, may also be of interest to �140 SLOVAKIA the readers. They are Polichno and Abelova. The same applies to Terezia Medvecka Vansova who "lived most of her life in a small town in southern Slovakia" (p. 89). This small town was and still is just a little village of a few hundred people and is called Rimavska Pfla. In Vansova's works it is called simply Pila, Pila pri Tisovci, or Pila v Gemeri. Here she lived from 1882 to 1911 and wrote most of her variety of sketches, tales, biographical pieces, memoirs and several plays. As well, she published there her journal for Slovak women called "Dennica". The second book, consisting of Rudinsky's excellent English translations of six of Timrava's Slovak stories written at the tum of the century, shows remarkably strong female characters desiring to assert their rights against many unfavourable odds. In "The Assistant Teacher" (from the Diary of a Young Lady)", written in 1896, Timrava deals with the financial and social necessity of a good marriage. In the second story titled "Battle" and written in 1900, the heroine rebels against the necessity of a marriage of convenience, albeit still only inwardly. This and other similar stories of rebellion placed Timrava among Slovak critical realists. The third story, "That Alluring Land", from 1907 depicts how the power of money and property takes control of human lives. This story also represents the true reason why many Slovaks emigrated to North America: not to search for instant wealth, but to avoid unemployment, political repression, famine and other basic afflictions in Austria-Hungary at the tum of the century. Mothers usually stayed home to take care of their children and the existing household. In 1911 Timrava wrote "No Joy at All" about the effect that the materialistic obsession with property can have on a family and how it could interfere with the love of two people. The backward village life that existed into the twentieth century in Slovakia is well depicted in "The fapak Clan" written in 1914. The living conditions of fapak's family are depicted probably more darkly than existed in reality in most village families at that time, but Timrava wanted to point out that such extremities existed indeed. The last story of the book "Great War Heroes", written around 1918, is Timrava's antiwar novella, which shows how unjust all wars are. It shows, not �SLOVAKIA 141 only the men as the false "heroes", but also the women and how they become corrupted by the war. This story is Timrava's condemnation of World War One. All six stories depict Slovak women in transition: from obedience without questioning, to clearly understood and expressed rebellion. Timrava's stories depict the castes and culture and the way of life of one segment of Slovak society at the tum of the century, with all its irony and tough realism, making her work invaluable for those who are interested in Slovakia and its past. Jan Simko, English-Slovak Dictionary. Waucondia, Illinois and Senica, Slovakia: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers and RESS spol. s.r.o., 1991. 1443 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University The arrival of Jan Simko's English-Slovak Dictionary in bookstores in the summer of 1991 was a happy event. This dictionary was first published in Slovakia in 1967, and was reissued there in 1968 and 1971. It has been unavailable since that last printing sold out. It has now been published with corrections, but without additions . The physical quality of this book is excellent. It is hardbound, and small enough to handle comfortably . Each page has two columns and the print is large and easy to read. Since the intended user of the dictionary is a native speaker of Slovak, the introductory remarks are in Slovak, as are the abbreviations. The English entry or headword appears in large bold face type flush left to the margin of the collumn. It is followed by a phonetic transcription in square brackets, then the Slovak equivalents are listed. All main entries appear in a single alphabetical list in strict sequence of spelling. English words are written in italic type. The English-speaking user of the dictionary will not need to refer to the phonetic transcriptions of the English entries in order to learn their pronunciations, but it is �142 SLOVAKIA interesting to note that although British pronunciation is used as a basic one, both the British and the American versions are given when they differ markedly, e.g., "tomato" (p. 1250). When different words are used in American and British English for commonplace terms, both are given in this dictionary, e.g. "elevator" (p. 318) and "lift" (p. 648) vffah. These are just two examples of the thoroughness and careful scholarship that characterize this dictionary. If the entry word is used in more than one grammatical form or category (if it belongs to more than one part-of-speech), the entry is clustered or nested so that the usage is designated in the following way: the boldface numeral 1 is followed by the appropriate part-ofspeech in smaller typeface, the primary and secondary meanings are given, and this process continues for the other parts-of-speech. For example, if the first usage is a noun (podstatne meno, abbreviated podst.), and the second as a verb (sloveso, abbreviated s1. or nepravidelne sloveso, abbreviated n. s1., which means an English irregular verb), it would appear in the following way: break [breik] 1. podst. 1. zlomenie, zlomenina 2. trhlina, puklina, etc. 2. n. sl. to~ 1. (po)lamaf (sa), zlomif (sa), rozbif (sa) etc. On the stylistic level, words may be designated as colloquial (hovorove, which is abbreviated as hovor.), e.g. that's great! to je skvele, dobre; slang (slangove, which is abbreviated slg.), e.g., American slang, buck dolar, bookish (knitne); poetic and archaic (basnicke and zastarane'); and dialectal. In this book, dialectal refers to dialects of English, e. g. American, Scottish or Irish. One of the most important features of this dictionary is the wealth of commonly used and idiomatic phrases that it contains. These phrases are placed after the basic definitions, and are designated by a boldface centered dot, e.g. • at the back of one's mind, v podvedomf (p. 41); • hungry as a hunter, hladnf ako vllc (p. 556); • a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Jepsf vrabec v hrsti ako holub na streche (p. 108); • this argument does not hold water, tento argument neobstojf, je nelogickf (al. nespravny, nedosledny) (p. 540). The inclusion of many prepositional phrases in the examples is a valuable aid to students of the Slovak language �SLOVAKIA 143 who frequently make errors in choosing the proper prepositions and cases, e.g. at reduced prices, za znfiene ceny (p. 990); to climb up a ladder, ( vy)liezt'po rebn1w (p. 1313) and many , many more . Dr. Simko's dictionary is a solid scholarly work, which has been compiled in accordance with modem lexicographical principles. It is a valuable resource for both specialists and students. This dictionary should be added to the reference sections of our libraries, and to the collections of our Slovak organizations. �� REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 125 Hugolfn Gavlovic . Valaska Skala . Edited with a commentary by Gerald J. Sabo, and a linguistic commentary by Cubomir Durovic . Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1987 (1988). 730 pp. JAN F. FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia Hugolfn Gavlovic is one of the most important authors of the older Slovak literature. He was born in Cami Dunajec (in Poland) in 1712, grew up in northern Orava and lived in the Povazie region. In 1733 he was ordained a Franciscan priest and he died in 1787 in Horovce. Gavlovic's "Valaska skola" was finished in 1755. It is the largest work of the older Slovak literature, not only in length, but also because of its artistic value. It is a treasure of practical wisdom in which the author instructs the reader about all that interests him and what he needs in life. The author covers not only personal problems and private life, but also addresses public problems. It is in fact a didactic poem and Sabo has made an exact transcription of almost 18,000 lines with 27 illustrations. "Valaska skola" consists of an introduction in verses, then the main body of the poems in 22 "noty" (parts) and finally a two part "Konec": "On Death" and "On Judgement" . Every note begins with a shepherd's song about some biblical event of the Old Testament. Because 18th century society was very interested in sheepherding, every event was for the author a reason to think about the life of shepherds and peasants. Every note after a shepherd's song contains 59 moral exhortations. Durovic's excellent study (pp . 655-730) pays attention to the language of "V alaska skola". The real use and interest of this edition is linguistic. A previous edition by Michal Resetka (1830-31) left out some lines and transcribed the spelling into Bernolak's codification and so he ruined the rhymes and the whole construction of the work. The second edition by Rudolf Krajcovic (1971) presented the work as a literary monument of Slovak cultural history. His edition was substantially abbreviated. �126 SLOVAKIA Durovic shows that Gavlovic's language is half-way between the work of Pavel Dolefal's "Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica" (1746) and Anton Bernolak's "Gramatica slavica" (1790). The publishing of Gavlovic's "Shepherd's School" has enormous importance for Slovak cultural history of the 18th century. It was a precursor of Anton Bernolak's "Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum" (1787), which signaled the beginning of the codification of the Slovak language. Gavlovic's work was published on the occasion of the bicentennial of two important events in Slovak cultural history of the 18th century: the death of Hugolfn Gavlovic, and the publishing of the work of Anton bernolak. Gerald J. Sabo and I.:'ubomfr Durovic have contributed greatly to explaining the cultural history of Slovakia in the 18th century. Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Vols. I and 2, edited by Max Domarus. Waucondia, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990 and 1992. 611 pp. and 1367 pp. BRIAN L. VILLA University of Ottawa In 1945 the Allies were preparing to mete out severe justice, not just to Nazi Party members but to all Germans, arguing that they were guilty by complicity, by reason of having all heard Hitler's clearly articulated murderous program. This argument, which seemed persuasive in its day, is now something of an embarassment to historians, for it could also be turned against all the Western leaders who, after all, also had acces to Hitler's speeches and yet for many years indulged in appeasing him. For that matter, when Stalin made his pact with Hitler, he knew as much or more than the German public did of Hitler's intentions. There was another flaw in the argumentation and this was that Hitler mixed veiled threats and bombastic verbal terrorism with mild-sounding musings about peace and esctatic smiling at babies. �SLOVAKIA 127 Germans, and foreign observers , were thus faced with the problem of sorting out which was the real Hitler, and which was not. Yearning for a better world after the horrors of World War I, not suprisingly the hearts of this generation were ruled by wishful thinking. The consequences of Hitler's programme did not stand starkly revealed until May of 1945, as the world gazed on the lunar landscape of German cities. Most had failed miserably to perceive what his program entailed. But we will never be able to judge properly this issue of the public perception and misperception until we have a complete collection of all of Hitler's recorded utterances, public and private. Any selection prejudges the issue a bit. While the work by Max Domarus , of which the first two volumes in English translation are now in print, is a magnificentlycrafted and documented collection, it is still a selection and a number of speeches are represented only by a single sentence. Still, this is likely to be the most ambitious compilation we are likely to see in our lifetime. Accompanied by solid historical narrative and commentary, carefully documented and well-edited, this is an invaluable tool for the study of the Nazi era. Distateful as it is to put Hitler's speeches up upon the shelves of institutions devoted to truth, this is a mandatory purchase for almost any better library. Certainly it is necessary reading for those who would study the mad delusion of a nation, not to say of a generation. The picture that emerges in Domarus' masterful collection and skillful aditing is that of Hitler as a skilled concert-master calling upon the positive and the negative in his audience, blending, twisting, distorting, so that what had ever been true and false was imposible even to remember. A particularly notworthy revelation of these volumes is the brilliance with which Hitler's staff employed his time. Appearing here and there in a dizzying schedule, building a complex riddle, he climbed to power by purposefully confusing his audience. There is obviously a good book to be written about his handlers, his working staff, and how well they created the monster that eventually escaped so completely from their control. Such a study, as must almost any study of Hitler, will gain immeasurably from a careful study of this indispensable source. �128 SLOVAKIA Jozef Jablonicky. Povstanie bez legiend. Bratislava: Obzor, 1990. 357 pp. STANISLA V J. KIRSCHBAUM York University Those who are interested in a detailed account of the 1944 revolt in Slovakia will find this book useful. It is well-documented and well-writen. Furthermore, the author loses no opportunity to contradict in detail various interpretations that were published during Gustav Husak's regime. It is a valuable addition to Slovak historiography. However, the significance of Jozef Jablonicky" s book lies not so much in the history of what the Communist regime and Marxist historians dubbed the "Slovak National Uprising", as in the reasons why yet another book on those events was published, especially after the fall of Communism in 1989. In fact, this book belongs to the Communist period; it is in its own way a reflection of it. That it was published when freedom of the press was restored merely helps to underline this very fact. As the publishers indicate in the foreword: "The author does not deny that in today's changed social and political conditions, he would formulate many things differently, more openly and more directly; however, he preferred to publish his work as it had been written, under conditions when the opportunity for scientific discussion was replaced by police interrogations" (p. 7). Jablonicky is one of the scholars of the 1960s who published histories of the 1944 events (for example, Z ilegality do povstania, 1969; there are also memoirs, Husak's in particular, and edited volumes) in response to the distorted accounts of the 1950s. However, his writings, like most from the Communist period were hampered either by restricted access to documents, by censorship, or by both. When Husak came to power in 1969, in the footsteps of his predecessors, but also perhaps because he had been the object of earlier falsification himself, he began to alter the historical record, or put simply to falsify history. Jablonicky found that once again he �SLOVAKIA 129 had to set the record straight, a task for which he paid a personal pnce. He became a 'persona non grata' under Husak, was expelled from the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciencies in 1974, and from 1976 on was subjected to police harassment, or, as he put it, "primitive persecution". Even though his manuscripts were confiscated, he continued to write and to do research on the topic of the 1944 events. In 1984 the Husak regime published the fivevolume series Dejiny Slovenskeho narodneho povstania. As Jablonicky writes: "I considered it my professional responsibility to counter this literature critically. However, I also tried not to repeat my own errors and defects which are to be found in my earlier works" (p. 9) . His response began to appear in "samizdat" in 1988; this volume is that response. There is one theme that this study does not examine, namely the importance of the 1944 events in Slovak history. There is no doubt that they had far-reaching consequences for the Slovak nation . Jablonicky tells us how they happened, but not why. Nor does he explain their ultimate consequences. One can understand why they were celebrated under Communism: they gave the regime some sort of legitimacy. But that regime has now disappeared, as has the outcome which the 1944 revolt produced: the common state with the Czechs. This begs the question of their role and importance even more than before. For the moment, Jablonicky has chosen to eschew such questions. Yet as a professional historian, now able to express himself freely, he should accept the fact that he has a responsibility greater than that of merely chronicling these events. Others will no doubt tackle these questions; were Jablonicky also to do so, the history of the 1944 events might yet be written without any legends. �130 SLOVAKIA Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia. New York: Pergammon Press, 1988. XI-97 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This short work deals with a little-known aspect of Slovak and World War II history. French prisoners-of-war, escaping from camps in Germany and Hungary, made their way to Slovakia and were sheltered by the Slovak Resistance. Led by Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien, these Frenchmen fought as part of the Stefanik Brigade in the uprising of 1944. The Stefanik Brigade was under Soviet partisan command, while the Czechoslovak General Staff in Banska Bystrica insisted that the French be subordinate to its own command structure. De Lannurien's unit was able to exploit this jurisdictional dispute, gain concessions from both sides, and assure for itself a measure of operational independence. The French partisans were instrumental in thwarting the German drive on Strecno in September 1944 and aided in the recapture of Janeva Lehota. After the German suppresion of the uprising in October, de Lannurien's Frenchmen - along with Slovak soldiers and Soviet partisans - retreated into the Tatras and continued resisting as guerrillas. They were joyfully greeted by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and were at last permitted to return home. The author's narrative is supplemented by the accounts of partisans who remembered the Frenchmen. The introduction mentions that the author was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union and became Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1971. As a Husak"s appointee, Chnoupek rather naturally treats the Slovak National Rising as a popular event. Correspondingly, the Slovak Republic is labelled as a "fascist state". Supporters of the Tiso regime maintain that the president-priest never signed any death warrants. Chnoupek, however, alludes to death sentences being passed in absentia on deserters from the Eastern front. �SLOVAKIA 131 Yet Chiioupek inadvertedly extends some credit to the Slovak state in the case of Ga~par Maco. Maco refused to heed his call-up orders for the Slovak Army in September 1939, proceeded to France, and served in the Czechoslovak Legion within the French Army. After France's military collapse in 1940, Maco returned to Slovakia and was arrested. The author admits that Maco's youth and frank confession were taken as "mitigating circumstances" (p. 49), and he was given only a six-month sentence. Moreover, he was released one month early for health reasons. Such leniency would not have been forthcoming in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was under direct Nazi domination. Despite the author's diplomatic backround, his narrative is written in a plain, even folksy style. Interactions between French and Slovak partisans are treated as frequently humorous and occasionally poignant. Especially noteworthy is the description of Christmas Eve 1944, when Slovak partisans invited their French comrades to join them in celebration. This invitation was practical as well as idealistic: The French had captured a herd of sheep from a retreating Hungarian detachment, and now had meat to spare. The Frenchmen were asked to sing the Marseillaise; they did so to the acoustical backround of Soviet artillery, as the front was drawing near. Unknown to them, on the previous day in liberated Paris, General de Gaulle approved de Lannurien's promotion. Given the author's ideological affiliation, it is sometimes easy to forget that Slovak Communists were themselves dissidents during the Novotny years, when many aspects of the Slovak uprising were considered taboo topics. Chnoupek's research was given only the briefest coverage in the newspapers for the tenth anniversary of the uprising. Years later, while laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he was warmly greeted by French veterans of the Slovak partisan struggle. It was then that Chnoupek decided to continue his work and affect a "breaking of seals". The work is the author's own contribution to improved East-West relations. But Chnoupek nontheless conforms to the historiographical standards of Husak's Czechoslovakia, characterized by glaring omis- �132 SLOVAKIA sions of anything potentially embarrassing. Soviet partisan commander Peter Velitchko is depicted in an altogether favorable light, notwithstanding the fact that his rash actions brought full-scale German intervention, caused the rising to be launched prematurely, and thus resulted in tragic consequences. Soviet historians describe this occurance as unfortunate, but they have yet to account for their country's role in it. In post-Husak Czechoslovakia, a more genuine "breaking of seals" regarding topics concerning the 1944 revolt is at last possible. Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho. Edited by Jan Smolec. Bratislava: Tatrapress, 1990. 254 pp. JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington Concomitant with the current revival of national feelings in Slovakia is a reevaluation of those figures from the Slovak past who were either ignored or vilified during the communist era. Most noteworthy among such figures is Jozef Tiso, the president of the wartime Slovak Republic who was executed as a war criminal in 1947. Process dr. J. Tisom, Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho, is an important contribution to that reevaluation. The book consists of the memoirs of Anton Rasla, one of the prosecutors at Tiso's trial, and Ernest Zabkay, Tiso's chief defense attorney. In addition to the reminiscences of these men, the book includes excerpts from their concluding speeches at Tiso's trial , as well as the text of the trial's verdict. In Zabkay's testimony, two important assertions dominate - that Tiso did not receive a fair trial and that Tiso was not guilty as charged. In support of his first assertion, Zabkay cites the political nature of the trial , the open bias agains Tiso of the presiding judge, Igor Daxner, the denial of certain documentation to the defense, and the harassment of defense lawyers by the police, prompting one �SLOVAKIA 133 defender to resign. In Tiso's defense, Zabkay portrays him as a victim of circumstances who could not withstand the irresistible pressure from Nazi Germany nor control her allies in the radical wing of his own party, who either did not know about or was unable to prevent the atrocities commited under his regime, and whose close relations with Hitler's Germany were a matter of necessity, the only way to preserve his small nation from a Hungarian or German occupation. Rasla, who believes that Tiso was indeed guilty of war crimes, nevertheless has sharp words for Daxner and for the prosecution's approach during the trial. Against Rasla's recommendation that the prosecution limit its attention to Tiso's wartime collaboration with Hitler and his role in the crimes against humanity, the prosecution pursued a number of dubious charges, for example, that Tiso supported the interests of Horthyite Hungary. Such charges helped damage the trial's credibility in the eyes of the Slovak public. Proces s dr. J. Tisom leaves us with some important considerations for a reevaluation of Tiso. First, the historian must be careful to distinguish between the moral responsibility and the legal responsisbility of his subject, keeping both in mind but avoiding the conflation of the two that one so often finds in issues concerning war crimes. Second, there is a need to exonerate Tiso where exoneration is due, that is, to avoid reading his wartime collaboration with the Nazis back into the prewar past. For example, it is both untrue and unjust to charge Tiso, as his prosecutors did, with deliberately seeking the destruction of the First Czechoslovak Republic in accordance with Nazi plans in the years preceding the Munich Agreement. Third, there is a need to condemn Tiso where condemnation is due - as the head of a state that deported tens of thousands of Jews to the Third Reich, who gave a violently anti-Semitic speech at the height of the Holocaust, who was one of only sixteen people to receive Nazi Germany's highest decoration, and who, in a case of perverse moral reasoning, professed that Slovakia was fighting on Hitler's side in the Second World War for the "honor of the Slovak nation". �134 SLOVAKIA Owing to the emotions and political pressures of the immediate post-war period, Jozef Tiso did not receive a fair trial. A reevaluation of his trial and his place in Slovak history is long overdue, and the memoirs of Rasla and Zabkay are a welcome step in this direction. Nevertheless, given the current nationalist passions in Slovakia, an objective evaluation of Tiso in his native land may be difficult to realize for some time to come. Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus'. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992. Lii - 296pp. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul, Minnesota This book was originally published in Ukrainian in 1967. It was translated by Marta Skorupsky as part of a series of "Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Scholarship" coordinated by Patricia A. Krafcik and Paul Robert Magocsi. The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' is primarily an ecclesiastical history, but it also provides enough political and social context to allow a secular historian to place the· work in the more familiar secular framework. Pekar focused his attention on the Greek Catholic Church in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (Northeastern Hungary until 1918). His study began with the "union" movement which culminated with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Pekar gave even coverage to each period, bringing it up to the post-World War II era with a final chapter: "In the Immigration" which examined the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The author had acces to special collections not readily available to secular scholars, especially, the Archivum Secretum Vatican um (Secret Archive of the Vatican). He has treated those sources with a proper historian's respect so that other historians may feel confident �SLOVAKIA 135 in citing his work, but he also approached his topic with an obvious Vatican perspective or bias. Pekar was very critical of the Slovaks. This bias is curious and revealing. The Slovaks have a long history of cooperating with the Rusyns as they jointly resisted Magyarization. It is true that some contemporary Slovaks in the 1960s pressured Rusyns in Eastern Slovakia to identify with the Slovak national movement, but contemporary everits should not distort a historian's analysis of past cooperation. Pekar suggested that the Vatican was constantly fighting to protect the Uniate Church. These attempts were only partially successful in both Hungary and in America. In both places the Latin Church won considerable advantages over the Uniate Church. In his discussion of the Greek Catholic Church in America with its many defections, Pekar was critical of the American bishops for demanding a single rite, the Hungarian government for resisting Leo XIII's efforts to unite the Galician and Sub-Carpathian Rusyns into a single diocese in America, and the leaders of the Greek Catholic Union for resisting the guidance of Rome as the Vatican demanded changes in the Greek Catholic rite. The people, whom Pekar viewed as sheep, reacted against any affront to their rite, and the Greek Catholic Union provided them with the organization necessary to stand up to the forces that would deprive them of those traditions. Pekar's treatment of the actors as villains and heroes , accounts for the greatest weakness of his work. The Vatican was not always the hero. This reviewer would suggest that the Vatican compliantly yielded to Latin Church interest at the expense of the Uniate Church in both Hungary and in America. Pekar also treated the Rusyns as sheep in need of a shepherd. Such an attitude has been traditional with Rome, but it shows disregard for people and democratic principles, and occasionally turns heroes into villians. �136 SLOVAKIA Volodymyr Fedynysynec', Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays. Presov: Rusinska Obroda, 1992. 110 pp. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK Evergreen State College Olympia, Washington Our Peaceful Rusyn Way is a slim volume containing two lenghty essays by Subcarpathian poet and writer Volodymir Fedynysynec'. These essays reflect the author's perception of the current status of the Rusyn national revival in Europe, particularly in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The first, "Be a Rusyn So That Rusyns Will Survive", describes the enormous impact of the scholarly work of Dr. Paul R. Magocsi and the First World Congress of Rusyns (March 1991) on Rusyn historical awareness and revival. Fedynysynec' calls this essay his "objective and subjective notes and reflections" on both the congress and a scholarly seminar on Rusyns held in Uzhorod prior to the congress. In the second, "I am a Rusyn, My Son is a Rusyn: Some Social and Literary Dreams of a Rusyn Writer", Fedynysynec' discusses the significance of the nineteenthcentury Rusyn national awakener, Alexander Duchnovic, and why the creation of a new standard literary language is the key to the survival of Rusyns as a people. Fedynysynec' was born in 1943 and raised in the Rusynspeaking Carpathian mountain village of Repynne in the central region of Subcarpathian Rus', a former autonomous region of Czechoslovakia forcibly annexed to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin in 1945. He was subsequently acculturated as an Ukrainian after the Soviet regime officialy declared all Rusyns in the region to be Ukrainians. Graduating with a degree in Ukrainian language and literature from Uzhorod State University in 1966, he worked as a journalist and also as a researcher at the Museum of Ethnography in Uzhorod. He has been a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine since 1983. Until recently he was a member of the executive board of the Society of Subcarpathian Rusyns, established in Uzhorod in �SLOVAKIA 137 1990, and was founding editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Podkarpatska Rus'. Fedynysynec' has also published several volumes of poetry in Ukrainian. To appreciate fully the value of Fedynysynec's inspiration and insights, the reader should understand that the Rusyn movement in Central Europe (Poland's Lemko Region, Eastern Slovakia's Presov Region, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and former Yugoslavia's historic Backa Region) is genuine and flourishing. The nineteenth-century process of national awakening and struggle which led to the formation of sovereign Central European states was, in the Rusyns' case, impeded by many factors. Only now are significant elements of that process occurring among the Rusyns, such as the establishment of a standard literary language, the publication of literature and historical texts, and public recognition of Rusyns as a distinct people. These are all addressed in Fedynysynec's essays. In approaching these essays, one ought to remember that Fedynysynec' is first and foremost a poet who experienced psychological and national repression under the totalitarian Soviet regime. Although known as a Ukrainian writer and poet, he never lost an elemental awareness of his Rusyn identity. This theme resonates ecstatically throughout the two essays: "I am a Rusyn ! We are Rusyns! And we will be Rusyns forever!", "And I don't have to look around me at those who will whisper curses at me. I can even shout above the Beskyds: I am a Rusyn!" Although informative, the essays are clearly not intended as historical or scholarly treatises. Fedynysynec' speaks rather with the passionate voice of an inspired poet and the vigor of an enlightened Rusyn patriot. His prose sometimes verges on stream-of-consciousness and his view of history occasionally borders on the romantic, such as his insistence that "Rusynism is two thousand years old". In the wake of the Gorbachev era, which he acknowledges as a fresh and liberating age, he recognizes a first-time opportunity to speak out on such forbidden subjects as national roots and pride: "Rusyn feelings have made their presence known ... like a kind of whirling sea within shores that were too narrow." What readers might lose in strictly historical fact, they gain through his psycho- �138 SLOVAKIA logical and emotional insight into the reality of a people who were held under a curse of silence for the past 45 years. The floodgates have opened and Fedynysynec's essays seem to pour forth expressing all the vitality of the Rusyn national movement. Fedynysynec' wrote his essays in Ukrainian (he has begun writing seriously in Rusyn only in the past two years). They appear here in the Presov Region Rusyn dialect and in Slovak and English translations. The book is neatly formated , with only a few minor misprints, and is the first publication of Rusfnska Obroda (The Rusyn Renaissance Society) based in Presov . The volume of contemporary literature on Rusyns is growing. Students of Slavic and ethnic studies can only hope that Rusfnska Obroda and other publishing enterprises will undertake to make Rusyn literature available both in the original language and in English translation to reach as wide an audience as possible. Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 19'Jl. 285pp, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. XVI-320 pp. MARIA FURIMSKY-LACKOV A Ottawa, Canada These two recently-published books by Norma L. Rudinsky are very welcome for several reasons: apart from dealing with topics which complement each other, both books provide a rare opportunity to read works of Slovak literature in probably the best translations available in the English language. Both describe the interesting place of Slovak women in the national movement at the tum of the 19th century and, most importantly, both fill a gap, at least partially, in the field of Slavic scholarship in North America. The first book is part history and part anthology. According to Rudinsky, it was initialy intended to be only an introduction for the second book, consisting of a translation of six stories by Slovak �SLOVAKIA 139 writer Bozena Slancikova, who published her prose fiction under the pen name Timrava. However, it became a close study of journal articles, letters and poetry showing nationalism and feminism among the Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. The desperate position of Slovak women is traced here in three parts and six chapters. The first part deals with "Woman As Inspiration" in poetic works of Slovak male writers Jan Kollar, Jan Holy, Janko Kraf and Andrej Sladkovic, among others. The second part, titled "Women As Help", describes Slovak women as founders of women's nationalist organizations and magazines, and in the third part "Women As Women" they are depicted as incipient feminist writers of the turn of the century. Heroines of Elena Soltesova, the schoolteacher spinsters of Cudmila Podjavorinska and Timrava's fighting and agonizing female characters are proud and obstinate, consumed by hopeless love and passion. They are compared by Rudinsky to the reform heroins of English and American novelists, such as Jane Austin. Especially interesting is the Appendix of 123 poems in Slovak, formerly scattered in short-lived journals or manuscripts, and collected by Marianna Prfdavkova-Minarikova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. These poems range from a moralistic hymn in 1798 exhorting young ladies to beware of seducers, to several poems in the 1860s and 1870s equating the nation with a human lover and resolving to became a mystical bride of the nation. Available biographical data of Slovak poets, though many are still not fully indentified, are given in English. Two long essays advocating women's education are translated in full from Slovak into English and frequent comparision is made to Czech, Croatian and Magyar nationalist movements. At the end of the book is a thorough index and useful bibliography. Incipient Feminists is a very carefully-edited book with only a few misprints: e. g. the word "interesting" has an "m" in it (second line of preface); "Klastor pod Zvievom", (p. 40), should be " ... Znievom", and some diacritical marks are missing, e.g. on "zvlasr'' (p. 128). The actual names of the "two small towns in southeast Slovakia" where Timrava lived her whole life and which appear in her more than fifty stories and novellas, may also be of interest to �140 SLOVAKIA the readers. They are Polichno and Abelova. The same applies to Terezia Medvecka Vansova who "lived most of her life in a small town in southern Slovakia" (p. 89). This small town was and still is just a little village of a few hundred people and is called Rimavska Pfla. In Vansova's works it is called simply Pila, Pila pri Tisovci, or Pila v Gemeri. Here she lived from 1882 to 1911 and wrote most of her variety of sketches, tales, biographical pieces, memoirs and several plays. As well, she published there her journal for Slovak women called "Dennica". The second book, consisting of Rudinsky's excellent English translations of six of Timrava's Slovak stories written at the tum of the century, shows remarkably strong female characters desiring to assert their rights against many unfavourable odds. In "The Assistant Teacher" (from the Diary of a Young Lady)", written in 1896, Timrava deals with the financial and social necessity of a good marriage. In the second story titled "Battle" and written in 1900, the heroine rebels against the necessity of a marriage of convenience, albeit still only inwardly. This and other similar stories of rebellion placed Timrava among Slovak critical realists. The third story, "That Alluring Land", from 1907 depicts how the power of money and property takes control of human lives. This story also represents the true reason why many Slovaks emigrated to North America: not to search for instant wealth, but to avoid unemployment, political repression, famine and other basic afflictions in Austria-Hungary at the tum of the century. Mothers usually stayed home to take care of their children and the existing household. In 1911 Timrava wrote "No Joy at All" about the effect that the materialistic obsession with property can have on a family and how it could interfere with the love of two people. The backward village life that existed into the twentieth century in Slovakia is well depicted in "The fapak Clan" written in 1914. The living conditions of fapak's family are depicted probably more darkly than existed in reality in most village families at that time, but Timrava wanted to point out that such extremities existed indeed. The last story of the book "Great War Heroes", written around 1918, is Timrava's antiwar novella, which shows how unjust all wars are. It shows, not �SLOVAKIA 141 only the men as the false "heroes", but also the women and how they become corrupted by the war. This story is Timrava's condemnation of World War One. All six stories depict Slovak women in transition: from obedience without questioning, to clearly understood and expressed rebellion. Timrava's stories depict the castes and culture and the way of life of one segment of Slovak society at the tum of the century, with all its irony and tough realism, making her work invaluable for those who are interested in Slovakia and its past. Jan Simko, English-Slovak Dictionary. Waucondia, Illinois and Senica, Slovakia: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers and RESS spol. s.r.o., 1991. 1443 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University The arrival of Jan Simko's English-Slovak Dictionary in bookstores in the summer of 1991 was a happy event. This dictionary was first published in Slovakia in 1967, and was reissued there in 1968 and 1971. It has been unavailable since that last printing sold out. It has now been published with corrections, but without additions . The physical quality of this book is excellent. It is hardbound, and small enough to handle comfortably . Each page has two columns and the print is large and easy to read. Since the intended user of the dictionary is a native speaker of Slovak, the introductory remarks are in Slovak, as are the abbreviations. The English entry or headword appears in large bold face type flush left to the margin of the collumn. It is followed by a phonetic transcription in square brackets, then the Slovak equivalents are listed. All main entries appear in a single alphabetical list in strict sequence of spelling. English words are written in italic type. The English-speaking user of the dictionary will not need to refer to the phonetic transcriptions of the English entries in order to learn their pronunciations, but it is �142 SLOVAKIA interesting to note that although British pronunciation is used as a basic one, both the British and the American versions are given when they differ markedly, e.g., "tomato" (p. 1250). When different words are used in American and British English for commonplace terms, both are given in this dictionary, e.g. "elevator" (p. 318) and "lift" (p. 648) vffah. These are just two examples of the thoroughness and careful scholarship that characterize this dictionary. If the entry word is used in more than one grammatical form or category (if it belongs to more than one part-of-speech), the entry is clustered or nested so that the usage is designated in the following way: the boldface numeral 1 is followed by the appropriate part-ofspeech in smaller typeface, the primary and secondary meanings are given, and this process continues for the other parts-of-speech. For example, if the first usage is a noun (podstatne meno, abbreviated podst.), and the second as a verb (sloveso, abbreviated s1. or nepravidelne sloveso, abbreviated n. s1., which means an English irregular verb), it would appear in the following way: break [breik] 1. podst. 1. zlomenie, zlomenina 2. trhlina, puklina, etc. 2. n. sl. to~ 1. (po)lamaf (sa), zlomif (sa), rozbif (sa) etc. On the stylistic level, words may be designated as colloquial (hovorove, which is abbreviated as hovor.), e.g. that's great! to je skvele, dobre; slang (slangove, which is abbreviated slg.), e.g., American slang, buck dolar, bookish (knitne); poetic and archaic (basnicke and zastarane'); and dialectal. In this book, dialectal refers to dialects of English, e. g. American, Scottish or Irish. One of the most important features of this dictionary is the wealth of commonly used and idiomatic phrases that it contains. These phrases are placed after the basic definitions, and are designated by a boldface centered dot, e.g. • at the back of one's mind, v podvedomf (p. 41); • hungry as a hunter, hladnf ako vllc (p. 556); • a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Jepsf vrabec v hrsti ako holub na streche (p. 108); • this argument does not hold water, tento argument neobstojf, je nelogickf (al. nespravny, nedosledny) (p. 540). The inclusion of many prepositional phrases in the examples is a valuable aid to students of the Slovak language �SLOVAKIA 143 who frequently make errors in choosing the proper prepositions and cases, e.g. at reduced prices, za znfiene ceny (p. 990); to climb up a ladder, ( vy)liezt'po rebn1w (p. 1313) and many , many more . Dr. Simko's dictionary is a solid scholarly work, which has been compiled in accordance with modem lexicographical principles. It is a valuable resource for both specialists and students. This dictionary should be added to the reference sections of our libraries, and to the collections of our Slovak organizations. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1991-92, Vol. 35 Description An account of the resource Vol. 35 (No. 64-65), 1991-92. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Slovak League of America Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available 1991-92 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 125 Hugolfn Gavlovic . Valaska Skala . Edited with a commentary by Gerald J. Sabo, and a linguistic commentary by Cubomir Durovic . Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1987 (1988). 730 pp. JAN F. FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia Hugolfn Gavlovic is one of the most important authors of the older Slovak literature. He was born in Cami Dunajec (in Poland) in 1712, grew up in northern Orava and lived in the Povazie region. In 1733 he was ordained a Franciscan priest and he died in 1787 in Horovce. Gavlovic's "Valaska skola" was finished in 1755. It is the largest work of the older Slovak literature, not only in length, but also because of its artistic value. It is a treasure of practical wisdom in which the author instructs the reader about all that interests him and what he needs in life. The author covers not only personal problems and private life, but also addresses public problems. It is in fact a didactic poem and Sabo has made an exact transcription of almost 18,000 lines with 27 illustrations. "Valaska skola" consists of an introduction in verses, then the main body of the poems in 22 "noty" (parts) and finally a two part "Konec": "On Death" and "On Judgement" . Every note begins with a shepherd's song about some biblical event of the Old Testament. Because 18th century society was very interested in sheepherding, every event was for the author a reason to think about the life of shepherds and peasants. Every note after a shepherd's song contains 59 moral exhortations. Durovic's excellent study (pp . 655-730) pays attention to the language of "V alaska skola". The real use and interest of this edition is linguistic. A previous edition by Michal Resetka (1830-31) left out some lines and transcribed the spelling into Bernolak's codification and so he ruined the rhymes and the whole construction of the work. The second edition by Rudolf Krajcovic (1971) presented the work as a literary monument of Slovak cultural history. His edition was substantially abbreviated. 126 SLOVAKIA Durovic shows that Gavlovic's language is half-way between the work of Pavel Dolefal's "Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica" (1746) and Anton Bernolak's "Gramatica slavica" (1790). The publishing of Gavlovic's "Shepherd's School" has enormous importance for Slovak cultural history of the 18th century. It was a precursor of Anton Bernolak's "Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum" (1787), which signaled the beginning of the codification of the Slovak language. Gavlovic's work was published on the occasion of the bicentennial of two important events in Slovak cultural history of the 18th century: the death of Hugolfn Gavlovic, and the publishing of the work of Anton bernolak. Gerald J. Sabo and I.:'ubomfr Durovic have contributed greatly to explaining the cultural history of Slovakia in the 18th century. Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Vols. I and 2, edited by Max Domarus. Waucondia, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990 and 1992. 611 pp. and 1367 pp. BRIAN L. VILLA University of Ottawa In 1945 the Allies were preparing to mete out severe justice, not just to Nazi Party members but to all Germans, arguing that they were guilty by complicity, by reason of having all heard Hitler's clearly articulated murderous program. This argument, which seemed persuasive in its day, is now something of an embarassment to historians, for it could also be turned against all the Western leaders who, after all, also had acces to Hitler's speeches and yet for many years indulged in appeasing him. For that matter, when Stalin made his pact with Hitler, he knew as much or more than the German public did of Hitler's intentions. There was another flaw in the argumentation and this was that Hitler mixed veiled threats and bombastic verbal terrorism with mild-sounding musings about peace and esctatic smiling at babies. SLOVAKIA 127 Germans, and foreign observers , were thus faced with the problem of sorting out which was the real Hitler, and which was not. Yearning for a better world after the horrors of World War I, not suprisingly the hearts of this generation were ruled by wishful thinking. The consequences of Hitler's programme did not stand starkly revealed until May of 1945, as the world gazed on the lunar landscape of German cities. Most had failed miserably to perceive what his program entailed. But we will never be able to judge properly this issue of the public perception and misperception until we have a complete collection of all of Hitler's recorded utterances, public and private. Any selection prejudges the issue a bit. While the work by Max Domarus , of which the first two volumes in English translation are now in print, is a magnificentlycrafted and documented collection, it is still a selection and a number of speeches are represented only by a single sentence. Still, this is likely to be the most ambitious compilation we are likely to see in our lifetime. Accompanied by solid historical narrative and commentary, carefully documented and well-edited, this is an invaluable tool for the study of the Nazi era. Distateful as it is to put Hitler's speeches up upon the shelves of institutions devoted to truth, this is a mandatory purchase for almost any better library. Certainly it is necessary reading for those who would study the mad delusion of a nation, not to say of a generation. The picture that emerges in Domarus' masterful collection and skillful aditing is that of Hitler as a skilled concert-master calling upon the positive and the negative in his audience, blending, twisting, distorting, so that what had ever been true and false was imposible even to remember. A particularly notworthy revelation of these volumes is the brilliance with which Hitler's staff employed his time. Appearing here and there in a dizzying schedule, building a complex riddle, he climbed to power by purposefully confusing his audience. There is obviously a good book to be written about his handlers, his working staff, and how well they created the monster that eventually escaped so completely from their control. Such a study, as must almost any study of Hitler, will gain immeasurably from a careful study of this indispensable source. 128 SLOVAKIA Jozef Jablonicky. Povstanie bez legiend. Bratislava: Obzor, 1990. 357 pp. STANISLA V J. KIRSCHBAUM York University Those who are interested in a detailed account of the 1944 revolt in Slovakia will find this book useful. It is well-documented and well-writen. Furthermore, the author loses no opportunity to contradict in detail various interpretations that were published during Gustav Husak's regime. It is a valuable addition to Slovak historiography. However, the significance of Jozef Jablonicky" s book lies not so much in the history of what the Communist regime and Marxist historians dubbed the "Slovak National Uprising", as in the reasons why yet another book on those events was published, especially after the fall of Communism in 1989. In fact, this book belongs to the Communist period; it is in its own way a reflection of it. That it was published when freedom of the press was restored merely helps to underline this very fact. As the publishers indicate in the foreword: "The author does not deny that in today's changed social and political conditions, he would formulate many things differently, more openly and more directly; however, he preferred to publish his work as it had been written, under conditions when the opportunity for scientific discussion was replaced by police interrogations" (p. 7). Jablonicky is one of the scholars of the 1960s who published histories of the 1944 events (for example, Z ilegality do povstania, 1969; there are also memoirs, Husak's in particular, and edited volumes) in response to the distorted accounts of the 1950s. However, his writings, like most from the Communist period were hampered either by restricted access to documents, by censorship, or by both. When Husak came to power in 1969, in the footsteps of his predecessors, but also perhaps because he had been the object of earlier falsification himself, he began to alter the historical record, or put simply to falsify history. Jablonicky found that once again he SLOVAKIA 129 had to set the record straight, a task for which he paid a personal pnce. He became a 'persona non grata' under Husak, was expelled from the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciencies in 1974, and from 1976 on was subjected to police harassment, or, as he put it, "primitive persecution". Even though his manuscripts were confiscated, he continued to write and to do research on the topic of the 1944 events. In 1984 the Husak regime published the fivevolume series Dejiny Slovenskeho narodneho povstania. As Jablonicky writes: "I considered it my professional responsibility to counter this literature critically. However, I also tried not to repeat my own errors and defects which are to be found in my earlier works" (p. 9) . His response began to appear in "samizdat" in 1988; this volume is that response. There is one theme that this study does not examine, namely the importance of the 1944 events in Slovak history. There is no doubt that they had far-reaching consequences for the Slovak nation . Jablonicky tells us how they happened, but not why. Nor does he explain their ultimate consequences. One can understand why they were celebrated under Communism: they gave the regime some sort of legitimacy. But that regime has now disappeared, as has the outcome which the 1944 revolt produced: the common state with the Czechs. This begs the question of their role and importance even more than before. For the moment, Jablonicky has chosen to eschew such questions. Yet as a professional historian, now able to express himself freely, he should accept the fact that he has a responsibility greater than that of merely chronicling these events. Others will no doubt tackle these questions; were Jablonicky also to do so, the history of the 1944 events might yet be written without any legends. 130 SLOVAKIA Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia. New York: Pergammon Press, 1988. XI-97 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This short work deals with a little-known aspect of Slovak and World War II history. French prisoners-of-war, escaping from camps in Germany and Hungary, made their way to Slovakia and were sheltered by the Slovak Resistance. Led by Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien, these Frenchmen fought as part of the Stefanik Brigade in the uprising of 1944. The Stefanik Brigade was under Soviet partisan command, while the Czechoslovak General Staff in Banska Bystrica insisted that the French be subordinate to its own command structure. De Lannurien's unit was able to exploit this jurisdictional dispute, gain concessions from both sides, and assure for itself a measure of operational independence. The French partisans were instrumental in thwarting the German drive on Strecno in September 1944 and aided in the recapture of Janeva Lehota. After the German suppresion of the uprising in October, de Lannurien's Frenchmen - along with Slovak soldiers and Soviet partisans - retreated into the Tatras and continued resisting as guerrillas. They were joyfully greeted by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and were at last permitted to return home. The author's narrative is supplemented by the accounts of partisans who remembered the Frenchmen. The introduction mentions that the author was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union and became Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1971. As a Husak"s appointee, Chnoupek rather naturally treats the Slovak National Rising as a popular event. Correspondingly, the Slovak Republic is labelled as a "fascist state". Supporters of the Tiso regime maintain that the president-priest never signed any death warrants. Chnoupek, however, alludes to death sentences being passed in absentia on deserters from the Eastern front. SLOVAKIA 131 Yet Chiioupek inadvertedly extends some credit to the Slovak state in the case of Ga~par Maco. Maco refused to heed his call-up orders for the Slovak Army in September 1939, proceeded to France, and served in the Czechoslovak Legion within the French Army. After France's military collapse in 1940, Maco returned to Slovakia and was arrested. The author admits that Maco's youth and frank confession were taken as "mitigating circumstances" (p. 49), and he was given only a six-month sentence. Moreover, he was released one month early for health reasons. Such leniency would not have been forthcoming in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was under direct Nazi domination. Despite the author's diplomatic backround, his narrative is written in a plain, even folksy style. Interactions between French and Slovak partisans are treated as frequently humorous and occasionally poignant. Especially noteworthy is the description of Christmas Eve 1944, when Slovak partisans invited their French comrades to join them in celebration. This invitation was practical as well as idealistic: The French had captured a herd of sheep from a retreating Hungarian detachment, and now had meat to spare. The Frenchmen were asked to sing the Marseillaise; they did so to the acoustical backround of Soviet artillery, as the front was drawing near. Unknown to them, on the previous day in liberated Paris, General de Gaulle approved de Lannurien's promotion. Given the author's ideological affiliation, it is sometimes easy to forget that Slovak Communists were themselves dissidents during the Novotny years, when many aspects of the Slovak uprising were considered taboo topics. Chnoupek's research was given only the briefest coverage in the newspapers for the tenth anniversary of the uprising. Years later, while laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he was warmly greeted by French veterans of the Slovak partisan struggle. It was then that Chnoupek decided to continue his work and affect a "breaking of seals". The work is the author's own contribution to improved East-West relations. But Chnoupek nontheless conforms to the historiographical standards of Husak's Czechoslovakia, characterized by glaring omis- 132 SLOVAKIA sions of anything potentially embarrassing. Soviet partisan commander Peter Velitchko is depicted in an altogether favorable light, notwithstanding the fact that his rash actions brought full-scale German intervention, caused the rising to be launched prematurely, and thus resulted in tragic consequences. Soviet historians describe this occurance as unfortunate, but they have yet to account for their country's role in it. In post-Husak Czechoslovakia, a more genuine "breaking of seals" regarding topics concerning the 1944 revolt is at last possible. Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho. Edited by Jan Smolec. Bratislava: Tatrapress, 1990. 254 pp. JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington Concomitant with the current revival of national feelings in Slovakia is a reevaluation of those figures from the Slovak past who were either ignored or vilified during the communist era. Most noteworthy among such figures is Jozef Tiso, the president of the wartime Slovak Republic who was executed as a war criminal in 1947. Process dr. J. Tisom, Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho, is an important contribution to that reevaluation. The book consists of the memoirs of Anton Rasla, one of the prosecutors at Tiso's trial, and Ernest Zabkay, Tiso's chief defense attorney. In addition to the reminiscences of these men, the book includes excerpts from their concluding speeches at Tiso's trial , as well as the text of the trial's verdict. In Zabkay's testimony, two important assertions dominate - that Tiso did not receive a fair trial and that Tiso was not guilty as charged. In support of his first assertion, Zabkay cites the political nature of the trial , the open bias agains Tiso of the presiding judge, Igor Daxner, the denial of certain documentation to the defense, and the harassment of defense lawyers by the police, prompting one SLOVAKIA 133 defender to resign. In Tiso's defense, Zabkay portrays him as a victim of circumstances who could not withstand the irresistible pressure from Nazi Germany nor control her allies in the radical wing of his own party, who either did not know about or was unable to prevent the atrocities commited under his regime, and whose close relations with Hitler's Germany were a matter of necessity, the only way to preserve his small nation from a Hungarian or German occupation. Rasla, who believes that Tiso was indeed guilty of war crimes, nevertheless has sharp words for Daxner and for the prosecution's approach during the trial. Against Rasla's recommendation that the prosecution limit its attention to Tiso's wartime collaboration with Hitler and his role in the crimes against humanity, the prosecution pursued a number of dubious charges, for example, that Tiso supported the interests of Horthyite Hungary. Such charges helped damage the trial's credibility in the eyes of the Slovak public. Proces s dr. J. Tisom leaves us with some important considerations for a reevaluation of Tiso. First, the historian must be careful to distinguish between the moral responsibility and the legal responsisbility of his subject, keeping both in mind but avoiding the conflation of the two that one so often finds in issues concerning war crimes. Second, there is a need to exonerate Tiso where exoneration is due, that is, to avoid reading his wartime collaboration with the Nazis back into the prewar past. For example, it is both untrue and unjust to charge Tiso, as his prosecutors did, with deliberately seeking the destruction of the First Czechoslovak Republic in accordance with Nazi plans in the years preceding the Munich Agreement. Third, there is a need to condemn Tiso where condemnation is due - as the head of a state that deported tens of thousands of Jews to the Third Reich, who gave a violently anti-Semitic speech at the height of the Holocaust, who was one of only sixteen people to receive Nazi Germany's highest decoration, and who, in a case of perverse moral reasoning, professed that Slovakia was fighting on Hitler's side in the Second World War for the "honor of the Slovak nation". 134 SLOVAKIA Owing to the emotions and political pressures of the immediate post-war period, Jozef Tiso did not receive a fair trial. A reevaluation of his trial and his place in Slovak history is long overdue, and the memoirs of Rasla and Zabkay are a welcome step in this direction. Nevertheless, given the current nationalist passions in Slovakia, an objective evaluation of Tiso in his native land may be difficult to realize for some time to come. Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus'. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992. Lii - 296pp. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul, Minnesota This book was originally published in Ukrainian in 1967. It was translated by Marta Skorupsky as part of a series of "Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Scholarship" coordinated by Patricia A. Krafcik and Paul Robert Magocsi. The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' is primarily an ecclesiastical history, but it also provides enough political and social context to allow a secular historian to place the· work in the more familiar secular framework. Pekar focused his attention on the Greek Catholic Church in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (Northeastern Hungary until 1918). His study began with the "union" movement which culminated with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Pekar gave even coverage to each period, bringing it up to the post-World War II era with a final chapter: "In the Immigration" which examined the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The author had acces to special collections not readily available to secular scholars, especially, the Archivum Secretum Vatican um (Secret Archive of the Vatican). He has treated those sources with a proper historian's respect so that other historians may feel confident SLOVAKIA 135 in citing his work, but he also approached his topic with an obvious Vatican perspective or bias. Pekar was very critical of the Slovaks. This bias is curious and revealing. The Slovaks have a long history of cooperating with the Rusyns as they jointly resisted Magyarization. It is true that some contemporary Slovaks in the 1960s pressured Rusyns in Eastern Slovakia to identify with the Slovak national movement, but contemporary everits should not distort a historian's analysis of past cooperation. Pekar suggested that the Vatican was constantly fighting to protect the Uniate Church. These attempts were only partially successful in both Hungary and in America. In both places the Latin Church won considerable advantages over the Uniate Church. In his discussion of the Greek Catholic Church in America with its many defections, Pekar was critical of the American bishops for demanding a single rite, the Hungarian government for resisting Leo XIII's efforts to unite the Galician and Sub-Carpathian Rusyns into a single diocese in America, and the leaders of the Greek Catholic Union for resisting the guidance of Rome as the Vatican demanded changes in the Greek Catholic rite. The people, whom Pekar viewed as sheep, reacted against any affront to their rite, and the Greek Catholic Union provided them with the organization necessary to stand up to the forces that would deprive them of those traditions. Pekar's treatment of the actors as villains and heroes , accounts for the greatest weakness of his work. The Vatican was not always the hero. This reviewer would suggest that the Vatican compliantly yielded to Latin Church interest at the expense of the Uniate Church in both Hungary and in America. Pekar also treated the Rusyns as sheep in need of a shepherd. Such an attitude has been traditional with Rome, but it shows disregard for people and democratic principles, and occasionally turns heroes into villians. 136 SLOVAKIA Volodymyr Fedynysynec', Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays. Presov: Rusinska Obroda, 1992. 110 pp. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK Evergreen State College Olympia, Washington Our Peaceful Rusyn Way is a slim volume containing two lenghty essays by Subcarpathian poet and writer Volodymir Fedynysynec'. These essays reflect the author's perception of the current status of the Rusyn national revival in Europe, particularly in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The first, "Be a Rusyn So That Rusyns Will Survive", describes the enormous impact of the scholarly work of Dr. Paul R. Magocsi and the First World Congress of Rusyns (March 1991) on Rusyn historical awareness and revival. Fedynysynec' calls this essay his "objective and subjective notes and reflections" on both the congress and a scholarly seminar on Rusyns held in Uzhorod prior to the congress. In the second, "I am a Rusyn, My Son is a Rusyn: Some Social and Literary Dreams of a Rusyn Writer", Fedynysynec' discusses the significance of the nineteenthcentury Rusyn national awakener, Alexander Duchnovic, and why the creation of a new standard literary language is the key to the survival of Rusyns as a people. Fedynysynec' was born in 1943 and raised in the Rusynspeaking Carpathian mountain village of Repynne in the central region of Subcarpathian Rus', a former autonomous region of Czechoslovakia forcibly annexed to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin in 1945. He was subsequently acculturated as an Ukrainian after the Soviet regime officialy declared all Rusyns in the region to be Ukrainians. Graduating with a degree in Ukrainian language and literature from Uzhorod State University in 1966, he worked as a journalist and also as a researcher at the Museum of Ethnography in Uzhorod. He has been a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine since 1983. Until recently he was a member of the executive board of the Society of Subcarpathian Rusyns, established in Uzhorod in SLOVAKIA 137 1990, and was founding editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Podkarpatska Rus'. Fedynysynec' has also published several volumes of poetry in Ukrainian. To appreciate fully the value of Fedynysynec's inspiration and insights, the reader should understand that the Rusyn movement in Central Europe (Poland's Lemko Region, Eastern Slovakia's Presov Region, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and former Yugoslavia's historic Backa Region) is genuine and flourishing. The nineteenth-century process of national awakening and struggle which led to the formation of sovereign Central European states was, in the Rusyns' case, impeded by many factors. Only now are significant elements of that process occurring among the Rusyns, such as the establishment of a standard literary language, the publication of literature and historical texts, and public recognition of Rusyns as a distinct people. These are all addressed in Fedynysynec's essays. In approaching these essays, one ought to remember that Fedynysynec' is first and foremost a poet who experienced psychological and national repression under the totalitarian Soviet regime. Although known as a Ukrainian writer and poet, he never lost an elemental awareness of his Rusyn identity. This theme resonates ecstatically throughout the two essays: "I am a Rusyn ! We are Rusyns! And we will be Rusyns forever!", "And I don't have to look around me at those who will whisper curses at me. I can even shout above the Beskyds: I am a Rusyn!" Although informative, the essays are clearly not intended as historical or scholarly treatises. Fedynysynec' speaks rather with the passionate voice of an inspired poet and the vigor of an enlightened Rusyn patriot. His prose sometimes verges on stream-of-consciousness and his view of history occasionally borders on the romantic, such as his insistence that "Rusynism is two thousand years old". In the wake of the Gorbachev era, which he acknowledges as a fresh and liberating age, he recognizes a first-time opportunity to speak out on such forbidden subjects as national roots and pride: "Rusyn feelings have made their presence known ... like a kind of whirling sea within shores that were too narrow." What readers might lose in strictly historical fact, they gain through his psycho- 138 SLOVAKIA logical and emotional insight into the reality of a people who were held under a curse of silence for the past 45 years. The floodgates have opened and Fedynysynec's essays seem to pour forth expressing all the vitality of the Rusyn national movement. Fedynysynec' wrote his essays in Ukrainian (he has begun writing seriously in Rusyn only in the past two years). They appear here in the Presov Region Rusyn dialect and in Slovak and English translations. The book is neatly formated , with only a few minor misprints, and is the first publication of Rusfnska Obroda (The Rusyn Renaissance Society) based in Presov . The volume of contemporary literature on Rusyns is growing. Students of Slavic and ethnic studies can only hope that Rusfnska Obroda and other publishing enterprises will undertake to make Rusyn literature available both in the original language and in English translation to reach as wide an audience as possible. Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 19'Jl. 285pp, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. XVI-320 pp. MARIA FURIMSKY-LACKOV A Ottawa, Canada These two recently-published books by Norma L. Rudinsky are very welcome for several reasons: apart from dealing with topics which complement each other, both books provide a rare opportunity to read works of Slovak literature in probably the best translations available in the English language. Both describe the interesting place of Slovak women in the national movement at the tum of the 19th century and, most importantly, both fill a gap, at least partially, in the field of Slavic scholarship in North America. The first book is part history and part anthology. According to Rudinsky, it was initialy intended to be only an introduction for the second book, consisting of a translation of six stories by Slovak SLOVAKIA 139 writer Bozena Slancikova, who published her prose fiction under the pen name Timrava. However, it became a close study of journal articles, letters and poetry showing nationalism and feminism among the Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. The desperate position of Slovak women is traced here in three parts and six chapters. The first part deals with "Woman As Inspiration" in poetic works of Slovak male writers Jan Kollar, Jan Holy, Janko Kraf and Andrej Sladkovic, among others. The second part, titled "Women As Help", describes Slovak women as founders of women's nationalist organizations and magazines, and in the third part "Women As Women" they are depicted as incipient feminist writers of the turn of the century. Heroines of Elena Soltesova, the schoolteacher spinsters of Cudmila Podjavorinska and Timrava's fighting and agonizing female characters are proud and obstinate, consumed by hopeless love and passion. They are compared by Rudinsky to the reform heroins of English and American novelists, such as Jane Austin. Especially interesting is the Appendix of 123 poems in Slovak, formerly scattered in short-lived journals or manuscripts, and collected by Marianna Prfdavkova-Minarikova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. These poems range from a moralistic hymn in 1798 exhorting young ladies to beware of seducers, to several poems in the 1860s and 1870s equating the nation with a human lover and resolving to became a mystical bride of the nation. Available biographical data of Slovak poets, though many are still not fully indentified, are given in English. Two long essays advocating women's education are translated in full from Slovak into English and frequent comparision is made to Czech, Croatian and Magyar nationalist movements. At the end of the book is a thorough index and useful bibliography. Incipient Feminists is a very carefully-edited book with only a few misprints: e. g. the word "interesting" has an "m" in it (second line of preface); "Klastor pod Zvievom", (p. 40), should be " ... Znievom", and some diacritical marks are missing, e.g. on "zvlasr'' (p. 128). The actual names of the "two small towns in southeast Slovakia" where Timrava lived her whole life and which appear in her more than fifty stories and novellas, may also be of interest to 140 SLOVAKIA the readers. They are Polichno and Abelova. The same applies to Terezia Medvecka Vansova who "lived most of her life in a small town in southern Slovakia" (p. 89). This small town was and still is just a little village of a few hundred people and is called Rimavska Pfla. In Vansova's works it is called simply Pila, Pila pri Tisovci, or Pila v Gemeri. Here she lived from 1882 to 1911 and wrote most of her variety of sketches, tales, biographical pieces, memoirs and several plays. As well, she published there her journal for Slovak women called "Dennica". The second book, consisting of Rudinsky's excellent English translations of six of Timrava's Slovak stories written at the tum of the century, shows remarkably strong female characters desiring to assert their rights against many unfavourable odds. In "The Assistant Teacher" (from the Diary of a Young Lady)", written in 1896, Timrava deals with the financial and social necessity of a good marriage. In the second story titled "Battle" and written in 1900, the heroine rebels against the necessity of a marriage of convenience, albeit still only inwardly. This and other similar stories of rebellion placed Timrava among Slovak critical realists. The third story, "That Alluring Land", from 1907 depicts how the power of money and property takes control of human lives. This story also represents the true reason why many Slovaks emigrated to North America: not to search for instant wealth, but to avoid unemployment, political repression, famine and other basic afflictions in Austria-Hungary at the tum of the century. Mothers usually stayed home to take care of their children and the existing household. In 1911 Timrava wrote "No Joy at All" about the effect that the materialistic obsession with property can have on a family and how it could interfere with the love of two people. The backward village life that existed into the twentieth century in Slovakia is well depicted in "The fapak Clan" written in 1914. The living conditions of fapak's family are depicted probably more darkly than existed in reality in most village families at that time, but Timrava wanted to point out that such extremities existed indeed. The last story of the book "Great War Heroes", written around 1918, is Timrava's antiwar novella, which shows how unjust all wars are. It shows, not SLOVAKIA 141 only the men as the false "heroes", but also the women and how they become corrupted by the war. This story is Timrava's condemnation of World War One. All six stories depict Slovak women in transition: from obedience without questioning, to clearly understood and expressed rebellion. Timrava's stories depict the castes and culture and the way of life of one segment of Slovak society at the tum of the century, with all its irony and tough realism, making her work invaluable for those who are interested in Slovakia and its past. Jan Simko, English-Slovak Dictionary. Waucondia, Illinois and Senica, Slovakia: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers and RESS spol. s.r.o., 1991. 1443 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University The arrival of Jan Simko's English-Slovak Dictionary in bookstores in the summer of 1991 was a happy event. This dictionary was first published in Slovakia in 1967, and was reissued there in 1968 and 1971. It has been unavailable since that last printing sold out. It has now been published with corrections, but without additions . The physical quality of this book is excellent. It is hardbound, and small enough to handle comfortably . Each page has two columns and the print is large and easy to read. Since the intended user of the dictionary is a native speaker of Slovak, the introductory remarks are in Slovak, as are the abbreviations. The English entry or headword appears in large bold face type flush left to the margin of the collumn. It is followed by a phonetic transcription in square brackets, then the Slovak equivalents are listed. All main entries appear in a single alphabetical list in strict sequence of spelling. English words are written in italic type. The English-speaking user of the dictionary will not need to refer to the phonetic transcriptions of the English entries in order to learn their pronunciations, but it is 142 SLOVAKIA interesting to note that although British pronunciation is used as a basic one, both the British and the American versions are given when they differ markedly, e.g., "tomato" (p. 1250). When different words are used in American and British English for commonplace terms, both are given in this dictionary, e.g. "elevator" (p. 318) and "lift" (p. 648) vffah. These are just two examples of the thoroughness and careful scholarship that characterize this dictionary. If the entry word is used in more than one grammatical form or category (if it belongs to more than one part-of-speech), the entry is clustered or nested so that the usage is designated in the following way: the boldface numeral 1 is followed by the appropriate part-ofspeech in smaller typeface, the primary and secondary meanings are given, and this process continues for the other parts-of-speech. For example, if the first usage is a noun (podstatne meno, abbreviated podst.), and the second as a verb (sloveso, abbreviated s1. or nepravidelne sloveso, abbreviated n. s1., which means an English irregular verb), it would appear in the following way: break [breik] 1. podst. 1. zlomenie, zlomenina 2. trhlina, puklina, etc. 2. n. sl. to~ 1. (po)lamaf (sa), zlomif (sa), rozbif (sa) etc. On the stylistic level, words may be designated as colloquial (hovorove, which is abbreviated as hovor.), e.g. that's great! to je skvele, dobre; slang (slangove, which is abbreviated slg.), e.g., American slang, buck dolar, bookish (knitne); poetic and archaic (basnicke and zastarane'); and dialectal. In this book, dialectal refers to dialects of English, e. g. American, Scottish or Irish. One of the most important features of this dictionary is the wealth of commonly used and idiomatic phrases that it contains. These phrases are placed after the basic definitions, and are designated by a boldface centered dot, e.g. • at the back of one's mind, v podvedomf (p. 41); • hungry as a hunter, hladnf ako vllc (p. 556); • a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Jepsf vrabec v hrsti ako holub na streche (p. 108); • this argument does not hold water, tento argument neobstojf, je nelogickf (al. nespravny, nedosledny) (p. 540). The inclusion of many prepositional phrases in the examples is a valuable aid to students of the Slovak language SLOVAKIA 143 who frequently make errors in choosing the proper prepositions and cases, e.g. at reduced prices, za znfiene ceny (p. 990); to climb up a ladder, ( vy)liezt'po rebn1w (p. 1313) and many , many more . Dr. Simko's dictionary is a solid scholarly work, which has been compiled in accordance with modem lexicographical principles. It is a valuable resource for both specialists and students. This dictionary should be added to the reference sections of our libraries, and to the collections of our Slovak organizations.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 35 (No. 64-65) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Hugolín Gavlocič, Valaská Škola (Ján F. Frýdecký), p. 125</li> <li>Max Domarus, ed., Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Brian L. Villa), p. 126</li> <li>Jozef Jablonický, Povstanie bez legiend (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 128</li> <li>Bohuš Chňoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 130</li> <li>Jan Smolec, ed., Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obžalobcu Antona Rašlu a obhajcu Ernesta Žabkayho (James R. Felak), p. 132</li> <li>Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' (Keith P. Dyrud), p. 134</li> <li>Volodymyr Fedynysynec, Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays (Patricia A. Krafcik), p. 136</li> <li>Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava (Mária Furimsky-Lacková), p. 138</li> <li>Ján Šimko, English-Slovak Dictionary (Louise B. Hammer), p. 141</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Dyrud, Keith P. 1940- Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Frýdecký, Ján Furimsky-Lackova, Maria, 1943- Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Krafcik, Patricia Ann, 1949- Villa, Brian L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-92 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4653fcdcf869d030fcb7bdc00a736285.pdf 4593de865f9ba5d2f75a228dac130ad5 PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 119 Paul Robert Magocsi (with cartographic design by Geoffrey J. Matthews). Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1995, 218 pages. GEORGE J. DEMKO Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire The Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a truly outstanding and valuable book. The combination of professionally and accurately rendered maps, and the accompanying text that is written with authority, accuracy and clarity represent a rich source of information on an important part of the world. The atlas is comprised of 50 sections, each with maps (in color) and related explanatory text. The themes are varied and arranged chronologically starting from A.D. 400 to the present. The final section incorporates the most recent political changes that have occurred in the region. The themes begin with the geographic zones and continue with subjects such as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, population and migrations to recent industrial development. Some of the themes are quite innovative and useful such as "Education and Culture through the 18th Century" and "Ethnolinguistic Distribution in 1900". There are also 28 tables containing quite valuable information on such topics as the estimated deaths of Jews in the region by 1945, and the size of Catholic and Orthodox populations in East Central Europe in 1900. For bibliophiles there is also an excellent bibliography with an especially useful and rare list of atlases and maps relevant to the region. There are, of course, some issues with which one might quibble. For example, the region is very broadly defined as "the lands between the linguistic frontier of the German and Italianspeaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas" (P. XI) . These boundaries �120 SLOVAKIA were defined by the editors of the series to which this volume belongs (a multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press). The author has expanded on the original boundaries to include the eastern part of Germany, Bavaria, Austria, northeastern Italy, historic Poland, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Moldova and western Anatolia in Turkey! Certainly the author has erred on the conservative side by using such an inclusive and extensive set of bounding definitions. Given the fact that there are almost as many definitions of East Central Europe as there are "specialists" on the region, and that any defined region would have many important interactions with surrounding areas, the decision is an excellent one providing a very comprehensive perspective on an illdefined region, or rather a region on which a consensus would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is also possible to argue for themes that are important but omitted. For example, the omission of a section on emigration from this important region to the US and Canada (as well as other countries) is regrettable. This topic would have been particularly interesting for the Slovak and Polish areas. Also, the map of geographic zones is really a map of physiographic zones. A map of the "socio/cultural/linguistic regions" of the East Central Europe would have been much more useful and very interesting. In sum, Magocsi's Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a wonderful and fascinating addition to our educational sources on one of the most troubled and dynamic parts of the world. The cartography is first-rate, and attention to detail is commendable. Anyone, scholar, politican, or interested layperson should add this volume to his/her bookshelf. It is valuable, useful, visually pleasing and reasonably priced. �SLOVAKIA 121 Anton Spiesz. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu. Bratislava: Perfekt, 1992. Pp. 195. Gregory C. Ference Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland The late Anton Spiesz wrote a large number of books prior to the volume under review, most of which concentrated on economic history. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu, however, cannot be counted among this genre. Although economics play a prominent role in this book, it is best characterized as a historical survey of Slovakia. As such the first part of the title would have sufficed; na ceste k sebauvedomeniu misleads the reader, who is hard pressed to find anything about Slovak national awareness prior to chapter six where Spiesz introduced the issue of nationalism. Even though he began the story 200,000 years ago with the first evidence of humans on Slovak territory, the author quickly traversed the millennia. Evidently Spiesz started to write hi s book before the demise of Communism, as at times Marxist rhetoric appears in the study. In an apparent attempt to correct this problem, the author revised the text in several sections to distance himself from this outdated verbiage. Rather than soften the issue, however, it caused the book to become unwieldy in places. Although Spiesz intended it as a general overview of Slovak history, the book assumed too much. Spiesz sometimes failed to properly introduce people, or to explain events or documents, such as the Zilina Agreement of 1938, only mentioning them. Another fault was the author's penchant for lists, whether they were of animals in ancient Slovakia, manufactured goods from the mid-nineteenth century, or pedagogists. �122 SLOVAKIA The book also suffers from some major errors regarding dates. For example, Hungary proclaimed its independence in March 1849, not in 1848, Ladislav the Posthumous acceded to the throne in 1444 rather than in 1453, and the American Slovak organizations of Zivena and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union were founded in 1891 and 1892, not in 1894 and 1890 as Spiesz noted. Furthermore, in his treatment of the impact of Slovaks in the United States on politics, Spiesz incorrectly stated that both men and women enjoyed equal rights and the franchise before the First World War, and he over emphasized the establishment and role of socialist organizations among American Slovaks. The last chapters are Spiesz's best, providing balanced coverage on how the Communists subverted the political system and the Slovaks in their takeover of Czechoslovakia. He also exploded the Communist myth that the Slovak National Uprising was one of the greatest moments in Slovak history. In the latter instance, the author painted a very brutal picture in which countless innocent people were murdered by the insurgents. Spiesz could have finished his volume on a high note, b~t his final chapter, "From the Building of Socialism to its Bankruptcy," destroyed the seemingly solid effort found in its several preceding sections. Claiming that a historian cannot write effectively and objectively about events unless a period of at least thirty years has elapsed, he merely gave a thumbnail sketch of the period from 1960 to 1989 which included the tumultuous events of the "Prague Spring" and the "Velvet Revolution." An attack on Gustav Husak undeservedly received the most coverage in this four-page chapter. Here, Spiesz appeared to place himself on a soapbox in an attempt to further disavow his connections with the former regime. The author might instead have covered the fast-paced events after 1989 through the date of publication in order to give the reader a sense of closure. �SLOVAKIA 123 Finally, the book has no index which, though not unusual for European publications, would in this case have been indispensable, since Spiesz covered so much in so few pages. On the whole, this book would be appropriate only for someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak history. Richard Marsina a kolektfv. Slovenske dejiny. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1993, 334 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Rorida This works represents the first general attempt since the collapse of the communist system in 1989 to reevaluate the history of the Slovak people. As such, it offers surprisingly little that is new or original. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Slovenske dejiny condemns the excesses of communist dictatorship, many of its conclusions would be politicaly acceptable to the deceased Husak regime. The early portion of the book deals with events and developments from which various schools ot thought concerning Slovak historiography have traditionally drawn common conclusions: Slovakia was settled by man since the dawn of history, the Slovaks retained a sense of identity in the Hungarian kingdom, there were embryonic tendencies towards statehood in earlier times, and so on. A subtle change of interpretation may be found in the treatment of the national awakening, specifically concerning the leaders of the 1848 revolution. Earlier Marxist interpretation of the 1848 events portrayed Cudovft Stur and his colleagues as conterrevolutionaries for siding with the Habsburgs against the Hungarians. Later, Slovak historiography during Alexander Dubcek' s tenure as First Secretary of the Slovak �124 SLOVAKIA Communist Party reversed this trend, portraying the Slovak leaders as socially progressive figures. This interpretation was continued throughout the Husak regime. Slovenske dejiny, by contrast, depicts the Slovak leaders in a strictly national rather than a social context. The work concedes that they initially attempted to cooperate with Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth on questions of social reform, but indicates that a breakdown of relations occured concerning Hungary's national question. One significant, and, in retrospect, surprising change of interpretation concerns the circumstances surrounding the Czecho-Slovak merger of 1918. Communist historiography traditionally regarded the merger as a "bourgeois swindle", in which the Slovak people were treated as colonial subjects until the victory of the working class under Communist leadership rectified relations between two nationalities. Given the pressures of Magyarization at the turn of the century, however, Slovenske dejiny treats pro-Czech sentiment as a positive force. The activities of T. G. Masaryk and the Czecho-Slovak emigres, the exploits of the Czechoslovak Legion on foreign battlefields, and even the career of the extreme Czechophile Vavro Srobar are all cast in a heroic light. No mention is made of the previously lauded Slovak Soviet Republic which was founded on the bayonets of Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army. This work conveys the impression that, if Czecho-Slovak union in 1918 was not the best of all possible worlds, it was at least a step in the right direction. Slovenske dejiny is critical of Czech centralism in the interwar period, but regards the cultural emancipation of the Slovaks and their economic advancement as positive features. Honorable mention is given to Milan Hodfa's appointment as the first Slovak prime minister of Czechoslovakia. His career might have been given more attention. In spite of a long history of personal opportunism, Hodfa's ideas concerning Central European federalism are still worth studying today. �SLOVAKIA 125 While the work hails the attainment of Slovak autonomy in 1938, subsequent developments are portrayed as negative. Advocates of the rehabilitation of Monsignor Jozef Tiso are particularly bound to be disappointed: the Slovak Republic continues to be regarded as a Nazi puppet state, and the deportation of the Jews is treated in the same simplistic manner, which does not inquire deeper into the divisions of policy among Slovak leaders themselves. The 1944 uprising, correspondingly, is still regarded as a heroic event, notwithstanding the surrounding circumstances or tragic consequences. Surprisingly little attention is given to subsequent developments, perhaps out of sense of caution. It must be noted that, although the book was published in 1993, it was prepared during the previous year, at a time when many Czechs and Slovaks still hoped to maintain a federal republic. It reflects history written during a time of transition, and all the limitations found therein. This work's most revealing feature is a lack of vindictive malice towards the Czechs, a phenomenon which helped assure that the "Velvet Divorce" would not become another Balkanstyle bloodbath. A more comprehensive history, however, remains to be written. Katarina Sultajerova. Compiled by. Najstarsie rody na Slovensku, Martin: Slovenska genealogicko-heraldicka spolocnosr pri Matici slovenskej, 1994, 128 pp. DUNCAN B. GARDINER Lakewood, Ohio This collection of articles is essentialy a scholarly primer of the earliest documented Slovak aristocracy. It consists of papers delivered at the October, 1993 Symposium on the Oldest Line- �126 SLOVAKIA ages in Slovakia, which was co-sponsored by the State Regional Archives in Bratislava, the Archives Section of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and by the Slovak Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Jozef Novak, author of the two-volume Rodove erby na Slovensku ( 1986), wrote the preface and the lead article "Genealogia ako historicka disciplfna" , which discuses the importance of genealogy in understanding the early history of Slovakia. He recommends making heraldy and genealogy more valuable to historians by broadening genealogical studies to the geographic spread of a family over time, to the bibliography of published literature on a lineage, and to biographies of prominent individuals in the family. Novak also emphasises the importance of thorough source documentation. Roman Zelenay, the late State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Culture, wrote "Genealogicke met6dy vfskumu najstarsfch rodov". He discussed traditional Slovak naming customs dating to the Great Moravian period, showing that despite the lack of surnames, it is possible to establish genealogical betwe~n individuals by analyzing the system by which first names were given. The Battle of Mohacs ( 1526) disrupted the Slovak social order and this earlier naming system with it, a fact which makes post-Mohacs genealogies based on onomastics quite different. Milan Majtan, historian and author of Nazvy obcf na Slovensku za ostatnfch 200 rokov (1972), discusses the historical development of personal and family names in Slovakia in "Vfvin JXJmemivania osob na Slovensku", giving examples of proto-Slavic, pre-Christian and Christian naming traditions. Majtan cites copious examples from a range of early manuscript sources. In "Struktura sl'achty na Slovensku v 9 . - 13. storoci'', Richard Marsina relates that the upper aristocracy in Slovakia consisted of Magyars and Magyarized Slovaks. Therefore, the �SLOVAKIA 127 genealogist and historian must look to the lesser nobility within each of the old countries to study the prominent Slovak lineages. Vincent Mucska's "Anonymovo dielo ako genealogickf pramen'""' takes a critical look at the twelfth-century "gesta". He dismisses it as a source of concrete historic or genealogical fact. "Panovnicka dynastia v JO. - 11. storocl" by Ladislav Vrtel' chronicles in some detail the families of the two sons of Takson, a granson of Arpad, the first Magyar leader, showing their quite different fates. Nine more articles, written by wel-known historians, deal with the earliest aristocratic families of individual counties: Saris and Uz by Ferdinand Ulicny; Spis by Ivan Chalupecky; Turiec, Liptov and Orava by Jan Benko; Trencfn by Richard Marsina; Bratislava by Vincent Sedlak; Nitra by Jan Lukacka; Zvolen by Maria Durk ova; and Malohont by Leon Sokolovsky. Each article is in Slovak with a short summary in English or, in several cases, German. The English summaries are readable, but the number of typographical and gramatical errors show that a native English-speaking editor was needed. Short biographies of the authors would have been most useful. The articles are based both on original research and the literature in the field in a number of languages: Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Latin. The Genealogical-Heraldic Society has single-handedly placed Slovakia on the genealogical map by publishing the Hlas, a twice-yearly journal of genealogy and heraldry and by organizing local genealogy groups, not only in Martin, but also in Bratislava, Kosice, and Trencfn. The founding of this society is connected with the fact that the authors of the Slovenskf biografickf slovmk (6 vols., Matica slovenska, 1986 - 1994), aware that the 19th-century Slovak intelligentsia was related by a complex series of intermarriages, have wanted to investigate �128 SLOVAKIA their genealogies for some time. This volume is an admirable contribution to that effort. Dejiny SJXJlocnosti Jeiisovej na Slovensku: 1561 - 1988. Emil Krapka, S. J. and Vojtech Mikula, S. J. - editors: Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990, 526 pp. and 24 pp. of color illustrations. GERALD J. SABO, S. J. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This is a historical survey of the Jesuits and their activities in the Slovak area, part of the 1990 celebration of the Society of Jesus on the 450th anniversary of its papal approval. As noted on the bibliographic page, this monograph was prepared between the fall of 1986 and that of 198 8, before the so-called "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989. Its two editors and eight authors have presented much interesting material to a Slovak-reading public which lacked substantive, accurate information on a religious order important in Slovak history and culture since the sixteenth century. In the main body are a good number of black and white illustrations, supplemented with sixty-four color ones for Slovakia and ten related to Slovak Jesuit activity in Canada. This extensive history is probably unique among such writing, and given the circumstances under which it was realised, all those involved deserve much praise and gratitude. The monograph is divided into five major parts. The first four comprise the Jesuits' history from 1561 with their first establishment in Tmava and on through 1988. The first part of the history covers the time period through 1615, the second, through the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, the third, the �SLOVAKIA 129 order's suppression and its effect in the Slovak portion of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the fourth, the context of the Society's universal restoration and its work among Slovaks at home and beyond from 1853 through 1988. The second and fourth parts together comprise two-thirds of the entire work. A major part usually begins with the larger European and Church background in which the Slovak events arose and evolved, and then Slovakrelated material is divided according to geographical locations and pastoral/apostolic activity. The fifth and final part of this history includes a chronological summary of important events among Jesuits of this area, an explanation of religious and Jesuit terminology, a substantial bibliography on the Society at large and in the Slovak area, name and place indexes, and summaries in Slovak, English, German, French, and Magyar. Twice in this history, Jesuits suffered dramatically at the hands of civil authorities. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was finally impelled to supress legally the Society of Jesus in her realm from fear that if she did not do so, her daughter Marie Antoinette would not be allowed to marry the future French King, Louis XVI. Louis was a Bourbon, member of a royal family that strove mightily to eradicate throughout their European and foreign realms that "least" Society of Jesus for its greater loyalty to Church than state. Yet the Jesuits came back and thrived, just as they do today after their far more brutal suppression and persecution under the Communists between April, 1950 and the revolution of November, 1989. At present, Slovakia is a democratic, sovereign country, and publications such as the Dejiny need to showcase its role in European history and culture. Yet certain features of the Dejiny significantly limit its valuable effect and should be remedied. Prepared for a wide-ranging public conversant in Slovak, this work would also be of great interest to many others, whether general readers or scholars, who do not read Slovak, yet for �130 SLOVAKIA whom the summaries in languages other then Slovak are woefully inadequate. For this much wider audience, the Dejiny should be translated into English, the current lingua franca. Further, the lack of any documentation in notes is a serious limitation, yet nowadays such material could be collected within a reasonable time. This data is needed to provide crucial scholarship about Jesuits in Slovak territory and beyond which is available nowhere else. The activities of these Jesuits, mostly Slovak yet also of other nationalities, have remained hidden from appreciation even in Jesuit publications. For instance, in English-language studies of the Jesuits, the activities and influence of the universities in Trnava and Kosice - cities often disguised behind their German or Magyar names - are briefly mentioned, if that. No mention at all is made of the Slovak Benedikt Szollosi, compiler of the first Catholic hymnal Cantus catholici with songs in Latin and "Cultural Slovak". No more fortunate has been the Slovak Martin Szentivanyi, whose varied writings, encyclopedic studies, and very able directorship of the Trnava University press contributed significantly to Slovak history, culture, and language development. Also unknown among English readers is the Slovak Samuel Timon, whose writings made him a pioneer in scholarly Slovak historiography. Nor is Jesuit history in Slovak territory better known in other Western languages. For instance, nearly fourty years ago the Magyar Jesuit Laszl6 Lukacs wrote in German about the Jesuit Antonio Possevino's papal mission to establish a network of seminaries and schools in northern Europe in the late sixteenth century, but nothing was said about any Slovak area plans or effects. The Dejiny, though, discusses Posse vino's mission and its effects in re-establishing Jesuits there, as well as many other points not found outside of Slovaklanguage publications. Yet how is a general reader or scholar to appreciate the important Jesuit role and contributions to Slovak �SLOVAKIA 131 history, culture, and society, if he is unable to read this history, or is even unaware that it exists? Clearly, the Dejiny cannot remain a hidden Slovak treasure. Indeed, the Slovak Jesuits have an obligation to make the Dejiny with proper documentation known and accessible to a non-Slovak-reading public. They must present themselves before the world and not simply in the Slovak heart of Europe. Otherwise, a part of Slovakia, its culture, history, people, and achievements will remain concealed behind a language that few in today's world will bother to learn even for reading. James Ramon Felak. "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,1929-1938. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, xiv & 263 p. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Czechoslovakia is a state that broke up twice in its seventyfour year history: the fust time it was under the pressure of international events and on the eve of a world war, the second in the aftermath of democratic elections. The fust break-up has been mired in controversy, due not only to the circumstances surrounding it, but above all to the responsibility that is often ascribed to the Slovak People's Party (SPP) for bringing about that outcome. James Felak's study looks at this party, in particular during the decade that precedes the fust break-up. There are very few studies of Slovak politics in the first Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), fewer still that offer an in depth examination of the role and policies of the main parties that influenced and shaped inter-war Slovak political life. The handful of monographs that have been written on Slovakia in the first �132 SLOVAKIA CSR, or indeed on the first CSR itself, have generally looked at how the "Slovak question" has contributed to, been responsible for, or unable to prevent its break-up. It would not be inaccurate to say that most take a position for (the Czechoslovak and Marxist approach) or against (the nationalist Slovak approach) the first CSR; very few seek to examine the question from the dynamics of Czech-Slovak relations as did Carol Skalnik Leff in National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (1988), or from the challenges a multinational state faces when dealing with its constituent nations and national minorities. Felak's study fills some of the gaps in our knowledge of Slovak inter-war political life, but, regretfully, it does little to advance our understanding of it. Of the seven chapters that present the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, five offer a relatively detailed examination of its policies for the decade that begins with the Depression. The first chapter presents a rapid and, unfortunately, superficial overview of Slovak nationalism until 1929 whereas the second outlines in detail the party's ideology and programme. The remaining chapters are divided according to certain events that mark a change of fortune or direction for the party. The author looks in depth at some of the more important ones, such as the Tuka affair of 1929, the 1929 and 1935 elections, the 1931 Slovak orthography dispute, the 1933 Pribina celebrations, the different party congresses, in particular the Youth Congress of 1932 and that of 1936, and the 1938 Pittsburgh Pact celebration, all of which marked Slovak political life. Equally useful and interesting are his descriptions of the SPP platform at different times and the relations with other Czech and Slovak political parties and formations. As for the various leading personalities, Andrej Hlinka, Vojtech Tuka, Karol Sidor, and Jozef Tiso, among others, the author seeks to give a sense of their role and importance in the development of SPP policies. In sum, most of the �SLOVAKIA 133 book offers a detailed examination of the role of the SPP in an important decade in Slovak political life and is in this respect a contribution to the existing literature. The main problem with this study lies in its approach to the subject. This is due not only to too great a reliance on certain earlier studies, but above all to the indiscriminate use of police reports as authoritative sources of political analysis. In fairness to the author, he makes an attempt to present a balanced approach on the "Slovak question". Yet the language he uses clearly indicates that he identifies with and accepts generally the interpretations of those authors who have a Czechoslovak view ?f Slovak history, a view that is mostly negative toward the Slovaks and uncritically favourable toward Czechoslovakia. For example he refers to Slovakia as "relatively underdeveloped, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and nationally" (p. 17) or describes Hlinka as having a "parochial, clerical mentality that resembled that of a Slovak peasant." (p. 25) In addition, like earlier authors, his examination of Prague policies toward Slovakia and toward the SPP, is at best cursory and certainly not critical. On occasion one gets the feeling from his presentation that there was a specific Prague-SPP dynamic, yet there is little analysis of the reasons for and the consequences of Prague policies, only of the SPP reactions and actions. For example, Prague exercized censorship on the SPP press to such an extent that in 1938, when the government was considering the possibility of a coaliton with the SPP, one of that party's conditions was the lifting of that censorship. Equally problematic is the reliance on police reports as a research source. The fact that the Prague government felt it necessary to have police spies within the SPP is in itself a fact worth examining, not to say anything of the accuracy of these reports. The emphasis that Felak places on factional struggles within the SPP comes mostly from these reports. That the police �134 SLOVAKIA spies reported such struggles is not in the least bit surprising; it was in the government's interest to be able to neutralize an opposition party that Pelak on many occasions describes as the most important one in Slovakia. Also, there is nothing surprising about factional differences; this is a fact of life in political parties in all democratic states. But in this case, the factionalism represented the dilemmas the SPP faced in its twin objectives: the autonomy of Slovakia and the integrity and security of Czechoslovakia. The failure of Prague to have understood this and to have dealt with it adequately was paid, in the end, "at the price of the republic." For all its richness about the SPP, Felak's examination of its policies is nevertheless incomplete; on the other hand, it has the merit of provoking additional questions and showing the way for further study. Hope Dies Last, The Autobiogra]Xly of Alexander Dubcek. Edited and translated by Jin Hochman. New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1993. 354 pp. ROBERT K. EV ANSON Uni versify of Missouri Kansas City The automobile accident of September 1, 1992, which led to Alexander Dubcek's death nine weeks later, robbed Slovakia of one of its most distinguished political leaders. Whether Dubcek could have played a vital role in shaping the politics of an independent Slovakia will never be known. What is certain, and what we are reminded of in this fascinating autobiography excellently edited and translated by Jin Hochman - is that he did establish for himself a place of lasting historical importance. �SLOVAKIA 135 It seems necessary to say this because, as Dubcek himself was aware, there is insufficient appreciation among many of today's young Slovaks and Czechs of what he and his fellow "reform Communists" attempted to do in the 1960s. It remains for historians to sort out the difficult issue of just how much impact the Prague Spring had on the subsequent course of Czechoslovak politics that ended ultimately in the demise of the country's neo-Stalinist regime twenty-one years later, but clearly the impact was significant.The Prague Spring, which Dubcek more than anyone else helped to shape, set an example for democratic aspirations that resurfaced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It also was an obvious model for some of Gorbachev's policies in -the 1980s. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement also created deep wounds of alienation among Czechs and Slovaks towards the USSR and the post-1968 regime that never healed. Ironically, both Dubcek and the Soviets were correct in their 1968 dialogue, Dubcek in warning the Soviets of the need to better understand how many Czechs and Slovaks viewed the old regime as an unnatural entity, and the Soviets in recognizing the degree to which Dubcek's reform movement threatened the very foundations of Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. Dubcek's autobiography begins appropriately with his early years, and an examination of that period of his life teaches us a great deal about why he acted as he did in his maturity. It is difficult not to admire the man, and this book, which is not egregiously self-serving, merely strengthens that attitude. Several aspects of character and personality come to mind - decency, courage, political shrewdness, and a trust and idealism that were at once his greatest strengths and his greatest weaknesses. We find him as a teenager in Kirghizia defending young Muslims against bullying by his fellow Czechs and Slovaks, and after World War Two pressing relentlessly for the release from the Soviet Gulag of a physician who had treated the injured Dubcek �136 SLOVAKIA during the Uprising; it was a small moral step to his passionate commitment to the complete rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. In 1952, in the wake of the Shinsky trial and at the height of the terror, he cast aside a Soviet-censored version of a speech and instead delivered a ringing eulogy at the funeral of fellow Communist Karol Smidke, who had been a victim of the persecution. He stood up for the reforms in the face of immense Soviet pressure throughout 1968, acted honorably after his abduction to Moscow following the Soviet and allied invasion, refused to take the safety of exile because he thought his proper place was with his people, and sent off a stream of letters of protest long after his removal from power at considerable personal risk. Dubcek also was a very clever and careful political tactician. Some of the most fascinating passages in his book concern the way he built alliances in his ultimately successful effort to bring down Communist Party First Secretary Antonin Novotny in 1967. I would like to have read even more details about conversations he had with various political figures in this process, as well as about the way he blunted Novotny's efforts to consign him to political oblivion in 1962, but there still is plenty to captivate anyone with a taste for Prague-style Kremlinology. The period of the early 1960s is especially interesting in this book, because Dubcek discusses the first signs of the movement against neo-Stalinism and Prague centralism, including his election over Novotny's opposition to the position of Slovak Communist Party First Secretary in April, 1963. This event represented a stinging defeat for Novotny, because Dubcek already had established himself as the leading advocate for sweeping rehabilitation of the victims of the purges of so-called "Slovak bourgeois nationalists" in the early 1950s. As such, he had become the major opponent of Prague centralism in the Party leadership. �SLOVAKIA 137 While Dubcek was never foolhardy, he could be surprisingly bold. An interesting illustration of this was his successful ploy with Jin Hendrych, the number two man in the Party hierarchy in 1967 and, until then, a staunch Novotny loyalist. Sensing that Hendrych was beginning to vacillate in his commitment to Novotny, Dubcek walked into his office that late November and said that Novotny's days as First Secretary clearly were numbered, and that Hendrych might consider getting on the bandwagon or he too would fall. As an added enticement, he invited the startled Hendrych to consider whether he would like Novotny's job as First Secretary! The amusing climax of this story is that shortly thereafter, Leonid Brezhnev came to Prague to assess Novotny's prospects and naturally sought out Hendrych's opinion. Reportedly, Brezhnev barely got inside the door when Hendrych told him he was "willing" to serve as First Secretary. While Hendrych never got the chance - Dubcek succeeded Novotny - his abandonment of Novotny may have persuaded Brezhnev of the futility of a rescue operation. The most painful reading in this book is the period of the mounting Soviet hostility to the Prague Spring and the ultimate invasion and subsequent period of "normalization." It is impossible not to become angry all over again when one reads of the treatment Dubcek and his comrades received at the hands of their Soviet kidnappers, as well as the incredible pettiness and maliciousness of their successors in Prague and Bratislava. While Dubcek does not cast a great deal of new light on the events of 1968, he minces no words in assessing various political figures and spares no criticism of his worst tormentors. Thus we learn that Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin was as cold in private as in public and capable of extreme rudeness. He and his Soviet comrades are rightly dismissed by Dubcek as "gangsters" and "thugs." Novotny is confirmed as hopelessly ignorant of Slovak affairs, as well as contemptuous toward Slovak national �138 SLOVAKIA feelings, one of the keys to his ultimate demise. Dubcek also brands Vasil Bifak, Alois Indra, and the other conspirators of 1968 as "traitors." No one comes across worse, however, than Gustav Husak, who presided over the restoration of neo-Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. His shabby treatment of Dubcek after 1968, despite Dubcek's pivotal role in bringing about his political resurrection, is a sad counter to the courage he displayed when fighting for his own rehabilitation in the early 1960s. Despite the claims that he "protected" the ousted reformers from "hardliners" in the Party, Husak comes across here as a man incapable of normal feelings and as a complete opportunist. Naturally Dubcek was bitter about Husak, but the tone of his evaluations of Husak and other political figures is in fact measured and convincing. No discussion of Dubcek's political career would be complete without addressing his failure to discern the danger of a Soviet invasion in 1968. Part of the answer may lie in his family background. He was born in 1921 to a pair of committed socialists who were so enamored of the Soviet experiment that they were willing to relocate to Central Asia to help build a new society. At the same time, his parents had the good sense to return to Czechoslovakia when the dangers of remaining in the Soviet Union became obvious. Nonetheless, Dubcek never abandoned the socialist idealism he inherited from them. While he certainly understood the evils of Stalinism and the incompatibility of the Soviet-type system with Czech and Slovak traditions, he had a blind spot that served him poorly in 1968. Specifically, despite all the Soviet expressions of alarm about what he and his fellow reformers were doing, he could not bring himself to believe the USSR would intervene. There is no question Dubcek had evolved into a democrat and was aware of what he was doing. He writes that the Action Program put forth by Party reformers in 1968 "was a plan for a gradual return to �SLOVAKIA 139 the concept of democratic socialism ... " He acknowledges that his regime was rejecting various aspects of Leninism - he believed that the Communist Party could win popular support in competitive elections, once it had embraced democracy, and thus he downplayed the Soviet concern that his reforms were jeopardizing "the leading role of the party." At the same time, he knew he had to avoid making any references to multi-party democracy for fear of alarming them unnecessarily. He also believed that "socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise." He writes that of course he recalled what happened to Hungary in 1956, but he had made clear to the Soviets his determination that Czechoslovakia would remain loyal to its Soviet bloc allies, so the situations were not comparable. Perhaps it was due to his conviction that what he and his colleagues were doing would benefit socialism by strengthening the Communist Party's legitimacy among the people, and by bringing the country closer to the original ideals of socialism, that he could not believe that the Soviet leadership would not, however reluctantly, allow him to proceed. (In a postscript, Jiff Hochman notes Dubcek's inclination to believe in people's good intentions.) In fairness, it is difficult to fault Dubcek very much had he opted for concessions, it seems unlikely that the Soviet leadership would have accepted anything short of a complete abandonment of the democratization process to which he had committed his country. Still, his discussion of how he assessed the Soviet mindset at the time is not entirely satisfactory. Alexander Dubcek's autobiography is a thoughtful and wellwritten account of the life of a man of extraordinary moral and political qualities. It is indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the Czechoslovak political experience. �140 SLOVAKIA Paul Robert Magocsi. The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1993, x, 185 pp., Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul,MN The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey is essentially a revision of an earlier work by Prof. Magocsi, The RusynUkrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey (Vienna, 1981 ). But there is an additional twist to this revision. The "Preface" says: ''This volume is a translation of an introductory historical survey published in the newly codified Rusyn literary language as well as in Slovak by the Rusyn Renaissance Society in Presov." Prof. Magocsi played a leading role in the formation of the national movement that spawned the Rusyn Renaissance Society and the First World Congress of Rusyns that sponsored the codification of the Rusyn literary language. The professor, however, is modest. His name does not once appear in the text in connection with that activity; however, he is pictured with other leaders of the First World Congress of Rusyns (122). The contents of the book should be familiar to those have read the author's earlier works. Magocsi traces the Rusyns' history from their first settlement in eastern Slovakia to the present. He partially assumes and partially attempts to demonstrate that the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia form a distinct nationality. Magocsi documents the cooperation that existed between the Rusyns and the Slovaks while they were dominated by Hungary prior to 1914, but he is critical of the "slovakization" of the Rusyns between the world wars, and he also identifies the �SLOVAKIA 141 Ukrainian movement as a threat to the Rusyn national identity that the book clearly endorses. During the inter-war yars slovakization was a greater threat to the Rusyns than "ukrainianization", but after the Second World War, official government support for the Ukrainian identity led to a decline of any national consciousness. Many Rusyns identified themselves as Slovaks to avoid the Ukrainian label. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, the Rusyns in the Presov region were again free to publicly promote their own national identity as separate from either Slovak or Ukrainian. In this effort, the Rusyns received support from both the Prague and the Bratislava governments. Magocsi suggests that this support for the Rusyns harkens back to "the historical friendship and attention on the part of Czechs and Slovaks toward their Rusyn brethren ... " (126). It could also suggest that the number of people identifying themselves as Rusyns is now very small and the Rusyn movement is not likely to become a major competitor to the Slovak identity in eastern Slovakia. In fact the major problem with Prof. Magocsi 's interpretation of the Rusyn movement in estem Slovakia is his confidence that the small number of Rusyns can develop a national identity. He is dissatisfied with the 1991 census figures that identify fewer than 33,000 "Rusnak/Russian/Rusyn/Ukrainian" people in the Presov region, with just under 17,000 of them unambiguously identifying themselves as "Rusyn" ( 126). According to Magocsi, that number could potentially be as high as 130 000 (2 - 3). Many readers of Magocsi's first book: The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848 - 1948 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) were persuaded by his convincing argument that the Rusyns in Subcarpathia did, at least, "shape" a national identity during the inter-war years. But in that era, he was dealing with a larger critical mass of Rusyns. In eastern Slovakia, that critical mass does not seem to exist. With the Slovaks claiming �142 SLOVAKIA most of those 130,000 potential Rusyns, and the Ukrainians competing for the rest, it does not seem likely that the critical mass will develop. In the meantime, those who do identify themselves as Rusyns can read their history in their own "newly codified language". And those who identify themselves as Slovaks can also read the translation in their language just as Rusyns in North America can read it in English. Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Diaspora. Edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1994, xxxvi, 508 pp. PAUL R. MAGOCSI University of Toronto The goal of this volume is to provide brief factual data on Ukrainians wherever they may live in the world. The newlyindependent country of Ukraine has within its borders only 64 percent of the estimated 58.7 million inhabitants who inhabit various parts of the globe. Therefore, a history or description of the Ukrainian people as a whole must be concerned with many other places than Ukraine. This book in fact deals primarily with the estimated 21.2 million Ukrainians living outside Ukraine. The approach is comprehensive, with an effort to say something about communities, however small they may be, in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, Tunisia and New Zealand as well as in the more known countries of Ukrainian immigrant settlement like the United States, Canada, and Australia. �SLOVAKIA 143 The editor, Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, felt the need to trace the political and cultural history of Ukraine (pp. 37 - 84), which is the least satisfactory portion of this otherwise encyclopedic compendium. The rest of the volume consists of entries by 28 authors on the various countries where Ukrainians live. Each entry begins with a general overview of a specific country followed by a history of its Ukrainian community. Many entries include statistical charts and each ends with a list of further readings. Slovak readers will likely be interested in the entry called "Ukrainian-Ruthenians in the Slovak Republic", written by Vasyl Markus (pp. 157 - 166). While the author recognizes the enormous cultural achievements made by the Ukrainians in Slovakia after World War II, he does not attribute the achievements to the favorable policies of the former Czechoslovak Communist government that lavished extensive funding on the group, but rather to the efforts of the local Ukrainian-oriented intelligentsia. He claimes that the official census figures (30,800 Rusyns and Ukrainians in 1991) are far below the 110,000 to 120,000 that supposedly live in northeastern Slovakia. Markus argues the statistical discrepancy exists because of manipulation by Slovak census takers and a policy of "denationalization" carried out by both the former Communist and post-1989 governments in Slovakia. He does not mention the real reason for the numerical differences. Since the 1950s thousands of "Ukrainians-Ruthenians" voluntarily opted to identify as Slovaks in protest against Communist government decrees that banned the Rusyn national identity and required people to call themselves Ukrainian. The author also indirectly blames Slovak governments for responding favorably since 1989 to the Rusyn national revival and for allowing people in the 1991 census to identify with the Rusyn nationality (16,937 Rusyns as opposed to 13,847 Ukrainians) and with the Rusyn language (49,099 Rusyn speakers as opposed to 9,480 Ukrainian speakers) - the latter �144 SLOVAKIA figures are not provided by Markus. The otherwise democratic policies of present-day Slovakia are described as promoting "political Ruthenianism" a phenomenon that is "influenced by outside anti-Ukrainian forces" and that is intent on de-Ukrainianizing the local population. Fortunately, the rest of this volume maintains a less biased tone in describing Ukrainian communities in other countries. Nina Trnka: Slovak-English I English-Slovak Dictionary, N. Y., Hippocrene Books, 1992, 360 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Anizona Any contribution to the field of Slovak reference materials is always welcome. Attempts at popularization are encouradged only to the extent that a work demonstrates quality. Standards, of course, should always be high to reflect the expertise of the _ contributor. The backcover boasts "You are holding the only SlovakEnglish/English-Slovak Dictionary available in North America". What about Smejkalova et al.? The book is intended for "students and travelers", and claims to be "concise". For all its advertising pretense, its format is disappointing. It looks like a thesis. It lacks an Introduction which it sorely needs for efficient use. It omits a separating page (175) between the two major divisions for facile access, wherein an appropriate blank page or second title page would suffice. Pronunciation (pages i through iii) is confusing. The list of consonants is incomplete, not accounting for - among others important palatals d', I, ii, ( used in too many words to be ignored. As immediate as page one, there is no knowing how ''t~' �SLOVAKIA 145 in "akost' must be pronounced according to her presentation. Questions arise as to "studi'ia" (123) and "studna" (353 - see "well")? Why then "anP' (2) gives [a-nyi], or "odev" (71) [odyef]? How then distinguish cited "Javica" (44) from un-cited "/avica" - "left hand"? Equating long "6" with "6" in Pronunciation is erroneous, being that the latter "6" is diphotong [.u.o]. The remarks in Pronunciation are unclear and inadequate. The uninitiated will render Slovak pronunciation ludicrous. Examples provided are ambiguous for articulation of varietes of vowel "a", because speakers of American-English are inconsistent in their renditions of "a" in cited forms "ma-ma, fast, rat, grass, pad". To present digraph "ch" as aspirated [kh] in "khaki" (sic!) is not true for the guttural [)c]. And, to state that Slovak "r' is approximated by labial untrilled "r' of "red" - bellies the trilled "r' performed by the tongue. Transcription in Pronunciation is defective, since the symbols given are arbitrary, not in accord either with the conventions of Slovak texts or even the International Phonetic System. A hard look at the symbols presented defies logic. Examples follow. Since Standard Slovak (i. e. spisovna slovencina) utilizes digraph "dz" as the phone in medzi and other words - to employ "dz' as a symbol for English pronunciation of th [b] of "they" is incomprehensible! In like manner, use of [s] for [0] of "thank" produces comic theatrical effect as in [Sank you] for [Sank you]! Moreover, to present the nasal-guttural -ng [ri] of "long" as underlined [g] can be misinterpreted into a humorous exagerated liaison of oft-quoted misquoted "LoNGJsland" with defined [NGJ]. �146 SLOVAKIA Further examination into the deficiencies given in Pronunciation would require a complete revision after careful editing. So far only the unavoidable pitfalls have been critiqued. Editorial work appears lax or nonexistent as evidenced by "thruth" (sic! page ii), presumably "truth". And, "heith" (sic! page 158) following vyska and page 244, apparently meant to be "height"). In both citings of "heith", consistency seems to demonstrate persistent misspelling. There is an unexpected thrust from V (350) into W (351) without a notification-heading W. As for word-selection, it might be hoped that high-frequency was a criterion for efficiency. On the contrary, superfluous are words among others like "elephant" (222), "volcano" (350), "yacht" (358), "zebra" (359) - scarcely indigenous to Slovakia! Yet the word kamzik (36?) "chamois" (198?) indigenous to the Tatras finds no listing in either section. Why "warden" (351) is given makes one wonder of its sociological implications. Why is "warrant" (351) so important to find place here? Surely one expects utilitarian vocabulary in such a work. As for semantics, a first-hand impression might be that if several meanings are provided without explanation or definition - an indiscriminate interchange might be possible. Not so for automat (3) "slot-machine, snack-bar, machine-gun". Thus also for "minister" (268) "minister, vyslanec, duchovnf" mean different things. Each having a distinct, specific meaning. It is most unlikely that "students and travelers" will discern clearly which term fits which circumstance. Cross-references are not provided for necessary clarification. See "warm" (351) ...srdecnf... for which neither "cordial" (206?) nor "sincerely" (315) are given on expected pages in parentheses. In similar manner, aktiv (1) "meeting, gathering" makes no reference or distinction from "meeting" (266) schodza, stretnutie. �SLOVAKIA 147 Perusal of the text will result in startling revelations. For instance, pronunciation of odJXJr (72) gives [od-por], whereas in fact it is [ot-por], a morphophonetic alternation called regressive assimilation. Where the voiced d automatically becomes unvoiced/devoiced t, in harmony with unvoiced p which sets the condition for the process. The same phenomenon occurs in other instances like odstup (72) to [ot-stup], bezplatny (6) to [bes-platnee], modlitba and prosba for "prayer" (289) not given in the text as [mod-lit-ba] and [proz-ba]. Interesting to note is that word-final voiced consonants are given as de-voiced as in smrad (116) [smrat]. However, no account has been made of v as a semi-vowel [IJ.] in such words as pravda (92) [prau.da], rovno (105) [rouno], domov (18) [domo.1J.]; instead, Czech ussage [domof] (18) is presented. Two outstanding examples given: [svatba] (125) for svadba and ['strukh] (101) for pstruh are unintelligible. For all the effort involved in the production of this Dictionary, it is unfortunate that it should fall short of the desired quality expected. In spite of the good intentions of the contributor, the end result is full of inconsistencies and inadequacies. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 119 Paul Robert Magocsi (with cartographic design by Geoffrey J. Matthews). Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1995, 218 pages. GEORGE J. DEMKO Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire The Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a truly outstanding and valuable book. The combination of professionally and accurately rendered maps, and the accompanying text that is written with authority, accuracy and clarity represent a rich source of information on an important part of the world. The atlas is comprised of 50 sections, each with maps (in color) and related explanatory text. The themes are varied and arranged chronologically starting from A.D. 400 to the present. The final section incorporates the most recent political changes that have occurred in the region. The themes begin with the geographic zones and continue with subjects such as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, population and migrations to recent industrial development. Some of the themes are quite innovative and useful such as "Education and Culture through the 18th Century" and "Ethnolinguistic Distribution in 1900". There are also 28 tables containing quite valuable information on such topics as the estimated deaths of Jews in the region by 1945, and the size of Catholic and Orthodox populations in East Central Europe in 1900. For bibliophiles there is also an excellent bibliography with an especially useful and rare list of atlases and maps relevant to the region. There are, of course, some issues with which one might quibble. For example, the region is very broadly defined as "the lands between the linguistic frontier of the German and Italianspeaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas" (P. XI) . These boundaries �120 SLOVAKIA were defined by the editors of the series to which this volume belongs (a multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press). The author has expanded on the original boundaries to include the eastern part of Germany, Bavaria, Austria, northeastern Italy, historic Poland, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Moldova and western Anatolia in Turkey! Certainly the author has erred on the conservative side by using such an inclusive and extensive set of bounding definitions. Given the fact that there are almost as many definitions of East Central Europe as there are "specialists" on the region, and that any defined region would have many important interactions with surrounding areas, the decision is an excellent one providing a very comprehensive perspective on an illdefined region, or rather a region on which a consensus would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is also possible to argue for themes that are important but omitted. For example, the omission of a section on emigration from this important region to the US and Canada (as well as other countries) is regrettable. This topic would have been particularly interesting for the Slovak and Polish areas. Also, the map of geographic zones is really a map of physiographic zones. A map of the "socio/cultural/linguistic regions" of the East Central Europe would have been much more useful and very interesting. In sum, Magocsi's Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a wonderful and fascinating addition to our educational sources on one of the most troubled and dynamic parts of the world. The cartography is first-rate, and attention to detail is commendable. Anyone, scholar, politican, or interested layperson should add this volume to his/her bookshelf. It is valuable, useful, visually pleasing and reasonably priced. �SLOVAKIA 121 Anton Spiesz. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu. Bratislava: Perfekt, 1992. Pp. 195. Gregory C. Ference Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland The late Anton Spiesz wrote a large number of books prior to the volume under review, most of which concentrated on economic history. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu, however, cannot be counted among this genre. Although economics play a prominent role in this book, it is best characterized as a historical survey of Slovakia. As such the first part of the title would have sufficed; na ceste k sebauvedomeniu misleads the reader, who is hard pressed to find anything about Slovak national awareness prior to chapter six where Spiesz introduced the issue of nationalism. Even though he began the story 200,000 years ago with the first evidence of humans on Slovak territory, the author quickly traversed the millennia. Evidently Spiesz started to write hi s book before the demise of Communism, as at times Marxist rhetoric appears in the study. In an apparent attempt to correct this problem, the author revised the text in several sections to distance himself from this outdated verbiage. Rather than soften the issue, however, it caused the book to become unwieldy in places. Although Spiesz intended it as a general overview of Slovak history, the book assumed too much. Spiesz sometimes failed to properly introduce people, or to explain events or documents, such as the Zilina Agreement of 1938, only mentioning them. Another fault was the author's penchant for lists, whether they were of animals in ancient Slovakia, manufactured goods from the mid-nineteenth century, or pedagogists. �122 SLOVAKIA The book also suffers from some major errors regarding dates. For example, Hungary proclaimed its independence in March 1849, not in 1848, Ladislav the Posthumous acceded to the throne in 1444 rather than in 1453, and the American Slovak organizations of Zivena and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union were founded in 1891 and 1892, not in 1894 and 1890 as Spiesz noted. Furthermore, in his treatment of the impact of Slovaks in the United States on politics, Spiesz incorrectly stated that both men and women enjoyed equal rights and the franchise before the First World War, and he over emphasized the establishment and role of socialist organizations among American Slovaks. The last chapters are Spiesz's best, providing balanced coverage on how the Communists subverted the political system and the Slovaks in their takeover of Czechoslovakia. He also exploded the Communist myth that the Slovak National Uprising was one of the greatest moments in Slovak history. In the latter instance, the author painted a very brutal picture in which countless innocent people were murdered by the insurgents. Spiesz could have finished his volume on a high note, b~t his final chapter, "From the Building of Socialism to its Bankruptcy," destroyed the seemingly solid effort found in its several preceding sections. Claiming that a historian cannot write effectively and objectively about events unless a period of at least thirty years has elapsed, he merely gave a thumbnail sketch of the period from 1960 to 1989 which included the tumultuous events of the "Prague Spring" and the "Velvet Revolution." An attack on Gustav Husak undeservedly received the most coverage in this four-page chapter. Here, Spiesz appeared to place himself on a soapbox in an attempt to further disavow his connections with the former regime. The author might instead have covered the fast-paced events after 1989 through the date of publication in order to give the reader a sense of closure. �SLOVAKIA 123 Finally, the book has no index which, though not unusual for European publications, would in this case have been indispensable, since Spiesz covered so much in so few pages. On the whole, this book would be appropriate only for someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak history. Richard Marsina a kolektfv. Slovenske dejiny. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1993, 334 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Rorida This works represents the first general attempt since the collapse of the communist system in 1989 to reevaluate the history of the Slovak people. As such, it offers surprisingly little that is new or original. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Slovenske dejiny condemns the excesses of communist dictatorship, many of its conclusions would be politicaly acceptable to the deceased Husak regime. The early portion of the book deals with events and developments from which various schools ot thought concerning Slovak historiography have traditionally drawn common conclusions: Slovakia was settled by man since the dawn of history, the Slovaks retained a sense of identity in the Hungarian kingdom, there were embryonic tendencies towards statehood in earlier times, and so on. A subtle change of interpretation may be found in the treatment of the national awakening, specifically concerning the leaders of the 1848 revolution. Earlier Marxist interpretation of the 1848 events portrayed Cudovft Stur and his colleagues as conterrevolutionaries for siding with the Habsburgs against the Hungarians. Later, Slovak historiography during Alexander Dubcek' s tenure as First Secretary of the Slovak �124 SLOVAKIA Communist Party reversed this trend, portraying the Slovak leaders as socially progressive figures. This interpretation was continued throughout the Husak regime. Slovenske dejiny, by contrast, depicts the Slovak leaders in a strictly national rather than a social context. The work concedes that they initially attempted to cooperate with Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth on questions of social reform, but indicates that a breakdown of relations occured concerning Hungary's national question. One significant, and, in retrospect, surprising change of interpretation concerns the circumstances surrounding the Czecho-Slovak merger of 1918. Communist historiography traditionally regarded the merger as a "bourgeois swindle", in which the Slovak people were treated as colonial subjects until the victory of the working class under Communist leadership rectified relations between two nationalities. Given the pressures of Magyarization at the turn of the century, however, Slovenske dejiny treats pro-Czech sentiment as a positive force. The activities of T. G. Masaryk and the Czecho-Slovak emigres, the exploits of the Czechoslovak Legion on foreign battlefields, and even the career of the extreme Czechophile Vavro Srobar are all cast in a heroic light. No mention is made of the previously lauded Slovak Soviet Republic which was founded on the bayonets of Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army. This work conveys the impression that, if Czecho-Slovak union in 1918 was not the best of all possible worlds, it was at least a step in the right direction. Slovenske dejiny is critical of Czech centralism in the interwar period, but regards the cultural emancipation of the Slovaks and their economic advancement as positive features. Honorable mention is given to Milan Hodfa's appointment as the first Slovak prime minister of Czechoslovakia. His career might have been given more attention. In spite of a long history of personal opportunism, Hodfa's ideas concerning Central European federalism are still worth studying today. �SLOVAKIA 125 While the work hails the attainment of Slovak autonomy in 1938, subsequent developments are portrayed as negative. Advocates of the rehabilitation of Monsignor Jozef Tiso are particularly bound to be disappointed: the Slovak Republic continues to be regarded as a Nazi puppet state, and the deportation of the Jews is treated in the same simplistic manner, which does not inquire deeper into the divisions of policy among Slovak leaders themselves. The 1944 uprising, correspondingly, is still regarded as a heroic event, notwithstanding the surrounding circumstances or tragic consequences. Surprisingly little attention is given to subsequent developments, perhaps out of sense of caution. It must be noted that, although the book was published in 1993, it was prepared during the previous year, at a time when many Czechs and Slovaks still hoped to maintain a federal republic. It reflects history written during a time of transition, and all the limitations found therein. This work's most revealing feature is a lack of vindictive malice towards the Czechs, a phenomenon which helped assure that the "Velvet Divorce" would not become another Balkanstyle bloodbath. A more comprehensive history, however, remains to be written. Katarina Sultajerova. Compiled by. Najstarsie rody na Slovensku, Martin: Slovenska genealogicko-heraldicka spolocnosr pri Matici slovenskej, 1994, 128 pp. DUNCAN B. GARDINER Lakewood, Ohio This collection of articles is essentialy a scholarly primer of the earliest documented Slovak aristocracy. It consists of papers delivered at the October, 1993 Symposium on the Oldest Line- �126 SLOVAKIA ages in Slovakia, which was co-sponsored by the State Regional Archives in Bratislava, the Archives Section of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and by the Slovak Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Jozef Novak, author of the two-volume Rodove erby na Slovensku ( 1986), wrote the preface and the lead article "Genealogia ako historicka disciplfna" , which discuses the importance of genealogy in understanding the early history of Slovakia. He recommends making heraldy and genealogy more valuable to historians by broadening genealogical studies to the geographic spread of a family over time, to the bibliography of published literature on a lineage, and to biographies of prominent individuals in the family. Novak also emphasises the importance of thorough source documentation. Roman Zelenay, the late State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Culture, wrote "Genealogicke met6dy vfskumu najstarsfch rodov". He discussed traditional Slovak naming customs dating to the Great Moravian period, showing that despite the lack of surnames, it is possible to establish genealogical betwe~n individuals by analyzing the system by which first names were given. The Battle of Mohacs ( 1526) disrupted the Slovak social order and this earlier naming system with it, a fact which makes post-Mohacs genealogies based on onomastics quite different. Milan Majtan, historian and author of Nazvy obcf na Slovensku za ostatnfch 200 rokov (1972), discusses the historical development of personal and family names in Slovakia in "Vfvin JXJmemivania osob na Slovensku", giving examples of proto-Slavic, pre-Christian and Christian naming traditions. Majtan cites copious examples from a range of early manuscript sources. In "Struktura sl'achty na Slovensku v 9 . - 13. storoci'', Richard Marsina relates that the upper aristocracy in Slovakia consisted of Magyars and Magyarized Slovaks. Therefore, the �SLOVAKIA 127 genealogist and historian must look to the lesser nobility within each of the old countries to study the prominent Slovak lineages. Vincent Mucska's "Anonymovo dielo ako genealogickf pramen'""' takes a critical look at the twelfth-century "gesta". He dismisses it as a source of concrete historic or genealogical fact. "Panovnicka dynastia v JO. - 11. storocl" by Ladislav Vrtel' chronicles in some detail the families of the two sons of Takson, a granson of Arpad, the first Magyar leader, showing their quite different fates. Nine more articles, written by wel-known historians, deal with the earliest aristocratic families of individual counties: Saris and Uz by Ferdinand Ulicny; Spis by Ivan Chalupecky; Turiec, Liptov and Orava by Jan Benko; Trencfn by Richard Marsina; Bratislava by Vincent Sedlak; Nitra by Jan Lukacka; Zvolen by Maria Durk ova; and Malohont by Leon Sokolovsky. Each article is in Slovak with a short summary in English or, in several cases, German. The English summaries are readable, but the number of typographical and gramatical errors show that a native English-speaking editor was needed. Short biographies of the authors would have been most useful. The articles are based both on original research and the literature in the field in a number of languages: Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Latin. The Genealogical-Heraldic Society has single-handedly placed Slovakia on the genealogical map by publishing the Hlas, a twice-yearly journal of genealogy and heraldry and by organizing local genealogy groups, not only in Martin, but also in Bratislava, Kosice, and Trencfn. The founding of this society is connected with the fact that the authors of the Slovenskf biografickf slovmk (6 vols., Matica slovenska, 1986 - 1994), aware that the 19th-century Slovak intelligentsia was related by a complex series of intermarriages, have wanted to investigate �128 SLOVAKIA their genealogies for some time. This volume is an admirable contribution to that effort. Dejiny SJXJlocnosti Jeiisovej na Slovensku: 1561 - 1988. Emil Krapka, S. J. and Vojtech Mikula, S. J. - editors: Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990, 526 pp. and 24 pp. of color illustrations. GERALD J. SABO, S. J. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This is a historical survey of the Jesuits and their activities in the Slovak area, part of the 1990 celebration of the Society of Jesus on the 450th anniversary of its papal approval. As noted on the bibliographic page, this monograph was prepared between the fall of 1986 and that of 198 8, before the so-called "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989. Its two editors and eight authors have presented much interesting material to a Slovak-reading public which lacked substantive, accurate information on a religious order important in Slovak history and culture since the sixteenth century. In the main body are a good number of black and white illustrations, supplemented with sixty-four color ones for Slovakia and ten related to Slovak Jesuit activity in Canada. This extensive history is probably unique among such writing, and given the circumstances under which it was realised, all those involved deserve much praise and gratitude. The monograph is divided into five major parts. The first four comprise the Jesuits' history from 1561 with their first establishment in Tmava and on through 1988. The first part of the history covers the time period through 1615, the second, through the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, the third, the �SLOVAKIA 129 order's suppression and its effect in the Slovak portion of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the fourth, the context of the Society's universal restoration and its work among Slovaks at home and beyond from 1853 through 1988. The second and fourth parts together comprise two-thirds of the entire work. A major part usually begins with the larger European and Church background in which the Slovak events arose and evolved, and then Slovakrelated material is divided according to geographical locations and pastoral/apostolic activity. The fifth and final part of this history includes a chronological summary of important events among Jesuits of this area, an explanation of religious and Jesuit terminology, a substantial bibliography on the Society at large and in the Slovak area, name and place indexes, and summaries in Slovak, English, German, French, and Magyar. Twice in this history, Jesuits suffered dramatically at the hands of civil authorities. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was finally impelled to supress legally the Society of Jesus in her realm from fear that if she did not do so, her daughter Marie Antoinette would not be allowed to marry the future French King, Louis XVI. Louis was a Bourbon, member of a royal family that strove mightily to eradicate throughout their European and foreign realms that "least" Society of Jesus for its greater loyalty to Church than state. Yet the Jesuits came back and thrived, just as they do today after their far more brutal suppression and persecution under the Communists between April, 1950 and the revolution of November, 1989. At present, Slovakia is a democratic, sovereign country, and publications such as the Dejiny need to showcase its role in European history and culture. Yet certain features of the Dejiny significantly limit its valuable effect and should be remedied. Prepared for a wide-ranging public conversant in Slovak, this work would also be of great interest to many others, whether general readers or scholars, who do not read Slovak, yet for �130 SLOVAKIA whom the summaries in languages other then Slovak are woefully inadequate. For this much wider audience, the Dejiny should be translated into English, the current lingua franca. Further, the lack of any documentation in notes is a serious limitation, yet nowadays such material could be collected within a reasonable time. This data is needed to provide crucial scholarship about Jesuits in Slovak territory and beyond which is available nowhere else. The activities of these Jesuits, mostly Slovak yet also of other nationalities, have remained hidden from appreciation even in Jesuit publications. For instance, in English-language studies of the Jesuits, the activities and influence of the universities in Trnava and Kosice - cities often disguised behind their German or Magyar names - are briefly mentioned, if that. No mention at all is made of the Slovak Benedikt Szollosi, compiler of the first Catholic hymnal Cantus catholici with songs in Latin and "Cultural Slovak". No more fortunate has been the Slovak Martin Szentivanyi, whose varied writings, encyclopedic studies, and very able directorship of the Trnava University press contributed significantly to Slovak history, culture, and language development. Also unknown among English readers is the Slovak Samuel Timon, whose writings made him a pioneer in scholarly Slovak historiography. Nor is Jesuit history in Slovak territory better known in other Western languages. For instance, nearly fourty years ago the Magyar Jesuit Laszl6 Lukacs wrote in German about the Jesuit Antonio Possevino's papal mission to establish a network of seminaries and schools in northern Europe in the late sixteenth century, but nothing was said about any Slovak area plans or effects. The Dejiny, though, discusses Posse vino's mission and its effects in re-establishing Jesuits there, as well as many other points not found outside of Slovaklanguage publications. Yet how is a general reader or scholar to appreciate the important Jesuit role and contributions to Slovak �SLOVAKIA 131 history, culture, and society, if he is unable to read this history, or is even unaware that it exists? Clearly, the Dejiny cannot remain a hidden Slovak treasure. Indeed, the Slovak Jesuits have an obligation to make the Dejiny with proper documentation known and accessible to a non-Slovak-reading public. They must present themselves before the world and not simply in the Slovak heart of Europe. Otherwise, a part of Slovakia, its culture, history, people, and achievements will remain concealed behind a language that few in today's world will bother to learn even for reading. James Ramon Felak. "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,1929-1938. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, xiv & 263 p. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Czechoslovakia is a state that broke up twice in its seventyfour year history: the fust time it was under the pressure of international events and on the eve of a world war, the second in the aftermath of democratic elections. The fust break-up has been mired in controversy, due not only to the circumstances surrounding it, but above all to the responsibility that is often ascribed to the Slovak People's Party (SPP) for bringing about that outcome. James Felak's study looks at this party, in particular during the decade that precedes the fust break-up. There are very few studies of Slovak politics in the first Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), fewer still that offer an in depth examination of the role and policies of the main parties that influenced and shaped inter-war Slovak political life. The handful of monographs that have been written on Slovakia in the first �132 SLOVAKIA CSR, or indeed on the first CSR itself, have generally looked at how the "Slovak question" has contributed to, been responsible for, or unable to prevent its break-up. It would not be inaccurate to say that most take a position for (the Czechoslovak and Marxist approach) or against (the nationalist Slovak approach) the first CSR; very few seek to examine the question from the dynamics of Czech-Slovak relations as did Carol Skalnik Leff in National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (1988), or from the challenges a multinational state faces when dealing with its constituent nations and national minorities. Felak's study fills some of the gaps in our knowledge of Slovak inter-war political life, but, regretfully, it does little to advance our understanding of it. Of the seven chapters that present the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, five offer a relatively detailed examination of its policies for the decade that begins with the Depression. The first chapter presents a rapid and, unfortunately, superficial overview of Slovak nationalism until 1929 whereas the second outlines in detail the party's ideology and programme. The remaining chapters are divided according to certain events that mark a change of fortune or direction for the party. The author looks in depth at some of the more important ones, such as the Tuka affair of 1929, the 1929 and 1935 elections, the 1931 Slovak orthography dispute, the 1933 Pribina celebrations, the different party congresses, in particular the Youth Congress of 1932 and that of 1936, and the 1938 Pittsburgh Pact celebration, all of which marked Slovak political life. Equally useful and interesting are his descriptions of the SPP platform at different times and the relations with other Czech and Slovak political parties and formations. As for the various leading personalities, Andrej Hlinka, Vojtech Tuka, Karol Sidor, and Jozef Tiso, among others, the author seeks to give a sense of their role and importance in the development of SPP policies. In sum, most of the �SLOVAKIA 133 book offers a detailed examination of the role of the SPP in an important decade in Slovak political life and is in this respect a contribution to the existing literature. The main problem with this study lies in its approach to the subject. This is due not only to too great a reliance on certain earlier studies, but above all to the indiscriminate use of police reports as authoritative sources of political analysis. In fairness to the author, he makes an attempt to present a balanced approach on the "Slovak question". Yet the language he uses clearly indicates that he identifies with and accepts generally the interpretations of those authors who have a Czechoslovak view ?f Slovak history, a view that is mostly negative toward the Slovaks and uncritically favourable toward Czechoslovakia. For example he refers to Slovakia as "relatively underdeveloped, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and nationally" (p. 17) or describes Hlinka as having a "parochial, clerical mentality that resembled that of a Slovak peasant." (p. 25) In addition, like earlier authors, his examination of Prague policies toward Slovakia and toward the SPP, is at best cursory and certainly not critical. On occasion one gets the feeling from his presentation that there was a specific Prague-SPP dynamic, yet there is little analysis of the reasons for and the consequences of Prague policies, only of the SPP reactions and actions. For example, Prague exercized censorship on the SPP press to such an extent that in 1938, when the government was considering the possibility of a coaliton with the SPP, one of that party's conditions was the lifting of that censorship. Equally problematic is the reliance on police reports as a research source. The fact that the Prague government felt it necessary to have police spies within the SPP is in itself a fact worth examining, not to say anything of the accuracy of these reports. The emphasis that Felak places on factional struggles within the SPP comes mostly from these reports. That the police �134 SLOVAKIA spies reported such struggles is not in the least bit surprising; it was in the government's interest to be able to neutralize an opposition party that Pelak on many occasions describes as the most important one in Slovakia. Also, there is nothing surprising about factional differences; this is a fact of life in political parties in all democratic states. But in this case, the factionalism represented the dilemmas the SPP faced in its twin objectives: the autonomy of Slovakia and the integrity and security of Czechoslovakia. The failure of Prague to have understood this and to have dealt with it adequately was paid, in the end, "at the price of the republic." For all its richness about the SPP, Felak's examination of its policies is nevertheless incomplete; on the other hand, it has the merit of provoking additional questions and showing the way for further study. Hope Dies Last, The Autobiogra]Xly of Alexander Dubcek. Edited and translated by Jin Hochman. New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1993. 354 pp. ROBERT K. EV ANSON Uni versify of Missouri Kansas City The automobile accident of September 1, 1992, which led to Alexander Dubcek's death nine weeks later, robbed Slovakia of one of its most distinguished political leaders. Whether Dubcek could have played a vital role in shaping the politics of an independent Slovakia will never be known. What is certain, and what we are reminded of in this fascinating autobiography excellently edited and translated by Jin Hochman - is that he did establish for himself a place of lasting historical importance. �SLOVAKIA 135 It seems necessary to say this because, as Dubcek himself was aware, there is insufficient appreciation among many of today's young Slovaks and Czechs of what he and his fellow "reform Communists" attempted to do in the 1960s. It remains for historians to sort out the difficult issue of just how much impact the Prague Spring had on the subsequent course of Czechoslovak politics that ended ultimately in the demise of the country's neo-Stalinist regime twenty-one years later, but clearly the impact was significant.The Prague Spring, which Dubcek more than anyone else helped to shape, set an example for democratic aspirations that resurfaced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It also was an obvious model for some of Gorbachev's policies in -the 1980s. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement also created deep wounds of alienation among Czechs and Slovaks towards the USSR and the post-1968 regime that never healed. Ironically, both Dubcek and the Soviets were correct in their 1968 dialogue, Dubcek in warning the Soviets of the need to better understand how many Czechs and Slovaks viewed the old regime as an unnatural entity, and the Soviets in recognizing the degree to which Dubcek's reform movement threatened the very foundations of Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. Dubcek's autobiography begins appropriately with his early years, and an examination of that period of his life teaches us a great deal about why he acted as he did in his maturity. It is difficult not to admire the man, and this book, which is not egregiously self-serving, merely strengthens that attitude. Several aspects of character and personality come to mind - decency, courage, political shrewdness, and a trust and idealism that were at once his greatest strengths and his greatest weaknesses. We find him as a teenager in Kirghizia defending young Muslims against bullying by his fellow Czechs and Slovaks, and after World War Two pressing relentlessly for the release from the Soviet Gulag of a physician who had treated the injured Dubcek �136 SLOVAKIA during the Uprising; it was a small moral step to his passionate commitment to the complete rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. In 1952, in the wake of the Shinsky trial and at the height of the terror, he cast aside a Soviet-censored version of a speech and instead delivered a ringing eulogy at the funeral of fellow Communist Karol Smidke, who had been a victim of the persecution. He stood up for the reforms in the face of immense Soviet pressure throughout 1968, acted honorably after his abduction to Moscow following the Soviet and allied invasion, refused to take the safety of exile because he thought his proper place was with his people, and sent off a stream of letters of protest long after his removal from power at considerable personal risk. Dubcek also was a very clever and careful political tactician. Some of the most fascinating passages in his book concern the way he built alliances in his ultimately successful effort to bring down Communist Party First Secretary Antonin Novotny in 1967. I would like to have read even more details about conversations he had with various political figures in this process, as well as about the way he blunted Novotny's efforts to consign him to political oblivion in 1962, but there still is plenty to captivate anyone with a taste for Prague-style Kremlinology. The period of the early 1960s is especially interesting in this book, because Dubcek discusses the first signs of the movement against neo-Stalinism and Prague centralism, including his election over Novotny's opposition to the position of Slovak Communist Party First Secretary in April, 1963. This event represented a stinging defeat for Novotny, because Dubcek already had established himself as the leading advocate for sweeping rehabilitation of the victims of the purges of so-called "Slovak bourgeois nationalists" in the early 1950s. As such, he had become the major opponent of Prague centralism in the Party leadership. �SLOVAKIA 137 While Dubcek was never foolhardy, he could be surprisingly bold. An interesting illustration of this was his successful ploy with Jin Hendrych, the number two man in the Party hierarchy in 1967 and, until then, a staunch Novotny loyalist. Sensing that Hendrych was beginning to vacillate in his commitment to Novotny, Dubcek walked into his office that late November and said that Novotny's days as First Secretary clearly were numbered, and that Hendrych might consider getting on the bandwagon or he too would fall. As an added enticement, he invited the startled Hendrych to consider whether he would like Novotny's job as First Secretary! The amusing climax of this story is that shortly thereafter, Leonid Brezhnev came to Prague to assess Novotny's prospects and naturally sought out Hendrych's opinion. Reportedly, Brezhnev barely got inside the door when Hendrych told him he was "willing" to serve as First Secretary. While Hendrych never got the chance - Dubcek succeeded Novotny - his abandonment of Novotny may have persuaded Brezhnev of the futility of a rescue operation. The most painful reading in this book is the period of the mounting Soviet hostility to the Prague Spring and the ultimate invasion and subsequent period of "normalization." It is impossible not to become angry all over again when one reads of the treatment Dubcek and his comrades received at the hands of their Soviet kidnappers, as well as the incredible pettiness and maliciousness of their successors in Prague and Bratislava. While Dubcek does not cast a great deal of new light on the events of 1968, he minces no words in assessing various political figures and spares no criticism of his worst tormentors. Thus we learn that Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin was as cold in private as in public and capable of extreme rudeness. He and his Soviet comrades are rightly dismissed by Dubcek as "gangsters" and "thugs." Novotny is confirmed as hopelessly ignorant of Slovak affairs, as well as contemptuous toward Slovak national �138 SLOVAKIA feelings, one of the keys to his ultimate demise. Dubcek also brands Vasil Bifak, Alois Indra, and the other conspirators of 1968 as "traitors." No one comes across worse, however, than Gustav Husak, who presided over the restoration of neo-Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. His shabby treatment of Dubcek after 1968, despite Dubcek's pivotal role in bringing about his political resurrection, is a sad counter to the courage he displayed when fighting for his own rehabilitation in the early 1960s. Despite the claims that he "protected" the ousted reformers from "hardliners" in the Party, Husak comes across here as a man incapable of normal feelings and as a complete opportunist. Naturally Dubcek was bitter about Husak, but the tone of his evaluations of Husak and other political figures is in fact measured and convincing. No discussion of Dubcek's political career would be complete without addressing his failure to discern the danger of a Soviet invasion in 1968. Part of the answer may lie in his family background. He was born in 1921 to a pair of committed socialists who were so enamored of the Soviet experiment that they were willing to relocate to Central Asia to help build a new society. At the same time, his parents had the good sense to return to Czechoslovakia when the dangers of remaining in the Soviet Union became obvious. Nonetheless, Dubcek never abandoned the socialist idealism he inherited from them. While he certainly understood the evils of Stalinism and the incompatibility of the Soviet-type system with Czech and Slovak traditions, he had a blind spot that served him poorly in 1968. Specifically, despite all the Soviet expressions of alarm about what he and his fellow reformers were doing, he could not bring himself to believe the USSR would intervene. There is no question Dubcek had evolved into a democrat and was aware of what he was doing. He writes that the Action Program put forth by Party reformers in 1968 "was a plan for a gradual return to �SLOVAKIA 139 the concept of democratic socialism ... " He acknowledges that his regime was rejecting various aspects of Leninism - he believed that the Communist Party could win popular support in competitive elections, once it had embraced democracy, and thus he downplayed the Soviet concern that his reforms were jeopardizing "the leading role of the party." At the same time, he knew he had to avoid making any references to multi-party democracy for fear of alarming them unnecessarily. He also believed that "socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise." He writes that of course he recalled what happened to Hungary in 1956, but he had made clear to the Soviets his determination that Czechoslovakia would remain loyal to its Soviet bloc allies, so the situations were not comparable. Perhaps it was due to his conviction that what he and his colleagues were doing would benefit socialism by strengthening the Communist Party's legitimacy among the people, and by bringing the country closer to the original ideals of socialism, that he could not believe that the Soviet leadership would not, however reluctantly, allow him to proceed. (In a postscript, Jiff Hochman notes Dubcek's inclination to believe in people's good intentions.) In fairness, it is difficult to fault Dubcek very much had he opted for concessions, it seems unlikely that the Soviet leadership would have accepted anything short of a complete abandonment of the democratization process to which he had committed his country. Still, his discussion of how he assessed the Soviet mindset at the time is not entirely satisfactory. Alexander Dubcek's autobiography is a thoughtful and wellwritten account of the life of a man of extraordinary moral and political qualities. It is indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the Czechoslovak political experience. �140 SLOVAKIA Paul Robert Magocsi. The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1993, x, 185 pp., Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul,MN The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey is essentially a revision of an earlier work by Prof. Magocsi, The RusynUkrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey (Vienna, 1981 ). But there is an additional twist to this revision. The "Preface" says: ''This volume is a translation of an introductory historical survey published in the newly codified Rusyn literary language as well as in Slovak by the Rusyn Renaissance Society in Presov." Prof. Magocsi played a leading role in the formation of the national movement that spawned the Rusyn Renaissance Society and the First World Congress of Rusyns that sponsored the codification of the Rusyn literary language. The professor, however, is modest. His name does not once appear in the text in connection with that activity; however, he is pictured with other leaders of the First World Congress of Rusyns (122). The contents of the book should be familiar to those have read the author's earlier works. Magocsi traces the Rusyns' history from their first settlement in eastern Slovakia to the present. He partially assumes and partially attempts to demonstrate that the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia form a distinct nationality. Magocsi documents the cooperation that existed between the Rusyns and the Slovaks while they were dominated by Hungary prior to 1914, but he is critical of the "slovakization" of the Rusyns between the world wars, and he also identifies the �SLOVAKIA 141 Ukrainian movement as a threat to the Rusyn national identity that the book clearly endorses. During the inter-war yars slovakization was a greater threat to the Rusyns than "ukrainianization", but after the Second World War, official government support for the Ukrainian identity led to a decline of any national consciousness. Many Rusyns identified themselves as Slovaks to avoid the Ukrainian label. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, the Rusyns in the Presov region were again free to publicly promote their own national identity as separate from either Slovak or Ukrainian. In this effort, the Rusyns received support from both the Prague and the Bratislava governments. Magocsi suggests that this support for the Rusyns harkens back to "the historical friendship and attention on the part of Czechs and Slovaks toward their Rusyn brethren ... " (126). It could also suggest that the number of people identifying themselves as Rusyns is now very small and the Rusyn movement is not likely to become a major competitor to the Slovak identity in eastern Slovakia. In fact the major problem with Prof. Magocsi 's interpretation of the Rusyn movement in estem Slovakia is his confidence that the small number of Rusyns can develop a national identity. He is dissatisfied with the 1991 census figures that identify fewer than 33,000 "Rusnak/Russian/Rusyn/Ukrainian" people in the Presov region, with just under 17,000 of them unambiguously identifying themselves as "Rusyn" ( 126). According to Magocsi, that number could potentially be as high as 130 000 (2 - 3). Many readers of Magocsi's first book: The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848 - 1948 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) were persuaded by his convincing argument that the Rusyns in Subcarpathia did, at least, "shape" a national identity during the inter-war years. But in that era, he was dealing with a larger critical mass of Rusyns. In eastern Slovakia, that critical mass does not seem to exist. With the Slovaks claiming �142 SLOVAKIA most of those 130,000 potential Rusyns, and the Ukrainians competing for the rest, it does not seem likely that the critical mass will develop. In the meantime, those who do identify themselves as Rusyns can read their history in their own "newly codified language". And those who identify themselves as Slovaks can also read the translation in their language just as Rusyns in North America can read it in English. Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Diaspora. Edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1994, xxxvi, 508 pp. PAUL R. MAGOCSI University of Toronto The goal of this volume is to provide brief factual data on Ukrainians wherever they may live in the world. The newlyindependent country of Ukraine has within its borders only 64 percent of the estimated 58.7 million inhabitants who inhabit various parts of the globe. Therefore, a history or description of the Ukrainian people as a whole must be concerned with many other places than Ukraine. This book in fact deals primarily with the estimated 21.2 million Ukrainians living outside Ukraine. The approach is comprehensive, with an effort to say something about communities, however small they may be, in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, Tunisia and New Zealand as well as in the more known countries of Ukrainian immigrant settlement like the United States, Canada, and Australia. �SLOVAKIA 143 The editor, Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, felt the need to trace the political and cultural history of Ukraine (pp. 37 - 84), which is the least satisfactory portion of this otherwise encyclopedic compendium. The rest of the volume consists of entries by 28 authors on the various countries where Ukrainians live. Each entry begins with a general overview of a specific country followed by a history of its Ukrainian community. Many entries include statistical charts and each ends with a list of further readings. Slovak readers will likely be interested in the entry called "Ukrainian-Ruthenians in the Slovak Republic", written by Vasyl Markus (pp. 157 - 166). While the author recognizes the enormous cultural achievements made by the Ukrainians in Slovakia after World War II, he does not attribute the achievements to the favorable policies of the former Czechoslovak Communist government that lavished extensive funding on the group, but rather to the efforts of the local Ukrainian-oriented intelligentsia. He claimes that the official census figures (30,800 Rusyns and Ukrainians in 1991) are far below the 110,000 to 120,000 that supposedly live in northeastern Slovakia. Markus argues the statistical discrepancy exists because of manipulation by Slovak census takers and a policy of "denationalization" carried out by both the former Communist and post-1989 governments in Slovakia. He does not mention the real reason for the numerical differences. Since the 1950s thousands of "Ukrainians-Ruthenians" voluntarily opted to identify as Slovaks in protest against Communist government decrees that banned the Rusyn national identity and required people to call themselves Ukrainian. The author also indirectly blames Slovak governments for responding favorably since 1989 to the Rusyn national revival and for allowing people in the 1991 census to identify with the Rusyn nationality (16,937 Rusyns as opposed to 13,847 Ukrainians) and with the Rusyn language (49,099 Rusyn speakers as opposed to 9,480 Ukrainian speakers) - the latter �144 SLOVAKIA figures are not provided by Markus. The otherwise democratic policies of present-day Slovakia are described as promoting "political Ruthenianism" a phenomenon that is "influenced by outside anti-Ukrainian forces" and that is intent on de-Ukrainianizing the local population. Fortunately, the rest of this volume maintains a less biased tone in describing Ukrainian communities in other countries. Nina Trnka: Slovak-English I English-Slovak Dictionary, N. Y., Hippocrene Books, 1992, 360 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Anizona Any contribution to the field of Slovak reference materials is always welcome. Attempts at popularization are encouradged only to the extent that a work demonstrates quality. Standards, of course, should always be high to reflect the expertise of the _ contributor. The backcover boasts "You are holding the only SlovakEnglish/English-Slovak Dictionary available in North America". What about Smejkalova et al.? The book is intended for "students and travelers", and claims to be "concise". For all its advertising pretense, its format is disappointing. It looks like a thesis. It lacks an Introduction which it sorely needs for efficient use. It omits a separating page (175) between the two major divisions for facile access, wherein an appropriate blank page or second title page would suffice. Pronunciation (pages i through iii) is confusing. The list of consonants is incomplete, not accounting for - among others important palatals d', I, ii, ( used in too many words to be ignored. As immediate as page one, there is no knowing how ''t~' �SLOVAKIA 145 in "akost' must be pronounced according to her presentation. Questions arise as to "studi'ia" (123) and "studna" (353 - see "well")? Why then "anP' (2) gives [a-nyi], or "odev" (71) [odyef]? How then distinguish cited "Javica" (44) from un-cited "/avica" - "left hand"? Equating long "6" with "6" in Pronunciation is erroneous, being that the latter "6" is diphotong [.u.o]. The remarks in Pronunciation are unclear and inadequate. The uninitiated will render Slovak pronunciation ludicrous. Examples provided are ambiguous for articulation of varietes of vowel "a", because speakers of American-English are inconsistent in their renditions of "a" in cited forms "ma-ma, fast, rat, grass, pad". To present digraph "ch" as aspirated [kh] in "khaki" (sic!) is not true for the guttural [)c]. And, to state that Slovak "r' is approximated by labial untrilled "r' of "red" - bellies the trilled "r' performed by the tongue. Transcription in Pronunciation is defective, since the symbols given are arbitrary, not in accord either with the conventions of Slovak texts or even the International Phonetic System. A hard look at the symbols presented defies logic. Examples follow. Since Standard Slovak (i. e. spisovna slovencina) utilizes digraph "dz" as the phone in medzi and other words - to employ "dz' as a symbol for English pronunciation of th [b] of "they" is incomprehensible! In like manner, use of [s] for [0] of "thank" produces comic theatrical effect as in [Sank you] for [Sank you]! Moreover, to present the nasal-guttural -ng [ri] of "long" as underlined [g] can be misinterpreted into a humorous exagerated liaison of oft-quoted misquoted "LoNGJsland" with defined [NGJ]. �146 SLOVAKIA Further examination into the deficiencies given in Pronunciation would require a complete revision after careful editing. So far only the unavoidable pitfalls have been critiqued. Editorial work appears lax or nonexistent as evidenced by "thruth" (sic! page ii), presumably "truth". And, "heith" (sic! page 158) following vyska and page 244, apparently meant to be "height"). In both citings of "heith", consistency seems to demonstrate persistent misspelling. There is an unexpected thrust from V (350) into W (351) without a notification-heading W. As for word-selection, it might be hoped that high-frequency was a criterion for efficiency. On the contrary, superfluous are words among others like "elephant" (222), "volcano" (350), "yacht" (358), "zebra" (359) - scarcely indigenous to Slovakia! Yet the word kamzik (36?) "chamois" (198?) indigenous to the Tatras finds no listing in either section. Why "warden" (351) is given makes one wonder of its sociological implications. Why is "warrant" (351) so important to find place here? Surely one expects utilitarian vocabulary in such a work. As for semantics, a first-hand impression might be that if several meanings are provided without explanation or definition - an indiscriminate interchange might be possible. Not so for automat (3) "slot-machine, snack-bar, machine-gun". Thus also for "minister" (268) "minister, vyslanec, duchovnf" mean different things. Each having a distinct, specific meaning. It is most unlikely that "students and travelers" will discern clearly which term fits which circumstance. Cross-references are not provided for necessary clarification. See "warm" (351) ...srdecnf... for which neither "cordial" (206?) nor "sincerely" (315) are given on expected pages in parentheses. In similar manner, aktiv (1) "meeting, gathering" makes no reference or distinction from "meeting" (266) schodza, stretnutie. �SLOVAKIA 147 Perusal of the text will result in startling revelations. For instance, pronunciation of odJXJr (72) gives [od-por], whereas in fact it is [ot-por], a morphophonetic alternation called regressive assimilation. Where the voiced d automatically becomes unvoiced/devoiced t, in harmony with unvoiced p which sets the condition for the process. The same phenomenon occurs in other instances like odstup (72) to [ot-stup], bezplatny (6) to [bes-platnee], modlitba and prosba for "prayer" (289) not given in the text as [mod-lit-ba] and [proz-ba]. Interesting to note is that word-final voiced consonants are given as de-voiced as in smrad (116) [smrat]. However, no account has been made of v as a semi-vowel [IJ.] in such words as pravda (92) [prau.da], rovno (105) [rouno], domov (18) [domo.1J.]; instead, Czech ussage [domof] (18) is presented. Two outstanding examples given: [svatba] (125) for svadba and ['strukh] (101) for pstruh are unintelligible. For all the effort involved in the production of this Dictionary, it is unfortunate that it should fall short of the desired quality expected. In spite of the good intentions of the contributor, the end result is full of inconsistencies and inadequacies. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1998, Vol. 36 Description An account of the resource Vol. 36 (No. 66-67), 1998. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 119 Paul Robert Magocsi (with cartographic design by Geoffrey J. Matthews). Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1995, 218 pages. GEORGE J. DEMKO Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire The Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a truly outstanding and valuable book. The combination of professionally and accurately rendered maps, and the accompanying text that is written with authority, accuracy and clarity represent a rich source of information on an important part of the world. The atlas is comprised of 50 sections, each with maps (in color) and related explanatory text. The themes are varied and arranged chronologically starting from A.D. 400 to the present. The final section incorporates the most recent political changes that have occurred in the region. The themes begin with the geographic zones and continue with subjects such as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, population and migrations to recent industrial development. Some of the themes are quite innovative and useful such as "Education and Culture through the 18th Century" and "Ethnolinguistic Distribution in 1900". There are also 28 tables containing quite valuable information on such topics as the estimated deaths of Jews in the region by 1945, and the size of Catholic and Orthodox populations in East Central Europe in 1900. For bibliophiles there is also an excellent bibliography with an especially useful and rare list of atlases and maps relevant to the region. There are, of course, some issues with which one might quibble. For example, the region is very broadly defined as "the lands between the linguistic frontier of the German and Italianspeaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas" (P. XI) . These boundaries 120 SLOVAKIA were defined by the editors of the series to which this volume belongs (a multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press). The author has expanded on the original boundaries to include the eastern part of Germany, Bavaria, Austria, northeastern Italy, historic Poland, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Moldova and western Anatolia in Turkey! Certainly the author has erred on the conservative side by using such an inclusive and extensive set of bounding definitions. Given the fact that there are almost as many definitions of East Central Europe as there are "specialists" on the region, and that any defined region would have many important interactions with surrounding areas, the decision is an excellent one providing a very comprehensive perspective on an illdefined region, or rather a region on which a consensus would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is also possible to argue for themes that are important but omitted. For example, the omission of a section on emigration from this important region to the US and Canada (as well as other countries) is regrettable. This topic would have been particularly interesting for the Slovak and Polish areas. Also, the map of geographic zones is really a map of physiographic zones. A map of the "socio/cultural/linguistic regions" of the East Central Europe would have been much more useful and very interesting. In sum, Magocsi's Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a wonderful and fascinating addition to our educational sources on one of the most troubled and dynamic parts of the world. The cartography is first-rate, and attention to detail is commendable. Anyone, scholar, politican, or interested layperson should add this volume to his/her bookshelf. It is valuable, useful, visually pleasing and reasonably priced. SLOVAKIA 121 Anton Spiesz. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu. Bratislava: Perfekt, 1992. Pp. 195. Gregory C. Ference Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland The late Anton Spiesz wrote a large number of books prior to the volume under review, most of which concentrated on economic history. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu, however, cannot be counted among this genre. Although economics play a prominent role in this book, it is best characterized as a historical survey of Slovakia. As such the first part of the title would have sufficed; na ceste k sebauvedomeniu misleads the reader, who is hard pressed to find anything about Slovak national awareness prior to chapter six where Spiesz introduced the issue of nationalism. Even though he began the story 200,000 years ago with the first evidence of humans on Slovak territory, the author quickly traversed the millennia. Evidently Spiesz started to write hi s book before the demise of Communism, as at times Marxist rhetoric appears in the study. In an apparent attempt to correct this problem, the author revised the text in several sections to distance himself from this outdated verbiage. Rather than soften the issue, however, it caused the book to become unwieldy in places. Although Spiesz intended it as a general overview of Slovak history, the book assumed too much. Spiesz sometimes failed to properly introduce people, or to explain events or documents, such as the Zilina Agreement of 1938, only mentioning them. Another fault was the author's penchant for lists, whether they were of animals in ancient Slovakia, manufactured goods from the mid-nineteenth century, or pedagogists. 122 SLOVAKIA The book also suffers from some major errors regarding dates. For example, Hungary proclaimed its independence in March 1849, not in 1848, Ladislav the Posthumous acceded to the throne in 1444 rather than in 1453, and the American Slovak organizations of Zivena and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union were founded in 1891 and 1892, not in 1894 and 1890 as Spiesz noted. Furthermore, in his treatment of the impact of Slovaks in the United States on politics, Spiesz incorrectly stated that both men and women enjoyed equal rights and the franchise before the First World War, and he over emphasized the establishment and role of socialist organizations among American Slovaks. The last chapters are Spiesz's best, providing balanced coverage on how the Communists subverted the political system and the Slovaks in their takeover of Czechoslovakia. He also exploded the Communist myth that the Slovak National Uprising was one of the greatest moments in Slovak history. In the latter instance, the author painted a very brutal picture in which countless innocent people were murdered by the insurgents. Spiesz could have finished his volume on a high note, b~t his final chapter, "From the Building of Socialism to its Bankruptcy," destroyed the seemingly solid effort found in its several preceding sections. Claiming that a historian cannot write effectively and objectively about events unless a period of at least thirty years has elapsed, he merely gave a thumbnail sketch of the period from 1960 to 1989 which included the tumultuous events of the "Prague Spring" and the "Velvet Revolution." An attack on Gustav Husak undeservedly received the most coverage in this four-page chapter. Here, Spiesz appeared to place himself on a soapbox in an attempt to further disavow his connections with the former regime. The author might instead have covered the fast-paced events after 1989 through the date of publication in order to give the reader a sense of closure. SLOVAKIA 123 Finally, the book has no index which, though not unusual for European publications, would in this case have been indispensable, since Spiesz covered so much in so few pages. On the whole, this book would be appropriate only for someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak history. Richard Marsina a kolektfv. Slovenske dejiny. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1993, 334 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Rorida This works represents the first general attempt since the collapse of the communist system in 1989 to reevaluate the history of the Slovak people. As such, it offers surprisingly little that is new or original. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Slovenske dejiny condemns the excesses of communist dictatorship, many of its conclusions would be politicaly acceptable to the deceased Husak regime. The early portion of the book deals with events and developments from which various schools ot thought concerning Slovak historiography have traditionally drawn common conclusions: Slovakia was settled by man since the dawn of history, the Slovaks retained a sense of identity in the Hungarian kingdom, there were embryonic tendencies towards statehood in earlier times, and so on. A subtle change of interpretation may be found in the treatment of the national awakening, specifically concerning the leaders of the 1848 revolution. Earlier Marxist interpretation of the 1848 events portrayed Cudovft Stur and his colleagues as conterrevolutionaries for siding with the Habsburgs against the Hungarians. Later, Slovak historiography during Alexander Dubcek' s tenure as First Secretary of the Slovak 124 SLOVAKIA Communist Party reversed this trend, portraying the Slovak leaders as socially progressive figures. This interpretation was continued throughout the Husak regime. Slovenske dejiny, by contrast, depicts the Slovak leaders in a strictly national rather than a social context. The work concedes that they initially attempted to cooperate with Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth on questions of social reform, but indicates that a breakdown of relations occured concerning Hungary's national question. One significant, and, in retrospect, surprising change of interpretation concerns the circumstances surrounding the Czecho-Slovak merger of 1918. Communist historiography traditionally regarded the merger as a "bourgeois swindle", in which the Slovak people were treated as colonial subjects until the victory of the working class under Communist leadership rectified relations between two nationalities. Given the pressures of Magyarization at the turn of the century, however, Slovenske dejiny treats pro-Czech sentiment as a positive force. The activities of T. G. Masaryk and the Czecho-Slovak emigres, the exploits of the Czechoslovak Legion on foreign battlefields, and even the career of the extreme Czechophile Vavro Srobar are all cast in a heroic light. No mention is made of the previously lauded Slovak Soviet Republic which was founded on the bayonets of Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army. This work conveys the impression that, if Czecho-Slovak union in 1918 was not the best of all possible worlds, it was at least a step in the right direction. Slovenske dejiny is critical of Czech centralism in the interwar period, but regards the cultural emancipation of the Slovaks and their economic advancement as positive features. Honorable mention is given to Milan Hodfa's appointment as the first Slovak prime minister of Czechoslovakia. His career might have been given more attention. In spite of a long history of personal opportunism, Hodfa's ideas concerning Central European federalism are still worth studying today. SLOVAKIA 125 While the work hails the attainment of Slovak autonomy in 1938, subsequent developments are portrayed as negative. Advocates of the rehabilitation of Monsignor Jozef Tiso are particularly bound to be disappointed: the Slovak Republic continues to be regarded as a Nazi puppet state, and the deportation of the Jews is treated in the same simplistic manner, which does not inquire deeper into the divisions of policy among Slovak leaders themselves. The 1944 uprising, correspondingly, is still regarded as a heroic event, notwithstanding the surrounding circumstances or tragic consequences. Surprisingly little attention is given to subsequent developments, perhaps out of sense of caution. It must be noted that, although the book was published in 1993, it was prepared during the previous year, at a time when many Czechs and Slovaks still hoped to maintain a federal republic. It reflects history written during a time of transition, and all the limitations found therein. This work's most revealing feature is a lack of vindictive malice towards the Czechs, a phenomenon which helped assure that the "Velvet Divorce" would not become another Balkanstyle bloodbath. A more comprehensive history, however, remains to be written. Katarina Sultajerova. Compiled by. Najstarsie rody na Slovensku, Martin: Slovenska genealogicko-heraldicka spolocnosr pri Matici slovenskej, 1994, 128 pp. DUNCAN B. GARDINER Lakewood, Ohio This collection of articles is essentialy a scholarly primer of the earliest documented Slovak aristocracy. It consists of papers delivered at the October, 1993 Symposium on the Oldest Line- 126 SLOVAKIA ages in Slovakia, which was co-sponsored by the State Regional Archives in Bratislava, the Archives Section of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and by the Slovak Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Jozef Novak, author of the two-volume Rodove erby na Slovensku ( 1986), wrote the preface and the lead article "Genealogia ako historicka disciplfna" , which discuses the importance of genealogy in understanding the early history of Slovakia. He recommends making heraldy and genealogy more valuable to historians by broadening genealogical studies to the geographic spread of a family over time, to the bibliography of published literature on a lineage, and to biographies of prominent individuals in the family. Novak also emphasises the importance of thorough source documentation. Roman Zelenay, the late State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Culture, wrote "Genealogicke met6dy vfskumu najstarsfch rodov". He discussed traditional Slovak naming customs dating to the Great Moravian period, showing that despite the lack of surnames, it is possible to establish genealogical betwe~n individuals by analyzing the system by which first names were given. The Battle of Mohacs ( 1526) disrupted the Slovak social order and this earlier naming system with it, a fact which makes post-Mohacs genealogies based on onomastics quite different. Milan Majtan, historian and author of Nazvy obcf na Slovensku za ostatnfch 200 rokov (1972), discusses the historical development of personal and family names in Slovakia in "Vfvin JXJmemivania osob na Slovensku", giving examples of proto-Slavic, pre-Christian and Christian naming traditions. Majtan cites copious examples from a range of early manuscript sources. In "Struktura sl'achty na Slovensku v 9 . - 13. storoci'', Richard Marsina relates that the upper aristocracy in Slovakia consisted of Magyars and Magyarized Slovaks. Therefore, the SLOVAKIA 127 genealogist and historian must look to the lesser nobility within each of the old countries to study the prominent Slovak lineages. Vincent Mucska's "Anonymovo dielo ako genealogickf pramen'""' takes a critical look at the twelfth-century "gesta". He dismisses it as a source of concrete historic or genealogical fact. "Panovnicka dynastia v JO. - 11. storocl" by Ladislav Vrtel' chronicles in some detail the families of the two sons of Takson, a granson of Arpad, the first Magyar leader, showing their quite different fates. Nine more articles, written by wel-known historians, deal with the earliest aristocratic families of individual counties: Saris and Uz by Ferdinand Ulicny; Spis by Ivan Chalupecky; Turiec, Liptov and Orava by Jan Benko; Trencfn by Richard Marsina; Bratislava by Vincent Sedlak; Nitra by Jan Lukacka; Zvolen by Maria Durk ova; and Malohont by Leon Sokolovsky. Each article is in Slovak with a short summary in English or, in several cases, German. The English summaries are readable, but the number of typographical and gramatical errors show that a native English-speaking editor was needed. Short biographies of the authors would have been most useful. The articles are based both on original research and the literature in the field in a number of languages: Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Latin. The Genealogical-Heraldic Society has single-handedly placed Slovakia on the genealogical map by publishing the Hlas, a twice-yearly journal of genealogy and heraldry and by organizing local genealogy groups, not only in Martin, but also in Bratislava, Kosice, and Trencfn. The founding of this society is connected with the fact that the authors of the Slovenskf biografickf slovmk (6 vols., Matica slovenska, 1986 - 1994), aware that the 19th-century Slovak intelligentsia was related by a complex series of intermarriages, have wanted to investigate 128 SLOVAKIA their genealogies for some time. This volume is an admirable contribution to that effort. Dejiny SJXJlocnosti Jeiisovej na Slovensku: 1561 - 1988. Emil Krapka, S. J. and Vojtech Mikula, S. J. - editors: Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990, 526 pp. and 24 pp. of color illustrations. GERALD J. SABO, S. J. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This is a historical survey of the Jesuits and their activities in the Slovak area, part of the 1990 celebration of the Society of Jesus on the 450th anniversary of its papal approval. As noted on the bibliographic page, this monograph was prepared between the fall of 1986 and that of 198 8, before the so-called "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989. Its two editors and eight authors have presented much interesting material to a Slovak-reading public which lacked substantive, accurate information on a religious order important in Slovak history and culture since the sixteenth century. In the main body are a good number of black and white illustrations, supplemented with sixty-four color ones for Slovakia and ten related to Slovak Jesuit activity in Canada. This extensive history is probably unique among such writing, and given the circumstances under which it was realised, all those involved deserve much praise and gratitude. The monograph is divided into five major parts. The first four comprise the Jesuits' history from 1561 with their first establishment in Tmava and on through 1988. The first part of the history covers the time period through 1615, the second, through the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, the third, the SLOVAKIA 129 order's suppression and its effect in the Slovak portion of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the fourth, the context of the Society's universal restoration and its work among Slovaks at home and beyond from 1853 through 1988. The second and fourth parts together comprise two-thirds of the entire work. A major part usually begins with the larger European and Church background in which the Slovak events arose and evolved, and then Slovakrelated material is divided according to geographical locations and pastoral/apostolic activity. The fifth and final part of this history includes a chronological summary of important events among Jesuits of this area, an explanation of religious and Jesuit terminology, a substantial bibliography on the Society at large and in the Slovak area, name and place indexes, and summaries in Slovak, English, German, French, and Magyar. Twice in this history, Jesuits suffered dramatically at the hands of civil authorities. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was finally impelled to supress legally the Society of Jesus in her realm from fear that if she did not do so, her daughter Marie Antoinette would not be allowed to marry the future French King, Louis XVI. Louis was a Bourbon, member of a royal family that strove mightily to eradicate throughout their European and foreign realms that "least" Society of Jesus for its greater loyalty to Church than state. Yet the Jesuits came back and thrived, just as they do today after their far more brutal suppression and persecution under the Communists between April, 1950 and the revolution of November, 1989. At present, Slovakia is a democratic, sovereign country, and publications such as the Dejiny need to showcase its role in European history and culture. Yet certain features of the Dejiny significantly limit its valuable effect and should be remedied. Prepared for a wide-ranging public conversant in Slovak, this work would also be of great interest to many others, whether general readers or scholars, who do not read Slovak, yet for 130 SLOVAKIA whom the summaries in languages other then Slovak are woefully inadequate. For this much wider audience, the Dejiny should be translated into English, the current lingua franca. Further, the lack of any documentation in notes is a serious limitation, yet nowadays such material could be collected within a reasonable time. This data is needed to provide crucial scholarship about Jesuits in Slovak territory and beyond which is available nowhere else. The activities of these Jesuits, mostly Slovak yet also of other nationalities, have remained hidden from appreciation even in Jesuit publications. For instance, in English-language studies of the Jesuits, the activities and influence of the universities in Trnava and Kosice - cities often disguised behind their German or Magyar names - are briefly mentioned, if that. No mention at all is made of the Slovak Benedikt Szollosi, compiler of the first Catholic hymnal Cantus catholici with songs in Latin and "Cultural Slovak". No more fortunate has been the Slovak Martin Szentivanyi, whose varied writings, encyclopedic studies, and very able directorship of the Trnava University press contributed significantly to Slovak history, culture, and language development. Also unknown among English readers is the Slovak Samuel Timon, whose writings made him a pioneer in scholarly Slovak historiography. Nor is Jesuit history in Slovak territory better known in other Western languages. For instance, nearly fourty years ago the Magyar Jesuit Laszl6 Lukacs wrote in German about the Jesuit Antonio Possevino's papal mission to establish a network of seminaries and schools in northern Europe in the late sixteenth century, but nothing was said about any Slovak area plans or effects. The Dejiny, though, discusses Posse vino's mission and its effects in re-establishing Jesuits there, as well as many other points not found outside of Slovaklanguage publications. Yet how is a general reader or scholar to appreciate the important Jesuit role and contributions to Slovak SLOVAKIA 131 history, culture, and society, if he is unable to read this history, or is even unaware that it exists? Clearly, the Dejiny cannot remain a hidden Slovak treasure. Indeed, the Slovak Jesuits have an obligation to make the Dejiny with proper documentation known and accessible to a non-Slovak-reading public. They must present themselves before the world and not simply in the Slovak heart of Europe. Otherwise, a part of Slovakia, its culture, history, people, and achievements will remain concealed behind a language that few in today's world will bother to learn even for reading. James Ramon Felak. "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,1929-1938. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, xiv & 263 p. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Czechoslovakia is a state that broke up twice in its seventyfour year history: the fust time it was under the pressure of international events and on the eve of a world war, the second in the aftermath of democratic elections. The fust break-up has been mired in controversy, due not only to the circumstances surrounding it, but above all to the responsibility that is often ascribed to the Slovak People's Party (SPP) for bringing about that outcome. James Felak's study looks at this party, in particular during the decade that precedes the fust break-up. There are very few studies of Slovak politics in the first Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), fewer still that offer an in depth examination of the role and policies of the main parties that influenced and shaped inter-war Slovak political life. The handful of monographs that have been written on Slovakia in the first 132 SLOVAKIA CSR, or indeed on the first CSR itself, have generally looked at how the "Slovak question" has contributed to, been responsible for, or unable to prevent its break-up. It would not be inaccurate to say that most take a position for (the Czechoslovak and Marxist approach) or against (the nationalist Slovak approach) the first CSR; very few seek to examine the question from the dynamics of Czech-Slovak relations as did Carol Skalnik Leff in National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (1988), or from the challenges a multinational state faces when dealing with its constituent nations and national minorities. Felak's study fills some of the gaps in our knowledge of Slovak inter-war political life, but, regretfully, it does little to advance our understanding of it. Of the seven chapters that present the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, five offer a relatively detailed examination of its policies for the decade that begins with the Depression. The first chapter presents a rapid and, unfortunately, superficial overview of Slovak nationalism until 1929 whereas the second outlines in detail the party's ideology and programme. The remaining chapters are divided according to certain events that mark a change of fortune or direction for the party. The author looks in depth at some of the more important ones, such as the Tuka affair of 1929, the 1929 and 1935 elections, the 1931 Slovak orthography dispute, the 1933 Pribina celebrations, the different party congresses, in particular the Youth Congress of 1932 and that of 1936, and the 1938 Pittsburgh Pact celebration, all of which marked Slovak political life. Equally useful and interesting are his descriptions of the SPP platform at different times and the relations with other Czech and Slovak political parties and formations. As for the various leading personalities, Andrej Hlinka, Vojtech Tuka, Karol Sidor, and Jozef Tiso, among others, the author seeks to give a sense of their role and importance in the development of SPP policies. In sum, most of the SLOVAKIA 133 book offers a detailed examination of the role of the SPP in an important decade in Slovak political life and is in this respect a contribution to the existing literature. The main problem with this study lies in its approach to the subject. This is due not only to too great a reliance on certain earlier studies, but above all to the indiscriminate use of police reports as authoritative sources of political analysis. In fairness to the author, he makes an attempt to present a balanced approach on the "Slovak question". Yet the language he uses clearly indicates that he identifies with and accepts generally the interpretations of those authors who have a Czechoslovak view ?f Slovak history, a view that is mostly negative toward the Slovaks and uncritically favourable toward Czechoslovakia. For example he refers to Slovakia as "relatively underdeveloped, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and nationally" (p. 17) or describes Hlinka as having a "parochial, clerical mentality that resembled that of a Slovak peasant." (p. 25) In addition, like earlier authors, his examination of Prague policies toward Slovakia and toward the SPP, is at best cursory and certainly not critical. On occasion one gets the feeling from his presentation that there was a specific Prague-SPP dynamic, yet there is little analysis of the reasons for and the consequences of Prague policies, only of the SPP reactions and actions. For example, Prague exercized censorship on the SPP press to such an extent that in 1938, when the government was considering the possibility of a coaliton with the SPP, one of that party's conditions was the lifting of that censorship. Equally problematic is the reliance on police reports as a research source. The fact that the Prague government felt it necessary to have police spies within the SPP is in itself a fact worth examining, not to say anything of the accuracy of these reports. The emphasis that Felak places on factional struggles within the SPP comes mostly from these reports. That the police 134 SLOVAKIA spies reported such struggles is not in the least bit surprising; it was in the government's interest to be able to neutralize an opposition party that Pelak on many occasions describes as the most important one in Slovakia. Also, there is nothing surprising about factional differences; this is a fact of life in political parties in all democratic states. But in this case, the factionalism represented the dilemmas the SPP faced in its twin objectives: the autonomy of Slovakia and the integrity and security of Czechoslovakia. The failure of Prague to have understood this and to have dealt with it adequately was paid, in the end, "at the price of the republic." For all its richness about the SPP, Felak's examination of its policies is nevertheless incomplete; on the other hand, it has the merit of provoking additional questions and showing the way for further study. Hope Dies Last, The Autobiogra]Xly of Alexander Dubcek. Edited and translated by Jin Hochman. New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1993. 354 pp. ROBERT K. EV ANSON Uni versify of Missouri Kansas City The automobile accident of September 1, 1992, which led to Alexander Dubcek's death nine weeks later, robbed Slovakia of one of its most distinguished political leaders. Whether Dubcek could have played a vital role in shaping the politics of an independent Slovakia will never be known. What is certain, and what we are reminded of in this fascinating autobiography excellently edited and translated by Jin Hochman - is that he did establish for himself a place of lasting historical importance. SLOVAKIA 135 It seems necessary to say this because, as Dubcek himself was aware, there is insufficient appreciation among many of today's young Slovaks and Czechs of what he and his fellow "reform Communists" attempted to do in the 1960s. It remains for historians to sort out the difficult issue of just how much impact the Prague Spring had on the subsequent course of Czechoslovak politics that ended ultimately in the demise of the country's neo-Stalinist regime twenty-one years later, but clearly the impact was significant.The Prague Spring, which Dubcek more than anyone else helped to shape, set an example for democratic aspirations that resurfaced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It also was an obvious model for some of Gorbachev's policies in -the 1980s. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement also created deep wounds of alienation among Czechs and Slovaks towards the USSR and the post-1968 regime that never healed. Ironically, both Dubcek and the Soviets were correct in their 1968 dialogue, Dubcek in warning the Soviets of the need to better understand how many Czechs and Slovaks viewed the old regime as an unnatural entity, and the Soviets in recognizing the degree to which Dubcek's reform movement threatened the very foundations of Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. Dubcek's autobiography begins appropriately with his early years, and an examination of that period of his life teaches us a great deal about why he acted as he did in his maturity. It is difficult not to admire the man, and this book, which is not egregiously self-serving, merely strengthens that attitude. Several aspects of character and personality come to mind - decency, courage, political shrewdness, and a trust and idealism that were at once his greatest strengths and his greatest weaknesses. We find him as a teenager in Kirghizia defending young Muslims against bullying by his fellow Czechs and Slovaks, and after World War Two pressing relentlessly for the release from the Soviet Gulag of a physician who had treated the injured Dubcek 136 SLOVAKIA during the Uprising; it was a small moral step to his passionate commitment to the complete rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. In 1952, in the wake of the Shinsky trial and at the height of the terror, he cast aside a Soviet-censored version of a speech and instead delivered a ringing eulogy at the funeral of fellow Communist Karol Smidke, who had been a victim of the persecution. He stood up for the reforms in the face of immense Soviet pressure throughout 1968, acted honorably after his abduction to Moscow following the Soviet and allied invasion, refused to take the safety of exile because he thought his proper place was with his people, and sent off a stream of letters of protest long after his removal from power at considerable personal risk. Dubcek also was a very clever and careful political tactician. Some of the most fascinating passages in his book concern the way he built alliances in his ultimately successful effort to bring down Communist Party First Secretary Antonin Novotny in 1967. I would like to have read even more details about conversations he had with various political figures in this process, as well as about the way he blunted Novotny's efforts to consign him to political oblivion in 1962, but there still is plenty to captivate anyone with a taste for Prague-style Kremlinology. The period of the early 1960s is especially interesting in this book, because Dubcek discusses the first signs of the movement against neo-Stalinism and Prague centralism, including his election over Novotny's opposition to the position of Slovak Communist Party First Secretary in April, 1963. This event represented a stinging defeat for Novotny, because Dubcek already had established himself as the leading advocate for sweeping rehabilitation of the victims of the purges of so-called "Slovak bourgeois nationalists" in the early 1950s. As such, he had become the major opponent of Prague centralism in the Party leadership. SLOVAKIA 137 While Dubcek was never foolhardy, he could be surprisingly bold. An interesting illustration of this was his successful ploy with Jin Hendrych, the number two man in the Party hierarchy in 1967 and, until then, a staunch Novotny loyalist. Sensing that Hendrych was beginning to vacillate in his commitment to Novotny, Dubcek walked into his office that late November and said that Novotny's days as First Secretary clearly were numbered, and that Hendrych might consider getting on the bandwagon or he too would fall. As an added enticement, he invited the startled Hendrych to consider whether he would like Novotny's job as First Secretary! The amusing climax of this story is that shortly thereafter, Leonid Brezhnev came to Prague to assess Novotny's prospects and naturally sought out Hendrych's opinion. Reportedly, Brezhnev barely got inside the door when Hendrych told him he was "willing" to serve as First Secretary. While Hendrych never got the chance - Dubcek succeeded Novotny - his abandonment of Novotny may have persuaded Brezhnev of the futility of a rescue operation. The most painful reading in this book is the period of the mounting Soviet hostility to the Prague Spring and the ultimate invasion and subsequent period of "normalization." It is impossible not to become angry all over again when one reads of the treatment Dubcek and his comrades received at the hands of their Soviet kidnappers, as well as the incredible pettiness and maliciousness of their successors in Prague and Bratislava. While Dubcek does not cast a great deal of new light on the events of 1968, he minces no words in assessing various political figures and spares no criticism of his worst tormentors. Thus we learn that Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin was as cold in private as in public and capable of extreme rudeness. He and his Soviet comrades are rightly dismissed by Dubcek as "gangsters" and "thugs." Novotny is confirmed as hopelessly ignorant of Slovak affairs, as well as contemptuous toward Slovak national 138 SLOVAKIA feelings, one of the keys to his ultimate demise. Dubcek also brands Vasil Bifak, Alois Indra, and the other conspirators of 1968 as "traitors." No one comes across worse, however, than Gustav Husak, who presided over the restoration of neo-Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. His shabby treatment of Dubcek after 1968, despite Dubcek's pivotal role in bringing about his political resurrection, is a sad counter to the courage he displayed when fighting for his own rehabilitation in the early 1960s. Despite the claims that he "protected" the ousted reformers from "hardliners" in the Party, Husak comes across here as a man incapable of normal feelings and as a complete opportunist. Naturally Dubcek was bitter about Husak, but the tone of his evaluations of Husak and other political figures is in fact measured and convincing. No discussion of Dubcek's political career would be complete without addressing his failure to discern the danger of a Soviet invasion in 1968. Part of the answer may lie in his family background. He was born in 1921 to a pair of committed socialists who were so enamored of the Soviet experiment that they were willing to relocate to Central Asia to help build a new society. At the same time, his parents had the good sense to return to Czechoslovakia when the dangers of remaining in the Soviet Union became obvious. Nonetheless, Dubcek never abandoned the socialist idealism he inherited from them. While he certainly understood the evils of Stalinism and the incompatibility of the Soviet-type system with Czech and Slovak traditions, he had a blind spot that served him poorly in 1968. Specifically, despite all the Soviet expressions of alarm about what he and his fellow reformers were doing, he could not bring himself to believe the USSR would intervene. There is no question Dubcek had evolved into a democrat and was aware of what he was doing. He writes that the Action Program put forth by Party reformers in 1968 "was a plan for a gradual return to SLOVAKIA 139 the concept of democratic socialism ... " He acknowledges that his regime was rejecting various aspects of Leninism - he believed that the Communist Party could win popular support in competitive elections, once it had embraced democracy, and thus he downplayed the Soviet concern that his reforms were jeopardizing "the leading role of the party." At the same time, he knew he had to avoid making any references to multi-party democracy for fear of alarming them unnecessarily. He also believed that "socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise." He writes that of course he recalled what happened to Hungary in 1956, but he had made clear to the Soviets his determination that Czechoslovakia would remain loyal to its Soviet bloc allies, so the situations were not comparable. Perhaps it was due to his conviction that what he and his colleagues were doing would benefit socialism by strengthening the Communist Party's legitimacy among the people, and by bringing the country closer to the original ideals of socialism, that he could not believe that the Soviet leadership would not, however reluctantly, allow him to proceed. (In a postscript, Jiff Hochman notes Dubcek's inclination to believe in people's good intentions.) In fairness, it is difficult to fault Dubcek very much had he opted for concessions, it seems unlikely that the Soviet leadership would have accepted anything short of a complete abandonment of the democratization process to which he had committed his country. Still, his discussion of how he assessed the Soviet mindset at the time is not entirely satisfactory. Alexander Dubcek's autobiography is a thoughtful and wellwritten account of the life of a man of extraordinary moral and political qualities. It is indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the Czechoslovak political experience. 140 SLOVAKIA Paul Robert Magocsi. The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1993, x, 185 pp., Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul,MN The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey is essentially a revision of an earlier work by Prof. Magocsi, The RusynUkrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey (Vienna, 1981 ). But there is an additional twist to this revision. The "Preface" says: ''This volume is a translation of an introductory historical survey published in the newly codified Rusyn literary language as well as in Slovak by the Rusyn Renaissance Society in Presov." Prof. Magocsi played a leading role in the formation of the national movement that spawned the Rusyn Renaissance Society and the First World Congress of Rusyns that sponsored the codification of the Rusyn literary language. The professor, however, is modest. His name does not once appear in the text in connection with that activity; however, he is pictured with other leaders of the First World Congress of Rusyns (122). The contents of the book should be familiar to those have read the author's earlier works. Magocsi traces the Rusyns' history from their first settlement in eastern Slovakia to the present. He partially assumes and partially attempts to demonstrate that the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia form a distinct nationality. Magocsi documents the cooperation that existed between the Rusyns and the Slovaks while they were dominated by Hungary prior to 1914, but he is critical of the "slovakization" of the Rusyns between the world wars, and he also identifies the SLOVAKIA 141 Ukrainian movement as a threat to the Rusyn national identity that the book clearly endorses. During the inter-war yars slovakization was a greater threat to the Rusyns than "ukrainianization", but after the Second World War, official government support for the Ukrainian identity led to a decline of any national consciousness. Many Rusyns identified themselves as Slovaks to avoid the Ukrainian label. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, the Rusyns in the Presov region were again free to publicly promote their own national identity as separate from either Slovak or Ukrainian. In this effort, the Rusyns received support from both the Prague and the Bratislava governments. Magocsi suggests that this support for the Rusyns harkens back to "the historical friendship and attention on the part of Czechs and Slovaks toward their Rusyn brethren ... " (126). It could also suggest that the number of people identifying themselves as Rusyns is now very small and the Rusyn movement is not likely to become a major competitor to the Slovak identity in eastern Slovakia. In fact the major problem with Prof. Magocsi 's interpretation of the Rusyn movement in estem Slovakia is his confidence that the small number of Rusyns can develop a national identity. He is dissatisfied with the 1991 census figures that identify fewer than 33,000 "Rusnak/Russian/Rusyn/Ukrainian" people in the Presov region, with just under 17,000 of them unambiguously identifying themselves as "Rusyn" ( 126). According to Magocsi, that number could potentially be as high as 130 000 (2 - 3). Many readers of Magocsi's first book: The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848 - 1948 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) were persuaded by his convincing argument that the Rusyns in Subcarpathia did, at least, "shape" a national identity during the inter-war years. But in that era, he was dealing with a larger critical mass of Rusyns. In eastern Slovakia, that critical mass does not seem to exist. With the Slovaks claiming 142 SLOVAKIA most of those 130,000 potential Rusyns, and the Ukrainians competing for the rest, it does not seem likely that the critical mass will develop. In the meantime, those who do identify themselves as Rusyns can read their history in their own "newly codified language". And those who identify themselves as Slovaks can also read the translation in their language just as Rusyns in North America can read it in English. Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Diaspora. Edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1994, xxxvi, 508 pp. PAUL R. MAGOCSI University of Toronto The goal of this volume is to provide brief factual data on Ukrainians wherever they may live in the world. The newlyindependent country of Ukraine has within its borders only 64 percent of the estimated 58.7 million inhabitants who inhabit various parts of the globe. Therefore, a history or description of the Ukrainian people as a whole must be concerned with many other places than Ukraine. This book in fact deals primarily with the estimated 21.2 million Ukrainians living outside Ukraine. The approach is comprehensive, with an effort to say something about communities, however small they may be, in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, Tunisia and New Zealand as well as in the more known countries of Ukrainian immigrant settlement like the United States, Canada, and Australia. SLOVAKIA 143 The editor, Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, felt the need to trace the political and cultural history of Ukraine (pp. 37 - 84), which is the least satisfactory portion of this otherwise encyclopedic compendium. The rest of the volume consists of entries by 28 authors on the various countries where Ukrainians live. Each entry begins with a general overview of a specific country followed by a history of its Ukrainian community. Many entries include statistical charts and each ends with a list of further readings. Slovak readers will likely be interested in the entry called "Ukrainian-Ruthenians in the Slovak Republic", written by Vasyl Markus (pp. 157 - 166). While the author recognizes the enormous cultural achievements made by the Ukrainians in Slovakia after World War II, he does not attribute the achievements to the favorable policies of the former Czechoslovak Communist government that lavished extensive funding on the group, but rather to the efforts of the local Ukrainian-oriented intelligentsia. He claimes that the official census figures (30,800 Rusyns and Ukrainians in 1991) are far below the 110,000 to 120,000 that supposedly live in northeastern Slovakia. Markus argues the statistical discrepancy exists because of manipulation by Slovak census takers and a policy of "denationalization" carried out by both the former Communist and post-1989 governments in Slovakia. He does not mention the real reason for the numerical differences. Since the 1950s thousands of "Ukrainians-Ruthenians" voluntarily opted to identify as Slovaks in protest against Communist government decrees that banned the Rusyn national identity and required people to call themselves Ukrainian. The author also indirectly blames Slovak governments for responding favorably since 1989 to the Rusyn national revival and for allowing people in the 1991 census to identify with the Rusyn nationality (16,937 Rusyns as opposed to 13,847 Ukrainians) and with the Rusyn language (49,099 Rusyn speakers as opposed to 9,480 Ukrainian speakers) - the latter 144 SLOVAKIA figures are not provided by Markus. The otherwise democratic policies of present-day Slovakia are described as promoting "political Ruthenianism" a phenomenon that is "influenced by outside anti-Ukrainian forces" and that is intent on de-Ukrainianizing the local population. Fortunately, the rest of this volume maintains a less biased tone in describing Ukrainian communities in other countries. Nina Trnka: Slovak-English I English-Slovak Dictionary, N. Y., Hippocrene Books, 1992, 360 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Anizona Any contribution to the field of Slovak reference materials is always welcome. Attempts at popularization are encouradged only to the extent that a work demonstrates quality. Standards, of course, should always be high to reflect the expertise of the _ contributor. The backcover boasts "You are holding the only SlovakEnglish/English-Slovak Dictionary available in North America". What about Smejkalova et al.? The book is intended for "students and travelers", and claims to be "concise". For all its advertising pretense, its format is disappointing. It looks like a thesis. It lacks an Introduction which it sorely needs for efficient use. It omits a separating page (175) between the two major divisions for facile access, wherein an appropriate blank page or second title page would suffice. Pronunciation (pages i through iii) is confusing. The list of consonants is incomplete, not accounting for - among others important palatals d', I, ii, ( used in too many words to be ignored. As immediate as page one, there is no knowing how ''t~' SLOVAKIA 145 in "akost' must be pronounced according to her presentation. Questions arise as to "studi'ia" (123) and "studna" (353 - see "well")? Why then "anP' (2) gives [a-nyi], or "odev" (71) [odyef]? How then distinguish cited "Javica" (44) from un-cited "/avica" - "left hand"? Equating long "6" with "6" in Pronunciation is erroneous, being that the latter "6" is diphotong [.u.o]. The remarks in Pronunciation are unclear and inadequate. The uninitiated will render Slovak pronunciation ludicrous. Examples provided are ambiguous for articulation of varietes of vowel "a", because speakers of American-English are inconsistent in their renditions of "a" in cited forms "ma-ma, fast, rat, grass, pad". To present digraph "ch" as aspirated [kh] in "khaki" (sic!) is not true for the guttural [)c]. And, to state that Slovak "r' is approximated by labial untrilled "r' of "red" - bellies the trilled "r' performed by the tongue. Transcription in Pronunciation is defective, since the symbols given are arbitrary, not in accord either with the conventions of Slovak texts or even the International Phonetic System. A hard look at the symbols presented defies logic. Examples follow. Since Standard Slovak (i. e. spisovna slovencina) utilizes digraph "dz" as the phone in medzi and other words - to employ "dz' as a symbol for English pronunciation of th [b] of "they" is incomprehensible! In like manner, use of [s] for [0] of "thank" produces comic theatrical effect as in [Sank you] for [Sank you]! Moreover, to present the nasal-guttural -ng [ri] of "long" as underlined [g] can be misinterpreted into a humorous exagerated liaison of oft-quoted misquoted "LoNGJsland" with defined [NGJ]. 146 SLOVAKIA Further examination into the deficiencies given in Pronunciation would require a complete revision after careful editing. So far only the unavoidable pitfalls have been critiqued. Editorial work appears lax or nonexistent as evidenced by "thruth" (sic! page ii), presumably "truth". And, "heith" (sic! page 158) following vyska and page 244, apparently meant to be "height"). In both citings of "heith", consistency seems to demonstrate persistent misspelling. There is an unexpected thrust from V (350) into W (351) without a notification-heading W. As for word-selection, it might be hoped that high-frequency was a criterion for efficiency. On the contrary, superfluous are words among others like "elephant" (222), "volcano" (350), "yacht" (358), "zebra" (359) - scarcely indigenous to Slovakia! Yet the word kamzik (36?) "chamois" (198?) indigenous to the Tatras finds no listing in either section. Why "warden" (351) is given makes one wonder of its sociological implications. Why is "warrant" (351) so important to find place here? Surely one expects utilitarian vocabulary in such a work. As for semantics, a first-hand impression might be that if several meanings are provided without explanation or definition - an indiscriminate interchange might be possible. Not so for automat (3) "slot-machine, snack-bar, machine-gun". Thus also for "minister" (268) "minister, vyslanec, duchovnf" mean different things. Each having a distinct, specific meaning. It is most unlikely that "students and travelers" will discern clearly which term fits which circumstance. Cross-references are not provided for necessary clarification. See "warm" (351) ...srdecnf... for which neither "cordial" (206?) nor "sincerely" (315) are given on expected pages in parentheses. In similar manner, aktiv (1) "meeting, gathering" makes no reference or distinction from "meeting" (266) schodza, stretnutie. SLOVAKIA 147 Perusal of the text will result in startling revelations. For instance, pronunciation of odJXJr (72) gives [od-por], whereas in fact it is [ot-por], a morphophonetic alternation called regressive assimilation. Where the voiced d automatically becomes unvoiced/devoiced t, in harmony with unvoiced p which sets the condition for the process. The same phenomenon occurs in other instances like odstup (72) to [ot-stup], bezplatny (6) to [bes-platnee], modlitba and prosba for "prayer" (289) not given in the text as [mod-lit-ba] and [proz-ba]. Interesting to note is that word-final voiced consonants are given as de-voiced as in smrad (116) [smrat]. However, no account has been made of v as a semi-vowel [IJ.] in such words as pravda (92) [prau.da], rovno (105) [rouno], domov (18) [domo.1J.]; instead, Czech ussage [domof] (18) is presented. Two outstanding examples given: [svatba] (125) for svadba and ['strukh] (101) for pstruh are unintelligible. For all the effort involved in the production of this Dictionary, it is unfortunate that it should fall short of the desired quality expected. In spite of the good intentions of the contributor, the end result is full of inconsistencies and inadequacies.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 36 (No. 66-67) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Paul Robert Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (George J. Demko), p. 119</li> <li>Anton Špiesz, Dejiny Slovenska na cesta k sebauvedomeniu (Gregory C. Ference), p. 121</li> <li>Richard Marsina a kolektív, Slovenské dejiny (R. Vladimír Baumgarten), p. 123</li> <li>Katarína Šultajerová, comp., Najstaršie rody na Slovensku (Duncan B. Gardiner), p. 125</li> <li>Emil Krapka and Vojtech Mikula, eds., Dejiny Spoločnosti Ježišovej na Slovensku: 1561-1988 (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 128</li> <li>James Ramon Felak, "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka' s Slovak People's Party, 1929-1938 (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 131</li> <li>Jiří Hochman, ed., Hope Dies Last: The Autobiography of Alexander Dubček (Robert K. Evanson), p. 134</li> <li>Paul Robert Magocsi, The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey (Keith P. Dyrud), p. 140</li> <li>Ann Lensyk Pawliczko, ed., Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Disapora (Paul R. Magocsi), p. 142</li> <li>Nina Trnka, Slovak-English/English-Slovak Dictionary (John M. Kochik), p. 144</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Demko, George J., 1933- Dyrud, Keith P. 1940- Evanson, Robert Kent, 1944- Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Gardiner, Duncan B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Kochik, John Michael Magocsi, Paul Robert, 1945- Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/05dfafdd202334bbd4ae128be709e595.pdf 3cff60302ef100432f5cf13ff2767e89 PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 201 Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of lsakjan Narzikul. Upland, PA.: Diane Publishing, 1999, 333pp. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida One of the most fundamental dilemmas confronting politically conscious individuals in East Central Europe during World War II was that of choosing between two evils: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, the choice was deceptively simple. They had never suffered under German domination , whereas Stalin's regime had abolished many aspects of their traditional way of life. Consequently, a Turkistani battalion served as part of the German Army and later the Nazi SS . The experiences of a Turkistani officer, Is.ikjan Narzikul, is the subject of the present work . lsakjan Nar1.ikul's boyhood offered every indication he would become a model Soviet citizen. Notwithstanding the Communist doctrine of international solidarity, at the military academy of Tashkent (predominately Russian in composition), Isakjan was treated as a member of a despised, dark-skinned minority. Yet he performed well , and was commissioned a lieutenant m the Red Army. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Isakjan was stationed in the Baltic territories, where he was captured. At this time a number of German military officers broke with Nazi racial ideology. They felt that, in order for Germany to win the war in the East, it was necessary to rally the Soviet peoples in a popular struggle against the Stalinist Soviet Union. Among the �202 SLOVAKJA various organizations sponsored in Berlin was the National Turkistani Unity Committee. Isakjan Narzikul became an adherent, and subseq uentl y an officer in the Turkistani battalion . This unit admitted and concealed the religious identity of Turkistan's Jewish co-nationals . Ironically, then , under Turkistani auspices, Jews served in the SS. The Turkistanis aided the Germans in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the summer of 1944. They conducted themselves with far less brutality toward s the civilians than did the Germans, although they were not averse to a certain amount of looting. From there they were transferred to Slovakia. The author did not mention that Slovakia experienced a full-fledged uprising in the autumn of 1944; he merely stated that the area was characterized by "partisan activity ." The Slovak National Uprising was formally crushed when the Germans captured the rebel center of Hanska Bystrica late in October. The Turkistanis did not arrive until December. Given the loot that they had acquired in Warsaw, and Slovakia's relative prosperity, it was initially an idyllic intervention . Isakjan's life underwent a dramatic change when his superior officer (who had a Ru ssian partisan girlfriend) decided to change sides once again. Only a few officers, including lsakjan, were consulted; the rank and file were shanghaied into the partisan movement. The Soviet officer who received them gave them the name Chapajcv group. It is worth noting here that a Chapajcv Brigade of partisans had previously been outstandingly active tn the Slovak uprising. The Turkistani gro up was largely decimated in a German ambush; Isakjan gathered together the survivors . He commanded a curious group of partisans, whose objectives did not include �SLOVAKIA 203 destroying railways , cutting communication wires, or ambushing German troops . Isakjan was concerned that its members simply survive. Eventually, they returned fire when the Germans fired upon them. But Isakjan 's most noteworthy accomplishment was winning the goodwill of the Slovak people. He maintained strict discipline over his unit in the village it occupied, punished an attempted rape, and was scrupulous in matters of requisition . Ultimately, he married a Slovak woman and overcame the distrust of his future father-in-law. After the war Isakjan became a Czechoslovak citizen. He was popular with the local Slovaks, who helped thwart Soviet efforts to deport him back to Turkistan . Eventually, however, Isakjan had to nee Czechoslovakia. He ultimately made his way to Philadelphia, where he worked hard and experienced a measure of success. He came to the attention of a local doctor, whose nephew , Stephen Crane, authored the present work . Survivor from an Unknown War suffers from several weaknesses . Crane is not a professional historian . He repeatedly refers to the Soviet intelligence/secret police apparatus as the KGB. During World War IL Soviet state security was referred to as the NKVD; KGB was not adopted as an acronym until 1964 . The book's index is virtually worthless. having numerous inaccuracies in page citations . In at least one instance it refers the reader to a blank page' Finally, when compared with other foreign groups which participated in the Slovak uprising (Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Russians and Ukrainians) and non-Slovak nati vc groups (Jews and Roma), the participation or the Turkistanis was at best peripheral. None of this, however, detracts from Crane's poignant portrayal of a man who maintained his moral integrity under extremely adverse circumstances . The book also re11ccts favourably on the �204 SLOVAKJA Slovak people's sense of fair-play and hospitality during a particularly painful period in their hi story. Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich kato/ikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Berno/aka. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 2000, I I 8pp . MARTIN VOTRUBA University of Pittsburgh During the early years of communism in the J95(fs, Slovak linguists - agreeing with their former Czech professors - wrote that literary Slovak was first codified in the 1780s by Anton Bernolak, a priest and zcman (lower nobleman) from Orava County. According to them, the written norm before Bernolak had been literary Czech, with varying degrees of regional Slovak influences. While insightful works about the development of the Slovak language as such had already been published by then , only limited research into its written norms prior to Bernolak was actually carried out earlier, or after that, and the assertions from the 1950s have been repeated since. Detailed analyses of the norms and standards did not reappear until the 1990s. Interestingly , they were done by linguists outside Slovakia: [ubomfr Durovic at the University of Lund, Sweden ; Mark Lauersdorf at Luther University, Iowa: and Konstantin Lifanov, at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , Russia. In February of 2001 Moscow University published Lifanov ' s book on the language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the l 6th through the 18th centuries. During two decades of �SLOVAKJA 205 research in Slovak archives and libraries , Lifanov analyzed both printed and written texts that originated before Bernolak. Lifanov concluded that, contrary to earlier assumptions, Slovak authors have used a written standard separate from the written standard of Prague since the 16th century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, with its large Czech population , was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and as such was among the first areas in Central Europe to pick up on new trends from the West, including writing in the local vernacular instead of in Latin. The written standard that developed in Prag ue served as an influential model in the establishment of Polish writing, and was adopted outright by the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of Bohemia in the 14th century. At that time Czech was closer to Slovak than it is now . However, prompted by the spread of Luther's reforms m the Kingdom of Hungary after the 1530s, the need to publish in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, grew and ongoing changes m the Czech written standard gradually ceased to be picked up by Slovak writers. They began to rely on their own traditions , first in religious writing, and later in administrative texts as well. The changes in the written standard involved both a retention of grammatical features originally adopted from Czech, which had become obsolete in the written standard of Prague, and an establishment of Slovak features in many instances where the two languages differed. By the 1610s a systematic written standard was in place in Slovakia, which was never used in Moravia or Bohemia. It was respected by authors regardless of their religious affiliation Catholic, or Lutheran. While Slovak linguists in the 1950s said that their written language had been subdivided into western, central and eastern varieties, Lifanov demonstrated that Slovak �SLOVAKIA 206 authors in the Kingdom of Hungary respected a single literary standard , which mainly relied on western Slovak features. According to Lifanov, Bcrnolak 's " manual of style" from the l 780s was not a new standardization , but a description and adjustment of the Slovak written standard that had been in place since the early 17th century. Only the Lutheran ecclesiastical writin g and poetry (but not many of their other texts) took a different path during the counter-Reformation , when their persec ution peaked . But the Lutherans did not use the contemporary Prague written standard either. Rather, they reverted to the archaic style of a Protestant translation of the Bible published in Moravia in the 1590s, whose lang uage had already been o bsolete for one or two ce nturies at the time of its publication . During empress Maria Theresa's re ig n in the 18th century, the close adherence to th e language of that tran slatio n of the Bible in their ' hig h literature' became an article of faith and religious survival for the Lutherans. Tradition made their descendants partial to the o bsolete style fo r several decades after emperor Joseph ll 's Edict of Toleration of 1781. Czec h and Slovak lin guists in the 20th century ge nerally reviewed only old high literature, and hig h literature was mos tl y written by the Lutheran intelligentsia. Moreover, Slovak and Czech have many common features. and the academics Czech and later their Slovak disciples - first took all the features that did not differ from Czech to be Czech, including in the vast num ber of instances when the features were the same in Slovak. To illustrate the approach in a theo retical example, if the features m a text were one-third Czech, one-third the same in Czech and Slovak , and one-third Slovak, the whole text would be seen as two-thirds, i.e. " in principle" Czech, rather than as two-third s �207 SLOVAKIA Slovak, or as open to both interpretations and subject to further analysis. Yet another reason for misidentification was that, by comparison to modem Slovak, west Slovak features, which used to be the main source of the Slovak written standard, are ofte n closer to Czech. That increased the like lihood that 20th-ce ntury linguists, not familiar with regional varieties of Slovak, dismissive of the possibility of their employment in the old written standard , or not s ufficiently th orough, would no t take account of them. It is worth noting that, although his research may no t converge with Lifanov 's, Durovic showed in a recent paper th at there indeed was a concept of a written standard before Bernolak 's manual of style. Bcmo lak drew o n a grammar book pub lished in Bratislava in the 1740s by Lutheran Pas tor Pavel Do lezal, who chastised his contemporaries for writing in their 18th century lang uage instead of using the archaic Biblical style. According to Lifanov, the pre-existin g Slovak written standard was established so well that even those who welcomed Bcrnolak 's manual of style often just appeared to respect it where Bcmolak 's codification agreed with the existing norm , but adhered to the traditional standard where Bcrnolak di verged from it. To sum up. Lifanov ·s research shows that the Slovaks ado pted the ir written norm from Prague in the 14th ce ntury. Slovak and Czech writing bifurcated after the 1530s, when the Slovaks began to ignore ongoing changes in Prag ue , and introduced Slovak innovations. A Slovak written standard had developed by the 1610s. Except for a reversal to an arc haic style limited to hi g h literature by Lutheran authors in the 18th and earl y 19th centuries, that written standard was used through its major reform by [udovft Stur in the middle of the 19th ce ntury. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 201 Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of lsakjan Narzikul. Upland, PA.: Diane Publishing, 1999, 333pp. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida One of the most fundamental dilemmas confronting politically conscious individuals in East Central Europe during World War II was that of choosing between two evils: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, the choice was deceptively simple. They had never suffered under German domination , whereas Stalin's regime had abolished many aspects of their traditional way of life. Consequently, a Turkistani battalion served as part of the German Army and later the Nazi SS . The experiences of a Turkistani officer, Is.ikjan Narzikul, is the subject of the present work . lsakjan Nar1.ikul's boyhood offered every indication he would become a model Soviet citizen. Notwithstanding the Communist doctrine of international solidarity, at the military academy of Tashkent (predominately Russian in composition), Isakjan was treated as a member of a despised, dark-skinned minority. Yet he performed well , and was commissioned a lieutenant m the Red Army. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Isakjan was stationed in the Baltic territories, where he was captured. At this time a number of German military officers broke with Nazi racial ideology. They felt that, in order for Germany to win the war in the East, it was necessary to rally the Soviet peoples in a popular struggle against the Stalinist Soviet Union. Among the �202 SLOVAKJA various organizations sponsored in Berlin was the National Turkistani Unity Committee. Isakjan Narzikul became an adherent, and subseq uentl y an officer in the Turkistani battalion . This unit admitted and concealed the religious identity of Turkistan's Jewish co-nationals . Ironically, then , under Turkistani auspices, Jews served in the SS. The Turkistanis aided the Germans in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the summer of 1944. They conducted themselves with far less brutality toward s the civilians than did the Germans, although they were not averse to a certain amount of looting. From there they were transferred to Slovakia. The author did not mention that Slovakia experienced a full-fledged uprising in the autumn of 1944; he merely stated that the area was characterized by "partisan activity ." The Slovak National Uprising was formally crushed when the Germans captured the rebel center of Hanska Bystrica late in October. The Turkistanis did not arrive until December. Given the loot that they had acquired in Warsaw, and Slovakia's relative prosperity, it was initially an idyllic intervention . Isakjan's life underwent a dramatic change when his superior officer (who had a Ru ssian partisan girlfriend) decided to change sides once again. Only a few officers, including lsakjan, were consulted; the rank and file were shanghaied into the partisan movement. The Soviet officer who received them gave them the name Chapajcv group. It is worth noting here that a Chapajcv Brigade of partisans had previously been outstandingly active tn the Slovak uprising. The Turkistani gro up was largely decimated in a German ambush; Isakjan gathered together the survivors . He commanded a curious group of partisans, whose objectives did not include �SLOVAKIA 203 destroying railways , cutting communication wires, or ambushing German troops . Isakjan was concerned that its members simply survive. Eventually, they returned fire when the Germans fired upon them. But Isakjan 's most noteworthy accomplishment was winning the goodwill of the Slovak people. He maintained strict discipline over his unit in the village it occupied, punished an attempted rape, and was scrupulous in matters of requisition . Ultimately, he married a Slovak woman and overcame the distrust of his future father-in-law. After the war Isakjan became a Czechoslovak citizen. He was popular with the local Slovaks, who helped thwart Soviet efforts to deport him back to Turkistan . Eventually, however, Isakjan had to nee Czechoslovakia. He ultimately made his way to Philadelphia, where he worked hard and experienced a measure of success. He came to the attention of a local doctor, whose nephew , Stephen Crane, authored the present work . Survivor from an Unknown War suffers from several weaknesses . Crane is not a professional historian . He repeatedly refers to the Soviet intelligence/secret police apparatus as the KGB. During World War IL Soviet state security was referred to as the NKVD; KGB was not adopted as an acronym until 1964 . The book's index is virtually worthless. having numerous inaccuracies in page citations . In at least one instance it refers the reader to a blank page' Finally, when compared with other foreign groups which participated in the Slovak uprising (Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Russians and Ukrainians) and non-Slovak nati vc groups (Jews and Roma), the participation or the Turkistanis was at best peripheral. None of this, however, detracts from Crane's poignant portrayal of a man who maintained his moral integrity under extremely adverse circumstances . The book also re11ccts favourably on the �204 SLOVAKJA Slovak people's sense of fair-play and hospitality during a particularly painful period in their hi story. Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich kato/ikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Berno/aka. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 2000, I I 8pp . MARTIN VOTRUBA University of Pittsburgh During the early years of communism in the J95(fs, Slovak linguists - agreeing with their former Czech professors - wrote that literary Slovak was first codified in the 1780s by Anton Bernolak, a priest and zcman (lower nobleman) from Orava County. According to them, the written norm before Bernolak had been literary Czech, with varying degrees of regional Slovak influences. While insightful works about the development of the Slovak language as such had already been published by then , only limited research into its written norms prior to Bernolak was actually carried out earlier, or after that, and the assertions from the 1950s have been repeated since. Detailed analyses of the norms and standards did not reappear until the 1990s. Interestingly , they were done by linguists outside Slovakia: [ubomfr Durovic at the University of Lund, Sweden ; Mark Lauersdorf at Luther University, Iowa: and Konstantin Lifanov, at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , Russia. In February of 2001 Moscow University published Lifanov ' s book on the language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the l 6th through the 18th centuries. During two decades of �SLOVAKJA 205 research in Slovak archives and libraries , Lifanov analyzed both printed and written texts that originated before Bernolak. Lifanov concluded that, contrary to earlier assumptions, Slovak authors have used a written standard separate from the written standard of Prague since the 16th century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, with its large Czech population , was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and as such was among the first areas in Central Europe to pick up on new trends from the West, including writing in the local vernacular instead of in Latin. The written standard that developed in Prag ue served as an influential model in the establishment of Polish writing, and was adopted outright by the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of Bohemia in the 14th century. At that time Czech was closer to Slovak than it is now . However, prompted by the spread of Luther's reforms m the Kingdom of Hungary after the 1530s, the need to publish in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, grew and ongoing changes m the Czech written standard gradually ceased to be picked up by Slovak writers. They began to rely on their own traditions , first in religious writing, and later in administrative texts as well. The changes in the written standard involved both a retention of grammatical features originally adopted from Czech, which had become obsolete in the written standard of Prague, and an establishment of Slovak features in many instances where the two languages differed. By the 1610s a systematic written standard was in place in Slovakia, which was never used in Moravia or Bohemia. It was respected by authors regardless of their religious affiliation Catholic, or Lutheran. While Slovak linguists in the 1950s said that their written language had been subdivided into western, central and eastern varieties, Lifanov demonstrated that Slovak �SLOVAKIA 206 authors in the Kingdom of Hungary respected a single literary standard , which mainly relied on western Slovak features. According to Lifanov, Bcrnolak 's " manual of style" from the l 780s was not a new standardization , but a description and adjustment of the Slovak written standard that had been in place since the early 17th century. Only the Lutheran ecclesiastical writin g and poetry (but not many of their other texts) took a different path during the counter-Reformation , when their persec ution peaked . But the Lutherans did not use the contemporary Prague written standard either. Rather, they reverted to the archaic style of a Protestant translation of the Bible published in Moravia in the 1590s, whose lang uage had already been o bsolete for one or two ce nturies at the time of its publication . During empress Maria Theresa's re ig n in the 18th century, the close adherence to th e language of that tran slatio n of the Bible in their ' hig h literature' became an article of faith and religious survival for the Lutherans. Tradition made their descendants partial to the o bsolete style fo r several decades after emperor Joseph ll 's Edict of Toleration of 1781. Czec h and Slovak lin guists in the 20th century ge nerally reviewed only old high literature, and hig h literature was mos tl y written by the Lutheran intelligentsia. Moreover, Slovak and Czech have many common features. and the academics Czech and later their Slovak disciples - first took all the features that did not differ from Czech to be Czech, including in the vast num ber of instances when the features were the same in Slovak. To illustrate the approach in a theo retical example, if the features m a text were one-third Czech, one-third the same in Czech and Slovak , and one-third Slovak, the whole text would be seen as two-thirds, i.e. " in principle" Czech, rather than as two-third s �207 SLOVAKIA Slovak, or as open to both interpretations and subject to further analysis. Yet another reason for misidentification was that, by comparison to modem Slovak, west Slovak features, which used to be the main source of the Slovak written standard, are ofte n closer to Czech. That increased the like lihood that 20th-ce ntury linguists, not familiar with regional varieties of Slovak, dismissive of the possibility of their employment in the old written standard , or not s ufficiently th orough, would no t take account of them. It is worth noting that, although his research may no t converge with Lifanov 's, Durovic showed in a recent paper th at there indeed was a concept of a written standard before Bernolak 's manual of style. Bcmo lak drew o n a grammar book pub lished in Bratislava in the 1740s by Lutheran Pas tor Pavel Do lezal, who chastised his contemporaries for writing in their 18th century lang uage instead of using the archaic Biblical style. According to Lifanov, the pre-existin g Slovak written standard was established so well that even those who welcomed Bcrnolak 's manual of style often just appeared to respect it where Bcmolak 's codification agreed with the existing norm , but adhered to the traditional standard where Bcrnolak di verged from it. To sum up. Lifanov ·s research shows that the Slovaks ado pted the ir written norm from Prague in the 14th ce ntury. Slovak and Czech writing bifurcated after the 1530s, when the Slovaks began to ignore ongoing changes in Prag ue , and introduced Slovak innovations. A Slovak written standard had developed by the 1610s. Except for a reversal to an arc haic style limited to hi g h literature by Lutheran authors in the 18th and earl y 19th centuries, that written standard was used through its major reform by [udovft Stur in the middle of the 19th ce ntury. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2003, Vol. 37 Description An account of the resource Vol. 37 (No. 68-69), 2003. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 201 Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of lsakjan Narzikul. Upland, PA.: Diane Publishing, 1999, 333pp. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida One of the most fundamental dilemmas confronting politically conscious individuals in East Central Europe during World War II was that of choosing between two evils: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, the choice was deceptively simple. They had never suffered under German domination , whereas Stalin's regime had abolished many aspects of their traditional way of life. Consequently, a Turkistani battalion served as part of the German Army and later the Nazi SS . The experiences of a Turkistani officer, Is.ikjan Narzikul, is the subject of the present work . lsakjan Nar1.ikul's boyhood offered every indication he would become a model Soviet citizen. Notwithstanding the Communist doctrine of international solidarity, at the military academy of Tashkent (predominately Russian in composition), Isakjan was treated as a member of a despised, dark-skinned minority. Yet he performed well , and was commissioned a lieutenant m the Red Army. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Isakjan was stationed in the Baltic territories, where he was captured. At this time a number of German military officers broke with Nazi racial ideology. They felt that, in order for Germany to win the war in the East, it was necessary to rally the Soviet peoples in a popular struggle against the Stalinist Soviet Union. Among the 202 SLOVAKJA various organizations sponsored in Berlin was the National Turkistani Unity Committee. Isakjan Narzikul became an adherent, and subseq uentl y an officer in the Turkistani battalion . This unit admitted and concealed the religious identity of Turkistan's Jewish co-nationals . Ironically, then , under Turkistani auspices, Jews served in the SS. The Turkistanis aided the Germans in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the summer of 1944. They conducted themselves with far less brutality toward s the civilians than did the Germans, although they were not averse to a certain amount of looting. From there they were transferred to Slovakia. The author did not mention that Slovakia experienced a full-fledged uprising in the autumn of 1944; he merely stated that the area was characterized by "partisan activity ." The Slovak National Uprising was formally crushed when the Germans captured the rebel center of Hanska Bystrica late in October. The Turkistanis did not arrive until December. Given the loot that they had acquired in Warsaw, and Slovakia's relative prosperity, it was initially an idyllic intervention . Isakjan's life underwent a dramatic change when his superior officer (who had a Ru ssian partisan girlfriend) decided to change sides once again. Only a few officers, including lsakjan, were consulted; the rank and file were shanghaied into the partisan movement. The Soviet officer who received them gave them the name Chapajcv group. It is worth noting here that a Chapajcv Brigade of partisans had previously been outstandingly active tn the Slovak uprising. The Turkistani gro up was largely decimated in a German ambush; Isakjan gathered together the survivors . He commanded a curious group of partisans, whose objectives did not include SLOVAKIA 203 destroying railways , cutting communication wires, or ambushing German troops . Isakjan was concerned that its members simply survive. Eventually, they returned fire when the Germans fired upon them. But Isakjan 's most noteworthy accomplishment was winning the goodwill of the Slovak people. He maintained strict discipline over his unit in the village it occupied, punished an attempted rape, and was scrupulous in matters of requisition . Ultimately, he married a Slovak woman and overcame the distrust of his future father-in-law. After the war Isakjan became a Czechoslovak citizen. He was popular with the local Slovaks, who helped thwart Soviet efforts to deport him back to Turkistan . Eventually, however, Isakjan had to nee Czechoslovakia. He ultimately made his way to Philadelphia, where he worked hard and experienced a measure of success. He came to the attention of a local doctor, whose nephew , Stephen Crane, authored the present work . Survivor from an Unknown War suffers from several weaknesses . Crane is not a professional historian . He repeatedly refers to the Soviet intelligence/secret police apparatus as the KGB. During World War IL Soviet state security was referred to as the NKVD; KGB was not adopted as an acronym until 1964 . The book's index is virtually worthless. having numerous inaccuracies in page citations . In at least one instance it refers the reader to a blank page' Finally, when compared with other foreign groups which participated in the Slovak uprising (Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Russians and Ukrainians) and non-Slovak nati vc groups (Jews and Roma), the participation or the Turkistanis was at best peripheral. None of this, however, detracts from Crane's poignant portrayal of a man who maintained his moral integrity under extremely adverse circumstances . The book also re11ccts favourably on the 204 SLOVAKJA Slovak people's sense of fair-play and hospitality during a particularly painful period in their hi story. Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich kato/ikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Berno/aka. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 2000, I I 8pp . MARTIN VOTRUBA University of Pittsburgh During the early years of communism in the J95(fs, Slovak linguists - agreeing with their former Czech professors - wrote that literary Slovak was first codified in the 1780s by Anton Bernolak, a priest and zcman (lower nobleman) from Orava County. According to them, the written norm before Bernolak had been literary Czech, with varying degrees of regional Slovak influences. While insightful works about the development of the Slovak language as such had already been published by then , only limited research into its written norms prior to Bernolak was actually carried out earlier, or after that, and the assertions from the 1950s have been repeated since. Detailed analyses of the norms and standards did not reappear until the 1990s. Interestingly , they were done by linguists outside Slovakia: [ubomfr Durovic at the University of Lund, Sweden ; Mark Lauersdorf at Luther University, Iowa: and Konstantin Lifanov, at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , Russia. In February of 2001 Moscow University published Lifanov ' s book on the language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the l 6th through the 18th centuries. During two decades of SLOVAKJA 205 research in Slovak archives and libraries , Lifanov analyzed both printed and written texts that originated before Bernolak. Lifanov concluded that, contrary to earlier assumptions, Slovak authors have used a written standard separate from the written standard of Prague since the 16th century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, with its large Czech population , was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and as such was among the first areas in Central Europe to pick up on new trends from the West, including writing in the local vernacular instead of in Latin. The written standard that developed in Prag ue served as an influential model in the establishment of Polish writing, and was adopted outright by the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of Bohemia in the 14th century. At that time Czech was closer to Slovak than it is now . However, prompted by the spread of Luther's reforms m the Kingdom of Hungary after the 1530s, the need to publish in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, grew and ongoing changes m the Czech written standard gradually ceased to be picked up by Slovak writers. They began to rely on their own traditions , first in religious writing, and later in administrative texts as well. The changes in the written standard involved both a retention of grammatical features originally adopted from Czech, which had become obsolete in the written standard of Prague, and an establishment of Slovak features in many instances where the two languages differed. By the 1610s a systematic written standard was in place in Slovakia, which was never used in Moravia or Bohemia. It was respected by authors regardless of their religious affiliation Catholic, or Lutheran. While Slovak linguists in the 1950s said that their written language had been subdivided into western, central and eastern varieties, Lifanov demonstrated that Slovak SLOVAKIA 206 authors in the Kingdom of Hungary respected a single literary standard , which mainly relied on western Slovak features. According to Lifanov, Bcrnolak 's " manual of style" from the l 780s was not a new standardization , but a description and adjustment of the Slovak written standard that had been in place since the early 17th century. Only the Lutheran ecclesiastical writin g and poetry (but not many of their other texts) took a different path during the counter-Reformation , when their persec ution peaked . But the Lutherans did not use the contemporary Prague written standard either. Rather, they reverted to the archaic style of a Protestant translation of the Bible published in Moravia in the 1590s, whose lang uage had already been o bsolete for one or two ce nturies at the time of its publication . During empress Maria Theresa's re ig n in the 18th century, the close adherence to th e language of that tran slatio n of the Bible in their ' hig h literature' became an article of faith and religious survival for the Lutherans. Tradition made their descendants partial to the o bsolete style fo r several decades after emperor Joseph ll 's Edict of Toleration of 1781. Czec h and Slovak lin guists in the 20th century ge nerally reviewed only old high literature, and hig h literature was mos tl y written by the Lutheran intelligentsia. Moreover, Slovak and Czech have many common features. and the academics Czech and later their Slovak disciples - first took all the features that did not differ from Czech to be Czech, including in the vast num ber of instances when the features were the same in Slovak. To illustrate the approach in a theo retical example, if the features m a text were one-third Czech, one-third the same in Czech and Slovak , and one-third Slovak, the whole text would be seen as two-thirds, i.e. " in principle" Czech, rather than as two-third s 207 SLOVAKIA Slovak, or as open to both interpretations and subject to further analysis. Yet another reason for misidentification was that, by comparison to modem Slovak, west Slovak features, which used to be the main source of the Slovak written standard, are ofte n closer to Czech. That increased the like lihood that 20th-ce ntury linguists, not familiar with regional varieties of Slovak, dismissive of the possibility of their employment in the old written standard , or not s ufficiently th orough, would no t take account of them. It is worth noting that, although his research may no t converge with Lifanov 's, Durovic showed in a recent paper th at there indeed was a concept of a written standard before Bernolak 's manual of style. Bcmo lak drew o n a grammar book pub lished in Bratislava in the 1740s by Lutheran Pas tor Pavel Do lezal, who chastised his contemporaries for writing in their 18th century lang uage instead of using the archaic Biblical style. According to Lifanov, the pre-existin g Slovak written standard was established so well that even those who welcomed Bcrnolak 's manual of style often just appeared to respect it where Bcmolak 's codification agreed with the existing norm , but adhered to the traditional standard where Bcrnolak di verged from it. To sum up. Lifanov ·s research shows that the Slovaks ado pted the ir written norm from Prague in the 14th ce ntury. Slovak and Czech writing bifurcated after the 1530s, when the Slovaks began to ignore ongoing changes in Prag ue , and introduced Slovak innovations. A Slovak written standard had developed by the 1610s. Except for a reversal to an arc haic style limited to hi g h literature by Lutheran authors in the 18th and earl y 19th centuries, that written standard was used through its major reform by [udovft Stur in the middle of the 19th ce ntury.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 37 (No. 68-69) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of Isakjan Narzikul (Vladimír Baumgarten), p. 201</li> <li>Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich katolikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Bernolaka (Martin Votruba), p. 204</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Votruba, Martin Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/97f290def9af350f5ad4fc7dd03ad4de.pdf c3aa70b314f854d471adec54478ee33d PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 149 Peter Ze nuc h, M edzi vychodom a zapadom: Byzantsko-slovan- ska tradfcia, kultura a j azyk na vychodnom Slovensku. Brati slava: Veda , 2002. 286 pp., notes, bibliograph y, summari es in German and Ru ss ian. ROB ERT A. ORR Uni versity of Ottawa Thi s book provides va luabl e in sig hts, from severa l ang les, into a co mparati ve ly neglected area of Slavic studies: the place of Eastern Slovakia as an area straddling the di v ide between Eastern and Western Slavdom , which has cha nged hands severa l times in the course of its hi story. Although, as Zenuch shows in numerous pl aces (starting from the first page of the introducti o n), Easte rn Slovakia is generall y pl aced firmly o n the W estern side of the divide from lin- •• gui stic , cultural, and hi storical points of view (often being cited as part of Slavia Latina, Slavia Romana), it also saw the development of a homegrow n Church Slavonic tradition, a sort of " Slovak Church Slavonic", w ith a ll that it e ntail s, e.g., poor know ledge of Church Slavonic itse lf ( 127); in stances of hype rcorrection ( 168); and the gradual e merge nce of errors in re nditi o ns of so ngs, mak ing the m g radually less comprehensibl e to the laity over time (237-238). Zenuch 's book beg in s with a detailed tabl e of contents, followed by an introduc tion consisting of di sc uss ion s of approaches to the iss ue from the point of view of literature and hi sto ry, re li g io n and culture, and the hi storica l and lin g ui stic conditions. He then presents hi s major arg ume nts in e ight unnumbe red chapters , dealing roughly with hi storica l and c ultural developments in Eastern Slovakia and the Union of Uzhorod ( 1646), which broug ht the area w ithin the Uni ate C hurc h, under the authority of Rome, in the same way as the Uni o n of Brest ( 1596) did for Wes tern Ukraine; the Cyrillomethodian traditi o n in Eastern Slovakia, and that of St. Demetrius of Sa lonika; �SLOVAKIA 150 the ro le of para litu rg ica l so ng in th e Byza ntin o-S lav ic ri te; the la ng uage of se lected Cy rilli c ma nu sc ript s; th e interpre tat io n of certa in lin g ui sti c phe no me na in se lec ted manu sc ripts, whi ch he treats in co nsiderabl e detail ; and C hurch S lavoni c in Eastern S lovak ia , providing a fa irl y deta il ed ling ui stic ana lys is, es pec ia ll y of the lex icon. So urces are ex te ns ive ly referenced (23 prim ary so urces and 265 bibli ographi ca l ite ms, mostl y in Slova k, Ru ss ia n, a nd Ukra ini an, wi th some ite ms in Eng li sh, Hun gari an, etc.), w hi ch at times becomes rather cumberso me , w ith the foo tn otes (666) takin g up more than ha lf a page in pl aces. S urpris in g ly. in view of its titl e, the book offers o nl y a fa irl y bri ef di sc uss io n of the period before the Uni o n of Uzhorod (the " Byzantsko" in the titl e sound s vague ly a nac hro ni stic), jumping ra pidl y to 1646 (59-60). In view of its impo rtance, perh aps the Uni o n of Uzhorod could have been incorporated into th e actu a l titl e of the boo k (... Vychodne Slovensko po prijatf Uihorodskej unie, pe rhaps?). As me nti oned above, several Sl av ic c ultures are in contact within or c lose to Eas te rn S lova kia , and Zen o uc h di sc usses the lin g ui sti c aspects of such contacts in some deta il. In ma ny instances lang uage and re li g ion were intertw ined, and much of the no menc lature refl ec ts thi s situ ati o n, w ith te rm s suc h as Rusnak . Rusyn, Slovak, Slovj ak, e tc. be in g utili sed to de no te di ffe re nces in lang uage and re li g io n ( 126; as he puts it, e .g ., "every Gree k Ca th o li c was ta ke n fo r a Ru sy n" ( I 32)) . Vag ue aware ness of thi s co mpl ex ity has spread o uts ide the immedi ate area, with the genera ll y kn ow n Latin term Rut- heni ("Ruthe ni an") hav ing both re li g io us and ling ui sti c connotati ons. Eve n the ultim ate ly ephe mera l "s in g le Czec hos lovak" peopl e fig ure in some of the treatments ( 196- 197). Zeno uch c ites exampl es of such interconnecti o ns as , e .g., Sl ovak- U kraini an ( 137) , as we ll as lex ica l ite ms fro m ne ig hbo urin g lang uages, so metimes c itin g the same ite m in severa l la ng uages, e .g ., prikaza iie, etc .. ( 179). He makes sk ilful use of the tex ts of vari o us songs, w ith di sc uss io ns of vari o us types of song, and how to di sting ui sh the m to illustrate hi s po ints (e.g., 11 0 fn . 269), o ne of which ( 0 vyhnanf A dama i Evy z raja; 172-173) is �SLOVAKIA 151 eve n desc ribed as "s love nsko-po l's ko- ru sin sko[m ]" . He provides the Ni cene C reed in both Cy rilli c and Ro man, with stresses marked , to illustrate pro nunc iati o n (223 -224). Ze i\ o uc h deserves co mme nd ati o n fo r severa l passages a nd hi s treatment of sma ll points of deta il , e.g., hi s ex pl anati o n of drevo ( 173 fn . 498). He offe rs an excell e nt o utline of the earl y hi sto ry of Eastern Sl ovaki a (27, pass im), a nd definiti o ns of term s suc h as ca th olicos (33); sluienie (79); akatist (82), etc. On a re lated leve l, he offers useful di sc uss io ns of etymologies, e.g., S lovak Tabor ( 147). The interaction of c ultures and c hang ing borde rs in Easte rn Slovaki a meant , amo ng othe r thin gs, that a large number of la ng uages and orthographi es were used . Ze i\o uc h consiste ntl y c ites a ll mate ri a l in its ori g in a l orthograph y and fo nts, even ex te ndin g to, e.g ., c iting Russ ian refere nces in pre-Revolution orthograph y (e.g ., 59-60 ; 127), and Hun gari an orthograph y ( 196). In a text of suc h compl ex ity it is pe rhaps inev itabl e th at th e re sho uld be so me mi sprints, a lth o ug h tho se have bee n ke pt to a minimum , e.g., Atrni (54); Kovard vnvourro.X1f, ( 154) liturg ig ue (71 fn . 186 ); MaTep111.nb1 (93) sho uld be MaTep111a.nb1 as it is in the bibliograph y (w hy MaTepia.nbl in the footnotes o n pp 95-98?); Ukr. Ye.noBiK ( 169); 111c.neAOBH111e (276). In additi o n to its intrin sic inte rest, the refo re, Easte rn Slovak ia presents an exce lle nt example of an area whe re lang uages, c ultures, and re li g io n show so me degree of overl ap, and as suc h deserves to be better kn own to the scho larl y world at large. It is to be ho ped that thi s book will be translated into Engli sh. The fac t th at the most substanti a l criti c ism in vo lves the ac tua l titl e of the boo k is an indi cati o n of its va lue, both fo r hi sto ri ans and ling ui sts. �152 SLOVAKIA Mari a n Hronsky, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918- 1920. Martin Styan, trans lator. Brati slava: Veda, 200 1, 407 pp., illustration s, bibliography, index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury Univers ity Mari an Hron sky, an hi storian of World War I Slovakia and the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic , has written an excellent book . This is a tran slation of hi s 1998 work of the same title , although the Engl ish-language version is more academic. A lthough the Treaty of Trianon dea lt with the dismantlin g of large sections of greater Hungary into its surrounding neighbors after World War One, Hron sky focused on the events leadi ng up to the treaty and their effects upon Slovakia. This detailed study beg ins with an hi storiographic lesson in the Introduction where the author claims that today many people in Slovakia are unaware of the Trianon Treaty despite more attention being paid to it since the fa ll of Communism. A lthough over e ight decades have passed s ince the treaty was signed, Hron sky notes correctly that it still causes intense emotiona l feelings in Hungary and is crucial to understanding Slovak-Hungarian relation s today, especiall y since the treaty left over 700,000 Hun garian s (Magyars ) in Czecho-Slovakia and over 500,000 current ly in S lovakia. With regards to the time frame unde r investigation, the author later stated , also quite correctly, "The Hungarians had never devoted so much attention to Slovakia as in thi s period (p. 11 0)." The treaty naturall y separated Slovakia from Hungary and attached it to the Czech Lands, but for the first time , it also delineated recogni zed boundaries for Slovakia. In the process, the a uthor took notice of so me interesting twists, such as the CzechoSlovak army havin g fought its only real war during World War I, and the Hungarian s having coined the term " Little Entente" for the diplomatic cooperation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania after �SLOVAKIA 153 the war. The Hun garian s mourned the signin g of the treaty while it was hardly noticed by the average Slovak. Hron sky divided the book into six major sections: l. The End of the Kingdom of Hungary on the Political Scene; II. Power Vacuum in Slovaki a; Ill. The Struggle for Slovakia; IV . The War Between the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Hun garian Soviet Republic ; V. The Peace Talks; and, VI. The Peace Treaty with Hun gary . In each section , there are numerou s sub-chapters that make the reading of thi s den se, fact-driven volume eas ier to negot iate. Much to hi s credit, Hronsky co nsulted numerou s archives , secondary so urces, and new spapers to present a very complete story. As with most tran slated works, thi s book could have used better proofreadin g. There are occasional subj ect-verb di sagreements, mi sspellings, tran slations of only some titles, wrong description s such as referrin g to Jan Smuts as a Briti sh general, and using a Slovak title to a book written by the Hungarian Oskar Jasz i. One defect, typica l of books published in Central Europe, is an index of perso nal names only, thu s limitin g its usefulness . The numerous photographs (including some very interestin g ones such as the pen used in the signin g of the treaty), drawin gs, and political cartoons are unfortunate ly blurry. They , along with proclamations and other items that should be read , are difficult to view. Another problem concerns maps. Due to the deta il ed leve l of descriptions of various battles and boundary negotiations and delin eat ion s, more and better quality maps should have been included. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the book, starting on page 100 and continuing many times over the next thirty pages or so, is that the " Rumanian s" or so me variation of thi s word keep appearing in the middl e of sentences or take the places of other words , makin g reading at times incomprehensi ble, or even absurd. Despite these shortcoming, which are for the most part trivial and annoying , thi s book is required reading for anyone interested in the end of the First World War, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the ri se of the Czecho-Slovak state, the early post-war period in Central Europe, and the Treaty of Trianon itself. Hronsky has done a great �SLOVAKIA 154 serv ice by all owi ng fo r the translation of hi s book, whi ch otherwi se wo uld have had a very limited readership. Jni o k apitanovi Janovi Nalepkovi. Edited by Jozef Nalepka. Spi sska Nova Yes: Po lygrafia, 2002. 172 pp. , illustrations. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tall ahassee, Florida T horo ugh the co urse of military hi story the reader peri odi ca ll y encounters individu als who see med destined to become men of the pen, but who instead became men of the sword. Such was the case of Jan Nale pka. He was a poet by vocati on and a teacher by profess ion, and yet became a co mpetent military comm ander. Called up fo r military service by the Sl ova k Re public durin g World War II, Nalepka fo ught with di stincti on on both sides. Li ke many S lovaks sent to the Eastern Front, he deserted , and then fo ught alongs ide Sov iet parti sans in the Pripet Marches of Belaru s and northern Ukraine . Thi s biographi ca l study, edi ted by hi s brother, includes sampl es of Nalepka ' s wartime correspo nde nce, and the acco unts of peopl e who remembered him - teachers, students, fe ll ow soldi ers and Soviet military comm anders. One influenti a l fig ure d uring Na le pka ' s fo rm ati ve years in primary school in Spi ss ka Nova Yes was hi s teac her Jozef Miko laj, a Czec hos lovak Legionnaire of the First World War rece ntl y returned from long years of travel. He foun d Jan to have a provocat ive sense of humor and a mi sc hiev ious di spos ition, yet he exce ll ed academi ca ll y. Miko laj was parti cul arl y impressed with Jan' s kn ow ledge of the poets of the Slovak Nati onal Rev iva l, and his being inspired by the fo lk songs of hi s mother. Youn g Nalepka re mained precoc ious after enterin g teac her's college in 193 1. A confere nce of young teachers in Ko morna Lehotka (Jul y 1933) was visited by Czec hos lovak pres ide nt T. G. M asaryk. T he pres ide nt viewed the educati o nal system as a means of moul d in g youn g Slovaks in a "Czec hos lovak" �SLOVAKIA 155 spirit. But Nalepka remarked to hi s fri e nd Vladimfr Clementis that Slovak students were capable of c ulti vating the ir ow n sp irit. Na lepka was a nation a li st, but he was a lso a lefti st. In February of 1939 he began organizing c landest ine e le me nts aga in st the governing Slovak People' s Party - one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of a separate Slovak state . Ye t the events of March 1939 included a Hungari a n invas ion in the so utheast. Called up for military serv ice, Nalepka participated willingly in th e brief borde r war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s own idea ls. Latte r th at year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated hi s parti c ipation in the Poli sh ca mpai g n. Na le pk a, by now a lie ute nant, fought with di stinction on the northern s ide of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Fe rdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Mini ster of Nationa l Defence. The war against Soviet Ru ss ia proved problemati ca l. Slovakia had te ritorial g rievances with Hungary and Pol a nd , but none w ith the Ru ss ians. Moreover, Na le pka had already beco me a li e nated by the arrogance of the nati ve Carpatho-Germans in Eastern Slovakia, who had the ir own Nazi organization. Finaly, like many Slovak so ldi ers, he was horified by Na zi atroc iti es in the occupied te rritori es. He clandestinely e ntered into contact with Soviet parti sans and eventually deserted to the m, takin g hi s men with him . Soviet parti san commander (and Red Army ge nera l) A. N. Saburov found Na le pka to be a competent subordin ate, who retained command of the Slovaks. The nature of partisan warfare in the swamps dictated that Na le pka freque ntl y travelled on horseback , carry ing an a utom atic weapon. A photograph of thi s legendary pose later in spired an equestrian sc ulpture of him by Anna Ki sakova. Thi s activity also contributed to hi s demi se. Captain Jan Nalepka was killed in an encounter with a German patrol outside the village of Ovruc o n the ni g ht of Nove mber 17 , 1943. Thi s study contains a weakness commo n to publi caation s about a " hometown boy" . It prese nts certa in fac ts in pass in g, presupposing the audi e nce is already familiar w ith the m. Whil e thi s may work for �SLOV AKIA 156 know ledgeable S lovaks, it leaves fo reigners in the dar k on key parti cul ars. Indeed , its greatest weekness lies not in what is sa id but what is left un said. Na le pk a's surv ivin g co mrades na med the ir parti sa n bri gade afte r him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Bri gade was later parasc huted back into Slovaki a to parti c ipate in the autumn 1944 upri sin g. Compared to other uni ts whi ch the Sov iets ex ported , and whic h large ly e ngaged in loot in g and pill ag in g, the Na lepka Bri gade conducted itse lf in a n exe mpl ary fas hi on. Together w ith the 2 nd Czec hoslovak Paratroo pe rs, it shares c redit fo r the capture of th e strateg ic vill age of Ja ln a in the Hron Ri ver va ll ey on Oc tobe r 10- 12. This acti on was the las t vic tory of the insurge nts in S lovakia dur ing the upris ing. A wartime fe ll ow-officer, Samue l S imonov ic, states that Jan Nalepk a was not a Communi st (p. 111 ). He di ed at a conve ni e nt time , whic h e na bl ed him to beco me a lege nd in the postwar co mmuni st era. Hi s peasant pare nts were rece ived with hono ur in the Sov ie t Union at me mo rial servi ces dedic ated to the captain. Yet one may questi on what fa te would have had in store fo r him had he li ved longer. A " w ise guy" mi ght be given a wide berth by hi s teac hers on the me rit of hi s acade mi c exce ll e nce, but not by a tota litari a n reg im e. His equ all y precoc ious fr ie nd V ladimfr C le me ntis went on to become Czec hos lovak ia's fo reig n mini ste r, but ultim ate ly e nded on the gall ows. In sofa r as the c urre nt Slovak Re public has adopted the Slovak Nati onal Upri sing rathe r than Jozef Ti so ' s Slovaki a as its lodestone, Captain Jan Nalepk a re mains a worthy subject of stud y. Hi s life cuts across the ideo log ica l lines th at later di vided the East and West du ring the Co ld War. Hi s c haracter serves to de bunk a certain stereotype of S lova ks as be in g subservie nt to a uth ority. Thi s book is a positi ve contributi on to wartime Slovak hi story. �SLOVAKIA 157 Zo ltan G . Mes ko, The S ilent Conspiracy: A Communist M odel of Political Cleansing at the Slovak Uni versity in B ratislava after the Second W orld War. Boulder, CO : East Europea n Monographs, 2003, ix- l 42pp., map, illustrati ons, notes, bibliography. L.P. HINTERB UCHNER Rye, New York When I read the orig inal Slova k vers ion "Zaml cane sprisahanie" by Dr. Zo ltan G. Mes ko in 1999, I was moved by the vivid descripti on of the eve nts th at befe ll th e medi ca l co mmunity in Slovaki a during and after World W ar II , th ro ugh the " liberation" by th e Soviets and after the illega l take-over by the Communi sts of Czec hoslovaki a in 1948. I knew many of the principal actors in the ensuin g dram a but I was not full y aware of wh at tran spired at the Medi cal School in Brati slava where I graduated the same year th at D r. Mes ko started hi s studi es. M y opini o n abo ut thi s book the n was th at it represented an important hi stori ca l testimo ny about the insane and destructi ve influence of the communi st regime on the professors and students of two medi ca l sc hool s, one in Brati slava the other in Kos ice. The poorly-trained new ph ys ici ans, who se credenti als had to be primaril y political , in ev itabl y led to inadequ ate and inferi or hea lth care fo r the nation. Th e publication in 2003 of the improved and enh anced Engli sh version of thi s work , "The S il ent Conspi racy," marks a fittin g completi on of the author' s doc umentati o n of th at peri od , based on hi s personal observati ons, interviews of th e principals and of witnesses, and the detailed research of avail able records. I read th e Eng li sh and the Slovak versio ns s ide-by-s ide and reli ved the angui sh th at the parti c ipants of thi s drama must have felt in those times. I was aga in moved by th e author' s personal remini sce nces of the "good o ld days" with hi s fa mil y, before registering to stud y medi c ine. I mu st co nfess that the Eng li sh vers io n he ld my �SLOVAKIA 158 close attention more than the Slovak one. It is a page-turner; and one is reluctant to lay the book down. There is a bri ef but very informative acco unt of the hi storica l background of the Slovak nation by professor Mark Sto larik, an improvement over the Slovak vers ion. The rest of the book is more an inte rpre tation of the Slovak edition than a verbatim tran slat ion . The res ult is th at the E ng li sh is fluent , easy to read a nd de finitely much be tte r than most Slovak publications in Eng li sh, despite occas ion a l ling ui stic errors and inaccuracies, no ne of them s ubsta nti a l. Regrettably , not a ll of the illustrati o ns from the S lovak edition appear in the En g li sh o ne . Dr. Mesko recently in for med me that the first draft was written in Eng li sh. The strength of thi s work is in the detailed acco unt of the persecu ti o n, humili at io n, torture and incarceratio n of those who , because of their re li g ious back ground or personal integrity , did not join in worshiping comm uni sm, the Soviet Union a nd its murdere r-in-chi ef Stalin. Some victim s disappeared without any trace , othe rs perished in the uranium mines of the western Czec h la nd s and many spent years in prison and did hard labor. The a uthor li sts names and dates and provides documented description s of these terrible tran sgres sion s. Dr. Mesko ' s book is an importa nt co ntributi o n to the post-war hi story of the Slovak nat ion . It has the immediacy of an eyew itness report. To those w ho do not read Slovak , it pro vides a window o n events large ly unknown to Eng li sh readers. It provides a hi storic a l g limpse of how eve nts in Slovakia in the 1940 's separated the "good g uys" who would not betray their re li g iou s and mora l principl es, from vac ill ators , weak lin gs, thieve s, torturers a nd murderers, all without any moral scruples. The book a lso describes how politi ca l opportunists stabbed the ir intellectually an d professio na ll y s upe rior colleagues in the back . It demon strates how po liti ca l a nd party affiliations rep laced merit in the grad ing of stude nts and in di spe ns ing the most desired positions and jobs to " politically correct" applicants. It show s how the absence �SLOVAKIA 159 of party affili ati on re nde red outstandin g professors and teac he rs vulnerable a nd subj ec t to chic anery. lt record s the establi shm e nt of a Chair of Marxi s m-Le nini sm a t th e M ed ica l School for th e reeducation of the faculty and of the student body. Dr. Mesko also doc ume nts the large ly unknown attempt of the Communists to meddl e with the curriculum in the Medical School. They recruited a cadre of yo ungsters from workers ' bac kground s who had very littl e education , se nt them to spec ial classes in the Medical School a nd graduated them as " physicians," a di saster waiting to happen. This e ffort apparentl y failed a nd eventu all y faded away. No further information about these "graduates" is avai labl e. Finall y, the book illustrates why the re was friction between Catholics and Lutherans in th e Medical Schoo l, a nd rev is its that old probl e m between Czechs and Slova ks, name ly the di sc redited idea of a " Czechoslovak nation " propagated by Edvard Be nes a nd T .G. Masaryk and their cohorts. Researche rs and seri ous students of the hi story of Central Europe will find a rich resource for their work in this boo k. Readers who are of Slovak origin, but not proficient in that la nguage, will be nefi t from the English version which provides a g limpse of soc ietal forces that shaped the dest in y of Slovakia a nd its evo lution toward s independe nce. Mari a Dziakova- Bi:ihmova, Dusa na dlani: Spomienky od Kosfc do New Yorku. Edited by Michal Kri sko and Be rnarda Jenc fkov a- Fabrici . Presov , Mic hal Vasko, 2004, 151 pp. Illustrati ons M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This autobiography, compl eted by ' Mari a Dziakova-Bi:imova in August of 1989, just before the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, nea tl y summ arizes the tri als and tribul ation s of Slovak �160 SLOVAKIA intellectuals during and after World War II . Born in 1910 in a vill age near Kosice, she was the e ldest of three daughters of a poor peasant family. Nevertheless, her parents recogni zed her extraord in ary intelli gence and they skrimped and saved in order to send her to the " realgy mn as ium" for g irl s a nd then to the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius Uni vers ity in Bratislava. She grad uated with her degree in 1934 and began her practice in Kosice. Between 1938 and 1944 Dr. Bohmova (s he marri ed Dr. Emanuel Bohm in 194 1) li ved in Magyar occ upi ed Kosice and later Budapest, he lpin g her politically-activist hu sband defend the Slovak comm unity agai nst forced Magyarization. Meanwhile, she tried to continue her med ical practice, with vary in g success. As the Second World War drew to a c lose, she and her hu sband managed to return to S lovak ia, survived the pass ing of the Ru ss ian front, and re-established themselves in Bratislava in 1945. While she worked for the State In sti tute for Hea lth , her hu sband became Commi ss ioner of Health for Slovakia and Deputy Speaker of the Federal Assembly in Prague . After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovaki a in 1948 Emanuel Bohm fl ed to the west and she jo ined him in Lo ndo n a littl e later. They spe nt the nex t four years working as manu al laboure rs until the United States allowed them to e nter as immi grants in 195 2. Since Maria had to flee Czechoslovakia without any of her diplomas, a nd they co uld not easi ly be mailed to her during the Stalinist l 950's, she had to start over as an intern in the USA. By 1956 she had passed all of he r medical exa ms and sett led into a career in medic ine at the Kin gsbrook Jewi sh Medical Center in New York, and retired as Assistant Director of Medicine in 1975 . Maria and Emanuel active ly participated in Slovak inte ll ectu al a nd political life in New York for the second half of the twentieth century. She a nd he r hu sband took a leading role in the Slovak-American Cultural Center of New York , the Limbora dancing group , the General Mi Ian Rast is lav Stefanik Award , and the an nu al SlovakAmerican Ball at New York ' s Athletic C lub. They also participated in the founding of the Slovak World Co ngress in 1970, of which her �SLOVAKIA 161 husband became a vice-president. The book is a pleasure to read . Maria had a talent for writing and, at one point, she even recon structed a letter that she wrote on behalf of her illiterate mother in the eastern Slovak dialect to an uncle who had emigrated to the United States before World War I. She used the same di alect, and the same uncle ' s name (who had long since disappeared), when she wrote to her sister in Kosice, imploring her to try to mail the diplomas that she had to leave behind when she fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Thi s subterfuge worked because the Czech postal officials in Prague, who were in charge of censoring the mai l, were apparently confounded by thi s dialect and allowed the letter through. Maria eventually received her diplomas, but only after she had to once again prove her medical acumen by pass ing very rigorous American exams. In spite of her trial s and tribulations, Maria Dziakova-Bohmova did not become bitter. Instead , she was thankful to the United States for having given her the chance to start a new life in the New World. She returned for visits to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and 1978 and noticed how her younger sisters had prematurely aged and how so many of her colleagues from the " realgymnasium" and the university had also either aged or died in thi s "socialist paradise." She and her hu sband visited free Czechoslovakia in 1990; he died at the end of the year and was buried in the national cemetery in Martin . After Maria died in 1999, her remains were interred beside him. Thus, Slovakia recognized the achievements of these two extraordinary indi vi dual s. We should be grateful to Bernharda Jencfkova-Fabrici , executrix of her will, for having gathered together Maria's memoirs, for having persuaded Michal Krisko to edit them, and for havi ng arranged for Michal Vasko to publish them. The book is well-worth reading, both for a glimpse at the evolution of the Slovak inte lli genti a in the first Czechoslovak Republic , and for the harsh consequences that awaited those members who refused to sub mit to the Communist takeover of their homeland and who fled into exi le. �SLOVAKIA 162 Karen Henderson, Slovakia: The Escape from fnvisibihty. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, xviii-140 pp., map, notes, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Carleton University A few years ago Slovakia suffered from a rather negative image of radical nationalism, especiall y in the West. One reason was that foreign scholars were rare in the region and Slovak history remained invisible. In 1987 a young scholar from England was given an unexpected opportunity to spend a couple of months in Bratislava, the country's capital. Attracted by both Slovakia 's past and present, Karen Henderson gradua ll y became more in volved in Slovak affairs. The author' s knowledge of the evolution of Slovak society through the centuries enabled her to reach a new perspective. Meanwhile, she also witnessed the country ' s political development after its establishment as a sovereign state on January 1st, 1993, its first appearance on the international scene and its chi ldhood illnesses as well. Henderson ' s book then documents the steps taken by the new Slovak government after the elections of September 1998 that were designed to improve the country's democratic performance, and that eventually led to its significantly changed image abroad. The author of the book , a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , took a balanced look at the Slovak Republic while concentrati ng on four areas of its evolution . In the first part she focused on the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary and on the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic . She succes sfully demonstrated her familiarity with the main trends that formed and influenced the mentality of Slovak soc iety exposed to the processes of forced " Magyarisation" that took place after the Austro-H un garian Comprom ise of 1867. She also hi ghlighted the processes of "Czechoslovakism" that marked the relation- �SLOVAKIA 163 ship between the Slovaks and Czechs before the Second Wor ld W ar with traces of di stru st o n o ne side and suspi c ion o n the other. In co ntras t to the preva ilin g traditi o na l approaches to Slova ki a that have been influe nced by ste reotypes impl a nted into Sl ovak hi sto ry, the auth or shows a re markabl e e mpathy fo r the way the Slovaks saw the mse lves in the fo rmer states of whi ch they had been a part for ce nturi es (the Hun gari an Kin gdo m), o r fo r decades (Czec hos lo va kia) . He nde rso n attributes the fa ilures shared by Slovaks w ith the ir partners o bj ecti ve ly and fa irl y. Slovaks are seen as the vic tim s in relati o n to the two main determina nts above. O n the other hand , Henderson, who knows the terra in of Ce nt ra l a nd East Euro pe and its non-linear a nd some tim e e ni gmati c h is to ry as we ll , a lso de mo nstrates an ability to ide ntify the mo me nts and events in whi ch Slo vak fa ilures and ruptures happe ned due to the ir indec is ive ness, bi ases , ambi g uiti es, un willin g ness o r pass ivity in copin g w ith e me rg in g situation s (e.g. the Slovak Republi c 1939-1 945). In the second part o f the boo k He nde rson dea ls w ith inde pe ndent Slo vaki a after January I'', 1993 . She foc uses o n the governme nts of Prime Mini sters Vladim fr Mec iar a nd Mikul as Dzurinda, whil e notin g a sharp co ntrast betwee n the two. The parli ame ntary e lection s he ld in Septe mbe r o f 1998 made a substanti a l difference in the eyes of Western governme nts and public audi e nces . A detail ed pi cture of what had preceded the fa ll of Mec iar ' s governme nt may be of interest to those who are not fa mili ar w ith the intern a l deve lo pme nt of Slovak soc iety and who want to better know the reasons fo r the fa ilure o f Mec iar' s po lic ies. For those who know it we ll , it is a re minde r and summ ary of what was prev io usly published and broadcast in the print and e lectroni c medi a. However, the a utho r ' s a im was to foc us o n the shi ft in mode rn Slovak hi story th at a ll owed the state and soc iety to escape its in visibility, and thi s is what undo ubtedl y deserves recogniti o n. The last parts of th e book are dedi cated to Slovak ia ' s re lati o nship with the world fro m 19 18 to the present. In spite of the auth or 's overa ll pe rspec ti ve regardin g Slovaki a after th e pe ri od 1989- 1993, �SLOVAKIA 164 one could agree with her view th at " The Slovak Republic has not been particul arl y stable po liticall y, but as a state it has not been fundamentall y instable either" (p. 129). This may be also be perceived as the bottom level of Slovak statehood and the capability of the Slovak Republic to survive as a modern state that was initi all y questioned both dipl o matica ll y and publicl y at the beg innin g of its ex istence. Neve rtheless, the se nsiti ve reader may also find so me sub-themes and situation s described in the book that require furth er di scuss ion or a better nu anced approach (for example, so me aspects of the iss ues of ethnic minorities, the political culture and so on). Henderson 's footnotes and bibliography illustrate that the author used a wide variety of sources, from skeptical critics to pass ion ate apologists of Slovak hi story. She tried to steer a middle co urse between them and used books and schol arl y articles , as well as documents of Slovak academi c institution s and reports of non-governmental organi zation s as her principal sources . She also used re levant documents and reports iss ued by international or supran ational organization s regardin g Slovaki a ' s developme nt and progress (The World Bank, NATO, The European Union , etc.). O verall , Henderson did a good job. In my opinion Henderson ' s book successfull y refl ec ts a positive shi ft in the perception of Slovakia from the outside, and in bringing a pos itive picture to larger audi ences. In the last fe w decades Slovak society has been portrayed by both academi cs and public ists selecti vely and negati ve ly, large ly due to extern a l factors th at affec ted Slovak hi story. From now on , the question of whether the positi ve image of the country will be sustained will depend upon Slovaki a's willingness and capability to remain on track and avoid any detours from its democratic deve lopment. �SLOVAKIA 165 The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (I 993-2002). Edited by M. Mark Stolarik. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy -Carducci Publi shers, 2004, xiv-168 pp. tables, charts, graphs, notes, map, index. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF University of Illinois, Urbana-Champai gn Durin g the interwar Czechoslovak Re public, several volumes were published employing a format that could be described as " progress reports," in which responsible government officials of the time outlined the state of the field in key iss ue areas. This current volume, desc ribed as Slovakia's " first ' white paper, "' performs much the same function for the first decade of the independent state. In many cases, the " ten years after" vantage point is rather artificial , but in this case it is especially appropriate and the findin gs will have more than transitory value, because this is a decade framed by the successful passage from nascent state to me mbership in the European Union and NATO. Scholars interested in Slovakia' s " rehabilitation" from seco nd tier to new EU member will find thi s decade of continuin g relevance. And if there is an occasional celebratory note in the di scussion, it is understandabl e in the context of the decade ' s achievement of European integration. M . Mark Stolarik, who in his function as Chairholder in Slovak Hi story and Culture at the University of Ottawa, also co-organized the conference on which the published work is based, provides introductory thumbnail sketches of the arguments in eac h of the main contributions, and annotations of the text on politics, to clarify and update the discussion. The core articles that follow, dealing successively with politi cs, economic s, soc ial policy , culture and international relations, are the presentations of Rudolf Schuster, Slovakia' s first elected pres ident, and e ight high-rankin g and quite prominent Slovak government officials, cabinet ministers and state secretaries. Each contribution rece ives a response from the North American side, �SLOVAKIA 166 ei the r from Canadian offic ia ls who have worked o n -and who disc uss--cooperati ve projects with Slovakia, or from a scho lar specia li zi ng in Slovakia. In addition to the detailed po li cy overviews discussed below, I fo und two addit io na l pieces particularly interesting: the exc ha nge o n c ultural po li cy be twee n th e n- Culture Mini ster Mil an Kn azko and Martin Votruba, director of the Slovak Studies program at the University of Pittsburg h and the di sc uss ion of hum an ri ghts and ethni c re lation s by Pa l Csaky, an important Slovak Hun garia n po liti cian and Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Magocs i of the University of Toronto, whose experti se o n the minoriti es of the reg ion in fo rmed hi s ge nera li zed critique of th e Jacobin-inspired view of state hi story through the prism of the dom in ant nati o na lity in many European countries . The compe ndium is sketchi est on the politics, devoting suffic ient time for orientation but no in-de pth a na lys is, which in thi s case makes sense in severa l ways, not least because the po liti cs of transiti o n has alread y been ex haustive ly ana lyzed in ex istin g sc ho larl y work. The iss ue areas covered are a no ther matter. Muc h less informati o n cover in g po lic y is readily ava il abl e in existing work , so thi s is exceedin g ly useful gro und to cover. Most chapters are e nri c hed with some unex pected inform ation a l treas ures, since the poli cy profil es are de ta il ed and spec ific rathe r th an vag ue or genera li zed , and the re are a multitude of useful tabl es and charts that e ncode co mparati ve and tim e series data on fo re ig n debt a nd in vestme nt , e mpl oy me nt , mino rity ed ucation , li fe expectancy and so o n. While not inte nded as a reference work, the anth o logy the refore atta in s so methin g of th at status; o nce read, it can be sto red to hand for speci fi c refere nce on a range of subjects. Our library doesn ' t have thi s book yet, but it soon wi ll. �SLOVAKIA 167 Thomas J. Shelley , Slovak s on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church , Yonkers, & Th e Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894 -2000. Washin gton , D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2002. xv-273pp., maps, illustrati o ns, bibliography , index. DANIEL F. T ANZONE Passaic, New Jersey Slovaks on the Hudson, by the noted church hi storian Thomas J. Shelley, adds an important chapter to the hi story of the American Catholic Church. While the city of Yonkers, New York, with a population of just under 200,000 cannot be compared with the metropoli ses of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it is, in fact , a microcosm of bi g city Catholicism. The city's nineteen Catholic parishe s, including tho se serving the Slovak s, Italian s, Hun garia ns and most recently the Portugese, along with two of the Byza ntine rite , contributed to the gro wth of Catholic life in the community. Catholics would soo n become major players in the city 's soc ial , educational, cultural and political life. While thi s book tell s the story of Slovak settlement in the river town of Yonke rs startin g in the l 880's, it also presents a picture of the city's political establi shment and its reaction to the grow in g immigrant population. Most of these newcomers hailed from the Catholic nation s of central and southern Europe. Slovaks, along with other Slavic peoples, found work in the city's vast mill structure, and had the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families. While the local " Nativi sts" often resented and mi sunderstood these immigrants and their ways, the WASP establishment gradually accepted them into the fabric of c ity life. Indeed , by 1903 a Slovak immigrant was elected to Yonkers city govern ment. Like other immigrant gro ups, the Slovaks clung to their language and faith tradition s. First they esta bli shed loca l fraternal -benefit �168 SLOVAKIA societies, which became affiliated with the national bodies in the 1890's. Yonkers had the first women 's lodge in New York State ( 1892), which became branch 2 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies ' Association. Its other Slovak fraternals gave birth to Most Holy Trinity Church, which traced its roots to 1891 when laymen petitioned the local bishop for permission to establish a pari sh. The local parish church was very important to the laity, both as a place of worship and as a social gathering place. The parishioners married and raised their children in the shadow of the church steeple in the Hollow section of Yonkers. Most Holy Trinity afforded its people the opportunity to pass on the language, culture and traditions of their ancestral homeland. The clergy and religious, especially the sisters of Cyril and Methodius , who staffed the parish school, taught the children the Slovak language and traditions . Slovaks on the Hudson never forgot the plight of their brethren along the Danube, Yah, Hron and Torysa rivers. Indeed, the clergy and leaders of the Yonkers community played an important ro le in the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia following the col lapse of the Dual Monarchy of A ustria-Hungary . One of the pastors of Most Holy Trinity was actually offered a cabinet post in the newly-established Czecho-Slovakia in 1919. Throughout the long winter of communist domination of their ancestral homeland, the Slovaks of Yonkers never gave up hope of seeing their countrymen freed from this alien ideology and they rejoiced when Slovakia achieved its independence on January I, 1993. Thomas J. Shelley has provided the reader with a wonderful opportunity to view the life of the Slovak immigrant community within the context of big city li fe. It is a fascinating story, warts and all, of the Church in America. It is al so an important contribution to American history because the Slovaks are rapidly assimilating and moving to the suburbs while Yonkers is receiving ever more and newer immigrants. It is a welcome addition to the story of so many American ethnic groups who make up o ur ever-expanding multicultural society. �SLOVAKIA 169 June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the lnterwar Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004, xiv-278 p.p., illustrations, notes, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa The purpose of this book is to explore group-generated activities among Slovak-Americans in the inter-war period of American history and to see if such activities fit into recent "whiteness" studies by professional American historians. Alexander' s theme is that in the 1920's and 1930's both first and second-generation American Slovaks "were haunted by the stigma of inferiority inflicted by American society." (P.12). They sought to overcome this stigma by purchasing Liberty Bonds during the Great War and War Bonds during the Second World War. Meanwhile, they engaged in patriotic marches, carrying both the American and Slovak flags in the two wars, they staged large "S lovak Days" in the I 920's and 1930's in order to show off their ethnicity while stressing their Americanness and they openly supported FDR's New Deal legislation in order to help their pioneers and their fraternal-benefit societies to survive the ravages of the Great Depression. In order to prove her thesis Alexander dug deeply into both archival and printed sources. She studied the records of several large fraternal-benefit societies, the correspondence of their officers, and a wide range of Slovak-American newspapers. She also read widely in American history. Alexander concluded that Slovak-American identity did not arise from their growing "whiteness" in a racist American society, as some American historians had postulated of other ethnic groups, but rather from their nationality (ethnicity). Indeed, she also saw no generational or even class cleavage among American Slovaks, who perceived of themselves as overwhelmingly "working class" and united in their �170 SLOVAKIA efforts to win acceptance as one of the " newcomer" peoples to the United States. Al exander's book will , no doubt, win many acco lades from those profess ional A meri can hi stori ans who write hi story fo r themselves. She is very much a part of the so-call ed "di scourse" school whi ch uses social hi story in order to probe into questi ons of " whiteness," class, identity, celebrations, ass imilati on and so on. These hi stori ans deri ve great pleasure in proving or dispro ving eac h other 's theori es and show in g off their erudition . By so doin g, however, th ey c ut them selves off from the general public , which is hun gry for tradi tional , narrati ve, hi story . As a result, a second group of hi stori ans fill s thi s public hunger, and they are contemptu ously di smi ssed as " popul ar" hi stori ans by the academi cs mention ed above. On the other hand , the " popul ar" hi stori ans sell hundreds of thou sand s of copies of the ir books while the academic histori ans are delighted if they can sell a thou sand. While several hundred uni versity libraries will , no doubt, purchase a copy of thi s book, I have a feeling th at the Slovak-American community will hardl y notice it, whi ch is a pity. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 149 Peter Ze nuc h, M edzi vychodom a zapadom: Byzantsko-slovan- ska tradfcia, kultura a j azyk na vychodnom Slovensku. Brati slava: Veda , 2002. 286 pp., notes, bibliograph y, summari es in German and Ru ss ian. ROB ERT A. ORR Uni versity of Ottawa Thi s book provides va luabl e in sig hts, from severa l ang les, into a co mparati ve ly neglected area of Slavic studies: the place of Eastern Slovakia as an area straddling the di v ide between Eastern and Western Slavdom , which has cha nged hands severa l times in the course of its hi story. Although, as Zenuch shows in numerous pl aces (starting from the first page of the introducti o n), Easte rn Slovakia is generall y pl aced firmly o n the W estern side of the divide from lin- •• gui stic , cultural, and hi storical points of view (often being cited as part of Slavia Latina, Slavia Romana), it also saw the development of a homegrow n Church Slavonic tradition, a sort of " Slovak Church Slavonic", w ith a ll that it e ntail s, e.g., poor know ledge of Church Slavonic itse lf ( 127); in stances of hype rcorrection ( 168); and the gradual e merge nce of errors in re nditi o ns of so ngs, mak ing the m g radually less comprehensibl e to the laity over time (237-238). Zenuch 's book beg in s with a detailed tabl e of contents, followed by an introduc tion consisting of di sc uss ion s of approaches to the iss ue from the point of view of literature and hi sto ry, re li g io n and culture, and the hi storica l and lin g ui stic conditions. He then presents hi s major arg ume nts in e ight unnumbe red chapters , dealing roughly with hi storica l and c ultural developments in Eastern Slovakia and the Union of Uzhorod ( 1646), which broug ht the area w ithin the Uni ate C hurc h, under the authority of Rome, in the same way as the Uni o n of Brest ( 1596) did for Wes tern Ukraine; the Cyrillomethodian traditi o n in Eastern Slovakia, and that of St. Demetrius of Sa lonika; �SLOVAKIA 150 the ro le of para litu rg ica l so ng in th e Byza ntin o-S lav ic ri te; the la ng uage of se lected Cy rilli c ma nu sc ript s; th e interpre tat io n of certa in lin g ui sti c phe no me na in se lec ted manu sc ripts, whi ch he treats in co nsiderabl e detail ; and C hurch S lavoni c in Eastern S lovak ia , providing a fa irl y deta il ed ling ui stic ana lys is, es pec ia ll y of the lex icon. So urces are ex te ns ive ly referenced (23 prim ary so urces and 265 bibli ographi ca l ite ms, mostl y in Slova k, Ru ss ia n, a nd Ukra ini an, wi th some ite ms in Eng li sh, Hun gari an, etc.), w hi ch at times becomes rather cumberso me , w ith the foo tn otes (666) takin g up more than ha lf a page in pl aces. S urpris in g ly. in view of its titl e, the book offers o nl y a fa irl y bri ef di sc uss io n of the period before the Uni o n of Uzhorod (the " Byzantsko" in the titl e sound s vague ly a nac hro ni stic), jumping ra pidl y to 1646 (59-60). In view of its impo rtance, perh aps the Uni o n of Uzhorod could have been incorporated into th e actu a l titl e of the boo k (... Vychodne Slovensko po prijatf Uihorodskej unie, pe rhaps?). As me nti oned above, several Sl av ic c ultures are in contact within or c lose to Eas te rn S lova kia , and Zen o uc h di sc usses the lin g ui sti c aspects of such contacts in some deta il. In ma ny instances lang uage and re li g ion were intertw ined, and much of the no menc lature refl ec ts thi s situ ati o n, w ith te rm s suc h as Rusnak . Rusyn, Slovak, Slovj ak, e tc. be in g utili sed to de no te di ffe re nces in lang uage and re li g io n ( 126; as he puts it, e .g ., "every Gree k Ca th o li c was ta ke n fo r a Ru sy n" ( I 32)) . Vag ue aware ness of thi s co mpl ex ity has spread o uts ide the immedi ate area, with the genera ll y kn ow n Latin term Rut- heni ("Ruthe ni an") hav ing both re li g io us and ling ui sti c connotati ons. Eve n the ultim ate ly ephe mera l "s in g le Czec hos lovak" peopl e fig ure in some of the treatments ( 196- 197). Zeno uch c ites exampl es of such interconnecti o ns as , e .g., Sl ovak- U kraini an ( 137) , as we ll as lex ica l ite ms fro m ne ig hbo urin g lang uages, so metimes c itin g the same ite m in severa l la ng uages, e .g ., prikaza iie, etc .. ( 179). He makes sk ilful use of the tex ts of vari o us songs, w ith di sc uss io ns of vari o us types of song, and how to di sting ui sh the m to illustrate hi s po ints (e.g., 11 0 fn . 269), o ne of which ( 0 vyhnanf A dama i Evy z raja; 172-173) is �SLOVAKIA 151 eve n desc ribed as "s love nsko-po l's ko- ru sin sko[m ]" . He provides the Ni cene C reed in both Cy rilli c and Ro man, with stresses marked , to illustrate pro nunc iati o n (223 -224). Ze i\ o uc h deserves co mme nd ati o n fo r severa l passages a nd hi s treatment of sma ll points of deta il , e.g., hi s ex pl anati o n of drevo ( 173 fn . 498). He offe rs an excell e nt o utline of the earl y hi sto ry of Eastern Sl ovaki a (27, pass im), a nd definiti o ns of term s suc h as ca th olicos (33); sluienie (79); akatist (82), etc. On a re lated leve l, he offers useful di sc uss io ns of etymologies, e.g., S lovak Tabor ( 147). The interaction of c ultures and c hang ing borde rs in Easte rn Slovaki a meant , amo ng othe r thin gs, that a large number of la ng uages and orthographi es were used . Ze i\o uc h consiste ntl y c ites a ll mate ri a l in its ori g in a l orthograph y and fo nts, even ex te ndin g to, e.g ., c iting Russ ian refere nces in pre-Revolution orthograph y (e.g ., 59-60 ; 127), and Hun gari an orthograph y ( 196). In a text of suc h compl ex ity it is pe rhaps inev itabl e th at th e re sho uld be so me mi sprints, a lth o ug h tho se have bee n ke pt to a minimum , e.g., Atrni (54); Kovard vnvourro.X1f, ( 154) liturg ig ue (71 fn . 186 ); MaTep111.nb1 (93) sho uld be MaTep111a.nb1 as it is in the bibliograph y (w hy MaTepia.nbl in the footnotes o n pp 95-98?); Ukr. Ye.noBiK ( 169); 111c.neAOBH111e (276). In additi o n to its intrin sic inte rest, the refo re, Easte rn Slovak ia presents an exce lle nt example of an area whe re lang uages, c ultures, and re li g io n show so me degree of overl ap, and as suc h deserves to be better kn own to the scho larl y world at large. It is to be ho ped that thi s book will be translated into Engli sh. The fac t th at the most substanti a l criti c ism in vo lves the ac tua l titl e of the boo k is an indi cati o n of its va lue, both fo r hi sto ri ans and ling ui sts. �152 SLOVAKIA Mari a n Hronsky, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918- 1920. Martin Styan, trans lator. Brati slava: Veda, 200 1, 407 pp., illustration s, bibliography, index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury Univers ity Mari an Hron sky, an hi storian of World War I Slovakia and the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic , has written an excellent book . This is a tran slation of hi s 1998 work of the same title , although the Engl ish-language version is more academic. A lthough the Treaty of Trianon dea lt with the dismantlin g of large sections of greater Hungary into its surrounding neighbors after World War One, Hron sky focused on the events leadi ng up to the treaty and their effects upon Slovakia. This detailed study beg ins with an hi storiographic lesson in the Introduction where the author claims that today many people in Slovakia are unaware of the Trianon Treaty despite more attention being paid to it since the fa ll of Communism. A lthough over e ight decades have passed s ince the treaty was signed, Hron sky notes correctly that it still causes intense emotiona l feelings in Hungary and is crucial to understanding Slovak-Hungarian relation s today, especiall y since the treaty left over 700,000 Hun garian s (Magyars ) in Czecho-Slovakia and over 500,000 current ly in S lovakia. With regards to the time frame unde r investigation, the author later stated , also quite correctly, "The Hungarians had never devoted so much attention to Slovakia as in thi s period (p. 11 0)." The treaty naturall y separated Slovakia from Hungary and attached it to the Czech Lands, but for the first time , it also delineated recogni zed boundaries for Slovakia. In the process, the a uthor took notice of so me interesting twists, such as the CzechoSlovak army havin g fought its only real war during World War I, and the Hungarian s having coined the term " Little Entente" for the diplomatic cooperation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania after �SLOVAKIA 153 the war. The Hun garian s mourned the signin g of the treaty while it was hardly noticed by the average Slovak. Hron sky divided the book into six major sections: l. The End of the Kingdom of Hungary on the Political Scene; II. Power Vacuum in Slovaki a; Ill. The Struggle for Slovakia; IV . The War Between the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Hun garian Soviet Republic ; V. The Peace Talks; and, VI. The Peace Treaty with Hun gary . In each section , there are numerou s sub-chapters that make the reading of thi s den se, fact-driven volume eas ier to negot iate. Much to hi s credit, Hronsky co nsulted numerou s archives , secondary so urces, and new spapers to present a very complete story. As with most tran slated works, thi s book could have used better proofreadin g. There are occasional subj ect-verb di sagreements, mi sspellings, tran slations of only some titles, wrong description s such as referrin g to Jan Smuts as a Briti sh general, and using a Slovak title to a book written by the Hungarian Oskar Jasz i. One defect, typica l of books published in Central Europe, is an index of perso nal names only, thu s limitin g its usefulness . The numerous photographs (including some very interestin g ones such as the pen used in the signin g of the treaty), drawin gs, and political cartoons are unfortunate ly blurry. They , along with proclamations and other items that should be read , are difficult to view. Another problem concerns maps. Due to the deta il ed leve l of descriptions of various battles and boundary negotiations and delin eat ion s, more and better quality maps should have been included. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the book, starting on page 100 and continuing many times over the next thirty pages or so, is that the " Rumanian s" or so me variation of thi s word keep appearing in the middl e of sentences or take the places of other words , makin g reading at times incomprehensi ble, or even absurd. Despite these shortcoming, which are for the most part trivial and annoying , thi s book is required reading for anyone interested in the end of the First World War, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the ri se of the Czecho-Slovak state, the early post-war period in Central Europe, and the Treaty of Trianon itself. Hronsky has done a great �SLOVAKIA 154 serv ice by all owi ng fo r the translation of hi s book, whi ch otherwi se wo uld have had a very limited readership. Jni o k apitanovi Janovi Nalepkovi. Edited by Jozef Nalepka. Spi sska Nova Yes: Po lygrafia, 2002. 172 pp. , illustrations. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tall ahassee, Florida T horo ugh the co urse of military hi story the reader peri odi ca ll y encounters individu als who see med destined to become men of the pen, but who instead became men of the sword. Such was the case of Jan Nale pka. He was a poet by vocati on and a teacher by profess ion, and yet became a co mpetent military comm ander. Called up fo r military service by the Sl ova k Re public durin g World War II, Nalepka fo ught with di stincti on on both sides. Li ke many S lovaks sent to the Eastern Front, he deserted , and then fo ught alongs ide Sov iet parti sans in the Pripet Marches of Belaru s and northern Ukraine . Thi s biographi ca l study, edi ted by hi s brother, includes sampl es of Nalepka ' s wartime correspo nde nce, and the acco unts of peopl e who remembered him - teachers, students, fe ll ow soldi ers and Soviet military comm anders. One influenti a l fig ure d uring Na le pka ' s fo rm ati ve years in primary school in Spi ss ka Nova Yes was hi s teac her Jozef Miko laj, a Czec hos lovak Legionnaire of the First World War rece ntl y returned from long years of travel. He foun d Jan to have a provocat ive sense of humor and a mi sc hiev ious di spos ition, yet he exce ll ed academi ca ll y. Miko laj was parti cul arl y impressed with Jan' s kn ow ledge of the poets of the Slovak Nati onal Rev iva l, and his being inspired by the fo lk songs of hi s mother. Youn g Nalepka re mained precoc ious after enterin g teac her's college in 193 1. A confere nce of young teachers in Ko morna Lehotka (Jul y 1933) was visited by Czec hos lovak pres ide nt T. G. M asaryk. T he pres ide nt viewed the educati o nal system as a means of moul d in g youn g Slovaks in a "Czec hos lovak" �SLOVAKIA 155 spirit. But Nalepka remarked to hi s fri e nd Vladimfr Clementis that Slovak students were capable of c ulti vating the ir ow n sp irit. Na lepka was a nation a li st, but he was a lso a lefti st. In February of 1939 he began organizing c landest ine e le me nts aga in st the governing Slovak People' s Party - one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of a separate Slovak state . Ye t the events of March 1939 included a Hungari a n invas ion in the so utheast. Called up for military serv ice, Nalepka participated willingly in th e brief borde r war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s own idea ls. Latte r th at year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated hi s parti c ipation in the Poli sh ca mpai g n. Na le pk a, by now a lie ute nant, fought with di stinction on the northern s ide of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Fe rdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Mini ster of Nationa l Defence. The war against Soviet Ru ss ia proved problemati ca l. Slovakia had te ritorial g rievances with Hungary and Pol a nd , but none w ith the Ru ss ians. Moreover, Na le pka had already beco me a li e nated by the arrogance of the nati ve Carpatho-Germans in Eastern Slovakia, who had the ir own Nazi organization. Finaly, like many Slovak so ldi ers, he was horified by Na zi atroc iti es in the occupied te rritori es. He clandestinely e ntered into contact with Soviet parti sans and eventually deserted to the m, takin g hi s men with him . Soviet parti san commander (and Red Army ge nera l) A. N. Saburov found Na le pka to be a competent subordin ate, who retained command of the Slovaks. The nature of partisan warfare in the swamps dictated that Na le pka freque ntl y travelled on horseback , carry ing an a utom atic weapon. A photograph of thi s legendary pose later in spired an equestrian sc ulpture of him by Anna Ki sakova. Thi s activity also contributed to hi s demi se. Captain Jan Nalepka was killed in an encounter with a German patrol outside the village of Ovruc o n the ni g ht of Nove mber 17 , 1943. Thi s study contains a weakness commo n to publi caation s about a " hometown boy" . It prese nts certa in fac ts in pass in g, presupposing the audi e nce is already familiar w ith the m. Whil e thi s may work for �SLOV AKIA 156 know ledgeable S lovaks, it leaves fo reigners in the dar k on key parti cul ars. Indeed , its greatest weekness lies not in what is sa id but what is left un said. Na le pk a's surv ivin g co mrades na med the ir parti sa n bri gade afte r him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Bri gade was later parasc huted back into Slovaki a to parti c ipate in the autumn 1944 upri sin g. Compared to other uni ts whi ch the Sov iets ex ported , and whic h large ly e ngaged in loot in g and pill ag in g, the Na lepka Bri gade conducted itse lf in a n exe mpl ary fas hi on. Together w ith the 2 nd Czec hoslovak Paratroo pe rs, it shares c redit fo r the capture of th e strateg ic vill age of Ja ln a in the Hron Ri ver va ll ey on Oc tobe r 10- 12. This acti on was the las t vic tory of the insurge nts in S lovakia dur ing the upris ing. A wartime fe ll ow-officer, Samue l S imonov ic, states that Jan Nalepk a was not a Communi st (p. 111 ). He di ed at a conve ni e nt time , whic h e na bl ed him to beco me a lege nd in the postwar co mmuni st era. Hi s peasant pare nts were rece ived with hono ur in the Sov ie t Union at me mo rial servi ces dedic ated to the captain. Yet one may questi on what fa te would have had in store fo r him had he li ved longer. A " w ise guy" mi ght be given a wide berth by hi s teac hers on the me rit of hi s acade mi c exce ll e nce, but not by a tota litari a n reg im e. His equ all y precoc ious fr ie nd V ladimfr C le me ntis went on to become Czec hos lovak ia's fo reig n mini ste r, but ultim ate ly e nded on the gall ows. In sofa r as the c urre nt Slovak Re public has adopted the Slovak Nati onal Upri sing rathe r than Jozef Ti so ' s Slovaki a as its lodestone, Captain Jan Nalepk a re mains a worthy subject of stud y. Hi s life cuts across the ideo log ica l lines th at later di vided the East and West du ring the Co ld War. Hi s c haracter serves to de bunk a certain stereotype of S lova ks as be in g subservie nt to a uth ority. Thi s book is a positi ve contributi on to wartime Slovak hi story. �SLOVAKIA 157 Zo ltan G . Mes ko, The S ilent Conspiracy: A Communist M odel of Political Cleansing at the Slovak Uni versity in B ratislava after the Second W orld War. Boulder, CO : East Europea n Monographs, 2003, ix- l 42pp., map, illustrati ons, notes, bibliography. L.P. HINTERB UCHNER Rye, New York When I read the orig inal Slova k vers ion "Zaml cane sprisahanie" by Dr. Zo ltan G. Mes ko in 1999, I was moved by the vivid descripti on of the eve nts th at befe ll th e medi ca l co mmunity in Slovaki a during and after World W ar II , th ro ugh the " liberation" by th e Soviets and after the illega l take-over by the Communi sts of Czec hoslovaki a in 1948. I knew many of the principal actors in the ensuin g dram a but I was not full y aware of wh at tran spired at the Medi cal School in Brati slava where I graduated the same year th at D r. Mes ko started hi s studi es. M y opini o n abo ut thi s book the n was th at it represented an important hi stori ca l testimo ny about the insane and destructi ve influence of the communi st regime on the professors and students of two medi ca l sc hool s, one in Brati slava the other in Kos ice. The poorly-trained new ph ys ici ans, who se credenti als had to be primaril y political , in ev itabl y led to inadequ ate and inferi or hea lth care fo r the nation. Th e publication in 2003 of the improved and enh anced Engli sh version of thi s work , "The S il ent Conspi racy," marks a fittin g completi on of the author' s doc umentati o n of th at peri od , based on hi s personal observati ons, interviews of th e principals and of witnesses, and the detailed research of avail able records. I read th e Eng li sh and the Slovak versio ns s ide-by-s ide and reli ved the angui sh th at the parti c ipants of thi s drama must have felt in those times. I was aga in moved by th e author' s personal remini sce nces of the "good o ld days" with hi s fa mil y, before registering to stud y medi c ine. I mu st co nfess that the Eng li sh vers io n he ld my �SLOVAKIA 158 close attention more than the Slovak one. It is a page-turner; and one is reluctant to lay the book down. There is a bri ef but very informative acco unt of the hi storica l background of the Slovak nation by professor Mark Sto larik, an improvement over the Slovak vers ion. The rest of the book is more an inte rpre tation of the Slovak edition than a verbatim tran slat ion . The res ult is th at the E ng li sh is fluent , easy to read a nd de finitely much be tte r than most Slovak publications in Eng li sh, despite occas ion a l ling ui stic errors and inaccuracies, no ne of them s ubsta nti a l. Regrettably , not a ll of the illustrati o ns from the S lovak edition appear in the En g li sh o ne . Dr. Mesko recently in for med me that the first draft was written in Eng li sh. The strength of thi s work is in the detailed acco unt of the persecu ti o n, humili at io n, torture and incarceratio n of those who , because of their re li g ious back ground or personal integrity , did not join in worshiping comm uni sm, the Soviet Union a nd its murdere r-in-chi ef Stalin. Some victim s disappeared without any trace , othe rs perished in the uranium mines of the western Czec h la nd s and many spent years in prison and did hard labor. The a uthor li sts names and dates and provides documented description s of these terrible tran sgres sion s. Dr. Mesko ' s book is an importa nt co ntributi o n to the post-war hi story of the Slovak nat ion . It has the immediacy of an eyew itness report. To those w ho do not read Slovak , it pro vides a window o n events large ly unknown to Eng li sh readers. It provides a hi storic a l g limpse of how eve nts in Slovakia in the 1940 's separated the "good g uys" who would not betray their re li g iou s and mora l principl es, from vac ill ators , weak lin gs, thieve s, torturers a nd murderers, all without any moral scruples. The book a lso describes how politi ca l opportunists stabbed the ir intellectually an d professio na ll y s upe rior colleagues in the back . It demon strates how po liti ca l a nd party affiliations rep laced merit in the grad ing of stude nts and in di spe ns ing the most desired positions and jobs to " politically correct" applicants. It show s how the absence �SLOVAKIA 159 of party affili ati on re nde red outstandin g professors and teac he rs vulnerable a nd subj ec t to chic anery. lt record s the establi shm e nt of a Chair of Marxi s m-Le nini sm a t th e M ed ica l School for th e reeducation of the faculty and of the student body. Dr. Mesko also doc ume nts the large ly unknown attempt of the Communists to meddl e with the curriculum in the Medical School. They recruited a cadre of yo ungsters from workers ' bac kground s who had very littl e education , se nt them to spec ial classes in the Medical School a nd graduated them as " physicians," a di saster waiting to happen. This e ffort apparentl y failed a nd eventu all y faded away. No further information about these "graduates" is avai labl e. Finall y, the book illustrates why the re was friction between Catholics and Lutherans in th e Medical Schoo l, a nd rev is its that old probl e m between Czechs and Slova ks, name ly the di sc redited idea of a " Czechoslovak nation " propagated by Edvard Be nes a nd T .G. Masaryk and their cohorts. Researche rs and seri ous students of the hi story of Central Europe will find a rich resource for their work in this boo k. Readers who are of Slovak origin, but not proficient in that la nguage, will be nefi t from the English version which provides a g limpse of soc ietal forces that shaped the dest in y of Slovakia a nd its evo lution toward s independe nce. Mari a Dziakova- Bi:ihmova, Dusa na dlani: Spomienky od Kosfc do New Yorku. Edited by Michal Kri sko and Be rnarda Jenc fkov a- Fabrici . Presov , Mic hal Vasko, 2004, 151 pp. Illustrati ons M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This autobiography, compl eted by ' Mari a Dziakova-Bi:imova in August of 1989, just before the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, nea tl y summ arizes the tri als and tribul ation s of Slovak �160 SLOVAKIA intellectuals during and after World War II . Born in 1910 in a vill age near Kosice, she was the e ldest of three daughters of a poor peasant family. Nevertheless, her parents recogni zed her extraord in ary intelli gence and they skrimped and saved in order to send her to the " realgy mn as ium" for g irl s a nd then to the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius Uni vers ity in Bratislava. She grad uated with her degree in 1934 and began her practice in Kosice. Between 1938 and 1944 Dr. Bohmova (s he marri ed Dr. Emanuel Bohm in 194 1) li ved in Magyar occ upi ed Kosice and later Budapest, he lpin g her politically-activist hu sband defend the Slovak comm unity agai nst forced Magyarization. Meanwhile, she tried to continue her med ical practice, with vary in g success. As the Second World War drew to a c lose, she and her hu sband managed to return to S lovak ia, survived the pass ing of the Ru ss ian front, and re-established themselves in Bratislava in 1945. While she worked for the State In sti tute for Hea lth , her hu sband became Commi ss ioner of Health for Slovakia and Deputy Speaker of the Federal Assembly in Prague . After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovaki a in 1948 Emanuel Bohm fl ed to the west and she jo ined him in Lo ndo n a littl e later. They spe nt the nex t four years working as manu al laboure rs until the United States allowed them to e nter as immi grants in 195 2. Since Maria had to flee Czechoslovakia without any of her diplomas, a nd they co uld not easi ly be mailed to her during the Stalinist l 950's, she had to start over as an intern in the USA. By 1956 she had passed all of he r medical exa ms and sett led into a career in medic ine at the Kin gsbrook Jewi sh Medical Center in New York, and retired as Assistant Director of Medicine in 1975 . Maria and Emanuel active ly participated in Slovak inte ll ectu al a nd political life in New York for the second half of the twentieth century. She a nd he r hu sband took a leading role in the Slovak-American Cultural Center of New York , the Limbora dancing group , the General Mi Ian Rast is lav Stefanik Award , and the an nu al SlovakAmerican Ball at New York ' s Athletic C lub. They also participated in the founding of the Slovak World Co ngress in 1970, of which her �SLOVAKIA 161 husband became a vice-president. The book is a pleasure to read . Maria had a talent for writing and, at one point, she even recon structed a letter that she wrote on behalf of her illiterate mother in the eastern Slovak dialect to an uncle who had emigrated to the United States before World War I. She used the same di alect, and the same uncle ' s name (who had long since disappeared), when she wrote to her sister in Kosice, imploring her to try to mail the diplomas that she had to leave behind when she fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Thi s subterfuge worked because the Czech postal officials in Prague, who were in charge of censoring the mai l, were apparently confounded by thi s dialect and allowed the letter through. Maria eventually received her diplomas, but only after she had to once again prove her medical acumen by pass ing very rigorous American exams. In spite of her trial s and tribulations, Maria Dziakova-Bohmova did not become bitter. Instead , she was thankful to the United States for having given her the chance to start a new life in the New World. She returned for visits to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and 1978 and noticed how her younger sisters had prematurely aged and how so many of her colleagues from the " realgymnasium" and the university had also either aged or died in thi s "socialist paradise." She and her hu sband visited free Czechoslovakia in 1990; he died at the end of the year and was buried in the national cemetery in Martin . After Maria died in 1999, her remains were interred beside him. Thus, Slovakia recognized the achievements of these two extraordinary indi vi dual s. We should be grateful to Bernharda Jencfkova-Fabrici , executrix of her will, for having gathered together Maria's memoirs, for having persuaded Michal Krisko to edit them, and for havi ng arranged for Michal Vasko to publish them. The book is well-worth reading, both for a glimpse at the evolution of the Slovak inte lli genti a in the first Czechoslovak Republic , and for the harsh consequences that awaited those members who refused to sub mit to the Communist takeover of their homeland and who fled into exi le. �SLOVAKIA 162 Karen Henderson, Slovakia: The Escape from fnvisibihty. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, xviii-140 pp., map, notes, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Carleton University A few years ago Slovakia suffered from a rather negative image of radical nationalism, especiall y in the West. One reason was that foreign scholars were rare in the region and Slovak history remained invisible. In 1987 a young scholar from England was given an unexpected opportunity to spend a couple of months in Bratislava, the country's capital. Attracted by both Slovakia 's past and present, Karen Henderson gradua ll y became more in volved in Slovak affairs. The author' s knowledge of the evolution of Slovak society through the centuries enabled her to reach a new perspective. Meanwhile, she also witnessed the country ' s political development after its establishment as a sovereign state on January 1st, 1993, its first appearance on the international scene and its chi ldhood illnesses as well. Henderson ' s book then documents the steps taken by the new Slovak government after the elections of September 1998 that were designed to improve the country's democratic performance, and that eventually led to its significantly changed image abroad. The author of the book , a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , took a balanced look at the Slovak Republic while concentrati ng on four areas of its evolution . In the first part she focused on the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary and on the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic . She succes sfully demonstrated her familiarity with the main trends that formed and influenced the mentality of Slovak soc iety exposed to the processes of forced " Magyarisation" that took place after the Austro-H un garian Comprom ise of 1867. She also hi ghlighted the processes of "Czechoslovakism" that marked the relation- �SLOVAKIA 163 ship between the Slovaks and Czechs before the Second Wor ld W ar with traces of di stru st o n o ne side and suspi c ion o n the other. In co ntras t to the preva ilin g traditi o na l approaches to Slova ki a that have been influe nced by ste reotypes impl a nted into Sl ovak hi sto ry, the auth or shows a re markabl e e mpathy fo r the way the Slovaks saw the mse lves in the fo rmer states of whi ch they had been a part for ce nturi es (the Hun gari an Kin gdo m), o r fo r decades (Czec hos lo va kia) . He nde rso n attributes the fa ilures shared by Slovaks w ith the ir partners o bj ecti ve ly and fa irl y. Slovaks are seen as the vic tim s in relati o n to the two main determina nts above. O n the other hand , Henderson, who knows the terra in of Ce nt ra l a nd East Euro pe and its non-linear a nd some tim e e ni gmati c h is to ry as we ll , a lso de mo nstrates an ability to ide ntify the mo me nts and events in whi ch Slo vak fa ilures and ruptures happe ned due to the ir indec is ive ness, bi ases , ambi g uiti es, un willin g ness o r pass ivity in copin g w ith e me rg in g situation s (e.g. the Slovak Republi c 1939-1 945). In the second part o f the boo k He nde rson dea ls w ith inde pe ndent Slo vaki a after January I'', 1993 . She foc uses o n the governme nts of Prime Mini sters Vladim fr Mec iar a nd Mikul as Dzurinda, whil e notin g a sharp co ntrast betwee n the two. The parli ame ntary e lection s he ld in Septe mbe r o f 1998 made a substanti a l difference in the eyes of Western governme nts and public audi e nces . A detail ed pi cture of what had preceded the fa ll of Mec iar ' s governme nt may be of interest to those who are not fa mili ar w ith the intern a l deve lo pme nt of Slovak soc iety and who want to better know the reasons fo r the fa ilure o f Mec iar' s po lic ies. For those who know it we ll , it is a re minde r and summ ary of what was prev io usly published and broadcast in the print and e lectroni c medi a. However, the a utho r ' s a im was to foc us o n the shi ft in mode rn Slovak hi story th at a ll owed the state and soc iety to escape its in visibility, and thi s is what undo ubtedl y deserves recogniti o n. The last parts of th e book are dedi cated to Slovak ia ' s re lati o nship with the world fro m 19 18 to the present. In spite of the auth or 's overa ll pe rspec ti ve regardin g Slovaki a after th e pe ri od 1989- 1993, �SLOVAKIA 164 one could agree with her view th at " The Slovak Republic has not been particul arl y stable po liticall y, but as a state it has not been fundamentall y instable either" (p. 129). This may be also be perceived as the bottom level of Slovak statehood and the capability of the Slovak Republic to survive as a modern state that was initi all y questioned both dipl o matica ll y and publicl y at the beg innin g of its ex istence. Neve rtheless, the se nsiti ve reader may also find so me sub-themes and situation s described in the book that require furth er di scuss ion or a better nu anced approach (for example, so me aspects of the iss ues of ethnic minorities, the political culture and so on). Henderson 's footnotes and bibliography illustrate that the author used a wide variety of sources, from skeptical critics to pass ion ate apologists of Slovak hi story. She tried to steer a middle co urse between them and used books and schol arl y articles , as well as documents of Slovak academi c institution s and reports of non-governmental organi zation s as her principal sources . She also used re levant documents and reports iss ued by international or supran ational organization s regardin g Slovaki a ' s developme nt and progress (The World Bank, NATO, The European Union , etc.). O verall , Henderson did a good job. In my opinion Henderson ' s book successfull y refl ec ts a positive shi ft in the perception of Slovakia from the outside, and in bringing a pos itive picture to larger audi ences. In the last fe w decades Slovak society has been portrayed by both academi cs and public ists selecti vely and negati ve ly, large ly due to extern a l factors th at affec ted Slovak hi story. From now on , the question of whether the positi ve image of the country will be sustained will depend upon Slovaki a's willingness and capability to remain on track and avoid any detours from its democratic deve lopment. �SLOVAKIA 165 The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (I 993-2002). Edited by M. Mark Stolarik. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy -Carducci Publi shers, 2004, xiv-168 pp. tables, charts, graphs, notes, map, index. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF University of Illinois, Urbana-Champai gn Durin g the interwar Czechoslovak Re public, several volumes were published employing a format that could be described as " progress reports," in which responsible government officials of the time outlined the state of the field in key iss ue areas. This current volume, desc ribed as Slovakia's " first ' white paper, "' performs much the same function for the first decade of the independent state. In many cases, the " ten years after" vantage point is rather artificial , but in this case it is especially appropriate and the findin gs will have more than transitory value, because this is a decade framed by the successful passage from nascent state to me mbership in the European Union and NATO. Scholars interested in Slovakia' s " rehabilitation" from seco nd tier to new EU member will find thi s decade of continuin g relevance. And if there is an occasional celebratory note in the di scussion, it is understandabl e in the context of the decade ' s achievement of European integration. M . Mark Stolarik, who in his function as Chairholder in Slovak Hi story and Culture at the University of Ottawa, also co-organized the conference on which the published work is based, provides introductory thumbnail sketches of the arguments in eac h of the main contributions, and annotations of the text on politics, to clarify and update the discussion. The core articles that follow, dealing successively with politi cs, economic s, soc ial policy , culture and international relations, are the presentations of Rudolf Schuster, Slovakia' s first elected pres ident, and e ight high-rankin g and quite prominent Slovak government officials, cabinet ministers and state secretaries. Each contribution rece ives a response from the North American side, �SLOVAKIA 166 ei the r from Canadian offic ia ls who have worked o n -and who disc uss--cooperati ve projects with Slovakia, or from a scho lar specia li zi ng in Slovakia. In addition to the detailed po li cy overviews discussed below, I fo und two addit io na l pieces particularly interesting: the exc ha nge o n c ultural po li cy be twee n th e n- Culture Mini ster Mil an Kn azko and Martin Votruba, director of the Slovak Studies program at the University of Pittsburg h and the di sc uss ion of hum an ri ghts and ethni c re lation s by Pa l Csaky, an important Slovak Hun garia n po liti cian and Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Magocs i of the University of Toronto, whose experti se o n the minoriti es of the reg ion in fo rmed hi s ge nera li zed critique of th e Jacobin-inspired view of state hi story through the prism of the dom in ant nati o na lity in many European countries . The compe ndium is sketchi est on the politics, devoting suffic ient time for orientation but no in-de pth a na lys is, which in thi s case makes sense in severa l ways, not least because the po liti cs of transiti o n has alread y been ex haustive ly ana lyzed in ex istin g sc ho larl y work. The iss ue areas covered are a no ther matter. Muc h less informati o n cover in g po lic y is readily ava il abl e in existing work , so thi s is exceedin g ly useful gro und to cover. Most chapters are e nri c hed with some unex pected inform ation a l treas ures, since the poli cy profil es are de ta il ed and spec ific rathe r th an vag ue or genera li zed , and the re are a multitude of useful tabl es and charts that e ncode co mparati ve and tim e series data on fo re ig n debt a nd in vestme nt , e mpl oy me nt , mino rity ed ucation , li fe expectancy and so o n. While not inte nded as a reference work, the anth o logy the refore atta in s so methin g of th at status; o nce read, it can be sto red to hand for speci fi c refere nce on a range of subjects. Our library doesn ' t have thi s book yet, but it soon wi ll. �SLOVAKIA 167 Thomas J. Shelley , Slovak s on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church , Yonkers, & Th e Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894 -2000. Washin gton , D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2002. xv-273pp., maps, illustrati o ns, bibliography , index. DANIEL F. T ANZONE Passaic, New Jersey Slovaks on the Hudson, by the noted church hi storian Thomas J. Shelley, adds an important chapter to the hi story of the American Catholic Church. While the city of Yonkers, New York, with a population of just under 200,000 cannot be compared with the metropoli ses of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it is, in fact , a microcosm of bi g city Catholicism. The city's nineteen Catholic parishe s, including tho se serving the Slovak s, Italian s, Hun garia ns and most recently the Portugese, along with two of the Byza ntine rite , contributed to the gro wth of Catholic life in the community. Catholics would soo n become major players in the city 's soc ial , educational, cultural and political life. While thi s book tell s the story of Slovak settlement in the river town of Yonke rs startin g in the l 880's, it also presents a picture of the city's political establi shment and its reaction to the grow in g immigrant population. Most of these newcomers hailed from the Catholic nation s of central and southern Europe. Slovaks, along with other Slavic peoples, found work in the city's vast mill structure, and had the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families. While the local " Nativi sts" often resented and mi sunderstood these immigrants and their ways, the WASP establishment gradually accepted them into the fabric of c ity life. Indeed , by 1903 a Slovak immigrant was elected to Yonkers city govern ment. Like other immigrant gro ups, the Slovaks clung to their language and faith tradition s. First they esta bli shed loca l fraternal -benefit �168 SLOVAKIA societies, which became affiliated with the national bodies in the 1890's. Yonkers had the first women 's lodge in New York State ( 1892), which became branch 2 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies ' Association. Its other Slovak fraternals gave birth to Most Holy Trinity Church, which traced its roots to 1891 when laymen petitioned the local bishop for permission to establish a pari sh. The local parish church was very important to the laity, both as a place of worship and as a social gathering place. The parishioners married and raised their children in the shadow of the church steeple in the Hollow section of Yonkers. Most Holy Trinity afforded its people the opportunity to pass on the language, culture and traditions of their ancestral homeland. The clergy and religious, especially the sisters of Cyril and Methodius , who staffed the parish school, taught the children the Slovak language and traditions . Slovaks on the Hudson never forgot the plight of their brethren along the Danube, Yah, Hron and Torysa rivers. Indeed, the clergy and leaders of the Yonkers community played an important ro le in the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia following the col lapse of the Dual Monarchy of A ustria-Hungary . One of the pastors of Most Holy Trinity was actually offered a cabinet post in the newly-established Czecho-Slovakia in 1919. Throughout the long winter of communist domination of their ancestral homeland, the Slovaks of Yonkers never gave up hope of seeing their countrymen freed from this alien ideology and they rejoiced when Slovakia achieved its independence on January I, 1993. Thomas J. Shelley has provided the reader with a wonderful opportunity to view the life of the Slovak immigrant community within the context of big city li fe. It is a fascinating story, warts and all, of the Church in America. It is al so an important contribution to American history because the Slovaks are rapidly assimilating and moving to the suburbs while Yonkers is receiving ever more and newer immigrants. It is a welcome addition to the story of so many American ethnic groups who make up o ur ever-expanding multicultural society. �SLOVAKIA 169 June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the lnterwar Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004, xiv-278 p.p., illustrations, notes, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa The purpose of this book is to explore group-generated activities among Slovak-Americans in the inter-war period of American history and to see if such activities fit into recent "whiteness" studies by professional American historians. Alexander' s theme is that in the 1920's and 1930's both first and second-generation American Slovaks "were haunted by the stigma of inferiority inflicted by American society." (P.12). They sought to overcome this stigma by purchasing Liberty Bonds during the Great War and War Bonds during the Second World War. Meanwhile, they engaged in patriotic marches, carrying both the American and Slovak flags in the two wars, they staged large "S lovak Days" in the I 920's and 1930's in order to show off their ethnicity while stressing their Americanness and they openly supported FDR's New Deal legislation in order to help their pioneers and their fraternal-benefit societies to survive the ravages of the Great Depression. In order to prove her thesis Alexander dug deeply into both archival and printed sources. She studied the records of several large fraternal-benefit societies, the correspondence of their officers, and a wide range of Slovak-American newspapers. She also read widely in American history. Alexander concluded that Slovak-American identity did not arise from their growing "whiteness" in a racist American society, as some American historians had postulated of other ethnic groups, but rather from their nationality (ethnicity). Indeed, she also saw no generational or even class cleavage among American Slovaks, who perceived of themselves as overwhelmingly "working class" and united in their �170 SLOVAKIA efforts to win acceptance as one of the " newcomer" peoples to the United States. Al exander's book will , no doubt, win many acco lades from those profess ional A meri can hi stori ans who write hi story fo r themselves. She is very much a part of the so-call ed "di scourse" school whi ch uses social hi story in order to probe into questi ons of " whiteness," class, identity, celebrations, ass imilati on and so on. These hi stori ans deri ve great pleasure in proving or dispro ving eac h other 's theori es and show in g off their erudition . By so doin g, however, th ey c ut them selves off from the general public , which is hun gry for tradi tional , narrati ve, hi story . As a result, a second group of hi stori ans fill s thi s public hunger, and they are contemptu ously di smi ssed as " popul ar" hi stori ans by the academi cs mention ed above. On the other hand , the " popul ar" hi stori ans sell hundreds of thou sand s of copies of the ir books while the academic histori ans are delighted if they can sell a thou sand. While several hundred uni versity libraries will , no doubt, purchase a copy of thi s book, I have a feeling th at the Slovak-American community will hardl y notice it, whi ch is a pity. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2005, Vol. 38 Description An account of the resource Vol. 38 (No. 70-71), 2005. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 149 Peter Ze nuc h, M edzi vychodom a zapadom: Byzantsko-slovan- ska tradfcia, kultura a j azyk na vychodnom Slovensku. Brati slava: Veda , 2002. 286 pp., notes, bibliograph y, summari es in German and Ru ss ian. ROB ERT A. ORR Uni versity of Ottawa Thi s book provides va luabl e in sig hts, from severa l ang les, into a co mparati ve ly neglected area of Slavic studies: the place of Eastern Slovakia as an area straddling the di v ide between Eastern and Western Slavdom , which has cha nged hands severa l times in the course of its hi story. Although, as Zenuch shows in numerous pl aces (starting from the first page of the introducti o n), Easte rn Slovakia is generall y pl aced firmly o n the W estern side of the divide from lin- •• gui stic , cultural, and hi storical points of view (often being cited as part of Slavia Latina, Slavia Romana), it also saw the development of a homegrow n Church Slavonic tradition, a sort of " Slovak Church Slavonic", w ith a ll that it e ntail s, e.g., poor know ledge of Church Slavonic itse lf ( 127); in stances of hype rcorrection ( 168); and the gradual e merge nce of errors in re nditi o ns of so ngs, mak ing the m g radually less comprehensibl e to the laity over time (237-238). Zenuch 's book beg in s with a detailed tabl e of contents, followed by an introduc tion consisting of di sc uss ion s of approaches to the iss ue from the point of view of literature and hi sto ry, re li g io n and culture, and the hi storica l and lin g ui stic conditions. He then presents hi s major arg ume nts in e ight unnumbe red chapters , dealing roughly with hi storica l and c ultural developments in Eastern Slovakia and the Union of Uzhorod ( 1646), which broug ht the area w ithin the Uni ate C hurc h, under the authority of Rome, in the same way as the Uni o n of Brest ( 1596) did for Wes tern Ukraine; the Cyrillomethodian traditi o n in Eastern Slovakia, and that of St. Demetrius of Sa lonika; SLOVAKIA 150 the ro le of para litu rg ica l so ng in th e Byza ntin o-S lav ic ri te; the la ng uage of se lected Cy rilli c ma nu sc ript s; th e interpre tat io n of certa in lin g ui sti c phe no me na in se lec ted manu sc ripts, whi ch he treats in co nsiderabl e detail ; and C hurch S lavoni c in Eastern S lovak ia , providing a fa irl y deta il ed ling ui stic ana lys is, es pec ia ll y of the lex icon. So urces are ex te ns ive ly referenced (23 prim ary so urces and 265 bibli ographi ca l ite ms, mostl y in Slova k, Ru ss ia n, a nd Ukra ini an, wi th some ite ms in Eng li sh, Hun gari an, etc.), w hi ch at times becomes rather cumberso me , w ith the foo tn otes (666) takin g up more than ha lf a page in pl aces. S urpris in g ly. in view of its titl e, the book offers o nl y a fa irl y bri ef di sc uss io n of the period before the Uni o n of Uzhorod (the " Byzantsko" in the titl e sound s vague ly a nac hro ni stic), jumping ra pidl y to 1646 (59-60). In view of its impo rtance, perh aps the Uni o n of Uzhorod could have been incorporated into th e actu a l titl e of the boo k (... Vychodne Slovensko po prijatf Uihorodskej unie, pe rhaps?). As me nti oned above, several Sl av ic c ultures are in contact within or c lose to Eas te rn S lova kia , and Zen o uc h di sc usses the lin g ui sti c aspects of such contacts in some deta il. In ma ny instances lang uage and re li g ion were intertw ined, and much of the no menc lature refl ec ts thi s situ ati o n, w ith te rm s suc h as Rusnak . Rusyn, Slovak, Slovj ak, e tc. be in g utili sed to de no te di ffe re nces in lang uage and re li g io n ( 126; as he puts it, e .g ., "every Gree k Ca th o li c was ta ke n fo r a Ru sy n" ( I 32)) . Vag ue aware ness of thi s co mpl ex ity has spread o uts ide the immedi ate area, with the genera ll y kn ow n Latin term Rut- heni ("Ruthe ni an") hav ing both re li g io us and ling ui sti c connotati ons. Eve n the ultim ate ly ephe mera l "s in g le Czec hos lovak" peopl e fig ure in some of the treatments ( 196- 197). Zeno uch c ites exampl es of such interconnecti o ns as , e .g., Sl ovak- U kraini an ( 137) , as we ll as lex ica l ite ms fro m ne ig hbo urin g lang uages, so metimes c itin g the same ite m in severa l la ng uages, e .g ., prikaza iie, etc .. ( 179). He makes sk ilful use of the tex ts of vari o us songs, w ith di sc uss io ns of vari o us types of song, and how to di sting ui sh the m to illustrate hi s po ints (e.g., 11 0 fn . 269), o ne of which ( 0 vyhnanf A dama i Evy z raja; 172-173) is SLOVAKIA 151 eve n desc ribed as "s love nsko-po l's ko- ru sin sko[m ]" . He provides the Ni cene C reed in both Cy rilli c and Ro man, with stresses marked , to illustrate pro nunc iati o n (223 -224). Ze i\ o uc h deserves co mme nd ati o n fo r severa l passages a nd hi s treatment of sma ll points of deta il , e.g., hi s ex pl anati o n of drevo ( 173 fn . 498). He offe rs an excell e nt o utline of the earl y hi sto ry of Eastern Sl ovaki a (27, pass im), a nd definiti o ns of term s suc h as ca th olicos (33); sluienie (79); akatist (82), etc. On a re lated leve l, he offers useful di sc uss io ns of etymologies, e.g., S lovak Tabor ( 147). The interaction of c ultures and c hang ing borde rs in Easte rn Slovaki a meant , amo ng othe r thin gs, that a large number of la ng uages and orthographi es were used . Ze i\o uc h consiste ntl y c ites a ll mate ri a l in its ori g in a l orthograph y and fo nts, even ex te ndin g to, e.g ., c iting Russ ian refere nces in pre-Revolution orthograph y (e.g ., 59-60 ; 127), and Hun gari an orthograph y ( 196). In a text of suc h compl ex ity it is pe rhaps inev itabl e th at th e re sho uld be so me mi sprints, a lth o ug h tho se have bee n ke pt to a minimum , e.g., Atrni (54); Kovard vnvourro.X1f, ( 154) liturg ig ue (71 fn . 186 ); MaTep111.nb1 (93) sho uld be MaTep111a.nb1 as it is in the bibliograph y (w hy MaTepia.nbl in the footnotes o n pp 95-98?); Ukr. Ye.noBiK ( 169); 111c.neAOBH111e (276). In additi o n to its intrin sic inte rest, the refo re, Easte rn Slovak ia presents an exce lle nt example of an area whe re lang uages, c ultures, and re li g io n show so me degree of overl ap, and as suc h deserves to be better kn own to the scho larl y world at large. It is to be ho ped that thi s book will be translated into Engli sh. The fac t th at the most substanti a l criti c ism in vo lves the ac tua l titl e of the boo k is an indi cati o n of its va lue, both fo r hi sto ri ans and ling ui sts. 152 SLOVAKIA Mari a n Hronsky, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918- 1920. Martin Styan, trans lator. Brati slava: Veda, 200 1, 407 pp., illustration s, bibliography, index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury Univers ity Mari an Hron sky, an hi storian of World War I Slovakia and the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic , has written an excellent book . This is a tran slation of hi s 1998 work of the same title , although the Engl ish-language version is more academic. A lthough the Treaty of Trianon dea lt with the dismantlin g of large sections of greater Hungary into its surrounding neighbors after World War One, Hron sky focused on the events leadi ng up to the treaty and their effects upon Slovakia. This detailed study beg ins with an hi storiographic lesson in the Introduction where the author claims that today many people in Slovakia are unaware of the Trianon Treaty despite more attention being paid to it since the fa ll of Communism. A lthough over e ight decades have passed s ince the treaty was signed, Hron sky notes correctly that it still causes intense emotiona l feelings in Hungary and is crucial to understanding Slovak-Hungarian relation s today, especiall y since the treaty left over 700,000 Hun garian s (Magyars ) in Czecho-Slovakia and over 500,000 current ly in S lovakia. With regards to the time frame unde r investigation, the author later stated , also quite correctly, "The Hungarians had never devoted so much attention to Slovakia as in thi s period (p. 11 0)." The treaty naturall y separated Slovakia from Hungary and attached it to the Czech Lands, but for the first time , it also delineated recogni zed boundaries for Slovakia. In the process, the a uthor took notice of so me interesting twists, such as the CzechoSlovak army havin g fought its only real war during World War I, and the Hungarian s having coined the term " Little Entente" for the diplomatic cooperation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania after SLOVAKIA 153 the war. The Hun garian s mourned the signin g of the treaty while it was hardly noticed by the average Slovak. Hron sky divided the book into six major sections: l. The End of the Kingdom of Hungary on the Political Scene; II. Power Vacuum in Slovaki a; Ill. The Struggle for Slovakia; IV . The War Between the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Hun garian Soviet Republic ; V. The Peace Talks; and, VI. The Peace Treaty with Hun gary . In each section , there are numerou s sub-chapters that make the reading of thi s den se, fact-driven volume eas ier to negot iate. Much to hi s credit, Hronsky co nsulted numerou s archives , secondary so urces, and new spapers to present a very complete story. As with most tran slated works, thi s book could have used better proofreadin g. There are occasional subj ect-verb di sagreements, mi sspellings, tran slations of only some titles, wrong description s such as referrin g to Jan Smuts as a Briti sh general, and using a Slovak title to a book written by the Hungarian Oskar Jasz i. One defect, typica l of books published in Central Europe, is an index of perso nal names only, thu s limitin g its usefulness . The numerous photographs (including some very interestin g ones such as the pen used in the signin g of the treaty), drawin gs, and political cartoons are unfortunate ly blurry. They , along with proclamations and other items that should be read , are difficult to view. Another problem concerns maps. Due to the deta il ed leve l of descriptions of various battles and boundary negotiations and delin eat ion s, more and better quality maps should have been included. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the book, starting on page 100 and continuing many times over the next thirty pages or so, is that the " Rumanian s" or so me variation of thi s word keep appearing in the middl e of sentences or take the places of other words , makin g reading at times incomprehensi ble, or even absurd. Despite these shortcoming, which are for the most part trivial and annoying , thi s book is required reading for anyone interested in the end of the First World War, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the ri se of the Czecho-Slovak state, the early post-war period in Central Europe, and the Treaty of Trianon itself. Hronsky has done a great SLOVAKIA 154 serv ice by all owi ng fo r the translation of hi s book, whi ch otherwi se wo uld have had a very limited readership. Jni o k apitanovi Janovi Nalepkovi. Edited by Jozef Nalepka. Spi sska Nova Yes: Po lygrafia, 2002. 172 pp. , illustrations. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tall ahassee, Florida T horo ugh the co urse of military hi story the reader peri odi ca ll y encounters individu als who see med destined to become men of the pen, but who instead became men of the sword. Such was the case of Jan Nale pka. He was a poet by vocati on and a teacher by profess ion, and yet became a co mpetent military comm ander. Called up fo r military service by the Sl ova k Re public durin g World War II, Nalepka fo ught with di stincti on on both sides. Li ke many S lovaks sent to the Eastern Front, he deserted , and then fo ught alongs ide Sov iet parti sans in the Pripet Marches of Belaru s and northern Ukraine . Thi s biographi ca l study, edi ted by hi s brother, includes sampl es of Nalepka ' s wartime correspo nde nce, and the acco unts of peopl e who remembered him - teachers, students, fe ll ow soldi ers and Soviet military comm anders. One influenti a l fig ure d uring Na le pka ' s fo rm ati ve years in primary school in Spi ss ka Nova Yes was hi s teac her Jozef Miko laj, a Czec hos lovak Legionnaire of the First World War rece ntl y returned from long years of travel. He foun d Jan to have a provocat ive sense of humor and a mi sc hiev ious di spos ition, yet he exce ll ed academi ca ll y. Miko laj was parti cul arl y impressed with Jan' s kn ow ledge of the poets of the Slovak Nati onal Rev iva l, and his being inspired by the fo lk songs of hi s mother. Youn g Nalepka re mained precoc ious after enterin g teac her's college in 193 1. A confere nce of young teachers in Ko morna Lehotka (Jul y 1933) was visited by Czec hos lovak pres ide nt T. G. M asaryk. T he pres ide nt viewed the educati o nal system as a means of moul d in g youn g Slovaks in a "Czec hos lovak" SLOVAKIA 155 spirit. But Nalepka remarked to hi s fri e nd Vladimfr Clementis that Slovak students were capable of c ulti vating the ir ow n sp irit. Na lepka was a nation a li st, but he was a lso a lefti st. In February of 1939 he began organizing c landest ine e le me nts aga in st the governing Slovak People' s Party - one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of a separate Slovak state . Ye t the events of March 1939 included a Hungari a n invas ion in the so utheast. Called up for military serv ice, Nalepka participated willingly in th e brief borde r war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s own idea ls. Latte r th at year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated hi s parti c ipation in the Poli sh ca mpai g n. Na le pk a, by now a lie ute nant, fought with di stinction on the northern s ide of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Fe rdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Mini ster of Nationa l Defence. The war against Soviet Ru ss ia proved problemati ca l. Slovakia had te ritorial g rievances with Hungary and Pol a nd , but none w ith the Ru ss ians. Moreover, Na le pka had already beco me a li e nated by the arrogance of the nati ve Carpatho-Germans in Eastern Slovakia, who had the ir own Nazi organization. Finaly, like many Slovak so ldi ers, he was horified by Na zi atroc iti es in the occupied te rritori es. He clandestinely e ntered into contact with Soviet parti sans and eventually deserted to the m, takin g hi s men with him . Soviet parti san commander (and Red Army ge nera l) A. N. Saburov found Na le pka to be a competent subordin ate, who retained command of the Slovaks. The nature of partisan warfare in the swamps dictated that Na le pka freque ntl y travelled on horseback , carry ing an a utom atic weapon. A photograph of thi s legendary pose later in spired an equestrian sc ulpture of him by Anna Ki sakova. Thi s activity also contributed to hi s demi se. Captain Jan Nalepka was killed in an encounter with a German patrol outside the village of Ovruc o n the ni g ht of Nove mber 17 , 1943. Thi s study contains a weakness commo n to publi caation s about a " hometown boy" . It prese nts certa in fac ts in pass in g, presupposing the audi e nce is already familiar w ith the m. Whil e thi s may work for SLOV AKIA 156 know ledgeable S lovaks, it leaves fo reigners in the dar k on key parti cul ars. Indeed , its greatest weekness lies not in what is sa id but what is left un said. Na le pk a's surv ivin g co mrades na med the ir parti sa n bri gade afte r him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Bri gade was later parasc huted back into Slovaki a to parti c ipate in the autumn 1944 upri sin g. Compared to other uni ts whi ch the Sov iets ex ported , and whic h large ly e ngaged in loot in g and pill ag in g, the Na lepka Bri gade conducted itse lf in a n exe mpl ary fas hi on. Together w ith the 2 nd Czec hoslovak Paratroo pe rs, it shares c redit fo r the capture of th e strateg ic vill age of Ja ln a in the Hron Ri ver va ll ey on Oc tobe r 10- 12. This acti on was the las t vic tory of the insurge nts in S lovakia dur ing the upris ing. A wartime fe ll ow-officer, Samue l S imonov ic, states that Jan Nalepk a was not a Communi st (p. 111 ). He di ed at a conve ni e nt time , whic h e na bl ed him to beco me a lege nd in the postwar co mmuni st era. Hi s peasant pare nts were rece ived with hono ur in the Sov ie t Union at me mo rial servi ces dedic ated to the captain. Yet one may questi on what fa te would have had in store fo r him had he li ved longer. A " w ise guy" mi ght be given a wide berth by hi s teac hers on the me rit of hi s acade mi c exce ll e nce, but not by a tota litari a n reg im e. His equ all y precoc ious fr ie nd V ladimfr C le me ntis went on to become Czec hos lovak ia's fo reig n mini ste r, but ultim ate ly e nded on the gall ows. In sofa r as the c urre nt Slovak Re public has adopted the Slovak Nati onal Upri sing rathe r than Jozef Ti so ' s Slovaki a as its lodestone, Captain Jan Nalepk a re mains a worthy subject of stud y. Hi s life cuts across the ideo log ica l lines th at later di vided the East and West du ring the Co ld War. Hi s c haracter serves to de bunk a certain stereotype of S lova ks as be in g subservie nt to a uth ority. Thi s book is a positi ve contributi on to wartime Slovak hi story. SLOVAKIA 157 Zo ltan G . Mes ko, The S ilent Conspiracy: A Communist M odel of Political Cleansing at the Slovak Uni versity in B ratislava after the Second W orld War. Boulder, CO : East Europea n Monographs, 2003, ix- l 42pp., map, illustrati ons, notes, bibliography. L.P. HINTERB UCHNER Rye, New York When I read the orig inal Slova k vers ion "Zaml cane sprisahanie" by Dr. Zo ltan G. Mes ko in 1999, I was moved by the vivid descripti on of the eve nts th at befe ll th e medi ca l co mmunity in Slovaki a during and after World W ar II , th ro ugh the " liberation" by th e Soviets and after the illega l take-over by the Communi sts of Czec hoslovaki a in 1948. I knew many of the principal actors in the ensuin g dram a but I was not full y aware of wh at tran spired at the Medi cal School in Brati slava where I graduated the same year th at D r. Mes ko started hi s studi es. M y opini o n abo ut thi s book the n was th at it represented an important hi stori ca l testimo ny about the insane and destructi ve influence of the communi st regime on the professors and students of two medi ca l sc hool s, one in Brati slava the other in Kos ice. The poorly-trained new ph ys ici ans, who se credenti als had to be primaril y political , in ev itabl y led to inadequ ate and inferi or hea lth care fo r the nation. Th e publication in 2003 of the improved and enh anced Engli sh version of thi s work , "The S il ent Conspi racy," marks a fittin g completi on of the author' s doc umentati o n of th at peri od , based on hi s personal observati ons, interviews of th e principals and of witnesses, and the detailed research of avail able records. I read th e Eng li sh and the Slovak versio ns s ide-by-s ide and reli ved the angui sh th at the parti c ipants of thi s drama must have felt in those times. I was aga in moved by th e author' s personal remini sce nces of the "good o ld days" with hi s fa mil y, before registering to stud y medi c ine. I mu st co nfess that the Eng li sh vers io n he ld my SLOVAKIA 158 close attention more than the Slovak one. It is a page-turner; and one is reluctant to lay the book down. There is a bri ef but very informative acco unt of the hi storica l background of the Slovak nation by professor Mark Sto larik, an improvement over the Slovak vers ion. The rest of the book is more an inte rpre tation of the Slovak edition than a verbatim tran slat ion . The res ult is th at the E ng li sh is fluent , easy to read a nd de finitely much be tte r than most Slovak publications in Eng li sh, despite occas ion a l ling ui stic errors and inaccuracies, no ne of them s ubsta nti a l. Regrettably , not a ll of the illustrati o ns from the S lovak edition appear in the En g li sh o ne . Dr. Mesko recently in for med me that the first draft was written in Eng li sh. The strength of thi s work is in the detailed acco unt of the persecu ti o n, humili at io n, torture and incarceratio n of those who , because of their re li g ious back ground or personal integrity , did not join in worshiping comm uni sm, the Soviet Union a nd its murdere r-in-chi ef Stalin. Some victim s disappeared without any trace , othe rs perished in the uranium mines of the western Czec h la nd s and many spent years in prison and did hard labor. The a uthor li sts names and dates and provides documented description s of these terrible tran sgres sion s. Dr. Mesko ' s book is an importa nt co ntributi o n to the post-war hi story of the Slovak nat ion . It has the immediacy of an eyew itness report. To those w ho do not read Slovak , it pro vides a window o n events large ly unknown to Eng li sh readers. It provides a hi storic a l g limpse of how eve nts in Slovakia in the 1940 's separated the "good g uys" who would not betray their re li g iou s and mora l principl es, from vac ill ators , weak lin gs, thieve s, torturers a nd murderers, all without any moral scruples. The book a lso describes how politi ca l opportunists stabbed the ir intellectually an d professio na ll y s upe rior colleagues in the back . It demon strates how po liti ca l a nd party affiliations rep laced merit in the grad ing of stude nts and in di spe ns ing the most desired positions and jobs to " politically correct" applicants. It show s how the absence SLOVAKIA 159 of party affili ati on re nde red outstandin g professors and teac he rs vulnerable a nd subj ec t to chic anery. lt record s the establi shm e nt of a Chair of Marxi s m-Le nini sm a t th e M ed ica l School for th e reeducation of the faculty and of the student body. Dr. Mesko also doc ume nts the large ly unknown attempt of the Communists to meddl e with the curriculum in the Medical School. They recruited a cadre of yo ungsters from workers ' bac kground s who had very littl e education , se nt them to spec ial classes in the Medical School a nd graduated them as " physicians," a di saster waiting to happen. This e ffort apparentl y failed a nd eventu all y faded away. No further information about these "graduates" is avai labl e. Finall y, the book illustrates why the re was friction between Catholics and Lutherans in th e Medical Schoo l, a nd rev is its that old probl e m between Czechs and Slova ks, name ly the di sc redited idea of a " Czechoslovak nation " propagated by Edvard Be nes a nd T .G. Masaryk and their cohorts. Researche rs and seri ous students of the hi story of Central Europe will find a rich resource for their work in this boo k. Readers who are of Slovak origin, but not proficient in that la nguage, will be nefi t from the English version which provides a g limpse of soc ietal forces that shaped the dest in y of Slovakia a nd its evo lution toward s independe nce. Mari a Dziakova- Bi:ihmova, Dusa na dlani: Spomienky od Kosfc do New Yorku. Edited by Michal Kri sko and Be rnarda Jenc fkov a- Fabrici . Presov , Mic hal Vasko, 2004, 151 pp. Illustrati ons M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This autobiography, compl eted by ' Mari a Dziakova-Bi:imova in August of 1989, just before the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, nea tl y summ arizes the tri als and tribul ation s of Slovak 160 SLOVAKIA intellectuals during and after World War II . Born in 1910 in a vill age near Kosice, she was the e ldest of three daughters of a poor peasant family. Nevertheless, her parents recogni zed her extraord in ary intelli gence and they skrimped and saved in order to send her to the " realgy mn as ium" for g irl s a nd then to the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius Uni vers ity in Bratislava. She grad uated with her degree in 1934 and began her practice in Kosice. Between 1938 and 1944 Dr. Bohmova (s he marri ed Dr. Emanuel Bohm in 194 1) li ved in Magyar occ upi ed Kosice and later Budapest, he lpin g her politically-activist hu sband defend the Slovak comm unity agai nst forced Magyarization. Meanwhile, she tried to continue her med ical practice, with vary in g success. As the Second World War drew to a c lose, she and her hu sband managed to return to S lovak ia, survived the pass ing of the Ru ss ian front, and re-established themselves in Bratislava in 1945. While she worked for the State In sti tute for Hea lth , her hu sband became Commi ss ioner of Health for Slovakia and Deputy Speaker of the Federal Assembly in Prague . After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovaki a in 1948 Emanuel Bohm fl ed to the west and she jo ined him in Lo ndo n a littl e later. They spe nt the nex t four years working as manu al laboure rs until the United States allowed them to e nter as immi grants in 195 2. Since Maria had to flee Czechoslovakia without any of her diplomas, a nd they co uld not easi ly be mailed to her during the Stalinist l 950's, she had to start over as an intern in the USA. By 1956 she had passed all of he r medical exa ms and sett led into a career in medic ine at the Kin gsbrook Jewi sh Medical Center in New York, and retired as Assistant Director of Medicine in 1975 . Maria and Emanuel active ly participated in Slovak inte ll ectu al a nd political life in New York for the second half of the twentieth century. She a nd he r hu sband took a leading role in the Slovak-American Cultural Center of New York , the Limbora dancing group , the General Mi Ian Rast is lav Stefanik Award , and the an nu al SlovakAmerican Ball at New York ' s Athletic C lub. They also participated in the founding of the Slovak World Co ngress in 1970, of which her SLOVAKIA 161 husband became a vice-president. The book is a pleasure to read . Maria had a talent for writing and, at one point, she even recon structed a letter that she wrote on behalf of her illiterate mother in the eastern Slovak dialect to an uncle who had emigrated to the United States before World War I. She used the same di alect, and the same uncle ' s name (who had long since disappeared), when she wrote to her sister in Kosice, imploring her to try to mail the diplomas that she had to leave behind when she fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Thi s subterfuge worked because the Czech postal officials in Prague, who were in charge of censoring the mai l, were apparently confounded by thi s dialect and allowed the letter through. Maria eventually received her diplomas, but only after she had to once again prove her medical acumen by pass ing very rigorous American exams. In spite of her trial s and tribulations, Maria Dziakova-Bohmova did not become bitter. Instead , she was thankful to the United States for having given her the chance to start a new life in the New World. She returned for visits to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and 1978 and noticed how her younger sisters had prematurely aged and how so many of her colleagues from the " realgymnasium" and the university had also either aged or died in thi s "socialist paradise." She and her hu sband visited free Czechoslovakia in 1990; he died at the end of the year and was buried in the national cemetery in Martin . After Maria died in 1999, her remains were interred beside him. Thus, Slovakia recognized the achievements of these two extraordinary indi vi dual s. We should be grateful to Bernharda Jencfkova-Fabrici , executrix of her will, for having gathered together Maria's memoirs, for having persuaded Michal Krisko to edit them, and for havi ng arranged for Michal Vasko to publish them. The book is well-worth reading, both for a glimpse at the evolution of the Slovak inte lli genti a in the first Czechoslovak Republic , and for the harsh consequences that awaited those members who refused to sub mit to the Communist takeover of their homeland and who fled into exi le. SLOVAKIA 162 Karen Henderson, Slovakia: The Escape from fnvisibihty. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, xviii-140 pp., map, notes, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Carleton University A few years ago Slovakia suffered from a rather negative image of radical nationalism, especiall y in the West. One reason was that foreign scholars were rare in the region and Slovak history remained invisible. In 1987 a young scholar from England was given an unexpected opportunity to spend a couple of months in Bratislava, the country's capital. Attracted by both Slovakia 's past and present, Karen Henderson gradua ll y became more in volved in Slovak affairs. The author' s knowledge of the evolution of Slovak society through the centuries enabled her to reach a new perspective. Meanwhile, she also witnessed the country ' s political development after its establishment as a sovereign state on January 1st, 1993, its first appearance on the international scene and its chi ldhood illnesses as well. Henderson ' s book then documents the steps taken by the new Slovak government after the elections of September 1998 that were designed to improve the country's democratic performance, and that eventually led to its significantly changed image abroad. The author of the book , a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , took a balanced look at the Slovak Republic while concentrati ng on four areas of its evolution . In the first part she focused on the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary and on the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic . She succes sfully demonstrated her familiarity with the main trends that formed and influenced the mentality of Slovak soc iety exposed to the processes of forced " Magyarisation" that took place after the Austro-H un garian Comprom ise of 1867. She also hi ghlighted the processes of "Czechoslovakism" that marked the relation- SLOVAKIA 163 ship between the Slovaks and Czechs before the Second Wor ld W ar with traces of di stru st o n o ne side and suspi c ion o n the other. In co ntras t to the preva ilin g traditi o na l approaches to Slova ki a that have been influe nced by ste reotypes impl a nted into Sl ovak hi sto ry, the auth or shows a re markabl e e mpathy fo r the way the Slovaks saw the mse lves in the fo rmer states of whi ch they had been a part for ce nturi es (the Hun gari an Kin gdo m), o r fo r decades (Czec hos lo va kia) . He nde rso n attributes the fa ilures shared by Slovaks w ith the ir partners o bj ecti ve ly and fa irl y. Slovaks are seen as the vic tim s in relati o n to the two main determina nts above. O n the other hand , Henderson, who knows the terra in of Ce nt ra l a nd East Euro pe and its non-linear a nd some tim e e ni gmati c h is to ry as we ll , a lso de mo nstrates an ability to ide ntify the mo me nts and events in whi ch Slo vak fa ilures and ruptures happe ned due to the ir indec is ive ness, bi ases , ambi g uiti es, un willin g ness o r pass ivity in copin g w ith e me rg in g situation s (e.g. the Slovak Republi c 1939-1 945). In the second part o f the boo k He nde rson dea ls w ith inde pe ndent Slo vaki a after January I'', 1993 . She foc uses o n the governme nts of Prime Mini sters Vladim fr Mec iar a nd Mikul as Dzurinda, whil e notin g a sharp co ntrast betwee n the two. The parli ame ntary e lection s he ld in Septe mbe r o f 1998 made a substanti a l difference in the eyes of Western governme nts and public audi e nces . A detail ed pi cture of what had preceded the fa ll of Mec iar ' s governme nt may be of interest to those who are not fa mili ar w ith the intern a l deve lo pme nt of Slovak soc iety and who want to better know the reasons fo r the fa ilure o f Mec iar' s po lic ies. For those who know it we ll , it is a re minde r and summ ary of what was prev io usly published and broadcast in the print and e lectroni c medi a. However, the a utho r ' s a im was to foc us o n the shi ft in mode rn Slovak hi story th at a ll owed the state and soc iety to escape its in visibility, and thi s is what undo ubtedl y deserves recogniti o n. The last parts of th e book are dedi cated to Slovak ia ' s re lati o nship with the world fro m 19 18 to the present. In spite of the auth or 's overa ll pe rspec ti ve regardin g Slovaki a after th e pe ri od 1989- 1993, SLOVAKIA 164 one could agree with her view th at " The Slovak Republic has not been particul arl y stable po liticall y, but as a state it has not been fundamentall y instable either" (p. 129). This may be also be perceived as the bottom level of Slovak statehood and the capability of the Slovak Republic to survive as a modern state that was initi all y questioned both dipl o matica ll y and publicl y at the beg innin g of its ex istence. Neve rtheless, the se nsiti ve reader may also find so me sub-themes and situation s described in the book that require furth er di scuss ion or a better nu anced approach (for example, so me aspects of the iss ues of ethnic minorities, the political culture and so on). Henderson 's footnotes and bibliography illustrate that the author used a wide variety of sources, from skeptical critics to pass ion ate apologists of Slovak hi story. She tried to steer a middle co urse between them and used books and schol arl y articles , as well as documents of Slovak academi c institution s and reports of non-governmental organi zation s as her principal sources . She also used re levant documents and reports iss ued by international or supran ational organization s regardin g Slovaki a ' s developme nt and progress (The World Bank, NATO, The European Union , etc.). O verall , Henderson did a good job. In my opinion Henderson ' s book successfull y refl ec ts a positive shi ft in the perception of Slovakia from the outside, and in bringing a pos itive picture to larger audi ences. In the last fe w decades Slovak society has been portrayed by both academi cs and public ists selecti vely and negati ve ly, large ly due to extern a l factors th at affec ted Slovak hi story. From now on , the question of whether the positi ve image of the country will be sustained will depend upon Slovaki a's willingness and capability to remain on track and avoid any detours from its democratic deve lopment. SLOVAKIA 165 The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (I 993-2002). Edited by M. Mark Stolarik. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy -Carducci Publi shers, 2004, xiv-168 pp. tables, charts, graphs, notes, map, index. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF University of Illinois, Urbana-Champai gn Durin g the interwar Czechoslovak Re public, several volumes were published employing a format that could be described as " progress reports," in which responsible government officials of the time outlined the state of the field in key iss ue areas. This current volume, desc ribed as Slovakia's " first ' white paper, "' performs much the same function for the first decade of the independent state. In many cases, the " ten years after" vantage point is rather artificial , but in this case it is especially appropriate and the findin gs will have more than transitory value, because this is a decade framed by the successful passage from nascent state to me mbership in the European Union and NATO. Scholars interested in Slovakia' s " rehabilitation" from seco nd tier to new EU member will find thi s decade of continuin g relevance. And if there is an occasional celebratory note in the di scussion, it is understandabl e in the context of the decade ' s achievement of European integration. M . Mark Stolarik, who in his function as Chairholder in Slovak Hi story and Culture at the University of Ottawa, also co-organized the conference on which the published work is based, provides introductory thumbnail sketches of the arguments in eac h of the main contributions, and annotations of the text on politics, to clarify and update the discussion. The core articles that follow, dealing successively with politi cs, economic s, soc ial policy , culture and international relations, are the presentations of Rudolf Schuster, Slovakia' s first elected pres ident, and e ight high-rankin g and quite prominent Slovak government officials, cabinet ministers and state secretaries. Each contribution rece ives a response from the North American side, SLOVAKIA 166 ei the r from Canadian offic ia ls who have worked o n -and who disc uss--cooperati ve projects with Slovakia, or from a scho lar specia li zi ng in Slovakia. In addition to the detailed po li cy overviews discussed below, I fo und two addit io na l pieces particularly interesting: the exc ha nge o n c ultural po li cy be twee n th e n- Culture Mini ster Mil an Kn azko and Martin Votruba, director of the Slovak Studies program at the University of Pittsburg h and the di sc uss ion of hum an ri ghts and ethni c re lation s by Pa l Csaky, an important Slovak Hun garia n po liti cian and Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Magocs i of the University of Toronto, whose experti se o n the minoriti es of the reg ion in fo rmed hi s ge nera li zed critique of th e Jacobin-inspired view of state hi story through the prism of the dom in ant nati o na lity in many European countries . The compe ndium is sketchi est on the politics, devoting suffic ient time for orientation but no in-de pth a na lys is, which in thi s case makes sense in severa l ways, not least because the po liti cs of transiti o n has alread y been ex haustive ly ana lyzed in ex istin g sc ho larl y work. The iss ue areas covered are a no ther matter. Muc h less informati o n cover in g po lic y is readily ava il abl e in existing work , so thi s is exceedin g ly useful gro und to cover. Most chapters are e nri c hed with some unex pected inform ation a l treas ures, since the poli cy profil es are de ta il ed and spec ific rathe r th an vag ue or genera li zed , and the re are a multitude of useful tabl es and charts that e ncode co mparati ve and tim e series data on fo re ig n debt a nd in vestme nt , e mpl oy me nt , mino rity ed ucation , li fe expectancy and so o n. While not inte nded as a reference work, the anth o logy the refore atta in s so methin g of th at status; o nce read, it can be sto red to hand for speci fi c refere nce on a range of subjects. Our library doesn ' t have thi s book yet, but it soon wi ll. SLOVAKIA 167 Thomas J. Shelley , Slovak s on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church , Yonkers, & Th e Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894 -2000. Washin gton , D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2002. xv-273pp., maps, illustrati o ns, bibliography , index. DANIEL F. T ANZONE Passaic, New Jersey Slovaks on the Hudson, by the noted church hi storian Thomas J. Shelley, adds an important chapter to the hi story of the American Catholic Church. While the city of Yonkers, New York, with a population of just under 200,000 cannot be compared with the metropoli ses of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it is, in fact , a microcosm of bi g city Catholicism. The city's nineteen Catholic parishe s, including tho se serving the Slovak s, Italian s, Hun garia ns and most recently the Portugese, along with two of the Byza ntine rite , contributed to the gro wth of Catholic life in the community. Catholics would soo n become major players in the city 's soc ial , educational, cultural and political life. While thi s book tell s the story of Slovak settlement in the river town of Yonke rs startin g in the l 880's, it also presents a picture of the city's political establi shment and its reaction to the grow in g immigrant population. Most of these newcomers hailed from the Catholic nation s of central and southern Europe. Slovaks, along with other Slavic peoples, found work in the city's vast mill structure, and had the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families. While the local " Nativi sts" often resented and mi sunderstood these immigrants and their ways, the WASP establishment gradually accepted them into the fabric of c ity life. Indeed , by 1903 a Slovak immigrant was elected to Yonkers city govern ment. Like other immigrant gro ups, the Slovaks clung to their language and faith tradition s. First they esta bli shed loca l fraternal -benefit 168 SLOVAKIA societies, which became affiliated with the national bodies in the 1890's. Yonkers had the first women 's lodge in New York State ( 1892), which became branch 2 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies ' Association. Its other Slovak fraternals gave birth to Most Holy Trinity Church, which traced its roots to 1891 when laymen petitioned the local bishop for permission to establish a pari sh. The local parish church was very important to the laity, both as a place of worship and as a social gathering place. The parishioners married and raised their children in the shadow of the church steeple in the Hollow section of Yonkers. Most Holy Trinity afforded its people the opportunity to pass on the language, culture and traditions of their ancestral homeland. The clergy and religious, especially the sisters of Cyril and Methodius , who staffed the parish school, taught the children the Slovak language and traditions . Slovaks on the Hudson never forgot the plight of their brethren along the Danube, Yah, Hron and Torysa rivers. Indeed, the clergy and leaders of the Yonkers community played an important ro le in the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia following the col lapse of the Dual Monarchy of A ustria-Hungary . One of the pastors of Most Holy Trinity was actually offered a cabinet post in the newly-established Czecho-Slovakia in 1919. Throughout the long winter of communist domination of their ancestral homeland, the Slovaks of Yonkers never gave up hope of seeing their countrymen freed from this alien ideology and they rejoiced when Slovakia achieved its independence on January I, 1993. Thomas J. Shelley has provided the reader with a wonderful opportunity to view the life of the Slovak immigrant community within the context of big city li fe. It is a fascinating story, warts and all, of the Church in America. It is al so an important contribution to American history because the Slovaks are rapidly assimilating and moving to the suburbs while Yonkers is receiving ever more and newer immigrants. It is a welcome addition to the story of so many American ethnic groups who make up o ur ever-expanding multicultural society. SLOVAKIA 169 June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the lnterwar Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004, xiv-278 p.p., illustrations, notes, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa The purpose of this book is to explore group-generated activities among Slovak-Americans in the inter-war period of American history and to see if such activities fit into recent "whiteness" studies by professional American historians. Alexander' s theme is that in the 1920's and 1930's both first and second-generation American Slovaks "were haunted by the stigma of inferiority inflicted by American society." (P.12). They sought to overcome this stigma by purchasing Liberty Bonds during the Great War and War Bonds during the Second World War. Meanwhile, they engaged in patriotic marches, carrying both the American and Slovak flags in the two wars, they staged large "S lovak Days" in the I 920's and 1930's in order to show off their ethnicity while stressing their Americanness and they openly supported FDR's New Deal legislation in order to help their pioneers and their fraternal-benefit societies to survive the ravages of the Great Depression. In order to prove her thesis Alexander dug deeply into both archival and printed sources. She studied the records of several large fraternal-benefit societies, the correspondence of their officers, and a wide range of Slovak-American newspapers. She also read widely in American history. Alexander concluded that Slovak-American identity did not arise from their growing "whiteness" in a racist American society, as some American historians had postulated of other ethnic groups, but rather from their nationality (ethnicity). Indeed, she also saw no generational or even class cleavage among American Slovaks, who perceived of themselves as overwhelmingly "working class" and united in their 170 SLOVAKIA efforts to win acceptance as one of the " newcomer" peoples to the United States. Al exander's book will , no doubt, win many acco lades from those profess ional A meri can hi stori ans who write hi story fo r themselves. She is very much a part of the so-call ed "di scourse" school whi ch uses social hi story in order to probe into questi ons of " whiteness," class, identity, celebrations, ass imilati on and so on. These hi stori ans deri ve great pleasure in proving or dispro ving eac h other 's theori es and show in g off their erudition . By so doin g, however, th ey c ut them selves off from the general public , which is hun gry for tradi tional , narrati ve, hi story . As a result, a second group of hi stori ans fill s thi s public hunger, and they are contemptu ously di smi ssed as " popul ar" hi stori ans by the academi cs mention ed above. On the other hand , the " popul ar" hi stori ans sell hundreds of thou sand s of copies of the ir books while the academic histori ans are delighted if they can sell a thou sand. While several hundred uni versity libraries will , no doubt, purchase a copy of thi s book, I have a feeling th at the Slovak-American community will hardl y notice it, whi ch is a pity.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 38 (No. 70-71) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Peter Žeňuch, Medzi východom a západom: Byzantsko-slovanská tradícia, kultúra a jazyk na východnom Slovensku (Robert A. Orr), p. 149</li> <li>Marián Kronský, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918-1920 (Gregory C. Ference), p. 152</li> <li>Jozef Nálepka, ed., Ini o kapitánovi Jánovi Nálepkovi (Vladimír Baumgarten), p. 154</li> <li>Zoltan G. Meško, The Silent Conspiracy: A Communist Model of Political Cleansing at the Slovak University in Bratislava after the Second World War (L.P. Hinterbuchner), p. 157</li> <li>Mária Dziaková-Böhmová, Michal Kriško and Bernarda Jenčíková-Fabrici, eds., Duša na dlani: Spomienky od Košíc do New Yorku (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 159</li> <li>Karen Hendrson, Slovakia: The Escape from Invisibility (Juraj Hocman), p. 162</li> <li>M. Mark Stolarik, ed., The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (1993-2002) (Carol Skalnik Leff), p. 165</li> <li>Thomas J. Shelley, Slovaks on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church, Yonkers, &amp; The Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894-2000 (Daniel F. Tanzone), p. 167</li> <li>June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the Interwar Era (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 169</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Hinterbuchner, L. P., 1922-2009 Hocman, Juraj Leff, Carol Skalnik, 1947- Orr, Robert, 1957- Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Tanzone, Daniel F. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/dc4c8882b864b26602b53f8832e69f24.pdf 395f55d674e2e1cd0c8467de9b7ffe0f PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 103 Nauka reci slovenskej [Nauka reci slovenskej vistavena od Ludevita Stura], Ludevit Stur, Vol. l : Faksimile povodneho vydania na vydanie pripravili Eubomir Durovic and Slavomir Ondrejovic. Bratislava: VEDA, 2006. 228 pages, facsimile of the 1846 grammar text. Nauka reci slovenskej : Komentare, Bibliograjia, Vol. 2, Eugen Jona, Eubomir Durovic, Slavomir Ondrejovic. Bratislava: VEDA, 2006 . 323 pp., commentary, bibliography, and various indices. GERALD J. SABO , S.J. John Carroll University This two-volume publication is a singular event. The first volume is a facsimile edition of the 1846 grammar by Eudovit Stur (1815-56), whose availability inside Slovakia is quite limited, and outside Slovakia is virtually non-existent. The second volume enhances the grammar with background information, providing detailed analysis of and commentary by eminent Slovak linguists, among them Eubomir Durovic. Both volumes appear on the 160th anniversary of the grammar' s original publication, but also the 150th anniversary of Stur's accidental death. Lutheran pastors and Catholic priests worked on the codification of Slovak from the eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth. In the l 720s the Slovak Lutheran pastors and scholars Matej Bel and Daniel Krrnan published the Bible in the primarily Czech linguistic form espoused by Slovak Lutherans. In his 1746 grammar the Lutheran pastor Pavel Dolezal presented Slovak and Czech as two dialects of one language- Czechoslovak. In the 1750s the Catholic Camaldolese monks translated the Bible into Slovak for their own useespecially in readings for the liturgical year, a significant accomplishment that would be discovered only in the mid-twentieth century. In the late 1780s the Catholic priest Anton Bemolak initiated the extensive Catholic efforts for codifying Slovak and then promoted his codified norm. For his codification Bemolak drew upon the Slovak that had been nurtured through the activities and �104 SLOVAKIA publications of the Jesuit university in Trnava since 1635 , and that in the twentieth century Slovak linguists would call "Cultural WestSlovak." Among Bernolak's various language-related writings, he realized a grammar and even a five-language dictionary in six large volumes, completed and published in the 1820s by the priest Jur[ aj] Palkovic. Through their writings, two priests helped spread Bernolak's codified Slovak- Juraj Fandly in his prose works, and Jan Holly in his extensive epic and lyric poetry. Thanks to Holly, Fandly, and others, Bernolak-Slovak (bernolakovcina) became the acceptable and promoted means of expression among Slovak Catholics through the 1840s. During this period, Lutherans continued to publish various literary and other works in biblictina ("Biblical language," in effect, the version of Czech used in the Bohemian Brethren 's Kralice Bible of the late sixteenth century with varying mixtures of Slovak language elements through the nineteenth century). The extent of such writing is clear from the four-volume biographic compilation of Slovak Lutheran poets (1806-12) by the pastor Bohuslav Tablic. Although Slovak Lutherans were a decided minority in the Slovak region of the Kingdom of Hungary, despite their quite modest numbers they remained a well-educated group that strove to retain this distinction in contrast to the much more numerous but less-educated fellow Christian-Catholics. Indeed, the Lutherans especially employed and espoused biblictina in their cultural and liturgical activities to emphasize their relationship with Czech Protestants, thereby increasing their group's numerical strength and enhancing their cultural status. Given this, the Lutherans' reasoning could well have been why should they adopt a linguistic norm created and promoted by the majority Catholic population that was not as educated or cultivated as they? In 1803 Slovak Lutherans established a Chair of Czechoslovak Language and Literature at their lycee in Bratislava. Jiri [Juraj] Palkovic was the first and only holder of this Chair ( 1803-50), and helped to foster Slovak Lutheran publications and cultural exchange. At the Lutheran lycee in Bratislava students and staff became the nucleus for the Lutheran promotion of Slavic/Slovak consciousness in response to the increasing Magyarization in Slovakia. I:udovit Stur studied at the lycee between 1829 and 1834. After his student years from 1835-3 7, Stur was vice-president of the Czecho-Slavic Society, whose 1836 almanach Plody (Fruits) of various writings �SLOVAKIA 105 also represented a manifesto of Slovak national consciousness and identity. On April I 0, 1836 Stur wrote to the Protestant Czech/Moravian cultural figure and historian Frantisek Palacky emphasizing the need for unity among Slovaks and Czechs. As Stt'.ir pointed out, the Czech language used by Lutherans in the Slovak area was not accessible to Catholic Slovaks, and thus there was a need for some combination of the Czech and Slovak language to provide for Slovak and Czech unity and understanding. The Czechs were unwilling to accept Stur's proposal. Although on February I, 1837 Stur became an unremunerated deputy to Jiff Palkovic, on April 5th the Czecho-Slavic society halted its activites because of a government ban on student societies. Stur served as a deputy to Palkovic during 1837-38 and 1840-43 , with his university study at Halle between those periods. After a lengthy investigation, on December 31, 1843 the Bratislava convention of the Lutheran Church relieved Stur of his position as Palkovic's deputy, after which he devoted himself to scholarly, journalistic, and political activity. By 1843 Stur had come to view Slovak as a distinct Slavic language, especially vis-a-vis Czech. According to the Lutheran poet Samo Hrobon, on February 14, 1843 a meeting of various Lutheran lycee students/alumni and their professor L. Stur marked the "day of resurrection of Slovak" (J6na, vol. 2: 31 ). In mid-July of 1843 Stur met with the Lutheran pastors Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Miloslav Hodza at Hurban's parish in Hlboke for the purpose of creating a di stinct Slovak norm. A day after that discussion the three met with the Catholic priest-poet Jan Holly at the latter's parish in Dobra Yoda and received Holly's blessing for their endeavor. At the founding gathering in Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas for the journal Tatrin during August 26-28, 1844, Stur's Slovak norm was publicly proclaimed (Durovic, vol. 2: 59). In codifying Slovak as a distinct language, Stur prepared two texts: one explaining the need for writing in Slovak and a grammar of Slovak based on the Central Slovak dialect of Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas (Durovic, vol. 2: 62). Both these texts would be published only in 1846. In vo lume 2 of this publication, three linguists focus on Stur and his grammar. Eugen J6na's study provides a very detailed commentary on Stur, hi s evolving writing activity related to Slovak, especially the two texts of 1846, as well as the influences on Stur's cultural, political, and linguistic thinking (pp. 11-47). Cubomir Durovic has �106 SLOVAKIA the most extensive study (51-257). In his introduction, Durovic discusses Stur's grammar and Slovak in relation to the two editions ( 1809 and 1819) of the Czech/Bohemian grammar by Josef Dobrovsky and various Slovak Lutheran cultural publications (58-63) . This is followed by an extensive and meticulous analysis of Stur's grammar (64-194) with reference to various nineteenth - and twentiethcentury linguistic writings listed at the end (195-196). Completing f:>urovic's study are three indices in relation to his commentary on Stur's grammar proper: an index of words, morphemes, and phonemes (195-227); a "phonematicifonematicky" index of interpreted morphemes and words (229-3 I); and a topic/subject index (233-57). Slavo Ondrejovic concludes this volume with two bibliographies: one of Stur's personal and linguistic works published from 1841 through 2003 (259-68), and a select one on writings about Stur that concern language and linguistic questions published from 1817 through 2006 (269-323). In their introduction to the second volume, Durovic and Ondrejovic have noted the need for such a publication and the lengthy process involved in realizing this work. Specialists in Slovak linguistics, especially in the historical development of contemporary Slovak, will appreciate their efforts for many years to come. Likewise, Slovakia-based, but especially international specialists in Slovak culture and history, will also enhance their understanding of the codifycation of Slovak by Stur and his Lutheran colleagues. Andras Gero, The Jewish Criterion in Hungary, translated from the Magyar by Alan Campbell. Boulder, Colorado, Social Science Monographs: Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 2007. 153 pp., notes, biographical notes, photographs, index. YESHA YAHU A. JELINEK Beer-Sheva, Israel This is both a confusing and challenging book. The challenge comes in trying to clarify the definition of a Jew. The confusion comes in trying to define a Jew from Hungary. Of the book's five chapters, the first two were the most confusing. Gero first sets out to discuss Hungarian Jewry. However, he does not differentiate (as do all Slavic languages) between "Hunga- �SLOVAKIA 107 rian" and "Magyar." "Hungary" until 1918 was a geographico-political term for the lands of the Crown of St. Stephen. "Magyar" referred to the largest ethnic (and ruling) group in the Kingdom of Hungary. For contemporary Magyars, as for Gero, such a differentiation does not exist. He equated "Hungary" with "Magyarorszag" (the land of the Magyars). Therefore, when Gero analyzes the "Hungarian Jew" (Magyar Zsid6 ), we do not really understand who he has in mind. Jews appeared on the territory between the Carpathian mountains and the Balkans in the Roman period, much earlier than the Slavs or Magyars. They inhabited the Kingdom of Hungary, initially ruled by the Arpad dynasty and later the Habsburgs . They were not considered to be Magyars. Only in the 19 th century did the Magyars try to "Magyarize" the Jews, as well as the other non-Magyar nationalities. Gero knows these facts, but avoids them. For Gero, there were only "Hungarian Jews" in the entire Kingdom of Hungary. He seems to be entirely unaware of ethnic divisions within Jewry- the existence of Slovak, Rusin , Croat, Transylvanian, etc. Jews. While Gero devotes much space to a rather intelligent discussion of the living conditions, historical environment, and ethnic survival of Magyar Jews, he ignores the fact that Jews in Hungary lived among different nations. He is aware of the oppresssive Magyar nationalism, and criticizes it severely in his last three chapters, but remains unaware of the varieties of Judaism within the Kingdom. The challenging part of this book is the thoughtful discussion of Jewish existence in Hungary and the relations of Jews with the Gentile majority. This discussion forces the reader to re-evaluate quite a few accepted notions about Jewish life in Hungary. Unfortunately, Gero is not familiar with the history of the various Jewish groups in the Kingdom of Hungary. This becomes clear when one compares Jewish life on the Pannonian Plain (today's Hungary) with that of Upper Hungary (Slovakia) or with Sub-Carpathian Rus. Furthermore, he erroneously refers to Hungarian Jews "leaving the ghetto" in the 19 th century. Only Bratislava and a few cities in the Burgenland had "ghettos." That is why Jews who left Moravia for Hungary, or Galicia for Hungary in the 19 th century, suddenly found much greater freedom than they had ever fe lt before. Gero 's lack of knowledge about the Slovak and Rusin portions of the Kingdom of Hungary becomes clear when he discusses Jewish �108 SLOVAKIA conversions to Christianity and the rise of Zionism. For instance, while conversion to Christianity on the Pannonian Plain was not uncommon, it was rare in Upper Hungary or in Sub-Carpathian Rus. When discussing Zionism, Gero neglected its manifestations on Slovak territory and did not perceive that it was weak in the Magyar counties because it was persecuted by the Hungarian government. On the other hand, in Upper Hungary, where Zionizm was weak, Chasidism was strong. Chasidic rabbis were bitter enemies of Zionism. Therefore, one must tread carefully when discussing the strength or weakness of Zionism in Hungary. The most challenging part of Gero's book deals with the rise of anti-Semitism at the end of the 19 th century. Here he deals with the riddle of who is a Jew and when is he considered as such, and under what conditions . Most of Gero's arguments deal only with the Magyar portion of Hungary, which is a pity, because, if he had dug deeper, he could have made the case that it was largely the Magyars who taught the other ethnic groups to hate the Jews. Tiso, Jozef Prejavy a clanky. Vol. I (1913-1938). Ed. Miroslav Fabricius and Ladislav Susko. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press and Historicky ustav SA V, 2002 . 567 pp. Tiso, Jozef Prejavy a clanky. Vol. 2: (193 8-1944). Ed. Miroslav Fabricius and Katarina Hradska. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press and Historicky ustav SAV, 2007 . 696 pp. DANIEL E. MILLER University of West Florida, Pensacola The editors of this set of two volumes assembled the speeches and articles of Jozef Tiso (1887-1947) to provide researchers with a valuable source for the history of Slovak politics covering the periods from shortly before the Great War until the Munich Agreement and then from October 1938 until just before 29 August 1944, the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising. Each volume has a very brief introduction and a table of contents that lists the numbered documents in chronological order (this review cites the volume and document numbers). The first volume contains 267 documents and five addenda; the second, 389 documents and 10 addenda. Together, �SLOVAKIA 109 they contain 671 documents on 1,226 pages with no introductions or summaries for each document to color the readers ' opinions. The editors cited multiple sources for each selection, including Slovak archives and newspapers throughout Slovakia. They included explanatory notes, some of which are rather detailed, about individuals, groups, events, terms, and foreign phrases (as a theologian, Tiso had a propensity to use Latin phrases). Some footnotes point out discrepancies in the speeches as they appeared in the various periodicals. In their efforts to be thorough, the editors included journalists' paraphrased summaries of Tiso's speeches when actual texts were unavailable. Furthermore, they did not overlook minor comments, the shortest of which is a mere two lines (l/ 177). Significant gaps raise questions about the completeness of the collection. At the beginning of his career as a priest, Tiso 's publications were understandably sparse, but several selections toward the end of the Great War and immediately afterward are missing. At least a dozen of Tiso's articles appeared in 1917 and 1918 in Papok Kozlonye [Priests' Bulletin] and Duchovny pastier [Spiritual Shepherd], all of which James Mace Ward cites in his dissertation, "No Saint: Jozef Tiso, 1887-1947" (Stanford University, 2008, pp. 63-65), with proper notations about pseudonyms and, in some cases, authorship. By his own admission, after the war Tiso edited and wrote articles for Nyitra/Nitra. In contrast, the first volume of Tiso ' s speeches and articles for the same period contain only a few articles. Oddly enough, there are only five entries in 1929 and 1930 and seven in 1931 , all speeches, aside from one, and an average of 23 entries per year for the previous five years and 15 for the following five years. Additional citations are in Ward's work, including police reports. Police agents attended every open party meeting for all political parties during the First Republic, and they reported the comments of speakers, the reactions of the crowds, and any incidents . The material from these reports is no less valid than the redacted summaries of Tiso ' s speeches that appeared in the press, and they would have filled the voids in Tiso ' s public addresses in these two volumes . While Tiso indeed might have been preoccupied in 1929-1931 , undoubtedly more publications and addresses exist, especially in light of the 1917-1 8 omissions. At times, Tiso ' s silence was intentional. In his 65 months as president of the Slovak Republic, Tiso produced an average of sli- �110 SLOVAKIA ghtly more than five speeches and articles each month, but the frequency declined over time. Most likely, Tiso withdrew from public view with the mounting legitimacy crisis in the Slovak Republic resulting from Germany's losses on the Eastern Front, as well as the prospect of the Allies recreating Czechoslovakia at the war's end and criminalizing Slovakia 's clerical-fascist regime. As a result, in the first eight months of 1944, there are only 23 entries, That is less than three speeches and articles for each month . The speeches and articles in these two volumes portray Tiso as priest, ideologist, party politician, parliamentarian, cabinet minister, and president. The value of this collection is greater than the sum of its parts. Certainly, researchers are relieved that they have the bulk of Tiso 's works at their fingertips and need not spend countless hours scouring sources and fearing that they overlooked something. Furthermore, the assemblage of Tiso 's works in one venue facilitates fresh perspectives on his career. A change in Tiso 's speaking style is apparent in the two volumes. The paucity of his speeches before he became a cabinet minister in 1927 is striking, and it is unfortunate that more texts and transcripts of speeches do not exist from this time. Nevertheless, it is impossible that Tiso could have built his popularity solely on the basis of articles, and the police reports could have made the evidence from this period more balanced . Tiso's speeches in the decade from 1927 until 1938 were disciplined- they had a single topic and a logical argument. This is especially true of his carefully crafted speeches in the National Assembly and before selected audiences. As president, Tiso addressed a wide variety of audiences with speeches that lacked focus and often contained topics not well suited for his listeners. As a result, he analyzed the development of the Slovak Republic with respect to the fate of other East-Central European states while addressing Catholics on a pilgrimage (Il/135). When celebrating the electrification of a district, he spoke about the wonders of electricity, encouraged factory workers and farmers to cooperate in building the state, and admonished listeners about observing the laws regarding economic matters (II/221 ). At a religious gathering in 1942, he criticized efforts to count all Greek-Catholic Slovaks as Rusyns and shortly afterward justified the confiscation of Jewish property with the slogan "Slovakia for Slovaks" (II/282). Aside from being an undisciplined extemporaneous speaker, one possible explanation for the �SLOVAKIA 111 change in style was Tiso ' s need to account for the policies of the state in the simplest terms for the broadest range of listeners. Between 1918 and 1938, Tiso's public comments and writings focused in part or exclusively on the need for Slovak autonomy as fulfilling the promise of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The tenor of his mesages heightened over the years, and in February 193 7 he referred to Czechoslovakia as an "aberration of democracy" (1/243), although he uttered plenty of vituperative condemnations of the First Republic both before and afterward. Despite efforts to cooperate with supporters of Slovak autonomy in the camp of Lutheran Slovaks within the Slovak National Party and even Hungarian politicians in the 1930s, Tiso tirelessly strove to bind Slovak identity with the Catholic faith, to link the leadership of the nation to the Catholic clergy, and to advance his Hlinka' s Slovak People's Party as the only major political party to recognize and defend the Slovak nation as unique. After the Munich Agreement, Tiso became minister for Slovak affairs and then on October 6, 1938 premier of an autonomous Slovakia. During this time, Tiso concentrated on policy and restructuring the political system, which essentially made Slovakia a oneparty state. After Slovak independence on 14 March 1939, Tiso served as prime minister and then, beginning in October 1939, he became the republic ' s president. Tiso now sought to legitimize the new republic, justifying its independence and thanking Adolf Hitler for extending his protection to the Slovaks. Tiso linked Slovakia to Germany's successes and Germany's leadership in the construction of a new Europe. Beginning in 1943, roughly coinciding with the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, Tiso's references to Hitler and Germany became sparse, and Tiso did not mention either in his address in 1944 on the fifth anniversary of the Slovak state (ll/374). Tiso obviously wanted to distance himself from Hitler, but fewer references to his patron also suggest the limits of Tiso's acceptance of his own earlier rhetoric. Throughout the war, Tiso's description of Slovakia ' s mission on the Eastern Front as a struggle against Bolshevism, with its Jewish and anti-Christian influences, remained constant. In the final document dated 6 August 1944, Tiso ended with a prophetic statement: "we cannot deny that the Bolsheviks are at the border and that they promise the scaffold!" (II/389) . The two volumes reveal much about the development of Tiso's anti-Semitism. There are few references to Jews in Tiso ' s statements �112 SLOVAKIA between the world wars, and at one point in 1934, he even invited Jews, Germans, Hungarians, and Czechs in Slovakia to join with Slovaks in demanding autonomy (l/202). Nevertheless, there are occasional anti-Jewish comments, such as Ti so's call for land from the church estates parceled under the land reform to go to Catholic farmers , not Jews, nonbelievers, and speculators (l/78). During the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic, Tiso identified Jews as a foreign element whose presence in Slovak society must be proportionate to their numbers. Nevertheless, he warned that Jews should not become the objects of "hatred and sadistic tendencies" (I/32). His rhetoric against Jews heightened when Slovakia became independent, and in August 1942 he justified the removal of Jews from Slovak society as the elimination of an enemy, an act of self-defense in keeping with Christian morals. Loving oneself is a precept from God, according to Tiso, "and I think there is no need to convince anyone that the Jewish element endangers the life of a Slovak" (11/287). There is little evidence in these two volumes to suggest that Tiso 's antiSemitism was anything but genuine, but the addition of Tiso's intensely anti-Semitic Ny itra/Nitra articles make his hatred of Jews indisputable. The editors are preparing a third vo lume to cover the conversations of Hitler and Tiso as well as Tiso 's statements from the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 1944 through his 1946-1947 trial. They indicated their intent to include in the third volume addenda for the first two volumes and expressed their wish that historians inform them of additional documents. The inclusion of missing items- those signed with a pseudonym or abbreviated name and those whose authorship is disputable- is absoutely essential , not only for the convenience of researchers, but also for the sake of objectivity. Perhaps they can be in a section of their own. The editors had planned to include three indexes in the second volume, and one can assume that these essential tools for researchers will appear in the planned third volume. Specialists on Slovak affairs in the Habsburg Monarchy, the First Czechoslovak Republic, and the first Slovak Republic are greatly indebted to Fabricius, Susko, Hradska, and the others who contributed to the production of these two volumes . They anxiously await the appearance of the third volume in this indispensable series. �SLOVAKIA 113 Max Domarus, Th e Complete Hitler: A Digital Desktop Reference to His Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945. Wauconda, Ill. : Bolchazy-Carducci, 2007. (CD-ROM edition). VASILLIS VOURKOUTIOTIS University of Ottawa While documentary collections concerning the Third Reich are not, generally speaking, difficult to come by, few students are exposed to the actual words of Adolf Hitler except as summarized by other compilers in wider works . The exception to this has been Max Domtarus' four-volume collection of Hitler's speeches. The compilation of this resource was linked to the history it attempted to capture. In 1932, Max Domarus was only twenty-two years old. Yet, he realized that in Adolf Hitler, Germany and the world were faced with a new phenomenon whose significance should not be underestimated. He began, in that year, to collect and compile as many of Hitler's speeches as he could find , and continued the project through the war years until Hitler' s death in 1945 . After the war, Domarus supplemented his collection as much as possible, and the resulting work, which included his annotations and commentary, was a four-volume set published in German. For each year in question, the reader is offered a detailed summary of events, and photographs from the Domarus archive. Full endnotes for each section yield bibliographical citations, as well as additional explanatory commentary. Each volume also contains a list of abbreviations which users will find helpful. Although some of Domarus' commentaries have been superceded by historical research, his perceptions remain as interesting in several instances as the speeches they comment upon. The four-volume set, even though it only covers Hitler's speeches from 1932 onward, remains the best single collection of the dictator's words. With this CD, Domarus's publishers have brought an important printed historical resource into the modem information age. An English-language translation accompanies the original German text, bringing to the user eight volumes of material in a single disk. Although presented in a chronological format, the speeches are in a searchable PDF format, allowing the student or researcher the ability to scan years of �114 SLOVAKIA material for keywords . For those with the language abilities and desire, the English version can be easily compared for accuracy with the German original. Given how long Hitler could speak for at a single event, it is not surprising that Domarus felt the need to offer exerpts rather than a stenographic record. This may strike some as a potential drawback, and might lead some researches to seek the full text of a particular speech of interest. The vast majority of users, however, will not find this a significant issue; Domarus' work has remained the standard reference for university libraries since its first publication in 1962 with good reason. Two versions of the CD ROM exist, the Standard and ePremium. In addition to the advantages of the Standard, the ePremium addition allows the user to print, copy and paste text directly from the PDF files into one's own documents, and add commentary to the texts. These enhancements will be of interest to those who work closely enough with the material in their own research. On the whole, in making both the English and German versions of Domarus' compilations available in such a format, the publishers have not only made an important work more accessible, but also provided a service to both students and academics alike. James Ramon Felak After Hitler, Before Stalin: Catholics, Communists, and Democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009. xv-261 pp. , notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Having perceived a negl ected period of history, James R. Felak set out to tell the story of the role of Catholicism in Slovakia in the period 1945-48, especially its relationship with the Communist and Democratic Parties. The essence of the book is that, even though both the Communists and the Lutheran leaders of the Democratic Party were either hostile to or suspicious of the Roman Catholic Church, both courted Roman Catholic voters in order to attain political power in post-war Slovakia. Having combed the relevant Slovak archives, and read the Communist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic press, along with most secondary sources on the subject, Felak carefully related what actually �SLOVAKIA 115 transpired in Slovakia in the three years after the Second World War. He pointed out that the post-war National Front government that came into existence on April 3, 1945, reduced the pre-war political parties of Czechoslovakia from 16 to 5, and in Slovakia permitted only the Communists and Democrats. The two strongest pre-war political parties, Hlinka Slovak People's Party and the Czechoslovak Agrarian Party were banned as "collaborationist". That meant that the minority Lutherans could (and did) join the newly-formed Democratic Party, but the majority Catholics were disenfranchised. As a result, both the Communists and Democrats courted Catholic voters in anticipation of the May, 1946 elections, while simultaneously attacking the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, the self-appointed Slovak National Council, with its executive Board of Commissioners, nationalized all religious schools, seized most Catholic institutions, severely limited the size of the Catholic press and imprisoned two Slovak bishops. On the other hand, the Communists tried to persuade Catholic voters to vote for their party, because the Democrats were largely Lutherans . Indeed, the Communists even supported the creation of a Christian Republican Party, but the Catholics and Communists could not agree on its name, and this project fell through. The Lutherans, on the other hand, also wooed the Catholics by promising to split future political representation and patronage with them on the basis of a 7:3 ratio in favor of the Catholics. The Catholics found this promise more enticing than Communist overtures and, as a result, the Catholic and Lutheran politicians reached the so-called April Agreement on March 31, 1946. Since they were now united, the Catholics and Lutherans both supported the Democratic Party and won the 1946 elections with a convincing majority of 62%. Since they had lost the elections, the Communist Party of Slovakia went on the offensive. With the collusion of the government in Prague, where the Communists had more influence, and where certain Czech parties resented Slovak home-rule, Slovak Communists, led by Gustav Husak, negotiated the "Third Prague Agreement" of June 27, 1946, by which the Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners subordinated themselves to the Prague government. Then the Slovak Communists decided to try for treason the Reverend Jozef Tiso, former president of the first Slovak Republic ( 1939-1945). They saw to it that the National Court was domina- �116 SLOVAKIA ted by Communists who, as expected, found Tiso guilty and sentenced him to death on April 15, 1947. The hapless Democrats on the executive of the Board of Commissioners failed to recommend clemency and left the final verdict to the government in Prague, which upheld the verdict, as did president Benes, and Tiso was hanged on April 17. After this fiasco, Slovak Catholics lost faith in the Democratic Party, just as the Communists began their offensive against it. In the summer and fall of 194 7 the Communists fabricated an anti-state conspiracy against certain Catholic Democrats. On this basis Gustav Husak on October 31 staged a mini-coup in Slovakia by (with Prague support) illegally dissolving and then reappointing the Board of Commissioners in favor of the Communists. This was a prelude to similar tactics by the Communists in Prague in February of 1948, when three non-Communist parties resigned from the government in the hope of toppling it. Instead, the Communists, led by Klement Gottwald offered to form a new government and president Edvard Benes approved it. Thus, by February of 1948 the Communists had completed their takeover of both the Slovak and Czechoslovak governments and instituted totalitarian rule for the next 40 years, during which they tried (but failed) to completely destroy the Roman Catholic church in Czechoslovakia. Felak's book is well-written and comprehensive. Perhaps his greatest contribution is that he laid to rest the oft-repeated Slovak complaint that president Benes arranged for Tiso's death. Instead, as Felak convincingly shows, it was the incompetence of the Lutheradominated executive of the Board of Commissioners which was most responsible because of its inability to reach a consensus on the issue of clemency. They essentially "passed the buck" to Prague, where Tiso had few friends and that sealed his doom. In spite of Felak's meticulous scholarship, the book contained a few glitches and one omission. The slang expression "First off "appeared a few times (p.6), Stanislav Kirschbaum's first name was shortened to Stanley in footnote 5 on page 217, the surname Viktorin was misspelled Victory (p.63), and Banovce nad Bebravou was identified as Tiso's home town (p.100), when that honor goes to Vel'ka Bytca. Perhaps the greatest omission is the revelation that Ferdinand Durcansky, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the first Slovak Republic, who fled to the west after the war and tried to �SLOVAKIA 117 organize an anti-state underground movement in post-war Slovakia, was actually controlled by Kim Philby, the notorious British spy who was, in fact, working for the KGB . Mark Aarons and John Loftus, on the basis of research in the files of the CIA in Washington, revealed this interesting detail in their Ratlines: How the Vatican Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets (London, 1991 ), pp. 21 19 and footnotes 46-50, page 334. Thus, the anti-state conspiracy of 1947 was carefully staged from abroad by the KGB as an excuse for the communist takeover of Slovakia. Edward Snajdr, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2008 . xiii242 pp., photographs, notes, bibliography, list of interviews, index. JURAJ HOCMAN University of Ottawa Edward Snajdr, an American cultural anthropologist at New York University, examined Slovakia's emerging civic environmental protection movement in the communist era and its rapid disappearance during the country 's post-communist transformation (19851995). The author did his fieldwork in situ and that is why it is particularly interesting to read about his experience. In the first two chapters, Snajdr focuses on urban and extraurban contexts of social life in communist Slovakia while providing general, yet adequate, historical background. The author traces the origins of environmental movements among young Slovaks and Czechs that had begun with associations such as SZOPK (Slovensky zvaz ochrancov prfrody a kraj iny - the Slovak Union of Protectors of Nature and the Countryside) in Slovakia and Brontosaurus in the Czech lands. He contrasts the difference between the effectiveness of state legislation designed to protect the environment in the massively and insensitively industrialized Slovakia, with spontaneous projects of young people whose aims were to improve the quality of the environment that surrounded them. Despite their local character, those efforts were not only efficient, but also inspirational. Snajdr then proceeds to the period from 1985 to 1989 during which environmentalist activities spread to the politics of discontent with the communist regime. He stresses the significance of the acce- �118 SLOVAKIA lerated drive for environmental protection in Slovakia during the period of perestroika and glasnost in the case of the samizdat Bratislava Nahlas (Bratislava Aloud). This publication, which voiced the concerns of ordinary citizens regarding disrespectful and harmful socio-economic policies of the communist regime, was prohibited by state authorities. Its editor, Jan Budaj, who became one of the most visible leaders of the "Velvet Revolution" in Slovakia in the fall of 1989, as well as the samizdat' s distributors, were harassed by the communist secret police (the StB). The fall of the communist regime might have become the new beginning of a friendlier approach to environmental protection in Slovakia. That is where the second part of the story begins. A new political reality in Eastern Europe, which was closely tied to nationalism, brought a new perspective on how to cope with the legacy of communism and its negative ecological effects. The members of the Slovak Green Party (Strana zelenych), which was formed in November of 1989, and was represented in the new Slovak parliament, took a firm stand against the completion of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam on the Danube river, which formed the Slovak-Hungarian border. This started as a joint venture of the communist governments of Czechoslovakia and Hungary under a treaty signed in I 977. Hungary withdrew from the project at the end of the 1980s, bowing to pressure from ecologists at home and abroad. To Slovaks, as Snajdr observes, the project was a matter of national prestige and a rallying point against warnings of environmental risks that stood in the forefront of Hungary 's concerns. Snajdr elaborates on how its chief engineer, Julius Binder, defended the completion of the Slovak part of the project and gained the support of the Slovak public. From then on the Greens (Zeleni), who, in the meantime, split into two groups, the Czecho-Slovak federalists and the Slovak nationalists, started slipping into political obscurity and eventually returned to small and isolated projects of landscape revitalization at various locations . Thus, "nation won over nature" and Slovakia, together with representatives of the ecology movement, entered into an age of post-ecology. The book paints a credible picture of a former communist regime unconcerned with the ecological impact of insensitive industrialization and socio-economic modernization. The first part of the study, which analyzes the evolution of environmental protection, is more �SLOVAKIA 119 cohesive than the second. If the second part appears a bit fragmentary, it is due to the overall ruptured character of the ecology movement in Slovakia in the second half of the 1990s. Though the sympathies of the author towards a cleaner environment cannot be overlooked, he did not take sides in intra and extra-national political conflicts. Apart from a few minor aberrations, such as the subtler use of the geographic term the Czech lands or the Czech Republic instead of Bohemia when referring to the second half of the 20 th century; and the incorrect transliteration of Gabcikovo-Nagymaros instead of GNagymaros, and Kvacian (gen . or accus; Slovak) instead of Kvacany (nom.), the book profits from its narrative and analysis based on the author's knowledge of theory and his authentic experience. It is an insightful contribution to the discourse on the continuing multilayered evolution of post-communist states and societies in Eastern Europe, in which ecology has played an important part. With Slovakia now being a member of the European Union and a signatory of international treaties on environmental protection, it would be interesting to discover whether the previous gap between government and civic initiatives has remained the same or has disappeared. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 103 Nauka reci slovenskej [Nauka reci slovenskej vistavena od Ludevita Stura], Ludevit Stur, Vol. l : Faksimile povodneho vydania na vydanie pripravili Eubomir Durovic and Slavomir Ondrejovic. Bratislava: VEDA, 2006. 228 pages, facsimile of the 1846 grammar text. Nauka reci slovenskej : Komentare, Bibliograjia, Vol. 2, Eugen Jona, Eubomir Durovic, Slavomir Ondrejovic. Bratislava: VEDA, 2006 . 323 pp., commentary, bibliography, and various indices. GERALD J. SABO , S.J. John Carroll University This two-volume publication is a singular event. The first volume is a facsimile edition of the 1846 grammar by Eudovit Stur (1815-56), whose availability inside Slovakia is quite limited, and outside Slovakia is virtually non-existent. The second volume enhances the grammar with background information, providing detailed analysis of and commentary by eminent Slovak linguists, among them Eubomir Durovic. Both volumes appear on the 160th anniversary of the grammar' s original publication, but also the 150th anniversary of Stur's accidental death. Lutheran pastors and Catholic priests worked on the codification of Slovak from the eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth. In the l 720s the Slovak Lutheran pastors and scholars Matej Bel and Daniel Krrnan published the Bible in the primarily Czech linguistic form espoused by Slovak Lutherans. In his 1746 grammar the Lutheran pastor Pavel Dolezal presented Slovak and Czech as two dialects of one language- Czechoslovak. In the 1750s the Catholic Camaldolese monks translated the Bible into Slovak for their own useespecially in readings for the liturgical year, a significant accomplishment that would be discovered only in the mid-twentieth century. In the late 1780s the Catholic priest Anton Bemolak initiated the extensive Catholic efforts for codifying Slovak and then promoted his codified norm. For his codification Bemolak drew upon the Slovak that had been nurtured through the activities and �104 SLOVAKIA publications of the Jesuit university in Trnava since 1635 , and that in the twentieth century Slovak linguists would call "Cultural WestSlovak." Among Bernolak's various language-related writings, he realized a grammar and even a five-language dictionary in six large volumes, completed and published in the 1820s by the priest Jur[ aj] Palkovic. Through their writings, two priests helped spread Bernolak's codified Slovak- Juraj Fandly in his prose works, and Jan Holly in his extensive epic and lyric poetry. Thanks to Holly, Fandly, and others, Bernolak-Slovak (bernolakovcina) became the acceptable and promoted means of expression among Slovak Catholics through the 1840s. During this period, Lutherans continued to publish various literary and other works in biblictina ("Biblical language," in effect, the version of Czech used in the Bohemian Brethren 's Kralice Bible of the late sixteenth century with varying mixtures of Slovak language elements through the nineteenth century). The extent of such writing is clear from the four-volume biographic compilation of Slovak Lutheran poets (1806-12) by the pastor Bohuslav Tablic. Although Slovak Lutherans were a decided minority in the Slovak region of the Kingdom of Hungary, despite their quite modest numbers they remained a well-educated group that strove to retain this distinction in contrast to the much more numerous but less-educated fellow Christian-Catholics. Indeed, the Lutherans especially employed and espoused biblictina in their cultural and liturgical activities to emphasize their relationship with Czech Protestants, thereby increasing their group's numerical strength and enhancing their cultural status. Given this, the Lutherans' reasoning could well have been why should they adopt a linguistic norm created and promoted by the majority Catholic population that was not as educated or cultivated as they? In 1803 Slovak Lutherans established a Chair of Czechoslovak Language and Literature at their lycee in Bratislava. Jiri [Juraj] Palkovic was the first and only holder of this Chair ( 1803-50), and helped to foster Slovak Lutheran publications and cultural exchange. At the Lutheran lycee in Bratislava students and staff became the nucleus for the Lutheran promotion of Slavic/Slovak consciousness in response to the increasing Magyarization in Slovakia. I:udovit Stur studied at the lycee between 1829 and 1834. After his student years from 1835-3 7, Stur was vice-president of the Czecho-Slavic Society, whose 1836 almanach Plody (Fruits) of various writings �SLOVAKIA 105 also represented a manifesto of Slovak national consciousness and identity. On April I 0, 1836 Stur wrote to the Protestant Czech/Moravian cultural figure and historian Frantisek Palacky emphasizing the need for unity among Slovaks and Czechs. As Stt'.ir pointed out, the Czech language used by Lutherans in the Slovak area was not accessible to Catholic Slovaks, and thus there was a need for some combination of the Czech and Slovak language to provide for Slovak and Czech unity and understanding. The Czechs were unwilling to accept Stur's proposal. Although on February I, 1837 Stur became an unremunerated deputy to Jiff Palkovic, on April 5th the Czecho-Slavic society halted its activites because of a government ban on student societies. Stur served as a deputy to Palkovic during 1837-38 and 1840-43 , with his university study at Halle between those periods. After a lengthy investigation, on December 31, 1843 the Bratislava convention of the Lutheran Church relieved Stur of his position as Palkovic's deputy, after which he devoted himself to scholarly, journalistic, and political activity. By 1843 Stur had come to view Slovak as a distinct Slavic language, especially vis-a-vis Czech. According to the Lutheran poet Samo Hrobon, on February 14, 1843 a meeting of various Lutheran lycee students/alumni and their professor L. Stur marked the "day of resurrection of Slovak" (J6na, vol. 2: 31 ). In mid-July of 1843 Stur met with the Lutheran pastors Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Miloslav Hodza at Hurban's parish in Hlboke for the purpose of creating a di stinct Slovak norm. A day after that discussion the three met with the Catholic priest-poet Jan Holly at the latter's parish in Dobra Yoda and received Holly's blessing for their endeavor. At the founding gathering in Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas for the journal Tatrin during August 26-28, 1844, Stur's Slovak norm was publicly proclaimed (Durovic, vol. 2: 59). In codifying Slovak as a distinct language, Stur prepared two texts: one explaining the need for writing in Slovak and a grammar of Slovak based on the Central Slovak dialect of Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas (Durovic, vol. 2: 62). Both these texts would be published only in 1846. In vo lume 2 of this publication, three linguists focus on Stur and his grammar. Eugen J6na's study provides a very detailed commentary on Stur, hi s evolving writing activity related to Slovak, especially the two texts of 1846, as well as the influences on Stur's cultural, political, and linguistic thinking (pp. 11-47). Cubomir Durovic has �106 SLOVAKIA the most extensive study (51-257). In his introduction, Durovic discusses Stur's grammar and Slovak in relation to the two editions ( 1809 and 1819) of the Czech/Bohemian grammar by Josef Dobrovsky and various Slovak Lutheran cultural publications (58-63) . This is followed by an extensive and meticulous analysis of Stur's grammar (64-194) with reference to various nineteenth - and twentiethcentury linguistic writings listed at the end (195-196). Completing f:>urovic's study are three indices in relation to his commentary on Stur's grammar proper: an index of words, morphemes, and phonemes (195-227); a "phonematicifonematicky" index of interpreted morphemes and words (229-3 I); and a topic/subject index (233-57). Slavo Ondrejovic concludes this volume with two bibliographies: one of Stur's personal and linguistic works published from 1841 through 2003 (259-68), and a select one on writings about Stur that concern language and linguistic questions published from 1817 through 2006 (269-323). In their introduction to the second volume, Durovic and Ondrejovic have noted the need for such a publication and the lengthy process involved in realizing this work. Specialists in Slovak linguistics, especially in the historical development of contemporary Slovak, will appreciate their efforts for many years to come. Likewise, Slovakia-based, but especially international specialists in Slovak culture and history, will also enhance their understanding of the codifycation of Slovak by Stur and his Lutheran colleagues. Andras Gero, The Jewish Criterion in Hungary, translated from the Magyar by Alan Campbell. Boulder, Colorado, Social Science Monographs: Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 2007. 153 pp., notes, biographical notes, photographs, index. YESHA YAHU A. JELINEK Beer-Sheva, Israel This is both a confusing and challenging book. The challenge comes in trying to clarify the definition of a Jew. The confusion comes in trying to define a Jew from Hungary. Of the book's five chapters, the first two were the most confusing. Gero first sets out to discuss Hungarian Jewry. However, he does not differentiate (as do all Slavic languages) between "Hunga- �SLOVAKIA 107 rian" and "Magyar." "Hungary" until 1918 was a geographico-political term for the lands of the Crown of St. Stephen. "Magyar" referred to the largest ethnic (and ruling) group in the Kingdom of Hungary. For contemporary Magyars, as for Gero, such a differentiation does not exist. He equated "Hungary" with "Magyarorszag" (the land of the Magyars). Therefore, when Gero analyzes the "Hungarian Jew" (Magyar Zsid6 ), we do not really understand who he has in mind. Jews appeared on the territory between the Carpathian mountains and the Balkans in the Roman period, much earlier than the Slavs or Magyars. They inhabited the Kingdom of Hungary, initially ruled by the Arpad dynasty and later the Habsburgs . They were not considered to be Magyars. Only in the 19 th century did the Magyars try to "Magyarize" the Jews, as well as the other non-Magyar nationalities. Gero knows these facts, but avoids them. For Gero, there were only "Hungarian Jews" in the entire Kingdom of Hungary. He seems to be entirely unaware of ethnic divisions within Jewry- the existence of Slovak, Rusin , Croat, Transylvanian, etc. Jews. While Gero devotes much space to a rather intelligent discussion of the living conditions, historical environment, and ethnic survival of Magyar Jews, he ignores the fact that Jews in Hungary lived among different nations. He is aware of the oppresssive Magyar nationalism, and criticizes it severely in his last three chapters, but remains unaware of the varieties of Judaism within the Kingdom. The challenging part of this book is the thoughtful discussion of Jewish existence in Hungary and the relations of Jews with the Gentile majority. This discussion forces the reader to re-evaluate quite a few accepted notions about Jewish life in Hungary. Unfortunately, Gero is not familiar with the history of the various Jewish groups in the Kingdom of Hungary. This becomes clear when one compares Jewish life on the Pannonian Plain (today's Hungary) with that of Upper Hungary (Slovakia) or with Sub-Carpathian Rus. Furthermore, he erroneously refers to Hungarian Jews "leaving the ghetto" in the 19 th century. Only Bratislava and a few cities in the Burgenland had "ghettos." That is why Jews who left Moravia for Hungary, or Galicia for Hungary in the 19 th century, suddenly found much greater freedom than they had ever fe lt before. Gero 's lack of knowledge about the Slovak and Rusin portions of the Kingdom of Hungary becomes clear when he discusses Jewish �108 SLOVAKIA conversions to Christianity and the rise of Zionism. For instance, while conversion to Christianity on the Pannonian Plain was not uncommon, it was rare in Upper Hungary or in Sub-Carpathian Rus. When discussing Zionism, Gero neglected its manifestations on Slovak territory and did not perceive that it was weak in the Magyar counties because it was persecuted by the Hungarian government. On the other hand, in Upper Hungary, where Zionizm was weak, Chasidism was strong. Chasidic rabbis were bitter enemies of Zionism. Therefore, one must tread carefully when discussing the strength or weakness of Zionism in Hungary. The most challenging part of Gero's book deals with the rise of anti-Semitism at the end of the 19 th century. Here he deals with the riddle of who is a Jew and when is he considered as such, and under what conditions . Most of Gero's arguments deal only with the Magyar portion of Hungary, which is a pity, because, if he had dug deeper, he could have made the case that it was largely the Magyars who taught the other ethnic groups to hate the Jews. Tiso, Jozef Prejavy a clanky. Vol. I (1913-1938). Ed. Miroslav Fabricius and Ladislav Susko. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press and Historicky ustav SA V, 2002 . 567 pp. Tiso, Jozef Prejavy a clanky. Vol. 2: (193 8-1944). Ed. Miroslav Fabricius and Katarina Hradska. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press and Historicky ustav SAV, 2007 . 696 pp. DANIEL E. MILLER University of West Florida, Pensacola The editors of this set of two volumes assembled the speeches and articles of Jozef Tiso (1887-1947) to provide researchers with a valuable source for the history of Slovak politics covering the periods from shortly before the Great War until the Munich Agreement and then from October 1938 until just before 29 August 1944, the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising. Each volume has a very brief introduction and a table of contents that lists the numbered documents in chronological order (this review cites the volume and document numbers). The first volume contains 267 documents and five addenda; the second, 389 documents and 10 addenda. Together, �SLOVAKIA 109 they contain 671 documents on 1,226 pages with no introductions or summaries for each document to color the readers ' opinions. The editors cited multiple sources for each selection, including Slovak archives and newspapers throughout Slovakia. They included explanatory notes, some of which are rather detailed, about individuals, groups, events, terms, and foreign phrases (as a theologian, Tiso had a propensity to use Latin phrases). Some footnotes point out discrepancies in the speeches as they appeared in the various periodicals. In their efforts to be thorough, the editors included journalists' paraphrased summaries of Tiso's speeches when actual texts were unavailable. Furthermore, they did not overlook minor comments, the shortest of which is a mere two lines (l/ 177). Significant gaps raise questions about the completeness of the collection. At the beginning of his career as a priest, Tiso 's publications were understandably sparse, but several selections toward the end of the Great War and immediately afterward are missing. At least a dozen of Tiso's articles appeared in 1917 and 1918 in Papok Kozlonye [Priests' Bulletin] and Duchovny pastier [Spiritual Shepherd], all of which James Mace Ward cites in his dissertation, "No Saint: Jozef Tiso, 1887-1947" (Stanford University, 2008, pp. 63-65), with proper notations about pseudonyms and, in some cases, authorship. By his own admission, after the war Tiso edited and wrote articles for Nyitra/Nitra. In contrast, the first volume of Tiso ' s speeches and articles for the same period contain only a few articles. Oddly enough, there are only five entries in 1929 and 1930 and seven in 1931 , all speeches, aside from one, and an average of 23 entries per year for the previous five years and 15 for the following five years. Additional citations are in Ward's work, including police reports. Police agents attended every open party meeting for all political parties during the First Republic, and they reported the comments of speakers, the reactions of the crowds, and any incidents . The material from these reports is no less valid than the redacted summaries of Tiso ' s speeches that appeared in the press, and they would have filled the voids in Tiso ' s public addresses in these two volumes . While Tiso indeed might have been preoccupied in 1929-1931 , undoubtedly more publications and addresses exist, especially in light of the 1917-1 8 omissions. At times, Tiso ' s silence was intentional. In his 65 months as president of the Slovak Republic, Tiso produced an average of sli- �110 SLOVAKIA ghtly more than five speeches and articles each month, but the frequency declined over time. Most likely, Tiso withdrew from public view with the mounting legitimacy crisis in the Slovak Republic resulting from Germany's losses on the Eastern Front, as well as the prospect of the Allies recreating Czechoslovakia at the war's end and criminalizing Slovakia 's clerical-fascist regime. As a result, in the first eight months of 1944, there are only 23 entries, That is less than three speeches and articles for each month . The speeches and articles in these two volumes portray Tiso as priest, ideologist, party politician, parliamentarian, cabinet minister, and president. The value of this collection is greater than the sum of its parts. Certainly, researchers are relieved that they have the bulk of Tiso 's works at their fingertips and need not spend countless hours scouring sources and fearing that they overlooked something. Furthermore, the assemblage of Tiso 's works in one venue facilitates fresh perspectives on his career. A change in Tiso 's speaking style is apparent in the two volumes. The paucity of his speeches before he became a cabinet minister in 1927 is striking, and it is unfortunate that more texts and transcripts of speeches do not exist from this time. Nevertheless, it is impossible that Tiso could have built his popularity solely on the basis of articles, and the police reports could have made the evidence from this period more balanced . Tiso's speeches in the decade from 1927 until 1938 were disciplined- they had a single topic and a logical argument. This is especially true of his carefully crafted speeches in the National Assembly and before selected audiences. As president, Tiso addressed a wide variety of audiences with speeches that lacked focus and often contained topics not well suited for his listeners. As a result, he analyzed the development of the Slovak Republic with respect to the fate of other East-Central European states while addressing Catholics on a pilgrimage (Il/135). When celebrating the electrification of a district, he spoke about the wonders of electricity, encouraged factory workers and farmers to cooperate in building the state, and admonished listeners about observing the laws regarding economic matters (II/221 ). At a religious gathering in 1942, he criticized efforts to count all Greek-Catholic Slovaks as Rusyns and shortly afterward justified the confiscation of Jewish property with the slogan "Slovakia for Slovaks" (II/282). Aside from being an undisciplined extemporaneous speaker, one possible explanation for the �SLOVAKIA 111 change in style was Tiso ' s need to account for the policies of the state in the simplest terms for the broadest range of listeners. Between 1918 and 1938, Tiso's public comments and writings focused in part or exclusively on the need for Slovak autonomy as fulfilling the promise of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The tenor of his mesages heightened over the years, and in February 193 7 he referred to Czechoslovakia as an "aberration of democracy" (1/243), although he uttered plenty of vituperative condemnations of the First Republic both before and afterward. Despite efforts to cooperate with supporters of Slovak autonomy in the camp of Lutheran Slovaks within the Slovak National Party and even Hungarian politicians in the 1930s, Tiso tirelessly strove to bind Slovak identity with the Catholic faith, to link the leadership of the nation to the Catholic clergy, and to advance his Hlinka' s Slovak People's Party as the only major political party to recognize and defend the Slovak nation as unique. After the Munich Agreement, Tiso became minister for Slovak affairs and then on October 6, 1938 premier of an autonomous Slovakia. During this time, Tiso concentrated on policy and restructuring the political system, which essentially made Slovakia a oneparty state. After Slovak independence on 14 March 1939, Tiso served as prime minister and then, beginning in October 1939, he became the republic ' s president. Tiso now sought to legitimize the new republic, justifying its independence and thanking Adolf Hitler for extending his protection to the Slovaks. Tiso linked Slovakia to Germany's successes and Germany's leadership in the construction of a new Europe. Beginning in 1943, roughly coinciding with the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, Tiso's references to Hitler and Germany became sparse, and Tiso did not mention either in his address in 1944 on the fifth anniversary of the Slovak state (ll/374). Tiso obviously wanted to distance himself from Hitler, but fewer references to his patron also suggest the limits of Tiso's acceptance of his own earlier rhetoric. Throughout the war, Tiso's description of Slovakia ' s mission on the Eastern Front as a struggle against Bolshevism, with its Jewish and anti-Christian influences, remained constant. In the final document dated 6 August 1944, Tiso ended with a prophetic statement: "we cannot deny that the Bolsheviks are at the border and that they promise the scaffold!" (II/389) . The two volumes reveal much about the development of Tiso's anti-Semitism. There are few references to Jews in Tiso ' s statements �112 SLOVAKIA between the world wars, and at one point in 1934, he even invited Jews, Germans, Hungarians, and Czechs in Slovakia to join with Slovaks in demanding autonomy (l/202). Nevertheless, there are occasional anti-Jewish comments, such as Ti so's call for land from the church estates parceled under the land reform to go to Catholic farmers , not Jews, nonbelievers, and speculators (l/78). During the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic, Tiso identified Jews as a foreign element whose presence in Slovak society must be proportionate to their numbers. Nevertheless, he warned that Jews should not become the objects of "hatred and sadistic tendencies" (I/32). His rhetoric against Jews heightened when Slovakia became independent, and in August 1942 he justified the removal of Jews from Slovak society as the elimination of an enemy, an act of self-defense in keeping with Christian morals. Loving oneself is a precept from God, according to Tiso, "and I think there is no need to convince anyone that the Jewish element endangers the life of a Slovak" (11/287). There is little evidence in these two volumes to suggest that Tiso 's antiSemitism was anything but genuine, but the addition of Tiso's intensely anti-Semitic Ny itra/Nitra articles make his hatred of Jews indisputable. The editors are preparing a third vo lume to cover the conversations of Hitler and Tiso as well as Tiso 's statements from the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 1944 through his 1946-1947 trial. They indicated their intent to include in the third volume addenda for the first two volumes and expressed their wish that historians inform them of additional documents. The inclusion of missing items- those signed with a pseudonym or abbreviated name and those whose authorship is disputable- is absoutely essential , not only for the convenience of researchers, but also for the sake of objectivity. Perhaps they can be in a section of their own. The editors had planned to include three indexes in the second volume, and one can assume that these essential tools for researchers will appear in the planned third volume. Specialists on Slovak affairs in the Habsburg Monarchy, the First Czechoslovak Republic, and the first Slovak Republic are greatly indebted to Fabricius, Susko, Hradska, and the others who contributed to the production of these two volumes . They anxiously await the appearance of the third volume in this indispensable series. �SLOVAKIA 113 Max Domarus, Th e Complete Hitler: A Digital Desktop Reference to His Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945. Wauconda, Ill. : Bolchazy-Carducci, 2007. (CD-ROM edition). VASILLIS VOURKOUTIOTIS University of Ottawa While documentary collections concerning the Third Reich are not, generally speaking, difficult to come by, few students are exposed to the actual words of Adolf Hitler except as summarized by other compilers in wider works . The exception to this has been Max Domtarus' four-volume collection of Hitler's speeches. The compilation of this resource was linked to the history it attempted to capture. In 1932, Max Domarus was only twenty-two years old. Yet, he realized that in Adolf Hitler, Germany and the world were faced with a new phenomenon whose significance should not be underestimated. He began, in that year, to collect and compile as many of Hitler's speeches as he could find , and continued the project through the war years until Hitler' s death in 1945 . After the war, Domarus supplemented his collection as much as possible, and the resulting work, which included his annotations and commentary, was a four-volume set published in German. For each year in question, the reader is offered a detailed summary of events, and photographs from the Domarus archive. Full endnotes for each section yield bibliographical citations, as well as additional explanatory commentary. Each volume also contains a list of abbreviations which users will find helpful. Although some of Domarus' commentaries have been superceded by historical research, his perceptions remain as interesting in several instances as the speeches they comment upon. The four-volume set, even though it only covers Hitler's speeches from 1932 onward, remains the best single collection of the dictator's words. With this CD, Domarus's publishers have brought an important printed historical resource into the modem information age. An English-language translation accompanies the original German text, bringing to the user eight volumes of material in a single disk. Although presented in a chronological format, the speeches are in a searchable PDF format, allowing the student or researcher the ability to scan years of �114 SLOVAKIA material for keywords . For those with the language abilities and desire, the English version can be easily compared for accuracy with the German original. Given how long Hitler could speak for at a single event, it is not surprising that Domarus felt the need to offer exerpts rather than a stenographic record. This may strike some as a potential drawback, and might lead some researches to seek the full text of a particular speech of interest. The vast majority of users, however, will not find this a significant issue; Domarus' work has remained the standard reference for university libraries since its first publication in 1962 with good reason. Two versions of the CD ROM exist, the Standard and ePremium. In addition to the advantages of the Standard, the ePremium addition allows the user to print, copy and paste text directly from the PDF files into one's own documents, and add commentary to the texts. These enhancements will be of interest to those who work closely enough with the material in their own research. On the whole, in making both the English and German versions of Domarus' compilations available in such a format, the publishers have not only made an important work more accessible, but also provided a service to both students and academics alike. James Ramon Felak After Hitler, Before Stalin: Catholics, Communists, and Democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009. xv-261 pp. , notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Having perceived a negl ected period of history, James R. Felak set out to tell the story of the role of Catholicism in Slovakia in the period 1945-48, especially its relationship with the Communist and Democratic Parties. The essence of the book is that, even though both the Communists and the Lutheran leaders of the Democratic Party were either hostile to or suspicious of the Roman Catholic Church, both courted Roman Catholic voters in order to attain political power in post-war Slovakia. Having combed the relevant Slovak archives, and read the Communist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic press, along with most secondary sources on the subject, Felak carefully related what actually �SLOVAKIA 115 transpired in Slovakia in the three years after the Second World War. He pointed out that the post-war National Front government that came into existence on April 3, 1945, reduced the pre-war political parties of Czechoslovakia from 16 to 5, and in Slovakia permitted only the Communists and Democrats. The two strongest pre-war political parties, Hlinka Slovak People's Party and the Czechoslovak Agrarian Party were banned as "collaborationist". That meant that the minority Lutherans could (and did) join the newly-formed Democratic Party, but the majority Catholics were disenfranchised. As a result, both the Communists and Democrats courted Catholic voters in anticipation of the May, 1946 elections, while simultaneously attacking the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, the self-appointed Slovak National Council, with its executive Board of Commissioners, nationalized all religious schools, seized most Catholic institutions, severely limited the size of the Catholic press and imprisoned two Slovak bishops. On the other hand, the Communists tried to persuade Catholic voters to vote for their party, because the Democrats were largely Lutherans . Indeed, the Communists even supported the creation of a Christian Republican Party, but the Catholics and Communists could not agree on its name, and this project fell through. The Lutherans, on the other hand, also wooed the Catholics by promising to split future political representation and patronage with them on the basis of a 7:3 ratio in favor of the Catholics. The Catholics found this promise more enticing than Communist overtures and, as a result, the Catholic and Lutheran politicians reached the so-called April Agreement on March 31, 1946. Since they were now united, the Catholics and Lutherans both supported the Democratic Party and won the 1946 elections with a convincing majority of 62%. Since they had lost the elections, the Communist Party of Slovakia went on the offensive. With the collusion of the government in Prague, where the Communists had more influence, and where certain Czech parties resented Slovak home-rule, Slovak Communists, led by Gustav Husak, negotiated the "Third Prague Agreement" of June 27, 1946, by which the Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners subordinated themselves to the Prague government. Then the Slovak Communists decided to try for treason the Reverend Jozef Tiso, former president of the first Slovak Republic ( 1939-1945). They saw to it that the National Court was domina- �116 SLOVAKIA ted by Communists who, as expected, found Tiso guilty and sentenced him to death on April 15, 1947. The hapless Democrats on the executive of the Board of Commissioners failed to recommend clemency and left the final verdict to the government in Prague, which upheld the verdict, as did president Benes, and Tiso was hanged on April 17. After this fiasco, Slovak Catholics lost faith in the Democratic Party, just as the Communists began their offensive against it. In the summer and fall of 194 7 the Communists fabricated an anti-state conspiracy against certain Catholic Democrats. On this basis Gustav Husak on October 31 staged a mini-coup in Slovakia by (with Prague support) illegally dissolving and then reappointing the Board of Commissioners in favor of the Communists. This was a prelude to similar tactics by the Communists in Prague in February of 1948, when three non-Communist parties resigned from the government in the hope of toppling it. Instead, the Communists, led by Klement Gottwald offered to form a new government and president Edvard Benes approved it. Thus, by February of 1948 the Communists had completed their takeover of both the Slovak and Czechoslovak governments and instituted totalitarian rule for the next 40 years, during which they tried (but failed) to completely destroy the Roman Catholic church in Czechoslovakia. Felak's book is well-written and comprehensive. Perhaps his greatest contribution is that he laid to rest the oft-repeated Slovak complaint that president Benes arranged for Tiso's death. Instead, as Felak convincingly shows, it was the incompetence of the Lutheradominated executive of the Board of Commissioners which was most responsible because of its inability to reach a consensus on the issue of clemency. They essentially "passed the buck" to Prague, where Tiso had few friends and that sealed his doom. In spite of Felak's meticulous scholarship, the book contained a few glitches and one omission. The slang expression "First off "appeared a few times (p.6), Stanislav Kirschbaum's first name was shortened to Stanley in footnote 5 on page 217, the surname Viktorin was misspelled Victory (p.63), and Banovce nad Bebravou was identified as Tiso's home town (p.100), when that honor goes to Vel'ka Bytca. Perhaps the greatest omission is the revelation that Ferdinand Durcansky, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the first Slovak Republic, who fled to the west after the war and tried to �SLOVAKIA 117 organize an anti-state underground movement in post-war Slovakia, was actually controlled by Kim Philby, the notorious British spy who was, in fact, working for the KGB . Mark Aarons and John Loftus, on the basis of research in the files of the CIA in Washington, revealed this interesting detail in their Ratlines: How the Vatican Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets (London, 1991 ), pp. 21 19 and footnotes 46-50, page 334. Thus, the anti-state conspiracy of 1947 was carefully staged from abroad by the KGB as an excuse for the communist takeover of Slovakia. Edward Snajdr, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2008 . xiii242 pp., photographs, notes, bibliography, list of interviews, index. JURAJ HOCMAN University of Ottawa Edward Snajdr, an American cultural anthropologist at New York University, examined Slovakia's emerging civic environmental protection movement in the communist era and its rapid disappearance during the country 's post-communist transformation (19851995). The author did his fieldwork in situ and that is why it is particularly interesting to read about his experience. In the first two chapters, Snajdr focuses on urban and extraurban contexts of social life in communist Slovakia while providing general, yet adequate, historical background. The author traces the origins of environmental movements among young Slovaks and Czechs that had begun with associations such as SZOPK (Slovensky zvaz ochrancov prfrody a kraj iny - the Slovak Union of Protectors of Nature and the Countryside) in Slovakia and Brontosaurus in the Czech lands. He contrasts the difference between the effectiveness of state legislation designed to protect the environment in the massively and insensitively industrialized Slovakia, with spontaneous projects of young people whose aims were to improve the quality of the environment that surrounded them. Despite their local character, those efforts were not only efficient, but also inspirational. Snajdr then proceeds to the period from 1985 to 1989 during which environmentalist activities spread to the politics of discontent with the communist regime. He stresses the significance of the acce- �118 SLOVAKIA lerated drive for environmental protection in Slovakia during the period of perestroika and glasnost in the case of the samizdat Bratislava Nahlas (Bratislava Aloud). This publication, which voiced the concerns of ordinary citizens regarding disrespectful and harmful socio-economic policies of the communist regime, was prohibited by state authorities. Its editor, Jan Budaj, who became one of the most visible leaders of the "Velvet Revolution" in Slovakia in the fall of 1989, as well as the samizdat' s distributors, were harassed by the communist secret police (the StB). The fall of the communist regime might have become the new beginning of a friendlier approach to environmental protection in Slovakia. That is where the second part of the story begins. A new political reality in Eastern Europe, which was closely tied to nationalism, brought a new perspective on how to cope with the legacy of communism and its negative ecological effects. The members of the Slovak Green Party (Strana zelenych), which was formed in November of 1989, and was represented in the new Slovak parliament, took a firm stand against the completion of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam on the Danube river, which formed the Slovak-Hungarian border. This started as a joint venture of the communist governments of Czechoslovakia and Hungary under a treaty signed in I 977. Hungary withdrew from the project at the end of the 1980s, bowing to pressure from ecologists at home and abroad. To Slovaks, as Snajdr observes, the project was a matter of national prestige and a rallying point against warnings of environmental risks that stood in the forefront of Hungary 's concerns. Snajdr elaborates on how its chief engineer, Julius Binder, defended the completion of the Slovak part of the project and gained the support of the Slovak public. From then on the Greens (Zeleni), who, in the meantime, split into two groups, the Czecho-Slovak federalists and the Slovak nationalists, started slipping into political obscurity and eventually returned to small and isolated projects of landscape revitalization at various locations . Thus, "nation won over nature" and Slovakia, together with representatives of the ecology movement, entered into an age of post-ecology. The book paints a credible picture of a former communist regime unconcerned with the ecological impact of insensitive industrialization and socio-economic modernization. The first part of the study, which analyzes the evolution of environmental protection, is more �SLOVAKIA 119 cohesive than the second. If the second part appears a bit fragmentary, it is due to the overall ruptured character of the ecology movement in Slovakia in the second half of the 1990s. Though the sympathies of the author towards a cleaner environment cannot be overlooked, he did not take sides in intra and extra-national political conflicts. Apart from a few minor aberrations, such as the subtler use of the geographic term the Czech lands or the Czech Republic instead of Bohemia when referring to the second half of the 20 th century; and the incorrect transliteration of Gabcikovo-Nagymaros instead of GNagymaros, and Kvacian (gen . or accus; Slovak) instead of Kvacany (nom.), the book profits from its narrative and analysis based on the author's knowledge of theory and his authentic experience. It is an insightful contribution to the discourse on the continuing multilayered evolution of post-communist states and societies in Eastern Europe, in which ecology has played an important part. With Slovakia now being a member of the European Union and a signatory of international treaties on environmental protection, it would be interesting to discover whether the previous gap between government and civic initiatives has remained the same or has disappeared. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2010, Vol. 40 Description An account of the resource Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 103 Nauka reci slovenskej [Nauka reci slovenskej vistavena od Ludevita Stura], Ludevit Stur, Vol. l : Faksimile povodneho vydania na vydanie pripravili Eubomir Durovic and Slavomir Ondrejovic. Bratislava: VEDA, 2006. 228 pages, facsimile of the 1846 grammar text. Nauka reci slovenskej : Komentare, Bibliograjia, Vol. 2, Eugen Jona, Eubomir Durovic, Slavomir Ondrejovic. Bratislava: VEDA, 2006 . 323 pp., commentary, bibliography, and various indices. GERALD J. SABO , S.J. John Carroll University This two-volume publication is a singular event. The first volume is a facsimile edition of the 1846 grammar by Eudovit Stur (1815-56), whose availability inside Slovakia is quite limited, and outside Slovakia is virtually non-existent. The second volume enhances the grammar with background information, providing detailed analysis of and commentary by eminent Slovak linguists, among them Eubomir Durovic. Both volumes appear on the 160th anniversary of the grammar' s original publication, but also the 150th anniversary of Stur's accidental death. Lutheran pastors and Catholic priests worked on the codification of Slovak from the eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth. In the l 720s the Slovak Lutheran pastors and scholars Matej Bel and Daniel Krrnan published the Bible in the primarily Czech linguistic form espoused by Slovak Lutherans. In his 1746 grammar the Lutheran pastor Pavel Dolezal presented Slovak and Czech as two dialects of one language- Czechoslovak. In the 1750s the Catholic Camaldolese monks translated the Bible into Slovak for their own useespecially in readings for the liturgical year, a significant accomplishment that would be discovered only in the mid-twentieth century. In the late 1780s the Catholic priest Anton Bemolak initiated the extensive Catholic efforts for codifying Slovak and then promoted his codified norm. For his codification Bemolak drew upon the Slovak that had been nurtured through the activities and 104 SLOVAKIA publications of the Jesuit university in Trnava since 1635 , and that in the twentieth century Slovak linguists would call "Cultural WestSlovak." Among Bernolak's various language-related writings, he realized a grammar and even a five-language dictionary in six large volumes, completed and published in the 1820s by the priest Jur[ aj] Palkovic. Through their writings, two priests helped spread Bernolak's codified Slovak- Juraj Fandly in his prose works, and Jan Holly in his extensive epic and lyric poetry. Thanks to Holly, Fandly, and others, Bernolak-Slovak (bernolakovcina) became the acceptable and promoted means of expression among Slovak Catholics through the 1840s. During this period, Lutherans continued to publish various literary and other works in biblictina ("Biblical language," in effect, the version of Czech used in the Bohemian Brethren 's Kralice Bible of the late sixteenth century with varying mixtures of Slovak language elements through the nineteenth century). The extent of such writing is clear from the four-volume biographic compilation of Slovak Lutheran poets (1806-12) by the pastor Bohuslav Tablic. Although Slovak Lutherans were a decided minority in the Slovak region of the Kingdom of Hungary, despite their quite modest numbers they remained a well-educated group that strove to retain this distinction in contrast to the much more numerous but less-educated fellow Christian-Catholics. Indeed, the Lutherans especially employed and espoused biblictina in their cultural and liturgical activities to emphasize their relationship with Czech Protestants, thereby increasing their group's numerical strength and enhancing their cultural status. Given this, the Lutherans' reasoning could well have been why should they adopt a linguistic norm created and promoted by the majority Catholic population that was not as educated or cultivated as they? In 1803 Slovak Lutherans established a Chair of Czechoslovak Language and Literature at their lycee in Bratislava. Jiri [Juraj] Palkovic was the first and only holder of this Chair ( 1803-50), and helped to foster Slovak Lutheran publications and cultural exchange. At the Lutheran lycee in Bratislava students and staff became the nucleus for the Lutheran promotion of Slavic/Slovak consciousness in response to the increasing Magyarization in Slovakia. I:udovit Stur studied at the lycee between 1829 and 1834. After his student years from 1835-3 7, Stur was vice-president of the Czecho-Slavic Society, whose 1836 almanach Plody (Fruits) of various writings SLOVAKIA 105 also represented a manifesto of Slovak national consciousness and identity. On April I 0, 1836 Stur wrote to the Protestant Czech/Moravian cultural figure and historian Frantisek Palacky emphasizing the need for unity among Slovaks and Czechs. As Stt'.ir pointed out, the Czech language used by Lutherans in the Slovak area was not accessible to Catholic Slovaks, and thus there was a need for some combination of the Czech and Slovak language to provide for Slovak and Czech unity and understanding. The Czechs were unwilling to accept Stur's proposal. Although on February I, 1837 Stur became an unremunerated deputy to Jiff Palkovic, on April 5th the Czecho-Slavic society halted its activites because of a government ban on student societies. Stur served as a deputy to Palkovic during 1837-38 and 1840-43 , with his university study at Halle between those periods. After a lengthy investigation, on December 31, 1843 the Bratislava convention of the Lutheran Church relieved Stur of his position as Palkovic's deputy, after which he devoted himself to scholarly, journalistic, and political activity. By 1843 Stur had come to view Slovak as a distinct Slavic language, especially vis-a-vis Czech. According to the Lutheran poet Samo Hrobon, on February 14, 1843 a meeting of various Lutheran lycee students/alumni and their professor L. Stur marked the "day of resurrection of Slovak" (J6na, vol. 2: 31 ). In mid-July of 1843 Stur met with the Lutheran pastors Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Miloslav Hodza at Hurban's parish in Hlboke for the purpose of creating a di stinct Slovak norm. A day after that discussion the three met with the Catholic priest-poet Jan Holly at the latter's parish in Dobra Yoda and received Holly's blessing for their endeavor. At the founding gathering in Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas for the journal Tatrin during August 26-28, 1844, Stur's Slovak norm was publicly proclaimed (Durovic, vol. 2: 59). In codifying Slovak as a distinct language, Stur prepared two texts: one explaining the need for writing in Slovak and a grammar of Slovak based on the Central Slovak dialect of Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas (Durovic, vol. 2: 62). Both these texts would be published only in 1846. In vo lume 2 of this publication, three linguists focus on Stur and his grammar. Eugen J6na's study provides a very detailed commentary on Stur, hi s evolving writing activity related to Slovak, especially the two texts of 1846, as well as the influences on Stur's cultural, political, and linguistic thinking (pp. 11-47). Cubomir Durovic has 106 SLOVAKIA the most extensive study (51-257). In his introduction, Durovic discusses Stur's grammar and Slovak in relation to the two editions ( 1809 and 1819) of the Czech/Bohemian grammar by Josef Dobrovsky and various Slovak Lutheran cultural publications (58-63) . This is followed by an extensive and meticulous analysis of Stur's grammar (64-194) with reference to various nineteenth - and twentiethcentury linguistic writings listed at the end (195-196). Completing f:>urovic's study are three indices in relation to his commentary on Stur's grammar proper: an index of words, morphemes, and phonemes (195-227); a "phonematicifonematicky" index of interpreted morphemes and words (229-3 I); and a topic/subject index (233-57). Slavo Ondrejovic concludes this volume with two bibliographies: one of Stur's personal and linguistic works published from 1841 through 2003 (259-68), and a select one on writings about Stur that concern language and linguistic questions published from 1817 through 2006 (269-323). In their introduction to the second volume, Durovic and Ondrejovic have noted the need for such a publication and the lengthy process involved in realizing this work. Specialists in Slovak linguistics, especially in the historical development of contemporary Slovak, will appreciate their efforts for many years to come. Likewise, Slovakia-based, but especially international specialists in Slovak culture and history, will also enhance their understanding of the codifycation of Slovak by Stur and his Lutheran colleagues. Andras Gero, The Jewish Criterion in Hungary, translated from the Magyar by Alan Campbell. Boulder, Colorado, Social Science Monographs: Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 2007. 153 pp., notes, biographical notes, photographs, index. YESHA YAHU A. JELINEK Beer-Sheva, Israel This is both a confusing and challenging book. The challenge comes in trying to clarify the definition of a Jew. The confusion comes in trying to define a Jew from Hungary. Of the book's five chapters, the first two were the most confusing. Gero first sets out to discuss Hungarian Jewry. However, he does not differentiate (as do all Slavic languages) between "Hunga- SLOVAKIA 107 rian" and "Magyar." "Hungary" until 1918 was a geographico-political term for the lands of the Crown of St. Stephen. "Magyar" referred to the largest ethnic (and ruling) group in the Kingdom of Hungary. For contemporary Magyars, as for Gero, such a differentiation does not exist. He equated "Hungary" with "Magyarorszag" (the land of the Magyars). Therefore, when Gero analyzes the "Hungarian Jew" (Magyar Zsid6 ), we do not really understand who he has in mind. Jews appeared on the territory between the Carpathian mountains and the Balkans in the Roman period, much earlier than the Slavs or Magyars. They inhabited the Kingdom of Hungary, initially ruled by the Arpad dynasty and later the Habsburgs . They were not considered to be Magyars. Only in the 19 th century did the Magyars try to "Magyarize" the Jews, as well as the other non-Magyar nationalities. Gero knows these facts, but avoids them. For Gero, there were only "Hungarian Jews" in the entire Kingdom of Hungary. He seems to be entirely unaware of ethnic divisions within Jewry- the existence of Slovak, Rusin , Croat, Transylvanian, etc. Jews. While Gero devotes much space to a rather intelligent discussion of the living conditions, historical environment, and ethnic survival of Magyar Jews, he ignores the fact that Jews in Hungary lived among different nations. He is aware of the oppresssive Magyar nationalism, and criticizes it severely in his last three chapters, but remains unaware of the varieties of Judaism within the Kingdom. The challenging part of this book is the thoughtful discussion of Jewish existence in Hungary and the relations of Jews with the Gentile majority. This discussion forces the reader to re-evaluate quite a few accepted notions about Jewish life in Hungary. Unfortunately, Gero is not familiar with the history of the various Jewish groups in the Kingdom of Hungary. This becomes clear when one compares Jewish life on the Pannonian Plain (today's Hungary) with that of Upper Hungary (Slovakia) or with Sub-Carpathian Rus. Furthermore, he erroneously refers to Hungarian Jews "leaving the ghetto" in the 19 th century. Only Bratislava and a few cities in the Burgenland had "ghettos." That is why Jews who left Moravia for Hungary, or Galicia for Hungary in the 19 th century, suddenly found much greater freedom than they had ever fe lt before. Gero 's lack of knowledge about the Slovak and Rusin portions of the Kingdom of Hungary becomes clear when he discusses Jewish 108 SLOVAKIA conversions to Christianity and the rise of Zionism. For instance, while conversion to Christianity on the Pannonian Plain was not uncommon, it was rare in Upper Hungary or in Sub-Carpathian Rus. When discussing Zionism, Gero neglected its manifestations on Slovak territory and did not perceive that it was weak in the Magyar counties because it was persecuted by the Hungarian government. On the other hand, in Upper Hungary, where Zionizm was weak, Chasidism was strong. Chasidic rabbis were bitter enemies of Zionism. Therefore, one must tread carefully when discussing the strength or weakness of Zionism in Hungary. The most challenging part of Gero's book deals with the rise of anti-Semitism at the end of the 19 th century. Here he deals with the riddle of who is a Jew and when is he considered as such, and under what conditions . Most of Gero's arguments deal only with the Magyar portion of Hungary, which is a pity, because, if he had dug deeper, he could have made the case that it was largely the Magyars who taught the other ethnic groups to hate the Jews. Tiso, Jozef Prejavy a clanky. Vol. I (1913-1938). Ed. Miroslav Fabricius and Ladislav Susko. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press and Historicky ustav SA V, 2002 . 567 pp. Tiso, Jozef Prejavy a clanky. Vol. 2: (193 8-1944). Ed. Miroslav Fabricius and Katarina Hradska. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press and Historicky ustav SAV, 2007 . 696 pp. DANIEL E. MILLER University of West Florida, Pensacola The editors of this set of two volumes assembled the speeches and articles of Jozef Tiso (1887-1947) to provide researchers with a valuable source for the history of Slovak politics covering the periods from shortly before the Great War until the Munich Agreement and then from October 1938 until just before 29 August 1944, the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising. Each volume has a very brief introduction and a table of contents that lists the numbered documents in chronological order (this review cites the volume and document numbers). The first volume contains 267 documents and five addenda; the second, 389 documents and 10 addenda. Together, SLOVAKIA 109 they contain 671 documents on 1,226 pages with no introductions or summaries for each document to color the readers ' opinions. The editors cited multiple sources for each selection, including Slovak archives and newspapers throughout Slovakia. They included explanatory notes, some of which are rather detailed, about individuals, groups, events, terms, and foreign phrases (as a theologian, Tiso had a propensity to use Latin phrases). Some footnotes point out discrepancies in the speeches as they appeared in the various periodicals. In their efforts to be thorough, the editors included journalists' paraphrased summaries of Tiso's speeches when actual texts were unavailable. Furthermore, they did not overlook minor comments, the shortest of which is a mere two lines (l/ 177). Significant gaps raise questions about the completeness of the collection. At the beginning of his career as a priest, Tiso 's publications were understandably sparse, but several selections toward the end of the Great War and immediately afterward are missing. At least a dozen of Tiso's articles appeared in 1917 and 1918 in Papok Kozlonye [Priests' Bulletin] and Duchovny pastier [Spiritual Shepherd], all of which James Mace Ward cites in his dissertation, "No Saint: Jozef Tiso, 1887-1947" (Stanford University, 2008, pp. 63-65), with proper notations about pseudonyms and, in some cases, authorship. By his own admission, after the war Tiso edited and wrote articles for Nyitra/Nitra. In contrast, the first volume of Tiso ' s speeches and articles for the same period contain only a few articles. Oddly enough, there are only five entries in 1929 and 1930 and seven in 1931 , all speeches, aside from one, and an average of 23 entries per year for the previous five years and 15 for the following five years. Additional citations are in Ward's work, including police reports. Police agents attended every open party meeting for all political parties during the First Republic, and they reported the comments of speakers, the reactions of the crowds, and any incidents . The material from these reports is no less valid than the redacted summaries of Tiso ' s speeches that appeared in the press, and they would have filled the voids in Tiso ' s public addresses in these two volumes . While Tiso indeed might have been preoccupied in 1929-1931 , undoubtedly more publications and addresses exist, especially in light of the 1917-1 8 omissions. At times, Tiso ' s silence was intentional. In his 65 months as president of the Slovak Republic, Tiso produced an average of sli- 110 SLOVAKIA ghtly more than five speeches and articles each month, but the frequency declined over time. Most likely, Tiso withdrew from public view with the mounting legitimacy crisis in the Slovak Republic resulting from Germany's losses on the Eastern Front, as well as the prospect of the Allies recreating Czechoslovakia at the war's end and criminalizing Slovakia 's clerical-fascist regime. As a result, in the first eight months of 1944, there are only 23 entries, That is less than three speeches and articles for each month . The speeches and articles in these two volumes portray Tiso as priest, ideologist, party politician, parliamentarian, cabinet minister, and president. The value of this collection is greater than the sum of its parts. Certainly, researchers are relieved that they have the bulk of Tiso 's works at their fingertips and need not spend countless hours scouring sources and fearing that they overlooked something. Furthermore, the assemblage of Tiso 's works in one venue facilitates fresh perspectives on his career. A change in Tiso 's speaking style is apparent in the two volumes. The paucity of his speeches before he became a cabinet minister in 1927 is striking, and it is unfortunate that more texts and transcripts of speeches do not exist from this time. Nevertheless, it is impossible that Tiso could have built his popularity solely on the basis of articles, and the police reports could have made the evidence from this period more balanced . Tiso's speeches in the decade from 1927 until 1938 were disciplined- they had a single topic and a logical argument. This is especially true of his carefully crafted speeches in the National Assembly and before selected audiences. As president, Tiso addressed a wide variety of audiences with speeches that lacked focus and often contained topics not well suited for his listeners. As a result, he analyzed the development of the Slovak Republic with respect to the fate of other East-Central European states while addressing Catholics on a pilgrimage (Il/135). When celebrating the electrification of a district, he spoke about the wonders of electricity, encouraged factory workers and farmers to cooperate in building the state, and admonished listeners about observing the laws regarding economic matters (II/221 ). At a religious gathering in 1942, he criticized efforts to count all Greek-Catholic Slovaks as Rusyns and shortly afterward justified the confiscation of Jewish property with the slogan "Slovakia for Slovaks" (II/282). Aside from being an undisciplined extemporaneous speaker, one possible explanation for the SLOVAKIA 111 change in style was Tiso ' s need to account for the policies of the state in the simplest terms for the broadest range of listeners. Between 1918 and 1938, Tiso's public comments and writings focused in part or exclusively on the need for Slovak autonomy as fulfilling the promise of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The tenor of his mesages heightened over the years, and in February 193 7 he referred to Czechoslovakia as an "aberration of democracy" (1/243), although he uttered plenty of vituperative condemnations of the First Republic both before and afterward. Despite efforts to cooperate with supporters of Slovak autonomy in the camp of Lutheran Slovaks within the Slovak National Party and even Hungarian politicians in the 1930s, Tiso tirelessly strove to bind Slovak identity with the Catholic faith, to link the leadership of the nation to the Catholic clergy, and to advance his Hlinka' s Slovak People's Party as the only major political party to recognize and defend the Slovak nation as unique. After the Munich Agreement, Tiso became minister for Slovak affairs and then on October 6, 1938 premier of an autonomous Slovakia. During this time, Tiso concentrated on policy and restructuring the political system, which essentially made Slovakia a oneparty state. After Slovak independence on 14 March 1939, Tiso served as prime minister and then, beginning in October 1939, he became the republic ' s president. Tiso now sought to legitimize the new republic, justifying its independence and thanking Adolf Hitler for extending his protection to the Slovaks. Tiso linked Slovakia to Germany's successes and Germany's leadership in the construction of a new Europe. Beginning in 1943, roughly coinciding with the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, Tiso's references to Hitler and Germany became sparse, and Tiso did not mention either in his address in 1944 on the fifth anniversary of the Slovak state (ll/374). Tiso obviously wanted to distance himself from Hitler, but fewer references to his patron also suggest the limits of Tiso's acceptance of his own earlier rhetoric. Throughout the war, Tiso's description of Slovakia ' s mission on the Eastern Front as a struggle against Bolshevism, with its Jewish and anti-Christian influences, remained constant. In the final document dated 6 August 1944, Tiso ended with a prophetic statement: "we cannot deny that the Bolsheviks are at the border and that they promise the scaffold!" (II/389) . The two volumes reveal much about the development of Tiso's anti-Semitism. There are few references to Jews in Tiso ' s statements 112 SLOVAKIA between the world wars, and at one point in 1934, he even invited Jews, Germans, Hungarians, and Czechs in Slovakia to join with Slovaks in demanding autonomy (l/202). Nevertheless, there are occasional anti-Jewish comments, such as Ti so's call for land from the church estates parceled under the land reform to go to Catholic farmers , not Jews, nonbelievers, and speculators (l/78). During the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic, Tiso identified Jews as a foreign element whose presence in Slovak society must be proportionate to their numbers. Nevertheless, he warned that Jews should not become the objects of "hatred and sadistic tendencies" (I/32). His rhetoric against Jews heightened when Slovakia became independent, and in August 1942 he justified the removal of Jews from Slovak society as the elimination of an enemy, an act of self-defense in keeping with Christian morals. Loving oneself is a precept from God, according to Tiso, "and I think there is no need to convince anyone that the Jewish element endangers the life of a Slovak" (11/287). There is little evidence in these two volumes to suggest that Tiso 's antiSemitism was anything but genuine, but the addition of Tiso's intensely anti-Semitic Ny itra/Nitra articles make his hatred of Jews indisputable. The editors are preparing a third vo lume to cover the conversations of Hitler and Tiso as well as Tiso 's statements from the beginning of the Slovak National Uprising on 29 August 1944 through his 1946-1947 trial. They indicated their intent to include in the third volume addenda for the first two volumes and expressed their wish that historians inform them of additional documents. The inclusion of missing items- those signed with a pseudonym or abbreviated name and those whose authorship is disputable- is absoutely essential , not only for the convenience of researchers, but also for the sake of objectivity. Perhaps they can be in a section of their own. The editors had planned to include three indexes in the second volume, and one can assume that these essential tools for researchers will appear in the planned third volume. Specialists on Slovak affairs in the Habsburg Monarchy, the First Czechoslovak Republic, and the first Slovak Republic are greatly indebted to Fabricius, Susko, Hradska, and the others who contributed to the production of these two volumes . They anxiously await the appearance of the third volume in this indispensable series. SLOVAKIA 113 Max Domarus, Th e Complete Hitler: A Digital Desktop Reference to His Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945. Wauconda, Ill. : Bolchazy-Carducci, 2007. (CD-ROM edition). VASILLIS VOURKOUTIOTIS University of Ottawa While documentary collections concerning the Third Reich are not, generally speaking, difficult to come by, few students are exposed to the actual words of Adolf Hitler except as summarized by other compilers in wider works . The exception to this has been Max Domtarus' four-volume collection of Hitler's speeches. The compilation of this resource was linked to the history it attempted to capture. In 1932, Max Domarus was only twenty-two years old. Yet, he realized that in Adolf Hitler, Germany and the world were faced with a new phenomenon whose significance should not be underestimated. He began, in that year, to collect and compile as many of Hitler's speeches as he could find , and continued the project through the war years until Hitler' s death in 1945 . After the war, Domarus supplemented his collection as much as possible, and the resulting work, which included his annotations and commentary, was a four-volume set published in German. For each year in question, the reader is offered a detailed summary of events, and photographs from the Domarus archive. Full endnotes for each section yield bibliographical citations, as well as additional explanatory commentary. Each volume also contains a list of abbreviations which users will find helpful. Although some of Domarus' commentaries have been superceded by historical research, his perceptions remain as interesting in several instances as the speeches they comment upon. The four-volume set, even though it only covers Hitler's speeches from 1932 onward, remains the best single collection of the dictator's words. With this CD, Domarus's publishers have brought an important printed historical resource into the modem information age. An English-language translation accompanies the original German text, bringing to the user eight volumes of material in a single disk. Although presented in a chronological format, the speeches are in a searchable PDF format, allowing the student or researcher the ability to scan years of 114 SLOVAKIA material for keywords . For those with the language abilities and desire, the English version can be easily compared for accuracy with the German original. Given how long Hitler could speak for at a single event, it is not surprising that Domarus felt the need to offer exerpts rather than a stenographic record. This may strike some as a potential drawback, and might lead some researches to seek the full text of a particular speech of interest. The vast majority of users, however, will not find this a significant issue; Domarus' work has remained the standard reference for university libraries since its first publication in 1962 with good reason. Two versions of the CD ROM exist, the Standard and ePremium. In addition to the advantages of the Standard, the ePremium addition allows the user to print, copy and paste text directly from the PDF files into one's own documents, and add commentary to the texts. These enhancements will be of interest to those who work closely enough with the material in their own research. On the whole, in making both the English and German versions of Domarus' compilations available in such a format, the publishers have not only made an important work more accessible, but also provided a service to both students and academics alike. James Ramon Felak After Hitler, Before Stalin: Catholics, Communists, and Democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009. xv-261 pp. , notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Having perceived a negl ected period of history, James R. Felak set out to tell the story of the role of Catholicism in Slovakia in the period 1945-48, especially its relationship with the Communist and Democratic Parties. The essence of the book is that, even though both the Communists and the Lutheran leaders of the Democratic Party were either hostile to or suspicious of the Roman Catholic Church, both courted Roman Catholic voters in order to attain political power in post-war Slovakia. Having combed the relevant Slovak archives, and read the Communist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic press, along with most secondary sources on the subject, Felak carefully related what actually SLOVAKIA 115 transpired in Slovakia in the three years after the Second World War. He pointed out that the post-war National Front government that came into existence on April 3, 1945, reduced the pre-war political parties of Czechoslovakia from 16 to 5, and in Slovakia permitted only the Communists and Democrats. The two strongest pre-war political parties, Hlinka Slovak People's Party and the Czechoslovak Agrarian Party were banned as "collaborationist". That meant that the minority Lutherans could (and did) join the newly-formed Democratic Party, but the majority Catholics were disenfranchised. As a result, both the Communists and Democrats courted Catholic voters in anticipation of the May, 1946 elections, while simultaneously attacking the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, the self-appointed Slovak National Council, with its executive Board of Commissioners, nationalized all religious schools, seized most Catholic institutions, severely limited the size of the Catholic press and imprisoned two Slovak bishops. On the other hand, the Communists tried to persuade Catholic voters to vote for their party, because the Democrats were largely Lutherans . Indeed, the Communists even supported the creation of a Christian Republican Party, but the Catholics and Communists could not agree on its name, and this project fell through. The Lutherans, on the other hand, also wooed the Catholics by promising to split future political representation and patronage with them on the basis of a 7:3 ratio in favor of the Catholics. The Catholics found this promise more enticing than Communist overtures and, as a result, the Catholic and Lutheran politicians reached the so-called April Agreement on March 31, 1946. Since they were now united, the Catholics and Lutherans both supported the Democratic Party and won the 1946 elections with a convincing majority of 62%. Since they had lost the elections, the Communist Party of Slovakia went on the offensive. With the collusion of the government in Prague, where the Communists had more influence, and where certain Czech parties resented Slovak home-rule, Slovak Communists, led by Gustav Husak, negotiated the "Third Prague Agreement" of June 27, 1946, by which the Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners subordinated themselves to the Prague government. Then the Slovak Communists decided to try for treason the Reverend Jozef Tiso, former president of the first Slovak Republic ( 1939-1945). They saw to it that the National Court was domina- 116 SLOVAKIA ted by Communists who, as expected, found Tiso guilty and sentenced him to death on April 15, 1947. The hapless Democrats on the executive of the Board of Commissioners failed to recommend clemency and left the final verdict to the government in Prague, which upheld the verdict, as did president Benes, and Tiso was hanged on April 17. After this fiasco, Slovak Catholics lost faith in the Democratic Party, just as the Communists began their offensive against it. In the summer and fall of 194 7 the Communists fabricated an anti-state conspiracy against certain Catholic Democrats. On this basis Gustav Husak on October 31 staged a mini-coup in Slovakia by (with Prague support) illegally dissolving and then reappointing the Board of Commissioners in favor of the Communists. This was a prelude to similar tactics by the Communists in Prague in February of 1948, when three non-Communist parties resigned from the government in the hope of toppling it. Instead, the Communists, led by Klement Gottwald offered to form a new government and president Edvard Benes approved it. Thus, by February of 1948 the Communists had completed their takeover of both the Slovak and Czechoslovak governments and instituted totalitarian rule for the next 40 years, during which they tried (but failed) to completely destroy the Roman Catholic church in Czechoslovakia. Felak's book is well-written and comprehensive. Perhaps his greatest contribution is that he laid to rest the oft-repeated Slovak complaint that president Benes arranged for Tiso's death. Instead, as Felak convincingly shows, it was the incompetence of the Lutheradominated executive of the Board of Commissioners which was most responsible because of its inability to reach a consensus on the issue of clemency. They essentially "passed the buck" to Prague, where Tiso had few friends and that sealed his doom. In spite of Felak's meticulous scholarship, the book contained a few glitches and one omission. The slang expression "First off "appeared a few times (p.6), Stanislav Kirschbaum's first name was shortened to Stanley in footnote 5 on page 217, the surname Viktorin was misspelled Victory (p.63), and Banovce nad Bebravou was identified as Tiso's home town (p.100), when that honor goes to Vel'ka Bytca. Perhaps the greatest omission is the revelation that Ferdinand Durcansky, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the first Slovak Republic, who fled to the west after the war and tried to SLOVAKIA 117 organize an anti-state underground movement in post-war Slovakia, was actually controlled by Kim Philby, the notorious British spy who was, in fact, working for the KGB . Mark Aarons and John Loftus, on the basis of research in the files of the CIA in Washington, revealed this interesting detail in their Ratlines: How the Vatican Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets (London, 1991 ), pp. 21 19 and footnotes 46-50, page 334. Thus, the anti-state conspiracy of 1947 was carefully staged from abroad by the KGB as an excuse for the communist takeover of Slovakia. Edward Snajdr, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2008 . xiii242 pp., photographs, notes, bibliography, list of interviews, index. JURAJ HOCMAN University of Ottawa Edward Snajdr, an American cultural anthropologist at New York University, examined Slovakia's emerging civic environmental protection movement in the communist era and its rapid disappearance during the country 's post-communist transformation (19851995). The author did his fieldwork in situ and that is why it is particularly interesting to read about his experience. In the first two chapters, Snajdr focuses on urban and extraurban contexts of social life in communist Slovakia while providing general, yet adequate, historical background. The author traces the origins of environmental movements among young Slovaks and Czechs that had begun with associations such as SZOPK (Slovensky zvaz ochrancov prfrody a kraj iny - the Slovak Union of Protectors of Nature and the Countryside) in Slovakia and Brontosaurus in the Czech lands. He contrasts the difference between the effectiveness of state legislation designed to protect the environment in the massively and insensitively industrialized Slovakia, with spontaneous projects of young people whose aims were to improve the quality of the environment that surrounded them. Despite their local character, those efforts were not only efficient, but also inspirational. Snajdr then proceeds to the period from 1985 to 1989 during which environmentalist activities spread to the politics of discontent with the communist regime. He stresses the significance of the acce- 118 SLOVAKIA lerated drive for environmental protection in Slovakia during the period of perestroika and glasnost in the case of the samizdat Bratislava Nahlas (Bratislava Aloud). This publication, which voiced the concerns of ordinary citizens regarding disrespectful and harmful socio-economic policies of the communist regime, was prohibited by state authorities. Its editor, Jan Budaj, who became one of the most visible leaders of the "Velvet Revolution" in Slovakia in the fall of 1989, as well as the samizdat' s distributors, were harassed by the communist secret police (the StB). The fall of the communist regime might have become the new beginning of a friendlier approach to environmental protection in Slovakia. That is where the second part of the story begins. A new political reality in Eastern Europe, which was closely tied to nationalism, brought a new perspective on how to cope with the legacy of communism and its negative ecological effects. The members of the Slovak Green Party (Strana zelenych), which was formed in November of 1989, and was represented in the new Slovak parliament, took a firm stand against the completion of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam on the Danube river, which formed the Slovak-Hungarian border. This started as a joint venture of the communist governments of Czechoslovakia and Hungary under a treaty signed in I 977. Hungary withdrew from the project at the end of the 1980s, bowing to pressure from ecologists at home and abroad. To Slovaks, as Snajdr observes, the project was a matter of national prestige and a rallying point against warnings of environmental risks that stood in the forefront of Hungary 's concerns. Snajdr elaborates on how its chief engineer, Julius Binder, defended the completion of the Slovak part of the project and gained the support of the Slovak public. From then on the Greens (Zeleni), who, in the meantime, split into two groups, the Czecho-Slovak federalists and the Slovak nationalists, started slipping into political obscurity and eventually returned to small and isolated projects of landscape revitalization at various locations . Thus, "nation won over nature" and Slovakia, together with representatives of the ecology movement, entered into an age of post-ecology. The book paints a credible picture of a former communist regime unconcerned with the ecological impact of insensitive industrialization and socio-economic modernization. The first part of the study, which analyzes the evolution of environmental protection, is more SLOVAKIA 119 cohesive than the second. If the second part appears a bit fragmentary, it is due to the overall ruptured character of the ecology movement in Slovakia in the second half of the 1990s. Though the sympathies of the author towards a cleaner environment cannot be overlooked, he did not take sides in intra and extra-national political conflicts. Apart from a few minor aberrations, such as the subtler use of the geographic term the Czech lands or the Czech Republic instead of Bohemia when referring to the second half of the 20 th century; and the incorrect transliteration of Gabcikovo-Nagymaros instead of GNagymaros, and Kvacian (gen . or accus; Slovak) instead of Kvacany (nom.), the book profits from its narrative and analysis based on the author's knowledge of theory and his authentic experience. It is an insightful contribution to the discourse on the continuing multilayered evolution of post-communist states and societies in Eastern Europe, in which ecology has played an important part. With Slovakia now being a member of the European Union and a signatory of international treaties on environmental protection, it would be interesting to discover whether the previous gap between government and civic initiatives has remained the same or has disappeared.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 40 (No. 74-75) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Ludevít Štúr (Ľudovít Štúr), Nauka reči slovensky (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 103</li> <li>András Gerö, The Jewish Criterion in Hungary (Yeshayahu A. Jelinek), p. 106</li> <li>Miroslav Fabricius, ed., Tiso, Jozef: Prejavy a články, vol. 1 (1913-1938) and vol. 2 (1938-1944) (Daniel E. Miller), p. 108</li> <li>Max Domarus, The Complete Hitler: A Digital Desktop Reference to His Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945 (Vasillis Vourkoutiotis), p. 113</li> <li>James Roman Felak, After Hitler, Before Stalin: Catholics, Communists, and Democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948 (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 114</li> <li>Edward Snajdr, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia (Juraj Hocman), p. 117</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hocman, Juraj Jelinek, Yeshayahu A. Miller, Daniel E. (Daniel Edward), 1954- Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Vourkoutiotis, Vasilis, 1970- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 LCNAF LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0f7ea0d68adb60108eeba5034ecba754.pdf d6ed17f3c3fa38eeff13fd95e7a89069 PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 195 Robert M Zecker, Streetcar Parishes: Slovak Immigrants Build their Nonlocal Communities, I 890-1945. Selingsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 2010 . 329pp. Notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa In this revised Ph.D. dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 1998), Robert M. Zecker set out to prove that Slovaks who lived in six widely dispersed neighborhoods of Philadelphia in the 20 th century formed "translocal" (p. 19) communities based upon four parish churches and about a dozen fraternal-benefit societies. The author dug deeply into census records, city directories, parish and fraternal records, supplemented by oral history interviews and published histories of Philadelphia and other ethnic groups across the United States. He showed that, even though Slovaks in Philadelphia were widely dispersed and lived among other ethnic groups, in the first two generations they socialized mostly among themselves. Indeed, they travelled great distances to attend church services on Sundays as well as fraternal meetings, dances, plays, gymnastic events and other amusements. Not only did they form translocal "imagined communities" (p.160) but they were also transconfessional because Roman and Greek Catholics, Lutherans and Marxists attended each other's events and financially supported them. Zecker also pointed out that Slovaks in Philadelphia, and elsewhere, bought into American race ideology. Thus, they stressed their "whiteness," as did other ethnic groups, by staging minstrel shows in the 1930's and 1940's and resisted the building of public housing in their neighborhoods. When they lost this fight, they followed other Americans into the suburbs. Zecker concluded that Slovaks in Philadelphia, like other ethnic groups in America, did not form compact neighborhoods of residence, but were widely dispersed. Nevertheless, they stuck together in the first two generations by attending distant church services, fraternal meetings and a wide variety of social activities. With the arrival of the 1930's New Deal, the post-war automobile boom, and the advent of television in the 1940's, Slovaks, like other Americans, began to move into the suburbs. Although the second generation remained loyal to their parents' institutions, the third generation lost �196 SLOVAKIA interest and their community institutions began to decline and disappear. This is a phenomenon facing all "older" ethnic groups in America. Since Zecker is admittedly an "outsider" to the Slovak community (p . 214), this book, like others written by American-born and educated scholars, suffers from both linguistic and factual errors. Zecker had to learn Slovak from scratch and never mastered its nuances. Thus, he mistakenly identified "Hutoraks" (it should be hutoraci) as Slovaks who originated in the vicinity of the village of "Hutka" (p.27). Instead, "hutoraci" is a pjorative term used by Central and Western Slovaks for Eastern Slovaks who do not speak (hovoria), but, rather, "hutoria" in their own dialect. He mis-translates Slovak "zupy" as "provinces," when they were counties (p.31). He misspells "okres" (district) as "okra" (p.35) and "krnotor" (godfather) as "Kumoda" (p .102). Furthermore, he misspelled and mis-translated the phrase "tu baz [mas!] vzduch" as "There's too much air in here," when it should have been "Here 's some air" (p.183), and many more such mistakes, too numerous to be listed. In addition to the above, Zecker also made some factual errors. He mis-identified the social commentator Nicholas von Hoffman as Alexander von Hoffman (pages 16 and 219); he had Lutheran pastors celebrating "Mass" and dispensing "sacraments" (p.155)! He had "Hapsburg troops" firing upon a Slovak crowd in 1907 when Hungarian gendarmes did so (p.278); he identified the Rev. Andrej Hlinka as a deputy in the Hungarian Parliament in 1907 when the latter would not become a member of the provisional Czechoslovak Parliament until 1919 (p.201 ); and he promoted brigadier-general Milan R. Stefanik into an air marshal (p.204)! The latter errors testified to Zecker' s weak knowledge of European history, which is typical of many scholars of American history. Indeed, when one searches for references to the works of scholars in Slovakia on the subject of immigration, one is disappointed. Even though Zecker went out of his way to detail the history of the tiny group of Slovak Marxists in Philadelphia, he never cited the many articles on this subject by the late Milos Gosiorovsky. Nor did he seem to be aware of the three-volume work on Slovak immigration compiled by Frantisek Bielik and others. Finally, even though Zecker presented an impressive bibliography at the end of the book, it was unorganized. Thus, he mixed up �SLOVAKIA 197 his primary sources (archives, censuses, minutes of fraternal-benefit societies, church records, etc), with secondary sources, largely on American ethnic groups and American history in general. Fortunately, he did list his oral history interviews separately but failed to identify his interviewees. While the author may have agreed with his informants not to list their full names, he never did identify the leaders of the various Slovak communities (except their priests). We are left wondering who some of the "movers and shakers" were who founded the churches and fraternal-benefit societies, the various businesses, community halls, savings and loan associations, bands, radio programs and so on. This is a weakness found in most American social histories, which stress the "common man" (and woman) but ignore the leaders. Thus, Zecker's story of the various Slovak communities in Philadelphis remains incomplete. In spite of these deficiencies, Zecker's history of Slovaks in Philadelphia is a welcome addition to the field. We now have professional histories of three Slovak communities in the United States Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by the author of this review ( 1985); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by June Granatir Alexander (1987); and Philadelphia by Robert M. Zecker. May we soon have even more! Valerian Bystricky, Miroslav Michela, Michal Schvarc a kol., Rozbitie alebo rozpad? Historicke rejlexie zaniku Cesko-Slovenska. Bratislava: VEDA, 2010. 575 pp., notes, bibliography, English resume, index. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Department of International Studies York University, Glendon College This is an unusual volume. A title with a question mark implies an answer. However, to demand that thirty-three scholars from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland provide one is problematic, especially when each contributes a specialized examination of an issue, which may, or may not be related directly to the question. Secondly, the chapter breakdown is determined by the contributions rather than a thematic organization arising out of the title. �198 SLOVAKIA Thirdly, the book is bilingual (Slovak and Czech). Finally, all contributors share something in common, namely extensive and thorough research in archives, many hitherto inaccessible, and references to authoritative secondary sources, although, with one exception, the list is limited to Central European scholars. This review will highlight those contributions that are deemed worthy of comment either because of their interpretation, their contribution to scholarship, or their pertinence to the question in the title. In an effort to answer whether post-Munich Czecho-Slovakia (C-SR) was broken up or collapsed in 1939, the editors divided the book into five thematic chapters and an epilogue of two essays on Slovak historiography. In each chapter, different authors looked at particular issues apparently linked to the theme. The first deals with the C-SR, from October 1938 to March 1939. The focus is on foreign policy and its consequences on domestic politics, especially Slovak politics. Particularly noteworthy is the contribution by Emilia Hrabovec on the perceptions of the Holy See concerning the future of that state. In the Vatican archives she discovered how the Holy See followed with great interest and interpreted with prudence the domestic and foreign developments that led to the Slovak proclamation of independence in March of 1939 and why it gave diplomatic recognition to the first Slovak Republic. Equally interesting are the contributions by l:udovit Hallon on economic changes in Slovakia and the preponderant role played by Germany; and by Miloslav Caplovic on what happened to the Czechoslovak Armed Forces after Munich, especially the transfer of many divisions to Slovakia to protect the state against possible Hungarian and Polish military incursions. Caplovic also mentions the reorganisation that later resulted in the creation of the Armed Forces of the first Slovak Republic. Jozef Bystricky, in chapter four, offeres a detailed analysis of how this happened and also the state of the military forces that responded to Hungarian incursions after independence. The contribution by Valerian Bystricky on the foreign policy activities of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party stands out because of the absence of a contextual perspective. Bystricky bases his article on constitutional legalism to criticize the efforts of members of this party to establish foreign contacts in order to ensure the future of Slovakia when the international situation in Central Europe was deteriorating and the fate of the C-SR was uncertain. �SLOVAKIA 199 The second chapter, "Disliked by its neighbours," is on Germany and the C-SR; Slovakia and Ruthenia in the policies of Hungary and Poland; and the nationality question as a political instrument. The nine contributors provide an interesting analysis of Slovakia's relations with its neighbours at a time when its leaders sought to figure out its future and these neighbours were using the nationality question to achieve their objectives. Slovakia was not "disliked;" rather it was the object of revisionist (Hungary) or strategic policies (Germany and Poland). Most contributions, especially the one by Angela Hermann on German policy toward Slovakia, do indicate that Slovakia' s neighbours sought the break up of the C-SR. What is missing is an assessment on how the C-SR and Slovak politicians reacted to the political, diplomatic, and military manoeuvring that took place after October 1938. Hermann ' s contribution makes clear that Slovak leaders understood the realities of power in Central Europe, but also their own responsibility to their nation. The third chapter has eight contributions on "The March events of 1939." Half offer a study of external reactions to these events; the other half look at specific domestic events or attitudes around the 14 March proclamation. One can learn what the German press, British scholarship, or Americans of Czech and Slovak background thought of these events. The latter contribution by Frantisek Hanzlik is, however, very superficial , especially with regards to Slovak Americans. Regarding domestic events, Zlatica Zudova-Leskova ' s examination of the emergency measures of l O March is most atypical. Both in tone and content, it is a strident attack on those who do not see these measures as a legitimate response by C-SR authorities to protect the integrity of that state. In marked contrast, Robert Letz ' s study of the attitude of the Catholic Church and its episcopate in Slovakia toward the March events offers a sophisticated glimpse of the interplay of religion, politics, hierarchy, and the need for public order at a time of constitutional change and foreign political and ideological pressure. A limited sociological examination of the general Slovak reaction is found in the presentation by Martin Hetenyi on the Nitra region. "The beginnings of the Slovak State" constitutes the theme of the fourth chapter. It brings together contributions that deal with the formation of the political system; the independence of the judiciary as seen by the leading political party in Slovakia in 1938-1939; the formation of the Slovak Armed Forces; and the departure of Czech sol- �200 SLOVAKIA diers from Slovakia after independence. The first two contributions, especially the one by Igor Baka, focus on those elements in the political system emanating from the policies of the regime that, according to the two authors, show the creation of a totalitarian state in Slovakia after March 1939. That the first Slovak Republic became a one-party state is beyond dispute; to conclude, however, that it became totalitarian is to ignore the international and comparative context (with other states at that time or the later Communist one) and the essence of political life in Slovakia, whatever the constitutional or administrative system. Scholarship is not served by approaching this subject with a conceptual bias (i .e. if it was not democratic, then it had to be totalitarian), as these two contributions do. Finally, the two bibliographical contributions in the epilogue make a major contribution to Slovak historiography. Both outline the problems Slovak historiography has had and continues to have, which the essays in this volume reflect. The variety of views and the disparity of approaches in this book would have been better served with the title: Break-up and Collapse, a title, which the contributions underlie and with which every serious scholar specializing in the topic would concur. This volume contributes to a broader understanding of that period but does not help resolve the debates around it. Slovak scholarship still has a long way to go. Martin Lacko a Jan Sabo, Zandar troch rei imov alebo Slovenske dejiny 20. storocia z ineho pohl'adu. Gustav Polcik a jeho slui ba v Prievidzi v rokoch 1942-1972. Bratislava: Ustav pamati naroda, 2011. xliv-334 pp. , notes, illustrations, bibliography, abbreviations, index. YESHA YAHU JELINEK Beer-Sheva, Israel Prievidza, the home-town of the hero of this monograph (and also of the author of this review), lies in the upper Nitra river valley. At the beginning of World War II, it had about 5,000 inhabitants. Industrialization and more intensive coal mining during the communist era boosted the population to about thirty thousand today. Since the �SLOVAKIA 201 days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prievidza boasted a Gendarme (police) station, which served about twenty villages and townships. Between five and ten Gendarmes served there, but came from elsewhere. A bachelor Gendarme was forbidden to marry for the first four years of his service, and especially not to a local woman. The Gendarme was expected to become closely acquainted with the locality, its people, and culture. However, he was also supposed to be neutral in political matters, and not to join any political parties. The latter regulation was changed during the communist era, when all Gendarmes were expected to join the Communist Party and to enforce its rule. As he related to the compilers of this book, Gustav Polcik arrived in Prievidza as a Gendarme in the summer of 1942. Four years later he married his village sweetheart and had two daughters with her. The family was apparently very proud of its Gendarme son, as the many photographs of him in his uniform attest. The job guaranteed him a good salary and respect. It was a major move up the social ladder for a village boy. When Polcik retired in 1972, he had reached the rank of major, which was testimony to a successful career in the service of his people in the city of Prievidza. It is not easy to review a perspective "from the other side," as the authors/editors of this book titled it. After all, Polcik served three ruling regimes. During the years of the Holocaust, Polcik carried out the official policies of the Slovak Republic, which was allied with Nazi Germany. One of them was to deport Slovak Jews to Poland, where they were exterminated by the Germans. Although Polcik claimed that, because he had arrived in Prievidza in the summer of 1942, the Jews had already been expelled (p.94), this is not credible. The last transport of Jews from that locality left in October of 1942. Nora Kellerman, a Prievidza friend and neighbour of the author of this review described the deportation of her father thus : "Suddenly, two men arrived, a Gendarme and a Hlinka Guard (the Hlinka Guard was a paramilitary force of the ruling Hlinka Slovak People's Party), they gave father ten minutes to pack his belongings, he kissed us and they escorted him out. I was six years old and never saw my father again." Clearly, the Gendarmes executed the orders of the government in Bratislava. Polcik admitted throughout the book that he faithfully executed orders from above. All Gendarmes were trained to do this, even dur- �202 SLOVAKIA ing the first Czechoslovak Republic. During the communist period, even though he joined the Party, he sometimes sought to avoid enforcing unpleasant orders with various ruses. Often he convinced himself that the orders were wrong. He did admit that many times the orders gnawed at his conscience. In these instances he sought to avoid carrying them out, but without harm to himself. A good example of Polcik's reasoning and actions was when he was assigned to serve on the Italian front in 1944. He did not want to go and sought out the commander of the Gendarmerie in Slovakia, Colonel Timotheus lstok, who happened to come from his native village, and who was friendly with his parents. In spite of being received by lstok, the orders were not changed. Therefore, Polcik decided to desert to the local partisans (guerrillas), whom he knew, and had assisted in various ways. Ironically, the government bureaucracy continued to pay his wages while he was in active opposition to the regime! Once the war had ended, Polcik emerged as a resistance fighter and his career continued to blossom. When the Communists seized power in 1948, Polcik joined the Party and continued his climb upward. He even became head of the local Hunter's Association and assisted the Prievidza Communists, who were poorly-educated, to write their reports in his beautiful handwriting. He could also type and, thus, was privy to all the secret reports sent by the government in Bratislava. He always sought to help those whom he could, and to not make any enemies. He was also a non-drinker, which kept him out of trouble. When all is said and done, what we have here is the life history of an opportunistic public servant, interested above all in his advancement. Therefore, by being very careful, he was able to survive the frequently changing regimes and governments in his homeland. Polcik survived and advanced because he understood how to manage himself in every situation. This book gives us a good insight into the political life of Slovakia over thirty years and how some of the people, like the Gendarme Gustav Polcik, successfully adjusted to three very different political regimes. �SLOVAKIA 203 Michal Smigel a Stefan Krusko, Opcia a presidlenie Rusinov do ZSSR 1945-194 7. Bratislava: Goralinga, 2011. 340pp. appendices, charts, bibliography, resumes. PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI University of Toronto At the close of World War II, world leaders seemed determined to try to create a new political order that, hopefully, would preclude catastrophic conflicts of the kind they had just experienced. Many statesmen felt that national minorities and the ideology of integral nationalism were among the main causes leading to World War II . Therefore, in an attempt to correct this situation, many governments set out to adjust ethnographic boundaries to state boundaries. There were several ways in which this might be achieved: a change in international borders; national assimilation of minority groups; physical extermination; or resettlement. Population resettlement became an acceptable and favored political solution at the time. The most monumental example of this approach was the displacement of millions of Hindus and Muslims in South Asia to create the new states of India and Pakistan. Postwar Europe also engaged in population resettlement, the best known case being the expulsion in 1946-1947 of over six million Germans (3 .2 million from Poland and three million from Czechoslovakia) and their resettlement in the various occupation zones of postwar Germany. Smaller in scale and much less known were the population exchanges between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. These took place in two phases. When, in June 1945 , Czechoslovakia formally ceded its pre-Munich eastern province of Subcarpathian Rus' to the Soviet Union, a protocol to the treaty provided for the right of persons of Slovak and Czech nationality resident in Subcarpathian Rus '/Transcarpathian Ukraine to resettle in postwar Czechoslovakia, and for the right of persons of Ukrainian and Russian nationality in Czechoslovakia- specifically from "districts (okresy) in Slovakia"to resettle in the Soviet Union. Technically, these populations were being given "the right to opt" (prava opcie) for either Czechoslovak �204 SLOVAKIA or Soviet citizenship, a status which would allow them to resettle permanently in one or the other country. The second phase came as a result of an accord signed in October of 1946, according to which persons of Czech and Slovak nationality living in the Soviet Union (specifically the Volhynia region of Soviet Ukraine) were to be resettled to Czechoslovakia in exchange for persons of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusan nationality in Czechoslovakia who were to be resettled in the Soviet Union. Despite the various nationalities listed in the treaty, in practice the populations in question were only two : Czechs, who in the nineteenth century had emigrated to what was then the province of Volhynia in the Russian Empire; and Carpatho-Rusyns (Rusnaks), who since their first appearance in the early Middle Ages inhabited relatively compact areas in northeastern Slovakia. The numbers in both phases were relatively small-about 25 ,000 persons to Czechoslovakia as a result of the 1945 treaty; followed by 40,000 persons to Czechoslovakia and 12,000 to Soviet Ukraine as a result of the 1946 treaty. The latter exchange was known as the Volhynian Operation/Volynska akcia and was carried out in 1947. The story of the two Czechoslovak-Soviet population exchanges is the subject of this book by Michal Smigel, an associate professor of history at Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, and Stefan Krusko, a writer and civic activist whose family had opted to go to Soviet Ukraine in 1947 and who later "re-opted" back to Czechoslovakia. Aside from the details of the actual resettlement process between 1945 and 1947, the authors devote the third and last chapter of their book to the fate of the 12,000 Carpatho-Rusyns from northeastern Slovakia who voluntarily opted for the Soviet Union. No sooner had the transports arrived in the Soviet Union in the spring of 194 7, than did the newcomers from Czechoslovakia realize they had made a mistake. Many wanted immediately to go back home, but there was no leaving the "Soviet paradise." The very thought of doing so could- and did- result in arrests and imprisonment during the height of Stalinist repressive rule. Thus began what turned out to be decades of struggle on the part of the 12,000 Carpatho-Rusyn "exiles" in Soviet Volhynia to return to their Carpathian homeland. In the interim, the children born "in exile" were educated in Ukrainian, while their parents proceeded to claim that they were "Slovaks" (and were generally described as such by local Ukraini- �SLOVAKIA 205 ans) in an effort to justify their legal right to return to Czechoslovakia. Beginning in the 1960s, a small but gradually increasing number of families managed to leave Volhynia, settling first in Soviet Transcarpathia, from where some managed to return to Czechoslovakia. The process of return was long and complicated, however, and it did not end until the 1990s, when ironically it was connected with the world's first prominently publicized nuclear disaster. Looking for an excuse to justify the entry for "immigrants" from the east, Slovakia passed a law which allowed for the return of its former citizens from what was described as "the zone [including Volhynia] affected by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster." The homecoming for the reoptanty (those who opted to return) was often far from ideal. Most did not return to their native villages, since local residents-and even family members- were suspicious of people who in 1947 had left for the Soviet east as "Rusnaks," who came back as "Slovaks," often speaking Ukrainian, and who consequently were viewed by their former neighbors as "Russians" (rusky), an epithet that in post-1968 Czechoslovakia was, to say the least, not a positive one. Nevertheless, the reoptanty, in particular children who left with their parents or who were born in Ukraine, eventually did well after their return to Czechoslovakia. Some found employment in the various Ukrainian minority cultural institutions in Presov that were liberally funded in Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia. Most, however, assimilated into Slovak society in a conscious effort to distance themselves from the East. Among the best known of the reoptanty was Peter Bondra. He was born in Soviet Ukraine to Carpatho-Rusyn parents, who in 1947 were settled in the Soviet Union, but who returned in the 1970s to Slovakia, where Peter was raised and where he learned a new skill- hockey. This allowed him later in life to "re-emigrate," this time to the United States, where he became a star in the National Hockey League. Smigel and Krusko have done an excellent job in describing the fascinating tale of one aspect of post-World War II demographic engineering in central and eastern Europe. The narrative is interspersed with statistical charts and historic photographs . Included as well are several appendices: the full texts of the 1945 and 1946 Czechoslovak-Soviet treaties, accompanying protocols, and instructions for implementation; detailed charts with data on the 194 7 population �206 SLOVAKIA exchanges; an extensive bibliography of archival and secondary sources; and resumes in English and Russian. M. Mark Stolarik, compiler and editor, The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later. Mundelein, Ill. : Bolchazy-Carducci, 2010 . xxxiv-305 pp ., notes, photos, index, hard and soft cover. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University Salisbury, Maryland This book is based on the proceedings of a conference held at the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2008 . M. Mark Stolarik, who holds the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at that institution, organized the meeting, compiled and edited the papers, as well as contributed most of the photographs. He also wrote the Introduction in which he offered his personal reminiscences of those August days as he witnessed the invasion, the largest military action in Europe since the Second World War. His Introduction gives a brief overview of the subsequent papers and commentaries, and includes excellent footnotes providing first-rate bibliographic material covering the subject. He concludes the Introduction with an almost two-year chronology of the "Prague Spring," from October of 1967 to September of 1969, to better orient the reader. The authors of the papers and commentaries are a Who's Who of specialists on East Central Europe. Participants from countries of the former Warsaw Pact wrote the papers based largely on archival investigations: Mikhail V. Latysh (USSR), Jan Rychlik (Czech Republic), Slavomir Michalek and Stanislav Sikora (Slovakia), Lukasz Kaminski (Poland), Rudiger Wenzke (East Germany), Ivana Skalova (Bulgaria), Csaba Bekes (Hungary), and Drago~ Petrescu (Romania). Americans and Canadians who presented commentaries include: Matthew J. Ouimet (USSR), Michael Kraus (Czech Republic ), Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (Slovakia), Piotr Wrobel (Poland), Gary Bruce (East Germany), Mark Kramer (Bulgaria), Peter Pastor (Hungary), and Monica Ciobranu (Romania). At the end of the text, before the �SLOVAKIA 207 index, Stolarik included "Notes on Contributors," which gives basic biographical information on the participants. The reader will find many interesting and largely hitherto unknown facts available in the standard works on the subject. For example, at the last minute, the Soviet Union would not allow East Germany to participate in the invasion for fear that it would bring back horrifying memories of the Nazi dismemberment and occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939. Yet, until its dying days, the East German government, which wholeheartedly supported the invasion, and early on argued for its implementation, perpetuated the myth that it was an active participant. Another, perhaps more striking example, would be the claim by Soviet General G. Yashkin that Soviet Marshal Ivan I. Yakubovsky, commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact forces , ordered the invasion of Czechoslovakia in early May of 1968, only to reverse his decision several minutes later. Bulgarian leader Todor Zhikov, uneasy over events in Czechoslovakia by early spring of 1968, insisted that he be present at the negotiations with Czechoslovakia and pressed for an early solution, despite the fact that Bulgaria had no common border with Czechoslovakia. Yet, after his fall from power, Zhivkov denied any wrongdoing, but instead insisted that he supported the reforms and reluctantly agreed to support the invasion. Whereas Bekes presents Hungarian leader Janos Kadar in a sympathetic light as a grand compromiser, Pastor sees him instead using double speak for domestic consumption. On a more humorous note, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka, an early proponent for intervention, intensely disliked Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek and consistently changed the "b" in his name to a "p", thereby rendering his surname in Polish to be an unmentionable part of the human anatomy in polite society. Constraints of space will not allow a discussion of the individual papers and commentaries. However, of particular note is the attention paid to Romania. This member of the Warsaw Pact neither participated in the discussions leading to nor took part in the invasion itself. Nonetheless, as most are aware, the Romanian regime outwardly supported the reforms and then vehemently attacked the invasion. Although Petrescu's piece is more of a political science approach than the other contributions, he makes a persuasive argument that the invasion provided legitimacy and popular support for Ceau~escu' s rise to power after the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu- �208 SLOVAKIA Dej. Ceau~escu would never be as popular as he was in August of 1968, when he unified and rallied the country. However, once firmly in control, he ended economic liberalization and ideological relaxation and became more autocratic, relying on his famil y members for support, which eventually led to his demise in 1989. The Soviets ultimately misjudged popular reaction to the 1968 invasion. Petrescu has included an excellent quote from the Romanian dictator that prophetically summed up the results of the invasion, "In my opinion, a big and tragic mistake, with heavy consequences upon the fate of the unity of the socialist system and the international communist and workers movement occurred (252-53)." In short, the invasion mortally wounded the Eastern Bloc 's experiment with Communism. It showed that it could not be a viable alternative to liberal democracy and market economics. This volume is a fine addition to our knowledge of the events of the Prague Spring. Some of the information may be a bit too scholarly for the general reader, but, it is an up-to-date work based on research in archives and other sources opened after 1989. It is a must read for anyone interested in the topic. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 195 Robert M Zecker, Streetcar Parishes: Slovak Immigrants Build their Nonlocal Communities, I 890-1945. Selingsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 2010 . 329pp. Notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa In this revised Ph.D. dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 1998), Robert M. Zecker set out to prove that Slovaks who lived in six widely dispersed neighborhoods of Philadelphia in the 20 th century formed "translocal" (p. 19) communities based upon four parish churches and about a dozen fraternal-benefit societies. The author dug deeply into census records, city directories, parish and fraternal records, supplemented by oral history interviews and published histories of Philadelphia and other ethnic groups across the United States. He showed that, even though Slovaks in Philadelphia were widely dispersed and lived among other ethnic groups, in the first two generations they socialized mostly among themselves. Indeed, they travelled great distances to attend church services on Sundays as well as fraternal meetings, dances, plays, gymnastic events and other amusements. Not only did they form translocal "imagined communities" (p.160) but they were also transconfessional because Roman and Greek Catholics, Lutherans and Marxists attended each other's events and financially supported them. Zecker also pointed out that Slovaks in Philadelphia, and elsewhere, bought into American race ideology. Thus, they stressed their "whiteness," as did other ethnic groups, by staging minstrel shows in the 1930's and 1940's and resisted the building of public housing in their neighborhoods. When they lost this fight, they followed other Americans into the suburbs. Zecker concluded that Slovaks in Philadelphia, like other ethnic groups in America, did not form compact neighborhoods of residence, but were widely dispersed. Nevertheless, they stuck together in the first two generations by attending distant church services, fraternal meetings and a wide variety of social activities. With the arrival of the 1930's New Deal, the post-war automobile boom, and the advent of television in the 1940's, Slovaks, like other Americans, began to move into the suburbs. Although the second generation remained loyal to their parents' institutions, the third generation lost �196 SLOVAKIA interest and their community institutions began to decline and disappear. This is a phenomenon facing all "older" ethnic groups in America. Since Zecker is admittedly an "outsider" to the Slovak community (p . 214), this book, like others written by American-born and educated scholars, suffers from both linguistic and factual errors. Zecker had to learn Slovak from scratch and never mastered its nuances. Thus, he mistakenly identified "Hutoraks" (it should be hutoraci) as Slovaks who originated in the vicinity of the village of "Hutka" (p.27). Instead, "hutoraci" is a pjorative term used by Central and Western Slovaks for Eastern Slovaks who do not speak (hovoria), but, rather, "hutoria" in their own dialect. He mis-translates Slovak "zupy" as "provinces," when they were counties (p.31). He misspells "okres" (district) as "okra" (p.35) and "krnotor" (godfather) as "Kumoda" (p .102). Furthermore, he misspelled and mis-translated the phrase "tu baz [mas!] vzduch" as "There's too much air in here," when it should have been "Here 's some air" (p.183), and many more such mistakes, too numerous to be listed. In addition to the above, Zecker also made some factual errors. He mis-identified the social commentator Nicholas von Hoffman as Alexander von Hoffman (pages 16 and 219); he had Lutheran pastors celebrating "Mass" and dispensing "sacraments" (p.155)! He had "Hapsburg troops" firing upon a Slovak crowd in 1907 when Hungarian gendarmes did so (p.278); he identified the Rev. Andrej Hlinka as a deputy in the Hungarian Parliament in 1907 when the latter would not become a member of the provisional Czechoslovak Parliament until 1919 (p.201 ); and he promoted brigadier-general Milan R. Stefanik into an air marshal (p.204)! The latter errors testified to Zecker' s weak knowledge of European history, which is typical of many scholars of American history. Indeed, when one searches for references to the works of scholars in Slovakia on the subject of immigration, one is disappointed. Even though Zecker went out of his way to detail the history of the tiny group of Slovak Marxists in Philadelphia, he never cited the many articles on this subject by the late Milos Gosiorovsky. Nor did he seem to be aware of the three-volume work on Slovak immigration compiled by Frantisek Bielik and others. Finally, even though Zecker presented an impressive bibliography at the end of the book, it was unorganized. Thus, he mixed up �SLOVAKIA 197 his primary sources (archives, censuses, minutes of fraternal-benefit societies, church records, etc), with secondary sources, largely on American ethnic groups and American history in general. Fortunately, he did list his oral history interviews separately but failed to identify his interviewees. While the author may have agreed with his informants not to list their full names, he never did identify the leaders of the various Slovak communities (except their priests). We are left wondering who some of the "movers and shakers" were who founded the churches and fraternal-benefit societies, the various businesses, community halls, savings and loan associations, bands, radio programs and so on. This is a weakness found in most American social histories, which stress the "common man" (and woman) but ignore the leaders. Thus, Zecker's story of the various Slovak communities in Philadelphis remains incomplete. In spite of these deficiencies, Zecker's history of Slovaks in Philadelphia is a welcome addition to the field. We now have professional histories of three Slovak communities in the United States Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by the author of this review ( 1985); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by June Granatir Alexander (1987); and Philadelphia by Robert M. Zecker. May we soon have even more! Valerian Bystricky, Miroslav Michela, Michal Schvarc a kol., Rozbitie alebo rozpad? Historicke rejlexie zaniku Cesko-Slovenska. Bratislava: VEDA, 2010. 575 pp., notes, bibliography, English resume, index. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Department of International Studies York University, Glendon College This is an unusual volume. A title with a question mark implies an answer. However, to demand that thirty-three scholars from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland provide one is problematic, especially when each contributes a specialized examination of an issue, which may, or may not be related directly to the question. Secondly, the chapter breakdown is determined by the contributions rather than a thematic organization arising out of the title. �198 SLOVAKIA Thirdly, the book is bilingual (Slovak and Czech). Finally, all contributors share something in common, namely extensive and thorough research in archives, many hitherto inaccessible, and references to authoritative secondary sources, although, with one exception, the list is limited to Central European scholars. This review will highlight those contributions that are deemed worthy of comment either because of their interpretation, their contribution to scholarship, or their pertinence to the question in the title. In an effort to answer whether post-Munich Czecho-Slovakia (C-SR) was broken up or collapsed in 1939, the editors divided the book into five thematic chapters and an epilogue of two essays on Slovak historiography. In each chapter, different authors looked at particular issues apparently linked to the theme. The first deals with the C-SR, from October 1938 to March 1939. The focus is on foreign policy and its consequences on domestic politics, especially Slovak politics. Particularly noteworthy is the contribution by Emilia Hrabovec on the perceptions of the Holy See concerning the future of that state. In the Vatican archives she discovered how the Holy See followed with great interest and interpreted with prudence the domestic and foreign developments that led to the Slovak proclamation of independence in March of 1939 and why it gave diplomatic recognition to the first Slovak Republic. Equally interesting are the contributions by l:udovit Hallon on economic changes in Slovakia and the preponderant role played by Germany; and by Miloslav Caplovic on what happened to the Czechoslovak Armed Forces after Munich, especially the transfer of many divisions to Slovakia to protect the state against possible Hungarian and Polish military incursions. Caplovic also mentions the reorganisation that later resulted in the creation of the Armed Forces of the first Slovak Republic. Jozef Bystricky, in chapter four, offeres a detailed analysis of how this happened and also the state of the military forces that responded to Hungarian incursions after independence. The contribution by Valerian Bystricky on the foreign policy activities of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party stands out because of the absence of a contextual perspective. Bystricky bases his article on constitutional legalism to criticize the efforts of members of this party to establish foreign contacts in order to ensure the future of Slovakia when the international situation in Central Europe was deteriorating and the fate of the C-SR was uncertain. �SLOVAKIA 199 The second chapter, "Disliked by its neighbours," is on Germany and the C-SR; Slovakia and Ruthenia in the policies of Hungary and Poland; and the nationality question as a political instrument. The nine contributors provide an interesting analysis of Slovakia's relations with its neighbours at a time when its leaders sought to figure out its future and these neighbours were using the nationality question to achieve their objectives. Slovakia was not "disliked;" rather it was the object of revisionist (Hungary) or strategic policies (Germany and Poland). Most contributions, especially the one by Angela Hermann on German policy toward Slovakia, do indicate that Slovakia' s neighbours sought the break up of the C-SR. What is missing is an assessment on how the C-SR and Slovak politicians reacted to the political, diplomatic, and military manoeuvring that took place after October 1938. Hermann ' s contribution makes clear that Slovak leaders understood the realities of power in Central Europe, but also their own responsibility to their nation. The third chapter has eight contributions on "The March events of 1939." Half offer a study of external reactions to these events; the other half look at specific domestic events or attitudes around the 14 March proclamation. One can learn what the German press, British scholarship, or Americans of Czech and Slovak background thought of these events. The latter contribution by Frantisek Hanzlik is, however, very superficial , especially with regards to Slovak Americans. Regarding domestic events, Zlatica Zudova-Leskova ' s examination of the emergency measures of l O March is most atypical. Both in tone and content, it is a strident attack on those who do not see these measures as a legitimate response by C-SR authorities to protect the integrity of that state. In marked contrast, Robert Letz ' s study of the attitude of the Catholic Church and its episcopate in Slovakia toward the March events offers a sophisticated glimpse of the interplay of religion, politics, hierarchy, and the need for public order at a time of constitutional change and foreign political and ideological pressure. A limited sociological examination of the general Slovak reaction is found in the presentation by Martin Hetenyi on the Nitra region. "The beginnings of the Slovak State" constitutes the theme of the fourth chapter. It brings together contributions that deal with the formation of the political system; the independence of the judiciary as seen by the leading political party in Slovakia in 1938-1939; the formation of the Slovak Armed Forces; and the departure of Czech sol- �200 SLOVAKIA diers from Slovakia after independence. The first two contributions, especially the one by Igor Baka, focus on those elements in the political system emanating from the policies of the regime that, according to the two authors, show the creation of a totalitarian state in Slovakia after March 1939. That the first Slovak Republic became a one-party state is beyond dispute; to conclude, however, that it became totalitarian is to ignore the international and comparative context (with other states at that time or the later Communist one) and the essence of political life in Slovakia, whatever the constitutional or administrative system. Scholarship is not served by approaching this subject with a conceptual bias (i .e. if it was not democratic, then it had to be totalitarian), as these two contributions do. Finally, the two bibliographical contributions in the epilogue make a major contribution to Slovak historiography. Both outline the problems Slovak historiography has had and continues to have, which the essays in this volume reflect. The variety of views and the disparity of approaches in this book would have been better served with the title: Break-up and Collapse, a title, which the contributions underlie and with which every serious scholar specializing in the topic would concur. This volume contributes to a broader understanding of that period but does not help resolve the debates around it. Slovak scholarship still has a long way to go. Martin Lacko a Jan Sabo, Zandar troch rei imov alebo Slovenske dejiny 20. storocia z ineho pohl'adu. Gustav Polcik a jeho slui ba v Prievidzi v rokoch 1942-1972. Bratislava: Ustav pamati naroda, 2011. xliv-334 pp. , notes, illustrations, bibliography, abbreviations, index. YESHA YAHU JELINEK Beer-Sheva, Israel Prievidza, the home-town of the hero of this monograph (and also of the author of this review), lies in the upper Nitra river valley. At the beginning of World War II, it had about 5,000 inhabitants. Industrialization and more intensive coal mining during the communist era boosted the population to about thirty thousand today. Since the �SLOVAKIA 201 days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prievidza boasted a Gendarme (police) station, which served about twenty villages and townships. Between five and ten Gendarmes served there, but came from elsewhere. A bachelor Gendarme was forbidden to marry for the first four years of his service, and especially not to a local woman. The Gendarme was expected to become closely acquainted with the locality, its people, and culture. However, he was also supposed to be neutral in political matters, and not to join any political parties. The latter regulation was changed during the communist era, when all Gendarmes were expected to join the Communist Party and to enforce its rule. As he related to the compilers of this book, Gustav Polcik arrived in Prievidza as a Gendarme in the summer of 1942. Four years later he married his village sweetheart and had two daughters with her. The family was apparently very proud of its Gendarme son, as the many photographs of him in his uniform attest. The job guaranteed him a good salary and respect. It was a major move up the social ladder for a village boy. When Polcik retired in 1972, he had reached the rank of major, which was testimony to a successful career in the service of his people in the city of Prievidza. It is not easy to review a perspective "from the other side," as the authors/editors of this book titled it. After all, Polcik served three ruling regimes. During the years of the Holocaust, Polcik carried out the official policies of the Slovak Republic, which was allied with Nazi Germany. One of them was to deport Slovak Jews to Poland, where they were exterminated by the Germans. Although Polcik claimed that, because he had arrived in Prievidza in the summer of 1942, the Jews had already been expelled (p.94), this is not credible. The last transport of Jews from that locality left in October of 1942. Nora Kellerman, a Prievidza friend and neighbour of the author of this review described the deportation of her father thus : "Suddenly, two men arrived, a Gendarme and a Hlinka Guard (the Hlinka Guard was a paramilitary force of the ruling Hlinka Slovak People's Party), they gave father ten minutes to pack his belongings, he kissed us and they escorted him out. I was six years old and never saw my father again." Clearly, the Gendarmes executed the orders of the government in Bratislava. Polcik admitted throughout the book that he faithfully executed orders from above. All Gendarmes were trained to do this, even dur- �202 SLOVAKIA ing the first Czechoslovak Republic. During the communist period, even though he joined the Party, he sometimes sought to avoid enforcing unpleasant orders with various ruses. Often he convinced himself that the orders were wrong. He did admit that many times the orders gnawed at his conscience. In these instances he sought to avoid carrying them out, but without harm to himself. A good example of Polcik's reasoning and actions was when he was assigned to serve on the Italian front in 1944. He did not want to go and sought out the commander of the Gendarmerie in Slovakia, Colonel Timotheus lstok, who happened to come from his native village, and who was friendly with his parents. In spite of being received by lstok, the orders were not changed. Therefore, Polcik decided to desert to the local partisans (guerrillas), whom he knew, and had assisted in various ways. Ironically, the government bureaucracy continued to pay his wages while he was in active opposition to the regime! Once the war had ended, Polcik emerged as a resistance fighter and his career continued to blossom. When the Communists seized power in 1948, Polcik joined the Party and continued his climb upward. He even became head of the local Hunter's Association and assisted the Prievidza Communists, who were poorly-educated, to write their reports in his beautiful handwriting. He could also type and, thus, was privy to all the secret reports sent by the government in Bratislava. He always sought to help those whom he could, and to not make any enemies. He was also a non-drinker, which kept him out of trouble. When all is said and done, what we have here is the life history of an opportunistic public servant, interested above all in his advancement. Therefore, by being very careful, he was able to survive the frequently changing regimes and governments in his homeland. Polcik survived and advanced because he understood how to manage himself in every situation. This book gives us a good insight into the political life of Slovakia over thirty years and how some of the people, like the Gendarme Gustav Polcik, successfully adjusted to three very different political regimes. �SLOVAKIA 203 Michal Smigel a Stefan Krusko, Opcia a presidlenie Rusinov do ZSSR 1945-194 7. Bratislava: Goralinga, 2011. 340pp. appendices, charts, bibliography, resumes. PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI University of Toronto At the close of World War II, world leaders seemed determined to try to create a new political order that, hopefully, would preclude catastrophic conflicts of the kind they had just experienced. Many statesmen felt that national minorities and the ideology of integral nationalism were among the main causes leading to World War II . Therefore, in an attempt to correct this situation, many governments set out to adjust ethnographic boundaries to state boundaries. There were several ways in which this might be achieved: a change in international borders; national assimilation of minority groups; physical extermination; or resettlement. Population resettlement became an acceptable and favored political solution at the time. The most monumental example of this approach was the displacement of millions of Hindus and Muslims in South Asia to create the new states of India and Pakistan. Postwar Europe also engaged in population resettlement, the best known case being the expulsion in 1946-1947 of over six million Germans (3 .2 million from Poland and three million from Czechoslovakia) and their resettlement in the various occupation zones of postwar Germany. Smaller in scale and much less known were the population exchanges between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. These took place in two phases. When, in June 1945 , Czechoslovakia formally ceded its pre-Munich eastern province of Subcarpathian Rus' to the Soviet Union, a protocol to the treaty provided for the right of persons of Slovak and Czech nationality resident in Subcarpathian Rus '/Transcarpathian Ukraine to resettle in postwar Czechoslovakia, and for the right of persons of Ukrainian and Russian nationality in Czechoslovakia- specifically from "districts (okresy) in Slovakia"to resettle in the Soviet Union. Technically, these populations were being given "the right to opt" (prava opcie) for either Czechoslovak �204 SLOVAKIA or Soviet citizenship, a status which would allow them to resettle permanently in one or the other country. The second phase came as a result of an accord signed in October of 1946, according to which persons of Czech and Slovak nationality living in the Soviet Union (specifically the Volhynia region of Soviet Ukraine) were to be resettled to Czechoslovakia in exchange for persons of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusan nationality in Czechoslovakia who were to be resettled in the Soviet Union. Despite the various nationalities listed in the treaty, in practice the populations in question were only two : Czechs, who in the nineteenth century had emigrated to what was then the province of Volhynia in the Russian Empire; and Carpatho-Rusyns (Rusnaks), who since their first appearance in the early Middle Ages inhabited relatively compact areas in northeastern Slovakia. The numbers in both phases were relatively small-about 25 ,000 persons to Czechoslovakia as a result of the 1945 treaty; followed by 40,000 persons to Czechoslovakia and 12,000 to Soviet Ukraine as a result of the 1946 treaty. The latter exchange was known as the Volhynian Operation/Volynska akcia and was carried out in 1947. The story of the two Czechoslovak-Soviet population exchanges is the subject of this book by Michal Smigel, an associate professor of history at Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, and Stefan Krusko, a writer and civic activist whose family had opted to go to Soviet Ukraine in 1947 and who later "re-opted" back to Czechoslovakia. Aside from the details of the actual resettlement process between 1945 and 1947, the authors devote the third and last chapter of their book to the fate of the 12,000 Carpatho-Rusyns from northeastern Slovakia who voluntarily opted for the Soviet Union. No sooner had the transports arrived in the Soviet Union in the spring of 194 7, than did the newcomers from Czechoslovakia realize they had made a mistake. Many wanted immediately to go back home, but there was no leaving the "Soviet paradise." The very thought of doing so could- and did- result in arrests and imprisonment during the height of Stalinist repressive rule. Thus began what turned out to be decades of struggle on the part of the 12,000 Carpatho-Rusyn "exiles" in Soviet Volhynia to return to their Carpathian homeland. In the interim, the children born "in exile" were educated in Ukrainian, while their parents proceeded to claim that they were "Slovaks" (and were generally described as such by local Ukraini- �SLOVAKIA 205 ans) in an effort to justify their legal right to return to Czechoslovakia. Beginning in the 1960s, a small but gradually increasing number of families managed to leave Volhynia, settling first in Soviet Transcarpathia, from where some managed to return to Czechoslovakia. The process of return was long and complicated, however, and it did not end until the 1990s, when ironically it was connected with the world's first prominently publicized nuclear disaster. Looking for an excuse to justify the entry for "immigrants" from the east, Slovakia passed a law which allowed for the return of its former citizens from what was described as "the zone [including Volhynia] affected by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster." The homecoming for the reoptanty (those who opted to return) was often far from ideal. Most did not return to their native villages, since local residents-and even family members- were suspicious of people who in 1947 had left for the Soviet east as "Rusnaks," who came back as "Slovaks," often speaking Ukrainian, and who consequently were viewed by their former neighbors as "Russians" (rusky), an epithet that in post-1968 Czechoslovakia was, to say the least, not a positive one. Nevertheless, the reoptanty, in particular children who left with their parents or who were born in Ukraine, eventually did well after their return to Czechoslovakia. Some found employment in the various Ukrainian minority cultural institutions in Presov that were liberally funded in Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia. Most, however, assimilated into Slovak society in a conscious effort to distance themselves from the East. Among the best known of the reoptanty was Peter Bondra. He was born in Soviet Ukraine to Carpatho-Rusyn parents, who in 1947 were settled in the Soviet Union, but who returned in the 1970s to Slovakia, where Peter was raised and where he learned a new skill- hockey. This allowed him later in life to "re-emigrate," this time to the United States, where he became a star in the National Hockey League. Smigel and Krusko have done an excellent job in describing the fascinating tale of one aspect of post-World War II demographic engineering in central and eastern Europe. The narrative is interspersed with statistical charts and historic photographs . Included as well are several appendices: the full texts of the 1945 and 1946 Czechoslovak-Soviet treaties, accompanying protocols, and instructions for implementation; detailed charts with data on the 194 7 population �206 SLOVAKIA exchanges; an extensive bibliography of archival and secondary sources; and resumes in English and Russian. M. Mark Stolarik, compiler and editor, The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later. Mundelein, Ill. : Bolchazy-Carducci, 2010 . xxxiv-305 pp ., notes, photos, index, hard and soft cover. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University Salisbury, Maryland This book is based on the proceedings of a conference held at the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2008 . M. Mark Stolarik, who holds the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at that institution, organized the meeting, compiled and edited the papers, as well as contributed most of the photographs. He also wrote the Introduction in which he offered his personal reminiscences of those August days as he witnessed the invasion, the largest military action in Europe since the Second World War. His Introduction gives a brief overview of the subsequent papers and commentaries, and includes excellent footnotes providing first-rate bibliographic material covering the subject. He concludes the Introduction with an almost two-year chronology of the "Prague Spring," from October of 1967 to September of 1969, to better orient the reader. The authors of the papers and commentaries are a Who's Who of specialists on East Central Europe. Participants from countries of the former Warsaw Pact wrote the papers based largely on archival investigations: Mikhail V. Latysh (USSR), Jan Rychlik (Czech Republic), Slavomir Michalek and Stanislav Sikora (Slovakia), Lukasz Kaminski (Poland), Rudiger Wenzke (East Germany), Ivana Skalova (Bulgaria), Csaba Bekes (Hungary), and Drago~ Petrescu (Romania). Americans and Canadians who presented commentaries include: Matthew J. Ouimet (USSR), Michael Kraus (Czech Republic ), Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (Slovakia), Piotr Wrobel (Poland), Gary Bruce (East Germany), Mark Kramer (Bulgaria), Peter Pastor (Hungary), and Monica Ciobranu (Romania). At the end of the text, before the �SLOVAKIA 207 index, Stolarik included "Notes on Contributors," which gives basic biographical information on the participants. The reader will find many interesting and largely hitherto unknown facts available in the standard works on the subject. For example, at the last minute, the Soviet Union would not allow East Germany to participate in the invasion for fear that it would bring back horrifying memories of the Nazi dismemberment and occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939. Yet, until its dying days, the East German government, which wholeheartedly supported the invasion, and early on argued for its implementation, perpetuated the myth that it was an active participant. Another, perhaps more striking example, would be the claim by Soviet General G. Yashkin that Soviet Marshal Ivan I. Yakubovsky, commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact forces , ordered the invasion of Czechoslovakia in early May of 1968, only to reverse his decision several minutes later. Bulgarian leader Todor Zhikov, uneasy over events in Czechoslovakia by early spring of 1968, insisted that he be present at the negotiations with Czechoslovakia and pressed for an early solution, despite the fact that Bulgaria had no common border with Czechoslovakia. Yet, after his fall from power, Zhivkov denied any wrongdoing, but instead insisted that he supported the reforms and reluctantly agreed to support the invasion. Whereas Bekes presents Hungarian leader Janos Kadar in a sympathetic light as a grand compromiser, Pastor sees him instead using double speak for domestic consumption. On a more humorous note, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka, an early proponent for intervention, intensely disliked Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek and consistently changed the "b" in his name to a "p", thereby rendering his surname in Polish to be an unmentionable part of the human anatomy in polite society. Constraints of space will not allow a discussion of the individual papers and commentaries. However, of particular note is the attention paid to Romania. This member of the Warsaw Pact neither participated in the discussions leading to nor took part in the invasion itself. Nonetheless, as most are aware, the Romanian regime outwardly supported the reforms and then vehemently attacked the invasion. Although Petrescu's piece is more of a political science approach than the other contributions, he makes a persuasive argument that the invasion provided legitimacy and popular support for Ceau~escu' s rise to power after the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu- �208 SLOVAKIA Dej. Ceau~escu would never be as popular as he was in August of 1968, when he unified and rallied the country. However, once firmly in control, he ended economic liberalization and ideological relaxation and became more autocratic, relying on his famil y members for support, which eventually led to his demise in 1989. The Soviets ultimately misjudged popular reaction to the 1968 invasion. Petrescu has included an excellent quote from the Romanian dictator that prophetically summed up the results of the invasion, "In my opinion, a big and tragic mistake, with heavy consequences upon the fate of the unity of the socialist system and the international communist and workers movement occurred (252-53)." In short, the invasion mortally wounded the Eastern Bloc 's experiment with Communism. It showed that it could not be a viable alternative to liberal democracy and market economics. This volume is a fine addition to our knowledge of the events of the Prague Spring. Some of the information may be a bit too scholarly for the general reader, but, it is an up-to-date work based on research in archives and other sources opened after 1989. It is a must read for anyone interested in the topic. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2013, Vol. 41 Description An account of the resource Vol. 41 (No. 76-77), 2013. 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 2013 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 195 Robert M Zecker, Streetcar Parishes: Slovak Immigrants Build their Nonlocal Communities, I 890-1945. Selingsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 2010 . 329pp. Notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa In this revised Ph.D. dissertation (University of Pennsylvania, 1998), Robert M. Zecker set out to prove that Slovaks who lived in six widely dispersed neighborhoods of Philadelphia in the 20 th century formed "translocal" (p. 19) communities based upon four parish churches and about a dozen fraternal-benefit societies. The author dug deeply into census records, city directories, parish and fraternal records, supplemented by oral history interviews and published histories of Philadelphia and other ethnic groups across the United States. He showed that, even though Slovaks in Philadelphia were widely dispersed and lived among other ethnic groups, in the first two generations they socialized mostly among themselves. Indeed, they travelled great distances to attend church services on Sundays as well as fraternal meetings, dances, plays, gymnastic events and other amusements. Not only did they form translocal "imagined communities" (p.160) but they were also transconfessional because Roman and Greek Catholics, Lutherans and Marxists attended each other's events and financially supported them. Zecker also pointed out that Slovaks in Philadelphia, and elsewhere, bought into American race ideology. Thus, they stressed their "whiteness," as did other ethnic groups, by staging minstrel shows in the 1930's and 1940's and resisted the building of public housing in their neighborhoods. When they lost this fight, they followed other Americans into the suburbs. Zecker concluded that Slovaks in Philadelphia, like other ethnic groups in America, did not form compact neighborhoods of residence, but were widely dispersed. Nevertheless, they stuck together in the first two generations by attending distant church services, fraternal meetings and a wide variety of social activities. With the arrival of the 1930's New Deal, the post-war automobile boom, and the advent of television in the 1940's, Slovaks, like other Americans, began to move into the suburbs. Although the second generation remained loyal to their parents' institutions, the third generation lost 196 SLOVAKIA interest and their community institutions began to decline and disappear. This is a phenomenon facing all "older" ethnic groups in America. Since Zecker is admittedly an "outsider" to the Slovak community (p . 214), this book, like others written by American-born and educated scholars, suffers from both linguistic and factual errors. Zecker had to learn Slovak from scratch and never mastered its nuances. Thus, he mistakenly identified "Hutoraks" (it should be hutoraci) as Slovaks who originated in the vicinity of the village of "Hutka" (p.27). Instead, "hutoraci" is a pjorative term used by Central and Western Slovaks for Eastern Slovaks who do not speak (hovoria), but, rather, "hutoria" in their own dialect. He mis-translates Slovak "zupy" as "provinces," when they were counties (p.31). He misspells "okres" (district) as "okra" (p.35) and "krnotor" (godfather) as "Kumoda" (p .102). Furthermore, he misspelled and mis-translated the phrase "tu baz [mas!] vzduch" as "There's too much air in here," when it should have been "Here 's some air" (p.183), and many more such mistakes, too numerous to be listed. In addition to the above, Zecker also made some factual errors. He mis-identified the social commentator Nicholas von Hoffman as Alexander von Hoffman (pages 16 and 219); he had Lutheran pastors celebrating "Mass" and dispensing "sacraments" (p.155)! He had "Hapsburg troops" firing upon a Slovak crowd in 1907 when Hungarian gendarmes did so (p.278); he identified the Rev. Andrej Hlinka as a deputy in the Hungarian Parliament in 1907 when the latter would not become a member of the provisional Czechoslovak Parliament until 1919 (p.201 ); and he promoted brigadier-general Milan R. Stefanik into an air marshal (p.204)! The latter errors testified to Zecker' s weak knowledge of European history, which is typical of many scholars of American history. Indeed, when one searches for references to the works of scholars in Slovakia on the subject of immigration, one is disappointed. Even though Zecker went out of his way to detail the history of the tiny group of Slovak Marxists in Philadelphia, he never cited the many articles on this subject by the late Milos Gosiorovsky. Nor did he seem to be aware of the three-volume work on Slovak immigration compiled by Frantisek Bielik and others. Finally, even though Zecker presented an impressive bibliography at the end of the book, it was unorganized. Thus, he mixed up SLOVAKIA 197 his primary sources (archives, censuses, minutes of fraternal-benefit societies, church records, etc), with secondary sources, largely on American ethnic groups and American history in general. Fortunately, he did list his oral history interviews separately but failed to identify his interviewees. While the author may have agreed with his informants not to list their full names, he never did identify the leaders of the various Slovak communities (except their priests). We are left wondering who some of the "movers and shakers" were who founded the churches and fraternal-benefit societies, the various businesses, community halls, savings and loan associations, bands, radio programs and so on. This is a weakness found in most American social histories, which stress the "common man" (and woman) but ignore the leaders. Thus, Zecker's story of the various Slovak communities in Philadelphis remains incomplete. In spite of these deficiencies, Zecker's history of Slovaks in Philadelphia is a welcome addition to the field. We now have professional histories of three Slovak communities in the United States Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by the author of this review ( 1985); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by June Granatir Alexander (1987); and Philadelphia by Robert M. Zecker. May we soon have even more! Valerian Bystricky, Miroslav Michela, Michal Schvarc a kol., Rozbitie alebo rozpad? Historicke rejlexie zaniku Cesko-Slovenska. Bratislava: VEDA, 2010. 575 pp., notes, bibliography, English resume, index. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Department of International Studies York University, Glendon College This is an unusual volume. A title with a question mark implies an answer. However, to demand that thirty-three scholars from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland provide one is problematic, especially when each contributes a specialized examination of an issue, which may, or may not be related directly to the question. Secondly, the chapter breakdown is determined by the contributions rather than a thematic organization arising out of the title. 198 SLOVAKIA Thirdly, the book is bilingual (Slovak and Czech). Finally, all contributors share something in common, namely extensive and thorough research in archives, many hitherto inaccessible, and references to authoritative secondary sources, although, with one exception, the list is limited to Central European scholars. This review will highlight those contributions that are deemed worthy of comment either because of their interpretation, their contribution to scholarship, or their pertinence to the question in the title. In an effort to answer whether post-Munich Czecho-Slovakia (C-SR) was broken up or collapsed in 1939, the editors divided the book into five thematic chapters and an epilogue of two essays on Slovak historiography. In each chapter, different authors looked at particular issues apparently linked to the theme. The first deals with the C-SR, from October 1938 to March 1939. The focus is on foreign policy and its consequences on domestic politics, especially Slovak politics. Particularly noteworthy is the contribution by Emilia Hrabovec on the perceptions of the Holy See concerning the future of that state. In the Vatican archives she discovered how the Holy See followed with great interest and interpreted with prudence the domestic and foreign developments that led to the Slovak proclamation of independence in March of 1939 and why it gave diplomatic recognition to the first Slovak Republic. Equally interesting are the contributions by l:udovit Hallon on economic changes in Slovakia and the preponderant role played by Germany; and by Miloslav Caplovic on what happened to the Czechoslovak Armed Forces after Munich, especially the transfer of many divisions to Slovakia to protect the state against possible Hungarian and Polish military incursions. Caplovic also mentions the reorganisation that later resulted in the creation of the Armed Forces of the first Slovak Republic. Jozef Bystricky, in chapter four, offeres a detailed analysis of how this happened and also the state of the military forces that responded to Hungarian incursions after independence. The contribution by Valerian Bystricky on the foreign policy activities of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party stands out because of the absence of a contextual perspective. Bystricky bases his article on constitutional legalism to criticize the efforts of members of this party to establish foreign contacts in order to ensure the future of Slovakia when the international situation in Central Europe was deteriorating and the fate of the C-SR was uncertain. SLOVAKIA 199 The second chapter, "Disliked by its neighbours," is on Germany and the C-SR; Slovakia and Ruthenia in the policies of Hungary and Poland; and the nationality question as a political instrument. The nine contributors provide an interesting analysis of Slovakia's relations with its neighbours at a time when its leaders sought to figure out its future and these neighbours were using the nationality question to achieve their objectives. Slovakia was not "disliked;" rather it was the object of revisionist (Hungary) or strategic policies (Germany and Poland). Most contributions, especially the one by Angela Hermann on German policy toward Slovakia, do indicate that Slovakia' s neighbours sought the break up of the C-SR. What is missing is an assessment on how the C-SR and Slovak politicians reacted to the political, diplomatic, and military manoeuvring that took place after October 1938. Hermann ' s contribution makes clear that Slovak leaders understood the realities of power in Central Europe, but also their own responsibility to their nation. The third chapter has eight contributions on "The March events of 1939." Half offer a study of external reactions to these events; the other half look at specific domestic events or attitudes around the 14 March proclamation. One can learn what the German press, British scholarship, or Americans of Czech and Slovak background thought of these events. The latter contribution by Frantisek Hanzlik is, however, very superficial , especially with regards to Slovak Americans. Regarding domestic events, Zlatica Zudova-Leskova ' s examination of the emergency measures of l O March is most atypical. Both in tone and content, it is a strident attack on those who do not see these measures as a legitimate response by C-SR authorities to protect the integrity of that state. In marked contrast, Robert Letz ' s study of the attitude of the Catholic Church and its episcopate in Slovakia toward the March events offers a sophisticated glimpse of the interplay of religion, politics, hierarchy, and the need for public order at a time of constitutional change and foreign political and ideological pressure. A limited sociological examination of the general Slovak reaction is found in the presentation by Martin Hetenyi on the Nitra region. "The beginnings of the Slovak State" constitutes the theme of the fourth chapter. It brings together contributions that deal with the formation of the political system; the independence of the judiciary as seen by the leading political party in Slovakia in 1938-1939; the formation of the Slovak Armed Forces; and the departure of Czech sol- 200 SLOVAKIA diers from Slovakia after independence. The first two contributions, especially the one by Igor Baka, focus on those elements in the political system emanating from the policies of the regime that, according to the two authors, show the creation of a totalitarian state in Slovakia after March 1939. That the first Slovak Republic became a one-party state is beyond dispute; to conclude, however, that it became totalitarian is to ignore the international and comparative context (with other states at that time or the later Communist one) and the essence of political life in Slovakia, whatever the constitutional or administrative system. Scholarship is not served by approaching this subject with a conceptual bias (i .e. if it was not democratic, then it had to be totalitarian), as these two contributions do. Finally, the two bibliographical contributions in the epilogue make a major contribution to Slovak historiography. Both outline the problems Slovak historiography has had and continues to have, which the essays in this volume reflect. The variety of views and the disparity of approaches in this book would have been better served with the title: Break-up and Collapse, a title, which the contributions underlie and with which every serious scholar specializing in the topic would concur. This volume contributes to a broader understanding of that period but does not help resolve the debates around it. Slovak scholarship still has a long way to go. Martin Lacko a Jan Sabo, Zandar troch rei imov alebo Slovenske dejiny 20. storocia z ineho pohl'adu. Gustav Polcik a jeho slui ba v Prievidzi v rokoch 1942-1972. Bratislava: Ustav pamati naroda, 2011. xliv-334 pp. , notes, illustrations, bibliography, abbreviations, index. YESHA YAHU JELINEK Beer-Sheva, Israel Prievidza, the home-town of the hero of this monograph (and also of the author of this review), lies in the upper Nitra river valley. At the beginning of World War II, it had about 5,000 inhabitants. Industrialization and more intensive coal mining during the communist era boosted the population to about thirty thousand today. Since the SLOVAKIA 201 days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prievidza boasted a Gendarme (police) station, which served about twenty villages and townships. Between five and ten Gendarmes served there, but came from elsewhere. A bachelor Gendarme was forbidden to marry for the first four years of his service, and especially not to a local woman. The Gendarme was expected to become closely acquainted with the locality, its people, and culture. However, he was also supposed to be neutral in political matters, and not to join any political parties. The latter regulation was changed during the communist era, when all Gendarmes were expected to join the Communist Party and to enforce its rule. As he related to the compilers of this book, Gustav Polcik arrived in Prievidza as a Gendarme in the summer of 1942. Four years later he married his village sweetheart and had two daughters with her. The family was apparently very proud of its Gendarme son, as the many photographs of him in his uniform attest. The job guaranteed him a good salary and respect. It was a major move up the social ladder for a village boy. When Polcik retired in 1972, he had reached the rank of major, which was testimony to a successful career in the service of his people in the city of Prievidza. It is not easy to review a perspective "from the other side," as the authors/editors of this book titled it. After all, Polcik served three ruling regimes. During the years of the Holocaust, Polcik carried out the official policies of the Slovak Republic, which was allied with Nazi Germany. One of them was to deport Slovak Jews to Poland, where they were exterminated by the Germans. Although Polcik claimed that, because he had arrived in Prievidza in the summer of 1942, the Jews had already been expelled (p.94), this is not credible. The last transport of Jews from that locality left in October of 1942. Nora Kellerman, a Prievidza friend and neighbour of the author of this review described the deportation of her father thus : "Suddenly, two men arrived, a Gendarme and a Hlinka Guard (the Hlinka Guard was a paramilitary force of the ruling Hlinka Slovak People's Party), they gave father ten minutes to pack his belongings, he kissed us and they escorted him out. I was six years old and never saw my father again." Clearly, the Gendarmes executed the orders of the government in Bratislava. Polcik admitted throughout the book that he faithfully executed orders from above. All Gendarmes were trained to do this, even dur- 202 SLOVAKIA ing the first Czechoslovak Republic. During the communist period, even though he joined the Party, he sometimes sought to avoid enforcing unpleasant orders with various ruses. Often he convinced himself that the orders were wrong. He did admit that many times the orders gnawed at his conscience. In these instances he sought to avoid carrying them out, but without harm to himself. A good example of Polcik's reasoning and actions was when he was assigned to serve on the Italian front in 1944. He did not want to go and sought out the commander of the Gendarmerie in Slovakia, Colonel Timotheus lstok, who happened to come from his native village, and who was friendly with his parents. In spite of being received by lstok, the orders were not changed. Therefore, Polcik decided to desert to the local partisans (guerrillas), whom he knew, and had assisted in various ways. Ironically, the government bureaucracy continued to pay his wages while he was in active opposition to the regime! Once the war had ended, Polcik emerged as a resistance fighter and his career continued to blossom. When the Communists seized power in 1948, Polcik joined the Party and continued his climb upward. He even became head of the local Hunter's Association and assisted the Prievidza Communists, who were poorly-educated, to write their reports in his beautiful handwriting. He could also type and, thus, was privy to all the secret reports sent by the government in Bratislava. He always sought to help those whom he could, and to not make any enemies. He was also a non-drinker, which kept him out of trouble. When all is said and done, what we have here is the life history of an opportunistic public servant, interested above all in his advancement. Therefore, by being very careful, he was able to survive the frequently changing regimes and governments in his homeland. Polcik survived and advanced because he understood how to manage himself in every situation. This book gives us a good insight into the political life of Slovakia over thirty years and how some of the people, like the Gendarme Gustav Polcik, successfully adjusted to three very different political regimes. SLOVAKIA 203 Michal Smigel a Stefan Krusko, Opcia a presidlenie Rusinov do ZSSR 1945-194 7. Bratislava: Goralinga, 2011. 340pp. appendices, charts, bibliography, resumes. PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI University of Toronto At the close of World War II, world leaders seemed determined to try to create a new political order that, hopefully, would preclude catastrophic conflicts of the kind they had just experienced. Many statesmen felt that national minorities and the ideology of integral nationalism were among the main causes leading to World War II . Therefore, in an attempt to correct this situation, many governments set out to adjust ethnographic boundaries to state boundaries. There were several ways in which this might be achieved: a change in international borders; national assimilation of minority groups; physical extermination; or resettlement. Population resettlement became an acceptable and favored political solution at the time. The most monumental example of this approach was the displacement of millions of Hindus and Muslims in South Asia to create the new states of India and Pakistan. Postwar Europe also engaged in population resettlement, the best known case being the expulsion in 1946-1947 of over six million Germans (3 .2 million from Poland and three million from Czechoslovakia) and their resettlement in the various occupation zones of postwar Germany. Smaller in scale and much less known were the population exchanges between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. These took place in two phases. When, in June 1945 , Czechoslovakia formally ceded its pre-Munich eastern province of Subcarpathian Rus' to the Soviet Union, a protocol to the treaty provided for the right of persons of Slovak and Czech nationality resident in Subcarpathian Rus '/Transcarpathian Ukraine to resettle in postwar Czechoslovakia, and for the right of persons of Ukrainian and Russian nationality in Czechoslovakia- specifically from "districts (okresy) in Slovakia"to resettle in the Soviet Union. Technically, these populations were being given "the right to opt" (prava opcie) for either Czechoslovak 204 SLOVAKIA or Soviet citizenship, a status which would allow them to resettle permanently in one or the other country. The second phase came as a result of an accord signed in October of 1946, according to which persons of Czech and Slovak nationality living in the Soviet Union (specifically the Volhynia region of Soviet Ukraine) were to be resettled to Czechoslovakia in exchange for persons of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusan nationality in Czechoslovakia who were to be resettled in the Soviet Union. Despite the various nationalities listed in the treaty, in practice the populations in question were only two : Czechs, who in the nineteenth century had emigrated to what was then the province of Volhynia in the Russian Empire; and Carpatho-Rusyns (Rusnaks), who since their first appearance in the early Middle Ages inhabited relatively compact areas in northeastern Slovakia. The numbers in both phases were relatively small-about 25 ,000 persons to Czechoslovakia as a result of the 1945 treaty; followed by 40,000 persons to Czechoslovakia and 12,000 to Soviet Ukraine as a result of the 1946 treaty. The latter exchange was known as the Volhynian Operation/Volynska akcia and was carried out in 1947. The story of the two Czechoslovak-Soviet population exchanges is the subject of this book by Michal Smigel, an associate professor of history at Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, and Stefan Krusko, a writer and civic activist whose family had opted to go to Soviet Ukraine in 1947 and who later "re-opted" back to Czechoslovakia. Aside from the details of the actual resettlement process between 1945 and 1947, the authors devote the third and last chapter of their book to the fate of the 12,000 Carpatho-Rusyns from northeastern Slovakia who voluntarily opted for the Soviet Union. No sooner had the transports arrived in the Soviet Union in the spring of 194 7, than did the newcomers from Czechoslovakia realize they had made a mistake. Many wanted immediately to go back home, but there was no leaving the "Soviet paradise." The very thought of doing so could- and did- result in arrests and imprisonment during the height of Stalinist repressive rule. Thus began what turned out to be decades of struggle on the part of the 12,000 Carpatho-Rusyn "exiles" in Soviet Volhynia to return to their Carpathian homeland. In the interim, the children born "in exile" were educated in Ukrainian, while their parents proceeded to claim that they were "Slovaks" (and were generally described as such by local Ukraini- SLOVAKIA 205 ans) in an effort to justify their legal right to return to Czechoslovakia. Beginning in the 1960s, a small but gradually increasing number of families managed to leave Volhynia, settling first in Soviet Transcarpathia, from where some managed to return to Czechoslovakia. The process of return was long and complicated, however, and it did not end until the 1990s, when ironically it was connected with the world's first prominently publicized nuclear disaster. Looking for an excuse to justify the entry for "immigrants" from the east, Slovakia passed a law which allowed for the return of its former citizens from what was described as "the zone [including Volhynia] affected by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster." The homecoming for the reoptanty (those who opted to return) was often far from ideal. Most did not return to their native villages, since local residents-and even family members- were suspicious of people who in 1947 had left for the Soviet east as "Rusnaks," who came back as "Slovaks," often speaking Ukrainian, and who consequently were viewed by their former neighbors as "Russians" (rusky), an epithet that in post-1968 Czechoslovakia was, to say the least, not a positive one. Nevertheless, the reoptanty, in particular children who left with their parents or who were born in Ukraine, eventually did well after their return to Czechoslovakia. Some found employment in the various Ukrainian minority cultural institutions in Presov that were liberally funded in Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia. Most, however, assimilated into Slovak society in a conscious effort to distance themselves from the East. Among the best known of the reoptanty was Peter Bondra. He was born in Soviet Ukraine to Carpatho-Rusyn parents, who in 1947 were settled in the Soviet Union, but who returned in the 1970s to Slovakia, where Peter was raised and where he learned a new skill- hockey. This allowed him later in life to "re-emigrate," this time to the United States, where he became a star in the National Hockey League. Smigel and Krusko have done an excellent job in describing the fascinating tale of one aspect of post-World War II demographic engineering in central and eastern Europe. The narrative is interspersed with statistical charts and historic photographs . Included as well are several appendices: the full texts of the 1945 and 1946 Czechoslovak-Soviet treaties, accompanying protocols, and instructions for implementation; detailed charts with data on the 194 7 population 206 SLOVAKIA exchanges; an extensive bibliography of archival and secondary sources; and resumes in English and Russian. M. Mark Stolarik, compiler and editor, The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later. Mundelein, Ill. : Bolchazy-Carducci, 2010 . xxxiv-305 pp ., notes, photos, index, hard and soft cover. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University Salisbury, Maryland This book is based on the proceedings of a conference held at the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2008 . M. Mark Stolarik, who holds the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at that institution, organized the meeting, compiled and edited the papers, as well as contributed most of the photographs. He also wrote the Introduction in which he offered his personal reminiscences of those August days as he witnessed the invasion, the largest military action in Europe since the Second World War. His Introduction gives a brief overview of the subsequent papers and commentaries, and includes excellent footnotes providing first-rate bibliographic material covering the subject. He concludes the Introduction with an almost two-year chronology of the "Prague Spring," from October of 1967 to September of 1969, to better orient the reader. The authors of the papers and commentaries are a Who's Who of specialists on East Central Europe. Participants from countries of the former Warsaw Pact wrote the papers based largely on archival investigations: Mikhail V. Latysh (USSR), Jan Rychlik (Czech Republic), Slavomir Michalek and Stanislav Sikora (Slovakia), Lukasz Kaminski (Poland), Rudiger Wenzke (East Germany), Ivana Skalova (Bulgaria), Csaba Bekes (Hungary), and Drago~ Petrescu (Romania). Americans and Canadians who presented commentaries include: Matthew J. Ouimet (USSR), Michael Kraus (Czech Republic ), Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (Slovakia), Piotr Wrobel (Poland), Gary Bruce (East Germany), Mark Kramer (Bulgaria), Peter Pastor (Hungary), and Monica Ciobranu (Romania). At the end of the text, before the SLOVAKIA 207 index, Stolarik included "Notes on Contributors," which gives basic biographical information on the participants. The reader will find many interesting and largely hitherto unknown facts available in the standard works on the subject. For example, at the last minute, the Soviet Union would not allow East Germany to participate in the invasion for fear that it would bring back horrifying memories of the Nazi dismemberment and occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939. Yet, until its dying days, the East German government, which wholeheartedly supported the invasion, and early on argued for its implementation, perpetuated the myth that it was an active participant. Another, perhaps more striking example, would be the claim by Soviet General G. Yashkin that Soviet Marshal Ivan I. Yakubovsky, commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact forces , ordered the invasion of Czechoslovakia in early May of 1968, only to reverse his decision several minutes later. Bulgarian leader Todor Zhikov, uneasy over events in Czechoslovakia by early spring of 1968, insisted that he be present at the negotiations with Czechoslovakia and pressed for an early solution, despite the fact that Bulgaria had no common border with Czechoslovakia. Yet, after his fall from power, Zhivkov denied any wrongdoing, but instead insisted that he supported the reforms and reluctantly agreed to support the invasion. Whereas Bekes presents Hungarian leader Janos Kadar in a sympathetic light as a grand compromiser, Pastor sees him instead using double speak for domestic consumption. On a more humorous note, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka, an early proponent for intervention, intensely disliked Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek and consistently changed the "b" in his name to a "p", thereby rendering his surname in Polish to be an unmentionable part of the human anatomy in polite society. Constraints of space will not allow a discussion of the individual papers and commentaries. However, of particular note is the attention paid to Romania. This member of the Warsaw Pact neither participated in the discussions leading to nor took part in the invasion itself. Nonetheless, as most are aware, the Romanian regime outwardly supported the reforms and then vehemently attacked the invasion. Although Petrescu's piece is more of a political science approach than the other contributions, he makes a persuasive argument that the invasion provided legitimacy and popular support for Ceau~escu' s rise to power after the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu- 208 SLOVAKIA Dej. Ceau~escu would never be as popular as he was in August of 1968, when he unified and rallied the country. However, once firmly in control, he ended economic liberalization and ideological relaxation and became more autocratic, relying on his famil y members for support, which eventually led to his demise in 1989. The Soviets ultimately misjudged popular reaction to the 1968 invasion. Petrescu has included an excellent quote from the Romanian dictator that prophetically summed up the results of the invasion, "In my opinion, a big and tragic mistake, with heavy consequences upon the fate of the unity of the socialist system and the international communist and workers movement occurred (252-53)." In short, the invasion mortally wounded the Eastern Bloc 's experiment with Communism. It showed that it could not be a viable alternative to liberal democracy and market economics. This volume is a fine addition to our knowledge of the events of the Prague Spring. Some of the information may be a bit too scholarly for the general reader, but, it is an up-to-date work based on research in archives and other sources opened after 1989. It is a must read for anyone interested in the topic.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 41 (No. 76-77) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Robert M. Zecker, Streetcar Parishes: Slovak Immigrants Build their Nonlocal Communities, 1890-1945 (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 195</li> <li>Valerián Bystrický et al., Rozbitie alebo rozpad? Historické reflexie zániku Česko-Slovenska (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 197</li> <li>Martin Lacko a Ján Sabo, Žandár troch režimov alebo Slovenské dejiny 20. storočia z iného pohľadu (Yeshayahu Jelinek), p. 200</li> <li>Michal Šmigel a Štefan Kruško, Opcia a presídlenie Rusínov do ZSSR 1945-1947 (Paul Robert Magocsi), p. 203</li> <li>M. Mark Stolarik, comp. and ed., The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later (Gregory C. Ference), p. 206</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Jelinek, Yeshayahu A. Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Magocsi, Paul Robert, 1945- Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2013 LCNAF SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/64f4bba079e4a745db1df0f78718e873.pdf adfff0d895f78dba279e225328f214ff PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOV AKIA-2015 129 Jan Rychlik, Magdalena Rychlfkova. Hospodafsky, socialni, kulturni a politicky vyvoj Podkarpatske Rusi 1919 - 1939 (Prague: Studie Narodohospodarskeho ustavu Josefa Hlavky, 2013), 184 pages. Notes, maps, illustrations, along with a German and English Summary. C. WINSTON CHRISLOCK Professor Emeritus University of St. Thomas St. Paul, Minnesota Transcarpathian Rus' formed the eastern tip of the First Czechoslovak Republic from 1919 to 1938 and, briefly of the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic from October 1938 to mid-March 1939. On November 2, 1939, Hungary annexed the southern, mostly Magyar regions of a by then autonomous Transcarpathian Rus' . On March 16, after the demise of Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary annexed the remainder of the region . Soviet forces occupied the area during the final stages of World War II in Europe. In June of 1945 Czechoslovakia agreed to allow the U.S.S.R. to annex Transcarpathian Rus' and both countries ratified the treaty of transfer in November of 1945. From 1945 until 1991 it was part of the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 , it remained a province of independent Ukraine. The purpose of the Rychliks' monograph is to describe and evaluate the region during its association with Czechoslovakia in the inner-war period. There was no doubt that the Czechoslovak government took over administration of a very complex and economically primitive province. The Rychliks' account begins with a pre-1919 backround in which they summarize Czech, Magyar and Ukranian sources. They then continue with an historical survey up to 1919. We learn that Transcarpathian Rus' consisted of four Hungarian counties, and that the Rusyn population had not yet developed any sense of national consciousness. The northern half of Transcarpathian Rus' was mountainous and heavily forested while the south was flatter and more suited for agriculture. About two-thirds of of the population were Rusyns who spoke dialects closely related to Ukrainian. Minorities consisted of Magyars, Jews, Romanians, Germans and Roma. Prior to World War I any attempt to codify the Rusyn language was prob- �130 SLOVAKIA-2015 lematic. While Rusyn dialects were close to Ukrainian, the tsarist regime in Russia looked upon Ukrainian as a Russian dialect. That would make Rusyn dialects dialects of a dialect! Austria-Hungary's collapse in 1918 brought political and economic chaos . Rusyn Americans had developed national consciousness by 1914, modelled somewhat on the Slovak experience. In the wake of Austria-Hungary's collapse their leaders lobbied T. G. Masaryk, leader of the Czecho-Slovak independence movement, and President Woodrow Wilson, for a Rusyn association with the new Czechoslovak state, with the understanding that Subcarpathian Rus' would have a large degree of autonomy. Masaryk agreed to this and after military confrontations with Hungary, Poland and indigenous Magyars, the Czechoslovak army, with the support of the United Kingdom, France and the U.S .A., successfully occupied the region by the end of 1919 and maintained sovereignty over it until the German annexation of the Czech lands in March of 1939. The Rychliks' objective was to describe the social, cultural and political problems of the region and then evaluate how the Czechoslovak government dealt with and responded to them. Given the complexity of a region that was blessed (cursed?) with a plethora of nationalities and languages, religions, hostile neighbors, and underdeveloped economy and national consciousness, the Czechoslovak government faced a monumental task. The political problem revolved around autonomy for the area. The 1920 Czechoslovak constitution provided for Subcarpathian Rus ' to send four senators and nine representatives to Czechoslovakia's National Assembly. Czechoslovakia's president, upon recommendation of the government, appointed a governor, whose power was limited, and a vicegovemor, who exercised most administrative powers. Rusyns, both at home and in the U.S.A., were dissatisfied with the lack of autonomy. Complicating the political situation were conflicts among Rusyns, Ukrainofiles, Russofiles, Jews, and Magyars and further conflicts between Russian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians. Economic and infrastructure underdevelopment were also major problems. Before World War I, commerce and transit were basically north and south, while after 1919 these were oriented east-west. Destruction brought on by the war exacerbated these problems. The Rychliks provide maps, railway timetables, and agricultural and eco- �SLOVAKIA-2015 131 nomic data to embellish their account of economic and infrastructure development. The book devotes substantial space to language and education. As both religious and public schools evolved, language became a thorny issue. The Rychliks pointed out that literary languages are artificial, and that was certainly true in Subcarpathian Rus'. Rusyns had not developed a literary language that everybody could agree upon. How could this state establish a network of Schools when Rusyns could not agree if the language and textbooks of instruction should be in Ukranian, Russian, or in a local dialect? What should be the policy toward the minority Ukranian, Russian, Slovak, Czech, Magyar, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Romanian, Roma Slovak and Czech speakers? The authors concluded that by 1938 there was no final resolution of the language issue. The authors concluded, with reservations, that Subcarpathian Rus' progressed under the first Czechoslovak Republic. However, from the standpoint of political maturity, economic and infrastructure development, literacy, and steps towards the codification of language, the formidable problems listed above retarded its progress. The Rychliks' work is a good companion to Paul R. Magocsi's excellent The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948 (1978). The former gives a data-filled account of a twenty-year period in 183 pages, thirty of which are notes, railroad timetables, maps and pictures, while Magocsi provides us with a very readable overview of the development of Subcarpathian Rus' over 100 years, along with a substantial, nearly 100-page, appendix and numerous notes. �132 SLOV AKIA-2015 David Doellinger. Turning Prayers into Based Activism and its Challenge to State Slovakia and East Germany. Budapest: Central Press, 2013. xii-288 pp. Glossary, bibliography, Protests: ReligiousPower in Socialist European University index. JAMES RAMON PELAK University of Washington Poland, no doubt, comes to mind first when one considers the role played by religion and religious institutions in the events and processes leading up to the collapse of Communism in East Central Europe in 1989. David Doellinger reminds us, in his Turning Prayers into Protests, that there were other places in the region where religion was an active and significant force of social mobilization in the fateful developments of the 1980s, most notably Slovakia and East Germany. Doellinger juxtaposes the cases of Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in what is a truly comparative work. The focus is on the activists themselves, and the work is organized both thematically and chronologically. Each chapter gives sufficient attention to each situation, examining both cases in terms of a particular aspect of the issue, and establishing the impact and the limitations of the role of religion as a mobilizing force in each locale. Though an historian, Doellinger draws generously from sociology and political science. The author establishes the context for his case studies, attuned to the differences and similarities between them. In Slovakia, he examines the Roman Catholic Church, especially its underground branch, while in the GDR he looks at the official Evangelical Church, a primarily Lutheran institution. Doellinger notes for both cases the differences with regard to the degree of institutional autonomy for the Church, the level of religiosity among the population, and the type of activism . He examines for each state such factors as the social and informational networks established among activists and the processes whereby prayers were transformed into protests in the 1980s. Doellinger decided to do an in-depth study of the Slovak situation after two former Czech dissidents remarked that Slovakia �SLOVAKIA-2015 133 had had no dissidents or independent activism during the communist period, a far cry from reality. As a corrective to such ill-informed views, the author presents the Slovak case in great detail, analyzing the operations of the underground church, situating Catholic activism within the broader context of independent activity in Slovakia, and providing excellent descriptions and analyses of such critical examples of public mobilization as the Velehrad pilgrimage of 1985 (drawing from 100,000 to 250,000 participants), the petition for religious freedom of 1988 (signed by 300,000 to 400,000 Slovaks), and the Good Friday demonstration of March 25 , 1988 in Bratislava. Doellinger notes the crucial role played by Karol Wojtila who, as Archbishop of Krakow, was a friend and supporter of the underground church in Slovakia, ordaining secret clergy in the 1970s. As Pope John Paul II, he gave a voice to the persecuted Church, condemned the government-sponsored Pacem in Terris organization of Czechoslovak clergy, successfully encouraged Prague ' s Archbishop Frantisek Tomasek to become more assertive on behalf of religious freedom, and energized Catholics in Slovakia and elsewhere . With respect to the GDR, Doellinger notes the strong influence of the Evangelical Church, made possible by its considerable autonomy, which enabled it to provide crucial support for independent activity. The church promoted and defended the so-called Bausoldaten, young men who served in non-combat units beside the East German military on grounds of conscientious objection to war and militarism . It provided meeting space, access to publishing, and other supports for peace, environmental, and social justice-oriented groups. Doellinger notes both the advantages enjoyed and constraints faced by activists on account of this close connection with the Evangelical Church. Doellinger's work is especially valuable thanks to the type and array of sources he uses. Along with reports on religious activism and a large and diverse amount of religious samizdat found in more than a dozen archives, he has interviewed scores of activists, examined local church and government records for the GDR, and gained access to at least four private collections of former activists. A few relatively minor criticisms are in order. Though this book is expressly not a study of the inner-workings of the regime in its dealings with religion, the author might have done more with the records of the Czechoslovak Office for Church Affairs. This �134 SLOV AKIA-2015 organization did a competent job in monitoring religion in Czechoslovakia and might contain useful information about the underground church and other forms of Catholic activism. And the subsections marked "Summary" near the end of each chapter sometimes do much more than summarize, but rather introduce important new material and perspectives not found earlier. Doellinger's work is an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of the late communist period in Czechoslovakia and the GDR, to the processes that brought about the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, and to the important role played by religion in these developments. Though genuinely comparative, and insightfully so, the book does maintain the distinction between the two states, so a reader whose interest lies more in Slovakia than in the GDR would have no problem accessing the parts of the book specific to the Slovak Socialist Republic. James Mace Ward. Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia. Ithaca and London : Cornell University Press, 2013. xii, 362 pp., ill., notes, index. $39 .95 . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University James Mace Ward has written a first-rate biography of Jozef Tiso, the only Roman Catholic priest, aside from the pope, to lead a modem European country. For his efforts, Ward received Honorable Mention in a 2014 competition of the premier North American scholarly organization, the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies Reginald Zelnik Book Prize. It is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe or Eurasia in the field of history in the previous year. In his Preface, the author avers that he is "deeply committed to providing as accurate an account of this life as I can." (xi) He has accomplished this task by conducting extensive research using Czech, English, German, Hungarian, and Slovak sources. Yet, Ward modestly apologizes that he did not have enough time to conduct more research for his book. As Ward shows, the life of Father Jozef Tiso remains multi-faceted, complicated, and controversial. One can characterize his ca- �SLOV AKIA-2015 135 reer as opportunistic and full of contradictions. Before 1918, Tiso seemed destined to rise in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, and, as such, proved to be a loyal Hungarian - a charge that would haunt him for the rest of his life. By the conclusion of the First World War he became more nationally astute, and with the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia, he turned to politics with a Catholic and Christian social agenda subsumed by Slovak nationalism. Throughout his political life, Tiso became a master at organization, infighting, outmaneuvering, playing the various sides, and skillfully deflecting criticism by blaming others for his own faults and actions. He preferred to be ambiguous rather than take responsibility . Despite being a political animal, Tiso found time almost every Sunday from the 1920s until 1945 to celebrate Mass. In 1918, Ward continues, with the state in flux, Tiso became the secretary of the Slovak National Council in Nitra, and helped coordinate its occupation by Czecho-Slovak forces while attacking Jews as usurers, war profiteers, and revolutionaries. As the situation stabilized, Tiso joined Father Andrej Hlinka' s Slovak People ' s ("I:udak") Party, abandoned his anti-Semitism, and became a political moderate who feared secularization. He served first in the Czechoslovak Parliament and then as Minister of Public Health and Physical Education (1927-1929) where his accomplishments were modest. By the early 1930s, Tiso became Hlinka' s heir, but had to fend off a new generation of radical I:udak rivals who often thwarted his goals. Until 1938, he attempted to reconcile the I:udaks with the government and outflank "Godless" socialists. By then, since he realized he would no longer serve in the government, Tiso turned on Czechoslovakia by demanding greater autonomy for Slovakia. With the Republic failing, he conducted talks with Hungary and Poland about Slovakia' s future while still maintaining a dialogue with Prague. After the 1938 Munich Crisis, Ward continues, Tiso blamed the Jews and the Czechs for the diktat while tightening his control over his party . He vacillated on Slovak independence since he did not want to be viewed as the person who destroyed Czechoslovakia, but when it became inevitable, he embraced it and took control of Slovakia despite opposition from the Holy See. Tiso saw the Slovak State as a step forward for national consciousness and confidence. As vodca, or leader of independent Slovakia, he ordered no political executions and traveled freely with few bodyguards. Yet, he allied with �136 SLOV AKIA-2015 Nazi Germany and occasionally resisted its demands, but backed the deportation of two-thirds of Slovakia's Jews. By 1943, as the war seemed lost, Tiso became conciliatory towards a reconstituted Czechoslovakia but did not understand the strength of the underground plotting the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) in the summer of 1944. Deeply hurt by the thought that Slovaks opposed his regime, Tiso nonetheless ordered the suppression of the SNP that resulted in the German occupation of Slovakia. In his last radio address as his government crumbled, Tiso portrayed himself as a martyr. Arrested by the Americans, and turned over to the Czechoslovak authorities, Tiso's trial, according to Ward, became a travesty of justice dominated by unprofessional judges, packed courts, and political manipulations that assured a negative judgment. During the show trial, Tiso received the blame for, among other things, the destruction of Czechoslovakia, the Holocaust, and the failure of the SNP. Sentenced to death, and despite a popular outcry in Slovakia, the court and central government denied his and influential requests for clemency while his co-defendants and counterparts in the Czech Lands received lesser sentences. The Communists used Tiso ' s trial and execution as a political tool against the Slovak Democrats in their bid for power. After Tiso ' s death in 194 7, Ward continues, Tiso remained controversial. Slovak emigres turned him into an anti-Communist patriot martyr who was a victim of circumstances. Meanwhile, communist Czechoslovakia portrayed him as a clerical-fascist war criminal. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Tiso resurfaced as a destabilizing factor in Czechoslovak politics. Emigres, supported by the cultural institution Matica slovenska and, sometimes, the Ministry of Education, attempted to rehabilitate Tiso, but historians at the Slovak Academy of Sciences parried this effort after reasserting their independent academic credentials, thereby presenting a more balanced and scholarly perspective. The issue in today's Slovakia remains a "grey" topic in which Tiso is neither popular nor condemned. This objective biography will remain a classic in English as Tiso will no longer be presented in simple black and white terms as in the past. It is an excellent source for students of nationalism, political Catholicism, the history of Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, and postCommunism. It is a shame that Ward ' s book did not win the Zelnik �SLOV AKIA-2015 137 Book Prize which would have given it greater notoriety and exposure. Miroslav Londak. Ekonomicke reformy v Ceskoslovensku v 50. a 60. Rokoch 20. storocia a slovenskti ekonomika. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2010 . 295pp. Bibliography, English summary, index of names. MARTIN POSPISIL CERGE-EI, and Charles University, Prague Ever since the communist and capitalist economic systems began competing in the 1920s, economists and historians have explored the efficiency, performance, and stability of these systems. Today, there is a general consensus that Soviet-style Communism failed. At the same time, there is still a limited understanding of how the communist economic system was built, especially in smaller countries . Miroslav Londak tries to bridge this gap and focuses on economic development in Slovakia after the 2nd World War. Londak's book is a well-researched publication aimed at better understanding of the Slovak industrialization, economic system-building, and reconstruction within the Czechoslovakia of the 1950s and 1960s. To explain the Slovak post-war economic reforms, Londak adopted a descriptive methodology that required an analysis of a long list of statistical publications, documents, and speeches. Like a good historian, he picked up a great deal about the concerns and problems that drove the building of the economic system of the time. For the novice there is much to be learned here. For example, in the Introduction (p.9), he rightly notes that it is often forgotten how much of today ' s economic development of Slovakia is linked to the decades of the post-war situation in Czechoslovakia. The book notes the astonishing pace of communist socioeconomic reforms. For example, the author describes the amazing speed of post-War Czechoslovak asset nationalization and collectivization. Londak rightly stresses an important point (sometimes forgotten in related debates) that many policies associated with the Communists (e.g. nationalization) had actually been introduced by President Benes during 1945-1948, before the Communists fully took power. The publication also analyses federalization tendencies in �138 SLOV AKIA-2015 Slovakia and various efforts to reform the inefficient Soviet-style economic system: e.g. the First and Second economic reforms in the 1950s and 1960s, reform ideas related to the Prague Spring, as well as the hopeless attempts to reform the economy in the 1980s. Londak's book contains a lot of statistical data and references to original documents to illustrate the point. In his research, the author includes documents - often very rare ones - to show the development of various sectors of the economy, the level of industrialization, or employment. Certain statistics are telling: While in 1947, 80% of Czechoslovak exports went to the West, this share gradually decreased to 12-25% in only one decade. Another statistic nicely illustrates the continuous emigration from Slovakia. Around 220,000 people left Slovakia between WW I and WW II, which created a large job market mismatch . Despite providing a lot of information, however, the book suffers from several drawbacks. First, it stops short of where it should ideally begin. In the Introduction, Londak asks an important question: Is it possible to successfully reform Soviet-Style Communism? While the consensus today is that such a reform is not possible, Londak does not try to answer the question. In many ways, a descriptive approach based on statistical data produced by communist state agencies is not appropriate to explain the development and the failure of Czech and Slovak communist economies. Good examples are the flawed data on employment in sectors. Due to enormous overemployment in the economy, information on sectoral employment does not bring much value apart from a simple description of how the communist planners wanted to allocate the labor force across various sectors of the economy . Second, the monograph devotes only limited space to analyzing why Czechoslovakia adopted that particular set of economic reforms. While it is clear that Stalin was pushing for certain policies, not all Central and Eastern European satellites built the same socioeconomic system . There were strong differences, for example, between Polish, Hungarian, but naturally also between Yugoslav and Czechoslovak systems. It would have been useful to analyze why Czechoslovakia adopted the implemented the set of policies it adopted. In this respect, the book could also better analyze the "starting blocks" of Czechoslovak reforms. As these reforms were mainly coming from Soviet blueprints, the book would deserve at least a �SLOV AKIA-2015 139 short summary of the Soviet pre-1945 legacy: e.g. the Russian Civil War, the New Economic Policy, the Five Year Plans, Stalinism, collectivization, or central planning which were all part of this new Soviet experience, instrumental for Czechoslovak post-war policy making. Third, the book relies solely on Czech or Slovak literature. Of 234 items in the bibliography, only nine have been published outside (the former) Czechoslovakia. While it is natural that local literature serves as the primary source of this type of research, it would have been more than appropriate to also refer to e.g. Soviet or Polish literature. Moreover, as the book is narrowly focused on Slovak economic development, the question of the Hungarian minority would deserve better analysis again with a reference to Hungarian scholars in this area. The reader also feels overwhelmed by the amount of statistical data presented in the book. The strong emphasis on descriptive statistics without a clear message is often confusing (e.g. on pp.115-120). Some tables might have been better explained as figures, graphs, or even better maps. Crucially, while presenting many tables, Londak devotes too little space to linking the data with the story in the text and he misses the opportunity to explain why things happened the way they happened. Why were Czechs and Slovaks so willing to introduce communist measures, which in a few decades ruined the economy? How was it possible to establish the totalitarian regime so effectively and so quickly? Why were Communists not able to implement their economic plans? These are questions that can hardly be explained using communist statistical data, whose reliability is uncertain. The book would deserve a disclaimer at the beginning noting the limitations of the use of these data. Moreover, while Czech and Slovak economic disparities are analyzed sufficiently, more focus could have been put on regional, within-country variation. For example, how did Bratislava compare with the east of Slovakia over time? Which were the poorest regions and did they pick up over time? Which regions benefitted from industrialization, which did not, and why? And most of all, how did the life of an ordinary citizen look? These questions are unanswered. To supplement the collection of statistical data, Londak's publication would benefit from interviews with those concerned. These could have been either communist decision makers, their relatives, or �140 SLOV AKIA-2015 those affected by the decisions. Londa.k' s book contains only a few of these "human" elements: for example, to illustrate the absurd bureaucratic decision-making within the communist economic system, the book mentions the story of a director who had to sign 100,000 documents in one month (p.127). The publication would benefit from more of these little stories to illustrate the point. Doing so would make the book less dry and more "human" (A good example of this approach is Anne Applebaum ' s Iron Curtain: The Crushing Of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956) . Finally, the book lacks a clear motivation for any international reader. How is the economic development of Slovakia in the 1950s and 1960s relevant for today? There are at least several issues that matter beyond Slovakia: the distribution of power, subsidiarity and local nationalism (e.g. relevant for the EU today), the limits of government strategy planning and supply side economic policy (relevant for any policy-makers, especially in post-Soviet countries), or the analysis of Slovak industrialization (relevant for many developing countries). Unfortunately, none of this is mentioned in the book. When reading Londa.k' s monograph, one does not - and cannot understand the cruelty, violence and targeted threats to political opponents, which all were associated with the economic reforms. The communist economy was built on terror, propaganda, harassment, and persecution. Londak presents the era of Czechoslovak communist-building of the 1950s and 1960s as a game of statistical numbers and often failed economic policy-making. This is a dangerous approach as too many lives were lost during this era. So why did the communist economic system fail, including in Slovakia? Let's mention two factors . First, the explanation is actually presented in the words of economist Ota Sik (p.132) who noted in the 1960s that communist enterprises would not become efficient or innovative unless or until the consumer drove the production process. This key point, which helps to explain the inherent inefficiency of the communist economic system, would deserve a better analysis. Another factor (briefly mentioned on p.151) is that price in a centrally planned economy is completely unrelated to objective economic conditions. In a market economy, price is a result of equality between supply and demand and as a result it provides the key information to consumers and producers. Consumers can compare products based on price and producers can compete on producing with �SLOV AKIA-2015 141 the lowest costs so that their price is low. Finally, market price is information to potential producers who know that if they are able to produce the same product with a lower price, they will succeed. As such, market price is the ultimate driver of economic development. However, in a centrally planned economy, price fulfils none of these functions as it is administratively set with no reference to market conditions. This leads to the ultimate failure of the system. To conclude, Ekonomicke reformy is a well-researched book, which analyzes an important topic using a large number of original Czechoslovak sources. Londak has tried to tell the story of the Slovak post-war economy, which has an impact on today's economic structure and performance. However, the main message of the publication gets lost in dubious communist statistical data, and the story is not well connected. Regrettably, while being a good reference point, the publication misses an important opportunity to probe why the post-war economy of Slovakia was built the way it was built, why it failed, and why it matters for today. The descriptive approach based on flawed communist statistics left the most important questions unanswered . Jan Carnogursky. Dennik,1994-2007. Presov: Michal Vasko, 2013, 190 pp. Afterword by Ondrej Podolec, index of names. JANRYCHLIK Charles University, Prague Jan Carnogursky (b. 1944) was one of the leading figures of the anti-Communist dissident movement in Czechoslovakia between 1969 and 1989 and also an important personality in Slovak politics after November of 1989. In February of 1990 he founded the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the right-of the center political party which became part of the Slovak government coalition after the first free elections in June of 1990. After the so-called "Velvet Revolution" (November, 1990) he was a Deputy Prime Minister in the Federal government of Marian Calfa and simultaneously a Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government of Milan Cic. After the first free elections (8 - 9 June 1990), when the KDH joined in a coalition with the Public Against Violence (VPN), Carnogursky was a Deputy Prime Minister in the first government of Vladimir Meciar �142 SLOV AKIA-2015 (than a nominee of the VPN), and after the split of the VPN and the fall of Meciar, he was appointed Slovak Prime Minister (April 23 , 1991). After the second free elections (5 - 6 June 1992) which Meciar's new party - the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) won, the KDH ended in opposition . Carnogursky was the leading figure of the opposition against Meciar' s non-democratic and autocratic rule which sometimes even used criminal methods and violence against its opponents and led to the international isolation of Slovakia. Carnogursky participated in the establishment of a new party - the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) led by Mikulas Dzurinda and was appointed Minister of Justice in Dzurinda's broad anti-Meciar coalition government (October 30, 1998 - October 15, 2002). Throughout this period Carnogursky was a deputy in the Slovak National Council (the Slovak Parliament) for the KDH (with the exception of the period when he was the Minister of Justice). Carnogursky ' s diary covers the period from August 27, 1994 to June 24, 2007. His notes of the events are usually short and illustrate the attitude of Slovakia towards some important international events. However, the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Dayton agreement in 1995 and the bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999 are surprisingly missing. It is difficult to say whether Carnogursky did not consider these events worthy of notice or whether they were in the diary but he decided not to publish them . Carnogursky noted his discussions with various political leaders, diplomats and church functionaries . The diary sheds some light on new and important facts about the background of important events in the history of Slovakia of the past two decades, mainly : the political struggle against the HZDS and Vladimir Meciar, the formation of a broad anti-Meciar coalition; and international problems, mainly Slovak relations with Hungary, the USA and Russia. However, from the diary we can learn more about Carnogursky's standpoints than about the events themselves. To understand the diary properly, it is not only necessary to know Slovak political history of the past twenty-five years, but also to know something about Carnogursky 's political and family backgrounds and his ideas and thinking. Carnogursky is a conservative Catholic politician who, on the one hand was active in the dissident movement and struggle against Communism, but on the other hand he has always been critical of �SLOVAKIA-2015 143 American foreign policy and Western liberalism and secularism. While he criticized and opposed the policy of the former Soviet Union, after the fall of Communism Carnogursky advocated cooperation with Russia and saw Russian Orthodox Christianity as a source of spiritual revival of the western Christian world. His views, however, are not always accepted in today's Slovakia. Knowing this, it cannot surprise anyone that the diary reveals Carnogursky's opposition to Slovakia'a admittance to NATO and his friendly relations with Russia. Carnogursky ' s diary is certainly worth reading and may be useful for historians trying to understand the history of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and of Central Europe in general in the period 1994-2007. Robert M. Zecker. Race and America 's Immigrant Press: How the Slovaks were Taught to Think Like White People. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. 348pp. Notes, illustrations, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Robet M. Zecker claims that "This is the book I didn ' t want to write. At least not at first" (page 1). Since Zecker is of partial Slovak-American heritage, he was shocked by the racial references he found in the Slovak-American press from the l 890's to the l 940's while working on his University of Pennsylvania dissertation on the Slovak-American community in Philadelphia. After some reflection, and more research, he decided to document the rise of racism among Slovaks and Rusyns (and Eastern Europeans in general) in the United States, as reflected in their newspaper press. He felt that this side of the story had not previously been covered by scholars of Eastern European immigration to the United States of America. Zecker traced the rise of racism in the Slavic-American press to the enaction of Jim Crow laws in the American South in the l 890's and the subsequent lynching of several thousand Black-Americans. Initially, editors of ethnic newspapers were horrified by reports of lynchings in the South, but, within a decade, the horror changed to mere reporting or even agreement with the lynchings . Why? Zecker argues that Slavic-Americans, fearful of their own status as unskilled �144 SLOV AKIA-2015 laborers almost at the bottom of the social ladder, were glad that Blacks and Asians were below them still, and therefore, more inferior than themselves. Indeed, Slavic-Americans soon bought into the theory of "whiteness," whereby they (or their children) would eventually become respected members of the middle-class, which, of course, was white. Once they bought into America's racist society and its social hierarchy, Slavic Americans began to "ape the WASPS," as the expression goes. Their newspapers approvingly reproduced not only reports of lynchings of Blacks in the American South, but also advertisements that featured gross stereotypes of Blacks, which portrayed them as primitive savages. Furthermore, most Slavic-American neighborhoods, which often had Slovak Halls, Rusyn Halls, Polish Halls, etc. staged minstrel shows in the l 920's and l 930's, as did "mainstream" American neighborhood theaters. Finally, most Slavic Americans, like those who came before them, did not want Blacks to move into their neighborhoods and resisted government-led integration efforts in the 1960's and 1970's. In becoming "Americans," Slavic-Americans adopted the racist attitudes of their white predecessors. As Zecker predicted, this is a disturbing book. Most of the histories of the Southern and Eastern Europeans, who came to the United States in search of work and a better life in the l 870's to the l 920's, have focused on their slow, but steady rise on the American social ladder. Unfortunately, most historians have also ignored how these immigrants and their children had to adapt to American society by adopting the racist attitudes of their predecessors and become "white" in the process. The book suffers from only two deficiencies, perhaps caused by the publisher. The first is that the copious footnotes (pp. 253-308) appear at the back of the book, making it extremely tedious for the historian to read. The second is that Zecker did not separate his listing of periodicals from books and articles in the bibliography. It would have been instructive to discover, for instance, how many years (and which years) of Jednota, or Amerikansky russky viestnik, and other ethnic newspapers he had read. On the other hand, Zecker fulfilled very well his duties as an historian. He deeply mined the rich archival resources of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, the archives of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies at the Pennsylvania �SLOV AKIA-2015 145 Historical Society in Philadelphia, the New York Public Library, and several others. Finally, Zecker read most of the important books and articles relating to immigration to North America in the last 130 years. He is to be commended for a job well-done. M . Mark Stolarik. Where is My Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America (1870-2010) . [Immigration from Europe to North America, Vol. l] Bern : Peter Lang, 2012 . xix, 392 pp. Notes, illustrations, bibliography, index . $99.95. WILLIAM J. GALUSH Loyola University of Chicago (retired) This is an excellent overview of Slovaks in the tumultuous period from the late nineteenth century to the present, thoughtfully and engagingly portrayed through the experiences of one family. Mark Stolarik seeks to combine the personal with the general in history and succeeds admirably. The fami li al dimension benefits from numerous interviews by the author while he relies on his extensive reading and archival research on Slovak immigration for the larger narrative. The story of Slovaks, an oppresed minority within the multiethnic Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, shows them seeking improvement both by departure elsewhere and striving to develop a sense of common identity in the homeland in the face of strenuous efforts by their Hungarian overlords to magyarize them . The transoceanic aspect is important and the author demonstrates enduring connections which significantly influenced the homeland. About a third of immigrants to North America returned, and as with the Poles in my own research, brought back a heightened sense of Slovak identity and a desire for a more modem lifestyle which stimulated their viII ages. Lacking the equivalent of Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian province essentially under Polish control from the late nineteenth century, Slovaks in America took on a greater role in supporting nationalism in the homeland through their fraternalbenefit societies and the Slovak League of Amerca (f. 1907). �146 SLOV AKIA-2015 The theme of Slovak nationalism infonns the narrative. The World War I agreements to create a federal Czecho-Slovakia were subverted by T. G. Masaryk and his followers. The variations among the diaspora, with the Roman Catholics being the most nationalistic, emerge clearly and the author gives a nuanced and sympathetic account of interwar patriotism and the emergence of an independent Slovakia in 1939. With reunification after 1945, Slovaks abroad were the only ones able to articulate a nationalist position. Support for the united country came mainly from a tiny leftist element and from some Lutheran Slovaks . The post-1989 era offered the opportunity for the reappearance of an independent Slovakia and Stolarik clearly rejoices at the success of the effort. The Stolariks were strivers. Some went to the United States while others remained at home, seeking through education and white collar employment to elevate their status. Imrich, father of Mark, became the city assessor of Martin and led a comfortable existence even during World War II, continuing government employment under the newly independent Slovak Republic. The defeat of their Gennan sponsors and fears of a communist Czechoslovakia prompted Imrich and his family to flee to Austria, where Mark and his siblings lived until they were able to move to Canada. The author's parents had a strong interest in education and nationalism and encouraged participation in ethnic activities in the new land . This speaks to the question of identity in the title wherein ethnic consciousness sustained a sense of self and group despite multiple changes of government and location. Family was also a major factor in making a living, with aid in getting jobs and infonnation on the new land helpful in adjustment and upward mobility. One of the most engaging aspects of the book is the use of familial anecdote to bring life to history . For example, during World War II female relatives of the author, needing to milk goats in a time of food scarcity, persuaded nearby soldiers to stop shelling so the animals would calm down! Stolarik also offers accounts of misleading meddling communist officials while his homeland relatives provided shelter, assistance and advice during his research in Slovakia. The larger narrative would benefit from greater acknowledgement of variety . The author likely overstates the general persistence of the immigrant vision of an enclosed Slovak identity in the �SLOVAKIA-2015 147 second generation. In Minneapolis, with five Polish (and one Slovak) Catholic parishes, marriages at the largest Polish congregation by 1940 recorded over 50% with one non-Polish spouse, and the greater paucity of Slovaks might well have fostered such patterns there or elsewhere. In this regard Stolarik is better in the helpful comparison of American and Canadian Slovak development, noting contrasts as well as similarities and offering plausible interpretations for variety. The book is a stimulating study which will repay the attention of scholars and interesting laypersons alike. � REVIEWS ��SLOV AKIA-2015 129 Jan Rychlik, Magdalena Rychlfkova. Hospodafsky, socialni, kulturni a politicky vyvoj Podkarpatske Rusi 1919 - 1939 (Prague: Studie Narodohospodarskeho ustavu Josefa Hlavky, 2013), 184 pages. Notes, maps, illustrations, along with a German and English Summary. C. WINSTON CHRISLOCK Professor Emeritus University of St. Thomas St. Paul, Minnesota Transcarpathian Rus' formed the eastern tip of the First Czechoslovak Republic from 1919 to 1938 and, briefly of the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic from October 1938 to mid-March 1939. On November 2, 1939, Hungary annexed the southern, mostly Magyar regions of a by then autonomous Transcarpathian Rus' . On March 16, after the demise of Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary annexed the remainder of the region . Soviet forces occupied the area during the final stages of World War II in Europe. In June of 1945 Czechoslovakia agreed to allow the U.S.S.R. to annex Transcarpathian Rus' and both countries ratified the treaty of transfer in November of 1945. From 1945 until 1991 it was part of the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 , it remained a province of independent Ukraine. The purpose of the Rychliks' monograph is to describe and evaluate the region during its association with Czechoslovakia in the inner-war period. There was no doubt that the Czechoslovak government took over administration of a very complex and economically primitive province. The Rychliks' account begins with a pre-1919 backround in which they summarize Czech, Magyar and Ukranian sources. They then continue with an historical survey up to 1919. We learn that Transcarpathian Rus' consisted of four Hungarian counties, and that the Rusyn population had not yet developed any sense of national consciousness. The northern half of Transcarpathian Rus' was mountainous and heavily forested while the south was flatter and more suited for agriculture. About two-thirds of of the population were Rusyns who spoke dialects closely related to Ukrainian. Minorities consisted of Magyars, Jews, Romanians, Germans and Roma. Prior to World War I any attempt to codify the Rusyn language was prob- �130 SLOVAKIA-2015 lematic. While Rusyn dialects were close to Ukrainian, the tsarist regime in Russia looked upon Ukrainian as a Russian dialect. That would make Rusyn dialects dialects of a dialect! Austria-Hungary's collapse in 1918 brought political and economic chaos . Rusyn Americans had developed national consciousness by 1914, modelled somewhat on the Slovak experience. In the wake of Austria-Hungary's collapse their leaders lobbied T. G. Masaryk, leader of the Czecho-Slovak independence movement, and President Woodrow Wilson, for a Rusyn association with the new Czechoslovak state, with the understanding that Subcarpathian Rus' would have a large degree of autonomy. Masaryk agreed to this and after military confrontations with Hungary, Poland and indigenous Magyars, the Czechoslovak army, with the support of the United Kingdom, France and the U.S .A., successfully occupied the region by the end of 1919 and maintained sovereignty over it until the German annexation of the Czech lands in March of 1939. The Rychliks' objective was to describe the social, cultural and political problems of the region and then evaluate how the Czechoslovak government dealt with and responded to them. Given the complexity of a region that was blessed (cursed?) with a plethora of nationalities and languages, religions, hostile neighbors, and underdeveloped economy and national consciousness, the Czechoslovak government faced a monumental task. The political problem revolved around autonomy for the area. The 1920 Czechoslovak constitution provided for Subcarpathian Rus ' to send four senators and nine representatives to Czechoslovakia's National Assembly. Czechoslovakia's president, upon recommendation of the government, appointed a governor, whose power was limited, and a vicegovemor, who exercised most administrative powers. Rusyns, both at home and in the U.S.A., were dissatisfied with the lack of autonomy. Complicating the political situation were conflicts among Rusyns, Ukrainofiles, Russofiles, Jews, and Magyars and further conflicts between Russian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians. Economic and infrastructure underdevelopment were also major problems. Before World War I, commerce and transit were basically north and south, while after 1919 these were oriented east-west. Destruction brought on by the war exacerbated these problems. The Rychliks provide maps, railway timetables, and agricultural and eco- �SLOVAKIA-2015 131 nomic data to embellish their account of economic and infrastructure development. The book devotes substantial space to language and education. As both religious and public schools evolved, language became a thorny issue. The Rychliks pointed out that literary languages are artificial, and that was certainly true in Subcarpathian Rus'. Rusyns had not developed a literary language that everybody could agree upon. How could this state establish a network of Schools when Rusyns could not agree if the language and textbooks of instruction should be in Ukranian, Russian, or in a local dialect? What should be the policy toward the minority Ukranian, Russian, Slovak, Czech, Magyar, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Romanian, Roma Slovak and Czech speakers? The authors concluded that by 1938 there was no final resolution of the language issue. The authors concluded, with reservations, that Subcarpathian Rus' progressed under the first Czechoslovak Republic. However, from the standpoint of political maturity, economic and infrastructure development, literacy, and steps towards the codification of language, the formidable problems listed above retarded its progress. The Rychliks' work is a good companion to Paul R. Magocsi's excellent The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948 (1978). The former gives a data-filled account of a twenty-year period in 183 pages, thirty of which are notes, railroad timetables, maps and pictures, while Magocsi provides us with a very readable overview of the development of Subcarpathian Rus' over 100 years, along with a substantial, nearly 100-page, appendix and numerous notes. �132 SLOV AKIA-2015 David Doellinger. Turning Prayers into Based Activism and its Challenge to State Slovakia and East Germany. Budapest: Central Press, 2013. xii-288 pp. Glossary, bibliography, Protests: ReligiousPower in Socialist European University index. JAMES RAMON PELAK University of Washington Poland, no doubt, comes to mind first when one considers the role played by religion and religious institutions in the events and processes leading up to the collapse of Communism in East Central Europe in 1989. David Doellinger reminds us, in his Turning Prayers into Protests, that there were other places in the region where religion was an active and significant force of social mobilization in the fateful developments of the 1980s, most notably Slovakia and East Germany. Doellinger juxtaposes the cases of Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in what is a truly comparative work. The focus is on the activists themselves, and the work is organized both thematically and chronologically. Each chapter gives sufficient attention to each situation, examining both cases in terms of a particular aspect of the issue, and establishing the impact and the limitations of the role of religion as a mobilizing force in each locale. Though an historian, Doellinger draws generously from sociology and political science. The author establishes the context for his case studies, attuned to the differences and similarities between them. In Slovakia, he examines the Roman Catholic Church, especially its underground branch, while in the GDR he looks at the official Evangelical Church, a primarily Lutheran institution. Doellinger notes for both cases the differences with regard to the degree of institutional autonomy for the Church, the level of religiosity among the population, and the type of activism . He examines for each state such factors as the social and informational networks established among activists and the processes whereby prayers were transformed into protests in the 1980s. Doellinger decided to do an in-depth study of the Slovak situation after two former Czech dissidents remarked that Slovakia �SLOVAKIA-2015 133 had had no dissidents or independent activism during the communist period, a far cry from reality. As a corrective to such ill-informed views, the author presents the Slovak case in great detail, analyzing the operations of the underground church, situating Catholic activism within the broader context of independent activity in Slovakia, and providing excellent descriptions and analyses of such critical examples of public mobilization as the Velehrad pilgrimage of 1985 (drawing from 100,000 to 250,000 participants), the petition for religious freedom of 1988 (signed by 300,000 to 400,000 Slovaks), and the Good Friday demonstration of March 25 , 1988 in Bratislava. Doellinger notes the crucial role played by Karol Wojtila who, as Archbishop of Krakow, was a friend and supporter of the underground church in Slovakia, ordaining secret clergy in the 1970s. As Pope John Paul II, he gave a voice to the persecuted Church, condemned the government-sponsored Pacem in Terris organization of Czechoslovak clergy, successfully encouraged Prague ' s Archbishop Frantisek Tomasek to become more assertive on behalf of religious freedom, and energized Catholics in Slovakia and elsewhere . With respect to the GDR, Doellinger notes the strong influence of the Evangelical Church, made possible by its considerable autonomy, which enabled it to provide crucial support for independent activity. The church promoted and defended the so-called Bausoldaten, young men who served in non-combat units beside the East German military on grounds of conscientious objection to war and militarism . It provided meeting space, access to publishing, and other supports for peace, environmental, and social justice-oriented groups. Doellinger notes both the advantages enjoyed and constraints faced by activists on account of this close connection with the Evangelical Church. Doellinger's work is especially valuable thanks to the type and array of sources he uses. Along with reports on religious activism and a large and diverse amount of religious samizdat found in more than a dozen archives, he has interviewed scores of activists, examined local church and government records for the GDR, and gained access to at least four private collections of former activists. A few relatively minor criticisms are in order. Though this book is expressly not a study of the inner-workings of the regime in its dealings with religion, the author might have done more with the records of the Czechoslovak Office for Church Affairs. This �134 SLOV AKIA-2015 organization did a competent job in monitoring religion in Czechoslovakia and might contain useful information about the underground church and other forms of Catholic activism. And the subsections marked "Summary" near the end of each chapter sometimes do much more than summarize, but rather introduce important new material and perspectives not found earlier. Doellinger's work is an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of the late communist period in Czechoslovakia and the GDR, to the processes that brought about the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, and to the important role played by religion in these developments. Though genuinely comparative, and insightfully so, the book does maintain the distinction between the two states, so a reader whose interest lies more in Slovakia than in the GDR would have no problem accessing the parts of the book specific to the Slovak Socialist Republic. James Mace Ward. Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia. Ithaca and London : Cornell University Press, 2013. xii, 362 pp., ill., notes, index. $39 .95 . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University James Mace Ward has written a first-rate biography of Jozef Tiso, the only Roman Catholic priest, aside from the pope, to lead a modem European country. For his efforts, Ward received Honorable Mention in a 2014 competition of the premier North American scholarly organization, the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies Reginald Zelnik Book Prize. It is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe or Eurasia in the field of history in the previous year. In his Preface, the author avers that he is "deeply committed to providing as accurate an account of this life as I can." (xi) He has accomplished this task by conducting extensive research using Czech, English, German, Hungarian, and Slovak sources. Yet, Ward modestly apologizes that he did not have enough time to conduct more research for his book. As Ward shows, the life of Father Jozef Tiso remains multi-faceted, complicated, and controversial. One can characterize his ca- �SLOV AKIA-2015 135 reer as opportunistic and full of contradictions. Before 1918, Tiso seemed destined to rise in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, and, as such, proved to be a loyal Hungarian - a charge that would haunt him for the rest of his life. By the conclusion of the First World War he became more nationally astute, and with the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia, he turned to politics with a Catholic and Christian social agenda subsumed by Slovak nationalism. Throughout his political life, Tiso became a master at organization, infighting, outmaneuvering, playing the various sides, and skillfully deflecting criticism by blaming others for his own faults and actions. He preferred to be ambiguous rather than take responsibility . Despite being a political animal, Tiso found time almost every Sunday from the 1920s until 1945 to celebrate Mass. In 1918, Ward continues, with the state in flux, Tiso became the secretary of the Slovak National Council in Nitra, and helped coordinate its occupation by Czecho-Slovak forces while attacking Jews as usurers, war profiteers, and revolutionaries. As the situation stabilized, Tiso joined Father Andrej Hlinka' s Slovak People ' s ("I:udak") Party, abandoned his anti-Semitism, and became a political moderate who feared secularization. He served first in the Czechoslovak Parliament and then as Minister of Public Health and Physical Education (1927-1929) where his accomplishments were modest. By the early 1930s, Tiso became Hlinka' s heir, but had to fend off a new generation of radical I:udak rivals who often thwarted his goals. Until 1938, he attempted to reconcile the I:udaks with the government and outflank "Godless" socialists. By then, since he realized he would no longer serve in the government, Tiso turned on Czechoslovakia by demanding greater autonomy for Slovakia. With the Republic failing, he conducted talks with Hungary and Poland about Slovakia' s future while still maintaining a dialogue with Prague. After the 1938 Munich Crisis, Ward continues, Tiso blamed the Jews and the Czechs for the diktat while tightening his control over his party . He vacillated on Slovak independence since he did not want to be viewed as the person who destroyed Czechoslovakia, but when it became inevitable, he embraced it and took control of Slovakia despite opposition from the Holy See. Tiso saw the Slovak State as a step forward for national consciousness and confidence. As vodca, or leader of independent Slovakia, he ordered no political executions and traveled freely with few bodyguards. Yet, he allied with �136 SLOV AKIA-2015 Nazi Germany and occasionally resisted its demands, but backed the deportation of two-thirds of Slovakia's Jews. By 1943, as the war seemed lost, Tiso became conciliatory towards a reconstituted Czechoslovakia but did not understand the strength of the underground plotting the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) in the summer of 1944. Deeply hurt by the thought that Slovaks opposed his regime, Tiso nonetheless ordered the suppression of the SNP that resulted in the German occupation of Slovakia. In his last radio address as his government crumbled, Tiso portrayed himself as a martyr. Arrested by the Americans, and turned over to the Czechoslovak authorities, Tiso's trial, according to Ward, became a travesty of justice dominated by unprofessional judges, packed courts, and political manipulations that assured a negative judgment. During the show trial, Tiso received the blame for, among other things, the destruction of Czechoslovakia, the Holocaust, and the failure of the SNP. Sentenced to death, and despite a popular outcry in Slovakia, the court and central government denied his and influential requests for clemency while his co-defendants and counterparts in the Czech Lands received lesser sentences. The Communists used Tiso ' s trial and execution as a political tool against the Slovak Democrats in their bid for power. After Tiso ' s death in 194 7, Ward continues, Tiso remained controversial. Slovak emigres turned him into an anti-Communist patriot martyr who was a victim of circumstances. Meanwhile, communist Czechoslovakia portrayed him as a clerical-fascist war criminal. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Tiso resurfaced as a destabilizing factor in Czechoslovak politics. Emigres, supported by the cultural institution Matica slovenska and, sometimes, the Ministry of Education, attempted to rehabilitate Tiso, but historians at the Slovak Academy of Sciences parried this effort after reasserting their independent academic credentials, thereby presenting a more balanced and scholarly perspective. The issue in today's Slovakia remains a "grey" topic in which Tiso is neither popular nor condemned. This objective biography will remain a classic in English as Tiso will no longer be presented in simple black and white terms as in the past. It is an excellent source for students of nationalism, political Catholicism, the history of Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, and postCommunism. It is a shame that Ward ' s book did not win the Zelnik �SLOV AKIA-2015 137 Book Prize which would have given it greater notoriety and exposure. Miroslav Londak. Ekonomicke reformy v Ceskoslovensku v 50. a 60. Rokoch 20. storocia a slovenskti ekonomika. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2010 . 295pp. Bibliography, English summary, index of names. MARTIN POSPISIL CERGE-EI, and Charles University, Prague Ever since the communist and capitalist economic systems began competing in the 1920s, economists and historians have explored the efficiency, performance, and stability of these systems. Today, there is a general consensus that Soviet-style Communism failed. At the same time, there is still a limited understanding of how the communist economic system was built, especially in smaller countries . Miroslav Londak tries to bridge this gap and focuses on economic development in Slovakia after the 2nd World War. Londak's book is a well-researched publication aimed at better understanding of the Slovak industrialization, economic system-building, and reconstruction within the Czechoslovakia of the 1950s and 1960s. To explain the Slovak post-war economic reforms, Londak adopted a descriptive methodology that required an analysis of a long list of statistical publications, documents, and speeches. Like a good historian, he picked up a great deal about the concerns and problems that drove the building of the economic system of the time. For the novice there is much to be learned here. For example, in the Introduction (p.9), he rightly notes that it is often forgotten how much of today ' s economic development of Slovakia is linked to the decades of the post-war situation in Czechoslovakia. The book notes the astonishing pace of communist socioeconomic reforms. For example, the author describes the amazing speed of post-War Czechoslovak asset nationalization and collectivization. Londak rightly stresses an important point (sometimes forgotten in related debates) that many policies associated with the Communists (e.g. nationalization) had actually been introduced by President Benes during 1945-1948, before the Communists fully took power. The publication also analyses federalization tendencies in �138 SLOV AKIA-2015 Slovakia and various efforts to reform the inefficient Soviet-style economic system: e.g. the First and Second economic reforms in the 1950s and 1960s, reform ideas related to the Prague Spring, as well as the hopeless attempts to reform the economy in the 1980s. Londak's book contains a lot of statistical data and references to original documents to illustrate the point. In his research, the author includes documents - often very rare ones - to show the development of various sectors of the economy, the level of industrialization, or employment. Certain statistics are telling: While in 1947, 80% of Czechoslovak exports went to the West, this share gradually decreased to 12-25% in only one decade. Another statistic nicely illustrates the continuous emigration from Slovakia. Around 220,000 people left Slovakia between WW I and WW II, which created a large job market mismatch . Despite providing a lot of information, however, the book suffers from several drawbacks. First, it stops short of where it should ideally begin. In the Introduction, Londak asks an important question: Is it possible to successfully reform Soviet-Style Communism? While the consensus today is that such a reform is not possible, Londak does not try to answer the question. In many ways, a descriptive approach based on statistical data produced by communist state agencies is not appropriate to explain the development and the failure of Czech and Slovak communist economies. Good examples are the flawed data on employment in sectors. Due to enormous overemployment in the economy, information on sectoral employment does not bring much value apart from a simple description of how the communist planners wanted to allocate the labor force across various sectors of the economy . Second, the monograph devotes only limited space to analyzing why Czechoslovakia adopted that particular set of economic reforms. While it is clear that Stalin was pushing for certain policies, not all Central and Eastern European satellites built the same socioeconomic system . There were strong differences, for example, between Polish, Hungarian, but naturally also between Yugoslav and Czechoslovak systems. It would have been useful to analyze why Czechoslovakia adopted the implemented the set of policies it adopted. In this respect, the book could also better analyze the "starting blocks" of Czechoslovak reforms. As these reforms were mainly coming from Soviet blueprints, the book would deserve at least a �SLOV AKIA-2015 139 short summary of the Soviet pre-1945 legacy: e.g. the Russian Civil War, the New Economic Policy, the Five Year Plans, Stalinism, collectivization, or central planning which were all part of this new Soviet experience, instrumental for Czechoslovak post-war policy making. Third, the book relies solely on Czech or Slovak literature. Of 234 items in the bibliography, only nine have been published outside (the former) Czechoslovakia. While it is natural that local literature serves as the primary source of this type of research, it would have been more than appropriate to also refer to e.g. Soviet or Polish literature. Moreover, as the book is narrowly focused on Slovak economic development, the question of the Hungarian minority would deserve better analysis again with a reference to Hungarian scholars in this area. The reader also feels overwhelmed by the amount of statistical data presented in the book. The strong emphasis on descriptive statistics without a clear message is often confusing (e.g. on pp.115-120). Some tables might have been better explained as figures, graphs, or even better maps. Crucially, while presenting many tables, Londak devotes too little space to linking the data with the story in the text and he misses the opportunity to explain why things happened the way they happened. Why were Czechs and Slovaks so willing to introduce communist measures, which in a few decades ruined the economy? How was it possible to establish the totalitarian regime so effectively and so quickly? Why were Communists not able to implement their economic plans? These are questions that can hardly be explained using communist statistical data, whose reliability is uncertain. The book would deserve a disclaimer at the beginning noting the limitations of the use of these data. Moreover, while Czech and Slovak economic disparities are analyzed sufficiently, more focus could have been put on regional, within-country variation. For example, how did Bratislava compare with the east of Slovakia over time? Which were the poorest regions and did they pick up over time? Which regions benefitted from industrialization, which did not, and why? And most of all, how did the life of an ordinary citizen look? These questions are unanswered. To supplement the collection of statistical data, Londak's publication would benefit from interviews with those concerned. These could have been either communist decision makers, their relatives, or �140 SLOV AKIA-2015 those affected by the decisions. Londa.k' s book contains only a few of these "human" elements: for example, to illustrate the absurd bureaucratic decision-making within the communist economic system, the book mentions the story of a director who had to sign 100,000 documents in one month (p.127). The publication would benefit from more of these little stories to illustrate the point. Doing so would make the book less dry and more "human" (A good example of this approach is Anne Applebaum ' s Iron Curtain: The Crushing Of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956) . Finally, the book lacks a clear motivation for any international reader. How is the economic development of Slovakia in the 1950s and 1960s relevant for today? There are at least several issues that matter beyond Slovakia: the distribution of power, subsidiarity and local nationalism (e.g. relevant for the EU today), the limits of government strategy planning and supply side economic policy (relevant for any policy-makers, especially in post-Soviet countries), or the analysis of Slovak industrialization (relevant for many developing countries). Unfortunately, none of this is mentioned in the book. When reading Londa.k' s monograph, one does not - and cannot understand the cruelty, violence and targeted threats to political opponents, which all were associated with the economic reforms. The communist economy was built on terror, propaganda, harassment, and persecution. Londak presents the era of Czechoslovak communist-building of the 1950s and 1960s as a game of statistical numbers and often failed economic policy-making. This is a dangerous approach as too many lives were lost during this era. So why did the communist economic system fail, including in Slovakia? Let's mention two factors . First, the explanation is actually presented in the words of economist Ota Sik (p.132) who noted in the 1960s that communist enterprises would not become efficient or innovative unless or until the consumer drove the production process. This key point, which helps to explain the inherent inefficiency of the communist economic system, would deserve a better analysis. Another factor (briefly mentioned on p.151) is that price in a centrally planned economy is completely unrelated to objective economic conditions. In a market economy, price is a result of equality between supply and demand and as a result it provides the key information to consumers and producers. Consumers can compare products based on price and producers can compete on producing with �SLOV AKIA-2015 141 the lowest costs so that their price is low. Finally, market price is information to potential producers who know that if they are able to produce the same product with a lower price, they will succeed. As such, market price is the ultimate driver of economic development. However, in a centrally planned economy, price fulfils none of these functions as it is administratively set with no reference to market conditions. This leads to the ultimate failure of the system. To conclude, Ekonomicke reformy is a well-researched book, which analyzes an important topic using a large number of original Czechoslovak sources. Londak has tried to tell the story of the Slovak post-war economy, which has an impact on today's economic structure and performance. However, the main message of the publication gets lost in dubious communist statistical data, and the story is not well connected. Regrettably, while being a good reference point, the publication misses an important opportunity to probe why the post-war economy of Slovakia was built the way it was built, why it failed, and why it matters for today. The descriptive approach based on flawed communist statistics left the most important questions unanswered . Jan Carnogursky. Dennik,1994-2007. Presov: Michal Vasko, 2013, 190 pp. Afterword by Ondrej Podolec, index of names. JANRYCHLIK Charles University, Prague Jan Carnogursky (b. 1944) was one of the leading figures of the anti-Communist dissident movement in Czechoslovakia between 1969 and 1989 and also an important personality in Slovak politics after November of 1989. In February of 1990 he founded the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the right-of the center political party which became part of the Slovak government coalition after the first free elections in June of 1990. After the so-called "Velvet Revolution" (November, 1990) he was a Deputy Prime Minister in the Federal government of Marian Calfa and simultaneously a Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government of Milan Cic. After the first free elections (8 - 9 June 1990), when the KDH joined in a coalition with the Public Against Violence (VPN), Carnogursky was a Deputy Prime Minister in the first government of Vladimir Meciar �142 SLOV AKIA-2015 (than a nominee of the VPN), and after the split of the VPN and the fall of Meciar, he was appointed Slovak Prime Minister (April 23 , 1991). After the second free elections (5 - 6 June 1992) which Meciar's new party - the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) won, the KDH ended in opposition . Carnogursky was the leading figure of the opposition against Meciar' s non-democratic and autocratic rule which sometimes even used criminal methods and violence against its opponents and led to the international isolation of Slovakia. Carnogursky participated in the establishment of a new party - the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) led by Mikulas Dzurinda and was appointed Minister of Justice in Dzurinda's broad anti-Meciar coalition government (October 30, 1998 - October 15, 2002). Throughout this period Carnogursky was a deputy in the Slovak National Council (the Slovak Parliament) for the KDH (with the exception of the period when he was the Minister of Justice). Carnogursky ' s diary covers the period from August 27, 1994 to June 24, 2007. His notes of the events are usually short and illustrate the attitude of Slovakia towards some important international events. However, the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Dayton agreement in 1995 and the bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999 are surprisingly missing. It is difficult to say whether Carnogursky did not consider these events worthy of notice or whether they were in the diary but he decided not to publish them . Carnogursky noted his discussions with various political leaders, diplomats and church functionaries . The diary sheds some light on new and important facts about the background of important events in the history of Slovakia of the past two decades, mainly : the political struggle against the HZDS and Vladimir Meciar, the formation of a broad anti-Meciar coalition; and international problems, mainly Slovak relations with Hungary, the USA and Russia. However, from the diary we can learn more about Carnogursky's standpoints than about the events themselves. To understand the diary properly, it is not only necessary to know Slovak political history of the past twenty-five years, but also to know something about Carnogursky 's political and family backgrounds and his ideas and thinking. Carnogursky is a conservative Catholic politician who, on the one hand was active in the dissident movement and struggle against Communism, but on the other hand he has always been critical of �SLOVAKIA-2015 143 American foreign policy and Western liberalism and secularism. While he criticized and opposed the policy of the former Soviet Union, after the fall of Communism Carnogursky advocated cooperation with Russia and saw Russian Orthodox Christianity as a source of spiritual revival of the western Christian world. His views, however, are not always accepted in today's Slovakia. Knowing this, it cannot surprise anyone that the diary reveals Carnogursky's opposition to Slovakia'a admittance to NATO and his friendly relations with Russia. Carnogursky ' s diary is certainly worth reading and may be useful for historians trying to understand the history of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and of Central Europe in general in the period 1994-2007. Robert M. Zecker. Race and America 's Immigrant Press: How the Slovaks were Taught to Think Like White People. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. 348pp. Notes, illustrations, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Robet M. Zecker claims that "This is the book I didn ' t want to write. At least not at first" (page 1). Since Zecker is of partial Slovak-American heritage, he was shocked by the racial references he found in the Slovak-American press from the l 890's to the l 940's while working on his University of Pennsylvania dissertation on the Slovak-American community in Philadelphia. After some reflection, and more research, he decided to document the rise of racism among Slovaks and Rusyns (and Eastern Europeans in general) in the United States, as reflected in their newspaper press. He felt that this side of the story had not previously been covered by scholars of Eastern European immigration to the United States of America. Zecker traced the rise of racism in the Slavic-American press to the enaction of Jim Crow laws in the American South in the l 890's and the subsequent lynching of several thousand Black-Americans. Initially, editors of ethnic newspapers were horrified by reports of lynchings in the South, but, within a decade, the horror changed to mere reporting or even agreement with the lynchings . Why? Zecker argues that Slavic-Americans, fearful of their own status as unskilled �144 SLOV AKIA-2015 laborers almost at the bottom of the social ladder, were glad that Blacks and Asians were below them still, and therefore, more inferior than themselves. Indeed, Slavic-Americans soon bought into the theory of "whiteness," whereby they (or their children) would eventually become respected members of the middle-class, which, of course, was white. Once they bought into America's racist society and its social hierarchy, Slavic Americans began to "ape the WASPS," as the expression goes. Their newspapers approvingly reproduced not only reports of lynchings of Blacks in the American South, but also advertisements that featured gross stereotypes of Blacks, which portrayed them as primitive savages. Furthermore, most Slavic-American neighborhoods, which often had Slovak Halls, Rusyn Halls, Polish Halls, etc. staged minstrel shows in the l 920's and l 930's, as did "mainstream" American neighborhood theaters. Finally, most Slavic Americans, like those who came before them, did not want Blacks to move into their neighborhoods and resisted government-led integration efforts in the 1960's and 1970's. In becoming "Americans," Slavic-Americans adopted the racist attitudes of their white predecessors. As Zecker predicted, this is a disturbing book. Most of the histories of the Southern and Eastern Europeans, who came to the United States in search of work and a better life in the l 870's to the l 920's, have focused on their slow, but steady rise on the American social ladder. Unfortunately, most historians have also ignored how these immigrants and their children had to adapt to American society by adopting the racist attitudes of their predecessors and become "white" in the process. The book suffers from only two deficiencies, perhaps caused by the publisher. The first is that the copious footnotes (pp. 253-308) appear at the back of the book, making it extremely tedious for the historian to read. The second is that Zecker did not separate his listing of periodicals from books and articles in the bibliography. It would have been instructive to discover, for instance, how many years (and which years) of Jednota, or Amerikansky russky viestnik, and other ethnic newspapers he had read. On the other hand, Zecker fulfilled very well his duties as an historian. He deeply mined the rich archival resources of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, the archives of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies at the Pennsylvania �SLOV AKIA-2015 145 Historical Society in Philadelphia, the New York Public Library, and several others. Finally, Zecker read most of the important books and articles relating to immigration to North America in the last 130 years. He is to be commended for a job well-done. M . Mark Stolarik. Where is My Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America (1870-2010) . [Immigration from Europe to North America, Vol. l] Bern : Peter Lang, 2012 . xix, 392 pp. Notes, illustrations, bibliography, index . $99.95. WILLIAM J. GALUSH Loyola University of Chicago (retired) This is an excellent overview of Slovaks in the tumultuous period from the late nineteenth century to the present, thoughtfully and engagingly portrayed through the experiences of one family. Mark Stolarik seeks to combine the personal with the general in history and succeeds admirably. The fami li al dimension benefits from numerous interviews by the author while he relies on his extensive reading and archival research on Slovak immigration for the larger narrative. The story of Slovaks, an oppresed minority within the multiethnic Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, shows them seeking improvement both by departure elsewhere and striving to develop a sense of common identity in the homeland in the face of strenuous efforts by their Hungarian overlords to magyarize them . The transoceanic aspect is important and the author demonstrates enduring connections which significantly influenced the homeland. About a third of immigrants to North America returned, and as with the Poles in my own research, brought back a heightened sense of Slovak identity and a desire for a more modem lifestyle which stimulated their viII ages. Lacking the equivalent of Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian province essentially under Polish control from the late nineteenth century, Slovaks in America took on a greater role in supporting nationalism in the homeland through their fraternalbenefit societies and the Slovak League of Amerca (f. 1907). �146 SLOV AKIA-2015 The theme of Slovak nationalism infonns the narrative. The World War I agreements to create a federal Czecho-Slovakia were subverted by T. G. Masaryk and his followers. The variations among the diaspora, with the Roman Catholics being the most nationalistic, emerge clearly and the author gives a nuanced and sympathetic account of interwar patriotism and the emergence of an independent Slovakia in 1939. With reunification after 1945, Slovaks abroad were the only ones able to articulate a nationalist position. Support for the united country came mainly from a tiny leftist element and from some Lutheran Slovaks . The post-1989 era offered the opportunity for the reappearance of an independent Slovakia and Stolarik clearly rejoices at the success of the effort. The Stolariks were strivers. Some went to the United States while others remained at home, seeking through education and white collar employment to elevate their status. Imrich, father of Mark, became the city assessor of Martin and led a comfortable existence even during World War II, continuing government employment under the newly independent Slovak Republic. The defeat of their Gennan sponsors and fears of a communist Czechoslovakia prompted Imrich and his family to flee to Austria, where Mark and his siblings lived until they were able to move to Canada. The author's parents had a strong interest in education and nationalism and encouraged participation in ethnic activities in the new land . This speaks to the question of identity in the title wherein ethnic consciousness sustained a sense of self and group despite multiple changes of government and location. Family was also a major factor in making a living, with aid in getting jobs and infonnation on the new land helpful in adjustment and upward mobility. One of the most engaging aspects of the book is the use of familial anecdote to bring life to history . For example, during World War II female relatives of the author, needing to milk goats in a time of food scarcity, persuaded nearby soldiers to stop shelling so the animals would calm down! Stolarik also offers accounts of misleading meddling communist officials while his homeland relatives provided shelter, assistance and advice during his research in Slovakia. The larger narrative would benefit from greater acknowledgement of variety . The author likely overstates the general persistence of the immigrant vision of an enclosed Slovak identity in the �SLOVAKIA-2015 147 second generation. In Minneapolis, with five Polish (and one Slovak) Catholic parishes, marriages at the largest Polish congregation by 1940 recorded over 50% with one non-Polish spouse, and the greater paucity of Slovaks might well have fostered such patterns there or elsewhere. In this regard Stolarik is better in the helpful comparison of American and Canadian Slovak development, noting contrasts as well as similarities and offering plausible interpretations for variety. The book is a stimulating study which will repay the attention of scholars and interesting laypersons alike. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2015, Vol. 42 Description An account of the resource Vol. 42 (No. 78-79), 2015. 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 2015 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOV AKIA-2015 129 Jan Rychlik, Magdalena Rychlfkova. Hospodafsky, socialni, kulturni a politicky vyvoj Podkarpatske Rusi 1919 - 1939 (Prague: Studie Narodohospodarskeho ustavu Josefa Hlavky, 2013), 184 pages. Notes, maps, illustrations, along with a German and English Summary. C. WINSTON CHRISLOCK Professor Emeritus University of St. Thomas St. Paul, Minnesota Transcarpathian Rus' formed the eastern tip of the First Czechoslovak Republic from 1919 to 1938 and, briefly of the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic from October 1938 to mid-March 1939. On November 2, 1939, Hungary annexed the southern, mostly Magyar regions of a by then autonomous Transcarpathian Rus' . On March 16, after the demise of Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary annexed the remainder of the region . Soviet forces occupied the area during the final stages of World War II in Europe. In June of 1945 Czechoslovakia agreed to allow the U.S.S.R. to annex Transcarpathian Rus' and both countries ratified the treaty of transfer in November of 1945. From 1945 until 1991 it was part of the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 , it remained a province of independent Ukraine. The purpose of the Rychliks' monograph is to describe and evaluate the region during its association with Czechoslovakia in the inner-war period. There was no doubt that the Czechoslovak government took over administration of a very complex and economically primitive province. The Rychliks' account begins with a pre-1919 backround in which they summarize Czech, Magyar and Ukranian sources. They then continue with an historical survey up to 1919. We learn that Transcarpathian Rus' consisted of four Hungarian counties, and that the Rusyn population had not yet developed any sense of national consciousness. The northern half of Transcarpathian Rus' was mountainous and heavily forested while the south was flatter and more suited for agriculture. About two-thirds of of the population were Rusyns who spoke dialects closely related to Ukrainian. Minorities consisted of Magyars, Jews, Romanians, Germans and Roma. Prior to World War I any attempt to codify the Rusyn language was prob- 130 SLOVAKIA-2015 lematic. While Rusyn dialects were close to Ukrainian, the tsarist regime in Russia looked upon Ukrainian as a Russian dialect. That would make Rusyn dialects dialects of a dialect! Austria-Hungary's collapse in 1918 brought political and economic chaos . Rusyn Americans had developed national consciousness by 1914, modelled somewhat on the Slovak experience. In the wake of Austria-Hungary's collapse their leaders lobbied T. G. Masaryk, leader of the Czecho-Slovak independence movement, and President Woodrow Wilson, for a Rusyn association with the new Czechoslovak state, with the understanding that Subcarpathian Rus' would have a large degree of autonomy. Masaryk agreed to this and after military confrontations with Hungary, Poland and indigenous Magyars, the Czechoslovak army, with the support of the United Kingdom, France and the U.S .A., successfully occupied the region by the end of 1919 and maintained sovereignty over it until the German annexation of the Czech lands in March of 1939. The Rychliks' objective was to describe the social, cultural and political problems of the region and then evaluate how the Czechoslovak government dealt with and responded to them. Given the complexity of a region that was blessed (cursed?) with a plethora of nationalities and languages, religions, hostile neighbors, and underdeveloped economy and national consciousness, the Czechoslovak government faced a monumental task. The political problem revolved around autonomy for the area. The 1920 Czechoslovak constitution provided for Subcarpathian Rus ' to send four senators and nine representatives to Czechoslovakia's National Assembly. Czechoslovakia's president, upon recommendation of the government, appointed a governor, whose power was limited, and a vicegovemor, who exercised most administrative powers. Rusyns, both at home and in the U.S.A., were dissatisfied with the lack of autonomy. Complicating the political situation were conflicts among Rusyns, Ukrainofiles, Russofiles, Jews, and Magyars and further conflicts between Russian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians. Economic and infrastructure underdevelopment were also major problems. Before World War I, commerce and transit were basically north and south, while after 1919 these were oriented east-west. Destruction brought on by the war exacerbated these problems. The Rychliks provide maps, railway timetables, and agricultural and eco- SLOVAKIA-2015 131 nomic data to embellish their account of economic and infrastructure development. The book devotes substantial space to language and education. As both religious and public schools evolved, language became a thorny issue. The Rychliks pointed out that literary languages are artificial, and that was certainly true in Subcarpathian Rus'. Rusyns had not developed a literary language that everybody could agree upon. How could this state establish a network of Schools when Rusyns could not agree if the language and textbooks of instruction should be in Ukranian, Russian, or in a local dialect? What should be the policy toward the minority Ukranian, Russian, Slovak, Czech, Magyar, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Romanian, Roma Slovak and Czech speakers? The authors concluded that by 1938 there was no final resolution of the language issue. The authors concluded, with reservations, that Subcarpathian Rus' progressed under the first Czechoslovak Republic. However, from the standpoint of political maturity, economic and infrastructure development, literacy, and steps towards the codification of language, the formidable problems listed above retarded its progress. The Rychliks' work is a good companion to Paul R. Magocsi's excellent The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948 (1978). The former gives a data-filled account of a twenty-year period in 183 pages, thirty of which are notes, railroad timetables, maps and pictures, while Magocsi provides us with a very readable overview of the development of Subcarpathian Rus' over 100 years, along with a substantial, nearly 100-page, appendix and numerous notes. 132 SLOV AKIA-2015 David Doellinger. Turning Prayers into Based Activism and its Challenge to State Slovakia and East Germany. Budapest: Central Press, 2013. xii-288 pp. Glossary, bibliography, Protests: ReligiousPower in Socialist European University index. JAMES RAMON PELAK University of Washington Poland, no doubt, comes to mind first when one considers the role played by religion and religious institutions in the events and processes leading up to the collapse of Communism in East Central Europe in 1989. David Doellinger reminds us, in his Turning Prayers into Protests, that there were other places in the region where religion was an active and significant force of social mobilization in the fateful developments of the 1980s, most notably Slovakia and East Germany. Doellinger juxtaposes the cases of Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in what is a truly comparative work. The focus is on the activists themselves, and the work is organized both thematically and chronologically. Each chapter gives sufficient attention to each situation, examining both cases in terms of a particular aspect of the issue, and establishing the impact and the limitations of the role of religion as a mobilizing force in each locale. Though an historian, Doellinger draws generously from sociology and political science. The author establishes the context for his case studies, attuned to the differences and similarities between them. In Slovakia, he examines the Roman Catholic Church, especially its underground branch, while in the GDR he looks at the official Evangelical Church, a primarily Lutheran institution. Doellinger notes for both cases the differences with regard to the degree of institutional autonomy for the Church, the level of religiosity among the population, and the type of activism . He examines for each state such factors as the social and informational networks established among activists and the processes whereby prayers were transformed into protests in the 1980s. Doellinger decided to do an in-depth study of the Slovak situation after two former Czech dissidents remarked that Slovakia SLOVAKIA-2015 133 had had no dissidents or independent activism during the communist period, a far cry from reality. As a corrective to such ill-informed views, the author presents the Slovak case in great detail, analyzing the operations of the underground church, situating Catholic activism within the broader context of independent activity in Slovakia, and providing excellent descriptions and analyses of such critical examples of public mobilization as the Velehrad pilgrimage of 1985 (drawing from 100,000 to 250,000 participants), the petition for religious freedom of 1988 (signed by 300,000 to 400,000 Slovaks), and the Good Friday demonstration of March 25 , 1988 in Bratislava. Doellinger notes the crucial role played by Karol Wojtila who, as Archbishop of Krakow, was a friend and supporter of the underground church in Slovakia, ordaining secret clergy in the 1970s. As Pope John Paul II, he gave a voice to the persecuted Church, condemned the government-sponsored Pacem in Terris organization of Czechoslovak clergy, successfully encouraged Prague ' s Archbishop Frantisek Tomasek to become more assertive on behalf of religious freedom, and energized Catholics in Slovakia and elsewhere . With respect to the GDR, Doellinger notes the strong influence of the Evangelical Church, made possible by its considerable autonomy, which enabled it to provide crucial support for independent activity. The church promoted and defended the so-called Bausoldaten, young men who served in non-combat units beside the East German military on grounds of conscientious objection to war and militarism . It provided meeting space, access to publishing, and other supports for peace, environmental, and social justice-oriented groups. Doellinger notes both the advantages enjoyed and constraints faced by activists on account of this close connection with the Evangelical Church. Doellinger's work is especially valuable thanks to the type and array of sources he uses. Along with reports on religious activism and a large and diverse amount of religious samizdat found in more than a dozen archives, he has interviewed scores of activists, examined local church and government records for the GDR, and gained access to at least four private collections of former activists. A few relatively minor criticisms are in order. Though this book is expressly not a study of the inner-workings of the regime in its dealings with religion, the author might have done more with the records of the Czechoslovak Office for Church Affairs. This 134 SLOV AKIA-2015 organization did a competent job in monitoring religion in Czechoslovakia and might contain useful information about the underground church and other forms of Catholic activism. And the subsections marked "Summary" near the end of each chapter sometimes do much more than summarize, but rather introduce important new material and perspectives not found earlier. Doellinger's work is an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of the late communist period in Czechoslovakia and the GDR, to the processes that brought about the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, and to the important role played by religion in these developments. Though genuinely comparative, and insightfully so, the book does maintain the distinction between the two states, so a reader whose interest lies more in Slovakia than in the GDR would have no problem accessing the parts of the book specific to the Slovak Socialist Republic. James Mace Ward. Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia. Ithaca and London : Cornell University Press, 2013. xii, 362 pp., ill., notes, index. $39 .95 . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University James Mace Ward has written a first-rate biography of Jozef Tiso, the only Roman Catholic priest, aside from the pope, to lead a modem European country. For his efforts, Ward received Honorable Mention in a 2014 competition of the premier North American scholarly organization, the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies Reginald Zelnik Book Prize. It is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe or Eurasia in the field of history in the previous year. In his Preface, the author avers that he is "deeply committed to providing as accurate an account of this life as I can." (xi) He has accomplished this task by conducting extensive research using Czech, English, German, Hungarian, and Slovak sources. Yet, Ward modestly apologizes that he did not have enough time to conduct more research for his book. As Ward shows, the life of Father Jozef Tiso remains multi-faceted, complicated, and controversial. One can characterize his ca- SLOV AKIA-2015 135 reer as opportunistic and full of contradictions. Before 1918, Tiso seemed destined to rise in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, and, as such, proved to be a loyal Hungarian - a charge that would haunt him for the rest of his life. By the conclusion of the First World War he became more nationally astute, and with the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia, he turned to politics with a Catholic and Christian social agenda subsumed by Slovak nationalism. Throughout his political life, Tiso became a master at organization, infighting, outmaneuvering, playing the various sides, and skillfully deflecting criticism by blaming others for his own faults and actions. He preferred to be ambiguous rather than take responsibility . Despite being a political animal, Tiso found time almost every Sunday from the 1920s until 1945 to celebrate Mass. In 1918, Ward continues, with the state in flux, Tiso became the secretary of the Slovak National Council in Nitra, and helped coordinate its occupation by Czecho-Slovak forces while attacking Jews as usurers, war profiteers, and revolutionaries. As the situation stabilized, Tiso joined Father Andrej Hlinka' s Slovak People ' s ("I:udak") Party, abandoned his anti-Semitism, and became a political moderate who feared secularization. He served first in the Czechoslovak Parliament and then as Minister of Public Health and Physical Education (1927-1929) where his accomplishments were modest. By the early 1930s, Tiso became Hlinka' s heir, but had to fend off a new generation of radical I:udak rivals who often thwarted his goals. Until 1938, he attempted to reconcile the I:udaks with the government and outflank "Godless" socialists. By then, since he realized he would no longer serve in the government, Tiso turned on Czechoslovakia by demanding greater autonomy for Slovakia. With the Republic failing, he conducted talks with Hungary and Poland about Slovakia' s future while still maintaining a dialogue with Prague. After the 1938 Munich Crisis, Ward continues, Tiso blamed the Jews and the Czechs for the diktat while tightening his control over his party . He vacillated on Slovak independence since he did not want to be viewed as the person who destroyed Czechoslovakia, but when it became inevitable, he embraced it and took control of Slovakia despite opposition from the Holy See. Tiso saw the Slovak State as a step forward for national consciousness and confidence. As vodca, or leader of independent Slovakia, he ordered no political executions and traveled freely with few bodyguards. Yet, he allied with 136 SLOV AKIA-2015 Nazi Germany and occasionally resisted its demands, but backed the deportation of two-thirds of Slovakia's Jews. By 1943, as the war seemed lost, Tiso became conciliatory towards a reconstituted Czechoslovakia but did not understand the strength of the underground plotting the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) in the summer of 1944. Deeply hurt by the thought that Slovaks opposed his regime, Tiso nonetheless ordered the suppression of the SNP that resulted in the German occupation of Slovakia. In his last radio address as his government crumbled, Tiso portrayed himself as a martyr. Arrested by the Americans, and turned over to the Czechoslovak authorities, Tiso's trial, according to Ward, became a travesty of justice dominated by unprofessional judges, packed courts, and political manipulations that assured a negative judgment. During the show trial, Tiso received the blame for, among other things, the destruction of Czechoslovakia, the Holocaust, and the failure of the SNP. Sentenced to death, and despite a popular outcry in Slovakia, the court and central government denied his and influential requests for clemency while his co-defendants and counterparts in the Czech Lands received lesser sentences. The Communists used Tiso ' s trial and execution as a political tool against the Slovak Democrats in their bid for power. After Tiso ' s death in 194 7, Ward continues, Tiso remained controversial. Slovak emigres turned him into an anti-Communist patriot martyr who was a victim of circumstances. Meanwhile, communist Czechoslovakia portrayed him as a clerical-fascist war criminal. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Tiso resurfaced as a destabilizing factor in Czechoslovak politics. Emigres, supported by the cultural institution Matica slovenska and, sometimes, the Ministry of Education, attempted to rehabilitate Tiso, but historians at the Slovak Academy of Sciences parried this effort after reasserting their independent academic credentials, thereby presenting a more balanced and scholarly perspective. The issue in today's Slovakia remains a "grey" topic in which Tiso is neither popular nor condemned. This objective biography will remain a classic in English as Tiso will no longer be presented in simple black and white terms as in the past. It is an excellent source for students of nationalism, political Catholicism, the history of Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, and postCommunism. It is a shame that Ward ' s book did not win the Zelnik SLOV AKIA-2015 137 Book Prize which would have given it greater notoriety and exposure. Miroslav Londak. Ekonomicke reformy v Ceskoslovensku v 50. a 60. Rokoch 20. storocia a slovenskti ekonomika. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2010 . 295pp. Bibliography, English summary, index of names. MARTIN POSPISIL CERGE-EI, and Charles University, Prague Ever since the communist and capitalist economic systems began competing in the 1920s, economists and historians have explored the efficiency, performance, and stability of these systems. Today, there is a general consensus that Soviet-style Communism failed. At the same time, there is still a limited understanding of how the communist economic system was built, especially in smaller countries . Miroslav Londak tries to bridge this gap and focuses on economic development in Slovakia after the 2nd World War. Londak's book is a well-researched publication aimed at better understanding of the Slovak industrialization, economic system-building, and reconstruction within the Czechoslovakia of the 1950s and 1960s. To explain the Slovak post-war economic reforms, Londak adopted a descriptive methodology that required an analysis of a long list of statistical publications, documents, and speeches. Like a good historian, he picked up a great deal about the concerns and problems that drove the building of the economic system of the time. For the novice there is much to be learned here. For example, in the Introduction (p.9), he rightly notes that it is often forgotten how much of today ' s economic development of Slovakia is linked to the decades of the post-war situation in Czechoslovakia. The book notes the astonishing pace of communist socioeconomic reforms. For example, the author describes the amazing speed of post-War Czechoslovak asset nationalization and collectivization. Londak rightly stresses an important point (sometimes forgotten in related debates) that many policies associated with the Communists (e.g. nationalization) had actually been introduced by President Benes during 1945-1948, before the Communists fully took power. The publication also analyses federalization tendencies in 138 SLOV AKIA-2015 Slovakia and various efforts to reform the inefficient Soviet-style economic system: e.g. the First and Second economic reforms in the 1950s and 1960s, reform ideas related to the Prague Spring, as well as the hopeless attempts to reform the economy in the 1980s. Londak's book contains a lot of statistical data and references to original documents to illustrate the point. In his research, the author includes documents - often very rare ones - to show the development of various sectors of the economy, the level of industrialization, or employment. Certain statistics are telling: While in 1947, 80% of Czechoslovak exports went to the West, this share gradually decreased to 12-25% in only one decade. Another statistic nicely illustrates the continuous emigration from Slovakia. Around 220,000 people left Slovakia between WW I and WW II, which created a large job market mismatch . Despite providing a lot of information, however, the book suffers from several drawbacks. First, it stops short of where it should ideally begin. In the Introduction, Londak asks an important question: Is it possible to successfully reform Soviet-Style Communism? While the consensus today is that such a reform is not possible, Londak does not try to answer the question. In many ways, a descriptive approach based on statistical data produced by communist state agencies is not appropriate to explain the development and the failure of Czech and Slovak communist economies. Good examples are the flawed data on employment in sectors. Due to enormous overemployment in the economy, information on sectoral employment does not bring much value apart from a simple description of how the communist planners wanted to allocate the labor force across various sectors of the economy . Second, the monograph devotes only limited space to analyzing why Czechoslovakia adopted that particular set of economic reforms. While it is clear that Stalin was pushing for certain policies, not all Central and Eastern European satellites built the same socioeconomic system . There were strong differences, for example, between Polish, Hungarian, but naturally also between Yugoslav and Czechoslovak systems. It would have been useful to analyze why Czechoslovakia adopted the implemented the set of policies it adopted. In this respect, the book could also better analyze the "starting blocks" of Czechoslovak reforms. As these reforms were mainly coming from Soviet blueprints, the book would deserve at least a SLOV AKIA-2015 139 short summary of the Soviet pre-1945 legacy: e.g. the Russian Civil War, the New Economic Policy, the Five Year Plans, Stalinism, collectivization, or central planning which were all part of this new Soviet experience, instrumental for Czechoslovak post-war policy making. Third, the book relies solely on Czech or Slovak literature. Of 234 items in the bibliography, only nine have been published outside (the former) Czechoslovakia. While it is natural that local literature serves as the primary source of this type of research, it would have been more than appropriate to also refer to e.g. Soviet or Polish literature. Moreover, as the book is narrowly focused on Slovak economic development, the question of the Hungarian minority would deserve better analysis again with a reference to Hungarian scholars in this area. The reader also feels overwhelmed by the amount of statistical data presented in the book. The strong emphasis on descriptive statistics without a clear message is often confusing (e.g. on pp.115-120). Some tables might have been better explained as figures, graphs, or even better maps. Crucially, while presenting many tables, Londak devotes too little space to linking the data with the story in the text and he misses the opportunity to explain why things happened the way they happened. Why were Czechs and Slovaks so willing to introduce communist measures, which in a few decades ruined the economy? How was it possible to establish the totalitarian regime so effectively and so quickly? Why were Communists not able to implement their economic plans? These are questions that can hardly be explained using communist statistical data, whose reliability is uncertain. The book would deserve a disclaimer at the beginning noting the limitations of the use of these data. Moreover, while Czech and Slovak economic disparities are analyzed sufficiently, more focus could have been put on regional, within-country variation. For example, how did Bratislava compare with the east of Slovakia over time? Which were the poorest regions and did they pick up over time? Which regions benefitted from industrialization, which did not, and why? And most of all, how did the life of an ordinary citizen look? These questions are unanswered. To supplement the collection of statistical data, Londak's publication would benefit from interviews with those concerned. These could have been either communist decision makers, their relatives, or 140 SLOV AKIA-2015 those affected by the decisions. Londa.k' s book contains only a few of these "human" elements: for example, to illustrate the absurd bureaucratic decision-making within the communist economic system, the book mentions the story of a director who had to sign 100,000 documents in one month (p.127). The publication would benefit from more of these little stories to illustrate the point. Doing so would make the book less dry and more "human" (A good example of this approach is Anne Applebaum ' s Iron Curtain: The Crushing Of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956) . Finally, the book lacks a clear motivation for any international reader. How is the economic development of Slovakia in the 1950s and 1960s relevant for today? There are at least several issues that matter beyond Slovakia: the distribution of power, subsidiarity and local nationalism (e.g. relevant for the EU today), the limits of government strategy planning and supply side economic policy (relevant for any policy-makers, especially in post-Soviet countries), or the analysis of Slovak industrialization (relevant for many developing countries). Unfortunately, none of this is mentioned in the book. When reading Londa.k' s monograph, one does not - and cannot understand the cruelty, violence and targeted threats to political opponents, which all were associated with the economic reforms. The communist economy was built on terror, propaganda, harassment, and persecution. Londak presents the era of Czechoslovak communist-building of the 1950s and 1960s as a game of statistical numbers and often failed economic policy-making. This is a dangerous approach as too many lives were lost during this era. So why did the communist economic system fail, including in Slovakia? Let's mention two factors . First, the explanation is actually presented in the words of economist Ota Sik (p.132) who noted in the 1960s that communist enterprises would not become efficient or innovative unless or until the consumer drove the production process. This key point, which helps to explain the inherent inefficiency of the communist economic system, would deserve a better analysis. Another factor (briefly mentioned on p.151) is that price in a centrally planned economy is completely unrelated to objective economic conditions. In a market economy, price is a result of equality between supply and demand and as a result it provides the key information to consumers and producers. Consumers can compare products based on price and producers can compete on producing with SLOV AKIA-2015 141 the lowest costs so that their price is low. Finally, market price is information to potential producers who know that if they are able to produce the same product with a lower price, they will succeed. As such, market price is the ultimate driver of economic development. However, in a centrally planned economy, price fulfils none of these functions as it is administratively set with no reference to market conditions. This leads to the ultimate failure of the system. To conclude, Ekonomicke reformy is a well-researched book, which analyzes an important topic using a large number of original Czechoslovak sources. Londak has tried to tell the story of the Slovak post-war economy, which has an impact on today's economic structure and performance. However, the main message of the publication gets lost in dubious communist statistical data, and the story is not well connected. Regrettably, while being a good reference point, the publication misses an important opportunity to probe why the post-war economy of Slovakia was built the way it was built, why it failed, and why it matters for today. The descriptive approach based on flawed communist statistics left the most important questions unanswered . Jan Carnogursky. Dennik,1994-2007. Presov: Michal Vasko, 2013, 190 pp. Afterword by Ondrej Podolec, index of names. JANRYCHLIK Charles University, Prague Jan Carnogursky (b. 1944) was one of the leading figures of the anti-Communist dissident movement in Czechoslovakia between 1969 and 1989 and also an important personality in Slovak politics after November of 1989. In February of 1990 he founded the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the right-of the center political party which became part of the Slovak government coalition after the first free elections in June of 1990. After the so-called "Velvet Revolution" (November, 1990) he was a Deputy Prime Minister in the Federal government of Marian Calfa and simultaneously a Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government of Milan Cic. After the first free elections (8 - 9 June 1990), when the KDH joined in a coalition with the Public Against Violence (VPN), Carnogursky was a Deputy Prime Minister in the first government of Vladimir Meciar 142 SLOV AKIA-2015 (than a nominee of the VPN), and after the split of the VPN and the fall of Meciar, he was appointed Slovak Prime Minister (April 23 , 1991). After the second free elections (5 - 6 June 1992) which Meciar's new party - the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) won, the KDH ended in opposition . Carnogursky was the leading figure of the opposition against Meciar' s non-democratic and autocratic rule which sometimes even used criminal methods and violence against its opponents and led to the international isolation of Slovakia. Carnogursky participated in the establishment of a new party - the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) led by Mikulas Dzurinda and was appointed Minister of Justice in Dzurinda's broad anti-Meciar coalition government (October 30, 1998 - October 15, 2002). Throughout this period Carnogursky was a deputy in the Slovak National Council (the Slovak Parliament) for the KDH (with the exception of the period when he was the Minister of Justice). Carnogursky ' s diary covers the period from August 27, 1994 to June 24, 2007. His notes of the events are usually short and illustrate the attitude of Slovakia towards some important international events. However, the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Dayton agreement in 1995 and the bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999 are surprisingly missing. It is difficult to say whether Carnogursky did not consider these events worthy of notice or whether they were in the diary but he decided not to publish them . Carnogursky noted his discussions with various political leaders, diplomats and church functionaries . The diary sheds some light on new and important facts about the background of important events in the history of Slovakia of the past two decades, mainly : the political struggle against the HZDS and Vladimir Meciar, the formation of a broad anti-Meciar coalition; and international problems, mainly Slovak relations with Hungary, the USA and Russia. However, from the diary we can learn more about Carnogursky's standpoints than about the events themselves. To understand the diary properly, it is not only necessary to know Slovak political history of the past twenty-five years, but also to know something about Carnogursky 's political and family backgrounds and his ideas and thinking. Carnogursky is a conservative Catholic politician who, on the one hand was active in the dissident movement and struggle against Communism, but on the other hand he has always been critical of SLOVAKIA-2015 143 American foreign policy and Western liberalism and secularism. While he criticized and opposed the policy of the former Soviet Union, after the fall of Communism Carnogursky advocated cooperation with Russia and saw Russian Orthodox Christianity as a source of spiritual revival of the western Christian world. His views, however, are not always accepted in today's Slovakia. Knowing this, it cannot surprise anyone that the diary reveals Carnogursky's opposition to Slovakia'a admittance to NATO and his friendly relations with Russia. Carnogursky ' s diary is certainly worth reading and may be useful for historians trying to understand the history of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and of Central Europe in general in the period 1994-2007. Robert M. Zecker. Race and America 's Immigrant Press: How the Slovaks were Taught to Think Like White People. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. 348pp. Notes, illustrations, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Robet M. Zecker claims that "This is the book I didn ' t want to write. At least not at first" (page 1). Since Zecker is of partial Slovak-American heritage, he was shocked by the racial references he found in the Slovak-American press from the l 890's to the l 940's while working on his University of Pennsylvania dissertation on the Slovak-American community in Philadelphia. After some reflection, and more research, he decided to document the rise of racism among Slovaks and Rusyns (and Eastern Europeans in general) in the United States, as reflected in their newspaper press. He felt that this side of the story had not previously been covered by scholars of Eastern European immigration to the United States of America. Zecker traced the rise of racism in the Slavic-American press to the enaction of Jim Crow laws in the American South in the l 890's and the subsequent lynching of several thousand Black-Americans. Initially, editors of ethnic newspapers were horrified by reports of lynchings in the South, but, within a decade, the horror changed to mere reporting or even agreement with the lynchings . Why? Zecker argues that Slavic-Americans, fearful of their own status as unskilled 144 SLOV AKIA-2015 laborers almost at the bottom of the social ladder, were glad that Blacks and Asians were below them still, and therefore, more inferior than themselves. Indeed, Slavic-Americans soon bought into the theory of "whiteness," whereby they (or their children) would eventually become respected members of the middle-class, which, of course, was white. Once they bought into America's racist society and its social hierarchy, Slavic Americans began to "ape the WASPS," as the expression goes. Their newspapers approvingly reproduced not only reports of lynchings of Blacks in the American South, but also advertisements that featured gross stereotypes of Blacks, which portrayed them as primitive savages. Furthermore, most Slavic-American neighborhoods, which often had Slovak Halls, Rusyn Halls, Polish Halls, etc. staged minstrel shows in the l 920's and l 930's, as did "mainstream" American neighborhood theaters. Finally, most Slavic Americans, like those who came before them, did not want Blacks to move into their neighborhoods and resisted government-led integration efforts in the 1960's and 1970's. In becoming "Americans," Slavic-Americans adopted the racist attitudes of their white predecessors. As Zecker predicted, this is a disturbing book. Most of the histories of the Southern and Eastern Europeans, who came to the United States in search of work and a better life in the l 870's to the l 920's, have focused on their slow, but steady rise on the American social ladder. Unfortunately, most historians have also ignored how these immigrants and their children had to adapt to American society by adopting the racist attitudes of their predecessors and become "white" in the process. The book suffers from only two deficiencies, perhaps caused by the publisher. The first is that the copious footnotes (pp. 253-308) appear at the back of the book, making it extremely tedious for the historian to read. The second is that Zecker did not separate his listing of periodicals from books and articles in the bibliography. It would have been instructive to discover, for instance, how many years (and which years) of Jednota, or Amerikansky russky viestnik, and other ethnic newspapers he had read. On the other hand, Zecker fulfilled very well his duties as an historian. He deeply mined the rich archival resources of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, the archives of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies at the Pennsylvania SLOV AKIA-2015 145 Historical Society in Philadelphia, the New York Public Library, and several others. Finally, Zecker read most of the important books and articles relating to immigration to North America in the last 130 years. He is to be commended for a job well-done. M . Mark Stolarik. Where is My Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America (1870-2010) . [Immigration from Europe to North America, Vol. l] Bern : Peter Lang, 2012 . xix, 392 pp. Notes, illustrations, bibliography, index . $99.95. WILLIAM J. GALUSH Loyola University of Chicago (retired) This is an excellent overview of Slovaks in the tumultuous period from the late nineteenth century to the present, thoughtfully and engagingly portrayed through the experiences of one family. Mark Stolarik seeks to combine the personal with the general in history and succeeds admirably. The fami li al dimension benefits from numerous interviews by the author while he relies on his extensive reading and archival research on Slovak immigration for the larger narrative. The story of Slovaks, an oppresed minority within the multiethnic Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, shows them seeking improvement both by departure elsewhere and striving to develop a sense of common identity in the homeland in the face of strenuous efforts by their Hungarian overlords to magyarize them . The transoceanic aspect is important and the author demonstrates enduring connections which significantly influenced the homeland. About a third of immigrants to North America returned, and as with the Poles in my own research, brought back a heightened sense of Slovak identity and a desire for a more modem lifestyle which stimulated their viII ages. Lacking the equivalent of Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian province essentially under Polish control from the late nineteenth century, Slovaks in America took on a greater role in supporting nationalism in the homeland through their fraternalbenefit societies and the Slovak League of Amerca (f. 1907). 146 SLOV AKIA-2015 The theme of Slovak nationalism infonns the narrative. The World War I agreements to create a federal Czecho-Slovakia were subverted by T. G. Masaryk and his followers. The variations among the diaspora, with the Roman Catholics being the most nationalistic, emerge clearly and the author gives a nuanced and sympathetic account of interwar patriotism and the emergence of an independent Slovakia in 1939. With reunification after 1945, Slovaks abroad were the only ones able to articulate a nationalist position. Support for the united country came mainly from a tiny leftist element and from some Lutheran Slovaks . The post-1989 era offered the opportunity for the reappearance of an independent Slovakia and Stolarik clearly rejoices at the success of the effort. The Stolariks were strivers. Some went to the United States while others remained at home, seeking through education and white collar employment to elevate their status. Imrich, father of Mark, became the city assessor of Martin and led a comfortable existence even during World War II, continuing government employment under the newly independent Slovak Republic. The defeat of their Gennan sponsors and fears of a communist Czechoslovakia prompted Imrich and his family to flee to Austria, where Mark and his siblings lived until they were able to move to Canada. The author's parents had a strong interest in education and nationalism and encouraged participation in ethnic activities in the new land . This speaks to the question of identity in the title wherein ethnic consciousness sustained a sense of self and group despite multiple changes of government and location. Family was also a major factor in making a living, with aid in getting jobs and infonnation on the new land helpful in adjustment and upward mobility. One of the most engaging aspects of the book is the use of familial anecdote to bring life to history . For example, during World War II female relatives of the author, needing to milk goats in a time of food scarcity, persuaded nearby soldiers to stop shelling so the animals would calm down! Stolarik also offers accounts of misleading meddling communist officials while his homeland relatives provided shelter, assistance and advice during his research in Slovakia. The larger narrative would benefit from greater acknowledgement of variety . The author likely overstates the general persistence of the immigrant vision of an enclosed Slovak identity in the SLOVAKIA-2015 147 second generation. In Minneapolis, with five Polish (and one Slovak) Catholic parishes, marriages at the largest Polish congregation by 1940 recorded over 50% with one non-Polish spouse, and the greater paucity of Slovaks might well have fostered such patterns there or elsewhere. In this regard Stolarik is better in the helpful comparison of American and Canadian Slovak development, noting contrasts as well as similarities and offering plausible interpretations for variety. The book is a stimulating study which will repay the attention of scholars and interesting laypersons alike.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 42 (No. 78-79) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Jan Rychlík, Magdaléna Rychlíková, Hospodářský, sociální, kulturní a politický vývoj Podkarpatské Rusi 1919-1939 (C. Winston Chrislock), p. 129</li> <li>David Doellinger, Turning Prayers into Protests: Religious-Based Activitism and its Challenge to State Power in Socialist Slovakia and East Germany (James Ramon Felak), p. 132</li> <li>James Mace Ward, Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia (Gregory C. Ference), p. 134</li> <li>Miroslav Londák, Ekonomické reformy v Československu v 50. a 60. Rokoch 20. storočia a slovenská ekonomika (Martin Pospíšil), p. 137</li> <li>Ján Čarnogurský, Dennik, 1994-2007 (Jan Rychlík), p. 141</li> <li>Robert M. Zecker, Race and America's Immigrant Press (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 143</li> <li>M. Mark Stolarik, Where is my Home? Slovak Immigration to North America (1870-2010) (William J. Galush), p. 145</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chrislock, Winston, 1940- Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Galush, William J. (William John), 1942- Pospíšil, Martin Rychlík, Jan Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7d59c0e980cfd192af1ffe71e144d812.pdf 78a07daefd810834c32c8dd959cd86aa PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA-2017 151 Jozef Klempa. Moje skusenosti za svetovej vojny. Dennik ceskoslovenskeho legionara z rokov 1914-1920. Bratislava: Slovart, 2014. l 83pp. Afterword by Viera Meliskova. Maps. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This is a unique and fascinating diary of a Czechoslovak (Slovak) Legionnaire from the First World War. Jozef Klempa (18941980) was trained as a shoemaker who was drafted into the AustroHungarian Armed Forces when the Great War broke out in 1914. That same year he was captured by the Russians on the eastern front and, along with many other POW's shuttled from one Russian village to another, far from the front. Amazingly, the Russian authorities treated him and other POW's quite leniently, letting them wander into nearby villages to find odd jobs, earn some kopeks or rubles, and buy food and drink to supplement their meager rations. Klempa's training as a shoemaker stood him in good stead, as he repaired the boots of his fellow-soldiers as well as that of many villagers. Indeed, he found Russian civilians very friendly and hospitable and he quickly mastered the Russian language and Russian customs. In 1918, after Germany had defeated Russia on the battlefield and the Bolsheviks had seized power, the Czechoslovak Legions, established during the war by T.G. Masaryk and Milan R. Stefanik, rebelled against the Bolsheviks, who tried to disarm them. Jozef Klempa, and thousands of other Czech and Slovak PO W' s joined the Czechoslovak Legions, and while fighting off various attacks by the Red Army, they decided to flee Russia by seizing control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad from the Ural Mountains all the way to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. Klempa recorded, almost on a daily basis, his experiences in crossing Siberia twice, once to flee the Bolsheviks and the second time to fight and try to defeat them, at the urging of the Allied and Associated powers. Indeed, Klempa and some of his fellow-Legionnaires were captured by the Bolsheviks on one occasion, but managed to escape. Klempa described in great detail the good relations the Czechoslovak Legionnaires had with various Kozak armies in Siberia, but denounced Admiral Kolchak and his officers. Klempa concluded that the "Whites" lost the war against the Bolsheviks because of the arrogance and cruelty of Admiral Kol- �152 SLOVAKIA-2017 chak and his officers towards Russian peasants. Indeed, it took a visit by General Stefanik in the fall of 1918 to prevent many of the Czechs and Slovaks from joining the Bolsheviks, who treated this foreign army on Russian soil better than did Admiral Kolchak. And, while Klempa had good things to say about Chinese merchants in Siberia, he had nothing but contempt for the Japanese soldiers in Vladivostok, who treated the Czechoslovak Legionnaires very badly. Finally, in May of 1920, Klempa and 3,000 other Legionnaires boarded a British ship that took them to Vancouver in Canada. They then crossed Canada by rail to the eastern port of Halifax, where they boarded another ship that took them to the German port of Zugshaven from whence they were shipped by rail to the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic at the end of July. As many other Legionnaires, Klempa was then released from the military, given a medal for his service, and eventually found a job on the Czechoslovak railroad. Over the years he regaled his family with memories of his exploits in Siberia. His granddaughter Vierka Meliskova managed to gather together his recollections, based on a detailed diary that he kept while in Russia and on the way home, and published this memoir of a Czechoslovak Legionnaire. Historians will mine it for information on this glorious chapter in the history of Czechoslovakia for many years to come. Rebekah Klein-Pejsova .. Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015, 194 pp., index, maps, tables. JAN LANiCEK University of New South Wales, Australia In September of 1943 , members of the civic resistance in Slovakia, led by Vavro Srobar, a founding father of the united Czechoslovak state in 1918, prepared a report that provided insights into the political loyalties of individual groups in Slovakia. Although they believed that in the case of a plebiscite, a majority of the population would decide for Czechoslovakia, the Jews, the authors suggested, would likely support the re-annexation of the Slovak territory to �SLOVAKIA-2017 153 1 Hungary. This report confirmed a problematic perception of the Jews' political loyalties twenty-five years after the creation of the independent state. It was a prelude to the Jewish predicament in post1945 Slovakia, where the accusation of the Jews ' affiliation with the Hungarian (Magyar) culture figured prominently in the public discourse and complicated the Jews ' reintegration into Slovak society. 2 The question of Jewish loyalties in Slovakia is the main theme of thi s monograph . The author focuses on the interwar period and analyzes the transformation of the Jews' loyalties from those associated with the Hungarian political and cultural-linguistic stream before 1918, to a closer alignment with the liberal Czechoslovak political regime, in what she calls the formation of the 'Slovak Jewry'. KleinPejsova defines the 'S lovak Jewry ' as "a communal category binding loyalty to Czechoslovakia with Slovak territoriality rather than an expression of emotional attachment to or identification with the Slovak nation" (p. 92) . This was a complicated process, influenced by the legacies of Hungarian rule and revisionist policies, the rise and collapse of the centralized Czechoslovak state, the emergence of the Slovak national movement closely aligned with the Catholic Church, and internal disputes in the fragmented Jewish communities. Over 135,000 Jews lived in interwar Slovakia. During the 19 th Century, the Hungarian regime emancipated the Jews and allowed them rapid social and economic progress, which led to an overwhelmming acculturation, even assimilation into the Hungarian culture. This trend was deeply resented by the nascent Slovak national movement. Already in the first months after the emergence of the Czechoslovak state - and in an atmosphere filled with anti-Jewish riots 3 - Vavro Srobar, the first Czechoslovak minister responsible for Slovakia, called on the "one hundred percent Magyarized" Jewish communities in Slovakia to seek ""the right path" and abandon their affiliation with the Hungarians (very similar words were repeated by the liberal President Tomas Garrigue Masaryk) (pp.2 and 22). Klein1 Vilem Precan, ed. , Slovenske narodne povstanie: Dokum enty (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo politickej literatury 1965), 89. 2 Anna Cichopek-Gajraj , Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia (Cambridge : Cambridge Un iversity Press, 2014). 3 This subj ect has been recently comprehen sively addressed by Michal Frankl and Miloslav Szabo, Budovani statu bez antisemitismu. Nasili, diskurz loajality a vznik Ceskoslovenska (Praha : NLN, 20 I 6) . �154 SLOVAKIA-2017 Pejsova 's excellent book debates how the Jews responded to these new challenges . Jewish loyalties were constantly under investigation in the interwar period . Although Czechoslovakia accepted the protection of minorities imposed by the Paris Peace Conference (though the government rejected the inclusion of the articles that specifically reiterated the rights of the Jews), the state attempted to prove the dominance of the 'Czechoslovak nation' in the country. The census became the main instrument by which to officially declare loyalties to the new state. The government used the declared "mother tongue" as the main determinant of nationality, and only the Jews were allowed to declare their belonging to the Jewish nationality, regardless of their mother tongue. Klein-Pejsova identifies two possible explanations for this concession: either a liberal vision which re-conceptualized nationality "as an internal conviction", or a less liberal vision, which granted this right to the Jews with the intention of weakening the territorial minorities in the state, namely the Germans and Hungarians. Regardless of the motivations, the number of 'Hungarians' among the Jews sharply decreased in the interwar era (also because of anti-Semitism in Hungary), which contributed to the Hungarians losing some minority rights in certain districts, including Bratislava. Henceforth Hungarians blamed the Jews for this lack of corporate cultural rights, in the same way that the Czechs blamed the Jews in other districts, where the German or Hungarian minority reached the 20% threshold and could use their language in public affairs. Both sides blamed the Jews. A large number of Jews in the country - Klein-Pejsova suggests - decided to follow their own path and declared Jewish nationality, demonstrating neutrality in the national conflict, but at the same time declaring their support for the Czechoslovak state. In 1930, 57% of the Jews across the republic chose this option, and their numbers were exceptionally high especially in the eastern territories, including Slovakia. This acceptance of Jewish nationality should not be confused with support for Jewish nationalism, in the modem sense, a point, which could have been stressed a bit more throughout the monograph. Large parts of the Orthodox and Hassidic communities declared themselves as belonging to the Jewish nationality in the census, but they overtly and consistently rejected modem Jewish nationalist politics. �SLOVAKIA-2017 155 Klein-Pejsova frequently compares the situation of the Jews in Slovakia to the Bohemian Lands, where the Jews largely acculturated into the Czech national stream. This comparative element could have developed differently if the author had focused on Moravia, where, especially in the major cities (Brno and Moravska Ostrava), the progress of cultural affiliation with the Czech nation was much slower and the German language dominated among the Jews until the end of the interwar period (though there was an increased effort to change the affiliation after 1933). Even here, the declaration of Jewish nationality offered a way out of the loyalty quandary for the Jews, who were affiliated with non-Slavic cultures. The Jews thus clearly aligned with the Czechoslovak political regime, at least in their public proclamations, though it is much more difficult to prove how the situation was perceived in daily contacts at the local level. Also, what did it mean for ordinary people - Jews and non-Jews alike - to declare a particular nationality in a decennial census? As Klein-Pejsova aptly concludes, '"'the tragic weakness of Jewish nationality lay in its illegibility", which opened it to interpretations (p.114). One can argue that ordinary people, but also state bureaucrats, were much more interested in the language that the Jews used in their daily contacts. Although the Jews believed that a declaration of Jewish nationality was sufficient proof of their loyalties, and continued to use the Hungarian language, this was an inadequate reorientation in the minds of Slovaks. The second problem was that the Jews tied their loyalties to the centralized Czechoslovak state and not the Slovak nation. The growing Slovak autonomous movement criticized the lack of Jewish support for their national ambitions, and the late 1930s witnessed new cases of anti-Jewish violence in Slovakia, with prominent Slovak politicians (Karol Sidor) even calling for the relocation of the Jews to the Soviet-Jewish Autonomous territory in Birobidzhan in the Far East. In November of 1938, shortly after gaining autonomy, but also after losing extensive territory to Hungary, the Slovak government organized one of the first mass deportations of the Jews in the pre-World War II period, when 7,500 'S lovak Jews ', blamed for the territorial losses, were chased across the new border to Hungary. This book makes a crucial contribution to the question of minority loyalties in Central Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. It points to a dramatic divergence of the constructions of loyalties �156 SLOVAKIA-2017 between the majority and minority populations. The question which remains is what was the ' right path' for the Jews in the interwar period which was filled with contradictory expectations from the Czechoslovak state, Slovak nation, Jewish nationalists, Jewish Orthodox, and Hungarian revisionists? It is possible to conclude that each path irreversibly led to a dead end. Paul Robert Magocsi. With Their Backs to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus '. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2015 , 509 pp. including 34 maps, notes, bibliography and index plus a picture section. KEITH P. DYRUD Retired Professor Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota With Their Backs to the Mountains introduces the CarpathoRusyns and their homeland which the author calls Carpathian Rus ', the north and south slopes of the mountainous area between Poland, Slovakia and the region of Transcarpathia in Ukraine. Magocsi begins with a brief historical and geographical account of the land and people but provides more detail in the nineteenth century when a Ukrainian national movement started to develop with advocates who argued that Rus ' was the historical name for the Ukrainian people and their land. This argument would undercut Magocsi ' s thesis that Carpatho-Rusyns are a separate nationality. The other challenge to his thesis was posed by Hungarian (Magyar) nationalism . After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Hungarians (Magyars) adopted a policy of Magyarization, that is, the forcible assimilation of non-Magyar nationalities, including the Slovaks and Rusyns. Magocsi defines the Carpatho-Rusyn national identity as the culture expressed by the people originating in Carpathian Rus ' who followed Eastern Rite Christianity and spoke a unique language different from Ukrainian. Some emphasis is placed on "originating" in Carpathian Rus ' because as early as the mid-eighteenth century several thousand Carpatho-Rusyns were resettled in areas of Hungary, now parts of Romania, Croatia, and Serbia, which were lightly settled because of �SLOVAKIA-2017 157 the Ottoman retreat. To this day, these ex-Carpathians identify as Rusyns and, as part of Magocsi 's narrative, continue to maintain their unique culture and language. The emphasis on originating in Carpathian Rus ' justifies his inclusion of Rusyns also living in the United States and several South American countries. The Hungarian revolt in 1849 brought Russian armies through the Carpatho-Rusyns ' land and suggested to the the Rusyn intelligentsia that they could be Russians. Magocsi identifies the three decades that followed as the first national awakening. The options explored were uniting the Carpatho-Rusyns with the Galicians to the North, uniting only the Carpatho-Rusyns, or perhaps identifying themselves as a part of the Great Russian people. The Ukrainian option had a strong influence in Galicia and perhaps thwarted the Carpatho-Rusyn Galician option. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, an autonomous Hungary focused on Magyarizing its minorities. This movement had a major impact on the Carpatho-Rusyns as well as the Slovaks living within the Carpathian Rus ' area. The Lemkos on the North slope of the Carpathians were administratively in the Austrian province of Galicia and not subject to Magyarization. Here the Carpatho-Rusyn leaders lobbied to maintain their language in the schools where they were a majority of the village population. In Hungary the Rusyn effort was thwarted by the Greek Catholic Bishops who were often Magyarone Carpatho-Rusyns. Since World Wars I and II altered the map of Central Europe, Magocsi deals with each Carpathian Rus ' area separately. The second national awakening occurred during the interwar period and is covered in depth. Magocsi provides the names of Carpatho-Rusyn organizations, their publications and cultural activities and statistics on the school systems. Data is provided on how many schools used the local dialect and the percentage of the local populations that identified as Rusyn, Ukrainian, Russian, Magyar, or Slovak. The Lemkos are treated separately from the Carpatho-Rusyns to their south in the Presov region of Slovakia. The eastern portion of Carpathian Rus ' had several names in the twentieth century and is now called the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. The CarpathoRusyns in Transcarpathia mostly identify as Ukrainians . In Table 1.1 Magocsi identifies 853 ,000 people who should be identified as Carpatho-Rusyns which includes 80,000 Lemkos forcibly resettled �158 SLOVAKIA-2017 there after WWII. Now only 10,100 of them self-identify as Carpatho-Rusyns. During World War II the Lemko region was made part of the Generalgouvernrnent of Nazi Germany and received better treatment than the other Carpatho-Rusyns. Shortly after the war ended, Poland disbursed over 80,000 Lemkos to Soviet Ukraine, leaving only 25 ,000 to 35,000 in their ancestral homeland. In the summer of 1947, the Polish army forcibly resettled about 35,000 Lemkos to the western areas of Poland recently cleared of Germans. Only about 7,300 Lemkos managed to avoid deportation. The final chapters of the book follow the Carpatho-Rusyns, wherever they settled, and describe their social, economic and political situations, and their third national awakening. In the final chapters, Magocsi is no longer describing the "shaping of a national identity" but rather documenting the shaping of a cultural identity. Magocsi himself has actively promoted establishing a literary language for each of the various Carpatho-Rusyn dialects. His effort has not gone unnoticed by Ukrainian nationalists who insist that there is no Rusyn nationality, only various Ukrainian dialects and subcultures. Magocsi himself quotes one of many such detractors who call the movement "political Rusynism." "This nefarious phenomenon, so they said, was the work of a few ' intellectually misguided' or 'politically opportunistic' individuals 'paid' and, in some cases led by Carpatho-Rusyn 'protectors' in North America (especially the University of Toronto Professor Paul Robert Magocsi)." Valerian Bystricky. Zahranicnopoliticke suvislosti vzniku Slovenskeho statu 14. marca 1939. Bratislava: Veda, 2014, bibliography, name index, 464 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University The Slovak historian Bystricky (born 1936), a member and former Director of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, has a prodigious scholarly record with more than 120 works published at home and abroad. His latest book is very wellresearched, drawing upon contemporary newspaper articles, mem- �SLOVAKIA-2017 159 oirs, and archival materials from various countries. The author divided his seven-chapter monograph into numerous sub-chapters, making for easier navigation. Numerous footnotes also add information to help clarify the text. However, this is a dense volume that is not for everyday reading. Besides the myriad actors presented, a major flaw is that the author seems to want to include as much information as possible, resulting in many instances of repetition. Perhaps a more succinct volume would have been more appropriate. Nonetheless, this is an interesting book. It concentrates on how the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSCS) went from the struggle for autonomy, as outlined in the Pittsburgh Agreement, to the building of Slovak autonomy and a state within the framework of a federated Czecho-Slovakia after Munich. It also made preparations for the possibility of an independent country in the future, resulting in the unexpected proclamation of independence on March 14, 1939. When the HSCS did not get what it wanted from the Czechoslovak government in the late 1920's, it went into opposition . Slovak political parties prior to Slovak independence had little influence upon the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia, although the democracy of the country gave Slovaks a desire to have a say in world affairs. With the exception of the Communists, no Slovak political parties had a clear-cut view of foreign policy. Foreign powers and enemies of Czechoslovakia would use Slovak rights and grievances to weaken the state. The members of the HSCS, or Cudaks, could not convince the Western Powers about the need to the transform the state into a federation , thereby causing the Cudaks to look for support elsewhere. The HSCS became the only Slovak political party to accept funds from abroad for its political program. The main threat to Czechoslovakia prior to 1936 remained irredentist Hungary. The rise of Hitler would prove to be a greater danger to the integrity of the state. At first the HSCS viewed the Nazis as non-threatening, then became reserved, while the younger generation of Cudaks began to admire Germany, causing democracy to weaken, both on the right and on the left. Slovakia was largely forgotten during the Munich Crisis, but it led to Slovakia receiving autonomy within a weakened CzechoSlovakia. With this autonomy, the HSCS quickly consolidated power by either banning or forcing the other national or Slovak political parties to merge with it, ending democracy and leading to an authori- �160 SLOVAKIA-2017 tarian regime with the Cudaks claiming to speak for all Slovaks, with independence becoming an eventual goal. Although the Cudaks initially looked to Poland as a possible ally and counterweight to Germany, they were disappointed by Poland ' s desire for Slovak territory and subsequent Czecho-Slovak territorial concessions to Poland. After the First Vienna Award in November of 1938, when Hungary annexed southern Slovakia, the HSCS realized its only friend and protector could be Germany. Radical Cudaks held numerous secret talks with various Nazis in the fall of I 938 and early 1939 without the knowledge of the moderates, including Slovak Premier Fr. Jozef Tiso. Except for Hitler, who felt he could not fight the Western Powers without first destroying CzechoSlovakia, no one knew what the future held for the country. The Nazis began to collaborate with the radical Cudaks to destabilize Czecho-Slovakia so that they could occupy Bohemia and Moravia without being labeled as aggressors. The key became Slovak independence, with the Nazis using the HSCS as their entry for the destruction of Czecho-S lovakia, but it had to be provoked by the Czechs. The so-called Homola putsch, when the Czecho-S lovak military occupied Slovakia on March 9, 1939 as a means to keep Slovakia in the republic, became a comedy of errors not only for Prague, but also for the Nazis . The dismissal of the autonomous Tiso government by Prague, and the ineffectual occupation led to the imprisonment of many Cudak radicals, upon whom the Germans had placed hopes for proclaiming independence during March 11-12. Although the Nazis had no advance knowledge of these Czech actions, they expected Karol Sidor, as the new Slovak premier and leader of the para-military Hlinka Guard, to do their bidding. The Polonophile Sidor refused. When bullying by a Nazi official produced no results, the Germans rebuffed "the soldier of Prague" Sidor as premier and turned to the only alternative, save military intervention, which would have shown Berlin to be the aggressor: Tiso, who no longer had any governmental authority. Like Sidor, Tiso refused to unilaterally proclaim independence, instead wanting to do so legally. Warned by Hitler that Hungary would swallow Slovakia unless independence was declared immediately, Tiso asked for and received the Slovak parliament' s approval on March 14, a few days later than the Nazis had wanted . This act gave the green light for �SLOVAKIA-2017 161 Germany to occupy Bohemia and Moravia the next day, claiming that Slovak independence came from the disintegration of CzechoSlovakia and that Germany had not destroyed it. Very few public manifestations greeted the new Slovak state while life went on as usual. Except for a handful of mostly radical l'.udaks, few Slovaks wanted an independent country in March, rather hoping for a gradual and evolutionary process than the unlawful revolutionary solution enacted. The bottom line and reoccurring theme of this work revolves around the fact that without Nazi support, Slovakia would not have gained independence in March of 1939. As such, Slovakia's fate was tied to German victory in the Second World War. Yet, as Bystricky notes, the Slovak government and its supporters largely underplayed and tried to ignore the Nazi connection to Slovak independence. Instead, the government presented Slovak independence as an act of the self-determination of nations, historic and natural rights, and the renewal of a long- ago medieval kingdom. This view persists among supporters of wartime Slovakia to this day. Pal'o Carnogursky. Suboj s komunizmom. Bratislava: Kalligram, 2013 , 368 pp. Suboj s komunizmom 2. Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Spolku slovenskych spisovatel'ov, 2015 , 367 pp. Jan Rychlik Charles University, Prague The well-known Latin expression habent sua fata libeli (books have their destinies) is true about the memoirs of the Catholic activist, politician, journalist and amateur historian Pavo) Carnogursky ( 1908-1992), which were posthumously published by his oldest son Ivan in two volumes in 2013 a 2015 under the title "Suboj s komunizmom" (The Duel with Communism). In the early 1970's Carnogursky wrote his memoirs on important events in modern Slovak history - the proclamation of Slovak autonomy on 6 October 1938 and the declaration of Slovakia' s independence on 14 March 1939. These materials were confiscated by State Security (Statna bezpecnost' - StB) in 1976 and returned only after the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989. They were published by the Institute of History of the Slo- �162 SLOVAKIA-2017 vak Academy of Sciences in 1992 and 1993 .- In 1985-1986 Carnogursky, deprived of his personal notes, also tape-recorded his memoirs which, however, remained incomplete but were published posthumously by his younger son Jan in 1997 under the title Svedok cias (A Witness to the Times).- Now we have new, hitherto unknown, memoirs of Pavo) Carnogursky, which are an important testimony, not only about historical events and important personalities of Slovak political life, but also about the "soft" methods of persecution of political opponents during the regime of the so-called "normalization" ( 1969-1989). The texts presented in both volumes of Souboj s komunizmom were written between 1976 and1979, after Carnogursky's release from six weeks of custody (from November 8 to December 15, 1976). Carnogursky was imprisoned because he sent for publication to the West documents concerning the persecution of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. He was accused of "harming the interests of the Republic abroad" according to article 112 of the Penal Code of 1961 (this article was frequently used against opponents of the regime if they published their materials abroad). Carnogursky faced up to three years in prison. Fortunately, this did not happen. He was released from custody, interrogated from time-to-time for two more years about his activities and contacts abroad, and finally - at the end of 1979 - the criminal proceedings were suspended. After each interrogation, Carnogursky described what had happened. He also made a detailed list of the documents which were confiscated from his personal archive and tried to restore them from memory. In describing the " lost" materials, he always added his personal testimony to the event or person. Because he was afraid that the notes and materials might be confiscated again, he decided to hide them. He did so with his relative Michal Skokan in Poprad. It is not clear why Pavo) Carnogursky did not claim his materials after the fall of Communism in November of 1989. Skokan's family probably forgot about them . The documents were returned to Carnogursky' s oldest son Ivan only in 2011, nine years after his father's death. In addition, in 2013 Pal'o Carogursky's comments on Gustav Husak's book Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani (1964) and his correspondence with Slovak Communist poet Laco Novomesky, were found in the Archive of the Office of the President in the Prague Castle among Gustav Husak's papers by the young Czech historian, Michal Machacek, a �SLOVAKIA-2017 163 postgraduate student of the author of this review. Machacek informed Carnogursky 's family about this through Slovak historian Pavo! Minarik (see Vol. 2, p. 364). Carnogursky 's comments were later added as an appendix to the second volume of memoirs. Unfortunately, the correspondence between Pavo! Carnogursky and Laco Novomesky was not published in extenso. To understand the memoires, it is necessary not only to know Slovak history of the 20 th Century, but also to know who was Pavo! Carnogursky. Originally a schoolteacher, young Carnogursky also studied law at the Charles University in Prague. From his youth he was an active member of the Slovak autonomist movement, closely associated with the Hlinka Slovak People 's Party (Hlinkova slovenska l'udova strana - HSCS), although officially (at least according to his memoirs) he never formally joined the party. He was the secretary of the Association of Catholic Youth and also a close collaborator of Karol Sidor (1901-1953), a leading figure of the HSCS and originally the designated successor to Andrej Hlinka. In autonomous Slovakia (1938-1939) Camogursky was a high official of the Ministry of Education. In December of 1938 he was elected to the Slovak autonomous Diet and, as a deputy of this law-making body, he voted on 14 March 1939 for Slovakia' s independence. Carnogursky, like his mentor Sidor, was a Polonophile and opposed the official proGerman orientation of Slovakia. Unlike Sidor, who, under German pressure was forced out of the Slovak government and sent as the Slovak minister to the Vatican, Carnogursky remained in Slovakia and took an active part in the political life of the wartime Slovak Republic. Unlike many other politicians of the Slovak Republic, Carnogursky did not flee the country in 1945 . He remained an adherent of independence for Slovakia but viewed it as unrealistic at the time. He accepted the restoration of Czechoslovakia as a matter of fact. As an editor of the weekly Katolicke noviny (1945-194 7) he again participated in Slovak political life. He collected money and hired lawyers to defend Dr. Jozef Tiso, former President of Slovakia, who was put on trial after the war. In 1946, Carnogursky helped negotiate the so-called April Agreement, a political pact between representatives of political Catholicism and the Protestant leaders of the Democratic Party. Due to this Agreement, the Democratic Party won the votes of the majority of Slovak Catholics and also the parliamentary �164 SLOVAKIA-2017 elections in Slovakia, which were held on May 26, 1946 . These elections were a political defeat for the Communist Party of Slovakia. However, the Democratic Party was not able - despite its electoral victory -- to stop the Communist takeover of power. For his anti-communist and pro-independence stance, Carnogursky was arrested several times: shortly in the summer of 1945 and 1946, and definitively in October of 194 7. After the communist takeover of February 25, I 948, he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for "anti-state conspiracy". More serious was his next arrest in January of 1951. After his release in I 953 , he lived in Bratislava and worked as a laborer. In the 1960s, during the period of liberalization, he started to cooperate with the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Institute of History of the Slovak Communist Party. He collected many materials dealing with modern Slovak history and published several articles. The period of the socalled "normalization," however, interrupted Carnogursky's cooperation with academic circles. After that he concentrated on the defence of religious freedom. His criticism of the anti-religious policy of the communist regime led to his last imprisonment and interrogation on November 8, 1976. Despite the fact that he was soon released and the proceedings were halted in 1979, he did not get back his personal archive, which was confiscated after his arrest. The confiscated documents were later handed over by the police to the Slovak State Central Archive (now the Slovak National Archives) and Carnogursky got them back in 1991 . It is very difficult to describe the contents of Pavo) Carnogursky's notes . He was a witness and often also a participant in many historical events. He also met many historical personalities and tried to describe them . The text is interesting and quite readable, despite the fact that the author often repeats himself. As always in memoirs, many of Carnogursky's standpoints are subjective and some explanations problematic and doubtful. Some of Carnogursky's conclusions contradict known facts . The main problem with the whole text is, however, the large number of factual errors. For example, in Volume 1, on page 4 7, in the summer of 1965 Gustav Husak was working as a researcher in the Institute of State and Law at the Slovak academy of Sciences (Ustav statu a prava SA V), not in Stavoindustria, as Carnogursky claims; on page 70, Vlado Clementis was executed on December 3, 1952, not on December 8; on page �SLOVAKIA-2017 165 231 - Milos Gosiorovsky sent his memorandum advocating the federalization of Czechoslovakia to the Central Committee of the Communist Party on July 29, 1963 , not in the year 1955; on page 238 when the Slovak government stopped the deportations of Jews (on October 20, 1942), between 23 ,000 and 24,000 Jews remained in Slovakia, not 45 ,000 or even 50,000 (p.318); on page 242 - Andrej Hlinka died on August 16, 1938, not on August 15 ; on page 249 Stalin died on March 5, 1953, not on March 3rd; The Constitutional Law "On the Czechoslovak Federation" (No. 143/ 1968) was signed at Bratislava Castle on October 30, 1968 (on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Turciansky Sv. Martin), not on October 23rd. In Vol. 2, on page 245 - the correct name of the provisional parliament in 1945-1946 was "Provisional National Assembly", not Revolutionary National Assembly (this was the name of the provisional parliament in 1918-1920). Camogursky also forgot many minor details, events or mixed them up. For example, in Volume 1, on page 33 the first name of Dr. Horakova, the hero of Czech anti-Nazi and antiCommunist resistance (and first woman sentenced to death and executed in modem Czech and Slovak history), was Milada, not Maria; In Vol. 2., page 124 - Camogursky mixed up "Slovenska obnova" with the daily "Narodna obroda", which was published by the Slovak National Council. Also in Vol. 2, page 194 - Frantisek Nemec, the delegate of the Czechoslovak government in exile and his staff settled in Carpathian Ruthenia in Chust, not in Sevl'us; Also in Vo. 2, on page 253 - Stefan Bast'ovansky did not commit suicide in prison in 1952. He committed suicide at home on 27 November, 1952, on the same day that the State Court in Prague sentenced to death eleven members of the "Rudolf Slansky anti-state group". These errors are perfectly understandable. Camogursky was describing events which happened several decades earlier and he did not have the opportunity to check the facts , either in published sources or in the archives. The editor or the publishing house should have hired a professional historian, who in the form of footnotes , would have corrected these obvious mistakes. In spite of these shortcomings, however, both volumes are a valuable contribution to modem Slovak history. �166 SLOVAKIA-2017 James Krapfl. Revolution with a Human Face: Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989-1992. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2011, xxi-260 pp., figures, maps, tables, abbreviations, notes, chronology, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Bratislava This book examines the events that marked the end of Communism in Czechoslovakia and its transition to democracy from the fall of 1989 to the summer of 1992. As the classic expression goes, habent sua fata libelli - each book has a story behind it. In this particular case it is worth mentioning that the English edition of the book was preceded by its Slovak version, published in 2009, which usually happens the other way around. Krapfl provides an insightful, well-documented and convincing picture of the struggle of Czechoslovakia's citizens to find a new way for themselves and their future state. He suggests that what happened in Czechoslovakia between 1989 and 1992 was a true revolution from every angle. The book is based on very comprehensive research in Czechoslovakia and its sucessor states in the 1990s and 2000s. He searched primary sources , not only in the urban centers and major archives, but also in the regions. His sources included leaflets, pamphlets, internal reports and instructions issued by the newly-emerging political entities that had served as major agents of political transition in post-Communist Czechoslovakia -the Civic Forum in Prague (OF) and Public Against Violence in Bratislava (VPN)--along with their regional and local branches . Such sources are of crucial importance when examining the substance of any modem revolution, for they serve as the most authentic indicators of an atmosphere full of civic passion and enthusiasm that the replaced previous passivity and obedience to communist political authorities. The overall picture is broad, in some respects too broad. However, keeping in mind that the major protagonists of the story are not individuals, but communities and their little-known representatives, this does not constitute a problem. Krapfl' s deep faith in the humanness and civic spirit of ordinary Czechs and Slovaks, who were determined to overcome all the dificulties that stemmed from a �SLOVAKIA-2017 167 political power-vacuum on the one hand, and uncertainty, as far as new institutional and constitutional designs were concerned, on the other hand, can be felt from beginning to end. Krapfl is perfectly aware of the sad fact that, two decades after the Velvet Revolution, skepticism by ordinary Slovaks and Czechs, and their displeasure with current political elites, is ubiquitous. More importantly, he has no doubt that the sudden rise of a civic movement in the fall of 1989 was authentic, spontaneous and true. Meanwhile, he avoids commenting on national conflict, which would otherwise lead to blaming either side or both for their mistakes on the thorny path to democracy. The first two chapters provide a theoretical framework of the civic movement in Czechoslovakia after the communist regime fell in November of 1989. As any other good book, this one culminates near its end. The central theme that shapes the book is a hearkening back to the reform movement of the 1960's in communist Czechoslovakia.. Krapfl is disciplined enough not to repeat variations of political and legal evolution of a joint state that was destined to fail since this subject had already been covered by prolific scholars such as Carol Skalnik Leff, Eric Stein, Shari J. Cohen, Abby Innes and Gil Eyal, to name just a few. Krapfl ' s analysis of the altercation between the Civic Forum and the Public Against Violence as the almost exclusive representatives of their communities before the 1990 parliamentary elections belongs to the best discourses on the topic yet written by a western scholar on postCommunist Czechoslovakia. Two short observations are in order. In a future edition of the book the bibliography should be expanded to include new titles that emerged between its first Slovak and English editions. Also, to balance the period before the community of citizens began to fall apart, and their subsequent and inevitable transformation into political parties following the parliamentary elections of June 1990 and June 1992, more should have been written about the the period between the two elections. Due to Krapfl s masterly knowledge of the subject, thoughtful narrative, empathy for and respect toward the country and its peoples, his book represents a very informative and valuable contribution to the most recent scholarship on East Central Europe, not only from the perspective of cultural history, as the author �168 SLOVAKIA-2017 modestly claims, but also to sociology and political science. Today, when it seems that the glorious days of the Velvet Revolution and its legacy are numbered, as were the days of the French revolution (to which Krapfl in some aspects compares the former) , the importance of the book is significantly higher in the Czech and Slovak Republics, where the faith of the citizenry and civic movements have been substantially reduced, neglected or almost forgotten. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA-2017 151 Jozef Klempa. Moje skusenosti za svetovej vojny. Dennik ceskoslovenskeho legionara z rokov 1914-1920. Bratislava: Slovart, 2014. l 83pp. Afterword by Viera Meliskova. Maps. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This is a unique and fascinating diary of a Czechoslovak (Slovak) Legionnaire from the First World War. Jozef Klempa (18941980) was trained as a shoemaker who was drafted into the AustroHungarian Armed Forces when the Great War broke out in 1914. That same year he was captured by the Russians on the eastern front and, along with many other POW's shuttled from one Russian village to another, far from the front. Amazingly, the Russian authorities treated him and other POW's quite leniently, letting them wander into nearby villages to find odd jobs, earn some kopeks or rubles, and buy food and drink to supplement their meager rations. Klempa's training as a shoemaker stood him in good stead, as he repaired the boots of his fellow-soldiers as well as that of many villagers. Indeed, he found Russian civilians very friendly and hospitable and he quickly mastered the Russian language and Russian customs. In 1918, after Germany had defeated Russia on the battlefield and the Bolsheviks had seized power, the Czechoslovak Legions, established during the war by T.G. Masaryk and Milan R. Stefanik, rebelled against the Bolsheviks, who tried to disarm them. Jozef Klempa, and thousands of other Czech and Slovak PO W' s joined the Czechoslovak Legions, and while fighting off various attacks by the Red Army, they decided to flee Russia by seizing control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad from the Ural Mountains all the way to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. Klempa recorded, almost on a daily basis, his experiences in crossing Siberia twice, once to flee the Bolsheviks and the second time to fight and try to defeat them, at the urging of the Allied and Associated powers. Indeed, Klempa and some of his fellow-Legionnaires were captured by the Bolsheviks on one occasion, but managed to escape. Klempa described in great detail the good relations the Czechoslovak Legionnaires had with various Kozak armies in Siberia, but denounced Admiral Kolchak and his officers. Klempa concluded that the "Whites" lost the war against the Bolsheviks because of the arrogance and cruelty of Admiral Kol- �152 SLOVAKIA-2017 chak and his officers towards Russian peasants. Indeed, it took a visit by General Stefanik in the fall of 1918 to prevent many of the Czechs and Slovaks from joining the Bolsheviks, who treated this foreign army on Russian soil better than did Admiral Kolchak. And, while Klempa had good things to say about Chinese merchants in Siberia, he had nothing but contempt for the Japanese soldiers in Vladivostok, who treated the Czechoslovak Legionnaires very badly. Finally, in May of 1920, Klempa and 3,000 other Legionnaires boarded a British ship that took them to Vancouver in Canada. They then crossed Canada by rail to the eastern port of Halifax, where they boarded another ship that took them to the German port of Zugshaven from whence they were shipped by rail to the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic at the end of July. As many other Legionnaires, Klempa was then released from the military, given a medal for his service, and eventually found a job on the Czechoslovak railroad. Over the years he regaled his family with memories of his exploits in Siberia. His granddaughter Vierka Meliskova managed to gather together his recollections, based on a detailed diary that he kept while in Russia and on the way home, and published this memoir of a Czechoslovak Legionnaire. Historians will mine it for information on this glorious chapter in the history of Czechoslovakia for many years to come. Rebekah Klein-Pejsova .. Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015, 194 pp., index, maps, tables. JAN LANiCEK University of New South Wales, Australia In September of 1943 , members of the civic resistance in Slovakia, led by Vavro Srobar, a founding father of the united Czechoslovak state in 1918, prepared a report that provided insights into the political loyalties of individual groups in Slovakia. Although they believed that in the case of a plebiscite, a majority of the population would decide for Czechoslovakia, the Jews, the authors suggested, would likely support the re-annexation of the Slovak territory to �SLOVAKIA-2017 153 1 Hungary. This report confirmed a problematic perception of the Jews' political loyalties twenty-five years after the creation of the independent state. It was a prelude to the Jewish predicament in post1945 Slovakia, where the accusation of the Jews ' affiliation with the Hungarian (Magyar) culture figured prominently in the public discourse and complicated the Jews ' reintegration into Slovak society. 2 The question of Jewish loyalties in Slovakia is the main theme of thi s monograph . The author focuses on the interwar period and analyzes the transformation of the Jews' loyalties from those associated with the Hungarian political and cultural-linguistic stream before 1918, to a closer alignment with the liberal Czechoslovak political regime, in what she calls the formation of the 'Slovak Jewry'. KleinPejsova defines the 'S lovak Jewry ' as "a communal category binding loyalty to Czechoslovakia with Slovak territoriality rather than an expression of emotional attachment to or identification with the Slovak nation" (p. 92) . This was a complicated process, influenced by the legacies of Hungarian rule and revisionist policies, the rise and collapse of the centralized Czechoslovak state, the emergence of the Slovak national movement closely aligned with the Catholic Church, and internal disputes in the fragmented Jewish communities. Over 135,000 Jews lived in interwar Slovakia. During the 19 th Century, the Hungarian regime emancipated the Jews and allowed them rapid social and economic progress, which led to an overwhelmming acculturation, even assimilation into the Hungarian culture. This trend was deeply resented by the nascent Slovak national movement. Already in the first months after the emergence of the Czechoslovak state - and in an atmosphere filled with anti-Jewish riots 3 - Vavro Srobar, the first Czechoslovak minister responsible for Slovakia, called on the "one hundred percent Magyarized" Jewish communities in Slovakia to seek ""the right path" and abandon their affiliation with the Hungarians (very similar words were repeated by the liberal President Tomas Garrigue Masaryk) (pp.2 and 22). Klein1 Vilem Precan, ed. , Slovenske narodne povstanie: Dokum enty (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo politickej literatury 1965), 89. 2 Anna Cichopek-Gajraj , Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia (Cambridge : Cambridge Un iversity Press, 2014). 3 This subj ect has been recently comprehen sively addressed by Michal Frankl and Miloslav Szabo, Budovani statu bez antisemitismu. Nasili, diskurz loajality a vznik Ceskoslovenska (Praha : NLN, 20 I 6) . �154 SLOVAKIA-2017 Pejsova 's excellent book debates how the Jews responded to these new challenges . Jewish loyalties were constantly under investigation in the interwar period . Although Czechoslovakia accepted the protection of minorities imposed by the Paris Peace Conference (though the government rejected the inclusion of the articles that specifically reiterated the rights of the Jews), the state attempted to prove the dominance of the 'Czechoslovak nation' in the country. The census became the main instrument by which to officially declare loyalties to the new state. The government used the declared "mother tongue" as the main determinant of nationality, and only the Jews were allowed to declare their belonging to the Jewish nationality, regardless of their mother tongue. Klein-Pejsova identifies two possible explanations for this concession: either a liberal vision which re-conceptualized nationality "as an internal conviction", or a less liberal vision, which granted this right to the Jews with the intention of weakening the territorial minorities in the state, namely the Germans and Hungarians. Regardless of the motivations, the number of 'Hungarians' among the Jews sharply decreased in the interwar era (also because of anti-Semitism in Hungary), which contributed to the Hungarians losing some minority rights in certain districts, including Bratislava. Henceforth Hungarians blamed the Jews for this lack of corporate cultural rights, in the same way that the Czechs blamed the Jews in other districts, where the German or Hungarian minority reached the 20% threshold and could use their language in public affairs. Both sides blamed the Jews. A large number of Jews in the country - Klein-Pejsova suggests - decided to follow their own path and declared Jewish nationality, demonstrating neutrality in the national conflict, but at the same time declaring their support for the Czechoslovak state. In 1930, 57% of the Jews across the republic chose this option, and their numbers were exceptionally high especially in the eastern territories, including Slovakia. This acceptance of Jewish nationality should not be confused with support for Jewish nationalism, in the modem sense, a point, which could have been stressed a bit more throughout the monograph. Large parts of the Orthodox and Hassidic communities declared themselves as belonging to the Jewish nationality in the census, but they overtly and consistently rejected modem Jewish nationalist politics. �SLOVAKIA-2017 155 Klein-Pejsova frequently compares the situation of the Jews in Slovakia to the Bohemian Lands, where the Jews largely acculturated into the Czech national stream. This comparative element could have developed differently if the author had focused on Moravia, where, especially in the major cities (Brno and Moravska Ostrava), the progress of cultural affiliation with the Czech nation was much slower and the German language dominated among the Jews until the end of the interwar period (though there was an increased effort to change the affiliation after 1933). Even here, the declaration of Jewish nationality offered a way out of the loyalty quandary for the Jews, who were affiliated with non-Slavic cultures. The Jews thus clearly aligned with the Czechoslovak political regime, at least in their public proclamations, though it is much more difficult to prove how the situation was perceived in daily contacts at the local level. Also, what did it mean for ordinary people - Jews and non-Jews alike - to declare a particular nationality in a decennial census? As Klein-Pejsova aptly concludes, '"'the tragic weakness of Jewish nationality lay in its illegibility", which opened it to interpretations (p.114). One can argue that ordinary people, but also state bureaucrats, were much more interested in the language that the Jews used in their daily contacts. Although the Jews believed that a declaration of Jewish nationality was sufficient proof of their loyalties, and continued to use the Hungarian language, this was an inadequate reorientation in the minds of Slovaks. The second problem was that the Jews tied their loyalties to the centralized Czechoslovak state and not the Slovak nation. The growing Slovak autonomous movement criticized the lack of Jewish support for their national ambitions, and the late 1930s witnessed new cases of anti-Jewish violence in Slovakia, with prominent Slovak politicians (Karol Sidor) even calling for the relocation of the Jews to the Soviet-Jewish Autonomous territory in Birobidzhan in the Far East. In November of 1938, shortly after gaining autonomy, but also after losing extensive territory to Hungary, the Slovak government organized one of the first mass deportations of the Jews in the pre-World War II period, when 7,500 'S lovak Jews ', blamed for the territorial losses, were chased across the new border to Hungary. This book makes a crucial contribution to the question of minority loyalties in Central Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. It points to a dramatic divergence of the constructions of loyalties �156 SLOVAKIA-2017 between the majority and minority populations. The question which remains is what was the ' right path' for the Jews in the interwar period which was filled with contradictory expectations from the Czechoslovak state, Slovak nation, Jewish nationalists, Jewish Orthodox, and Hungarian revisionists? It is possible to conclude that each path irreversibly led to a dead end. Paul Robert Magocsi. With Their Backs to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus '. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2015 , 509 pp. including 34 maps, notes, bibliography and index plus a picture section. KEITH P. DYRUD Retired Professor Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota With Their Backs to the Mountains introduces the CarpathoRusyns and their homeland which the author calls Carpathian Rus ', the north and south slopes of the mountainous area between Poland, Slovakia and the region of Transcarpathia in Ukraine. Magocsi begins with a brief historical and geographical account of the land and people but provides more detail in the nineteenth century when a Ukrainian national movement started to develop with advocates who argued that Rus ' was the historical name for the Ukrainian people and their land. This argument would undercut Magocsi ' s thesis that Carpatho-Rusyns are a separate nationality. The other challenge to his thesis was posed by Hungarian (Magyar) nationalism . After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Hungarians (Magyars) adopted a policy of Magyarization, that is, the forcible assimilation of non-Magyar nationalities, including the Slovaks and Rusyns. Magocsi defines the Carpatho-Rusyn national identity as the culture expressed by the people originating in Carpathian Rus ' who followed Eastern Rite Christianity and spoke a unique language different from Ukrainian. Some emphasis is placed on "originating" in Carpathian Rus ' because as early as the mid-eighteenth century several thousand Carpatho-Rusyns were resettled in areas of Hungary, now parts of Romania, Croatia, and Serbia, which were lightly settled because of �SLOVAKIA-2017 157 the Ottoman retreat. To this day, these ex-Carpathians identify as Rusyns and, as part of Magocsi 's narrative, continue to maintain their unique culture and language. The emphasis on originating in Carpathian Rus ' justifies his inclusion of Rusyns also living in the United States and several South American countries. The Hungarian revolt in 1849 brought Russian armies through the Carpatho-Rusyns ' land and suggested to the the Rusyn intelligentsia that they could be Russians. Magocsi identifies the three decades that followed as the first national awakening. The options explored were uniting the Carpatho-Rusyns with the Galicians to the North, uniting only the Carpatho-Rusyns, or perhaps identifying themselves as a part of the Great Russian people. The Ukrainian option had a strong influence in Galicia and perhaps thwarted the Carpatho-Rusyn Galician option. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, an autonomous Hungary focused on Magyarizing its minorities. This movement had a major impact on the Carpatho-Rusyns as well as the Slovaks living within the Carpathian Rus ' area. The Lemkos on the North slope of the Carpathians were administratively in the Austrian province of Galicia and not subject to Magyarization. Here the Carpatho-Rusyn leaders lobbied to maintain their language in the schools where they were a majority of the village population. In Hungary the Rusyn effort was thwarted by the Greek Catholic Bishops who were often Magyarone Carpatho-Rusyns. Since World Wars I and II altered the map of Central Europe, Magocsi deals with each Carpathian Rus ' area separately. The second national awakening occurred during the interwar period and is covered in depth. Magocsi provides the names of Carpatho-Rusyn organizations, their publications and cultural activities and statistics on the school systems. Data is provided on how many schools used the local dialect and the percentage of the local populations that identified as Rusyn, Ukrainian, Russian, Magyar, or Slovak. The Lemkos are treated separately from the Carpatho-Rusyns to their south in the Presov region of Slovakia. The eastern portion of Carpathian Rus ' had several names in the twentieth century and is now called the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. The CarpathoRusyns in Transcarpathia mostly identify as Ukrainians . In Table 1.1 Magocsi identifies 853 ,000 people who should be identified as Carpatho-Rusyns which includes 80,000 Lemkos forcibly resettled �158 SLOVAKIA-2017 there after WWII. Now only 10,100 of them self-identify as Carpatho-Rusyns. During World War II the Lemko region was made part of the Generalgouvernrnent of Nazi Germany and received better treatment than the other Carpatho-Rusyns. Shortly after the war ended, Poland disbursed over 80,000 Lemkos to Soviet Ukraine, leaving only 25 ,000 to 35,000 in their ancestral homeland. In the summer of 1947, the Polish army forcibly resettled about 35,000 Lemkos to the western areas of Poland recently cleared of Germans. Only about 7,300 Lemkos managed to avoid deportation. The final chapters of the book follow the Carpatho-Rusyns, wherever they settled, and describe their social, economic and political situations, and their third national awakening. In the final chapters, Magocsi is no longer describing the "shaping of a national identity" but rather documenting the shaping of a cultural identity. Magocsi himself has actively promoted establishing a literary language for each of the various Carpatho-Rusyn dialects. His effort has not gone unnoticed by Ukrainian nationalists who insist that there is no Rusyn nationality, only various Ukrainian dialects and subcultures. Magocsi himself quotes one of many such detractors who call the movement "political Rusynism." "This nefarious phenomenon, so they said, was the work of a few ' intellectually misguided' or 'politically opportunistic' individuals 'paid' and, in some cases led by Carpatho-Rusyn 'protectors' in North America (especially the University of Toronto Professor Paul Robert Magocsi)." Valerian Bystricky. Zahranicnopoliticke suvislosti vzniku Slovenskeho statu 14. marca 1939. Bratislava: Veda, 2014, bibliography, name index, 464 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University The Slovak historian Bystricky (born 1936), a member and former Director of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, has a prodigious scholarly record with more than 120 works published at home and abroad. His latest book is very wellresearched, drawing upon contemporary newspaper articles, mem- �SLOVAKIA-2017 159 oirs, and archival materials from various countries. The author divided his seven-chapter monograph into numerous sub-chapters, making for easier navigation. Numerous footnotes also add information to help clarify the text. However, this is a dense volume that is not for everyday reading. Besides the myriad actors presented, a major flaw is that the author seems to want to include as much information as possible, resulting in many instances of repetition. Perhaps a more succinct volume would have been more appropriate. Nonetheless, this is an interesting book. It concentrates on how the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSCS) went from the struggle for autonomy, as outlined in the Pittsburgh Agreement, to the building of Slovak autonomy and a state within the framework of a federated Czecho-Slovakia after Munich. It also made preparations for the possibility of an independent country in the future, resulting in the unexpected proclamation of independence on March 14, 1939. When the HSCS did not get what it wanted from the Czechoslovak government in the late 1920's, it went into opposition . Slovak political parties prior to Slovak independence had little influence upon the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia, although the democracy of the country gave Slovaks a desire to have a say in world affairs. With the exception of the Communists, no Slovak political parties had a clear-cut view of foreign policy. Foreign powers and enemies of Czechoslovakia would use Slovak rights and grievances to weaken the state. The members of the HSCS, or Cudaks, could not convince the Western Powers about the need to the transform the state into a federation , thereby causing the Cudaks to look for support elsewhere. The HSCS became the only Slovak political party to accept funds from abroad for its political program. The main threat to Czechoslovakia prior to 1936 remained irredentist Hungary. The rise of Hitler would prove to be a greater danger to the integrity of the state. At first the HSCS viewed the Nazis as non-threatening, then became reserved, while the younger generation of Cudaks began to admire Germany, causing democracy to weaken, both on the right and on the left. Slovakia was largely forgotten during the Munich Crisis, but it led to Slovakia receiving autonomy within a weakened CzechoSlovakia. With this autonomy, the HSCS quickly consolidated power by either banning or forcing the other national or Slovak political parties to merge with it, ending democracy and leading to an authori- �160 SLOVAKIA-2017 tarian regime with the Cudaks claiming to speak for all Slovaks, with independence becoming an eventual goal. Although the Cudaks initially looked to Poland as a possible ally and counterweight to Germany, they were disappointed by Poland ' s desire for Slovak territory and subsequent Czecho-Slovak territorial concessions to Poland. After the First Vienna Award in November of 1938, when Hungary annexed southern Slovakia, the HSCS realized its only friend and protector could be Germany. Radical Cudaks held numerous secret talks with various Nazis in the fall of I 938 and early 1939 without the knowledge of the moderates, including Slovak Premier Fr. Jozef Tiso. Except for Hitler, who felt he could not fight the Western Powers without first destroying CzechoSlovakia, no one knew what the future held for the country. The Nazis began to collaborate with the radical Cudaks to destabilize Czecho-Slovakia so that they could occupy Bohemia and Moravia without being labeled as aggressors. The key became Slovak independence, with the Nazis using the HSCS as their entry for the destruction of Czecho-S lovakia, but it had to be provoked by the Czechs. The so-called Homola putsch, when the Czecho-S lovak military occupied Slovakia on March 9, 1939 as a means to keep Slovakia in the republic, became a comedy of errors not only for Prague, but also for the Nazis . The dismissal of the autonomous Tiso government by Prague, and the ineffectual occupation led to the imprisonment of many Cudak radicals, upon whom the Germans had placed hopes for proclaiming independence during March 11-12. Although the Nazis had no advance knowledge of these Czech actions, they expected Karol Sidor, as the new Slovak premier and leader of the para-military Hlinka Guard, to do their bidding. The Polonophile Sidor refused. When bullying by a Nazi official produced no results, the Germans rebuffed "the soldier of Prague" Sidor as premier and turned to the only alternative, save military intervention, which would have shown Berlin to be the aggressor: Tiso, who no longer had any governmental authority. Like Sidor, Tiso refused to unilaterally proclaim independence, instead wanting to do so legally. Warned by Hitler that Hungary would swallow Slovakia unless independence was declared immediately, Tiso asked for and received the Slovak parliament' s approval on March 14, a few days later than the Nazis had wanted . This act gave the green light for �SLOVAKIA-2017 161 Germany to occupy Bohemia and Moravia the next day, claiming that Slovak independence came from the disintegration of CzechoSlovakia and that Germany had not destroyed it. Very few public manifestations greeted the new Slovak state while life went on as usual. Except for a handful of mostly radical l'.udaks, few Slovaks wanted an independent country in March, rather hoping for a gradual and evolutionary process than the unlawful revolutionary solution enacted. The bottom line and reoccurring theme of this work revolves around the fact that without Nazi support, Slovakia would not have gained independence in March of 1939. As such, Slovakia's fate was tied to German victory in the Second World War. Yet, as Bystricky notes, the Slovak government and its supporters largely underplayed and tried to ignore the Nazi connection to Slovak independence. Instead, the government presented Slovak independence as an act of the self-determination of nations, historic and natural rights, and the renewal of a long- ago medieval kingdom. This view persists among supporters of wartime Slovakia to this day. Pal'o Carnogursky. Suboj s komunizmom. Bratislava: Kalligram, 2013 , 368 pp. Suboj s komunizmom 2. Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Spolku slovenskych spisovatel'ov, 2015 , 367 pp. Jan Rychlik Charles University, Prague The well-known Latin expression habent sua fata libeli (books have their destinies) is true about the memoirs of the Catholic activist, politician, journalist and amateur historian Pavo) Carnogursky ( 1908-1992), which were posthumously published by his oldest son Ivan in two volumes in 2013 a 2015 under the title "Suboj s komunizmom" (The Duel with Communism). In the early 1970's Carnogursky wrote his memoirs on important events in modern Slovak history - the proclamation of Slovak autonomy on 6 October 1938 and the declaration of Slovakia' s independence on 14 March 1939. These materials were confiscated by State Security (Statna bezpecnost' - StB) in 1976 and returned only after the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989. They were published by the Institute of History of the Slo- �162 SLOVAKIA-2017 vak Academy of Sciences in 1992 and 1993 .- In 1985-1986 Carnogursky, deprived of his personal notes, also tape-recorded his memoirs which, however, remained incomplete but were published posthumously by his younger son Jan in 1997 under the title Svedok cias (A Witness to the Times).- Now we have new, hitherto unknown, memoirs of Pavo) Carnogursky, which are an important testimony, not only about historical events and important personalities of Slovak political life, but also about the "soft" methods of persecution of political opponents during the regime of the so-called "normalization" ( 1969-1989). The texts presented in both volumes of Souboj s komunizmom were written between 1976 and1979, after Carnogursky's release from six weeks of custody (from November 8 to December 15, 1976). Carnogursky was imprisoned because he sent for publication to the West documents concerning the persecution of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. He was accused of "harming the interests of the Republic abroad" according to article 112 of the Penal Code of 1961 (this article was frequently used against opponents of the regime if they published their materials abroad). Carnogursky faced up to three years in prison. Fortunately, this did not happen. He was released from custody, interrogated from time-to-time for two more years about his activities and contacts abroad, and finally - at the end of 1979 - the criminal proceedings were suspended. After each interrogation, Carnogursky described what had happened. He also made a detailed list of the documents which were confiscated from his personal archive and tried to restore them from memory. In describing the " lost" materials, he always added his personal testimony to the event or person. Because he was afraid that the notes and materials might be confiscated again, he decided to hide them. He did so with his relative Michal Skokan in Poprad. It is not clear why Pavo) Carnogursky did not claim his materials after the fall of Communism in November of 1989. Skokan's family probably forgot about them . The documents were returned to Carnogursky' s oldest son Ivan only in 2011, nine years after his father's death. In addition, in 2013 Pal'o Carogursky's comments on Gustav Husak's book Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani (1964) and his correspondence with Slovak Communist poet Laco Novomesky, were found in the Archive of the Office of the President in the Prague Castle among Gustav Husak's papers by the young Czech historian, Michal Machacek, a �SLOVAKIA-2017 163 postgraduate student of the author of this review. Machacek informed Carnogursky 's family about this through Slovak historian Pavo! Minarik (see Vol. 2, p. 364). Carnogursky 's comments were later added as an appendix to the second volume of memoirs. Unfortunately, the correspondence between Pavo! Carnogursky and Laco Novomesky was not published in extenso. To understand the memoires, it is necessary not only to know Slovak history of the 20 th Century, but also to know who was Pavo! Carnogursky. Originally a schoolteacher, young Carnogursky also studied law at the Charles University in Prague. From his youth he was an active member of the Slovak autonomist movement, closely associated with the Hlinka Slovak People 's Party (Hlinkova slovenska l'udova strana - HSCS), although officially (at least according to his memoirs) he never formally joined the party. He was the secretary of the Association of Catholic Youth and also a close collaborator of Karol Sidor (1901-1953), a leading figure of the HSCS and originally the designated successor to Andrej Hlinka. In autonomous Slovakia (1938-1939) Camogursky was a high official of the Ministry of Education. In December of 1938 he was elected to the Slovak autonomous Diet and, as a deputy of this law-making body, he voted on 14 March 1939 for Slovakia' s independence. Carnogursky, like his mentor Sidor, was a Polonophile and opposed the official proGerman orientation of Slovakia. Unlike Sidor, who, under German pressure was forced out of the Slovak government and sent as the Slovak minister to the Vatican, Carnogursky remained in Slovakia and took an active part in the political life of the wartime Slovak Republic. Unlike many other politicians of the Slovak Republic, Carnogursky did not flee the country in 1945 . He remained an adherent of independence for Slovakia but viewed it as unrealistic at the time. He accepted the restoration of Czechoslovakia as a matter of fact. As an editor of the weekly Katolicke noviny (1945-194 7) he again participated in Slovak political life. He collected money and hired lawyers to defend Dr. Jozef Tiso, former President of Slovakia, who was put on trial after the war. In 1946, Carnogursky helped negotiate the so-called April Agreement, a political pact between representatives of political Catholicism and the Protestant leaders of the Democratic Party. Due to this Agreement, the Democratic Party won the votes of the majority of Slovak Catholics and also the parliamentary �164 SLOVAKIA-2017 elections in Slovakia, which were held on May 26, 1946 . These elections were a political defeat for the Communist Party of Slovakia. However, the Democratic Party was not able - despite its electoral victory -- to stop the Communist takeover of power. For his anti-communist and pro-independence stance, Carnogursky was arrested several times: shortly in the summer of 1945 and 1946, and definitively in October of 194 7. After the communist takeover of February 25, I 948, he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for "anti-state conspiracy". More serious was his next arrest in January of 1951. After his release in I 953 , he lived in Bratislava and worked as a laborer. In the 1960s, during the period of liberalization, he started to cooperate with the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Institute of History of the Slovak Communist Party. He collected many materials dealing with modern Slovak history and published several articles. The period of the socalled "normalization," however, interrupted Carnogursky's cooperation with academic circles. After that he concentrated on the defence of religious freedom. His criticism of the anti-religious policy of the communist regime led to his last imprisonment and interrogation on November 8, 1976. Despite the fact that he was soon released and the proceedings were halted in 1979, he did not get back his personal archive, which was confiscated after his arrest. The confiscated documents were later handed over by the police to the Slovak State Central Archive (now the Slovak National Archives) and Carnogursky got them back in 1991 . It is very difficult to describe the contents of Pavo) Carnogursky's notes . He was a witness and often also a participant in many historical events. He also met many historical personalities and tried to describe them . The text is interesting and quite readable, despite the fact that the author often repeats himself. As always in memoirs, many of Carnogursky's standpoints are subjective and some explanations problematic and doubtful. Some of Carnogursky's conclusions contradict known facts . The main problem with the whole text is, however, the large number of factual errors. For example, in Volume 1, on page 4 7, in the summer of 1965 Gustav Husak was working as a researcher in the Institute of State and Law at the Slovak academy of Sciences (Ustav statu a prava SA V), not in Stavoindustria, as Carnogursky claims; on page 70, Vlado Clementis was executed on December 3, 1952, not on December 8; on page �SLOVAKIA-2017 165 231 - Milos Gosiorovsky sent his memorandum advocating the federalization of Czechoslovakia to the Central Committee of the Communist Party on July 29, 1963 , not in the year 1955; on page 238 when the Slovak government stopped the deportations of Jews (on October 20, 1942), between 23 ,000 and 24,000 Jews remained in Slovakia, not 45 ,000 or even 50,000 (p.318); on page 242 - Andrej Hlinka died on August 16, 1938, not on August 15 ; on page 249 Stalin died on March 5, 1953, not on March 3rd; The Constitutional Law "On the Czechoslovak Federation" (No. 143/ 1968) was signed at Bratislava Castle on October 30, 1968 (on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Turciansky Sv. Martin), not on October 23rd. In Vol. 2, on page 245 - the correct name of the provisional parliament in 1945-1946 was "Provisional National Assembly", not Revolutionary National Assembly (this was the name of the provisional parliament in 1918-1920). Camogursky also forgot many minor details, events or mixed them up. For example, in Volume 1, on page 33 the first name of Dr. Horakova, the hero of Czech anti-Nazi and antiCommunist resistance (and first woman sentenced to death and executed in modem Czech and Slovak history), was Milada, not Maria; In Vol. 2., page 124 - Camogursky mixed up "Slovenska obnova" with the daily "Narodna obroda", which was published by the Slovak National Council. Also in Vol. 2, page 194 - Frantisek Nemec, the delegate of the Czechoslovak government in exile and his staff settled in Carpathian Ruthenia in Chust, not in Sevl'us; Also in Vo. 2, on page 253 - Stefan Bast'ovansky did not commit suicide in prison in 1952. He committed suicide at home on 27 November, 1952, on the same day that the State Court in Prague sentenced to death eleven members of the "Rudolf Slansky anti-state group". These errors are perfectly understandable. Camogursky was describing events which happened several decades earlier and he did not have the opportunity to check the facts , either in published sources or in the archives. The editor or the publishing house should have hired a professional historian, who in the form of footnotes , would have corrected these obvious mistakes. In spite of these shortcomings, however, both volumes are a valuable contribution to modem Slovak history. �166 SLOVAKIA-2017 James Krapfl. Revolution with a Human Face: Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989-1992. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2011, xxi-260 pp., figures, maps, tables, abbreviations, notes, chronology, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Bratislava This book examines the events that marked the end of Communism in Czechoslovakia and its transition to democracy from the fall of 1989 to the summer of 1992. As the classic expression goes, habent sua fata libelli - each book has a story behind it. In this particular case it is worth mentioning that the English edition of the book was preceded by its Slovak version, published in 2009, which usually happens the other way around. Krapfl provides an insightful, well-documented and convincing picture of the struggle of Czechoslovakia's citizens to find a new way for themselves and their future state. He suggests that what happened in Czechoslovakia between 1989 and 1992 was a true revolution from every angle. The book is based on very comprehensive research in Czechoslovakia and its sucessor states in the 1990s and 2000s. He searched primary sources , not only in the urban centers and major archives, but also in the regions. His sources included leaflets, pamphlets, internal reports and instructions issued by the newly-emerging political entities that had served as major agents of political transition in post-Communist Czechoslovakia -the Civic Forum in Prague (OF) and Public Against Violence in Bratislava (VPN)--along with their regional and local branches . Such sources are of crucial importance when examining the substance of any modem revolution, for they serve as the most authentic indicators of an atmosphere full of civic passion and enthusiasm that the replaced previous passivity and obedience to communist political authorities. The overall picture is broad, in some respects too broad. However, keeping in mind that the major protagonists of the story are not individuals, but communities and their little-known representatives, this does not constitute a problem. Krapfl' s deep faith in the humanness and civic spirit of ordinary Czechs and Slovaks, who were determined to overcome all the dificulties that stemmed from a �SLOVAKIA-2017 167 political power-vacuum on the one hand, and uncertainty, as far as new institutional and constitutional designs were concerned, on the other hand, can be felt from beginning to end. Krapfl is perfectly aware of the sad fact that, two decades after the Velvet Revolution, skepticism by ordinary Slovaks and Czechs, and their displeasure with current political elites, is ubiquitous. More importantly, he has no doubt that the sudden rise of a civic movement in the fall of 1989 was authentic, spontaneous and true. Meanwhile, he avoids commenting on national conflict, which would otherwise lead to blaming either side or both for their mistakes on the thorny path to democracy. The first two chapters provide a theoretical framework of the civic movement in Czechoslovakia after the communist regime fell in November of 1989. As any other good book, this one culminates near its end. The central theme that shapes the book is a hearkening back to the reform movement of the 1960's in communist Czechoslovakia.. Krapfl is disciplined enough not to repeat variations of political and legal evolution of a joint state that was destined to fail since this subject had already been covered by prolific scholars such as Carol Skalnik Leff, Eric Stein, Shari J. Cohen, Abby Innes and Gil Eyal, to name just a few. Krapfl ' s analysis of the altercation between the Civic Forum and the Public Against Violence as the almost exclusive representatives of their communities before the 1990 parliamentary elections belongs to the best discourses on the topic yet written by a western scholar on postCommunist Czechoslovakia. Two short observations are in order. In a future edition of the book the bibliography should be expanded to include new titles that emerged between its first Slovak and English editions. Also, to balance the period before the community of citizens began to fall apart, and their subsequent and inevitable transformation into political parties following the parliamentary elections of June 1990 and June 1992, more should have been written about the the period between the two elections. Due to Krapfl s masterly knowledge of the subject, thoughtful narrative, empathy for and respect toward the country and its peoples, his book represents a very informative and valuable contribution to the most recent scholarship on East Central Europe, not only from the perspective of cultural history, as the author �168 SLOVAKIA-2017 modestly claims, but also to sociology and political science. Today, when it seems that the glorious days of the Velvet Revolution and its legacy are numbered, as were the days of the French revolution (to which Krapfl in some aspects compares the former) , the importance of the book is significantly higher in the Czech and Slovak Republics, where the faith of the citizenry and civic movements have been substantially reduced, neglected or almost forgotten. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2017, Vol. 43 Description An account of the resource Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA-2017 151 Jozef Klempa. Moje skusenosti za svetovej vojny. Dennik ceskoslovenskeho legionara z rokov 1914-1920. Bratislava: Slovart, 2014. l 83pp. Afterword by Viera Meliskova. Maps. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This is a unique and fascinating diary of a Czechoslovak (Slovak) Legionnaire from the First World War. Jozef Klempa (18941980) was trained as a shoemaker who was drafted into the AustroHungarian Armed Forces when the Great War broke out in 1914. That same year he was captured by the Russians on the eastern front and, along with many other POW's shuttled from one Russian village to another, far from the front. Amazingly, the Russian authorities treated him and other POW's quite leniently, letting them wander into nearby villages to find odd jobs, earn some kopeks or rubles, and buy food and drink to supplement their meager rations. Klempa's training as a shoemaker stood him in good stead, as he repaired the boots of his fellow-soldiers as well as that of many villagers. Indeed, he found Russian civilians very friendly and hospitable and he quickly mastered the Russian language and Russian customs. In 1918, after Germany had defeated Russia on the battlefield and the Bolsheviks had seized power, the Czechoslovak Legions, established during the war by T.G. Masaryk and Milan R. Stefanik, rebelled against the Bolsheviks, who tried to disarm them. Jozef Klempa, and thousands of other Czech and Slovak PO W' s joined the Czechoslovak Legions, and while fighting off various attacks by the Red Army, they decided to flee Russia by seizing control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad from the Ural Mountains all the way to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. Klempa recorded, almost on a daily basis, his experiences in crossing Siberia twice, once to flee the Bolsheviks and the second time to fight and try to defeat them, at the urging of the Allied and Associated powers. Indeed, Klempa and some of his fellow-Legionnaires were captured by the Bolsheviks on one occasion, but managed to escape. Klempa described in great detail the good relations the Czechoslovak Legionnaires had with various Kozak armies in Siberia, but denounced Admiral Kolchak and his officers. Klempa concluded that the "Whites" lost the war against the Bolsheviks because of the arrogance and cruelty of Admiral Kol- 152 SLOVAKIA-2017 chak and his officers towards Russian peasants. Indeed, it took a visit by General Stefanik in the fall of 1918 to prevent many of the Czechs and Slovaks from joining the Bolsheviks, who treated this foreign army on Russian soil better than did Admiral Kolchak. And, while Klempa had good things to say about Chinese merchants in Siberia, he had nothing but contempt for the Japanese soldiers in Vladivostok, who treated the Czechoslovak Legionnaires very badly. Finally, in May of 1920, Klempa and 3,000 other Legionnaires boarded a British ship that took them to Vancouver in Canada. They then crossed Canada by rail to the eastern port of Halifax, where they boarded another ship that took them to the German port of Zugshaven from whence they were shipped by rail to the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic at the end of July. As many other Legionnaires, Klempa was then released from the military, given a medal for his service, and eventually found a job on the Czechoslovak railroad. Over the years he regaled his family with memories of his exploits in Siberia. His granddaughter Vierka Meliskova managed to gather together his recollections, based on a detailed diary that he kept while in Russia and on the way home, and published this memoir of a Czechoslovak Legionnaire. Historians will mine it for information on this glorious chapter in the history of Czechoslovakia for many years to come. Rebekah Klein-Pejsova .. Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015, 194 pp., index, maps, tables. JAN LANiCEK University of New South Wales, Australia In September of 1943 , members of the civic resistance in Slovakia, led by Vavro Srobar, a founding father of the united Czechoslovak state in 1918, prepared a report that provided insights into the political loyalties of individual groups in Slovakia. Although they believed that in the case of a plebiscite, a majority of the population would decide for Czechoslovakia, the Jews, the authors suggested, would likely support the re-annexation of the Slovak territory to SLOVAKIA-2017 153 1 Hungary. This report confirmed a problematic perception of the Jews' political loyalties twenty-five years after the creation of the independent state. It was a prelude to the Jewish predicament in post1945 Slovakia, where the accusation of the Jews ' affiliation with the Hungarian (Magyar) culture figured prominently in the public discourse and complicated the Jews ' reintegration into Slovak society. 2 The question of Jewish loyalties in Slovakia is the main theme of thi s monograph . The author focuses on the interwar period and analyzes the transformation of the Jews' loyalties from those associated with the Hungarian political and cultural-linguistic stream before 1918, to a closer alignment with the liberal Czechoslovak political regime, in what she calls the formation of the 'Slovak Jewry'. KleinPejsova defines the 'S lovak Jewry ' as "a communal category binding loyalty to Czechoslovakia with Slovak territoriality rather than an expression of emotional attachment to or identification with the Slovak nation" (p. 92) . This was a complicated process, influenced by the legacies of Hungarian rule and revisionist policies, the rise and collapse of the centralized Czechoslovak state, the emergence of the Slovak national movement closely aligned with the Catholic Church, and internal disputes in the fragmented Jewish communities. Over 135,000 Jews lived in interwar Slovakia. During the 19 th Century, the Hungarian regime emancipated the Jews and allowed them rapid social and economic progress, which led to an overwhelmming acculturation, even assimilation into the Hungarian culture. This trend was deeply resented by the nascent Slovak national movement. Already in the first months after the emergence of the Czechoslovak state - and in an atmosphere filled with anti-Jewish riots 3 - Vavro Srobar, the first Czechoslovak minister responsible for Slovakia, called on the "one hundred percent Magyarized" Jewish communities in Slovakia to seek ""the right path" and abandon their affiliation with the Hungarians (very similar words were repeated by the liberal President Tomas Garrigue Masaryk) (pp.2 and 22). Klein1 Vilem Precan, ed. , Slovenske narodne povstanie: Dokum enty (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo politickej literatury 1965), 89. 2 Anna Cichopek-Gajraj , Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia (Cambridge : Cambridge Un iversity Press, 2014). 3 This subj ect has been recently comprehen sively addressed by Michal Frankl and Miloslav Szabo, Budovani statu bez antisemitismu. Nasili, diskurz loajality a vznik Ceskoslovenska (Praha : NLN, 20 I 6) . 154 SLOVAKIA-2017 Pejsova 's excellent book debates how the Jews responded to these new challenges . Jewish loyalties were constantly under investigation in the interwar period . Although Czechoslovakia accepted the protection of minorities imposed by the Paris Peace Conference (though the government rejected the inclusion of the articles that specifically reiterated the rights of the Jews), the state attempted to prove the dominance of the 'Czechoslovak nation' in the country. The census became the main instrument by which to officially declare loyalties to the new state. The government used the declared "mother tongue" as the main determinant of nationality, and only the Jews were allowed to declare their belonging to the Jewish nationality, regardless of their mother tongue. Klein-Pejsova identifies two possible explanations for this concession: either a liberal vision which re-conceptualized nationality "as an internal conviction", or a less liberal vision, which granted this right to the Jews with the intention of weakening the territorial minorities in the state, namely the Germans and Hungarians. Regardless of the motivations, the number of 'Hungarians' among the Jews sharply decreased in the interwar era (also because of anti-Semitism in Hungary), which contributed to the Hungarians losing some minority rights in certain districts, including Bratislava. Henceforth Hungarians blamed the Jews for this lack of corporate cultural rights, in the same way that the Czechs blamed the Jews in other districts, where the German or Hungarian minority reached the 20% threshold and could use their language in public affairs. Both sides blamed the Jews. A large number of Jews in the country - Klein-Pejsova suggests - decided to follow their own path and declared Jewish nationality, demonstrating neutrality in the national conflict, but at the same time declaring their support for the Czechoslovak state. In 1930, 57% of the Jews across the republic chose this option, and their numbers were exceptionally high especially in the eastern territories, including Slovakia. This acceptance of Jewish nationality should not be confused with support for Jewish nationalism, in the modem sense, a point, which could have been stressed a bit more throughout the monograph. Large parts of the Orthodox and Hassidic communities declared themselves as belonging to the Jewish nationality in the census, but they overtly and consistently rejected modem Jewish nationalist politics. SLOVAKIA-2017 155 Klein-Pejsova frequently compares the situation of the Jews in Slovakia to the Bohemian Lands, where the Jews largely acculturated into the Czech national stream. This comparative element could have developed differently if the author had focused on Moravia, where, especially in the major cities (Brno and Moravska Ostrava), the progress of cultural affiliation with the Czech nation was much slower and the German language dominated among the Jews until the end of the interwar period (though there was an increased effort to change the affiliation after 1933). Even here, the declaration of Jewish nationality offered a way out of the loyalty quandary for the Jews, who were affiliated with non-Slavic cultures. The Jews thus clearly aligned with the Czechoslovak political regime, at least in their public proclamations, though it is much more difficult to prove how the situation was perceived in daily contacts at the local level. Also, what did it mean for ordinary people - Jews and non-Jews alike - to declare a particular nationality in a decennial census? As Klein-Pejsova aptly concludes, '"'the tragic weakness of Jewish nationality lay in its illegibility", which opened it to interpretations (p.114). One can argue that ordinary people, but also state bureaucrats, were much more interested in the language that the Jews used in their daily contacts. Although the Jews believed that a declaration of Jewish nationality was sufficient proof of their loyalties, and continued to use the Hungarian language, this was an inadequate reorientation in the minds of Slovaks. The second problem was that the Jews tied their loyalties to the centralized Czechoslovak state and not the Slovak nation. The growing Slovak autonomous movement criticized the lack of Jewish support for their national ambitions, and the late 1930s witnessed new cases of anti-Jewish violence in Slovakia, with prominent Slovak politicians (Karol Sidor) even calling for the relocation of the Jews to the Soviet-Jewish Autonomous territory in Birobidzhan in the Far East. In November of 1938, shortly after gaining autonomy, but also after losing extensive territory to Hungary, the Slovak government organized one of the first mass deportations of the Jews in the pre-World War II period, when 7,500 'S lovak Jews ', blamed for the territorial losses, were chased across the new border to Hungary. This book makes a crucial contribution to the question of minority loyalties in Central Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. It points to a dramatic divergence of the constructions of loyalties 156 SLOVAKIA-2017 between the majority and minority populations. The question which remains is what was the ' right path' for the Jews in the interwar period which was filled with contradictory expectations from the Czechoslovak state, Slovak nation, Jewish nationalists, Jewish Orthodox, and Hungarian revisionists? It is possible to conclude that each path irreversibly led to a dead end. Paul Robert Magocsi. With Their Backs to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus '. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2015 , 509 pp. including 34 maps, notes, bibliography and index plus a picture section. KEITH P. DYRUD Retired Professor Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota With Their Backs to the Mountains introduces the CarpathoRusyns and their homeland which the author calls Carpathian Rus ', the north and south slopes of the mountainous area between Poland, Slovakia and the region of Transcarpathia in Ukraine. Magocsi begins with a brief historical and geographical account of the land and people but provides more detail in the nineteenth century when a Ukrainian national movement started to develop with advocates who argued that Rus ' was the historical name for the Ukrainian people and their land. This argument would undercut Magocsi ' s thesis that Carpatho-Rusyns are a separate nationality. The other challenge to his thesis was posed by Hungarian (Magyar) nationalism . After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Hungarians (Magyars) adopted a policy of Magyarization, that is, the forcible assimilation of non-Magyar nationalities, including the Slovaks and Rusyns. Magocsi defines the Carpatho-Rusyn national identity as the culture expressed by the people originating in Carpathian Rus ' who followed Eastern Rite Christianity and spoke a unique language different from Ukrainian. Some emphasis is placed on "originating" in Carpathian Rus ' because as early as the mid-eighteenth century several thousand Carpatho-Rusyns were resettled in areas of Hungary, now parts of Romania, Croatia, and Serbia, which were lightly settled because of SLOVAKIA-2017 157 the Ottoman retreat. To this day, these ex-Carpathians identify as Rusyns and, as part of Magocsi 's narrative, continue to maintain their unique culture and language. The emphasis on originating in Carpathian Rus ' justifies his inclusion of Rusyns also living in the United States and several South American countries. The Hungarian revolt in 1849 brought Russian armies through the Carpatho-Rusyns ' land and suggested to the the Rusyn intelligentsia that they could be Russians. Magocsi identifies the three decades that followed as the first national awakening. The options explored were uniting the Carpatho-Rusyns with the Galicians to the North, uniting only the Carpatho-Rusyns, or perhaps identifying themselves as a part of the Great Russian people. The Ukrainian option had a strong influence in Galicia and perhaps thwarted the Carpatho-Rusyn Galician option. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, an autonomous Hungary focused on Magyarizing its minorities. This movement had a major impact on the Carpatho-Rusyns as well as the Slovaks living within the Carpathian Rus ' area. The Lemkos on the North slope of the Carpathians were administratively in the Austrian province of Galicia and not subject to Magyarization. Here the Carpatho-Rusyn leaders lobbied to maintain their language in the schools where they were a majority of the village population. In Hungary the Rusyn effort was thwarted by the Greek Catholic Bishops who were often Magyarone Carpatho-Rusyns. Since World Wars I and II altered the map of Central Europe, Magocsi deals with each Carpathian Rus ' area separately. The second national awakening occurred during the interwar period and is covered in depth. Magocsi provides the names of Carpatho-Rusyn organizations, their publications and cultural activities and statistics on the school systems. Data is provided on how many schools used the local dialect and the percentage of the local populations that identified as Rusyn, Ukrainian, Russian, Magyar, or Slovak. The Lemkos are treated separately from the Carpatho-Rusyns to their south in the Presov region of Slovakia. The eastern portion of Carpathian Rus ' had several names in the twentieth century and is now called the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. The CarpathoRusyns in Transcarpathia mostly identify as Ukrainians . In Table 1.1 Magocsi identifies 853 ,000 people who should be identified as Carpatho-Rusyns which includes 80,000 Lemkos forcibly resettled 158 SLOVAKIA-2017 there after WWII. Now only 10,100 of them self-identify as Carpatho-Rusyns. During World War II the Lemko region was made part of the Generalgouvernrnent of Nazi Germany and received better treatment than the other Carpatho-Rusyns. Shortly after the war ended, Poland disbursed over 80,000 Lemkos to Soviet Ukraine, leaving only 25 ,000 to 35,000 in their ancestral homeland. In the summer of 1947, the Polish army forcibly resettled about 35,000 Lemkos to the western areas of Poland recently cleared of Germans. Only about 7,300 Lemkos managed to avoid deportation. The final chapters of the book follow the Carpatho-Rusyns, wherever they settled, and describe their social, economic and political situations, and their third national awakening. In the final chapters, Magocsi is no longer describing the "shaping of a national identity" but rather documenting the shaping of a cultural identity. Magocsi himself has actively promoted establishing a literary language for each of the various Carpatho-Rusyn dialects. His effort has not gone unnoticed by Ukrainian nationalists who insist that there is no Rusyn nationality, only various Ukrainian dialects and subcultures. Magocsi himself quotes one of many such detractors who call the movement "political Rusynism." "This nefarious phenomenon, so they said, was the work of a few ' intellectually misguided' or 'politically opportunistic' individuals 'paid' and, in some cases led by Carpatho-Rusyn 'protectors' in North America (especially the University of Toronto Professor Paul Robert Magocsi)." Valerian Bystricky. Zahranicnopoliticke suvislosti vzniku Slovenskeho statu 14. marca 1939. Bratislava: Veda, 2014, bibliography, name index, 464 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University The Slovak historian Bystricky (born 1936), a member and former Director of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, has a prodigious scholarly record with more than 120 works published at home and abroad. His latest book is very wellresearched, drawing upon contemporary newspaper articles, mem- SLOVAKIA-2017 159 oirs, and archival materials from various countries. The author divided his seven-chapter monograph into numerous sub-chapters, making for easier navigation. Numerous footnotes also add information to help clarify the text. However, this is a dense volume that is not for everyday reading. Besides the myriad actors presented, a major flaw is that the author seems to want to include as much information as possible, resulting in many instances of repetition. Perhaps a more succinct volume would have been more appropriate. Nonetheless, this is an interesting book. It concentrates on how the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSCS) went from the struggle for autonomy, as outlined in the Pittsburgh Agreement, to the building of Slovak autonomy and a state within the framework of a federated Czecho-Slovakia after Munich. It also made preparations for the possibility of an independent country in the future, resulting in the unexpected proclamation of independence on March 14, 1939. When the HSCS did not get what it wanted from the Czechoslovak government in the late 1920's, it went into opposition . Slovak political parties prior to Slovak independence had little influence upon the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia, although the democracy of the country gave Slovaks a desire to have a say in world affairs. With the exception of the Communists, no Slovak political parties had a clear-cut view of foreign policy. Foreign powers and enemies of Czechoslovakia would use Slovak rights and grievances to weaken the state. The members of the HSCS, or Cudaks, could not convince the Western Powers about the need to the transform the state into a federation , thereby causing the Cudaks to look for support elsewhere. The HSCS became the only Slovak political party to accept funds from abroad for its political program. The main threat to Czechoslovakia prior to 1936 remained irredentist Hungary. The rise of Hitler would prove to be a greater danger to the integrity of the state. At first the HSCS viewed the Nazis as non-threatening, then became reserved, while the younger generation of Cudaks began to admire Germany, causing democracy to weaken, both on the right and on the left. Slovakia was largely forgotten during the Munich Crisis, but it led to Slovakia receiving autonomy within a weakened CzechoSlovakia. With this autonomy, the HSCS quickly consolidated power by either banning or forcing the other national or Slovak political parties to merge with it, ending democracy and leading to an authori- 160 SLOVAKIA-2017 tarian regime with the Cudaks claiming to speak for all Slovaks, with independence becoming an eventual goal. Although the Cudaks initially looked to Poland as a possible ally and counterweight to Germany, they were disappointed by Poland ' s desire for Slovak territory and subsequent Czecho-Slovak territorial concessions to Poland. After the First Vienna Award in November of 1938, when Hungary annexed southern Slovakia, the HSCS realized its only friend and protector could be Germany. Radical Cudaks held numerous secret talks with various Nazis in the fall of I 938 and early 1939 without the knowledge of the moderates, including Slovak Premier Fr. Jozef Tiso. Except for Hitler, who felt he could not fight the Western Powers without first destroying CzechoSlovakia, no one knew what the future held for the country. The Nazis began to collaborate with the radical Cudaks to destabilize Czecho-Slovakia so that they could occupy Bohemia and Moravia without being labeled as aggressors. The key became Slovak independence, with the Nazis using the HSCS as their entry for the destruction of Czecho-S lovakia, but it had to be provoked by the Czechs. The so-called Homola putsch, when the Czecho-S lovak military occupied Slovakia on March 9, 1939 as a means to keep Slovakia in the republic, became a comedy of errors not only for Prague, but also for the Nazis . The dismissal of the autonomous Tiso government by Prague, and the ineffectual occupation led to the imprisonment of many Cudak radicals, upon whom the Germans had placed hopes for proclaiming independence during March 11-12. Although the Nazis had no advance knowledge of these Czech actions, they expected Karol Sidor, as the new Slovak premier and leader of the para-military Hlinka Guard, to do their bidding. The Polonophile Sidor refused. When bullying by a Nazi official produced no results, the Germans rebuffed "the soldier of Prague" Sidor as premier and turned to the only alternative, save military intervention, which would have shown Berlin to be the aggressor: Tiso, who no longer had any governmental authority. Like Sidor, Tiso refused to unilaterally proclaim independence, instead wanting to do so legally. Warned by Hitler that Hungary would swallow Slovakia unless independence was declared immediately, Tiso asked for and received the Slovak parliament' s approval on March 14, a few days later than the Nazis had wanted . This act gave the green light for SLOVAKIA-2017 161 Germany to occupy Bohemia and Moravia the next day, claiming that Slovak independence came from the disintegration of CzechoSlovakia and that Germany had not destroyed it. Very few public manifestations greeted the new Slovak state while life went on as usual. Except for a handful of mostly radical l'.udaks, few Slovaks wanted an independent country in March, rather hoping for a gradual and evolutionary process than the unlawful revolutionary solution enacted. The bottom line and reoccurring theme of this work revolves around the fact that without Nazi support, Slovakia would not have gained independence in March of 1939. As such, Slovakia's fate was tied to German victory in the Second World War. Yet, as Bystricky notes, the Slovak government and its supporters largely underplayed and tried to ignore the Nazi connection to Slovak independence. Instead, the government presented Slovak independence as an act of the self-determination of nations, historic and natural rights, and the renewal of a long- ago medieval kingdom. This view persists among supporters of wartime Slovakia to this day. Pal'o Carnogursky. Suboj s komunizmom. Bratislava: Kalligram, 2013 , 368 pp. Suboj s komunizmom 2. Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Spolku slovenskych spisovatel'ov, 2015 , 367 pp. Jan Rychlik Charles University, Prague The well-known Latin expression habent sua fata libeli (books have their destinies) is true about the memoirs of the Catholic activist, politician, journalist and amateur historian Pavo) Carnogursky ( 1908-1992), which were posthumously published by his oldest son Ivan in two volumes in 2013 a 2015 under the title "Suboj s komunizmom" (The Duel with Communism). In the early 1970's Carnogursky wrote his memoirs on important events in modern Slovak history - the proclamation of Slovak autonomy on 6 October 1938 and the declaration of Slovakia' s independence on 14 March 1939. These materials were confiscated by State Security (Statna bezpecnost' - StB) in 1976 and returned only after the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989. They were published by the Institute of History of the Slo- 162 SLOVAKIA-2017 vak Academy of Sciences in 1992 and 1993 .- In 1985-1986 Carnogursky, deprived of his personal notes, also tape-recorded his memoirs which, however, remained incomplete but were published posthumously by his younger son Jan in 1997 under the title Svedok cias (A Witness to the Times).- Now we have new, hitherto unknown, memoirs of Pavo) Carnogursky, which are an important testimony, not only about historical events and important personalities of Slovak political life, but also about the "soft" methods of persecution of political opponents during the regime of the so-called "normalization" ( 1969-1989). The texts presented in both volumes of Souboj s komunizmom were written between 1976 and1979, after Carnogursky's release from six weeks of custody (from November 8 to December 15, 1976). Carnogursky was imprisoned because he sent for publication to the West documents concerning the persecution of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. He was accused of "harming the interests of the Republic abroad" according to article 112 of the Penal Code of 1961 (this article was frequently used against opponents of the regime if they published their materials abroad). Carnogursky faced up to three years in prison. Fortunately, this did not happen. He was released from custody, interrogated from time-to-time for two more years about his activities and contacts abroad, and finally - at the end of 1979 - the criminal proceedings were suspended. After each interrogation, Carnogursky described what had happened. He also made a detailed list of the documents which were confiscated from his personal archive and tried to restore them from memory. In describing the " lost" materials, he always added his personal testimony to the event or person. Because he was afraid that the notes and materials might be confiscated again, he decided to hide them. He did so with his relative Michal Skokan in Poprad. It is not clear why Pavo) Carnogursky did not claim his materials after the fall of Communism in November of 1989. Skokan's family probably forgot about them . The documents were returned to Carnogursky' s oldest son Ivan only in 2011, nine years after his father's death. In addition, in 2013 Pal'o Carogursky's comments on Gustav Husak's book Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani (1964) and his correspondence with Slovak Communist poet Laco Novomesky, were found in the Archive of the Office of the President in the Prague Castle among Gustav Husak's papers by the young Czech historian, Michal Machacek, a SLOVAKIA-2017 163 postgraduate student of the author of this review. Machacek informed Carnogursky 's family about this through Slovak historian Pavo! Minarik (see Vol. 2, p. 364). Carnogursky 's comments were later added as an appendix to the second volume of memoirs. Unfortunately, the correspondence between Pavo! Carnogursky and Laco Novomesky was not published in extenso. To understand the memoires, it is necessary not only to know Slovak history of the 20 th Century, but also to know who was Pavo! Carnogursky. Originally a schoolteacher, young Carnogursky also studied law at the Charles University in Prague. From his youth he was an active member of the Slovak autonomist movement, closely associated with the Hlinka Slovak People 's Party (Hlinkova slovenska l'udova strana - HSCS), although officially (at least according to his memoirs) he never formally joined the party. He was the secretary of the Association of Catholic Youth and also a close collaborator of Karol Sidor (1901-1953), a leading figure of the HSCS and originally the designated successor to Andrej Hlinka. In autonomous Slovakia (1938-1939) Camogursky was a high official of the Ministry of Education. In December of 1938 he was elected to the Slovak autonomous Diet and, as a deputy of this law-making body, he voted on 14 March 1939 for Slovakia' s independence. Carnogursky, like his mentor Sidor, was a Polonophile and opposed the official proGerman orientation of Slovakia. Unlike Sidor, who, under German pressure was forced out of the Slovak government and sent as the Slovak minister to the Vatican, Carnogursky remained in Slovakia and took an active part in the political life of the wartime Slovak Republic. Unlike many other politicians of the Slovak Republic, Carnogursky did not flee the country in 1945 . He remained an adherent of independence for Slovakia but viewed it as unrealistic at the time. He accepted the restoration of Czechoslovakia as a matter of fact. As an editor of the weekly Katolicke noviny (1945-194 7) he again participated in Slovak political life. He collected money and hired lawyers to defend Dr. Jozef Tiso, former President of Slovakia, who was put on trial after the war. In 1946, Carnogursky helped negotiate the so-called April Agreement, a political pact between representatives of political Catholicism and the Protestant leaders of the Democratic Party. Due to this Agreement, the Democratic Party won the votes of the majority of Slovak Catholics and also the parliamentary 164 SLOVAKIA-2017 elections in Slovakia, which were held on May 26, 1946 . These elections were a political defeat for the Communist Party of Slovakia. However, the Democratic Party was not able - despite its electoral victory -- to stop the Communist takeover of power. For his anti-communist and pro-independence stance, Carnogursky was arrested several times: shortly in the summer of 1945 and 1946, and definitively in October of 194 7. After the communist takeover of February 25, I 948, he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for "anti-state conspiracy". More serious was his next arrest in January of 1951. After his release in I 953 , he lived in Bratislava and worked as a laborer. In the 1960s, during the period of liberalization, he started to cooperate with the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Institute of History of the Slovak Communist Party. He collected many materials dealing with modern Slovak history and published several articles. The period of the socalled "normalization," however, interrupted Carnogursky's cooperation with academic circles. After that he concentrated on the defence of religious freedom. His criticism of the anti-religious policy of the communist regime led to his last imprisonment and interrogation on November 8, 1976. Despite the fact that he was soon released and the proceedings were halted in 1979, he did not get back his personal archive, which was confiscated after his arrest. The confiscated documents were later handed over by the police to the Slovak State Central Archive (now the Slovak National Archives) and Carnogursky got them back in 1991 . It is very difficult to describe the contents of Pavo) Carnogursky's notes . He was a witness and often also a participant in many historical events. He also met many historical personalities and tried to describe them . The text is interesting and quite readable, despite the fact that the author often repeats himself. As always in memoirs, many of Carnogursky's standpoints are subjective and some explanations problematic and doubtful. Some of Carnogursky's conclusions contradict known facts . The main problem with the whole text is, however, the large number of factual errors. For example, in Volume 1, on page 4 7, in the summer of 1965 Gustav Husak was working as a researcher in the Institute of State and Law at the Slovak academy of Sciences (Ustav statu a prava SA V), not in Stavoindustria, as Carnogursky claims; on page 70, Vlado Clementis was executed on December 3, 1952, not on December 8; on page SLOVAKIA-2017 165 231 - Milos Gosiorovsky sent his memorandum advocating the federalization of Czechoslovakia to the Central Committee of the Communist Party on July 29, 1963 , not in the year 1955; on page 238 when the Slovak government stopped the deportations of Jews (on October 20, 1942), between 23 ,000 and 24,000 Jews remained in Slovakia, not 45 ,000 or even 50,000 (p.318); on page 242 - Andrej Hlinka died on August 16, 1938, not on August 15 ; on page 249 Stalin died on March 5, 1953, not on March 3rd; The Constitutional Law "On the Czechoslovak Federation" (No. 143/ 1968) was signed at Bratislava Castle on October 30, 1968 (on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Turciansky Sv. Martin), not on October 23rd. In Vol. 2, on page 245 - the correct name of the provisional parliament in 1945-1946 was "Provisional National Assembly", not Revolutionary National Assembly (this was the name of the provisional parliament in 1918-1920). Camogursky also forgot many minor details, events or mixed them up. For example, in Volume 1, on page 33 the first name of Dr. Horakova, the hero of Czech anti-Nazi and antiCommunist resistance (and first woman sentenced to death and executed in modem Czech and Slovak history), was Milada, not Maria; In Vol. 2., page 124 - Camogursky mixed up "Slovenska obnova" with the daily "Narodna obroda", which was published by the Slovak National Council. Also in Vol. 2, page 194 - Frantisek Nemec, the delegate of the Czechoslovak government in exile and his staff settled in Carpathian Ruthenia in Chust, not in Sevl'us; Also in Vo. 2, on page 253 - Stefan Bast'ovansky did not commit suicide in prison in 1952. He committed suicide at home on 27 November, 1952, on the same day that the State Court in Prague sentenced to death eleven members of the "Rudolf Slansky anti-state group". These errors are perfectly understandable. Camogursky was describing events which happened several decades earlier and he did not have the opportunity to check the facts , either in published sources or in the archives. The editor or the publishing house should have hired a professional historian, who in the form of footnotes , would have corrected these obvious mistakes. In spite of these shortcomings, however, both volumes are a valuable contribution to modem Slovak history. 166 SLOVAKIA-2017 James Krapfl. Revolution with a Human Face: Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989-1992. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2011, xxi-260 pp., figures, maps, tables, abbreviations, notes, chronology, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Bratislava This book examines the events that marked the end of Communism in Czechoslovakia and its transition to democracy from the fall of 1989 to the summer of 1992. As the classic expression goes, habent sua fata libelli - each book has a story behind it. In this particular case it is worth mentioning that the English edition of the book was preceded by its Slovak version, published in 2009, which usually happens the other way around. Krapfl provides an insightful, well-documented and convincing picture of the struggle of Czechoslovakia's citizens to find a new way for themselves and their future state. He suggests that what happened in Czechoslovakia between 1989 and 1992 was a true revolution from every angle. The book is based on very comprehensive research in Czechoslovakia and its sucessor states in the 1990s and 2000s. He searched primary sources , not only in the urban centers and major archives, but also in the regions. His sources included leaflets, pamphlets, internal reports and instructions issued by the newly-emerging political entities that had served as major agents of political transition in post-Communist Czechoslovakia -the Civic Forum in Prague (OF) and Public Against Violence in Bratislava (VPN)--along with their regional and local branches . Such sources are of crucial importance when examining the substance of any modem revolution, for they serve as the most authentic indicators of an atmosphere full of civic passion and enthusiasm that the replaced previous passivity and obedience to communist political authorities. The overall picture is broad, in some respects too broad. However, keeping in mind that the major protagonists of the story are not individuals, but communities and their little-known representatives, this does not constitute a problem. Krapfl' s deep faith in the humanness and civic spirit of ordinary Czechs and Slovaks, who were determined to overcome all the dificulties that stemmed from a SLOVAKIA-2017 167 political power-vacuum on the one hand, and uncertainty, as far as new institutional and constitutional designs were concerned, on the other hand, can be felt from beginning to end. Krapfl is perfectly aware of the sad fact that, two decades after the Velvet Revolution, skepticism by ordinary Slovaks and Czechs, and their displeasure with current political elites, is ubiquitous. More importantly, he has no doubt that the sudden rise of a civic movement in the fall of 1989 was authentic, spontaneous and true. Meanwhile, he avoids commenting on national conflict, which would otherwise lead to blaming either side or both for their mistakes on the thorny path to democracy. The first two chapters provide a theoretical framework of the civic movement in Czechoslovakia after the communist regime fell in November of 1989. As any other good book, this one culminates near its end. The central theme that shapes the book is a hearkening back to the reform movement of the 1960's in communist Czechoslovakia.. Krapfl is disciplined enough not to repeat variations of political and legal evolution of a joint state that was destined to fail since this subject had already been covered by prolific scholars such as Carol Skalnik Leff, Eric Stein, Shari J. Cohen, Abby Innes and Gil Eyal, to name just a few. Krapfl ' s analysis of the altercation between the Civic Forum and the Public Against Violence as the almost exclusive representatives of their communities before the 1990 parliamentary elections belongs to the best discourses on the topic yet written by a western scholar on postCommunist Czechoslovakia. Two short observations are in order. In a future edition of the book the bibliography should be expanded to include new titles that emerged between its first Slovak and English editions. Also, to balance the period before the community of citizens began to fall apart, and their subsequent and inevitable transformation into political parties following the parliamentary elections of June 1990 and June 1992, more should have been written about the the period between the two elections. Due to Krapfl s masterly knowledge of the subject, thoughtful narrative, empathy for and respect toward the country and its peoples, his book represents a very informative and valuable contribution to the most recent scholarship on East Central Europe, not only from the perspective of cultural history, as the author 168 SLOVAKIA-2017 modestly claims, but also to sociology and political science. Today, when it seems that the glorious days of the Velvet Revolution and its legacy are numbered, as were the days of the French revolution (to which Krapfl in some aspects compares the former) , the importance of the book is significantly higher in the Czech and Slovak Republics, where the faith of the citizenry and civic movements have been substantially reduced, neglected or almost forgotten.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 43 (No. 80-81) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Jozef Klempa, Moje skúsenosti za svetovej voyny (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 151</li> <li>Rebekah Klein-Pejšová, Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia (Jan Lániček), p. 152</li> <li>Paul Robert Magosci, With Their Backs to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus' (Keith P. Dyrud), p. 156</li> <li>Valerián Bystrický, Zahraničnopolitické súvislosti vzniku Slovenského štátu 14. marca 1939 (Gregory C. Ference), p. 158</li> <li>Paľo Čarnogurský, Súboj s komunizmom (Jan Rychlík), p. 161</li> <li>James Krapfl, Revolution with a Human Face: Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989-1992 (Juraj Hocman), p. 166</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Hocman, Juraj Láníček, Jan, 1986- Rychlík, Jan Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/989aea1ca9f085022dc25871553920c9.pdf 482921d8a99b9a8147575ead644d8335 PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 2019 133 Tiinde Lengyelova. Zivot na sl'achtickom dvore. Odev, strava, domacnost, hygenia, vo/'ny cas. Bratislava: Slovart, 2015 , 248pp. Notes, bibliography, illustrations, list of noble families , index of names and places. (Baron) PETER MARIASSY Kosice, Slovak Republic The author, who works for the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, specializes in the history of the nobility and of women in the early modem period. Her book on Life in the Court of the Nobility ... is an original contribution to a history of the 16th and 17th centuries in the Kingdom of Hungary, which at that time was partitioned between the Habsburgs, who controlled Upper Hungary and the Ottoman Turks, who occupied the Hungarian Plains and controlled its vassal province of Transylvania. Lengyelova's main contribution consists of a realistic and uncensored look into the life of Hungarian noble society, which at that time suffered from three heavy burdens : to maintain its existence vis-a-vis the Ottoman threat, the Germanizing Habsburg court, and the various wars with both powers. A major contribution of the book is a detailed description of the leading role of nobles ' wives in supporting their husbands who were running the Kingdom or had gone off to war. Based upon extensive archival research, the book reveals for the first time how noble women very capably functioned and supported their husbands in a patriarchal society where the men were much more educated and recognized. In a sense, the women were more than equal partners of their husbands. The reader will be rewarded by unique descriptions of noble life through their dress, their cuisine, the running of their households, questions of hygiene and leisure activities. All of these aspects of life had to function in a time of many wars and uprisings. This book illustrates how life carried on even in the hardest of times, because the noble men and women divided their tasks and admirably carried them out. I recommend this book not only to professional historians, but also to the general public which might be interested in life in early �134 SLOVAKIA 2019 modern Hungary, especially in its cuisine, its dress, and amusements in this very difficult era. In the future , I would like to see the author compare the dress and other aspects of life of the warring sides. It would also have been useful to have had a conclusion to the book, in which the author would not only summarize her findings , but also indicate her further direction of research. Kenneth Janda. The Emperor and the Peasant: Two Men at the Start of the Great War and End of the Habsburg Empire. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 2018. X-277 pp. Illustrated, maps, charts, graphs, notes. bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This is a popular history of the Great War by a retired Professor of Political Science from Northwestern University. It concerns the Slovak peasant Samuel Mozolak from the village of Krajne in the Myjava region and Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef of AustriaHungary. Janda, a Czech-American, was motivated by the British television series Upstairs Downstairs and Downtown Abby to write the story of his Slovak wife's grandfather and his descendants and compare it with that of the second-last Habsburg Emperor. This is an engaging book. In fourteen well-written chapters, Janda traces the fortunes of Franz Josef and Samuel Mozolak from just before the outbreak of the Great War to its end. He traces Mozolak and his wife back to their voyage and marriage in New York City between 1902 and 1906, their return to Slovakia in 1906, where they dropped off their twins with Mozolaks mother and their return to America until 1914, when they once again returned to Slovakia. Soon after Franz Josef decided to declare war upon Serbia in July of 1914, Samuel Mozolak was drafted into the Hungarian 15 th Honved (Home Army) regiment, based in the city of Trencin, fought on the Russian, Romanian and Italian Fronts, and died in the Battle of the Piave on June 19, 1918. Emperor Franz Josef, on the other hand, declared war upon Serbia on July 28 , 1914, in retaliation for the assassination of his neph- �SLOVAKIA 2019 135 ew Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist exactly one month earlier. This precipitated the start of the First World War, with the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria supporting the Habsburgs while Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy and Romania opposed them. Since both Austria-Hungary and Germany failed in their objectives to defeat and conquer Serbia and France by December, 1914, they lost the war, Janda concluded, despite the fact that it dragged on for four more years. Jandas account is particularly good in describing the Habsburg armies, their ethnic composition, supplies and materials, and devastating defeats. He points out that the Eastern Front, which is often downplayed by Western historians, actually involved more soldiers than in the West, and counted 1,000,000 more casualties than on the Western Front. Janda concluded that, even though Samuel Mozolak died during the Great War, his family , like his countrymen, made great gains from the war, while the Habsburgs lost everything. By joining with the Czechs in creating the new Republic of Czechoslovakia upon the ruins of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, the Slovaks gained their independence, the use of their language in the public sphere and a democratic government. The Habsburgs, by contrast, lost not only their empire, but their thrones and even the right to live in their homeland, from which they were banned after the war. The descendants of Samuel Mozolak moved to the USA after the war and eventually prospered. Thus, the peasant triumphed over the emperor. Since Janda is not an historian, he made a few unfortunate mistakes, which a good editor should have spotted. Thus, on page 44 he mixed up Greek Catholics (Uniates) with the Orthodox; he mistakenly dated the codification of Slovak to 1852, when it was first codified in 1787 and a second time in 1846 (page 48); he was unaware of the existence of the weekly Slowik v Amerike in New York City before the Great War (page 82); he mistakenly referred to the Austrian province of Galicia as having been in Hungary's northeast region ; and he seemed to be unaware that the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1968, which was still in effect in 1992, allowed for the dissolution of the Republic (page 238). In spite of these shortcomings, The Emperor and the Peasant makes for good reading and the general public will undoubtedly �136 SLOVAKIA 2019 learn a lot from it about Slovak immigration to America, and the Habsburg Empire's decline and fall during the Great War. Janda is to be congratulated for this tribute to the Mozolak famly. John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family: One Family's Role in the Birth of a Nation. Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2012. Paper, 424 pages, with illustrations, appendix, index. $24.95 . ISBN 978-1933794-55-6. KENNETH JANDA Emeritus, Northwestern University This book by a Slovak-American immigrant about his ancestors' homeland is remarkably different from others. It reflects life among the Slovak intelligentsia, rather than peasant roots . Both sides of John Palka's family not only belonged to the intelligentsia, but also played major roles in the literary, religious, economic, and political development of the Slovak nation and its people. Palka's book is divided into three parts with a substantial Appendix. Part I recounts his family's two escapes to America, first fleeing Fascism and then Communism. Part II intertwines his family's history with that of Slovakia. Part III resembles a diary, reporting Palka's contemporary connections with his Slovak heritage. His Appendix contains historical information, maps, genealogical charts, a Slovak language pronunciation guide, and thirty pages of color plates- each one keyed to the text. The research is solid and well-documented. In a way, John Palka is the unintentional chronicler of his forefathers. After retiring in 2002 as a distinguishedd Professor of Biology at the University of Washington, he benefitted from the Slovak government's belated recognition of grandfather Milan Hodza's contributions as Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938. The Slovak government invited John as an honored guest to the reburial of his grandfather's remains from Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery to the Slovak National Cemetery in Martin. Inspiredd by that experience, unintentional benefactor became intentional historian and author of this absorbing volume. Part I begins in 1935-1938 Prague as Hitler exploited the Western powers' appeasement policies and dismembered and annexed the �SLOVAKIA 2019 137 Czech part of Czechoslovakia. Palka recounts Prime Minister Hodfa's helplessness as allies deserted hi s country. Drawing from family sources, Palka documents the family trauma that forced them to flee their homeland. Theys fled at midnight by train, despite hi s mother's advanced pregnancy. John was born in Paris in 1939, only two weeks after they escaped from Prague. After eluding the SS for nearly two years in occupied France, Palka's family made its way to neutral Portugal in 1941 , using fake passports. In Lisbon, they managed to board a Pan Am Clipper making one of its last flights from warring Europe to New York. Like the many thou sands of Slovak immigrants before them, the Palkas found it hard to adjust to America. Unlike most other Slovaks, they were well-educated and upper class. In Chicago, his multilingual father (Slovak, French, German, Hungarian) and former business owner in the Slovak leather industry was not employable in the American leather industry because he did not speak English. His work on the assembly line of a Slovak-owned electrical parts manufacturing plant produced little income. As Palka tells it, the arrival of his famous grandfather later in 1941 complicated rather than improved the family situation. Not only was Milan Hodza ill before he arrived, but Czechoslovakia's former Prime Minister clashed with its former President, Edvard Benes. Palka said that they divided over three issues : Hodza's insistence on Slovak autonomy within Czechoslovakia, hi s opposition to Soviet influence in hi s country, and hi s support for a federation of Central Europe. Despite speaking often and widely to emigre groups, Hodza failed to win them over before dyi ng in 1944. Obituaries in major world newspapers praised his life and hi s funeral in Chicago was widely attended. Palka says his family's hopes soared with the end of World War II . By 1946 the family was back in Slovakia and optimistic. Two years later, Communists took over the government, and soon the family again fled Czechoslovakia, this time from Bratislava. Palka was old enough to remember their escape. He described crawling under barbed wire, dodging searchlights, and dashing across a field to freedom in Austria. By the end of the year, the Palkas again found themselves on their way to America, this time to New York. �138 SLOVAKIA 2019 By Palka's account, the family fared better in New York than in Chicago. His mother became a translator for Radio Free Europe, and Johnny quickly learned English. He obtained a scholarship at a small private school in Connecticut before entering Swarthmore College, where he met his future wife, Yvonne. Both went to India to do research, married there, and subsequently earned PhDs in neurosciences at UCLA. They eventually landed in Seattle-John at the University of Washington and Yvonne at Antioch University. During that time, Palka had little contact with Slovaks (other than his parents) except for a trip to Czechoslovakia in 1976, where he re-experienced communist oppression. His last chapter in Part I tells how Palka eventually learned of his father's clandestine activities against the Nazis in Slovakia before fleeing in 1941 to join his family in Paris. Part II is primarily about Slovakia's history but also about the roles played by his maternal and paternal ancestors in that history. The first chapters outline his genealogical connections to the Hodfas and Palkas. Whereas most Slovak immigrants' ancestors were peasants, Palka's were also pastors and craftsmen in an emerging middle class. In three chapters, Palka links the personal lives of two special ancestors with the rise of Slovak nationalism in the mid-19 th century. Through his successful leatherworks business, Palka's great-great grand uncle, Ondrej Palka ( 1800-1877), financed the pastoral and cultural activities of Michal Miloslav Hodfa (1811-1870), a great grand uncle who-along with I:udovit Stur and Josef Miloslav Hurban-helped codify Slovak as a literary language. Michal Miloslav Hodfa also became famous for his revolutionary activities in the 1848 uprising against Magyar rule. Although the Austrian emperor pardoned him for his political activities, Slovak magyarones-those who curried favor with the Hungarian government- stripped Hodfa of his salary, his position, and drove him to the borderland. Long after his death, the Slovak government retrieved his remains for an honored burial in Liptovsky Mikulas, where he served as pastor. Ironically, one speaker at his funeral was his nephew, Milan Hodfa-who later would also die in exile and also be returned to Slovakia for reburial with honor. Palka's chapters about other distant relatives-Michael Miloslav's Hodfa's daughter Marina and the Bella family, kin to Palka's great-grandmother-portray accomplished women, which differs sharply from most accounts of Slovaks living in Austria-Hungary. �SLOVAKIA 2019 139 His longest chapter is on grandfather Jan Palka, labeled "the most captivating character" in his family. Inheriting his father's leather business, Jan Palka employed modem manufacturing techniques, and amassed a fortune large enough to own a sumptuous villa with a Bosendoerfer grand piano inside and a tennis court outside. Despite his wealth, he was a utopian socialist who instituted profitsharing, worker participation in management, limited work hours, paid vacations, and children's scholarships. Jan Palka's reforms cut into his company's profits, which also suffered from market losses in Austria-Hungary with the formation of Czechoslovakia. His grandfather lost virtually everything in the Great Depression. Whereas Palka's distant paternal ancestors distinguished themselves in business (and in support of Slovak national causes), his maternal ancestors-the Hodfas- distinguished themselves in "the nation's service"- in Slovak literary, religious, and political activities. Palka ends his chapter, "Four Generations of National Service" sadly, by recounting the high prices the Hodfas paid in jail, persecution, and exile . Palka concludes Part II by returning to grandfather Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's Prime Minister in the mid-1930s . He retraces Hodfa's life from birth, through school, as journalist, during military service, and in politics. Palka's final paragraph says, "And so the story that we began when Milan Hodfa's remains were finally transferred home to his beloved Slovakia, fifty-eight years after his death, is now complete." Part III concludes the book with six chapters providing insight into the author's personal "Slovak awakening." Palka admits to "an emotional experience" each time he returns to the homeland "of a family that has a place in national history." Understandably sentimental, he revisits places and people that played roles in his family's drama, and thus in the nation's history. John Palka assumed the responsibility of documenting his family's life and accomplishments. Not only did he do his duty, but he did it with distinction . �140 SLOVAKIA 2019 Jan Hirka: Pod ochranou Marie - Pastier v sluzbe Cirkvi. Presov: Greckokatolicka teologicka fakulta, 2013. 568 pp. Afterword by Andrej Rusnak. Index, abbreviations, bibliography, photos. DANIEL CERNY Kosice There is a Latin proverb, which probably best fits the review of the book Pod ochranou Marie - Pastier v sluzbe Cirkvi, by the late Bishop of Presov, the Most Reverend Jan Hirka (1923-2014). This proverb is as follows : Verba volant, scripta manent which means "spoken words fly away, written words remain. " History is not only about events and dates, but is also based on great personalities, true leaders, who leave behind them significant imprints and are thus remembered in the hearts of those who knew them . One of the greatest leaders of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia in the 20 th century was Bishop Jan Hirka, who served as the Administrator of the then Eparchy of Presov from 1968 to 1989 and then as the resident bishop from 1989 to his retirement in 2002. Bishop Hirka is definitely worth remembering. This autobiography was finished in 2013 and Bishop Hirka gave the first copies to those who came to see him for his jubilee. It was a paradox that the one who was supposed to receive gifts, was distributing them. This book, which is so far the largest vo lume dedicated in Slovak to a single Greek Catholic person, was written towards the end of his life. On the positive side, the book covers almost the comth plete life span of Bishop Hirka, from his youth to his 90 birthday, which also serves as the occasion for its publication. This book deserves to be in the library of every historian who focuses on the life of the Church in 20 th century Central Europe. The title of the book reflects the inscription from the bishop ' s coat of arms of- Under the protection of Mary. Bishop Hirka mentions his devotion to the Mother of God throughout the book. He started to work on the manuscript, with the help of his personal secretary, Father Andrej Rusnak, only after his retirement in 2002. The entire volume is divided into several chapters, which could be summarized into three parts: The first part, which after a description of his early years, focuses on the abolition of the Greek Catholic Church in 1950, his secret pastoral ministry afterwards, his arrest, trial and imprisonment, fol- �SLOVAKIA 2019 141 lowed by exile from eastern Slovakia. He then worked as a simple electrician. His description of his imprisonment and the trial in Prague is stunning. So are his memories of prison work in a Czech mine, his time after release, when he was forced to stay outside of eastern Slovakia and needed to earn his daily bread through manual labor. The second part starts with the events of the Prague Spring and rebirth of the Greek Catholic Church in the former Czecho-Slovakia in 1968. At this time Father Hirka was appointed to lead the Greek Catholic Church, but only as an Apostolic Administrator, as his episcopal ordination was not permitted by the communist regime. It contains a detailed list of events and places he visited, texts of several of his sermons and letters, a compilation of newspaper reports, sermons and homilies. The joy of the Prague Spring of 1968 was very quickly replaced with the foreign military invasion and the period of normalization with many restrictions on the religious life of the citizens. The third part follows Hirka, after he was appointed as the Greek Catholic Bishop of Presov, his memorable ordination in the sport hall of Presov, attended by bishops from all over the world and thousands of the faithful. The papal visit in 1995 to Presov and the beatification of Bishop Gojdic in 2001 are among the highlights of this time. This was a period of increased apostolic activity and marvelous building projects, where people were happy to see their Church free. Among the greatest successes dear to the heart of Bishop Hirka was the reestablishment of the Seminary and of the Theological faculty , which was accomplished in 1990, but for which he struggled from 1968. Bishop Hirka lived long enough to see many important changes in Slovak society at the end of the 20 th century. The Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia in 1993 were important and affected the life of the Church. In 1996 a special Exarchate was created for Greek Catholics in the Czech Republic, who formerly belonged to the Eparchy in Presov, and in 1997 the Exarchate of Kosice was erected, creating a second Greek Catholic jurisdiction in Slovakia. All this led to the elevation of the Church to Metropolitan status, for which Bishop Hirka worked, and was able to see it happen (even though already in retirement) in 2008. Any reader of this book, who has at least some knowledge about �142 SLOVAKIA 2019 the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the former CzechoSlovakia, might feel at the end a bit perplexed. While the first part, speaking about the life and deeds of the young boy, later seminarian and young priest is absolutely stunning, the second and third parts following the path of Father Hirka, who became in 1968 Apostolic Administrator of the Eparchy of Presov and later a bishop--do not possess the quality of the first part. Many of the author's personal decisions, or inner opinions are omitted or hidden. Thus many conflicts or problems, which were publicly known, are not even mentioned. The book gives several wrong impressions. One of them is that the 1990's were a period of complete happiness and zeal. To a certain extent yes, but there were also several problems. It is wellknown that the author's personal relations with his former auxiliary and later Exarch of Kosice, the Most Reverend Milan Chautur, were after an initial period, not very positive, and this resulted in many strange situations, like the fact that, for a time the auxiliary bishop was denied the post of Vicar-General, but was instead appointed to administer a parish himself1 The reader does not need to know everything, but to pretend that there was no problem at all in an autobiography of more than 500 pages is a serious mistake and an injustice to its readers. There is also no mention of two additional phenomena. For instance, the priests of Zemplin lobbied for a second bishopric in Slovakia (the Exarchate of Kosice), which was another unpleasant surprise for Hirka. We know from other documents and publications that these efforts date back to December of 1989. There is also silence regarding those who, during the communist era were secretly ordained, including bishops of the underground church. This phenomenon was common to the Church in the former Czecho-Slovakia. Another negative example is the omission of several personalities who became legends. Among them was Father Jifi Novotny SJ, a Jesuit, who came in the early l 990's to help at the Theological Faculty in Presov and more than ten years after his departure everyone remembered stories about him. He taught numerous subjects, all of them on a very high level, thanks to his knowledge of several languages, his academic background and unique personality. In a book of more than 500 pages this is a serious omission. Yet, the overall impression is positive, as there is no other book �SLOVAKIA 2019 143 which could be compared to this one. Since Bishop Hirka was initially reluctant to put anything on paper, one has to admire the huge work done by Father Andrej Rusnak. To be fair, one has to say that Bishop Hirka was tired, almost exhausted, especially due to constant fighting with the communist authorities . But this is also one of the negatives of the book. It started to be written very late in the life of Bishop Jan, thus reducing several events and some details and depending too much on his declining health. Approximately 150 photos add great value to the book, as does a special chapter on the beatification of the new-martyrs P. P. Gojdic and B. Hopko, which were started in 1985 in the USA, but after the fall of the Iron Curtain transferred to the Eparchy of Presov. Resumes in several languages are a great plus, as is the final word by the editor, Father Andrej Rusnak. Thanks also to Father Marek Petro, who helped to finalize the creation of the book, and who provided footnotes to the text. The register of names will be appreciated by all. As Bishop Hirka wrote in the Preface, the famous professor and Roman Catholic priest Stefan Hlavac inspired him to write his memoirs. The latter said that if other nations had lived through such turbulent times, many books, plays and scholarly works would already be published. This book tries to fill this gap and offers a structured and detailed (although not perfect) account of events and deeds of one of the greatest personalities of the Greek Catholics in Slovakia the late Bishop Jan Hirka. Machacek, Michal. Gustav Husak. Praha: Vysehrad, 2017 . 631 pp. Notes, bibliography, photographs and index. JOZEFHYRJA Heidelberg University In order to understand the most rigid period of Czechoslovak history in the 20 th century, we need to know the person who was behind the so-called "normalization." For two decades Gustav Husak (19131991) represented cultural and economic stagnation, restrictions, repressions and an omnipresent fear in the population of that state. �144 SLOVAKIA 2019 Written by the young Czech historian Michal Machacek, this is the first complete biography of the long-time Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the country ' s last communist President. The author covered Husak's life from his birth in the little Slovak village of Dubravka (now part of the capital city Bratislava), until his death as a lonely, defeated and forgotten former communist leader. Machacek did extensive research in archives in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, the USA and Russia, where he discovered new documents. His research led him to the private archives of Husak' s relatives, their oral testimonies and the reminiscences of his contemporaries. He worked on this monograph for almost ten years, which thus became one of the most anticipated books by Slovak and Czech historians. The biography consists of seven chapters listed in chronological order, which provide a detailed insight into the development of Husak's political career as well as his private life. Machacek was influenced neither by Marxist historiography nor by the dissident discourse, which tends to be too emotionally involved in anti-communist views. He represents a new generation of historians, not burdened by the shadows of the past. The result is an objective and wellbalanced biography. Despite coming from a Czech cultural environment, Machacek, is well-acquainted with contemporary Slovak realities, nationalist sentiments, national demands towards the government in Prague and with Slovak historiography. This asset, often lacking in Czech academic discourse, is important for understanding the complicated relations between the Slovak and Czech nations in their common state and it is definitely valuable to understanding Husak's role and involvement in the federalization of Czechoslovakia (January 1, 1969). The narrative's strongest part, the first chapter entitled Young Radical 1913-1938 (pp. 27-96), describes the interwar period, when Gustav Husak lived and studied in Bratislava. Machacek managed to accurately reconstruct those years of his life and he presents a very plastic image--not only of Husak's youth and activities--but also of Slovak intellectual life in Bratislava between the two World Wars and the development of the communist movement. However, he was part of the Slovak intellectual milieu not only in the communist scene but also in the wider spectrum, which included other political and non-political groups. Machacek emphasized the connections and �SLOVAKIA 2019 145 friendships Husak developed, which helped him on many future occasions. One out of many listed in the book was his friendship with the distinguished Slovak economist Imrich Karvas , who was Husak's professor at Comenius University in Bratislava. Husak attended his lectures and seminars and Karvas grew fond of his student. From this moment "their relationship grew in importance during World War II, when Karvas, now as Governor of the Slovak National Bank, many times helped Husak escape his troubles" (p. 72). An impressive element of Machacek's work is that he skilfully links politics, often on the highest level, with Husak's private life. He provides an interesting insight into Husak's relationship with his second wife Viera, who had a significant influence on his personality as well as his decision-making. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bohuslav Chnoupek, recalled how "Husak in general didn 't like official state visits, but precisely because of the initiative of Viera Husakova they, for example, managed to organize( ... ) a state visit to India, or the following June 1977 to Iraq" (pp. 460-61 ). After the tragic death of his wife in a helicopter crash, it appeared "as if [Husak had] lost his supporter and the visits ceased" (p. 461 ). Where the author could have been more specific and could have developed his arguments more, are the details about Husak's relations with the Church in the 1970s. Before that date, Machacek describes exhaustively not only Husak's attitude towards religion, but also that of his parents and his Catholic family background. However, in 1977, when Pope Paul VI elevated the Archdiocese of Tmava to metropolitan status (under the communist regime!), Machacek does not sufficiently explain Husak's role in this process. The creation of the Archdiocese was an important milestone in the history of Slovakia, which could have been examined in more detail, especially from the point of view church-state relations, but the author dedicates only one sentence to it (p. 466). Despite some minor unintentional factual errors, the overall impression of the book is favorable . The author provides the reader with a complete picture of the longest-serving Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It contains a wealth of new information and gives the reader an interesting insight not only into the political, but also the personal level. Machacek's grasp of the �146 SLOVAKIA 2019 topic is excellent, with more than 2,300 footnotes and an extensive bibliography at the end of the monograph. His book is very readable and contrary to a significant number of preceding scholarly works, it is objective and a valuable contribution to the study of the communist regimes in Central Europe. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 2019 133 Tiinde Lengyelova. Zivot na sl'achtickom dvore. Odev, strava, domacnost, hygenia, vo/'ny cas. Bratislava: Slovart, 2015 , 248pp. Notes, bibliography, illustrations, list of noble families , index of names and places. (Baron) PETER MARIASSY Kosice, Slovak Republic The author, who works for the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, specializes in the history of the nobility and of women in the early modem period. Her book on Life in the Court of the Nobility ... is an original contribution to a history of the 16th and 17th centuries in the Kingdom of Hungary, which at that time was partitioned between the Habsburgs, who controlled Upper Hungary and the Ottoman Turks, who occupied the Hungarian Plains and controlled its vassal province of Transylvania. Lengyelova's main contribution consists of a realistic and uncensored look into the life of Hungarian noble society, which at that time suffered from three heavy burdens : to maintain its existence vis-a-vis the Ottoman threat, the Germanizing Habsburg court, and the various wars with both powers. A major contribution of the book is a detailed description of the leading role of nobles ' wives in supporting their husbands who were running the Kingdom or had gone off to war. Based upon extensive archival research, the book reveals for the first time how noble women very capably functioned and supported their husbands in a patriarchal society where the men were much more educated and recognized. In a sense, the women were more than equal partners of their husbands. The reader will be rewarded by unique descriptions of noble life through their dress, their cuisine, the running of their households, questions of hygiene and leisure activities. All of these aspects of life had to function in a time of many wars and uprisings. This book illustrates how life carried on even in the hardest of times, because the noble men and women divided their tasks and admirably carried them out. I recommend this book not only to professional historians, but also to the general public which might be interested in life in early �134 SLOVAKIA 2019 modern Hungary, especially in its cuisine, its dress, and amusements in this very difficult era. In the future , I would like to see the author compare the dress and other aspects of life of the warring sides. It would also have been useful to have had a conclusion to the book, in which the author would not only summarize her findings , but also indicate her further direction of research. Kenneth Janda. The Emperor and the Peasant: Two Men at the Start of the Great War and End of the Habsburg Empire. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 2018. X-277 pp. Illustrated, maps, charts, graphs, notes. bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This is a popular history of the Great War by a retired Professor of Political Science from Northwestern University. It concerns the Slovak peasant Samuel Mozolak from the village of Krajne in the Myjava region and Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef of AustriaHungary. Janda, a Czech-American, was motivated by the British television series Upstairs Downstairs and Downtown Abby to write the story of his Slovak wife's grandfather and his descendants and compare it with that of the second-last Habsburg Emperor. This is an engaging book. In fourteen well-written chapters, Janda traces the fortunes of Franz Josef and Samuel Mozolak from just before the outbreak of the Great War to its end. He traces Mozolak and his wife back to their voyage and marriage in New York City between 1902 and 1906, their return to Slovakia in 1906, where they dropped off their twins with Mozolaks mother and their return to America until 1914, when they once again returned to Slovakia. Soon after Franz Josef decided to declare war upon Serbia in July of 1914, Samuel Mozolak was drafted into the Hungarian 15 th Honved (Home Army) regiment, based in the city of Trencin, fought on the Russian, Romanian and Italian Fronts, and died in the Battle of the Piave on June 19, 1918. Emperor Franz Josef, on the other hand, declared war upon Serbia on July 28 , 1914, in retaliation for the assassination of his neph- �SLOVAKIA 2019 135 ew Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist exactly one month earlier. This precipitated the start of the First World War, with the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria supporting the Habsburgs while Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy and Romania opposed them. Since both Austria-Hungary and Germany failed in their objectives to defeat and conquer Serbia and France by December, 1914, they lost the war, Janda concluded, despite the fact that it dragged on for four more years. Jandas account is particularly good in describing the Habsburg armies, their ethnic composition, supplies and materials, and devastating defeats. He points out that the Eastern Front, which is often downplayed by Western historians, actually involved more soldiers than in the West, and counted 1,000,000 more casualties than on the Western Front. Janda concluded that, even though Samuel Mozolak died during the Great War, his family , like his countrymen, made great gains from the war, while the Habsburgs lost everything. By joining with the Czechs in creating the new Republic of Czechoslovakia upon the ruins of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, the Slovaks gained their independence, the use of their language in the public sphere and a democratic government. The Habsburgs, by contrast, lost not only their empire, but their thrones and even the right to live in their homeland, from which they were banned after the war. The descendants of Samuel Mozolak moved to the USA after the war and eventually prospered. Thus, the peasant triumphed over the emperor. Since Janda is not an historian, he made a few unfortunate mistakes, which a good editor should have spotted. Thus, on page 44 he mixed up Greek Catholics (Uniates) with the Orthodox; he mistakenly dated the codification of Slovak to 1852, when it was first codified in 1787 and a second time in 1846 (page 48); he was unaware of the existence of the weekly Slowik v Amerike in New York City before the Great War (page 82); he mistakenly referred to the Austrian province of Galicia as having been in Hungary's northeast region ; and he seemed to be unaware that the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1968, which was still in effect in 1992, allowed for the dissolution of the Republic (page 238). In spite of these shortcomings, The Emperor and the Peasant makes for good reading and the general public will undoubtedly �136 SLOVAKIA 2019 learn a lot from it about Slovak immigration to America, and the Habsburg Empire's decline and fall during the Great War. Janda is to be congratulated for this tribute to the Mozolak famly. John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family: One Family's Role in the Birth of a Nation. Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2012. Paper, 424 pages, with illustrations, appendix, index. $24.95 . ISBN 978-1933794-55-6. KENNETH JANDA Emeritus, Northwestern University This book by a Slovak-American immigrant about his ancestors' homeland is remarkably different from others. It reflects life among the Slovak intelligentsia, rather than peasant roots . Both sides of John Palka's family not only belonged to the intelligentsia, but also played major roles in the literary, religious, economic, and political development of the Slovak nation and its people. Palka's book is divided into three parts with a substantial Appendix. Part I recounts his family's two escapes to America, first fleeing Fascism and then Communism. Part II intertwines his family's history with that of Slovakia. Part III resembles a diary, reporting Palka's contemporary connections with his Slovak heritage. His Appendix contains historical information, maps, genealogical charts, a Slovak language pronunciation guide, and thirty pages of color plates- each one keyed to the text. The research is solid and well-documented. In a way, John Palka is the unintentional chronicler of his forefathers. After retiring in 2002 as a distinguishedd Professor of Biology at the University of Washington, he benefitted from the Slovak government's belated recognition of grandfather Milan Hodza's contributions as Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938. The Slovak government invited John as an honored guest to the reburial of his grandfather's remains from Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery to the Slovak National Cemetery in Martin. Inspiredd by that experience, unintentional benefactor became intentional historian and author of this absorbing volume. Part I begins in 1935-1938 Prague as Hitler exploited the Western powers' appeasement policies and dismembered and annexed the �SLOVAKIA 2019 137 Czech part of Czechoslovakia. Palka recounts Prime Minister Hodfa's helplessness as allies deserted hi s country. Drawing from family sources, Palka documents the family trauma that forced them to flee their homeland. Theys fled at midnight by train, despite hi s mother's advanced pregnancy. John was born in Paris in 1939, only two weeks after they escaped from Prague. After eluding the SS for nearly two years in occupied France, Palka's family made its way to neutral Portugal in 1941 , using fake passports. In Lisbon, they managed to board a Pan Am Clipper making one of its last flights from warring Europe to New York. Like the many thou sands of Slovak immigrants before them, the Palkas found it hard to adjust to America. Unlike most other Slovaks, they were well-educated and upper class. In Chicago, his multilingual father (Slovak, French, German, Hungarian) and former business owner in the Slovak leather industry was not employable in the American leather industry because he did not speak English. His work on the assembly line of a Slovak-owned electrical parts manufacturing plant produced little income. As Palka tells it, the arrival of his famous grandfather later in 1941 complicated rather than improved the family situation. Not only was Milan Hodza ill before he arrived, but Czechoslovakia's former Prime Minister clashed with its former President, Edvard Benes. Palka said that they divided over three issues : Hodza's insistence on Slovak autonomy within Czechoslovakia, hi s opposition to Soviet influence in hi s country, and hi s support for a federation of Central Europe. Despite speaking often and widely to emigre groups, Hodza failed to win them over before dyi ng in 1944. Obituaries in major world newspapers praised his life and hi s funeral in Chicago was widely attended. Palka says his family's hopes soared with the end of World War II . By 1946 the family was back in Slovakia and optimistic. Two years later, Communists took over the government, and soon the family again fled Czechoslovakia, this time from Bratislava. Palka was old enough to remember their escape. He described crawling under barbed wire, dodging searchlights, and dashing across a field to freedom in Austria. By the end of the year, the Palkas again found themselves on their way to America, this time to New York. �138 SLOVAKIA 2019 By Palka's account, the family fared better in New York than in Chicago. His mother became a translator for Radio Free Europe, and Johnny quickly learned English. He obtained a scholarship at a small private school in Connecticut before entering Swarthmore College, where he met his future wife, Yvonne. Both went to India to do research, married there, and subsequently earned PhDs in neurosciences at UCLA. They eventually landed in Seattle-John at the University of Washington and Yvonne at Antioch University. During that time, Palka had little contact with Slovaks (other than his parents) except for a trip to Czechoslovakia in 1976, where he re-experienced communist oppression. His last chapter in Part I tells how Palka eventually learned of his father's clandestine activities against the Nazis in Slovakia before fleeing in 1941 to join his family in Paris. Part II is primarily about Slovakia's history but also about the roles played by his maternal and paternal ancestors in that history. The first chapters outline his genealogical connections to the Hodfas and Palkas. Whereas most Slovak immigrants' ancestors were peasants, Palka's were also pastors and craftsmen in an emerging middle class. In three chapters, Palka links the personal lives of two special ancestors with the rise of Slovak nationalism in the mid-19 th century. Through his successful leatherworks business, Palka's great-great grand uncle, Ondrej Palka ( 1800-1877), financed the pastoral and cultural activities of Michal Miloslav Hodfa (1811-1870), a great grand uncle who-along with I:udovit Stur and Josef Miloslav Hurban-helped codify Slovak as a literary language. Michal Miloslav Hodfa also became famous for his revolutionary activities in the 1848 uprising against Magyar rule. Although the Austrian emperor pardoned him for his political activities, Slovak magyarones-those who curried favor with the Hungarian government- stripped Hodfa of his salary, his position, and drove him to the borderland. Long after his death, the Slovak government retrieved his remains for an honored burial in Liptovsky Mikulas, where he served as pastor. Ironically, one speaker at his funeral was his nephew, Milan Hodfa-who later would also die in exile and also be returned to Slovakia for reburial with honor. Palka's chapters about other distant relatives-Michael Miloslav's Hodfa's daughter Marina and the Bella family, kin to Palka's great-grandmother-portray accomplished women, which differs sharply from most accounts of Slovaks living in Austria-Hungary. �SLOVAKIA 2019 139 His longest chapter is on grandfather Jan Palka, labeled "the most captivating character" in his family. Inheriting his father's leather business, Jan Palka employed modem manufacturing techniques, and amassed a fortune large enough to own a sumptuous villa with a Bosendoerfer grand piano inside and a tennis court outside. Despite his wealth, he was a utopian socialist who instituted profitsharing, worker participation in management, limited work hours, paid vacations, and children's scholarships. Jan Palka's reforms cut into his company's profits, which also suffered from market losses in Austria-Hungary with the formation of Czechoslovakia. His grandfather lost virtually everything in the Great Depression. Whereas Palka's distant paternal ancestors distinguished themselves in business (and in support of Slovak national causes), his maternal ancestors-the Hodfas- distinguished themselves in "the nation's service"- in Slovak literary, religious, and political activities. Palka ends his chapter, "Four Generations of National Service" sadly, by recounting the high prices the Hodfas paid in jail, persecution, and exile . Palka concludes Part II by returning to grandfather Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's Prime Minister in the mid-1930s . He retraces Hodfa's life from birth, through school, as journalist, during military service, and in politics. Palka's final paragraph says, "And so the story that we began when Milan Hodfa's remains were finally transferred home to his beloved Slovakia, fifty-eight years after his death, is now complete." Part III concludes the book with six chapters providing insight into the author's personal "Slovak awakening." Palka admits to "an emotional experience" each time he returns to the homeland "of a family that has a place in national history." Understandably sentimental, he revisits places and people that played roles in his family's drama, and thus in the nation's history. John Palka assumed the responsibility of documenting his family's life and accomplishments. Not only did he do his duty, but he did it with distinction . �140 SLOVAKIA 2019 Jan Hirka: Pod ochranou Marie - Pastier v sluzbe Cirkvi. Presov: Greckokatolicka teologicka fakulta, 2013. 568 pp. Afterword by Andrej Rusnak. Index, abbreviations, bibliography, photos. DANIEL CERNY Kosice There is a Latin proverb, which probably best fits the review of the book Pod ochranou Marie - Pastier v sluzbe Cirkvi, by the late Bishop of Presov, the Most Reverend Jan Hirka (1923-2014). This proverb is as follows : Verba volant, scripta manent which means "spoken words fly away, written words remain. " History is not only about events and dates, but is also based on great personalities, true leaders, who leave behind them significant imprints and are thus remembered in the hearts of those who knew them . One of the greatest leaders of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia in the 20 th century was Bishop Jan Hirka, who served as the Administrator of the then Eparchy of Presov from 1968 to 1989 and then as the resident bishop from 1989 to his retirement in 2002. Bishop Hirka is definitely worth remembering. This autobiography was finished in 2013 and Bishop Hirka gave the first copies to those who came to see him for his jubilee. It was a paradox that the one who was supposed to receive gifts, was distributing them. This book, which is so far the largest vo lume dedicated in Slovak to a single Greek Catholic person, was written towards the end of his life. On the positive side, the book covers almost the comth plete life span of Bishop Hirka, from his youth to his 90 birthday, which also serves as the occasion for its publication. This book deserves to be in the library of every historian who focuses on the life of the Church in 20 th century Central Europe. The title of the book reflects the inscription from the bishop ' s coat of arms of- Under the protection of Mary. Bishop Hirka mentions his devotion to the Mother of God throughout the book. He started to work on the manuscript, with the help of his personal secretary, Father Andrej Rusnak, only after his retirement in 2002. The entire volume is divided into several chapters, which could be summarized into three parts: The first part, which after a description of his early years, focuses on the abolition of the Greek Catholic Church in 1950, his secret pastoral ministry afterwards, his arrest, trial and imprisonment, fol- �SLOVAKIA 2019 141 lowed by exile from eastern Slovakia. He then worked as a simple electrician. His description of his imprisonment and the trial in Prague is stunning. So are his memories of prison work in a Czech mine, his time after release, when he was forced to stay outside of eastern Slovakia and needed to earn his daily bread through manual labor. The second part starts with the events of the Prague Spring and rebirth of the Greek Catholic Church in the former Czecho-Slovakia in 1968. At this time Father Hirka was appointed to lead the Greek Catholic Church, but only as an Apostolic Administrator, as his episcopal ordination was not permitted by the communist regime. It contains a detailed list of events and places he visited, texts of several of his sermons and letters, a compilation of newspaper reports, sermons and homilies. The joy of the Prague Spring of 1968 was very quickly replaced with the foreign military invasion and the period of normalization with many restrictions on the religious life of the citizens. The third part follows Hirka, after he was appointed as the Greek Catholic Bishop of Presov, his memorable ordination in the sport hall of Presov, attended by bishops from all over the world and thousands of the faithful. The papal visit in 1995 to Presov and the beatification of Bishop Gojdic in 2001 are among the highlights of this time. This was a period of increased apostolic activity and marvelous building projects, where people were happy to see their Church free. Among the greatest successes dear to the heart of Bishop Hirka was the reestablishment of the Seminary and of the Theological faculty , which was accomplished in 1990, but for which he struggled from 1968. Bishop Hirka lived long enough to see many important changes in Slovak society at the end of the 20 th century. The Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia in 1993 were important and affected the life of the Church. In 1996 a special Exarchate was created for Greek Catholics in the Czech Republic, who formerly belonged to the Eparchy in Presov, and in 1997 the Exarchate of Kosice was erected, creating a second Greek Catholic jurisdiction in Slovakia. All this led to the elevation of the Church to Metropolitan status, for which Bishop Hirka worked, and was able to see it happen (even though already in retirement) in 2008. Any reader of this book, who has at least some knowledge about �142 SLOVAKIA 2019 the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the former CzechoSlovakia, might feel at the end a bit perplexed. While the first part, speaking about the life and deeds of the young boy, later seminarian and young priest is absolutely stunning, the second and third parts following the path of Father Hirka, who became in 1968 Apostolic Administrator of the Eparchy of Presov and later a bishop--do not possess the quality of the first part. Many of the author's personal decisions, or inner opinions are omitted or hidden. Thus many conflicts or problems, which were publicly known, are not even mentioned. The book gives several wrong impressions. One of them is that the 1990's were a period of complete happiness and zeal. To a certain extent yes, but there were also several problems. It is wellknown that the author's personal relations with his former auxiliary and later Exarch of Kosice, the Most Reverend Milan Chautur, were after an initial period, not very positive, and this resulted in many strange situations, like the fact that, for a time the auxiliary bishop was denied the post of Vicar-General, but was instead appointed to administer a parish himself1 The reader does not need to know everything, but to pretend that there was no problem at all in an autobiography of more than 500 pages is a serious mistake and an injustice to its readers. There is also no mention of two additional phenomena. For instance, the priests of Zemplin lobbied for a second bishopric in Slovakia (the Exarchate of Kosice), which was another unpleasant surprise for Hirka. We know from other documents and publications that these efforts date back to December of 1989. There is also silence regarding those who, during the communist era were secretly ordained, including bishops of the underground church. This phenomenon was common to the Church in the former Czecho-Slovakia. Another negative example is the omission of several personalities who became legends. Among them was Father Jifi Novotny SJ, a Jesuit, who came in the early l 990's to help at the Theological Faculty in Presov and more than ten years after his departure everyone remembered stories about him. He taught numerous subjects, all of them on a very high level, thanks to his knowledge of several languages, his academic background and unique personality. In a book of more than 500 pages this is a serious omission. Yet, the overall impression is positive, as there is no other book �SLOVAKIA 2019 143 which could be compared to this one. Since Bishop Hirka was initially reluctant to put anything on paper, one has to admire the huge work done by Father Andrej Rusnak. To be fair, one has to say that Bishop Hirka was tired, almost exhausted, especially due to constant fighting with the communist authorities . But this is also one of the negatives of the book. It started to be written very late in the life of Bishop Jan, thus reducing several events and some details and depending too much on his declining health. Approximately 150 photos add great value to the book, as does a special chapter on the beatification of the new-martyrs P. P. Gojdic and B. Hopko, which were started in 1985 in the USA, but after the fall of the Iron Curtain transferred to the Eparchy of Presov. Resumes in several languages are a great plus, as is the final word by the editor, Father Andrej Rusnak. Thanks also to Father Marek Petro, who helped to finalize the creation of the book, and who provided footnotes to the text. The register of names will be appreciated by all. As Bishop Hirka wrote in the Preface, the famous professor and Roman Catholic priest Stefan Hlavac inspired him to write his memoirs. The latter said that if other nations had lived through such turbulent times, many books, plays and scholarly works would already be published. This book tries to fill this gap and offers a structured and detailed (although not perfect) account of events and deeds of one of the greatest personalities of the Greek Catholics in Slovakia the late Bishop Jan Hirka. Machacek, Michal. Gustav Husak. Praha: Vysehrad, 2017 . 631 pp. Notes, bibliography, photographs and index. JOZEFHYRJA Heidelberg University In order to understand the most rigid period of Czechoslovak history in the 20 th century, we need to know the person who was behind the so-called "normalization." For two decades Gustav Husak (19131991) represented cultural and economic stagnation, restrictions, repressions and an omnipresent fear in the population of that state. �144 SLOVAKIA 2019 Written by the young Czech historian Michal Machacek, this is the first complete biography of the long-time Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the country ' s last communist President. The author covered Husak's life from his birth in the little Slovak village of Dubravka (now part of the capital city Bratislava), until his death as a lonely, defeated and forgotten former communist leader. Machacek did extensive research in archives in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, the USA and Russia, where he discovered new documents. His research led him to the private archives of Husak' s relatives, their oral testimonies and the reminiscences of his contemporaries. He worked on this monograph for almost ten years, which thus became one of the most anticipated books by Slovak and Czech historians. The biography consists of seven chapters listed in chronological order, which provide a detailed insight into the development of Husak's political career as well as his private life. Machacek was influenced neither by Marxist historiography nor by the dissident discourse, which tends to be too emotionally involved in anti-communist views. He represents a new generation of historians, not burdened by the shadows of the past. The result is an objective and wellbalanced biography. Despite coming from a Czech cultural environment, Machacek, is well-acquainted with contemporary Slovak realities, nationalist sentiments, national demands towards the government in Prague and with Slovak historiography. This asset, often lacking in Czech academic discourse, is important for understanding the complicated relations between the Slovak and Czech nations in their common state and it is definitely valuable to understanding Husak's role and involvement in the federalization of Czechoslovakia (January 1, 1969). The narrative's strongest part, the first chapter entitled Young Radical 1913-1938 (pp. 27-96), describes the interwar period, when Gustav Husak lived and studied in Bratislava. Machacek managed to accurately reconstruct those years of his life and he presents a very plastic image--not only of Husak's youth and activities--but also of Slovak intellectual life in Bratislava between the two World Wars and the development of the communist movement. However, he was part of the Slovak intellectual milieu not only in the communist scene but also in the wider spectrum, which included other political and non-political groups. Machacek emphasized the connections and �SLOVAKIA 2019 145 friendships Husak developed, which helped him on many future occasions. One out of many listed in the book was his friendship with the distinguished Slovak economist Imrich Karvas , who was Husak's professor at Comenius University in Bratislava. Husak attended his lectures and seminars and Karvas grew fond of his student. From this moment "their relationship grew in importance during World War II, when Karvas, now as Governor of the Slovak National Bank, many times helped Husak escape his troubles" (p. 72). An impressive element of Machacek's work is that he skilfully links politics, often on the highest level, with Husak's private life. He provides an interesting insight into Husak's relationship with his second wife Viera, who had a significant influence on his personality as well as his decision-making. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bohuslav Chnoupek, recalled how "Husak in general didn 't like official state visits, but precisely because of the initiative of Viera Husakova they, for example, managed to organize( ... ) a state visit to India, or the following June 1977 to Iraq" (pp. 460-61 ). After the tragic death of his wife in a helicopter crash, it appeared "as if [Husak had] lost his supporter and the visits ceased" (p. 461 ). Where the author could have been more specific and could have developed his arguments more, are the details about Husak's relations with the Church in the 1970s. Before that date, Machacek describes exhaustively not only Husak's attitude towards religion, but also that of his parents and his Catholic family background. However, in 1977, when Pope Paul VI elevated the Archdiocese of Tmava to metropolitan status (under the communist regime!), Machacek does not sufficiently explain Husak's role in this process. The creation of the Archdiocese was an important milestone in the history of Slovakia, which could have been examined in more detail, especially from the point of view church-state relations, but the author dedicates only one sentence to it (p. 466). Despite some minor unintentional factual errors, the overall impression of the book is favorable . The author provides the reader with a complete picture of the longest-serving Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It contains a wealth of new information and gives the reader an interesting insight not only into the political, but also the personal level. Machacek's grasp of the �146 SLOVAKIA 2019 topic is excellent, with more than 2,300 footnotes and an extensive bibliography at the end of the monograph. His book is very readable and contrary to a significant number of preceding scholarly works, it is objective and a valuable contribution to the study of the communist regimes in Central Europe. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2019, Vol. 44 Description An account of the resource Vol. 44 (No. 82-83), 2019. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 2019 133 Tiinde Lengyelova. Zivot na sl'achtickom dvore. Odev, strava, domacnost, hygenia, vo/'ny cas. Bratislava: Slovart, 2015 , 248pp. Notes, bibliography, illustrations, list of noble families , index of names and places. (Baron) PETER MARIASSY Kosice, Slovak Republic The author, who works for the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, specializes in the history of the nobility and of women in the early modem period. Her book on Life in the Court of the Nobility ... is an original contribution to a history of the 16th and 17th centuries in the Kingdom of Hungary, which at that time was partitioned between the Habsburgs, who controlled Upper Hungary and the Ottoman Turks, who occupied the Hungarian Plains and controlled its vassal province of Transylvania. Lengyelova's main contribution consists of a realistic and uncensored look into the life of Hungarian noble society, which at that time suffered from three heavy burdens : to maintain its existence vis-a-vis the Ottoman threat, the Germanizing Habsburg court, and the various wars with both powers. A major contribution of the book is a detailed description of the leading role of nobles ' wives in supporting their husbands who were running the Kingdom or had gone off to war. Based upon extensive archival research, the book reveals for the first time how noble women very capably functioned and supported their husbands in a patriarchal society where the men were much more educated and recognized. In a sense, the women were more than equal partners of their husbands. The reader will be rewarded by unique descriptions of noble life through their dress, their cuisine, the running of their households, questions of hygiene and leisure activities. All of these aspects of life had to function in a time of many wars and uprisings. This book illustrates how life carried on even in the hardest of times, because the noble men and women divided their tasks and admirably carried them out. I recommend this book not only to professional historians, but also to the general public which might be interested in life in early 134 SLOVAKIA 2019 modern Hungary, especially in its cuisine, its dress, and amusements in this very difficult era. In the future , I would like to see the author compare the dress and other aspects of life of the warring sides. It would also have been useful to have had a conclusion to the book, in which the author would not only summarize her findings , but also indicate her further direction of research. Kenneth Janda. The Emperor and the Peasant: Two Men at the Start of the Great War and End of the Habsburg Empire. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 2018. X-277 pp. Illustrated, maps, charts, graphs, notes. bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This is a popular history of the Great War by a retired Professor of Political Science from Northwestern University. It concerns the Slovak peasant Samuel Mozolak from the village of Krajne in the Myjava region and Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef of AustriaHungary. Janda, a Czech-American, was motivated by the British television series Upstairs Downstairs and Downtown Abby to write the story of his Slovak wife's grandfather and his descendants and compare it with that of the second-last Habsburg Emperor. This is an engaging book. In fourteen well-written chapters, Janda traces the fortunes of Franz Josef and Samuel Mozolak from just before the outbreak of the Great War to its end. He traces Mozolak and his wife back to their voyage and marriage in New York City between 1902 and 1906, their return to Slovakia in 1906, where they dropped off their twins with Mozolaks mother and their return to America until 1914, when they once again returned to Slovakia. Soon after Franz Josef decided to declare war upon Serbia in July of 1914, Samuel Mozolak was drafted into the Hungarian 15 th Honved (Home Army) regiment, based in the city of Trencin, fought on the Russian, Romanian and Italian Fronts, and died in the Battle of the Piave on June 19, 1918. Emperor Franz Josef, on the other hand, declared war upon Serbia on July 28 , 1914, in retaliation for the assassination of his neph- SLOVAKIA 2019 135 ew Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist exactly one month earlier. This precipitated the start of the First World War, with the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria supporting the Habsburgs while Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy and Romania opposed them. Since both Austria-Hungary and Germany failed in their objectives to defeat and conquer Serbia and France by December, 1914, they lost the war, Janda concluded, despite the fact that it dragged on for four more years. Jandas account is particularly good in describing the Habsburg armies, their ethnic composition, supplies and materials, and devastating defeats. He points out that the Eastern Front, which is often downplayed by Western historians, actually involved more soldiers than in the West, and counted 1,000,000 more casualties than on the Western Front. Janda concluded that, even though Samuel Mozolak died during the Great War, his family , like his countrymen, made great gains from the war, while the Habsburgs lost everything. By joining with the Czechs in creating the new Republic of Czechoslovakia upon the ruins of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, the Slovaks gained their independence, the use of their language in the public sphere and a democratic government. The Habsburgs, by contrast, lost not only their empire, but their thrones and even the right to live in their homeland, from which they were banned after the war. The descendants of Samuel Mozolak moved to the USA after the war and eventually prospered. Thus, the peasant triumphed over the emperor. Since Janda is not an historian, he made a few unfortunate mistakes, which a good editor should have spotted. Thus, on page 44 he mixed up Greek Catholics (Uniates) with the Orthodox; he mistakenly dated the codification of Slovak to 1852, when it was first codified in 1787 and a second time in 1846 (page 48); he was unaware of the existence of the weekly Slowik v Amerike in New York City before the Great War (page 82); he mistakenly referred to the Austrian province of Galicia as having been in Hungary's northeast region ; and he seemed to be unaware that the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1968, which was still in effect in 1992, allowed for the dissolution of the Republic (page 238). In spite of these shortcomings, The Emperor and the Peasant makes for good reading and the general public will undoubtedly 136 SLOVAKIA 2019 learn a lot from it about Slovak immigration to America, and the Habsburg Empire's decline and fall during the Great War. Janda is to be congratulated for this tribute to the Mozolak famly. John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family: One Family's Role in the Birth of a Nation. Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2012. Paper, 424 pages, with illustrations, appendix, index. $24.95 . ISBN 978-1933794-55-6. KENNETH JANDA Emeritus, Northwestern University This book by a Slovak-American immigrant about his ancestors' homeland is remarkably different from others. It reflects life among the Slovak intelligentsia, rather than peasant roots . Both sides of John Palka's family not only belonged to the intelligentsia, but also played major roles in the literary, religious, economic, and political development of the Slovak nation and its people. Palka's book is divided into three parts with a substantial Appendix. Part I recounts his family's two escapes to America, first fleeing Fascism and then Communism. Part II intertwines his family's history with that of Slovakia. Part III resembles a diary, reporting Palka's contemporary connections with his Slovak heritage. His Appendix contains historical information, maps, genealogical charts, a Slovak language pronunciation guide, and thirty pages of color plates- each one keyed to the text. The research is solid and well-documented. In a way, John Palka is the unintentional chronicler of his forefathers. After retiring in 2002 as a distinguishedd Professor of Biology at the University of Washington, he benefitted from the Slovak government's belated recognition of grandfather Milan Hodza's contributions as Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938. The Slovak government invited John as an honored guest to the reburial of his grandfather's remains from Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery to the Slovak National Cemetery in Martin. Inspiredd by that experience, unintentional benefactor became intentional historian and author of this absorbing volume. Part I begins in 1935-1938 Prague as Hitler exploited the Western powers' appeasement policies and dismembered and annexed the SLOVAKIA 2019 137 Czech part of Czechoslovakia. Palka recounts Prime Minister Hodfa's helplessness as allies deserted hi s country. Drawing from family sources, Palka documents the family trauma that forced them to flee their homeland. Theys fled at midnight by train, despite hi s mother's advanced pregnancy. John was born in Paris in 1939, only two weeks after they escaped from Prague. After eluding the SS for nearly two years in occupied France, Palka's family made its way to neutral Portugal in 1941 , using fake passports. In Lisbon, they managed to board a Pan Am Clipper making one of its last flights from warring Europe to New York. Like the many thou sands of Slovak immigrants before them, the Palkas found it hard to adjust to America. Unlike most other Slovaks, they were well-educated and upper class. In Chicago, his multilingual father (Slovak, French, German, Hungarian) and former business owner in the Slovak leather industry was not employable in the American leather industry because he did not speak English. His work on the assembly line of a Slovak-owned electrical parts manufacturing plant produced little income. As Palka tells it, the arrival of his famous grandfather later in 1941 complicated rather than improved the family situation. Not only was Milan Hodza ill before he arrived, but Czechoslovakia's former Prime Minister clashed with its former President, Edvard Benes. Palka said that they divided over three issues : Hodza's insistence on Slovak autonomy within Czechoslovakia, hi s opposition to Soviet influence in hi s country, and hi s support for a federation of Central Europe. Despite speaking often and widely to emigre groups, Hodza failed to win them over before dyi ng in 1944. Obituaries in major world newspapers praised his life and hi s funeral in Chicago was widely attended. Palka says his family's hopes soared with the end of World War II . By 1946 the family was back in Slovakia and optimistic. Two years later, Communists took over the government, and soon the family again fled Czechoslovakia, this time from Bratislava. Palka was old enough to remember their escape. He described crawling under barbed wire, dodging searchlights, and dashing across a field to freedom in Austria. By the end of the year, the Palkas again found themselves on their way to America, this time to New York. 138 SLOVAKIA 2019 By Palka's account, the family fared better in New York than in Chicago. His mother became a translator for Radio Free Europe, and Johnny quickly learned English. He obtained a scholarship at a small private school in Connecticut before entering Swarthmore College, where he met his future wife, Yvonne. Both went to India to do research, married there, and subsequently earned PhDs in neurosciences at UCLA. They eventually landed in Seattle-John at the University of Washington and Yvonne at Antioch University. During that time, Palka had little contact with Slovaks (other than his parents) except for a trip to Czechoslovakia in 1976, where he re-experienced communist oppression. His last chapter in Part I tells how Palka eventually learned of his father's clandestine activities against the Nazis in Slovakia before fleeing in 1941 to join his family in Paris. Part II is primarily about Slovakia's history but also about the roles played by his maternal and paternal ancestors in that history. The first chapters outline his genealogical connections to the Hodfas and Palkas. Whereas most Slovak immigrants' ancestors were peasants, Palka's were also pastors and craftsmen in an emerging middle class. In three chapters, Palka links the personal lives of two special ancestors with the rise of Slovak nationalism in the mid-19 th century. Through his successful leatherworks business, Palka's great-great grand uncle, Ondrej Palka ( 1800-1877), financed the pastoral and cultural activities of Michal Miloslav Hodfa (1811-1870), a great grand uncle who-along with I:udovit Stur and Josef Miloslav Hurban-helped codify Slovak as a literary language. Michal Miloslav Hodfa also became famous for his revolutionary activities in the 1848 uprising against Magyar rule. Although the Austrian emperor pardoned him for his political activities, Slovak magyarones-those who curried favor with the Hungarian government- stripped Hodfa of his salary, his position, and drove him to the borderland. Long after his death, the Slovak government retrieved his remains for an honored burial in Liptovsky Mikulas, where he served as pastor. Ironically, one speaker at his funeral was his nephew, Milan Hodfa-who later would also die in exile and also be returned to Slovakia for reburial with honor. Palka's chapters about other distant relatives-Michael Miloslav's Hodfa's daughter Marina and the Bella family, kin to Palka's great-grandmother-portray accomplished women, which differs sharply from most accounts of Slovaks living in Austria-Hungary. SLOVAKIA 2019 139 His longest chapter is on grandfather Jan Palka, labeled "the most captivating character" in his family. Inheriting his father's leather business, Jan Palka employed modem manufacturing techniques, and amassed a fortune large enough to own a sumptuous villa with a Bosendoerfer grand piano inside and a tennis court outside. Despite his wealth, he was a utopian socialist who instituted profitsharing, worker participation in management, limited work hours, paid vacations, and children's scholarships. Jan Palka's reforms cut into his company's profits, which also suffered from market losses in Austria-Hungary with the formation of Czechoslovakia. His grandfather lost virtually everything in the Great Depression. Whereas Palka's distant paternal ancestors distinguished themselves in business (and in support of Slovak national causes), his maternal ancestors-the Hodfas- distinguished themselves in "the nation's service"- in Slovak literary, religious, and political activities. Palka ends his chapter, "Four Generations of National Service" sadly, by recounting the high prices the Hodfas paid in jail, persecution, and exile . Palka concludes Part II by returning to grandfather Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's Prime Minister in the mid-1930s . He retraces Hodfa's life from birth, through school, as journalist, during military service, and in politics. Palka's final paragraph says, "And so the story that we began when Milan Hodfa's remains were finally transferred home to his beloved Slovakia, fifty-eight years after his death, is now complete." Part III concludes the book with six chapters providing insight into the author's personal "Slovak awakening." Palka admits to "an emotional experience" each time he returns to the homeland "of a family that has a place in national history." Understandably sentimental, he revisits places and people that played roles in his family's drama, and thus in the nation's history. John Palka assumed the responsibility of documenting his family's life and accomplishments. Not only did he do his duty, but he did it with distinction . 140 SLOVAKIA 2019 Jan Hirka: Pod ochranou Marie - Pastier v sluzbe Cirkvi. Presov: Greckokatolicka teologicka fakulta, 2013. 568 pp. Afterword by Andrej Rusnak. Index, abbreviations, bibliography, photos. DANIEL CERNY Kosice There is a Latin proverb, which probably best fits the review of the book Pod ochranou Marie - Pastier v sluzbe Cirkvi, by the late Bishop of Presov, the Most Reverend Jan Hirka (1923-2014). This proverb is as follows : Verba volant, scripta manent which means "spoken words fly away, written words remain. " History is not only about events and dates, but is also based on great personalities, true leaders, who leave behind them significant imprints and are thus remembered in the hearts of those who knew them . One of the greatest leaders of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia in the 20 th century was Bishop Jan Hirka, who served as the Administrator of the then Eparchy of Presov from 1968 to 1989 and then as the resident bishop from 1989 to his retirement in 2002. Bishop Hirka is definitely worth remembering. This autobiography was finished in 2013 and Bishop Hirka gave the first copies to those who came to see him for his jubilee. It was a paradox that the one who was supposed to receive gifts, was distributing them. This book, which is so far the largest vo lume dedicated in Slovak to a single Greek Catholic person, was written towards the end of his life. On the positive side, the book covers almost the comth plete life span of Bishop Hirka, from his youth to his 90 birthday, which also serves as the occasion for its publication. This book deserves to be in the library of every historian who focuses on the life of the Church in 20 th century Central Europe. The title of the book reflects the inscription from the bishop ' s coat of arms of- Under the protection of Mary. Bishop Hirka mentions his devotion to the Mother of God throughout the book. He started to work on the manuscript, with the help of his personal secretary, Father Andrej Rusnak, only after his retirement in 2002. The entire volume is divided into several chapters, which could be summarized into three parts: The first part, which after a description of his early years, focuses on the abolition of the Greek Catholic Church in 1950, his secret pastoral ministry afterwards, his arrest, trial and imprisonment, fol- SLOVAKIA 2019 141 lowed by exile from eastern Slovakia. He then worked as a simple electrician. His description of his imprisonment and the trial in Prague is stunning. So are his memories of prison work in a Czech mine, his time after release, when he was forced to stay outside of eastern Slovakia and needed to earn his daily bread through manual labor. The second part starts with the events of the Prague Spring and rebirth of the Greek Catholic Church in the former Czecho-Slovakia in 1968. At this time Father Hirka was appointed to lead the Greek Catholic Church, but only as an Apostolic Administrator, as his episcopal ordination was not permitted by the communist regime. It contains a detailed list of events and places he visited, texts of several of his sermons and letters, a compilation of newspaper reports, sermons and homilies. The joy of the Prague Spring of 1968 was very quickly replaced with the foreign military invasion and the period of normalization with many restrictions on the religious life of the citizens. The third part follows Hirka, after he was appointed as the Greek Catholic Bishop of Presov, his memorable ordination in the sport hall of Presov, attended by bishops from all over the world and thousands of the faithful. The papal visit in 1995 to Presov and the beatification of Bishop Gojdic in 2001 are among the highlights of this time. This was a period of increased apostolic activity and marvelous building projects, where people were happy to see their Church free. Among the greatest successes dear to the heart of Bishop Hirka was the reestablishment of the Seminary and of the Theological faculty , which was accomplished in 1990, but for which he struggled from 1968. Bishop Hirka lived long enough to see many important changes in Slovak society at the end of the 20 th century. The Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia in 1993 were important and affected the life of the Church. In 1996 a special Exarchate was created for Greek Catholics in the Czech Republic, who formerly belonged to the Eparchy in Presov, and in 1997 the Exarchate of Kosice was erected, creating a second Greek Catholic jurisdiction in Slovakia. All this led to the elevation of the Church to Metropolitan status, for which Bishop Hirka worked, and was able to see it happen (even though already in retirement) in 2008. Any reader of this book, who has at least some knowledge about 142 SLOVAKIA 2019 the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the former CzechoSlovakia, might feel at the end a bit perplexed. While the first part, speaking about the life and deeds of the young boy, later seminarian and young priest is absolutely stunning, the second and third parts following the path of Father Hirka, who became in 1968 Apostolic Administrator of the Eparchy of Presov and later a bishop--do not possess the quality of the first part. Many of the author's personal decisions, or inner opinions are omitted or hidden. Thus many conflicts or problems, which were publicly known, are not even mentioned. The book gives several wrong impressions. One of them is that the 1990's were a period of complete happiness and zeal. To a certain extent yes, but there were also several problems. It is wellknown that the author's personal relations with his former auxiliary and later Exarch of Kosice, the Most Reverend Milan Chautur, were after an initial period, not very positive, and this resulted in many strange situations, like the fact that, for a time the auxiliary bishop was denied the post of Vicar-General, but was instead appointed to administer a parish himself1 The reader does not need to know everything, but to pretend that there was no problem at all in an autobiography of more than 500 pages is a serious mistake and an injustice to its readers. There is also no mention of two additional phenomena. For instance, the priests of Zemplin lobbied for a second bishopric in Slovakia (the Exarchate of Kosice), which was another unpleasant surprise for Hirka. We know from other documents and publications that these efforts date back to December of 1989. There is also silence regarding those who, during the communist era were secretly ordained, including bishops of the underground church. This phenomenon was common to the Church in the former Czecho-Slovakia. Another negative example is the omission of several personalities who became legends. Among them was Father Jifi Novotny SJ, a Jesuit, who came in the early l 990's to help at the Theological Faculty in Presov and more than ten years after his departure everyone remembered stories about him. He taught numerous subjects, all of them on a very high level, thanks to his knowledge of several languages, his academic background and unique personality. In a book of more than 500 pages this is a serious omission. Yet, the overall impression is positive, as there is no other book SLOVAKIA 2019 143 which could be compared to this one. Since Bishop Hirka was initially reluctant to put anything on paper, one has to admire the huge work done by Father Andrej Rusnak. To be fair, one has to say that Bishop Hirka was tired, almost exhausted, especially due to constant fighting with the communist authorities . But this is also one of the negatives of the book. It started to be written very late in the life of Bishop Jan, thus reducing several events and some details and depending too much on his declining health. Approximately 150 photos add great value to the book, as does a special chapter on the beatification of the new-martyrs P. P. Gojdic and B. Hopko, which were started in 1985 in the USA, but after the fall of the Iron Curtain transferred to the Eparchy of Presov. Resumes in several languages are a great plus, as is the final word by the editor, Father Andrej Rusnak. Thanks also to Father Marek Petro, who helped to finalize the creation of the book, and who provided footnotes to the text. The register of names will be appreciated by all. As Bishop Hirka wrote in the Preface, the famous professor and Roman Catholic priest Stefan Hlavac inspired him to write his memoirs. The latter said that if other nations had lived through such turbulent times, many books, plays and scholarly works would already be published. This book tries to fill this gap and offers a structured and detailed (although not perfect) account of events and deeds of one of the greatest personalities of the Greek Catholics in Slovakia the late Bishop Jan Hirka. Machacek, Michal. Gustav Husak. Praha: Vysehrad, 2017 . 631 pp. Notes, bibliography, photographs and index. JOZEFHYRJA Heidelberg University In order to understand the most rigid period of Czechoslovak history in the 20 th century, we need to know the person who was behind the so-called "normalization." For two decades Gustav Husak (19131991) represented cultural and economic stagnation, restrictions, repressions and an omnipresent fear in the population of that state. 144 SLOVAKIA 2019 Written by the young Czech historian Michal Machacek, this is the first complete biography of the long-time Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the country ' s last communist President. The author covered Husak's life from his birth in the little Slovak village of Dubravka (now part of the capital city Bratislava), until his death as a lonely, defeated and forgotten former communist leader. Machacek did extensive research in archives in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, the USA and Russia, where he discovered new documents. His research led him to the private archives of Husak' s relatives, their oral testimonies and the reminiscences of his contemporaries. He worked on this monograph for almost ten years, which thus became one of the most anticipated books by Slovak and Czech historians. The biography consists of seven chapters listed in chronological order, which provide a detailed insight into the development of Husak's political career as well as his private life. Machacek was influenced neither by Marxist historiography nor by the dissident discourse, which tends to be too emotionally involved in anti-communist views. He represents a new generation of historians, not burdened by the shadows of the past. The result is an objective and wellbalanced biography. Despite coming from a Czech cultural environment, Machacek, is well-acquainted with contemporary Slovak realities, nationalist sentiments, national demands towards the government in Prague and with Slovak historiography. This asset, often lacking in Czech academic discourse, is important for understanding the complicated relations between the Slovak and Czech nations in their common state and it is definitely valuable to understanding Husak's role and involvement in the federalization of Czechoslovakia (January 1, 1969). The narrative's strongest part, the first chapter entitled Young Radical 1913-1938 (pp. 27-96), describes the interwar period, when Gustav Husak lived and studied in Bratislava. Machacek managed to accurately reconstruct those years of his life and he presents a very plastic image--not only of Husak's youth and activities--but also of Slovak intellectual life in Bratislava between the two World Wars and the development of the communist movement. However, he was part of the Slovak intellectual milieu not only in the communist scene but also in the wider spectrum, which included other political and non-political groups. Machacek emphasized the connections and SLOVAKIA 2019 145 friendships Husak developed, which helped him on many future occasions. One out of many listed in the book was his friendship with the distinguished Slovak economist Imrich Karvas , who was Husak's professor at Comenius University in Bratislava. Husak attended his lectures and seminars and Karvas grew fond of his student. From this moment "their relationship grew in importance during World War II, when Karvas, now as Governor of the Slovak National Bank, many times helped Husak escape his troubles" (p. 72). An impressive element of Machacek's work is that he skilfully links politics, often on the highest level, with Husak's private life. He provides an interesting insight into Husak's relationship with his second wife Viera, who had a significant influence on his personality as well as his decision-making. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bohuslav Chnoupek, recalled how "Husak in general didn 't like official state visits, but precisely because of the initiative of Viera Husakova they, for example, managed to organize( ... ) a state visit to India, or the following June 1977 to Iraq" (pp. 460-61 ). After the tragic death of his wife in a helicopter crash, it appeared "as if [Husak had] lost his supporter and the visits ceased" (p. 461 ). Where the author could have been more specific and could have developed his arguments more, are the details about Husak's relations with the Church in the 1970s. Before that date, Machacek describes exhaustively not only Husak's attitude towards religion, but also that of his parents and his Catholic family background. However, in 1977, when Pope Paul VI elevated the Archdiocese of Tmava to metropolitan status (under the communist regime!), Machacek does not sufficiently explain Husak's role in this process. The creation of the Archdiocese was an important milestone in the history of Slovakia, which could have been examined in more detail, especially from the point of view church-state relations, but the author dedicates only one sentence to it (p. 466). Despite some minor unintentional factual errors, the overall impression of the book is favorable . The author provides the reader with a complete picture of the longest-serving Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It contains a wealth of new information and gives the reader an interesting insight not only into the political, but also the personal level. Machacek's grasp of the 146 SLOVAKIA 2019 topic is excellent, with more than 2,300 footnotes and an extensive bibliography at the end of the monograph. His book is very readable and contrary to a significant number of preceding scholarly works, it is objective and a valuable contribution to the study of the communist regimes in Central Europe.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 44 (No. 82-83) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Tünde Lengyelová, Život na šľachtickom dvore (Peter Máriássy), p. 133</li> <li>Kenneth Janda, The Emperor and the Peasant: Two Men at the Start of the Great War and End of the Habsburg Empire (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 134</li> <li>John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family: One Family's Role in the Birth of a Nation (Kenneth Janda), p. 136</li> <li>Ján Hirka, Pod ochranou Márie - Pastier v službe Cirkvi (Daniel Černý), p. 140</li> <li>Michal Macháček, Gustáv Husák (Jozef Hyrja), p. 143</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Černý. Daniel Hyrja, Jozef Janda, Kenneth Máriássy, Peter Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8c4fff75d3899397a9df9a5d6d19c356.pdf 5fecb7d60105e1928d9ff6db123aeaea PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 2021 151 Diana Duchonova. Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy. Dvorska spolocnost' a aristokraticka kai dodennost'. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2017. 558pp. Illustrated, bibliography, name and place index. (Baron) PETER MA.RlA.SSY Kosice, Slovak Republic This publication is an attempt to present the daily life of Hungarian aristocratic society in the 16 th century through the central character of Palatine Mikulas Esterhazy. The book is divided into three main chapters reflecting the origin and the rise of the Esterhazy family , then the place of his court as a social system, and the rituals of everyday life at his court. The Esterhazy family rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs ( 1526). After this disastrous battle with the Turks, the Kingdom was divided into the northwest part (today's Slovakia and western Hungary) under the rule of the Habsburgs, the central part under the control of the Turks and the eastern part (Transylvania), as a vassal province of the Ottoman Empire. At this time Hungary witnessed the arrival of the "Homo novus" Esterhazy family , which originated in the town of Galanta, in Upper Hungary (Slovakia), and whose leader Mikulas eventually became the ruling Palatine of Hungary. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the political situation in the country, but without proper graphs depicting spheres of influence in the given period. The same is true of the examination of the Esterhazy family and their relatives, presenting only the sources that would have demanded not a convoluted but coherent processing of the central person's pedigree, that of Mikulas, but also the family tree's extent as a result of several marriages and family tragedies. In the chapter on the Palatine's court as a social system, the author makes countless references to the functioning of the court, to its members or participants, the Palatine's office and instructions to his Chief Steward. In addition, she refers to rewards, to various craftsmen, as necessary parts of the court, which reflected the sovereignty of the court and, thus, a manifestation of the status of the leader of the Hungarian aristocracy at that time. As in the first chapter, the reader ts inundated with detailed descriptions, instructions and �152 SLOVAKIA 2021 responsibilities of the people in vo lved. The secti ons dea ling wi th salari es and rewards are prese nted onl y from three sources and cannot be considered as representative of the who le court. The map provided definitely fa ils to give a comprehensive overv iew of the scope and possess ions of th e Esterh azys in today's Hungary, Austri a, Slovaki a, Romani a and Ukra ine. All of thi s is made worse by Slovaki zing th e names of the Esterhazys throughout the tex t (e.g. Mikul as instead of Miklos). The third chapter di sc uss ing the everyday rituals of ari stocracy in the Pa latine court is closest to th e dec lared intenti on of the auth or to prov ide a picture of the court of Hungari an hi gh nobility. The ritua ls themselves represent the kind of a system whi ch, if respected, creates certain frameworks of recurring events in the areas of educati on, everyday tas ks, social events, manag in g foreign relati ons, marri ages, hea lth care of fa mil y members, including fun eral s, wheth er becau se of the death of children, wives and espec iall y male descendants of the fa mil y who di ed in th e Turkish wars. In additi on to often very detail ed sources, the chapter lacks order, a labe l and , where appropriate, the dec ision-making key, especiall y when sol ving de li cate events, including the in carcerati on of one of the w ives of th e Palatine. My bi ggest reservati on about thi s chapter is th at it should not end w ith sad pictures of the liquidati o n of their last resting places. Instead, it should conc lude with a summ ary of the personal, organi zati onal, as we ll as po litica l skill s of th e Esterhazys which should secure the ex istence of thi s hi ghl y- respected famil y today and over the centuri es. In conclusion, by introducing a huge number of sources in thi s book without their subsequent process ing into maps, graphs, fa mil y trees, or tables, or even algorithm s, makes thi s publicati on access ible only to the profess ional or know ledgeable reader but not to the general public. For thi s reason, it is a mere compilati on of sources processed into three re lated but generally rather separate topics whi ch could in the end fo rm three separate publicati ons. �SLOVAKIA 2021 153 Zora Mintalova Zubercova. Ako sme kedysi i ili: Obrazky kai dodenneho i ivota nasich predkov. Bratislava. Slovart, 20 I 7. 327pp. Illustrations, definitions, bibliography. LENKA STOLARIK Carleton University Specialists in social history have long awaited this book. Zora Mintalova Zubercova has given us a very detailed description of how Slovaks lived in the past 200 years. She utilized the findings of, not only recent historians such as Anton Spiesz ( 1930-1993), but also the writings of early 19 th century observers of Slovak life such as the Lutheran pastor and national revivalist Ladislav Bartholomeides ( 1754-1825). The latter wrote a monograph in Latin on Gerner County ( 1806-1808) in which he described in great detail the daily life and customs of the local Slovaks. In addition , she consulted similar works by Baron Alojz Mednansky ( 17841844 ), the Lutheran pastor Samuel Kollar ( 1769- I 83 I), and the ethnographer-national revivalist Jan Caplovic ( 1780- I 84 7), among others. Mintalova Zubercova covered daily life in all regions of Slovakia, as well as in its villages and cities. She described people 's dress, their housing, furniture, cooking, religious holidays, marriage, birth and death rituals, the raising and care of animals, village and city governance, farming and crafts practices, folk proverbs and songs. She also contrasted city with country life, the daily life of the gentry versus the peasantry, rich and poor. She took her story into the mid-twentieth century, when Slovaks began to move in great numbers into the cities, looking for work. Since Mintalova Zubercova was trained as an ethnographer, she left out what historians normally include in their works . Thus, when she cites the books of the authors mentioned above, even when she directly quotes from them , she neglects to provide us with footnotes . It is, therefore, impossible to look up her quotations and to seek further information from her sources. She also fails to list their works in her bibliography, which makes me suspect that she did not cite from their original books, but from second-hand sources. Furthermore, she did not include an Index to her book, whether of names, places or �154 SLOVAKIA 2021 concepts. This makes it difficult to look up and compare the cultures of northern , southern and eastern Slovakia. In spite of these shortcomings, those of us who were raised by parents born and educated in Slovakia will recognize many of the customs and traditions described by the author. Unfortunately, many such traditions are fading into insignificance as the Slovaks urbanize and westernize. I, for one, am very grateful to Zubercova Mintalova for having captured our ancestors' "world of the past." Daniela Kodajova et al. Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien. Bratislava: Slovart, 20 19. 304 pp. Bibliography, photographs, abbreviations, biographic index. EDITA BOSAK Memorial University of Newfoundland A foreword by the actress-diplomat Magda Vasaryova introduces the reader to a much-needed history of the first Slovak women's organ ization - Zivena. This collection of essays, edited by Daniela Kodajova, was published on the I 50 th anniversary of the founding of Zivena in Turciansky Svaty Martin on 4 August 1869. Dr. Kodajova and her col leagues introduce readers to some we ll-known, and some lesser-known, members of the Slovak intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in the founding and the running of this organization. This collection of essays details Zivena's cultural and educational activities from its earliest days to the present. The initial impetus for the creation of Zivena came from the male leadership of the Slovak national movement based in Turc. Sv. Martin . Ambro Pietor, who had studied law in Prague at Charles University, had witnessed the existence and successfu l work of Czech women's organizations in the Czech national movement. Upon graduation he returned to Martin with his observations and imparted these to fellowSlovak nationalists. These gentlemen came to view the women in their own circles not just as cooks, wives, homemakers and mothers, but as the keys to nurturing and educating Slovak children in the Slovak national spirit, the Slovak language and thus thwarting the efforts of the magyarizing goals of the Hungarian government which had steadi ly increased since its Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867. The �SLOVAKIA 2021 155 nationalists were convinced that safeguarding and further developing the Slovak national movement meant encouraging Slovak mothers to teach their children the Slovak language and to share their knowledge of Slovak culture and customs, because otherwise the Magyar school system would eventually destroy Slovak identity. The organizers of Zivena arranged for membership dues to be sent directly to Matica slovenska (the Slovak national, cultural and literary organization based in Martin) or to trusted members of the Slovak national movement. Thus, Kodajova points out that Zivena was effectively linked to the Slovak national movement from its inception . Slovak female writers became active members of Zivena. They were well versed on the views of western philosophers like John Stuart Mill and so, through their own writings, they tried to draw attention to the inequalities which Slovak girls and women faced in society. Most of these writers came from the Slovak Lutheran middle-class, from Lutheran ministers ' families or well-educated families . Through Zivena they sought to establish a school of higher education for peasant and working-class women and girls. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government steadfastly refused to permit the establishment of such an institution . Dr. Kodajova points out that Ambro Pietor figured prominently, not only in establishing Zivena, but also in serving as its first secretary for a number of years. The first president was Anna Pivkova, the wife of one of Martin's prominent lawyers Ambroz Pivko. Elected for a three-year term, she actually served for twenty-five years due to the political situation in Hungary. The forced closure of Matica slovenska in 1875 by the government of Hungary meant that Zivena now took on the responsibility of holding the annual August nationalist assemblies to allow nationalists of both sexes to gather and discuss the political situation. This chapter also notes that a sister Zivena was established in America, which thrived and financially supported the mother organization in Slovakia. In the following chapter on coordinating nationalism with "conservative feminism ," Dr. K. Holly points out that Zivena was viewed in the 1890s as a dead organization. Its vice-president Elena Mar6thy-Soltesova wrote to her Czech friend and counterpart Yilma Sokolova �156 SLOVAKIA 2021 in 1891 lamenting the organization's lack of activity and failure to achieve any of its goa ls, other than publishing two Almanacs, financially supporting poor Slovak girls, and financing an exhibition of Slovak national dress and embroideries in Prague. The organization and its women were hampered by the very conservative nationalists in Martin, especially the writer Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. This chapter does much to shed light on the views of the male Slovak nationalists on the role of Zivena, and the place of women in the Slovak national movement. Slovak women were not expected to have opinions or to express them. The following chapters by Ors. G. Dudekova Kovacova, J. Hodolicova, I. Hajducekova, A. Falisova, and A. Bucekova are dedicated to the growth of .Zivena in terms of new chapters and members wherever Slovak women lived - the Hungarian Lowlands and Slovenia - both before and after the end of the Habsburg Monarchy. Dr. Hodolicova writes about the success of Slovak women in Slovenia in establishing a journal despite the magyarizing policies of the government. She points out that Zivena managed to survive the discriminatory policies of the Hungarian government vis-a-vis ethnic minorities by declaring their official name to be Zivena, "a charitable association of Slovak women" rather than its true name "the organization of Slovak women" which would have been viewed suspiciously by the government as an example of pan-Slavi sm. With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 191 8, Dr. Hajducekova describes in detail how Zivena was able to thrive. It established chapters throughout Slovakia, and began the work of founding a girls' school. It also regularly published a journal , and created a platform where women could discuss how they viewed their role in civil society, marriage and the familyin other words their emancipation. Dr. A. Falisova's chapter discusses the activity of Zivena in the area of social work and health . Zivena cooperated with the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Prague to establish the Institute of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, which was to educate female social and health workers. They successfully sought guidance from American schools and financial support from the Slovak League of America. In the last chapter Dr. Bucekova highlights the activities of Zivena after 1989 - its rebirth with the end of Communism. After 1948 the Communists had dissolved the Society and confiscated its property. �SLOVAKIA 2021 157 Now its property was returned, albeit in a rather sad state of disrepair. Nevertheless, Slovaks from all walks of life rallied to fund the reconstruction of the building, which is now well on its way. As it completes repairs , Zivena has re-introduced cultural activities, a music school, and now houses the archives of Jana Cigara. Its intentions are to fulfill its original role as that of an educational institution. Its program is aimed at fulfilling the needs of modem young women. This edited collection celebrating the existence of Zivena is a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Slovak women's movement, to the Slovak struggle for national survival, to its achievements in a democratic Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939, and then its struggle to survive during the fascist period, and finally the communist regime. This volume is a labour of love, for its contributors are university graduates, researchers and academics who have studied the topic and published on it in a variety of journals both academic and popular. Moreover, two of them have a vested interest in seeing Zivena continue to prosper and educate young women. Magda Vasaryova is the national president and Alena Bucekova is the president of the Bratislava chapter. This work deserves the attention and careful study by scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy and of modem-day Slovakia. Jan Raska. Czech Reji,gees in Cold War Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 20 I 8. xii-307pp. Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Despite its title, this book also deals with Slovaks and "Czechoslovaks" in Canada. It is a thoroughly-revised Ph .D. dissertation accepted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It gives a very good over-view of Czech and "Czechoslovak" immigrants to Canada after World War II and their goals and aspirations. Raska 's approach is chronological. He first mentions that before World War I, a few thousand Czech immigrants came to Canada largely from the United States to either farm on the Prairies or to work �158 SLOVAKIA 2021 in the coal mines of the West. In this regard they behaved like the Slovaks, who also moved from the USA to Canada at that time for the same reasons. After the Great War, however, far more Slovaks than Czechs (39,652 versus 5,176) moved to Canada, largely to the industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec. After World War II , 36,531 "Czechoslovaks" emigrated to Canada, largely in three waves: 19481951 ; I 968-69 and in the I 970's and I 980's. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not differentiate between Czechs and Slovaks after World War II. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, when the government did differentiate between the two groups, it counted I 04,680 persons of partial Czech heritage and 72,290 people of partial Slovak heritage. Unfortunately, 40,7 15 persons declared themselves of"Czechoslovak" heritage and it is impossible to tell to which groups they belonged. In any case, Raska then focused on the three main groups of Czech refugees, the I 948ers, the I 968ers, and subsequent refugees. He pointed out that the I 948ers and I 968ers were very similar to each other because they were mostly highly-educated professionals who aspired to a middle-class life in Canada whi le denouncing the evils of Communism. Many joined the already-existing Czechoslovak National Alliance, which was originally founded in 1939 and went through many name-changes until it finally became the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada in 1995, reflecting the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Raska admitted that a majority of its members were Czechs, although it also contained a minority of Slovaks who subscribed to the "Czechoslovak" philosophy. The Czechoslovak National Alliance eventually headquartered itself in Toronto, which contained the largest concentration of Czechs. In 1944 its members bought an old skating rink , which they converted into Masaryk Hall , which eventually became the Masaryk Memorial Insti tute and in 1948 they also bought 64 acres of farmland which they turned into Masaryktown . These two institutions became the center of Czech life and activities in Canada. The three post-war waves of Czechs, according to Raska, pursued three main activities. They were ardent anti-Communists, who denounced this political system at every tum. They helped fellow-refugees establish themselves in Canada. They promoted various "Czechoslovak" causes, either through publications, radio programs, television, "Czechoslovak" days, lobbying Canadian politicians, �SLOVAKIA 2021 159 denouncing the Czechoslovak government for various extortion schemes and so on . They also established "Czechoslovak" schools and even subsidized a Chair in Czechoslovak Studies at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971, much to the annoyance of Canadian Slovaks. However, Raska admits that the Czechs were not as nationalist as the Slovaks and their eager pursuit of the middle-class life led to a rapid decline in the membership of the Czechoslovak National Alliance from a high of I 0,000 in 1945 to a mere 1,485 in 1974. He does not give their numbers in 2018, which this reviewer suspects is much lower. This book is a welcome addition to our store of knowledge about Canada's ethnic groups. Raska mined the National Archives of Canada, the archives of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, various oral history collections, Czech and other newspapers and a broad range of secondary sources in order to tell his story. He is only the second professional historian to study the Czechs in Canada. The first was Mark Jovanovic. Both are my former students, of whom I am very proud. Miroslav Londak, Slavomir Michalek a kolektiv . Dubcek. Bratislava : VEDA & Historicky ustav SAV, 2018, 532 pp. Illustrated, list of abbreviations, bibliography, name index. MARTY MANOR MULLINS Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana The politician Alexander Dubcek recalls many things to those familiar with his place in history. Most notably he stood at the helm as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the late I 960s as he tried to steer the country towards a kinder, gentler socialism. The eyes of the world were upon him to see if the experiment within the communist sphere would be tolerated by Moscow or again forcibly crushed as had happened to Hungary in 1956. As a result of the extremely popular I 968 ' Prague Spring"' reform period within Czechoslovakia, many Czechs and Slovaks (not to mention those outside the region) remember him fondly. But historians and even Czech �160 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Slovak compatriots have not always been kind in their evaluations of Dubcek . This latest biography of Dubcek endeavors to take a measured, scientific look at his life and achievements by situating them in historical context. Rather than evaluating Dubcek based on his decisions at specific moments, this tome provides a comprehensive look at the experiences, from cradle to grave, that shaped him. It seeks to illuminate the complexity of the times in which he acted and avoids the tendency to anachronistically judge him according to our own times. Dubcek achieves this aim in part due to the structure of the book. By commissioning an all-star team of Slovak and Czech scholars to engage with the latest research , including archival findings , this anthology builds upon itself, resulting in a wide-ranging view of the critical years in postwar Czechoslovak history, which parallels Dubcek's lifespan ( 1921-1992). This format a lso sidesteps the trap of assessing a biographical subject too-favorably. All in all , this study represents a noteworthy contribution to what we know about Dubcek as a person and a politician while also shedding light onto ongoing historical debates. The text elucidates questions such as how did a little-known Slovak rise to Party power so quickly; what was the nature of his relationship with predecessor Antonin Novotny; did Dubcek know about the imminent Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968 ; what were the planning stages of the invitation to the Soviets to invade Czechos lovakia (the text evidences insight into a July 20-21 meeting at Hungarian Premier Janos Kadar's Lake Balaton estate); where and how did that 'invitation' occur; why was the United States' Johnson administration so reticent to support Dubcek's reform measures and to confront the USSR after the invasion; why did so few Slovak delegates attend the secret Vysocany Congress of August 22, 1968; what did the Kremlin so fear that it a ll owed Dubcek to remain in office in the months following the Warsaw Pact invasion ; how did Dubcek and leading dissident Vaclav Havel estimate each other from their first meeting in July 1968 to the late 1980s just before the Velvet Revolution? Perhaps the biggest question the book addresses (albeit indirectly) is the degree to which Dubcek was or was not trying to alter communist dogma and policy in Czechos lovakia. How much of a 'reformer' was he? The text helps answer this question by compiling and even revealing direct quotations from decisive exchanges between Dubcek and key figures such as Novotny and U.S.S.R. Party Boss Leonid �SLOVAKIA 2021 161 Brezhnev at critical moments. This historical viewpoint allows the reader to appraise Dubcek for himself within a contextual framework that draws upon past and present research . It also provides perspective into Dubcek's role in Slovak history. This is significant as Dubcek ranks among the most influential Slovaks in the history of the nation. The reader learns of Dubcek's mission in the early I 960s to put Slovakia on equal administrative and economic footing with the Czech Lands after decades of failed Stalinist industrial policies in Slovakia since the 1948 communist coup. Responding to the growing unrest in Slovakia as expressed by local economists, journalists and the relocation of Slovak workers to the Czech Lands in the I 960s, Dubcek effectively made the Slovak case to the leadership in Prague in a way that others had not succeeded in doing. He also refused to back down from Novotny (as revealed in their exchanges) when Novotny attempted to brush aside the issue as well as calls for federalization of the country. Ultimately, federalization was achieved in October 1968, despite the Soviet invasion two months earlier. Yet Dubcek was not antagonistic against the Czechs or their economic advantages. As Presidium member in the pre-Prague Spring era, one of his two goals was to restore the Czech-Slovak relationship; the other was to discover a moderate approach to socialism. It was his genius in building consensus rather than dictating policy that helps explain the persuasiveness of his programs. The book does a good job of not only examining Dubcek's achievements but of providing insight into him as a person, explaining how an unlikely character from a modest background catapulted into the limelight in Prague and beyond. For example, the reader learns of his parents' socialist pedigree (which extended from their time as persecuted leftist laborers in Chicago), his thirteen years growing up in Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.S.R . during the most repressive years of Stalinism, his being wounded twice in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, and his return to study in Moscow in the mid- l 950s during General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin's crimes. All of these occurrences forged the stance he was to take as a socialist leader. The book is well-written and is not just for academics but for anyone who is curious to learn the behind-the-scenes drama between �162 SLOVAKIA 2021 political actors at critical moments in the Cold War era. The quotations from phone calls (such as that of August 13 , 1968 between Dubcek and Brezhnev) and official internal memos and memoirs are the most intriguing. However, it was disappointing that while such quotations are listed as footnotes , there is no corresponding bibliographical entry to aid a researcher in finding the exact sources of these important conversations. The bibliography lists only the names of the archives and the relevant collections as well as a selection of secondary sources. Nevertheless, this soundly-researched biography affords scholars and laypeople alike a single volume in which to delve deeper into the times and person of Alexander Dubcek. Miroslav Moj zita. Knai ko. Demes, Knai ko: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch /990 ai 1993. Ustav politickych vied SAY: VEDA, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 2019, 223 pp. Forewords to the first and second editions, selected articles by the author, list of Slovak diplomats and embassies (January 1993), photographs, afterword, author information, English summary. JURAJ HOCMAN Independent Scholar Miroslav Moj z ita ' s diplomatic career started in the mid- I 970s and continued throughout the 1980s during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, including two successive postings to China and India. Prior to the split of the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic , Mojzita had opted for the nascent Slovak Foreign Service. In the early 1990s, he played a crucia l role in founding the Slovak Ministry for International Relations and in its gradua l transformation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic as of January I, 1993 . Mojzita ' s book on the formative years of Slovak diplomacy originally appeared in 2004, when Slovakia entered the European Union. In 20 19 it was re-published to provide a new generation with another opportunity to recollect the past and to contemplate the validity of the author 's previous observations and conclusions. The difference between the two editions is marginal. The second edition contains minor additions, such as another Foreword. The core �SLOVAKIA 2021 163 of the text has remained unchanged. Apparently, the primary motive for the second edition was to replenish empty shelves in bookstores. The book 's main quality is its undisputed and lasting authenticity. Based upon the author ' s first-hand experience, it delivers a Slovak perspective on key events which took place during the difficult time when a young democracy and its foreign service were born. Such books are still rare in modem Slovak historiography. What makes the book· s second edition interesting is its external context. When Slovakia eventually caught up with the rest of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) on the challenging journey to fullfledged membership within NATO (2003) and the EU, readers of the first edition, unfamiliar with Slovak history, might have wondered how a tiny and allegedly non-historic state, burdened with a rural past, persistent parochialism, a legacy of obsolete heavy industries and an overall inflexible communist economy, managed to finish the race to the EU with its peers. The same was true for the incipient Slovak Foreign Service. Of the book's three chapters, the first two are dedicated to the creation and shaping of the Slovak Ministry for International Relations, which existed from 1990 to 1992 parallel with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic . The third chapter covers the first year of the existence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Moj zita paints an accurate picture of an institution which gradually came to life through the activities of personalities from various professions and with various backgrounds, even of those whose past contained shadows and raised eyebrows . Mojzita logically scrutinized the relations of Slovakia with neighbouring countries, particularly with the Czech Repubic and Hungary, in the first place. He provided personal and professional characteristics, as well as the style of work , of the first two heads of the Slovak Foreign Service, Pavo! Demes, a young and talented biologist, and Milan Knazko, an accomplished actor. The latter had publicly snubbed the former communist regime and was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia. Knazko became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic. The tone of the publication is sober and balanced. When referring to the birth of independent Slovakia and its acceptance into �164 SLOVAKIA 2021 the United Nations and other key organizations, the book becomes moderately celebratory, and deservedly so. To the author ·s credit, he does not skip the errors and mistakes made by the Ministry that stemmed from inexperience and the overzealousness of its staff. Mojzita's literary style is far from dry or didactic, as his method of diplomatic reporting and political ana lysis is subtly complemented with vivid depictions and flairs of reported events. Since its birth, the Slovak diplomatic service had produced internationally recognized figures. Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, gained rich experiences and good reputations while working with the UN, the OSCE and other international organizations. They were not alone. From the late 1990s onward, Slovak diplomats responded to the calls of the international community and became active in the first line of contact in many conflict-management and confidence-building missions carried out under the aegis of international organizations, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their accomplishments can be traced back to the early 1990s and to the building of the fundamentals of the Slovak diplomatic service by devoted and patriotic professionals. This is a comprehensive, critical , we ll-documented and wel l-integrated scholarly monograph on modem Slovak diplomacy. Whereas the first edition appeared as a va luab le and laudable step in the right direction, its second edition is more than a reprint of a once pioneering publication . It should serve as an impulse for a subsequent book, detailing the history of the Slovak Foreign Service to the present day . � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 2021 151 Diana Duchonova. Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy. Dvorska spolocnost' a aristokraticka kai dodennost'. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2017. 558pp. Illustrated, bibliography, name and place index. (Baron) PETER MA.RlA.SSY Kosice, Slovak Republic This publication is an attempt to present the daily life of Hungarian aristocratic society in the 16 th century through the central character of Palatine Mikulas Esterhazy. The book is divided into three main chapters reflecting the origin and the rise of the Esterhazy family , then the place of his court as a social system, and the rituals of everyday life at his court. The Esterhazy family rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs ( 1526). After this disastrous battle with the Turks, the Kingdom was divided into the northwest part (today's Slovakia and western Hungary) under the rule of the Habsburgs, the central part under the control of the Turks and the eastern part (Transylvania), as a vassal province of the Ottoman Empire. At this time Hungary witnessed the arrival of the "Homo novus" Esterhazy family , which originated in the town of Galanta, in Upper Hungary (Slovakia), and whose leader Mikulas eventually became the ruling Palatine of Hungary. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the political situation in the country, but without proper graphs depicting spheres of influence in the given period. The same is true of the examination of the Esterhazy family and their relatives, presenting only the sources that would have demanded not a convoluted but coherent processing of the central person's pedigree, that of Mikulas, but also the family tree's extent as a result of several marriages and family tragedies. In the chapter on the Palatine's court as a social system, the author makes countless references to the functioning of the court, to its members or participants, the Palatine's office and instructions to his Chief Steward. In addition, she refers to rewards, to various craftsmen, as necessary parts of the court, which reflected the sovereignty of the court and, thus, a manifestation of the status of the leader of the Hungarian aristocracy at that time. As in the first chapter, the reader ts inundated with detailed descriptions, instructions and �152 SLOVAKIA 2021 responsibilities of the people in vo lved. The secti ons dea ling wi th salari es and rewards are prese nted onl y from three sources and cannot be considered as representative of the who le court. The map provided definitely fa ils to give a comprehensive overv iew of the scope and possess ions of th e Esterh azys in today's Hungary, Austri a, Slovaki a, Romani a and Ukra ine. All of thi s is made worse by Slovaki zing th e names of the Esterhazys throughout the tex t (e.g. Mikul as instead of Miklos). The third chapter di sc uss ing the everyday rituals of ari stocracy in the Pa latine court is closest to th e dec lared intenti on of the auth or to prov ide a picture of the court of Hungari an hi gh nobility. The ritua ls themselves represent the kind of a system whi ch, if respected, creates certain frameworks of recurring events in the areas of educati on, everyday tas ks, social events, manag in g foreign relati ons, marri ages, hea lth care of fa mil y members, including fun eral s, wheth er becau se of the death of children, wives and espec iall y male descendants of the fa mil y who di ed in th e Turkish wars. In additi on to often very detail ed sources, the chapter lacks order, a labe l and , where appropriate, the dec ision-making key, especiall y when sol ving de li cate events, including the in carcerati on of one of the w ives of th e Palatine. My bi ggest reservati on about thi s chapter is th at it should not end w ith sad pictures of the liquidati o n of their last resting places. Instead, it should conc lude with a summ ary of the personal, organi zati onal, as we ll as po litica l skill s of th e Esterhazys which should secure the ex istence of thi s hi ghl y- respected famil y today and over the centuri es. In conclusion, by introducing a huge number of sources in thi s book without their subsequent process ing into maps, graphs, fa mil y trees, or tables, or even algorithm s, makes thi s publicati on access ible only to the profess ional or know ledgeable reader but not to the general public. For thi s reason, it is a mere compilati on of sources processed into three re lated but generally rather separate topics whi ch could in the end fo rm three separate publicati ons. �SLOVAKIA 2021 153 Zora Mintalova Zubercova. Ako sme kedysi i ili: Obrazky kai dodenneho i ivota nasich predkov. Bratislava. Slovart, 20 I 7. 327pp. Illustrations, definitions, bibliography. LENKA STOLARIK Carleton University Specialists in social history have long awaited this book. Zora Mintalova Zubercova has given us a very detailed description of how Slovaks lived in the past 200 years. She utilized the findings of, not only recent historians such as Anton Spiesz ( 1930-1993), but also the writings of early 19 th century observers of Slovak life such as the Lutheran pastor and national revivalist Ladislav Bartholomeides ( 1754-1825). The latter wrote a monograph in Latin on Gerner County ( 1806-1808) in which he described in great detail the daily life and customs of the local Slovaks. In addition , she consulted similar works by Baron Alojz Mednansky ( 17841844 ), the Lutheran pastor Samuel Kollar ( 1769- I 83 I), and the ethnographer-national revivalist Jan Caplovic ( 1780- I 84 7), among others. Mintalova Zubercova covered daily life in all regions of Slovakia, as well as in its villages and cities. She described people 's dress, their housing, furniture, cooking, religious holidays, marriage, birth and death rituals, the raising and care of animals, village and city governance, farming and crafts practices, folk proverbs and songs. She also contrasted city with country life, the daily life of the gentry versus the peasantry, rich and poor. She took her story into the mid-twentieth century, when Slovaks began to move in great numbers into the cities, looking for work. Since Mintalova Zubercova was trained as an ethnographer, she left out what historians normally include in their works . Thus, when she cites the books of the authors mentioned above, even when she directly quotes from them , she neglects to provide us with footnotes . It is, therefore, impossible to look up her quotations and to seek further information from her sources. She also fails to list their works in her bibliography, which makes me suspect that she did not cite from their original books, but from second-hand sources. Furthermore, she did not include an Index to her book, whether of names, places or �154 SLOVAKIA 2021 concepts. This makes it difficult to look up and compare the cultures of northern , southern and eastern Slovakia. In spite of these shortcomings, those of us who were raised by parents born and educated in Slovakia will recognize many of the customs and traditions described by the author. Unfortunately, many such traditions are fading into insignificance as the Slovaks urbanize and westernize. I, for one, am very grateful to Zubercova Mintalova for having captured our ancestors' "world of the past." Daniela Kodajova et al. Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien. Bratislava: Slovart, 20 19. 304 pp. Bibliography, photographs, abbreviations, biographic index. EDITA BOSAK Memorial University of Newfoundland A foreword by the actress-diplomat Magda Vasaryova introduces the reader to a much-needed history of the first Slovak women's organ ization - Zivena. This collection of essays, edited by Daniela Kodajova, was published on the I 50 th anniversary of the founding of Zivena in Turciansky Svaty Martin on 4 August 1869. Dr. Kodajova and her col leagues introduce readers to some we ll-known, and some lesser-known, members of the Slovak intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in the founding and the running of this organization. This collection of essays details Zivena's cultural and educational activities from its earliest days to the present. The initial impetus for the creation of Zivena came from the male leadership of the Slovak national movement based in Turc. Sv. Martin . Ambro Pietor, who had studied law in Prague at Charles University, had witnessed the existence and successfu l work of Czech women's organizations in the Czech national movement. Upon graduation he returned to Martin with his observations and imparted these to fellowSlovak nationalists. These gentlemen came to view the women in their own circles not just as cooks, wives, homemakers and mothers, but as the keys to nurturing and educating Slovak children in the Slovak national spirit, the Slovak language and thus thwarting the efforts of the magyarizing goals of the Hungarian government which had steadi ly increased since its Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867. The �SLOVAKIA 2021 155 nationalists were convinced that safeguarding and further developing the Slovak national movement meant encouraging Slovak mothers to teach their children the Slovak language and to share their knowledge of Slovak culture and customs, because otherwise the Magyar school system would eventually destroy Slovak identity. The organizers of Zivena arranged for membership dues to be sent directly to Matica slovenska (the Slovak national, cultural and literary organization based in Martin) or to trusted members of the Slovak national movement. Thus, Kodajova points out that Zivena was effectively linked to the Slovak national movement from its inception . Slovak female writers became active members of Zivena. They were well versed on the views of western philosophers like John Stuart Mill and so, through their own writings, they tried to draw attention to the inequalities which Slovak girls and women faced in society. Most of these writers came from the Slovak Lutheran middle-class, from Lutheran ministers ' families or well-educated families . Through Zivena they sought to establish a school of higher education for peasant and working-class women and girls. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government steadfastly refused to permit the establishment of such an institution . Dr. Kodajova points out that Ambro Pietor figured prominently, not only in establishing Zivena, but also in serving as its first secretary for a number of years. The first president was Anna Pivkova, the wife of one of Martin's prominent lawyers Ambroz Pivko. Elected for a three-year term, she actually served for twenty-five years due to the political situation in Hungary. The forced closure of Matica slovenska in 1875 by the government of Hungary meant that Zivena now took on the responsibility of holding the annual August nationalist assemblies to allow nationalists of both sexes to gather and discuss the political situation. This chapter also notes that a sister Zivena was established in America, which thrived and financially supported the mother organization in Slovakia. In the following chapter on coordinating nationalism with "conservative feminism ," Dr. K. Holly points out that Zivena was viewed in the 1890s as a dead organization. Its vice-president Elena Mar6thy-Soltesova wrote to her Czech friend and counterpart Yilma Sokolova �156 SLOVAKIA 2021 in 1891 lamenting the organization's lack of activity and failure to achieve any of its goa ls, other than publishing two Almanacs, financially supporting poor Slovak girls, and financing an exhibition of Slovak national dress and embroideries in Prague. The organization and its women were hampered by the very conservative nationalists in Martin, especially the writer Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. This chapter does much to shed light on the views of the male Slovak nationalists on the role of Zivena, and the place of women in the Slovak national movement. Slovak women were not expected to have opinions or to express them. The following chapters by Ors. G. Dudekova Kovacova, J. Hodolicova, I. Hajducekova, A. Falisova, and A. Bucekova are dedicated to the growth of .Zivena in terms of new chapters and members wherever Slovak women lived - the Hungarian Lowlands and Slovenia - both before and after the end of the Habsburg Monarchy. Dr. Hodolicova writes about the success of Slovak women in Slovenia in establishing a journal despite the magyarizing policies of the government. She points out that Zivena managed to survive the discriminatory policies of the Hungarian government vis-a-vis ethnic minorities by declaring their official name to be Zivena, "a charitable association of Slovak women" rather than its true name "the organization of Slovak women" which would have been viewed suspiciously by the government as an example of pan-Slavi sm. With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 191 8, Dr. Hajducekova describes in detail how Zivena was able to thrive. It established chapters throughout Slovakia, and began the work of founding a girls' school. It also regularly published a journal , and created a platform where women could discuss how they viewed their role in civil society, marriage and the familyin other words their emancipation. Dr. A. Falisova's chapter discusses the activity of Zivena in the area of social work and health . Zivena cooperated with the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Prague to establish the Institute of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, which was to educate female social and health workers. They successfully sought guidance from American schools and financial support from the Slovak League of America. In the last chapter Dr. Bucekova highlights the activities of Zivena after 1989 - its rebirth with the end of Communism. After 1948 the Communists had dissolved the Society and confiscated its property. �SLOVAKIA 2021 157 Now its property was returned, albeit in a rather sad state of disrepair. Nevertheless, Slovaks from all walks of life rallied to fund the reconstruction of the building, which is now well on its way. As it completes repairs , Zivena has re-introduced cultural activities, a music school, and now houses the archives of Jana Cigara. Its intentions are to fulfill its original role as that of an educational institution. Its program is aimed at fulfilling the needs of modem young women. This edited collection celebrating the existence of Zivena is a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Slovak women's movement, to the Slovak struggle for national survival, to its achievements in a democratic Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939, and then its struggle to survive during the fascist period, and finally the communist regime. This volume is a labour of love, for its contributors are university graduates, researchers and academics who have studied the topic and published on it in a variety of journals both academic and popular. Moreover, two of them have a vested interest in seeing Zivena continue to prosper and educate young women. Magda Vasaryova is the national president and Alena Bucekova is the president of the Bratislava chapter. This work deserves the attention and careful study by scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy and of modem-day Slovakia. Jan Raska. Czech Reji,gees in Cold War Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 20 I 8. xii-307pp. Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Despite its title, this book also deals with Slovaks and "Czechoslovaks" in Canada. It is a thoroughly-revised Ph .D. dissertation accepted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It gives a very good over-view of Czech and "Czechoslovak" immigrants to Canada after World War II and their goals and aspirations. Raska 's approach is chronological. He first mentions that before World War I, a few thousand Czech immigrants came to Canada largely from the United States to either farm on the Prairies or to work �158 SLOVAKIA 2021 in the coal mines of the West. In this regard they behaved like the Slovaks, who also moved from the USA to Canada at that time for the same reasons. After the Great War, however, far more Slovaks than Czechs (39,652 versus 5,176) moved to Canada, largely to the industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec. After World War II , 36,531 "Czechoslovaks" emigrated to Canada, largely in three waves: 19481951 ; I 968-69 and in the I 970's and I 980's. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not differentiate between Czechs and Slovaks after World War II. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, when the government did differentiate between the two groups, it counted I 04,680 persons of partial Czech heritage and 72,290 people of partial Slovak heritage. Unfortunately, 40,7 15 persons declared themselves of"Czechoslovak" heritage and it is impossible to tell to which groups they belonged. In any case, Raska then focused on the three main groups of Czech refugees, the I 948ers, the I 968ers, and subsequent refugees. He pointed out that the I 948ers and I 968ers were very similar to each other because they were mostly highly-educated professionals who aspired to a middle-class life in Canada whi le denouncing the evils of Communism. Many joined the already-existing Czechoslovak National Alliance, which was originally founded in 1939 and went through many name-changes until it finally became the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada in 1995, reflecting the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Raska admitted that a majority of its members were Czechs, although it also contained a minority of Slovaks who subscribed to the "Czechoslovak" philosophy. The Czechoslovak National Alliance eventually headquartered itself in Toronto, which contained the largest concentration of Czechs. In 1944 its members bought an old skating rink , which they converted into Masaryk Hall , which eventually became the Masaryk Memorial Insti tute and in 1948 they also bought 64 acres of farmland which they turned into Masaryktown . These two institutions became the center of Czech life and activities in Canada. The three post-war waves of Czechs, according to Raska, pursued three main activities. They were ardent anti-Communists, who denounced this political system at every tum. They helped fellow-refugees establish themselves in Canada. They promoted various "Czechoslovak" causes, either through publications, radio programs, television, "Czechoslovak" days, lobbying Canadian politicians, �SLOVAKIA 2021 159 denouncing the Czechoslovak government for various extortion schemes and so on . They also established "Czechoslovak" schools and even subsidized a Chair in Czechoslovak Studies at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971, much to the annoyance of Canadian Slovaks. However, Raska admits that the Czechs were not as nationalist as the Slovaks and their eager pursuit of the middle-class life led to a rapid decline in the membership of the Czechoslovak National Alliance from a high of I 0,000 in 1945 to a mere 1,485 in 1974. He does not give their numbers in 2018, which this reviewer suspects is much lower. This book is a welcome addition to our store of knowledge about Canada's ethnic groups. Raska mined the National Archives of Canada, the archives of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, various oral history collections, Czech and other newspapers and a broad range of secondary sources in order to tell his story. He is only the second professional historian to study the Czechs in Canada. The first was Mark Jovanovic. Both are my former students, of whom I am very proud. Miroslav Londak, Slavomir Michalek a kolektiv . Dubcek. Bratislava : VEDA & Historicky ustav SAV, 2018, 532 pp. Illustrated, list of abbreviations, bibliography, name index. MARTY MANOR MULLINS Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana The politician Alexander Dubcek recalls many things to those familiar with his place in history. Most notably he stood at the helm as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the late I 960s as he tried to steer the country towards a kinder, gentler socialism. The eyes of the world were upon him to see if the experiment within the communist sphere would be tolerated by Moscow or again forcibly crushed as had happened to Hungary in 1956. As a result of the extremely popular I 968 ' Prague Spring"' reform period within Czechoslovakia, many Czechs and Slovaks (not to mention those outside the region) remember him fondly. But historians and even Czech �160 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Slovak compatriots have not always been kind in their evaluations of Dubcek . This latest biography of Dubcek endeavors to take a measured, scientific look at his life and achievements by situating them in historical context. Rather than evaluating Dubcek based on his decisions at specific moments, this tome provides a comprehensive look at the experiences, from cradle to grave, that shaped him. It seeks to illuminate the complexity of the times in which he acted and avoids the tendency to anachronistically judge him according to our own times. Dubcek achieves this aim in part due to the structure of the book. By commissioning an all-star team of Slovak and Czech scholars to engage with the latest research , including archival findings , this anthology builds upon itself, resulting in a wide-ranging view of the critical years in postwar Czechoslovak history, which parallels Dubcek's lifespan ( 1921-1992). This format a lso sidesteps the trap of assessing a biographical subject too-favorably. All in all , this study represents a noteworthy contribution to what we know about Dubcek as a person and a politician while also shedding light onto ongoing historical debates. The text elucidates questions such as how did a little-known Slovak rise to Party power so quickly; what was the nature of his relationship with predecessor Antonin Novotny; did Dubcek know about the imminent Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968 ; what were the planning stages of the invitation to the Soviets to invade Czechos lovakia (the text evidences insight into a July 20-21 meeting at Hungarian Premier Janos Kadar's Lake Balaton estate); where and how did that 'invitation' occur; why was the United States' Johnson administration so reticent to support Dubcek's reform measures and to confront the USSR after the invasion; why did so few Slovak delegates attend the secret Vysocany Congress of August 22, 1968; what did the Kremlin so fear that it a ll owed Dubcek to remain in office in the months following the Warsaw Pact invasion ; how did Dubcek and leading dissident Vaclav Havel estimate each other from their first meeting in July 1968 to the late 1980s just before the Velvet Revolution? Perhaps the biggest question the book addresses (albeit indirectly) is the degree to which Dubcek was or was not trying to alter communist dogma and policy in Czechos lovakia. How much of a 'reformer' was he? The text helps answer this question by compiling and even revealing direct quotations from decisive exchanges between Dubcek and key figures such as Novotny and U.S.S.R. Party Boss Leonid �SLOVAKIA 2021 161 Brezhnev at critical moments. This historical viewpoint allows the reader to appraise Dubcek for himself within a contextual framework that draws upon past and present research . It also provides perspective into Dubcek's role in Slovak history. This is significant as Dubcek ranks among the most influential Slovaks in the history of the nation. The reader learns of Dubcek's mission in the early I 960s to put Slovakia on equal administrative and economic footing with the Czech Lands after decades of failed Stalinist industrial policies in Slovakia since the 1948 communist coup. Responding to the growing unrest in Slovakia as expressed by local economists, journalists and the relocation of Slovak workers to the Czech Lands in the I 960s, Dubcek effectively made the Slovak case to the leadership in Prague in a way that others had not succeeded in doing. He also refused to back down from Novotny (as revealed in their exchanges) when Novotny attempted to brush aside the issue as well as calls for federalization of the country. Ultimately, federalization was achieved in October 1968, despite the Soviet invasion two months earlier. Yet Dubcek was not antagonistic against the Czechs or their economic advantages. As Presidium member in the pre-Prague Spring era, one of his two goals was to restore the Czech-Slovak relationship; the other was to discover a moderate approach to socialism. It was his genius in building consensus rather than dictating policy that helps explain the persuasiveness of his programs. The book does a good job of not only examining Dubcek's achievements but of providing insight into him as a person, explaining how an unlikely character from a modest background catapulted into the limelight in Prague and beyond. For example, the reader learns of his parents' socialist pedigree (which extended from their time as persecuted leftist laborers in Chicago), his thirteen years growing up in Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.S.R . during the most repressive years of Stalinism, his being wounded twice in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, and his return to study in Moscow in the mid- l 950s during General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin's crimes. All of these occurrences forged the stance he was to take as a socialist leader. The book is well-written and is not just for academics but for anyone who is curious to learn the behind-the-scenes drama between �162 SLOVAKIA 2021 political actors at critical moments in the Cold War era. The quotations from phone calls (such as that of August 13 , 1968 between Dubcek and Brezhnev) and official internal memos and memoirs are the most intriguing. However, it was disappointing that while such quotations are listed as footnotes , there is no corresponding bibliographical entry to aid a researcher in finding the exact sources of these important conversations. The bibliography lists only the names of the archives and the relevant collections as well as a selection of secondary sources. Nevertheless, this soundly-researched biography affords scholars and laypeople alike a single volume in which to delve deeper into the times and person of Alexander Dubcek. Miroslav Moj zita. Knai ko. Demes, Knai ko: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch /990 ai 1993. Ustav politickych vied SAY: VEDA, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 2019, 223 pp. Forewords to the first and second editions, selected articles by the author, list of Slovak diplomats and embassies (January 1993), photographs, afterword, author information, English summary. JURAJ HOCMAN Independent Scholar Miroslav Moj z ita ' s diplomatic career started in the mid- I 970s and continued throughout the 1980s during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, including two successive postings to China and India. Prior to the split of the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic , Mojzita had opted for the nascent Slovak Foreign Service. In the early 1990s, he played a crucia l role in founding the Slovak Ministry for International Relations and in its gradua l transformation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic as of January I, 1993 . Mojzita ' s book on the formative years of Slovak diplomacy originally appeared in 2004, when Slovakia entered the European Union. In 20 19 it was re-published to provide a new generation with another opportunity to recollect the past and to contemplate the validity of the author 's previous observations and conclusions. The difference between the two editions is marginal. The second edition contains minor additions, such as another Foreword. The core �SLOVAKIA 2021 163 of the text has remained unchanged. Apparently, the primary motive for the second edition was to replenish empty shelves in bookstores. The book 's main quality is its undisputed and lasting authenticity. Based upon the author ' s first-hand experience, it delivers a Slovak perspective on key events which took place during the difficult time when a young democracy and its foreign service were born. Such books are still rare in modem Slovak historiography. What makes the book· s second edition interesting is its external context. When Slovakia eventually caught up with the rest of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) on the challenging journey to fullfledged membership within NATO (2003) and the EU, readers of the first edition, unfamiliar with Slovak history, might have wondered how a tiny and allegedly non-historic state, burdened with a rural past, persistent parochialism, a legacy of obsolete heavy industries and an overall inflexible communist economy, managed to finish the race to the EU with its peers. The same was true for the incipient Slovak Foreign Service. Of the book's three chapters, the first two are dedicated to the creation and shaping of the Slovak Ministry for International Relations, which existed from 1990 to 1992 parallel with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic . The third chapter covers the first year of the existence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Moj zita paints an accurate picture of an institution which gradually came to life through the activities of personalities from various professions and with various backgrounds, even of those whose past contained shadows and raised eyebrows . Mojzita logically scrutinized the relations of Slovakia with neighbouring countries, particularly with the Czech Repubic and Hungary, in the first place. He provided personal and professional characteristics, as well as the style of work , of the first two heads of the Slovak Foreign Service, Pavo! Demes, a young and talented biologist, and Milan Knazko, an accomplished actor. The latter had publicly snubbed the former communist regime and was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia. Knazko became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic. The tone of the publication is sober and balanced. When referring to the birth of independent Slovakia and its acceptance into �164 SLOVAKIA 2021 the United Nations and other key organizations, the book becomes moderately celebratory, and deservedly so. To the author ·s credit, he does not skip the errors and mistakes made by the Ministry that stemmed from inexperience and the overzealousness of its staff. Mojzita's literary style is far from dry or didactic, as his method of diplomatic reporting and political ana lysis is subtly complemented with vivid depictions and flairs of reported events. Since its birth, the Slovak diplomatic service had produced internationally recognized figures. Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, gained rich experiences and good reputations while working with the UN, the OSCE and other international organizations. They were not alone. From the late 1990s onward, Slovak diplomats responded to the calls of the international community and became active in the first line of contact in many conflict-management and confidence-building missions carried out under the aegis of international organizations, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their accomplishments can be traced back to the early 1990s and to the building of the fundamentals of the Slovak diplomatic service by devoted and patriotic professionals. This is a comprehensive, critical , we ll-documented and wel l-integrated scholarly monograph on modem Slovak diplomacy. Whereas the first edition appeared as a va luab le and laudable step in the right direction, its second edition is more than a reprint of a once pioneering publication . It should serve as an impulse for a subsequent book, detailing the history of the Slovak Foreign Service to the present day . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 2021 151 Diana Duchonova. Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy. Dvorska spolocnost' a aristokraticka kai dodennost'. Bratislava: Historicky ustav SAV, 2017. 558pp. Illustrated, bibliography, name and place index. (Baron) PETER MA.RlA.SSY Kosice, Slovak Republic This publication is an attempt to present the daily life of Hungarian aristocratic society in the 16 th century through the central character of Palatine Mikulas Esterhazy. The book is divided into three main chapters reflecting the origin and the rise of the Esterhazy family , then the place of his court as a social system, and the rituals of everyday life at his court. The Esterhazy family rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Hungary after the Battle of Mohacs ( 1526). After this disastrous battle with the Turks, the Kingdom was divided into the northwest part (today's Slovakia and western Hungary) under the rule of the Habsburgs, the central part under the control of the Turks and the eastern part (Transylvania), as a vassal province of the Ottoman Empire. At this time Hungary witnessed the arrival of the "Homo novus" Esterhazy family , which originated in the town of Galanta, in Upper Hungary (Slovakia), and whose leader Mikulas eventually became the ruling Palatine of Hungary. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the political situation in the country, but without proper graphs depicting spheres of influence in the given period. The same is true of the examination of the Esterhazy family and their relatives, presenting only the sources that would have demanded not a convoluted but coherent processing of the central person's pedigree, that of Mikulas, but also the family tree's extent as a result of several marriages and family tragedies. In the chapter on the Palatine's court as a social system, the author makes countless references to the functioning of the court, to its members or participants, the Palatine's office and instructions to his Chief Steward. In addition, she refers to rewards, to various craftsmen, as necessary parts of the court, which reflected the sovereignty of the court and, thus, a manifestation of the status of the leader of the Hungarian aristocracy at that time. As in the first chapter, the reader ts inundated with detailed descriptions, instructions and 152 SLOVAKIA 2021 responsibilities of the people in vo lved. The secti ons dea ling wi th salari es and rewards are prese nted onl y from three sources and cannot be considered as representative of the who le court. The map provided definitely fa ils to give a comprehensive overv iew of the scope and possess ions of th e Esterh azys in today's Hungary, Austri a, Slovaki a, Romani a and Ukra ine. All of thi s is made worse by Slovaki zing th e names of the Esterhazys throughout the tex t (e.g. Mikul as instead of Miklos). The third chapter di sc uss ing the everyday rituals of ari stocracy in the Pa latine court is closest to th e dec lared intenti on of the auth or to prov ide a picture of the court of Hungari an hi gh nobility. The ritua ls themselves represent the kind of a system whi ch, if respected, creates certain frameworks of recurring events in the areas of educati on, everyday tas ks, social events, manag in g foreign relati ons, marri ages, hea lth care of fa mil y members, including fun eral s, wheth er becau se of the death of children, wives and espec iall y male descendants of the fa mil y who di ed in th e Turkish wars. In additi on to often very detail ed sources, the chapter lacks order, a labe l and , where appropriate, the dec ision-making key, especiall y when sol ving de li cate events, including the in carcerati on of one of the w ives of th e Palatine. My bi ggest reservati on about thi s chapter is th at it should not end w ith sad pictures of the liquidati o n of their last resting places. Instead, it should conc lude with a summ ary of the personal, organi zati onal, as we ll as po litica l skill s of th e Esterhazys which should secure the ex istence of thi s hi ghl y- respected famil y today and over the centuri es. In conclusion, by introducing a huge number of sources in thi s book without their subsequent process ing into maps, graphs, fa mil y trees, or tables, or even algorithm s, makes thi s publicati on access ible only to the profess ional or know ledgeable reader but not to the general public. For thi s reason, it is a mere compilati on of sources processed into three re lated but generally rather separate topics whi ch could in the end fo rm three separate publicati ons. SLOVAKIA 2021 153 Zora Mintalova Zubercova. Ako sme kedysi i ili: Obrazky kai dodenneho i ivota nasich predkov. Bratislava. Slovart, 20 I 7. 327pp. Illustrations, definitions, bibliography. LENKA STOLARIK Carleton University Specialists in social history have long awaited this book. Zora Mintalova Zubercova has given us a very detailed description of how Slovaks lived in the past 200 years. She utilized the findings of, not only recent historians such as Anton Spiesz ( 1930-1993), but also the writings of early 19 th century observers of Slovak life such as the Lutheran pastor and national revivalist Ladislav Bartholomeides ( 1754-1825). The latter wrote a monograph in Latin on Gerner County ( 1806-1808) in which he described in great detail the daily life and customs of the local Slovaks. In addition , she consulted similar works by Baron Alojz Mednansky ( 17841844 ), the Lutheran pastor Samuel Kollar ( 1769- I 83 I), and the ethnographer-national revivalist Jan Caplovic ( 1780- I 84 7), among others. Mintalova Zubercova covered daily life in all regions of Slovakia, as well as in its villages and cities. She described people 's dress, their housing, furniture, cooking, religious holidays, marriage, birth and death rituals, the raising and care of animals, village and city governance, farming and crafts practices, folk proverbs and songs. She also contrasted city with country life, the daily life of the gentry versus the peasantry, rich and poor. She took her story into the mid-twentieth century, when Slovaks began to move in great numbers into the cities, looking for work. Since Mintalova Zubercova was trained as an ethnographer, she left out what historians normally include in their works . Thus, when she cites the books of the authors mentioned above, even when she directly quotes from them , she neglects to provide us with footnotes . It is, therefore, impossible to look up her quotations and to seek further information from her sources. She also fails to list their works in her bibliography, which makes me suspect that she did not cite from their original books, but from second-hand sources. Furthermore, she did not include an Index to her book, whether of names, places or 154 SLOVAKIA 2021 concepts. This makes it difficult to look up and compare the cultures of northern , southern and eastern Slovakia. In spite of these shortcomings, those of us who were raised by parents born and educated in Slovakia will recognize many of the customs and traditions described by the author. Unfortunately, many such traditions are fading into insignificance as the Slovaks urbanize and westernize. I, for one, am very grateful to Zubercova Mintalova for having captured our ancestors' "world of the past." Daniela Kodajova et al. Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien. Bratislava: Slovart, 20 19. 304 pp. Bibliography, photographs, abbreviations, biographic index. EDITA BOSAK Memorial University of Newfoundland A foreword by the actress-diplomat Magda Vasaryova introduces the reader to a much-needed history of the first Slovak women's organ ization - Zivena. This collection of essays, edited by Daniela Kodajova, was published on the I 50 th anniversary of the founding of Zivena in Turciansky Svaty Martin on 4 August 1869. Dr. Kodajova and her col leagues introduce readers to some we ll-known, and some lesser-known, members of the Slovak intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in the founding and the running of this organization. This collection of essays details Zivena's cultural and educational activities from its earliest days to the present. The initial impetus for the creation of Zivena came from the male leadership of the Slovak national movement based in Turc. Sv. Martin . Ambro Pietor, who had studied law in Prague at Charles University, had witnessed the existence and successfu l work of Czech women's organizations in the Czech national movement. Upon graduation he returned to Martin with his observations and imparted these to fellowSlovak nationalists. These gentlemen came to view the women in their own circles not just as cooks, wives, homemakers and mothers, but as the keys to nurturing and educating Slovak children in the Slovak national spirit, the Slovak language and thus thwarting the efforts of the magyarizing goals of the Hungarian government which had steadi ly increased since its Compromise with the Habsburgs in 1867. The SLOVAKIA 2021 155 nationalists were convinced that safeguarding and further developing the Slovak national movement meant encouraging Slovak mothers to teach their children the Slovak language and to share their knowledge of Slovak culture and customs, because otherwise the Magyar school system would eventually destroy Slovak identity. The organizers of Zivena arranged for membership dues to be sent directly to Matica slovenska (the Slovak national, cultural and literary organization based in Martin) or to trusted members of the Slovak national movement. Thus, Kodajova points out that Zivena was effectively linked to the Slovak national movement from its inception . Slovak female writers became active members of Zivena. They were well versed on the views of western philosophers like John Stuart Mill and so, through their own writings, they tried to draw attention to the inequalities which Slovak girls and women faced in society. Most of these writers came from the Slovak Lutheran middle-class, from Lutheran ministers ' families or well-educated families . Through Zivena they sought to establish a school of higher education for peasant and working-class women and girls. Unfortunately, the Hungarian government steadfastly refused to permit the establishment of such an institution . Dr. Kodajova points out that Ambro Pietor figured prominently, not only in establishing Zivena, but also in serving as its first secretary for a number of years. The first president was Anna Pivkova, the wife of one of Martin's prominent lawyers Ambroz Pivko. Elected for a three-year term, she actually served for twenty-five years due to the political situation in Hungary. The forced closure of Matica slovenska in 1875 by the government of Hungary meant that Zivena now took on the responsibility of holding the annual August nationalist assemblies to allow nationalists of both sexes to gather and discuss the political situation. This chapter also notes that a sister Zivena was established in America, which thrived and financially supported the mother organization in Slovakia. In the following chapter on coordinating nationalism with "conservative feminism ," Dr. K. Holly points out that Zivena was viewed in the 1890s as a dead organization. Its vice-president Elena Mar6thy-Soltesova wrote to her Czech friend and counterpart Yilma Sokolova 156 SLOVAKIA 2021 in 1891 lamenting the organization's lack of activity and failure to achieve any of its goa ls, other than publishing two Almanacs, financially supporting poor Slovak girls, and financing an exhibition of Slovak national dress and embroideries in Prague. The organization and its women were hampered by the very conservative nationalists in Martin, especially the writer Svetozar Hurban Vajansky. This chapter does much to shed light on the views of the male Slovak nationalists on the role of Zivena, and the place of women in the Slovak national movement. Slovak women were not expected to have opinions or to express them. The following chapters by Ors. G. Dudekova Kovacova, J. Hodolicova, I. Hajducekova, A. Falisova, and A. Bucekova are dedicated to the growth of .Zivena in terms of new chapters and members wherever Slovak women lived - the Hungarian Lowlands and Slovenia - both before and after the end of the Habsburg Monarchy. Dr. Hodolicova writes about the success of Slovak women in Slovenia in establishing a journal despite the magyarizing policies of the government. She points out that Zivena managed to survive the discriminatory policies of the Hungarian government vis-a-vis ethnic minorities by declaring their official name to be Zivena, "a charitable association of Slovak women" rather than its true name "the organization of Slovak women" which would have been viewed suspiciously by the government as an example of pan-Slavi sm. With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 191 8, Dr. Hajducekova describes in detail how Zivena was able to thrive. It established chapters throughout Slovakia, and began the work of founding a girls' school. It also regularly published a journal , and created a platform where women could discuss how they viewed their role in civil society, marriage and the familyin other words their emancipation. Dr. A. Falisova's chapter discusses the activity of Zivena in the area of social work and health . Zivena cooperated with the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Prague to establish the Institute of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, which was to educate female social and health workers. They successfully sought guidance from American schools and financial support from the Slovak League of America. In the last chapter Dr. Bucekova highlights the activities of Zivena after 1989 - its rebirth with the end of Communism. After 1948 the Communists had dissolved the Society and confiscated its property. SLOVAKIA 2021 157 Now its property was returned, albeit in a rather sad state of disrepair. Nevertheless, Slovaks from all walks of life rallied to fund the reconstruction of the building, which is now well on its way. As it completes repairs , Zivena has re-introduced cultural activities, a music school, and now houses the archives of Jana Cigara. Its intentions are to fulfill its original role as that of an educational institution. Its program is aimed at fulfilling the needs of modem young women. This edited collection celebrating the existence of Zivena is a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Slovak women's movement, to the Slovak struggle for national survival, to its achievements in a democratic Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939, and then its struggle to survive during the fascist period, and finally the communist regime. This volume is a labour of love, for its contributors are university graduates, researchers and academics who have studied the topic and published on it in a variety of journals both academic and popular. Moreover, two of them have a vested interest in seeing Zivena continue to prosper and educate young women. Magda Vasaryova is the national president and Alena Bucekova is the president of the Bratislava chapter. This work deserves the attention and careful study by scholars of the Habsburg Monarchy and of modem-day Slovakia. Jan Raska. Czech Reji,gees in Cold War Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 20 I 8. xii-307pp. Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Despite its title, this book also deals with Slovaks and "Czechoslovaks" in Canada. It is a thoroughly-revised Ph .D. dissertation accepted by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. It gives a very good over-view of Czech and "Czechoslovak" immigrants to Canada after World War II and their goals and aspirations. Raska 's approach is chronological. He first mentions that before World War I, a few thousand Czech immigrants came to Canada largely from the United States to either farm on the Prairies or to work 158 SLOVAKIA 2021 in the coal mines of the West. In this regard they behaved like the Slovaks, who also moved from the USA to Canada at that time for the same reasons. After the Great War, however, far more Slovaks than Czechs (39,652 versus 5,176) moved to Canada, largely to the industrial centers of Ontario and Quebec. After World War II , 36,531 "Czechoslovaks" emigrated to Canada, largely in three waves: 19481951 ; I 968-69 and in the I 970's and I 980's. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not differentiate between Czechs and Slovaks after World War II. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, when the government did differentiate between the two groups, it counted I 04,680 persons of partial Czech heritage and 72,290 people of partial Slovak heritage. Unfortunately, 40,7 15 persons declared themselves of"Czechoslovak" heritage and it is impossible to tell to which groups they belonged. In any case, Raska then focused on the three main groups of Czech refugees, the I 948ers, the I 968ers, and subsequent refugees. He pointed out that the I 948ers and I 968ers were very similar to each other because they were mostly highly-educated professionals who aspired to a middle-class life in Canada whi le denouncing the evils of Communism. Many joined the already-existing Czechoslovak National Alliance, which was originally founded in 1939 and went through many name-changes until it finally became the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada in 1995, reflecting the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Raska admitted that a majority of its members were Czechs, although it also contained a minority of Slovaks who subscribed to the "Czechoslovak" philosophy. The Czechoslovak National Alliance eventually headquartered itself in Toronto, which contained the largest concentration of Czechs. In 1944 its members bought an old skating rink , which they converted into Masaryk Hall , which eventually became the Masaryk Memorial Insti tute and in 1948 they also bought 64 acres of farmland which they turned into Masaryktown . These two institutions became the center of Czech life and activities in Canada. The three post-war waves of Czechs, according to Raska, pursued three main activities. They were ardent anti-Communists, who denounced this political system at every tum. They helped fellow-refugees establish themselves in Canada. They promoted various "Czechoslovak" causes, either through publications, radio programs, television, "Czechoslovak" days, lobbying Canadian politicians, SLOVAKIA 2021 159 denouncing the Czechoslovak government for various extortion schemes and so on . They also established "Czechoslovak" schools and even subsidized a Chair in Czechoslovak Studies at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971, much to the annoyance of Canadian Slovaks. However, Raska admits that the Czechs were not as nationalist as the Slovaks and their eager pursuit of the middle-class life led to a rapid decline in the membership of the Czechoslovak National Alliance from a high of I 0,000 in 1945 to a mere 1,485 in 1974. He does not give their numbers in 2018, which this reviewer suspects is much lower. This book is a welcome addition to our store of knowledge about Canada's ethnic groups. Raska mined the National Archives of Canada, the archives of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, various oral history collections, Czech and other newspapers and a broad range of secondary sources in order to tell his story. He is only the second professional historian to study the Czechs in Canada. The first was Mark Jovanovic. Both are my former students, of whom I am very proud. Miroslav Londak, Slavomir Michalek a kolektiv . Dubcek. Bratislava : VEDA & Historicky ustav SAV, 2018, 532 pp. Illustrated, list of abbreviations, bibliography, name index. MARTY MANOR MULLINS Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana The politician Alexander Dubcek recalls many things to those familiar with his place in history. Most notably he stood at the helm as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the late I 960s as he tried to steer the country towards a kinder, gentler socialism. The eyes of the world were upon him to see if the experiment within the communist sphere would be tolerated by Moscow or again forcibly crushed as had happened to Hungary in 1956. As a result of the extremely popular I 968 ' Prague Spring"' reform period within Czechoslovakia, many Czechs and Slovaks (not to mention those outside the region) remember him fondly. But historians and even Czech 160 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Slovak compatriots have not always been kind in their evaluations of Dubcek . This latest biography of Dubcek endeavors to take a measured, scientific look at his life and achievements by situating them in historical context. Rather than evaluating Dubcek based on his decisions at specific moments, this tome provides a comprehensive look at the experiences, from cradle to grave, that shaped him. It seeks to illuminate the complexity of the times in which he acted and avoids the tendency to anachronistically judge him according to our own times. Dubcek achieves this aim in part due to the structure of the book. By commissioning an all-star team of Slovak and Czech scholars to engage with the latest research , including archival findings , this anthology builds upon itself, resulting in a wide-ranging view of the critical years in postwar Czechoslovak history, which parallels Dubcek's lifespan ( 1921-1992). This format a lso sidesteps the trap of assessing a biographical subject too-favorably. All in all , this study represents a noteworthy contribution to what we know about Dubcek as a person and a politician while also shedding light onto ongoing historical debates. The text elucidates questions such as how did a little-known Slovak rise to Party power so quickly; what was the nature of his relationship with predecessor Antonin Novotny; did Dubcek know about the imminent Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968 ; what were the planning stages of the invitation to the Soviets to invade Czechos lovakia (the text evidences insight into a July 20-21 meeting at Hungarian Premier Janos Kadar's Lake Balaton estate); where and how did that 'invitation' occur; why was the United States' Johnson administration so reticent to support Dubcek's reform measures and to confront the USSR after the invasion; why did so few Slovak delegates attend the secret Vysocany Congress of August 22, 1968; what did the Kremlin so fear that it a ll owed Dubcek to remain in office in the months following the Warsaw Pact invasion ; how did Dubcek and leading dissident Vaclav Havel estimate each other from their first meeting in July 1968 to the late 1980s just before the Velvet Revolution? Perhaps the biggest question the book addresses (albeit indirectly) is the degree to which Dubcek was or was not trying to alter communist dogma and policy in Czechos lovakia. How much of a 'reformer' was he? The text helps answer this question by compiling and even revealing direct quotations from decisive exchanges between Dubcek and key figures such as Novotny and U.S.S.R. Party Boss Leonid SLOVAKIA 2021 161 Brezhnev at critical moments. This historical viewpoint allows the reader to appraise Dubcek for himself within a contextual framework that draws upon past and present research . It also provides perspective into Dubcek's role in Slovak history. This is significant as Dubcek ranks among the most influential Slovaks in the history of the nation. The reader learns of Dubcek's mission in the early I 960s to put Slovakia on equal administrative and economic footing with the Czech Lands after decades of failed Stalinist industrial policies in Slovakia since the 1948 communist coup. Responding to the growing unrest in Slovakia as expressed by local economists, journalists and the relocation of Slovak workers to the Czech Lands in the I 960s, Dubcek effectively made the Slovak case to the leadership in Prague in a way that others had not succeeded in doing. He also refused to back down from Novotny (as revealed in their exchanges) when Novotny attempted to brush aside the issue as well as calls for federalization of the country. Ultimately, federalization was achieved in October 1968, despite the Soviet invasion two months earlier. Yet Dubcek was not antagonistic against the Czechs or their economic advantages. As Presidium member in the pre-Prague Spring era, one of his two goals was to restore the Czech-Slovak relationship; the other was to discover a moderate approach to socialism. It was his genius in building consensus rather than dictating policy that helps explain the persuasiveness of his programs. The book does a good job of not only examining Dubcek's achievements but of providing insight into him as a person, explaining how an unlikely character from a modest background catapulted into the limelight in Prague and beyond. For example, the reader learns of his parents' socialist pedigree (which extended from their time as persecuted leftist laborers in Chicago), his thirteen years growing up in Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.S.R . during the most repressive years of Stalinism, his being wounded twice in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, and his return to study in Moscow in the mid- l 950s during General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of Stalin's crimes. All of these occurrences forged the stance he was to take as a socialist leader. The book is well-written and is not just for academics but for anyone who is curious to learn the behind-the-scenes drama between 162 SLOVAKIA 2021 political actors at critical moments in the Cold War era. The quotations from phone calls (such as that of August 13 , 1968 between Dubcek and Brezhnev) and official internal memos and memoirs are the most intriguing. However, it was disappointing that while such quotations are listed as footnotes , there is no corresponding bibliographical entry to aid a researcher in finding the exact sources of these important conversations. The bibliography lists only the names of the archives and the relevant collections as well as a selection of secondary sources. Nevertheless, this soundly-researched biography affords scholars and laypeople alike a single volume in which to delve deeper into the times and person of Alexander Dubcek. Miroslav Moj zita. Knai ko. Demes, Knai ko: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch /990 ai 1993. Ustav politickych vied SAY: VEDA, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 2019, 223 pp. Forewords to the first and second editions, selected articles by the author, list of Slovak diplomats and embassies (January 1993), photographs, afterword, author information, English summary. JURAJ HOCMAN Independent Scholar Miroslav Moj z ita ' s diplomatic career started in the mid- I 970s and continued throughout the 1980s during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, including two successive postings to China and India. Prior to the split of the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic , Mojzita had opted for the nascent Slovak Foreign Service. In the early 1990s, he played a crucia l role in founding the Slovak Ministry for International Relations and in its gradua l transformation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic as of January I, 1993 . Mojzita ' s book on the formative years of Slovak diplomacy originally appeared in 2004, when Slovakia entered the European Union. In 20 19 it was re-published to provide a new generation with another opportunity to recollect the past and to contemplate the validity of the author 's previous observations and conclusions. The difference between the two editions is marginal. The second edition contains minor additions, such as another Foreword. The core SLOVAKIA 2021 163 of the text has remained unchanged. Apparently, the primary motive for the second edition was to replenish empty shelves in bookstores. The book 's main quality is its undisputed and lasting authenticity. Based upon the author ' s first-hand experience, it delivers a Slovak perspective on key events which took place during the difficult time when a young democracy and its foreign service were born. Such books are still rare in modem Slovak historiography. What makes the book· s second edition interesting is its external context. When Slovakia eventually caught up with the rest of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) on the challenging journey to fullfledged membership within NATO (2003) and the EU, readers of the first edition, unfamiliar with Slovak history, might have wondered how a tiny and allegedly non-historic state, burdened with a rural past, persistent parochialism, a legacy of obsolete heavy industries and an overall inflexible communist economy, managed to finish the race to the EU with its peers. The same was true for the incipient Slovak Foreign Service. Of the book's three chapters, the first two are dedicated to the creation and shaping of the Slovak Ministry for International Relations, which existed from 1990 to 1992 parallel with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic . The third chapter covers the first year of the existence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Moj zita paints an accurate picture of an institution which gradually came to life through the activities of personalities from various professions and with various backgrounds, even of those whose past contained shadows and raised eyebrows . Mojzita logically scrutinized the relations of Slovakia with neighbouring countries, particularly with the Czech Repubic and Hungary, in the first place. He provided personal and professional characteristics, as well as the style of work , of the first two heads of the Slovak Foreign Service, Pavo! Demes, a young and talented biologist, and Milan Knazko, an accomplished actor. The latter had publicly snubbed the former communist regime and was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia. Knazko became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the independent Slovak Republic. The tone of the publication is sober and balanced. When referring to the birth of independent Slovakia and its acceptance into 164 SLOVAKIA 2021 the United Nations and other key organizations, the book becomes moderately celebratory, and deservedly so. To the author ·s credit, he does not skip the errors and mistakes made by the Ministry that stemmed from inexperience and the overzealousness of its staff. Mojzita's literary style is far from dry or didactic, as his method of diplomatic reporting and political ana lysis is subtly complemented with vivid depictions and flairs of reported events. Since its birth, the Slovak diplomatic service had produced internationally recognized figures. Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, the former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, gained rich experiences and good reputations while working with the UN, the OSCE and other international organizations. They were not alone. From the late 1990s onward, Slovak diplomats responded to the calls of the international community and became active in the first line of contact in many conflict-management and confidence-building missions carried out under the aegis of international organizations, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Their accomplishments can be traced back to the early 1990s and to the building of the fundamentals of the Slovak diplomatic service by devoted and patriotic professionals. This is a comprehensive, critical , we ll-documented and wel l-integrated scholarly monograph on modem Slovak diplomacy. Whereas the first edition appeared as a va luab le and laudable step in the right direction, its second edition is more than a reprint of a once pioneering publication . It should serve as an impulse for a subsequent book, detailing the history of the Slovak Foreign Service to the present day .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Diana Duchoňová, Palatín Mikuláš Eterházy (Peter Máriássy), p. 151</li> <li>Zora Mintalová Zubercová, Ako sme kedysi žili: Obrazky každodenného života našich predkov (Lenka Stolarik), p. 153</li> <li>Daniela Kodajová et. al., Živena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenských žien (Edita Bosák), p. 154</li> <li>Jan Raška, Czech Refugees in Cold War Canada (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 157</li> <li>Miroslav Londák et. al., Dubček (Marty Manor Mullins), p. 159</li> <li>Miroslav Mojžita, Kňažko, Demeš, Kňažkor: Formovanie slovenskej diplomacie v rokoch 1990 až 1993 (Juraj Hocman), p. 162</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bosák, Edita, 1950-2022 Hocman, Juraj Máriássy, Peter Mullins, Marty Manor, 1976- Stolarik, Lenka Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/46fdc3e0c813f2a93adbad435b51483e.pdf 9061638c10f0fc8565df947913f2662b PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 131 Jan Steinhtibe l, Nitrianske knieiatstvo: Pociatky stredovekeho Slovenska. Rozpravanie o dejinach nasho tizemia a okolitych krajfn od st!lho vania narodov do zaciatku 12. storocia. Brati slava: Veda, 2004. 575pp., bibliography, index of names, index of places, maps, photos, illustration s. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This massive sy nthesis is the culmination of fifteen years of research and publication on the ancestors of the Slovaks in Central Europe. Jan Steinhi.ibel, who works for the Historical Institute of the Sloak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, is a worthy successor to the late Peter Ratkos, the age ing Richard Marsina, and the recentl yretired Matus Kucera , all ex perts on the ancient hi story of the Slovaks. According to Ste inhtibel , the Principality of Nitra was the earliest state of the ancestors of the Slovaks. It started to form in the 6th century, and was independent from 805 to 833. After it was conquered by the nearby Moravians, it remained an important Principality until the demi se of the Great Morav ian Empire in 906. Once the Magyar Arpad dynasty establi shed itself in Central Europe in the 10th century, Nitra, which was inhabited large ly by Slavs, remained a key Principality in the emerging Hungarian Kin gdom until the beginning of the I 2th century. Prince l mri ch, ruler of Nitra and son of King (Sa int) Stephen, was even dubbed " Henricus nobilis dux Sc lavoni e" by a Polish chronicler in I029. And, as long as the Principality existed, its people were called "Nytrenses Sclavi" by Hungarian chroniclers. For three ce nturi es Nitra served as the steppingstone for the future rulers of, first Great Moravia, and later the Kingdom of Hungary. Indeed, the rul ers of Nitra were sovereign over nine counties (large ly coterminous with present-day Slovakia, with the exception of the eastern counties), commanded armies of 3,000 soldiers and often struck their own coins. Eventuall y, however, the early Kings of Hungary, who had traditionally shared their rule wi th their brothers as Princes of Nitra, came to regard this principality as a source of rebellion against them selves or their designated successsors (their leg itimate sons). As a result, in 1108 King Koloman depo- �132 SLOVAKIA sed and blinded his brother Almos, along with the latter's son, and two years later abolished the Principality, along wi th its southern border. Thereafter, medieval chroniclers referred to the local inhabitants si mply as " Sclavi ," but by the 15th century they had become "Slowak." Of course the 18th century Czech linguist Josef Dobrovsky , who claimed that the term "Slovak" or "Slovensko" were recent inventions, did not know any of this. After 336 pages of text, lavishly illustrated with relevant quotations from medieval chroniclers, Steinhiibel concluded that one can trace the beginnings of Slovak history to the Principality of Nitra. Indeed, he continued, one has to look to thi s Principality to find the national, territorial and historical roots of Slovakia. This book is a testament to the deep eruditon of the author. As the 1900 footnotes covering pages 337-495 testify, SteinhUbel mined virtually all (largely Latin) medieval sources written by German, Magyar, Polish, Czech, Ru ssian and Byzantine chroniclers that pertain to Central Europe. He also read the relevant books and articles in the vernacular languages of contemporary scholars of Central Europe and he judiciously illustrated his book with copies of medieval manuscripts , drawings and photos of artifacts. This monograph was a pleasure to read and I will eagerly mine it for relevant quotations for my course on the early history of the Slovaks. Dusan Kovac et. al. Na zaciatku storocia, 1901 -1914. Bratislava: Veda, 2004. 292 pp. , ill., index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University This is the first of a scheduled seven volume series entitled Slovensko v 20. storoci (Slovakia in the 2(Jh Century) sponsored by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, under the chief editorship of Dusan Kovac, a leading Slovak historian. Kovac, one of five historians who wrote chapters in this volume penned the introduction and the first "Raku sko-Uhorsko a slo venska otazka v narodnych vztahoch" (A ustria-Hungary and the Slovak Question in International Affairs) and sixth "Pred prvou svetovou vojnou" (Be- �SLOVAKIA 133 fore the First World War) chapters. Other eminent Slovak historians included in this volume are alphabetically: Roman Holec, Chapter 3 "Hospodarstvo" (Economics), Elena Jakesova, chapter 2 "Spolocnost" (Society), Elena Mannova, Chapter 7 "Ideove smery. Kulturny a spolocensky zivot" (Ideological Movements. Cultural and Social Life), and Milan Podrimavsky, Chapters 4 "Krfza liberalneho rezimu 1901-1904" (Crisis of the Liberal Regime 1901-1904) and 5 "Vyvrcholenie politickej krfzy. Koalicna vlada 1905-1910" (Culmination of the Political Crisis. The Coalition Government 1905-1910). Although only these five authors receive credit for the entries, Kovac notes that they relied on the research of another ten historians. This is the most comprehensive general history of Slovakia produced thus far. As Kovac states in his introduction, the Slovak public, and indeed the world, has not until this time possessed a true synthesized historical work written by experts. Previous attempts developed under the totalitarian regime failed to fulfill this goal because they presented distorted interpretations. Kovac hopes this and subsequent works of the series will return to the tradition of noted historian Cubomfr Liptak when he wrote his Slovensko v 20. storoci in 1968 This volume contains traditional aspects of any society, but also gives coverage to areas rarely found in general historical works such as architecture, the beaux arts, mass communication, education, the family , business, and economics . It is not intended to be an all encompassing in-depth study, but rather explores the topics with sufficient coverage without becoming too bogged down in detail. It is meant to be a starting point for further research and study , and it accomplishes this feat quite well. The fourteen years prior to the outbreak of war were a very dynamic and dramatic period, so much so that Slovakia, in the spring of 1914, was quite a different place than in1901 , especially in its urban areas. Despite the Slovaks politically and culturally waging an uphill battle against intensive Magyarization aimed at their assimilation, they fared much better than they had in 1901. The book contains information about the Slovak diaspora, including Budapest, Vienna, the United States, and the Yojvodina/Banat region. The authors explained that a general history of Slovakia and Slovaks before the First World War needs to explore territories other than that of �134 SLOVAKIA Slovakia or Upper Hungary. Indeed, during this time, the true urban center of the Slovaks was Budapest. The work also covers, in much less detail, the other inhabitants of the region including Jews, Germans, Rusyns, and Gypsies (Romany) and provides ample evidence of the ethnic plurali sm of Upper Hungary . At times, too much emphasis appears to be placed on trends and developments throughout Hungary, but, naturall y, it proves impossible to divorce Slovakia from the rest of the Lands of St. Stephen. Each chapter is broken down into numerous short subsections of several pages thereby enabling the reader to easily digest and comprehend them without becoming lost in lengthy discu ssions. Seven charts placed throughout the work and numerous photographs in five section s better illustrate and clarify the points made in the text. The bibliography is intended to be used for further study of the various issues addressed in this work. It contains older essential, fundamental works alongside newly published research. As is often the case for books published in Slovakia, this work contains an index of names, but not subjects, rendering it of marginal value. Overall, this is a fine volume that will become an accepted, starting point for anyone wishing to delve into virtually all aspects of Slovak history at the turn of the last century. Its thoughtful, well constructed chapters present information that piques the interest of the reader. If the quality of this work is upheld in the sc heduled six additional volumes, this series will prove to be a definiti ve collection. Hopefully, an English translation will follow. Ivan A. Petran sky, Stat a katolfcka cirkev na Slovensku 19451946. Nitra: Garmond, 2001, 318pp, summary in English, bibliography, index. JAMES RAMON FELAK University of Washington Ivan Petransky ' s Stat a katolfcka cirkev na Slovensku 1945-1946 covers a brief but crucial period in church-state relations in the history of Slovakia. This was a time of transition between the wartime �SLOVAKIA 135 regime, when the Catholic Church had a rel atively pri vi leged place due to its more or less positive relations with the Tiso regime, and the Communist era, when the state brought immense press ure and control on the Church. This period has been largely ignored in the past, though increasingly it is becoming a topic of research across East Central Europe. Petransky used a number of archival sources. At the Slovak National Archive, he employed the collections of the Slovak National Council, the Commission of Education, the Commission of the Interior, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia. In addition, he made significant use of diocesan archives, in partic ular those of Kosice, Banska Bystrica, and Nitra. These latter sources enabled him to present and discuss conversations that occurred within the church leadership, and he revealed some of the differences of opinion among Slovak bishops over how best to defend Catholic interests and respond to state press ures. They also provided insight into the nature of decision-making and consensus-building within the hierarchy . Among the other sources employed by Petransky are documents from the post- 1948 trial s of Catholic bishops and political leaders, documents of the Foreign Ministry pertaining to relations with the Vatican, memoirs, and articles from the press. After a brief overview of relations between church and state in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia from 191 8 to 1945, Petransky presented a narrative of developments in church-state relations during the period from the liberation of Slovakia from Nazi occupation in the spring of 1945 to the parliamentary elections of May 1946. During this period the Communists tried both to weaken the Catholic Church and its social influence, and to attract Catholics to the Communi st camp, or at least keep them away from the rival Democratic Party. Petransky's narrati ve is followed by the longest section of the book, an examination of a variety conflicts between church and state. These include the state 's attempt at a near-complete takeover of education , the outlawing of a number of Catholic organizations, restriction s on the Catholic press, state claims to the Church' s agricultural property, and the persec ution of bishops, priests, and members of reli gious orders. Petransky also examined the question of Church ties with Slovakia 's illegal underground opposition, and the Church's policies toward s the national minorities, in particular the Magyars. �136 SLOVAKIA Finally, he gave his book an international dimension by looking at the situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia from the perspectives of the Slovak emigre press and the Vatican. This book has several strengths. It keeps its focus on the issues of church-state relations, while providing sufficient context for understanding how those issues fit into the larger context of post-war Slovakia. Though the author's sympathies are clearly with the Catholics, the work remained fair to all sides. This is not simply a litany of crimes and abuses aga inst the Catholic Church, though there were enough of those. Rather, it is a serious and largely successful attempt to present and ana lyze the complex and dynamic relationship between Church , state, Catholics, and Democrats during a cruc ial period of Slovakia 's modern history. One definitely takes away from this book a deeper understanding of the period and the forces at play in it. It is to be hoped that Mr. Petransky, or someone of his caliber, writes a sequel up to the Communist takeover of February 1948. Anton Hyki sch, Ako chutf politika, Spomienky a zaznamy z rokov 1990-1992. Yydavatel'stvo Pozsony/Pressburg/Bratislava, 2004. 349pp. Index of names. MARCEL JESENSKY University of Ottawa The years I 990-1992 represent one of the most fascinating periods in the modern-day history of Slovakia. During the last months of 1989 the seemingly permanent political , social and eco nomi c order in Czechoslovakia disintegrated and set into motion a process of dramatic reforms that changed the lives of the majority of Slovaks and Czechs. Anton Hykisch, an acclaimed Slovak writer, Christian Democratic politician and member of parliament, and a former diplomat, presents his personal narrative of those dynamic days. He offers an analys is of Slovak society based on his personal diaries and consultations of other primary so urces. Like many of his contemporaries, Hykisch could not resist the challenges of active participation in Slovak society's revitalization and transformation. His long-cherished �SLOVAKIA 137 idea of the creation of a Christian political movement in Slovakia materialized in 1990, although not entirely according to his wishes. Should it be a movement or a political party? There was no time for such "details." Everything happened so quickly before the first free elections (since 1946) in 1990. Anton Hykisch became a member of the Slovak Parliament (SNR) for the Christian Democratic Movement (KOH), as well as a member of its Executive Council (Predsednfctvo ). In l 990-1992 Slovakia experienced its own revolution, one pertaining to its identity. What should be Slovakia's place in post-communist Czechoslovakia, Czecho-Slovakia or the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic? How could one re-formulate the relations between Slovaks and Czechs? The " revolutionaries" from the ruling VPN (Verejnost' proti nasiliu), the strongest political force in the aftermath of the " Velvet Revolution" of 1989, wished to transform Slovakia into a non-national civic society. The crowds in Brati slava that brought the "velvet revolutionaries" to power in November 1989, merely one year later denounced many of them as traitors to the Slovak national cause. What went wrong? The author believes that Slovakia experienced twin revo lutions, the "velvet" anti-communist one, as well as a national one. This was contrary to the plans and expectations of president Vaclav Havel's followers in Prague. Slovakia " wanted and had to abandon its twin yoke. ls it so difficult to understand?" (p.51) Hykisc h believes that Slovakia became a victim of the post-November 1989 myth originating in Prague. Havel and hi s colleagues dreamed of proving to the world that " their" Czechoslovakia could defy the national selfdetermination trends prevailing in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. In other words, Slovaks and Czechs should demonstrate their allegedly more advanced moral and civic feelings by defying the laws and trends of national movements, the wave of creation of new national states in Europe (p.52). Slovaks and Czechs allegedly wanted to only be citizens of the world, and Czechoslovakia was merely a way-station to the " blessed civic society of the world" (p.53). To put it more bluntly, Czechoslovakia should not di sintegrate. According to Hykisch, thi s, quixotic task, dream or vision, was politically unrealistic and practically impossible. Throughout the book the reader detects the author's disappoint- �138 SLOVAKIA ment over missed opportunities. Hykisc h believes that the Christian Democrats (KOH) mishandled the question of Slovakia ' s sovereignty. "Had we (i.e. the Christian Democrats), hal f a year before the general elections of June 1992, submitted to ourselves, to our Czech partners and to the world, a serious, economically-sound plan of gradual self-determination or a plan of suitable union of Slovak and Czech states, it would not have to be done after the 1992 elections by somebody else" (p.241). The question of Slovakia's sovereignty played a decisive role in the author 's decision to eventually break with the Christian Democrats and to join a new political party , the Slovak Christian Democratic Movement, led by Jan Klepac. Thi s book offers an interesting, personal , interpretation of the 1990-1992 events in Slovakia and Czechoslovakia. Anton Hykisch 's attractive literary style, as well as his informed and insightful perspecti ve, will not di sappoint those who desire to submerge themselves into the complexities of Slovakia's modern history and the deteriorating Slovak-Czech relationship of the early l 990 's. Jan Rychlfk, Rozpad Ceskoslovenska. Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1989-1992. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press, 2002, 457 pp., notes, summaries in English and German, bibliography , documents, index . JURAJ HOCMAN University of Ottawa Both the " Velvet Revolution" and the "Velvet Divorce" of Czechoslovakia have fascinated many scholars and much has been written about them. After a decade had passed, Jan Rychlik published his interpretation of the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The author is a trained and experienced Czech historian who witnessed the collapse of the communist regime and the emergence of new political elites in Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1980s. He started with the so-called era of "normalization", while analyzing the reasons for the collapse of the ancien regime. He then describes the appearance of the new, inexperienced , Czech and Slovak national political elites. In his introduction Rychlfk stresses the fact that wes- �SLOVAKIA 139 tern scholars, such as Eric Stein in his Czecho/Slovakia: Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure, Negotiated Breakup (1997), looked at the recent events in this country from a legal perspective that lacked empathy for the overlapping, but also diverging histories of the country's constituent parts. By contrast, as Rychlfk rightly points out, it was the residua of the past, not the constitutional issues emerging in 1990-1992, that sealed the fa te of Czechoslovakia (pp.1011 ). For a good history book, however, empathy is not enough. Ryc hlfk added access to primary documents that had not been released or commented on before to hi s personal proximity to the events, which proceeded from a federation to the creation of two separate states. He strengthened his work with narrati ves stemming from interv iews wi th several prominent former di ssidents and moderate politicians such as Petr Pithart and Jan Carnogursky, for they pl ayed a deci sive role in the negotiations between the Czech and Slovak governments in the period 1990-1992. At the same time, Rychlfk demonstrates his familiarity with the sc holarly literature published in the West. While the general picture of what took place in post-communist Czechoslovakia is well-known, Rychlfk adds many detai ls to the story. First, radicals and nationalists appeared on both sides. During the constitutional crisis the names of the radical Slovak politicians were frequently reported in the media. Nevertheless, as the author shows, Jan Slota, Jan Klep ac and Stanislav Panis had their counterparts across the Morava River who voiced Czech national interests. They were Jan Kalvoda, Dagmar Buresova, Jan Bratinka, and Miroslav Macek, to name but a few. Strangely enough, Rudolf Sladek, the leader of the Republican Party , who favored , quite paradoxi cally, a common state, does not appear in the book at all. Secondly, Rychlfk poi nts out that already on November 16, 1989, university students in Slovakia had demonstrated against the regime in Bratislava, without any coordination with their Czech counterparts in Prague. This clearly showed Slovak initiati ve and courage. Thirdly, the Charta dissenters were not the only ones in Communist Czechoslovakia, though they appeared in the West as the most prominent ones. Since the mid- I 980s, there had already ex isted two �140 SLOVAKIA main groups of dissenters in Slovakia: the environmentalists, and for the communist regime the far more dangerous Catholic dissenters. Furthermore, Rychlfk cites Slovak emigre historians as well. However, he differentiates between the ' hard core' sympathizers of the J'udaks (the term describing the members of the Slovak People's Party prior to and during WWII) and of the Slovak Republic (19391945), and acceptable ' moderates '. While cliches and stereotypes regarding the past have existed on both sides, Rychlfk shows courage vis a vis his fellow citizens as this most recent perspective may still be something totally new for general Czech audiences. While the author made a sincere effort to be sy mpathetic to Slovak political objectives, there are some instances where important details are missing. For example, in the dispute over the Gabcikovo dam on the Danube between Czechoslovakia and Hungary , the author seems to have limited himself to telling only a part of the story. He sees the Gabcfkovo dispute as exclusively a Slovak problem in which the Czechs were not interested, especially in the last couple of months before the negotiated breakup (pp.308-3 I I). This is only partly true as Josef Vavrousek, the last Czechoslovak federal minister of the environment, seemed particularly keen to be engaged in the negotiations, even to lead them, when Slovak politicians already took the initiative from the federal government. Likewise, the author rightly argues that the forced expatriation of the Magyars, who had collaborated with the fascists in the Slovak (Czechoslovak) territories in 1945, which had stemmed from the Benes Decrees, had negatively affected the current Slovak - Magyar relationship. On the other hand, the author states that such a problem did not arise in the Czech lands with regard to the expulsion of the German minority (p.255). This statement, if meant as a sharp antipode to the Slovak-Magyar relationship, would deserve far more historic and contextual background. Rychlik' s book is a very solid overview of what happened in the ' heart of Europe' after the fall of communism. Due to its complex and balanced perspective, it could serve as a valuable textbook for graduate students and a good primary source for scholars dealing with the last chapter in the history of Czechoslovakia. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 131 Jan Steinhtibe l, Nitrianske knieiatstvo: Pociatky stredovekeho Slovenska. Rozpravanie o dejinach nasho tizemia a okolitych krajfn od st!lho vania narodov do zaciatku 12. storocia. Brati slava: Veda, 2004. 575pp., bibliography, index of names, index of places, maps, photos, illustration s. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This massive sy nthesis is the culmination of fifteen years of research and publication on the ancestors of the Slovaks in Central Europe. Jan Steinhi.ibel, who works for the Historical Institute of the Sloak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, is a worthy successor to the late Peter Ratkos, the age ing Richard Marsina, and the recentl yretired Matus Kucera , all ex perts on the ancient hi story of the Slovaks. According to Ste inhtibel , the Principality of Nitra was the earliest state of the ancestors of the Slovaks. It started to form in the 6th century, and was independent from 805 to 833. After it was conquered by the nearby Moravians, it remained an important Principality until the demi se of the Great Morav ian Empire in 906. Once the Magyar Arpad dynasty establi shed itself in Central Europe in the 10th century, Nitra, which was inhabited large ly by Slavs, remained a key Principality in the emerging Hungarian Kin gdom until the beginning of the I 2th century. Prince l mri ch, ruler of Nitra and son of King (Sa int) Stephen, was even dubbed " Henricus nobilis dux Sc lavoni e" by a Polish chronicler in I029. And, as long as the Principality existed, its people were called "Nytrenses Sclavi" by Hungarian chroniclers. For three ce nturi es Nitra served as the steppingstone for the future rulers of, first Great Moravia, and later the Kingdom of Hungary. Indeed, the rul ers of Nitra were sovereign over nine counties (large ly coterminous with present-day Slovakia, with the exception of the eastern counties), commanded armies of 3,000 soldiers and often struck their own coins. Eventuall y, however, the early Kings of Hungary, who had traditionally shared their rule wi th their brothers as Princes of Nitra, came to regard this principality as a source of rebellion against them selves or their designated successsors (their leg itimate sons). As a result, in 1108 King Koloman depo- �132 SLOVAKIA sed and blinded his brother Almos, along with the latter's son, and two years later abolished the Principality, along wi th its southern border. Thereafter, medieval chroniclers referred to the local inhabitants si mply as " Sclavi ," but by the 15th century they had become "Slowak." Of course the 18th century Czech linguist Josef Dobrovsky , who claimed that the term "Slovak" or "Slovensko" were recent inventions, did not know any of this. After 336 pages of text, lavishly illustrated with relevant quotations from medieval chroniclers, Steinhiibel concluded that one can trace the beginnings of Slovak history to the Principality of Nitra. Indeed, he continued, one has to look to thi s Principality to find the national, territorial and historical roots of Slovakia. This book is a testament to the deep eruditon of the author. As the 1900 footnotes covering pages 337-495 testify, SteinhUbel mined virtually all (largely Latin) medieval sources written by German, Magyar, Polish, Czech, Ru ssian and Byzantine chroniclers that pertain to Central Europe. He also read the relevant books and articles in the vernacular languages of contemporary scholars of Central Europe and he judiciously illustrated his book with copies of medieval manuscripts , drawings and photos of artifacts. This monograph was a pleasure to read and I will eagerly mine it for relevant quotations for my course on the early history of the Slovaks. Dusan Kovac et. al. Na zaciatku storocia, 1901 -1914. Bratislava: Veda, 2004. 292 pp. , ill., index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University This is the first of a scheduled seven volume series entitled Slovensko v 20. storoci (Slovakia in the 2(Jh Century) sponsored by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, under the chief editorship of Dusan Kovac, a leading Slovak historian. Kovac, one of five historians who wrote chapters in this volume penned the introduction and the first "Raku sko-Uhorsko a slo venska otazka v narodnych vztahoch" (A ustria-Hungary and the Slovak Question in International Affairs) and sixth "Pred prvou svetovou vojnou" (Be- �SLOVAKIA 133 fore the First World War) chapters. Other eminent Slovak historians included in this volume are alphabetically: Roman Holec, Chapter 3 "Hospodarstvo" (Economics), Elena Jakesova, chapter 2 "Spolocnost" (Society), Elena Mannova, Chapter 7 "Ideove smery. Kulturny a spolocensky zivot" (Ideological Movements. Cultural and Social Life), and Milan Podrimavsky, Chapters 4 "Krfza liberalneho rezimu 1901-1904" (Crisis of the Liberal Regime 1901-1904) and 5 "Vyvrcholenie politickej krfzy. Koalicna vlada 1905-1910" (Culmination of the Political Crisis. The Coalition Government 1905-1910). Although only these five authors receive credit for the entries, Kovac notes that they relied on the research of another ten historians. This is the most comprehensive general history of Slovakia produced thus far. As Kovac states in his introduction, the Slovak public, and indeed the world, has not until this time possessed a true synthesized historical work written by experts. Previous attempts developed under the totalitarian regime failed to fulfill this goal because they presented distorted interpretations. Kovac hopes this and subsequent works of the series will return to the tradition of noted historian Cubomfr Liptak when he wrote his Slovensko v 20. storoci in 1968 This volume contains traditional aspects of any society, but also gives coverage to areas rarely found in general historical works such as architecture, the beaux arts, mass communication, education, the family , business, and economics . It is not intended to be an all encompassing in-depth study, but rather explores the topics with sufficient coverage without becoming too bogged down in detail. It is meant to be a starting point for further research and study , and it accomplishes this feat quite well. The fourteen years prior to the outbreak of war were a very dynamic and dramatic period, so much so that Slovakia, in the spring of 1914, was quite a different place than in1901 , especially in its urban areas. Despite the Slovaks politically and culturally waging an uphill battle against intensive Magyarization aimed at their assimilation, they fared much better than they had in 1901. The book contains information about the Slovak diaspora, including Budapest, Vienna, the United States, and the Yojvodina/Banat region. The authors explained that a general history of Slovakia and Slovaks before the First World War needs to explore territories other than that of �134 SLOVAKIA Slovakia or Upper Hungary. Indeed, during this time, the true urban center of the Slovaks was Budapest. The work also covers, in much less detail, the other inhabitants of the region including Jews, Germans, Rusyns, and Gypsies (Romany) and provides ample evidence of the ethnic plurali sm of Upper Hungary . At times, too much emphasis appears to be placed on trends and developments throughout Hungary, but, naturall y, it proves impossible to divorce Slovakia from the rest of the Lands of St. Stephen. Each chapter is broken down into numerous short subsections of several pages thereby enabling the reader to easily digest and comprehend them without becoming lost in lengthy discu ssions. Seven charts placed throughout the work and numerous photographs in five section s better illustrate and clarify the points made in the text. The bibliography is intended to be used for further study of the various issues addressed in this work. It contains older essential, fundamental works alongside newly published research. As is often the case for books published in Slovakia, this work contains an index of names, but not subjects, rendering it of marginal value. Overall, this is a fine volume that will become an accepted, starting point for anyone wishing to delve into virtually all aspects of Slovak history at the turn of the last century. Its thoughtful, well constructed chapters present information that piques the interest of the reader. If the quality of this work is upheld in the sc heduled six additional volumes, this series will prove to be a definiti ve collection. Hopefully, an English translation will follow. Ivan A. Petran sky, Stat a katolfcka cirkev na Slovensku 19451946. Nitra: Garmond, 2001, 318pp, summary in English, bibliography, index. JAMES RAMON FELAK University of Washington Ivan Petransky ' s Stat a katolfcka cirkev na Slovensku 1945-1946 covers a brief but crucial period in church-state relations in the history of Slovakia. This was a time of transition between the wartime �SLOVAKIA 135 regime, when the Catholic Church had a rel atively pri vi leged place due to its more or less positive relations with the Tiso regime, and the Communist era, when the state brought immense press ure and control on the Church. This period has been largely ignored in the past, though increasingly it is becoming a topic of research across East Central Europe. Petransky used a number of archival sources. At the Slovak National Archive, he employed the collections of the Slovak National Council, the Commission of Education, the Commission of the Interior, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia. In addition, he made significant use of diocesan archives, in partic ular those of Kosice, Banska Bystrica, and Nitra. These latter sources enabled him to present and discuss conversations that occurred within the church leadership, and he revealed some of the differences of opinion among Slovak bishops over how best to defend Catholic interests and respond to state press ures. They also provided insight into the nature of decision-making and consensus-building within the hierarchy . Among the other sources employed by Petransky are documents from the post- 1948 trial s of Catholic bishops and political leaders, documents of the Foreign Ministry pertaining to relations with the Vatican, memoirs, and articles from the press. After a brief overview of relations between church and state in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia from 191 8 to 1945, Petransky presented a narrative of developments in church-state relations during the period from the liberation of Slovakia from Nazi occupation in the spring of 1945 to the parliamentary elections of May 1946. During this period the Communists tried both to weaken the Catholic Church and its social influence, and to attract Catholics to the Communi st camp, or at least keep them away from the rival Democratic Party. Petransky's narrati ve is followed by the longest section of the book, an examination of a variety conflicts between church and state. These include the state 's attempt at a near-complete takeover of education , the outlawing of a number of Catholic organizations, restriction s on the Catholic press, state claims to the Church' s agricultural property, and the persec ution of bishops, priests, and members of reli gious orders. Petransky also examined the question of Church ties with Slovakia 's illegal underground opposition, and the Church's policies toward s the national minorities, in particular the Magyars. �136 SLOVAKIA Finally, he gave his book an international dimension by looking at the situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia from the perspectives of the Slovak emigre press and the Vatican. This book has several strengths. It keeps its focus on the issues of church-state relations, while providing sufficient context for understanding how those issues fit into the larger context of post-war Slovakia. Though the author's sympathies are clearly with the Catholics, the work remained fair to all sides. This is not simply a litany of crimes and abuses aga inst the Catholic Church, though there were enough of those. Rather, it is a serious and largely successful attempt to present and ana lyze the complex and dynamic relationship between Church , state, Catholics, and Democrats during a cruc ial period of Slovakia 's modern history. One definitely takes away from this book a deeper understanding of the period and the forces at play in it. It is to be hoped that Mr. Petransky, or someone of his caliber, writes a sequel up to the Communist takeover of February 1948. Anton Hyki sch, Ako chutf politika, Spomienky a zaznamy z rokov 1990-1992. Yydavatel'stvo Pozsony/Pressburg/Bratislava, 2004. 349pp. Index of names. MARCEL JESENSKY University of Ottawa The years I 990-1992 represent one of the most fascinating periods in the modern-day history of Slovakia. During the last months of 1989 the seemingly permanent political , social and eco nomi c order in Czechoslovakia disintegrated and set into motion a process of dramatic reforms that changed the lives of the majority of Slovaks and Czechs. Anton Hykisch, an acclaimed Slovak writer, Christian Democratic politician and member of parliament, and a former diplomat, presents his personal narrative of those dynamic days. He offers an analys is of Slovak society based on his personal diaries and consultations of other primary so urces. Like many of his contemporaries, Hykisch could not resist the challenges of active participation in Slovak society's revitalization and transformation. His long-cherished �SLOVAKIA 137 idea of the creation of a Christian political movement in Slovakia materialized in 1990, although not entirely according to his wishes. Should it be a movement or a political party? There was no time for such "details." Everything happened so quickly before the first free elections (since 1946) in 1990. Anton Hykisch became a member of the Slovak Parliament (SNR) for the Christian Democratic Movement (KOH), as well as a member of its Executive Council (Predsednfctvo ). In l 990-1992 Slovakia experienced its own revolution, one pertaining to its identity. What should be Slovakia's place in post-communist Czechoslovakia, Czecho-Slovakia or the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic? How could one re-formulate the relations between Slovaks and Czechs? The " revolutionaries" from the ruling VPN (Verejnost' proti nasiliu), the strongest political force in the aftermath of the " Velvet Revolution" of 1989, wished to transform Slovakia into a non-national civic society. The crowds in Brati slava that brought the "velvet revolutionaries" to power in November 1989, merely one year later denounced many of them as traitors to the Slovak national cause. What went wrong? The author believes that Slovakia experienced twin revo lutions, the "velvet" anti-communist one, as well as a national one. This was contrary to the plans and expectations of president Vaclav Havel's followers in Prague. Slovakia " wanted and had to abandon its twin yoke. ls it so difficult to understand?" (p.51) Hykisc h believes that Slovakia became a victim of the post-November 1989 myth originating in Prague. Havel and hi s colleagues dreamed of proving to the world that " their" Czechoslovakia could defy the national selfdetermination trends prevailing in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. In other words, Slovaks and Czechs should demonstrate their allegedly more advanced moral and civic feelings by defying the laws and trends of national movements, the wave of creation of new national states in Europe (p.52). Slovaks and Czechs allegedly wanted to only be citizens of the world, and Czechoslovakia was merely a way-station to the " blessed civic society of the world" (p.53). To put it more bluntly, Czechoslovakia should not di sintegrate. According to Hykisch, thi s, quixotic task, dream or vision, was politically unrealistic and practically impossible. Throughout the book the reader detects the author's disappoint- �138 SLOVAKIA ment over missed opportunities. Hykisc h believes that the Christian Democrats (KOH) mishandled the question of Slovakia ' s sovereignty. "Had we (i.e. the Christian Democrats), hal f a year before the general elections of June 1992, submitted to ourselves, to our Czech partners and to the world, a serious, economically-sound plan of gradual self-determination or a plan of suitable union of Slovak and Czech states, it would not have to be done after the 1992 elections by somebody else" (p.241). The question of Slovakia's sovereignty played a decisive role in the author 's decision to eventually break with the Christian Democrats and to join a new political party , the Slovak Christian Democratic Movement, led by Jan Klepac. Thi s book offers an interesting, personal , interpretation of the 1990-1992 events in Slovakia and Czechoslovakia. Anton Hykisch 's attractive literary style, as well as his informed and insightful perspecti ve, will not di sappoint those who desire to submerge themselves into the complexities of Slovakia's modern history and the deteriorating Slovak-Czech relationship of the early l 990 's. Jan Rychlfk, Rozpad Ceskoslovenska. Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1989-1992. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press, 2002, 457 pp., notes, summaries in English and German, bibliography , documents, index . JURAJ HOCMAN University of Ottawa Both the " Velvet Revolution" and the "Velvet Divorce" of Czechoslovakia have fascinated many scholars and much has been written about them. After a decade had passed, Jan Rychlik published his interpretation of the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The author is a trained and experienced Czech historian who witnessed the collapse of the communist regime and the emergence of new political elites in Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1980s. He started with the so-called era of "normalization", while analyzing the reasons for the collapse of the ancien regime. He then describes the appearance of the new, inexperienced , Czech and Slovak national political elites. In his introduction Rychlfk stresses the fact that wes- �SLOVAKIA 139 tern scholars, such as Eric Stein in his Czecho/Slovakia: Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure, Negotiated Breakup (1997), looked at the recent events in this country from a legal perspective that lacked empathy for the overlapping, but also diverging histories of the country's constituent parts. By contrast, as Rychlfk rightly points out, it was the residua of the past, not the constitutional issues emerging in 1990-1992, that sealed the fa te of Czechoslovakia (pp.1011 ). For a good history book, however, empathy is not enough. Ryc hlfk added access to primary documents that had not been released or commented on before to hi s personal proximity to the events, which proceeded from a federation to the creation of two separate states. He strengthened his work with narrati ves stemming from interv iews wi th several prominent former di ssidents and moderate politicians such as Petr Pithart and Jan Carnogursky, for they pl ayed a deci sive role in the negotiations between the Czech and Slovak governments in the period 1990-1992. At the same time, Rychlfk demonstrates his familiarity with the sc holarly literature published in the West. While the general picture of what took place in post-communist Czechoslovakia is well-known, Rychlfk adds many detai ls to the story. First, radicals and nationalists appeared on both sides. During the constitutional crisis the names of the radical Slovak politicians were frequently reported in the media. Nevertheless, as the author shows, Jan Slota, Jan Klep ac and Stanislav Panis had their counterparts across the Morava River who voiced Czech national interests. They were Jan Kalvoda, Dagmar Buresova, Jan Bratinka, and Miroslav Macek, to name but a few. Strangely enough, Rudolf Sladek, the leader of the Republican Party , who favored , quite paradoxi cally, a common state, does not appear in the book at all. Secondly, Rychlfk poi nts out that already on November 16, 1989, university students in Slovakia had demonstrated against the regime in Bratislava, without any coordination with their Czech counterparts in Prague. This clearly showed Slovak initiati ve and courage. Thirdly, the Charta dissenters were not the only ones in Communist Czechoslovakia, though they appeared in the West as the most prominent ones. Since the mid- I 980s, there had already ex isted two �140 SLOVAKIA main groups of dissenters in Slovakia: the environmentalists, and for the communist regime the far more dangerous Catholic dissenters. Furthermore, Rychlfk cites Slovak emigre historians as well. However, he differentiates between the ' hard core' sympathizers of the J'udaks (the term describing the members of the Slovak People's Party prior to and during WWII) and of the Slovak Republic (19391945), and acceptable ' moderates '. While cliches and stereotypes regarding the past have existed on both sides, Rychlfk shows courage vis a vis his fellow citizens as this most recent perspective may still be something totally new for general Czech audiences. While the author made a sincere effort to be sy mpathetic to Slovak political objectives, there are some instances where important details are missing. For example, in the dispute over the Gabcikovo dam on the Danube between Czechoslovakia and Hungary , the author seems to have limited himself to telling only a part of the story. He sees the Gabcfkovo dispute as exclusively a Slovak problem in which the Czechs were not interested, especially in the last couple of months before the negotiated breakup (pp.308-3 I I). This is only partly true as Josef Vavrousek, the last Czechoslovak federal minister of the environment, seemed particularly keen to be engaged in the negotiations, even to lead them, when Slovak politicians already took the initiative from the federal government. Likewise, the author rightly argues that the forced expatriation of the Magyars, who had collaborated with the fascists in the Slovak (Czechoslovak) territories in 1945, which had stemmed from the Benes Decrees, had negatively affected the current Slovak - Magyar relationship. On the other hand, the author states that such a problem did not arise in the Czech lands with regard to the expulsion of the German minority (p.255). This statement, if meant as a sharp antipode to the Slovak-Magyar relationship, would deserve far more historic and contextual background. Rychlik' s book is a very solid overview of what happened in the ' heart of Europe' after the fall of communism. Due to its complex and balanced perspective, it could serve as a valuable textbook for graduate students and a good primary source for scholars dealing with the last chapter in the history of Czechoslovakia. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2007, Vol. 39 Description An account of the resource Vol. 39 (No. 72-73), 2007. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document REVIEWS SLOVAKIA 131 Jan Steinhtibe l, Nitrianske knieiatstvo: Pociatky stredovekeho Slovenska. Rozpravanie o dejinach nasho tizemia a okolitych krajfn od st!lho vania narodov do zaciatku 12. storocia. Brati slava: Veda, 2004. 575pp., bibliography, index of names, index of places, maps, photos, illustration s. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This massive sy nthesis is the culmination of fifteen years of research and publication on the ancestors of the Slovaks in Central Europe. Jan Steinhi.ibel, who works for the Historical Institute of the Sloak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, is a worthy successor to the late Peter Ratkos, the age ing Richard Marsina, and the recentl yretired Matus Kucera , all ex perts on the ancient hi story of the Slovaks. According to Ste inhtibel , the Principality of Nitra was the earliest state of the ancestors of the Slovaks. It started to form in the 6th century, and was independent from 805 to 833. After it was conquered by the nearby Moravians, it remained an important Principality until the demi se of the Great Morav ian Empire in 906. Once the Magyar Arpad dynasty establi shed itself in Central Europe in the 10th century, Nitra, which was inhabited large ly by Slavs, remained a key Principality in the emerging Hungarian Kin gdom until the beginning of the I 2th century. Prince l mri ch, ruler of Nitra and son of King (Sa int) Stephen, was even dubbed " Henricus nobilis dux Sc lavoni e" by a Polish chronicler in I029. And, as long as the Principality existed, its people were called "Nytrenses Sclavi" by Hungarian chroniclers. For three ce nturi es Nitra served as the steppingstone for the future rulers of, first Great Moravia, and later the Kingdom of Hungary. Indeed, the rul ers of Nitra were sovereign over nine counties (large ly coterminous with present-day Slovakia, with the exception of the eastern counties), commanded armies of 3,000 soldiers and often struck their own coins. Eventuall y, however, the early Kings of Hungary, who had traditionally shared their rule wi th their brothers as Princes of Nitra, came to regard this principality as a source of rebellion against them selves or their designated successsors (their leg itimate sons). As a result, in 1108 King Koloman depo- 132 SLOVAKIA sed and blinded his brother Almos, along with the latter's son, and two years later abolished the Principality, along wi th its southern border. Thereafter, medieval chroniclers referred to the local inhabitants si mply as " Sclavi ," but by the 15th century they had become "Slowak." Of course the 18th century Czech linguist Josef Dobrovsky , who claimed that the term "Slovak" or "Slovensko" were recent inventions, did not know any of this. After 336 pages of text, lavishly illustrated with relevant quotations from medieval chroniclers, Steinhiibel concluded that one can trace the beginnings of Slovak history to the Principality of Nitra. Indeed, he continued, one has to look to thi s Principality to find the national, territorial and historical roots of Slovakia. This book is a testament to the deep eruditon of the author. As the 1900 footnotes covering pages 337-495 testify, SteinhUbel mined virtually all (largely Latin) medieval sources written by German, Magyar, Polish, Czech, Ru ssian and Byzantine chroniclers that pertain to Central Europe. He also read the relevant books and articles in the vernacular languages of contemporary scholars of Central Europe and he judiciously illustrated his book with copies of medieval manuscripts , drawings and photos of artifacts. This monograph was a pleasure to read and I will eagerly mine it for relevant quotations for my course on the early history of the Slovaks. Dusan Kovac et. al. Na zaciatku storocia, 1901 -1914. Bratislava: Veda, 2004. 292 pp. , ill., index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury University This is the first of a scheduled seven volume series entitled Slovensko v 20. storoci (Slovakia in the 2(Jh Century) sponsored by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, under the chief editorship of Dusan Kovac, a leading Slovak historian. Kovac, one of five historians who wrote chapters in this volume penned the introduction and the first "Raku sko-Uhorsko a slo venska otazka v narodnych vztahoch" (A ustria-Hungary and the Slovak Question in International Affairs) and sixth "Pred prvou svetovou vojnou" (Be- SLOVAKIA 133 fore the First World War) chapters. Other eminent Slovak historians included in this volume are alphabetically: Roman Holec, Chapter 3 "Hospodarstvo" (Economics), Elena Jakesova, chapter 2 "Spolocnost" (Society), Elena Mannova, Chapter 7 "Ideove smery. Kulturny a spolocensky zivot" (Ideological Movements. Cultural and Social Life), and Milan Podrimavsky, Chapters 4 "Krfza liberalneho rezimu 1901-1904" (Crisis of the Liberal Regime 1901-1904) and 5 "Vyvrcholenie politickej krfzy. Koalicna vlada 1905-1910" (Culmination of the Political Crisis. The Coalition Government 1905-1910). Although only these five authors receive credit for the entries, Kovac notes that they relied on the research of another ten historians. This is the most comprehensive general history of Slovakia produced thus far. As Kovac states in his introduction, the Slovak public, and indeed the world, has not until this time possessed a true synthesized historical work written by experts. Previous attempts developed under the totalitarian regime failed to fulfill this goal because they presented distorted interpretations. Kovac hopes this and subsequent works of the series will return to the tradition of noted historian Cubomfr Liptak when he wrote his Slovensko v 20. storoci in 1968 This volume contains traditional aspects of any society, but also gives coverage to areas rarely found in general historical works such as architecture, the beaux arts, mass communication, education, the family , business, and economics . It is not intended to be an all encompassing in-depth study, but rather explores the topics with sufficient coverage without becoming too bogged down in detail. It is meant to be a starting point for further research and study , and it accomplishes this feat quite well. The fourteen years prior to the outbreak of war were a very dynamic and dramatic period, so much so that Slovakia, in the spring of 1914, was quite a different place than in1901 , especially in its urban areas. Despite the Slovaks politically and culturally waging an uphill battle against intensive Magyarization aimed at their assimilation, they fared much better than they had in 1901. The book contains information about the Slovak diaspora, including Budapest, Vienna, the United States, and the Yojvodina/Banat region. The authors explained that a general history of Slovakia and Slovaks before the First World War needs to explore territories other than that of 134 SLOVAKIA Slovakia or Upper Hungary. Indeed, during this time, the true urban center of the Slovaks was Budapest. The work also covers, in much less detail, the other inhabitants of the region including Jews, Germans, Rusyns, and Gypsies (Romany) and provides ample evidence of the ethnic plurali sm of Upper Hungary . At times, too much emphasis appears to be placed on trends and developments throughout Hungary, but, naturall y, it proves impossible to divorce Slovakia from the rest of the Lands of St. Stephen. Each chapter is broken down into numerous short subsections of several pages thereby enabling the reader to easily digest and comprehend them without becoming lost in lengthy discu ssions. Seven charts placed throughout the work and numerous photographs in five section s better illustrate and clarify the points made in the text. The bibliography is intended to be used for further study of the various issues addressed in this work. It contains older essential, fundamental works alongside newly published research. As is often the case for books published in Slovakia, this work contains an index of names, but not subjects, rendering it of marginal value. Overall, this is a fine volume that will become an accepted, starting point for anyone wishing to delve into virtually all aspects of Slovak history at the turn of the last century. Its thoughtful, well constructed chapters present information that piques the interest of the reader. If the quality of this work is upheld in the sc heduled six additional volumes, this series will prove to be a definiti ve collection. Hopefully, an English translation will follow. Ivan A. Petran sky, Stat a katolfcka cirkev na Slovensku 19451946. Nitra: Garmond, 2001, 318pp, summary in English, bibliography, index. JAMES RAMON FELAK University of Washington Ivan Petransky ' s Stat a katolfcka cirkev na Slovensku 1945-1946 covers a brief but crucial period in church-state relations in the history of Slovakia. This was a time of transition between the wartime SLOVAKIA 135 regime, when the Catholic Church had a rel atively pri vi leged place due to its more or less positive relations with the Tiso regime, and the Communist era, when the state brought immense press ure and control on the Church. This period has been largely ignored in the past, though increasingly it is becoming a topic of research across East Central Europe. Petransky used a number of archival sources. At the Slovak National Archive, he employed the collections of the Slovak National Council, the Commission of Education, the Commission of the Interior, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia. In addition, he made significant use of diocesan archives, in partic ular those of Kosice, Banska Bystrica, and Nitra. These latter sources enabled him to present and discuss conversations that occurred within the church leadership, and he revealed some of the differences of opinion among Slovak bishops over how best to defend Catholic interests and respond to state press ures. They also provided insight into the nature of decision-making and consensus-building within the hierarchy . Among the other sources employed by Petransky are documents from the post- 1948 trial s of Catholic bishops and political leaders, documents of the Foreign Ministry pertaining to relations with the Vatican, memoirs, and articles from the press. After a brief overview of relations between church and state in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia from 191 8 to 1945, Petransky presented a narrative of developments in church-state relations during the period from the liberation of Slovakia from Nazi occupation in the spring of 1945 to the parliamentary elections of May 1946. During this period the Communists tried both to weaken the Catholic Church and its social influence, and to attract Catholics to the Communi st camp, or at least keep them away from the rival Democratic Party. Petransky's narrati ve is followed by the longest section of the book, an examination of a variety conflicts between church and state. These include the state 's attempt at a near-complete takeover of education , the outlawing of a number of Catholic organizations, restriction s on the Catholic press, state claims to the Church' s agricultural property, and the persec ution of bishops, priests, and members of reli gious orders. Petransky also examined the question of Church ties with Slovakia 's illegal underground opposition, and the Church's policies toward s the national minorities, in particular the Magyars. 136 SLOVAKIA Finally, he gave his book an international dimension by looking at the situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia from the perspectives of the Slovak emigre press and the Vatican. This book has several strengths. It keeps its focus on the issues of church-state relations, while providing sufficient context for understanding how those issues fit into the larger context of post-war Slovakia. Though the author's sympathies are clearly with the Catholics, the work remained fair to all sides. This is not simply a litany of crimes and abuses aga inst the Catholic Church, though there were enough of those. Rather, it is a serious and largely successful attempt to present and ana lyze the complex and dynamic relationship between Church , state, Catholics, and Democrats during a cruc ial period of Slovakia 's modern history. One definitely takes away from this book a deeper understanding of the period and the forces at play in it. It is to be hoped that Mr. Petransky, or someone of his caliber, writes a sequel up to the Communist takeover of February 1948. Anton Hyki sch, Ako chutf politika, Spomienky a zaznamy z rokov 1990-1992. Yydavatel'stvo Pozsony/Pressburg/Bratislava, 2004. 349pp. Index of names. MARCEL JESENSKY University of Ottawa The years I 990-1992 represent one of the most fascinating periods in the modern-day history of Slovakia. During the last months of 1989 the seemingly permanent political , social and eco nomi c order in Czechoslovakia disintegrated and set into motion a process of dramatic reforms that changed the lives of the majority of Slovaks and Czechs. Anton Hykisch, an acclaimed Slovak writer, Christian Democratic politician and member of parliament, and a former diplomat, presents his personal narrative of those dynamic days. He offers an analys is of Slovak society based on his personal diaries and consultations of other primary so urces. Like many of his contemporaries, Hykisch could not resist the challenges of active participation in Slovak society's revitalization and transformation. His long-cherished SLOVAKIA 137 idea of the creation of a Christian political movement in Slovakia materialized in 1990, although not entirely according to his wishes. Should it be a movement or a political party? There was no time for such "details." Everything happened so quickly before the first free elections (since 1946) in 1990. Anton Hykisch became a member of the Slovak Parliament (SNR) for the Christian Democratic Movement (KOH), as well as a member of its Executive Council (Predsednfctvo ). In l 990-1992 Slovakia experienced its own revolution, one pertaining to its identity. What should be Slovakia's place in post-communist Czechoslovakia, Czecho-Slovakia or the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic? How could one re-formulate the relations between Slovaks and Czechs? The " revolutionaries" from the ruling VPN (Verejnost' proti nasiliu), the strongest political force in the aftermath of the " Velvet Revolution" of 1989, wished to transform Slovakia into a non-national civic society. The crowds in Brati slava that brought the "velvet revolutionaries" to power in November 1989, merely one year later denounced many of them as traitors to the Slovak national cause. What went wrong? The author believes that Slovakia experienced twin revo lutions, the "velvet" anti-communist one, as well as a national one. This was contrary to the plans and expectations of president Vaclav Havel's followers in Prague. Slovakia " wanted and had to abandon its twin yoke. ls it so difficult to understand?" (p.51) Hykisc h believes that Slovakia became a victim of the post-November 1989 myth originating in Prague. Havel and hi s colleagues dreamed of proving to the world that " their" Czechoslovakia could defy the national selfdetermination trends prevailing in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. In other words, Slovaks and Czechs should demonstrate their allegedly more advanced moral and civic feelings by defying the laws and trends of national movements, the wave of creation of new national states in Europe (p.52). Slovaks and Czechs allegedly wanted to only be citizens of the world, and Czechoslovakia was merely a way-station to the " blessed civic society of the world" (p.53). To put it more bluntly, Czechoslovakia should not di sintegrate. According to Hykisch, thi s, quixotic task, dream or vision, was politically unrealistic and practically impossible. Throughout the book the reader detects the author's disappoint- 138 SLOVAKIA ment over missed opportunities. Hykisc h believes that the Christian Democrats (KOH) mishandled the question of Slovakia ' s sovereignty. "Had we (i.e. the Christian Democrats), hal f a year before the general elections of June 1992, submitted to ourselves, to our Czech partners and to the world, a serious, economically-sound plan of gradual self-determination or a plan of suitable union of Slovak and Czech states, it would not have to be done after the 1992 elections by somebody else" (p.241). The question of Slovakia's sovereignty played a decisive role in the author 's decision to eventually break with the Christian Democrats and to join a new political party , the Slovak Christian Democratic Movement, led by Jan Klepac. Thi s book offers an interesting, personal , interpretation of the 1990-1992 events in Slovakia and Czechoslovakia. Anton Hykisch 's attractive literary style, as well as his informed and insightful perspecti ve, will not di sappoint those who desire to submerge themselves into the complexities of Slovakia's modern history and the deteriorating Slovak-Czech relationship of the early l 990 's. Jan Rychlfk, Rozpad Ceskoslovenska. Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1989-1992. Bratislava: Academic Electronic Press, 2002, 457 pp., notes, summaries in English and German, bibliography , documents, index . JURAJ HOCMAN University of Ottawa Both the " Velvet Revolution" and the "Velvet Divorce" of Czechoslovakia have fascinated many scholars and much has been written about them. After a decade had passed, Jan Rychlik published his interpretation of the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The author is a trained and experienced Czech historian who witnessed the collapse of the communist regime and the emergence of new political elites in Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1980s. He started with the so-called era of "normalization", while analyzing the reasons for the collapse of the ancien regime. He then describes the appearance of the new, inexperienced , Czech and Slovak national political elites. In his introduction Rychlfk stresses the fact that wes- SLOVAKIA 139 tern scholars, such as Eric Stein in his Czecho/Slovakia: Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure, Negotiated Breakup (1997), looked at the recent events in this country from a legal perspective that lacked empathy for the overlapping, but also diverging histories of the country's constituent parts. By contrast, as Rychlfk rightly points out, it was the residua of the past, not the constitutional issues emerging in 1990-1992, that sealed the fa te of Czechoslovakia (pp.1011 ). For a good history book, however, empathy is not enough. Ryc hlfk added access to primary documents that had not been released or commented on before to hi s personal proximity to the events, which proceeded from a federation to the creation of two separate states. He strengthened his work with narrati ves stemming from interv iews wi th several prominent former di ssidents and moderate politicians such as Petr Pithart and Jan Carnogursky, for they pl ayed a deci sive role in the negotiations between the Czech and Slovak governments in the period 1990-1992. At the same time, Rychlfk demonstrates his familiarity with the sc holarly literature published in the West. While the general picture of what took place in post-communist Czechoslovakia is well-known, Rychlfk adds many detai ls to the story. First, radicals and nationalists appeared on both sides. During the constitutional crisis the names of the radical Slovak politicians were frequently reported in the media. Nevertheless, as the author shows, Jan Slota, Jan Klep ac and Stanislav Panis had their counterparts across the Morava River who voiced Czech national interests. They were Jan Kalvoda, Dagmar Buresova, Jan Bratinka, and Miroslav Macek, to name but a few. Strangely enough, Rudolf Sladek, the leader of the Republican Party , who favored , quite paradoxi cally, a common state, does not appear in the book at all. Secondly, Rychlfk poi nts out that already on November 16, 1989, university students in Slovakia had demonstrated against the regime in Bratislava, without any coordination with their Czech counterparts in Prague. This clearly showed Slovak initiati ve and courage. Thirdly, the Charta dissenters were not the only ones in Communist Czechoslovakia, though they appeared in the West as the most prominent ones. Since the mid- I 980s, there had already ex isted two 140 SLOVAKIA main groups of dissenters in Slovakia: the environmentalists, and for the communist regime the far more dangerous Catholic dissenters. Furthermore, Rychlfk cites Slovak emigre historians as well. However, he differentiates between the ' hard core' sympathizers of the J'udaks (the term describing the members of the Slovak People's Party prior to and during WWII) and of the Slovak Republic (19391945), and acceptable ' moderates '. While cliches and stereotypes regarding the past have existed on both sides, Rychlfk shows courage vis a vis his fellow citizens as this most recent perspective may still be something totally new for general Czech audiences. While the author made a sincere effort to be sy mpathetic to Slovak political objectives, there are some instances where important details are missing. For example, in the dispute over the Gabcikovo dam on the Danube between Czechoslovakia and Hungary , the author seems to have limited himself to telling only a part of the story. He sees the Gabcfkovo dispute as exclusively a Slovak problem in which the Czechs were not interested, especially in the last couple of months before the negotiated breakup (pp.308-3 I I). This is only partly true as Josef Vavrousek, the last Czechoslovak federal minister of the environment, seemed particularly keen to be engaged in the negotiations, even to lead them, when Slovak politicians already took the initiative from the federal government. Likewise, the author rightly argues that the forced expatriation of the Magyars, who had collaborated with the fascists in the Slovak (Czechoslovak) territories in 1945, which had stemmed from the Benes Decrees, had negatively affected the current Slovak - Magyar relationship. On the other hand, the author states that such a problem did not arise in the Czech lands with regard to the expulsion of the German minority (p.255). This statement, if meant as a sharp antipode to the Slovak-Magyar relationship, would deserve far more historic and contextual background. Rychlik' s book is a very solid overview of what happened in the ' heart of Europe' after the fall of communism. Due to its complex and balanced perspective, it could serve as a valuable textbook for graduate students and a good primary source for scholars dealing with the last chapter in the history of Czechoslovakia.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Books Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 39 (No. 72-73) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Ján Steinhübel, Nitrianske kniežatstvo: Počiatky stredovekého Slovenska (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 131</li> <li>Dušan Kováč et. al., Na začiatku storočia, 1901-1914 (Gregory C. Ference), p. 132</li> <li>Ivan A. Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev na Slovensku 1945-1946 (James Ramon Felak), p. 134</li> <li>Anton Hykisch, Ako chutí politika, Spomienky a záznamy z rokov 1990-1992 (Marcel Jesenský), p. 136</li> <li>Jan Rychlík, Rozpad Československa: Česko-slovenské vztahy 1989-1992 (Juraj Hocman), p. 138</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Hocman, Juraj Jesenský, Marcel Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/eaf8cd33fe36b1b52de2f48125723f4a.pdf 282ee0138479eabcbb48a62b3b40bd7b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 141 The Face of a Thousand-Year-O ld-City Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia Since the Stone Age, the narrow neck of land connecting the last foot hills of the Europe's famous mountain ranges, the Carpathian Mountains and Alps, has been a natural area for man to settle. Situated along the central part of the Danube River, it has become the crossroads of two famous commercial routes-the Danube and Amber routes-which gave access between the West and the East and between South and North. In this area today is the sprawling city of Bratislava, the Capital of Slovakia. Before the time of Christ, several settlements developed in this area along the Danube and in the course of centuries, they belonged to different nations. The land was occupied by the Celts, the Germans and the Romans, but ever since the 6th century it has become the home of the Slovaks. In the second part of the 10th century it became an important Slovak town and it was named Bratislava. In the early part of the 16tbi century Bratislava grew in importance, especially after the Turks occupied a great part of Hungary. Bratislava became the capital of Hungary instead of Budapest for a period of over 200 years. Through the centuries, Bratislava maintained its position of importance. In the middle of the last century, it became the center of Slovak national enlightenment as the Slovaks sought to free themselves from the feudal aristocracy of the Hungarian regime. In the 1800's Bratislava had a population of 42 thousand and was the largest city in Slovakia. After World War I, with the fall of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy, Bratislava became the real capital of Slovakia when the Czecho-Slovak Republic was formed comprising the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovaks of Slovakia. With over a hundred thousand inhabitants, Bratislava became the actual center of the political, economical and cultural life in Slovakia. In 1939 Slovakia declared its independence from the �142 SLOVAKIA domination of the Czechs and this move created the Republic of Slovakia with Bratislava as the capital. Now a thriving metropolis, Bratislava was the seat of government for six years for the first President of the Slovak Republic, Msgr. Joseph Tiso. When the Communists restored the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1945 after World War II, Bratislava had progressed to the position of being the undisputable seat of Slovak political, governmental, economical, cultural, scientific and educational life. Here were the cultural organs and mass organizations and institutions. Its University of Bratislava was world-famous and the position of the city on the Danube River marked it as a center of communication and an important harbor. In January of 1969 Slovakia again became a Republic, this time in the federated country of Czecho-Slovakia. Today the capital city of Slovakia has a population of over 300,000 and soon it is expected it will be the second largest city in the political entity of Czecho-Slovakia. The image of Bratislava is changing every day-and it is more beautiful than ever. This metropolis of Slovakia, with a thousand-year-old face, is getting younger every day and it shines in the setting of time as a precious gem. Joseph C. Krajsa 8LOVAK1A is published annually by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Amerjcaus of Slovak descent. One of the purposes of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better tmdel'standing ru1d appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. Subsc1·iption to Slo ,-akia $3.00 per year in the u.S.A.. - $4.00 elsewhe1·c. Send sub. cription to: SLOVAKIA 313 Ridge A venue Mid<l1eto,v71, Pa. 17057 � SLOVAKIA 141 The Face of a Thousand-Year-O ld-City Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia Since the Stone Age, the narrow neck of land connecting the last foot hills of the Europe's famous mountain ranges, the Carpathian Mountains and Alps, has been a natural area for man to settle. Situated along the central part of the Danube River, it has become the crossroads of two famous commercial routes-the Danube and Amber routes-which gave access between the West and the East and between South and North. In this area today is the sprawling city of Bratislava, the Capital of Slovakia. Before the time of Christ, several settlements developed in this area along the Danube and in the course of centuries, they belonged to different nations. The land was occupied by the Celts, the Germans and the Romans, but ever since the 6th century it has become the home of the Slovaks. In the second part of the 10th century it became an important Slovak town and it was named Bratislava. In the early part of the 16tbi century Bratislava grew in importance, especially after the Turks occupied a great part of Hungary. Bratislava became the capital of Hungary instead of Budapest for a period of over 200 years. Through the centuries, Bratislava maintained its position of importance. In the middle of the last century, it became the center of Slovak national enlightenment as the Slovaks sought to free themselves from the feudal aristocracy of the Hungarian regime. In the 1800's Bratislava had a population of 42 thousand and was the largest city in Slovakia. After World War I, with the fall of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy, Bratislava became the real capital of Slovakia when the Czecho-Slovak Republic was formed comprising the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovaks of Slovakia. With over a hundred thousand inhabitants, Bratislava became the actual center of the political, economical and cultural life in Slovakia. In 1939 Slovakia declared its independence from the �142 SLOVAKIA domination of the Czechs and this move created the Republic of Slovakia with Bratislava as the capital. Now a thriving metropolis, Bratislava was the seat of government for six years for the first President of the Slovak Republic, Msgr. Joseph Tiso. When the Communists restored the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1945 after World War II, Bratislava had progressed to the position of being the undisputable seat of Slovak political, governmental, economical, cultural, scientific and educational life. Here were the cultural organs and mass organizations and institutions. Its University of Bratislava was world-famous and the position of the city on the Danube River marked it as a center of communication and an important harbor. In January of 1969 Slovakia again became a Republic, this time in the federated country of Czecho-Slovakia. Today the capital city of Slovakia has a population of over 300,000 and soon it is expected it will be the second largest city in the political entity of Czecho-Slovakia. The image of Bratislava is changing every day-and it is more beautiful than ever. This metropolis of Slovakia, with a thousand-year-old face, is getting younger every day and it shines in the setting of time as a precious gem. Joseph C. Krajsa 8LOVAK1A is published annually by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Amerjcaus of Slovak descent. One of the purposes of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better tmdel'standing ru1d appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. Subsc1·iption to Slo ,-akia $3.00 per year in the u.S.A.. - $4.00 elsewhe1·c. Send sub. cription to: SLOVAKIA 313 Ridge A venue Mid<l1eto,v71, 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 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 141 The Face of a Thousand-Year-O ld-City Bratislava, Capital of Slovakia Since the Stone Age, the narrow neck of land connecting the last foot hills of the Europe's famous mountain ranges, the Carpathian Mountains and Alps, has been a natural area for man to settle. Situated along the central part of the Danube River, it has become the crossroads of two famous commercial routes-the Danube and Amber routes-which gave access between the West and the East and between South and North. In this area today is the sprawling city of Bratislava, the Capital of Slovakia. Before the time of Christ, several settlements developed in this area along the Danube and in the course of centuries, they belonged to different nations. The land was occupied by the Celts, the Germans and the Romans, but ever since the 6th century it has become the home of the Slovaks. In the second part of the 10th century it became an important Slovak town and it was named Bratislava. In the early part of the 16tbi century Bratislava grew in importance, especially after the Turks occupied a great part of Hungary. Bratislava became the capital of Hungary instead of Budapest for a period of over 200 years. Through the centuries, Bratislava maintained its position of importance. In the middle of the last century, it became the center of Slovak national enlightenment as the Slovaks sought to free themselves from the feudal aristocracy of the Hungarian regime. In the 1800's Bratislava had a population of 42 thousand and was the largest city in Slovakia. After World War I, with the fall of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy, Bratislava became the real capital of Slovakia when the Czecho-Slovak Republic was formed comprising the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovaks of Slovakia. With over a hundred thousand inhabitants, Bratislava became the actual center of the political, economical and cultural life in Slovakia. In 1939 Slovakia declared its independence from the 142 SLOVAKIA domination of the Czechs and this move created the Republic of Slovakia with Bratislava as the capital. Now a thriving metropolis, Bratislava was the seat of government for six years for the first President of the Slovak Republic, Msgr. Joseph Tiso. When the Communists restored the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1945 after World War II, Bratislava had progressed to the position of being the undisputable seat of Slovak political, governmental, economical, cultural, scientific and educational life. Here were the cultural organs and mass organizations and institutions. Its University of Bratislava was world-famous and the position of the city on the Danube River marked it as a center of communication and an important harbor. In January of 1969 Slovakia again became a Republic, this time in the federated country of Czecho-Slovakia. Today the capital city of Slovakia has a population of over 300,000 and soon it is expected it will be the second largest city in the political entity of Czecho-Slovakia. The image of Bratislava is changing every day-and it is more beautiful than ever. This metropolis of Slovakia, with a thousand-year-old face, is getting younger every day and it shines in the setting of time as a precious gem. Joseph C. Krajsa 8LOVAK1A is published annually by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Amerjcaus of Slovak descent. One of the purposes of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better tmdel'standing ru1d appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. Subsc1·iption to Slo ,-akia $3.00 per year in the u.S.A.. - $4.00 elsewhe1·c. Send sub. cription to: SLOVAKIA 313 Ridge A venue Mid<l1eto,v71, 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, Capital of Slovakia Description An account of the resource Joseph C. Krajsa Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 141-142 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 1970 LCNAF 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/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